What was the last TV show you watched?

[Benzadmiral]

They're rerunning the TV series Frasier here, so I've been avidly watching the show again. It was one of my favorite shows in the 1990s and I still find it very funny.

Funny thing is that Cheers was a show that my mom used to watch though I didn't really go for it much. But I just couldn't get enough of this spin off and still giggle and scream like a girl at the antics of the Cranes, Daphne, Roz, Bulldog Briscoe, Gil Chesterton and all the rest, not forgetting Eddie, Of course.

Someone in TV Guide back then dubbed Frasier "the Swiss watch of sitcoms," and he was right.

 

[Fading Fast]

Someone in TV Guide back then dubbed Frasier "the Swiss watch of sitcoms," and he was right.

The show looks dated as heck now (but what show doesn't eventually) and I don't know too many people remotely like the Crane boys, but I absolutely love the show as you get them even though they are "foreign" to you. The humor was intelligent and pretty consistent. But, then, just when it's getting a bit rather-rinse-repeat, they throw in a hilarious curve ball.

It's been too long for me to remember all the details, but one episode revolves around Niles prepping for a date and, in his over-fastidious way, he decides to iron a small wrinkle out of his trousers. In a scene worthy of the best silent movie (a scene uncommon to the show and one Lizzie would love) - he all but burns down Frazier's apartment in a couple of minutes of dialogue-free brilliant physical acting.

That show was special.

 

[Benzadmiral]

There was something about the relationship between Frasier and his father, the ex-cop, that at times reminded me of Ellery Queen and Inspector Queen. When Frasier would speak seriously, not pompously, with his father, calling him "Dad," it sounded like some of the affectionate exchanges between the Queens in the EQ novels. In an early scene of 1949's Cat of Many Tails, Inspector Queen has been named to head a squad to capture a serial killer the newspapers are calling "The Cat."

Inspector: "I've been promoted. Top dog in the Cat chase."
Ellery (laughing a little): "Caninized."

Later, the Inspector asks Ellery (who for various reasons has quit real-life murder investigation) to lend him a hand.
Ellery: "I feel virginal, Dad. I want to and I don't want to."

I can see Frasier and his father talking just like that.

 

[Benzadmiral]

"The Comic," a 1959 episode of the Fifties-early Sixties private-eye series Peter Gunn. Written and directed by series creator Blake Edwards, this featured Shelley Berman in a serious role as a stand-up comic who wants Gunn to find out if his wife is planning to kill him. Berman turns in a stellar performance as we slowly discover that he is dangerously paranoid. Sharp and crisply filmed in glorious black-and-white, too.

 

[3fingers]

We finished Longmire last night. Can't say I was surprised with how it ended, but they were pushing a lot of things together to tie up all of the loose ends.

 

[Benzadmiral]

The show really grew on me as, as you note, the characters really developed. The style is incredible - it's an idealized early '60s style with incredible clothes, cars, architecture (heck, it's what I want the early '60s to have looked like, but probably never did) - but what has really sold me are the lightning-quick dialogue exchanges that pack a lot of humor (and sly asides) that force you to be alert to catch all of it.

It never occurred to me to look until now. But Entertainment Weekly and IMDb say Mrs. Maisel was created by the same person, Amy Sherman-Palladino, who created Gilmore Girls! Sounds like she infused this series with the same kind of "lightning-quick dialogue exchanges" as were famous in GG.

ETA: I just saw the little intro snippet on IMDb, and the sparkly title, with the big stylized stars, is very reminiscent of the late '50s-early '60s. It was a decorative style used on boxes for model cars and other toys, for example, and in the opening credits of Bewitched.

 

[Just Jim]

Still watching the Babylon 5 series. I'm up to season 3 now, and just watched one of my favorite episodes: Passing through Gethsemane. The Bible tells of Jesus spending his last hours before arrest (and eventual crucifiction) waiting and praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. In the story, a monk gets the answer to his own question if he would have the courage to face his persecutors, as well as his sins and self-doubts, in the same manner. At the same time, there are a couple of what almost seem side-bar stories that become major plot elements in the over-arching story.

 

[Fading Fast]

It never occurred to me to look until now. But Entertainment Weekly and IMDb say Mrs. Maisel was created by the same person, Amy Sherman-Palladino, who created Gilmore Girls! Sounds like she infused this series with the same kind of "lightning-quick dialogue exchanges" as were famous in GG.

ETA: I just saw the little intro snippet on IMDb, and the sparkly title, with the big stylized stars, is very reminiscent of the late '50s-early '60s. It was a decorative style used on boxes for model cars and other toys, for example, and in the opening credits of Bewitched.

I've never seen GG, but the "lightning-quick dialogue exchanges" of TMMM are fantastic. They approach Cagney-esque levels of speed and talent.

Also, I can be put off by over stylization, but somehow it works perfectly here as it matches the show's slightly over-the-top approach to everything.

Nothing is truly real here - the speed dialogue, the beautiful period style, the exaggerated personalities - but it all works, in part, because it's that visually smart and, in part, because the stories and characters have nuance and dimensions that make them feel real despite the archness of every thing around them.

 

[Touchofevil]

Another episode of The Crown.

 

[PeterGunnLives]

Peter Gunn

 

[Gray Ghost]

M*A*S*H

 

[Fading Fast]

"America in color 1940s" part of a series running on The Smithsonian Channel that has an hour long episode on each decade from the '20s - '50s. As a pure documentary, they are good not great, but it is fun to see all the color film footage from a time when most of what we've seen has been B&W.

 

[3fingers]

We finished season 2 of The Crown. We will continue watching, but I wish the episodes were chronological and the time travel annoys me. Shooting around in time has become a popular technique in recent years it seems, but it can go away any time now.
Just tell the story.
ETA: I still want to slap Phillip with my glove.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Well, when you've got The Doctor playing Phillip, time travel is pretty much a given.

 

[Touchofevil]

The Andy Griffith Show while sipping coffee this fine foggy morning.

 

[Fading Fast]

The Patriots game. One question, did it seem to others that Tony Romo was trying to hide it, but was rooting for the Titans?

 

[Doctor Strange]

I needed something light, so I watched a bunch of episodes of Jerry Seinfeld's Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee on Netflix. Not all of his guests are equally funny or interesting, but the series definitely has its moments, and some of the cars are very cool.

 

[Touchofevil]

Last night, three episodes of Damnation.
We are going to watch it to its end.
Weak characters. Weak dialogue. Weak directing.
It still isn’t that good, but we have to know.

 

[Fading Fast]

"The Nazi Games - Berlin 1936" PBS

This documentary doesn't focus on the sporting events at the game, but on the politics behind the games. In particular, it shows how what started out as a happenstance of history - Germany being awarded the 1936 Olympics prior to Hitler's rise to power - became a controversial decision that found the International Olympic Committee crawling into bed with Hitler to keep the games in Germany amidst a backlash form persecuted groups and some other countries.

A big part of the reason the IOC was willing to carry Hitler's water was the the Nazis planned to amp up the games from the low-key event prior Olympics had been and make it closer to the spectacle it's become today - which is just what the IOC wanted.

Since, prior to this show, the "narrative" in my mind had been that the '36 Olympics were about the Nazis using the games to advance their image, the IOC involvement was revealing and dispiriting. I was a bit less convinced that the games only become a "big show" because of the Nazis as, my guess, they'd have taken off after WWII as almost everything seems to get bigger and splashier over time (especially as the world got richer in that time period). That said, it is fair to say that the Nazis put the games on that flight path.

As always, some new footage pops up which always amazes me as I've been watching WWII / Naiz documentaries for over 40 years now, but somehow or other, there seems to always be more film footage being discovered.

 

[Julian Shellhammer]

Victoria season 2, the first episode.