You Ever Notice...and What's the Deal...

minor muppetz

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A few "what's the deal?" observations about Adam Sandler movies (I know, some of you dislike Sandler....):

Shouldn't the main characters in "Grown Ups" act more childish? I was under the impression that they'd be adults acting like children, but then I saw it, and they don't act childish enough. They're pretty much parents who want their kids to have the kind of fun they had as kids as opposed to being so focused on modern technology... I think it's safe to assume most parents are that way. The closest thing I can think of to them behaving like immature children is teasing each other quite a bit, but adults do tease each other in real life (I often tease people I know who are close to my age, and vice-versa). None of their antics are of the same childish quality as, say, Billy Madison setting a bag of poop on fire and putting it on someone's porch, or a football player in The Water Boy spitting in the cooler just to be mean, or teaching a kid to pee on a building in Big Daddy, or many of the antics that occur in Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star.

As a diabetic, I must point out that a few Adam Sandler movies have diabetes wrong (I think a few other works of fiction do, too... I wonder if TV Tropes has a "Hollywood Diabetes" trope). In Eight Crazy Nights Elanore has diabetes, and they tend to only say she can't have things with sugar or she'll die, as if only sugar is dangerous, but there are a lot of non-sugar foods that diabetics should only eat at meals or as snacks (otherwise blood sugar goes up), and diabetics should eat sugar items if they have low blood sugar. And I don't think a diabetic would get sick if they accidetally had a little sugar (there have been many times when I've gone to restaurants and they mistakenly brought me regular soft drinks instead of diet, and I've usually turned out fine... Good thing I'm able to tell if it tastes like regular right away). Of course there are a few different types of diabetes, so maybe some of these "Hollywood diabetes" examples relate to the other types, and over the years my medications have changed (from having to eat meals and snacks at certain times to being able to have meals at earlier or later times if necessary) and currently am on an insulin pump (so I'm not as limited regarding what and when I can eat).

But back to the topic of diabetes in Adam Sandler films, I must point out that scene in Just Go with It, shortly after the kids agree to pretend to be his kids and the daughter says that any information should be accepted, which Sandler's character initially uses to get the kids to eat right. He tells the boy he didn't get him any soda because he was battling diabetes, but if the kid was a diabetic (I know, he's not really) he could have given him a diet soda (unless it's believed that a kid wouldn't want to drink diet).

And on the subject of going along with any information presented in Just Go with It, the way that the boy takes advantage of it to get a trip to Hawaii, Sandler could have said he was lying and it wouldn't really be contradictory. After all, kids do lie and try to make adults feel guilty. And when Sandler tries to say that wasn't true and the girl shouts "DIE!", which is what the students in her improv class do when somebody doesn't accept information provided, that's good when people know it's an act, but the main characters' girlfriend is not supposed to know it's an act, so "DIE!" would be wrong to shout in front of her. But of course Just Go with It is one of Adam Sandler's worst movies so maybe it's to be expected.

I once saw a newspaper review of the Adam Sandler film "Funny People", which mentions that it pokes fun at the roles he often plays when showing examples of the main characters film work, in which the character plays a mermaid and a man turned into a baby... But Adam Sandler rarely plays fantasy-type characters, with Little Nicky being the only such character he's played. Actually I can't remember if the mermaid role was a character turned into a mermaid, but as far as I know Adam Sandler hasn't played characters who transform into things.
 

D'Snowth

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Shouldn't the main characters in "Grown Ups" act more childish? I was under the impression that they'd be adults acting like children, but then I saw it, and they don't act childish enough.
Well, it's kind of like that movie OUR IDIOT BROTHER (I think): the main character is supposed to be a manchild, right? Well, he engages in acts that kids don't go around doing (like getting high, for one thing), and he basically comes off as more of a simple-minded slacker than a manchild... but then again, I guess they can't take a chance of basically being a Pee-wee ripoff: Pee-wee IS THE prime example of a manchild - he's a grown man, but he lives in a house full of toys and talking objects, loves riding around on his awesome customized bike, thinks women have cooties, plays with his food, all that jazz.
 

minor muppetz

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Well, it's kind of like that movie OUR IDIOT BROTHER (I think): the main character is supposed to be a manchild, right? Well, he engages in acts that kids don't go around doing (like getting high, for one thing), and he basically comes off as more of a simple-minded slacker than a manchild...

I've never heard of that movie Our Idiot Brother.

So it's weird, I assumed Grown Ups was an ironic title, only to be a more appropriate title than I expected.
 

minor muppetz

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It seems like back in the old days of television, most shows would have very few Christmas episodes (and the same can be said about other holidays to a lesser extent), it seems they generally had one Christmas episode for every 4-5 seasons, though there are exceptions (for example, all six seasons of The Bob Newhart Show had their own Christmas episode), but now it seems like every TV show has a Christmas episode every season. Has there been a bigger demand/more pressure for shows to put out Christmas episodes every season?

Look at The Simpsons. For the first 7 years, it only had one Christmas episode. Then they started putting out more every few years, and now it seems like The Simpsons has a Christmas episode every year. Though after all these years Family Guy only has two Christmas episodes.

Of course, back in the old days I think the networks didn't want to rerun the Christmas episodes during the summer reruns and instead reran them every Christmas season, even if there were changes to the show. I know that the Christmas episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show was repeated the following year (according to the book Nick at Nite Classic TV Companion), and I've read that the first Happy Days Christmas episode was repeated every year until 1979 (which I guess was bad for the people behind-the-scenes who just wanted fans to forget about Chuck...).

I was looking at some of the earlier posts in this thread, and I'm inspired to ask, what's the deal with the name Barney? It seems like a very common name on television, but I've never heard of any actual people named Barney, and even the popularity of the purple menace - err, dinosaur hasn't stopped writers and creators from naming characters Barney.

And there's quite a few popular ficticious Barney's, including:
  • Barney the Dinosaur (DUH!)
  • Barney Rubble (The Flintstones)
  • Barney Fife (The Andy Griffith Show)
  • Barney Stinson (How I Met Your Mother)
  • Barney Miller (not just the title character from Barney Miller, but it was also the name of a character from another show, can't remember what show, but I've read that revivals of that show changed his name to Barney Hiller)
  • Chuckie's imaginary friend Barney (Rugrats episode "My Friend Barney"... Though that one's not quite as famous)
 

D'Snowth

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It seems like back in the old days of television, most shows would have very few Christmas episodes (and the same can be said about other holidays to a lesser extent), it seems they generally had one Christmas episode for every 4-5 seasons, though there are exceptions (for example, all six seasons of The Bob Newhart Show had their own Christmas episode), but now it seems like every TV show has a Christmas episode every season. Has there been a bigger demand/more pressure for shows to put out Christmas episodes every season?
I've noticed that too: I think a lot of it has to do with ratings... networks want to bring in ratings during certain times of the year (known as "sweeps"), and with Christmas being the big commercial racket that it is, I'm sure the networks want to cash in on it as much as they can with having all their shows having Christmas episodes every season. Similarly, notice too how back in the day, TV shows had even less Halloween episodes than they did Christmas episodes (BEWITCHED had like two or three during its eight-year run, for example), but likewise, nowaday, every show seems to have a Halloween episode or special every season. Again: ratings.
And there's quite a few popular ficticious Barney's, including:
  • Barney the Dinosaur (DUH!)
  • Barney Rubble (The Flintstones)
  • Barney Fife (The Andy Griffith Show)
  • Barney Stinson (How I Met Your Mother)
  • Barney Miller (not just the title character from Barney Miller, but it was also the name of a character from another show, can't remember what show, but I've read that revivals of that show changed his name to Barney Hiller)
  • Chuckie's imaginary friend Barney (Rugrats episode "My Friend Barney"... Though that one's not quite as famous)
I'm pretty sure I mentioned something similar regarding Freds... you got Fred (the annoying YouTube sensation), Fred Mertz (I LOVE LUCY), Fred Flintstone (THE FLINTSTONES), Fred Sanford (SANFORD AND SON), Fred the Wonder Horse (a wonder horse), Fred Astaire (a dancer), Fred Gwynne (Herman Munster), Big Head Fred (advertising mascot), Fred (a discount dollar store-like place that sells nothing but junk), Fred Armisen (an alien) to name a few... I think there's a Fred Farm out there somewhere where all these Freds come from, and you can probably get your own Fred at a very special Fred price.
 

minor muppetz

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I'm pretty sure I mentioned something similar regarding Freds... you got Fred (the annoying YouTube sensation), Fred Mertz (I LOVE LUCY), Fred Flintstone (THE FLINTSTONES), Fred Sanford (SANFORD AND SON), Fred the Wonder Horse (a wonder horse), Fred Astaire (a dancer), Fred Gwynne (Herman Munster), Big Head Fred (advertising mascot), Fred (a discount dollar store-like place that sells nothing but junk), Fred Armisen (an alien) to name a few... I think there's a Fred Farm out there somewhere where all these Freds come from, and you can probably get your own Fred at a very special Fred price.

That was my inspiration for the list of Barney's. I was looking through every page of this thread today to make sure I didn't already ask those "what's the deal with...?" questions about Adam Sandler movies (I couldn't remember if I have here, but I knew I had brought those up elsewhere).
 

D'Snowth

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I'm pretty sure I mentioned this before, but it's kind of reached a level of ridiculousness at this point:

So, a bunch of people are actually petitioning Oprah, demanding that she remove all of Tyler Perry's work from her OWN network, because his movies and shows are "racist"... which honestly does not make any sense whatsoever. I mean, can somebody please explain to me how a black man producing black shows and movies about black people is racist?

But I know what the perfect irony is here: the complaints are more than likely coming from the exact same people who complain about other shows and movies being "racist" because they have a bunch of white people in the cast... heck, SEINFELD's TV Tropes page even complains that there "sure are a lot of white people" on the show... and SEINFELD was on the air back when we still didn't have this unwritten code in television production that every show has to include at least one ethnic character in the main ensemble.
 

CensoredAlso

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I mean, can somebody please explain to me how a black man producing black shows and movies about black people is racist?
Well I guess they would say he is encouraging unflattering stereotypes. But I get what you're saying, at least he's getting African Americans work in the business.
 

minor muppetz

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Tonight I was watching the Family Guy episode "Barely Legal", in which Meg becomes obsessed with Brian. Near the end, when Lois wishes she could talk some sense into Meg, Quaigmire informs her that he knows what to do, and in the next scene Meg comes to Quaigmire's house and says that Lois told her to come to his house.... But Meg was there when Quaigmire told Lois. Lois didn't need to tell Meg.
 

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Well, it's kind of like that movie OUR IDIOT BROTHER (I think): the main character is supposed to be a manchild, right? Well, he engages in acts that kids don't go around doing (like getting high, for one thing), and he basically comes off as more of a simple-minded slacker than a manchild... but then again, I guess they can't take a chance of basically being a Pee-wee ripoff: Pee-wee IS THE prime example of a manchild - he's a grown man, but he lives in a house full of toys and talking objects, loves riding around on his awesome customized bike, thinks women have cooties, plays with his food, all that jazz.
PeeWee is a special example. It's not so much that he's a man-child so much as he's a parody kid's show host turned actual kid's show host. Technically he's supposed to be a slightly twisted parody of Pinky Lee (which I just barely know of) and Soupy Sales. The movies kinda give him more character, but in the end, Pee Wee Herman was a parody character created for a stage show because Paul Reubens was rejected from SNL. And for the best, because that was one of the terrible seasons.

Plus, I wouldn't so much just say he's a man child so much as he's sort of one, but more along the lines of being completely stuck in a cartoonish interpretation of 1960's campy nostalgia. You know... very tacky 1960's nostalgia.
 
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