What was the name of the rich suitor who always courting Diane (or Kirstie Alley) in Cheers. For the life of me I can not remember his name. Was it Capehart?
BTW- this is why I think I am slowly going insane. I’m sitting here working, and these things pop into my head, and I can’t get anything done until I find the answer. Why do I need to know this? I don’t know. I think because I am going insane.
Ramalamadingdong
Robin Colcord. Carry on
Lee from NC
I thought Robin was the one chasing after Kirstie Alley’s character? Or did he chase after them both? Or am I just getting old and senile?
Ramalamadingdong
Oh Lee you are correct. Now I will be driven insane all day. Thanks John
Patrick
Robin Colcord
BongCrosby
My recollections are line with Lee’s, above –I don’t recall Diane having a rich suitor; Robin Colcord and Evan Drake were the billionaire bosses of Kirstie Alley’s character, weren’t they?
Joshua Norton
Yes, Robin was chasing after Kirstie. Then he went to jail, as I recall. I don’t remember a rich dude chasing Dianne. Just Frasier.
Tim C.
Are you sure Diane had a rich suitor, I only remember Fraiser as the competition to Sam.
And yes, Robin Concord pursued Kirstie Alley’s character.
cleek
what BongCrosby said.
(just wanted to type that name – it’s a classic)
speaking of Cheers, Ken Levine, one of the writers from Cheers (and Frasier, and MASH, etc.) has a blog – funny stuff.
rickles
Her professor/suitor/fiance was named Sumner, but I’m not sure of the lastname. It was something like Redstone, Redfern or ???
Dennis-SGMM
It was Colonel Mustard, with the rope, in the library.
Volum
She and Dr.Crane were together for a while, but other than him, I don’t think she ever dated a millionaire/rich guy.
You’re thinking of Rebecca
NutellaonToast
Maybe you’re thinking of this, from Wikipedia:
“Christopher Lloyd guest starred as a tortured artist who wanted to paint Diane”
I dunno, man, I was like 8 when I watched that show.
Noonan
Yeah, it was Sumner. He left Diane at the show’s first episode. Then he came back a bit later. I think Sam started a book club or something to keep Diane distracted.
So, yeah, I watch too many Cheers marathons.
John Cole
I was thinking of Colcord. Thanks, folks.
joe from Lowell
It’s the guy who played the flight instructor in Top Gun. The guy with the mustache.
Michael D.
John: Perhaps you were thinking of this guy.
Joshua Norton
@rickles:
Sumner Sloan. Plus he turned out to be the one who got her the writing job that got her off the show.
joe from Lowell
You know…that…guy. On that. You know who I mean.
cleek
Sumner Sloane. (Michael McGuire)
he dumped her before the series started (so she starts working at the bar). and he showed up a year later, with a new wife.
Adolphus
Sumner Redstone is a wealthy Viacom executive.
Sumner Sloan was Diane’s Harvard Professor who tried to woo her away from Sam. Sam read War and Peace to impress her, but Sloan was tired of discussing War and Peace and wanted instead to discuss Anna Karenina. Sloane was played by Michael McGuire.
Robin Colcord wooed Rebecca Howe first for her password into the her corporate network, but he repented and went to jail. He was played by Roger Rees.
Rickles, you may be thinking of Miller Redfield who was the arrogant, vain, and vapid Stone Phillips-esque character on Murphy Brown played by Christopher Rich.
Have none of you, including John never been to IMDB? Jeebus!
carsick
At 46 years old and a guy who used to win at Trivial Pursuits, I sometimes find myself unable to finish a discussion without Google as a reference to remind me of something. I went to a college that emphasized “Mode of Inquiry” which was basically about learning a process to gain information more than just memorizing information. The internet has become the ultimate mode of inquiry device AND IT”S DESTROYING OUR BRAINS!!!!
The robots can’t be far behind!!
mike
let me google that for you.
Brucie
John you have heard of Google, right?
bago
@cleek: That’s not the Ken Levine of Bioshock fame, is it?
Adolphus
Okay, my last line was harsh, but it took me 30 seconds to learn all that stuff via IMDB and they even have a search plug-in for Firefox. The internet knows all.
And I used to win Trivia Pursuit contests, to, Carsick, as well as impossible Brady Trivia contests by my local radio station, and those networked bar trivia contests. I don’t learn or remember trivia like I once did, but I read more, debate more, and can do more research than ever before. I prefer the current state. Let other people memorize who played Corky the Circus Boy.
Ninerdave
Cliff on Jeopardy, one of my favorite episodes
RandyH
Remember when Robin Colcord went to the country club prison and he’s talking the the Savings and Loan executives there with him? One of them insists that “No, it wasn’t all the bad loans to his crooked friends that killed his S&L. It was those damn Free Checking accounts.”
That scene just sticks with me. I wish I could find it on YouTube.
Brachiator
OT but weirdly related, the recent news stories about Rep Jane Harman have included this little tidbit:
This reminded me of this item from the 2008 presidential primaries:
And then playing around with the new Google News Timeline tool, I came across this tidbit from 2006:
Women with rich suitors. Not just the stuff of sitcoms. And Pelosi and Harman have a bit of history. I wonder if scores are being settled here?
Legalize
More Cheers threads plz.
cleek
heh. nope.
i still use “who are three people who’ve never been in my kitchen” now and then. nobody ever gets it.
and i still sing “K. E. L. L. Y… because you’re KellyKellyKellyKelly…” it’d be better if that was my wife’s name.
Albania, Albania
You border on the A-dri-at-ic
Your land is mostly mountainous
Your chief export is chrome
You’re a communist republic
You’re a red regime…
omen
are you being courted by a rich suitor?
Krista
Why should he? He has his minions to do it for him. Besides, if he looks it up himself, then he has to do without the heaping helping of abuse that we deliver with our information.
Laziest masochist ever.
Ronnie P
It’s the guy who played the flight instructor in Top Gun.
Tom Skerritt? Also of MASH and A River Runs Through It.
Nikki
Actually, Rebecca was the one doing the pursuing, not Robin Colcord.
Dork
Is this a superhero Braveheart?
raff
I owe that guy a beer… or ten. Jebus I hated Diane’s character. I stopped watching for a while until she left & Kirstie Alley came onboard. To this day I can’t watch any Cheers reruns with Diane in ’em.
Legalize
Woody: Jack Frost nipping at your toes, Mr. Peterson?
Norm: Yeah, now let’s get Joe Beer nipping at my liver.
Common Sense
@Ninerdave:
I cry every single time I see that clip.
“Who are three people who have never been in my kitchen?”
Classic
Roger the Cabin Boy
@Nikki:
Actually, Rebecca was the one doing the pursuing, not Robin Colcord.
You’re absolutely right….
Laura W
@Krista:
Most concise and frighteningly accurate statement ever.
Cat Lady
@Brachiator:
And if “The Jane Harman Story” is ever made into a movie or a TV special, Cloris Leachman gets to play the lead even if she’s dead. Amirite?
Brachiator
@Brucie:
Or even Wikipedia (Robin Colcord)
Diane’s first suitor, Sumner Stone, was a literature professor, but I don’t think he was fantabulously wealthy.
Trollhattan
Cliff lost his remaining shread of mojo when he showed up at the local teabaggerfest last week to tell the crowd–Glenn Beck like–how crazy in love he was with America. Help, help, I’m being repressed.
Sigh.
It was sure a “Say what?!?” moment when he was introduced. I think I can forgiven for momentarily conflating Ratzenberger with Wurzelbacher.
gopher2b
Whatever you do – do not start Wikipedia-ing things from the 80’s. You’ll lose weeks from your life.
random asshole
Sometimes this blog makes me want to drink. This is one of those times.
Mojotron
now you’ve done it, now I’M trying to remember the name of the rich suitor who was trying to get Rebecca- he was her boss at corporate, he was short and had a nasally voice, and didn’t she become engaged to him? tis driving me mad….
Persia
@gopher2b: Also stay away from TV Tropes.
Mojotron
found it – Martin Teal. he didn’t rate a mention in wikipedia.
Rob Killion
Google is your friend. I typed in kirstie alley’s rich boyfriend in cheers and immediately got the answer.
Ed Drone
A rich dude chased Frasier? Wow! That was revolutionary for that period of TV, wasn’t it?
Ed
John Cole
Without having to watch the youtube, or googling, I can from memory recite his answer to Final Jeopardy:
“What are three people who have never been in my kitchen.”
And it has been ten-fifteen years since I have seen that.
Ron
@cleek:
Oh thank god I’m not the only one who remembers that Albania song. And I still remember in college when I was on a team in a trivia contest, we were so far ahead that we could afford to just blow a question. There was some question we had no clue what the answer was but we chose to answer “Who is someone who has never been in my kitchen?” Ahh, the good old days.
cfaller96
It was Robin Colcourt, and I didn’t have to consult Teh Great Gizoogle for that. On reading the comments, however, maybe it’s spelled Colcord. Whatever, I’m just a little disturbed that random crap like this is occupying space in my brain, when instead it could contain other more useful bits of information (like physics equations or something).
And to all you young whippersnappers who were too young to remember that awesome show- get off my lawn, you dirty effing hippies.
JK
@Trollhattan: I thought John Ratzenberger only played dumb as a fictional character. I was very disappointed to see him at a tea party and reveal himself to be dumb in real life.
Also, Victoria Jackson, former SNL cast member, who played dumb on tv, revealed herself to dumb in real life with her insane trashing of Obama on Fox News.
p.a.
I named my pet felapatroid Cliff Clavin
ChrisB
@Adolphus: That would be Mickey Dolenz (as Corky the Circus Boy).
[Looks around proudly to see others averting their eyes or sadly shaking their heads]
JK
Did anyone have a problem with the cast members appearing with Jay Leno in a somewhat wasted condition after the show’s series finale aired?
AhabTRuler
Yes, but the real question is whether the statement “Archibald Leach is Cary Grant” has any cognitive significance?
Brachiator
@JK:
Nope. I thought that they were being real, and this was the perfect counter to the way that the networks try to manufacture sentiment and control everyone’s response to series finales (e.g, the pointlessly drawn out network hoopla that was the the “ER” finale).
omen
@Trollhattan:
janine turner too was a surprise. i used to like northern exposure.
another unexpected wingnut was the woman captain from star trek voyager series. she belongs to a pro life group.
Genine
“Going”? Hmmm, that is a sure sign of insanity. You can’t go anywhere you already are.
JK
Which of the two was funnier on a more consistent basis:
Cheers or Frasier? I’d lean in favor of Frasier
AhabTRuler
John Ratzenburger, Kate Mulgrew, and Janine Turner.
Who are three people who have never been on my TV?
AhabTRuler
I laughed more when I watched the Deer Hunter (I love a story with a happy ending, just like Ceaucescu).
John H. Farr
I think because I am going insane.
No, you’re going insane because you think.
JK
@omen: Speaking of Star Trek, have you seen this clip of Kate Mulgrew?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXLWMD0eTeI&feature=PlayList&p=8C495A8320F412F8&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=97
cleek
@omen:
also Patricia Heaton (Raymond’s wife) and Kelsey Grammer.
The Other Steve
Let me Google That For You is the greatest innovation on the internet EVUH!
That, and Fisher Price baby swing, which is finally letting momma get some sleep. :-)
AhabTRuler
So which is worse: Finding out that an actor that you like is a wingnut or a Scientologist?
I mean, I can live with John Travolta, but Bart Simpson?
It was almost as bad as finding out that Maurice LaMarche is…Canadian! (I keed, I keed)
Billy K
I recently discovered there are people who think “Frasier” is in the same league as Cheers.
I will never understand those people. Some of them have been banned from my kitchen.
Captain Haddock
Man, I do miss Cheers. Its never on in my neck of the woods anymore (ironically enough, Boston). I suppose that should make me buy some DVD’s — but some things are meant to be watched on broadcast TV rather than DVD – great shows and bad 1950’s B-movies.
I had feared it was going to be dated the last time I saw some very early episodes, but it held up quite well.
Captain Haddock
@Billy K:
Frasier is a great show, but it doesn’t have the layers of Cheers. Both are extremely consistent though.
Brachiator
@JK:
Taxi
omen
@JK:
that rocked.
DougJ
I kind of tuned out after Shelly Long left. It wasn’t the same.
And Woody was no Coach either.
Still, probably the best show ever on network television, maybe second to Homicide.
Captain Haddock
@Brachiator:
Who do you have to kill to even see an episode of Taxi these days??? WHat maroon runs TVLand and Nick at Nite???
Where is Maude? Taxi? Alice?
DougJ
Wingnut. Half the scientologist ones are just being blackmailed to stay in the “church”.
AhabTRuler
The cookies!
cleek
and why was it a better show?
film.
at least that’s what one of the writers thinks.
Maureen Meyer
Rebecca’s first boss was played by Tom Skerritt. His last name was Drake, I believe.
DougJ
Does anyone remember the one where they took Frazier on the snipe hunt? I think it was called a “snipe”.
Genius.
God I miss that show.
ironranger
These kind of trivia questions pop into my head in the wee hours of the night when I am trying to get back to sleep after waking up for no known reason & catch at least a couple more hours but I can’t stop trying to remember the answers. During the day I either put the trivia question out of my mind & the answer comes to me later or I look it up. In the middle of the night my mind doesn’t want to let it go easily. Very aggravating which only makes it that much harder to fall back to sleep.
joe from Lowell
Frasier was a much better show than it had any right to be. C’mon, a Cheers spinoff? About Frasier? How does that not suck?
But, instead, it turned into a very witty show. “Did you hear that, Frasier? We can go “tubin’.”
Captain Haddock
@DougJ:
There was also a Thanksgiving show — I only saw the first time it aired — where the whole event was a complete fiasco including a partially thawed turkey and a food fight.
Any storyline with Eddie Lebec (sp?) was classic — can do no wrong with Jay Thomas.
one two seven
Mulgrew is pro-life, but she is married to former Ohio Dem gurbernatorial candidate and Cuyahoga County Commissioner Tim Hagan (a self described New Deal liberal). She’s also anti-death penalty. I doubt she’ll be turning up at any teabag festivals with Cliff Claven and the girl from Northern Exposure.
Sheesh, for a crowd that likes to razz John Cole for not looking this up on your own, you could really do with a few wikipedia lessons.
Also, Kelsey Grammer is a wingnut too.
Captain Haddock
@cleek:
Interesting take, thanks. Might also explain the subtle brilliance of Barney Miller as well.
Maureen Meyer
Tom Skerritt appeared occasionally as Evan Drake on Cheers the first two years Rebecca was on Cheers.
DougJ
Funny, but also derivative of an earlier Bob Newhart (the Chicago one, not that New England crap he did later) show.
Ninerdave
It was almost as bad as finding out that Maurice LaMarche is…Canadian! (I keed, I keed).
He will always be the Brain to me. I was an obsessive Animaniacs fan in college.
DougJ
@cleek
That’s interesting about film.
JK
@Brachiator: I preferred Taxi to both Cheers and Frasier. I’d also take the Dick Van Dyke Show over both Cheers and Frasier.
DougJ
You know what else I loved, how Cliff referred to late hours of the night as the “wee smalls”. And when Woody told Diane his parents thought her film (une film de Diane Chambers) was too derivative of Godard.
So good.
Captain Haddock
@DougJ:
Newhart! That is the one show I bought on DVD – my wife never saw an episode and I had to share.
Funny enough, the later show (New England version) was party of my all time favorite TV line-up: Newhart, Magnum PI, and Simon and Simon. Thursday nights on CBS. I was in 7th grade at the time — that Newhart did not last the test of time.
SGEW
Andre Braugher doesn’t get nearly enough work nowadays, goddammit.
JK
Which was funnier Seinfeld or Cheers?
SGEW
Cheers was funny: Seinfeld was important.
eemom
anybody here old enough to remember “All in the Family,” the grandaddy of them all?
Captain Haddock
@JK:
That is a tough one. There are some Seinfeld episodes that are just perfectly crafted, but it got a little self indulgent towards the end. Cheers was probably more consistent in the long run.
To be honest, I watch Seinfeld most nights on TBS, I haven’t seen an entire episode of Cheers in ages.
Krista
I loved Animaniacs, and wish they’d show it again on TV, but it’s too old for Teletoon, and too recent for Teletoon Retro.
How can you not adore a show whose theme song contains the line, “There’s baloney in our slacks”?
Captain Haddock
@eemom:
All in the Family is in a different league altogether.
Tax Analyst
Agree, although they were all very good. Also agree with whoever mentioned that Cheers was much better when Shelley Long was still in it, although it was still pretty good after she left.
Blue Raven
@JK:
Cheers. Hands down. Seinfeld’s characters were blind and selfish fools. You laughed at them more than with them, and that humor gets old. Cheers’ characters had self-awareness, even if only occasionally and thrust upon them. They evolved as people over the course of the series as well, something nobody in Seinfeld achieved.
And my “will not watch in reruns EVER” season of Cheers involves Jean-Claude. I hear “Woody, I am going to steal your girlfriend” and I’d rather listen to a concerto written for fingernails on chalkboard and out-of-tune piano.
Eric
Good God you people are old. Also, John, your current affliction can probably be cured by wikipedia.
Gus
Not even in the top ten. Barney Miller was much better. Yes eemom, I remember All in the Family, and it was better than Cheers also.
raff
If anyone under the age of 30 were to watch “All In The Family” for the first time, they would almost certainly fail to catch its ground-breaking social significance & cutting edge humour. They would probably just consider it a tamer version of “Married With Children”.
Blue Raven
Wingnut in a squeaker, which is slightly behind “anti-vaccination activist.” ETA: Unless said $cieno prates against psychiatric drugs. Which is when s/he can go join the anti-vax squad in the cage match against young-earthers.
R-Jud
@AhabTRuler:
Personally I was really upset about Beck. Even more upset to learn he’s been one his whole life.
@eemom:
I am old enough to remember it being on re-runs when I was a kid. My husband, however, is both old enough and British enough to remember the series “All in the Family” was based on, “Till Death Us Do Part”. And “Man About The House”, which became “Three’s Company” in the US. Or “Steptoe and Son”, which became “Sanford and Son”, or… oh, just read here. We’ve been stealing their ideas for years.
Edit: I just re-read that list and saw that The Thick of It is being remade for the USA.
1) NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
2) Get the DVD if you can. Brilliant political satire
3) Go see “In The Loop” if it comes out near you; it’s a film by the same writer/director. Plus it has Tony Soprano!
Mr. Stuck
No, it’s that lazy ass little devil on yer shoulder telling you there’s something wrong with your navel.
Ninerdave
@Eric:
Get off my lawn!
bago
Animaniacs for the win!
Seriously.
No, Seriously.
Blue Raven
@raff:
Likewise with Blazing Saddles on the movie front. The 70s gave birth to stuff like Borat and Family Guy. This makes Archie Bunker tame in retrospect.
Blue Raven
@<a href=”#comment-1213277″>bago:
Hel-loooooooooo, Nurse!
Darcy
@bago:
I’ve allways been partial to this.
bago
Did I mention how seriously awesome the animaniacs were? Seriously awesome.
R-Jud
@Blue Raven:
(singing): Chicken Boo, what’s the matter with you?/You don’t act like the other chickens do/ You wear a disguise/To look like human guys/ But you’re not a man/ You’re a Chicken Boo.
bago
@Darcy: Waaay behind ya.
PS. Because I’m on a roll (and deciding wether or not Post Script needs one or two periods to properly denote the descriptive status), I present you with the Wheel of Morality.
eemom
@raff:
sad but true. So there is something to be said for old geezerdom and having actually witnessed the evolution of quality TV shows over the centuries — er, decades.
That said, I hasten to add that I was a kid during prime time “All in the Family”…….
And this may be considered heresy, but I totally NEVER got why everybody liked Seinfeld. Cheers and Frasier were good, tho.
big woo
@eemom:
Fawlty Towers was the original inspiration for Cheers, though I saw more of that influence in Frasier later on.
An interesting aside: Cheers finished dead last in network ratings for its first season, 77th out of 77.
Brachiator
@cleek:
The craftsmanship of the writing and the acting. Louie De Palma could be a total bastard, but was still often funny and sometimes sympathetic. And even when the writers had him do a good thing, they put a delicious twist of evil in it.
Fer instance, there was an episode where Elaine let a diva hairdresser (played by Ted Danson!) force her to submit to an absolutely hideos hairdo. In the end, Louie stepped up to get revenge for her, but he did it in a particularly jerkful way, consistently in character.
And then there was the episode where the taxi company’s cougar wife picked a poor sap to seduce. Everyone was afraid because the guy inevitably disappeared afterwards. The boss’s wife chose Louie. Hilarity ensues.
There are some classic Seinfelds, but many others that can easily be skipped. But one of the local TV stations ran Taxi for a while and whenever I ran across a stray episode, I was hooked and had to watch the whole thing.
This is not to say that Cheers was a slouch in the comedy department, and again the acting and writing is key. I once mentioned to a friend that I thought that Cheers could have run a few more seasons featuring the relationship between Sam and an elementary school teacher played by Dana Delany, because the writers had created characters who made you wonder what their lives were like before and after any particular episode.
Seinfeld was terrifically inventive, but you couldn’t really say that Jerry Seinfeld was a great actor. And sometimes things got a little repetitive because the way the characters related to each other was a little too formulaic (and in a way a throwback to the early days of TV comedy).
But Americans have got their revenge. I understand that there is a CSI: London, with re-fashioned scripts from the US series.
Laura W
@eemom:
Ditto. But I loved it.
I was a breastfeeding infant during “My Mother the Car”, “Petticoat Junction” and “Lost in Space” (mmmmm……Billy Mumy!) but I loved them long time.
Nor I. I found it to be one of the most un-funny, dull, repetitive, bland, unimaginative, uninteresting etc etc etc… shows ever on teevee. The Teevee equivalent of Billy Joel, if you will.
BongCrosby
Since this thread has evolved/devolved into a sitcom discussion, I’d like to toss in my own personal favorite from the “way back when” era: WKRP in Cincinnati.
If the word “turkeys” doesn’t get at least a few follow-up acknowledgments here I’ll be very surprised.
SGEW
Gasp! Heresy! ;)
Actually, I was always amazed that anyone outside of NYC liked it at all . . . much in the same way it baffles me that French audiences adore Woody Allen movies.
Mike G
WOODY: Hey Mr. Peterson, there’s a cold one waiting for you.
NORM : I know, and if she calls, I’m not here.
WOODY: Hey Mr. Peterson, Jack Frost been nipping at your nose?
NORM : Yep. Now let’s get Joe Beer nipping at my liver, huh?
COACH: Can I draw you a beer, Norm?
NORM : No, I know what one looks like. Just pour me one.
WOODY: How’s it going Mr. Peterson?
NORM : It’s a dog eat dog world out there, Woody, and I’m wearing milkbone underwear.
PAUL : Hey Norm, how’s the world treating you?
NORM : Like a baby treats a diaper.
NORM: Women. Can’t live with ’em, pass the beer nuts.
Cliff: What a pathetic display. I’m ashamed God made me a man.
Carla: I don’t think God’s doing a lot of bragging either.
FRASIER: Lilith Sternin is a good woman: strong, durable, reliable.
NORM: She’d make a helluva radial tire.
Norm: Hey, Frasier, you’re a doctor. What happens to old, dead skin?
Frasier: Apparently it sits on barstools and drinks beer all day.
SGEW
As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.
Woodrow "asim" Jarvis Hill
“Oh the humanity…the turkeys are hitting the ground like sacks of wet cement!”
I make a point to YouTube the WKRP Turkey episode every Thanksgiving. I maintain it’s still the single funniest bit any show has ever done.
OTOH, I have such a crush on Roz from FRAISER.
bago
@Woodrow “asim” Jarvis Hill: Family Guy. It haz a funny.
JK
The debate over what was the funniest tv comedy show is a blast and I never tire of taking part in it.
I love this topic as well as similar ones over what was the best tv drama series, the best movie, the best rock band, the best novel, etc
I wish every poster to this thread could hang out for several hours and provide their lists of the top 20 or 25 tv comedy shows.
Here’s my list of the best tv comedy shows in alphabetical order. It’s too difficult for me to differentiate and list them in order of preference. If someone placed a gun to my head and asked to me pick my all-time favorite from the list, I wouldn’t be able to do it and would tell him to go ahaed and shoot me.
The Abbott and Costello Show
All in the Family
The Burns and Allen Show
Cheers
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Everybody Loves Raymond
Fawlty Towers
Frasier
The Honeymooners
I Love Lucy
The King of Queens
MASH
Monty Python’s Flying Circus
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
The Bob Newhart Show
The Odd Couple
The Office (US Version)
Roseanne
The Larry Sanders Show
Sanford and Son
Saturday Night Live (first 5 seasons only)
Seinfeld
The Simpsons
Taxi
The Dick Van Dyke Show
Krista
Heh. Both my mom and my best friend are nurses, and I love greeting them with that.
This is one of my fave clips.
Krista
I’ve never understood the fanaticism about Seinfeld either. It had good moments, but I can only watch so much of it before wanting to go bang my head against a wall.
Soap was a good show — a lot of people seem to have forgotten about it, but I always enjoyed it.
And JK, I would recommend adding 30 Rock to your list. It’s one of the few shows out there right now that really cracks me up, as opposed to just entertaining me.
As far as all-time funny? The Carol Burnett Show has got to be in my top three. This clip makes me laugh until I weep.
D-Chance.
@Brucie:
It’s called “filling the thread quota for the day”.
Mr. Stuck
Growing up, my HIllbilly family used to crowd around the Teevee to soak up every inane joke on Hee Haw and laugh till they cried. Me, I was sitting in the corner, wondering if I’d been kidnapped by Dogpatch Gypsies.
Mr. Stuck
BTW, though backward as could be. Those Dogpatch Gypsies was/is good peoples. Mostly.
AhabTRuler
Animaniacs amateurs!
eemom
@JK:
Ah, bless your heart for including I Love Lucy!! Now that truly was the earth mother of them all.
I grew up watching the re-runs and to this day I still love watching them on dvd with my kids (we have the WHOLE series….!)
Someone mentioned “Lost In Space” — to that too I can relate. That chemistry between Dr. Smith and The Robot has never been equalled.
And yes, Billy Mumy — remember him in “The Twilight Zone” (another masterpiece!) as the kid with omnipotent powers?
AhabTRuler
Well, who can forget Dragnet! for the unintentional comedy. I mean, Jack Webb was so uptight you could see it when he walked (I think the phrase “tighter than a duck’s asshole” was coined just for him).
Mr. Stuck
@AhabTRuler:
Yea, Friday was a one man counter culture warrior.
AhabTRuler
@Mr. Stuck: Yeah, but the man knew how long it took to raise a crop of asparagus to harvest!
Boudica
I’d have to list M*A*S*H at the top of my list with Dick Van Dyke a close second. So, now….to continue the debates…..Trapper John or B.J.? Col. Blake or Col. Potter? Frank Burns or Charles Emerson Winchester?
AhabTRuler
I know I’m gonna get flamed for this, but I thought that the first two or three seasons of Married with Children… were genius.
Of course, I also liked Herman’s Head.
Mr. Stuck
Boudica said
They all had their charms, but I did miss Ferret Face when he left. My favorite Frankism. “I’m all for individuality, as long as we all do it together”
Though a close second is ” The place is crawling with Korean’s, you can’t sling a dead cat without hitting one”
JK
Agreed about the unintentional humor about Jack Webb
Here’s more
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Twre6ItGEI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lz_OZVk_Es0
Just Some Fuckhead
@Boudica: Andy Griffith, WKRP In Cincinnati, M*A*S*H, Sopranos, Garry Shandling Show, those are my all-time faves.
Trapper John over B,J. Trapper John seemed like a costar, B.J. always seemed like a boring supporting cast member. Blake over Potter, mainly because Harry Morgan was/is a terrible actor, IMHO. I liked Winchester’s character slightly more than Burns, but that’s prolly cuz Larry Linville was such a great actor, he made the character truly weasely and despicable (in much the same way you were revolted by Tony Soprano’s sister Janice, because she was played so well by Aida Turturro.)
JK
@AhabTRuler: I forgot about Married with Children. Didn’t catch the whole run of the series, but what I saw of it was very funny.
geg6
Dragging my ancient ass into this thread, I have to weigh in. I’m old enough to remember even The Dick van Dyke Show when it originally aired and too old to have any clue whatsoever what the hell the Animaniacs are. The van Dyke show was awesome and still holds up marvelously today. And I can’t believe noone mentioned The Mary Tyler Moore Show which with the original Bob Newhart Show and All in the Family and Maude made CBS the greatest network for comedy maybe ever. Loved Taxi, Cheers, WKRP, and Seinfeld; I even admit to liking The Golden Girls. But the greatest comedy EVER was Barney Miller. No show had a better ensemble, even when characters came and went, or better writing. And the hardest I ever laughed in my life at a tv show was the pot brownie episode. That episode is pure: great writing, every actor playing his part with perfect pitch, and the ensemble playing like a great symphony. It’s comedy at its best: absolutely absurd and completely real all at once. Magic.
Laura W
@Just Some Fuckhead:
I LOVED THAT SHOW. (Do we mean Larry Sanders? I loved that one too. Maybe more! JK’s list saved me here, I think.)
I Love That Man!
JK
@Just Some Fuckhead: When it comes to tv drama series, I don’t need a nanosecond to think about it. The Sopranos is far and away my favorite. Like I previously posted, when it comes to tv comedy series, it’s more like a 9 or 10 way tie for first and 9 or 10 way tie for second.
JK
@geg6: I mentioned the Mary Tyler Moore Show and the Bob Newhart Show. See post #127
JK
@Laura W: I never saw It’s Garry Shandling’s Show during its original run on tv. I caught several clips of it that were posted on Youtube. It was fall on the floor hilarious. The last time I checked, all those clips had been removed from Youtube. If the rest of the episodes were anywhere as funny as what I saw on Youtube, It’s Garry Shandling’s Show would be in my top 25 list of tv comedy series. Unfortunately, I’ve not heard of any plans for this show to be released on dvd.
geg6
Sorry, JK. I missed that. Great shows though, huh? Betty White was a gem as SueAnn Niven. When I was a teenager I aspired to be Mary Tyler Moore; as I age, I want to be just like Betty White as I age.
Mr. Stuck
I use to enjoy making my father crazy by just bringing up Seinfeld. I think It pushed about every button in his wingnut mind. His face would turn red as a beet and he’d just walk away.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Laura W: Duh, yeah, I meant Larry Sanders. Just a perfect show.
Just Some Fuckhead
He also had the Garry Shandling show first. I thought that one was generally pretty retarded. Larry Sanders, tho, that was just fucking brilliant.
Just Some Fuckhead
@JK: I’m sorry, I meant Sopranos was in my top 5 comedies. Funny, funny, funny but in a different way than normal comedy funny. It’s also in my top 5 dramas, at #1.
Mr. Stuck
I never watched much Teevee growing up in the 60’s. but i never missed watching Women’s Roller Derby and the Bay City Bomber babes kick some ass. And BTW, it was real back in those days. Spittle, blood and tufts of pulled hair. You can Check.
JK
@geg6: Sometime around the early or mid 1980’s, one New York tv station used to air 3 episodes of the Mary Tyler Moore show back to back during the latenight portion of their programming schedule.
I definitely agree that the Bob Newhart Show hasn’t gotten the recognition it deserves. I feel the same way about Taxi and the Odd Couple.
Back in January, PBS ran a multipart series called Make Em Laugh on the history of comedy. In one episode, Robert Thompson a professor at Syracuse University referred to Seinfeld as the best tv comedy series of all-time.
I like Seinfeld, but I was surprised at the arrogance of Thompson. He stated his opinon of Seinfeld as if it were a law of physics.
I’ve seen all the posts from people who don’t like Seinfeld. I don’t agree with their assessment, but I do think that many tv critics and cultural critics like Thompson have gotten carried away with their over the top praise of Seinfeld.
Just Some Fuckhead
Third on Fawlty Towers, got a bunch of those on tape and they always slay me.
Never saw a complete episode of Seinfeld. I had other priorities at the time.
pattonbt
Gotta go with WKRP and the Thanksgiving episode for me….
When Les comes in at the end torn to shreds he says, slowly in disbelief “I really don’t know how to describe it. It was like the turkeys mounted a counterattack! it was almost as if they were……organized”.
Laura W
Two Words:
Ab Fab
JK
A few people have mentioned WKRP in Cincinnati. That’s another show I didn’t catch during its initial run. Seen clips of it on Youtube. It looks like I missed out on an extremely funny show.
There was article in Wired about the problem of releasing it dvd. WKRP, Freaks and Geeks, and American Dreams made heavy use of pop and rock songs. The cost of getting clearance rights for the use of these songs posed major problems for putting these shows on dvd. In some cases, the dvds deleted scenes or substituted the music.
JK
@Just Some Fuckhead: I had other priorities at the time
You sound like Dick Cheney explaining his deferments during the Vietnam war.
SGEW
Oh shit, since we’re on the topic:
The Young Ones.
eemom
oh yes, Married With Children was freakin’ HILARIOUS. Best dysfunctional family EVAH, and not a shred of redeeming qualities or pious-ass morals to the story to be found anywhere.
And reverting to the ’60s, no one has mentioned Get Smart!
Have heard a lot of names on this thread that I recognize but never watched. So I will add the watching of those shows to my list of things to do when the kids are grown and I am a retired woman of leisure living in luxury off my 401K…..
Just Some Fuckhead
@JK:
Was he in prison too?
Laura W
@eemom: Get Smart!
And, The Man From U.N.C.L.E!
Just Some Fuckhead
Aw bugger.
JK
@Just Some Fuckhead: My apology for a failed attempt at levity. I was thinking of Cheney’s answer to a reporter for why he chose not to serve in Vietnam. He used a phrase very similar to the one you used in your post.
Thunderbird
For those of you who haven’t seen WKRP in Cincinnati, the entire first season is at Hulu
TonyT
Google is your friend, just enter this
Cheers Kirstie rich boyfriend
“Jesus loves you, but the rest of us think you’re an asshole”
Jon H
Jonathan Capeheart works for the Washington Post.
robo1936
Back to Cheers and Shelley Long and why she was so much better than Kirste Alley. She had class the other was a raving idiot. Example when Diane is spurning Sams advances asking her to come inside to an empty dimly lit room and she says “Ah just like your mind “and then she says “Do you know what bothers me. There are women on whom this works and they are allowed to vote and drive cars” Billiant and pure Shelley Long.
robo1936
Just as a matter of interest does anyone think that the ending of cheers with Sam and Diane going their own separate ways was a good ending or as I think pure rubbish