Retro TV

As the opening credits say, “Based on a Steptoe and Son [left] episode called ‘Sixty-Five Today’”, I take it that this second episode of Sandford and Son is also a direct rip-off of the British original.

Fred is turning 65 today, and the beginning of the episode has Fred on the phone with Social Security. But it takes three months to complete the enrollment process, so he hangs up. Lamont is home from the Goodwill with some 8 cent paperbacks. Fred starts laying the guilt trip about Lamont’s pretending to forget his birthday, but you know he’s just foolin’.

Fred gets a snazzy new hat, and he thinks it makes him look like a a cop, and then worn another way, he looks “like a queer.” Now, that is funny…for 1972 coming from an old black man.

A schmaltzy gag with the birthday card goes on forever, but Redd Foxx sells it. That is kind of becoming a pattern for the show, as far I can see after one and one-eighth episodes, that even when a scene is kinda dying, Foxx is able to overcome the slowness of the material. But seriously, how long is this hat/card/birthday scene?

Oh, wait, Lamont is going to take Pop out for his birthday. Lamont says something about a “movie you have to have a reservation for” — huh? Was this something back in the 1970’s I have never heard anything about? I mean, I know about tickets, but reservations? Anyway, Fred has to dress up, but he gets to wear his new hat. Great.

Ah, I love shows that get laughs off of generational gaps. Fred is a difficult customer at the bar, and Lamont is embarrassed. Fred would rather go to a dive or “get a six-pack and drink it in the parking lot.” Big laughs. Ha ha. Lamont orders a martini. Fred ends up with an Old-Fashioned with a wedge, and I mean a big wedge, of pineapple??

So, the whole movie thing is a musical, but still a movie. And it’s Fiddler. Fred hates it. Aw, he is not having any fun on his own birthday.

You see, Fred is a stereotype of not only a black man, but also an old man. He doesn’t want to change, or eat anything new, or watch anything that isn’t Gunsmoke. Reminds me of Grandpa Simpson.

And then it happens. The racial slur comes out once Fred finds out the restaurant is a Chinese restaurant. But if you have seen other television shows and films from the 70’s, like The Bad News Bears, you have to remember that this is pre-PC.

Lamont gets so frustrated during the meal that he again takes off in a huff. Fred is forced to take the bus home. But oh, no, his new hat…

The next morning, Lamont is demanding breakfast, and Fred announces he is retired. Until he calls the office and is told how much he’ll be getting every month, that is. Oh, the “black man” never wins.

The moral of the episode is of course that Fred likes what he likes, and despite Lamont’s best intentions to expand his father’s intellectual and cultural horizons, he is too old to change, and therein lies the comedy.

Sanford and Son, Redd Foxx, Bad News Bears, Steptoe and Son, Fiddler on the Roof, Goodwill, Gunsmoke, Grandpa Simpson, comedy, sitcom

About the same time that Archie Bunker was the king of prime time sitcoms, All in the Family’s prolific producer Norman Lear didn’t rest on his working-class-character-based-sitcom laurels. No, he found another British show to retool for American television audiences.

Sanford and Son

A mid-season replacement, Sanford and Son debuted on January 14, 1972. It became an immediate success, enjoying a top ten spot in five of its six seasons (being number 2 for three of them). Redd Foxx stole the show as Fred Sanford, an elderly, yet childlike junk man. His foil was his son, Lamont, played by Demond Wilson.

Basically, the show was about a father and son, who needed each other, despite their desire to not acknowledge that need. Lamont was often times the father in the relationship, holding down the home and the family business — a staple of sitcoms, the ol’ role reversal of having the responsible child take over for the irresponsible parent.

Add to that comedy formula the fact that our main characters are black, and you have comedy gold.

“Crossed Swords” was the first episode and the pilot. I did note that the episode is a rip-off of an episode in the British parent, Steptoe and Son.

In “Crossed Swords”, Lamont comes across a fine piece of porcelain statuary during his travels around Los Angeles looking for “junk” to bring home to his father’s junkyard. Lamont paid $15 for it to some old lady that he thinks may have been a movie star back in the day. She only wanted ten, but Lamont, who has been reading up on antiques, gives her more, knowing that he is going to make some money on this deal. Aw, he seems sweet. He really thinks he is going to solve all his problems one day by finding the right piece of junk.

It takes a while for all this to come out during the beginning of what seems like a long 20 minutes by the time the episode’s end comes. The episode starts slowly enough, and as it is so predictable, maybe that is why is seems slower than perhaps it is, or was to 1972 audiences.

Of course, I don’t need to tell you that Lamont takes the figure to a ritzy Beverly Hills antiques dealer, who offers him a princely sum. However, Lamont sees dollar signs, despite Fred’s appeal to sell it to the antique dealer. Next scene is an Auction, which lots of rich, white people, a perfect opportunity for two black guys to make fun of white people and how weird they are. Fred and Lamont are the only minorities in the room, but no matter, laughter is to be had. Once the bidding starts slowing down, Lamont starts bidding in order to drive up the price. All is going swimmingly, and it seems like things are going to work out for the Sanfords, until at the last moment, Fred starts bidding.

“Crossed Swords” then turns to pathos. Lamont wants to be something, Fred is old and will die soon, but wants Lamont to stay with him. It’s a sad commentary, as it is more than Lamont’s inability to leave his father that is keeping him down. Socioeconomically speaking, Lamont does not have a lot of other options.

The 1970’s was an interesting decade to study sitcoms, as they often played at the front of progressive politics. Blacks on television were a fairly rare thing to find during the 1950’s and 1960’s. Sanford and Son was one of the pioneers in African-American-centered television shows. And yes, you still find racism and racial humor, in spite of the fact that the original British version featured white actors.

Also, I had to laugh at the similarity in “pilot” plots between Sanford and Son and Gimme A Break! In both, a son or daughter threatens to leave home and starts going through the motions to carry out the threat, only to give up and join the family in order to start the series.

Sanford and Son, Redd Foxx, Demond Wilson, Norman Lear, Archie Bunker, All in the Family, Steptoe and Son, pilot, sitcom, 1970’s, african-american, racial humor, British television, American television

Let’s go back to 1981, shall we?

Gimme A Break! debuted on television on October 29, 1981. The pilot was called “Katie the Crook.”

Honestly, I scarcely remember Gimme A Break! before Joey Lawrence entered the show. As the episode was starting out, I kept looking around for him, thinking that he was one of the kids, but then I remembered that he was one of those orphans that sitcoms loved adding to the sitcom family back in those days. So no, Joey Lawrence in this episode. His character, Joey, (easy enough for him to remember, I guess) comes along in the third season.

So here we go…”Katie the Crook,” everyone.

My first question when this episode opens was, “Is the fish tank always half-full? Those fish are going to die.” I should have known from the opening credits montage that maybe this would be the day that Nell (Nell Carter) accidentally vacuums up the goldfish. And then she did…wow. However, I am still wondering if the half-full thing was because vacuuming up a full fish tank would take too long or if subsequent episodes will also have a half-full tank? Is this an on-going gag? It’s kind of mean if it is. Unless the goldfish are fake, then it is kind of funny.

Sam, the youngest Kanisky daughter and future lesbian, comes home from school with a black eye. A boy hit her, and she wonders how come boys can beat up girls? Like I said, she’s going to be a man-hater. Nell is going to teach her to box, to defend herself, but instead jumps around a bit and does that cute Nell Carter-is-a-big-girl-but-she-can-still-move thing she does. Problem solved!

Next, Nell enters the kitchen where bookish, gawky, nerdly-er middle child, Julie, is studying sex ed from a book and her study buddy is a mono-brow shorty named George. There is a long stretch of Julie talking about polliwogs and an oven, which just keeps going on, until Nell cracks a joke about not doing anything she wouldn’t do. Um, yeah.

But where is Katie? She has been staying out later and later as of, um, late, and she is again late. Sorry.

Chief gets home. Chief is an old, white, probably Polish police chief and as he lives in a Los Angeles suburb, I am not sure where this guy is a chief. I’m thinking small town rather than LA, but who knows, it’s a sitcom. I’m just thinking that a police chief for Los Angeles would be better paid, as exhibited in the house of the Kanisky family. A racial joke or two, and then Chief catches Julie kissing George (ew). Daddy is old-fashioned, and as this is the year that saw the birth of MTV and a year before the release of Fast Times at Ridgemont High, the old fashioned father thing is going to be one of the show’s themes.

A knock at the door and a uniformed policeman is delivering Katie to the Chief hoping to get noticed for promotion, I suppose. Katie and her friends were caught shoplifting.

Gee, that Katie sure has been different since her mother died…And it begins. The show is about Nell “Harper” working as a don’t-call-her-the-maid. Chief’s wife died and he’s got three daughters. What will he do? Ah, Nell had promised the now-passed Margaret that she’d stay around and take care of the family. Yeah, because that would be the only way that Archie Bunker’s brother, Carl Kanisky, would ever hire a sista.

Dad and Katie fight. She points out the obvious and says, “But she is dead.” He kicks her out. She goes to pack, sisters come in to persuade her to stay, she apologizes. So does Dad. They hug. And to try to save the schmaltzy ending, Nell steals the spotlight by crying loudly for…the goldfish.

Yeah. How did this show become a hit?

Gimme A Break, Nell Carter, Joey Lawrence, MTV, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Archie Bunker, sitcom

Seinfeld’s Jerry Seinfeld lives in NYC, yeah, yeah, we know and we get it. But let’s look some of the details around the apartment to see what else his Manhattan bachelor pad says about the central character of the “show about nothing.” Will his one-bedroom prove to be equally vacuous?

Those damn cupboard doors

I hate the glass cupboards unless you are an 80-year-old lady with antique store quality stuff to show off, and even then it can be a bit much. Surprisingly, these glass cupboard doors tell us that Jerry is quite open and honest about what he keeps around the kitchen and perhaps that carries over into his real life…except it doesn’t. It is more than Jerry feels superior to those who come to his apartment and wants them to see the superior choices he makes when it comes to food, and the cereal shelf is more vanity on Jerry’s part — trying to show everyone he is young and will never grow old — a Peter Pan complex, if ever there were one.

The refrigerator

I don’t think the fridge is entirely character-driven when it comes to set design on Seinfeld. There are pictures of somebody’s kids on the refrigerator. Jerry Seinfeld would never have kids pix on his fridge. I am thinking the pictures are the designer’s or someone on the design staff’s kids. There is a large Superman magnet — read Peter Pan complex above — which obviously shows that Jerry is a Superman fan.

The kitchen overall

Obviously, Jerry does not cook. Typical bachelor, 90’s style. Now a sitcom like Seinfeld would have to have Jerry be a total foodie that can wow the chicks with his hot chef-i-ness. Also, there is no hood in the kitchen so that apartment would fill up with smoke if Jerry did decide to cook, maybe it’s best that he orders take-out or eats at that little diner. I guess that is why he never has dishes to wash.

Seinfeld, Jerry Seinfeld, sitcom, television, bachelor pad, apartment

Ah, the summer of 1982…takes me back. I have absolutely no memory whatsoever of 1982, except the I do remember seeing this episode of Family Ties. I must have seen it when Family Ties went into syndication.

“Summer of ‘82” is a play on Summer of ‘42 — funny, the Simpsons also did a send up of Summer of ‘42, but it didn’t have anything to do with sex between an older woman and a younger male, which is the main point of the movie, but did have something to do with a beach house much like the setting of the film . Anyway, Alex P. Keaton gets laid for the first time in “Summer of ‘82″. Actually, he is used as a single-serving lover by a college girl that takes him to a Milton Friedman lecture…or something.

The episode really focuses on the burgeoning star of Michael J. Fox as the consummate symbol of the Reagan Era and 80’s sitcom dominance on prime time TV. Fox was quickly becoming the breakout star of the show and more episodes were being written to focus on his comic timing and likable capitalist character.

“Summer of ‘42″ also lets Jen (Tina Youthers) mug for the camera in that adorable way she did in the first season of the show, before she grew up into a borderline pudgy teenager with huge blond mall-rat hair.

Mallory and Elyse have practically nothing to do in this episode, the fourth aired in the first season (original airdate was 10/27/82 ). Steven gets to ask Alex the lamest question any dad ever has asked their son, “It was your first time, wasn’t it?” I mean, ew, creepy.

Of course, the laughtrack for Family Ties can get distracting if you allow it, too, which I usually do. But still, it is hard to deny the charisma of Fox and the rather odd time capsule that Family Ties has become, signaling an interesting time in the US when Liberal became a bad word.

Family Ties, Alex Keaton, Michael J Fox, 80’s sitcom, prime time, television, Reagan Era

Bob is having a minor freakout and needs some alone time. Of course, he doesn’t realize this at first…

“I Want to Be Alone” opens with a hurried morning at the Hartley Apartment. Bob is irritable, but when asked ’sup by Emily, he says it’s nothing. Once he goes into the office, he gets to deal with Mr. Carlin and we discover his awesome head of hair is a “toop” — his pronunciation.

Bob needs to talk to someone and he tries to talk with Jerry, but Jerry is super obtuse as always. He tries relaxing Bob in the dentist chair — yeah, that always works.

The root of the problem is that Bob listens to people all day along, and he’s starting to feel it. He decides to take a vacation to…Chicago, ta-dah!

Wait, doesn’t Bob live in Chicago? Yes, yes, he does, but he thinks that getting a hotel room in the city for four days is a good way to get away from it all and spend some good quality alone time.

I am not entirely sure why this localized solo trip is the solution to Bob’s issues. I kind of think it was one of those ideas that didn’t have a whole lot to it. I mean, think about it. If Bob has four days all by himself, why would you stay in the Avalon Hotel in Chicago? Wouldn’t you run the risk of running into someone you know, Doctor? Why wouldn’t Bob take a short plane trip somewhere else, and it’s not like the episode relied on any scenes from Bob’s vacation other than his arrival in his hotel room. Not sure, but this plot line does nothing for me.

Neither does the episode really. Jokes are thin, and the whole Howard mistaking Bob’s trip for a divorce is played out overly by the end.

All in all, this episode is a bit weak. There is no real basis for what is going on and the fact that Bob is continually put upon to help others and solve all problems of the mental variety is the meat of the Bob Newhart Show. We don’t want to (not) see Bob taking a break from the crazy people in his life.

Remember crazy=funny.

Bob Newhart, Bob Newhart Show, Hartley, Chicago

The premise of “Anything Happen While I Was Gone?” is fairly straightforward. The show opens on a darkened Hartley apartment with newspapers piled up on the coffee table. I assume that Howard was gathering them while they were away. Not sure, nor am I sure why they would even want those newspapers…I think Bob would have read newspapers while he was away. I know, the newspapers were just props to show us the Hartley were out of town.

Oh, yeah, and they got back from Mexico, so I guess Emily’s fear of flying is selective.

Howard greets Bob and Emily, and when asked if anything exciting happened while they were away, replies, “Nothing…except the fire.” The fire is never mentioned again, so lame joke.

The next scene is Bob greeting Carol, who is answering all the urgent phone calls that seem to be coming in just to set up the “Bob can’t show anyone his pictures of Mexico” joke. And of course, Jerry interrupts Bob’s second attempt to bring up exciting Mexico with his announcement that he is getting married. And the main plot begins.

Jerry’s new “girl” is a total ballbuster. Hot in a pink, short, dental hygenist dress, but bossy and teethy all the same. She sees Jerry as an easy mark to boss around and as he is a dentist and orthodontist, he must have quite the bank account to make him attractive to women.

The best joke comes during this scene in which Carol is trying tor reschedule a kid’s checkup. The new b*tch, Cynthia (I have always hated that name) takes over Jerry’s appointment book and changes his days off from his weekly handball game day to a day she wants him off. Jerry adds, “I no longer need handball.” Ah, he isn’t taking about sports.

The episode goes to some lengths to show just how bossy Cynthia is and how much she is calling the shots in Jerry’s life. A Mexico-themed slide show at the Hartley’s belabors the fact, and the next day, Cynthia criticizes Emily’s avocado dip. Oh, that is too much. She goes so far as to lie about Jerry getting sick from said dip. Seriously, Jerry cannot marry this she-devil, this succubus.

Jerry tells Bob the date is set for like, two days away, because everyone gets married after a week and a half. Bob and Emily art setting up the poker tables for the Stag party, when Jerry calls to say he won’t be able to make it. Bob rushes off to fix the situation.

Jerry has called the wedding off, but hasn’t told Cynthia yet. Bob talks him through the build-up to the phone call because you know, he’s a psychologist and that is just what he does.

Meanwhile, Emily had to host the assuredly raucous stag party. She gambled away all of her money and all of Bob’s pennies from his penny jar. Hilarity!

Oh, that Emily. How does Bob put up with her?

It’s a charming episode that shows how desperate Jerry is.

Cynthia is played by Elaine Giftos, who looks really familiar, but when I check her out on IMDB, I don’t see anything concrete that I would have seen her in, but she did do a lot of guest shots on a lot of shows, including Magnum P.I. of which I have watched a lot of, so maybe that is where I have seen her.

Bob Newhart Show, Bob Newhart

As I mentioned before, I discovered the joys of Bob Newhart on WGN. I mean, sure, I remember it from when I was a kid, but I never really watched a lot of network sitcoms growing up. So, it was a nice surprise to find WGN playing Newhart (the one with Bob as an innkeeper in Vermont).

I decided to find out what other gems WGN’s weekend line up was offering.

The whole time zone thing can be tricky, as I am looking at listings for the Pacific Time Zone, but since WGN is out of Chicago, it would make more sense to list all shows in Central Time. But instead, I am going to list things EST/PST. If you live in the Central Time Zone, subtract an hour from EST, and if you live in the Mountain Time Zone, add an hour to PST.

Coach 5pm/2 pm and 5:30/2:30 pm

On Sundays. after all the quasi-religious programming that WGN offers the Craig T. Nelson sitcom, Coach, from the 90’s. Great show except for the love interest, Shelley Fabares, who was originally Donna Reed’s daughter in the 50’s. I kinda wish she had retired back then, but then again, I am a b*tch. Otherwise, I liked Coach, a workplace-situation comedy in a University’s football department. It helps if you like sports a little…

ALF 6 pm/3pm and 6:30/3:30 pm

After a full hour of Coach (two episodes), you can catch a true gem of 80’s programming, ALF. I was never really sure why this show lasted four season and not a gazillion, because it had a muppet in it. Muppets were pretty big during the 80’s. Make that muppet an alien that crashlands on Earth, and you’ve got your self a furry-lovable-fish-out-of-water comedy. Liz Sheridan, who played Jerry Seinfeld’s mom on Seinfeld, played a nosy neighbor. I thought she was the best part of the show, other than Max Wright as the hapless dad that harbors ALF (Alien Life Form, get it?). The wife was lame, and the kids were equally lame, as far as I remember.

WGN, Bob Newhart, Craig T Nelson, Shelley Fabares, Coach, Alf, Seinfeld, Liz Sheridan, muppet

After receiving the second disk’s-worth of Season One episodes from the Bob Newhart Show, I noticed that the first episode listed was called “P-I-L-O-T,” but hey, this is the second disk. Now, let’s see. Howard the neighbor is not a pilot but a navigator for the airline, but he’s not a pilot, and what’s with all the hyphens and caps. So, it must be the pilot.

Suzanne Pleshette’s hair is long and shag-a-rific. Truly, a sexy mama mullet of which to be proud. But the other episodes don’t have long hair, so it definitely shows that this was filmed prior to the other first season shows.

I love watching pilots. I love finding the differences, the tweaks, the cast changes or drops. So watching Bob Newhart’s pilot was a real treat. And I can say that the changes made were a tremendous improvement.

I did a little work, not much really, and I guess between the pilot and actual series production, Bob Newhart wanted to change the focus from babies, which was the whole focus of the pilot. Bob and Emily think about adoption, because…get this…they don’t want to wait nine months for a baby. Yeah, stupid. Luckily, comic timing help get you through the show. You can see the promise, but the pilot is the weakest show I have watched to date.

I mean why would you take a smart show about a couple and make it about the need to be normal and have kids. Babies usually show up during the show’s death knells, after the show has jumped that shark or an immediate precursor to the jump. That is rarely interesting, and that is exactly what makes the pilot rarely interesting. The writing is a little stilted as well.

Cosmetic changes between the pilot and the series include another good move from stripes to a light solid color on the walls of the Hartley’s apartment and on the couch. Emily’s hair definitely changes, and though my boyfriend seems to think rather highly of the pilot’s ‘do, I think it makes her look older and kinda dowdy. She is a hot, foxy mama with more modern short hair. They also put her in more sexy clothes in the series — lots of empire waists with her boobs all perky, as opposed to the pilot.

And the first floor neighbor, Hoover, is never seen again…

The pilot didn’t air until November 1972, so it was obviously held back as the first show aired during the first season. The first show was instead “Fly the Friendly Skies,” which was a much, much stronger debut for the show. It focused instead on Bob’s inherently funny profession of psychologist.

It’s an age old comedy equation: Crazy people = Funny

Bob Newhart, Bob Newhart Show, Suzanne Pleshette, pilot, comedy, sitcoms

So today Watching Retro TV begins yet again with a new writer. Personally, I have not read a lot of the before the option of taking it over was presented to me, so I am not sure why this little site seems to be so prone to writerlessness (yes, I know that is not a word).

A brief introduction of time watching television

Growing up, I had a love hate relationship with television — still do. Television can be a wonderful destructive thing. It really does matter what you watch. I happen to watch a lot of television, but I don’t really watch TV like the normal person. I study TV, and I dissect it. But I find great joy in doing so, so much so that I majored in film and television studies in college. Sure, that degree does me very little good, but it sure was fun taking such classes as Television History. The show that got the biggest laughs — Dynasty.

During my course of study, I developed a great appreciation for “old” TV. I don’t see this site as a way to promote dvd releases or even review them. I would rather spend my time studying the history of retro TV, how it relates to today’s televisional morass, and of course, enjoying some retro television and sharing my opinions and takeaways with you, my captive internet reader.

This week’s viewing schedule (courtesy of netflix) is going to be The Bob Newhart Show Season One (Disk two) which is coming in the mail today. I started watching Bob Newhart after rediscovering my love for Newhart (1982 to 1990) which has been running on WGN on the weekends. As I was extolling its virtues, my boyfriend asked me if I had even seen the first Bob Newhart show, appropriately named The Bob Newhart Show (1972-1978). I immediately put it on my netflix queue.

The first disk was quite good, and as most shows start off a little shaky, I assume that the BNS will only get better. I was pleased to finally figure out who is Marcia Wallace, the voice of the Simpson’s Edna Krabappel (Bart’s teacher for my non-Simpsons-obsessed readers). Wallace plays Bob’s receptionist and she is a chronic scene-stealer. I adore her. I also found out that the Bob Newhart Show and the Simpson’s have more in common than just Mrs. “Crabapple.” Bob Newhart appeared in the episode of the Simpsons in which Krusty the Klown stages his own death to avoid paying income taxes.

television history, Dynasty, Bob Newhart, The Bob Newhart Show, Simpsons, Marcia Wallace, Krusty the Klown, WGn