I haven’t worked my way through the entire thread yet, but…
Closely related to the WHAT MY WACKY NEIGHBOR JUMPED ON MY SUMMER VACATION Syndrome. TV families always go on vacation to Malibu, Honolulu, London, or Sydney. Never anywhere else. And they can’t go alone. They must take along every one of the wacky neighbors.
For example, when the Cunninghams go to Malibu, they take the Fonz. When Laverne and Shirley go to Honolulu, they take the Fonz. When the Bluths go to London, they take Barry the lawyer.
When Facts of Life went to Australia they took the neighborhood kid/pet, Andy (Mackenzie Astin) and their off-campus boss Beverly Ann (Cloris Leachman) even though it was a Girl’s School trip. Two interesting things about this:
1- it fits this syndrome
2- Andy’s trip was supposedly financed by his uncle, a farmer who wanted him to study farming while there (which is the main reason kids go to Australia, after all, to study farming) and was willing to pay thousands of dollars for him to do so.
Unfortunately, the same uncle wasn’t willing to adopt Andy, who it turns out was an orphan in foster-care though the show had never mentioned it before until Beverly Ann (Mrs. Garrett’s sister who had never been mentioned before coming in to take over her shop when Mrs. G got married and joined the Peace Corps in a single episode) decided to adopt him.
Whoops. As I was saying, BLOODY VOMIT SYNDROME . When the action gets a little slow, have someone sprint onto the set and spew bloody vomit all over one of the main characters. “ER”, I’m talkin’ about you. Not a sitcom, I know.
Also, SUDDEN SCIENCE FICTION SYNDROME. A show obeys the known laws of physics of many years, then suddenly veers into science fiction. “Family Matters” started out as a grade-B Cosby ripoff (they even had a very special episode in which the fake Theo Huxtable experienced racism), but then later, Urkel builds a time machine. What the fuck was up with that? I’d put the “Vic Ferrari” episodes from “Taxi” in the same league.
ALWAYS LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE syndrome: Horribly futile and depressing situations are used to show that a wink, smile, and an “Aw schucks, sorry about scarring you emotionally for life, let’s hug” will get you through anything. Hogan’s Heroes, Good Times, Mash, Roseanne, Saved by the Bell, all wonderful examples.
Are you sure ti was a Time Machine? I jsut thought it was a machine to de-nerdify him, and turn him into “Stephen,” suave man-about-town. The time machine might have been a dream, or something. I remember the nuclear bomb episode, which was a dream.
But other candidates for that are Saved By the Bell. Screech can suddenly build a talking robot with advacned AI named Kevin? Suuuuuuuuuuure.
WE’RE ABUSIVE BASTARDS, BUT BEING BLUE COLLAR MAKES IT OK
Everybody Loves Raymond, Roseanne, King of Queens, I’m looking at you. Seems to be a modern phenomenon though. Blue Collar families get progessively nicer the further back in time you go.
Smart is Smart: children who are smart in any subject area are incredibly knowledgeable in all areas. Thus, a kid who had previously shown college-level aptitude in, say, quantum physics will also prove to be an expert on 16th century Chinese military history. Because, you know, it’s all basically the same thing.
We were as really, really progressive back in the day: In any sitcom set in a previous era, or flashback episode to earlier days, the major characters all reflect the most contemporary, up-to-date social mores.
Examples:
-in “Happy Days”, the Cunninghams & co. (including the Fonz, a rebellious high-school dropout) are the only members of their community to be accepting of a black man whom Richie invited to a party at his house (who, typically, was never seen again).
-In M.A.S.H., Hawkeye & Trapper are unphased when a patient admits he’s gay, and defend him against Burns’ attempts to have him dismissed from the army.
-In “Laverne & Shirley”, the W.A.C. sargeant (a recurring guest star) shows up at their house in California eight months pregnant - but not married.
-“That 70s Show”, the one-night stand whom Kelso gets pregnant never considers an abortion (Granted that’s a touchy subject for a fluffy sitcom to tackle, but it’s the late 70s-era feminist never even considers it? Especially given that the father is dumb-as-a-rock / dim-prospects Michael Kelso??)
Fish’s wife in Barney Miller (not the spin off) is another example. Actually, I’ve always liked this strategy when it was done well. The image in my mind is generally funnier than any actor. For instance, an ongoing gag in Cheers was how thin Marris was. Niles made a remark about her running across the snow and not leaving any footprints. It was hilarious.
My nomination (there’s been so many, I hope no one’s already already mentioned it and I missed it): You’re not messing with my hair: These are comedy shows set in the past, but the actors still have current hair styles. I’m thinking in particular of MAS*H and Happy Days where the actors wore their hair over their ears. Man, Potsie would have gotten beat up every day in 1962, or whenever the show was set.
Slight movie hijack: You know, that was one of the things I liked about the movie Master and Commander. As sympathetic a character as Jack Aubrey was, he was still susceptible to the Jonah superstition because he was, well, an eighteenth century sailor.
Sorry, your wrong. She appeared the first or second season on New Year’s Eve. She appeared in a 1st or 2nd season show when they were out of the squad room on a stake out and a few other times.
I just checked IMDB, stakeout was 6th episode of season 1. She had a total of 6 appearances before the spin off.
“Barney Miller” playing “Bernice Fish” in episode: “Good-Bye, Mr. Fish: Part 2” (episode # 4.2) 22 September 1977
“Barney Miller” playing “Bernice Fish” in episode: “Group Home” (episode # 3.20) 10 March 1977
“Barney Miller” playing “Bernice Fish” in episode: “Abduction” (episode # 3.16) 3 February 1977
“Barney Miller” playing “Bernice Fish” in episode: “The Recluse” (episode # 3.7) 11 November 1976
“Barney Miller” playing “Bernice Fish” in episode: “Hair” (episode # 1.12) 17 April 1975
“Barney Miller” playing “Bernice Fish” in episode: “Stakeout” (episode # 1.6) 27 February 1975
And Doris Belack played her once on “Barney Miller” playing “Bernice Fish” in episode: “Fish” (episode # 2.12) 4 December 1975
Sorry for the details, This & Taxi were my 2 favorite 70’s shows and I think 2 of the best written ever.
You reminded me of something that bugs me about such shows – I call it the WOO! WOO! WOO! CLAP! CLAP! CLAP! Syndrome. A guest star or recurring “breakout character” makes his/her entrance, and the action/dialogue grinds to a halt so that no cast member futilely attempts to talk over the audience’s reaction. Examples: Carroll O’Connor and Carol Burnett as Jamie’s parents on Mad About You, Kramer shuffling/stumbling into Jerry’s apartment on many episodes of Seinfeld.
Cupid’s Landmine:
A show, often in a later season, has a character suddenly fall in love with someone you’d never expect. (Like a main character with which they never seemed to have any chemistry before, or some new guy/gal that the writers just introduced that season.) Bonus points if this starkly undermines any “sexual tension” or “unrequited love” themes that had been building up for the last few years. (Maybe I should have called it “Cupid’s Boot to the Head.”)
Not a sitcom, but my favorite example of this was DR. QUINN, the world’s most politically correct Surgeon Squaw American. Several shows were written on a template that culminated in Dr. Quinn shaming the town by telling them (outdoors)
“You should be ashamed at yourselves! ________________ are people, they’re people like you and me, they just want to love and be loved and to do what’s best for themselves and their loved ones! Just because _________________ look different or act different doesn’t mean they are any less worthy of respect!”
The ___________ was ultimately filled by blacks (ex-slaves), Jews (an orthodox peddler trading to the Indians), gays (Walt Whitman [played by an 85 year old Lloyd Bridges in a time period when Whitman was in his 40s]), Cheyenne Indians, mixed race couples, Scandinavian immigrants (yeah, everybody always looked at blonde buxom Swedish women moving to an area as such a terrible thing), tuberculars and the retarded, and those are all actual examples! Of course she was in love with an environmentalist who had a pet wolf and wore buckskin breeches and sweatshirts year round. Basically, it was a weekly romance novel.
Hell, once, Dr. Quinn actually had a mob of angry townsfolk with torches and pitchforks stomping to the doctor’s office shouting “kill the monster”! I’m not kidding. (It turned out the monster was just “Bull” from Night Court. Also not kidding.)
I was going to add some snarky comment about Jungian archetypes or the character of the show’s writers, but…torches and pitchforks. What could I say that could top that?