Egg McMuffin

This truly seems like a reboot no one asked for. When was the last time the original series was rerun? If you have to bring back a Steven Bochco/David Kelley creation, why not L.A. Law, which at least was a major hit? (In fairness, a reboot of that show has been proposed several times over the past few years, but hasn’t panned out yet).

Yep - ratings dip during the summer and even spring once daylight savings comes. So you can’t really compare the ratings for the later hosts to those for the earlier hosts. The pre-daylight savings hosts had an advantage. I think you’re spot on with your theory. Richards was always intended to be Trebek’s successor (or even Sajak’s) and he was brought in a producer so they could get him working in the organization and see what he would be like to work with.

There’s always the common wisdom that you don’t want to replace a popular person in a job. You want to replace the person who replaced the popular person. Remember Deborah Norville on Today? If Richards get the job and the ratings tank, he’ll be replaced quickly. The show is too valuable a franchise to let it sink, and there’s a great deal of people who can do the job competently.

Yep. The articles I’ve read said that Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Tony Vinciquerra made the selection. Richards is the showrunner of Jeopardy but that’s basically middle management. It’s not the same as being the showrunner of something like The Sopranos, where you are the creative power and have a great deal of clout.

The return of Spike!

What’s funny is that Scott Baio actually left HD after his first season to star in Garry Marshall’s “Who’s Watching the Kids”. When that flopped, he returned to HD for the latter half of season 6. But a good chunk of season 6 is Chachi-free. If WWTK had taken off, what would HD have been like in its later years?

The judge presiding over that case dismissed Richards as a defendant about a month before the plaintiff settled the suit with the remaining defendants.

Arnold’s burned down with 8 episodes to go in season 7. And then Richie and Ralph left in between seasons and as the poster above noted, season 8 starts with Fonzie as a teacher. So it’s close. There aren’t very many episodes with the new Arnolds and Richie and Ralph still around.

Richards actually returned as Alicia only 10 episodes after “Someone, Please Love Me” in “The Return of Mr Edwards” (season six). It’s jarring to watch in reruns, to see her back as a different character, so quickly.

Why do they need nice dishes when they live in that crapshack? Charles should have bought Caroline a nice ham. Much more practical.

Dr Quinn would be much better if had more blind people. And orphans. And blind orphans. And fires. And mimes running around attacking people.

Albert killed Alice and Mary’s baby. Charles knew that the schlong of healing wouldn’t work for Albert because his God is vengeful. But the worst thing that James did was wear a bowl haircut and break Albert’s razor (note whose razor it was), so his God was willing to go along in that case.

I’ve heard Katherine MacGregor describe Harriet as “foolish” as well. What’s interesting is that in the early episodes, Harriet is not foolish at all, but instead a sharp, manipulative, often hateful character who is a threat. It’s only as time went on that they changed her into comic relief and she became foolish.

I dislike the Bully Boys because Alden is such a naive, sanctimonious jackass, and everyone listens to him.

Dynasty was a different show in its first year - not just about the Carringtons but also about the middle class Blaisdels and even the old wildcatter, Walter Lankershim. By season 2, it was all about glamour and glitz and anyone who didn’t fit into that world was gone. I like The Camp-Out a lot, though the Ingalls girls predictably let something awful happened to the Olesons and feel they are justified in their behavior.

She was also a regular on Dynasty during its first season, playing the daughter of Claudia Blaisdel. I liked her as well. She has a Youtube channel and shares some of her memories in the comments.

Katy Kurtzman also played Anna, the young girl with the stutter whom Nellie Oleson bullied.

I never liked that actress, no matter what she showed up in. “Kith me, my wub.”

Meredith would almost certainly be amazing on Jeopardy - smart, warm, and polished. But she’s already got a daily syndicated gameshow and is probably not contractually available. Also, she’s 67, and my guess is the producers will go younger.

My guess is it will be the latter. They could have chosen a host back in January. But they didn’t want the new host to debut the Monday after Alex’s last show. They wanted to give the new person some distance from the Trebek episodes. And I think that’s still true.

Levar’s first episode wasn’t great. Maybe he’ll improve. I do not get the support for Ken Jennings. At all. Yes, he did fine for an amateur. But he’s an amateur and I found him really stiff and labored compared to the some of the professional broadcasters who have guest hosted. Yet I think the producers have already decided on Ken, and they’ll announce it next week and then fill the rest of the time until his premiere with reruns of his episodes from January.

Interesting - I didn’t know that about the real LIW. Frankly, the episode would have been much more entertaining if Laura had stood up to that bastard instead of the stereotypical cowering in fear. But then we would have been denied the cathartic scene of Pa saving the day!

Imagine how much more fun Father Murphy would have been if Katherine Cannon played Mrs. Murphy more like her later character, Felice Martin on 90210.

Amen. But knowing Michael Landon’s style, he would have shoved Mary and Adam into that spinoff to up the tragedy quotient.

Speaking of Nellie, I wish we had had a chance to see her as a parent. She knew all the angles from her experience as a kid and she didn’t put up with much crap. I’m sure she raised them better than she was raised.