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Guilty TV Pleasures

Like Freddy, I usually put the remote down when I stumble on a chase video show of some sort, like the Bunnell show, for example. One show I just can't acquire a taste for is that dumb show Bergeron hosts: "AFV." Wait, he also hosts "Dancing with the Stars," doesn't he? OK, the OTHER dumb show he hosts. Nothing wrong with Bergeron (in fact, he's a big improvement over Bob Saget, who always laughed at his own jokes). Anyway, I've taken to calling it "ADP" for America's Dumbest People. When I see the kind of crap people do (and put it on videotape, no less!), it only makes me wonder if these idiots are TRYING to maim themselves (the staged stunts) or just didn't think before trying it. Hey, they might just win $10,000, though!! For what, a fancy, whiz-bang wheelchair?

I realize I digress, but thanks for your indulgence. One of my guilty pleasures is "Family Guy." This show is soooooooo hysterically funny, intelligently satirical and irreverent, it's an absolute joy to watch. In fact, it's the first time a pre-show disclaimer has actually made me laugh, simply because I know what's coming! The only thing I don't like about it is how sh---y they are to Meg, the daughter...I realize it's only a cartoon, but I think they're all gratuitously mean to her.

That said, and to elaborate on Cranky Yankee's comment, "Cops," "Jail," and "Two and a Half Men" are a few more of my faves. It's always interesting to see how they deal with these tweekers who are always trying to bamboozle them as though they (the cops) are a bunch of submoronic, Keystone cretins who make Barney Fife look like Joe Friday. I actually heard "I don't know how it got in my pocket" when one of these idiots was searched and contraband was found on his person.
 
One of my guilty pleasures is "Family Guy." This show is soooooooo hysterically funny, intelligently satirical and irreverent, it's an absolute joy to watch. In fact, it's the first time a pre-show disclaimer has actually made me laugh, simply because I know what's coming! The only thing I don't like about it is how sh---y they are to Meg, the daughter...I realize it's only a cartoon, but I think they're all gratuitously mean to her. That said, and to elaborate on Cranky Yankee's comment, "Cops," "Jail," and "Two and a Half Men" are a few more of my faves.

I've got to agree with you about Family Guy and Two and a Half Men, Rick. Both are cutting edge, cynical, and consistently funny. I can't get into Cops though. That there are so many sad, stupid, and dysfunctional small-time addicts and criminals in so many bad neighborhoods, in so many mid-size economically depressed American cities just depresses the crap out of me. I like cynical comedy, but that stuff is just sad.
 
One of the funniest things I ever saw on COPS was a Tampa episode. Two cops go out to quell a domestic disturbance at a place they've been at umpteen times. An old man and woman with pronounced North Jersey/NYC accents going at.The cops were on a first name basis with them.

The cops get 'em settled down and as the two officers are heading back to the car,the one one cop looks at the other and says,"Why do they have to come down here to die?"
 
Speaking of Bob Saget (in relation to post a few spots above), I caught his recent HBO comedy special. While I love dirty humor like the next guy, it was obvious that he was over-compensating for the clean humor that he was famous (or infamous, whichever you prefer) for both Full House and America's Funniest Home Videos. I know he did more adult humor in his stand-ups prior to Full House, so the foul language (and getting back to his roots, so to speak) wasn't much of a shock. It was just the over-use of the foul language that got annoying.

Anyone that only knows Saget from Full House and/or AFHV exclusively would be in for a shock if they ever watch his HBO special.
 
Anyone that only knows Saget from Full House and/or AFHV exclusively would be in for a shock if they ever watch his HBO special.

Or "The Aristocrats" or "Half Baked".
 
ShawnHill1 said:
Anyone that only knows Saget from Full House and/or AFHV exclusively would be in for a shock if they ever watch his HBO special.
Click to expand...

...same thing goes for Felicia Michaels, who was a recurring cast member in the last couple of years of the show. Not one punchline of her stand-up act in Vegas would ever have made it past ABC S&P...
 
Corky Marlowe said:
Anyone that only knows Saget from Full House and/or AFHV exclusively would be in for a shock if they ever watch his HBO special.

Or "The Aristocrats" or "Half Baked".
Click to expand...

Of course, and I have Half Baked on DVD.
 
Saget's club act was like that from day one. I always found it ironic that he went on to be Mr.Cleancut for two decades on TV.

Saget getting that "Full House gig was similar to Paul Ruebens,Pee-Wee Herman character getting the kids show.
Both had adults only acts in the early 80's.

The Pee-Wee Herman character started out as an overgrown kid/perverted children's TV host in his club act circa '79. That "Pee-Wee" would push Paul Reuben's to fame and he would get caught whacking off in an adult bookstore was the purest form of irony.
 
I can almost make up a list...

1.)Andy's Gang 1950s Saturday morning on NBC..I remember the NBC xylophone logo to this day. Remember Froggy The Gremlin? (hi-ya kids...hiyahiya!) Thank you You Tube!

2.) Ultra Man-the classic Japanese sci-fi series where Hayata transformed into the super hero when he switched on his Beta capsule to duke it out with the man-eating orchid that was theatening to eat Tokyo! (LOL!!! :D ;D ::) )

3.) Speed Racer-what more can be said about the fast-talking voice actors Pete Fernandez,Corrine Orr and Jack Curtis. I swear they used the same orchestra from Ultra Man on this series as well! I love this show even today...my kids love it too and I am looking forward to the release of the live action movie. WKEF in Dayton ran Speed and Ultra back to back on weekday afternoons after a hellish day of high school marching band practice!

4.) Big Time Wrestling - You loved to hate The Sheik and The California Hells Angels and you rooted for Rocky Johnson and Ben Justice. Anybody out there with some video clips of this Michigan-based series taped at WNEM in Bay City? (You Tube-ers take note!) This beats out WWF/E and WCW any day!

5.) The Monkees- The chicks obviously dug on 'ol Davy Jones but Micky Dolenz with his outlandish off the wall schiticks and Peter Tork's simpleton personna were the reasons this series made me laugh hysterically!

6.)Supercar- With Mike Mercury and its spinoff series "Fireball Xl-5" with Steve Zodiac...in "SUPERMARIONATION!" (wow!)

7.)Cool McCool-I always felt for this character from the Al Brodax era of King Features Television..because he was sympathetic and took so much grap from his boss "Number 1"...haven't we been in Cool's shoes at least several times in our lives? Brodax also prodcued The Beatles animated series a year before.

...speaking of King Features:
8.)Gene Deitch's and William L. Snyder's adaptation of the Krazy Kat animated cartoons in the late 60s/early 70s. The sound effects and hyperactive sequences made me die laughing. A favorite of mine on WKEF-TV's "Clubhouse 22" with original host Malcolm McLeaud.

9.)I Dream of Jeannie- I absolutely adored Barbara Eden in that silky female genie outfit when I was in my early teens...she made me wish I had a harem back then!

10.)Where The Action Is- Wish this series was in color..it only ran for less than two seasons in the late afternons on ABC. Dick Clark was behind the camera and microphone while Paul Revere and The Raiders and the othersrocked all over Southern California's hot spots.

11.) The (original) Price Is Right on NBC hosted by Bill Cullen with Don Pardo announcing. Cullen's on-air clowning around and his facination with wind-up toys always gave me a good laugh when I was a little dude. I have been inspired by Pardo to this day!

12.) Trailer Park-the short-lived series of 1950s/60s era sci-fi movie previews hosted by Tom Davis on the Sci Fi Channel.

13.)Cannonball-the sydnicated early 1960s series of two truck drivers saving lives,catching bad guys and doing random acts of kindness when they were between long hauls in their cab-over 1950s era GMC...no multi-lighted Peterbilts with chrome silhouettes of well endowed babes on their mudflaps here...they were decent family-guy type truckers!

14.)Sky King- Kirby Grant in the title role in his 1950s era two seater Cessna "Songbird" aircraft..pretty much doing the same thing the truckers were doing in "Cannonball" and always pulling his seemingly impetuous teenage niece Penny (Gloria Winters)out of trouble.

15.)The Cisco Kid- ZIV Television Productions at its campiest and best with Duncan Renaldo and Leo Carrillo "aw....pancho....eh Cisco!" LOL!

16.) The Lawrence Welk Show- As much I detested this series as a teen (and Irish tenor Joe Feeney) in the era of Beatlemania and Woodstock...I must admit I admired The Lennon Sisters when I was a little kid beforehand. The PBS/Oklahoma Network compilations I find comparitively more palatable when hosted by Mary Lou Metzger..she does a great job..and I must admit, I'm getting older now!

17.)The Brady Bunch- in three words....MARCIA! MARCIA! MARCIA!

Last (and certainly not least)
16.)The Adventures of Superman-Arch-villians throwing Jimmy Olson up against an unstable cardboard brick wall while threatening him (gasp!). Superman saving Lois Lane's life by stopping a rotating sawblade by just merely looking at it! WOW...howd he do that?
 
Legend City said:
Add to that, McLean Stevenson, Debralee Scott, Richard Deacon, Jack Carter (still can't stand him), Dan Rowan, Skip Stevenson, Avery Schreiber...
Click to expand...
You sure Dan Rowan was on Match Game? I know his erstwhile comic partner, Dick Martin, was a frequent MG panelist in the show's final years after Richard Dawson skedaddled. . . .
 
Newname said:
Mine is a more recent show, but still in a 'retro' vein, 'That '70s Show'. I never watched it til I caught the early reruns about 5 years ago. I briefly watched it in first-run, but gave up in 2005, figuring it had run its course. I'm now catching up with the final(05-06) season (minus Ashton Kutcher and Topher Grace) on FX. Just this week, they ran the episodes guest-starring Mary Tyler Moore.
That show really compares with 'Happy Days'...the last year is comparable to that of the older show, when the actors ahd obviously been at it for too long.
But even that last year had its moments, mostly due to numerous cameos by '70s sitcom actors(including what was probably the final appearance of Don Knotts, spoofing his 'Furley' character.)
Click to expand...

"That 70's Show" was the first of many shows (followed by Malcolm and the Middle, Family Guy, and other shows not even worth mentioning) that Fox overhyped so horribly during its football and baseball broadcasts that I simply refused to watch it for years. Then in 2002 WFLD in Chicago began airing it between Simpsons reruns, and I discovered I liked it quite a bit. Haven't seen much of the final season though.
 
EnbyCee said:
Newname said:
Mine is a more recent show, but still in a 'retro' vein, 'That '70s Show'. I never watched it til I caught the early reruns about 5 years ago. I briefly watched it in first-run, but gave up in 2005, figuring it had run its course. I'm now catching up with the final(05-06) season (minus Ashton Kutcher and Topher Grace) on FX. Just this week, they ran the episodes guest-starring Mary Tyler Moore.
That show really compares with 'Happy Days'...the last year is comparable to that of the older show, when the actors ahd obviously been at it for too long.
But even that last year had its moments, mostly due to numerous cameos by '70s sitcom actors(including what was probably the final appearance of Don Knotts, spoofing his 'Furley' character.)
Click to expand...

"That 70's Show" was the first of many shows (followed by Malcolm and the Middle, Family Guy, and other shows not even worth mentioning) that Fox overhyped so horribly during its football and baseball broadcasts that I simply refused to watch it for years. Then in 2002 WFLD in Chicago began airing it between Simpsons reruns, and I discovered I liked it quite a bit. Haven't seen much of the final season though.
Click to expand...

Then ironically before Fox reserved the 7:30/6:30P Sunday slot to their NFL postgame show in fall 2006, Malcolm (and I think also some Simpsons repeats and King of the Hill) were victims of the "We Will Now be Joining this Show in Progress" syndrome by the network following football telecasts.
 
Dukes of Hazzard
Enos
Family Ties(until Andy was born)
Bewitched
Baywatch
New Zoo Review...anyone remember? :D
America's Top 10 w/ Casey- remember sending in my questions to try & win that Akai system & reel to reel. Never got em. :(
Emergency
Laverne & Shirley
All In the Family
Jeffersons
WKRP DEFINATELY!
Great Space Coaster
old Scooby Doo episodes where stars would pay visits
any old Bowery Boys
Doogie Howser, M.D
Three's Company
Love Boat
Fantasy Island
Starskey & Hutch
Maude
My 3 Sons
Frasier
Jokers Wild
Andy Griffith
Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C
Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles
Forever Knight
6 Million Dollar Man
Old & New Bionic Woman...has the new one been cancelled already ??? :(?
original Star Trek(hated it as a kid but love it now!)
original Charlie's Angels- the outfits!
Barnaby
Lassie
Flipper!


no new ignorant reality shows or new game shows.
 
For me, it's gotta be Dragnet - the NBC color version...the dialogue was terrible, the acting as stiff as a board. (the actors didn't memorize lines, they READ them off of well placed teleprompters) the whole show kinda came off as propaganda for the Nixon administartion..but dammit I still love to watch it!!

BTW you can find some classics here

www.hulu.com
 
For me, it's gotta be Dragnet - the NBC color version...the dialogue was terrible, the acting as stiff as a board. (the actors didn't memorize lines, they READ them off of well placed teleprompters) the whole show kinda came off as propaganda for the Nixon administartion..but dammit I still love to watch it!!
The 2 best perps? The guy posing as a forest ranger who, whenever Friday and Gannon tried to question him, would start spouting off a bunch of stats about forests, and of course, Mister Daniel Loomis.
 
wbhist said:
Legend City said:
Add to that, McLean Stevenson, Debralee Scott, Richard Deacon, Jack Carter (still can't stand him), Dan Rowan, Skip Stevenson, Avery Schreiber...
Click to expand...
You sure Dan Rowan was on Match Game? I know his erstwhile comic partner, Dick Martin, was a frequent MG panelist in the show's final years after Richard Dawson skedaddled. . . .
Click to expand...

There were quite a few former Laugh-in people who were on Match Game, especially in the early years, but I don't remember ever seeing Dan Rowan in the reruns on GSN.
 
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