Episode 208

Last week on Survivor, the glorious "blindside" occurred yet again.  This is just another example of television reclaiming words that no one uses.  Have you ever heard the word blindside used to describe anything other than a super crafty immunity idol-inspired move on Survivor?  I doubt it.  Also re-coined on Survivor are such piratical terms as "mutiny".  Other than in Catch Phrase, that word is never, ever used in normal people life.  

By the way, this is funny, particularly the title.

Episode 207

I just got a tip from one of my insiders. And I quote: "I don't know if this is a potential story for your blog, but I just saw a Toaster Strudel commercial starring Walt from Lost, and he wasn't even one of the main characters in the commercial. See what happens when you hit puberty? Toaster strudels. That's what."

Seeing Walt in toaster strudel commercials makes the whole him-standing-over-Locke-in-the-ditch thing a lot less creepy. It's kind of like seeing the ads for that new show The Unusuals that stars Michael from LOST...during LOST. You're like, well, I guess I don't have to worry about him creepily coming back to life and sneaking out of a janitor's closet again...?

This also makes me think of all of those awesome washed-up stars we love to love. Lucky for them (read: Jodi Sweetin), People magazine exists, so they can still be famous just for being drug addicts or teenage parents.

Episode 206

Television often takes creative license. Usually, only avid watchers will notice the discrepancies that arise, but sometimes it's just plain obvious:

Take Uncle Jesse, please. In the first season, his last name is Cochran. For the rest of the show, it's Katsopolis. (Ok, really important side note: I just went to Wikipedia to check the spellings on those, and found the absolute most amazing Wikipedia entry ever. So hysterical on so many levels. Please take a minute or two to read this while I dry my tears from laughing so hard. And to top it all off, at the very top it warns: "This article or section has multiple issues").

For a more recent example, what on earth is happening with the characters' ages on Friday Night Lights? I've already talked about the weirdness of a 30 year-old playing an 17-year old, but now the age-crisis is exploding: Matt is graduating high school but Julie is only a senior. So is Landry. Lyla and Tim turn out to be two years younger than Jason, yet they've all been best friends since "we played pee-wee football together" -- yeah, don't you remember Tim? They let the 1st graders play with the nursery school kids.

Do I even have to mention Aunt Viv from Fresh Prince? Um, yeah, that's two completely different people playing her. Hearkens back to the double-trouble Dicks on Bewitched. Similar story with Pacey's high school crush from Seasons 1 and 2, who makes a random appearance in the finale...but wait, it's a different actress! Why bring back the character if you can't even get the same girl to play the part?!

While these obvious changes are noticed by all, it's fun to watch for the subtle inconsistencies. Keep your eye out.

Episode 205

Someone asked me the other day why (ON EARTH?!) I don't watch the original British version of The Office. My answer was that I didn't want anything to taint my view of The Office -- I know that some of the jokes are taken from the original and that a handful of the characters and situations are mimicked quite closely. But just like a joke is never as funny the second time you hear it (that's what she said?), I fear that The Office won't be quite as funny if it already feels familiar.

I know that many people watch both versions, and still find it equally funny. Unfortunately for me, I'm not those people. This was confirmed last night when I was watching the premier of the spin-off-but-not-really of The Office, Parks and Recreation. I actually thought it was pretty funny, but it would have been significantly more funny if I'd never seen an episode of The Office. I mean, the jokes were good, the chemistry was wonderfully awkward, but most of it had been done before. It was like watching a rerun of The Office...which is great, but not what you want the first time you see an episode.

In other news, I can't wait to watch Season 5 reruns of The Office. Pure brilliance through and through.

Episode 204

My aforementioned swanky L.A. friend did some investigative work (yes, there are people out there who watch as much [read: more] TV as me) and found this. The first and last on the list are my favorites, though the whole thing is pretty amazing. It's kind of like fuckyoupenguin, but for TV sitcoms. And just one time, which is sad.

That Top 7 really gets to the center of a lot of what is superbly creepy about sitcoms, particularly those running in the late 80s and early 90s. So many things were just wrong about the way those people comported themselves.

I mean, Bayside High? Can you imagine how many favoritism/pedophile lawsuits they could have had on their hands? I mean, despite the fact that they all hung out in Mr. Belding's office all the time, Zack and the gang were essentially the core members of the glee club, the prom committee (and featured band!), the student council, every class at the school, the awesome "No Hope with Dope" commercial... let me just put it this way: I'm really glad I wasn't Christy Barnes. Due to lack of participating in extra-curricular activities and/or going to classes, she probably didn't get into any colleges. Including Stansbury.

Episode 203

I was actually sans cable and sans-antennae for the first 6 months or so of living out in sunny CA. It had nothing to do with it being sunny here -- as we know, the weather should not affect the amount of time one spends watching television -- but having just returned from the land of bad dubbing, I had already passed my TV withdrawal phase and was content with DVDs.

During these months, I watched all six seasons of Dawson's Creek in chronological order (not the first time I'd done it, and certainly not the last) and re-watched every episode of The Office (Seasons 1-3) over and over...and over. When I was eating lunch, I couldn't just turn on the tube for 20 minutes and see what was on -- instead, I'd pop in a DVD, and inevitably get sucked into watching more than one episode.

I don't think it's television that gets people into television. Personally, most of what I watch on TV real-time is complete crap (in a good way). It's the possibility of watching television in marathon form that really creates a true TV obsession. Even before the age of DVDs and TiVo, it was re-runs that allowed us to do that. We can all quote every line of every episode of Saved by the Bell (right?), but that's not because we have creepy, robotic memories. It's because we watch(ed) the re-runs.

Imagine if we could only see each episode of a show one time. Life would be so much more annoying.  And "Tuna, are you kidding me?!" might not mean anything to anyone.

N.B. Just so I don't get any harassment, I'm not going to promise a daily posting this season. I'll do my best, but until I have more readers than days in the week, I might have to downsize.

Episode 202

I have already had several complaints/questions about yesterday's post, so I am here to clear the air (on a Saturday, no less).

Think back on the Dinner Party episode of The Office. Such high expectations for a glorious return from the strike, and it turned out to be an abominable disappointment (except, of course, for the Dawson's Creek shout out). The next time I am wont to complain about a bad episode of a favorite show, I will recall this misstep on my part.

This does not mean, however, that I am not proud of identifying the Home Improvement pilot. Come on, how awesome is that?

Episode 201

After a nearly month-long break, I feel like it's new season time in blog years. After all, 23 episodes is significantly longer than most first seasons, so I begin again with Season 2, after a not-so-nail-biting cliffhanger.

In line with this theme of beginnings, I want to share an anecdote from last week, something for which I am overly proud and want to broadcast to the world.

I was flipping through the channels, unable to decide if Ted Allen's Food Detectives was enough to pique my interest. I came across Home Improvement and started watching. I never followed Home Improvement, but it without fail always makes me laugh. Anyway, the little guy (don't know his name) was super young and Tim was trying to show him how to repair the dishwasher. Everything was going wrong, naturally, and then Tim got an electrical burn and they did a little dance.

I said: "I bet this is the pilot." I just knew it -- over the top Tim-being-an-idiot, the kid being ridiculously young, and Tim actually doing some sort of "home improvement" which, based on the handful of episodes I've seen, doesn't actually happen that often. Of course, I IMdB-ed it and it turns out I was right.

Aside from being unreasonably excited about this educated guess, it made me think about all of the pilot episodes of all of my favorite shows. I don't have anything insightful to say about them, and I'm feeling pressure from a certain someone's significant other, so I'm cutting off the post here and saying here you go, sir, please don't hate me!