My thoughts on the All in the Family and The Jeffersons episodes that aired live this week.
We all know I am a classic TV junkie. I grew up in front of the TV. I know TV actors and their credits like sports fans memorize their favorite teams and players stats. I do that with actors' credits and their awards.
So as you can probably guess, I was excited to watch Live in Front of a Studio Audience on ABC this past week. What did I think? Loved it! I am hoping we will see more based not he ratings for this one.
I loved the audience reactions. They were loud and not sweetened like today's sitcoms. These days, the three-camera sitcoms are still shot in front of a live studio audience, but then they "fix" or "sweeten" the audience reactions in post production. So they sound muted, to me anyway. Often times, if the audience doesn't laugh where the producers want a laugh, they will add one in. In the Norman Lear days (the 1970s), the audiences were loud and boisterous, especially on his shows. They would applaud and go nuts over some of the lines.
I've read many articles and interviews where younger television viewers don't like the live studio audiences. They call it canned laughter, which it is not. But we've got a whole generation now raised on the single camera comedies like The Office and Modern Family. They don't like the studio audience shows. To me, that's what a sitcom is!
On to the show...Loved Marissa Tomei as Edith. Loved Woody Harrelson as Archie Bunker. They were great, Trust to the characters while bringing their own spin to them. Ellie Kemper and Ike Barinholtz were good to although they didn't have as much to do. And frankly they are a little old to be playing the children of Marsisa Tomei and Woody Harrelson. But I am quibbling here.
Tomei was a hoot as Edith. Loved her high pitched voice and the running around. Harrelson got the vernacular and dialect of Archie down just right. And not importantly, they were not imitating the threat Jean Stapleton and Carroll O'Connor.
Jamie Foxx was hilarious as George Jefferson. I loved how he had the swagger and the mannerisms of George. However, to me, he was doing an impression of Sherman Hemsley as George Jefferson as opposed to bringing his own take to the character. He was doing a sketch character. And that makes sense since he got his start on In Living Color. And I wasn't too thrilled with how he broke the fourth wall and pointed out his flubbed line instead of just repeating the line and going on as one does on stage. But that's just me. It was funny to see Woody Harrelson break and turn his back to the audience when that happened. And Marissa Tomei just stayed in character as Edith, you could see she was stifling a laugh but staying as Edith. It does make live TV fun, but again really?
For me, the highlight of the night was the appearance of Marla Gibbs as Florence. I jumped out of my seat and cheered when they opened the door and revealed her. YESSS!!! And double bonus whammy for us classic TV fans, she was reunited with her 227 co-star Jackee!
Oh! And how fabulous was Jennifer Hudson singing The Jeffersons theme song!?
All in all I loved the night and I hope we get some more. That's TV!
Showing posts with label baby boomer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label baby boomer. Show all posts
Saturday, May 25, 2019
Saturday, December 5, 2015
Game Nights and the game no one will play with me
I like game nights. I host occasional game nights at my house. They are usually pretty low key. Just a small gathering of us. I am better at certain types of games over others. I am better at trivia games. Not as good at games that involve some sort of strategy. I can be pretty lazy when it comes to those. I don't want to spend too much time thinking.
When we play word games like Taboo, Catchphrase or Dictionary, I have a tendency to shout out one word after another until I get the correct word. But trivia games, that's my area. If we have teams, you want me on you team.
I have been on a couple of game shows over the years that involve trivia. Several years ago, I was on a show called Clash! which was on the HA! network. What's that you say? What's the HA! network? Remember before Comedy Central both MTV Networks and Time Warner had their own comedy networks, one was called HA! and the other was called Comedy Channel? Well they didn't do so well on their own so they merged and became Comedy Central.
Anyway, I was on Clash! as part of a team of three. Our team won, but I was not the leading scorer eon our team so I didn't get to go for the final round. But I did answer all the questions in the speed round which is how the team won. The speed round went like this, they give you three categories (kind of like Jeopardy), you don't know exactly what they mean but you can get a fair idea. And then they give you three dollar amounts, $50, $100 and $150. You decide based not the titles which value you want to give to which category. Mine were Cops Shops and Flops. I knew immediately, Cops was probably TV cop shows, Flops was probably movie failures and Shops might have something to do with retail. All three ares of expertise for me. So I jumped right in assigned the dollar amounts and then the questions came and I answered all of them correctly.
Shops for $50, What NYC department store hosts the annual Thanksgiving Day parade?
Flops for $100. What 1980 box office failure was directed by Michael Cimino?
Cope for $150. What 1970s cop show featured three young officers?
Macys
Heaven's Gate
The Rookies
Bam! We each won a set of luggage, crystal ware (which I still have), and an electric typewriter (yes, typewriter that s how long ago this was).
After moving to Los Angeles, I was on Merv Griffin's Crosswords. It only last one season and I still can't believe I passed the test to get on. It was hard! Proven by the fact that I only attempted to answer a question once and I was wrong.
A year later, I was on Trivial Pursuit America Play hosted by Peter Brady himself, Chris Knight.
I went all the way and won $13,100. I was unstoppable! I could have gone for double or nothing and made $26,200 but I made a decision before filming began that if I made it to the final round and I had the chance to double or nothing, then I would take what I had and go.
So I know trivia. Especially, TV shows, movies, sports figures, Broadway theatre and popular music of my generation and the generation before mine. If you were to ask me about current things, I'm not so knowledgeable.
Anywho...all this to preamble. my game nights. For Christmas 1996, I was given a game called Nick at Nite TV Trivia game. It's a board game that looks like the different rooms in a house. Each player has a figure that goes around the room and you answer questions read off a card, each representing a different room in the house. If yo get the answer right, you get a section to place in your TV dinner tray. The first person to fill up their TV dinner tray wins. (See below picture)
No one ever wants to play this game with me. Why? Because its all about classic TV shows of the 1950s though the 1970s. The game came out in 1996 when Nick at Nite was airing shows from those eras. They hadn't even started airing 1980s TV shows yet.
I haven't played this game in years. I've never played it enough so that I even have read all the cards. But no one will ever play it with me because they know I'm going to win. It's not like I'll gloat or be ungracious about winning. Just no one wants to play because I WILL win. There's no contest so why bother. Jeez, if I felt that way about games, I would never play anything but this one. But I don't do that. I play whatever game my friends want to play.
Except Ticket to Ride. Cause my friend Tom always wins at that. Its too complicated for me. LOL
When we play word games like Taboo, Catchphrase or Dictionary, I have a tendency to shout out one word after another until I get the correct word. But trivia games, that's my area. If we have teams, you want me on you team.
I have been on a couple of game shows over the years that involve trivia. Several years ago, I was on a show called Clash! which was on the HA! network. What's that you say? What's the HA! network? Remember before Comedy Central both MTV Networks and Time Warner had their own comedy networks, one was called HA! and the other was called Comedy Channel? Well they didn't do so well on their own so they merged and became Comedy Central.
Anyway, I was on Clash! as part of a team of three. Our team won, but I was not the leading scorer eon our team so I didn't get to go for the final round. But I did answer all the questions in the speed round which is how the team won. The speed round went like this, they give you three categories (kind of like Jeopardy), you don't know exactly what they mean but you can get a fair idea. And then they give you three dollar amounts, $50, $100 and $150. You decide based not the titles which value you want to give to which category. Mine were Cops Shops and Flops. I knew immediately, Cops was probably TV cop shows, Flops was probably movie failures and Shops might have something to do with retail. All three ares of expertise for me. So I jumped right in assigned the dollar amounts and then the questions came and I answered all of them correctly.
Shops for $50, What NYC department store hosts the annual Thanksgiving Day parade?
Flops for $100. What 1980 box office failure was directed by Michael Cimino?
Cope for $150. What 1970s cop show featured three young officers?
Macys
Heaven's Gate
The Rookies
Bam! We each won a set of luggage, crystal ware (which I still have), and an electric typewriter (yes, typewriter that s how long ago this was).
After moving to Los Angeles, I was on Merv Griffin's Crosswords. It only last one season and I still can't believe I passed the test to get on. It was hard! Proven by the fact that I only attempted to answer a question once and I was wrong.
A year later, I was on Trivial Pursuit America Play hosted by Peter Brady himself, Chris Knight.
I went all the way and won $13,100. I was unstoppable! I could have gone for double or nothing and made $26,200 but I made a decision before filming began that if I made it to the final round and I had the chance to double or nothing, then I would take what I had and go.
So I know trivia. Especially, TV shows, movies, sports figures, Broadway theatre and popular music of my generation and the generation before mine. If you were to ask me about current things, I'm not so knowledgeable.
Anywho...all this to preamble. my game nights. For Christmas 1996, I was given a game called Nick at Nite TV Trivia game. It's a board game that looks like the different rooms in a house. Each player has a figure that goes around the room and you answer questions read off a card, each representing a different room in the house. If yo get the answer right, you get a section to place in your TV dinner tray. The first person to fill up their TV dinner tray wins. (See below picture)
No one ever wants to play this game with me. Why? Because its all about classic TV shows of the 1950s though the 1970s. The game came out in 1996 when Nick at Nite was airing shows from those eras. They hadn't even started airing 1980s TV shows yet.
I haven't played this game in years. I've never played it enough so that I even have read all the cards. But no one will ever play it with me because they know I'm going to win. It's not like I'll gloat or be ungracious about winning. Just no one wants to play because I WILL win. There's no contest so why bother. Jeez, if I felt that way about games, I would never play anything but this one. But I don't do that. I play whatever game my friends want to play.
Except Ticket to Ride. Cause my friend Tom always wins at that. Its too complicated for me. LOL
Friday, November 13, 2015
Grumpy Old Guy Rant
Alright. Get ready. I'm putting on my grumpy old man hat.
I just got back from my lunch break. I went to my bank down the street to make a withdrawl from the ATM. There is only one branch of my bank on Bunker Hill, the neighborhood where my office is located. And this one branch has only one ATM. The Bunker Hill neighborhood is made up of several tall skyscrapers housing all the major banks and financial institutions So as you can imagine, that makes for a large number of people here every weekday during business hours.
There are other banks on the hill here and in fact they all have corporate headquarters here on the hill so their branches not only have ATMs in the bank branches but also ATMs within their building lobbies and concourse levels. My bank does not as it does not have a presence here on Bunker Hill.
All this is to preface the fact that there was a long line at the ATM so I peaked inside the branch to see that the line for the tellers had only two people in it. So I went inside to make a withdrawl rather than stand in the long line at the ATM. Are people that dense? Do they not remember that you can make withdrawls inside the actual bank? Have they forgotten what we did before ATMs? But then I thought about it, it has been about 33-35 years since ATMs hit the scene. I realized that anyone under 45 or so probably didn't bank before ATMs so they probably never experienced life without ATMs.
In fact, when I go t back to my office I was talking about this with a co-worker who is 32. Do you know what he asked me? "Can you make withdrawls at the teller windows?" I mean..DUH! Yes! Of course you can. It's a bank. That's why they're there. Deposits and withdrawls. Hello?!
I. AM. OLD.
Rant Two:
There were only two windows open. Two tellers during lunch hour in a business district. This is not a residential, shopping or tourist area. Its a business area filled with business people who work weekdays. And all those many thousands of office workers take lunch breaks usually somewhere between the hours of 12 and 2. So you would think they would staff up during lunch breaks. I worked in retail management for years. If I were the branch manager I would schedule my staffs breaks around the rush hour. Its just common sense. But no. Despite having 10 windows in side the bank. There were only two windows open.
Now don't get me wrong, I realize that in this day and age most business is done using the ATMs and not as many people will come inside. These banks were built in an era when all your banking was done inside so that is why there are so many teller windows and they are not all staffed. But c'mon. Its lunch time. Have 4 windows open instead of two!
That's it. I'm done. Go back to your regularly scheduled lives.
I just got back from my lunch break. I went to my bank down the street to make a withdrawl from the ATM. There is only one branch of my bank on Bunker Hill, the neighborhood where my office is located. And this one branch has only one ATM. The Bunker Hill neighborhood is made up of several tall skyscrapers housing all the major banks and financial institutions So as you can imagine, that makes for a large number of people here every weekday during business hours.
There are other banks on the hill here and in fact they all have corporate headquarters here on the hill so their branches not only have ATMs in the bank branches but also ATMs within their building lobbies and concourse levels. My bank does not as it does not have a presence here on Bunker Hill.
All this is to preface the fact that there was a long line at the ATM so I peaked inside the branch to see that the line for the tellers had only two people in it. So I went inside to make a withdrawl rather than stand in the long line at the ATM. Are people that dense? Do they not remember that you can make withdrawls inside the actual bank? Have they forgotten what we did before ATMs? But then I thought about it, it has been about 33-35 years since ATMs hit the scene. I realized that anyone under 45 or so probably didn't bank before ATMs so they probably never experienced life without ATMs.
In fact, when I go t back to my office I was talking about this with a co-worker who is 32. Do you know what he asked me? "Can you make withdrawls at the teller windows?" I mean..DUH! Yes! Of course you can. It's a bank. That's why they're there. Deposits and withdrawls. Hello?!
I. AM. OLD.
Rant Two:
There were only two windows open. Two tellers during lunch hour in a business district. This is not a residential, shopping or tourist area. Its a business area filled with business people who work weekdays. And all those many thousands of office workers take lunch breaks usually somewhere between the hours of 12 and 2. So you would think they would staff up during lunch breaks. I worked in retail management for years. If I were the branch manager I would schedule my staffs breaks around the rush hour. Its just common sense. But no. Despite having 10 windows in side the bank. There were only two windows open.
Now don't get me wrong, I realize that in this day and age most business is done using the ATMs and not as many people will come inside. These banks were built in an era when all your banking was done inside so that is why there are so many teller windows and they are not all staffed. But c'mon. Its lunch time. Have 4 windows open instead of two!
That's it. I'm done. Go back to your regularly scheduled lives.
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