Here’s what being 60+ YO will do to you: I kept telling my wife it was done by splitting a laser beam – for every episode!! (except the computer disappearance; I actually remembered that one correctly)
To be fair, we had just finished binging, “The Snoop Sisters,” so I was a bit addled.
Aye, Banner-check! 
I love Banacek, I have the DVDs, I wish they had done the third season (petty, George, very petty!) but the show does not play fair. It’s not only not a “fair-play” mystery, but they actively trick the audience. Guess they counted on audiences not being about to watch them again.
In the train car one, in the opening when the train pulls into “Boston” station, you can see in the box car that was ahead of the flat there is just some junk, but in the “here’s how it’s done” recap there’s a whole powered winch. In the missing football player one, if you watch closely in the beginning, you can see the player that runs off the field without a helmet is Black, not white like the missing player.
But some are good (the duplicate hotel room, To Steal a King I think) is sound and would work. The fake elevator in “Cap’n Jack” wouldn’t. There’d be a huge gap in the floor when the door opened no one would miss seeing.
There’s an old Polish Proverb that says, though the kitten loves the toy, the cat knows the mouse is fake.
Is that available? Weren’t there like only 6 episodes? I remember liking it when it was in rotation. Does it hold up?
I’d like to see Cool Million again, but I doubt that will ever see the light of day. Same with Tenafly and Madigan and Hec Ramsey.
No matter how warm the smile on the face of the sun, the cat still has her kittens under the porch.
Mulholland’s Rare Books and Prints, by the way, is just a couple hundred yards up Beacon St. from the Cheers bar.
Oh, one more thing. Banacek is interesting to watch for a Bostonian. I sure most of it was shot in L.A., but there were some bits filmed around Boston. I recognize some of them. In the opening credits (might be second season only), Banacek escorts a woman out of his limousine and into a restaurant called Durgin Park. Also the site of a couple dopefests.
Snoop Sisters is available on YouTube as we speak – three of the four episodes, but not the pilot. Not having seen TSS before, I was delighted; Helen Hayes is adorable, she attacks the role like it’s High Theatre and that’s what makes it work. Her and Mildred Natwick both got Emmy nominations, Natwick won. Their nephew(?) is played by Lou Antonio, who was half black/half white on a certain Star Trek episode, and their police “connection” is, who else, Bert Convy.
Those “Mystery Movie” shows were pretty decent. 75 minutes seemed to be the perfect time constraint for those stories.
While Columbo is obviously a cut above the rest,what was the deal with series with older, kind of schlubbish police/private detectives??
Rockford Files (Not so much him but his car and …trailer??")
Cannon
Barnaby Jones
Harry O
Baretta (Christ, someone find him and his roommate better living quarters. He was in The Seven Year Itch FFS!!)
Quincy. QUINCY?? “All right, get me Jack Klugman!! He’s a coroner who solves crimes!!”
Aaron Spelling must have looked at the TV scene and said, “The fuck are we doing?? Get me three hot women! Well…two…and Kate Jackson! Ok she’s hot too! Three!”
Sly foxes ain’t cubs. And natty sly foxes have better career options.
Rockford, and his car, were awesome. The trailer fit the character, and was a plot point a couple times.
I’ve been to the parking lot in Malibu where the trailer was.
I’d like to know how he got sewer and water. Power, eh, I can see him running an extension cord from the restaurant. Of course, I’d like to know WHY they let him park there. The lot doesn’t have a superabundance of spaces. Plus, it’s UGLY
I tried watching Treme and even bought the DVDs of one season. I’m a big fan of New Orleans and thought it sounded promising. However, they had a white guy in there, he was a DJ or something, and he was annoying enough (whiney voice, etc.) to make me quit watching.
I’ve been meaning to go there someday, maybe have lunch at the Sandcastle. Is there anything to commemorate the location’s place in TV history?
They never did explain much about Jim’s living arrangements. I assumed there were utility hookups of some kind, but that’s the magic of television, I guess.
I didn’t see anything. It does seem like an oversight. Maybe the snooty Malibudlians don’t want the association.
One thing noticeable, FYI, is the pier was damaged and is much shorter. As with all things on TV, the whole parking lot is smaller than it looks on TV, too.
I’ve visited a few TV and movie locations; sometimes they make much of the association, but sometimes not. I went to Tom’s Restaurant in NYC once. Lots of Seinfeld memorabilia on the walls, and I did find one picture of Suzanne Vega, too.
(Not just movie locations. I like to track down neglected historic sites, too.)
Even more than Paradise Cove, I thought the EAT cafe* in Cabazon (RIP) needed some reference to Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. Like having a Pee Wee Memorial Booth or some movie stills or something, but No! After all, PW and the Dinosaurs were the reason I stopped there in the first place. Then I’d stop every time I’d go by, if for no more than a slice of pie and ice cream and a look at the dinos.
*technically the Wheel Inn, but it always will be EAT to me. Tell 'em, Large Marge sent ya.
We’ve mentioned Scrappy Doo, right? Because even if we have, he’s worth mentioning again.
Lana Shields, the cougar infatuated with Jack Tripper, brought nothing to Three’s Company. I doubt anyone complained when the producers abruptly dropped the character mid-season.
cricket in Hawaiian eye other than being a somewhat famous singer she was supposed to be a romantic interest for one of the PIs but just comes off as a spoiled bratty little sister who wasn’t to little anymore
Señor Chang was the one they could do without. Every show can do without him. Not like Chevy has been funny in years. There’s something gone wrong with his brain. He doesn’t understand that he’s not funny anymore and that’s why nobody is laughing.
Any new character played by Martin Mull, or Brian Posehn. They and others are show killers. If you see them in a series you know it’s coming to and end.