The Classic TV Thread

[MikaelaMuppet]

Um... Colombo and Murder She Wrote aren't sitcoms...

Whoops. Should've put some of those down instead.

 

[Muppet Master]

I used to watch Three's Company a lot. Also Barney Miller, I Love Lucy, Seinfeld, and Married with Children.

 

[MikaelaMuppet]

This is really neat! Apparently, Eve Plumb is not only an actress and painter, but she's also a singer.

Just found this cool little thing yesterday.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

Um... Colombo and Murder She Wrote aren't sitcoms...

What the heck are you talking about? Those are two of the funniest sitcoms i've ever seen!

Come to think of it, those shows are pretty dark...I may need to see a psychiatrist.

 

[MikaelaMuppet]

What the heck are you talking about? Those are two of the funniest sitcoms i've ever seen!

Come to think of it, those shows are pretty dark...I may need to see a psychiatrist.

So those two are considered sitcoms after all?

 

[Old Thunder]

So those two are considered sitcoms after all?

No, @Pig's Laundry was just joking.

...I think.

 

[MikaelaMuppet]

No, @Pig's Laundry was just joking.

...I think.

If it was a joke, it was a great one.

 

[Old Thunder]

If it was a joke, it was a great one.

Agreed!

 

[D'Snowth]

I've noticed there's a really bizarre flip in the concensus of opinions regarding M*A*S*H and HOGAN'S HEROES lately:

M*A*S*H has always been considered one of the greatest shows in television history, with its sharp and intelligent humor, appealing ensemble cast, its ability to juggle both comedy and drama, raising the bar for sitcom standards (such as multiple storylines per episode, which SEINFELD is often miscredited as pioneering), and the powerful and heartfelt messages they always drove home about the horrors of war and how people need each other. HOGAN'S HEROES was always regarded as a hijinx at the front kind of show with the way it made Nazis look like loveable buffoons at the hands of our wacky allied prisoners who were conducting espionage right under their noses, and just the concept of a sitcom set in a German P.O.W. camp does sound odd on paper.

Lately, however, HOGAN'S HEROES is now being praised as being a pro-American show, while M*A*S*H is now being criticizes as being an anti-American show: HOGAN'S HEROES is being considered a pro-American show because Hogan and his men were depicted as the all-American heroes (though LeBeau was French and Newkirk was British) who continually and successfully thwarted the Nazi war effort. M*A*S*H is being considered an anti-American show because it's an anti-war show, and most of the characters' disdain and disrespect for the military and preaching that war is **** means they're being disrespectful to their own country . . . even though they were in Korea, operating a surgical unit.

I still like both shows though.

 

[D'Snowth]

Once upon a time, there was a brilliant filmmaker named Mel Brooks. One day, in the early 70s, Mel made a groundbreaking comedy movie starring Cleavon Little as a black sheriff in the wild west and Gene Wilder as his drunk white deputy called BLAZING SADDLES. The movie was so successful that the evil and greedy devil-worshipping international media conglomerate that produced and released the movie called Warner Bros. decided they wanted to go ahead and make a sequel to the movie - even if it meant they'd steal ownership of the movie away from Mel. Mel got together with his lawyer, and the two of them hatched a wild scheme: they drew up a contract and presented to Warner Bros., in it, they specified that the only way Warner Bros. could retain the rights to make a full BLAZING SADDLES sequel would be if they produced the sequel movie or turn it into a TV series within six months; they figured there would be no way Warner Bros. could make such a big movie in such a short amount of time, and figured with the movie's raunchy and racially charged humor, there's no way they could water it down for a TV show. But if that was a gauntlet that Mel and his lawyer had dropped, Warner Bros. picked it up, because they discovered a loophole in the contract: there was nothing in the contract that specified they would have to actually air the series if they made it. So for three or four years, Warner Bros. produced a series adaptation of BLAZING SADDLES, casting Lou Gossett, Jr. and Steve Landisburg in the roles originated by Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder - each season produced only six episodes, and with the exception of the pilot episode, none of them actually made it to air. Ready to get to making the sequel, Warner Bros. approached Mel years later about making it, to which Mel responded, "Wait a minute, you can't do that, we had a contract," and Warner Bros. was like, "Yeah dude, we know, that's why we made a TV show." Mel said, "What?" Warner Bros. said, "Yeah." Mel said, "Naw!" Mel said, "TV show? What TV show? I never saw no TV show," and Warner Bros. said, "You just said we had to make it, you never said we had to air it." Mel said, "Aw man!" Warner Bros. said "Aw man!" So they show Mel a few episodes of the show and he was like, "Oy vey gevalt!" And then Oscarfan showed up and said, "Wait a minute, that's my line," and then a pig showed up and did some laundry while another dude had a botched eye operation that resulted in him ending up with a thousand eyes, all of which captured Marty Feldman's heart, and. . . .

Oh yeah, here's that BLAZING SADDLES pilot for the TV show that was made and never even aired (warning, lots of racial slurs played for laughs):