Christmas is done and the New Year is around the corner but I am writing this ahead of time because I have no laptop just an IPad. It’s a great way to end the year with comedies. Wandering Through The Shelves always outdoes it with a new batch of movie and TV themes. Now let’s get on with the show.
1. I LOVE LUCY-1951-1957
Who doesn’t love this show and, even though, I talked about this before, I have to showcase it again. Lucy is married to a bandleader/singer, Ricky Ricardo, and she is always trying to break into the biz but often causing mayhem. Their best friends and neighbours, Fred and Ethel Mertz, always come along for the ride. My favourite time is when they go to California.
2. MARY TYLER MOORE-1970-1977
A classic about. Young woman who wants to make it on her own and ends up as a producer on a newshow with the Anchor, played brilliantly by Ted Knight, as dumb and vain as they come. Ed Asner plays her boss, Lou Grant, Gavin McLeod plays Murray the head writer and Betty White plays Sue Ann Nivens..the Happy Homemaker who always lusts after Lou. You also had her best friends played by Valerie Harper as Rhoda and Cloris Leachman as Phyllis. This show is brilliant and one of the best is the Chuckles The Clown episode.
3. CHEERS-1982-1993
I almost chose Frasier which I love but I did talk about this one and 2 repeats is too much:). This Stars Ted Danson as Sam Malone, a washed up alcoholic, baseball player who owns and runs the bar along with his former coach who got one too many baseballs in the head. He hires an annoying, snobby gal who feels it beneath her to be a waitress, Carla is a tiny but tough waitress, and Norm and Cliff are the resident bar patrons. Cliff is the know-it-all postal worker who is never right and Norm loves his beer more than his wife Vera. Later on Woody tends bar when Coach dies (actor did in real life) and a new gal comes to town who now runs the bar after Sam sells it when Diane leaves. Kelsey Grammar came on this show and hit it big as Frasier the psychiatrist who fell for Diane, the snobby waitress. There are so many episodes I love that I can’t figure out which is my fav.
Happy New Year everyone!
"Loo-see, I tol you a thousand times, I am not gon let you do a number down at the clup."
ReplyDelete"You've got spunk. I HATE SPUNK!"
Hi, Birgit!
I watched and loved all of these series. I grew up watching I Love Lucy first run. Black and white was funnier somehow. Three of Mrs. Shady's favorite TV shows are MTM productions: The Bob Newhart Show, Hill Street Blues and St. Elsewhere. She is currently watching the latter from start to finish. I watched The Mary Tyler Moore Show every week and found it easy to relate because I was working in a television newsroom during the show's run. I enjoyed the early years of Cheers when Shelley Long and Nick Colasanto were in the main cast, but but Woody was an excellent replacement for coach when he died.
Thanks for the memories and for the wonderful ecard you sent, dear friend BB. Happy new year to you!
Aren’t those lines hilarious! I love them and there are so many more. That’s pretty cool that you worked at a nes station so you could reallly relate to some of these episodes. Happy New Year
DeleteI've seen all three of your picks, though probably not of the entire run accept I Love Lucy. I used to catch Lucy and Mary reruns on Nick at Nite as a kid, Lucy was one of my favorites.
ReplyDeleteLucy is great...I had to pick her again. Glad you saw all of them even if not all the seasons
DeleteThree very funny shows that I have seen. My favorite comedy would have to be Seinfeld. I even threw a party the night of the last show with Seinfeld foods featured.
ReplyDeleteSeinfeld is excellent and now I am curious as to what you cooked up.
DeleteSoup, rye bread, big salad, junior mints, jujubees, non-fat yogurt...
DeleteAmazing, I know them all! Though i’ve only seen a few Cheers retrospectively after getting into Frasier. Hope you and Mike had a good Christmas and Happy New Year to you both.
ReplyDeleteFrasier is so good but you do get a sense of him And Lilith whom he meets on Cheers. We have been quite sick but we are beginning to feel a bit better now
DeleteLove each of these comedies. Even catching them years later, always a treat to watch a repeat.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year!
betty
I love these more than many that are out now
DeleteLove your picks!!
ReplyDeleteSo much has been written about I Love Lucy I can't add anything new but it's a classic institution for a reason. The main cast works together like a well oiled machine which seems incredible when you read about all the tension behind the scenes. The California episodes are some of the best though I've always been partial to when Lucy and Ethel buy the enormous freezer and Lucy gets trapped in it.
The Mary Tyler Moore Show is much the same thing with a flawless cast and too many great episodes to pick a favorite, although the one where Sue Ann has an affair with Phyllis's Lars is one I could watch on a loop, and all without the backstage contretemps of your other two choices.
I liked Cheers but was always more partial to Frasier. Be that as it may I still watched every week when the show was on.
I also reached back for mine:
The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961-1966)-Brilliant comedy that still holds up today. Rob Petrie (Dick Van Dyke) is the head writer on The Alan Brady Show (played by series creator Carl Reiner) along with his team Sally Rogers (Rose Marie) & Buddy Sorrell (Morey Amsterdam) and lives with his wife Laura (Mary Tyler Moore) and son Richie in New Rochelle, New York. The show follows the clan’s various adventures and misadventures with insight and humor.
The Carol Burnett Show (1967-1978)-Sketch comedy driven by the comedy queen and her merry band of clowns usually comprised of Tim Conway, Harvey Korman, Vickie Lawrence and Lyle Waggoner. Some of the better known skits include The Family (which was eventually spun off as Mama’s Family), As the Stomach Turns, and the classic Went With the Wind among many, many others.
WKRP in Cincinnati (1978-1982)-Program director Andy Travis (Gary Sandy) arrives for his first day of work at elevator music playing radio station WKRP in the title city and turns the place on its ear by changing it to a Rock n Roll format. Along for the ride is a colorful assortment of characters including curvaceous receptionist Jennifer Marlowe (Loni Anderson), DJs Dr. Johnny Fever & Venus Flytrap (Howard Hessman & Tim Reid), goofy but lovable managing director Mr. Carlson (referred to as The Big Guy) and other wacky characters. Quirkily humorous and the classic Thanksgiving episode “Turkeys Away!” is a must see.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Joel! I have been very sick so have been a no show a lot, I love your picks and, like mine, there are so many classic episodes. Dick Van Dyke is great and a show I always loved watching. I can’t believe Mary Tyler Moore is gone. I love Carol Burnett and own quite a few on DVD. TheOld Man played by Tim Conway kills me every times especially when he falls down the stairs as slow as he walks. Her rendition of the great classic movies are just brilliant and, to this day, I now refer to Mildred Pierce as Mildred Fierce. WKRP is one of my all time favourites with so many great episodes and the characters are perfect even the creepy Herb Tarlek. I think my favourite is when they try to show how alcohol hurts our reflexes but it seems to only enhance Fever’s
DeleteGreat picks indeed, seen all three. All in the family, happy days, mork and mindy, bunch more pop in from the past as well.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many and you picked a great few tv shows that I love to watch too.
DeleteYeah, I know it's a classic and all that, so this will seem almost sacrilegious but... I never really cared for 'I Love Lucy'. A wee little bit of Lucille Ball goes a long, lo-ooo-ng way for me.
ReplyDeleteTop Three TV comedies for me are...
FRASIER
(Easily the funniest sitcom of all-time, imo.)
THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW
(The black & white episodes: Seasons 1-5, when Don Knotts was a regular cast member.)
ALL IN THE FAMILY
But there are so many really funny shows (all of them older stuffs). Joel mentioned WKRP IN CINCINNATI, and that would be pretty high on my list, also. MOONLIGHTING would probably be my #4 choice, though.
~ D-FensDogG @ STMcC Presents 'BATTLE OF THE BANDS'
I decide not to hear your displeasure of Lucy..hahahaaaa. Frasier is so great and one of the best is Niles especially when he talks about Maris, one the best characters never seen on a show. Andy Griffith is a fun and sweet show and I really need to see Moonlighting again.
DeleteNo complaints from me. I love all of these shows. Great picks!
ReplyDeleteThanks...happy New Year
DeleteI loved all 3 shows, too. The writing and acting were among the best of bests for me.
ReplyDeleteAh yes, I know them all.
ReplyDeleteI have never been a fan of comedy, but I have watched MTM in reruns a few times on Decades. They show one episode each weekday. Never saw the other two.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite, which is also on a channel that shows older movies, is WKRP in Cincinnati. The very first show I watched had me rolling in stitches, something that NEVER happens when I watch a comedy. The show was so great, I try to catch it if I'm not watching something else, since it's only shown in prime time.
Belated Christmas wishes and hope for a festive, safe, and happy new year for you and your husband.
These are great shows! I think those of us ladies who are a certain age grew up inspired to have a career from Mary Tyler Moore. Thanks for reminding me of some good laughs. Hope it was a great Christmas and the rest of your 2018 is a good year. Hugs-Erika
ReplyDeleteHey for once, I've seen all three of your choices! :-P
ReplyDeleteI don't know if I could pick just three shows. I could list dozens off that of my head. But if I had to round it down...
WKRP in Cincinnati
The IT Crowd
Kids in the Hall
If you're looking for "sitcoms" and KitH doesn't count, then you can replace that one with Golden Girls, I guess. :-)
I loved Cheers
ReplyDeleteI wish Cheers came back
ReplyDeleteđŸ’›đŸ’™
❤️đŸ’œ
I haven't seen any of these :|
ReplyDeleteI Love Lucy, and also the Jackie Gleason Show, it always seemed they were one millimeter away from domestic abuse. Having said that, which is a phrase for disregard what I said before, and as annoying as Lucy's catchphrase "waaaa!", the show had good stories and who figured out how to have a whole story in 22 minutes. It's a genre. Mary Tyler Moore, the most iconic char-- person on tv. Cheers, again, great stories, and Cliff and Norm brought the funny as they say in the biz. In 22 minutes. How do they do it. The top 3 shows that make me laugh the most?
ReplyDelete1) Jackass
2) The Tom Green Show
3)… Cheers
I watched a lot of I Love Lucy reruns growing up.
ReplyDelete