TV Land Awards

[applcin]

I love watching the TV Land Awards, revisiting shows I grew up with or used to watch long ago.

This year:

Bosom Buddies - I never thought I'd see Tom Hanks in any way, shape or form, reunited with his BB castmates. Back then, it was like, who would have believed this goofy guy would become a megastar?

Charo & her coochie coochie - love her

Tim Allen as a host was kind of a non-presence.

Love that chorus of tv stars at the end backing up Hasselhoff--Richard Moll, lol! But I wish Shirley Jones would leave Marty Ingels home more often.

[DRW50]

Whenever I get sad at how such a great comedian as Tom Hanks has become so serious and depressing over the last 15 years, I remember that he still keeps in touch with the Bosom Buddies cast. He helped Wendie Jo Sperber (one of the most underrated, hilarious, wacky comedians ever -- she never got the success she deserved...I miss her so much) pay for her medical bills in her last years.

Bosom Buddies had such a wonderful cast. They had to be wonderful to make that premise worked. And it did work, somehow! The job-related stuff was fun, Holland Taylor was at her deliciously droll best. Yet the stupid drag stuff also worked, and Tom and Donna Dixon had sweet chemistry.

Peter Scolari was also hot hot hot back then.

[All My Shadows]

The most cringe-worthy 90 minutes of TV every year! But I still look forward to it, though.

I was expecting the Bosom Buddies moment to be very awkward, but I liked how they approached it. They all knew that the only reason why people even remember the show now is because of Tom, and they're all okay with it. Telma looked fabulous as always. Peter Scolari is still a looker (he was SO cute in those tight little shorts in the opening...and there I go, third time in a day that I'm lusting over someone's thighs). Donna Dixon put on a few, but she's still very pretty and still has that voice. Holland Taylor's always great. I do love that in the montage, they only mentioned the late Wendie Jo Sperber, but when Tom got on stage, he also made a mention of Lucille Benson, who was great on the show and on The Ropers. It really turned out to be a nice little segment.

LOVED my Love Boat peeps showing up. I had no idea Gavin MacL is in poor health. I hope it's just a passing illness. Jill Whelan always looks like Lisa Hartman to me, and Lauren Tewes is another who put on a few pounds but is still cute a button. Ted Lange is awesome, as is Bernie Kopell. Fred Grandy...eh, he just had to bring politics into it, but whatever.

Honestly, I didn't even pay attention to most of the rest of the show. I did enjoy the Charlie's Angels moment, but I felt that TVLand was only trying to capitalize off of the Farrah publicity, especially with that montage. They should do a memorial montage for everyone every year, IMO. I got sick of seeing Jane Lynch every five seconds, too, and I turned the channel on the Glee segment. And WTF was Blondie doing there?!

The first year was the best.

[All My Shadows]

I didn't know any of this. That's so sweet about Wendie Jo. I've always wanted to see her in Babes

[DRW50]

I didn't know about Lucille Benson. I guess it's not a surprise, but sad.

The show probably wouldn't be remembered if not for Tom but it's telling that so many of the cast went on to greater fame. That was a damn good cast.

I also tend to remember the show for having 2 theme songs, for syndication reasons. I love "My Life" but years later I still can't get that other theme, the "I'd like to be J. Paul Getty, that guy, he's got some potential, but the only thing that's essential is having a friend like you..." theme out of my head. I've never found that anywhere though.

[SFK]

I'm sad that I missed it. I always enjoy it but the saddest thing is when you see an old favorite on there one year and they're gone the next.

Who did Lucille Benson play on The Ropers?

[All My Shadows]

The J. Paul Getty theme (sung by the lovely and talented Stephanie Mills) was also used as the show's closing theme, though I seem to recall that version being an instrumental. I want to say a few episodes that aired on TBS a few years ago were using the Stephanie theme over the opening too, but I'm not sure.

Tom's success and the show's wacky plot's got it some rerun life, that's for sure. It was on TVLand for a few years, I think, but I always watched it on TBS like 6 or 7 years ago. Even Oxygen had it on for a while, back-to-back with Kate and Allie.

Speaking OF, I was LOLing when they randomly brought out Jennie and Emma from Kate and Allie as the award girls. Poor things. They should have been in the audience with the rest of the stahs. I remember they did that crap to Marc Copage, but then he accepted I want to say the Pioneer Award with Diahann for Julia. That was a very sweet, adorable moment with the two of them. I only wished they could have gotten the kid who played Earl J. Waggedorn there too, as well as the sexxxy Fred Williamson, who played Julia's boyfriend in the last season.

I think I ramble too much

[All My Shadows]

Helen's mother.

[DRW50]

Stephanie Mills, thanks, I didn't know who sang that.

I first saw the show in the USA reruns. Ever since then I have always associated the show with USA...that and Facts of Life. Who cares that they haven't run on that network since sometime when Bill Clinton was in the White House.

I got kind of sick of the TV Guide Awards because they kept shoehorning in these new shows that weren't all that special and would probably fall apart within a year or two, much less 30 or 40. They did that with Ugly Betty (Ugly Betty White), that parody seemed to go on and on. I will try to catch this new one in reruns, to see the Bosom Buddies group, but hearing that so much of the show is devoted to that overrated Glee, with the horrible autotuning, heavy stereotypes, and with stories that seem made up as they go along, doesn't thrill me.

[SFK]

Ah, gotcha. I have very few memories of The Ropers, it aired in daytime syndication during the summer when I was elementary school age. I remember the opening credits wih the bowl cut kid just standing there holding a red ball (?).

[SFK]

Yeah, these were the best:

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And even with the second one it was starting to wear a little thin, I think the SATC parody was miscast as much as I love each lady. Katherine Helmond is more the Samantha, red hair be damned for the Miranda connection.

[applcin]

Word. I felt if they were going to memorialize Farrah, they should have also done so for John Forsythe, Robert Culp, Fess Parker, Pernell Roberts, etc.

I don't watch Glee so I was like why do they keep showing this woman????

Was hoping Blondie would also sing Heart of Glass. I liked Earth, Wind & Fire better (last year, I think?)

Ah, first year...John Ritter.

Oh, almost forgot....Everybody Loves Raymond. I'm tired of getting smothered with this show. Enough already.

[DRW50]

Here's Stephanie singing the theme, superimposed over some performance. At first I didn't realize this was some random slo-mo scene and I thought she was severely intoxicated.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PncGG7IUxSo

[All My Shadows]

LOL yes. The Ropers has gotten a little exposure over the last few years, believe it or not. TVLand aired it for TC's 30th anniversary and WGN America aired it for some random week-long event with Too Close for Comfort and the Canadian sitcom Check It Out (with Tonya Lee Williams!).

I loved the TVLand Awards parody of Grey's Anatomy, where they had all of these people from old medical/hospital shows. Chad Everett, Diahann Carroll, Richard Chamberlain, Jamie Farr, etc. Of course, Chad was McDreamy.

But yeah, they've been weird with their Future Classic picks. Friday Night Lights is a future classic. But they picked Ugly Betty that year, and I have no idea why. They're also unclear as to if the shows they pick are supposed to be new or established. Two and Half Men (another dull choice) has been on the air for years, but they just won it last year.

[DRW50]

Did they ever do anything for Debralee Scott? She was so quirky and hilarious. 70s and early 80s sitcoms had such quirky, interesting women. After that, with a few exceptions, they all became mothers, bimbos, ingenues, shrews, especially as the 90s started in.