Inspired by Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop
(Laptop update, oh, dont even ask! I got my laptop back and the same problem is happening again! It works at a smails pace. I used to love Apple but they are not delivering for me, no way! Its so hard being sick, and to have to drive to and from the stupid Apple store, a forty minute drive. So if you are new to my blog or catching up, Grants laptop has a possessive/quote key that works about 25% of the time. As he is a professional writer I do not know how he can stand this, but there it is. I write this to let people know that my grammar and editing are much better than it would appear. Thank you.)
Anyway, lets get on with it!
1.) A list of 10 old TV shows you’d like to make a comeback.
At first when I saw this, I thought, Who even likes 10 television shows? because all I watch is Umizoomi and Max and Ruby, and I have given up my television time for my computer time. I watch almost no t.v and as far as I am concerned, there hasnt been anything good to watch in many years. But I have what I call a long memory, meaning I remember the shows from my youth, and the reruns, and even some from youths past. Its weird that way with me.
So lets go from oldest up. You 20-something and early 30-something bloggers: Heed my word. These are to me the greatest shows in the world:
Named by Time magazine as one of the Top 100 Shows of all Times, the shows were like miniature Alfred Hitchock movies, rolled into twenty five minutes of drama, mystery and suspense. Sort of like a Twilight Zone, except with more of an ironic, humorous twist to them, plus the added bonus of the great Alfred Hitchcock himself, introducing and ending the show. You may recognize the theme now because it is often used in Little Einsteins, yeah thats pretty sad. Its hard to pick a favorite episode since there were more than 350 of them, but I will chose Lamb to the Slaughter…lets just say the police eat the evidence! (Premiered in 1955)
Fun fact: Alfreds daughter, Pat acted in many of the episodes of her fathers show.
Near domestic violence comedy between both husband and wife doesnt get any better than this! Alice could give just as good as she got, yeah, baby, you tell that lunk of a husband of yours! There was never a better cast than Jackie Gleason, Audrey Meadows, Art Carney and Joyce Randolph. The humor of One of these days, Alice, straight to the moon! coupled with the almost always ending of Baby, youre the greatest! cut to fake naughty kiss…watch it, and you will still laugh today, I promise!
Fun fact: When Audrey Meadows first auditioned for the role of Alice, Jackie Gleason judged her to be too pretty for his hausfrau wife. Ms. Meadows then put up her hair, and dressed liked someones cleaning woman, mop included. Jackie Gleason looked at her picture and said, Thats the woman I want!
If you could get past the scary theme song, you were halfway home. I used to watch them as a little girl, around nine, in reruns and they used to chill me to the bone! Only when I got older did I realize that creator Rod Serling meant these to be a social commentary of the times. There were only 156 episodes but there are too many favorites to name, I mean, whatever one you see first will be your favorite! Some of mine: To Serve Man, The Eye of the Beholder, Nightmare at 20,000 Feet, The Midnight Sun, Third From the Sun…Incredible actors like Jack Klugman, Burgess Meredith and William Shatner didnt hurt either. Oh, yeah, Mama has a lot of these on DVD in her collection!
Fun Fact: Rod Serling had to tell television producers that his creation was nothing more than ironic stories, otherwise they would never had let him get away with airing the show that was actually supposed to be a social commentary of the times,
- Id be whistling, if I could whistle. From 1960-1968, Sheriff Andy Taylor raised his son, Opie (remind me to name my next child that!) along with his Aunt Bee, a woman whose breasts would put Dolly Parton to shame. Im surprised she never married. Sheriff Taylor and his crack-ass deputy Barney Fife were in charge of Mayberry, NC, a town so rural you had to go to Mount Pilot to have you some Chinese food, and where the worst crime was an old lady who shop lifting. Even Mama, as sick as she is, probably could have handled being sheriff of that town. Boy, Sheriff Taylor had one sweet gig! Every time you watch that show, you are brought back to a time and a place that resembles a Utopia. Did it every really exist anywhere though, because even back then the show was supposed to be a comedy. But God, would I give anything to live there!
- Fun Fact: Little Opie Taylor would go on to become one of the greatest directors of our time, Ronnie Howard became Ron Howard, after he was Richie Cunningham on Happy Days!
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A ground-breaking show whose theme and comedy still hold up today. A model for my life. After breaking off her engagement, old-maid Mary Richards at age 30 decides to put on her big girl panties and move from her parents house (?) to the big city, yeah, Im talking big scary Minneapolis! She becomes a career gal and falls into the position of Associate News Producer at WJM. Equal pay for woman, pre-marital sex and even sexual harassment were the themes of the show. They also happened to be the themes of my life when I was a newswoman and on-air personality in radio! Hmmmm. Affected much by this television show, Emily? This is my all time favorite show and the episodes are, perhaps sadly, still relevant today, for they are the same issues women are still up against! At least for me they were! But the show is as still as funny as it was 30 years ago. Incredible actors; Valerie Harper, Ed Asner, Betty White and Ted Knight didnt hurt either. Favorite episodes? Too many to name!
Favorite quote (on Marys first day of work):
Lou: You know what? You’ve got spunk.
Mary: Well, yes�
Lou: I hate spunk!
Fun Fact: the theme song to the show is so famous that the old woman who watches Mary throw her hat up in the air was given her own obituary. Thats a theme song for you.
When this show started I was only almost two years old. I never liked it much because to me the characters were always yelling, always fighting. When I got older, I realized what they were fighting about. Every episode touched upon the hot button issues of the day, racism, anti-semitism, homosexuality, rape…unfortunately the same things we are still battling with today. Watch this show today, I dare you not to be shocked about how relevant it still is. Carrol O Conner, Jean Stapleton, Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers were multiple Emmy winners throughout its 8 year run.
Fun Fact: All in the Family blew Bewitched away. People didnt want magic and pretty witches, they wanted reality, in the highly political charged times they were living in.
Moving into the late 70s-early 80s is the classic comedy, Taxi. I dare you not to laugh at it today. Winning 18 Emmy awards during its run, Taxi focused on the drivers, a mechanic and their S.O.B. boss, Louie De Palma, played by Danny Devito.
My favorite scene of Taxi:
[Jim is taking his driver’s test]
Reverend Jim Ignatowski: Psst. What does a yellow light mean?
Bobby Wheeler: Slow down.
Reverend Jim Ignatowski: OK. What… does… a… yellow… light… mean?
Bobby Wheeler: Slow down!
Reverend Jim Ignatowski: OK. Wwwwhhhaaaat dooeesss aaaa yyyeeeellllowwww lllliiiight mmmmeeeannn?
Bobby Wheeler: Slow down!
Reverend Jim Ignatowski: OK. Wwwwwwhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaat dddddddoooooooeeeeeesssssssss aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa yyyyyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeelllllllllloooooooowwwwwwwww liiiiiiiiiigggggghhhhhtt mmmmmeeeeeeaaaaaan?
Fun Fact: Only major female cast member Marilu Henner had sex with almost if not all the men in the cast. Now thats fun!This isnt one of the shows that Mama usually preferred, it wasnt particularly biting in humor, you didnt learn anything amazing from it…it just gave you the warm fuzzies. Tim The Tool Man Taylor was the host of his own local cable DIY tool show…only he wasnt so good at it. The show also revolved around his wife, a former SAHM who decided to go back to school and pursue her Masters degree as her three sons were growing up. And lets not forget Wilson, the neighbor over the fence, who through the series 8 year run from 1991 to 1999, we never saw more than his eyes and nose from behind that fence. Thats family comedy for you!Fun Fact: In 1978, Tim Allen Dick was arrested for possession of a pound and a half of cocaine. He could have been sentenced to life in prison. Instead he turned state’s evidence. Allen reportedly fingered at least 21 co-conspirators, and in exchange, he was sentenced to just five years under the more lenient (at that time) federal law. He was paroled after 2½ years, and dropped his last name. Isnt there a weird thing where criminals always have three first names? Hmmm…Before there was Face Book and Twitter, people actually had real friends in the 90s and early aughts, remember? Courteney Cox was the main star of the six, having played Michael J. Foxs girlfriend on Family Ties and Danced in the Dark to Bruce Springsteens video, but the other five became breakout successess/multi-millionaires as well, particularly one of Mamas favorite actresses, Jennifer Aniston.
Too many favorite episodes to mention, everyone is hysterical, but I guess my favorite theme was the Ross and Rachel romance. We were on a break! I would love to see a Where are they now reunion? but I dont see that happening…ever.
Fun fact: Christ, all of the Friends are in their 40s! Christ, so am I.
And finally, the last, but consistently funniest show ever that I wished never went away:
Image courtesy of androidzoom.com
Isnt this going to be on everyones list? What insight can I offer you that a million people have not offered before me??? Jerry, George, Elaine, Kramer…Heres a little secret…I dont think that they were that awful a bunch of people. I think they behaved the way most real people want to do, act and say.
Favorite Seinfeld moment:
George has sex with the cleaning lady, working late one night at the office
Boss: I’m going to get right to the point. It has come to my attention that you and the cleaning woman have engaged in sexual intercourse on the desk in your office. Is that correct?
George: Who said that?
Boss: She did.
George: Was that wrong? Should I have not done that? I tell you I gotta plead ingnorance on this thing because if anyone had said anything to me at all when I first started here that that sort of thing was frouned upon, you know, cause I’ve worked in a lot of offices and I tell you people do that all the time.
Boss: You’re fired.
George: Well you didn’t have to say it like that.
Boss: I want you out of here by the end of the day.
Courtesty of The Seinfeld Scripts.
Fun Fact: If youre not watching Curb Your Enthusiasm, staring and created by the same person, Larry David, you are pretty much missing one of the greatest shows of all time, except for of course, Mary Tyler Moore.
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