I recall a whimsical scene where our antagonist, Mr. Roper, stumbles into the living room and upon our humble protagonists, Jack and Chrissy, in the course of an innocent dialog in the bedroom as they try to locate a lost object.
However, by the time Mr. Roper enters, the conversation has already begun. Unable to see the pair, and unaware of the reason for and innocence of the conversation, Mr. Roper overhears only part of the conversation, which is apparently laden with sexual innuendo.
Mr. Roper continues to eavesdrop on our unsuspecting duo only to find the conversation becoming increasingly provocative and sexually suggestive in Mr. Roper’s mind, which obviously angers him greatly. Infuriated, Mr. Roper charges into the bedroom, only to find Jack and Chrissy searching the room.
Actually I agree. Green Acres is a great, silly, surrealistic show. But you have to admit they do the same gags over and over every episode. But I still like it after all these years.
Sing it. In 1958 there were 31 prime time westerns. They ranged from classics like Gunsmoke and Maverick to cow fodder like Buckskin.
If I wanted sophisticated humor in 1964, I watched Dick Van Dyke or That Was the Week That Was – but most of us were watching The Beverly Hillbillies and Flipper.
Were Steve Allen and Jack Paar “better” than Leno and Letterman? Sometimes, but sometimes their shtick was trite and tired even by '50s standards.
The only thing I disagree with panache45 about – local news could be pretty bad, back then, as well.
It’s the other side of the “OMG, everything was better in the old days!!!” coin that I get so sick of. People aren’t happy unless they’re bitching about something.
And yes, for anyone quoting this to point it out, I realize the irony inherent in my post.
It’s scheduled in most markets for 9:00 EST on Wednesdays on UPN. So, it’s opposite Lost. It struggles in the ratings.
It’s about a girl whose father used to be sheriff of a town called Neptune, CA. A murder happened. It was Veronica’s best friend. Her father accused the best friend’s father and ended up losing his job over it. Her father became a private detective and Veronica hung around him, getting into sticky situations and attempting to solve her best friend’s murder.
That’s essentially the plot of the first season. It’s a hard show to describe without it sounding dumb. It’s not dumb, I promise.
And the creator of Buffy/Angel/Firefly, Joss Whedon, says:
I’ve caught one episode of Veronica Mars while channel surfing. It’s rare you hear of anything “great” coming out of the UPN network. It was pretty good, but not great. No disrespect to loyal fans… I didn’t like Firefly either, but love Arrested Development. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.
I’ll try to give VM another go this week… thanks for posting the date and time.
Let’s see, the past ten years have given us (in no particular order of preference):
Buffy
Angel
Firefly
Deadwood
Six Feet Under
Band of Brothers
The West Wing
Lost
Desperate Housewives
Veronica Mars
Oz
Sopranos
Curb your enthusiam
Monk
Rome
Dead Like Me
C.S.I.
Las Vegas
Scrubs
24
Family Guy
Friends
E.R. (technically from '94)
Taken
B5 (technically '94)
The Practice
3rd shift
Spin City
Ally Mcbeal
The Shield
Joan of Arcadia
NCIS
The O.C.
The 4400
South Park
Futurama
Gilmore Girls
Roswell
Smallville
That 70’s show
For those who care to look outside that barren wasteland that is American tv, there’s of course equally awful products from the UK, Canada, Australia.
I know exactly what you are referring to. I have had the displeasure of watching every single episode of B5. There were periods in the second and third season where the story was compelling, but even then the show was marred by atrocious writing and dialogue, wooden acting, characters acting wildly, well, out of character in order to advance a plot point, and plot holes one could drive a tank through. IMO, in the sci-fi television world, B5 ranks slightly below Star Trek: Voyager. In the rest of the television universe, B5 simply doesn’t rank, and it sure isn’t influential.
And before you say it, let me address the supposed Holy Grail that B5 fanatics always raise - the story arc. Sure, B5 had a well-defined and rigid story arc. But it was by no means the first show to have such - see, for example, “Wiseguy”. Nor is a story arc such a plus if the story being arced isn’t all that good. Finally, a story arc in general isn’t a plus if it means that the show ignores plots or subplots that have worked better than expected, or pushes forward with plots and subplots that just aren’t working. Good shows recognize that a recurring character that is really working should be continued to be integrated in the story line, even if the original plan was to have him/her around for only three episodes. Bad shows (like B5) keep plugging away with a character who is just irritating as hell, because that is what the pre-planned story arc demands.
