0004: My Favorite TV Shows as of 2004
Submitted by AAA on Wed, 02/21/2001 - 09:08
Tags:
- Arrested Development
- Chapelle's Show
- The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
- Queer Eye for the Straight Guy
- Scrubs
- The Simpsons
- South Park
- R.I.P.
- Angel
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- Daria
- The Family Guy
- Northern Exposure
- Seinfeld
Author Comments:
The Mormon episode of South Park made me laugh so hard. Not so much the mocking Mormons part, but the final monologue. Christ, funny stuff.
Clarissa Explains It All - Ahh, Melissa Joan. We knew her when.
I loved that show. I had the biggest chrush on her. That was a while ago though...
Scrubs. I didn't think I'd enjoy it, but darn if the Friends lead-in didn't hook me. Ed's Tom Cavanaugh guested last night, it was great, I think I'm gonna keep watching, blah blah blah.
Yes! Soon I will have everyone hooked on Queer Eye...
Hopefully!
i think Scrubs is one if not the best and well wrote shos on tv today. its style is new and up to date with whats changing in comedy. its like no other and makes it a cut above shows such as Friends, which i am a fan of though. lol although very different i think CHEERS may still be the best show ever...maybe
There's more good news for your favorite shows: (I assume) you know that Family Guy is returning.
You have great taste in television... some of my current and all-time favorites. We're living in the age of Jon Stewart. He's going to be regarded as this generation's combination of Johnny Carson, Huntley-Brinkley and Uncle Walter.
I can understand the theoretical attraction of Queer Eye and I really enjoyed Daria but I will never understand what people saw in Northern Exposure. I try not to think of it as a personal failing but I just don't get it.
You might like News Radio (David Cross and Jon Stewart make guest appearances.) Stay away from the sixth season (like Heather Locklear with the plague) until you've seen all of the other episodes. [Damn Brynn Hartman. Damn her and her gun.]
Of course there's the superlative Homicide: Life on the Streets. I just can't say enough good about it...
I'm just in the midst of rewatching seasons 1 and 2 of Homicide. Loved it when it aired, love it even more now (if that's possible). Contender for best show ever, at least in the first few seasons.
As for News Radio, two Phil Hartman memories still make me burst into spontaneous laughter when I think about them today: the scene where he blows up at Andy Dick because he's quit smoking, and his indignation at being referred to as "adequate".
Yes! That is a great exchange . Can you believe that it is from the third show that they ever made? Then, at the end of the episode, Dave worries about Bill's health:
Dave: Well the important thing is that you're feeling okay now.
Bill: Yeah, but there are a few lingering effects. But you shouldn't worry about that.
Dave: Oh, what is it?
Bill: I'd rather not say.
Dave: Anything I can do to help.
Bill: It smells like an ashtray when I pee. Anything you can do to help me with that?
Dave: ...Gosh I hope not.
Bill going from adequate to adequacy and beyond was great. My ur-Bill moment is his racist ad for Rocket Fuel Malt Liquor which is improved through Catherine's knowledge of urban African-American slang.
And of course I meant to say avoid Season 5 of News Radio. A sixth season remains only a horrible theoretical possibility.
I agree wholeheartedly with you about HLotS. When you consider the pressure and constraints that NBC put on the show I believe that it was easily the best hour drama show ever on television. It is wonderous that the fans understood what was going on. HLotS, for a while, was part of the best two straight hours of commercial television ever imho. Friday nights: 9:00 X-Files on FOX, 10:00 HLotS on NBC [Richard Belzer's character John ("Dee-TEK-tive munch") Munch even guest starred on the X-Files before selling his soul to L&O:SVU.]
One of the fantastic things about HLotS was the integration of music into the show. To my mind it started with Buddy Guy's "Feels Like Rain" at the close of "Bop Gun" (the last episode of Season 2.) Music greatly impacted "Crosetti" from Season 3 and from then on the music became an extra actor. "The Gas Man" (the last episode of Season 3) was all about the music. For me the most effective and devestating use of a song was Belly's "Full Moon, Empty Heart" in "Every Mother's Son." All I have to do is remember the song and I'm right there in Baltimore with Frank and Tim, chasing down fourteen year-old Ronny Sayers.
What a great show....
Thanks for all the WAVs! I just snuck onto my wife's computer and changed her "you've got mail" sound to the "adequatulence" one. She loves it when I do that.
I always wanted to check out Newsradio, and maybe now, in this age of DVD, I will.
Living in MD, Homicide is a big part of our state's pop culture, but I was too young to watch it at the time.