Online Pick of the Week (7/30): Match Game Ticket Plugs

The pick for the end of this week belongs to the good old classic Match Game. Any new fan to the show wouldn't know now because they don't air on GSN, but during the show originally ticket plugs for people wanting to be in the show's audience would air. This clip provides a really good combination of them. The first few are rather standard. The crazy ones didn't come into the picture until 1979. They are pretty darn funny. Even if some of them really are kind of disturbing. At any rate, it's always nice to find rare things, especially if they involve legendary announcers, like the late, great Johnny Olson.



Match Game ticket plugs, my online pick of the week.

ATWT: Where the Hell is Noah Mayer? Version 3.0

Give me a break, writers. You've got to be kidding me. This is sad. It's nothing other but utterly sad to see someone in their early 20's teaching someone who's 30+ years old simple common courtesy and manners.

Oh, and what makes it all the more frustrating, which I've stated many times before: why does Reid act like this in the first place? Honestly, why should I be rooting for this man? Why should I feel sorry for him? What makes Reid tick is something that should have been tapped on a long time ago. Also if in the end it turns out he's being written as an ass just for the sake of being one, well, then that's just going to be utterly disappointing, and yet another opportunity for this to be a decent story completely and totally wasted. It also shows again how little this show cared about character development. If I'm supposed to be supporting this guy by this point, then the writers have done a major disservice, because I'm not.

Such a shame. Because as usual, the actors are fine. It's the dialogue that drives me batty.

Online Pick of the Week (7/23): Nurses

A while back I had mentioned there was a special night which aired on a Saturday back in 1991 on NBC. Three of the flagship shows The Golden Girls, Empty Nest, and Nurses, all shows created by Susan Harris (also best known for creating Soap and its spin-off Benson) had a similar plot theme. All shows were set in Miami and this particular week dealt with each show going through a hurricane.

This show in particular happens to be Nurses, which aired after Golden Girls and Empty Nest. These shows featured crossovers from each other’s shows. Here we see Betty White from Golden Girls, as of course, none other than Rose Nylund. Park Overall appears as her character Laverne Todd, from Empty Nest.

A very good episode overall. The characters are used to their potential very well. I can tell from the theme song that this episode is from the first season.

Nurses, “Begone with The Wind”, my online pick of the week!

Carnie Wilson leaving Newlywed Game

GSN has renewed The Newlywed Game for a fourth season, however, Carnie Wilson will not be continuing with the series. I’m not the hugest fan of this version of the show; though I do like Carnie personally and I do wish her the best in future endeavors.

All I can really say else to this is that they better find someone good for this hosting job. With this current version being the sole exception, the other versions of The Newlywed Game without Bob Eubanks have failed -- see Paul Rodriguez (1988) and Gary Kroeger (1996). Not to mention this is also one of GSN’s few original hits these days; the other being Baggage. Finding just the right emcee could very well be a critical decision in the show’s survival for the next season.

CBS' replacement for ATWT

CBS has announced that a new daily talk show, Project Mom, will replace As The World Turns this fall. The show will be hosted by Sara Gilbert, Julie Chen, Holly Robinson Peete, Sharon Osbourne and Leah Remini.

Truth be told the more I think about it I think Pyramid is best off as a 30 minute $100,000 version in syndication, maybe with new bonus round amounts for regular play sufficing.

I was never that excited about any new show in this slot, and Les Moonves‘ douchiness in the CNBC interview the day As The World Turns was canceled pretty much drained my interest in anything new coming in. But the biggest issue I have with this new talk show is that we already have The View at 11 am, I'll watch that on ABC; I don't need to see another version hours later. And I love how from the press releases that it doesn’t hesitate to sound like such a blatant rip off of The View -- even down to having 5 female hosts. As much as I loved Sara Gilbert on Roseanne and Holly Robinson-Peete on Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper, I can’t say I’m excited about this.

Online Pick of the Week (7/16): Mary Tyler Moore

Another episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show is the pick for this week. This episode comes from the fifth season. In response to WJM newscasts becoming “static,” Lou decides to add a female perspective to the show. Lou has in mind a woman that is exactly like Mary, so much like her that Mary decides to audition for the job herself.

Look for Rosalind Cash in one of her earlier acting roles on this episode, as she plays one of the people auditioning, Enid Berringer. Also a rarity happens on this episode, Ted actually takes a good jab at Murray!

The Mary Tyler Moore episode "A Girl Like Mary," my online pick of the week!

TPIR: Rich Fields Out

It’s been announced earlier today that Rich Fields will be replaced with a new announcer this upcoming season. On-air auditions similar to what happened after Johnny Olson and Rod Roddy passed away will take place this fall.

I’d say that while I wasn’t a huge fan of Rich’s actual announcing, I did enjoy his chemistry with Drew Carey very much. I found it much more enjoyable than his interactions with Bob. With Bob Barker, it seemed way too much like Rich was looking up to this superior being, but when he was with Drew it was like two pals; the host and his sidekick having a good time. The odd thing about it is that I found that his voice during the early part of his tenure was better. It’s almost like listening to two different people when hearing him announce anything when comparing, say 2005 to today.

All I can say now is that I hope they find someone good to take over. No Daniel Rosen’s, please.

ATWT: More of the L-Shaped Triangle

Wednesday, July 14th:

As much as I'm not a fan of Reid, I was glad to see Bob stand up for him. No one should ever be discriminated against because of their sexuality. But the problem with this latest story development though is that it really seemed out of the blue that Mona was suddenly homophobic. Just three weeks before, the objections had nothing to do with that. Bob himself emphasized that the first day this issue of Luke and Reid being in a relationship came to blows. Now suddenly the woman that wants to buy the hospital is a homophobe? More disjointed writing.

Reid wasn't bothering me as much as he usually does this time around, but the lack of Noah in this storyline is really annoying. This storyline is supposed to be a triangle, but it’s coming off very L-shaped. Such a shame. My opinions on the writing aside, I'd say the potential is there with three talented actors. Van is as great as usual; same as Jake (when he's actually on), and I'm actually warming up to Eric rather nicely. It's the writing and story direction that makes me want to throw something at the television set at the end of an episode. And it is this way with the rest of the show too. I remember Guiding Light actually increasing somewhat in quality post-cancellation notice; with this show, it's the opposite.

Online Pick of the Week (7/9): Nick at Nite Promos

I've been going around YouTube and I've found a number of old promos for Nick@Nite. And I see that not only was the programming better back then but even the promos were more imaginative and unique. Reminds me how much fun the network used to be.

I guess what really annoys me these days is that I actually like a show like The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which is one show that's seen a lot of exposure over the past couple years, a lot. I just don't think it belongs on Nick@Nite. Same especially goes for The George Lopez Show. It's like Nick@Nite evolved over time periods with their history of the network. Showing series from the 1950's and 60's, then 70's, and the '80's started, but they seemed to skip over a lot of the 1980's and a number of the 1990's series and just decided to focus on some of the same few shows. Also back then marathons were seen but other shows did get the proper amount of airtime they deserved.

Popular shows deserve airplay but they also shouldn't air everywhere on multiple networks like Fresh Prince does, and there are also plenty of other shows that did reasonably successfully and don't get much airplay anymore that should be on television too.

Nick@Nite, one of the many networks that quality wise for me has gone down ever since Viacom took over. But the good news for classic lovers is that we have DVD releases. In the meantime, it's nice to enjoy a few older promos, like this one:


Here's another batch for Mary Tyler Moore lovers. Bob Newhart fans will like this one.

Old Nick@Nite promos, my online pick of the week!

DVD News: Mary Tyler Moore season 7 is coming!

From TVshowsonDVD: the seventh and final season of The Mary Tyler Moore Show will be released this October 5th! Being that this is my number one favorite show of all time I could not have been more happy to read this news.

What always stands out to me is that this is one of those series that was good in really all of its years on the air. There are a number of enjoyable episodes from the final season. Can’t wait to see them all in their glorious re-mastered form! Episodes such as “Mary’s Insomnia”, “Lou Dates Mary”, “Mary Midwife”, “Sue Ann’s Sister,” and of course, one can’t forget “The Last Show!”

Also finding out that the original final curtain call credit roll from the last episode will be included? The same credit call that has only aired once on television since March 19, 1977 that fans like myself have been hoping would see the light of day again on DVD if the show ever got this far in releases? Icing on the cake.

In other MTM-related news, season 4 of the spinoff Rhoda, will be released by Shout!, however, it will be a Shout! Select program, meaning that the set will sell exclusively on their website. Good thing this classic is in the hands of Shout!. It’ll get completed no matter what. Another reason why I favor them so much over many of the other DVD companies. Sure they’ve messed up a few times (unfortunately including season 1 of this particular show), but I love their commitment to finishing a show they start. There's no waiting for years like with other shows.

Ending this post with the Mary finale closing credits is only the best way to go:

Online Pick of the Week (7/2): Taxi

Another classic this week chosen for the online pick, this time it's an episode from from the critically acclaimed and in this day unfortunately under aired Taxi, which ran from 1978-82.

Here, in season 4's "Jim The Psychic", the character Reverend Jim (Christopher Lloyd) has psychic dreams that often come true. This time one of them involves Alex Rieger (Judd Hirsch) meeting a certain fate. My favorite part is towards the end. Danny DeVito does an excellent job when his character Louie De Palma starts panicking when the elements of said dream start coming true in droves, and it's a hilarious watch.

Taxi, my online pick of the week!

ATWT: These Writers Baffle Me

Wednesday, June 30th:

Good gravy, Marie!

The writing on this show is like a damn yo-yo which makes enjoyment of this storyline for me extremely difficult. For a little while the writers kept alternating on who broke up with whom, when it was LUKE who broke up with NOAH on March 16th. And now, for the past 2 weeks they've been writing it as if Luke and Reid were already in a relationship... this episode, it's an entirely different story. Now we have Luke saying "I was about to start a relationship" with Reid in his scenes with Bob and Mona. Which is it show? You can't tell it both ways. And there's also the show minimizing Noah's appearances in this storyline. This is supposed to be a TRIANGLE, but most of the time we only get two points of view and it's driving me bananas. If anything, it's more L shaped, with the third line joining in on occasion.

It's a shame, because we've got very talented actors here. And the potential for a good story is there. But the writing is a disappointment.