This week's Monday Listicles topic is a hard one for me because I haven’t watched TV since we’ve had kids, other than that one season of X-Factor a few years back where my Aunt Kim and I texted each other throughout every show, crying and sharing our opinions. I googled shows from the 70s and 80s hoping to find something that I loved that got cancelled prematurely, but I couldn’t find anything. So I’m going to share my 10 Favorite TV Shows instead.
1. Freaks and Geeks – This is the one show that I loved that was cancelled too soon. I never watched it when it aired, but a few months ago, I watched every one of the 18 episodes in one week, and then at least six episodes with commentary. I wrote an entire post about my Freaks and Geeks obsession and brought down a few readers of my blog with me, including Kenya over at Here’s the Thing. She and I watched it the same week and tweeted about it along the way. That was fun.
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| Here's me hanging out with everyone. |
2. Laff-A-Lympics – This was my favorite show on Saturday mornings. All the best cartoon characters in one show. The three teams competed in various competitions to determine the winning team each week. The teams were comprised of two “good” teams and one “bad” team: the Scooby Doobies (nice name), the Yogi Yahooeys and the Really Rottens. My favorite part of the show was that occasionally, the Really Rottens, who cheated and lied, sometimes won. Just like in real life. As a nine year old, I appreciated that. Rarely was reality ever portrayed in kid shows that way.
3. Richie Rich – Man, I wanted to be rich. I loved that cartoon. I wanted a swimming pool shaped like a dollar sign and my own ice cream parlor stocked with dollar sign-shaped sprinkles. If anything got me dreaming about all the crap I didn’t I have and wanted, it was this show.
4. Seinfeld – Ah, Seinfeld. At the time this show was on, I had a good friend that was a guy. I used to go to his house and read his People magazines and eat all his parent's M&M’s. We had another friend that we hung out with too. I was Elaine and they would fight over who was Jerry and who was George because, of course, neither of them wanted to be George. We had a fourth guy that would hang out with us when he was home from college. He wasn’t anything like Kramer, but we called him Kramer anyway.
5. Guiding Light – When I was in grade school, I practically ran the whole way home so I could see what was going to happen with Lujack and Beth or Harley Davidson Cooper and Phillip Spalding. Nothing like a grade school kid being addicted to soap operas.
6. Laverne & Shirley – This show always made me laugh out loud. Prim, little Shirley and Laverne with the “L” on every shirt. As a kid I always wondered, did she buy her shirts at a special store that had letters on them or did she iron on every single one of those? I'm sure it was a special store because ironing sucks.
7. Three’s Company – Jack Tripper and all his confusion and falling down, Sensible Janet and Bimbo Chrissy, Mr. Roper (I watched The Ropers spin-off) and then Mr. Furley. I loved that show. I wish we had a Regal Beagle near us. I would totally go. Maybe.
8. Brady Bunch – Marcia, Marcia, Marcia! I recently wrote a post about 80s characters I loved to hate, Marcia was on the list. But this show could fall in the category of ending prematurely because I loved it so much. I watched The Brady Brides and A Very Brady Christmas. I had a t-shirt with Marcia on it with a Band-Aid over her nose from the You Broke My Nose episode.
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My sister showing off the Marcia shirt. See the Band-Aid on Marcia's nose?
I think that hamster's home was nicer than my first apartment. |
I had a coffee mug I used for years at my office with the Brady kids on it. One day I caught one of my co-workers using it. I said, “You’re using my mug.” She said, “It’s a good mug. It doesn’t have any coffee rings in it.” After that I kept my mug hidden in my office.
9. The Carol Burnett Show – I remember when I was really little my mom would let me lie on the couch watching Carol Burnett until I fell asleep. I have no idea what time it was on, but it was past my bedtime. It was so funny. “Mrs. Huh-wiggins.” The Mama’s Family spin-off was not even close to its brilliance, but I watched that every week too.
10. Saturday Night Live – My favorite years were during the second half of the 80s and early 90s when I was in high school and college. My favorites were Dana Carvey as the Church Lady, or any character, Kevin Nealon and Dana Carvey spoofing on Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jan Hooks and Nora Dunn as the Sweeney Sisters doing their lounge act in prisons and various places, Phil Hartman as the Anal Retentive Chef, The Delta Delta Delta Girls, Will Ferrell doing anything, but especially when he was with Cheri Oteri doing the Spartan Cheerleaders at the chess tournament.
My all-time favorite skit was Tim Meadows doing the Winston Graff Recording Session. I, no lie, rolled off the couch craughing (cry-laughing), pounding on the floor in hysterics, when I saw this the first time. I hadn’t seen it in all these years until I found it today and I craughed again. Then I watched it two more times and craughed two more times. It’s so funny! Crap, I set your expectations high, but here it is anyway...
