A Live Studio Audience: Sitcom Themes--Punky Power!

[packerbacker180]

Ripley's believe it or not, but that Back to the Future scene when doing Family Ties and that was one of the main reasons I went to The Honeymooners next.

Just a quick one today. Never really watched the show, not a big Chris Elliot fan, but will always remember it was an REM song. Thankfully the Simpsons came around, because most of Fox's early programming was quite awful--I'm looking at you, Herman's Head!

[BrandonDaCollector]

Oh Yeah I know Sledge Hammer. Like I said, it was one of our faves and we never missed it. They always cancel the great ones and we're like who watches this other stuff that was "SUPPOSED" to be better That has been going on for long, I tired of it getting into a really good show and then they cancel it, went through that for so many years and then they have that reality bull Actually I'm not surprised, people are just to busy on SM babbling about nothing instead of reminiscing great things. Cool about your DVD set So what happen to your 2 comics? I never got them.

Nah, I'm not a Chris Elliot fan either. First time I saw him was in Groundhog Day. I was like who is this guy? I mean he's ok but nothing superb.

[packerbacker180]

Probably shouldn't have used the past tense there as I still have those Sledge Hammer comics. They're probably wedged somewhere in the "S" longbox between Silver Surfer and Super-Villain Team-Up. I guess I won't do the show anytime soon since it's me and you really anyway and your familiar with it, so we'll do another ABC show shortly.

[packerbacker180]

I've said before, I didn't really watch any CBS comedies growing up as ABC and NBC had much more appealing programing. On Mondays on NBC you had ALF and the Hogan Family which eventually became The Fresh Prince and Blossom, Tuesdays you had Who's the Boss, The Wonder Years, Roseanne, and Moonlighting (man, I wish this was on the air somewhere) on ABC. Wednesdays ABC had Growing Pains, Just the Ten of Us, Head of the Class. Thursdays were dominated by NBC with The Cosby Show, Cheers, and NIght Court while their Saturday lineup was always strong with shows like The Facts of Life, Golden Girls, Empty Nest, Gimme a Break!, 227 and Amen. But if you mention Friday nights the mood was right, they'd have some fun, show you how it's done....T...G...I...F. And that's where this ran for most of it's time on air...



Mr. Belvedere was originally a fictional character in the 1940s novel Belvedere which was also made in to three movies during that era, the first of which, Sitting Pretty, garnered Clifton Webb an Oscar nomination. The following years would see the addition of Mr. Belvedere Goes to College and Mr. Belvedere Rings the Bell.

I honestly really remember the song more than anything specific on the show beyond Chrisopher Hewett's English accent and the incomparable Mr. Baseball (no, not Tom Selleck) Bob Uecker.



The theme was performed by famed ragtime singer Leon Redbone known for his hat and sunglasses. Redbone also did the theme for the short-lived Harry and the Hendersons show.



If his voice sounds familiar, maybe you recognize him as the voice of Leon the Snowman in Elf. Redbone also performed a duet of Baby, It's Cold Outside with Zoey Deschanel for the soundtrack.



One other thing I remember was the running gag of the daughter's friend always saying Mr. Belvedere's name wrong, it was kind of silly, but still funny as a kid.



This is one of those shows I wished was in reruns somewhere as I'd like to give it another watch. It's hard to imagine anything with Bob Uecker in it being bad. I can watch Major League over and over again.



I know how you feel, Bob.

[AcidDragon]

I know this is several pages back but even though I didn't watch Just the Ten of Us, I actually have some interesting (probably only to me) trivia. I guess I could have mentioned it earlier but forgot while I was writing the rest of my thing. One of the daughters (she's shown in the intro), Jo Ann Willette (37 seconds on the sitcom intro video), is the girl from the music video for 80s hit song Your Love from the Outfield.

[packerbacker180]

Hmmm, to quote Dana Carvey doing Johnny Carson, "I did not know that."

But I do know we all probably remember the theme from The Golden Girls I'm sure, but who remembers the theme from The Golden Palace?



Wait, that's the same song. Yep, The Golden Palace was a one season spinoff of The Golden Girls because Bea Arthur decided to leave the show and the girls' Miami home was sold off so the remaining golden girls invested in a Miami hotel, the Golden Palace. The sequel moved from NBC to CBS, and from Saturday nights to Fridays. NBC had been willing to air the show but only guaranteed 13 episodes. Apparently, they were looking to gain a more youthful audience and did not want to commit to a full season. CBS did, but they moved the show to Friday nights to compete against ABC.s powerhouse TGIF lineup, pairing it alongside Bob (starring Bob Newhart), Designing Women, and Major Dad. However, CBS failed to recognize the demographic that would watch these shows were probably asleep by 8 PM. I kid, I kid.

However, when the Girls arrive at the hotel they find that most of the staff has been let go to remain profitable and all that remains are the chef, played by Cheech Marin, and the manager, played by a young Don Cheadle who had been slowly working his way up the TV ladder, having previously appeared as a scared teen on the run from a bank robbery who takes the gang hostage for a moment before being talked down in an 1998 episode of Night Court entitled "Jung and the Restless".



Cheadle would also appear as Will Smith's Philadelphia buddy in an episode of The Fresh Prince.



The next time I'd see Cheadle was a DA John Littleton in one of my absolutely favorite shows, Picket Fences by David E. Kelley. Picket Fences had also been working on a crossover with The X-Files, but CBS and Fox never gave the ok, but both shows aired similar episodes about cows right around the same time with winks and nods to the other show. If you've never seen Picket Fences, I highly recommend it. If for no other reason than to look at Lauren Holly....



I know, I know. I know what you're thinking, a David E. Kelley show with lawyers, who ever heard of such a thing. But yes, Picket Fences did involve lawyers, but it was quirky, often veering in to the supernatural but also often funny as we watched the daily lives of the folks in Rome, Wisconsin.



Speaking of rising stars, here's another formerly unknown actor I first discovered on Picket Fences...



Cheadle would go on to big time movies like The Oceans films, which I refuse to watch in respect to the originals, until he eventually usurped the role of James Rhodes from Terrence Howard in the MCU, as perhaps the first, small wave of an altering timeline caused by Thanos or it was because Howard was the highest paid actor in the first film and Downey wanted more money so they brought in Cheadle for allegedly less money which is kind of weird because I never thought of Terrence Howard as a bigger star than Cheadle.



Fortunately for all of us, the hotel was not the same one as they had visited in the Golden Girls episode entitled "Valentine's Day" as that hotel turned out to be clothing optional and it would still be years before The Full Monty came out, and nobody wanted the full Dorothy.



The Golden Palace opened to decent ratings, but the gang wasn't the same without Dorothy, and despite Bea Arthur returning for a two-episode guest appearance, the show was cancelled after one season. The characters of Rose, Blanche and Sophia, were all unique, well-developed and funny, but it was the often-biting comments of Dorothy calling out their foibles that often got the biggest laughs, and without her, quite a bit was lost.



Life would go on, and so would we, as Estelle Getty would occasionally reprise her role of Sophia on NBC's Empty Nest. Betty White would jump to season 2 of Bob. Bob was promptly cancelled after season 2. The next time I remember Rue McClanahan was as Corey Matthews grandma on Boy Meets World.



Sadly, Betty White was the last remaining Golden Girl, and she passed away just days before her 100th birthday in January. Thanks to all of them for being our friends.

[BrandonDaCollector]

Ah, I see. Well, you love Sledge Hammer then why not do one about that but then again it wasn't exactly a sitcom. What about Matlock I had said before when i said about Zeus, I really liked that show but again, not a sitcom but still great!

Oh Bob Uecker, he was good. that moment with him and Andre is priceless

I wasn't familair with them others but all were good. I never saw Cheadle then, not until the 2000s, I had no idea about that!

Great stuff again PB

[packerbacker180]

In 1987, NBC took what today would've been settled in one episode of Maury and somehow made it through three seasons, I could explain it more, but the intro does the work for me...




Kind of a crazy concept, in 1974 two men apparently slept with the same woman in Key West, Florida. When she dies they are both granted joint custody of her daughter. It's the Odd Couple from there as one is a successful Yuppy (Paul Reiser) while the other is a struggling artist (Greg Evigan). Florence Stanley, who was always good for a tough cookie laugh, served as Judge Florence Wilbur in charge of supervision who also buys their apartment building as well to remain on screen more--public service pays well, I guess, just look at all the millionaires in Congress.



Around that time it was also popular to use former NFL athletes for your show (Fred Dryer on Hunter, Lyle Alzado in Learning the Ropes, Alex Karras in Webster, etc.) so former Monster of the Midway, Dick Butkus was brought in as Ed Klawicki, the owner of a frequented diner of the shows cast. I guess you'd have to be tough with a last name like that, kind of like a Boy Named Sue. Tee hee, butt kiss. I guarantee they never skipped out on a bill.



In season 3, the Judge would also buy the diner and rename it The Judge's Court Cafe--geez, I should've been a judge.



For some reason, neither man is very interested in finding out who the real father was, not until they had a falling out at one point and finally did take a DNA test. The results however are never revealed, as the two reconcile, though Judge Wilbur checks out the results before destroying them.



While not a big ratings hit, many of the cast members went on to bigger and better things. Paul Reiser would do 164 episodes of Mad About You with co-star Helen Hunt as well as several movies that did decent box office numbers. In recent years he appeared in a few episodes of Stranger Things.



Staci Keenan, who played the daughter Nicole, would continue to grow up on our tv screens as Suzanne Somers and Patrick Duffy's daughter on ABC's Step By Step (day by day) a show which disappointingly had nothing to do with New Kids on the Block.



Chad Allen, one of two boys who vied for Nicole's affection during the series, would go on to co-star on Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman and would continue to make various guest appearances on dozens of shows in later years, while Giovanni Ribisi would be cast in such blockbusters as Avatar and Saving Private Ryan. He'd also grow up to be one of those wacky Scientologists like Tom Cruise.



And Greg Evigan would appear in dozens and dozens of made for TV movies nobody remembers.



There was a minor crossover with Hight Court, in which Judge Stanley appeared on Night Court, while Richard Moll appeared on My Two Dads as Bull Shannon, who was sent to protect the judge from a recently released felon the judge had sent up the river. The show would air in reruns on USA for years after, but you can still find today on Sunday nights if you get the Antenna TV channel with a digital antenna.



And because spinoffs aren't just for TV shows, Antenna TV recently launched Rewind TV which focuses just on 80s and 90s TV.



And no, I don't own stock in either. Though perhaps if I were a judge...

[packerbacker180]

I'm not saying the name of sitcom can doom it, but keep it simple stupid usually applies with show titles. You might think a like "Don't Trust the B____ in Apartment 23" or "S_____ MY Dad Says" or "I Hate MY Teenage Daughter" are clever names, but they're not, and you're probably going to put off people from watching before they ever tune in. While not as horrible as those show title choices, who remembers....



Liar! I'm not saying the name of the show is awful, but that theme sure is. Jennifer Slept Here starred Ann Jillian, who I always found kind of annoying on It's a Living, a show she starred in before and after Jennifer Slept Here (a story for another time, as a former famous actress who gets run over by an ice cream truck. Sounds hilarious already, right? Years later her lawyer moves into the house with his family and only his teenage son can see Jennifer, the ghost that still lives there. I bet you'd be surprised to learn the show only lasted one season, right? No? Me either.



This show was doomed by an odd title and terrible intro, neither of which drew in viewers. If you want to see a similar show, I can't recommend enough the show Ghosts that currently airs on CBS.



Being a fan of the paranormal, I went in to this show expecting to be disappointed, expecting a lot of lames jokes about ghost hunting and cheap shots mocking the paranormal. But it's actually very funny with quite a bit of heart. I guess it's based off a British show of the same name, but we fought a war 250 years ago so I wouldn't have to pay attention to such things.

[BrandonDaCollector]

Great job again PB Gosh, I wasn't familiar with some of those especially Jennifer. Some of that was good however. Oh but I actually liked Mad about You, Reiser was ok but I was big Helen Hunt fan.

Sorry but never seen that Ghost, it's not My kinda show especially in this day and age

Oh and the little quote you said about Dana Carvey about "I did Not Know That"! When I was young at that time I used to say all the time for a long while, once in a while now I still say it. them were good times

I might have a few sitcoms to do in the future here, been thinkin' about'e for a while, they were 3 that I actually really, really liked. We'll see