TV Nostalgia

A new series, inspired by loyal reader ST. These are the moments of television past that YouTube was designed to bring back to us.

I love The Simpsons.  Seinfeld was a cultural phenomenan.  South Park is one of the best pieces of satire ever.  Friends was the recipient of tons of media attention because it had so many young beautiful people.  The Cosby Show was a landmark.

But the most underrated show of the last 25 years is Cheers.  It wasn't underrated when it was on television, but it's slowly been forgotten, even though it was #1 in the ratings for most of the last few years of its 11 season run.  The show deserves credit for going out on top, too.

And it's only appropriate to link to the last 20 minutes of the show's run if we're going to do the nostalgia appropriately.  Cliff's shoes theory still holds water, by the way; plus, I'm pretty sure Woody's City Council election theme was hope and change.  And for the record, I miss the place where everybody knows your name.

TV Nostalgia Of The Day

A new series, inspired by loyal reader ST. These are the moments of television past that YouTube was designed to bring back to us.

I confess -- I really like Saved By the Bell.

Yes, that probably cuts down my credibility by approximately 97% (assuming I had any left). But NBC's Saturday morning TV show from the early '90's is still going strong in reurns, even though Zack Morris and Kelly Kapowski would now be in their mid-30's. But the show has given us so much -- even today, we get the sheer horror of the words "Screech Powers" and "celebrity sex tape" in the same sentence thanks to Dustin Diamond's decline into child-celebrity noteriety (and really, who saw that coming?). The real blessing will come years from now, when my daughter watches an episode and assumes that the show accurately chronicles what my high school life was like (in case she reads this, I would fit in well as one of the non-speaking background nerds).

If I'm going to post from this show, there's a ton of good choices, but only one episode is the defining memory. However, we'll post two clips from the same episode -- one because there's nothing cheesier than a Saved By The Bell music video (it also helps that this is the one with Tiffani Amber-Thiessen in tights), and the second because it is the definition of overacting.






You're welcome.

TV Nostalgia of the Day

A new series, inspired by loyal reader ST. These are the moments of television past that YouTube was designed to bring back to us.

Growing up, I was too young to realize just how silly Happy Days was, even though I watched it every week (along with Laverne and Shirley and Three's Company, this was a powerhouse Tuesday night TV block on ABC... which explains why so many people are convinced the entire country was stoned in the late 1970's). Still, as a little kid, I thought the Fonz rocked -- keep in mind, I was speaking limited English at the time, so the Fonz was helping develop my vocabulary, and it was pretty easy to follow a guy who kept it simple.

The moment below is the iconic one that spawned the phrase. I only have one question -- is it dumb that the Fonz waterskiing to jump over a shark, or that he's still wearing the leather jacket?



You're welcome.

TV Nostalgia of the Day

A new series, inspired by loyal reader ST. These are the moments of television past that YouTube was designed to bring back to us.

Beavis and Butthead appeared on TV back when I was in college. Put simply, people either hated the show or loved it. I like low-brow humor, but I also think Mike Judge and Co. were doing a pretty decent commentary on society while allowing us to laugh. But that discussion is for another time. For now, let's look back at one of their better video reviews...



You're welcome.