News:

Thanks to everyone for the feedback on what errors you encountered from the forum database changes made in Fall 2023. Let us know if you discover anymore.

Main Menu

Strange things on TV sitcoms

Started by roadman65, April 01, 2019, 10:52:23 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

davewiecking

Quote from: roadman65 on May 03, 2019, 11:52:49 AM
Quote from: davewiecking on May 01, 2019, 04:13:06 PM
Quote from: roadman65 on April 30, 2019, 09:26:54 PM
Seinfeld, which had mostly Self Contained episodes with each being in its own world, minus George's engagement to Susan there were no story arcs that spanned from one episode to the next.
And of course the Season 4 story arc of Jerry and George becoming sitcom writers...
Forgot that one.  Isn't that when Kramer got arrested also?
Well, all 4 of them were arrested and sentenced to jail in the closing episode, which included the "sitcom writer"  plot line. Private plane trip before "Jerry"  was to go into production. I really should remember if Kramer was arrested during the few episodes in which he lived in California...


roadman

Quote from: roadman65 on May 08, 2019, 07:12:55 PM
Keep in mind that the Brady Bunch episodes are all self contained minus the Season 3 opener and the Season 5 opener which had a 3 episode story arc each.

Yes I think that was the case where Marcia and her braces as Maureen McCormick did not have them in real life so it was added as a one episode story line for a good topic that kids at the time faced.

Eve Plumb, Mike Lookiland, and Susan Olsen all did have them in real life so it was not that big an issue to feature it again in stories.  However, Jan and her glasses might of been Eve Plumb having to wear glasses in real life that the producers thought that would make a great story line for an episode and allow us viewers to see when Jan began wearing glasses.  However, in the last season the glasses were gone, but we can assume that Jan wore contacts.

However close to having two episodes share a common story was the bet episode where Greg did lose a bet to Bobby and Greg had to take his brother along to a drive in on his date with Sherwood Schwarz's real life daughter where later another episode featured Greg taking the girl out again, which did mention the previous season episode in the second time around.

Ah yes.  The "not your exact words" episode.  I'm reminded of that every time I hear of a guilty verdict for a serious crime being thrown out on a technicality.
"And ninety-five is the route you were on.  It was not the speed limit sign."  - Jim Croce (from Speedball Tucker)

"My life has been a tapestry
Of years of roads and highway signs" (with apologies to Carole King and Tom Rush)

bing101


Lots of old shows had scenes where measles was the topic including the Flintstones.


https://www.wbur.org/endlessthread/2019/05/03/the-flintstone-dilemma


Rothman

Quote from: bing101 on June 06, 2019, 10:18:53 AM

Lots of old shows had scenes where measles was the topic including the Flintstones.


https://www.wbur.org/endlessthread/2019/05/03/the-flintstone-dilemma


Yeah, for some reason anti-vaxxers have decided that their authority comes from old sitcoms than medical professionals.
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position(s) of NYSDOT.

bing101

Quote from: Rothman on June 06, 2019, 10:20:06 AM
Quote from: bing101 on June 06, 2019, 10:18:53 AM

Lots of old shows had scenes where measles was the topic including the Flintstones.


https://www.wbur.org/endlessthread/2019/05/03/the-flintstone-dilemma

Yeah, for some reason anti-vaxxers have decided that their authority comes from old sitcoms than medical professionals.

And they turned Measles into a Political issue leading up to the 2020 elections. 

Measles is supposed to be explained as a scientific issue but it went crazy from there in 2019.




roadman65

Everything is a political issue nowadays. :)
Every day is a winding road, you just got to get used to it.

Sheryl Crowe

sparker

Speaking of toilets in sitcoms:

................the "Royal Flush" episode of Married with Children, where Al's favorite downstairs toilet gave up the ghost -- and all he could find were "low-flush" models to replace it -- was at once one of the funniest yet illogical episodes of the series.  The main plot point was that he had to resort to an "underground" toilet-supply cadre to get a toilet with a "manly" flush, and it took him the whole 22-minute episode and ventures all over Chicagoland to do so.  Even pre-internet (the episode was around 1992, IIRC), all one would have to do was locate a commercial plumbing distributor in the yellow pages and go and buy a commercial piece.  I had to replace a commercial toilet in my business a few years back, and it took me all of 45 minutes to buy one and have it back in the rest room.  Now there was a secondary plot point in the MwC episode that IL metro "weenies" had prohibited sales of heavy-flush units -- even so, it's a quick trip to WI or IN! 

Regardless of the lack of plot realism (or perhaps even because of it!) the episode was one of the funniest of the series -- particularly at the end, where after installation the first flush shakes the house so much that pictures and mirrors are flying off the walls!   Totally un-PC (as was the entire series) and totally hilarious!

In_Correct

#57
They were not supposed to show entire bathrooms in the 1960s. With the The Brady Bunch, that house and back yard both have many problems. The back yard is obviously fake, but at the same time I prefer Astro Turf. It still seems very small. Not sure where they could have parked their cars. Where the bathrooms were really located is only a few of the problems. But there are many of them. It is just that the toilets had to be out of sight. When Greg moved to the attic, it showed that he had his own ... Sink.

It wasn't until other programmes such as All In The Family and The Carol Burnett Show / Eunice / Mama's Family that had a stories about bathrooms, especially with The Harper Family Curse being that several of them died in a bathroom. I don't think toilets were shown in any of these examples either. But occasionally a toilet flush can be heard. More on Mama's Family later.

Perhaps They showed the toilets of The Brady Bunch House in one of the subsequent movies.

About Home Improvement:

Wilson is nothing more than a comedic lampoon of the next door neighbour, a passing acquaintance, where they only talk in the back yard, and behind a wood fence. It is good enough to talk to each other. It is also good enough to see each other, but certainly not clearly.


About The Cosby Show:

The pilot episode could have had a better script. I remember Sondra already moved out of the house which means that they could have meant the four children still at home.

There are only a few episodes of The Cosby Show I watch now, preferring the One Foot In The Grave adaptation: COSBY that aired after this one did. One episode is the episode where Sondra runs off with $79,647.22 U.S.D. (which is around 179,169.79 U.S.D. in 2019) ... The other episode I like is when Vanessa gets chewed out for going to a concert unprepared, loses everything, and on top of that she is not supposed to wear makeup. The Cosby Show seemed to go off in Fairy Tale Land way too much. The specific episodes I mentioned are more Down To Earth.

Additionally, I did not like The Disappearing V.C.R. in The Cosby Show.

I did not like Heathclifford Huxtable. Is it supposed to be Heathcliff Huxtable, or Clifford Huxtable?!

I did not like the set change some time after the first season. There is an extra window under the stairs or a hall or something? It can be accessed in the living room.

Where did they park all their dozens of cars??

The interior of the house is not narrow. ... and I do remember seeing a toilet for upstairs. I have no idea where they would have a toilet for downstairs.

Claire gets her own office. An addition to the house. Where could it have gone? If it is in the back yard, it would block off the garage! And even worse it is not seen again.

The almost most alarming thing on The Cosby Show is how they kept trying to write off Denise.

The most alarming thing on The Cosby Show is the way they introduced Olivia Kendall. They just HAVE to have a young child for every episode, but the way they wrote her in to the show: Denise marries a military man and he has a daughter. The mother is portrayed as being willfully neglectful and abandoned Olivia when she "had to get out of too many responsibilities". However, Olivia is raised by Heathclifford as Martin and Denise get deployed. That makes me sympathize with Olivia's Mother instead.

The set changes again in the last season. The usual inexplicable remodeling of a house at the last minute.

Old Roseanne:

They had stairs to the basement on the "fourth wall", seen in the opening credits. It was seen probably only one time when D.J. snuck a dog inside. It is at the beginning of the episode. Roseanne surprisingly does not have a dog. (Neither does The Cosby Show and neither does COSBY.) But anyways that is the only time they used these stairs. The rest of the time they access the basement from outside. I can understand if the inside stairs are very narrow and perhaps the outdoor entrance is easier. But this is set in Illinois. It would be much warmer to stay inside.

Roseanne's Mother and Roseanne's Grandmother are seen very often. As for Dan, he has a Stepmother. Dan's Biological Mother is seen in one episode perfectly fine. Her next episode she becomes an unseen character. They only talk about her and send her away to be institutionalized. All of this happens off screen. She presumably is locked away for the rest of the show, and is now rewritten as having a lifelong insanity. In the last season she gets out, but is difficult to know what really happened to anybody. Perhaps the reason for these character rewrites is based on Roseanne Barr's real world experiences with mental health facilities, checking herself into one years earlier. But it is still an unexpected rewrite. Ann Wedgeworth, the original actress, did not portray her as unstable. A new career and a new fiance also.

Now ... as for Mrs. Healey. ... The lady that called them "Conner Trash" and "Whores". ... would not surprise me at all if she went dangerously unstable.

Mama's Family:

A common problem in situation comedies: The house interior is one long house with one big overlapping room. The living room, the dining room, the kitchen, and perhaps a small laundry room.

In the original broadcast of Mama's Family, she lives in a huge house. There are rooms on the other side of The Fourth Wall.

And then there is a cast change. Of course this is not that big of a deal be cause she patched things up with those relatives such as Eunice and Ellen.

Also Thelma now lives in a smaller house, but it still has a room on the other side of The Fourth Wall.

I have to assume the other, larger house burned down or some thing.
Drive Safely. :sombrero: Ride Safely. And Build More Roads, Rails, And Bridges. :coffee: ... Boulevards Wear Faster Than Interstates.

wanderer2575

Quote from: roadman65 on April 30, 2019, 10:01:22 PM
Plus Hogan's Heroes replaced Ivan Dixon with another actor Kenneth Washington, but kept the episodes of both sets of episodes self contained from each other as when Washington joined, his character of Baker was made to appear like he was with the clan the whole time and Klinchoe never existed at all.

Hogan's Heroes was ridiculously casual about character handling.  A few other examples:  Similar to the switching out of Kinchloe for Baker, Cynthia Lynn's Helga disappeared after the first season and was replaced with Sigrid Valdis' Hilda for the remainder of the series with no reference to the change.  William Christopher appeared in a couple episodes as another Hero (Thomas or another name) when one of the regulars was off for the week and it was as though he had always been there.  Arlene Martel appeared a number of times in the recurring role of underground agent Tiger, but also a couple times as a different agent.  Marlyn Mason appeared twice as the same character (Lily Frankel), but the second time she and Hogan had never met before.

jeffandnicole

Watching The 70's Show on Netflix last night, we noticed that Donna, who was mostly referenced as an only child, had a sister Tina for a single episode (S1 E5), whom Donna had to babysit. Tina made a single appearance. Reading up on this, she was referred in the closing credits on one episode in Season 2, which was solely done to joke about her disappearance.

Additionally in S1 E2, Donna's parents referenced an older sister Valerie, who went to college. She was never physically seen and never referenced again.

sparker

Quote from: PHLBOS on April 03, 2019, 10:32:21 AM
Quote from: Henry on April 03, 2019, 10:26:11 AM
Quote from: spooky on April 03, 2019, 09:16:09 AM
Quote from: PHLBOS on April 03, 2019, 09:10:01 AM
Quote from: jeffandnicole on April 03, 2019, 08:44:02 AM
Howard's mom in The Big Bang Theory is never shown as well.
Yup, and the character was killed off in the later seasons; thereby eliminating any chance of seeing the character at all in future episodes.

Didn't the woman die who did the voice of the mom? I think that's why they killed off the character.
Yes, she did; it was Carol Ann Susi.
That would certainly explain it.  I guess the casting crew either couldn't find or weren't interested in recasting the role with someone that had or could do a similar voice.

Ironically, Melissa Rauch, who played Bernadette, Howard's GF/wife, had a voice that, when her character was both loud and angry simultaneously, sounded almost exactly like that of his mother!  I'm guessing that was deliberate choice by the showrunners and the writers (and a somewhat disturbing reason -- albeit a bit secondary considering her physical attributes -- why Howard was attracted to her!).   



Opinions expressed here on belong solely to the poster and do not represent or reflect the opinions or beliefs of AARoads, its creators and/or associates.