Dave in Chicago

So wait, which is worse: when 90210 is incredibly self-serious or when it tries to go goofy? Seems like there's no middle ground, and each fails in its own way. Also, I didn't watch this when it originally aired so maybe someone can contextualize for me. This show does a lot of grifting subplots, but also just low level crime in general - gambling, mugging, etc. Was this an effort to make the show seem more "Big City" for midwestern audiences? Making sure this doesn't get mistaken for another teen show by showing how Grown-Up and Dangerous Beverly Hills can be? For a while there I thought that the culture clash element was abandoned partway into season one, but now that I think of it the subtext of a lot of these storylines could still plausibly be "only in California, because we're very edgy". Was that still part of the show's premise at this point, or am I giving this show more conceptual unity than it deserves?

There was a definite change in tone in the last season (and arguably some of 6, too). I'm going to gently suggest that some of the exaggerated season 7 reputation is not strictly about quality loss, but rather came from certain relationships not going the way fans wanted. Of course, both things can be true.

I think "The Office" is a tough sell for the NONAC, as others are saying - when it got bad, it got BAD. There's so much to choose from. This week's "Untucked" was full-on delightful, just a total ray of sunshine. I used to ignore "Untucked" for the most part but it's become really essential.

I love spending time with this show, but plot is not its strong suit. This felt like definite "The CW ordered more episodes than we expected" territory - still as charming as ever, but I'm not sure where any of this is going.

My school's senior superlatives had some pretty dubious categories - I know there was "Most likely to be a guest on 'Jerry Springer'" but I feel like I'm forgetting some that were even more openly judgmental. I also remember our Ahndrea equivalent deciding to revamp the categories to be less shallow and to remove anything actively insulting. It was the right call, but I remember some complaints about it being less fun after that.

Does Dylan realize that by saying Kelly should be voted "Best Lover" in the senior poll, that soooort of implies he thinks she would win a majority vote? Not his best line.

If the strategy is to assign him something so frivolous that he either can't make it self-important, or his doing so is just immediately, transparently false... season 2 of "The Slap"? Or nix his Lucille Ball project and stick him with a Sherwood Schwartz biopic instead.

I remember CBS first announced the "adult Nancy Drew" show was in development around the same time they announced their "young Miss Marple" pitch. It's like, calm down and just admit you wish you made "Mysteries of Laura", CBS.

Right? It looked like when Oscar the Grouch eats ice cream and it matches his fur.

I always thought we deserved a "Gilmore Girls" spin-off where Paris decides that she needs more real-world life experience before committing to her career full-time/to bide her time until she's 35 and can run for president. So through some contrivance she decides to captain a cruise ship and see the world. She hires Michel and Sookie as staff, the rest is rotating guest stars and hijinks.

This is so weird - I actually tried watching "The Incredible, Unmentionable Uncle Trip" just last week on youtube, and thought it was too boring to send in for "Let's go to the tape". Or actually, I stopped when the tooth decay segment was too gross to deal with or even contemplate. It was a rare starring role for the "Time for Timer" nutrition mascot!

I'm delighted by the idea of "a pretty major role on 'Sliders'." I'm just going to leave this here.

Things I learned today: all space show premises sound nearly identical as soon as you remove proper nouns.

I knew the NONAC technicalities might DQ my submission, but I thought the sheer pain factor might overrule. Still: I regret nothing, and y'all were good sports about this. Okay, maybe I regret Sarah's untimely demise. R.I.P. Another regret: I had no idea that audio quality was that poor. Dave is some kind of saint for using it anyway, especially considering what it meant suffering through.

A+ Montgomery Clift joke. I didn't watch back when 90210 was first airing, but I remember a lot of tall hair references from "MadTV" and the like. Never realized how bad the situation really was.

Three episodes in and I'm pretty split on this - I love a lot of the cast, but the slow burn approach is something that is smart on paper but frustrating in practice. Netflix shouldn't have guaranteed them a second season from the start, because that means they were able to double down on taking the long road. The last thing Judd Apatow needed was a larger canvas and less reason to edit.

Thanks again to EHGAssist for helping me put that game together! Listening to that exceeded my expectations, as I was worried about getting too cutesy with the false answers. And if nothing else, now we've all been introduced to Foofur. I watched all of "Persons Unknown" AND "Push, Nevada". Yup.

I remember this song vividly, and didn't see a second of the actual show. Don't know that I can fault FOX for making that particular call.

My prediction is that the way "Full House" had the Beach Boys, "Fuller House" will get Boyz II Men involved somehow. Mainly so Stephanie can reprise her "Motown Philly" dance. Look at all the dancing in that trailer and tell me I'm wrong.

I wouldn't just single out Mikkelson, there. Everyone on that show was directed to speak in a smug, erotic stage-whisper at all times.

Thorgy references Gilda Radner's "Let's Talk Dirty to the Animals"? I'm sold! Poor Kim Chi seems most likely to be the one mentioning all the great outfits she still had in her suitcase on her way off the show. The looks on Kim Chi's website are really impressive, but that interview was deathly dull.

Just going to throw this out there for lack of a better place to do so: I recently realized that "Project Runway" has never been considered for the Canon. I don't think I'm going to be the person to tackle this, but that feels overdue. I'm not sure what would be the stand-out choice, though: Gretchen's infamous meltdown? The season one finale, with all the Wendy Pepper drama plus the rule-bending shoes?

David Sims on twitter just posted this: The NBC tradition lives!

The "D average" is such a heartbreaker example of bad TV writing. I also want to roll my eyes at how literal the tightrope metaphor is, but as a college freshman I was once roped into a promotional photo shoot for scholarship kids where they made us balance books on our heads. You know, to show that academics are a balancing act? Stuff!

Just think: if they'd done a 61st anniversary, we might have been gifted with a contribution from the "Rags to Riches" girls. Something from "Les Miz"?