Look at Sitcom Cliches:TV Amnesia

Yeah, been awhile since I did one of these but this was one I had to talk about eventually. I loved this plot device when I was young, even though it is completely ridiculous. In real life Amnesia is memory loss due to a severe head injury, and can last for an unspecified amount of time.

On TV, not only does amnesia come about through simple bangs on the head but the amnesia can do all kinds of fun things. Sometimes it causes memory loss, but other times it can cause radical personality shifts so that people will think they are totally different person! I suppose it is a clever way to see a character in a different light, but it's used so inaccurately! The best part is that the solution is very often to bang the person on the head again. In real life I really don't see how that would do anything more than make the head injury worst. But in sitcoms, it's a cure all which instantly restored the persons memory and or original personality.

I will never forget being in a Psychology class and the instructor brought this up, and started to get so irrirtaed. I guess I can't blame him, not enough this is everywhere but it's almost always used wrong! 

Now before I list the sitcoms that have done this, I have to mention the other TV genre which really beat this to death. That of course is Soap Opera's! I mean amnesia is such a favorite plot device! I don't even have to list the shows, just name a soap opera and I will bet anything there was an amnesia strory line at some point. This goes for daytime and primtime soaps. Amnesia is used more than the evil twin plot device,which I could do another whole article on!

Five "WTF??" 80's Music Videos

I grew up in the 80's, and I loved my MTV! Remember when they played music videos on there? ALL DAY?? I would sit and watch. My  favorite VJ was Martha Quinn, whatever happened to her? Anyway, while I loved music videos I have to admit there were some which were freaky. Even scary, as young as I was back then. These are the videos I am talking about today. The ones that freaked me out and made me say "WTF???"

As you know I am not a major music fan, as you can tell since I have done three whole articles on music and only one was just about music that I like (this needs to be rectified!), so I may be missing more obvious ones. Also these are from when I was a kid and as I have discussed before, things that bug as a kid don't bother us the same was when we are grown up.

#5."You Might Think" by The Cars

This is an example of a cool WTF moment, because it never scared me but man was this video cool! The Cars may not have had to many great hits, but who doesn't love this video with, at the time, state of the art special effects. It's real hard to describe here but there are all kinds of weird images in this. It almost makes me forget that the video is about a guy stalking a girl.

Special TV-Saturday Morning Previews

 Ah, sweet memories!. Now if you're not familiar, you may wonder what the big deal is. A special previewing the new line up for Saturday mornings? What's so special about that? Well, some of these specials were really cool, even going above and beyond to get us excited for the brand new shows coming on the next morning.

They usually aired the Friday before the new cartoons were set to premiere (which as a kid was as exciting as Christmas!). In the 70's they were like variety shows with music and entertainment. In the 80's some networks got more creative to present these shows, even including a plot in many! So today I want to change my format a bit, and do a quick overview of some of these very memorable specials.

As I noted these began in the 70's but I was way too young to remember those. They seemed silly enough with specials hosted by The Osmonds,The Brady Kids, Lee Majors, and Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids.  But I wanted to acknowledge these so I asked my good friend Les if he remembered anything special about these shows.

Top 5 Dumbest Cartoon Ideas

When I was a kid, I loved cartoons. I watched Superfriends and He-Man every afternoon, I just loved G.I.Joe , and you better believe I was up and parked in front of that TV every Saturday  morning. I still smile when I hear the Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends Theme!I even liked the sillier shows, anyone remember Shirt Tales?

But as much as I loved cartoons, I have to admit that there were some things which were just lame. I mean what were the creators thinking? So here are my five dumbest cartoon ideas. Now since I didn’t watch cartoons much in the 90’s this list will be focused on the 80’s, although I could have talked about the awful prime time cartoons that came out in that period, Maybe another time I will discuss Capital Critters and Fish Police. As always this is just opinion.

#5. The Great Gazoo in The Flintstones

Talk about jumping the shark! What the heck was up with this? I mean there are bad ideas and then….there’s this! For those who don’t know when the Flintstones was in its sixth season, creators decided to shake things up. How do you shake up a series set in prehistoric times? You bring in a little green alien. Of course! Not only is Gazoo basically insulting to Fred and Barney, but he causes all sorts of trouble for them since, of course, only Fred and Barney are aware of him! Gazoo is sort of the Cousin Oliver for the Flintstones, coming in at the end of the series when creators were desperate.

My All-Time Favorite Characters (2 of 2)

Ok let’s get right back to the list. These are characters I don't just love, but admire so much I would like to be just like them. The cream of the crop:

#10. LADY JAYE (G.I.Joe)

SIGH! You can keep April O'Neil and Rogue from The X-Men,this was the animated female I loved! Lady Jaye was freaking awesome, and I loved every second she was on the screen. Granted she was getting knocked out a lot, but so what she kicked ass! She could use all sorts of weapons including her signature weapon, a variety of specialized throwing javelins. I also liked her relationship with Flint which was hinted at often. Not much else to say here, I always like strong women and she may have been one of my first exposures to one especially in a cartoon. And yes I know she was a main character in the latest G.I.Joe movie, played by Adrienne Palicki. I haven’t seen it yet but saw some clips and she looked cool!

My All-Time Favorite Characters (1 of 2)

Yep, decided to jump on the bandwagon and list my favorite characters. This list is sort of in order, but to be honest I could change the order easily.

Oh, and I tried; I really did, to keep it under ten choices and only one article. That didn’t work out, instead its 20 choices and two articles. So let's not waste any more time, let's get right into it.

#20.Linkara (AT4W)

Yeah this one may seem odd and I know he isn’t a TV or movie character. But I had to include him, let me try to explain why I like this character enough to put him on here. When I was a kid I loved to make up stories, and even act them out. So when I see Linkara in his story lines it brings back memories of those days. But more than that, Linkara is a very human character.It would be easy for Lewis Lovhaug to make Linkara a tyrant who always wins. But we see plenty of humanity in him. He has been beaten, depressed, and even emotional before fighting the entity. His latest story line was all about how he was starting to lose that very important part of his personality, and thathe needs to be careful not to be get carried away. Simply put, I really relate to that character and enjoy watching him on AT4W.

Analytical Episode Guide-Friends (Season 10, Part 3)

Analytical Episode Guide

Season 10, Part 3

Season 10, Episode 13

The One Where Joey Speaks French

 

Plot Summary-Joey asks Phoebe to teach him French, Erica visits Monica and Chandler,Rachel needs Ross’s support after her father has a heart attack

Funniest Line-“ Well, it turns out that Erica didn't pay much attention in sex ed class,because the thing she did with that prison guy... it'd be pretty hard to make a baby that way.”….Monica

Nitpick of the episode-Yeah, as cute as Phoebe and Joey are together the French stuff is lame. How could Joey not be able to repeat back what Phoebe said? Joey can remember lines for TV and plays, and isn’t that sort of the same thing? Sometimes the creators got a little carried away making Joey stupid.

Standout Character-Ross, I love the way he handles things here even if Rachel does not

 

Syndication Edit-Scene Extensions

Final Thoughts-Believe it or not, this is a hard one to rate. For instance, the stuff with Rachel and Ross is pretty well done but, is there a point to it? Ross doesn’t want to take advantage of Rachel, and she’s mad at him the next day? It feels like a last minute attempt to make us believe the two will never get together again, but it’s lame.  It is nice to see Dr. Green one last time. Why couldn’t they just have Erica visit without that lame detour about who the father of the baby may be? And then you have the Joey story which I’m really not sure how to feel about. It’s stupid,but Joey and Phoebe are funny and in many ways it feels like a throw back to an earlier point in the series. But the whole retarded thing at the end is borderline offensive. So let’s just say an average episode as the series starts to round that final turn.

Grade=C