RIP Matthew Perry

That's an all-time very special episode with a twist ending nobody saw coming. He's fine, they get home and there's Mike.

"What about Sandy's second chance? What about his second chance?"

I remember me, my Mom & my sister all sitting there slack-jawed. TV shows, especially ones as fluffy as Growing Pains, just didn't do that in the '80s.

 

Also in "Studio 60" with "Whole Nine Yards" costar Amanda Peet and Bradley Whitford.

I liked that show, sucker for Sorkin stuff, but it did recycle a lot of his usual themes. So I can see why it didn't catch on.

 

This ended with the rise of reality TV.
I am thankful to be old enough to have seen first runs of classic TV from the 70s to the 90s and after school reruns of 60s stuff.

 

I can still tell you the school and church location of the high school sports banquet I had to cover on the night of the Seinfeld finale. I. WAS. PISSED.
I had my wife tape it - yes, TAPE it on a VCR - to watch when I got home.

 

I remember that episode too, and in a strange coincidence, I just saw that scene on YouTube a week or so ago. Tracey Gold puts on an amazing performance in that episode.

It’s such a shock because Mike is normally the comedy character and when he’s looking all serious and tells the family that Sandy is dead and Carol is yelling at him that it’s the worst joke that he’s ever done and Mike emphasizes that he’s serious. It arguably was the peak of the show.

 

It might have found its stride in time, but it was too expensive to survive a shaky first season.

 

I think probably one of the last times that the country was unified in gathering around the TV to see a show was the first episodes of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.” To me, it felt almost like the 1950s, when shows were appointment TV.

Then ABC ruined it by running the show every night of the week.

 

They only referenced it for another episode or two, right? I rewatched the show from start to finish a few years ago and I recall being surprised that it wasn't more of a plot line after the fact. That shit still shook me up even almost 30 years later.

Tracey Gold was the best of the kid actors on that show (admittedly, a low bar to clear). The episode where she and her blockhead boyfriend got engaged and broke up was surprisingly moving.

 

Gotta think SNL will make note of Perry tonight. NBC family and former host.

 

HOW DARE YOU BESMIRCH CAROLINE IN THE CITY! OR SUDDENLY SUSAN! OR WINGS!


Still with us!

 

Millionaire, like a lot of shows, game shows, talent contests and reality shows, started in the U.K.

The Brits even warned ABC not to overdo it. And they ran it into the ground anyway.

 

Half my life ago, when Suddenly Susan was on, Brooke Shields is dating Agassi.

I’m showing tennis highlights in the dead of July. Constant shots of Shields in the crowd at Wimbledon.

Agassi won the first set and lost in 4.

“Andre goes from Suddenly Susan to suddenly losin’”.