Egg McMuffin

Allison Balson was a talented little actress. It’s the writing that failed her. If Nancy had been written as a mischievous little girl instead of as an evil clone of Nellie, her character would be more fondly remembered. She came off well in the episode where Willie got married, as well as the one where Harriet and Nels were kidnapped. But those were exceptions.

I think Harriet would have been OK with it. She was willing to live with attempted murderess Nancy. Say what you will about Albert and his addiction to morPHINE, he never killed or tried to kill anyone. Well, except for Mary’s baby. And Alice Garvey.

We never saw them get married onscreen on Cheers, but no one ever mentioned a destination wedding in Aruba either.

I think it got worse as broadcast network TV declined and the executives became more desperate to hang onto the audience. I remember Carol Burnett saying that in the earlier days of television, executives were less hands on. I know that the networks did a lot of interference with casting, particularly after pilots. Jim Walsh on 90210 was originally played by the actor who played Ferris Bueller’s dad. He was recast (and parts of the pilot reshot) strictly at the network’s insistence. The original female lead on JAG was recast after the pilot, with a younger blonde the producers didn’t like, at NBC’s insistence. When the show moved to CBS, the first thing the producers did was dump the blonde.

I always love seeing Bebe Neuwirth but I also can’t accept the premise that Lilith and Frasier can’t be in the same room together. That contradicts everything we saw in the previous two series. They’ve always had a great deal of affection for each other. Why didn’t Lilith know that Freddy is living with Frasier? She lives in the same city and he’s her only child. Doesn’t she ever come over to visit? The actor who plays Freddy is a dud. I don’t think the character is particularly well written or defined to begin with. But this guy adds nothing to the show. It reminds me of Tim Daly in Wings, another situation where a bland actor with limited comedy chops was cast, when a better comic actor could have helped the show rise to the next level.

I saw the episode in syndication and it was handled pretty tastefully. CBS was being silly. What was funny was that DVD signed a three year contract for the 70s DVD Show and it was a ratings disappointment for the first few seasons; CBS only renewed it because they had to. It was revamped for the final season and Carl Reiner, the creator, came in to produce (he had only been a consultant initially because it was shot in Arizona for the first two seasons). The revamp worked and CBS wanted a fourth year, but as you said, Reiner quit and DVD didn’t want to go on without him. Also, Hope Lange was unhappy and didn’t want to do another year.

They were smart to end it when they did - it’s super consistent over its five seasons. I’ve found that even the best sitcoms decline when they hit season 7 and beyond. Rose Marie said she thought they could have done another three seasons in color - I’m glad they didn’t. The finale is also very clever and brought the show full circle. Most shows didn’t have concluding chapters back then. DVD and Carl Reiner reunited for another Dick Van Dyke Show in the 1970s, with Hope Lange as his wife. It ran for three seasons - not a bad run - but it wasn’t the same.

Sam sexually harassing Rebecca (and yep - it was sexual harassment) during her first season has aged poorly. I’m sure there are some things that he said to Diane during the earlier years that wouldn’t pass muster today. But during season 6, he’s constantly hitting on Rebecca when she’s always making it clear she’s not remotely interested.

Shelley Long was the comic center of the show during its first five seasons. When she left, at times, the writers thought that Sam could be the new comic center of the show (re: Sam being horny). It reminded me of the times when, following Dick York’s departure from Bewitched, the producers thought that Elizabeth Montgomery could now be the funny one. Samantha was better as the straight man, as was Sam Malone.

Was watching “Her Sister’s Shadow” this morning. Why in the world did Mrs Watson feel the need to announce in front of the entire school, “The winner of the essay contest is NOT Jan Brady.” First of all, the point of the assembly was to announce the winner. Why announce who isn’t the winner? Also, you’d think that since Mrs. Watson has failed basic math when calculating final scores, she’d want to double check the number before announcing Nora Coombs as the new winner.

That’s quite a list. But no Jason Bateman?

I also didn’t buy the rushed Niles/CC marriage. I would have written a more subtle ending for them - with a hint at a potential romance to come. But subtlety was never a hallmark of The Nanny.

There should have been some individual character spinoffs right after the show ended. How about: Big Man on Campus follows Greg as he goes to college and deals with juggling his multiple girlfriends: Rachel, Jennifer Nichols, and Linette Carter. Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. Alice decides to give up her job at the Bradys and goes back to work at the diner from “Goodbye Alice, Hello.” She becomes close to her two fellow waitresses, ditzy Myrna Carter and a floozy (Abbe Lane, who payed Beebe Gallini in “Mike’s Horrorscope”). Cindy Brady, Lady. Carol’s snooty mother decides Cindy is too unrefined and pays to send Cindy to an elite New England finishing school, in this precursor to “The Facts of Life.” Co-starring Molly Dodd (the dress shop saleslady in “Brace Yourself” and Mrs Payne in “Kelly’s Kids”) as the school’s headmistress. Tell It Like It Is. Bored with her housework, Carol takes a job as a writer at Tomorrow’s Woman magazine in this workplace comedy. There, she deals with her tough boss, Mr. Delafield, and her colleagues: snooty Nora Maynard, and neurotic Wally Witherspoon. Love and the Older Man. After graduating high school, Marcia marries widowed Dr. Vogel and becomes stepmother to his three bratty children while also helping out at his dental practice.

I agree that Long’s departure ultimately extended the life of the series. The first season after she left is very strong. The showrunners were David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee, who also ran the last two seasons with Long. Those three seasons are the strongest of the series, IMHO. After that trio left at the beginning of season 7, there was a decline in writing. There were still some great episodes, but the show never had the same kind of consistency as it had in earlier years. The change in showrunners hurt the series more than Long’s departure.

I remember Valerie Harper interviewed when the dog on her show “Valerie” disappeared after season 1. She claimed it was too difficult to work with him. And later on, Valerie herself disappeared after season 2. The producers claimed it was too difficult to work with her.

We did see Hester a few times. She was on “Cheers,” played by the late, great Nancy Marchand. Hester hated that Frasier was dating a “pseudo-intellectual barmaid” and threatened to kill Diane. It was actually a pretty funny episode. Later on, Rita Wilson played Hester on “Frasier” in a flashback or fantasy sequence, and she was doing an impression of Marchand’s portrayal.

I don’t particularly care for Freddy. I like the college angle, but too bad they felt the need to use Harvard - I just don’t buy that they’d ever hire someone like Frasier. I did like the flashbacks to the Dr. Crane show era (“I’m Glistening” - lol). And I liked when David mentioned being “twinsies.” I think this has potential. The woman with the baby who lives across the hall (can’t remember her name) adds nothing to the show.

Clark Tyson is a moron. I’m watching “The Not-So-Ugly Duckling” episode (aka the George Glass episode), and Clark is mansplaining to Jan that her drawing of a map of the United States looks weird because she forgot Baja California. LOL - Baja California isn’t part of the US. Clark also thinks that Jan doesn’t look much like a girl. He also needs glasses.

Shelley Long was pregnant during the third season of Cheers. They hid the pregnancy onscreen. She wasn’t really in the last few episodes of the season beyond a couple of spliced-in scenes (she quit Cheers to go to Europe with Frasier). There was one memorable episode that season where Diane spent most of the episode trapped in a heating vent in the floor of Cheers. And she was participating in the B-story by calling her lines out from the floor. It was pretty funny.

Joyce and Suzanne did an appearance together on some internet talk show about 7 or 8 years ago, where they buried the hatchet.

I also first discovered the Isley Brothers through Moonlighting. Super disappointed that the song is gone. The pilot is wonderful. It’s feature film quality in many ways. I don’t think this is a show you can binge watch. It’s better to savor that wonderful dialogue one episode at a time. It’s just amazing to me watching an inexperienced Bruce Willis coming in and just owning that role from the first episode.

Kelsey Grammer has slipped back into the role like no time passed. Nicholas Lyndhurst is the best thing about the new cast. I also agree about Freddy - I just can’t reconcile him with Trevor Einhorn’s portrayal. But I never bought Martin Crane as the father of Frasier and Niles either - I went with it because it was funny. So I’ll give this new Freddy a chance too. The dean and Eve aren’t all that interesting. I did like David. It’s kind of depressing that Frasier is single, like he was in the series. They missed an opportunity to have him married again, with his new wife a main character. It’s not awful, and I’m willing to give it more time to gel. But it’s a B- for me at this point, due to Grammer and Lyndhurst. Without them, it would be a C. Oh, and I hated the stilted exposition at the beginning. “How was your father’s funeral?” Ugh - that’s a pet peeve of mine. It reminds me of the last episode of the Brady Bunch. “That was a great graduation ceremony, Greg. Too bad your father was out of town and had to miss it!”

Count me among those who thought Lilith was the best match for Frasier. I hated what they did to their relationship at the end of Cheers. But at that point, Kelsey Grammer’s new proposed show wasn’t going to be a spinoff for Frasier. The Cheers writers broke up Frasier and Lilith because Bebe Neuwirth was no longer interested in being a series regular and wanted to go back to the stage. She did agree to do I believe six episodes in that final season. Why they couldn’t have Lilith show up occasionally at the bar - as she did in her early seasons - rather than do the whole break up story is beyond me. My guess is that the writers were running out of story ideas. Lilith and Frasier reunited late in the final Cheers season so they could have a happy ending (again, Paramount and NBC hadn’t yet decided that Kelsey’s new show would be a spinoff). When they finally decided on a Frasier spinoff, Kelsey didn’t want Frasier to be wed to Lilith because he felt they had already done that relationship on Cheers. I doubt that Bebe would have agreed to be a regular in the spinoff, but she wasn’t asked. Too bad, because I would have loved to have seen a Frasier and Lilith show.

Re: the men in town for not helping Charles. Who are we to judge the mores of the 19th century, while we sit in our BarcaLoungers eating spicy curly fries?

All great points. As silly as that sequence is, it’s upsetting to see our beloved TV family shot dead, fake bullets and all. The writers were driving home the point that violence is scary, and that sequence is oddly effective in making their argument.