My Tribute:The Classic TV Stars we lost in 2016

 

I’m not the first to put this out there but for whatever reason we lost a lot of good people this year. This may have been one of the worst I’ve ever seen. Go through a full list you wont believe it, especially in the world of music. But since my foray is classic TV I wanted to focus o that area. Because we lost a lot of great  talent who kind of got forgotten by the larger names out there.

So I mean no disrespect to the legends like David Bowie, Prince, Muhammad Ali, Anton Yelchin, Natalie Cole, Arnold Palmer, Gene Wilder, Nancy Reagan, Alan Rickman, John Glenn, George Michael, or any of the talented people who passed away this year. But I wanted to focus on this specific genre, and yes many of the names I list also have decent movie careers but I am fousing on their TV work.


So here are twenty names from classic sitcoms, drama’s and news that we lost this year.


Pat Harrington

There are some characters out there that become so popular that even if you’ve never seen the show, you probably know who they are. I never watched One Day at a Time but I can still tell you who Schneider was. Harrington also did a lot of voice over work.

Five Things I Liked in “Home Alone 2:Lost in New York”

After Home Alone’s amazing success, a sequel was inevitable. And so in 1992, that’s just what we got…

The movie isn’t horrible but it isn’t great either. It clearly follows the same format as the first, almost note for note. Though everything is one upped from the first movie, including those traps which get kind of nuts. Bricks to the head, floor boards being removed, these guys are covered in paint, electrocuted, set on fire, and fall three floors into a basement! How many times would Harry and Marv died in this movie if it had been real life? Also in the first movie it was Kevin’s house, how exactly does Kevin know how the one in this movie is set up? Or heck even manage to get around the city so well? Other things just don’t work. The mother has a lot less urgency to find Kevin until she gets to the city, and how did they get a flight to New York with no trouble like that? The reason the family over sleeps makes even less sense and that closing gag with the father yelling about the room service bill is painfully forced.

And yes…..

 

Donald Trump has a cameo, who would have guessed that I would hate that scene twenty-five years later?

Anyway, there are things to like in this movie and here are five of them. And maybe this time Cinema Sins wont release a video a week later basically saying the same things I’ll comment on here. Don’t you hate it when that happens?  🙂





Buzz’s redemption

Last time I talked about what a jerk Uncle Frank was. Well he is still is here. But I also noted that Buzz gets a redemption in that movie. In this movie he does also. Even though what he does to Kevin in the beginning is worst, publicly embarrassing him the way he does is unacceptable. So much so even the movie makes him apologize to his family right after. But I gotta be fair and the way Buzz is at the end when he suggests Kevin open the first gift is a nice moment for an obnoxious character.

Top 10 Favorite Christmas Moments from "Friends"

 

I’ve talked a lot about sitcoms and Christmas episodes. But “Friends” was a strange apple when it came to Christmas episodes. Usually Christmas was just a part of the episode, and the other part had little to do with the holiday. In some cases it was had so little to do with it that you could almost miss it! It would be sooo easy for this series to appear on a list of great Christmas episodes and a list of episodes set at Christmas that are barely about he holiday. But whether it was a small part of the episode or the whole episode, when they did do Christmas it was usually very memorable.

Here are my top ten favorite Christmas moments from Friends.



#10.Phoebe’s Song from “The One with the Girl from Poughkeepsie”
This is a terrible episode. Not only is it barely a Christmas episode, but the episode itself is just forgettable. The one highlight is the song Phoebe sing.

12 Favorite Christmas DC Comic Books

I’ve talked a lot about Christmas in TV, movies, and even in books. The one area I have apparently ignored are comic books. And that’s a huge oversight on my part. Comic books are great at Christmas time, with some really memorable stories out there. Christmas has been appearing in comic books almost since the start of the medium! Not only in single issues of ongoing series but also one shot specials, either featuring one character or anthology comics with stories involving several characters. Some of these specials are reprints, others brand new material.




Here are some of my favorites. And as usual, all DC since I am a DC fan. Of course 12 is a drop a in the bucket,  consider this a sample.




Justice League of America #110

I am not a huge fan of early JLA comics but this story is pretty damn good. It starts when a man playing Santa Claus is murdered and the JLA searches for the culprit. A nice story with a bit of a cop out ending, but I still like it.

The 12 Earworms of Christmas

Earlier this year I talked a lot about ear worms. You know, when a song gets stuck in your head no matter how annoying it is or how hard you try to get rid of it? Of course Christmas can be guilty of these. And why not the way some songs are relentlessly played on the radio over and over and over again!




So here are ten songs which will always and forever be stuck in my head, no matter what time of year it is!




Mickey’s Christmas Carol (Intro)

This is a great cartoon, doing a fantastic job telling A Christmas Carol in a very short run time. But the first thing loved, and have loved ever since, was that great opening song. I once had the song on a compilation CD and I listened to it all the time.

Five Things I Hated in "Home Alone"

 

Home Alone came around in 1990 and was an enormous hit. It was a smash and became one of the most successful comedies of all time. It’s also a pretty decent Christmas movie, with plenty of Christmas music and colors in the movie. I didn’t take to it right away but these days it’s a much watch every holiday season. However, while I do enjoy the movie there is still some things in the film that leave me scratching my head. Here are five things I hate in Home Alone.




Obvious Stunt Doubles

The stunt doubles are a little to obvious in some scenes. Like when Kevin goes sledding out the door. Or when Kevin falls from the book shelf. Or when Kevin zip lines across the wire to the tree house. Or when he neighbor knocks out Marv and Harry with the shovel. But the most obvious is when Harry trips on the wire. The stunt double’s face is plain as day.

When TV Regulars Don’t Receive Starring Credit

When I was a kid it always fascinated me when I’d see an re-run of an early episode of a well established series, and some actor who I was used to appearing in the opening credits was missing. Instead stuck in the closing credits under “co-starring” or “also starring”, or even “special guest star”. Why do TV shows do this with characters who are meant to stick around? Unless they dont want to pay the actor? And I always hated that term “co-star”, it felt like it was saying yeah they’re in this but they’re sure not the main star!


Some cases I can see, since maybe the creators didn’t realizes the character would last and/or become popular. It’s no shock Jaleel White isn’t in the credits of the first season of Family Matters, who knew that character would take off? Same goes for Henry Winkler on Happy Days who wasn’t in the credits at first and then just barely made it into the opening credits the next season. How about Christopher Lloyd in Taxi (and Carol Kane later)? Or Melissa Rauch and Mayim Bialik on Big Bang? Thy didn’t arrive until season 4. The Cosby Show added names but they all made sense, being added when their roles were expanded and/or introduced. It wasn’t well after the fact!


But others, what the heck? Why would you have a main character on the show and treat them like a guest star? Eventually someone usually wises up and they do become regular characters, but it really makes no sense that it took them as long as it did.


Here are some examples of what I mean:



Tim Conway on The Carol Burnett Show
After Carol Burnett herself, when people think the Carol Burnett Show one of the names that first comes to mind is Tim Conway. He was a genius and did some amazing work on that show. He appeared in almost all the episodes for several seasons. When he started out he was a recurring guest star. Want to know when he became a regular cast member? SEASON NINE!! No Kidding! I wonder if Tim finds the irony of that funny.

Random Thoughts:That Four-Way DC Crossover

Since there is no where else for me to discuss this here we go. And yes spoilers ahead if you have not seen any of these episodes but I wont spoil everything.


This year all four DC TV universe shows, well the one’s on CW anyway, all crossed over in one mega crossover event. It started in Supergirl and went right through Flash, Arrow, and Legends of Tomorrow.This was pretty ambitious and was eagerly awaited. It finally aired this past week. So what did I think that crossover?

Ten Christmas Episodes With No Christmas In Them

Back at Halloween I talked about how very often a Halloween episode will have little to noting to do about the actual holiday. The holiday becomes a small B story, if that! Sometimes it’s just decorations in the background. Of course, this also happens with Christmas episodes. Usually Christmas episodes are fantastic, but once in awhile we get one that has almost nothing to do with the actual holiday. So little at times you almost have to wonder, why’d they even bother? Take for instance the Seinfeld episode "The Andrea Doria" which is clearly set at Christmas..based on the decor and nothing else!




Now of course there’s no rule that says what a Christmas episode has to be about. I just find it amusing that the creators would acknowledge the holiday for no real reason. What's the point? Anyway here are some examples:




NewsRadio “Stupid Holiday Charity Talent Show”

It’s ironic that the word stupid is used in the title of the episode, because this is a really stupid episode. Not that this show went all out ith their Christmas episodes but this one just plain SUCKED. It’s pretty much exactly what the title says, and is really the excuse for getting Matthew his job back (long story).