A Thing about TV

A Thing about TV

Saw this at Barry's.

Now, I've just about watched the hell out of my TV....

FAVORITE TV MOM

I think my answer's gonna end up being Roseanne Connor. Not because she meets or matches any particular ideal, but because I think it ended up being the best mesh of honest and entertaining. The whole thing where she isn't the ideal mother ends up making for a better show.

FAVORITE TV DAD

It's a tie.

Andy Taylor is the best TV Dad. Quiet and wise, he makes sure Opie gets raised right. My favorite Andy as a Dad moment is Andy's dilemma as to whether Mr. McBeavey exists...he doesn't want to punish Opie, because he wants to believe in his son. (I often think about the scenario where Mr. McBeavey doesn't exist, and I always wondered how that would have ended. I think Andy might have crippled Opie.)

And I can't have watched The Simpsons all my life without saying Homer's my favorite TV Dad. But, let's make it the Homer from seasons 3 through 9 or 10. Not the outright idiot jerkass he seems to be in the later seasons.

FAVORITE ENDEARING NERD

Does Lisa from Newsradio count?

My blog, so yes. Yes she does.

RUNNER UP

I'm gonna say Bill Haverchuck, from Freaks and Geeks. He reminds me a lot of myself, in personality, if not in look....

FAVORITE SHOW, NOSTALGIC

You know, both the Dukes of Hazzard and the A-Team were favorites from my youth. I can't watch for long, now. I think the memories of Dukes of Hazzard and A-Team are what I'll have to go by.

FAVORITE SHOW, EVER AND EVER, AMEN

The Simpsons. Even the crappy ones.

VERY CLOSE RUNNER UP

I'm gonna put Arrested Development right here. And the three seasons of Arrested Development were each better than anything else on TV during that time.

The Andy Griffith Show will come in right behind that.

CHARACTER I KINDA WANTED TO BE WHEN I WAS A KID

Luke Duke. Which looks really stupid when I right it out. Bo usually drove, while Luke was the one who, on occasion, leaned out of the window of the General Lee and shot arrows. I wanted to be the one shooting the arrows.

Also, I wanted to be the Incredible Hulk. Because he flipped cars and smashed stuff.

CHARACTER I REALLY WANT TO BE NOW

Part of me wants to be Josh Lyman, off West Wing. Maybe not politically. But because he's able to stay light-hearted, yet irrepresibly passionate.

But let me tell ya, all the ladies love that Sawyer guy from Lost. If I could not be stuck on the crazy island, but have all the ladies want me, I'd like to be Sawyer, from Lost.

Or, the Incredible Hulk. Because he flipped cars and smashed stuff.

CHARACTER I REALLY AM

Hmmm.

Part of me screams "Dennis Blunden" from Head of the Class.

I think also compare favorably with Merlin Olsen's character from Little House on the Prairie.

BEST TV HOUSE

I'm torn between Pee Wee's Playhouse and stately Wayne Manor, what with the clothes-changing batpoles.

BEST ROMANCE

Don't know. How bout I say that of Woody and Kelly on Cheers?

BEST FINALE EPISODE I CAN REMEMBER

From a storytelling standpoint, I still dig the Roseanne finale, which explains that the whole shebang is something the Roseanne Connor character's been writing as she went, changing the facets of her "real" life to make a better story...explaining going so far as to justify the last really crappy season (where they'd won the lottery) was her way of dealing with the fact that in that reality, Dan had died from the heart attack....

FAVORITE EPISODE EVER

Of any show ever?

Jeez.

The answer may change tomorrow, but tonight I'll say "In Excelsis Deo", from West Wing.

RUNNER(s) UP

Other favorites: Bart vs. Australia, from The Simpsons; Mountain Wedding, from the Andy Griffith Show; The Two Cathedrals, from West Wing

FAVORITE RANDOM LINES

"What does a yellow light mean?" "Slow Down!" "What....Does....A....Yellow....Light....Mean?" (Taxi)

"You're not getting your ass kicked!" (Dr. Cox, from Scrubs, after getting lured to the parking lot by the promise that his wildest dream was coming true.)

"I have a message: Lt. Col. Henry Blake's plane was shot down over the Sea of Japan. It spun in. There were no survivors." (M*A*S*H)

And just about any you find here...

CHARACTER I WOULD MOST WANT TO BE STRANDED ON DESERT ISLAND WITH

MacGyver. I know I'm supposed to say something like "Lisa from Newsradio" or "Abby from E.R." but Dammit...I don't want to be stranded on an island, period. I figure MacGyver should be able to get me off the island.

BEST CHEMISTRY

The cast of Friends.

BEST DREAM GUY

You know, I'm not gay, but Uncle Jed Clampett sure had a lot of money.....

BEST DREAM GIRL

I've just about worn out the Maura Tierney thing.

SUPER FANTASTIC BESTEST MOST GREATEST THING EVER

This comes out of left field, but there is an episode of Wings, where they go to tear down their childhood home. Lowell, played by Thomas Haden Church, disappears during the demolition. At the moment the rest of the cast realizes he is gone, you see a chainsaw blade appear through the ceiling, where it beings to saw a circle.

When the circle is complete, Lowell, chainsaw and all, falls through, and when he sees the people who were downstairs, asks "How did you guys get up here?"

That, my friend, was the greatest piece of TV ever.