Category — 1990s

The cast of the “Golden Girls” were honored at the TVLand Awards. Presenter Steve Carell introduced a touching montage of celebrities praising the show as a pop culture icon.

I never thought of it as a ground breaking show, but I suppose it did paint elderly people as fun and interesting subjects. Over the years, I became quite familiar with the adventures of Blanche, Sophia, Rose, and Dorothy. My favorite character is Blanche. She’ll do and has done just about anything. However when I think back, all the characters had their fair share of outrageous moments.

All seven hilarious seasons are available on dvd today.

I was stuck on a plane this weekend, so I was subjected an endless onslaught of rom-coms on that tiny lcd television. Thus, I was absolutely delighted by The Dinner Party episode of “Seinfeld”.

“Seinfeld” always makes you smile no matter how annoyed you are. Why? Because no one can complain as much as those four people. They can’t even pick out a dessert for party without complaining!

Transcript below (for the full effect):

ELAINE: Well how about a carrot cake?

JERRY: Carrot cake? Now why is that a cake? You don’t make carrots into a cake. I’m sorry.

ELAINE: Black Forrest?

JERRY: Black Forrest? Too scary. You’re in the Forrest, oohh.

JERRY: How about a Napoleon?

ELAINE: Napoleon? Who’s he to have a cake? He was a ruthless war monger. Might as well get Mengle.

JERRY: That wa sour Bobka. We had that Bobka!

ELAINE: What’s this one?

CLERK: That’s cinnamon Bobka.

JERRY: Another Bobka?

CLERK: There’s chocolate and there’s cinnamon.

JERRY: Well, we’ve got to get the cinnamon.

ELAINE: No, but they got the chocolate. We’ll be going in with a lesser Bobka.

JERRY: I beg your pardon? Cinnamon takes a back seat to no Bobka. People love cinnamon. It should be on tables at restaurants along with salt and pepper. Anytime anyone says, “Oh This is so good. What’s in it?” The answer invariably comes back, Cinnamon. Cinnamon. Again and again. Lesser Bobka - I think not.

“Seinfeld” - Episode 77 from Season 5

Nostalgic for the early 90s? Then, check out the New Kids on the Block reunion on “The Today Show”.

Ah, the mega mix almost made me misty right until they did that remixed version of “Right Stuff”. Now, it just makes me feel old. Their performance reminded me of a tired wedding act. I cannot believe grown women camped out since Wednesday in the RAIN to see that. That is way worse than me liking their terrible NKOTB cartoon show.

Source: People

This sunday is Mother’s Day, so I feel I should spotlight some of my mom’s favorite tv shows.

Mystery/Suspense:
“In the Heat of the Night”
“Murder, She Wrote”
“Remington Steele” - got her seasons one and two for her birthday…
“Matlock” - no one can hate on the Griffith

Cop Shows:
“Walker, Texas Ranger” - Mom loved it before Conan made it “cool”
“Nash Bridges”
“JAG”
“Silk Stalkings”

The Soaps (every mom has “her show”):
“Knots Landing” - with Alec Baldwin! and William Devane!!

“Young and the Restless” - doesn’t everyone love this show, though?
“Days of Our Lives” - My mom finally learned how to dvr new episodes
“Another World”
“Falcon Crest”

Comedy:
“Martin”

“Living Single”
“The Cosby Show”
“Monk”
“A Different World”
“Empty Nest”
“Golden Girls”

But really, she’ll watch whatevers on USA and just leave it there. This sunday, I hope she gets the remote all to herself.

Happy Mother’s Day!

“Spaced” is finally coming to dvd in America (says Pajiba).

“Spaced” is the UK television show where Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg honed their comedic chops. Before slaying audiences with Shaun of the Dead, Pegg was the quintessential slacker, Tim Bisley.

IMDB summarizes it pretty well:
“Tim Bisley and Daisy Steiner rent a flat pretending to be a couple. There, they meet the alcoholic land lady Marsha, the disturbed and troubled painter downstairs Brian, Tim’s best friend the war-crazy Mike, Daisy’s best friend fashion designer Twist, and their pet dog Colin. What follows is the groups hilarious and witty adventures.”

Most uberfans with all-region dvd players bought the show’s two seasons already as an import. The rest of the fans can re-live the laughs with the US release on July 23rd supposedly with new commentary!

Another favorite show of my mom’s was “In the Heat of the Night”.

I had no idea it was based on a film (with Sidney Poitier, no less!) until I went to college. The tv show starred Carroll O’Connor (”All in the Family”) as the Chief Bill Gillepsie and Howard E. Rollins Jr(Ragtime) as Virgil Tibbs, Chief of Detectives. It tackled similar racial issues as the film. Both works strived to show how a southern white chief (despite his racist misgivings) could learn to work and respect his black lieutenant.

The show ran for eight seasons with half of the run on NBC and the other half on CBS. Regardless of the channel, it was on in my household for most of those years. My mom still watches the re-runs. So every time I catch an episode on TV Land, I remember all the times my mom would be curled up on the couch with her “In the Heat of the Night”.

My mom introduced me to “Murder, She Wrote” since it was one of her favorite shows. Between Jessica Fletcher and Matlock, I thought everyone on tv could solve mysteries! After perusing the dvd seasons, I discovered that the show was on the air for 12 seasons!

The show follows the adventures of Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury), mystery writer and world class gumshoe. Somehow each week, she winds up solving crimes faster than the local police department. Whether on vacation or in her home town of Cabot Cove, Ms. Fletcher stumbles upon a confounding crime that only she is clever enough to solve.

If you don’t have a dvd player and/or the box sets, you can easily catch “Murder, She Wrote” almost everyday on the Hallmark Channel.

I suppose I can’t out and out disagree with Stacey’s love for the second season of “Buffy”. But calling it one of the best seasons of the last 20 years, now that’s a stretch. Still, since I love “Angel”, I’ll let Pajiba have their fangasm.

I’ve always had this love/hate thing going on with “Buffy though. I loved the original movie with Kristy Swanson. Like memorized all the lines (and cheers) kind of love. So I gave the first season a looksie. Sarah Michelle Gellar wasn’t so annoying during the first three seasons and did a pretty good job with the humor. But after they sent Angel to Los Angeles, I jumped ship for the “Angel” series.

After that, I never really watched the rest of the Buffy seasons. But once F/X started showing the heck out Buffy, I managed to watch almost every episode without even trying very hard! I’m no Joss Whedon worshipper, but if there’s nothing else on, an hour with the Buffy gang kills the time quite well.

Thanks for the spreading the Farscape love, Pajiba. I’m just sad they beat me to the punch. In the future, I’ll have to cover season one or two.

“Farscape” is the best sci-fi show I’ve seen in the last 20 years hands down. “FireFly”, “BSG”, and “Babylon 5″ can’t even come close to the amount of creativity, humor, action, and wonderful acting on this Jim Henson show.

Still, it was mere luck that it was on those four seasons. Nevertheless, I was devastated when it was cancelled. I even boycotted Battlestar Galactica (kinda still am) because it had a hand in Farscape’s cancellation. At least, SciFi softened the cancellation blow with the mini-series wrap up: “The Peacekeeper Wars“. I can’t wait for them to release the series on Blu-Ray, so I can watch it on my roommate’s Sony plasma TV.

Through the wonders of netflix, I was reminded of “Forever Knight“. I didn’t actually watch it when it was on network television. The Sci Fi Channel was where I saw most of the episodes, and typically out of order. Thus, it was news to me that Rick Springfield starred in the original tv movie from which the series was based upon. And only until I saw the dvd boxes did I learn that there were three seasons, thus it being dubbed “The Forever Knight Trilogy”.

“Forever Knight” tells the tale of the vampire detective, Nicholas Knight (Geraint Wyn Davies). He’s an 800 year old vampire, hailing from France, who wants to make amends for his violent ways by solving murders. He even seems to think at some point he can become mortal again. This mortality dream is strung along for the lifetime of the series.

Nick’s arch enemy is Lacroix (Nigel Bennett), the vampire who sired him. Lacroix finds it completely unacceptable that Nick does not embrace his vampiric instincts. And thus, they play an endless game of cat and mouse.

It’s not the best vampire genre show, “Angel” is much much better since that show tried to expand on the myth. Forever Knight plays up all the vampire stereotypes and simply interweaves them into the standard murder procedural outline. Nevertheless, it is entertaining to watch, even if the effects seem a bit cheesy now. Davies excels in the role and really gets the viewer to empathize with his plight.