June’s Best and Worst

JUNE’S BEST

1. Spin City (Day 166 – 6/15)

Smart, Hip and fun Michael J Fox vehicle.

2. Caroline in the City (Day 171 – 6/20)

A cute and fun show, emulating Lea Thompson herself.

3. Seinfeld (Day 157 – 6/6)

A show that still makes me laugh regardless of how many times I’ve seen the episodes.

JUNE’S WORST (with my apologies to the creators)

1. I Dream of Genie (Day 175 – 6/24)

A boring, repetitive mess, with jokes that go on for far too long.

2. Square Pegs (Day 173 – 6/22)

In spite of its cult-like status, this show is awful in every way. It’s hard to make it through an entire episode.

3. Grace Under Fire (Day 153 – 6/2)

I would rather receive a root canal without Novocaine, than have to watch Bret Butler again.

MOST PLEASANT SURPRISE (exceeded my expectations)

Gidget (Day 176 – 6/25)

Huge improvement over the movies, with a talented cast, and funny stories

Carter Country (Day 161- 6/10)

How a show about racism, homophobia and sexism in a small Southern Town (based on Jimmy Carter’s hometown) could make me laugh is beyond me, but somehow this show works.

MOST DISAPPOINTING (not what I remember the show being)

Fish Police (Day 172 – 6/21)

An Animated show with an A-List of voice actors (for the time), fails to entertain on any level.

Duck Factory (Day 160 – 6/9)

My 9-year-old self kept telling me this show was funny, I sat through it waiting for it to get funny, it never did.

STRANGEST SHOWS OF THE MONTH 

The Munsters Today (Day 167- 6/16)

Bringing the Munsters to the modern day…not sure who thought this was a good idea.

Family for Joe (Day 181-6/30)

As if casting Robert Mitchum in a comedy wasnt weird enough, the storylines in this 9 episode failure double as cautionary after school special stuff.

 

THIS BLOG IS GOING ON HIATUS

My Dear readers, the few of you that there are, due to some upcoming time commitments, and the continued decline in readership, it has become necessary for me to put  this blog on hiatus for an indefinite period of time. I know I am breaking the definition of the 365-day thing, but this must be done. I hope to continue my journey through the sitcom world in this forum or another in the future, but until then, I bid you all adieu.

DAY 181: Family For Joe

Series Run : 1990

9 episodes

Network: NBC

Series Premise (as far as I can tell):

Grandfather takes in his grandchildren after their parents die

Episode Watched: Having a Baby (Season 1)

Episode Summary: Holly’s friend is pregnant, and Holly is determined to help her raise the child when she has it, so Joe sets out to show her how tough that will be.

My Thoughts: This experiment posits, “what if Robert Mitchum was in a comedy??”. The results are rather odd. It’s a mixture of Fish and Diffrent Strokes, with a bunch of recognizable kid stars from the 90’s. The show follows the curmudgeon Mitchum, as he deals with the shenanigans in the lives of his 4 grand children (2 of who are played by Juliette Lewis & favorite-Ben Savage). The show takes the serious topic of teen pregnancy and tries to comically show us that teens raising kids is not a laughing matter. Joe even gives the teens possession of a real baby to practice on. Meanwhile, the younger kids of the clan have questions about where babies come from, and its up to Joe to figure out how to dance around the question. But that storyline gives us the most memorable, and best part of the episode, as a young Ben Savage tells a wonderful yarn to Joe about the Birds and the Bees. If you watch nothing else in this show, go to the 13:00 mark and watch this soliloquy. Alas, the show only lasted 9 episodes, allowing Savage to go on to Boy Meets World, Juliette Lewis to start work on Natural Born Killers, and Mitchum, well he went back to whatever he was doing before someone asked him to be funny.

 Memorable Quotes:

“Yeah you’re gonna raise a baby, you can’t even keep a goldfish alive overnight” -Nick

“Your sister is not having a baby, now run along and watch some violence on TV”-Joe

“Oh Nothing, I;m just playing, ‘father knows nothing'”– Joe

Acting Notables:

Robert Mitchum- Joe

Juliette Lewis- Holly

Ben Savage- Chris

Tomorrow: Our Recap of June and the ending of this blog

DAY 180: The Charmings

Series Run : 1987-1988

21 episodes

Network: ABC

Series Premise (as far as I can tell):

Snow White, Prince Charming, the Wicked Queen, and others wake up in modern day America

Episode Watched: The Charmings Buy A Car (Season 1)

Episode Summary: It’s the Charming’s 1010th anniversary so they decide to buy a car, while the Mirror begs the Queen to take him to Vegas.

My Thoughts: This is as boiler plate of a 1980’s sitcom you can get. The camera work, sets, storyline, acting, etc. all of it could be applied to any sitcom from the 80’s, with this one’s uniqueness being the main characters are fairy tale characters. The humor deriving from the naive Snow White and her husband, not understanding the cynical ways of the modern world. It’s funny that the drama, Once Upon A Time, on the same network revolves around roughly the same premise, but they play for drama instead of for laughs. I admire the actors, as they really dive into their roles, and you really believe they have no idea what kind of world they live in now, but it isn’t enough to sustain that in spite of the premise, this show plays like every other family comedy on the air at the time. Its an interesting show to know exists, and if you want a treat, see Paul Winfield chewing up the scenery as the Magic Mirror.

 Memorable Quotes:

“Fabulous Las Vegas, its cheap, its tacky and its hotter than Hades!” -Mirror

“Oh Honey, I’d much rather get you a car than a muzzle”-Eric

“Sometimes I’m so silly, I can’t see the Enchanted Forest for the trees”– Snow

Acting Notables:

Carol Huston- Snow White

Christopher Rich- Eric Charming

Paul Winfield- Mirror

Tomorrow: Robert Mitchum the comedian????

DAY 178: Man About The House

Series Run : 1973-1976

39 episodes

Network: BBC

Series Premise (as far as I can tell):

Two girls and a guy live in a flat together in the U.K.

Episode Watched: Man About the House (Season 2)

Episode Summary: Robin and Chrissy borrow the Roper’s car to go to a football game, while the pub reacts to Roper’s new hairpiece.

My Thoughts: If you like Three’s Company than this is the show for you! Typically, when shows travel across the pond they change character names, settings, etc, but keep the same basic premise. This show doesn’t do that we get characters with the exact same names and roles as the U.S counterpart (Chrissy, The Ropers, Larry), and even the credits don’t try to be different, as it shows the 3 main characters traversing through a zoo. The only thing missing is the Pub being named The Reagal Beagle! This is a fun show, with some wacky situations, as well as some subtle humor that the best BBC shows are known for. While it’s not as funny, in my opinion, as the John Ritter vehicle from the states, it definitely has some of the same spirit as that cousin. A fun 30 minutes to be had watching this, even if you aren’t a fan the American version!

 Memorable Quotes:

“No sugar for me, I’m sweet enough” -Larry

“You can’t start the engine, but you could probably casserole it beautifully”-Chrissy

Acting Notables:

Richard O’Sullivan- Robin

Paula Wilcox- Chrissy

Sally Thomsett- Jo

Tomorrow: Another CBS sitcom from the mind of Chuck Lorre

DAY 179: Mike and Molly

Series Run : 2010- current

114 episodes

Network: CBS

Series Premise (as far as I can tell):

The  life of an overweight middle-aged couple

Episode Watched: Mike Check (Season 5)

Episode Summary: Molly wants Mike to go to the doctor for a check up and he doesn’t want to go, so she has to trick him.

My Thoughts: I can’t decide if this is a weird mashup of the Honeymooners & I love Lucy brought forth to the 21st century, or just a quick reboot of The King of Queens, where both main characters are overweight, instead of just one. That being said, I suppose it doesn’t change my feelings after watching an episode of it. The show is adequately acted and written, and it has some funny lines from time to time, but it isn’t anything I am going to rush out and tell people they have to watch. It could easily be a show that eats up time slots on a Friday or Saturday night, for the older stay-at-home folks in the audience. I am not sure how I feel about the genisys of the idea being so clearly about the main couple needing to be obese, it’s almost as if that was one of the selling points to make it unique, “it’s not just about any regular newlywed couple! This couple is obese! Think of all the directions we could take with that concept!” Melissa McCarthy continues to try to be a movie star based on the success of this show, and Swoosie Kurtz has resurfaced and plays her mother, which honestly is a rather jarring piece of casting. Watch this if you must, but if you miss it, you aren’t missing much.

 Memorable Quotes:

“I always forget that the family in my head is not the one that shows up” -Molly

“There wasn’t a family emergency, that won’t happen untill he gets home”-Molly

“You logged a lot of miles on that cement truck body of yours”– Carl

Acting Notables:

Melissa McCarthy- Molly

Billy Gardell- Mike

Swoosie Kurtz- Joyce

Tomorrow: Before Once Upon a Time, these fairy tale characters were trapped in the present day

DAY 177: The New Monkees

Series Run : 1987

13 episodes

Network: Syndicated

Series Premise (as far as I can tell):

Sitcom revolving around a real band that was created through open auditions

Episode Watched: Pilot (Season 1)

Episode Summary: We see how the members of the band were selected, a 10 minute sample of a show and a music video of the theme song.

My Thoughts: A relic of the success of MTV in the 80’s, the New Monkees tried to capitalize on the MTV generation while invoking the beloved musical group of the same name from the 1960’s. The result was a short-lived and extremely dated experiment, that if handled in a more deliberate manner, may have found some success. In fact, given the success of American Idol, this show may have had a shot to do quite well if made about 10 years ago, instead of 30 years ago. The pilot is odd and broken into 3 parts, the first 10 minutes plays like a “Behind the music” documentary, where we get interviews with the band members, see their tryout videos and screen tests and their eventual hiring. The next 10 minutes is a shortened version of what a show would be like, which looks exactly like an episode of the originally Monkees, only set in the 80’s instead of the 60’s, and without the likability of those original characters. The last 3 minutes is a music video, which shows off the skills of some of these musicians. Alas, I felt some of the actors were too old to be appealing to the demographic they were going for, and clearly some of these guys were much more comfortable singing then they were acting. It’s hard to find out in cyberspace, but the small taste you get here tells you all you need to know as to why it ended so quickly. 

Memorable Quotes:

“People are crazy, that’s a quote from me” -Dino

“Who wrote this stuff for this guy?”-Dino

Acting Notables:

Jared Chandler- Jared

Dino Kovas- Dino

Marty Ross- Marty

Larry Saltis- Larry

Tomorrow: The British Three’s Company, complete with the Ropers and Larry!

DAY 176: Gidget

Series Run : 1965-1966

32 episodes

Network: ABC

Series Premise (as far as I can tell):

High schooler Gidget navigates the hip surfer world and her high school

Episode Watched: Ego-A-Go-Go (Season 1)

Episode Summary: Gidget makes a date with a geek to make him feel better, only to have the geek dump her.

My Thoughts: My history with Gidget consists of making fun of my sisters watching the 3 Gidget movies during summer vacations. To my surprise, a tv show existed that spun off from those movies, and that show starred future Academy Award winner Sally Field. Much like our earlier viewing of Caroline in the City, this show takes on the personality of the young and bubbly Sally Field. She is smart, witty, funny, and the personification of a young high school girl. Her father plays the strong, understanding wise man in her life, and the jokes are fast and numerous. This episode has the added bonus of future star thespian, Richard Dreyfus, playing a character named so eloquently as, “Durf the Drag”. That character name alone should be enough of a hook to get you to watch this. But if it isn’t enough, come for the quite charming story and the fun atmosphere this show resides in. A pleasant surprise in the lore of sitcom-dom, and one that is much better than the movies from which it spawned.

 Memorable Quotes:

“Not that Truth! I haven’t made it up yet” -Gidget

“Since his head swelled, the distance from his head to his ears are in light years”-Gidget

“Then my mother with her ‘late bloomer’ take, I guess I went right into orbit”– Durf

Acting Notables:

Sally Field- Gidget

Don Porter- Russell

Richard Dreyfuss- Durf the Drag

Tomorrow: A short rebirth of a 60’s icon

DAY 175: I Dream of Genie

Series Run : 1965-1970

139 episodes

Network: NBC

Series Premise (as far as I can tell):

Astronaut discovers a Genie Bottle and becomes the Genie’s master

Episode Watched: My Son The Genie (Season 3)

Episode Summary: Genie is tasked with training a new genie (Bob Denver) the same night that LBJ is coming to the house for dinner.

My Thoughts: I never really watched a full episode of this show, and after sitting through this one its unlikely I’ll never watch an episode of this again. It is a show that I found very little to write about, laughed very little, and had very few lines even worthy of noting. The entry I chose involved Gilligan as a new genie that needed to be trained. I thought the combination of this beloved sitcom with a star of another beloved sitcom would be comic gold! I was wrong. The biggest issue I had was that a lot of the humor involves sight gags, and they didn’t know when the gag had gone on too long. A joke that should have lasted 30 seconds seemed to go on for 2-3 minutes, outliving any humor that could have been wrung from the situation. I suppose this show ,which challenged it contemporary, Bewitched, was known more for Barbara Eden baring his midriff, than any actual humor happening on-screen. Thankfully, now that I have sat through one episode, I don’t have to again.

 Memorable Quotes:

“This was my dad’s idea, I wanted to be a chariot driver” -Harold

“Harold, do not stir the salad, toss it”-Jeannie

Acting Notables:

Jim Carrey- Skip

Jack Gilford- Brooks

Teresa Ganzel- Mrs. Winkler

Tomorrow: Academy Award winner tackles a movie adaptation

DAY 174: Hyperdrive

Series Run : 2006-2007

12 episodes

Network: BBC

Series Premise (as far as I can tell):

UK Space Crew negotiates treaties with Aliens throughout the galaxy

Episode Watched: A Gift From The Glish (Season 1)

Episode Summary: Mike insults the Glish during negotiations so they unleash an alien on board to kill them all.

My Thoughts:  The BBC is persistent, they keep making sitcoms set in outer space, hoping that one of them will eventually be a hit. In this rather recent effort, it seems the creators were going for a “comedic version of Star Trek”, or a rip off of Galaxy Quest. Either way, this show has some intriguing characters, that given time probably would have ended up pretty darn funny. Alas, this show lasted for a mere 12 episodes, and if this entry is any indication, the dozen episodes were rather odd. It seemed the show was determined to create weird alien races with British comedic tendencies. Then they can spar with our overly sarcastic Captain Mike, who was doing a pale impression of Ricky Gervais. It’s a rather forgettable effort and one that can be skipped.

 Memorable Quotes:

“We are the Glish, before we begin, may we link your hands” -Glish

“Could we say Xenomorph? It’s just a cool word!”-Jeffers

Acting Notables:

Nick Frost- Mike

Kevin Eldon- Eduardo

Miranda Hart- Alice

Tomorrow: A Classic that is surprisingly awful

DAY 173: Square Pegs

Series Run : 1982-1983

20 episodes

Network: CBS

Series Premise (as far as I can tell):

Two teenage girls try to become popular during high school

Episode Watched: Square Pigskins (Season 1)

Episode Summary: The school decides to launch a girl’s football team.

My Thoughts: Often times our memories end up being better than what we actually experienced. I am sorry to say, that this show, which in many avenues has reached cult level status, is one of those memories that was better left buried in my mind. To say this is a bad show is an understatement. A show with so many over-the-top high school stereotypes it actually makes you uncomfortable watching them being portrayed by the actors. They are all here, Nerd, Valley Girl, Jock, Preppy, Sci-Fi Geek, Cheerleader, Token Black Friend, and in an odd choice- the “still living in the army” Vietnam Vet. I cannot begin to describe how awful the acting is in this show, it reminds me of a show my friends and I would have cobbled together when bored during the summer (and we did make some pretty awful stuff). Sarah Jessica Parker is the main star who emerged from this train wreck, although Jami Gertz and a couple other’s will be recognized. Although this entry didn’t have him, I have no idea why Bill Murray showed up for cameos in a few episodes. Alas, I am here to tell you if you hold this show in any kind of nostalgic memory, its best left there, Watching it now will only destroy any happy memories you may have of it. 

 Memorable Quotes:

“That’s just an old trick I picked up in ‘Nam, they were just blanks…….this time” -Mr. Murray

“Halftime, I like the sound of that, it sounds so slow”-Slash

“Everybody knows you can’t spell sportsmanship without M-A-N”– Vinnie

Acting Notables:

Sarah Jessica Parker- Patty

Amy Linker- Lauren

Jami Gertz- Muffy

Tomorrow: BBC goes to space, again.