CE’s kind of ‘funny’ doesn’t lend itself very well to a sitcom, though I recall Get a Life (REM’s ‘Stand’ was the theme song, remember?). As you may know, Chris Elliott got his start playing weird bit characters on David Letterman’s show waaaaay back, including ‘the guy under the seats.’ Bizarre, surreal stuff, which is sort of what he does best. I’ve always loved CE but most people I know do not like him at all. He has a daughter who’s an actress these days. I saw his movie “Cabin Boy” too which had funny bits but again, his style doesn’t really lend itself to longer form stuff.
Someone mentioned this upthread. I remember it too, and liked it a lot though I was a kid and I’m sure some of the humor went over my head. I apparently ‘got’ enough of it to try and never miss the show. I also can still remember most of the theme song, which was also, as you say, quite clever. ‘Things were bad, and that ain’t good… good for Robin Hood, ba-BA!’ 
Which has a brief appearance of David Letterman as a sock monkey salesman.
::Big thumbs up!!::
Wow, so many of these I remember.
Liked:
Misfits of Science
BJ and the Bear
Riptide
Anything But Love
Earth 2
Young Riders
Enos (I know, I’m pathetic)
Salvage 1
Man from Atlantis
Manimal
Probe (with Parker Stevenson)
Mr. Merlin (I remember the gag about the crowbar)
The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams
The Greatest American Hero
Rin Tin Tin
Tales of the Gold Monkey
Reasonable Doubts
VR.5
Watched:
Unhappily Ever After (yep, Nikki Cox)
Police Squad!
Sledge Hammer!
Knew of but didn’t watch:
Ten Speed and Brown Shoe
Thirtysomething
My So-called Life (my sister loved it. Also, introduced us to Claire Danes.)
Once and Again
Relativity
Square Pegs
Frank’s Place
F/X: The Series
Days and Nights of Molly Dodd (I watched a few; my sister loved it.)
It’s Like, You Know
Alien Nation (for some reason I couldn’t get into it)
I’ll Fly Away
Get a Life
Blakes 7 (my friend with cable watched it, but all I could tell from the time I saw a snippet was the cheap production values. Just like Doctor Who.)
Sounds Familiar:
Cupid
The Wizard
Not Yet Mentioned:
Friday the 13th: The Series (which had nothing to do with the movie franchise)
Jack of All Trades (Bruce Campbell show)
Cleopatra 2525 (Gina Torres, Victoria Pratt, and Jennifer Sky)
Witchblade
Mutant X
M.A.N.T.I.S.
Kristi McNichol was hot.
[QUOTE=actualliberalnotoneofthose]
People always say this, but when I was a kid I thought doing 6 years of Newhart was a pretty big deal. He [Peter Scolari] never became a star but he’s always worked, which is more than most actors who get 1 series ever do.
[/QUOTE]
Yeah, but the comparison is Tom Hanks.
[QUOTE=GIGPbuster]
Gatchaman (1972), very few remember that one because that Japanese animated show from the 70’s was repackaged and they squeezed out the more adult and serious themes it had, and turned it into what everyone remembers as Battle of the Planets (1978, and shown in the early 80’s in the old country) .
[/QUOTE]
BATTLE OF THE PLANETS! I loved that show, and was severely disappointed when it disappeared after 1 season.
[QUOTE=GuanoLad]
And it’s still going. They had a new season out last year, and another is due later this year.
[/QUOTE]
Yeah, but they had a ten year hiatus because BBC quit making it.
[QUOTE=Smokey78]
Days and Nights of Molly Dodd, I’m glad someone mentioned it. And that Molly became a single mom, and it was hot topic at time? (Did it happen before Murphy Brown?)
[/QUOTE]
Murphy Brown came out in 1988. Molly Dodd in 1987.
I didn’t know about Quark at the time, but a few years ago someone brought it up, and they had it on videotape. All of it. So now I have seen it. Extra-cheesy Star Trek, SF show parody.
[QUOTE=furryman]
Believe it or not Salvage 1 was based on a story by Robert Heinlein. “Have Rocket, Will Travel.”
[/QUOTE]
I think you mean “Rocket Ship Galileo”, though “inspired by” is as close as I’ll allow. “Have Spacesuit, Will Travel” appears to be the other title that you are conflating, but that is about a kid who wins a space suit and then gets taken on an adventure by aliens.
[QUOTE=Darren Garrison]
Also, there was another short-lived series on Fox at around the same time as Andy Richter, a science-fictiony show about cowboys in space. I think it was called Lightning Bug? Anyone remember that one?
[/QUOTE]
It sounds familiar, something about white folks that speak Chinese (poorly) and hate each other? Lots of the color brown?
And if you couldn’t afford the repair shop, you pulled glass tubes out of the back of the TV and took them to the drugstore or hardware store where there was a device you could stick them into and it would test them to see if they were bad. Then you bought a replacement tube and took it home and stuck it in the TV and hoped it fixed the problem. It almost never did.
Good night! :o
Now that you mention it, I remember Pink Lady and that there was a lot of hype that just didn’t take, not here in the States.
How about THIS? David Letterman was on at least one episode of this program. :eek:
Are you drunk? You blew the joke!! :smack:
Try again! 
You mean I should have said “Good night, Gracie”? :dubious: 
She never said that, so far as I know. 
“Good night, Gracie.”
She absolutely did. Every single time. We watched that show religiously every week.
^ThelmaLou, a quick Google search reveals it’s a TV myth, an urban legend. I’m shocked and appalled. :eek:
I apologize to terentii. But you’re probably drunk, regardless. 
The last time I saw B&A was admittedly in October 1982, but I do not remember her saying that. I was actually kind of disappointed, since I’d been expecting it.
A lovely thought, but I just had a late supper and never drink on a full stomach.
Nice to know I was right about Gracie, though! 
I do. I have a CD, too, but apparently it’s the very last show.
I remember a few short bits quite well.
Some pictures presented in fairly rapid succession. The timing made it funny.
Pres. Johnson. Buck Henry says, “LBJ”.
His wife “Lady Bird”. “LBJ”.
One daughter, Linda Bird. “LBJ”.
The other daughter, Luci Baines. “LBJ”.
According to wiki, Johnson named his daughters with the initials in mind.
A film or still pics of a city’s Skid Row and its inhabitants, with the soundtrack being “Downtown” sung by Petula Clark. I thought it was powerful, and apparently so did the audience. But a friend with an even sicker sense of humor than me thought it was hilarious.
A mime puppet presentation by Burr Tillstrom, but using his bare hands. There was an improvised piano in the background, matching the action. The scene started with one hand as the Berlin Wall and the other another person. The Wall was lowered, then that hand became someone from East Berlin visiting the other person, with exchanges of affection. That hand finally returned to East Berlin, then that hand became the Wall again. And the other hand smashed against it repeatedly.
One of the best roles Peter Scolari had was in the TV version of Honey I Shrunk The Kids, which for some reason is not on DVD.
Sounds like the same CD I have; it definitely contains material from the last U.S. show.
There’s a clip on youtube from the English version with Millicent Martin singing about how she longs to go back to Mississippi and enjoy the lynchings. She’s backed by dancers in blackface and sings some words that no broadcaster would come within miles of these days. That show pulled no punches.
A few decades later, Martin went on to play Daphne’s mother on Frasier.
I watched ***Hennesey ***when I was in second grade. My mother hated it, but I loved it!
Abby Dalton, mmmmmmmmmmmm! :oI also watched I’m Dickens, He’s Fenster in second grade:
A pre-***Addams ******Family ***John Astin. Had me rolling on the floor!
Not sure what you are thinking of, but the US version of the show lasted 85 episodes.
(On the topic of early US adaptations of anime, I don’t think anyone has mentioned Star Blazers yet, or Tranzor Z.
10 years between seasons in the UK is known as a “brief hiatus.”
I was a hardcore Blazer. They ran the whole syndicated series one year on cable when we first got it in our little town. I remember running home from school to catch it. It was like my soap opera - don’t bother me, Ah’m watchin’ ma stories!
Earlier than that, not anime, but Japanese, I vividly recall being a little Ultramanfreak. I remember my dad was starting to work for a paper company and he brought my sister and me these huge mural size sheets of paper to draw on. I drew this epic mural of Ultraman swooping over clashing armies, laying waste to the bad-guys. All in black and white stick-figures. A true masterpiece if there ever was one.