Random Thoughts-Is It Ok To Still Like “The Cosby Show”?

Yeah I wont lie, I was one of those who did not want to believe the truth about Bill Cosby. Not because I think sexual assault or the like should be ignored or not taken seriously. But because I have been a fan of his for years, since before The Cosby Show (anyone remember Picture Pages?) so it was hard to accept. Not to mention the large number of accusers which is just, amazing. But a conviction is a conviction and while that number of accusers still seems large, you can’t deny the facts.

 

 

20 Sitcom Homes That Really Exist

So I spent two days talking about the famous interiors of famous sitcom homes. What about the exteriors? Oh yeah, you knew we’d get here eventually! Those establishing shots which give the home or apartment for our favorite sitcoms are very famous. There are even tours that will take you to them (and sadly I have never done one of them!).

Here are some of them. I decided to focus on the real life structures and not the shows which used homes on their studio backlots. So no Bewitched or Growing Pains, for example. And I tried to pick pictures from the actual series but as we’ll see not all are. Also like the other articles no in depth analysis on the architecture or stuff like floor plans, I’m just a fan.





Happy Days

I never really got why the Happy Days was so iconic since the establishing shots go by so fast we barely see the house. They’re also tight close ups probably to hide the fact the house isn’t in Milwaukee but Beverly Hills. Then I dug a bit and realized that in the early days especially we did see more of the house, and I’ve come to the conclusion I really need to watch these episodes again someday.

20 Notable Sitcom Kitchen’s

So yesterday I did living rooms, it was only fair to discuss popular sitcom kitchens next. And as you may imagine, pictures were even harder to find!

 

Kitchens in sitcoms can be an important room. On TV, these rooms are more than just places for the characters to eat. These rooms are often where the characters share what is going in with their lives, and in some shows we spend more time in the kitchen’s than any other room! Here are fifteen sitcom kitchens which despite their differences in size and decor, are integral parts of their respective shows.

 

Cosby Show

The Huxtable kitchen was always a great place, Cliff loves to cook and it kind of shows in the decor. But why was it pink? It would finally get changed in the final season. And yes I know the cast is in the pic best I could do. We'll have a few more too.

20 Notable Sitcom Living Room’s

My friends, this one is so long overdue I can’t believe I haven’t done it yet. The reason is, to my surprise, finding pictures for this hasn’t been as easy as you’d expect. Especially when looking for pictures of the set empty of any actors. You’d think there’d be a ton!

 

As you know I love sitcoms, well that includes the sets for the homes and other locales these shows had their activity in. Today I wanted to discuss on just living rooms. And people often don’t notice all the detail these sets have. Here are twenty of my favorite sitcom living rooms, and don’t expect any in depth analysis on the decor. I’m no decorator and am not very smart about that. I am just a fan.

Three’s Company

I always liked this apartment because it felt very “LA” to me. And who in the world has doors like that?

Random Thoughts-70th Emmy Awards

Almost eight years ago to the day one of my earliest blog's was a short piece on the Emmy's. And really it just sounds like me doing Linkara's Superboy prime voice saying "Everything was better in my day!!". I even make a crack about HBO asking how many people really watch stuff on there. Uh, quite a few! Game of Thrones anyone? The simple fact is that times change and while I love nostalgia (duh) that doesn't mean I can't accept that things are different. With HBO, Netflix, Amazon, and whatever else it's just a different world today.

So I watched the 70th Emmy's last night and was disappointed. There was hardly any real "celebrating". Maybe anniversaries were a bigger deal in my day (there I go again) but I would have liked more of a celebration of what has come before. All we got was Betty White (which was awesome) and a short montage which lasted about three minutes. No clips or callbacks? What did we get instead? All sorts of diversity stuff which I am soooo sick of. Can we stop being upset that there "weren't enough" of a certain race or gender nominated for something? It's one thing to say they should have opportunities. Of course they should! Everyone no matter their race, gender, or sexual preference should have the same opportunities as everyone else. No brainer. But The Emmy's, and all awards shows, are meant to reflect the best in something. If actor Bill Smith is the better actor he should win! If he's a white guy, hey that's how it goes. I get so tired of this idea that if it's anyone but a white person it's "racist" or "offensive". How?  The topic went on forever, with the opening number (which just plain sucked) and then the monologue. The one sketch we got was more on black people not getting their just deserves. Ok it was nice to see those old TV stars again, that was literally it for that in the show, but by then it was like WE GOT IT!

Five Replacement TV Themes That Sucked

Continuing my unintentional theme this months on TV theme’s! I talked before about how a show will begin with an awful theme, and then replace it with one which is not only better but far better. So better you forget that awful one ever happened. Well, it can go the other way too. Sometimes for a show’s final season the creators will change up the familiar and popular theme, with one that isn’t. And I don’t mean changing the images or altering the length of the song. I mean re-recording a new version of the opening song, or a totally new song altogether, and it’s just awful.

Of course this often works fine. Like the evolving “Boy Meets World” theme’s which were always good, or “Alf”‘s jazzier theme in its later years, and of course changing up the song didn’t hurt “A Different World” any. But not all are so lucky.


Here are five examples of what I mean. And again, just opinion. If you love these versions of these shows openings then more power to you. I did not.’



Growing Pains
For some reason I will never understand around the season 7 it was decided to re-record the theme. BJ Thomas wrote and sung “As Long as we’ve Got Each Other ” and it was great, he even released it as a single. The new version? Some kind of acapalla version which is so awful. It’s slow and I hated it instantly. At least this clip is before Leonardo Dicaprio is painfully forced onto the series. Ugh.

Top 10 Miller/Boyett TV Show Openings

Awhile back I talked about the Miller/Boyett production company. Helmed by Thomas Miller and Robert Boyett they produced a ton of memorable shows in the 80’s and 90’s. There’s actually a lot to this story, including when it was Miller-Milkis, but I wont bore you with a history lesson. Suffice to say they produced shows we still love and remember today. And all of these shows had clever, memorable theme songs.

We all know these theme songs. They are silly, corny, totally 80’s…and I love them!!!! Seriously I wish they still made TV shows and theme songs like this. These shows, mostly, were a big part of TGIF being successful for ABC because they were so family friendly but still watchable. So I thought it would be fun to go through and rank these themes, from the most grating to the most pleasing. In order to make it ten I am including the less popular shows. And I decided to ignore the Milkis era, leaving off gems like Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley. This is strictly the Miller/Boyett shows which began around 1986.





#10.The Family Man
Never heard of it? There’s a reason. This show was pretty quickly forgotten, and it was bad right from the theme music. It’s as if they said “let’s just do what Full House did, with lamer Boy Meets World style music”. Gregory Harrison starred and it was about a family…and that was it. No hook at all. The short instrumental tune was done by Jesse Frederick and, well, we’ll be talking a lot more about him. And yes, instrumental. As in no lyrics just awful elevayor music.

Ten Favorite Fictional Towns & Cities

Last year I did a list of my favorite fantasy world’s. You know, made up lands where our favorite fantasy characters exist. From OZ to Pandora, and by the way I realize I messed up when I said Hogwart’s didn’t count. Even though it is in Scotland you need to run into a wall onto a magic train to get there, and be a wizard, so my bad.

 

Anyway, getting off topic. Fantasy world’s are fun and all but what about regular cities and town’s? It’s really quite amazing how, when done right, a made up city or town and be just as much a character as anyone else in the TV show, movie, or comic book. Like Mayberry on “The Andy Griffith Show”, Hazard County on “Dukes of Hazard”, Stars Hollow on “Gilmore Girls”, Cabot Cove on "Murder She Wrote, Cicely on "Northern Exposure", and of course Angel Grove which people are gonna kill me for leaving off, but I never watched Power Ranges. EVER.

 

So here are my ten favorites. Couple rules, they need to be ordinary town and cities in America that just happen to have quirky characters living there. Also no existing cities. While it’s true Spider-Man is synonymous with New York City it doesn’t count since, of course, NYC is quite real.

 #10.Bedford Falls

It’s a Wonderful Life is an amazing movie. One reason for that is the acting by Jimmy Stewart. But another important element is the setting. We get to really know the town and townspeople of Bedford Falls in he movie. Who doesn’t know Martini’s bar? Or want to grab a cap from Ernie? And of course there’s the Bailey Building and Loan. In fact we get so familiar with the town that when we get to the angel stuff, the change is quite jarring! The town was so well done that it’s seem impossible to believe that the whole thing was a set. Yep it was one of the largest sets ever constructed for a movie and they made it as authentic as possible. And it worked, since it just wouldn’t be the same movie anywhere else.

Ten Awful Season 1 TV Themes That Were Replaced

I talked about Tom Hanks the other day, and I neglected to mention that the theme I posted to his TV show “Bosom Buddies” changed from the Billy Joel tune to another due to rights issues. It’s not uncommon on TV shows to dump a theme song between seasons. As I’ve noted Sometimes it will take a TV show time to find it’s voice, so to speak. It can go through changes in cast and even premise before finally hitting that magic formula. And at times, this can even include the theme song!

Now it’s true that some shows intentionally change up their theme song every year. The Cosby Show, for instance, gave us new titles and music almost every season. Boy Meets World’s theme evolved with the show of course. And Sabrina also updated the visuals and music every year. Sometimes it’s just to update things, like Gilligan’s Island adding “The Professor and Mary Anne” to the song or the briefer but still awesome version of the Full House theme we got in that show’s last year.


But sometimes a theme will just be, wrong. So wrong that it is quickly tossed aside and forgotten. Here are ten examples of what I mean. One rule these are themes that aired for a few episode at least, and weren’t just part of a pilot presentation that never aired on TV. Since those are usually thrown together and often tossed fast. “The Nanny” is a great example of this and if I had found a decent clip I’d have posted it.


Oh and as usual this just opinion, if you loved these theme songs then more power to you.


I Dream of Jeannie
Not gonna lie, until this moment I never knew there was any other version than the classic. Weird. And it’s bad, like a rejected version of the Dick Van Dyke Show theme.

Five Lamest Toys I Grew Up With

In the 80’s I loved action figures. Especially, like most kids in that time, the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe lines. Of course there were others too from Super Powers (DC heroes) to Secret Wars (Marvel) to Transformers, G.I.Joe, Thundercats and plenty more. But while these toys were awesome, they weren’t all great. For instance I guess we did have Air Raiders, but I hardly remember them. When I look at the pictures and videos I see why, the vehicles are awesome but the action figures are just pathetic. Unless it’s something really special, like the die-cast Star Wars X-Wing or the unique M.A.S.K. toys, than it’s not gonna work if your action figures are boring because they’re smaller than G.I.Joe’s and have no character at all.

 

I did a whole article awhile back about the lamer Master of the Universe toys that were out there. But there were plenty of others. Here are five toys which were stupid, at least in my opinion. And of course I am going off toys I had as a kid there have been more lines and variations since but I am not a collector and am not familiar with them.





Wonder Woman (Super Powers line)

It’s really hard to sell a female character in a line that is geared more for boys. Now of course you had to have Wonder Woman, she was one of the premiere heroes DC made and was even in Superfriends. But man this figure sucked. Not only was it kinda small, and even fragile, but it didn’t offer much in the way of action. If you pushed Superman’s legs together his fist would punch for instance. What did Wonder Woman do? Oh her arms raised to sow off her deflecting bracelets. Huzzah. The figure was redesigned years later with a lot more articulation. What we had in the 80’s was just bad.