Frasier

I have been watching “Frasier” reruns lately because they started showing them on one of my favorite rerun sources the Hallmark Channel. I also still watch Cheers when I get home from work on time and its interesting to watch them at the same time (also I recall a lot of plot holes about stuff Frasier said about is family in various “Cheers” episodes). When they first started showing “Frasier on Hallmark there was of course a premier marathon and it had trivia facts, trivia facts about reruns so of course I was excited. The fact they listed that I remember was that every regular “Cheers” character except Coach and Rebecca guest stared of course Coach was dead which lead me to wonder what Kristie Alley’s excuse was. There’s also a statistic that says that Kelsey Grammer as Frasier is the longest time an actor played one character meanwhile Richard Belzar holds the record for playing John Munch on the most different shows currently 12 according to IMDB. Anyway I am going off on a lot of random Frasier tangents when my original point to this post was going to be about him going to a video store. “How retro!” who would have thought that a video rental store would be the thing that makes the episode dated? So I started looking for other things that could date the episode but there really was not anything else specific to the time no cell phones that look gigantic now or unusual hair styles. When I looked closely at Daphne’s outfit I recalled it as a style that was popular in 1996ish but it would not look strange or dated if worn today and since Frasier and Niles always ware suits those don’t change much over the years (unless some of those years are the 70s). Usually I can pinpoint an era or decade pretty well by the fashion because it’s something that interests me but it has to be women’s fashion because men’s clothing does not change as much. With some obvious exceptions for loud 80s sweaters worn by Zack on “Saved by the Bell” or Cliff on “The Cosby Show” and other logo or brand name shirts worn by younger boys. Adult professional clothes change the least over the years or at least they evolve slowly enough that the changes are not obvious in reruns. So the fact remains that the video store was the most dated thing on “Frasier” tonight.

Actors

With the amount of TV I watch it makes sense that there is a lot of actor overlap and I will see the same person star or guest star in multiple shows. I fond it especially amusing when I wind up watching these different shows on the same day. For awhile I was watching reruns of “Doogie Howser M.D.” and “How I Met Your Mother” back to back and it was kind of a head trip especially when I got to the point in the “Doogie Howser” run where Neil Patrick Harris’ voice changes and Doogie starts to sound more like Barney from “How I Met Your Mother”. That is not the only example from “How I Met Your Mother” I can also watch a rerun of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and compare Alyson Hannigan as Willow and Lilly who have more in common personality wise then Barney and Doogie. I recently watched the “Buffy” episode Beer Bad in this episode Willow confronts Parker, who had a one night stand with Buffy the interaction in the scene reminded me of Lilly because Parker was behaving like Barney and Willow was judging him as Lilly would. I also look for “Buffy” references in most episodes of “How I Met Your Mother” they are probably not intentional but I make them fit its especially funny when Alexis Denisof who is married to Alyson in real life and was Wesley on “Buffy” and “Angel” guest stars.
Another thing I noticed was how when you watch something more recent and then an older show the common actor looks young by comparison even if they are a Golden Girl. Last night I watched the season finale of “Hot in Cleveland” and then just an hour later I was watching “The Golden Girls” and thinking Rose looked young. I thought it was ironic to think a Golden Girl looked young but just like my recent observation on Alex Trebek, Betty White is at least 20 years older now then she was when that Golden Girls episode was made so of course Elka looks older then Rose.
These actor commonalities happen with guest stars as well I remember watching and episode of “Star Trek the Next Generation” where Counselor Troi was dating a guy who seemed familiar. I knew I had seen the episode before but thought I knew him from something I had re-watched more recently. By the end of the episode I had placed him as someone who had dated Fran on “The Nanny”. He was the funeral director that decided to become a clown instead. TV fate decided to mess with me that night because I saw that very episode later on.
Its fun to recognize people and compare the different characters the same actors play its also a good idea to have IMDB on standby to figure out who they are when you just cant remember what you know them from.

Bleep My Rerun Says

It always seems strange when some sort of questionable language is bleeped or blanked out of a rerun show. Why is it objectionable now but it was fine when the show first aired? In some instances it makes sense obviously “Sex and The City” reruns shown on basic cable channels are not allowed to use the words that the show got away with on HBO. The part that does not make sense is the shows that originally aired on CBS or NBC are now more censored on Hallmark or A&E. The specific examples I noticed are from “Golden Girls”,” Empty Nest” and “Criminal Minds”. The words that are usually blanked out are “bitch” and “godddamn” the part I don’t understand is why it was ok to say these words on NBC in 1985 but not on Hallmark channel in 2011. Also in the case of “Criminal Minds” the show is still airing on CBS and is allowed to say those words but they are censored on the reruns A&E shows. I find it kind of contrary that the words are objectionable despite the content of the shows when they are not saying those words. The Golden Girls always talk about sex even when they use metaphors and innuendos to make it seem cleaner then it really is. Meanwhile “Criminal Minds” features gory murders and descriptions of serial killers, rapists and pedophiles’, so blanking out a few borderline “bad” words hardly seems worth the effort since the show is still not happy or suitable for children. The only theory I could come up with for the difference in censoring is the time of day I know some networks are allowed to have more adult content late at night so maybe they clean up the dialogue on the reruns so they can show them during the day presumably when children maybe watching. That being said children should not be watching “Criminal Minds” at any time of day. I actually can’t tell what they are trying to blank out of “Empty Nest” it usually seems like the end of an insult but it’s not obvious what the missing word or phrase should be as is often the case when a word is removed. At least it’s better then some reality shows where there’s more bleeping then actual dialogue.

Barney at the Bar

I was just watching an episode of “Cheers” Frasier and Lilith brought their son to the bar and it looked like he was holding a Barney doll. That’s the children’s show dinosaur not Neil Patrick Harris on “How I Met Your Mother”. This surprised me because I did not think that “Barney” and ”Cheers” overlapped time line wise. I looked it up and “Barney” started in 1992 and “Cheers” ended in 1993. I knew I remembered seeing the last episode of “Cheers” when it originally aired and I would have been about 12 at that time so that makes sense. I would have placed “Barney” as starting a few years later then that but either way I would have been too old to be interested in it. Also the doll featured on the “Cheers” episode was always turned so the green stomach was not showing so there’s no real proof it’s the “Barney” at least as far as the lawyers are concerned, anyone else can tell by the shape of the purple dinosaur that “Barney” was visiting Cheers.

Loving Lucy for 60 Years

This past weekend Hallmark Channel was showing the “I Love Lucy” 60th anniversary marathon. I could not let an opportunity like that pass me by. First it’s cool to know that the show has been around that long it’s like the most classic of all the classic reruns. Also I have not actually seen all the episodes multiple times like some other shows I will see the popular ones on marathons but not all the random episodes that get less press because of this most of the ones that were on this marathon I had never seen before so even if the show is 60 years old the episodes were new to me. Another interesting thing about watching the show or anything that old is the glimpse in to the past that it gives us. I roll my eyes at the twin beds and am slightly annoyed by the 50s style gender roles because they are outdated now. When I was in high school and watching another marathon I remember my dad pointing out that the show was considered progressive at the time because Lucy and Ricky are an interracial couple. A show being around for that long also means it gets referenced a lot by other shows. There’s a specific “Golden Girls” episode where Blanche and Rose are watching a marathon of course that was probably just for the 40th anniversary. The show has staying power due to its quality there are plenty of shows that have come since that don’t stand the test of time and things that are much more recent but try to hard to be current so their references are harder to understand. Older shows did not really make that many references to the pop culture of the time or if they did the things they were referencing became as classic as they are and no one wonders about them. The jokes on the show are mostly based on the situations and not depended on insults and dialog like some modern shows. Also in some instances the crazy situations are more realistic then things that occur in more modern shows. Some of the themes transcend time. Like the husband and wife relationship which has changed in details over the years but the idea of fighting and scheming for each to try to get their own way remains a theme in a lot of shows. Also spending a lot of time with you best friend is a theme the started with Lucy and Ethel and continued to the future in most shows the female lead has a close girlfriend she can have on her side. So even after 60 years everyone still loves Lucy even those of us who have only been around for half that time.

Laugh Track

Whether we like them or not laugh tracks are an important part of TV history. Its something so familiar that sometimes it becomes unnoticeable and of course some shows had real studio audiences laughing (or those were the ones recorded for the laugh track)
I recently saw this segment about a laugh track machine on “Antiques Roadshow”

Watch the full episode. See more Antiques Roadshow.

You can read the transcript on the PBS website if the embedded video does not work
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/archive/201001A13.html
I love how when the appraiser talks about the shows the laughs were recorded from he says 1953 up to “Cheers” its great how he mentions the specific show instead of just giving another date in the 80s or 90s when “Cheers” was on. The other thing about laugh tracks is when they were not used after learning I liked “MASH” someone asked me something about episodes that did not have the laugh track. I said they did not use it during scenes in the operating room and some episodes take place entirely in that room. Other episodes omitted the laugh track because they were dealing with serious subject matter. Of course the lack of canned laughter does not mean there were no jokes it was just up to the people at home to decide how funny they were. I think that’s what people don’t like about the laugh track they don’t want someone else to tell them what they should think is funny. In that sense its not really different from any other aspect of television the writers producers and advertisers all tell us what we should think is entertaining and of course if no one watches it a show will get bad ratings and be canceled but hype can compensate for lack of quality and lead to a show having more success then it deserves or just give it a chance to find itself and earn the laughter for real.


"Antiques Roadshow" side note the show premiered in England in 1977 so how ling before something that was new when the show started is old enough to be considered an antique featured on the show.

Empty Nest

On Friday I was watching “The Golden Girls” on Hallmark Channel this is not an unusual occurrence but on this viewing there were commercials for “The Empty Nest premier marathon all day Saturday!”  I debated with my self whether or not I should watch it I had seen the show in reruns as a kid but not as much as some other shows it may have just been something I watched when I was home sick from school.  I also realized that I had not seen it in at least 15 years so it would be like new.  Also I did not know the family lived next door to the Golden Girls when I had seen the show before. The show was a spin off and Golden Girls guest stared often.  I had seen the show enough as a kid to recognize the characters when they visit Golden Girls episodes.  So I figured it would be interesting to see the other side of their story. So I wound up having the show on most of the day but I did do other things so I did not watch all the episodes in the 6 hour block I had it on.  The show is good though and there was a specific joke about a credit card that I remembered from the last time I watched it so it there is definitely staying power in my rerun loving brain.  I also recognized the outfit Dorothy wore in her guest spot as one I had seen her in before in at least one “Golden Girls” episode.  The premise of “Empty Nest” is an older widower whose 20somthing daughters move back in with him. The show started in 1988 but that premise is something that is relevant again today (if it ever stopped being relevant).  That story creates a different kind of family sitcom with time capsule hair and fashion from the late 80s and early 90s one of the things I find interesting about older shows is the clothes it may make them dated but I like being able to identify a time period that way.  Another cool aspect of the show is the nurse Laverne who runs the fathers pediatric office like Radar runs MASH.  Overall I was glad I watched the marathon and appreciate the slightly more obscure retro shows just as much as the main stream ones. 

Double Jeopardy

Recently I watched an episode of “Cheers” in which Cliff competes on the game show “Jeopardy” and I realized that he is one of three sitcom characters I know of who have been on that game show or attempted to be on.   The others are Dorothy from “Golden Girls” and Fran from “The Nanny”.  There may be more instances of this in shows I have not seen but these are the three examples I am familiar with.  They all enter for different reasons Dorothy is obsessed with the show and wants to prove how smart she is Cliff knows a lot of trivia and Fran is the victim of a bet that is making fun of her for being dumb.  It’s somewhat ironic that Fran does the best of all of them, she winds up winning because of well timed questions about her favorite subjects of food and Barbra Streisand movies.  Dorothy takes the entry test and does well but is not chosen for the show because they say she is not likable enough she then has a dream sequence where Rose beats her on the show because the questions are about cows and farm life which are topics Rose knows similar to the way Fran won.  Cliff does well and is in a great lead until he risks it all in final jeopardy and does not know the answer.  The thing that I noticed when watching that episode earlier this week was how young Alex Trebek looks I did the math and the episode was probably filmed about 22 years ago so it makes sense that he would be older now and it also demonstrates how much a part of our culture the show is.  Back in the 80s and early 90s sitcom characters were trying to be on the show and now Ken Jennings is trying to beat a computer. I think I like the way it worked out for Fran the best of the three examples because when I watch the show there are sometimes categories that I am an expert in and get all the questions (once it was Seth Green and another time it was the SCIFI channel) so I find her ability to win when it got on her preferred topics to be believable and relatable.  Of course I might not know enough general trivia to qualify for the show but its still fun in theory. How long will the “Jeopardy” theme song be stuck in your head after you read this?

Commercial Break

I’m not sure if some commercials make vague references to old TV shows or I just see references that are not there because of all the trivia in my head.  The most obvious example of one that must have been done on purpose is a Toy Story themed post office commercial that features Hamm the piggy bank dressed as a postal worker.  This is a clear reference to John Ratzenberger who does the voice of Hamm and is best known as postal worker Cliff Clavin from Cheers.  This must have been an intentional in joke and it was a good advertising ploy because it got me to pay more attention to the commercial and remember it later to write this.  The most recent example that prompted me to write on this topic is a Geico commercial that features a radio call in show.  One of the callers identifies herself as “Peg from Mill Valley”.  The average person might not think anything of that but I recognize it as a slightly obscure MASH reference.  The character BJ Hunnicut had a wife named Peg who lived in Mill Valley California.  While she was referred to often Peg Hunnicut was not really a major character the casual viewer would remember off the top of their head. I am not a casual viewer so as soon as I heard the name and city combo I thought of her and wondered if it was a coincidence or an intentional reference.  Is the commercial writer a MASH fan putting it in as a joke or did they just happen to remember that name and that city and think they sounded good for the random caller without  realizing  what it’s from? There’s no way to know the answer to that but it still makes the commercial more amusing for me since I can read MASH connections in to it. 

“Man of Science Man of Faith”

      Yes it’s the first sci-fi geek edition of this blog it had to happen sooner rather then later.  I was thinking about the “Man of Science Man of Faith” theme in Lost and how it applies to other shows and mediums.  The concept was originally used to describe the differences between the motivations of Jack Shephard the doctor and “Man of Science” and John Locke the “Man of Faith” who believes in the mysticism of The Island.  Both characters have reason for the sides they take on this issue and their actions based on these beliefs drive a lot of the progression of events on the show.   

    I first realized the concept could be applied to other characters on different shows when I saw a live journal icon proclaiming Spock and Dr. McCoy from the original Star Trek to be “Team Science”.  This got me thinking that despite their differences those two characters would both fit in the “Man of Science” category leaving the role of the “Man of Faith” to Captain Kirk.  This brought me to the conclusion that Kirk is so much a “Man of Faith” he needs two “Men of Science” to counter balance it.  In some sense Kirk is the ultimate “Man of Faith” he breaks the rules cheats his way out of “No Win Scenarios” and does not worry about the consequences.  This leaves Spock to argue that something is “not logical” and McCoy to complain about the health risks that heroic acts can lead to.  It could also be argued that he needs a third “Man of Science” in Scotty to put the ship back together again after everything goes down.

     Then I came up with the opposite theory for Stargate Atlantis where Rodney McKay needs three faiths for his one science.  His “Gate Team” has John Sheppard whose military background makes him the stereotypical hero that charges in to situations without knowing what everything means and trusts that Rodney’s science will save them in the end even if he does not subscribe to it himself.  The other members of the team take faith more literally Teyla especially believes in the ancestors that built the Stargates and treats them as divine entities instead of aliens with advance technology that the “Men of Science” explain them as.  Ronon follows the “Man of Faith” in a way that combines the other two sometimes with military heroism and sometimes with religious connotations.  Rodney does not seem to notice that he is out numbered in the science category, although in some episodes Zelenka backs him up as a second “Man of Science”.  Despite the larger portion of the characters believing in the faith side the show itself tries to make science the final solution and uses it to explain what could otherwise be mystical occurrences. This is different from the ideals shown on Lost where despite not many character having faith in the mystical properties of The Island it turns out to be true and the cause of almost everything that happens to them over the course of the show.  

      In most instances there is only one of each and I think the most classic of these is Batman and Superman.  Sure they are comic book characters but the Justice League cartoon show qualifies it for my reruns. But they show the concept at its most basic Batman is the “Man of Science” and uses that science to fight crime and protect the city and relies on his intelligence instead of a super power.  Superman is the “Man of Faith” because in being not of this world and having powers he becomes something of an object of faith himself. He also believes the best of people and that he can genuinely make a difference and save the world despite how naive this viewpoint seems in comparison to the darker views in Batman’s world.  When these characters are compared to Jack and Locke the metaphor does not seem to fit because on the surface Jack Shephard seems to have more in common with Superman or more specifically Clark Kent.  This is because Jack and Locke are the exceptions to their own archetype.  Even though the concept of “Man of Science Man of Faith” is defined by them Jacks character type is the hero who in most instances would be the one to follow faith not science.  He is not as impulsive as other heroic “Men of Faith” like Kirk or the ironically named in this example John Sheppard of Atlantis, but he is the one that others look to as the leader and hope he can get them out of whatever situation The Island has presented them with.  Meanwhile Locke accepts the situations of The Island as what should happen and does not think a “Man of Science” should interfere.          

      These are just a few examples of how the “Man of Science Man of Faith” idea applies to sci-fi characters and how they interact with each other and their environments so I might expand on this topic again later if I think of more that I want to talk about. 

You Grew Up Way to Fast

      One of the things I’ve noticed while watching reruns is that when I see a show as an adult that I had previously watched when I was much younger I wonder why I even liked it because I did not understand most of the jokes.  There’s a lot of adult themes and innuendo in sitcoms that I did not realize I was missing when I was to young for that type of thing.  One of the most recent examples of this is something I noticed while re watching Dharma and Greg in the past few weeks.  I believe when I watched it as a preteen when it originally aired I vaguely knew they were implying that Dharma’s father Larry was on drugs due to his behavior. When watching it again I realized how many specific references to the drugs they make in the dialogue its still implied but its implied with words and not just attitude.  There are references to “burning incense and eating a whole box of captain crunch”  “crème of mushroom soup” and “a stamp collection in the shed” Dharma usually referred to these things when compeering her state of mind to that of someone stoned. 

 Another example is Golden Girls I know I watched it with my grandparents when I was under the age of 8 when I saw it again in college I wondered why they let me watch something that was so about sex but I guess they knew I would not get it.  My sister and I watched the British sitcom Are You Being Served and she claims she spent a long time wondering “what was so funny about Mrs. Slocombe’s cat” (she referred to  the cat as her “pussy”).  Despite missing that joke we did sort of get the implication that Mr. Humphrey’s was gay.  Its interesting what you understand and what you don’t and what you remember when you get older. On the opposite side the Tom Baker era Doctor Who episodes I watched when I was younger were exactly the same when I watched them again in college I don’t know if this is because Doctor Who is considered a kids show or if science fiction is just easier to understand.  Even some sows that are made for kids had jokes that went over my head. I remember re-watching Tiny Toon Adventures and wondering why I liked it before when I did not get half of what they were talking about.  This was mostly cultural references to shows or movies I did not know about as a kid.  They say the grown up jokes are put in to kids shows so parents are not bored and I don’t believe in dumbing things down for kids but it was still surprising to learn that I was not getting as much out of the show as I thought.  I guess its part of the appeal of watching stuff again if a long enough time as passed then there’s new stuff that you don’t remember or did not understand the first time around.

Nick at Nite Meta

I can’t blog about reruns without giving props to Nick at Nite since they are a great source for rerun watching.  The thing that amuses me most though is when characters in a show on Nick at Nite refer to watching old shows on Nick at Nite.  The specific examples of this are both from The Nanny.  In one episode Fran is dating someone younger then her (fake) age and they are talking about the TV shows they both grew up watching the he says he saw them on Nick at Nite the reference is supposed to point out their age difference since she saw the shows when they were 1^st broadcast and he did not see them until they were reruns.  The other example is when Ms. Babcock insults Fran’s intelligence by saying she went to Nick at Nite School implying that she knows more about TV then real life.  The initial reaction to hearing shows talk about Nick at Nite on that network is to think that they are older or more time has passed but that’s only partly accurate.  When the concept 1^st started they had older shows and that’s what The Nanny episodes were referring to when that was written in the mid 90s.  Since then the criteria for getting a show on Nick at Nite does not seem to include a passage of time since the original run.  In fact I’m pretty sure they were showing Everybody Hates Chris while new episodes were still being produced and shown on the CW.  Basically the stereotype that a show has to be of a certain age or irrelevancy in order to make it on to the network no longer applies.   Even when shows are recent having them on in reruns can introduce new viewers to the material.   The reruns also provide a concentrated version of the show by having them on many days in a week and sometimes more then one episode a day you can watch all the seasons in a few months instead of over several years while they were on originally.    

Cosmos and Cheesecake

The conversation that inspired me to start this blog was about the similarities and parallels between Golden Girls and Sex and the City.  My verdict on the topic is that the Golden Girls are just older.  I think that is because the theme of both shows is something that transcends age and I don’t mean sex I mean having best friends you can count on no matter what.  The concept of close female friendship is nothing new but shows give us a condensed version.  Each set of four girls spends so much time together and their lives are so intertwined that they allow us to examine the friendships in greater detail then other relationships.  The different personalities of the characters compliment and contrast each other. On the surface you would not expect someone like Charlotte to be friends with someone like Samantha but it works. A similar example is although Sophia is not very nice to Rose she still thinks of all three girls as her daughters.  Of course the most obvious similarity between the shows is the amount of time each set of friends spends talking about men, boyfriends and sex. The Sex and the City girls can be more explicit then the Golden Girls (go HBO) but the concept of the conversation is still the same.  It’s also somewhat liberating for women to openly discuss taboo topics in a way that is more often associated with men in a locker room bragging about their conquests.  The girls talk about sex but they also talk about love, marriage their dreams for the future and the mistakes of their pasts.  Talking about sex and men is the catalyst for talking about everything else it may seem shallow but their friendships all go deeper then that. They are always there for each other in times of crisis health scares, funerals for relatives or even just a bad hair day. 

The character parallels also help both shows reach a wider audience the different types of girls mean the different women watching can all have someone to identify with. Everyone I mentioned this topic to immediately said Samantha and Blanche are the same and that is of course the most obvious. I was thinking when they said Samantha was turning 50 in the movie at what age does she become Blanche.  They do both fill the role of the stereotypical slut but they do it while still remaining likable and sympathetic characters.  Just because they sleep around does not mean they don’t have feelings they just express them in a different way from some of their other friends. 

I also think that the next character mach up is Carrie and Dorothy this is less obvious but they are both the academic of the group with Carrie being a writer and Dorothy a teacher.  They are also considered the main character at least by me. There’s probably no argument that Sex and the City is told from Carrie’s point of view but I also think Dorothy is the one who keeps the group together just by being there. Despite their flaws they are both the most grounded in reality and the first to question their friends’ choices to make sure they don’t get hurt. At the same time when it comes to their own lives they are less observant and tend to stay in relationships because they don’t think they can do any better. 

 Next I give you Miranda and Sophia I paired them up because they seem the most cynical and jaded. They are quick to make a comment or joke about a situation.  They are also more cautious and don’t want to take risks that could cause emotional pain.  They are tough and can hold a grudge and take care of themselves and their friends.  Obviously there are generation gaps which make it hard to compare Sophia to the Sex and the City girls who are all in the same age demographic but except in instances where she talks about Dorothy’s childhood she interacts with the rest of the group on an equal level. 

Since there are only two girls left everyone is probably thinking that Charlotte is not as dumb as Rose however they do both share other qualities.  They both have an innocence and naiveté that makes them vulnerable. They are also the sweetest and most forgiving of their respective groups.  They take on the nurturing maternal role trying to take care of everyone else before themselves.  They also have the highest expectations for relationships and see the good in everyone and everything around them. 

            These shows give us two groups of women in two different age groups (taking place in different decades and cities) but also show us the universal bond of talking to you girlfriends while eating or drinking working out your problems over a cheesecake and sharing good news over cosmos its all about being there for your best friends.

Welcome to the Hellmouth

Or more accurately to my blog about television reruns which I’m sure will include discussion of that and other classic Buffy episodes.  Since I always watch reruns of old or sometimes current TV shows and provide commentary about them one of my friends suggested I start writing about it for real.  I have a few topics that I already thought of so I should be adding more content soon.

Stay Tuned!