Khan

Thanks, @Vee!

God, "Going Places" was so painful to watch. The hidden-camera show that the four lead characters worked on, "Here's Looking at You," sounded like the biggest piece of crap on TV. However, as I've alluded to elsewhere on this board, it had the same saving grace that almost all Miller/Boyett shows had: a good theme song.

BTY was a good (not great) sitcom, but it didn't belong on FOX. Three shows I'd add to the list: "Buffalo Bill," "Open All Night" and "The Slap Maxwell Story." All created or co-created by Jay Tarses; all brilliant; all gone way too soon. Actually, I thought that was where it belonged all along. "Just the Ten of Us" was much too smart for TGIF -- and I say that as someone who watched TGIF religiously. Another one I'd add to the list: "Almost Perfect," a two-season wonder from Robin Schiff, Ken Levine & David Isaacs. It starred Nancy Travis as Kim Cooper, a newly promoted EP on an "NYPD Blue"-esque cop show, who tries to juggle her new, high-pressure job (her predecessor left after suffering a nervous breakdown) with her new relationship with Mike Ryan, a district attorney, played by Kevin Kilner. AP possessed the magical combination of a great cast (in addition to Travis and Kilner, there were David Clennon ("thirtysomething"); Chip Zien (ex-Donald Steele, AMC); and Matthew Letscher ("Scandal," "The Carrie Diaries," etc.)) and great writing. As much as I love sitcoms, few made me laugh as hard as AP. However, CBS meddled with the show's premise, insisting that Schiff, Levine & Isaacs dump Mike. That decision, plus a time-slot change, sealed the show's fate. CBS cancelled it four episodes into its' second season; however, in the years since, the entire series has been rerun on both Lifetime and USA.

Olbermann is such a doofus for tweeting something like that. Does he not realize that not every Texan agrees with Gov. Greg Abbott that it's safe to remove the mask mandate and fully reopen public spaces? I think Abbott's a grade-A [!@#$%^&*], but I wouldn't want to see all Texans punished on account of him.

Yep.

I stopped even paying attention to RW after...wait, which season was the one with Colin and Amaya? Was that Hawaii? It was so skanky that I was afraid even to touch my TV set for fear of contracting herpes.

Agree!

There are, like, a half-dozen "Law & Order" episodes contained within that report on Jackson. And you know you're trash when your life is like even one episode of L&O.

Maureen Dowd: "Believe me, you want us on that wall." Not if it means you get another crack at selling us all down the damn river just so you can keep spooning with fascists.

Edith's affair with the very married (to Claire) Jim Lowell was pretty much the story that kicked off ATWT, as their illicit relationship sent shock waves through the Hughes and Lowell families, who were also connected via the law firm of Hughes, Lowell & Hughes. (Or was it Lowell, Hughes & Lowell? Anyways.) IIRC, Irna wanted the story to end with Edith and Jim happily married, but P&G opposed, saying it would send the wrong message to audiences. So, instead, she killed off Jim, and Edith later married George Frey before the two moved out of Oakdale.

The only thing I remember about "The Monroes" was someone getting locked out of their office after having sex and then having to go downstairs (IN THE NUDE) and get the security guard to help him back inside.

That could be the strangest "meet-cute" ever.

I think so, too. For sure, WTB? wasn't Lear's kind of sitcom. He preferred his shows to have an edge. WTB?'s creators, Martin Cohan and Blake Hunter, believed they were making some sort of feminist statement. Beyond the series' initial premise, however, it was a fairly standard family show/romantic comedy. DEFINITELY agree about "Perfect Strangers" and "Mr. Belvedere." The latter show's producers, Frank Dungan and Jeff Stein, have gone on-record with their ambivalence about their association with the show. For one thing, it was 20th Century Fox Television who approached Dungan and Stein with the "Belvedere" character, which they owned the rights to, rather than the other way around. Dungan and Stein were just wrapping up "Barney Miller" when they signed a development deal with 20th, and every other series they had pitched hadn't sold, so they were more-or-less compelled to develop "Belvedere," despite their hesitation toward working on a "family show." Moreover, they LOATHED doing Very Special Episodes, like the one about the camp counselor who was molesting Wesley and his friends (or something). However, VSE's always attracted attention from the media; and as Stein said in an interview about the release of the complete "Barney Miller" on DVD, they thought it'd be cool to see a "Belvedere" episode highlighted in that week's TV Guide.

Well, I stand corrected, lol.

And then you had Maggie Haberman's condescending ass telling every Twitter user who disagreed with Dowd that they are just too simple-minded to understand what journalism is or what journalists do. It all made me so damn angry. It still makes me so damn angry.

Exactly. I put 1987 as the line of demarcation between the first wave and the second (which, like you say, was dominated by Miller-Boyett's output). It isn't an EXACT line. "Valerie"/"Valerie's Family"/"The Hogans"/"The Hogan Family" (which is a strange animal in this genre: a Miller/Boyett show that began as a star vehicle for adult Valerie Harper, then morphed into a showcase for Jason Bateman, Jeremy Licht and Danny Ponce once she was fired) premiered the year before; and "Growing Pains," a wolf-in-sheep's-clothing family show that was ostensibly about Alan Thicke and Joanna Kerns' characters but really wasn't, the year before that. But, '87 is a good place to set down the marker, as that's the year FH, arguably the most successful and influential series from the second wave, premiered on ABC. I'd also agree that "The Wonder Years" and "Doogie Howser, M.D." were closer to the "adult shows" than they were to the kid ones. Kids and young adults watched them, but they weren't necessarily written and produced FOR them. Same goes for "Family Ties," "Gimme a Break!" and "Who's the Boss?". On each series, there was a balance of story and airtime between the kids and their adult counterparts (although, in "Gimme a Break!"'s case, you could certainly argue that every other character was just a prop for Nell Carter to lug around on set). Pretty much. For all intents and purposes, the end of "TGIF" on ABC's Friday night lineup was the end of all kid-centered sitcoms on the major networks. After that, if you wanted that kind of show, you had to go to cable. Exactly, lol. By any measure, "Strokes" and "Facts of Life" were, at best, middling successes. In fact, it's telling that Norman Lear never had his name associated with either series, even though his production companies, Tandem and T.A.T./Embassy, produced them both, and he had always put his name somewhere on new series in the past. However, "Strokes" and FoL benefited from being on NBC at a time when even a middling success was better than no success at all.

Honestly, I see all four still on the air in 2025, if only because the networks STILL won't have anything to replace them. If even one show goes, it'll be because that network has given up the ghost and ceded the airtime back to the affiliates.

This is DAYS, remember? He'll be back -- and as Charlie -- before the year is over.

PB (the original, not the revival) was one in a line of kid-centric shows from the late '70's and '80's -- like "Diff'rent Strokes," "Silver Spoons," "Webster," etc. -- that never grabbed huge ratings but were massively, even insanely, popular with younger audiences. In fact, I think the only show from that genre and period that ever cracked the Nielsen Top 30 was "The Facts of Life." "Full House" did better, of course, but I always associate it with the "second wave" of kid- and teen-friendly shows that started in the late '80's -- as stars like Gary Coleman, Rick(y) Schroder, Soleil Moon Frye and the FoL girls were "aging up" -- and continued in the next decade.

Same. PASSIONS was just terrible from day one; and SuBe WANTED to be like SANTA BARBARA, but it lacked the latter show's literate scriptwriting.

Yep, another convoluted story -- this one, involving Travis' fake kidnapping (for the insurance), Bianca's real kidnapping (by the same dude who was supposed to "abduct" Travis, I believe), Erica going incognito and on the run because she wanted to start over and protect Bianca (and falling for the guy who was in cahoots with Travis), Travis finding Erica and Steven Andrews/Dave Gillis (and killing the latter in some farmhouse), Travis somehow contracting amnesia (I forget how) that might have been the result of a brain tumor (again, not sure), and then ending up at Oakhaven for a period with Skye (with the Travis/Erica relationship pretty much dead). Although I still watched as often as I could, because the day-to-day writing was always top-notch, it just seemed like AMC was really into dark, shaggy dog stories during this period. But...on the other hand...Susan Lucci's hair never looked more luxurious. I'm pretty sure it was the latter, as Stephen Schenkel didn't want the strike to mess up what everyone was sure (and rightly so) would be a very powerful story.

It's pretty much what others have explained in this thread: the convoluted saga of Erica, Goldie, Silver/Noelle and Dr. Damon Lazarre, on an island that was owned by Eric, who was presumed dead at that point. IIRC, there was some sort of treasure on the island? And Eric's will stipulated that Erica was to inherit the island. However, because Goldie knew about the treasure, she needed Erica out of the way -- permanently -- so that Silver would inherit the island instead. (It was all very OLTL-esque, if you ask me.) Moreover, I'm not sure, but I seem to recall that was the story where Erica was shot in the abdomen, despite being pregnant with Bianca at the time. And I don't know why, but for some reason, I recall Louise Shaffer looking absolutely hideous as Goldie, with overbleached hair and ridiculous amounts of jewelry. It was as if AMC was trying to recreate the Opal/Jenny or Edna/Dottie dynamic with Goldie and Silver, only Goldie was a murderous psychopath.

I wish they had talked about her guest turns on "Law & Order" as Shambala Green. Otherwise, it was a great read. Thanks, @DRW50!

I wouldn't say "impressive." In fact, I'd say it was "f**kin' stoopid." And to have to be reminded of that idiocy like this? Even worse. But, Ron's gonna Ron.

Ooh child Things are gonna get easier Ooh child Things'll get brighter We need those words like never before.