TV - Comments by Twistin

TV - Comments by Twistin

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Member	Item		Review/Comment
Twistin 26th Oct 2020		TV Second City Television (1976 - 1984)	I've probably watched the "Maudlin's Eleven" and "Vic Arpeggio: Private Investigator" segments over 200 times (each!) and laugh hysterically at them every time as if seeing them the first time. This series was a gift from heaven. Joe Flaherty is one of the most underrated comic geniuses ever. And get a load of the Skip Bittman (Rick Moranis) stand-up comedy warming up "The Danny Thomas Show", brilliantly inept!
Twistin 26th Oct 2020		TV Second City Television (1976 - 1984)	[YouTube Video]
Twistin 26th Oct 2020		TV Second City Television (1976 - 1984)	[YouTube Video]
Twistin 2nd Apr 2020		TV The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961 - 1966)	Watched some interviews with cast members and apparently the character of Alan Brady was based on Sid Caesar and of course Rob Petrie was based on Carl Reiner himself (Reiner was a comedy writer on Sid Caesar's "Your Show of Shows" and Caesar's Hour.) Hard to imagine Caesar being THAT difficult, but it must be true. I wonder what his reaction was to this characterization.
Twistin 26th Apr 2016		TV The Smith Family (1971 - 1972)	@23skidoo... Yeah, that's correct...but also incorrect. I hate the fact that the genre is called Children & Family, as if the two are the same. Many children shows (ie, Barney, etc.) I would not consider family by any stretch of the imagination; at the same time, there are countless family shows that are explicitly not categorized as children. I really wish that the "children" part of the genre was purged since it misrepresents so many shows (and movies over on the Cinema world). So, in this case, family is very much a unifying thread throughout the show, but children...erm, no. Oh, and the family part of the show is one of things that makes this show unique, since so many episodes intersect Chad's family life with his work (ie, his teens protesting and having friends getting mixed up with drugs, etc.)
Twistin 28th Sep 2015		TV Welcome Back, Kotter (1975 - 1979)	From my experience in the industry, NTSC and PAL each have their pros and cons. (I always felt that PAL's extra pixel height gave the screen a more square look, less cinematic.) This era of TV was largely washed out across the board. I never cared for the videotaped-before-a-live-audience brand of sitcom. Anyway, I have seen my share of 70's Euro TV and films that also have a washed-out quality -- especially Eurocrime films! As for 70's videotaped sitcoms, both "All in the Family" (muted but not washed out) (CBS) and "Sanford and Son" (NBC) managed to escape that starchy palette, which was more common on the ABC-TV network for some reason.
Twistin 22nd Aug 2015		TV Evening Shade (1990 - 1994)	Aren't a number of these cast members just guest stars who were only in a couple of episodes?
Twistin 18th Aug 2015		TV Roseanne (1988 - 2018)	I get welled-up just thinking about that final episode. Roseanne is a horrible person, but she played her role well and the rest of the cast were brilliant. I found her grating, as well, and didn't bother with the show in its initial run, but when Nick-at-Nite did their first marathon (week-long, if I recall), I watched it all and was blown away. Despite the often outrageous situations, I found it to be very real and convincing; I felt like I knew this family.
Twistin 17th Aug 2015		TV The Smith Family (1971 - 1972)	Yep, that "Primrose Lane" does stick in the head. Shame nobody is interested in releasing this to DVD. :(
Twistin 16th Aug 2015		TV The Partridge Family (1970 - 1974)	First season was cool, but the final season was among the worst television conceivable -- especially the annoying little kid next door who delivered chunder-inducing songs that would rival water-boarding.