Nick at Nite Thread

[minor muppetz]

The Office and Two and a Half Men both have the same problems... the shows are too popular to cancel, but they're also shells of their former selves.

I thougth Two and a Half Men was a little better with Ashton Kutcher, though I haven't watched the show much this year. But I feel that show should have ended years ago, and am surprised they didn't cancel it with the lack of Charlie Sheen. Though I'm also surprised they continued That '70s Show for a year after Topher Grace left.

 

[Drtooth]

I thougth Two and a Half Men was a little better with Ashton Kutcher, though I haven't watched the show much this year. But I feel that show should have ended years ago, and am surprised they didn't cancel it with the lack of Charlie Sheen. Though I'm also surprised they continued That '70s Show for a year after Topher Grace left.

It turned into a show about him trying to get with a woman that has a child... and the humor changed considerably. While that subplot is vapid and bland, it also threw off the balance of the show, making everything they do to Allen unspeakably cruel. And here's why...

When the show starred Charlie Sheen, the thesis of the show was simple... we had Hard partying, hedonistic male fantasy fulfilling Charlie who was successful at a very idiotic, but high paying job, and you had down to Earth, sensible Allen who did the right things in life, and somehow it all managed to end up bad for him. His wife divorced him because she was a self serving nasty thing, and you had Charlie who was just nailing everything that moved with very little consequences (at least compared to the consequences Allen was having by doing what he thought was right). Basically stating that karma doesn't apply.

Now the balance is off. Ashton's character is too loveable and a nice guy trying to get into a long lasting relationship, and working hard at it (doing the right thing and living by a moral code), while Allen's just twisting in the wind, having bad stuff still happen to him. Instead of being a mixture of Felix Unger and Charlie Brown, now Allen has become Meg from Family Guy... the only way we know he exists is because bad things happen to him because it's funny. Actually, it's more jarring now than anything.

 

[Teheheman]

I'm having a little trouble following this line... From the looks of it it sounds like he was given his first script right before making a speech, but you said the speech was supposed to end the season, implying that it was when the season was about to end, which would have been after several episodes had been made.

I thought the article read that he got the script for that speech right before it happened and he wasn't happy about it.

Daniel

 

[minor muppetz]

I thought the article read that he got the script for that speech right before it happened and he wasn't happy about it.

Oh it was a script for a speech. I thought it was for the show.

 

[minor muppetz]

When Bewitched was first on the channel, they only showed the black-and-white episodes. In Nick at Nite's Classic TV Companion, it was said that they showed the black-and-white episodes because most stations had started with the color episodes. The books point out "you don't start reading Moby Dick at page 90" (or whatever). While it's great that Nick at Nite was showing long-unseen episodes, the book never really said why they skipped the color ones, and in fact it seemed to avoid acknowledging that fact (though the books episode guide only included the black-and-white episodes). Around 1998 there was a promo for the show, where an announcer said that the channel only aired episodes with Dick York, I think saying he was the better Darrin (I only saw that commercial once), but even if they were just showing favoritism, York was in four seasons of color episodes. I guess maybe Nick at Nite couldn't get the rights to the color episodes until 1998 (ironically only shortly after the promo mentioned above), but it seems they were trying to avoid saying they only had the black-and-white episodes. With the black and white episodes not being shown in syndication I guess those were up for grabs (when Nickelodeon began airing Looney Tunes the majority of cartoons they obtained the rights to were things other networks wouldn't touch - Speedy Gonzales, black and white cartoons, post-1964 shorts).

Ironically, Nick at Nite had a promo for the showanswering questions from fans (I assume the questions were made-up, but I don't know for sure). One question was "If Samantha is so powerful, why doesn't she do anything about Darrin's looks?" How ironic, considering most fans prefer York to Sergeant (and the promo didn't even make such a reference).

I find it ironic that once the color episodes were added, it seems the black-and-white ones were shown less. I know that the network pretty much showed every episode in order, and there were times when I saw several Dick Sergent episodes, missing some, and then after not watching the show for a few days or whatever saw that the color episodes with Dick York were shown. The gap between me watching wouldn't have been long enough for me to have just missed the whole first two seasons.

I heard that Nick at Nite did this to My Three Sons in the 1980s (I didn't have the channel at the time). Only the black and white episodes were shown, and then in 1998 TV Land aired only the color episodes at first, eventually airing black and whites as well.

And while on the subject of these channels only showing certain episodes of shows, it seems like when Happy Days premiered on the channel they only showed the first six seasons. The episode guide on the Nick at Nite website included all the episodes (I think the same can be said for Bewitched). I don't know if Nick at Nite just purchased half the episodes at first or if they didn't want to show those later episodes. I didn't know until later that a lot of fans dislike the post-Ron Howard years (but he was still a regular in season 7, which initially wasn't shown). The later episodes were added in 1997, and I thought they were good. Though I think some of the post-season 7 episodes were shown before then. I recall seeing the season 7 episode where Richie worked for a newspaper company once before all these episodes were added to the line-up, and I recall a 1996 promo for a Christmas marathon showing a clip from the season 10 Christmas episode (seeing that clip again a year later, I noticed it took place at the rebuilt Arnold's from season 7, and I think the clip showed either K.C. or Flip or both).

It was cool when Nick at Nite had marathons acknowledging the fact that more episodes of Happy Days and Bewitched were being shown. I was confused by the Happy Days one being called "Chacinated or De-Chachinated". Turns out the "Chachinated" ones referred to the later episodes, not neccessarily ones with Chachi, and thought it was odd that some of the episodes in the "De-Chachinated" hours featured Chachi (and I can't remember for sure but I think the "Chachinated" hours included some of the season 10 episodes without Chachi).

 

[D'Snowth]

While it's great that Nick at Nite was showing long-unseen episodes, the book never really said why they skipped the color ones

There's a local network in my town that used to play Andy Griffith, and they only played the black-and-white episodes... not that I'm complaining, it seemed like it became a totally different show during the color episodes: no Barney, a population explosion of new characters in Mayberry, etc.

 

[Drtooth]

There's a local network in my town that used to play Andy Griffith, and they only played the black-and-white episodes... not that I'm complaining, it seemed like it became a totally different show during the color episodes: no Barney, a population explosion of new characters in Mayberry, etc.

No Barney Fife, NO Andy Griffith episodes for me. The ones with just Goober are so incredibly dull.

 

[D'Snowth]

No Barney Fife, NO Andy Griffith episodes for me. The ones with just Goober are so incredibly dull.

I like Gomer and Goober equally (George Lindsay had an interest guest appearance years later on M*A*S*H as a loud-mouthed, obnoxious country bumpkin who was temporarily assigned to the 4077th in Hawkeye's place), it's just they tried different methods to make up for Barney's absense that hurt the show: first they replaced him altogether with an equally inept deputy for like half a season or so then got rid of him, but at the same time, again, there was suddenly a population explosion in Mayberry of new characters to make up for it as well, like Howard and Emmet, among others. At least they brought Don Knotts back once a year for guest spots.

 

[Drtooth]

It's just one of those things that happens with sitcoms. Goober's alright, but you freaking have Don Knotts there... there's no comparison. It's like if Jason Alexander left Seinfeld to do other projects and they made that guy Fred Stoller played that remembered every single detail of a date with Elane except Elane and turned him into a character. Sure, he'd be kinda funny, I like Fred Stoller... Chuck the Evil Sandwich Making Guy is my favorite Word Girl villain... but compared to a loud, brass character like George Costanza, he just doesn't measure up.

I kinda feel the same way about that last season of That 70's Show when Eric left to do movies like Spider-Man 3 (that's the only movie I could think of, and also the only thing that actually sounds funny when you put it next to "left That 70's Show). Now, while he is far from the funniest character in the show, it's like taking (and you'll get this reference if anyone, Snowth) Arthur out of Arthur and having the random friends that used to hang out with him who don't live there go to Arthur's house to not hang out with him for no apparent reason. And then replacing Arthur with a random kid named Eugene that's got the same exact personality as Francine.

of course, the other shoe dropped when Ashton Kutcher left to do even stupider movies (but ones that at least made money) after going in on an apartment with Fez... which lead to Fez having an awkward almost more than friends relationship with Jackie (or so I remember).

But still... any That 70's Show buffs can correct me here... was Hyde still living with the Foremans at that point? Other than that, who of us here goes to the house of a friend who moved away to hang out with every other friend but that one? Not even their siblings. That just sounds weird in my memory.

Of course, I really think they screwed themselves to the wall making the awful That 80's Show. That could have been a spinoff of everyone growing up and moving forward.

 

[minor muppetz]

Don Knotts leaving The Andy Griffith Show wasn't really anyone's fault, except maybe Andy Griffith's. Sometime when the show began Don Knotts heard that Andy wanted the show to only last five seasons, so when the fifth season began he assumed it would end and he'd need a job, so he made a deal with Universal. But then after the deal was made he learned that the show was going to continue, and Universal wouldn't work around his contract to allow for him to stay on the series.

I had forgotten about the black-and-white episodes being shown more than the color. When I was younger it seems the black-and-white ones would only be shown, and then when I finally saw a color episode I was surprised. Though I think I read that some local stations would air the color episodes with the color turned off. It's a wonder that The Andy Griffith Show was still number 1 in the ratings when it ended.

This reminds me of a thread at the old Golden Age Cartoons forum, where it was said that when color TV became popular, stations wouldn't air the black and white of episodes of shows that swithced from B&W to color, but Andy Griffith was one of the few exceptions.

Also, back on the subject of Nick at Nite initially only airing B&W Bewitched and later adding the color episodes, I must say that I found most of the color episodes boring. The early years were a lot better. I can't think of any color episodes I particularly enjoyed, and if there were any, they were probably remakes of the black and white ones (and therefore wouldn't count).

When Nick at Nite began the station aired all kinds of programs: Sitcoms, dramas (Dragnet, Superman), horror (Alfred Hitchcock Presents), and sketch comedy (Best of Saturday Night Live, SCTV, Laugh-In), but then around 1994 it seems the channel almost exclusively showed sitcoms (not that I'm complaining about that). It would make a little sense if it was when TV Land was launched, but I'm sure this change occured before (the Classic TV Companion, released in 1995, a year before TV Land, only had guides to what was currently on the channel, and they were all sitcoms). Of course a few reality shows would later enter the channel (BOO!).