What show do you go to for the same sort of solace that a good donut or a top-notch hamburger brings? What show would you watch reruns of if you woke up at three and couldn't get back to sleep? What show did you mourn the loss of or would mourn the loss of?
Because the writing is so spot-on on Fraiser, because the characters never bore me, this is my comfort food. And I have seen some episodes half a dozen times.
Because the writing is so spot-on on Fraiser, because the characters never bore me, this is my comfort food. And I have seen some episodes half a dozen times.
42 comments:
STAR TREK...in any of its forms.
THE SIMPSONS, the original LAW & ORDER, any of the English comedies they show on PBS (KEEPING UP APPEARANCES, AS TIME GOES BY, etc.). I also love the nature/science documentaries on NOVA, plus some of those on the National Geographic and Discovery channels. My comfort "TV sound" of choice is a baseball game--I don't even have to be watching it, just hearing it in the background is comfort enough.
FRASIER had a weak patch in the middle, but damn the early and late seasons were strong...I've mentioned it before, but no series has ever done farce more consistently well, at least in the States, when it was hitting on all cylinders, nor has any other series (very much including CHEERS) noted how much intellectuals Enjoy being intellectuals, a rare insight in television generally.
At times, the best STAR TREK series episodes have been among the best sf we've seen in A/V.
I think I've watched Lifetime cable more often when they were running HOMICIDE, ONCE AND AGAIN, and ST. ELSEWHERE in the dead of night than in any other daypart. Mourned and enjoyed quite a few...have yet to actually tire of JOURNEYMAN (mostly on Hulu) or the better NEWSRADIO or WKRP episodes, or FRANK'S PLACE when it was repeated on BET for a while. HOUSE works for me...I'm willing to catch repeats on Bravo or the local Tribune broadcast station...but I'm not sure they're all inexhaustible...
STAR TREK: The Original Series & Deep Space Nine; The Mary Tyler Moore Show; St. Elsewhere; The Rockford Files. Sorry, I can't just pick one.
While PBS doesn't actually run any of the Britcoms (the public stations get them from syndicators), I sure would like to see NO, HONESTLY and WODEHOUSE PLAYHOUSE back in active circulation...and, of course, JEEVES AND WOOSTER...and the earlier FORSYTE SAGA...
on radio, my first answers would include GUNSMOKE, X MINUS ONE, QUIET PLEASE, SUSPENSE, THE ADVENTURES OF SAM SPADE, and YOURS TRULY, JOHNNY DOLLAR...och, too many...then all the unalloyed comedy...
I watch StarTrek TNG the most of that franchise.
I can't find MTM anymore or I would watch it forever.
I have friends that do their exercises to westerns every morning.
I go to bed listening to baseball games in the next room most nights.
Judy and I both love FRASIER.
For whatever reason I never warmed up to Frasier the character, so the show was never a favorite of mine.
For comedies I'd watch certain episodes of I LOVE LUCY, the original BOB NEWHART SHOW or MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW, M*A*S*H or SEINFELD.
Britcoms, our favorite for rewatching is THE GOOD LIFE (called GOOD NEIGHBORS here). Another is ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE.
I can always watch ST. ELSEWHERE or HOMICIDE.
Jeff M.
My kids never liked Frasier either.
Love ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE. I can't watch shows with an arc like St. Elsewhere unless I start with the first one and move forward. Just like I have to see a movie from the first scene even if I've already seen it. We all have areas of neuroses, I guess. I do have BOB on DVD.
I watched As Time Goes By faithfully for years. It was funny, tender, touching, spiced with wild eccentrics, and relevant to my life (a writer remarries late in life; his mate is a successful businesswoman with a daughter). Somehow, it reached deep into my bourgeois heart.
SIMPSONS has already been mentioned. Also, FRIENDS and THE GILMORE GIRLS. For britcom, the BLACKADDER series except the first one. I'd like to go out on a limb here and claim BLACKADDER GOES FORTH as likely the best comedy in TV history.
Frasier is definitely it for me too. I watched three episodes again last night, for at least the 3 or 4th time. Daphne's and Niles first dance. Frasier trying to help Bebe quit smoking. Good times.
Have never seen AS TIME GOES BY. Have to look for it at my library. I know they carry it.
Never got into THE SIMPSONS, but that was a favorite of my kids.
Bebe was a great character, wasn't she?
BLACK ADDER is another show I have never seen. Wonder if my library has that one.
For me, it was the original Trek at one time. These days, probably M*A*S*H. I never tire of watching them, even the leaner late years, old friends you're comfortable around.
Some nearby library is going to have BLACK ADDER/BLACKADDER series. Yet more Hugh Laurie.
Britcoms: YES, MINISTER and its sequel...BUTTERLIES...COUPLING, even though that one could get a bit hacky.
Canadian comedy, beyond SCTV: THE NEWSROOM and its sequels, THE INDUSTRY...
As Anders notes above, the first BLACKADDER series isn't very good. (In fact, based on the first series, I'm surprised they made a second.) But between the first series (which was set in medieval times) and the second (set in the Elizabethan era), Ben Elton and Richard Curtis became writing partners and things really took off. I agree that the 4th series (set during WWI) is the richest (the ending is as poignant as it is unexpected), but I think the 3rd series (set during the Regency period) is the funniest.
And, having just been present to help Alice get her new cable hooked up, I'm enjoying perhaps my most cheering series at the moment, SCRUBS...which also had a few weaker seasons and episodes, but plenty of brilliant ones.
One show that's charm eluded me. I know it was funny, but I never got the screwball nature of it. We all have our areas of weakness. And that's one of mine.
I have to disagree on BLACK ADDER. There were 2-3 in the first series that I thought were hilarious.
Patti, you should try AS TIME GOES BY but you must start from the beginning.
I loved YES, MINISTER but don't want to see it again.
A friend who is a nurse considers SCRUBS the worst - and least accurate - medical show ever made, for what that's worth. I thought it was OK.
Another Britcom (from Jackie): WAITING FOR GOD.
Jeff M.
Library had all of AS TIME GOES BY and THE BLACK ADDER. But not much else. I liked a British series about bin men (garbage men) for what its worth.
My best friend, Alice, has an MD appended to her name, and found SCRUBS the most realistic portrayal of hospital life that she'd seen, far better in that regard than the likes of HOUSE or ER. Perhaps the series needed RN consultants to go along with its staff MDs.
SCRUBS was notable in portraying frequently childish behavior among its adult characters, but never endorsing it, usually mocking it savagely...thus like and unlike, say, Apatow productions. Or PARENTHOOD.
Doesn't look as if anyone has imported the BBC's COMMON AS MUCK (the binmen sitcom) yet.
I guess I like a more continuous story line--not one interrupted by fantasy sequences, jokes, and such. Perhaps old age allows me less latitude for the experimental. My loss, I am sure. Also not a fan of RAISING HOPE or MY NAME IS EARL for the same sort of interludes.
As I have boringly said on here, I am all about reality, which is why I find fantasy, science fiction and horror difficult. A Dick and Jane girl.
Don't get a second season even there. I guess it appealed to us and no one else.
Curb Your Enthusiasm ... any episode from any season.
It's all metaphor, Patti...even the mimetic stuff. I take it opera and ballet were never faves either.
Nor opera and ballet's child, the musical...
When my daughter worked at a Fortune 100 company, she had a boss just like Michael on The Office. She bought the first three seasons on DVDs and psyched herself up for work in the mornings by playing The Office in the background. She finally quit her job, went back to college and got her BS in nursing.
Me... I love Law & Order (original & Criminal Intent) and The Closer. If I need something lighter, I'll watch Two and a Half Men.
I could watch EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND forever, especially the episodes that revolve around Robert's problems. I once laughed so hard at the 'frog' lady episode I scared my dog. HA!
I could watch FRASIER, but only for Niles. The dead sea lion episode. Just thinking about it makes me laugh.
I liked SEINFELD more once it went off the air. But not the early shows. The later years.
For whatever reason the show became a comfort to me in the late evenings when I was ill.
STAR TREK TNG - Patrick Stewart - sigh! Gosh, he was gorgeous. Also Lieutenant Worf - double sigh!
I so wish Worf and Deanna had wound up together.
AS TIME GOES BY, for sure.
DRAGNET, SEINFELD, THE OFFICE, FRASIER, MAVERICK, CHEYENNE, THIS OLD HOUSE, and the list goes on.
AS TIME GOES BY, definitely. I can watch them over and over. ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS a close second. Third (and now for something completely different) the original GUNSMOKE.
For the fun of it, if there was an episode of EASTENDERS I'd check in to see if it had any of the characters I used to know and love. A couple of strong drinks and an Eddie Izzard DVD will also do the trick.
CURB is another good one for repeats. Same with THE OFFICE.
Love modern dance, completely divorced from story.
Sad its the last season of THE CLOSER, Kitty.
I think the new Romano show is even better but Raymond had some great episodes.
I loved Maverick so much. Can't bear to go back there.
Yes, Patti ... I never got into Everybody Loves Raymond (only watched a few minutes of a single episode), but Men of a Certain Age is wonderful. I'm trying to catch up with Netflix. My wife and I really enjoy that one a lot.
Sad its the last season of THE CLOSER, Kitty.
I know, pattinase, I'm already in mourning :(
Northern Exposure
FOYLE'S WAR is one, RUMPOLE another. Pro football on Sundays. NOVA has had some fantastic episodes over the years, as have MASTERPIECE THEATER and MYSTERY! A lot of Brit stuff, but that seems to be where the best comes from. As for SF, Star Trek Nex Gen would be my choice. I keep thinking I should buy the set.
You must have it on DVD, Kent, because it's not on here.
FOYLE'S WAR was such great fun.
We get Northern Exposure five nights a week on our national Aboriginal channel APTN. I PVR it and just yesterday deleted a bunch of shows I have watched numerous times. As for Foyle's War, I enjoyed it, but wouldn't label it a favourite British show. Yesterday at a church sale I picked up the 4 DVD set of C.P. Snow's Strangers & Brothers, a Masterpiece Theater Presentation starring Anthony Hopkins that I haven't seen. Better go close my door because U2 will soon be entertaining 50,000+ fans at an outdoor concert about a mile away.
Wow. I looked that up on netflix and I don't remember Anthony Hopkins so young.
I turn to Friends every time. I've seen every episode, but when I'm feeling down or just need a laugh, I can always count on Ross,Rachel, Monica, Chandler, Joey, and Phoebe to be there. I don't care how many times I've seen it, it's always funny--and there aren't many shows you can say that about. A true classic, and in a time where the sitcom genre is dwindling, that's a comforting thought in and of itself
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