Someone asked "What does a blinking yellow light mean? scene from Taxi."
Jim is taking a driver’s license exam, and the others are there to help him cheat.
Jim: What does the blinking yellow light mean?
Bobby: Slow dow.
Jim: What … does … the …blinking …yellow …light …mean?
Bobby: Slow dow.
Jim: Whhhaaatt… dooessss (etc. )
Sammy Davis Jr. gives Archie Bunker a big kiss.
For my money, the single best episode of AITF ever. The whole thing is them in their house talking with Sammy. It’s all about the characters. Pricelessly funny.
**Fraisier moment -
Niles thinks that Maris is cheating on him - in the big scene at the end, first Niles confronts the other man and then the two “talk.” But the other guy doesn’t speak English, Niles doesn’t speak German, and the discussion filters from Niles, to Frasier, who translates from english to spanish, to the maid who translates from spanish to german, and then to the guy. And back. **
They did this in an ep. of “Lucy” where they are in Europe. They end of in a French jail, and someone speaks German, who speaks Spanish (via Ricky) etc. Equally funny.
My entry: SEINFELD. Elaine is waiting for someone in a theater. In front of her is an obnoxious woman telling her friend all about the “cute thing” her little son did: dressing up her clothes and high heels and lip-synching to her LA CAGE AUX FOLLES cast album. Clearly the kid is going to grow up to be gay, and the woman has no idea.
Or on Barney Miller, after they arrest someone. They are pushing him into the holding cell, when he tells them that he is convinced he is a werewolf. Yamana, absolutely straight-faced, says, “I’ll put down some papers.”
I can think of three from Roseanne that haven’t been mentioned yet.
The first one is where Roseanne finds pot in the house, accuses David, and then Dan reminds her that it’s theirs from years ago. The two of them, along with Jackie, hide in the bathroom and smoke it. At first you only see Dan and Roseanne talking, and then Jackie’s voice comes from nowhere. They pull the shower curtain back and she’s curled up in the bathtub. At some point she says “Am I shrinking? Is this the SINK???”
Another is when Roseanne is on the phone with her mother, I’m thinking it may have been Mother’s Day. Bev asks to talk to Jackie and it’s apparent that she begins harrassing her about when she’s going to find a man. Jackie tries to avoid the situation but finally tells her, (something like this) “Oh go suck an egg…What?..NO, mom!..Why would I tell you to go suck an egg? That’s ridiculous. There must be a bad connection. Uh huh. You too. Talk to you later. Mmmkay. Bite me.”
The third one is where Jackie finds out she’s pregnant. When she tells her mother, she is very obviously trying to upset her, but she doesn’t know that Roseanne has already leaked the information. She gets increasingly agitated that Bev isn’t the least bit flustered. The look on Jackie’s face when she says “And if it’s a girl I’m gonna name her GIDGET!” cracks me up every time. And the fact that Jackie is ticked at Roseanne for telling Bev about the pregnancy. “This could’ve been the one to do her in!”
Earlier, while pretending to be Jewish, Niles dropped about five Yiddish words in two consecutive sentences. Frasier looked at him mildly hard and said “Turn it down a notch, Tevye…”
All that’s great about that show: verbal brilliance and snap timing, was on display in that episode.
Infinitely superior to the tiresome and precious Will and Grace.
“Christmas time is here/A time for fun and cheer…”
Best moment: when the whole group. Ned, Stacey, Stacey’s sister Amanda and her husband Eric (who Ned incessantly called “Rico”), stayed up until @ 3:00 to watch a local commercial for the muffin shop. (Fuck “Jump the Shark” already.) Eric goes and gets Stacey out of bed and carries her, still drowsy and trying to sleep, into the living room in front of the TV. She’s resting her head on his shoulder, drifting back to sleep, when the ad comes on. Without hesitating or even looking at her, Ned nonchalantly breaks a smelling salt under her nose. Debra Messing did a beautiful, Lucy-quality bicyle kick with her legs. God, it was brilliant!
(They ripped off the same bit a year or so ago on Will and Grace.) Typical.
They were inside a prison once, and all the prisoners in one room had headphones on. All at once they all started screaming. One of the guys asked the guards if they were listeing to sonic screeches, and he says “No, it’s little Jimmy Osmond.” Killed me when I was @ 11.
“Fish Story”: One of the great moments in that show’s history. The other story is equally brilliant. Herb in the fish suit (he’s a Carp…). He has to piss and can’t get out of the suit. The sight of him in that stupid suit, standing there as he fans his fins across his groin area, is just unforgettable.
Herb, Les and Bailey end up in a full scale war with WPIG’s pig suited guy.
And when Jackie opens the door to the men’s room and screams at Fred “I’m pregnant. You’re the father. I’ll be in the kitchen if you want to talk.” And Fred says “Good thing I was sitting down.”
That show had some fantastic writers in the first and second season, then they all had their brains sucked out by the suits and the show lost its soul.
My favorite scene from that episode: The pot brownies were served at an AA meeting. A friend of John’s tells him that when he stood up and said, “Hi, I’m Dave”, sixty guys yelled, “Dave’s not here, man”!
Gotta love writers who can slip in a Cheech and Chong reference, and have enough respect for the audience not to explain it.
Another Frasier bit from the episode where the boys open the restaurant. Niles is trying to kill an eel in a tank and doesn’t know how. He keeps prodding them and finally Daphne reaches past him, grabs one and in a smooth motion overhands it and slams it onto a cutting board.
The Fraiser where Fraiser is depressed and Niles walks into the kitchen and sees him with his head in the oven. "It’s an electric oven. If I were going to kill myself, I’d choose a less painful method than “broil.”
And Drew Carey where he’s talking to the boy who played Pinnochio in the TV-movie (and also was in the Sixth Sense). “One more thing: I see dead people.” The cast obviously didn’t know that was coming. Drew couldn’t even open his mouth for fear of cracking up.
I think the all time best scene in a sitcom is on “All in the Family”
when Archie takes a picture with Sammy Davis Jr. , and he kisses him.
#2 , I think would be on I love Lucy, where Lucy puts a bunch of eggs in her shirt and then Tangoes with Ricky. I think that goes down as one of the longest recorded audience laughs ever, like 65 seconds.
There is a scene from friends that cracks me up every time I see it. Ross and Monica get to dance on Dick Clark’s Rockin New Year’s Eve and can’t seem to get any attention from the camera guys. Then they break into this dance routine from their high school talent show. I embarass myself by how much I laugh during that scene.
The scene with Ross and the leather pants in the bathrrom is pretty funny too!
