Mayberry's finest passes away

[01101010]

http://todayentertainment.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/03/12543460-report-americas-sheriff-andy-griffith-dead-at-86?lite%C2%A0

RIP matlock.

[Yegolev]

Best explanation of Romeo and Juliet.

[angry.bob]

Best explanation of Romeo and Juliet.

?

[Tebonas]

Why was it called the Andy Griffith show if the character he played had a different name? Was that common in the old days?

[Ingmar]

Not that unusual in general I would say, although I guess more often the character name is the same as the actor. But take the Cosby Show for example (Cliff Huxtable), Mary Tyler Moore (Mary Richards), Bob Newhart Show (Robert Hartley) and Newhart (Dick Loudon) etc.

[Merusk]

It depends on what you're marketing.  With those shows you are marketing a feature actor who was given a show for his or her namesake, so you want people to watch based on that.   (Also: The Dick Van Dyke Show, Seinfeld,

It's not just 'the old days' as it's still done.  Reba, Roseanne, Sarah Silverman Program, Chappelle's Show, Bernie Mack show, Drew Carey Show, Bill Engval Show and Everybody Loves Raymond.

We're all too young to remember it, but Andy Griffith had a big career telling stories of his childhood in the stand-up fashion before he became the TV star we know.  That's why his show was named after him rather than called "Mayberry" or something more evocative of the premise.

[Tebonas]

I see. I never watched most of those shows (and in the ones I watched like Seinfeld and Roseanne the names matched the fictional characters) and from the names I thought they were sketch shows or talk shows.

Since I ignored each and any one of them (because I don't do sketch or talk), any still worth watching nowadays?

[sickrubik]

Chapelle is a sketch show, and is fantastic. Sarah Silverman is very hit and miss for people. the three Ing mentioned are still great. Catch a couple episodes here and there of all of them on TV every now and then.

[Selby]

Since I ignored each and any one of them (because I don't do sketch or talk), any still worth watching nowadays?

If you watch enough episodes of I Love Lucy, The Dick Van Dyke Show, and The Mary Tyler Moore Show you will have seen 95% of themes that modern sitcoms continue to rip off and recycle (often done better back then).  The other shows listed by Merusk have their moments and can be pretty entertaining at times - say what you will about modern TV sucking, but if a show manages to get renewed for 6-8 seasons, chances are it's not terrible in some way or another like all the other dreck out there.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Since I ignored each and any one of them (because I don't do sketch or talk), any still worth watching nowadays?

If you watch enough episodes of I Love Lucy, The Dick Van Dyke Show, and The Mary Tyler Moore Show you will have seen 95% of themes that modern sitcoms continue to rip off and recycle (often done better back then).  The other shows listed by Merusk have their moments and can be pretty entertaining at times - say what you will about modern TV sucking, but if a show manages to get renewed for 6-8 seasons, chances are it's not terrible in some way or another like all the other dreck out there.

Everybody loves Raymond IS terrible.

[sickrubik]

As is King of Queens and 2 1/2 Men.

[Selby]

Everybody loves Raymond IS terrible.

Eh, it makes me laugh the handful of times I've seen it.  I don't regularly tune in to ANY show anymore though.

[WayAbvPar]

Everybody loves Raymond IS terrible.

Eh, it makes me laugh the handful of times I've seen it.  I don't regularly tune in to ANY show anymore though.

It makes me appreciate my wife all the more every time I watch it. If would have married Patricia Heaton's character (or the actress herself) one of us would have been in an early grave.

[Merusk]

I couldn't stand Raymond, myself.  The whole family dynamic was all sorts of Hollywood-interprets-the-Midwest fucked-up and turned me off.  Roseanne did it better - mainly because she was from that background.  Raymond had a very misogynistic view of wives where Dan was kind of dumb but never an outright castrated idiot.

Of the older shows, it very much depends on what you enjoy watching.  If you don't like warm-fuzzy family shows you wouldn't like Cosby as a series but it had some awesome individual episodes (The Stevie Wonder episode sticks out in my mind.) and hilarious sketch-like moments. (When Rudy's fish dies and they have a burial for it.)

Dick Van Dyke was a good solid series I enjoyed as a kid in reruns, as was Lucy.  Definitely watch those if you enjoy sitcoms.

Carrey was also hit-or-miss as was mentioned.  I can't think of any episode that sticks out really well in my mind but I wasn't a regular watcher.

I still enjoy Roseanne but I grew up with friends in that life so I know it well.  It resonated with me even if I was a middle-to-upper-middle class kid myself. Still a fantastic view in to the working poor of the US whose lives haven't changed much in the 20 years since it was first aired.

Reba? I mentioned that drek only because it fit the naming scheme.  I think it tried to be Roseanne with the country-star twist but did so with a family you didn't really care about or couldn't see as having real struggles.  It could easily have been relabeled "Upper-Middle-class white people have problems!"   I honestly believe the only reason it remained on the air 6 years is the draw of the star, not the quality of the show.

Chapelle is a must-watch.  So many memes and cultural riffs came from that show in the brilliant 2 1/2 years it ran.  It's a shame he couldn't take the pressure.  (Is Wayne Brady gonna have to choke a bitch?)

Bernie Mack was good for the few episodes I caught.  I didn't like the kids at all so I couldn't really watch the whole series. Bernie himself was great, though.

[sickrubik]

Chapelle's thing was not really about "not handling the pressure". He just felt like it wasn't... true anymore.

"Coming here I don't have the distractions of fame. It quiets the ego down. I'm interested in the kind of person I've got to become. I want to be well rounded and the industry is a place of extremes. I want to be well balanced. I've got to check my intentions, man."

"I would go to work on the show and I felt awful every day, that's not the way it was. ... I felt like some kind of prostitute or something. If I feel so bad, why keep on showing up to this place? I'm going to Africa. The hardest thing to do is to be true to yourself, especially when everybody is watching."

I don't get that it was a lack of not handling the pressure... Good comics understand pressure. That's a god damn tough job. I just don't think he was in love with the show anymore. He felt a bit lost. (Now that I've totally derailed the topic.)

[WayAbvPar]

I have heard that he was very uncomfortable with white America taking his sketches and jokes as the signal that it was OK to mock black people. It is OK when one of their own does it, but he made it funny for everyone and didn't like the shakeout.

[Selby]

I don't get that it was a lack of not handling the pressure... Good comics understand pressure.

Yeah, but when you're handed a $50 million salary to produce a series for the next few years, things change considerably.  Some of the "unreleased" material that aired after he quit the show addressed this and pointed out that it was a completely different situation than most people who work in comedy\TV are used to.

[01101010]

I really have to change my avatar... it is starting to have dire effects on this thread. 

[Sjofn]

Where is the love for the Bob Newhart Show, goddamn it? That is definitely one of the Older Namesake Shows that I really enjoyed. I remember watching Newhart (DIFFERENT SHOW) with my parents and liking it alright, but the Bob Newhart Show was better imo. :P

[sickrubik]

I don't get that it was a lack of not handling the pressure... Good comics understand pressure.

Yeah, but when you're handed a $50 million salary to produce a series for the next few years, things change considerably.  Some of the "unreleased" material that aired after he quit the show addressed this and pointed out that it was a completely different situation than most people who work in comedy\TV are used to.

My point was not that it is not different or perhaps greater pressure. The point was that it wasn't the pressure at all.

[Lantyssa]

Where is the love for the Bob Newhart Show, goddamn it? That is definitely one of the Older Namesake Shows that I really enjoyed. I remember watching Newhart (DIFFERENT SHOW) with my parents and liking it alright, but the Bob Newhart Show was better imo. :P

Especially the last episode (other than it being over)!

[CmdrSlack]

Wait. The Oklahoma bit or the just a dream bit? I assume the first one?

Dammit, Newhart.

[Lantyssa]

The just a dream bit, since it harkened back to the previous show.  Two for the price of one!

[Paelos]

What's Newhart?

[01101010]

What's Newhart?

Andy Taylor's shrink. 

[Paelos]

Who's Andy Taylor?

EDIT: Oh, that was the sheriff's last name. Thought it was just Griffith. Being born in the 80s is confusing.

[ghost]

What's Newhart?

Are you for real?

[WayAbvPar]

Who's Andy Taylor?

EDIT: Oh, that was the sheriff's last name. Thought it was just Griffith. Being born in the 80s is confusing.

But being alive in the 2010's means you can search the Internet to answer very basic questions. Unless you are just trolling, in which case, knock it off.

[Paelos]

I shot first and googled later.

But yes, apparently Newhart was a 70s show that was too new for Nick at Night and too old for me to be actually alive.

[ghost]

Newhart ran until 1990.  I would be very surprised if you didn't have an idea what it was.  Fuck, I never watched any TV when I was a kid and I'm familiar with most of these sitcoms, even ones like Happy days, Mary Tyler Moore and Laverne and Shirley, which would have been roughly the same agewise for me as Newhart was for you. 

[Ingmar]

I think he is confusing the Bob Newhart Show with Newhart. Newhart was not on in the 70s.

[Paelos]

I was unaware there were two shows. I don't watch much tv that doesn't involve sports, really. If Newhart was the qb for the 1989 eagles, I would have known this.

[ghost]

I actually didn't know there were two shows either. 

[Sjofn]

I shot first and googled later.

But yes, apparently Newhart was a 70s show that was too new for Nick at Night and too old for me to be actually alive.

It wasn't too old for Nick at Night, as that's where I watched it (with my sister, who was born in 1980, and my brother, who was born in 1982, and my other sister, born in 1984. :P). It was in a block with the Mary Tyler Moore show if I remember right. NEWHART (which was on in the 80's), which is a different show, was probably too new for Nick at Night, though.

And Lantyssa, the Newhart finale made both my parents absolutely lose their shit laughing, and I had no idea why at the time, as I had no idea the Bob Newhart Show existed back then. :P Now that I know, it's probably the best finale ever.  


EDIT: POINT IS, both The Bob Newhart show and Newhart are awesome and you should watch them (I like the Bob Newhart Show better).

[ghost]

I never watched Newhart or the Bob Newhart show, but this is probably the greatest comedy sketch ever.