Reconsidering "The First Day of the Last Decade of the Entire Twentieth Century"

Happy New Year my friends! And it's time to discuss something that is long overdue. A year or two ago I mentioned New Year's episodes of sitcoms. And one which I hated so much I didn't even want to discuss it. The strange thing is, it's a favorite episode for many. Even if you weren't a fan of the series. It's easy to hate on something that is generally hated and praise something that is generally loved, but hating something that is generally loved is trickier. But let's take this one step at a time. What series am I discussing?

Designing Women premiered in 1986 and I have discussed before how many problems I had with this show. With it's preachy, superior attitude. One episode that pissed me off when I saw it 31 years ago is a prime example of this stuff. What episode was that?  

"The First Day of the Last Decade of the Entire Twentieth Century,"

You just know Linda Bloodworth Thomason thought there was something special about January 1, 1990. Ok, sure. i was 16 at the time and don't recall people caring that much, but maybe they did. This episode usually appeared on lists of the series very best episodes, and considering the contents it is hard to criticize without coming off heartless. Or worst. But I hated it when I saw it. By the way the episode really did air on that date.

Over the years I have been going over stuff I hated when I first saw them and reconsidering them, for better or for worst. it's only fair to do the same here. So what happens in his episode? Lets take it step by step. I should mention I watched this on Hulu which from the looks of it used the syndicated version, so it's possible I missed some key lines.

Five Memorable TV Phones

 Almost every show features characters talking on a phone at some point. And usually that's just what it is, a normal phone we used at the time. From The Brady Bunch using a rotary phone to Friends using cell phones, you can literally track the progress of telephone's by watching various TV shows.

However, some shoes think outside the box a little and get creative with their phones. They have their characters using phones which, at the time, were either impossible to imagine or maybe they did exist but good luck getting one. Here are five:

Get Smart

This show was a great sendup of spy movies and TV, with the great Don Adams in the lead role. He is best remembered as Inspector Gadget but he truly shined in this show too. And one thing everyone remembers about this series, is the shoe phone he used to call the chief. The fact that this phone worked at all is ridiculous, but we loved it. 

Santa Lore Explained By Movies/TV

Originally Santa Claus was just a cartoon used to sell Coca Cola products. But as he became more popular, his lore had to be fleshed out. First we had "Twas the Night Before Christmas" which gave us a lot, including his belly being like a bowl full of jelly. Then we as "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" which added things like the "he sees you when you're sleeping, knows when your awake". However, there are still lot of questions about how Santa operates. And over the years, movies have gone a long way to fill some of those gaps. 

Here ae five examples of what I mean.

"How Does Santa Deliver to the Whole World in One Night", Santa Claus:The Movie

This movie is basically an "origin" movie so it makes sense that it would explain some things. The one part I like is when Burgess Meredith's character, "Ancient Elf" I guess, explains that the time continuum breaks down when Santa is in his sleigh and "time moves with you". Meaning that Santa is moving super fast from our point of view. This is something that stuck, it gets mentioned in The Santa Clause and even the much more recent "The Santa Chronicles" used this.

My Favorite Macy's Thanksgiving Parade Balloons

 When the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade began in 1927, called a Christmas parade then, one of the features was a big Felix the Cat balloon. In the old days, the balloons would be released into the air at the end of the parade. Since the 80's the balloons have taken the form we know today, featuring all kinds of popular characters. Awhile back I mentioned a few reasons I love the parade and of course there was no way I could cover every balloon. And while I still can't mention them all, here are the ten best that I love to see every year.

And we'll overlook the disaster these balloons have caused over the years, let's just look back at the good stuff.

Underdog

What is it about this one that makes it so iconic? It seems like when any show wants to mention the balloon's it's either Woody or this one. Even though Underdog is hardly a massively popular characters. And yet shows from Friends to Will & Grace bring it up.

Five Actors Who Appeared in Two Shows at the Same Time

One common TV trend is when an actor or actress appears in two different shows that are on at the exact same time. Even more amazing when the two shows are on different networks. There are a ton of examples of this happening including Heather Locklear appearing on TJ Hooker and Dynasty to Armin Shmmerman doing double duty on Buffy and DS9 to more modern examples like Alison Brie appearing om Community and Mad Men at the same time. It can't be easy to be bouncing from studio to studio, not to mention character to character, but it's been done. 

Here are five examples of what I mean. And to be clear these aren't actors doing taking a break from their show to do a one time character as a guest star. These actors had multiple appearances on both shows as regulars.

Gail Edwards (Blossom/Full House)

I once read an article where Edwards talked about how crazy it was bouncing between studios. And in this case, networks. Saying she probably had the other shows script with her. On Blossom she played Sharon, who was Six's mother. And of course at the same time she was playing Vicky, Danny's long term love interest. 

Underrated Trek:Cost of Living (TNG)

 Welcome back to Underrated Trek, where I take a special look at Star Trek episodes that I love…which may not be the most popular or even liked by most. TNG had a rough patch in season 5 where the episode were less than stellar. There was one that a lot point out is the worse. Then why do I kinda like it? This is...

It isn't easy for supporting characters to take over an episode and for the episode to actually work. This one tries...and almost works. 

My Tribute-Alex Trebek on Sitcoms

 I've commented before that Jeopardy was never my favorite game show. For reasons I have explained elsewhere. But if there was one thing I loved on that show, it was its host. Alex Trebek was coolness personified. He wasn't the first host of Jeopardy and he hosted other game shows, my favorite being Classic Concentration, but he will always be known as THE host of Jeopardy.

He passed away today and as a tribute I wanted to go over five time's Alex Trebek appeared on sitcoms. Usually as himself, hosting Jeopardy. There are more than these, including an appearance on Blossom that even IMDB has forgotten, but here are a few examples.

Mama's Family

I don't recall the setup, but long story short Mama ends up on Jeopardy. And since she has no real class...hijinks ensue.

Five Other Champions of Metropolis

Superman is well known for being the champion of Metropolis. It's his city and the residents love him as much as he loves them. He has fought many foes in that city and it's impossible to not connect the two.

However, Superman can't be everywhere and do everything. What about the smaller problems like street gangs? Or organized crime that are smart enough to work around Superman? This is why Metropolis has had other defenders over the years. Sometimes they work alone and other times they work with Superman, and while none are as well known or loved as The Man of Steel it's all part of the same never ending battle. Here are five:

Black Lightning

Even Metropolis has to have a slum section, and as you can expect a city as big as this one would have a large section of poverty. It's called Suicide Slum and is where Black Lightning first made his home when he first appeared. He was a teacher who donned the mask to help out his students. It makes sense, Superman can handle the big threats but who can handle the small one's that happen in parts of the city? I have no idea what his modern origin is these days. 

Top 10 Season 7 Star Trek-TNG Episodes

 The other day I talked about how Trek Season 3 did have some good episodes in it. Another much maligned season of Trek was Season 7 of TNG. Unlike TOS, which had a bad season because of budget constraints and being screwed by the network, TNG was screwed over by it own creators, Thanks to attention being on other projects like DS9, a new series and an upcoming movie a lot of episodes were rushed and/or made when they should not have been. But that doesn't mean they were all horrible. Here are ten episodes which I think were decent if not realty good from tat year. And again, just opinion.

#10.Lower Decks

This one is high because, much like last time, I do not care for the episode. I halted it at first and have come to appreciate the concept. It is interesting to see what the regular crew are doing when we are usually watching the senior officers. But the episode is still dull to me. 

Top 10 Season 3 Star Trek Episodes

 When people think of Trek Season 3 they usually think it was all bad. Including Spock's brain which is covered last time. But I still maintain there were some good episodes. Were they perfect? No the budget cuts were always pretty glaring even when the script was decent. I don't think any come close to the quality episodes we got the first two seasons. That being said, it's not fair to toss the whole season in the trash as if there was nothing good. 

So as proof, here are my top 10  best episode from Season 3 of TOS. Of course this is opinion 

#10. All Our Yesterday's

This is an awkward choice because I never cared about this episode. It's a derivative time travel story with no stakes, because you know Kirk, Spock and McCoy are gonna make it back at the end. So why list it? This episode is memorable for the scenes with Spock and Zarabth played by Mariette Hartley. And there scenes are well done, with the story here resonating into follow up books later. So while I never got into it, it deserves a nod for being a well written episode.

Underrated Trek:Spock's Brain (TOS)

Welcome back to Underrated Trek, where I take a special look at Star Trek episodes that I love…which may not be the most popular or even liked by most. Star Trek has plenty of episodes which are less than perfect. But would you believe there's an episode so bad and so silly..that much like "The Room" it really has to be seen to be believed? This is...

I said four years ago I would never talk about this one because I think it's as stupid as everyone else does. But what makes it "so bad it's good"? 

Five Things I Liked in "Beetlejuice"

In 1988 a then relatively unknown director named Tim Burton arrived with a new horror comedy movie. The movie was called Beetlejuice, and was a monster hit. Even I saw it, and was expecting to hate it since it was a genre I hate. However, there is just something about this movie that makes it impossible not to enjoy it. The movie of course is...

In honor of Halloween, and it's thirty anniversary that I totally ignored, let's discuss this film. It came out March 1988 and I still remember how my whole school was talking about it. Normally I list bad things in a good movie. But since it's Halloween, and finding anything bad in this movie is very hard, I decided to discuss the five things I love about this movie. 

Scary and Funny

Its often hard for a movie to settle on one tone, let alone managed to successfully handle two. And yet this movie does, being down right scary at times and really funny. A great example is when Delia and Otho look into the closet and Barbara pulls her face off. Not realizing Delia and Otho cannot see her. The scene is horrific and funny in a way only Tim Burton could pull off.

Ten Least Favorite Members of Justice League of America

 

So I talked about my favorite characters in the Legion and the JSA. The next logical discussion is the Justice League. I have loved the idea of the JLA for as long as I can remember. There is just one problem, the best heroes are all characters I have discussed a thousand times already. So maybe to discuss the JLA, the best thing to do is discuss the members I do not like. The heroes that either contributed nothing or were just plain uninteresting. And yes, I am covering all versions of the team through the years. Well, ok not all. Through the 90's the team was formed and disbanded a bunch of time. Since New 52 there have been a million different versions of the League. That being said, here are my ten least favorite league members. 

The JLA was created in the silver age by writer Gardner Fox. The idea was to reimagine the JSA, which we discussed before. And to be fair, they did pre date the Avengers by a few year's. 

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Snapper Carr 

I brought this guy up before but it worth going over him again. Back in the Golden Age it was of course common for every super hero to have a kid sidekick. This applied to team's as well. JSA had Johnny Thunder, and JLA had Snapper Carr. He was annoying and useless, and DC has tried to reinvent the character many times over the years.

Ten Favorite Members of Justice Society of America

 Before Batman took over I discussed my favorite members of the Legion of Superheroes. I decides that it was time to do the same with the grandaddy of all superhero teams. That's right...

It was editor Sheldon Mayer and writer Gardner Fox who conceived the idea all the wya back in 1940 (hey, that makes them 80 years old!) as a way to get all the golden age heroes together in one book. The team faded after World War II only be revived as existing on Earth 2, and appearing in several crossover's with the JLA. After Crisis the team was retired, then brought back, then trimmed down and finally got a great new series in the 90's. A series I never read, though I have heard great things. While I never loved the team or members, I always did have a fascination for them. In universe they were united by FDR at the height of World War II to fight Hitler! 

So let's run down my favorite members, and no we will not discuss the All Star Squadron here, just JSA. the All Stars are another story entirely! Though since this team isn't quite as huge, I will include modern day members as well as the original one's. Like the Legion article these are no particular order.

Flash

Jay Garrick is an awesome character, and even though his uniform was a little silly he was still a great hero. Jay was the first Flash and inspired all after him. True, I know mostly his more modern appearances but you can't deny what this character started. His orign was kind of silly involving hard water of all things. 

Top 10 Worst Batman TV Show Villains

I wanted to do this list a long time ago but my memory of the show was so hazy I didn't bother. Well now that I've fixed that by watching all 120 episodes, we can finally discuss the ten villains I thought were the worst. There were a lot of villains that came through this show, and some were obviously better than others. What about a favorite list? Nah because that would be so easy it's not fun. Joker would be #1. 

So in order to make this list the character needs to be a complete fail. Sometimes a lame villain can be brought up by a good actor having fun playing them. And other times a great villain can be done in by an actor who isn't interested at all. These ten have the whole package. 

Batman (1966) Episode120 + more

 

Episodes 120

Minerva, Mayhem and Millionaires

Plot:Minerva has been using a machine to discover where her wealthy customers keep their valuables

Batman (1966) Episode 119

 

Episodes 119

The Entrancing Dr Cassandra

Plot:Cassandra has a pill which can turn criminals invisible, and breaks six arch criminals out of the Goham Penn to commit crimes.

Batman (1966) Episode 118

 

Episodes 118

The Joker’s Flying Saucer

Plot:Joker plans to build a flying saucer

Batman (1966) Episode 117

 

Episodes 117

I’ll Be a Mummy’s Uncle

Plot:While mining for a rare mineral, Tut accidentally finds the Batcave!

Batman (1966) Episode 115&116

 

Episodes 115 & 116

The Great Escape/The Great Train Robbery

Plot:Shame escapes from prison with a new plan.

Batman (1966) Episode 114

 

Episode 114

Penguin’s Clean Sweep

Plot: Penguin taints money with a sleeping sickness so he can claim it himself

Batman (1966) Episode 113

 

Episodes 113

Nora Clavicle and the Ladies Crime Club

Plot:A woman’s rights activist uses her power to replace Gordon and O’Hara with women officers as part of a plan to blow up Gotham with explosive packed Mice.

Batman (1966) Episode 112

 

Episodes 112

Louie’s Lethal Lilac Time

Plot:Louie plans to corner the lilac perfume market and kidnaps Bruce and Dick

Batman (1966) Episode 110&111

 

Episodes 110 & 111

The Funny Feline Felonies/The Joke’s on Catwoman

Plot:Catwoman and Joker team up to find some gunpowder