April 30, 2019

Memorable TV Line-Up’s:CBS Monday Night (Fall 1998)


Let’s go back to CBS, and about twenty-five years after our last time, for the lineup that surprised me with how much I liked it. I thought I was getting tired of TV and wouldn’t find a new night of shows I’d love. Course Must See TV was still around but I thought that would be it. Then CBS Monday Night’s came around, and suddenly I had a second favorite night of TV.





April 23, 2019

Memorable TV Line-Up’s:ABC Friday Night (Fall 1989/1993)





April 20, 2019

Memorable TV Line-Up’s:CBS Saturday Night (Fall 1973)




April 18, 2019

Five Horrible “Guardian Angel” Sitcoms

There are tons of movies about ghosts coming back from the dead and haunting the living. Sometimes it’s to terrorize them, but others take a different approach and will have the ghost return as a spirit guide, angel or “guardian” angel. They help another person, and even themselves, to be better with wise advise and guidance. There are so many movies about ghosts I could list them all day.

Doing these kind of stories as a TV show, however, is not as easy. A movie always has a set run time so you can get the jokes and gags out before the whole movie gets boring. Sitcoms go on for episodes. Episodes and episodes, of basically the same joke. The character is dead. Oh sure you can do a single episode and probably get away with it (Benson did this very effectively in an episode starring Katherine Helmond as her character from Soap), but a whole series? It almost never works. In fact, some of the worst sitcoms ever made focus on “guardian angels”



I very briefly touched on these before, but what were these shows about? Let’s take a closer look:


The Ghost and Mrs Muir

Carolyn Muire moves into a cottage in Maine with her to kids. The cottage is haunted by the ghost of its former owner, Daniel Gregg a 19 century sea captain. Hi jinks ensue. This was based on a movie which focused on the fantasy element. The series went for comedy, and barely lasted two seasons. To be fair, Hope Lange was the star an won two Emmy’s for her role.

April 14, 2019

Memorable TV Line-Up’s:NBC Thursday Night (Fall 1994)


Seven years ago I did a did an article on my favorite “program blocks”. These are the time’s when every show on a certain day and network is so great you just sit the remote down and enjoy, with no changing channels. However there were some problems with that article. One, it was very abbreviated with no pics or even videos of the shows. And 2, it was a top 5. 5??? I bet there are a dozen line up’s I could go over and spotlight over the last several decades!







April 13, 2019

Top 10 TV Hangout’s (Diners/Bars)


I talked awhile back about my favorite waiters, waitress’s and bartenders at our favorite TV diner’s and restaurants. But one thing I never discussed was the places themselves. It’s true that in some shows the hangout’s don’t have much personality, like Nemo's on Everybody Loves Raymond, or “The Touchdown Club” on Coach. The characters were always there, but who remembers that place?





















 
But in other shows, the hangout becomes so popular that it almost qualifies as a character in of itself. Here my favorites:





#10.The Simpsons

One of the amazing things about this show is how fleshed out the town and community of Springfield are. And one of the first places we learned to love was Moe’s Tavern. Whether it was Homer getting some advice or Bart playing yet another prank, we all loved this place. Hey, wasn’t there a Simpsons article I was supposed to be doing…..

April 7, 2019

Top 10 Favorite Batman Designs


Two months ago I discussed my favorite super hero costumes. You know, the costumes that are just aesthetic pleasing to me with no regard for character or anything else like that. And on that list was Batman. But the thing is, Batman’s design has changed a lot over the years. Oh sure the basic design is always the same, but as the character as grown as did his outfit. I kinda illustrated this a couple weeks ago in my rundown of Detective Comics over the last 80 years. But which of these are my
favorites?


April 5, 2019

Five Things I Liked in “Return of the Jedi”

It’s been almost twenty years since “The Phantom Menace” came out. I still can’t believe how long it took us all to accept how awful that movie was. So I thought today it would be fun to pretend it was twenty years ago, and we still live in a world with only three Star Wars movies. If you recall this simpler time, you may recall that of those three “Return of the Jedi” was considered the “bad one”. Where it ranks today is another discussion for another day. Instead I wanted to talk about this movie, which was my favorite of the three.





 




Released in 1983, this movie did not wow critics or fans. And I get that, I mean another death star battle? I give then credit for using Lando at least but it was still dull. Also I will admit as I have aged that the Ewok’s beating the empire’s best troops like that is kinda…stupid. True Vader’s redemption could be considered too easy. And don’t get me started on that revised ending I will always prefer the original. So ok it wasn’t the strongest movie, but I still love it. Here are five reasons why, aside from the fact that it was  the first Star Wars movie I was old enough to really appreciate in theaters.





Obi Wan’s Cameo


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 I loved Obi Wan’s cameo with Luke after Yoda dies. By the way it was well done, but why did Yoda have to die in this movie? Anyway the scene with Obi Wan talking to Luke is great. I always thought it was such well written and delivered bit of exposition. It;s good to finally find out who Vader is and that, yes Luke has to defeat him. Yeah I know the continuity is a tad off. Whatever, I’m sure there’s a novel that clears it up somewhere put there.

April 1, 2019

Overrated Trek:The Trouble with Tribbles


Welcome back to overrated Trek, where I take a special look at Star Trek episodes that I hate…which may be popular or even loved by most. This has been a long time coming as I wanted to do this for awhile. Today let’s talk about an “classic” episode that is just plain lame. This is :