S04.E04: Crazy Calls

[Stinger97]

Quote

Murray and Pop-Pop have a message war after getting their first-ever answering machines; Beverly worries about Adam's social standing when he starts spending his lunch time with some geeks in the computer room.

[WescottF1]

IMDB doesn't say who is playing Pop-Pop this time around.  Judd Hirsch has been on Big Bang Theory as Leonard's dad lately.

It does show that Joanna Kerns is the director.  I didn't know she had gone into that.

[jumper sage]

I don't get the whole lunchroom thing.  In elementary school we went home every day.  In junior high we could go on the grounds of the school so most people did.  If it was strong winter you could eat in dedicated places around the school which included the cafeteria but also included the stage and back stage area.  We used to picnic on the stage along with many, many others.  In high school we had an open campus so most people went home for lunch.  A lady who lived by the school opened her basement up like a restaurant and for $2 or so you could get a complete lunch, child style.

Is there really a hierarchy? 

Loved phone wars.

[Runningwild]

I always ate in the lunch room. I don't remember it being grouped like that with the different cliques. I always ate with my friends. We weren't jocks, nerds, or band geeks. Just friends. 

[DrSpaceman73]

we could never leave the school for lunch and always had to eat in the lunch room.  Not really so much a big deal where you sat, but there were no assigned seats yet everyone always sat in the same place with the same people. 

Loved the Crazy Calls tape.  I remember all those from the commercial they used to show.  Also had one to the music of Beethoven's Fifth where they sang "Nobody's Hoooooome". 

[jww]

I doubt that a slice of cheese would be stiff enough to go into a floppy drive.  In 1985 Apples were $2-3,000 and vandalizing one would be grounds for expulsion ($5,000 2016) if not arrest.  Is Penn Academy so big it needs two lunch periods?  My high school had two lunch periods but we also had 3,000 students.

[jumper sage]

We had about 800 students about 200 in each class and 3 lunches.  I guess it depends on the size of the lunch room.

59 minutes ago, jww said:

I doubt that a slice of cheese would be stiff enough to go into a floppy drive

I thought that was weird too.  I thought I saw bread with cheese.  I don't like that the sister is so mundane this season.  So what if she doesn't have a boyfriend.  By the 80s getting married right out of school was no cool.

[Gregg247]

I was in high school in the 70's-80's, and who you sat with WAS important, both in the lunchroom as well as hanging around in the parking lot just before the next class after lunch.  That part rang true.  

I loved seeing all the old computer games, and especially liked how both the Levy's (no relation) showed up in the episode for real as computer techs!  That was a nice touch.

My sister used to have an answering machine message just like Barry's.  It drove me crazy with the whole, "Psych!  I'm not really here!  It's my machine!!!" thing that she would do.  The more I complained about it, the more she laughed at me.  (My answering machine message was MUCH cooler.  I would play the "Hawaii Five-O" theme music, and only start talking at the point in the song where Jack Lord would spin around and look at the camera.) LOL

[biakbiak]

A kraft cheese slice could slide into a floppy drive.

What is with all the Adam Goldberg jokes now? The other Adam was a bit if an ass about it during the first season and a half because everyone kept tweeting him about the show but he hasn't done that recently. 

[Texasmom1970]

6 hours ago, Gregg247 said:

I was in high school in the 70's-80's, and who you sat with WAS important, both in the lunchroom as well as hanging around in the parking lot just before the next class after lunch.  That part rang true.  

I was a teen in the 80's and I totally understood Adam's lunchroom problem. As someone who went to four different high schools and was painfully shy and had a hard time making friends lunch time was stressfull. Especially when you are new and these kids have been friends forever. It is hard to find a spot to fit in. I usually only had a couple of good friends to sit with, if they were not at school I was pretty much screwed.

[Perfect Xero]

The most jarring part of this episode in a now Vs then sense, which wasn't really commented on by the voice over, was the school guidance counselor's shoulder shrug attitude toward bullying and blaming the "nerds" for being bullied.

My favorite joke of the episode was that we see Dave Kim join the skater table and then when we see him again near the end of the episode his arm is in a sling.

[Dilandau]

 At my high school, you weren't technically allowed to leave the cafeteria. But I always end up sneaking out after I was done eating lunch to go up to the library and use the computers in there.  Sneaking out was hard, sometimes I'd just be able to do it while the teacher guarding the door to the hallway was distracted, but sometimes I'd have to sneak out the doors to the outside.  Then getting back inside was a problem - most of the doors except for the one in front of the main office was locked and going back in through that door would mean getting in trouble.  Sometimes I'd luck out and there would be a side door somewhere unlocked. It was really a lot of effort for something we should have had access to anyway, what is the point of a library if you can't go use it?

There was no hierarchy at our school's lunch tables though. Unless my friends were in the same lunch period, I just ate alone and I preferred it that way. It was nice to have a whole table to myself. People left me alone and I could spread my stuff out.  So yeah, I don't really get when the plot is trying to find a table to fit in at, unless the school is short on tables.

The answering machine war part of the episode was so funny.  I figured it was going to turn out that they actually liked talking to each other on the answering machines.

Edited October 14, 2016 by Dilandau

[HyeChaps]

Note that Pop Pop also pronounced it "robit".

[reggiejax]

Quote

I always ate in the lunch room. I don't remember it being grouped like that with the different cliques. I always ate with my friends. We weren't jocks, nerds, or band geeks. Just friends. 

My high school was pretty much like that. You would generally sit with your friends, whoever they may be. Of course it would depend which lunch period you had. We had two. I remember one semester sitting alone the whole time, because all my friends were in the other lunch period.

That computer room really took me back. I was in high school from 1984-1988, and our computer room was basically like that, one room with about a half dozen computers. Though we were definitely not allowed to eat lunch in there, that's for sure. Kids today must look at that and wonder how we ever lived. I find it funny because the impression I get is that the Goldberg kids go to a pretty damn good high school, yet their computer room wasn't much better than ours. I went to a Catholic High School. Not exactly a struggling one, but definitely not one of the ones that got a ton of support. Yet our computer room was about the same as the one on The Goldbergs. Perhaps Adam's school was pouring more money into the athletic program, what with having Ruben Amaro and everything.

Also, that Rush kid can feel free to go die already. I cannot fucking stand that kid. Mostly it's because I am distinctly a Rush hater, but also because the idea that this is The Goldberg's vision of the cool, rebellious, rocker kid. Worse, he picks on the dorks, yet he is barely a level above Adam on the nerd scale, as befitting his Rush fan status. You know this kid was a Dungeon Master until he discovered Rush. And likely still is. I just can't stand his pudgy, pasty, zitty face. I'd love nothing more than to take Neil Peart's kick drum and bash this twerp over the head with it. Seriously, I would endure an episode of nothing but "other Adam Goldberg" jokes over one more second of that Rush kid.

Edited October 14, 2016 by reggiejax

[mojoween]

I will never not love Adam putting the real people in episodes whenever he can.

I was in high school from fall 1988 - spring 1991 and sat with my friends each year.  My first year I couldn't find anyone to sit with at the beginning of the year and somehow ended up with the 'bangers and was in absolute heaven.  

I hate answering machine pranks.  Eff off, Barry.

[Michel]

8 hours ago, reggiejax said:

Also, that Rush kid can feel free to go die already. I cannot fucking stand that kid. Mostly it's because I am distinctly a Rush hater, but also because the idea that this is The Goldberg's vision of the cool, rebellious, rocker kid. Worse, he picks on the dorks, yet he is barely a level above Adam on the nerd scale, as befitting his Rush fan status. You know this kid was a Dungeon Master until he discovered Rush. And likely still is. I just can't stand his pudgy, pasty, zitty face. I'd love nothing more than to take Neil Peart's kick drum and bash this twerp over the head with it. Seriously, I would endure an episode of nothing but "other Adam Goldberg" jokes over one more second of that Rush kid.

The Rush kid was allowed to be in on the shower hazing in last season's finale (he tried to drag Dave Kim off), so I don't think he's that low on the school's social ladder.  I saw him very happily drag Dave Kim off just before Carla dragged Emmy off.

[Guest]

What I didn't understand about the lunch table dilemma is that isn't that the same school Adam's been at all along?  I thought it was like 6-12 grade or something.  I know Dana told that older football player she wasn't even in high school, at her locker seasons ago.  Where's Adam been eating this whole time?  And we know he has friends at school, so where are they all and why would Dave Kim split off and eat with strangers and not Adam?  

[biakbiak]

1 minute ago, Winston9-DT3 said:

What I didn't understand about the lunch table dilemma is that isn't that the same school Adam's been at all along?  I thought it was like 6-12 grade or something.  I know Dana told that older football player she wasn't even in high school, at her locker seasons ago.  Where's Adam been eating this whole time?  And we know he has friends at school, so where are they all and why would Dave Kim split off and eat with strangers and not Adam?  

They probably have different lunch times for the middle school kids and the high school kids.

[Guest]

I still don't see the issue.  He's still with the same kids he's always been with, in the same lunch room.   He moved up with his grade level.  Who did he eat with in prior years?  I know, why nitpick a sitcom.  I was just confused by the whole premise.  

[Perfect Xero]

How prevalent are combined middle/high schools in real life? It's something that I see a lot on TV in family shows where the siblings are in different age groups, but have never seen in real life outside of small private schools.

Anyway, my own experience in middle school was that we were grouped with the same people in our home room/core classes/lunch and we ate at the same assigned tables as the rest of our class, so, other than who you actually sat right next to there was no "choosing a table" drama.

In High School it was random, there were no assigned tables, and all of your friends from middle school could easily be sorted into a different lunch period.

Also, here, Adam and Dave are the last two people through the line and, apparently, there are no empty seats left together so they had to split up.

[biakbiak]

6 minutes ago, Perfect Xero said:

How prevalent are combined middle/high schools in real life? It's something that I see a lot on TV in family shows where the siblings are in different age groups, but have never seen in real life outside of small private schools.

 

Not certain how prevelant they are but this school is based on Adam Goldberg's real life school which was public and a combined middle/high school, Jenkintown Middle/High School.

[Lawgiver]

Adam Goldberg went to William Penn Charter School, a private Quaker school in Philadelphia. Things do change between 8th and 9th grade. People try to break out of their groups and into new ones.  

[reggiejax]

On 10/14/2016 at 8:57 PM, Michel said:

The Rush kid was allowed to be in on the shower hazing in last season's finale (he tried to drag Dave Kim off), so I don't think he's that low on the school's social ladder.  I saw him very happily drag Dave Kim off just before Carla dragged Emmy off.

I didn't see that episode, but it sounds like yet another reason to hate the kid. Exactly how low or high he is on the HS food chain is up for debate, but when it comes to how Adam, Dave Kim and and the Mike Levy's are treated, it only matters that he is above them. As they say, shit flows downward. 

[proserpina65]

On ‎10‎/‎12‎/‎2016 at 10:13 PM, jumper sage said:

I don't get the whole lunchroom thing.  In elementary school we went home every day.  In junior high we could go on the grounds of the school so most people did.  If it was strong winter you could eat in dedicated places around the school which included the cafeteria but also included the stage and back stage area.  We used to picnic on the stage along with many, many others.  In high school we had an open campus so most people went home for lunch.  A lady who lived by the school opened her basement up like a restaurant and for $2 or so you could get a complete lunch, child style.

Is there really a hierarchy? 

Loved phone wars.

I'm old, but when I was in high school, we weren't allowed to leave for lunch.  Everyone ate in the cafeteria, and yes, the tables tended to be grouped by cliques.  The jocks and cheerleaders ate together, the popular kids ate together, the stoners hung out in the smoking lounge (which was the patio outside the cafeteria), and the rest of us just sort of had groups of friends we ate with.  There was some overlap between groups, but not a lot.

[jumper sage]

@proserpina65  I think I may be older.  Yikes.  

They didn't start having lunch rooms until lots of moms worked.  That's why we went home.

The added pressure of lunch rooms and navigation must be horrendous.  

[Guest]

On 10/15/2016 at 10:53 PM, Perfect Xero said:

Also, here, Adam and Dave are the last two people through the line and, apparently, there are no empty seats left together so they had to split up.

Ah, that makes more sense.  

30 minutes ago, jumper sage said:

They didn't start having lunch rooms until lots of moms worked.

We had school lunch in the gym at my elem. school in the late 60s and 70s.  The National School Lunch Program started in 1946 so I guess many schools had lunch of some sort that far back.

[FamilyVan]

Quote

What is with all the Adam Goldberg jokes now? The other Adam was a bit if an ass about it during the first season and a half because everyone kept tweeting him about the show but he hasn't done that recently

I don't get what this is- can someone recap this?

Re: The cafeteria - I do remember tables being kind of static, like once you have your table and who sits there, it is basically an unwritten assigned seat.  You sit there every day and people don't really change or rotate in and out.  Naturally you sit with your friends, I was in band and we sat together, but we were not geeks! (says us!) And we certainly did not have our uniforms on at school - ?  Ha ha I know for the show they had to be identified with a uniform but those Marching band outfits were for football games only, we would not be caught dead in them at any other non-game time.

[biakbiak]

10 hours ago, FamilyVan said:

I don't get what this is- can someone recap this?

Adam Goldberg vs Adam Goldberg.

[Mabinogia]

Wow, just read that article. Actor Adam sound like the asshole here. Honestly, though I recognize him from the picture, I had no idea what his name was. he could have used the show for free publicity, laughing about how everything thinks it's his life story. Instead he went with negative publicity and crying about a guy with his name using his name in a show about himself.

I agree with Producer Adam, if anyone should be pissy about this show it's his family. They don't always come off terribly well. haha

[Guest]

No kidding.  Actor Adam also didn't need to criticize the show.  I honestly haven't seen him stand out in anything since Friends 20+ years ago, so I don't know why he thinks his career is so distinguished.  His IMDB page looks like every other "hey it's that guy" actor.  He's on a show on TV Land?  I thought that was a channel for old Brady Bunch reruns.  

[FamilyVan]

Oh damn it's that guy from Dazed and Confused.  LOL.  Wow.  

Funny that he really thought they would use a different name for the kid on the show - he's definitely not a household name.  ?

I only came here to do two things, tweet about The Goldbergs and drink some beer..  Looks like we're almost out of beer...

[ByTor]

On 10/14/2016 at 1:09 PM, reggiejax said:

Also, that Rush kid can feel free to go die already. I cannot fucking stand that kid. Mostly it's because I am distinctly a Rush hater, but also because the idea that this is The Goldberg's vision of the cool, rebellious, rocker kid. Worse, he picks on the dorks, yet he is barely a level above Adam on the nerd scale, as befitting his Rush fan status.

Big, huge, giant Rush fan here (my user name gives me away!), and even I can admit that yeah, we are dorks in our own right, so it makes no sense to me that Rush kid would pick on someone for being a dork.

Yay...a Tab sighting!!!!  I STILL love that stuff :)

Edited November 18, 2016 by ByTor

[Nordly Beaumont]

On 10/14/2016 at 0:09 PM, reggiejax said:

I am distinctly a Rush hater

I thought I was the only one!