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

[minor muppetz]

I can't remember which episode this happened in, but in one episode of Family Guy, Lois asks her dad for some kind of favor, and he says he'll do it on the condition that Peter star in a scene-by-scene remake to amuse him. I assume he makes this condition to humiliate Peter. but Liar Liar isn't a bad movie. I don't know of anybody who hates it (except maybe people who hate Jim Carrey, but it seems the critics who gave the earlier films that made Carrey a star negative reviews were starting to like him by Liar Liar, actually Cable Guy but I think they all gave Liar Liar favorable reviews), and it is one of Jim Carrey's best films. Why not just have Peter do a scene-by-scene remake of an infamously bad 1980s comedy?

 

[minor muppetz]

In the first two Back to the Future movies, there are scenes where Marty comes across a bum and just says "Red". I guess that's his name... But why's he saying the name of a bum (even if he does know him somehow?).

I recall reading long ago that the bum was supposed to be the 1955 mayor (who I believe was named Red something), but I recently read on TV Tropes that that's not actually true. It would be a funny gag for those paying enough attention (of course I never noticed Marty calling him "Red" until after I read about this). I remember when I got the DVD set in 2002 I was listening for them to mention this in the commentary or expecting it to be pointed out in the pop-up facts but neither mention it.

 

[minor muppetz]

What's the deal with calling an actor a "character actor"? All actors play characters (I know that the term refers to actors who aren't stars but get work in plenty of productions).

And what's the deal with RPG video games? RPG stands for "role-playing game", which would make sense for games where you're playing a role (like if you wanted to play one of your favorite shows or movies, and actually be the characters), but isn't the player normally playing a role in most video games? When you play a Mario game, you're playing Mario or Luigi. When you play a TMNT game, you're playing one of the turtles. And so on.

And on Happy Days, it was mentioned in one episode that Arnold wasn't his real name and he only goes by Arnold because he bought the restaurant and didn't want to pay to change the sign. But then Al didn't change his name or the restaurant's name after buying the place. After Arnold's burnt down, Al and Fonzie considered changing the name ("Big Al's" or "Fonzie's") before settling on keeping the name "Arnold's".

And how come Arnold didn't get a good-bye episode and Al didn't get a proper introductory episode? The third season ended with Arnold getting married, and he said the place would be closed during the honeymoon, but they didn't say anything about him selling or moving away permanently. But in the next episode, Al's suddenly there, and from memory it seems they don't mention right away that he's the new owner. If I watched the entire series in order without previously seeing any episodes at all, I would have assumed Al was a waiter or bus boy in his first appearance.

 

[charlietheowl]

What's the deal with calling an actor a "character actor"? All actors play characters (I know that the term refers to actors who aren't stars but get work in plenty of productions).

I figured "character actor" meant that instead of recognizing an actor for being a star (like Tom Cruise or Will Smith), you'd recognize them for a role (like Charles Durning as Doc Hopper).

 

[D'Snowth]

Ever notice with most shows (not ALL, but a lot), the second season is always a rather dull season? The first season is almost always interesting because it just starts out, and takes time to grow... then things really start picking up speed and really hit their stride with the third... but the second usually doesn't offer any memorable moments.

 

[Muppet fan 123]

but I recently read on TV Tropes that that's not actually true.it.

I don't think TV Tropes is such a reliable source. Especially not after they have Inspector Spacetime down as a real show.

 

[D'Snowth]

Especially not after they have Inspector Spacetime down as a real show.

Well hey, look at all these various different sources, INCLUDING IMDB, that say Nostalgia Critic is a "real show".

 

[CensoredAlso]

What's the deal with calling an actor a "character actor"?

I figured "character actor" meant that instead of recognizing an actor for being a star (like Tom Cruise or Will Smith), you'd recognize them for a role (like Charles Durning as Doc Hopper).

"Character actor" is a classic Hollywood term for actors who specialized in a specific type of character that audiences enjoyed seeing again and again (remember this was before VCRs, lol).

 

[D'Snowth]

Like Dick Wilson as a drunk.

 

[WillyThePig]

On the subject of Seinfeld humor, have you ever noticed that whenever TV shows do parodies or spoofs of sitcoms, they always use some kind of really jazzy-sounding tune (probably production music) for that fake sitcom's theme song? Even the sitcom within the sitcom on Seinfeld (Jerry) had a jazzy-sounding theme song... I honestly can't think of any number of sitcoms that have jazzy theme songs... Everybody Loves Raymond is psuedo-jazzy I guess (more bluesy really), but other than that.
Interestingly enough, sitcom writer Ken Levine has said he misses the old days when sitcoms had theme songs/main titles... I guess they don't do that anymore since they like to utilize every precious second of the ever-dwindling program time (thanks to increasing commercialism) for content itself, hence why the main titles and end titles always roll over the show itself.

30ROCK (which is by the way the best show ever) has a pretty jazzy sounding theme song but I've only seen it parodied on sesame street. And I think adding that extra jazzy sound is just another way of exaggerating a commonly used method of parodying.