• 6Jul 09

  Back Online!

  Just a quick note to say I'm back online, at my own computer (at no small cost!). I'll blog again soon, with a quote quiz. Till then, bye!
  • Posted Jul 6, 2009 3:48 pm PT
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• 12Jun 09

  Offline For A While

  Hi everybody. I'm typing this from my brother's computer. It's been a couple of weeks since my internet died out on my PC, and it will probably be a couple more before I have it fixed, so this is just to let you know what's been going on. Thanks to those of you who read my blogs.

  BTW, the quote from the last blog was from Danny Bonaduce as Danny Partridge in The Partridge Family.

  • Posted Jun 12, 2009 4:55 pm PT
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• 20May 09

  Favorite Spin-Offs

  My knowledge of some of the newer shows is somewhat limited, so pardon me if I miss some of your favorites. One of the fairly recent (to some of us, anyway) spinoffs that makes my list is Frasier, whose popularity rivaled that of its parent show, Cheers. There are other shows that rivaled, or in some cases surpassed, the popularity of their parent shows. First among these is The Andy Griffith Show, which was spun off from a single episode of The Danny Thomas Show, aka Make Room For Daddy. I heard that Sheldon Leonard (a prolific TV producer and director, known to modern audiences as Nick the Bartender in the Christmas classic It's A Wonderful Life), heard Andy Griffith do his comedy routine "What it was, was Football", and decided to give him a TV series, using Danny Thomas' show as a spring board. Danny Thomas also spun off The Joey Bishop Show (1961). for which I am a trusted contributor. TAGS itself spun off Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C., and later Mayberry RFD. The latter one is subject of some debate between those who say it's a spin-off, and those who say it's a continuation of TAGS. My own opinion is the former, since the major character and namesake was gone, but I don't know if there's any right or wrong answer. Gomer was actually a character created with George Lindsay in mind, but when Andy Griffith found Jim Nabors, he gave him the part instead. Lindsay instead got the part of Gomer's cousin Goober, one of the dumbest characters on television (he actually believed his dog could talk!), but still smart enough to take a car apart and put it together again. In the 1970s All In The Family was a monster hit, and after a few years it spun off Maude, which was very popular, but not quite as much as it's parent. It also spun off The Jeffersons. If I'm not mistaken, Maude spun off Good Times. The Mary Tyler Moore Show spun off Rhoda and Phyllis. A little later there was Happy Days, which gave us Laverne and Shirley, which topped the Nielsen's two straight seasons in the late 70s (Happy Days only one) and Mork And Mindy, and a few lesser known series. Even Gunsmoke got a spin-off, Dirty Sally, based on a character in a two part episode of GS, but it didn't last long. A couple of 70s sitcoms spun off series that were actually dramas. Lou Grant, Mary's boss in The Mary Tyler Moore Show, was the title character in a newspaper drama, and Trapper John M.D. was a medical drama which starred Pernell Roberts (of Bonanza fame) as the M*A*S*H character played by Wayne Rogers before he left that series in 1975. M*A*S*H took place entirely during the Korean War (1950-53), but TJMD in contemporary times, late 70s- early 80s, so Trapper was much older by then.

  I'm sure there are other great spin-offs I didn't mention. Name some.

  Again, no guesses on the last quote, Don't bother to go see that coliseum! The place is fallin' apart! Art Carney as Ed Norton said it in the 1960s version of The Honeymooners, which were in color, part of The Jackie Gleason Show, and features diiferent actresses as their wives. Of course, he was talking about the Coliseum in Rome. The new quote is from a series that aired in the 70s: Ten Years?! We'll be a show business legend by then!. Actually it's hard to tell if the person is saying in show business legend or a show business legend, but if you think you might know the person and the series, post it or say it in a PM. Till next time, Bye!

  • Posted May 20, 2009 6:31 pm PT
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