Well, Thank Goodness It’s Funny!

As a kid, there was only one place to be on Friday nights: down in our den laying on the floor in front of our TV. I remember my parents always yelling at me to scoot back and not sit so close. I never listened them and now I have horrible eyesight.

What brought me to that TV every Friday night was ABC’s TGIF (“Thank Goodness It’s Funny”) lineup of family sitcoms. So obsessed and loyal I was to this one night of ABC television, that I didn’t like to go to, or host, sleepovers with my friends because I knew it meant missing out on Urkel’s latest invention or the new wacky scheme from J.T. (who, in retrospect, is a really annoying and whiny character). I also thought it was a nice touch to often have certain casts of TGIF shows “host” the evening…

Yessir, from 8PM to 10PM, TGIF delivered high quality sitcoms that kept me on the edge of my seat and tickled pink! I’ll always cherish those Friday nights watching TGIF with my parents while eating popcorn and drinking soda (sometimes my mom made me drink milk). Iwasn’t a fan of every show, but I enjoyed most of them and it seems ABC execs were usually kind enough to reserve the 9:30 slot for the weakest show on the block just in time for the snoozefest of 20/20.

The original TGIF ran from 1988-2000 and then was revived for two seasons from 2003-2005, but for my Nielson rating, the true golden age of the programming block is 1989-1996. After that, ABC seemed content striking the “family” shows and going with shows that would (theoretically) appeal to preteens & teens. Too bad they came along just a few years too early for these “tween” shows that are now all the rage and broadcast nonstop on Disney & Nickelodeon.

Who am I kidding? Those younger “hipper” shows were awful in the first place and ABC allowing longtime TGIF standards Step By Step and Family Matters to leave for CBS was a major mistake (I agree it was time to put them to rest, but I wish they would have at least gotten a proper sendoff on ABC, CBS ended both shows with no real series finales).

ABC would try to capitalize on the success of TGIF by introducing the I Love Saturday Night block in 1992. Can you guess which night it aired on? It only lasted a few months because they basically used it as a dumping ground for a mix of old & new sitcoms.

Awful 80s Sitcoms: Charles In Charge

I’ve previously mentioned my love for the traditional sitcom on this blog and I’ve talked about about some current sitcoms that I thought were pretty good. Today, I’m starting to take a look back at some of the most horrible, awful sitcoms of the 1980s.

Charles In Charge (1984-1990, CBS/syndication)

The Basic Idea: A college student (Charles) becomes a live-in babysitter for a family in exchange for room & board. Of course, all types of shenanigans follow, thus proving the show’s title is a lie.

This has gotta be one of the few sitcoms to successfully (!) pull a near complete cast change at once. After a losing battle against Mr. Nielson on CBS in the show’s first season, Charles In Charge switched to first-run syndication with a brand new family (the Pembrokes moved out, the Powells moved in). Only Charles (Scott Baio) and his friend Buddy (Future Bibleman & Celebrity Fit Club maniac Willie Aames!) survived the cast gutting. Surprisingly, the switch to syndication did the show good as it ran for another four seasons.

The show just wasn’t funny. Scott Baio looks like he’d be a likeable guy, but he’s never really had any charisma or personality to back it up. All I really enjoyed about the show were the two Powell daughters: Jamie (Nicole Eggert) and Sarah (Josie Davis). They were all kinds of 80s hot. I always thought there was something going on between them and Charles on the side.

On DVD?: Yep. Seasons 1-4 are available and Season 5 is being released on July 28th. But why don’t you start with The Best of Charles In Charge to build up your immunity? C’mon… I dare you to watch it.

1980s VHS Box Art of the T&A Variety

As a child going to the video store to rent movies for the weekend, I always immediately ran to either the kids section or the wrestling section. I just wasn’t really interested in anything else. What 6 or 7 year old kid is gonna watch a drama or be allowed to watch the good action movies or a horror movie? At least, that’s how it was for me, though I’ve heard tales of the other kids being allowed to watch pretty much anything they wanted to…

I’ll tell you this right now though, I wasn’t above snooping around the rest of the store, taking a look at what else was out there. For a young boy, some of those VHS covers I saw while checking out the rentals at Curtis Mathes, Phar-Mor or Hills were down right scintillating! Low budget action & horror movies always had the best covers. They were cheesy, yes, but they were also filled with mindless T&A. The kind of stuff that made me feel “funny”. Again, at least, that’s how it was for me.

The horror movie box art, of course, freaked me out yet I couldn’t look away. They were gory and violent, but they had girls with huge boobies in their bra & panties! I was just another young man who had succumbed to the combination sex & violence. But as for those sex comedies, hey, the exploitation was all in good fun!

Join me, and let us take a look at some of the low-budget cheese and T&A of 80s VHS box art.

The Sitcom Ain’t Dead, Part 2

Continued from yesterday…

How I Met Your Mother (2005-current, CBS)

Starring: Josh Radnor, Jason Segel, Cobie Smulders, Neil Patrick Harris, Alyson Hannigan, Bob Saget (narrator)

If you’re not watching this show– for shame! It’s the true spiritual successor of Friends and Seinfeld, featuring many recurring themes and a great continuity. The writing is so witty, it’s a shame the show isn’t a better ratings getter. I guess that stuff just goes over the heads of people sometimes.

The Sitcom Ain’t Dead, Part 1

Now, I know it’s cool and hip and trendy to watch your comedy on the television there without a laugh track, but to me, shows like The Office, 30 Rock and My Name Is Earl are really just full of quirky, not funny, characters. There’s just always been something “off” with those shows and I can’t get into them and have no interest in watching them.

But, because of the success of such shows, many people say “the sitcom is dead”. And I say– “nope”. Granted, there have been hundreds of horrible sitcoms, but the problem isn’t the format– it’s just the lazy uninspired writing that hurt it so bad. Landmark shows like Seinfeld and Friends are gone and in their place we were supposed to be content with Center of the Universe, It’s Like, You Know… or awful vehicles for comedians like George Lopez, Rodney and The Tracy Morgan Show.

All three of those five shows, by the way, came from ABC, which is probably the network that’s done the most amount of damage to the sitcom’s reputation. I don’t want to get off on a rant here (™, Dennis Miller), but they’ve turned out the worst of the worst over the years with more garbage like: Baby Talk, Complete Savages, Grace Under Fire, Hi, Honey I’m Home!, Home Improvement, Freddie, It’s All Relative and Aliens in the Family.

Back to my original point, there are still a handful of quality sitcoms out there just waiting for you to watch. In fact, there are four that I will personally vouch for. And just because I don’t have time to do this all day, I’m gonna break it down for you over the weekend. Two shows today, two shows tomorrow. I expect you to watch them all in the coming week!