100 Greatest TV Shows

[Hulk With A Mustache]

67. General Hospital



Genre: Soap opera.
Created by: Frank and Doris Hursley.
Executive Producer(s): Jill Farren Phelps (current, 2001—present), Mary O'Leary (2001-2008),
Wendy Riche (1992-2006), Leon Mirell (1968-2006), and Gloria Monty (2006)
Starring: John Beradino (Dr. Steve Hardy 1963-1996), Emily McLaughlin (Jessie Brewer 1963-1991), Lucille Wall (Lucille March Weeks 1963-1976), Jack Betts (Dr. Ken Martin 1963), Carol Bruce (Jennifer Talbot #1 1963), Gary Clarke (Jerome Garvey 1963), Linda Cristal (Dimitria Antonelli 1963), Barry Atwater (Dr. John Prentice 1964-1967), Ron Hayes (Phil Brewer #4 1967), Craig Huebring (Phil Brewer #5 1967), Julie Adams (Denise Wilton 1968), Tyne Daly (Caroline Beale 1968), Mark Hamill (Kent Murray 1972-1973), Mary Grace Canfield (Lucille March Weeks, RN 1973), Augusta Dabney (Carolyn Chandler Baldwin 1975-1976), Kimberly Beck (Samantha Livingston #1 1975), Genie Francis (Laura Spencer 1976-2002, 2006, 2008-present), Richard Dean Anderson (Dr. Jeff Webber 1976-1981), Camila Ashland (Alice Grant #1 1976-1977), Michael Delano (Dr. Mark Dante #3 1976), Jacklyn Zeman (Bobbie Spencer 1977-present), Leslie Charleson (Dr. Monica Quartermaine 1977-present), Stuart Damon (Dr. Alan Quartermaine, 1977-present), Kin Shriner (Scott Baldwin 1977-1993, 2000-2004, 2007-present), Brooke Bundy (Diana Maynard Taylor, RN 1977-1981), Anthony Geary (Luke Spencer 1978-1983, 1984, 1993-present), Anna Lee (Lila Quartermaine #1 1978-2004), David Lewis (Edward Quartermaine #1, #3 1978-1989; 1991-1993), Frank Maxwell (Dan Rooney 1978-1990), Todd Davis (Bryan Phillips 1978-1987), Lieux Dressler (Alice Grant #2 1978-1983), Donna Baccala (Dr. Gina Dante Lansing #3 1978-1979), Larry Block (Cal Jamison 1978), Jane Elliot (Tracy Quartermaine 1979-1984, 1988-1993, 1996, 2003-present), Shell Kepler (Amy Vining 1979-2002), Norma Connolly (Ruby Anderson 1979-1998), Daniel J. Travanti (Spence Andrews 1979), Jeff Donnell (Stella Fields 1980-1988), Renée Anderson (Alexandria Quartermaine 1980-1981), Rick Springfield (Dr. Noah Drake 1981-1983, 2005-present; Eli Love 2005-present), Sharon Wyatt (Tiffany Hill 1981-1984, 1986-1995), Ward Costello (Senator Martin Drake 1981-1982), Frank Ashmore (Corrigan 1981), William Beckley (Albert 1981), Martin E. Brooks (Dr. Arthur Bradshaw 1981), Jon Cypher (Maximilian Van Stadt 1981), John Colicos (Mikkos Cassadine 1981), Emma Samms (Holly Sutton 1982-1985, 1992-1993, 2006), John Stamos (Blackie Parrish 1982-1984), Demi Moore (Jackie Templeton 1982-1983), Janine Turner (Laura Templeton 1982–1983), Peter Breck (Masters 1982), Jordan Charney (Dr. Seymour Katz 1982), Paul Comi (George Durnley 1982), Henry Darrow (Ambassador Tabris 1982), Sam Behrens (Jake Meyer 1983-1987), Steve Bond (Jimmy Lee Holt 1983-1987), David Groh (D. L. Brock 1983-1985), Majel Barrett (Bea 1983), Harry Basch (Armistead 1983), Kabir Bedi (Lord Rama 1983), Brian Patrick Clarke (Grant Andrews 1983), Booth Colman (Professor Hector Jerrold 1983), Gene Dynarski (Jedediah Parkinson 1983), Kristina Wagner (Felicia Jones Scorpio #1 1984-2003, 2004-2005, 2007-2008), Brad Maule (Dr. Tony Jones 1984-2006), John Reilly (Sean Donely 1984-1995), Philip Bruns (Dr. Porchenko 1984), Marcella Markham (Beatrice LeSeur 1984), Kimberly McCullough (Dr. Robin Scorpio 1985-1997, 1997-1999, 2000, 2004, 2005-present), Finola Hughes (Anna Devane 1985-1992, 1995, 2006-present), Argentina Brunetti (Filomena Soltini 1985-1988), Tia Carrere (Jade Soong Chung 1985-1987), Lynn Herring (Lucy Coe 1986-1992, 1992-1997, 2004), Ian Buchanan (Duke Lavery 1986-1989), Ami Dolenz (Melissa McKee 1987-1989), William Bassett (Wolfgang Von Schuler 1987), Ivy Bethune (Abigail 1987), John Ericson (Eric Ingstrom 1987), Scott Thompson Baker (Colton Shore 1988-1991), Kurt McKinney (Ned Ashton #1 1988-1991), Mary Jo Catlett (Mary Finnegan 1989-1990), Les Tremayne (Edward Quartermaine #2 1988), Cameron Bancroft (Ray late 1980s), John J. York (Mac Scorpio 1991-present), Steve Burton (Jason Morgan 1991-2000, 2001, 2002-present), Wally Kurth (Ned Ashton #2 1991-2007), Paul Satterfield (Paul Hornsby 1991-1994), Erick Avari (Ahmed Hakeem 1991), Frank Aletter (Mayor Richmond 1991), Michael Cole (Harlan Barrett 1991), Kristin Davis (Betsy Chilson 1991), Jon Lindstrom (Ryan Chamberlain, 1992-1994; Kevin Collins 1994-1997, 2004), Vanessa Marcil (Brenda Barrett 1992-1998, 2002-2003), Antonio Sabato, Jr. (Jagger Cates 1992-1994, 1995), Cari Shayne (Karen Wexler #1 1992-1994, 1995), Jeremy Davies (Roger 1992), Ian Abercrombie (Clive Durban 1993), John Ingle (Edward Quartermaine 1993-2004, 2006-present), Robyn Richards (Maxie Jones #1, #3 1993-2002, 2002-2005), Mary Beth Evans (Katherine Bell 1993-1999), Jonathan Jackson (Lucky Spencer #1 1993-1999), Maurice Benard (Sonny Corinthos 1993-1997, 1998-present), Sean Kanan (AJ Quartermaine #7 1993-1997), Leigh J. McCloskey (Damian Smith 1993-1996), Michael Sutton (Stone Cates 1993-1995), Nikki Cox (Gina Williams #1 1993-1995), Senait Ashenafi (Keesha Ward 1994-1998), Joseph C. Phillips (Justus Ward #1 1994-1998), Rena Sofer (Lois Cerullo #1 1994-1996, 1997), Rosalind Cash (Mary Mae Ward 1994-1995), Ricky Martin (Miguel Morez 1994-1995), John Capodice (Carmine Cerullo 1994), Ron Hale (Mike Corbin 1995-present), Amber Tamblyn (Emily Quartermaine #1 1995-2001), Nancy Lee Grahn (Alexis Davis 1996-present), Tyler Christopher (Nikolas Cassadine 1996-1999, 2003-present), Ingo Rademacher (Jasper Jacks 1996-2000, 2001-present), Barbara Tarbuck (Jane Jacks 1996-2007), Stephen Nichols (Stefan Cassadine 1996-2002, 2003), Sarah Brown (Carly Corinthos #1 1996-2001), Leslie Horan (Miranda Jameson 1996-1997), Dimitra Arliss (Helena Cassadine #2 1996), Rebecca Herbst (Elizabeth Webber 1997-present), Jay Pickett (David Harper 1997-present), Constance Towers (Helena Cassadine #3 1997-2002, 2003, 2004-2007), Billy Warlock (AJ Quartermaine #8 1997-2003, 2005), Lisa Cerasoli (Venus Ardenowski 1997-1999), Monti Sharp (Justus Ward #2 1998-1999), Stephen Martines (Nikolas Cassadine #2 1999-2003), Michael Saucedo (Juan Santiago 1999-2001), Tava Smiley (Chloe Morgan 1999-2001), Lisa Vultaggio (Hannah Scott 1999-2001), Jacob Young (Lucky Spencer #2 2000-2003), Bergen Williams (Alice Gunderson 2001-present), Robin Christopher (Skye Quartermaine 2001-2008), Alicia Leigh Willis (Courtney Matthews 2001-2006), Tamara Braun (Carly Corinthos #2 2001-2005), Jaime Ray Newman (Kristina Cassadine 2001-2002), Linda Dano (Rae Cummings 2001, 2002, 2003), Rick Hearst (Ric Lansing 2002-present), Denise Alexander (Dr. Lesley Webber 2002-present), Blake Gibbons (Coleman, 2002-present), Derk Cheetwood (Max Giambetti, 2002-present), Lindze Letherman (Georgie Jones 2002-2007), Evan Bonifant (Lucas Jones #7 2002), Danica Stewart (Maxie Jones #2 2002), Kelly Monaco (Sam McCall 2003-present), Greg Vaughan (Lucky Spencer 2003-present), Drew Cheetwood (Milo Giambetti 2003-2008), Natalia Livingston (Emily Quartermaine #2 2003-2008), Scott Clifton (Dillon Quartermaine 2003-2007), M'fundo Morrison (Justus Ward #3 2003-2006), Katie Stuart (Sage Alcazar #2 2003-2004), Stanley Kamel (Cody McCall 2003-2004), Jed Allan (Edward Quartermaine #5 2004-2006), Lesli Kay (Lois Cerullo #2 2004-2005), Ryan Carnes (Lucas Jones #9 2004-2005), Meg Wyllie (Lila Quartermaine #2 2004), Julie Marie Berman (Lulu Spencer 2005-present), Kirsten Storms (Maxie Jones 2005-present), Jason Thompson (Dr. Patrick Drake 2005-present), Laura Wright (Carly Corinthos Jacks 2005-present), Adrian Alvarado (Dr. Cruz Rodriguez 2005-present), George Juarez (Morgan Corinthos 2005-present), Iris and Ivy Kaim (Molly Lansing 2005-present), Kali Rodriguez (Kristina Corinthos 2005-present), Kent King (Dr. Lainey Winters 2005 and 2008), Jennifer Bransford (Carly Corinthos #3 2005), Bradford Anderson (Damien Spinelli 2006-present), Sonya Eddy (Epiphany Johnson 2006-present), John Bolger (Mayor Garrett Floyd 2006-present), Jack Donnor (Alfred 2006-present), Lance Doven (Spencer Cassadine, 2006-present), Richard Fancy (Bernie Abrahms 2006-present), Minae Noji (Dr. Kelly Lee 2006-present), Carolyn Hennesy (Diane Miller 2007-present), Brandon Barash (Johnny Zacchara 2007-present), Nazanin Boniadi (Leyla Mir 2007-present), Claire Coffee (Nadine Crowell 2007-present), Josh Duhon (Logan Hayes 2007-present), Sebastian Roche (Jerry Jacks 2007-present), Megan Ward (Kate Howard 2007-present), Richard Gant (Dr. Russell Ford 2007-present), Edward and Nigbor James (Jake Spencer 2007-present), Stephen Macht (Trevor Lansing 2007-present), Reign Morton (Cassius Kibideaux 2007-present), Angel Wainwright (Regina Thompson 2007-present), Braden Walkes (Cameron Webber 2007-present), Bruce Weitz (Anthony Zacchara 2007, 2008-present), Josh Duhon (Logan Hayes 2007-2008), Sarah Brown (Claudia Zacchara 2008-present), Jason Cook (Dr. Matt Hunter 2008-present), Tamlyn Tomita (Giselle 2008-present), and Rosie Malek-Yonan (Farah Mir 2008-present).
Country of Origin: United States.
Number of Seasons: 45.
Number of Episodes: 11,602.
Running Time: 30 minute, April 1, 1963 – July 23, 1976; 45 minutes from July 26, 1976 – December 30, 1977; 60 minutes from 1977 – today.
Original Channel: ABC.
Original Run: April 1, 1963 – present.
Spinoffs: A U.K. remake of the same name that aired from 1972 to 1979, Port Charles, a half-hour soap that aired from 1997 to 2003; and General Hospital: Night Shift, a primetime spinoff that aired on SOAPnet in 2007.

General Hospital is a soap opera created by soap writers and husband-and-wife team Frank and Doris Hursley. Set in the fictional city of Port Charles, New York, General Hospital debuted on April 1, 1963, the same day that rival network NBC launched its own medical daytime drama, The Doctors. The show originally aired for a half-hour until the network expanded it to 45 minutes in 1976, and then to a full hour in 1978. The first stories were mainly set at General Hospital in an unnamed mid-sized Eastern city (the name of the city, Port Charles, would not be mentioned until the 1970s), revolving around Dr. Steve Hardy (John Beradino) and his friend, Nurse Jessie Brewer (Emily McLaughlin). Steve was Chief Of Internal Medicine on the hospital's seventh floor and dedicated his life to healing and caring for the sick, ably assisted by Nurse Jessie. Jessie's turbulent marriage to the much-younger Dr. Phil Brewer (originally portrayed by Roy Thinnes; lastly by Martin West) was the center of many early storylines. Over the years, Phil became renowned for his philandering, with Jessie constantly forgiving her errant husband for his affairs. The seemingly never-ending cycle of separation and reconciliation between the two finally ended in 1974, when Dr. Phil Brewer was murdered. Another nurse, Lucille March (Lucille Wall), brought her sister, flight attendant Audrey March (Rachel Ames) to town; slowly but surely, she romanced Dr. Hardy, eventually marrying him three times. While there was no overt tension, Jessie was disappointed as there had always been an air of sexual tension between her and Steve. It was never acted upon, as they remained close friends until Jessie (and actress Emily McLaughlin) died in 1991. Steve Hardy himself died five years later when his portrayer, John Beradino, died in 1996. GH was glacially paced and low-rated in the earlier years, except for one relatively high-rated and fast-paced plot in 1971. In this storyline, Audrey was accused of murdering her son's babysitter and General Hospital was briefly elevated to the number one position, beating longtime ratings giant As the World Turns. However, the success was short-lived. Due to relatively easygoing choices in storyline, the show almost always lost out to rival medical soap The Doctors, which was considered by many to be more daring. TIME magazine panned General Hospital in 1976, and said that the acting performances were unremarkable and "antiseptic." The article went on to chide the show for its minimal budget for settings and props, calling it "not unlike a high school production," and noted that the serial's only saving grace was in the form of Dr. Lesley Williams (Denise Alexander). When Douglas Marland objected to a planned storyline that had called for the virtuous Dr. Lesley Webber to cheat on her husband with David Hamilton, Marland was challenged to come up with an even better idea. As a result, Lesley rejected David's advances and the enraged suitor began sleeping with her sixteen-year-old daughter Laura Webber (Genie Francis) instead. This torrid affair culminated in Laura killing her older lover after discovering that he was only using her to get back at her mother. This storyline was successful and as a result, Laura became a major focus of the show. Laura's subsequent storyline, a love triangle involving her, Scott Baldwin, and Bobbie Spencer, was also a success, but soon the success of both stories would be overshadowed by a phenomenon that very few expected, when Laura crossed paths with Bobbie's brother Luke Spencer (Anthony Geary). Faced with threats of cancellation in 1978 after several years of stagnant ratings, ABC Daytime executives gave GH six months to increase ratings and brought on Gloria Monty as Executive Producer. Monty had much experience in the genre from directing The Secret Storm for years. Under her tutelage, and the headwriting stints of Douglas Marland (who created longtime staples the Quartermaine and the Spencer family) and Pat Falken Smith, General Hospital bounced back from the brink and subsequently became the highest-rated American soap opera from 1979 to 1988. Monty stayed as Executive Producer until 1987, only to return briefly from 1991 to 1992, in a widely panned tenure during which she was accused of no longer being in touch with the daytime audience. Monty was fired in late 1991, then the equally controversial Wendy Riche come aboard. The supercouple pairing of Luke Spencer and Laura Webber would eventually become the most popular storyline in soap opera history. Their November 16/17, 1981 wedding was watched by about 30 million people, making it the highest-rated episode of a soap opera in American television history. They were so popular that even Elizabeth Taylor wanted in on the action, she guest-starred as Helena Cassadine and adorned People Weekly magazine with Francis and Geary. Luke and Laura's relationship was not without some controversy, as Luke had raped her in 1979. Laura was traumatized and went to counseling, but after her popularity with Luke flourished, she claimed the rape was "seduction." In 1998, the issue was revisited and Laura finally admitted to herself that Luke had raped her. The success of Luke and Laura led General Hospital (and other soap operas) to try and emulate the formula. GH was very successful in creating pairings, and after Luke and Laura, other 80s pairings were popular: Robert Scorpio & Holly Sutton (Tristan Rogers & Emma Samms), Duke Lavery & Anna Devane (Ian Buchanan & Finola Hughes), and Frisco Jones & Felicia Cummings (Jack Wagner & Kristina Wagner). Ex-head writer Pat Falken Smith and her team of six other scribes angrily quit the show in August 1981 after repeated battles with Gloria Monty and jumped to NBC's Days of Our Lives. "Gloria's a genius - who runs a Gestapo operation," sniped Falken Smith in a 1981 People Weekly interview. It should be noted that during Summer 1981, GH was averaging 14 million viewers per episode. The show's focus began to drift away from the original hospital setting onto a series of action/adventure plots, most of which were highly successful with the show's audience. The introduction of the WSB spy agent Robert Scorpio (and later fellow agents Sean Donely and Anna Devane) led to several popular spy mysteries involving secret formulas, hidden treasures and world domination schemes. A few of these plots were widely considered preposterous, such as the 1981 storyline in which Luke, Laura and Robert saved the town of Port Charles from being placed under a deep freeze by maniacal Mikkos Cassadine. Another far fetched storyline occurred in 1990 when Robin Scorpio (Robert Scorpio and Anna Devane's daughter) befriended Casey Rogers, an alien from the planet Lumina. The series also launched the media career of fitness instructor Richard Simmons, who frequently appeared as himself. In the 1990s, General Hospital entered a transitional phase as the action/adventure storylines of the 1980s became less popular. During this period, the show lost major stars such as Finola Hughes (Anna Devane) and Tristan Rogers (Robert Scorpio), and the much-heralded return of Anthony Geary as Luke Spencer's identical cousin Bill Eckert in 1991 was seen as a failure. Eventually, in 1993, Anthony Geary would reprise his famous role of Luke Spencer, along with Genie Francis who reprised her role as Luke's wife Laura Spencer. Along with the reprisal of Luke and Laura came the addition of their ten year old son, Lucky Spencer, played by newcomer Jonathan Jackson. In 1994, Anthony Geary and Genie Francis were invited to appear on an episode of Roseanne, as Luke and Laura. The couple would race through her house 'on the run', as Roseanne was a huge fan of General Hospital. In return, (Roseanne Arnold) and her then husband, (Tom Arnold) were invited to a storyline on General Hospital. Roseanne portraying Jennifer Smith, Luke's ex-love interest and daughter of mob boss Frank Smith. The return of Luke and Laura marked the beginning of a creative renaissance for the show. Through the efforts of executive producer Wendy Riche and Head Writer Claire Labine, the show gained critical acclaim for its sensitive handling of social issues, most notable of which were the heart transplant storyline which involved the death of eight-year-old BJ Jones (daughter of Dr. Tony Jones and R.N. Bobbie Spencer) in a bus crash and the subsequent donation of her heart to her dying cousin Maxie Jones. Shortly afterwards, Dr. Monica Quartermaine (Leslie Charleson) began a long battle with breast cancer, which led to her adopting Emily Bowen, a young girl who had been orphaned when her mother died of breast cancer. GH was also praised for yet another storyline in the form of the beautiful but tragic love story of teenagers Stone Cates (Michael Sutton) and Robin Scorpio (Kimberly McCullough). After a struggle that lasted throughout most of 1995, Stone died from AIDS at the age of 19 and his death was followed by storylines in which 17 year old Robin had to deal with being HIV-positive as a result of her and Stone's relationship. The storyline got Sutton a Daytime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor and won McCullough an Outstanding Younger Actress award. Problems began to arise again around 1995 and 1996, when the show lost more than a million viewers. All the soaps lost ground at this time, but particular scrutiny was placed upon GH for the succession of grim stories involving BJ, Monica, and Stone. As a result, they dropped plans to give Audrey Hardy Alzheimer's Disease. However, the show remained popular and a long-rumored spinoff (which was tentatively titled GH2) materialized in 1997 into the half-hour soap Port Charles. From 1993 to 1997, the show produced what many consider the last major supercouple (in terms of popularity) on daytime television, in the form of mobster Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard) and Brenda Barrett (Vanessa Marcil). The hot couple's passion and heartbreak kept viewers glued to every episode like Luke and Laura did a decade before. Later, Brenda's relationship with corporate raider Jasper/Jax Jacks (Ingo Rademacher) gave General Hospital one of the hottest love triangle in the show's history. However, the departure of Vanessa Marcil in 1998 dealt the creative team at General Hospital a major blow. The last major storyline of the 1990s occurred in 1998, with the revisit of Luke's (Anthony Geary) long ago rape of his now-wife Laura (Genie Francis). Head Writer Robert Guza Jr. decided that Luke and his son, Lucky Spencer (Jonathan Jackson), needed to have a major wedge driven between them, and out of this came the idea that Lucky would find out that his father had raped his mother. The storyline also featured what many consider the last great young love story on the show; in the form of Lucky Spencer and Elizabeth Webber (Rebecca Herbst). Lucky found Elizabeth, a victim of rape, in the park on February 14, 1998, and their close friendship eventually blossomed into a pure, powerful romance. Lucky wanted nothing to do with his parents when his half-brother, Nikolas Cassadine (Tyler Christopher), revealed the rape. The ensuing storyline won Daytime Emmys for Jackson, Geary, the writers, the directors, and the show. The nine-minute monologue Luke deliverers to Lucky telling him about the night of the rape, without commercial interruption, is considered one of the greatest moments in soap opera history. Robert Guza Jr., a former GH script writer, returned and became Head Writer in 1996, and zeroed in on the mob and the popularity of Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard). Guza came and went several times during December 1997 through December 2000, then returned for good on June 13, 2002. Riche left in early 2001 and was replaced by the controversial Jill Farren Phelps. At the beginning of the new millennium, Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard) would gain a new love interest in the form of Carly Benson Jacks (Sarah Brown) after previous efforts to pair him up after the departure of his longtime love interest Brenda Barrett (Vanessa Marcil) who supposedly died in 1998, failed. The popularity of the Sonny and Carly coupling remained even after Carly's original portrayer Sarah Brown left the show in 2001 and was replaced by Tamara Braun. Eventually though, the enormous amount of airtime that the duo (along with those in their immediate circle) received only served to polarize the audience. In particular, criticism was leveled at the amount of airtime that was devoted to the various mob storylines that these characters were involved in. In 2001, a bus accident disrupted The Nurses Ball 2001, an annual event for AIDS research. The event has yet to return to GH. GH aired its 10,000th episode on April 17, 2002, with an episode that revolved around the show's only longest running cast member, Audrey Hardy (Rachel Ames), celebrating her 10,000th shift as a nurse at the hospital. The episode was notable for showcasing much of GH's long history in a series of clips and montages, but shortly afterwards, the show would soon be accused of forgetting its history and veteran characters. Trouble had been brewing for quite some time (due to the increasing amount of focus on Sonny and the mob), but it really became apparent after the abrupt departure of Genie Francis (Laura Spencer) in 2002 under controversial circumstances, the re-writing of history that angered many viewers to facilitate Ms. Francis's exit. However, ratings remained stable after Francis' departure and even climbed because Vanessa Marcil returned as Brenda Barrett in a five-month stint which lasted into the early months of 2003. In 2002, after more than 35 years, Rachel Ames, who played Audrey Hardy, was taken off contract and removed from the opening credits, angering many longtime viewers. Around the same time, Brad Maule (Tony Jones) and Shell Kepler (Amy Vining) were also taken off contract. In 2004 Anna Lee was moved to recurring status after 25 years as Lila Quartermaine (Lee died soon after and some fans held the show responsible). At the same time, John Ingle, who had played Lila's husband, was fired from the show after landing the role of Mickey Horton on Days of Our Lives, and he was replaced by Jed Allan. Kin Shriner was also let go, despite the fact that he had been with the show on and off since 1977. Other characters, such as Bobbie Spencer (Jacklyn Zeman) and Felicia Jones (Kristina Wagner) became little more than extras, in spite of their years of popularity with fans. Since 2004, General Hospital has been known for doing month-long Sweeps storylines that involve the ensemble cast in some sort of dangerous situation. Each November and February, General Hospital creates a storyline that brings the entire cast together into one setting which allows for the various characters storylines to intersect. In 2004, two important but sensationalized storylines took place that many fans had divided opinions on. The first being the Port Charles Hotel Fire, which saw the majority of the cast trapped in a burning inferno during February sweeps. The second involved a masked serial killer terrorizing the Quartermaine mansion for five episodes. The serial killer storyline took place while the Olympic Games were screening on rival channel NBC and was widely seen as an attempt to lure NBC soap fans who were not interested in the Olympics to watch General Hospital, particularly as the serial killer storyline on General Hospital lampooned the recent serial killer storyline that had taken place on rival NBC soap Days of Our Lives. 2005 would end up being a year of change for General Hospital. After Tamara Braun left the series, the role of Carly was recast with former One Life to Live star, Jennifer Bransford. This move was not met well by fans. In May 2005, Kristina Wagner opted to leave the role of Felicia Jones because of scheduling conflicts with producers. She was replaced with former Another World star Sandra Ferguson. Maxie Jones was also recast with former Days of our Lives star Kirsten Storms taking over for Robyn Richards. These recasts led to the mediocre response to the storyline revisiting Maxie's heart transplant, which viewers felt would have been more meaningful had it been done by Wagner and Richards, the actors from the original storyline. Also, these changes, as well as a succession of violent storylines that included Emily's rape by Connor and young Michael Corinthos apparently murdering his own father sent the ratings falling, so more changes were made. Just as she was becoming more popular with viewers, Jennifer Bransford was let go and replaced by former Guiding Light actress Laura Wright. November sweeps saw a train wreck storyline and Reese Marshall (Kari Wührer) was the only major character to die in this storyline. Wührer, a relative newcomer to the show, having only joined in February 2005, was let go due to lacking storyline between stars Maurice Benard and Rick Hearst. Wührer later decided to sue for discrimination, claiming that her pregnancy was the cause of her dismissal. On a brighter note, the popular Kimberly McCullough returned as Robin Scorpio, and a guest appearance by former star Rick Springfield as Dr Noah Drake, quickly turned into a recurring role. The show later attempted its first gay storyline as Lucas Jones, played by Ben Hogestyn began to come out to his friends and family, but the storyline was ultimately dropped when Lucas faded into the background of GH. February sweeps saw another major ensemble cast storyline as the entire town was once again gathered in one central location. This time, the setting was at General Hospital as many of the main cast fell victim to a virus that began to afflict many major characters, causing them to be admitted to GH. In the end, it was revealed that the former character of Holly was responsible for the virus as part of a revenge scheme. Still, two major characters will killed off: Tony Jones and Courtney Matthews both died as a result of the virus, as well as minor characters such as Sam McCall's mentally handicapped brother Danny. The storyline also served as a catalyst for several other storylines, including a romance between Emily Quartermaine and Sonny Corinthos as well as the revelation that Alexis Davis is Sam McCall's mother. The next November, Genie Francis returned to her role as Laura Spencer in a Sweeps storyline in which Laura was given a drug which would temporarily allow her to wake from her vegetative state and re-marry Luke Spencer on their 25th Anniversary. The storyline was hailed by critics and viewers as an outstanding success and Genie Francis later won her first Emmy for Best Supporting Actress. February marked another ensemble Sweeps event as most of the town was held hostage at the Metro Court, the hotel that was built by Jasper Jacks and named after his then-wife Courtney Matthews following the Port Charles hotel fire of 2004. Now owned by both Jasper Jacks and Carly Corinthos, the Metro Court served as the scene for a 24 (TV show) style theme where viewers saw the ending of the storyline and then went back in time 14 hours as each episode accounted for one hour's time leading up to the ending that viewers saw on the first day of Sweeps. The storyline resulted in the death of Alan Quartermaine, a beloved fan favorite who later appeared as his sister Tracy's conscience. In September 2007, a serial killer begin feasting on the citizens of Port Charles. The Text Message Killer strangled Leticia Juarez, Emily Quartermaine, Georgie Jones, and Cooper Barrett. The killer was soon revealed to be a very much alive Diego Alcazar. The storyline is ongoing. In November of 2007, Nikolas Cassadine threw a lavish Black and White Ball at Wyndemere on Spoon Island as an engagement announcement party for his fiancée Emily Quartermaine. Once again, the entire cast found themselves in one 24 (TV show) style solid-sweeps storyline in which each episode spanned one full hour in time leading up to the ending. During the Ball, the characters once again found themselves in dangers as a murder spree began to take place. Emily Quartermaine ended up being strangled to death by the murderer, known to fans as the Text Message Killer.

Here’s the thing: I don’t really watch soap operas, but I wanted to put a daytime soap on the countdown because they are a large part of television history and to not have one on the countdown would be ignoring a valuable part of TV. And, you can dismiss or hate them all you want; there are still people who enjoy them, and everyone is entitled to watch and like whatever show they want. (Plus, this is a forum for wrestling, a medium of entertainment that gets crapped on just as much as soap operas.) It was pretty much forgone conclusion that the soap that would get on the countdown would be General Hospital. This was for several reasons. For one, it is the longest running soap on ABC and the longest running serial produced in Hollywood, going strong since 1963 with an as of now 11,602 episodes. It also holds the record for most Outstanding Drama Series at the Daytime Emmys, with 10 wins. Plus, some pretty famous actors have starred on General Hospital, like Mark Hamill, Richard Dean Anderson, John Stamos, and Demi Moore. And, how can I not include a show that had Luke Skywalker, MacGyver, Uncle Jessie, and G.I. Jane on the list? But, what really gets General Hospital on the list is the influence it has had, most of it from one ear. Considering that successful soaps tend to outlast stars, viewers, and nearly everything except giant tortoises and redwoods, it makes more sense to assess them by their individual eras rather than as overall series. In the Luke and Laura Era, during the late '70s and early '80s under producer Gloria Monty, General Hospital had the greatest cultural reach of any daytime soap ever. It dominated the ratings, nearly 30 million people watched the star-crossed couple of Luke and Laura wed, and paved the way for primetime soaps like Dynasty and Dallas, with its over-the-top stories and characters like the Quartermaine Family. The glitzy, garish, ga-ga golden era of General Hospital defined a TV genre in which too much was barely enough and is pretty much the reason the show is still on the air.

[Hulk With A Mustache]

66. Friends



Genre: Sitcom.
Created by: David Crane and Marta Kauffman.
Executive Producer(s): David Crane, Marta Kauffman, Kevin Bright, Todd Stevens, Shana Goldberg-Meehan, Scott Silveri, Greg Malins, Ted Cohen, Andrew Reich, Adam Chase, Sherry Bilsing, Ellen Plummer, Michael Curtis, Seth Kurland, Michael Borkow, Brian Buckner, Sebastian Jones, Wil Calhoun, and Alexa Junge.
Starring: Jennifer Aniston (Rachel Green), Courteney Cox Arquette (Monica Gellar Bing), Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe Buffay), Matt LeBlanc (Joey Tribbiani), Matthew Perry (Chandler Bing), and David Schwimmer (Ross Gellar).
Country of Origin: United States.
Number of Seasons: 10.
Number of Episodes: 238.
Running Time: 22 minutes.
Original Channel: NBC.
Original Run: September 22, 1994 – May 6, 2004.
Spinoffs: Joey (2004–2006), a short lived sitcom focusing on the character of Joey Tribbiani moving to L.A.

Friends was created in 1993 by David Crane and Marta Kauffman as a follow-up to their cable series Dream On. Friends was aimed at young adults who, during the early 1990s, were identified by their café culture, dating scene and modern independence. Originally to be named Across the Hall, Six of One, Insomnia Café, or Friends Like Us, Friends was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television, for NBC in the U.S., and was first broadcast on that network. 'Friends' debuted on September 22, 1994. It focused on 6 friends living in New York City: Jennifer Aniston as Rachel Green, a fashion enthusiast who starts working at the coffee shop, but later moves into management at Bloomingdale's and later at Ralph Lauren. Jennifer Aniston had already appeared in several unsuccessful sitcom pilots before being cast in Friends. Courteney Cox Arquette as Monica Geller (later Monica Geller-Bing), a chef who changes jobs often throughout the show, ending up as head chef at Javu. Courteney Cox was already an accomplished TV and film actress when she was cast, having appeared in the likes of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and with several minor roles on sitcoms such as Seinfeld and Family Ties. Lisa Kudrow as Phoebe Buffay (later Phoebe Buffay-Hannigan), an eccentric masseuse and musician. She later marries Mike Hannigan and changes her name to his. Lisa Kudrow, had previously played Ursula Buffay on Mad About You. Kudrow was cast in the pilot of Frasier in the role of Roz, but the part was later re-cast with Peri Gilpin in the role. Matt LeBlanc as Joey Tribbiani, a struggling actor who becomes famous for his role on Days Of Our Lives as Dr. Drake Ramoray. LeBlanc had appeared as Vinnie Verducci in Married... with Children in the early 1990s and starred in that sitcom's short-lived spin-off, Top of the Heap, as well as in the unrelated Vinnie & Bobby, but before that had mainly been focusing on advertising and modeling work when he was cast as Joey Tribbiani. Matthew Perry as Chandler Bing, an executive in statistical analysis and data reconfiguration for a large multi-national corporation. He is later a junior copywriter at an advertising agency and marries longtime friend Monica Geller. Like Aniston, Perry had already appeared in several unsuccessful sitcom pilots before being cast. David Schwimmer as Ross Geller, Monica's older brother, a paleontologist working at a museum of Prehistoric History and later a professor of paleontology at New York University. The character of Ross was written with David Schwimmer in mind; having auditioned for Crane and Kauffman in the past, Schwimmer was said to have a memorable voice and was most known for his Broadway work. During the show's run, the cast all achieved household name celebrity status, and all pursued careers in the movies, with varied success. Aniston's movie career is predominantly populated with light romantic comedies including “The Good Girl,” “Bruce Almighty,” “Along Came Polly,” “Rumor Has It,” “The Break Up,” and “Derailed.” Cox made several lightweight films and achieved her greatest success with the “Scream” series, in which she costarred with her husband, David Arquette, who had made a guest appearance as Ursula's stalker in Friends. This was followed by the critically acclaimed TV series Dirt that portrayed her as a ruthless editor of a two-bit tabloid magazine. Kudrow fared best in low budget indie films, most notably “The Opposite of Sex” and “Happy Ending,” and also films like the comedy hit “Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion” and “Analyze This.” Most recently Kudrow played a main character alongside Hilary Swank in 2007's “P.S. I Love You.” Perry co-starred in the Canadian mafia comedy “The Whole Nine Yards” and its sequel “The Whole Ten Yards” along with Bruce Willis, who had also made guest appearances on the show. He also starred in the romantic comedy “Fools Rush In.” He also starred as the title character in the critically acclaimed “The Ron Clark Story,” and has since co-starred in TV drama Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and an episode of Scrubs titled "My Unicorn" as Murray. Matt LeBlanc took a leading role in “Lost in Space” and starred as the boyfriend of Alex (Lucy Liu) in “Charlie's Angels.” He also reprised his role as Joey Tribbiani in the show's spin off series, Joey. In 2001, Schwimmer co-starred as Capt. Herbert Sobel in the 2001 TV mini-series Band of Brothers. In 2005, Schwimmer starred as the voice for the giraffe Melman in the movie Madagascar a role which he will reprise in 2008 for Madagascar 2. David Schwimmer directed ten episodes of Friends and two of Joey. His big directorial debut "Run Fatboy Run" was released on March 28, 2008. Behind the scenes, the show was known for its unusually cohesive and unified cast. The six main actors made deliberate efforts, from early on, to keep the show's ensemble format and not allow one member to dominate; notably for a show of its length, the six principals each appeared in every episode of the run. This included requesting that all actors on the show be nominated either for the same category of award (Supporting Actor until 2001, then Lead Actor from 2002 onwards) or not at all, and entering collective instead of individual salary negotiations. The actors became such close friends that one guest star, Tom Selleck, reported sometimes feeling left out. The cast remained good friends after the show's run, most notably Cox and Aniston, with Aniston being godmother to Cox and David Arquette's daughter, Coco. In their official farewell commemorative Friends Til' The End, they each separately acknowledged in their interviews that the cast had become their family. The first season introduces the six main characters -Rachel, Monica, Phoebe, Joey, Chandler and Ross. Rachel, who left her fiancée at the altar on her wedding day, has come to New York to live with Monica. It establishes early on in the season that Ross has been infatuated with Rachel since the two characters attended high school. Several episodes revolve around his attempts to tell her how he feels. Meanwhile, Ross's estranged lesbian wife Carol is pregnant with his baby. This puts him and Carol's lesbian life partner, Susan (played by Jessica Hecht), in an awkward position. When the baby is born at the end of the season, Ross, Carol, and Susan agree to name him Ben: after a nametag on a janitor's uniform worn by Phoebe. The episodic nature of the season sees the other characters having multiple dates, many of which go wrong (Monica dates a minor in one episode). The recurring character of Janice (played by Maggie Wheeler) is introduced as a girlfriend Chandler breaks up with in an early episode but frequently returns to through the ensuing ten seasons. The second season features more serialized storylines; it begins when Rachel discovers that Ross is dating Julie (played by Lauren Tom), someone he knew from grad school. Julie returns for several episodes early in the season. Rachel's attempts to tell Ross she likes him mirror his own failed attempts in the first season, though the characters eventually begin a relationship that lasts into the following season. Joey, a struggling actor in the first season, gets a part in a fictionalized version of the soap opera Days of Our Lives but loses the part soon after when he angers the writers by saying in an interview that he writes many of his own lines. Tom Selleck begins a recurring guest role as Dr. Richard Burke. Richard, a friend of Monica and Ross' parents who is recently divorced and with grown children, is 21 years older than Monica but despite this they date for the second half of the season. In the season finale, they end the relationship when they realize that he does not want any more children and she does. The second season also served to deepen Chandler and Joey's friendship. This becomes especially apparent in the episodes in which Joey temporarily moves out and a creepy guy named Eddie (Adam Goldberg) moves in. Season three took on a significantly greater serialized format. Rachel begins working at Bloomingdales and Ross becomes jealous of her coworker, Mark. Ross and Rachel break up after Ross sleeps with the hot girl from the copy shop, Chloe. His insistence that he and Rachel were "on a break" becomes a running gag through the remaining seasons. The two show significant animosity towards each other through the second half of the season, though the cliffhanger ending suggests the two reconcile. Interestingly, the first episode after they break up does not focus on the two of them, but on Chandler, who's having a very hard time dealing with the situation, as it reminds him of his parents' divorce. Phoebe, established as having no family except for an identical twin sister, becomes acquainted with her half-brother (played by Giovanni Ribisi) and in the finale discovers her birth mother she never knew she had (played by Teri Garr). Joey develops a crush on Kate, his acting partner in a new play. (played by Dina Meyer) At first, she doesn't harbor feelings for him, even after sleeping together. However, after her boyfriend/director dumps her following a scathing review of the play, she turns to Joey for support. The relationship doesn't last long, as she is given an opportunity on a soap opera in Los Angeles. Monica begins a relationship with Pete Becker, a millionaire who has a crush on her. (played by Jon Favreau) At first, she only sees him as a friend, but eventually, the two begin to date. Preparing for what she thinks is a marriage proposal, Pete confides in her that he wants to become the Ultimate Fighting Champion. After seeing him get beat up badly in two matches, she tells him he has to give it up. Since he won't, she breaks up with him. During the fourth season, actress Lisa Kudrow became pregnant. This was written into the show by having Phoebe become a surrogate mother to the children of her brother and his wife (played by Debra Jo Rupp). Ross and Rachel briefly reconcile in the premiere but soon break up again. During the middle of the season, Monica and Rachel are forced to switch apartments with Joey and Chandler after losing a bet on how well the 4 know each other. They bribe Joey and Chandler to switch back with Knicks season tickets and a one-minute kiss. Mid-season, having moved on, Ross begins dating an English woman called Emily (played by Helen Baxendale from Cold Feet) and the finale, featuring the wedding of the characters, was filmed on location in London. Chandler and Monica sleep together when, after a wedding guest mistakes Monica for Ross' mother, Monica seeks comfort in the arms of a friend. Rachel, depressed by the impending wedding enough to chase away a potential boyfriend in Joshua, attends the wedding at the last minute, intending to tell Ross that she still loves him, but decides not to. Things are thrown into chaos when Ross replaces Emily's name with Rachel's while saying his vows. The fifth season follows Monica and Chandler keeping their new relationship a secret from their friends, while Ross' marriage to Emily ends before it even started, following their wedding (Baxendale's pregnancy prevented her from appearing on-screen in all but two episodes). Phoebe starts a relationship with Gary (Michael Rapaport), a police officer she meets after finding his badge. Although leery of moving in with Gary, she eventually relents. The relationship ends with a bang, literally, when Gary shoots a bird outside of their apartment. Monica and Chandler's relationship becomes public and on a trip to Las Vegas, they decide to get married. On a cliffhanger, Ross and Rachel drunkenly stumble out of the wedding chapel. In the sixth season premiere Ross and Rachel's marriage is established to be a drunken mistake and, although Ross is reluctant to do so, the two get a divorce (Ross's third) after failing to get an annulment. Monica and Chandler decide just to move into her apartment together and Rachel moves in with Phoebe. Joey, still a struggling actor, gets a female roommate and a part on a cable television series called "Mac and C.H.E.E.S.E", where he stars alongside a robot. Ross gets a job lecturing at New York University and starts dating a student (played by Alexandra Holden). Bruce Willis makes a three-episode cameo as her father. Phoebe and Rachel's apartment has a fire meaning Rachel moves in with Joey and Phoebe with Chandler and Monica. In the final episodes, Chandler decides to propose to Monica. Trying to make it a surprise, he starts acting like his old commitment-phobic self, telling her he opposes marriage. For a brief moment Monica considers going to back to Richard, who confesses to her that he still loves her and is willing to have children with her. Monica gets wind of Chandler's idea, and attempts to propose to him but breaks down in tears and cannot finish. Chandler then asks her to marry him and the show is ended with celebration with many of the friends who were standing outside the door. Season seven largely concerns various wedding-related antics by Monica and Chandler. Joey's television series is cancelled, but he is offered his old job back on Days of Our Lives. Phoebe's apartment is fixed but due to the way the apartment has been rebuilt, Rachel stays with Joey. The two-part season finale follows Monica and Chandler's wedding, with guest stars that include Kathleen Turner as Chandler's transvestite father. The closing moments of the season reveal that Rachel is pregnant. The eighth season's first episodes follow a "Who's the father?" format, with the father revealed to be Ross in episode two and Rachel telling him in episode three. Joey begins to develop romantic feelings for roommate Rachel and when Joey's feelings are revealed things become awkward for the two. Eventually their friendship returns to its status quo but in the finale, following Rachel's giving birth to a daughter, she accepts an accidental proposal of marriage from him. The season was regarded as a return to form for the series; its ratings increased as viewers tuned in for comfort following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. It won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series. The ninth season follows Ross and Rachel living together with baby Emma after she and Joey clear up the misdirected proposal. She soon moves back in with Joey after a fight with Ross. Monica and Chandler, inspired by Ross and Rachel, decide to conceive a child of their own. They seek medical advice after several episodes of trying for a baby, and discover that both of them are physically unable to conceive. Paul Rudd appears in the recurring role of Mike Hannigan, a new boyfriend for Phoebe. Hank Azaria returns as David "the scientist guy", a character originated in the first season, and Phoebe must choose between the two in a touching finale, deciding to choose Mike. The finale is set in Barbados, where the group goes to hear Ross give a keynote speech at a Paleontologist conference. Aisha Tyler appears as the series' first recurring black character. Tyler plays Charlie, Joey's intelligent girlfriend. Even though Joey's attracted to her, she finds herself eventually becoming attracted to Ross, who is more her intellectual equal. After Charlie dumps Joey, Joey and Rachel's feelings for each other return. They agree to clear it with Ross first, until Joey catches Ross kissing Charlie. The finale ends with Joey and Rachel kissing. The tenth season closes up several storylines; Joey and Rachel try to contend with Ross' feelings about them being together. However, consummating the relationship becomes diastrous, and they decide to remain friends. Charlie decides to return to Benjamin Hobart (Greg Kinnear), her old flame, and from whom Ross was trying to obtain a research grant. Monica and Chandler decide to adopt a child, and meet Erica, a birth mother from Ohio (played by Anna Faris). Erica gives birth to twins in the series finale. Phoebe and Mike get married towards the end of the season and Rachel takes a job based in Paris. Ross declares his love for her and they resume their relationship (not making any mistakes this time) in the season finale, while Monica and Chandler move out of their apartment into the suburbs. Joey is upset that everything is changing. Rachel still gets on the plane even with Ross' confessions, but later appears at his apartment door admitting she loves him too. In the series finale, at the end, a tearful Rachel says 'Shall we go get some coffee?' to which Chandler sarcastically responds, 'Sure. Where?' (the last words spoken on the show). The show was a huge success throughout its ten-year run and was a staple of the NBC Thursday night line-up. Kauffman and Crane note only one moment they would take back: the use of the line "I'm wearing two belts," in two different episodes and seasons. Friends has made a notable contribution to some areas of popular culture - in particular fashion. The series has been noted for its impact on everyday fashion and hairstyles. Aniston's hairstyle was nicknamed "The Rachel" and copied around the world. Joey Tribbiani's catchphrase "How you doin'?" has become a popular part of Western English slang, often used as a pick-up line or when greeting friends. The show also popularized the idea of the "laminated list", a list of celebrities that a person's partner will permit them to sleep with if they were to ever meet them. In "The One with Frank Jr." the characters exchange "lists" verbally, while Ross creates a physical list and laminates it, making his choices permanent. The concept of the laminated list has been adopted by the Hollywood Stock Exchange website. The phrase "Ross and Rachel" has appeared as a joke in Scrubs: the janitor describes J.D.'s relationship with Elliot as "not exactly Ross and Rachel." Friends has been referenced again in the Scrubs episode, "My Cold Shower"; Carla describes J.D and Elliot's relationship as being, "On and off more than Ross and Rachel, from Friends." On the 100th episode of the television show One Tree Hill (Lucas' and Lindsay's wedding), a character references Ross saying the wrong name at the altar when he was marrying Emily. In one episode of the British show Skins, a Russian girl learns English from Friends, and uses many of the catchphrases (such as "How you doin'" and "We were on a break") as a recurring joke. One of the principal settings of the series, the Central Perk coffee house has inspired various imitations worldwide (the coffee house is based on Cholmondeley's, a coffee shop and lounge in Usen Castle at Brandeis University, the alma mater of the show's creators), including the now-defunct "Phoenix Perk" in Dublin (named for the park in the city) and the 'Riverdale Perk' in Toronto. In 2006 Iranian businessman Mojtaba Asadian started a "Central Perk" franchise, registering the name in 32 countries. The décor of his coffee houses are inspired by that in Friends. James Michael Tyler, who plays Gunther, the Central Perk waiter in love with Rachel, attended the grand opening of the flagship Dubai café and is the spokesman for the company. The name of every Friends episode, with the exceptions of the very first and last episodes (titled 'Pilot' and 'The Last One' respectively), starts with 'The One...', e.g. 'The One with Ross' Inappropriate Song', though the Pilot is sometimes called 'The One where Monica gets a Roommate', or 'The One Where It All Began.' In continuing with this tradition, a boxed set containing all ten seasons on DVD was called "The One With All Ten Seasons". This tradition is based on the way people, when unable to remember the actual title of an episode of a TV show, will describe it as "it's the one with..." and then state the main storyline of the episode. The final episode aired on May 6, 2004. The finale was one of the most-watched series finales in television history, behind only M*A*S*H, Cheers, and Seinfeld. The fountain seen in the opening title sequence can be found at the Warner Bros. Ranch at 411 N. Hollywood Way, in Burbank, California, about a half mile north of the main studio lot. The fountain was also used prominently in the finale of the Charlton Heston classic, The Omega Man, and in the film version of the Broadway musical, 1776. The opening scene was shot at about 4:00 a.m. while it was particularly cold for a Burbank morning. After the series finale in 2004, the spin-off show Joey was created. Many fans criticized NBC's decision to give the character his own show, and ratings decreased significantly between the first and second season. Forty-six episodes were filmed, but only 38 episodes aired in the U.S. The show was canceled on May 15, 2006. The entire series has been released and is available for purchase in a DVD Boxset. The first episode drew 18.6 million viewers compared to the four million who tuned in to the final broadcast episode. It was reported on July 2, 2008 that a movie could be made within the next 18 months due to the success of the Sex and the City movie. Although some reports claim the main cast are eager to reprise their roles for the movie and with Warner Brothers having registered the domain name friendsthemovie.com, further comments from Warner Brothers have denied any such plans. Additionally, publicists for Courtney Cox and Matthew Perry have denied rumors of a potential film. Lisa Kasteler, a spokesman for Perry, stated, "Nothing is happening in this regard, so the rumor is false."

First, let’s keep this in mind: the theme son was not their fault. Neither was the hairstyle craze, the relentless media hype, nor the sadly inadequate stream of copycat sitcoms that crammed the networks in the fall of 1995, a year after Friends debuted on NBC. What this good-looking sextet should take responsibility for is forging a rare TV phenomenon: an honest-to-goodness ensemble comedy that perfectly captured the mood of its time. How did they do it? Simple, really. Take a random sampling of six twentysomethings, add some lively banter, flavor with pop-culture references (“I’d much rather be Mr. Peanut than Mr. Salty!”), throw in a pinch of romance, then steep on a coffee-shop couch, and you have Friends. No sitcom has ever been as deliberately self-effacing as Friends. The title, the theme song, the episode names ("The One Where...") were self-explanatory at best, insipid at worst. They were friends; they were there for each other. Move along, nothing more to see. But it wasn't just the sharp writing or the comic rapport that made Friends great. Dismissed at first as a Gen-X Seinfeld, Friends is actually about something: the makeshift and often malfunctioning family we find upon moving into the real world after college. You had the neurotic mother hen Monica, the rich girl struggling to find an identity Rachel, the New Age massage therapist Phoebe, the poor schmuck dumped by his wife for a woman Ross, the wisecracking Clown Chandler, and the dimwitted ladies’ man Joey. Though these Gen-X characters may seem like one-dimensional characters, they weren’t. These characters were the children of divorce, suicide, and cross-dressing, trying to grow up without any clear models of how to do it. They built ersatz families and had kids by adoption, surrogacy, out of wedlock or with their gay ex-wives. And, Aniston, Cox-Arquette, Kudrow, LeBlanc, Perry, and Schwimmer were the perfect fits for their characters and the show. The six relatively unknown actors became a house blend of post-slacker comedy by never allowing one character’s sweetness or another’s bitterness, but portraying a group of pals pursuing life’s idle pleasures (spying on an ugly naked neighbor, playing Twister, staging a “boyfriend bonfire”) without making it look contrived and cloying is a rare feat in the punchline-or-bust sitcom world. And, this helped the show’s light tone. Friends never pretended to be about anything weightier than "We were on a break." But the well-hidden secret of this show was that it called itself Friends, and was really about family.

[Hulk With A Mustache]

65. Angel



Genre: Supernatural, Fantasy, Horror, Action, and Drama.
Created by: Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt.
Executive Producer(s): Joss Whedon, David Greenwalt, David Simkins, Jeffrey Bell, Fran Rubel Kuzui, and Kaz Kuzui.
Starring: David Boreanaz (Angel), Alexis Denisof (Wesley Wyndam-Price), J. August Richards (Charles Gunn), Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia Chase), Andy Hallett (Lorne Season 2-5), Amy Acker (Winifred “Fred” Burkle Season 2-5; Illyria Season 5), Glenn Quinn (Allen Francis Doyle Season 1), Vincent Kartheiser (Connor Season 3-5), and Mercedes McNab (Harmony Season 5).
Country of Origin: United States.
Number of Seasons: 5.
Number of Episodes: 110.
Running Time: 42 minutes.
Original Channel: The WB.
Original Run: October 5, 1999 – May 19, 2004.
Spinoffs: The show itself is a spinoff of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. There is a comic book called Angel: After The Fall, that is chronologically the “Sixth Season” of the show.

Co-producer Greenwalt points out "there's no denying that Angel grew out of Buffy." Several years before Angel debuted, Joss Whedon developed the concept behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer to invert the Hollywood formula of "the little blonde girl who goes into a dark alley and gets killed in every horror movie." The character Angel was first seen in the first episode and became a regular, appearing in the opening credits during the second and third seasons. According to the fictional universe first established by Slayer, the 'Buffyverse,' Angel was born in 18th century Ireland. After being turned into a soulless, immortal vampire, he became legendary for his evil acts, until a band of wronged Gypsies punished him by restoring his soul, overwhelming him with guilt. Angel eventually set out on a path of redemption, hoping that he could make up for his past through good deeds. In Buffy's third season finale, the character leaves Sunnydale for L.A. to continue his atonement without Buffy. Whedon believed that "Angel was the one character who was bigger than life in the same way that Buffy was, a kind of superhero." Whedon has compared the series to its parent, "It's a little bit more straightforward action show and a little bit more of a guys' show." While the central concept behind Buffy was "High school as a horror movie" in small-town America, co-creators David Greenwalt and Whedon were looking to make Angel into a different "gritty, urban show." Whedon explains "we wanted a much darker show, darker in tone. It is set in Los Angeles because there are a lot of demons in L.A. and a wealth of stories to be told. We also wanted to take the show a little older and have the characters deal with demons in a much different way. Buffy is always the underdog trying to save the world, but Angel is looking for redemption. It's those two things that creatively make the shows different." Whedon and Greenwalt prepared a six-minute promotional video pitch, often called the "Unaired Angel pilot" for the WB Network. Some shots from this short were later used in the opening credits. Early during the life of the series, some effort was made to slightly soften the original concept. For example, scenes were cut from the pilot episode, "City of," in which Angel tasted the blood of a murder victim. The episode that was originally written to be the second episode, "Corrupt" was abandoned altogether. Writer David Fury explains, "The Network was shocked. They said 'We can't shoot this. This is way too dark.' We were able to break a new idea, we had to turn it over in three days." Instead the tone was lightened, and the opening episodes established Angel Investigations as an idealistic shoestring operation. A first draft script reveals that Angel was originally intended to include the character Whistler, played by Max Perlich, who had already featured in two Buffy episodes, "Becoming, Part One" and "Part Two". In an interview, Perlich said, "I never got called again. If they had called I would have probably accepted because it was a great experience and I think Joss is very original and talented." Instead, the producers created the Whistler-like character, Doyle. Cordelia Chase, also from the original Sunnydale crew, joined Angel and Doyle. Joss Whedon is credited as executive producer throughout the run of the series. Alongside Angel, he was also working on a series of other projects such as Buffy, Fray, Astonishing X-Men, and Firefly (which would later become the film Serenity). For the first three seasons, David Greenwalt, who co-created the series with Whedon, was also credited as executive producer. During this time, Greenwalt took on the role of show runner. He left to oversee Miracles, but continued to work on Angel as a consulting producer. At the start of the fourth season, David Simkins was made show runner and executive producer, but after three months he left the show due to "creative differences." Established Angel writer Jeffrey Bell took over for the balance of the fourth season and became executive producer for the fifth. Fran Rubel Kuzui and her husband, Kaz Kuzui, were also credited as executive producers throughout Angel, but were not involved in any writing or production for the show. Jeffrey Bell mentions in his DVD commentary during the closing credits of the Angel series finale "Not Fade Away" that two people were credited and paid for Angel without needing to ever step on the set. Angel crew member Dan Kerns also revealed in an essay, that two executive producers "received credit and sizeable checks for the duration of Buffy and Angel for doing absolutely nothing". Their credit, rights and royalties for the whole Buffy franchise, which includes spin-off Angel, relate to their funding, producing and directing of the original movie version of Buffy. Script-writing was done by Mutant Enemy, a production company created by Joss Whedon in 1997. The writers with the most writing credits for the series include: David Greenwalt, Tim Minear, David Fury, Mere Smith, Steven S. DeKnight, and Jeffrey Bell. Jane Espenson has explained how scripts came together for Mutant Enemy Productions series; Buffy, Angel, and Firefly. A meeting is held and an idea is floated, generally by Whedon, and the writers brainstorm to develop the central theme of the episode and the character development. Next, the staff meets in the anteroom to Whedon's office to begin "breaking" the story into acts and scenes. The only one absent is the writer working on the previous week's episode. Next, the writers develop the scenes onto a marker-filled whiteboard, featuring a "brief ordered description of each scene." A writer is selected to create an outline of the episode's concept, occasionally with some dialogue and jokes, in one day. The outline is given to the show runner, who revises it within a day. The writer uses the revised outline to write the first draft of the script while the other writers work on developing the next. This first draft is usually submitted for revision within three to fourteen days; afterward, a second and sometimes third draft is written. After all revisions were made, the final draft would be produced as the "shooting draft." The series focuses around Angel (David Boreanaz), a vampire over two hundred years old. Angel was known as Angelus during his rampages across Europe. He was cursed with a soul, which gave him a conscience and guilt for centuries of murder and torture. He left Buffy the Vampire Slayer at the end of the third season to move to Los Angeles in search of redemption. He soon finds himself assisted by Allen Francis Doyle (Glenn Quinn), an Irish half-human, half-demon. Although he comes across as a ne'er-do-well hustler, he has a heroic side. He serves to pass along the cryptic visions from The Powers That Be to Angel. They are joined by Cordelia Chase (Charisma Carpenter), also an old cast member of Buffy. Formerly a popular high school cheerleader, Cordelia starts her tenure on the show as a vapid and shallow personality, but grows over the course of the series into a hero. With the death of Doyle in the early episodes of the show's first season, another character from the Buffy series makes the jump to its spin-off. Wesley Wyndam-Pryce (Alexis Denisof) joins the team under the brave guise of "rogue demon hunter", acting as comic relief, and is initially not well-accepted. Over the course of the series Wesley grows into a leader. In the show's second season they are joined by Charles Gunn (J. August Richards), a young demon hunter who must initially adjust to working with and for a vampire. At the end of the second season they travel to the world Pylea, where they save Winifred "Fred" Burkle (Amy Acker), a young Texan physicist whose social skills have become stunted due to her captivity. She later grows to become more outspoken. The third season saw the introduction of Connor (Vincent Kartheiser), the "miracle" human child of two vampires, Angel and Darla. Thrown into a Hell dimension as a baby, he is raised by Angel's enemy Daniel Holtz, and only a couple weeks after he left comes back as a teenager. Connor reluctantly comes to accept his lineage. Although introduced during the show's second season, Lorne (Andy Hallett) joins the team during its fourth season. An outgoing and pacifistic demon, Lorne's role is predominantly to support the team. The show's fifth and final season introduces several new cast members, chief amongst them Spike (James Marsters), an old vampire companion of Angel's who also starred in Buffy. In that series, Spike reluctantly fights beside Angel as their rivalry continues, now tinged with Spike existing as another vampire with a soul. One of the legendary Old Ones, Illyria (Amy Acker) starts off as an adversary of the team after taking over the body of Fred but comes to join the team as she must learn to cope with the changed world and the new emotions she feels as a result of her taking over Fred. Finally, there is Harmony Kendall (Mercedes McNab), also a Buffy alumna, and former friend of Cordelia who was turned into a vampire. Resembling the old personality of Cordelia, Harmony is grudgingly accepted by Angel as his secretary when he takes over the Los Angeles branch of Wolfram & Hart. Harmony is also the only character (other than Angel) to appear in the first episode of Buffy and the last episode of Angel. Many characters on Angel made recurring appearances. The two longest running recurring characters besides Lorne, who was later added to the main cast, are Lilah Morgan (season 1 through 4) and Lindsey McDonald (season 1, 2, and 5), appearing in 35 and 21 episodes respectively. Lindsey is also the only character besides Angel to appear in both the first and last episode of the series. Throughout the series, there were also guest appearances from Buffy characters, which include main cast members Buffy Summers, Willow Rosenberg, Daniel "Oz" Osbourne, and also Andrew Wells. The character of Faith Lehane played an important part in stories from the first and fourth season. Another character to make the jump from Buffy, becoming a recurring character on Angel, was Anne Steele. At the start of the series, Angel has just moved to Los Angeles in an effort to earn redemption for the evil deeds he committed as an un-souled vampire. He is soon visited by Doyle, a messenger sent to him on behalf of The Powers That Be. Doyle receives visions that can guide Angel on his mission. Angel also bumps into Cordelia Chase, who is trying to break into stardom. The three group together to form Angel Investigations, a detective agency that hopes to "help the helpless." When Doyle dies, he passes on his 'visions' to Cordelia. Shortly thereafter, the ex-Watcher, Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, joins the group. Meanwhile, the evil law firm Wolfram & Hart pay increasing attention to Angel. They tempt him toward darkness when they resurrect Darla, Angel's ex-lover and sire, killed by Angel in the first season of Buffy in the episode "Angel." Charles Gunn, a street-tough leader of a gang of vampire hunters, is initially determined to kill Angel, but slowly comes to accept him and join his cause. Wolfram & Hart's star lawyer Lindsey McDonald primes Darla as its weapon to bring down Angel. However, Darla is brought back as a human, not a vampire. But as a human, she suffers from a terminal case of syphilis — which she had contracted in her original life before being sired. Lindsey brings in Drusilla, a vampire originally sired by Angelus, to restore Darla to the cause of evil. Enraged by this, Angel begins to grow darker. He cuts himself off from his staff and attempts to go after the pair himself. In despair, Angel sleeps with Darla (cf. "Reprise"), but the next morning, he has an epiphany; seeing the error of his ways, he banishes Darla and reunites with his group. Lorne, the flamboyant demon owner of Caritas, reluctantly takes Angel and his crew to his home dimension, Pylea, to rescue Cordelia. They return with Winifred "Fred" Burkle, a former physics student who has been trapped in the dimension for five long years. To get over news of the death of his ex-girlfriend, Buffy, Angel spends three months in a Sri Lankan monastery, where he encounters some demon monks and goes home frustrated. He returns to Los Angeles, as does Darla, now bearing his child. The group is puzzled by what might be the first vampire birth. Darla sacrifices her life to save the life of her child, Connor. The gang is eager to care for the infant, but Wesley soon learns of a frightening prophecy that suggests that Angel will murder his son. Feeling disconnected from the group, Wesley does not share this information, and quietly kidnaps Connor. This backfires as he is attacked and the child is seized by an old enemy, Daniel Holtz, whose family Angelus and Darla slaughtered two hundred years ago. Holtz escapes through a rip in the fabric of space to the dimension of quor'toth, and raises the boy as his own. Angel feels that his son is lost forever, and tries to murder Wesley. Though he survives, Wesley is banished from the group. Weeks later, Connor returns, but because time moves faster in Quor'toth, he is now a teenage boy, having been raised by Holtz. Realizing that Angel needs to be the one to take Connor in, Holtz gives Angel a letter letting Connor know that he will be leaving and to trust Angel. Holtz gets Justine to kill him but ends up making it look like a vampire attack so Connor will assume the worst. Connor imprisons his birth father in a casket and drops it to the bottom of the ocean. Despite his exile from his old friends, Wesley locates and frees Angel. A hellish Beast emerges and blocks out the sun over L.A. He then proceeds to kill the staff at Wolfram & Hart. Although the city survives, the sunlight seems to be blotted out permanently. In a desperate attempt to confront the Beast, the team removes Angel's soul, releasing Angelus, but manage to restore it thanks to help from Faith and Willow. Their efforts, however, do not prevent the coming of Jasmine, who was indirectly responsible for the work of the Beast. Jasmine, it turns out, was one of the Powers That Be and plans to solve all the world's problems by giving humanity total happiness through spiritual enslavement to her. She arrives in our world through manipulation of Cordelia and Connor, using them as a conduit into our world. Fred is accidentally inoculated against Jasmine's spell by contact with her blood and frees the rest of the gang though they remain hopelessly outnumbered by thousands already entranced by Jasmine. Angel travels through a magic portal into a world previously visited by Jasmine to find a way of breaking her power over L.A.'s populace. By revealing her true name, they are able to break Jasmine's spell over everyone. Jasmine confronts Angel but is then killed by Connor, revealing to have never been under Jasmine's influence and just went along for the sake of having a semblance of family and happiness. In the season finale, they are met by Lilah Morgan, the resurrected Head of Wolfram & Hart's Special Project Division, who congratulates them on preventing world peace, and says that as a token of their appreciation, Wolfram & Hart would like to give them the Los Angeles branch. To help save Cordelia and Connor, who has gone mad with confusion over losing everything, Angel reluctantly agrees. The gang begins to settle into their new lives at Wolfram & Hart. Gunn undergoes a special cognitive procedure that transforms him into a brilliant lawyer. The group receives an amulet that resurrects a past companion of Angelus, the souled vampire Spike. Angel is briefly reunited with his son Connor, now in a new identity thanks to the agreement between Angel and Wolfram & Hart at the end of season 4. He later reveals that he remembers his previous life as Angel's son. Fred finally declares her affections to Wesley, but shortly after is possessed by an ancient and powerful demon called Illyria. Wesley is devastated by the loss of Fred, but agrees to help Illyria adjust to her new form and the unfamiliar world she's in. Angel infiltrates the Circle of the Black Thorn, a secret society responsible for engineering the Apocalypse, and plans to take them all out in a simultaneous, hard-hitting strike. Because this is probably a suicide mission, he tells each of his friends to spend the day as if it were their last. That night, the team launches its attack on the Circle, dividing up their targets. When Wesley is fatally stabbed, Illyria, concerned for his safety, arrives at his side after killing her targets but is powerless to help him, and grieves for Wesley. Lorne leaves and disappears into the night, his innocence destroyed, after fulfilling Angel's last order to kill Lindsey, the former Wolfram & Hart lawyer who had turned his back on the firm. Angel confronts Wolfram & Hart's new liaison Marcus Hamilton, and defeats him with some minor help from Connor. Once the Circle has been dismantled, Angel and the surviving members of his gang rendezvous in the alley behind the Hyperion Hotel. Illyria arrives with news of Wesley's death and feeling the need to fight as a result of it. Gunn emerges, staggering from a serious stomach wound. The survivors wait as the Senior Partners' army of warriors, giants, and a dragon approaches. The series ends with Angel and his crew preparing for battle, with Angel expressing interest about fighting the dragon and saying, "Let's go to work." The story is being continued in a canonical Season Six as a 12-issue comic mini-series, titled Angel: After the Fall. The series is written by Brian Lynch (Spike: Asylum) and is plotted by both Lynch and Joss Whedon. Angel was initially told in an anthology format, with each episode creating a self-contained story that took place around the title character. Later episodes began to increasingly contribute to a larger storyline, which was broken down into complex narratives that unfolded over many episodes. The most extreme example of this was season four, in which almost every episode contributed to the main storyline. The show blends different genres, including horror, martial arts, romance, melodrama, farce, and comedy. The series' narrative revolves around Angel and his colleagues, collectively making up the detective agency Angel Investigations, who fight against supernatural evils and work to "Help the helpless". A typical episode contains one or more villains, or supernatural phenomena that is thwarted or defeated, and one or more people in need of help. Though elements and relationships are explored and ongoing subplots are included, the show focuses centrally on Angel and his road to redemption. The most prominent monsters in the Angel bestiary are vampires, which are based on traditional myths, lore, and literary conventions. Angel and his companions fight a wide variety of demons, as well as ghosts, werewolves, zombies, and ethically unsound humans. They sometimes even save the world from annihilation by a combination of physical combat, magic, and detective-style investigation, and are guided by an extensive collection of ancient and mystical reference books. Visions from higher powers guide the group, and are received by Doyle and later Cordelia. Hand-to-hand combat is chiefly undertaken by Angel and later Gunn. Lorne is able to read peoples' destinies and intentions. Fred uses her scientific knowledge to contribute whilst Wesley contributes his extensive knowledge of demonology and supernatural lore. While Buffy the Vampire Slayer was built around the angst of adolescence, Angel chronicles the different stages of adulthood. The character of Cordelia Chase, who had been the most popular and superficial girl in Sunnydale High on Buffy, develops over the course of the series from an insecure young woman struggling in a daunting real world into an unexpectedly mature woman. Similarly, Wesley, the once uptight and bookish Watcher, becomes a man of quiet confidence and often ruthless action. In much the same way as Buffy had been both an homage and parody of traditional horror films, Angel gave the same treatment to the classical film noir. Producer Kelly Manners said "Angel is a dark show about a man looking for redemption... We have an alcoholic metaphor with Angel. Angel is a guy who is one drink away from going back to his evil roots." He attempts to find redemption through helping the helpless of Los Angeles in a fashion similar to that of noir detectives. The first episode even included a Philip Marlowe-style voiceover. The character of Angel filled the role of the reluctant, streetwise detective who has dealings with a variety of underworld characters. In this case, the "underworld" is a literal underworld of demons and supernatural beings. In one instance, Angel is explicitly compared with fictional noir private-detective Marlowe. Many traditional noir stories and characters were explored in earlier episodes, including the ditzy but attractive secretary, the cagey but well-informed partner, and clashes with crooked lawyers and meddlesome, too-good-for-their-own-good cops. These were usually given a modern or supernatural twist. The style and focus of the show changed considerably over its run, and the original noir idea was mostly discarded in favor of more large scale fantasy-themed conflicts. In later seasons, the mythology and stories became increasingly complex; in Season Four, one of the characters on the show itself described the storyline as "a turgid supernatural soap-opera." Whereas the show initially dealt with the difficulty of being kind to people on a personal basis, the show ultimately focused on Angel's status as an archetypal Champion for humanity, and explored ideas such as moral ambiguity, the spiritual cost of violence, and the nature of free will. The enduring theme throughout the series was the struggle for redemption. Angel explored trust motifs as an increasingly central focus of the show. In the first two seasons, there were sprinklings of deceit and treachery, but in the last three seasons duplicity began to pervade the thematic structure, culminating in the fifth season when almost every episode included some kind of double-cross, trickery, or illusion. An idea presented in the third season was that even prophecy can betray, as they are often deceiving if not plain lies. In the fifth season, it is repeatedly emphasized that the characters can trust no one in their new situation. The series is also notable for harsh betrayals within the cast of main characters; such events often having lethal consequences. Angel depicted the feelings of loneliness, danger, and callousness often attributed to the urban Los Angeles megalopolis. The divisions between the ordered world of the day and the chaotic world of the night have been trademark themes of noir and by depicting a protagonist who literally has no daytime life, the series was able to explore these same themes in more dramatic, metaphorical ways. As the series progressed, the creators were able to explore darker aspects of the characters, particularly Angel, who commits a number of morally questionable actions, and periodically reverts to his evil persona Angelus. On February 14, 2004, the WB Network announced that Angel would not be brought back for a sixth season. The one-paragraph statement indicated the news, which had been reported by an Internet site the previous day, had been leaked well before the network intended to make its announcement. Joss Whedon posted a message on a popular fan site, The Bronze: Beta, in which he expressed his dismay and surprise, saying he was "heartbroken" and compared it to a "healthy guy falling dead from a heart attack." Fan reaction was to organize letter-writing campaigns, online petitions, blood and food drives, advertisements in trade magazines and via mobile billboards, and attempts to lobby other networks. UPN was a particular target, as it had already picked up Buffy. Outrage for the cancellation focused on Jordan Levin, the WB's Head of Entertainment. It is firmly believed that Angel was canceled to make room for a primetime remake of Dark Shadows, which has its own vampire, Barnabas Collins. However the pilot was rejected by the WB Television Network. Angel's final episode, "Not Fade Away," aired on the WB on May 19, 2004. The ambiguous final moments left some fans hoping for the continuation of Angel and the Buffyverse in the future, hopes that came to fruition in November of 2007, with the publication of the first issue of Angel: After the Fall. The comic book series is Joss Whedon's official continuation of the Angel television series. The comic series follows in the footsteps of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, whose first issue was published in March 2007.

Few spinoffs are as good as the show they were created from. Okay, that’s not entirely true; hell, there are several spinoffs on the list. So, let me rephrase that: few spinoffs are as loved as the show they were created from. Okay, that might not be entirely true either, but Angel gets just as much love from fans as Buffy The Vampire Slayer and managed to do so while being different from Buffy at the same time. First off, it was more testosterone driven, featuring more male characters. This isn’t to say that Buffy should have had more characters; it shouldn’t have. Angel was just a nice male equivalency to Buffy. Also, it is a lot darker than Buffy, in more ways than one. The main character of the show is a vampire, and they are nocturnal beings due sunlight being a big weakness. But, it had darker themes than Buffy. Where Buffy focused adolescence and growing up, Angel focused on being an adult and the loneliness of being single. And, there is a lot of loneliness for Angel; not only does he lead a life that is filled with danger but Angel is also cursed with a soul and cannot enjoy happiness since a moment of pure bliss will cause him lose that soul and unleash the evil Angelus. These themes were also explored in other characters: Cordelia growing from the uberbitch she was in high school into a sincere young woman, Wesley shedding his wimp status and becoming a strong leader, Gunn getting out of the ghetto and becoming a lawyer, Fred going from a shy victim to confident sexpot, Lorne making the transition from happy go lucky partier to morose and somber etc. And, it was all beautifully acted. David Boreanaz had a macho vulnerability down to a smooth essence not achieved since James Garner in his Rockford Files days. Charisma Carpenter brought great vulnerability and confidence to Cordelia. Alexis Denisof is great at playing the clueless hap and the strong leader. J. August Richardson is great at playing a reserved angry type. Amy Acker went from the victim to the sexpot to the villain without ever hitting a false note. And, no one else other than Andy Hallett can play Lorne. At times, Angel achieved the spirit of Buffy, with a wonderful mix of humor, drama, and action. And, at time it surpassed Buffy. It’s a shame Angel got cancelled. Who knows? Maybe if it had gotten a few more season, it would have surpassed Buffy in everyone eyes.

[Hulk With A Mustache]

Tomorrow, numbers 64 and 63. Here are the hints:

A fracking good show, and I've made a huge mistake.

[Doctorin' The Tardis]

How could The Office (UK) been #70 on a list of great TV shows? A lot of people consider it the greatest sitcom of all-time (from any country) and yet it's #70?!?

[Hulk With A Mustache]

Jul 13, 2008 18:36:07 GMT -5 Doctorin' The Tardis said:

How could The Office (UK) been #70 on a list of great TV shows? A lot of people consider it the greatest sitcom of all-time (from any country) and yet it's #70?!?

I'm not a lot of people.

[rrm15]

Jul 13, 2008 18:31:38 GMT -5 Hulk With A Mustache said:

Tomorrow, numbers 64 and 63. Here are the hints:

A fracking good show, and I've made a huge mistake.

Arrested Development and not sure about the first one.

[Hulk With A Mustache]

Anyway, let's continue the countdown. Here's 64:

64. Arrested Development



Genre: Sitcom.
Created by: Mitchell Hurwitz.
Executive Producer(s): ) Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Mitchell Hurwitz, and David Nevins.
Starring: Jason Bateman (Michael Bluth), Portia de Rossi (Lindsay Bluth Fünke), Will Arnett (George Oscar “GOB” (pronounce Jôb) Bluth III), Michael Cera (George-Michael Bluth), Alia Shawkat (Mae “Maeby” Fünke), Tony Hale (Byron “Buster” Bluth), David Cross (Dr. Tobias Fünke), Jeffrey Tambor (George Bluth Sr.), and Jessica Walter (Lucille Bluth).
Country of Origin: United States.
Number of Seasons: 3.
Number of Episodes: 53.
Running Time: 22 minutes.
Original Channel: FOX.
Original Run: November 2, 2003 – February 10, 2006.
Spinoffs: There is talk of an Arrested Development movie being made. Most of the cast have said that the movie will be made, but so far there is no script; it’s mainly just rumor as of now.

The show was created by Mitchell Hurwitz (The Ellen Show, The John Larroquette Show, and The Golden Girls). Discussion which led to the creation of the series began in the summer of 2002. Ron Howard had the original idea to create a comedy in the style of hand-held cameras and reality television, but with an elaborate, highly-comical script resulting from repeated rewritings and rehearsals. Howard met with David Nevins, the President of Imagine Television, Katie O’Connell, a senior Vice President, and two writers, including Mitchell Hurwitz. In light of recent corporate accounting scandals, such as Enron and Adelphia, Hurwitz suggested a story about a "riches to rags" family. Howard and Imagine were immediately interested in using this idea, and signed Hurwitz on to write the show. The idea was pitched and sold in Fall 2002. Over the next few months, Hurwitz developed the characters and plot to the series. The pilot script was submitted in January 2003, and filmed in March 2003. It was submitted in late April, and added to the Fall Fox schedule in May. The plot of Arrested Development revolves around the members of the Bluth family, who generally lead excessive lifestyles. At the center of the show is the relatively honorable Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman), who strives to do the right thing and keep his family together, despite their materialism, selfishness, and manipulative natures. His teenage son, George Michael (Michael Cera), has the same qualities of decency, but feels a constant pressure to live up to his father's expectations, and is reluctantly willing to follow his father's plans, which do not always agree with his. Michael's father George Bluth Sr. (Jeffrey Tambor) is the patriarch of the family. At times dictatorial, George Sr. goes to considerable lengths to manipulate and control his family. His wife, and Michael's mother, Lucille (Jessica Walter), is equally manipulative, materialistic, and hypercritical of every member of her family, not to mention being a perpetual drunk. In particular, she has a tight grip on her youngest son Byron "Buster" Bluth (Tony Hale), who, as a result of his mother's dominance and sheltering, is unstable, socially inept, and prone to panic attacks. Michael's older brother is Gob, played by Will Arnett. His name is an acronym for George Oscar Bluth II. Though pronounced Jôb, as in the Biblical figure, the name is frequently mispronounced by various characters in the show. Gob is an unsuccessful professional magician whose business and personal schemes usually fail. He uses a Segway for transportation, and sometimes converses with others from it while stationary, as if it were a pulpit. Gob is used by his father to undermine Michael's control of the family business. Michael's twin sister Lindsay Fünke (Portia de Rossi) is flamboyant and materialistic, continually desiring to be the center of attention and attracted to various social causes, usually for a week or so. She enjoys being objectified, but also protests it. She is married to Tobias Fünke (David Cross), a discredited psychiatrist, aspiring actor, and "never-nude", whose language and behavior have homosexual overtones. Their attention-starved but sweet daughter Mae "Maeby" Fünke (Alia Shawkat) is the polar opposite of her cousin George Michael: skipping school, cheating on homework, and stealing money from the family's frozen banana stand business. The ever-rebellious teen, Maeby's chief motivation is going against her parents' wishes. Several other characters regularly appear in minor roles. George Sr.'s identical twin brother Oscar (Jeffrey Tambor) is a lethargic ex-hippie seeking the affection of George's wife Lucille. The family's lawyer, Barry Zuckerkorn (Henry Winkler) is an incompetent sexual deviant, who often hinders the family's legal battles rather than helping them. Lucille Austero, or "Lucille 2", played by Liza Minnelli, is Lucille's "best friend and chief social rival" as well as Buster's love interest. Carl Weathers plays a parodic version of himself as an unemployed, ultra-cheapskate actor. Beginning in the second season, Mae Whitman portrays Ann Veal, George Michael's Christian girlfriend, who is often forgotten or disparaged by Michael. The most difficult part for casting the series involved finding people who would be believable as a family. Alia Shawkat was the first person cast. Michael Cera, Tony Hale, and Jessica Walter were cast from video tapes and flown in to audition for Fox. Jason Bateman and Portia de Rossi both read and auditioned for the network, and were immediately chosen. The character of Gob was the most challenging to cast. When Will Arnett auditioned, he depicted the character in an interesting way, different from expectations; he was chosen immediately. The characters of Tobias and George Sr. were originally going to have minor roles, but David Cross's and Jeffrey Tambor's portrayals mixed well with the rest of the characters, and they were given more significant parts. Ron Howard, the Executive Producer, provided the narration for the initial pilot, but meshed so well with the tone of the program that the decision was made to stick with his voice. Howard also aided in the casting of "Lucille 2" - the producers told him that their dream actress for the role would be Liza Minnelli, but assumed nobody of her stature would take the part. However, Ron Howard offered to ask her himself, because they were old friends; she had in fact been his babysitter when he was a child and she was a teen. In the first season, George Bluth Sr., patriarch of the Bluth family, is the founder and former CEO of the Bluth Company, which markets and builds mini-mansions, among other activities. George Sr. is arrested by the Securities and Exchange Commission for defrauding investors and gross spending of the company's money for "personal expenses". His wife Lucille becomes CEO, and immediately names as the new president her youngest son Buster, who proves ill equipped. Seeing no other options, the family turns to Michael, the middle son, and twin to the Bluths' only girl, Lindsay, giving him control of the company. To keep the family together, Michael convinces his son and sister's family to live together in a Bluth model home. Throughout the first season, different characters struggle to change their identities. Buster works to escape from his mother's control through brotherly bonding and love interests such as Lucille Austero. George Michael nurses a forbidden crush on his cousin Maeby, while continually trying to meet his father's expectations. Lindsay's husband Tobias, a psychiatrist who has lost his medical license, searches for work as an actor, with the aid of Carl Weathers. Michael falls in love with his older brother Gob's neglected girlfriend Marta, and is torn between being with her and putting "family first". After he quarrels with Gob, Marta realizes that they do not share the same family values, and she leaves them both. To spite Buster, Lucille adopts a Korean son whom she calls 'Annyong' after she mistakes the Korean word for 'hello' as his name. Through an escalating series of dares, Gob gets married to a woman he just met, played by real life wife Amy Poehler, but cannot get an annulment because he refuses to admit that he did not consummate the marriage. Kitty, George Sr.'s former assistant, tries to blackmail the company. She is caught in the Bluth family yacht's explosion, as used in one of Gob's magic acts, but survives. After previous failed attempts, and a brief religious stint in Judaism, George Sr. finally escapes from prison by faking a heart attack. It is also revealed that George committed "light treason" by using the company to build mini-palaces for Saddam Hussein in Iraq. In the second season, because of his father's latest lie about a heart attack, Michael decides to leave his family and company behind. Lucille appoints Gob to be the new Bluth Company president, but he proves incapable and the position reverts back to Michael. George Sr.'s twin brother Oscar moves in with Lucille in an attempt to rekindle a previous love affair. After faking his death in Mexico, George Sr. returns to the family model home, where he hides in the attic. Meanwhile, Buster joins the army, but escapes serving in Iraq when his hand is bitten off by a loose seal. He bonds with his uncle Oscar, who is revealed as Buster's presumptive biological father. George Michael begins dating a deeply religious girl, Ann Veal; his father does not like her, and tries to disrupt their relationship. Michael fails to break them up, but George Michael sees a chance for his crush on Maeby to bear fruit, and the pair kiss while the living room of the model home collapses under them. Maeby becomes a film studio executive covertly, and Tobias repeatedly paints himself blue in a futile attempt to join the Blue Man Group. Throughout the season, various blue paint marks can be seen around the family's house and on the back of Tobias's neck when not in full makeup. After being kicked out by Lindsay, Tobias dresses as "Mrs. Featherbottom" to be around Maeby, an explicitly narrated reference to Mrs. Doubtfire. Kitty returns to steal a sample of George Sr.'s semen to make her own Bluth baby. George Sr., in revenge for twin brother Oscar's affair with his wife, exchanges appearances with an unconscious Oscar, who is mistakenly sent to prison in the place of George Sr., who flees again. In the third season, Michael once again begins searching for his runaway father. Gob gets an invitation to a father/son reunion outing, and believes it to be George Sr. trying to contact him. In reality, the invitation was meant to reunite Gob with Steve Holt, son of Eve Holt, a girl with whom he had slept in high school. Meanwhile, George Michael and Maeby deal with their previous kiss by avoiding each other. George Sr., in an attempt to remain in disguise, joins the Blue Man Group. Michael discovers this, and arranges to have his father placed under house arrest. George Sr. claims that he was set up by an underground British group. Michael goes to Wee Britain, a fictional British-themed city district, to investigate, and in the process meets new love interest Rita (Charlize Theron). Michael and the audience are led to believe that Rita is a mole for the underground British group, working for a man named "Mr. F." In the end of the episode titled "Mr. F," it is revealed that Rita is actually an MRF, or "mentally retarded female." The unknowing Michael proposes to her, and the couple run off to be wed. Michael eventually finds out the truth, however; despite this, the family pushes him to go forward with the marriage because Rita is, in fact, quite wealthy and they desperately want the money. Michael is not persuaded, and gently ends the relationship just as he and Rita are about to walk down the aisle. Meanwhile, Tobias and Lindsay variously seek legal help from Bob Loblaw (Scott Baio) concerning their troubled marriage. Disturbed by both Lindsay's and Tobias's advances, Bob Loblaw chooses to no longer represent the Bluth family. Attorney Jan Eagleman offers to represent the family, on the condition that they participate in a mock trial in a new reality courtroom show called, and presided over by Judge Reinhold. Michael uses an illegal threat from prosecutors to have the mock case "dismissed," while Gob and Franklin briefly appear in another eponymous courtroom show presided over by Bud Cort. Meanwhile, Maeby and George Michael perform in a mock wedding which is accidentally conducted by a real priest, and the two become legally married. The family members are afraid to testify at the mock trial and later deposition, so Buster fakes a coma, Lindsay and Lucille fake entering rehab, and Gob flees the country to perform in a USO Tour in Iraq. All of the deceptions are uncovered by the prosecution, and in Iraq, Gob is arrested for inadvertently inciting an anti-US riot. Buster and Michael travel to Iraq to rescue Gob, and while there, uncover evidence that the mini-palaces George Sr. built in Iraq were actually ordered and paid for by the CIA for wiretapping purposes. After this discovery, the US government drops all of the charges against George Sr. To celebrate, the Bluths throw a shareholders' party on the RMS Queen Mary. During preparation for the party, it is revealed that Lindsay was adopted, meaning that George Michael and Maeby are not blood relatives. At the party, the Bluth's other adopted child, Annyong, reappears. He reveals that he is there to avenge his grandfather's deportation, an event orchestrated many years earlier by Lucille Bluth. Annyong has turned over evidence implicating Lucille in the Bluth Company's accounting scandals. Before the police arrive, Michael and George Michael flee on Gob's yacht, the C-Word, and depart to Cabo with half a million dollars in cashier's checks, finally leaving the family to fend for themselves. However, it is revealed in the epilogue that George Sr. is also on the yacht, having lured his brother Oscar into taking his place once again. Also in the epilogue, Maeby tries to sell the television rights to the story of the Bluth family to Ron Howard, who tells her that he sees it as a movie rather than a series. In light of FOX's possible cancellation of the show, the first episode of 2006 parodied various gimmicks that other shows had used during November sweeps in 2005. Thinly-veiled allusions were made to the possibility of HBO or Showtime picking the show up in the event of its cancellation. The episode took shots at frequently cited reasons for the show's failure in the ratings, such as complex storylines that can be hard to follow, obscure references that may go over viewers' heads, and main characters who were not sympathetic or relatable. The show focuses on the tension that developed between the members of the Bluth family, primarily from their diminished spending power. Each show pulls from a serpentine mix of sibling rivalries, unresolved oedipal conflicts, sexual incompatibilities, personal identity crises, adolescent trauma, aging, pride, miscommunication, lying, guilt, subterfuge, determination, immigration, manipulation, mutilation, social status anxiety, incest taboo, alcoholism, and countless other themes. Much like other dysfunctional-family comedies such as Malcolm in the Middle and The Simpsons, the family unit is depicted as necessary for the survival of the individual. Much of the comedy comes from the quirks of the characters and the patterns that developed within the family structure. Arrested Development uses several elements that are rare for American live-action sitcoms. Like a documentary, it often cuts away abruptly from scenes in order to supplement the narrative with material such as security camera footage, Bluth family photos, website screenshots, and archive films. This is a similar but not identical feature to the cutaway segments which appear in comedies such as Family Guy and Scrubs. Flashbacks are also extensively used to show the Bluth family in various stages of their lives. The show does not employ a laugh track, allowing for uninterrupted back-and-forth dialogue and permitting more time for plot development and jokes. An omniscient third-person narrator (producer Ron Howard, uncredited) ties together the multiple plot threads running through each episode, and provides tongue-in-cheek commentary. Wordplay is abundant, for humor and plot; a character may misinterpret an ambiguous phrase with embarrassing or disastrous results. Perhaps most startling for new viewers is the fast pace, which throws complex, often subtle humor and plot details at the viewer with little breathing room. With few exceptions, Arrested Development begins immediately with the title credits, rather than a cold open (which is more common for modern sitcoms). Over a series of slides introducing the characters using archive photos, Ron Howard provides a narrative summary of the show's premise ("Now the story of a wealthy family who lost everything, and the one son who had no choice but to keep them all together. It's Arrested Development.") accompanied by the show's theme tune. The credits serve to immediately introduce the new viewer to many of the unique elements of the show: the documentary-style use of archive photos and footage, the upbeat soundtrack, and the presence of the narrator. Almost every episode ends with an epilogue segment called "On the next Arrested Development," in which lingering stories are wrapped up or extended humorously. These segments portray events that do not usually appear in the subsequent episodes, but remain part of the show's canon. However, on some rare occasions (typically in the first half of a two-part episode), scenes from these portions are worked into the following episode; also, the segment occasionally shows a significant plot twist (e.g. Maggie Lizer's deception, Buster's accident, and Steve Holt's discovery). The second episode of season three reversed this by having "Previously on..." featuring the resolution of the cliffhanger and nearly an entire episode of plot changes within thirty seconds. The epilogue sometimes shows a several-second continuation of the previous scene, in comically direct opposition to the name of the sequence. The first and second season finales changed the segment to "On the next season of Arrested Development…" and in the third season finale (which was also the series finale), it became "On the epilogue…". The show is highly intertextual and reflexive, features commonly associated with postmodernism. For example, Arrested Development often alludes to the past work of its cast and crew through the restaging of familiar scenarios, such as Fonzie's jumping the shark from Happy Days, Tony Hale's bit part in a Volkswagen commercial, and by casting former collaborators in small bit parts, including many cast members from Mr. Show as well as improv comics from Christopher Guest films. Guest stars frequently appear from other lauded television comedies such as The Daily Show, Seinfeld, Scrubs, The Office, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Upright Citizens Brigade and The Simpsons. The show's reflexiveness may be literal or subtle. In the episode "For British Eyes Only," Michael tells George Sr., who he believes is trying to convince him of a lie, "You're a regular Brad Garrett." This is in reference to the Emmy Awards that directly preceded the episode's original airing, where Garrett beat out Jeffrey Tambor (George Sr.) for "Best Supporting Actor." The series has acknowledged its competition (Desperate Housewives), commercial sponsor (Burger King), its struggle to go after an "idiot demographic," its use of dramatic moments as act breaks, and Fox's cutback of the second season to 18 episodes. The episode "S.O.B.s" made numerous references to Arrested Development's attempts to remain on air by parodying typical television ratings ploys and hinted at the attempts of other networks to purchase the series from Fox. In another example Charlize Theron's character Rita is shown prior to her plastic surgery, which is a picture of her in her Monster role. In addition, narrator Ron Howard has made several references to his experiences on The Andy Griffith Show and Happy Days. Several of the major characters of the show are at some stage involved in a plot with incestuous themes. Frequently, this theme is linked with questions about murky family lineage. For example, George Michael's attraction to Maeby, who may or may not be his cousin. There is also the neat symmetry of Maeby's interest in Steve Holt, who likewise may or may not be her cousin. In the second season, the episode "Afternoon Delight" played on this theme when Michael and Maeby (and later George Michael and Lindsay) sing the Starland Vocal Band song of the same name, being unaware of its sexual nature. This theme is explored on one particularly notable occasion, through the character of Nellie Bluth, who Michael thinks for a time might be his older sister, but who herself presumes Michael is interested in her for sex. The fact that Nellie Bluth is played by Jason Bateman's real life sister Justine Bateman lends the plot line an additional layer of comedic complication. Yet another example of this theme is when, upon discovering her adoption, Lindsay attempts to seduce her brother Michael. Gob, out of brotherly competition, later attempts to seduce her. Another running joke throughout the series was Buster's Freudian obsession with his mother. This strangely co-dependent relationship is highlighted in the episode "Motherboy XXX", where Buster says: "whenever she'd change clothes, she'd make me wait on the balcony until zip-up – and yet anything goes at bath-time." Arrested Development plays with divisive, controversial social and political issues. Writers have turned references to the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, the U.S. Army's recruiting crisis, inadequate supplies for US troops, the non-existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and George W. Bush's "Mission Accomplished" photo-op into jokes. In that same vein, George Sr. has appeared with Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. There are also occasional references made to the USA PATRIOT Act, namely as a catchall excuse for the prosecutors against the Bluths to act in underhanded and illegal ways. It has also poked fun at the decadence of American white collar criminals, "limousine liberals", religious protest campaigns, the Terri Schiavo debate, controversy over public display of the Ten Commandments, and the restriction of protesters to "free speech zones". Other references include "Girls with Low Self-Esteem" (a parody of Girls Gone Wild), "Boyfights" (a parody of Bumfights), Michael Moore documentaries, low-carb diets, and "Star Wars Kid". The plot regularly features callbacks to previous episodes (e.g., Gob's recurring use of the phrase "Come on!" and "...I've made a huge mistake...", the family's sighs and Gob's "typical" whenever Michael is gone or missing, repeated use of family members' "chicken dances", George Sr.'s The Cornballer invention) and will often use what creator Mitch Hurwitz has termed "call-forwards", wherein plots or events will be foreshadowed in subtle ways. For example, many references are made to the loss of limbs, foreshadowing the loss of Buster's hand in the second season. The first season episode "Pier Pressure" has several flashbacks to George Sr. hiring a man with a prosthetic arm to teach his children lessons, by staging elaborate scenes in which the man has his arm cut off as a result of the children's misbehavior. Before losing his hand, Buster retrieves his hand-shaped chair, which his mother had given to her maid behind Buster's back. He then says, “I never thought I could miss a hand so much." In season three they allude to Rita being a mentally retarded female in many subtle ways. Including in a scene from "Forget Me Now" when Gob and Lindsey are leaving a drugged Rita on a bench, an ad for "Wee Britain" is obscured by the pair and instead reads "Wee Brain." In November 2003 the producers of the show were sued by the hip hop group Arrested Development over the use of the name. The incident was referenced humorously in an episode of the show: In episode "The Sword of Destiny", Tony Wonder (Ben Stiller), a magician, explains that he will have to change the title of his planned home video release because "some band has got the rights to Use Your Illusion." He later releases a video of his magic act as Use Your Allusion II. In episode "Motherboy XXX", the narration refers to a band called "Motherboy", which the narration claims the show is "legally required to make a distinction" from, with respect to the "Motherboy" event happening in the episode. Additionally, in the episode "For British Eyes Only", Gob is forced to change the name of his illusion "Free Bird" due to his inability to get the rights to the name, presumably because of Lynyrd Skynyrd's song. The resulting title, "Free Chicken", draws a significant crowd for the wrong reasons. The show, while critically acclaimed, did not gain a sizable audience. According to the Nielsen Ratings system, U.S. ratings in the second season averaged about six million viewers, while the third season averaged about four million viewers. To promote their re-broadcast of the animated series Family Guy, FOX announced that it would halt the production of the second season at eighteen episodes: four episodes short of the planned season. Despite rumors that this was a prelude to cancellation, the network defended its actions, claiming that the show would fare poorly during network sweeps period, and that it was simply a procedural matter. The show's writers did, however, write a parody joke in the show about this on "The Sword of Destiny" (season 2 episode 37 aired in March 2005). In the beginning of the episode, Michael Bluth is talking on the phone with a contractor saying that the original contract was to design and build 22 homes but they were cut back to 18 homes. Later in the episode they also parodied Fox and Family Guy stating that a website was getting swamped with Family Guy popup ads. For the third season, FOX positioned the show at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT and 7:00 p.m. CT/MT, directly opposite Monday Night Football in the Mountain and Pacific time zones, whereas MNF would not have started yet in the other two. Ratings were even worse than previous seasons. On November 9, 2005, FOX announced that the show would not be airing in November sweeps, and that they had cut the episode order for the third season from 22 to 13. FOX ended up showing the last four episodes in a two-hour timeslot, directly opposite the opening ceremonies of the 2006 Winter Olympics. As a result, the finale received only 3.3 million viewers. For the first season, the show won five Emmy Awards in 2004, including "Outstanding Comedy Series," "Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series," "Outstanding Casting for a Comedy Series" and "Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series," both for the pilot episode written by Mitchell Hurwitz and for direction by brothers Joe and Anthony Russo. In 2005, the second season brought eleven Emmy nominations in seven categories and one win, for "Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series" for the season finale "Righteous Brothers," written by Mitchell Hurwitz and Jim Vallely. For its truncated third season, the show received four 2006 Emmy nominations, including Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series (Will Arnett as Gob Bluth), Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Comedy Series for the episode "Ocean Walker," and Outstanding Comedy Writing for the episode "Development Arrested." The show also has a spot on Time Magazine's 100 Greatest Shows of All Time. Other awards the show won included: The 2004 TV Land Award for "Future Classic," the first recognition the series received. The award presentation is included on the Season One DVD release; The Television Critics Association 2004 Awards for "Outstanding Comedy" and "Outstanding New Program," and the 2005 award for "Outstanding Achievement in Comedy"; The 2005 Golden Globe Award for "Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy" for Jason Bateman; The 2004 Writers Guild of America Award for best teleplay in an episodic comedy, for the first season episode "Pier Pressure," written by Mitchell Hurwitz and Jim Valley; In 2004, for season one, the Golden Satellite Award for "Best Television Series, Comedy or Musical," along with best performance by an actor/actress in a supporting role, comedy or musical awards for Jeffrey Tambor and Jessica Walter. In 2005, for season two, Jason Bateman and Portia de Rossi won best actor and actress in a series, comedy or musical. Jason Bateman also won the same award for the third season; For her role as Maeby Fünke, Alia Shawkat won a Young Artist Award in 2005. Despite months-long rumors of Arrested Development having been picked up by the cable television network Showtime, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on March 28, 2006 that creator Mitch Hurwitz would not be returning. As Showtime had made it clear that Hurwitz's involvement was a requirement for the continuation of the show, Arrested Development is considered by both its creators and fans as having reached its end on television. As Hurwitz explained, "I had taken it as far as I felt I could as a series. I told the story I wanted to tell, and we were getting to a point where I think a lot of the actors were ready to move on." He said that he was "more worried about letting down the fans in terms of the quality of the show dropping" than he was about disappointing fans by not giving them more episodes. In this same interview, he said, "if there's a way to continue this in a form that's not weekly episodic series television, I'd be up for it."

Once again, I will start by pointing out the faults of the show. Don’t get me wrong. I love this show. If I didn’t, it wouldn’t be on the list. However, it did have some problems. Yes, it was hard to follow and required you to watch every episode (though, ironically, those are usually the best shows). Yes, it went for some cheap laughs and shocks with the possible incest between cousins George-Michael and Maeby. Yes, the third season wasn’t that great (though, if it had been given more episodes, then it probably would have been better). However, despite these problems, Arrested Development was a great show and somehow managed to make these things work as best as it possibly could. The show was one of the funniest and smartest shows to ever air on TV. On one level, this sitcom about an ethically challenged California real estate family was a catalogue of 21st-century disappointments, from the war in Iraq (where the Bluths scored a sweet "light treason" deal building model homes for Saddam) to corporate corruption (with Enron and Adelphia parallels aplenty). On another level, it had Fonzie as a lawyer, great cousin-incest jokes (sure, those jokes were cheap, but they were still funny), and puns (as when Buster, perpetually henpecked by his mother Lucille, has his hand bitten off by a 'loose seal'). The self-referential, language-besotted, in-joke-packed love child of The Simpsons and Christopher Guest movies, Arrested Development never forgot the needy human core in its family of freaks: toxic Lucille, spoiled Lindsay, David Blaine wannabe GOB, sexually confused and clueless about it Tobias, insecure (though I’m being polite, mainly because I can’t think of a better word) Buster, worried George-Michael, slacker Maeby, mean-spirited George Sr., and the likeable but holier-than-thou Michael. These are some of the most unlikable characters in TV history. But, the show never made them too unlikable. It always allowed them some semblance of humanity, whether it be that they are all disappointed about their lot in life (GOB really wants to be a successful magician), that they tried to better themselves and fail (Lindsay and Tobias’s venture in the commercial acting world), or that they truly love each other. The business was fraudulent, but the characters and laughs genuine.

[Hulk With A Mustache]

63. Battlestar Galactica



Genre: Military, Science Fiction, and Drama.
Created by: Glen Larson (he created the original Battlestar Galactica), David Eick, and Ronald D. Moore.
Executive Producer(s): David Eick, Ronald D. Moore, Mark Verheiden, Michael Angeli, Michael Taylor, Toni Graphia, and Jane Espenson.
Starring: Edward James Olmos (Commander, later Rear Admiral, William Adama), Mary McDonnell (President Laura Roslin), Katee Sackhoff (Lieutenant, later Captain, Kara "Starbuck" Thrace), Jamie Bamber (Captain, later Lieutenant, Captain (again), Major, Commander, Caprica Delegate, and President, Lee "Apollo" Adama), James Callis (Dr., later President, Gaius Baltar), Tricia Helfer (Number Six), Grace Park (Number Eight, AKA Sharon "Boomer" Valerii/Sharon "Athena" Agathon), Michael Hogan (Colonel, later Rear Admiral, Commander, and Supreme Commander, Saul Tigh), Aaron Douglas (Chief Petty Officer Galen Tyrol), Tahmoh Penikett (Lieutenant, later Captain, Karl "Helo" Agathon), Alessandro Juliani (Lieutenant Felix Gaeta), Nicki Clyne (Specialist, later Petty Officer Second Class, Cally Henderson Tyrol 2003-2008), Kandyse McClure (Petty Officer, later Lieutenant Junior Grade, Anastasia "Dee" Dualla), Michael Trucco (Ensign Samuel Anders 2005–present), Callum Keith Rennie (Number Two 2003–present), Matthew Bennett (Number Five 2003–present), Lorena Gale (Elosha 2003–2005, 2008), Paul Campbell (Billy Keikeya 2003–2006), Richard Hatch (Tom Zarek 2004–present), Donnelly Rhodes (Dr. Cottle 2004–present), Leah Cairns (Lieutenant Junior Grade Margaret "Racetrack" Edmondson 2004–present). Kate Vernon (Ellen Tigh 2004–2007, 2008), Samuel Witwer (Lieutenant Junior Grade Alex "Crashdown" Quatararo 2004–2005), Luciana Carro (Lieutenant, later Captain, Louanne "Kat" Katraine 2004–2007), Rick Worthy (Number Four 2005–present), Lucy Lawless (Number Three 2005–present), Dean Stockwell (Number One 2006–present), and Rekha Sharma (Tory Foster 2006–present).
Country of Origin: United States.
Number of Seasons: 4.
Number of Episodes: 63 (episodes to date), 10 webisodes, 1 miniseries, 1 TV movie, and 7 prequel webisodes.
Running Time: 42 minutes.
Original Channel: Sci Fi.
Original Run: October 18, 2004 – present.
Spinoffs: The show is a remake of the 1978 Battlestar Galactica series. A miniseries was made as a pilot for the series, which did get picked up. A TV movie “Battlestar Galactica: Razor” was made in 2007. And, there will be a spin-off series, Caprica, that takes place 50 years before the events of the current TV show.

For years, a remake to the 1978 show Battlestar Galactica had been attempted. However, none of the previous efforts to remake or continue the story of Battlestar Galactica by Tom DeSanto, Bryan Singer, and original series star Richard Hatch involved using either the original cast or the original characters and plot proceeded beyond the development stage. Then, Ronald D. Moore wrote in February 2003 of his desire to continue the story of Battlestar Galactica. It started with a 2003 miniseries Battlestar Galactica that aired on Sci Fi. The miniseries depicted a sneak attack from the Cylons on the Twelve Colonies of Kobol. The colonies are wiped out, and the human survivors are forced to flee them. Soon after, a TV show was announced and aired on Sci Fi in 2004. The show continues from the 2003 mini-series to chronicle the journey of the last surviving humans from the Twelve Colonies of Kobol after their nuclear annihilation by the Cylons. The survivors are led by President Laura Roslin and Commander William Adama in a ragtag fleet of ships with the Battlestar Galactica, an old but powerful warship, as its command ship. Pursued by Cylons intent on wiping out the remnants of the human race, the survivors travel across the galaxy looking for the fabled and long-lost thirteenth colony: Earth. The new Battlestar Galactica departs from the original in several ways. In a major difference between the original and the re-imagined series, there are currently no alien (non-human) sentient life-forms in the galaxy. Dogs, cats and rats have been shown, and other terrestrial animals mentioned, but no other sign of life other than human or (in the case of the Cylons) human-created. In terms of style and storytelling, it rejects the traditional televised science fiction styles of Star Trek (after which the original Battlestar Galactica series was conceived) in favor of what executive producer Ronald D. Moore calls "naturalistic science fiction." The new series emphasizes character drama in an edgy survivalist setting and has many of the characteristics of military science fiction, shedding the light-hearted action/adventure style of the original show. Among plot differences, the key characters of Starbuck and Boomer have been recast as female roles. The Cylons are the creation of man and a new breed of Cylon models now imitate humanoid appearance down to the cellular level. Ronald D. Moore tackled the reimagining with realism in mind, portraying the shows heroes as being part of a "flawed" humanity, and drawing inspiration from the September 11, 2001 attacks and their aftermath. In the reimagined series, many characters struggle with deep personal flaws; for example, Adama and his son have a profoundly dysfunctional relationship, while Colonel Tigh is an alcoholic. Their enemy is capable of living among them unnoticed and willing to carry out suicide attacks, allowing an exploration of moral and ethical issues brought up by the War on Terrorism. The show has dealt with Cylon and human suicide bombers, the torture of prisoners, and a struggle motivated by intense religious differences. To add to this realism, the creative direction also redesigned Galactica with a decidedly 'retro' submarine look, approximating the function of an aircraft carrier, using bullets and missiles instead of directed-energy weapons such as lasers. The first production to be set in the reimagined universe was the miniseries first broadcast on the Sci Fi Channel on December 8, 2003. From that followed a regular television series which premiered on Sky One in the UK and Ireland on October 18, 2004 and on Sci Fi Channel in the U.S. on January 14, 2005. A spin-off prequel series called Caprica has been announced and a DVD movie has been produced. In other media, the filmed series has spawned an Xbox/PlayStation 2 game by Warthog Games and a 2006 comic book series by Dynamite Entertainment. A second video game for Xbox Live Arcade and Microsoft Windows was released in Fall 2007. Among the most visible changes made from the older series are the new humanoid Cylon models and the differences in casting in terms of ethnicity and gender, most notably the character of Starbuck. The new series benefits from vastly improved special effects, thanks to computer-generated imagery which was not available during the time of the original series. Other changes to the look of the show include human culture in the Twelve Colonies now closely resembling contemporary 21st-century Western culture, with names and costumes often indistinguishable from other television shows. This trend is also reflected in the technology used by the show's humans; in contrast to the original series' advanced weapons and futuristic feel, technology is now deliberately retro, explained in the miniseries as a need to protect against the Cylons' vastly superior computer sciences by using hardline and shielded systems. The tone is also changed from a heroic fantasy with tinges of Cold War geopolitics to a more naturalistic survival narrative with more numerous allusions, both subtle and obvious, to modern history and current events. Time described Battlestar Galactica as "a gripping sci-fi allegory of the war on terror, complete with monotheistic religious fundamentalists (here, genocidal robots called Cylons), sleeper cells, civil-liberties crackdowns and even a prisoner-torture scandal". Throughout its run, the show has attempted to maintain its realism by referencing both familiar elements of real world modern history, Laura Roslin's swearing in on Colonial One directly "cited the swearing in of LBJ after the Kennedy assassination," and the developing political situation since the September 11, 2001 attacks. Many people have drawn parallels between the Cylons and Al Qaeda," and according to The Guardian "Battlestar Galactica is the only award-winning drama that dares tackle the war on terror". The show has tackled issues regarding terrorist sleeper cells with stories involving both the reality and fear of Cylon suicide attacks, Cylon Number 5 Aaron Doral in the episode called Litmus sneaks aboard the Galactica and blows himself up in the middle of the corridor, and 'sleeper agents', Lt. Sharon "Boomer" Valerii activates after destroying a Cylon basestar at the end of season 1 and shoots Commander Adama, for these stories extensively "hinted at war-on-terrorism overtones". The show also references civil liberties crackdowns during the 3rd season when the 6 members of The Circle after the Exodus from New Caprica become judge, jury, and executioner of the people who were accused of aiding the Cylons during the occupation on New Caprica. They also touch on prisoner torture during season 2 when Cylons 6 and 8 (Lt. Valerii) both are attacked, raped and tortured by Lt. Thorne from the Battlestar Pegasus. After 9/11, the original series' "broad premise, the human military's struggles in the wake of a massive terrorist attack, suddenly gained resonance" and let the show tackle issues like suicide bombings, torture, "evoking the darker side of the war on terror" and "civil liberties crackdowns". Executive producer Ronald D. Moore points out that the Cylons and Al Qaeda are not necessarily intended to be directly allegorical: "They have aspects of Al Qaeda, and they have aspects of the Catholic Church, and they have aspects of America", and in contrast, with the New Caprica storyline the show's humans have been discussed as an allegory not for an America under attack, but for an occupied people mounting an insurgency, and turning to suicide bombings as a tactic. There is a consensus that with "its third season, the show has morphed into a stinging allegorical critique of America’s three-year occupation of Iraq" as the "cameras record Cylon occupation raids on unsuspecting human civilians with the night-vision green familiar to any TV news viewer. And the reasoning of the Cylons is horrifically familiar: They would prefer not to be brutal, but they won't accept the failure of a glorious mission." According to Slate "If this sounds like Iraq, it should", and "In unmistakable terms, Battlestar Galactica is telling viewers that insurgency (like, say, the one in Iraq) might have some moral flaws, such as the whole suicide bombing thing, but is ultimately virtuous and worthy of support." The "really audacious stroke of this season was showing us a story about a suicide bomber from the point of view of the bomber and his comrades... because the cause of this terrorist was unquestioningly our own. We sympathize with the insurgents wholeheartedly." If the Cylon occupying force is an allegory of the Coalition Forces in Iraq, then some of the other references are equally controversial, for example, the "scene of the shiny, terrifying Cylon centurions (a servant class of robots that actually look like robots) marching down the main road of New Caprica while the devastated colonists looked on was the Nazis marching into Paris." Although David Eick has said the production staff "don't need to say 'OK, let's do the episode where we're gonna do the Abu Ghraib scandal'", and points out that events depicted on New Caprica "are as much a story rooted in political tales like the Vichy France or Vietnam" rather than current events, he acknowledges that they "do gravitate in those directions when it comes to the storytelling". This has led to the show addressing other current issues, such as abortion, the use of biological weapons, and labor rights. Religion and theology flavored the original series, and they are prominent in the reimagined series. Perhaps the most prominent religious component is the series' overarching theme: the human survivors search for Earth. That search is motivated by ancient religious texts' references to a 13th tribe of humans that established a civilization on a distant planet called Earth. Various religious relics and ruins, both on the 12 colonies and elsewhere in the galaxy, provide clues to Earth's location. Many of the humans share in polytheism, worshiping the gods of Kobol. This appears to be the official state religion of the colonies; government oaths reference the gods and, back on the 12 planets, public museums housed artifacts of the gods. The Kobol gods have the same names and characteristics as the Greek Olympic gods, and the show makes repeated references to Zeus, Hera, Athena, Poseidon, Ares and Apollo. In one story in season 3, the crew fights with the Cylons to obtain "The Eye of Jupiter"; Jupiter is the Roman equivalent of Zeus. As evidenced by prayers offered by the human characters, the Kobol gods are morally refined and are believed to watch over and intervene benevolently in the lives of the just. This is similar to the conception of the gods during the Greek classical and Hellenistic periods, not the amoral (and very human) gods of the Greek archaic period. In a reference to Hinduism, the opening credits are accompanied by an operatic version of the very important Gayatri Mantra, a hymn to Surya, the Sun God. During a memorial service, the residing chaplain recites another important Hindu prayer, actually a sample from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (one of many Upanishads) which is transliterated here:

Om Asato maa sad-gamaya; (O Lord Lead me from the unreal to the real.)
tamaso maa jyotir-ga-maya; (Lead me from the darkness to light.)
mrtyor-maa amrutam gamaya. (Lead me from death to immortality.)
Om Shaantih Shaantih Shaantih. (May there be peace, peace, and perfect peace.)
— Brihadaranyaka Upanishads (1.3.28)

In another parallel to Western polytheism, the names of the Twelve Colonies and their planets are similar to the names of the constellations in the Greco-Roman zodiac. In the early days of the 12 colonies, each colony's flag showed the stellar constellation of its zodiac sign ("Home Pt. 2"). The principal means of transmitting divine knowledge is the Sacred Scroll. The Scroll chronicles the early period of human existence, when people and the gods lived together on the planet Kobol (at the beginning of the series, the location of Kobol is unknown). The Scrolls tell that at some point in time, twelve human tribes left Kobol and founded the 12 colonies, with a 13th heading towards Earth (miniseries et al.). This is also referenced in the opening words of the Scroll, "Life here began out there" (miniseries). The show offers little detail of the Sacred Scroll, other than that it contains the Book of Pythia, which chronicles an ancient female (similar to the Oracle of Delphi, herself named Pythia), who journeyed with the 13th tribe on their voyage to Earth. Pythia also described the exodus of the twelve tribes, and the things that happened to them. She describes a dying leader, who will guide the tribes to salvation. Among other things, the scriptures tell of the return to Kobol, stating that bringing the Arrow of Apollo to the Tomb of Athena will reveal the road to Earth. The dying leader is to die just before the end of the journey. President Roslin sees herself as playing the part of the leader in the texts, as she has terminal breast cancer which was cured for a time, but has now returned. Many of the human-form Cylons also share a religious belief: in this case, monotheism. The Cylons' monotheism seems to share many traits of Earth monotheistic religions: belief that God is omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent, that he will one day deliver divine retribution, and that he intervenes in the world. The actual teachings and laws of the Cylon god are infrequently referenced, but when they are, it is usually conveyed by Number Sixes. It is shown that the centurions have no belief in god until Baltar tells one, which dies shortly after in the episode The Hub. The special effects are created by Zoic Studios. They previously worked on the Firefly television series. Battlestar Galactica is funded and produced by American (and, in the case of the first season, British) companies. It is filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and many of the stars, including Grace Park ("Boomer"/"Athena"), Tricia Helfer (Six), Michael Hogan (Colonel Saul Tigh), Alessandro Juliani (Lieutenant Felix Gaeta), and Tahmoh Penikett (Karl "Helo" Agathon), are Canadian. Edward James Olmos (Admiral Adama), Mary McDonnell (President Laura Roslin), and Katee Sackhoff (Kara "Starbuck" Thrace) are American, while James Callis (Gaius Baltar) and Jamie Bamber (Lee "Apollo" Adama) are British, though Bamber also holds US citizenship through his American father. Most of the secondary actors, extras, and day players are Canadian, as are many guest stars, most notably the recurring roles played by Donnelly Rhodes (Dr. Cottle) and Nicki Clyne (Cally Tyrol). When the miniseries aired on the Sci Fi channel in 2003, it was the highest-rated cable miniseries of that year. The miniseries' success led to the commission of a new ongoing television program, the first episode of which drew an estimated 850,000 viewers, an 8% multichannel viewer share, on its world premiere on Sky One in the UK & Ireland. The subsequent reimagined Battlestar Galactica TV series remains the highest rated original program in the Sci Fi Channel's history. The miniseries and the subsequent weekly TV program have received critical acclaim. Time magazine wrote in the spring of 2005 that the new show was one of the six best drama programs on television. It would proclaim the program the best show on television in December of the same year. The American Film Institute named the show to its list of the ten best shows on television. Other mainstream publications such as the Chicago Tribune, Rolling Stone magazine, and Newsday also named the series one of the best on television for 2005. That same year, the series won a prestigious Peabody Award in recognition of its creative excellence. In 2007, Battlestar Galactica was nominated for four Primetime Emmy Awards: Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series, Outstanding Sound Editing and Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series for the third season episode titled "Exodus, part 2" and a single nomination for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series for the back to back episodes "Occupation" and "Precipice." The series is filmed at Vancouver Film Studios, and on physical locations in and around Vancouver, Kamloops and Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada. The first season of thirteen one-hour episodes was ordered by the Sci-Fi Channel on February 10, 2004. Produced in 2004 by David Eick and Ronald D. Moore, and starring the original cast from the 2003 miniseries, it was aired in the United States from January 14, 2005, and from January 15 in Canada. Moore left his position as producer on HBO's Carnivàle after its first season to concentrate more on BSG. Battlestar Galactica's first season aired in the United Kingdom and Ireland three months ahead of the show's premiere in the US and Canada. The time lag between the UK and Ireland and the US screenings led to widespread distribution of episodes via peer-to-peer networks, such as eDonkey and BitTorrent, often within a few hours of Sky One airing them. Although Sci-Fi and Ron Moore deplored this, and publicly appealed for downloaders not to pirate the show, there was widespread speculation that its unauthorized electronic distribution contributed to the US success of the show by creating a favorable word of mouth impression among key demographic groups. Perhaps in recognition of this, the first episode was later made available for viewing in its entirety, and without charge from the Sci-Fi website, although at relatively low quality. Moore also sought to address the "Internet Generation" by posting podcast commentaries on individual episodes on the official Sci-Fi website. The series proved successful on its UK and Ireland premiere, attracting favorable comments from reviewers, and generating considerable anticipation in the US. The first episode aired in the US became one of the highest-rated programs ever on Sci-Fi, with 3.1 million viewers. Successive episodes proved equally successful. The first episode of the regular series, "33," won the 2005 short-form Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. Following the success of the 13-episode Season One, the Sci-Fi Channel ordered a 20-episode second season on February 9, 2005. The season premiered in the US on the Sci-Fi Channel on July 15, 2005, with the UK, Ireland, and Canadian premiere in January, 2006. In the fall of 2005, airing of the second season halted, as it was part of Sci-Fi Channel's standard airing schedule normally used for its Stargate series, which was to split a 20-episode season into two parts (a "winter season" and a "summer season") to avoid heavy competition with major networks that follow a spring/fall schedule. Universal Home Video took this break as an opportunity to package the episodes aired thus far into a DVD set, calling it Season 2.0. The final episode of the first half, "Pegasus," was originally 15 minutes too long for broadcast, but according to creator Ronald Moore, the production team decided to cut the episode to time rather than pad it out to fill 90 minutes, as this was deemed impractical. The longer version of "Pegasus" appears on the Battlestar Galactica Season 2.5 DVD set, which was released in the US on September 19, 2006. Sky did not contribute financially to the second season, though UK broadcasts credit the company at the end of every episode. The second half of Season Two began airing on January 6, 2006, after a three-month hiatus, during which the Sci-Fi Channel mounted a huge publicity effort. Battlestar Galactica picked up considerable critical acclaim from the mainstream press, including being named the #1 show of 2005 by Time Magazine, and being listed on numerous Top Ten lists by publications such as the Boston Globe. The American Film Institute also named it one of the ten best television shows of 2005. There was some criticism that a few episodes following "Resurrection Ship, Part 2" were not up to par with previous episodes, such as the episode "Black Market," for which even Ron Moore expressed some disdain. Moore stated in his blog that he felt this was a result of the larger workload the series faced with twenty episodes, instead of thirteen in Season One. However, episode 15, "Scar," was thought to bring the series back up to its high level of quality, and subsequent episodes "The Captain's Hand," "Downloaded," and the two part finale "Lay Down Your Burdens," were hailed by fans and critics alike. Moore expressed that the longer break between Seasons Two and Three (seven months instead of two) would help to ensure that all episodes were up to the high level of quality that the production team strove to maintain. Season Two was released on DVD in Australia on August 15, 2006. The entire season is collected in one box set. Season Two, however, began its first run on Australian television just two weeks prior to this on Network Ten, at 11pm on Wednesdays, meaning that the complete season became available the day before the third episode aired. Ten "webisodes" called Battlestar Galactica: The Resistance were designed to focus on events that take place on New Caprica between seasons two and three of the television series, and aired on Sci Fi Pulse. Because of legal issues, almost no news appeared after the original announcement, but the broadcast date was eventually revealed on August 28, 2006 on Sci-Fi's website by Sci-Fi's Head of Internet Programming, Craig Engler. The release schedule was twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The first webisode was posted Tuesday, September 5, 2006, and the last posted on Thursday, October 5, 2006, one day before the first episode of Season Three. The webisodes themselves have caused a conflict between NBC and those involved in their development, relating to the royalties that the developers should receive. NBC Universal, the major studio behind the reimagined series, refused to pay residuals to or credit the webisode writers on the grounds that the webisodes were promotional materials.[5] In response, Ronald D. Moore said he would no longer release any webisodes to the studio's custody. NBC Universal then took control of the webisodes, and filed an unfair labor-practices suit against the Writers Guild of America. The Guild told Moore and other NBC Universal television show producers to halt production of any further webisodes until a deal over residuals had been reached. The Resistance webisodes are included in the Region 1 DVD release of Season Three, and are expanded in content and running-time from their original online incarnation. They are not available on the Region 2 and Region 4 DVD releases. The Sci-Fi Channel ordered a 20-episode third season on November 16, 2005, which premiered in the US on October 6, 2006, and in Canada on October 7, 2006, with the first two episodes being shown together. The broadcast schedule for Season Three did not include a long hiatus in the middle of the season, as with Season Two. Production began in April 2006 in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Sci-Fi Channel moved the show to Sundays on January 21, 2007, the first time the show had changed nights since it began airing. Season Three was broadcast in high-definition on Sky One HD in the UK and Ireland, starting on January 9, 2007, and in the US on Universal HD, starting on January 27, 2007. After the initial five episode long New Caprica story arc, Season Three consisted of mostly stand-alone episodes. In the podcast for the Season Three finale, Ron Moore stated that in an effort to attract new viewers, the Sci-Fi Channel pressured the production team to make stand-alone episodes, instead of focusing on previously established storylines. However, this met with a negative critical reception, and Moore stated that by the end of Season Three, the critical reaction and declining ratings following this paradigm shift forced the Sci-Fi Channel to admit that stand-alone episodes simply do not work in the format that the series has established for itself, and Moore went on to say that because of this the Sci-Fi Channel promised that it would not put any pressure to make stand-alone episodes in Season Four. That the Sci-Fi Channel would pressure for changes in the series' formula is remarkable, considering that Moore and his production team routinely cited the network's "hands off" approach to the series as one of its strong points; that the writers were being given free rein to do what they thought best in the first two seasons. Moore infamously explained in the episode podcasts for season 1 that literally the only time Sci-Fi Channel asked him to change something in the first two seasons, was early in production when they were a bit uneasy about the extremely dark tone of the series, and asked if Moore could insert some lighter material, such as everyone having a birthday party for someone. The result was that Moore sarcastically inserted a scene into the beginning of the fourth episode, "Act of Contrition", in which a number of pilots are celebrating a Raptor pilot's 1,000th landing when a drone falls from its rack due to metal and strap fatigue, ignites and flies towards the groups of pilots, killing 13 and injuring 7 more. Moore said that Sci-Fi Channel responded by saying, "We get it," and never tried to interfere in the running of the series again. Season Three was released on DVD in the United States on March 18, 2008. Beginning October 5, 2007, the Sci-Fi Channel began airing short, two-minute vignettes chronicling the rookie mission of young William Adama during the last day of the First Cylon War. These short presentations include depictions of Cylons and their vehicles in incarnations similar to those made popular by the original 1978 series. The mini-episodes, collectively known as "Razor Flashbacks", serve as a backdrop leading up to the television movie, Battlestar Galactica: Razor, and aired during the Friday-night presentation of Flash Gordon for eight weeks as well as being made available online at Sci Fi Pulse. The Razor Flashbacks are actually taken from the made for TV movie Razor and were not originally intended as stand-alone web features. Instead they were aired early as a promotion for the main feature. As of November 25, 2007 the Razor Flashbacks are no longer available on Sci Fi, and the entire Razor website on SciFi.com has been removed. The Sci-Fi Channel confirmed on March 22, 2007 that Battlestar Galactica had been renewed for a fourth season of 20 episodes. (The order was originally announced as a 22-episode commitment, including the two-hour TV movie Battlestar Galactica: Razor.) Producers David Eick and Ronald D. Moore have announced that the fourth season will be the series' last. The fourth season was split into two parts, with the first 10 episodes airing beginning April 4, 2008, and with the second 10 installments likely airing in early 2009. The Canadian cable channel Space has so far aired season four on the same dates. In the UK, Sky One began airing Season Four on April 15, showing the first two episodes on that date, placing the UK just 4 days behind the US screenings. The first part of Season 4 will begin broadcast on Universal HD on July 19, 2008. The show’s military rank structure goes: Officers: Admiral, Vice Admiral, Rear Admiral, Commander, Colonel, Major, Captain, Lieutenant, Lieutenant Junior Grade, Ensign; Enlisted: Master Chief Petty Officer, Chief Petty Officer, Petty Officer First Class, Petty Officer Second Class, Specialist, Deckhand, and Recruit. The Colonial military is organized much the same as in the original series, however both are significantly different from any existing military organization. From the episodes aired, a Battlestar is the lead vessel in a battle group which normally consists of many smaller vessels. The re-imagined series explicitly places the Galactica as one of two (or three) Battlestars within Battlestar Group 75. A Colonial Fleet and Colonial Marines exist. Officers in the Colonial Fleet are given ranks that are a fusion of those presently used in western armies and navies. Ronald D. Moore outlined the rank structure in a blog entry in February 2005, stating that he wanted to keep the "co-mingled" ranks of the original series rather than reassign ranks based on real-world naval structure. Below is a list of ranks for both officers and enlisted crewmen with the highest rank at the top. The Colonial Marines have a different rank structure for enlisted men: Private, Corporal, Sergeant, etc. Their officer rank structure has not been shown and it is unknown whether any commissioned Marine officers survived. (Marines on the show have only been led by Fleet officers such as Apollo, Starbuck, Tigh, Athena or Sergeant Hadrian, the Galactica's Master-at-Arms). The CO and XO of a Battlestar like Galactica are usually a commander and colonel, respectively, and have been since before the destruction of the colonies. Dr. Cottle holds the rank of major, as did Lee Adama prior to his spot promotion to commander for command of the Pegasus. There are a few officers with the rank of captain as well as several lieutenants. The second season introduced Helena Cain (played by Michelle Forbes) as a rear admiral, in command of the Battlestar Pegasus. Recurring Marine characters include Galactica's Master-at-arms, Sergeant Hadrian, played by Jill Teed. The character, however, is never explicitly identified as a Marine. Another recurring Marine character is Corporal Venner, played by Chris Shields. In addition to these Marines, numerous privates and at least two gunnery sergeants are known to exist (one appeared in the season 2 episode "Sacrifice" and another appeared in the season 3 episode "Exodus Part 1"). On April 27, 2006, the Sci Fi Channel announced that a prequel spin-off of BSG (known as Caprica) was in development. It will take place over 50 years before the current series, before the original Cylon War, and will chronicle the Adama family and Caprican society as well as show the advancement of technology leading to the Cylon revolt. On March 26, 2007, Ronald Moore said that the Sci Fi Channel was not picking up Caprica as a pilot, though a movie or DVD release were still possibilities. According to Moore, the show was currently "on the back burner." On March 18, 2008, Ronald Moore said that it has been confirmed that the long rumored and scantily reported spin-off, Caprica is in fact a go project. Sci Fi Channel has given the green light to a two-hour backdoor pilot for the series – which means it will air as a TV movie (not unlike the promotion and rollout for "Razor") – and if successful it will get a series commitment from the network. The project is currently slated to shoot in Spring 2008 and air in the Fall.

Ironically, the best sign of the times on TV today (and currently the Best Show on TV, as many media outlets say), is a show that takes place on a fleet of spaceships in outer space. Like Rod Serling did with The Twilight Zone, Ronald D. Moore and David Eick use science fiction to write about current events, in this case, viewing the facts on the ground in the War on Terror and the War in Iraq from the perspective of deep space. Just look at the New Caprica storyline, in which the Cylons occupy the planet, and the humans start a resistance movement, complete with suicide bombers. As in the campy 1970s series it remade, a distant civilization of humans has nearly been eradicated by the sentient robots, called Cylons, which they created. Here, many of the Cylons appear human, adding a layer of sleeper-cell paranoia and moral questions. The Cylons' evolved status raises philosophical questions (what does it mean to be human?) and complicates things morally when the human military waterboards Cylon captives and stages suicide bombings to end an occupation. But, it isn’t just the stories and themes that make Battlestar Galactica worth watching. For one, it has some of the best special effects on TV. It also has some action scenes. There is also the cast. Edward James Olmos is wonderful as Admiral Adama. Mary McDonald brings that strength she had in “Dances With Wolves” to President Linda Roslin but also adds enough vulnerability to make her character a perfect leader. Jamie Bamber is perfect as the reserved Lee “Apollo” Adama. I can’t imagine anyone other than Katee Sackhoff playing Kara “Starbuck” Thrace. And, James Callis is swarmingly terrific as Dr. Gaius Baltar. And, I can’t forget the rest of the cast: Tricia Helfer (who gives some sympathy to Number Six), Grace Park, Tahmoh Penikett (both wonderful as the Cylon-human couple of Sharon and Helo), Michael Hogan (as the always angry Saul Tigh), Aaron Douglas, and Michael Trucco (both of whom have had a chance to shine with the revelation that their characters, as well as Tigh and Tory Roster (Rekha Sharma), are Cylons). Hell, even Richard Hatch, who played Apollo in the original Battlestar Galactica, has shown he has acting chops as Tom Zarek. These actors not only make their characters pop on screen but also help the show’s dark tone and themes. However, the thing that makes Battlestar Galactica so great is that it shows the power of science fiction: you can talk about anything and pretty much get away with it. How many times have Fox News pundits debated Battlestar Galactica as bashing the President, the United States, and its current foreign policies? If I’m not mistaken, that would be none. Why? Because it takes place in outer space. You do a show about terrorism; it will spark debate. You do a show about terrorism on another planet; it will be just considered an exciting show. Battlestar Galactica is a stark, well-imagined story of a war in a galaxy far, far away yet is too close for comfort.

[Hulk With A Mustache]

Tomorrow, numbers 62 and 61. Plus, a recap of the shows 100 from 61. Here are the hints:

Press the button, Frank; and a show about a police unit.

[Gopher Mod]

Push the button, Frank: Mystery Science Theater 3000 (come on, 20th Anniversary Set!)

Show about a Police Unit: Who Cares? MST3K is coming up tomorrow!

[Hulk With A Mustache]

Countdown time, people! Come one and all! Here's number 62:

62. Mystery Science Theater 3000



Genre: Comedy, Science Fiction.
Created by: Joel Hodgson.
Executive Producer(s): Joel Hodgson and Jim Mallon.
Starring: Joel Hodgson (Joel Robinson 1988–1993), Mike Nelson (Michael J. Nelson and Torgo, 1993–1999), Kevin Murphy (Tom Servo, Professor Bobo, Santa Claus, and a Nanite, 1990–1999,), Trace Beaulieu (Crow T. Robot and Dr. Clayton Forrester, 1989–1996), Frank Conniff (TV’s Frank, 1990–1995), Jim Mallon (Gypsy, 1989–1996) Mary Jo Pehl (Pearl Forrester, Jan-in-the-Pan, a Nanite, and Magic Voice, 1992–1999), Bill Corbett (Crow T. Robot, Observer “Brain Guy,” and Krankor, 1996–1999), Josh Weinstein (Tom Servo and Dr. Laurence Erhardt 1988–1990), and Patrick Brantseg (Gypsy, 1997–1999)
Country of Origin: United States.
Number of Seasons: 10.
Number of Episodes: 198.
Running Time: 92 minutes.
Original Channel: KTMA (1988–1989), Comedy Channel (1989–1991), Comedy Central (1991–1996), and Sci Fi (1997–1999).
Original Run: November 24, 1988 – August 8, 1999.
Spinoffs: There were no official TV spinoffs, but the show’s format (making fun of bad movies as they play) continues in Mike Nelson’s RiffTrax, Joel Hodgson’s Cinematic Titanic, and The Film Crew.

The show was created by Joel Hodgson. He credits Silent Running, a 1972 sci-fi film directed by Douglas Trumbull, as being perhaps the biggest direct influence on the show's concept. The film is set in the future and centers on a human, Freeman Lowell (Bruce Dern), who is the last crew member of a spaceship containing Earth's last surviving forests. His remaining companions consist only of three robot drones (the third robot was destroyed in the beginning of the movie), though they are not able to converse with him. MST3K and the Joel Robinson character also occasionally reflected Lowell's "hippie"-like nature. Hodgson cites Beany and Cecil as having likely been a subconscious childhood influence. The 1960s Bob Clampett cartoon series centered on a boy and his sea serpent friend. In an interview, Hodgson made loose retrospective comparisons to elements between the two shows, such as the ship (the Leakin' Lena, to the S.O.L.), and the characters of Beany (to Joel), Cecil (to Gypsy), Huffenpuff (to Tom Servo), Crowy (to Crow), and Dishonest John (to Dr. Forrester). Another childhood influence was the CBS Children's Film Festival, a 1970s live-action program which starred Kukla, Fran and Ollie, Burr Tillstrom's puppet troupe which was made famous during television's early days in the '40s and '50s. The characters consisted of a human (played by Fran Allison) and her two puppet friends (both performed by Tillstrom). Each episode of Film Festival featured an international children's film, with Kukla, Fran and Ollie serving as hosts. Fran would lead discussions of the film as the episode went on, in similar fashion to MST3K's host segments. The signature silhouetted movie seats were partially inspired by several Looney Tunes shorts in which an on-screen character would interact with a "theater audience member" who could only be seen in silhouette. The name of the Joel Robinson character is a reference to the 1960s television series Lost in Space, which followed the adventures of the shipwrecked Robinsons, a family of astronauts (which itself traces the theme of castaway Robinsons through The Swiss Family Robinson back to Robinson Crusoe). In the pilot and first season on KTMA-TV, Hodgson used his real last name. Hodgson initially came up with the concept for the "Mystery Science Theater". The "3000" suffix was added later to sound like a version number, though Hodgson originally wanted it to be "2000". Unfortunately, a partner of his mistook this as being a year number and claimed that 2000 was "too close". Drawing partly on his own comedy act (which he was performing in the area at the time), the show's format was to showcase Hodgson. These initial episodes were filmed at the now defunct Paragon Cable studios/customer service center in Hopkins, Minnesota. The loosely-defined plot of the show serves chiefly as a pretext for the movie commentary and the comic sketches known as "host segments" which appear throughout each episode: Two mad scientists, Dr. Clayton Forrester (named after the main character in The War of the Worlds), played by Trace Beaulieu, and his sidekick Dr. Laurence Erhardt, played by Josh Weinstein, launch Joel Robinson (Hodgson), a janitor working for the Gizmonic Institute, into space and force him to watch truly horrible B-movies. They do this in order to measure how much bad-movie-watching it takes to drive a person crazy, and to pinpoint the perfect B-movie to use as a weapon in Dr. Forrester's scheme of world domination. Forrester's scheme was that when he found a movie so bad that it broke Joel's spirit, he would unleash it on an unsuspecting populace and turn everyone into mindless zombie slaves. The sycophantic TV's Frank, played by Frank Conniff, replaced Dr. Erhardt in the second season premiere following Weinstein's departure from the series. Trapped on board the Satellite of Love (S.O.L.), a reference to the Lou Reed song, Joel builds four sentient robots that populate the ship (ostensibly because he is lonely, and as a homage to the 1970s film Silent Running). The robots are Tom Servo (voiced first by Weinstein, then by Kevin Murphy beginning in Season 2), and Crow T. Robot (voiced first by Beaulieu, then by Bill Corbett beginning in Season 8), who accompany Joel in the screening room; Gypsy (voiced first by Weinstein, inhaling as he spoke, then by Jim Mallon and later by Patrick Brantseg, both using a falsetto voice), who does not appear in every episode but handles the "higher functions" of the S.O.L. (such as steering the ship); and Cambot, the recorder of the experiments who is visible only in a mirror during the opening credits and occasionally interacts with the others (for example, when Cambot is asked a yes-or-no question, the onscreen image will shift back and forth or up and down, as if Cambot were nodding or shaking itself in a "yes" or "no" gesture.) Also making intermittent "appearances" in the show's early years is Magic Voice, a disembodied female voice whose primary role is to announce the start of the first commercial break in each episode. Joel has no control over when the movies start, for, as the theme song states, "he used the extra parts to make his robot friends". He must enter the theater when "Movie Sign" flashes, because Dr. Forrester has numerous ways to punish Joel for non-compliance, including shutting off all oxygen to the rest of the ship and electric shocks. As the movies play, the silhouettes of Joel, Tom, and Crow are visible at the bottom of the screen, wisecracking and mocking the movie (a practice they often referred to as "riffing") to prevent themselves from being driven mad. Several times during the movie (about every half-hour when shown with commercials), Joel (and later Mike) and the bots perform skits, songs, or other short sketch pieces (called "host segments") that are usually related to the movie they are watching. These segments sometimes even feature "visits" by prominent characters from a shown movie, such as Torgo from Manos: The Hands of Fate, "Jan in the Pan" from The Brain That Wouldn't Die, and Mothra from Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster. However, before too much frivolity can transpire, the movie sign lights flash, signaling the resumption of the movie. Many episodes without movies long enough to fill the show's run time also include screenings of unintentionally hilarious short films or "shorts", including propaganda-style films from the 1950s, a training film for Chevrolet sales managers, and films intended to teach children about posture or personal hygiene. On one occasion a Gumby cartoon was used as a short. These are less frequent in later episodes. They are nonexistent in season 8 (the first Sci-Fi Channel season), because during that season the Sci-Fi Channel's executives required that every film be a science-fiction, fantasy, or horror movie. The restriction was lifted for the last two seasons, with season 9 featuring two shorts (including the aforementioned Gumby film) and season 10, one short (in the penultimate episode). Several unusual elements of Mystery Science Theater 3000 provide a unique feel to the show, and were featured in many (if not all) episodes:

Theater Silhouette: The theater silhouette, trademarked as "Shadowrama" (sometimes "Shadowramma") — a row of chair tops with Tom Servo, Joel or Mike, and Crow sitting at the right side — is a simple row of rounded shapes cut from black painted foamcore board. Joel/Mike and the robot operators sit down in front of these, facing a white wall. When shot from the back it gives the illusion of sitting in a theater. A photograph of this appears in the book The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Amazing Colossal Episode Guide, depicting Mike Nelson with a script on his lap and puppeteers Trace Beaulieu and Kevin Murphy working their respective robot puppets in front of the theater seat cutout. Its characteristic appearance has been used in several works, often as an homage to the show.
Door Sequence: Featured in most transitions between the theater segments and "host" segments is a camera tracking through a tunnel leading from the bridge of the Satellite of Love into the theater, or vice versa. Access to the tunnel from the bridge is through a hexagonal doorway, originally decorated with a large, gear-like "G" (for Gizmonic Institute, the original lair of the Mads) In mid season 5, upon Joel's departure, the main bridge door's Gizmonic "G" logo was altered to a full pinion gear wheel/hub design for the Mike Nelson episodes (season 5-7). This change was made per Joel Hodgson's request that all references and logos to Gizmonic be removed upon his leaving the show. For the Sci-fi Channel era, the main bridge door was redecorated again with a Satellite Of Love profile shape locking hinge and planet design. This replaced the "gear wheel" design. As the camera (implicitly Cambot) moved through the opening doorway, a countdown of hatches, decorated with unusual artifacts and numbered "6" through "2" (in the style of a film leader countdown), moves out of its way, finally opening on the theater and the film. The doorway sequence was changed three times during the series duration. The first one was used for the KTMA season, and a more colorful and elaborate one was built and filmed for season 1 on Comedy Central which would remain in place until Joel left in episode 512. Beginning with episode 513, a newer more sophisticated doorway sequence was built and filmed in keeping up with the show's art direction at the time with more dark grey colors, more props and a more proportionally shaped hexagonal tunnel. This doorway sequence would remain for the duration of the series. The season 1-5.5 door sequence is known amongst fans as the "Joel Doors" and the season 5.5-10 sequence is known as the "Mike Doors". In Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie, Best Brains acquired props to use an actual door sequence instead of recording one.

Hexfield Viewscreen (HVS): The HVS was, as its name implies, a hexagonally shaped opening on the SOL's bridge that served as a kind of monitor, through which the inhabitants of the SOL could interact with a wide and diverse range of visitors, often characters taken directly from whatever movie they were watching at the moment (Gamera, Jan-in-the-Pan, etc), and sometimes not (Yakov Smirnoff, rowdy redneck neighbors, etc). While an ostensible viewscreen, it was actually a small stage area, covered with a dark fabric screen with an "iris" mechanical door in front of it; and was often "deactivated" by simply turning off its lighting at the end of a transmission, as the door moves rather slowly. The HVS was used more frequently during the Comedy Central years. During the Sci-Fi Channel era, it was used on a few occasions, such as during the season 8 send up of "The Mole People" and during season 10 in episodes "Soultaker", "Final Justice", & "Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders". The Hexfield Viewscreen premiered in episode 201 ("Rocketship X-M") and was originally manually operated with a hardware store bought window shade before episode 205 when the more familiar iris mechanism and frame backlight were installed. The HVS frame had different backlight colors through the years. It had a blue light from mid season 2-early season 3, white lighting in mid season 3, then yellow lighting in late season 3 and finally blue again from season 4 through 10.

Rocket Number Nine: Sometimes Joel/Mike and the Bots would become aware of something happening outside the ship, and would instruct Cambot to "give [them] Rocket Number Nine". Once they did this, they were provided with an external view of the ship and whatever was nearby. This is an oblique reference to a tune by Sun Ra. This became a running gag; every external shot of the ship, no matter what angle or element of the ship was shown, was of "Rocket Number Nine."

Light/Button Signs: During the host segments, a set of three colored light-up buttons was located on the table's left side (mid season 1 through 10) (to the viewer) and above the door to the theater (Season 2-10). The leftmost light was red and would light to indicate that the Mads were calling; Mike discovered in episode 517 (Beginning of the End) that the button could be pressed to contact Deep 13, but commented after seeing the Mads in an uncomfortable domestic scene, "So, I guess we can call the Mads... You know what, I don't think we should do that again." The rightmost was yellow - "commercial sign" - and would light to indicate that the show had to cut to a commercial break. The middle light was green (season 2 and 3) and purple/blue (season 4 through 7) and would light to indicate a visitor in the Hexfield Viewscreen (this occurred only during the Comedy Central episodes). While one of the characters would usually touch the flashing light to "execute" it, there were never any consequences for failing to do so. When all three lights flashed, it indicated "movie sign". When this happened the camera would shake, a buzzer would sound, and everyone currently on the bridge would scatter while yelling "We've got movie sign!" or some variant thereof. The lights were absent from the early episodes of the series, and did not appear until halfway through the first season of the Comedy Central era. Before the lights appeared Joel would simply slap the table due to the lack of buttons. During Season 1, the color order of the light buttons were different than from later seasons. The green and red buttons were reversed. Green was used for commercial sign and yellow was for the Mads. Red was only used with the others during "movie sign". The rotating strobe lights above the doors did not appear until the set was revamped for season 2. Beginning with season 4, the center green light and green desk button was now a purple-esque/blue colored light and button. This was due to the blue chroma key used for the door sequence having been replaced with a green chroma key and the green lights did not show up well on camera with green chroma key and vice versa. When the S.O.L set was again revamped for the Sci-Fi channel era in season 8, the rotating strobe lights were replaced with solid square block lights (similar to the lights used in the feature film) and the color order above the doors was changed. The blue light was on the left, yellow in the middle and red on the right. However, the desk lights retained the same color order from the Comedy Central era.

Invention Exchange: The Joel Hodgson era of the show (as well as the first five episodes of the Mike Nelson period) featured the "Invention exchange". This was always in the host segment which followed the first commercial. Joel and the bots would give their latest idea for a new invention to Dr. Forrester (often ending with the now-familiar line "Whaddaya think, sirs?") and vice versa. This ranged from a karaoke machine that only played public domain music to the machine that made fun gifts into practical gifts. The final invention exchange occurred in episode 519, "Outlaw" (only the seventh show featuring Mike Nelson as the host), wherein the Mads presented "the first really real time machine" opposite Mike and the bots' instant Fabio kit. The reason the invention exchanges were discontinued was, according to Kevin Murphy in The Amazing Colossal Episode Guide, that "Joel was the gizmocrat, the one who brought that invention exchange spirit on board" and "Mike is many things, but he is not a tinkerer". Though the invention exchanges were discontinued, Dr. Forrester and Frank continued to present new inventions and experiments throughout Seasons 5 and 6, usually sending them to Mike and the bots to test them out.

Stinger: A brief (generally, three to five seconds) clip from that episode's movie (or occasionally the accompanying short) which played following the end credits of the show. The clip generally highlighted a moment or line of dialogue that the show's writers found to be particularly amusing. The tradition started with the second-season episode featuring Rocket Attack U.S.A., with a shot of a blind man walking down the street, then suddenly stopping to exclaim "Help me!" The stinger was replaced for three episodes of season eight with images of the Observers, and for a fourth with a shot of Bobo after a disastrous fall.

The Button: At the end of each episode during the "Frank" years (seasons 2-6), Dr. Forrester would instruct Frank to push "the button", which was located on a computer keyboard. When this was done, the image would shrink and leave a black screen to make way for the end credit roll. "Push the button, Frank" has since become one of the show's more recognizable lines among fans. (Some believe that the line is a reference to a running gag of "Push the button, Max!" in the film The Great Race.) Occasionally there were variations of this custom, as in Daddy-O where "the button" malfunctioned and would repeatedly interrupt the credit roll to switch the show back to the Mads in Deep 13.

Low Budget: Just like the films that they riff on, part of MST3K's charm is its economical use of its low budget. Everything, right down to the sets, props and robots are made from household items found at thrift shops. Part of this started during the KTMA years, as there was little to no budget supplied to the crew for the set, so such items had to be made out of various "found junk". Despite an increasing budget, Best Brains never forgot their roots as a "cowtown puppet show" and subsequently kept the bric-a-brac motif of the show.

Midwestern References: Many of the riffs and cultural references made by the humans and bots in the show are specific to the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, reflecting the origin of the show (filmed throughout its eleven seasons in this area) and the Best Brains staff's Midwestern roots. For example, in episode 422 (featuring The Day the Earth Froze), Crow remarks how Scandinavia resembles southern Wisconsin with the crack: "It's the Swedish Dells!" He then says in a heavy Swedish accent: "The Dooks! Ride the dooks!" (That is, the 'Ducks', an amphibious tour vehicle). There is also an episode where they reference former U.S. Sen. William Proxmire, D-Wis. The character of Mike Nelson is also from Wisconsin and in episode 810, "The Giant Spider Invasion", which is set in Wisconsin; the crew accordingly mocks riotous mobs by shouting variations of "Packers won the Super Bowl!!" (The show's cast and crew are ardent fans of the arch-rival Minnesota Vikings, even having Vikings running back Robert Smith in a dialogue-less cameo in one episode.) References to the Twin Cities suburbs such as Maplewood and Edina are also common i.e. "Featuring Music normally heard at the Days Inn lounge in Columbia Heights". Mary Jo Pehl's home town of Circle Pines, Minnesota is also mentioned in a number of episodes. Actual directions off of the Beltline in Madison, WI, have also been given on the show.

Riff Density and Callbacks: Once the Best Brains staff gained some experience from the earlier KTMA shows, they gradually increased the amount of riffing until they estimated they were doing about 700 jokes per 90-minute episode. Many of those riffs are "callbacks", or references to earlier episodes and running jokes.

Letter Readings and Info Club: A common feature on the show was the reading of fan mail during the closing segment of the show. Usually, only one letter was read per episode, although up to four letters have been read in some episodes. During the beginning of each letter, Cambot has the note up on "still store" so that the audience can see the text (or fan art, if any.) This began during the KTMA season of the show, though early episodes had Joel only playing phone messages from fans; the tradition didn't evolve to letter-reading until about halfway through the inaugural season. MST3K also boasted an "Info Club", a system where you could write in to the specified address (the same one used to collect fan mail) and receive newsletters about events and information related to the show. The address would appear in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen twice during the theater segments, and again in conjunction with the letter readings. The letter reading ended mid-season 7, with the last episode to feature letter readings being episode 705, "Escape 2000".

Musical Numbers: The host segments of many episodes (almost every episode in the Joel era, less often in the Mike era) feature a musical number written by Michael J. Nelson. The songs usually mock the movie that's being watched (the "Sidehacking" song from "Sidehackers") or one of the people involved with production ("The Sandy Frank Song" from "Time of the Apes"). Several of these songs make up the majority of the archive material on MST3K.com. Interestingly, the number of musical numbers featured on the show went into decline once Nelson's tenure as host began, despite the fact that he wrote almost all of the musical numbers.

Guest Characters: The MST3K cast was occasionally augmented by "guest stars" from the films, characters so memorable that they made interesting visitors to the Mads' lairs or the Satellite of Love. (See "Recurring guest characters" below.) These film characters were always portrayed by Best Brains staffers, giving some screen time to behind-the-camera workers. Other "guests" were real-life people portrayed by MST3K cast and crew. MST3K has only had two non-staffers make guest appearances on the show: the aforementioned Smith cameo appeared in a season 8 episode, with Smith as "Howard", a "gift" to Pearl from her ape worshipers, and film critic Leonard Maltin, who had been mercilessly mocked for some of his ratings of MSTied films, appeared as himself in episode 909, "Gorgo".

In September 1988, Hodgson enlisted Twin City-area comedians Trace Beaulieu and Josh Weinstein, and producer Jim Mallon, to help him shoot a pilot for the show. The robots and the set, in their crudest format, were built overnight by Hodgson. The next morning, shooting commenced, and a 30-minute pilot, in which selections from the 1969 science-fiction film, The Green Slime, were the test subject film. Joel watched the movie by himself, and was aided during the host segments by his robots, Crow (Beaulieu), Beeper, and Gypsy (Weinstein). Camera work was by Kevin Murphy, who worked at the station and also created the first "doorway sequence" (see "Characteristic elements") and theater seat design. Mallon met with station manager Donald O'Conner the next month and managed to get signed up for thirteen consecutive episodes. The show had some slight alterations: the set was lit differently, the robots (now Crow, Servo and Gypsy) joined Joel in the theater, and a new doorway countdown sequence between the host segments and the theater segments was shot. The back story was also altered from the pilot; In the pilot episode it is explained that Joel Hodgson (not yet using his character name of Robinson) had built the Satellite of Love and launched himself into space (according to an interview with Hodgson on StarWars.com, it was set in a post-apocalyptic future). Once the series was picked up this was changed, with Joel now having been a janitor at a "satellite loading bay", who was launched into space against his will by his evil "mad scientist" bosses. Joel's captors (played by Beaulieu and Weinstein) did not actually appear outside of the opening theme until several episodes later. Mystery Science Theater 3000 premiered at 6:00 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, November 24, 1988 with its first episode, "Invaders from the Deep", followed by a second episode, "Revenge of the Mysterians" [sic], at 8:00 p.m. Initially, the show's response was unknown, until Mallon set up a phone line for viewers to call in. Response was so great that aside from the first 13 episodes, the station extended the season to 21, with the show running to May 1989. During this time a fan club was set up and the show held its first live show at Scott Hansen's Comedy Gallery in Minneapolis to a crowd of over 600. Despite the success, the station's overall declining fortunes forced it to cancel MST3K. Just as its run at KTMA was ending, the creators used a short "best-of" reel to pitch the concept to executives at the Comedy Channel, a national cable channel that was being created. It became one of the first two shows picked up. New sets were built, the robots were retooled, and a new doorway sequence was shot. Another major change was the show's writing format: instead of ad-lib riffs in the theater, each show was carefully scripted ahead of time. Writer/performer Weinstein did not care for this new format, and subsequently left after the first season. Murphy replaced him as the voice of Tom Servo and Jim Mallon took over as Gypsy. Frank Coniff was Weinstein's replacement in Deep 13. At the same time, Mike Nelson was promoted to head writer. After the second season, The Comedy Channel and rival comedy cable network HA! merged to become Comedy Central. During this change, MST3K became the cable channel's "signature series", expanding from 13 to 24 episodes a year, which would continue until its seventh national season, as the show gradually fell out of favor with the network's new management at the time. Comedy Central ran a 30-hour marathon of previous MST3K episodes during Thanksgiving, 1991, including special promos and a "making of" show (This Is MST3K, hosted by Penn Jillette) that featured a behind the scenes look at episode scripting, filming, voicing, and puppet construction. Bill Corbett first stumbled upon MST3K during this marathon and became an instant fan; he later assumed voice and puppeteer duties for Crow T. Robot, as well as the role of a new character, Observer. The show's run coincided with the growth of the Internet, and numerous fans (MSTies) devoted websites to the series. There were two official fan conventions in Minneapolis, run by the series' production company itself (zanily called "ConventioCon ExpoFest-A-Rama" (1994) and "ConventioCon ExpoFest-A-Rama 2: Electric Bugaloo" (1996), the second being a dual reference to the movie Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo and the children's TV series The Bugaloos). When Joel Hodgson decided to leave the series, halfway through season five, an episode was written in which his character escaped from the S.O.L. (after being forced to sit through the Joe Don Baker movie Mitchell). Joel escaped with the help of Gypsy and Mike Nelson (a temp worker hired by Doctor Forrester to help to prepare for an audit from the Fraternal Order of Mad Science), after they discovered an escape pod (named the Deus ex Machina) in a box marked "Hamdingers". To replace Joel, Dr. Forrester sent Mike up in his place. The series head writer Michael J. Nelson played Mike from 1993 until the end of the series. Among the many troubles the Best Brains staff had with Comedy Central was the latter's desire to cut the show down to a 60-minute time slot. As part of this effort, in the summer of 1993, the MST3K staff selected 30 episodes to split into 60 one-hour segments, hosted by Mike Nelson in his "Jack Perkins" persona. The resulting repackaged series was titled The Mystery Science Theater Hour, and its first-run airings of these half-shows ran from November 1993 to July 1994. Reruns continued through December 1994, and it was syndicated to local stations from September 1995 to September 1996. A feature film, in which Mike and the bots worked over This Island Earth, was released in 1996 during the gap in the show's run between seasons 6 and 7. Unfortunately, Universal Studios invested few resources into the resultant Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie. Distributor Gramercy Pictures had a limited advertising budget and devoted its funds instead to the marketing of the Pamela Anderson film Barb Wire. The film was never given wide release, instead playing for a limited time in different cities and then moving to another city. The result was that many fans did not even know it had been released. The movie was released on DVD in the United States by Image Entertainment, but that release has since gone out of print. Universal Pictures re-released the film on DVD on May 6, 2008. The re-release features a new anamorphic widescreen transfer, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound mix, and the film's original trailer. The movie is also available on DVD in Germany as of October 2007. The film ran for 74 minutes, making it shorter than any episode of the actual series, and shorter than the original film, This Island Earth, itself. When Comedy Central dropped the show after a seventh season of only six episodes, MST3K's Internet fan-base staged a precedent-setting write-in campaign to keep the show alive. This included taking contributions from MST3K fans worldwide for a full-page ad in the television trade publication Daily Variety magazine. One notable contributor to the campaign was TV personality and Biography host Jack Perkins, whom Nelson had impersonated on the series several times. This effort led the Sci Fi Channel to pick up the series, where it resumed with some cast changes and ran for three more seasons. By this time, Trace Beaulieu, who had played Dr. Forrester and Crow, had already departed the series. Mary Jo Pehl took over the lead "Mad" role as Dr. Forrester's mother, Pearl, who had been featured as a regular in season 7. Her sidekicks were the idiotic, Planet of the Apes-inspired Professor Bobo (played by Murphy) and the highly evolved, supposedly omniscient, yet equally idiotic Observer (AKA "Brain Guy"), played by writer Bill Corbett. In addition, Corbett aptly took over Crow's voice and puppetry; with this replacement, the series' entire central cast had changed from the original KTMA / Comedy Central cast. In the middle of the first season on the Sci Fi Channel (the eighth national season overall), Mallon handed over the voice and puppetry work for Gypsy to BBI staffer Patrick Brantseg. At first, Sci-Fi Channel officials mandated that every movie featured on the revived series had to fit within the channel's broad definition of science-fiction (which included horror and fantasy), instead of the varied genres present in past shows. By the final season, this restriction appears to have been loosened, allowing movies such as Girl in Gold Boots and the Joe Don Baker film Final Justice. The series finale, "Danger: Diabolik", premiered on August 8, 1999, although a "lost" episode produced earlier in the season, "Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders", was the last new episode of MST3K broadcast on September 12, 1999. Reruns continued on the Sci Fi Channel until January 31, 2004. Including the feature film, the MST3K cast and crew produced 198 full episodes of the show. As with the run on the Comedy Channel, the Sci Fi Channel run ended due to a change in management. As a two-hour show involving long negotiations for the use of third-party films, MST3K was a tough sell for networks, despite the fan base and ratings. However, many former members of Best Brains insist to this day that they would have loved to continue the show indefinitely, as evidenced by similar new projects such as Cinematic Titanic, RiffTrax and The Film Crew. Eight years after the original series ended it was announced on October 29, 2007 that the Tom Servo, Crow and Gypsy characters would be returning in a series of cartoon webisodes. On November 5, Best Brains, Inc. launched a new official website featuring a weekly series of "animated adventures". The project is headed by former Executive Producer Jim Mallon, who is joined by one of the original show's writers, Paul Chaplin. In addition, Chaplin provides the voice of Crow; the voice actor for Servo is James Moore. The animated series is exclusive to the relaunched mst3k.com along with various behind-the-scenes material from the BBI archives and a new, fully-online version of Best Brains' "Great Stuff You Can Buy" MST3K merchandise store.

Even though this is a countdown for TV shows, I’m gonna delve into the world of movies for this entry, mainly bad movies. Here’s the thing about bad movies: they can be just as entertaining as good movies, mainly for mocking purposes. And, let’s face it: reviews about bad movies are much more enjoyable to read or watch than reviews about good movies because it is a lot more fun to mock movies than to praise them. So, it shouldn’t be shocking that a show with the premise of a man and his robots making fun of bad movies they were forced to watch would become such a cult hit. Mystery Science Theater 3000 continued the tradition of bad as good entertainment that The Gong Show created and pretty made sure that shows like Best Week Ever, The Soup, and countless reality shows would be successful for years, mainly for the purpose of mocking. With so much TV, from reality shows to bad movies, the best entertainment is what happens in your living room. This basic-cable masterpiece raised talking back to the TV into an art form, as Joel Robinson (later Mike Nelson) and his robot buddies Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot were consigned to live on a satellite, watching lousy movies against their will thanks to Dr. Clayton Forrester and TV’s Frank (later Pearl Forrester, Bobo, and Brain Guy). The team's rapid-fire references ranged from the scatological to the Biblical ("Give us Barabbas!" they shout over a crowd scene in “Attack of the Giant Leeches”), they ripped on noticeable goofs (like the man who magically teleported into a scene in “Girl In Gold Boots” and the guy who made a hanglider in “Cave Dwellers,” which takes place in prehistoric times), and they pretty much made many movies watchable (honestly, would you ever consider watching “Prince Of Space” or “Manos: Hands Of Fate” if the MST3K crew wasn’t silhouetted at the bottom and cracking wise on it?). With other meta-TV shows like the aforementioned VH1’s Best Week Ever and E!'s Talk Soup, which later became the aforementioned The Soup, MST3K was an example of what culture critic Steven Johnson called "information filters," or media about other media; it filled the snarky role of blogs before blogs existed. From the vantage of MST3K's lonely Satellite of Love, pop culture was hell, and heaven too. Now, push the button, Frank.

[Doctorin' The Tardis]

This list jumped the shark when The Office (UK) and Arrested Development were ranked behind Battlestar Galactica.

[sryans]

I'm sorry, "Oz" should be much higher than it is. "Deadwood" doesn't even come close to "Oz" as far as quality goes.

[Hulk With A Mustache]

61. Homicide: Life On The Street



Genre: Crime drama, Police procedural.
Created by: Paul Attanasio.
Executive Producer(s): Barry Levinson, Tom Fontana, Jim Finnerty, Julie Martin, James Yoshimura, and Henry Bromell.
Starring: Daniel Baldwin (Det. Beau Felton, 1993-1995), Ned Beatty (Det. Stanley Bolander, 1993-1995), Richard Belzer (Det. John Munch), Andre Braugher (Det. Frank Pembleton, 1993-1998), Reed Diamond (Det. Mike Kellerman, 1995-1998), Giancarlo Esposito (Det. Michael Giardello 1998-1999), Michelle Forbes (M.E. Julianna Cox, 1996-1998), Peter Gerety (Det. Stuart Gharty 1996-1999), Isabella Hofmann (Lt., later Capt. and Det., Megan Russert, 1994-1996), Clark Johnson (Det. Meldrick Lewis), Yaphet Kotto (Lt. Al Giardello), Melissa Leo (Det., later Sgt., Kay Howard 1993-1997), Toni Lewis (Det. Terri Stivers, 1996-1999), Michael Michele (Det. Rene Shepard, 1998-1999), Max Perlich (J. H. Brodie, 1995-1997), Jon Polito (Det. Steve Crosetti, 1993-1994), Kyle Secor (Det. Tim Bayliss), Jon Seda (Det. Paul Falsone, 1997-1999), and Callie Thorne (Det. Laura Ballad, 1997-1999).
Country of Origin: United States.
Number of Seasons: 7.
Number of Episodes: 122 and 1 TV Movie.
Running Time: 60 minutes.
Original Channel: NBC.
Original Run: January 31, 1993 – May 21, 1999, February 13, 2000 (TV Movie).
Spinoffs: There was an internet spinoff, Homicide: Second Shift, that featured the second shift of the Baltimore Homicide unit and aired only on NBC.com from 1997 to 2000, and the TV movie “Homicide: Life Everlasting,” which aired after the show ended and serve as a sort of ending to it. Though not an official spinoff, the show The Wire has so much in common with Homicide (both cop shows that take place in Baltimore) that The Wire is usually considered a spiritual follow-up of Homicide.

Homicide was developed by Paul Attanasio and included film director Barry Levinson as an executive producer, but writer-director Tom Fontana is largely recognized as the guiding hand behind the series. The show was based on David Simon’s nonfiction book Homicide: A Year On The Killing Streets; many characters and stories used throughout the show's seven seasons were based on individuals and events depicted in the book. Coincidentally, Simon would later go on to create The Wire and use characters and stories from his own book as the basis of his show. Homicide's purpose was to provide its viewers with a no-nonsense, police procedural-type glimpse into the lives of a squad of inner-city detectives. As opposed to many television shows and movies involving cops, Homicide initially opted for a bleak sort of realism in its depiction of the job, portraying it as repetitive, spiritually draining, an existential threat to one's psyche, often glamor-free and glory-free, but a social necessity nonetheless. In its attempt to do so, Homicide developed a trademark feel and look that distinguished itself from its contemporaries. For example, the series was filmed with hand-held 16mm cameras almost entirely on location in Baltimore (making the idiosyncratic city something of a character, itself) and was also notable for its regular use of music montages, jump-cut editing, and the three-times-in-a-row repetition of a shot when the moment on-screen was particularly crucial. The series opens with Det. Tim Bayliss being assigned to Lt. Al Giardello's unit and partnered with Det. Frank Pembleton. Pembleton resents having his style cramped with a partner, and Tim, nervous and obviously intimidated, isn't sure he's up to the job. As (bad) luck would have it, his first case is the murder of a young girl, Adena Watson, an 11-year-old whose slaying is given full "red ball" treatment (the term "red ball" being Baltimore police slang for a case designated as top-priority by the unit's brass, usually because of the heavy media coverage it garners). The Adena arc culminates with the first-season episode, "Three Men and Adena," in which Detectives Bayliss and Pembleton interrogate their prime suspect for hours on end within the confines of the unit's claustrophobic interview room, "The Box." Bayliss' character would go on to demonstrate a particular sensitivity where child murders were concerned and, in a fifth-season episode, reveals to Pembleton a series of traumas from his own childhood explaining why. "Night of the Dead Living," also from season one, has the unit working the graveyard shift on a hot summer evening. Meanwhile, the squadroom's air-conditioning has broken down and tempers are running as high as the temperature. Remarkably, the episode is little more than characters sitting around talking, complaining, musing. No murders are investigated, and the camera does not leave the squadroom until the final scene, where the detectives gather on the precinct rooftop at sunrise for a spraying from a garden hose wielded by Lt. Giardello. Despite premiering in the coveted post-Super Bowl time slot, the show opened to lackluster ratings, and cancellation was an immediate threat. However, the show's winning of two Emmy Awards (for Levinson's direction and Fontana's writing of the pilot episode) and the success of another police drama, the more sensational NYPD Blue, helped convince NBC to give it another chance beyond the truncated, nine-episode-long first season. Incidentally, Homicide's four-episode second-season renewal ties it with Seinfeld as the lowest number of episodes ordered in network history. The second season while 4 episodes long featured both a guest appearance from Robin Williams and a police related murder dividing Giardello and Pembleton. The shooting of an unarmed African American drug dealer in East Baltimore leads to the suspicion of White uniformed police officers causing a backlash from the local community. Under pressure to solve the shooting from the politicians and community at large, Captain Barnfather (Clayton LeBouef) and Colonel Granger (Gerald F. Gough) allow Detective Pembleton to interrogate the uniformed officers much to the disdain of Lieutenant Giardello. Gee explains to Pembleton that it is more important to be on the same side as his fellow officers as opposed to the local Black community causing Pembleton to coerce a confession out of another drug dealer who was innocent of the murder. Pembleton however causes Gee to regret the coercion with the sense that Pembleton's interest in finding the shooter is based on justice not his loyalty to the Black community or fellow officers in Blue. The uniformed Lieutenant, James Tyron is then found to have shot the dealer on a tip from Detective Kay Howard and a search of the Lieutenant's residence. In its attempt to improve Homicide's ratings, NBC often insisted on changes, both cosmetic and thematic. For example, by the beginning of the third season, talented but unphotogenic veteran actor Jon Polito had been ordered dropped from the cast. His character, Det. Steve Crosetti, was killed off and the exploration of how his death occurred and how the unit reacted to it is the focus of the above-mentioned season-three episode "Crosetti." In seasons one and two, a frequent obsession of Det. Steve Crosetti was that there was much more involved in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln than had been reported. Det. Crosetti's infatuation with this bordered on a conspiracy theory obsession. Throughout the remainder of the series, Crosetti's partner, Meldrick Lewis, would occasionally refer to Crosetti with affection, as well as express regret that he hadn't been able to predict and prevent Crosetti's death. At around this same time, the network also began clamoring for more on-screen romance and violence. In order to have episodes NBC considered more eye-catching air during "sweeps" periods, it sometimes aired them out of order, often to the detriment of story arcs that had developed over several episodes or even entire seasons. Probably the most infamous of such gaffes was NBC's decision to broadcast an episode featuring the program's first sex scene ("A Model Citizen") prior to the airing of the much acclaimed episode, "Crosetti". (The detective, Polito's character, had been in Atlantic City on vacation since the end of the second season's four episodes; for reasons never fully explained, but perhaps not difficult to surmise, he returns to Baltimore and drowns himself rather than return to his job.) As a result of this deviation from the producers' intended order, viewers of "A Model Citizen" found out from a comment made by his ex-partner, Detective Meldrick Lewis, merely that Crosetti had died but not how or when. The third season also featured a trilogy of episodes ("The City That Bleeds," "Dead End," and "End Game") in which three detectives are seriously wounded as a result of a gunman's ambush, two of them almost fatally; meanwhile, the rest of the unit grapples with this reminder of their own mortality as they hunt for the perpetrator. When the likely suspect cannot be charged for the shootings, he leaves the station house and is later found shot to death, and Det. Bayliss, and the audience, are left to consider the possibility his murder was vigilante justice from the police. Homicide often mixed its characters' personal lives with their professional ones, including several affairs among the department's officers (which tended to end badly). The fourth season saw the departure of two other cast members, Daniel Baldwin (who played Beau Felton) and Ned Beatty (who played Stan Bolander). These characters were said to be on long-term suspension due to some off-duty (and off-screen) carousing that had, in their superiors' opinions, put the Baltimore P.D. in a bad light. When the show's producers decided not to bring these characters back, their departures were retconned into Stan retiring and Beau disappearing, a disappearance that was later revealed to be the result of Beau's working undercover. A new addition to the cast was Reed Diamond as arson detective Mike Kellerman. After working with the Homicide unit in the two-part season premiere, Kellerman transfers to Homicide and becomes the central figure in a storyline that spans both the fifth and sixth seasons. This mammoth arc begins with Mike's questionable shooting death of prominent drug lord Luther Mahoney in season five (Mahoney first makes an appearance in the episode "The Damage Done" in Season 4), whom he'd cornered when Mahoney had lowered, but not dropped, his weapon. A gang war erupts in the aftermath of the death. In addition, Giardello's less-than-stellar relationship with his superiors (who generally regarded him as a "renegade") cost him promotions. Among other things, they took issue with his tendency (albeit unproven) to leak information to the local media when he felt it necessary, as well as his willingness to ignore department protocols in order to get things done. His superiors included Deputy Commissioner for Operations James Harris (Al Freeman, Jr.) and Colonel George Barnfather (both black), as well as Captain Roger Gaffney (Walt MacPherson) (white). Gaffney was previously a detective, and had been transferred out of homicide (for incompetence) to missing persons by then Lieutenant Megan Russert. Despite his belligerence and ineptitude (not to mention the character's less than subtle racism), he was eventually promoted to shift commander, and soon thereafter to Captain (both positions which, ironically, were once held by Detective Russert before her double-demotion). He was chosen for promotion to Captain over Lieutenant Giardello by Commissioner Harris, in retaliation for Giardello's refusal to "play ball" over a previous case involving a Baltimore congressman. Harris, when he was a training officer in the 1960s, had once helped out a young Giardello when he was assigned a racist training officer that made him ride in the back of the squad car. Harris chose Gaffney for retaliatory promotion because he was a "fat Irish ass," very similar to Giardello's training officer. In a later episode in season 5, written by Yaphet Kotto, Giardello gets the last word on Harris, whose name resurfaces when Burundi Robinson, a renegade retired African-American Baltimore cop turned local separatist leader, and his group are involved in a confrontation with the police. Giardello, who attempts to negotiate with Robinson, discovers the former cop, Harris's onetime partner, left the force after taking blame for heroin stolen by Harris. Harris then interferes in the current confrontation trying to protect Robinson, who along with the male members of his group, commits mass suicide at the end. Giardello later formally referred Robinson's accusations against Harris to the Mayor. One notable change involved Pembleton (Andre Braugher's character); who was a high-strung chain smoker, when he suffers a severe stroke during an intense interrogation. It was at the request of Braugher that his brilliant, quick-minded character be hobbled to give him a greater dramatic context. While Pembleton returned the next season with a cane, his speech stammering and halting, with words not coming quickly, adverse audience feedback led to a quick and full recovery that would not have occurred with a real stroke patient. Soon Pembleton, who referenced the stroke from then on, was back to his pre-stroke intensity and drive. The sixth season is noted for its three-part opener, "Blood Ties", guest-starring James Earl Jones as a local philanthropist and pillar of the African-American community whose family becomes the focus of a highly sensitive investigation. The sixth also features the plainly titled episode, "The Subway," about a man who has fallen between a subway car and the edge of the platform and becomes crushed in between the two. Although still alive and without pain due to the spinal severance, he will die from his injuries the moment the car is pulled away from his body. The paramedics know this, but the victim himself does not. Because it's a death literally waiting to happen, the homicide unit is called in to investigate whether the man fell by accident or was deliberately pushed from the platform; at the same time, two detectives attempt to find the victim's girlfriend so they can exchange farewells. Andre Braugher as Detective Frank Pembleton, and Vincent D'Onofrio as the doomed victim John Lange, would earn Emmy nominations for their performances in this episode. The episode, which was inspired by an episode of the documentary series Taxicab Confessions, later became the subject of its own documentary Anatomy of a Homicide. Another notable episode from this season is the two-part finale, "Fallen Heroes", which concludes the Kellerman/Mahoney storyline that began in season five. Perhaps the program's bloodiest episode, "Fallen"'s focus is a violent firefight that takes place inside the walls of the squadroom itself. The late Luther Mahoney's nephew, Junior Bunk, is arrested in connection with a murder, and, left unwatched for a crucial few seconds, swipes a gun from an officer's unlocked desk drawer. After the smoke clears, three police officers and Bunk are dead, two Homicide detectives (Ballard and Gharty) are critically wounded, and a retaliatory attack is launched against the remnants of the Mahoney drug-cartel. Lives are left in shambles and careers destroyed by episode's end. Bayliss is critically wounded as he takes a bullet for a distracted Pembleton. Kellerman, interrogated by Pembleton and Falsone at Giardello's order, admits his poor judgment in shooting Mahoney and is forced to resign from the force in order to save Lewis and Stivers. Anguished over his inability to act in the heat of the moment, Bayliss taking the bullet for him, and being forced to use his interrogation skills against one of his own, Pembleton turns in his badge. This marked Braugher's departure from the series, though he did return for the Homicide TV movie. The seventh season is widely regarded as the weakest, as Andre Braugher's Detective Frank Pembleton is no longer present on the show. Pembleton purportedly left the murder police to teach at an unnamed college. The leaving of the Frank Pembleton character is the point when many fans and television say the show "Jumped The Shark." But the seventh season stands out for its treatment of Kyle Secor's emotionally fragile Bayliss character. The detective whose arrival made for the subject of the very first episode finally begins to unravel under the stress of the job and the effects it has on his unorthodox personal life. (Near the end of the sixth season, Bayliss had begun experimenting with long-simmering bisexual urges and, after a brush with death, spends part of the seventh as a convert to Buddhism; as one might expect, neither is well regarded by his co-workers.) In one of the stand out episodes called HOMICIDE.com, a serial killer is caught and in the series finale the case comes back to haunt Bayliss due to the killer, Luke Ryland, being set free. Ryland is later gunned down in a manner that leaves no evidence, and his killer is revealed in “Homicide: Life Everlasting.” The season also included the tense and bruising episode "Lines of Fire", in which Agent Michael Giardello (Al's son) winds up his FBI career by negotiating with an armed father holding his children hostage. The episode reunited Giancarlo Esposito with his former Bakersfield, P.D. costar Ron Eldard. In the 2000 TV movie filmed after the series ended, “Homicide: Life Everlasting,” the squad's former lieutenant, Al Giardello, is running for mayor (on a controversial pro-drug-legalization platform, a reference to Baltimore mayor Kurt Schmoke) and is close to victory when he is shot during a campaign speech. The assassination attempt inspires the arrival of the entire unit, past and present, in a joint effort to bring down the gunman. Every regular from the series, including two dead characters who make their appearance in a startling, non-flashback scene near the film's end, returns for this final chapter in the series' seven-year-long story, which ends with the capture of the shooter, Giardello's death, and the mourning of his loyal subordinates past and present, as well as his netherworld reunion with Detectives Felton and Crosetti. In the final scene, the spirit of Giardello walks through the station, and finds the spirits of Felton and Crosetti playing cards at a table, much as they might have in life. Giardello takes a seat and notices that there is another empty chair, waiting for another squad member who will die. At first he is worried that it is his son Michael, but Felton and Crosetti say that while it could conceivably be Michael, it could just as equally be any of the other squad members, they do not know; such is life. In the world of the living, Pembleton is upset at Giardello's death and the death of other squad members over the years, and notes that "death goes on and on and on...", but Michael points out that "that is because life goes on and on"... Homicide crossed-over four times with Law & Order. In three of these episodes, a case would begin with L&O (the higher-rated show) in New York City for Part One before moving the action to Baltimore for Part Two: "Charm City" (L&O ep 6x13) /"For God and Country" (H:LotS ep 4x12): A terrorist attack targeting African-Americans kills 20 people in New York, and the Baltimore cops connect it to an earlier racially-driven attack that killed six people. The cops team up to find a militia leader with vile plans before he gets away with murder. "Baby, it's You" Part I (L&O ep 8x6) /"Baby, it's You" Part II (H:LotS ep 6x5): A teenaged supermodel dies after being sexually assaulted. The dual-city investigation focuses at first on an obsessive fan and later on her father, before a stunning revelation closes the case. "Sideshow" Part I (L&O ep 9x14) /"Sideshow" Part II (H:LotS ep 7x15): A murder investigation in New York leads cops in a maze of intrigue that includes a lesbian hitwoman, gang members, and political machinations both for and against the current Administration. Law & Order producer Dick Wolf is a good friend of Tom Fontana, and named the Law & Order character Joe Fontana after him. Detective John Munch would later move to New York and join the NYPD's SVU (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit). "A Doll's Eyes" [ep 4x04] contains a cameo crossover with the CBS Series Chicago Hope. In the episode the organs of the murder victim, a young boy, are shipped to various hospitals across the country. The heart is placed in a cooler with the destination label "Chicago Hope Hospital", and during a montage is received in Chicago by a heart surgeon. This surgeon is played by Mandy Patinkin, who is unnamed in the story but appears in the closing credits as his Chicago Hope character, Dr. Jeffrey Geiger. Homicide also twice crosses over with St. Elsewhere: The Homicide episode "Mercy" features Alfre Woodard reprising her St. Elsewhere character, Dr. Roxanne Turner, while Ed Begley, Jr. has a cameo as his St. Elsewhere character, Dr. Victor Ehrlich (again, unnamed in the story, but identified during the closing credits) in Homicide: The Movie. A number of well-known actors and celebrities appeared on the show, including James Earl Jones, Moses Gunn, Robin Williams, Steve Buscemi, Alfre Woodard, Marcia Gay Harden, Lily Tomlin, Peter Gallagher, Chris Rock, Wilford Brimley, Steve Allen, Bruno Kirby, Edie Falco, Vincent D'Onofrio, Kathryn Erbe, Christopher Meloni, Luis Guzmán, Steve Burns, Elijah Wood, Fisher Stevens, Jake Gyllenhaal, Lewis Black, Bruce Campbell, Paul Giamatti, Terry O'Quinn, David Morse, John Glover, and Jerry Stiller among many others. Typically, well-known actors making guest appearances on Homicide were cast in fully-developed roles central to the episode in which they appeared. Robin Williams's sensitive portrayal of a grieving widower and father in the early episode "Bop Gun" is a notable example, as is Steve Buscemi's role as a suspected gunman in the third-season "End Game." However, some celebrities made essentially cameo appearances which were more lighthearted in nature. Director (and Baltimore native) John Waters appeared twice, once as a nameless bartender listening to a disconsolate Detective Bolander, and another time as a talkative prisoner awaiting transfer from New York to Baltimore (escorted by Det. Mike Logan, played by Chris Noth). Out traveling on his motorcycle, Jay Leno stopped in at the Waterfront to have a beer, quickly departing after finding his bartenders strangely silent. In one particularly self-referential episode, journalist Tim Russert appeared as himself, bickering about Christmas presents with his "cousin," Lieutenant Megan Russert. Film director Barry Levinson, who also executive produced Homicide, acted as himself directing an episode for a show-within-a-show called Homicide in the episode, “The Documentary.” Both the mayor of Baltimore (Kurt Schmoke) and the governor of Maryland (Parris Glendening) made brief appearances in the episode about the death of Beau Felton, appearing at the memorial press conference for Felton's death in the line of duty. The show was considered by critics to be one of television's most authentic police dramas, as well as an excellent dramatic series propelled by a talented ensemble cast. Homicide garnered three straight Television Critic's Awards for outstanding drama from 1996 to 1998 and was the first drama ever to win three of the prestigious Peabody Awards for best drama (1993, 1995, and 1997). The reality of Homicide's negligible Nielsen ratings hovered over all things, however, and always left the show in a precarious position, cancellation-wise; it also had a harder time gaining a large audience because fewer viewers are at home watching TV on Friday nights. To NBC's credit, though, the network managed to keep what TV Guide referred to as "The Best Show You're Not Watching" on the air for five full seasons and seven seasons in all. Homicide was at one time syndicated on Lifetime and Court TV. While these networks no longer air the program, it is now on the all-crime television cable station Sleuth, and airing weekdays at 12 pm (EDT) on Superstation WGN. Also, all seven seasons are available on DVD. One DVD set combines the first two seasons. Additional sets contain the complete third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh seasons. A boxed set shaped like a filing cabinet features an additional disc containing the Homicide TV movie and the relevant Law & Order crossover episodes - those without this disc had to rely on Law & Order recap clips on the season DVDs. Significantly, the DVDs contain the episodes in the producers' intended order, not the order in which NBC aired them. TNT has aired some of the episodes which crossover with Law & Order. These were aired immediately following the relevant Law & Order episode. Homicide: Life on the Street featured an Internet-only spinoff, the web-show Homicide: Second Shift. It was an early Internet tie-in that featured a look at the other shift that worked Homicide after the television show characters went off shift. The show featured separate stories and ran for three seasons, from 1997 to 2000, at NBC.com. "Homicide.com,” the Homicide: Life on the Street season 7 episode, was the middle part of a crossover with Homicide: Second Shift. Though the television episode was self-contained, parts one and three (online only) provided expanded context for the story. Homicide was noteworthy amongst network TV shows in its multi-dimensional depictions of various African Americans throughout the show. While not specifically an African American themed show, it was set in Majority African American Baltimore, Maryland and would naturally display various issues and characteristics of the city's African American community. Homicide managed to cross several racial barriers that were not crossed on previous television series and portrayed by and large a more progressive depiction of African American characters than other previous television series. The show was commended at several award ceremonies themed to African American cinema such as the NAACP sponsored Image Awards which would nominate both the show itself and it's main cast African American actors such as Yaphet Kotto, Andre Braugher, Clark Johnson, Toni Lewis, Michael Michele, and Giancarlo Esposito for various awards.

Long before The Wire was the Best Show On TV, Homicide: Life On The Street was doing what The Wire did in this decade, only on NBC, with censor restrictions. Nevertheless, Homicide became a critically acclaimed series and manage to last 7 seasons despite less-than-spectacular ratings. This deeply character-based police drama from Paul Attanasio, Tom Fontana, and Barry Levinson was notable for being a show where the murders were less important than the psyches of the cops who solved them (and sometimes failed to). “We started out to do a show that deals with the aftereffects of murder, rather than watching a murder and chasing the action,” explained Homicide executive producer Barry Levinson. “We turned the camera in the opposite direction and said the real drama is in the humanity and the loss of life.” Set in Levinson’s hometown of Baltimore and featuring a squad of cops as chatty as the characters in his films “Diner” and “Tin Men,” Homicide became an innovative with the critics for its story, style, and that shaky-cam style it established, which initially made viewers seasick but soon trickled into the mainstream (Michael Bay owes a thank you to this show for that). The ongoing drama involved the Baltimore detectives who tried to turn the writing on the murder board from red (unsolved) to black (closed), including cerebral, intense Frank Pembleton (Braugher, who’s performance as Frank was one of the best and most intense in TV history, so much so that the show went off the air a season after he left; and his departure is considered the moment Homicide jumped the shark), sensitive rookie Tim Bayliss (Secor), imperious Lt. Al Giardello (Kotto), and sardonic John Munch (Belzer, who later reprised the character on every show from Law And Order: Special Victims Unit to The Wire to Arrested Development). Of course, Homicide was never a breakout hit, perhaps because it so strenuously avoided falling into familiar TV formulas. One week, the story was seen from the point of view of the criminals. Another week, it had the unit trying to take a semi-cult led by a former police detective. Another episode featured flashbacks to the 1930s, as the detectives reopen Baltimore’s oldest unsolved mystery. One episode had the gang stuck inside the squadroom all night with the air conditioner broken. And, another had the unit tracking down the person who shot three of their detectives. Plotlines could be intensely condensed (a man (Vincent D’Onofrio) who has fallen between a subway car and the edge of the platform and becomes crushed in between the two, will soon die, and Det. Pembleton has to comfort him as the other detectives investigate the incident) or epically long (the murder of young Adena Watson haunted Det. Bayliss since the 1993 pilot), the quality of the show’s scripts, overseen by Fontana, remained remarkably high. “There’s a concerted effort to reinvent the show,” Fontana said. “None of us ever wants to feel like we’ve made the perfect Homicide.” Well, they came pretty damn close. With an acute sense of the media, political and spiritual ramifications of crime, Homicide drew a broad picture of how many lives were changed when one is taken.

[Hulk With A Mustache]

Okay, here's a recap of numbers 100-61:

100. Saved By The Bell
99. The Real World
98. Rowan And Martin’s Laugh-In
97. The Beverly Hillbillies
96. The Venture Bros.
95. The Brady Bunch
94. Dynasty
93. Hollywood Squares
92. Bonanza
91. Batman
90. Happy Days
89. Taxi
88. Family Ties
87. The Office (U.S.)
86. Bewitched
85. WKRP In Cincinnati
84. Oz
83. The Odd Couple
82. Survivor
81. Gilligan’s Island
80. Freaks And Geeks
79. The Abbott And Costello Show
78. Beverly Hills 90210
77. My So-Called Life
76. Pee-Wee’s Playhouse
75. Everybody Loves Raymond
74. Deadwood
73. Lost
72. The Gong Show
71. The Rocky And Bullwinkle Show
70. The Office (U.K.)
69. The Incredible Hulk
68. King Of The Hill
67. General Hospital
66. Friends
65. Angel
64. Arrested Development
63. Battlestar Galactica
62. Mystery Science Theater 3000
61. Homicide: Life On The Street

Tomorrow, numbers 60 and 59. Here are the hints:

An animated superhero show, and when things aren't bad.

[Beav]

Batman the Animated Series and Good Times?

[Sajoa Moe]

Trivia tidbit: General Hospital's Johnny Berardino was a former shortstop for the Cleveland Indians.

[Hulk With A Mustache]

You know what time it is. Here's number 60:

60. Batman: The Animated Series



Genre: Animated series, Action.
Created by: There were no official creators, but Paul Dini and Bruce Timm are the ones who usually get credit.
Executive Producer(s): Jean MacCurdy, Tom Ruegger, Alan Burnett, Paul Dini, Eric Radomski, and Bruce Timm.
Starring: Kevin Conroy (Bruce Wayne/Batman), Loren Lester (Richard "Dick" Grayson/Robin), Clive Revill (Alfred Pennyworth "On Leather Wings", "Christmas with the Joker" and "Nothing to Fear"), Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. (Alfred Pennyworth rest of the series), Bob Hastings (Commissioner James Gordon), Melissa Gilbert (Barbara Gordon/Batgirl), Brock Peters (Lucius Fox), Robert Costanzo (Detective Harvey Bullock), Lloyd Bochner (Mayor Hamilton Hill), Mari Devon (Summer Gleeson), Marilu Henner (Veronica Vreeland), Diana Muldaur (Dr. Leslie Tompkins), Ingrid Oliu (Officer Renee Montoya 1992-1994), Liane Schirmer (Officer Renee Montoya 1994-1995), William Sanderson (Carl Rossum), Mark Hamill (The Joker), Adrienne Barbeau (Selina Kyle/Catwoman), Paul Willia (Oswald Cobblepot/The Penguin), John Glover (Edward Nygma/The Riddler), Richard Moll (Harvey Dent/Two-Face), David Warner (Ra's al Ghul), Michael Ansara (Dr. Victor Fries/Mr. Freeze), Arleen Sorkin (Dr. Harleen Quinzell/Harley Quinn), Henry Polic II (Jonathan Crane/The Scarecrow), Diane Pershing (Pamela Isley/Poison Ivy), Henry Silva (Bane), Aron Kincaid (Waylon Jones/Killer Croc), Roddy McDowall (Jervis Tetch/The Mad Hatter), Ron Perlman (Matt Hagen/Clayface), Marc Singer (Dr. Kirk Langstrom/Man-Bat), George Dzundza (Arnold Wesker/Ventriloquist), Ed Asner (Roland Daggett), Hart Bochner (Arthur Reeves), George Dzundza (Dr. Gregory Belson), Alison LaPlaca (Mary Dahl/Baby Doll), Dick Miller (Chuckie Sol), Kate Mulgrew (Red Claw), Alan Rachins (Temple Fugate/The Clock King), John P. Ryan (Buzz Bronski), Helen Slater (Talia al Ghul), Steve Susskind (Maximillian "Maxie" Zeus), John Vernon (Rupert Thorne), Abe Vigoda (Salvatore "Sal" Valestra), Bruce Weitz (Lyle Bolton/Lock-Up), and Treat Williams (Professor Milo).
Country of Origin: United States.
Number of Seasons: 3.
Number of Episodes: 85.
Running Time: 22 minutes.
Original Channel: FOX
Original Run: September 5, 1992 – September 16, 1995.
Spinoffs: The New Batman Adventures, a show made by the same people who worked on the show and is usually considered just a continuation of the original series. The series is also credited for paving the way for other Timm/Dini DC animated series, such as Superman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond, Justice League, and Justice League Unlimited. Also, some movies based on the series were made: “Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm,” “Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero,” and “Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman in 2003.”

The original series was partially inspired by Tim Burton's 1989 blockbuster Batman film and the acclaimed Superman cartoons produced by Fleischer Studios in the 1940s. Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski designed the series by closely emulating the Tim Burton films' "otherworldy timelessness," incorporating period features such as black-and-white title cards, police blimps, 40s influenced fashion, 40s influenced car styling and a "vintage" color scheme in a largely film noir-influenced style. The series initially took as its theme a variation of music written by Danny Elfman for Burton's Batman film; later episodes of the series used a new theme with a similar style by Shirley Walker. The score of the series was influenced by Elfman and Walker's work on Batman and Batman Returns and the music of 40s film noir. The art style of the original animated series was also partially a reaction against the realism seen in cartoons like X-Men; the second series in some ways was a further extension of that rejection of realism. Like X-Men, the program was much more adult oriented than previous typical superhero cartoon series. In their constant quest to make the show darker, the producers pushed the boundaries of action cartoons: it was the first such cartoon in years to depict firearms being fired instead of laser guns (only one person has ever been actually depicted as shot; Commissioner Gordon in episode 49 was seen to have a gunshot wound after the firefight was finished), Batman actually punching and kicking the antagonists, as well as the existence of blood (such as Batman having a trail of blood from his mouth); in addition, many of the series' backgrounds were painted on black paper. The distinctive visual combination of film noir imagery and Art Deco designs with a very dark color scheme was called "Dark Deco" by the producers. First-time producers Timm and Radomski reportedly encountered resistance from studio executives, but the success of Burton's first film allowed the embryonic series to survive long enough to produce a pilot episode, "On Leather Wings", which according to Timm "got a lot of people off our backs." The Emmy Award-winning series quickly received wide acclaim for its distinctive animation and mature writing, and it instantly became a hit. Fans of a wide age range praised the show's sophisticated, cinematic tone and psychological stories. Voice-actor Kevin Conroy used two distinct voices to portray Bruce Wayne and Batman, as Michael Keaton had done in the films. This series also featured a supporting cast that included major actors performing the voices of the various classic villains, most notably Mark Hamill, who defined a whole new career for himself in animation with his cheerfully deranged portrayal of the Joker. The voice recording sessions were recorded with the actors together in a studio, like a radio play, unlike most animated films, in which the principal voice actors record separately and never meet (various interviews have noted that such an arrangement (having the cast record together) was a benefit to the show as a whole, as the actors were able to 'react' to one another, rather than simply 'reading the words'). Key to the series' artistic success is that it managed to redefine classic characters, paying homage to their previous portrayals while giving them new dramatic force. The characterization of villains such as Two-Face and the Mad Hatter and heroes like Robin, who had not appeared in the Burton film series, demonstrate this. The Penguin is based upon his appearance in Batman Returns, which was being released at the same time as the series. The series also gave new life to nearly forgotten characters like the Clock King. An often noted example of dramatic change is Mr. Freeze; Batman: TAS turned him from a clichéd mad scientist with a gimmick for cold, to a tragic figure whose frigid exterior hides a doomed love and a cold vindictive fury. Part of the tragedy is mimicked later in the plot of Joel Schumacher's live action movie Batman and Robin, although much of the drama was lost with the resurrection of the pun-quipping mad scientist image. Another example of dramatic change is Clayface, a character who to fans is believed to be far more intriguing to an audience due to his tragic past and almost 'sane' way of dealing with situations, and later influenced DC to recreate their version of the character to fit the animated universes. The most famous of the series' innovations is the Joker's hapless assistant, Harley Quinn, who became so popular that DC Comics later added her to the mainstream Batman comics continuity. This series became a cornerstone of the Warner Bros.' animation department, which became one of the top producers of television animation. For years, Warner Bros. Animation had been known only for doing Looney Tunes and their offshoots such as Tiny Toon Adventures. This was Warner's first attempt at doing a serious animated cartoon and it ended up working better than they thought. It also sparked a large franchise of similar TV adaptations of DC Comics characters. Despite the marketing decision by Warner Bros. of making the series a Saturday morning cartoon, Producer Bruce Timm and the crew were not interested in making a kid's show and they have often stated that this series and others in the DCAU, such as The New Batman Adventures, Batman Beyond, and Justice League, are not children’s' programs but merely include children in their audience. New villains like Red Claw, the ninja Kyodai Ken, and the Sewer King were invented for the series, but to little acclaim. From the episode "Tyger, Tyger" another character named Tygrus was created, whose story was probably inspired by the H.G. Wells novel The Island of Dr. Moreau and William Blake's poem The Tyger. Far more successful was the introduction of Harley Quinn, the Joker's sidekick, and Officer/Detective Renee Montoya (she would later become the super-hero the Question, in the comics) and the sociopathic vigilante Lock-Up, all of whom became characters in the comics. A new character called Baby Doll was also well received. In addition, Mr. Freeze was revised to emulate the series' tragic story. Clayface was reinvented, revised to be much more similar to the 1960s shape-changing version of the character. Poison Ivy's regular appearances on the show helped lead to more frequent appearances in the comics. In two episodes, Batman faces a ninja named Kyodai Ken ("Giant Fist" in Japanese) whose abilities seem to match his own. The Phantasm and general storyline for the movie Mask Of The Phantasm were modified from the Mike Barr-penned story "Batman: Year Two", which ran in Detective Comics #575-578 in the late 1980s; the villain in the comics was named The Reaper. Some characters like Count Vertigo and the Clock King were modified in costume and personality. All characters received an update when the show moved to the WB, having costumes, voices, mannerisms, and overall looks modified. The artwork and colors became sharper and somewhat more cartoonish. The creator stated that the best changes were the Joker, Killer Croc and Scarecrow; who in the new season gained a noose, open chest revealing ribs, and dark complexion with white eyes. One of the most noteworthy changes made is the treatment of Batman's alter ego, Bruce Wayne. In nearly all other media, including the comics, television shows, and films, Bruce deliberately plays up his image as a vacuous, self-absorbed, and not-too-bright billionaire playboy. In the series, his character is treated more seriously, shown as assertive, intelligent, and actively involved in the management of Wayne Enterprises, without jeopardizing his secret identity. In the episode Eternal Youth, for example, he is shown angrily ordering one of his directors to cancel a secret deal with a timber company in the Amazon rainforest ("Shut it down, or you're gone!"). However, aside from displaying these positive aspects, he also deliberately portrays himself as being clumsy (as shown on the flashback of Robin's Reckoning, Part 1; when the announcer at the circus mentions him, Bruce is eating popcorn in his seat, and drops it accidentally as the lights focus on him). In the episode Night of the Ninja, he revealed to reporter Summer Gleason that he has some martial art training, as the reporter previously researched that Bruce once stayed in Japan. However, he only demonstrated himself to be a decent fighter, and nothing like Batman. Further, he did not fight at his best until Gleeson was unable to see. Batman's tools such as the utility belt, grappling hook and Batmobile were redesigned for the series; they have been previously redesigned numerous times over the course of Batman's comic book series as well as for various movie and TV incarnations of Batman. The grapple-launcher, notably, was introduced in the 1989 Batman movie from Tim Burton, and became an important aspect of the animated character. The Batmobile and Batplane are similar to the ones used in the 1989 movie. Certain episodes have become legendary in some fan circles. The most universally hailed episode is the Emmy-award winning "Heart of Ice", which is known for reinventing the character of Mr. Freeze, changing him from a comedic cold-themed villain to a serious, tragic character with a sympathetic backstory. "Robin's Reckoning," a two-part episode chronically how Dick Grayson came to be adopted by Bruce Wayne and became Robin, won an Emmy for Most Outstanding Half Hour or Less Program, beating out The Simpsons and is seen as one of the most mature and iconic Robin origin stories. Other episodes to achieve high recognition are: "Joker's Favor", which marks the first appearance of fan favorite Harley Quinn; "Birds of a Feather", which gives a whole new outlook on Penguin and his human side ; "Two-Face", for its dark, serious, and respectful reinvention of a character that had been somewhat regarded by producers as too gruesome for television; "Mad as a Hatter", in which The Mad Hatter is portrayed as a more human and emotionally fragile member of Batman's rogues gallery, instead of a gimmicked weirdo; "The Laughing Fish", which adapts one of the Joker's best stories; "Read My Lips", a very dark and psychological introduction of the seemingly goofy duo Ventriloquist/Scarface; "If You're So Smart, Why Aren't You Rich?", the show's cleverly-written debut for the Riddler; “House and Garden,” showing a sad human side to Poison Ivy; the two-parter, "Shadow of the Bat", which introduced Barbara Gordon as Batgirl; "Harley and Ivy", the debut of the fan-favorite duo;
"Beware the Gray Ghost", well known for its casting of Adam West as a has-been actor (this is noteworthy, as Adam West played Batman in the original 1960s live-action TV show), who became typecast as a superhero part he played in his youth; "Feat of Clay" establishes a break away from the common criminal version of Clayface, as seen in comics, to a more formidable foe with powers far outmatching the Batman's own strength. The fan favorite episodes "The Man Who Killed Batman", "Almost Got 'Im", "Perchance To Dream," and "POV" are also well known for their unique storytelling approach and plot twists at the end. Sixteen minutes of animated segments in the video game The Adventures of Batman and Robin for the Sega CD are sometimes referred to as a "lost episode" of the series. These segments are intended to be interspersed between gameplay elements of an early-1990s video game and as such, the sound, color and story are not of the same quality of the actual television program. Similar cutscenes appear throughout the video games Batman Vengeance and Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu. The feature-length animated movie “Batman: Mask of the Phantasm” (1993), based on the animated series, started production as a direct-to-video release, but was changed to be a theatrical release near the end of production. The film was well-received by fans of the series, but only generated mediocre box office revenue. Some attributed this to limited last-minute marketing, but the series had good video sales (and later DVD sales) and eventually turned a profit. There was later a direct-to-video movie based on the series: “Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero” which was completed in 1997 as a tie-in to Joel Schumacher's "Batman and Robin" but due to the poor reception of that movie was held back until 1998. This was followed by a second direct-to-video entry, “Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman in 2003.” Movies based on related series include Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (2000) based on Batman Beyond. A made-for-TV feature-length episode of the Batman/Superman series, "World's Finest", has been released on video as The Batman/Superman Movie. Collections of episodes from the series are also readily available on video. Recently, four volumes of four-disc DVD collections have been released in America and the UK, the latest collection contains the first series of The New Batman Adventures, and is available in America. The UK currently has the collection of the first and second series' of Batman: The Animated Series on DVD, which are exclusive to HMV. Batman: The Animated Series premiered on the Fox Network and aired there for its first several seasons during weekday afternoons at 4:30pm. In December, just three months after its debut, Fox began airing episodes of the series on prime-time Sunday evenings, marking one of the few times a show created for Saturday Morning Television was scheduled for prime-time broadcast. However, the TV ratings were poor (the show aired opposite the perennial favorite 60 Minutes), and the series was removed in March 1993. After the series produced its 65th episode (the minimum number necessary for a TV series to be successfully syndicated), the show's popularity encouraged Warner Bros. to produce further episodes, furthering the animated adventures of the Caped Crusader. The series reached 85 episodes before finishing its run of original episodes in 1995. many of the creators went on to design and produce Superman: The Animated Series for Kids' WB before making an additional 24 episodes of Batman, better known as The New Batman Adventures, which aired alongside Superman in an hour-long Batman/Superman show in 1997 following the end of Fox Kids five year exclusive broadcast contract. The New Batman Adventures aired its final episodes in 1999, but continued to air on the network into 2000. In 1999, a new spin-off series, Batman Beyond, was released to further critical acclaim. Then in 2001, the Justice League animated series was released, building on the success of both the Batman and Superman animated series and featured Batman as one of the founders of the League. In addition several direct-to-video features and video games reuniting Batman cast and crew members have been released, the most recent in 2003. Also of note is the fact that several of the animators from Japanese animation studio Sunrise worked on the series; their work on Batman would become a great influence on one of their later series, Big O and the Cowboy Bebop episode "Pierrot le Fou." The show began re-airing on September 30, 2007 on Toon Disney's Jetix lineup along with Superman (despite Warner Bros. being one of Disney's biggest competitors).

Before 1992, animated shows for kids were pretty much made for kids, i.e. bad animation, crappy plots, cheesy dialogue, happy tones, and not that many spectacular actions scenes. That all changed when FOX began airing Batman: The Animated Series. It quickly became a hit with audiences and critics by simply doing something no other cartoon had ever thought of doing: make the show watchable for adults as well as kids. Batman: The Animated Series was one of the first truly "serious" American on-going animated series in some time. Prior to that, most animated fare had been lighthearted and bright, even if it was action oriented. Batman: The Animated Series brought a darkness and seriousness to animation that was almost unheard of at the time, and was more akin to an animated drama than a "cartoon", per se. The storylines dealt with more mature themes. There was no slapstick, although some episodes were touched with sophisticated humor, and the soundtrack itself was more akin to a film soundtrack (owing in part, no doubt, to the desire to make it have a similar feel to the Danny Elfman score of the two Burton films). The animation quality itself tended to be much smoother, with a higher frame rate than the vast majority of animated series prior to its premiere. The series had a profound influence on the superhero animated genre, setting a higher standard of writing and animation quality. For example, the original television series adaptation of X-Men which premiered a few months before Batman featured animation that was typical of the artistic standards in superhero animated series (though, much like Batman, it had more serious and adult stories). However, several years after Batman became a major television success, another series, X-Men: Evolution was produced, which emulated the Warner Bros. animated series's simplified graphics style (the series was also produced by Warner Bros.). In addition, the success of Batman encouraged The Walt Disney Company management to proceed with their own series, Gargoyles, which strove for the same sophistication as the competition and became a cult favorite in its own right. It also gave comic fans some of the best adaptations of comic characters. Kevin Conroy’s Batman is one of the best, and Mark Hamill’s Joker is just a scary as the comic character. It also changed some characters, like Mr. Freeze and Mad Hatter, making them more sympathetic and tragic figures. Before the show, those characters were considered jokes in comics. After the show, they became more fleshed out characters in the comics. Hell, the show’s redefinition of Mr. Freeze’s origin was so popular that DC brought the character back from the dead and then retconned his origin to more closely match that of the series. Plus, characters such as Renee Montoya and Harley Quinn were created for the series, but their popularity proved such that the characters were introduced into DC Comics (additionally, the character Harley Quinn appeared in the television series Birds of Prey and the new animated series The Batman). But, the lasting legacy of Batman: The Animated Series was that it changed the way animated shows were made. The dramatic writing and stylized art of Batman: The Animated Series sets it apart from traditional comic-book based cartoons. Soon, anyone who was making an animated project for kids emulated the show’s style. Not only would we have not gotten Superman: The Animated Series and Justice League but we also wouldn’t have gotten Samurai Jack. Nor would have movies like “The Incredibles” or “Shrek” would have been enjoyable to adults. Batman: The Animated Series didn’t just save kids from crappy animated shows and movies forever; it saved their parents from them as well.

[Hulk With A Mustache]

59. Good Times



Genre: Sitcom.
Created by: Eric Monte and Michael Evans.
Executive Producer(s): Allan Manings and Norman Lear.
Starring: Esther Rolle (Florida Evans Season 1-4, 6), John Amos (James Evans Season 1-3), Jimmie Walker (James “J.J.” Evans, Jr.), Bern Nadette Stanis (Thelma Evans Anderson), Ralph Carter (Michael Evans), Ja'net DuBois (Willona Woods), Janet Jackson (Millicent “Penny” Gordon Woods Season 5-6), Johnny Brown Johnny Brown (Nathan Bookman Seasons 5 and 6; recurring 2-4), and Ben Powers (Keith Albert Anderson Season 6).
Country of Origin: United States.
Number of Seasons: 6.
Number of Episodes: 133.
Running Time: 23 minutes.
Original Channel: CBS.
Original Run: February 8, 1974–August 1, 1979.
Spinoffs: The show is a spinoff of Maude, which was also a spinoff of All In The Family.

Good Times was created by Eric Monte and Michael Evans. The show was based on Monte's childhood; although one of the main characters' name is "Michael Evans", which was the real name of co-creator Mike Evans, who was a co-star on another Norman Lear-produced spinoff of All in the Family, The Jeffersons. The series starred Esther Rolle as Florida Evans and John Amos as her husband, James Evans, Sr.. The characters originated on the sitcom Maude as Florida and Henry Evans, with Florida employed as Maude Findlay's housekeeper in upstate New York. When producers decided to feature the Florida character in her own show, they applied retroactive changes to the characters' history. Henry's name became James, there was no mention of Maude, and the couple now lived in Chicago. Florida and James Evans had three children and the family rented an apartment in a housing project (implicitly the infamous Cabrini-Green projects, shown in the opening and closing credits but never mentioned by name on the show) in a poor, black neighborhood in inner-city Chicago. Florida and James' children were James, Jr., also known as "J.J." (Jimmie Walker), Thelma (Bern Nadette Stanis), and Michael (Ralph Carter). When the series began, J.J. and Thelma were seventeen and sixteen years old, respectively, and Michael, called "the militant midget" by his father due to his passionate activism, was eleven years old. Their exuberant neighbor, and Florida's best friend, was Willona Woods (played by Ja'net Du Bois), a recent divorcée. As was the case on other Norman Lear sitcoms, the characters and subject matter in Good Times were a breakthrough for American television. Working class characters had certainly been featured in sitcoms before (dating back at least to The Honeymooners), but never before had a weekly series featured African American characters living in such impoverished conditions. (Fred and Lamont Sanford of Sanford and Son, though they lived in the poor Watts area of Los Angeles, at least had their own home and business.) Episodes of Good Times dealt with the characters' attempts to "get by" in a high rise project building in Chicago, despite all the odds stacked against them. When he was not unemployed, James Evans was a man of pride and would often say to his wife or family "I ain't accepting no hand-outs". He usually worked at least two jobs, many of them temporary such as a dishwasher or car washer, and when he had to he would gather his trusty pool stick, much to Florida's disappointment, and sneak out and hustle up a few bucks as he struggled to provide for his family. Being a sitcom, however, the episodes were usually more uplifting and positive than they were depressing, as the Evans family stuck together and persevered. The program premiered in February of 1974; high ratings led CBS to renew the program for the 1974–1975 season, as it was the seventeenth-highest-rated program that year. During its first full season on the air, 1974–1975, the show was the seventh-highest-rated program in the Nielsen ratings and a quarter of the American television-viewing public tuned in to an episode during any given week. In the third season, the series was the twenty-fourth-highest-rated program that season. During 1974–1975, three of the top ten highest-rated programs on American TV centered around the lives of African-Americans: Sanford and Son, The Jeffersons, and Good Times. Good Times's ratings however, declined over time partly because of the many times the show was moved around the CBS schedule. However, the ratings eventually went down by the time the show had entered its final season. Almost from the premiere episode, J.J., an aspiring artist, was the public's favorite character on the show and his frequently-invoked catch phrase "Dy-no-mite" became very popular. As the series progressed through its second and third year, however, Rolle and Amos, who played the Evans parents, grew more disillusioned with the direction the show was taking as J.J.'s antics and stereotypically buffoonish behavior took precedence in the storylines. Rolle was rather vocal about disliking the character of J.J. in a 1975 interview with Ebony magazine: "He's eighteen and he doesn't work. He can't read or write. He doesn't think. The show didn't start out to be that...Little by little—with the help of the artist, I suppose, because they couldn't do that to me—they have made J.J. more stupid and enlarged the role. Negative images have been slipped in on us through the character of the oldest child." Although doing so less publicly, Amos also was outspoken about his dissatisfaction with J.J.'s character: "The writers would prefer to put a chicken hat on J.J. and have him prance around saying "DY-NO-MITE", and that way they could waste a few minutes and not have to write meaningful dialogue." The ill feelings came to a head when it came time to negotiate Amos' contract in the summer of 1976, and he was dismissed from the series. Husband-and-wife team Austin and Irma Kalish were hired to oversee the day-to-day running of the show, replacing Allan Manings, who had become executive producer at a time when he was also working on another Lear sitcom, One Day at a Time. The Kalishes and Manings, as script supervisors, threw ideas to writers Roger Shulman, John Baskin, and Bob Peete, and eventually penned an exit for Amos's character. At the beginning of the 1976–1977 season, the family was packing to move from the ghetto to a better life in Mississippi where James had found a job as a partner in a garage. At the end of the first episode that season, Florida learned via a telegram (which, at first, she thought was to congratulate her on her move) that James was killed in a car accident. It was the following episode in which she uttered her famous line: "Damn, damn, DAMN!" The show continued without a father, which was something Rolle did not want to pursue. One of the primary appeals of the project for her had been the presentation it initially offered of the strong black father heading his family. Many critics contend that the show "jumped the shark" after the death of James' character. However, she stayed on hoping that the loss of the father's character would necessitate a shift in J.J.'s character, as J.J. would now become the man of the family. The writers did not take this approach, however; if anything, J.J.'s foolishness only increased. Wanting no further part in such depictions, by the summer of 1977, Rolle left the series. She was written out as marrying and moving to Arizona with her new love interest, Carl Dixon (played by Moses Gunn). Despite this, Good Times still excelled in the Nielsen Ratings, peaking during the 1976-77 season at number 26, making its fourth year breaking the top 30 rated programs. Rolle had disliked the Carl Dixon character, as she believed Florida would not have moved on so quickly after James' death. Rolle also thought the writers had disregarded Florida's devout Christian beliefs by making her fall for Carl, who was an atheist. When Rolle eventually agreed to return to the show, there were several conditions, one of which was that the Carl Dixon character be written out as if he never existed; another condition of her return was she would have a greater say in the storyline and J.J. would become a more respectable character, and she would also receive a raise in pay. With Amos and Rolle gone, Ja'net Du Bois took over as the star, as Willona checked in on the Evans children as they were now living alone. New characters were added or had their roles expanded: Johnny Brown as the overweight building superintendent Nathan Bookman (he had been a recurring character on the show since the second season); Ben Powers as Thelma's husband Keith Anderson; and Janet Jackson as Penny Gordon Woods, an abused girl adopted by Willona. This move made Willona the only character to be in every episode from start to finish. It was at this time that many viewers defected from the series as the fifth season ranked only at number 39, and although Florida returned (the writers had finally let J.J.'s character mature to a point that Rolle found tolerable) for the sixth season in 1978, the viewers did not, and production was halted abruptly in early 1979, after the last season only ranked at number 45. The last original episode of Good Times aired in the summer of 1979. In a series finale typical of the series, each character had a "happy ending." J.J. finally got his big break as an artist for a comic book company, after years of the audience waiting for such a development. J.J.'s newly-created character, DynoWoman, was based on Thelma. Michael attended college and moved into an on-campus dorm. Keith's bad knee miraculously healed, leading to the Chicago Bears offering him a contract to play football. Keith and (a newly pregnant) Thelma moved to a luxury apartment across town in Chicago's upscale Gold Coast area and offered Florida the chance to move in with them (and her future grandchild). Willona became the head buyer of the boutique she worked in; she and Penny moved in to the same building and became their downstairs neighbors (yet again). Today, the show airs in reruns. The network TV One (which can be seen on Comcast cable systems as well as DirecTV) airs the show in a programming block with another African-American sitcom, 227. The sitcom has also aired regularly on TV Land. It first aired as a 48-hour marathon the weekends of July 23, 2005, November 26, 2005, and May 6, 2006. However, TV Land airs the version of episodes that were edited for syndication, while TV One airs the original edits, as they were shown on during its CBS primetime run, albeit digitally-remastered. In late 2006 or early 2007, Good Times was pulled from the TV Land lineup along with several other shows (most notably Happy Days) to make room for some new programming. The show returned in mid-February with a 48-hour weekend marathon. However, the show has now returned to the TV Land lineup, airing every weekday morning, and sporadically as a two-hour block on Thursday evenings. Currently, it can be seen in a two-episode block, (preceded by The Jeffersons) from 3:00AM to 3:30AM (half-hour block, airs every morning) and 11:00AM to 12:00PM, Eastern Time on weekday mornings. Good Times will be available in Canada via Canwest's digital specialty channel, DejaView beginning September 10, 2007. It will air at 3:00pm, 9:00pm and 3:00am. It will also air weekends at 3:00 and 3:30pm. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the entire series on DVD in Region 1 between February 2003 and August 2006. Walmart has also sold seasons of Good Times, with seasons of The Jeffersons in a two pack.

If there is one word that accurately describes Good Times, then it would have to be “ironic.” For one, while it may have been called Good Times, there wasn’t very much of them on the show. From episodes ranging from the family being held at gunpoint by two girls who plan to steal the family’s money to the father James dying, the show was very depressing for a sitcom. Hell, even the theme song had some depressing lyrics: Temporary layoffs/Good Times/Easy credit ripoffs/Good Times/Scratchin’ and survivin’/Good Times/Hangin’ in a chow line/Good Times. But, that was sort of the point. In a television landscape populated almost exclusively by prosperous white characters living in idealized settings and where black families were always presented as somehow broken or fractured, Good Times was the first prime-time series that featured a strong black man at the head of a close-knit lower-middle-class black family. The show took an honest look at the reality of life in the urban Projects, and tackled social and political issues around race, poverty, unemployment, inflation, crime, and addiction, hot button issues that cut across 1970s America. Even the most serious storylines were handled with great comic skill, and Good Times managed to portray the strength and devotion of the Evans family without ever becoming maudlin. Another irony that surrounds the show is the character J.J., though haunted would be more of an appropriate term. While the show was extremely successful at handling controversial topics with humor and dignity, it also had a character (J.J.) who came off a cartoonish and buffoonish to the point where it could perceived as racist. When the show began, it highlighted the struggles of the lower-class black family and provided a solid role model for young black men in the character of James. But the balance of the show shifted as the J.J. character gained popularity, and an increasing number of episodes focused on J.J.'s academic failures, woman-chasing, thievery, and ubiquitous catchphrase, "Dyn-o-mite!" while the character's artistic brilliance and dreams of success were given less attention. Critics were dismayed by J.J.'s clown-like behavior, which was compared to an early 1900s minstrel show performance. This soon led to tension behind the scenes. John Amos and Esther Rolle, who played James and Florida, were adamant about highlighting the Evans family's values and morality against the dangers and temptations of life in the Projects. A battle between co-stars and producers ensued for control over the show's direction. Amos left the sitcom in 1976, and Rolle departed the show in 1977, but returned for the final season. However, J.J. did eventually mature in the show’s later years, and to be fair, his character did have some good moments, like when he painted a picture of a black Jesus. Besides, his character didn’t hurt Good Times or its impact. The other characters sort of overpowered J.J.’s negativity, like outspoken and proud-to-be-black Michael, strong and independent Willona, and, of course, the parents James and Florida. And, while J.J. can be seen as a negative stereotype, it can also be seen as something: identifying the problem, a stereotypical black character being a huge focus on TV, which is also a role most black actors are given (I want to point out that I’m mainly criticizing the J.J. character, not Jimmie Walker; he was just an actor who needed work; and yes, he could have found more work, but he probably would have gotten a role just as stereotypical as or more so than J.J.) Once the problem is identified, it can be changed; and it largely has. Just look at The Cosby Show, Homicide: Life Of The Street, The Wire, ER, The Boondocks; these shows had positive black characters and good roles for black actors. Besides, the show wasn’t as good once the parents left. In fact, James’s death is considered the show’s jumping the shark moment; and Florida’s departure is when the show’s ratings began to decline. Basically, America was telling the writers something: more positive black characters and less negative ones.