Sitcoms

[Avaitor]

Have you guys ever seen this?

[Kiddington]

Have you guys ever seen this?

Once, and only once, about 3-4 years ago. Shame that it didn't have a longer shelf life; as commercials go, it's pretty good.

[Avaitor]

Cheers and Frasier are such good shows. I don''t know why it took me so long to get into them.

With Cheers, jut about the entire cast is great. I despise Diane Chambers (although I think we're supposed to, along with Ted Mosby and Elliot from Scrubs) and I'm also not crazy about Rebecca, but everyone else? Forget about it. Sam, Carla, Norm, Cliff, Woody, Frasier and Lilith are all great characters. Coach was also a good one who sadly passed on too soon. One of my favorite eps came from season 1 where he conned an "old buddy" of his who has been cheating him out of cash. It shows that there's more to him than just being the slow witted old man.

And with Frasier, while the relationship between Frasier and Niles is great and arguably the key component behind the show, I also love it when they explore their relationships with Martin. Especially since in actuality he's as smart as either of them, but nowhere near as snobby.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Yeah, I always liked Martin in how he was so different from Frasier and Niles, yet he was just like them at the same time. He might not be as "cultured" as his sons, but he's just as smart as them... maybe even smarter. In fact one of the things I liked about Frasier is that it rarely ever talked down to the audience or above them- and when Fraiser or Niles got too over the top, someone would usually knock them back down to earth.

"As usual, Fraisier has to save the day."
"As usual, Martin has to hear about it."

Such a shame that its finale was totally overshadowed by Friends ending, it was always the far better show.

Same with Cheers. Cheers was a little more standard, but that's where the charm was from. So many characters and ideas in that show, that it could have gone on forever. Shame it isn't as talked about these days, though.

[Avaitor]

The chess episode is the perfect demonstration of that. Martin could so easily knock Frasier down due to his critical expertise, but he was never in his face about it. When Frasier finally wins, he boasts all night. He and Niles are so radically different from Martin, but if you watch enough of the show, you can tell where their intellect comes from.

Oh, did you know that when the Cheers finale was about to come out, they did a poll asking who everyone's favorite character and most desired to star in their own spin-off were. Sam topped both in a landslide, and Diane was second. I believe Woody and Norm came right after. Frasier only got like 1 or 2 percent in both polls. Go figure.

[Commode]

Awesome, I Love Lucy is back on TV Land.  I didn't know they got the rights to it back.

[Avaitor]

Yeah, Nick@Nite tends to get the rights to shows back and forth. Apparently they got The Dick Van Dyke Show back earlier this year, and only ran it for a month or two, and they did the same thing with Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie last year.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I caught some Lucy during the three day marathon. Yeah, definitely great stuff.

[Avaitor]

Andy Griffith died. A damn shame, really.

[Commode]

RIP.  I didn't really watch too much of the Andy Griffith Show or Matlock(cue Grandpa Simpson), but he was still a legend.

[Foggle]

RIP

[Spark Of Spirit]

RIP.

The man was a legend.

[Avaitor]

I hope you don't mind me sharing one of my favorite Andy Griffith Show episodes with this. Obviously, you can find the following two parts in the related side.

It's the kind of "young child has a silent revelation" episode that's been done to death since its initial airing, but still contains power today, despite how minor Opie's dilemma might seem.

[Angus]

RIP, not that I watched much of them when I was a kid, but sad to see legends like him go.

[Avaitor]

I think Frasier has both the perfect pilot and finale. The former sets everything up very well- Frasier's relationships with Roz, Niles and Martin, Daphne's eccentrics, Frasier's desire to move on with his life, Niles' unhappiness with his wife and his winning smirk, and Eddie's adorableness. Tje only thing they didn't touch upon is the massive crush Niles has on Daphne, but there's plenty of time for that later.

The finale, meanwhile, takes a couple of cues from Cheers, in that basically every character but the main one has a step forward occurring in their life, causing them to decide how they should pilot their own life from then, and throwing a giant curveball to us at the end. It does work really well, and it kind of has everything. A birth, a wedding, promotion, farewells, and some closure. It was a great way to end a great show that also had a great start.