Being about halfway through season 1 on DVD, there are three vacuous and silly observations about this show I’d like to make (not having heard the commentaries, these may indeed be lame):
Throughout the show there are references to Maeby being adopted. That is, she may not be George Michael’s cousin. I submit that the writers planned this from episode 1. When GM first meets her, he asks if she is his cousin. Her one word response? “Maeby.”
There is an episode where Michael hires a PR person. She tells Buster that he should stay well hidden. He complies, and spends the rest of the episode lurking around corners. Notice that his shirt matches the wallpaper.
If I had to describe the characters to someone who’s never seen the show, I’d say that Lucille is just like Kitty from Dharma and Greg. Petty, vindictive, materialistic, etc. Then it struck me that there is no comparison. If Lucille is Hitler, then Kitty is Colonel Klink.
Now I need to get my DVDs back! I’ve loaned them out to so many people (in my futile attempt to get enough people addicted to this show so that they won’t cancel it). Spot on, though, with the observations.
Buster blending in with the wallpaper will never, ever stop being funny. Neither will Buster’s sudden stream of profanity, followed by Michael’s “Let’s just hope it doesn’t come to that, okay, buddy?” I have to stop the DVD every time, until I’m finished laughing.
Actually I was a big fan of Dharma & Greg and it was pretty well established that Kitty’s overbearing shrewness was based on her desire to see first her husband and then her son be successful, and to make Dharma into the kind of wife that would help Greg’s career.
Lucille, on the other hand, is completely self-centered.
It’s not Hitler and Klink, it’s Thalia Menniger and Zelda Gilroy from the old Dobie Gillis show.