That was Johnny Johnson.
I want a name like that…
Max Maxwell. Yeah!
1) Favorite Episode:
I can’t list just one. Besides not knowing the names of them, I’ve seen the reruns so many times that the show gets lumped in my mind to “with Bill” and “without Bill.” So rather than single out one episode, I’ll say that Newsradio with Phil Hartman was golden, and it was dead in the water without him. One of my favorite Bill episodes was when he was reading the Rocket Fuel Malt Liquor (DAAAAAAMN!), and Catherine conned him into using fake street language because she was disgusted with the whole thing.
2) Bill, Dave, or Jimmy:
Bill hands down. I think that show died with Phil Hartman.
3)Lovitz, bad idea or victim:
A little bit of both, I think. I can’t stand the guy normally. I have a thing against guys who do the whole baby-talk speech affectation. That being said, I have seen him be funny before, and I can see how the show could’ve worked with him, but losing a character like Bill was just too much.
“Save the humanoids!”
1) Favorite Episode:
Probably the third episode, “Smoking.” Dave trys to enforce a smoking ban and ends up quitting coffee to get Bill to quit smoking. This comes to a head when Matthew steps into the office to ask a question and gets verbally ripped to shreds by the ‘calm’ Bill and Dave.
2) Bill, Dave, or Jimmy:
All appealing, ultimately Dave though as I’m a huge kith fan.
3) Lovitz, bad idea or victim:
Unfortunate victim.
“It’s Crizappy!”
- Chock Full O Notes.
- Bill
- Bad idea.
- “Everybody knows that ducks hate hunchbacks.”
“Kazizzah, dilznoofuses, Bill McNeil saying get with the crizappy taste of Rocket Fuel Malt Liquor. Rocket Fuel’s got the upstate prison flavor that keeps you ugly all night long! So if you want to get sick, remember, nothing makes your feet stink like Rocket Fuel Malt Liquor! DAMN, it’s crizappy!”
This show was a worthy successor to WKRP in Cincinatti, much more so than the train-wreck that was The New WKRP in Cincinatti.
Mmm… Bailey…
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Jimmy James runs for president
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Tie between Bill and Jimmy James. Bill was a complacent egomaniac, and Phil Hartman was just a damn talented commedien. I loved the way Jimmy James would cut off anybody who sounded like they were going to disagree with him and just trash any potential bad mojo before it could even start. Jimmy James is who I wanna be when I grow up.
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Jon Lovitz is a character actor. His character would have been good for one show, like when he was Bill’s cell mate when Bill got thrown into the psycho ward. Lovitz is not the type of actor who can grow into a role.
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“I was Deep Throat.”
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I gotta crap out on this question. Too many from which to choose. “Chock” was a standout, with Bob Odenkirk playing a terrific foil to Dave (the barbershop quartet - what was their name?); “Movie Star”, which has James Caan just awestruck by Matthew’s stupidity; another is “Friends” with Bebe Neuwirth and Beth competing for Matthew’s affection and Tone Loc as a security guard who refuses Bill access to the building.
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I like all of them together in a scene - they compliment each other perfectly, to choose one without acknowledging the contribution of either of the remaining two is something I am unable to do.
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Victim, but they did the best they could, and it was still a quality show.
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"I had a small house of brokerage on Wall Street. Many days no business comes to my hut. Jimmy has fear? A thousand times no! I never doubted myself for a minute, for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the oppulence of buffalo…
(pause to turn page)
dung."
Was this the one where Bill stuck a ring of nicotine patches around his waist? Damn that was beautiful.
Happy
Chock Full of Notes.
“Yeah, one more question. What did you mean when you said 'Feel my skills, donkey, donkey, donkey, donkey, donkey?”
“I want you to look around. Here we have Lisa, who today very nearly gave up a career in journalism for a life in the fast food industry. Over here we have Beth, who dresses like a barmaid from"Blade Runner.” Mr. James, the millionaire, who has spent the entire day eating food he knows for a fact to be spoiled. Joe, who has earned eleven dollars working as an amateur surveillance expert. Half of that is monopoly money. (Matthew is hiding under a desk) And of course we have Matthew, who appears to have taken the law into his own hands."
- Dave
As long as we’re all being honest here, I’ve gotta say that I never found it that funny. At the risk of sounding vauge, they all just seemed a little too convinced of their own hilarity, especially Foley and Root, and that always turned me off. What’s the expression I’m looking for here, “too clever by half”?
“In the future, it might help if you located the source of your rage before you unleashed it on the world.”
- Bill McNeill
Don’t forget when Jimmy gets taken by the Three Card Monte kids in the subway. Hell hath no fury like a psychotic businessman scammed.
I caught today’s rerun, the one in which Catherine leaves. I don’t want to say anything sexist, so let me just factually observe that she was wearing the shortest, tightest, lowest-cut, most revealing outfuit that any 40-year-old business professional has ever worn on a prime-time situation comedy.
Why are we not talking more about Khandi Alexander in this thread?
I don’t think the writers gave Ms. Alexander a lot to work with-- her character is kind of one-dimensional and dry.
Not that she didn’t shine when given a chance. Her contributions to the cute vs. sexy controversy was pretty good.
I think some of the writers had a keyboard macro for “Catherine raises one eyebrow, but says nothing.”
Just shoot me, okay?