Episodes you just can't stand to watch

[radioman148]

Or any episode of the 'DVDS' with Jerry Van Dyke...or that 'banjo-playing deputy' episode of 'The Andy Griffith Show' with Jerry Van Dyke...or anything else with Jerry Van Dyke... ;D

One exception: Jerry Van Dyke in Coach.

I see they must have fixed the problem with his last name being blocked. :

Indeed!

Wasn't the banjo playing episodes from the Dick Van Dyke Show?

JVD played(still plays?) banjo in real life, so I believe it was incorporated into both shows.
'The Banjo-Playing Deputy' is a 1965 episode of 'TAGS', which was supposed to introduce Van Dyke's character as Barney's replacement. But he turned down Griffith and did 'My Mother, the Car' instead. Oops!
As Rob Petrie's brother, Stacy, on 'TDVDS', there was one episode where he was playing musical instruments while 'sleepwalking'. I seem to remember him playing drums, but am not sure where the banjo came in.

I never knew about plans for him to be on Andy Griffith. Interesting.
I think there were 3 episodes in total that he appeared on the DVD show.

 

[cspotrun]

somebody mentioned "Happy Days"... after seeing 'American Graffitti' (which the show was based on) the show was a BIG let down.. the problem.."Sanitized" "Characters".. (if you wanted a FEEL for the late 50's early 60's you would be better off watching a re-run of Dwayne Hickman as Dobie GILLIS) i think IF the show had taken the approach MASH did to a "Comedy" series it would have been much better.

I have a feeling that was the goal with Happy Days..at first ( taking that MASH approach ). Reason being, even though I was never really that much of a fan of Happy Days, the first batch of Happy Days ( the ones with Chuck ) seemed to me they were more like a drama than a comedy. I seem to remember there was one very early episode of Happy Days where Mr. C. ( Tom Boskey ) made it clear...that he did not approve or nor did he like..The Fonz !!! No laughter in the background, no laughtrack...Mr. C. was serious plus The Fonz gave him that mean look back..almost like he really wanted to punch Mr. Cunningham.

Then of course soon after that The Fonz became the "star" of the show and became as much part of the Cunningham family as Richie & Joanie were.

I wouldn't compare Happy Days with M*A*S*H.. Happy Days was not "based" on American Graffiti or any one specific late 50s-early 60s nostalgia movie. I think people assumed this at first due to the similarity in subject matter, and because Ron Howard appeared in both. But the TV and the Graffiti movie had different characters, different fictional location, and so on.

Though the TV version of M*A*S*H was very different than the film of the same name, it was directly based on the film, with the same characters, and same basic premise.

In a general sense, you can say that American Graffiti begat Happy Days, because the movie was one of the first in a wave of media nostalgia for the 50s and early 60s that happened in the early and mid 70s. That wave included a lot of other films, books, and the growing popularity of Oldies radio.

I agree with cpostrun who preferred the first few episodes of Happy Days. Though I would consider the first few episodes to be comedy (not drama) - if I remember correctly, the writing was much more subtle on those first shows, and they were filmed with a single camera (more like a filmed drama), and without a laugh track. For some reason, the producer (Gary Marshall) decided to switch to the typical sit-com 3 camera format with studio audience reactions - and an added laugh track, I'm sure. Along with that, the acting became much more broad and the situations more farcical.

I personally agree that the change was a bad move, but its probably what made the show the big mainstream success that it became.

just so you know, i wasn't comparing MASH to Happy Days, i just think that approach might have worked well with Happy Days(smarter writing)... i loved American Graffitti, so when i saw the promo's for Happy Days before its debut, i thought it would be at least close to the movie, edgy, a little naughty, and it turned out to be a "Sanitized" TV sit-com that could have come out of 1976, instead of the early 60's.