Spin City - Goodbye (Part 2)

You're right, Medikor. It did lose appeal when he left. I did like that they kept the humour going through the episode. This is possibly the only farewell episode I like!

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say I actually liked the Charlie Sheen years. Even if they did break the law by having Mayor Winston run for a third term.

So I watched The Critic. All of it. Every single episode. I've seen them before but not all at one time. I must say Family Guy owes a deep debt of thanks to this show. It pioneered the cutaway gag in prime-time animation. Although unlike Family Guy, most of the cutaways were intergral to the plot.

This show was was damn fine entertainment. Jon Lovitz is golden as always, and Maurice LaMarche and Nick Jameson bring down the house with their dead on celeb impressions. I mean everyone knows Maurice can do a mean Orson Welles, but also hidden away in there is a Patrick Stewart, Kirk Douglas and Charlton Heston. Between those two you'll hear some of the best vocal gymnastics this side of Hank Azaria or Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

I will admit that there is a bit of a learning curve to this show. I mean you actually have to remember the 90s to get it. And I don't mean the main things of the 90s this show goes into little minutiae of 90s culture and politics that really work against it. So does a lot of its New York humor. While funny, a lot of the humor about the city is lost on the 292 million Americans who didn't happen to live within walking distance of Manhattan in 1995.

But when the humor does hit, like it does in many of its movie parodies, it hits hard. The show really brings the funny when it needs to. And with writers that include the early showrunners of The Simpsons, and Brad Bird and Judd Apatow, it's not hard to see why.

The animation is crisp and clean for a show produced before the advent of computer graphics on television. In fact all characters possess the often elusive "fifth finger' usually cut out for cost reasons. New York lives and breathes and feels like and actual city. And the characters themselves are a nice cross between cartoony and realistic.

Now as funny and well-written as this show was I'm glad it ended in its second season. I'm almost sure the third season would've been the death knell for the entire thing creatively. By the end of season one you could already see that they were recycling some jokes and not their best ones at that. The stories remained tops, but there's only so many times you can keep making Rain Man and Scent of a Woman jokes. The last episode, "I Can't Believe It's a Clip Show" was so broad with its humor and leaned so much on the parodies that had already worn out their welcome on earlier episodes that it can easily be awarded the title of Worst Episode In Series.

In the end, the good outweighs the bad. The shows mix of sentimentality with 90s cynicism make for a good mix. The characters grow on you with every episode. And it's just nice to hear Lovitz, who seems to go MIA every few years. So this is a definite Monk Recommendation. Buy it today, it doesn't cost much, and you'll be glad that you did.

I last watched Ellen, I <3 her and her DJ Striker =D

Sailor Moon (again!), Episode #25, late this afternoon. Zoycite begins hunting for the seven Rainbow Crystals, the girls try to stop him, and Sailor Moon is given the Crescent Moon Wand by her talking cat Luna. Not as silly as it sounds. Pretty good episode although not especially memorable, except for one minor little detail that set it apart from all the rest; this was the one that introduced Sailor Jupiter. It took about a half a second for everything that I ever felt about this truly wonderful lady to come roaring back to life. My head's still spinning. :smed:

Road to Avonlea

This great "family" show aired on the Disney channel throughout the early to mid '90s here in the US. My passion for all things Edwardian certainly drew me in, deeply. Now my mother has the first four seasons on DVD (and they are on my wish list), and I borrow them every so often. The acting doesn't start out so good, but gets better over the course of a season or two. Unfortunately, as the acting got better, the plots become very predictable, and it becomes very cheezy and even dumb at times. But I love the stories, and OH, those costumes! :-* A great depiction of real every-day sort of life 100 years ago too, if I may say so myself.

The first episode of The Price Is Right with Drew Carey as host (also the first show of the 36th season). Drew was okay--a little rushed and stiff here and there, but it's only his first show.

Simpsons and American Dad. At fist I thought the newest episode had potential but then it went down hill really fast. The jokes (mostly Homer's) fell flat and it felt a lot more like a Family Guy episode.
American Dad's newest episode was a winner, though! The side story of Rodger tricking Steve into thinking a drug lab was Hogwarts was great stuff.:D

They replaced the host? It was months ago when I saw the old one (whatever his name was) was to be retiring on my Wii news, took them long enough. Can't wait to see how he checks out when I find the time.

More on-topic...

My TV's on right now with CatDog (Nicktoons Network, I have a full cable package). I watch Nicktoons more then Nick for 2 reasons:

1. Nick is being taken over by TeenNick!

2. Nicktoons has a lot of shows I miss (and beleive to be true entertainment).

That was Bob Barker, who'd been at the helm since 1972. Bill Cullen was the very first host (1956-65).

The announcement of Drew Carey was made in July and he taped his first show on August 15, a good month-and-a-half behind normal schedule. That allowed him to get adjusted to the show's mechanics and go through rehearsals and run-throughs.

Boston Legal: Do Tell

I'm not sure how the rest of the board sees or views this show but after tonight's episode, I'm reminded why it's one of the most genius programs on the air. The writing on this show is beautiful and it's delivered magnificently by the well portrayed characters. I never though Shatner could be this amazing.

This episode touched a lot of personal issues and subjects that i feel strongly about and they represented them passionately and inspiring like. Week after week this show continues to impress me and even with the new seasonal cast additions, I feel this show is one of the best ABC ever crafted.

I'm watchin' Wonderfalls on DVD. Third disc, episodes 9-13.
Possibly one of my favorite shows of all time. Sarcastic, full of twists, and better than Dead Like Me.

As for Boston Legal, I can't seem to get over the blatant misuse of law, the sexual harassment, and the general tone against women. At first I thought it was something that would be taken down in a future episode, but that episode never came.
It's really not okay!

It's not just a depiction of women, it's also a depiction of men or more accurately, the main men. They are sexaholics and it's not really an insult towards women and if it is then it is just as easily an insult to how these men behave. I don't think you should take the show to heart.

They tackle super serious subjects from racism, homosexuality, Scientology, religion and countless other issues with amazing depth. This show moves me on subjects and issues I never took personally or into deep thought until seeing how magnificently this show presents them.

See, now you're being sexist against men. Not all men are sex hungry maniacs. Hell, MOST men aren't. The problem with their actions, and why it's insulting, is because they never get any sort of karma. No retribution for their actions.
Every show hoping for ratings is going to tackle 'super serious' issues. Hell, by your standards, South Park is on the same level. They've hit every topic you've named, and then more.
If you weren't affected by these things before, be it in school, or in general life, then you HAVE to be blind.
I'm sorry, just standing up for my opinions.
Is that alright?

You missed what I said then:

I'm just waiting for retribution. Which will never happen, I fear, because the show isn't leaning that way.
But, we'll never see eye to eye on this.
Which is okay.

Drawn Together

I know a lot of people hate offensive humor and find such things as swearing, racism, and sexist jokes not to be funny. However I honestly can't say I didn't enjoy watching this show, I did and it was BEYOND freaking funny.

I don't approve of their views obviously but its so incredibly offensive to everyone and everything, I can't help but laugh. Sometimes I like a little bad taste in humor and this show is as offensive as it can get and I STILL love it.

Ha, I saw SpongeBob SquarePants earlier on today.

The episodes, "Squid on Strike" and "SpongeBob, Sandy and the Worm"

Fairly OddParents

Sat and watched a bunch of episodes that I haven't seen in quite a while. It's one of my favorite series after all (though FHFIF rankas higher to me) for it's stupid humor <3

In my country right now, Nick is having a (what they call) Spongebob Mania! :D non-stop new and old episodes from 7:30 am to 3:30 pm! I spend most my days watching it now XD

Scrubs

It has been a while since I actually sat down and watch Scrubs outside of reruns on Comedy central. I am happy to say though I am very glad I did watch it this time because I LOVED IT!

The episode was funny and serious at the same time, I was really impressed at how well they mixed the whole JD/Elliot marital problems with the comedic nature of the show. I am kind of sad this is the shows final season though.

Yet, I feel Scrubs has done an amazing job on the air over these years and I honestly feel that this show has run its course as much as I love it.

Fosters via. On Demand. "Partying Is Such Sweet Soiree" :bloogrin:

digimon data squad.

exactly as un-digimon as i thought it would be. but eh its still kinda cool. but still..

Replay of the 1980 Georgia-Florida game on ESPN Classic. Buck Belue and Lindsey Scott hooked up for a 92-yard TD strike to win it, 26-21. Georgia radio play-by-play guy Larry Munson nearly soiled himself calling that play.

Heroes

I'm glad this new season is finally picking up some pace because it was kind of dragging around for a while. None of the new mutants have really shown any massive interest except for 2 of them, and one of them is minor while useless, novelty powers are being carted off for primary characters. Bleh.

Anyways, things are finally getting juicy with some serious storyline snippets and new disaster possibilities. The whole "virus future" thing with Peter, Hiro and Kenzei, and Sylar planning a come back, and the highlight was easily Claire's dad, Bennett getting some dirt back onto his hands.

Things are really getting good and this episode alone has made me totally involved in the dark storyline they got cooking up.

boondocks- return of stinkmeaner. not what id call the most pollitically correct show, but still funny.

Family Guy - The episode "It Takes a Village Idiot, and I Married One".

Man, Peter's song in regards to Brokeback Mountain made me crack up laughing.
But yeah, good episode indeed.

Not next week but the week after is apparantly going to be the one "Blue Harvest" the Star Wars parody.

Monty Python's Flying Circus

It was a double episode. The sketches included Undertakers Film, Gorilla Librarian, Interesting People, the First Man to Jump the Channel and the Agatha Christie sketch. 8D

M*A*S*H on TVLand.

There was a "Mail Call" Marathon on Sat. and Sun. night-- all episodes focusing on letter's the doctors and nurses got. The last one I really recall watching was the one where the little kids in hawkeye's hometown write letters to the 4077th. All the letters were so sweet. Especially Hawkeye's letter from the little boy who flat-out hated him because, "All you do is make people better so they can go die" and how Hawkeye couldn't really respond to it. But the moment that really got me was the letter Charles got-- the litte girl sent him a leaf, saying, "It's fall in Maine. I don't know if you have fall in Korea, so I'm sending you the leaf from a birch tree." The letter conveyed an amazing childlike sense of faith and perception of beauty-- the leaf-- and I swear, I almost cried.

Man I'm hyper...

I've never seen that episode. I used to love M*A*S*H and it's interesting to think of how its tone changed from the movie to the tv series and through the series itself. Am I right in thinking it was made in the early 70s in the final years of the Vietnam war? It's about the Korean war in the 50s obviously but I remember an episode where Hawkeye marches into a tent with negotiators from both sides and demands they make peace because it's all so awful. I was kind of embarrassed for Alan Alda, still am in fact. I'm sure Henry Kissinger was real grateful for your input, Alan.

On a related note, the last thing I watched was an ITV drama about Rudyard Kipling who fixed it so his severely myopic son could become an officer in the First World War. His son was played by that Daniel Ratcliffe lad from Harry Potter and was rather predictably killed at Loos in France.

It was nicely acted and did all the right things including a good scene where the wind changes direction and the booms of the artillary barrage before the battle on the western front could be heard from Kiplings house in Sussex in southern England. The biggest explosions of the war could be heard in London which must have been really dreadful for the whole population as everyone knew someone at the front.

Anyway the only thing that annoyed me was Harry's prolonged death scene by machine gun in no-man's land that must have been very disturbing for Potter-film-fans. In their defence, the incident was being described after the event to his family and the witness would not have wanted to say that he fell like a puppet who's strings had been cut.

The whole thing was written by the chap who played Kipling who you might know as the angry cop with a tash in Robbie Coltrane's Cracker. That's Cracker not Crackers. That would be weird. Daniel Radcliffe had a little tash too which made me smile a little.

i think nearly everyody died in France.

nominated for "most pointless war ever" :(

The Grim Adventures Of The Kids Next Door last night (a Billy & Mandy / Kids Next Door crossover special).

Last thing I watched on the box was about an hour's worth of coverage from BBC's Children in Need night.

Erm, how long have they had a CGI Pudsey? I'd missed out on the last three or four years' events, and wasn't quite prepared for it. I swear, most of the time he seemed to be pointing at Terry Wogan's head and laughing.

Oh God! Really? Ha ha. I wonder how much gets pledged every year to see his 'Bronson in the pool' moment. I managed to avoid all of it fortunately by just avoiding TV in general apart from The Channel 4 News/Correspondent hour and a South Park which was simultaneosly really horrible and a hoot, as usual.

The Georgia-Kentucky football game. Georgia won and will go to the SEC Championship in two weeks...if Tennessee loses to Kentucky next week.

100 greatest songs of the 80's on VH1 classic. i have a thing for shows that talk about songs ive never heard of before :P

Now that sounds like something I'd like. Gosh I love 80's music!8D

scrubs- their story

jordan, ted, and the todd get their own episode. fun episode. i like this part that jordan thought:

one guy: "my beard is massive wack."
other guy: "well my beard is more bushy."
first guy:"yeah, lets be friends!"

Survivor: China. Despite how close this season is coming to a conclusion, it really doesn't seem to be drawing me in. It has had its moments but the contestants this season are just so unlikable that I can't find myself caring about who wins.

Duran Duran pWn

Re-runs of Whose Line Is It Anyway? (both the British and the American versions) appear to be the big thing in my household right now. Ryan Stiles is totally the man. :frankiesmile: