TheOtherOne

Heidi Gardner Couldn’t Prepare for What She Saw https://www.vulture.com/article/snl-heidi-gardner-beavis-and-butthead-sketch-interview.html

PREACH! I mean, I've come to enjoy the new show a lot lately for what it is, no small thing considering how bad the first season was. But the writing isn't even close to what the original was.

For me, he's Jack Crawley, the corporate executive who had a woman's boyfriend murdered and framed her for it to get her to sign off on fraudulent financial reports in the first season of Criminal Intent.

Officially renewed for Season 2: https://tvline.com/news/frasier-renewed-season-2-paramount-plus-revival-kelsey-grammer-1235172057/

As an angry crank who's complained a lot about this show and mostly been watching for lack of anything else...this one was actually funny. The best episode since "Blood Moon Binga." Last week's was an improvement on the previous few weeks, but this one was actually good. Yeah, there was line the new clerk had (it might have been the "This isn't me changing the subject, but...'First case!'") where I was like, it's nice to have a character who's actually funny in this position. (No offense to the Neil actor, because most of the problems with that character was the writing, since he was consistently written as whiny and downtrodden...and not in a funny way.) It was amusing how they portrayed the injury lawyers being so joined at the hip, since the real-life inspiration (Cellino & Barnes) famously flamed out, turned out to hate each other, and split up their firm. (And then one died in a plane crash or something.) Paul Scheer doesn't always work for me, but he was well-used here. Yes, Olivia was legitimately funny (for once?), and Abby's story managed to get some genuine emotion (and Dan was well used in that final scene). The combination of humor and heart felt more like classic Night Court. This was great. More like this, please.

Different strokes and all, but I didn't think the old show was dumb at all. Silly on the surface--sure--but also pretty smart. There was a reason it received multiple Emmy nominations for Outstanding Comedy Series (back when there was a strict 5 nominees, not all the number they throw nominations at these days). As usual, I turned on the old show on Amazon Freevee last night to play a few episodes while I was working out. The way there was usually a dramatic plotline combined with a just-for-laughs one was always a fascinating combination of tones. Last night's were "New Year's Leave" (a sweet old man arrested in a nightgown turns out to be an escaped felon trying to visit Times Square where he met his wife before he dies; Bull tries to catch a man in a diaper who's claiming to be the new year 1987 who's running amok in the courthouse) and "Murder" (a woman claiming to have shot her husband turns herself in to the courtroom; meanwhile Dan tries to donate sperm for money, is told he has low swimmers, and tries to abstain from sexual activity for two weeks so he can be retested). Both have good moments for all six regulars plus the guest stars (who are well-developed as human beings), both are smart and very funny. I know this wouldn't fly today, but it's hilarious and well-written (and actually sounds like a studio audience responding to what's happening...).

In case anyone else was looking for it.

This week in the terrible laugh track: that sad applause and wooing that popped up when Dan appeared in the courtroom, too short and half-hearted to be a believable human reaction (even if it were at all plausible that an audience would cheer a character they'd already seen earlier in the episode, which it wasn't). Dan and Roz's plot was good, and I enjoyed Gurg's fakeout/lie at the end. Olivia's plot was too underdeveloped, though there was a decent idea in there. Flobert is too much of a cartoon to work as a character who'll generate story, which means he'll be no more successful than Neil if they don't develop him ASAP. Right now they still only have four characters they can build stories around, requiring them to lean on guest stars like Roz.

Maria Bamford's delivery of "I guess we have a lot in common, Kareem Abdul-Jabar" was the biggest/only real laugh for me. The laugh track is such an energy suck on the show. I'm assuming they're filming in front of a live audience, but whether they're tampering with the audience laughter or using canned responses, it just doesn't sound real. It really sounds like someone's pushing a button after each punchline to generate this low energy, not-too-loud burst of canned laughter. Compared to original Night Court, or any 80s (and a lot of 90s) sitcoms, it doesn't sound like the actual sounds of a studio audience reacting.

Confirmed: Neil is no longer on the show. Night Court: Kapil Talwakar Not Returning as Neil in Season 2

The title of this episode is "A Night Court Before Christmas." "The Night Court Before Christmas" is a stone-cold classic and one my favorite episodes of the original series, an episode I fondly remembered from my childhood and have rewatched numerous times since the series became available on Amazon. Bull mistakes a truck full of toys that are evidence in a case for donations for Toys for Tots, and after he and Roz distribute them to kids, she refuses to reveal where they were donated so they can be taken back, forcing Harry to throw her in jail for contempt. Meanwhile, Buddy visits for Christmas, and the two plots eventually intersect. A nicely Roz-centric episode (still a rarity at that point in the series' run), with good moments for the entire ensemble and the perfect amount of holiday sentiment without losing the laughs. I love it. eta: (And yes, it kind of sucks that the new show used such a similar title.)

Not tighty whities; white boxer briefs. (And yes, I was paying close attention.)

On a happier note, Peri Gilpin interview. Frasier’s Peri Gilpin Wishes Roz Was a Little More Like Liz Lemon

I didn't read my own link carefully enough to see there was a clip from the episode at the bottom.

Entertainment Weekly: Damn it, Frasier! Peri Gilpin returns as Roz Doyle in Frasier season finale "It was a fantasy come true to play that part again and to go back into that world."

Enjoyable, and probably the best episode yet, even if it still felt slightly off. The insults were overwritten and too wordy--I immediately thought of the early interview the showrunners did where they admitted Kelsey told them they were using too many words--but Kelsey and Bebe know how to sell them, no matter how tongue-twisting. Lilith is such a well-defined character it made clear how some of the others--Freddy, especially Eve--are not. But watching Frasier and Lilith interacting is always a pleasure, and not remembering Alan was a good bit that made good use of both their characters. I liked the callback to Freddy's goth past, even if seeing this Freddy opposite both Frasier and Lilith made it that much harder to believe this is the same character or that he came from these two people. I also appreciated how Lilith isn't as judgmental and disapproving of Freddy's life and career, unlike Frasier, which I would have thought she would be. It reminds me of "Lilith Needs a Favor" when Frasier said, "Lilith is a wonderful mother." As sharp-tongued and judgmental as she can be most of the time, she really is a good mother. And as someone who always appreciated that they had the episode with Freddy's 13th birthday/bar mitzvah air the first week of November 2002, 13 years after his birth episode aired, also the first week of November in 1989, I'm glad this one was aired in November, unlike that typical TV thing of having characters' birthdays move all around the calendar.)

This is a universe (or only-in-TV-world) where a woman who just met Lilith and Frasier tried to set them up on a blind date. I can believe Eve knew all the parties involved better than that. That said, Frasier's leering strut at the end after "Still got it" just made me sad and think he's really too old to be acting like this. He looks so...haggard. To be acting like that as his age...it was verging on creepy old man territory.

Well, this would have been a terrible idea. Thank goodness he talked them out of it. (Plus it would have been too much like Ross sleeping with someone else after fighting with Rachel.) ‘Friends’ Actor Says Matthew Perry Refused to Let Chandler Cheat on Monica, Asked Writers to Scrap Storyline Because Fans ‘Would Never Forgive’ Him

The fact that Niles got three different women to marry him might be enough to give his son the impression he was a ladies' man, without Niles having to say anything.

TBS doing its own marathon. TBS to Honor ‘Friends’ Star Matthew Perry With ‘Best of Chandler’ Marathon The article lists the episodes they're showing (each day has a theme). Probably too long to copy and post here.

You called it. ‘Matthew Perry: Thanks For Being A Friend’ Tribute Special Set To Air On Nick At Nite To Commemorate ‘Friends’ Star "Matthew Perry will be commemorated at Nick at Nite with a tribute special titled Matthew Perry: Thanks for Being a Friend set to air on Sunday, Oct 29 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. The special comes following the death of the Friends star on Saturday and will feature never-before-seen interviews with Perry, behind-the-scenes moments from the set over the past 35 years, and stories about Perry’s best moments as Chandler Bing and his unbreakable bond with his co-stars. After the half-hour special airs, Nick at Nite will air fan-favorite episodes of Friends featuring Perry in his iconic role as Chandler Bing. Episodes will continue to air all next week through Sunday, Nov. 5, beginning at 10 p.m. ET/PT."

I just rewatched it and I think you're right. The first time through when he said the part about the "pathetic Craniac thing [she] made up" I read her reaction as that yes, she had made it up. But now I can see it as more that, no, she hadn't really made it up. She could have played it bigger, or differently, to make it clearer, but I get it now.

I like that they acknowledged the implausibility of Frasier being hired at Harvard and are trying to justify it in-universe, even though the idea that Harvard of all places needs a dancing bear to excite students about learning still makes little sense. (Based on the ending, I'm assuming Olivia's spiel at the end was all bullshit, so she really does just want him there as the bear? Rewatched. Maybe not.) They did a good job using the whole cast, but on the whole I thought this was weaker than the first two. Frasier's dialogue still felt forced, and the combination of the terrible tan and stiff-legged walking he was doing made him look and feel really old. Combined with all the embarrassing show stuff it made me sad for him. (Though I realize Frasier being humiliated was a recurring theme on the old show too.) Freddy came across as really smug and unlikable, and the long section mocking Frasier about dropping out of Harvard really just served as a reminder that "dropped out of Harvard" is 90% of Freddy's personality on this show (with the Backdraft joke to indicate that "firefighter" is the other 10%). Fine. You dropped out of Harvard and are a firefighter. What else is there to you? I thought David was less annoying (and for better or worse, he does have a distinct personality.) Finally noticed from the credits that the student in Frasier's class who wanted him to talk to his mom on the phone and who he inspired not to be a dancer in the first episode is played by Owen Lloyd, who I'm pretty sure is the son of Christopher Lloyd, the producer and showrunner of the best seasons of the original show--1-7 and 11 (whose father David was a legendary writer on the original show and many others, and whose brother Stephen is a producer on this one). Variety said Chris is involved in the revival, and I guess that's proof, though he doesn't seem to have a credit. However much he's contributed to the show, I suspect it could use more of him.

Ouch. Hopefully this is because everyone already saw it on Paramount+ or one of the other places they posted it.

I think one of the problems is that they tried to do a Frasier-style farce right off the bat...but even the original show didn't really start doing them until Season 2. The original pilot is still one of the best pilots I've ever seen, and rightfully won Emmys for writing and directing. I rewatch it often, and it's pretty much entirely character-driven: a series of long one-on-one (and in a couple instances threeway) conversations. The characters are all quickly defined within their first introductions and then we get to spend time with them and see how they interact with each other. In this one we have one character we know (who sounds slightly off) and five we're barely introduced to before they're thrust into a quasi-farce with people running in and out of a room. So neither the characters nor the chemistry had been developed yet, and the actors were left to overcompensate.