I can't say I'm surprised you're befuddled.
I do wonder, in the Somers instance, how this is more, or less, consistent.
Well, I
was going to say that Suzanne Somers was a
bona fide sex symbol of the era, so presumably, men and boys who were alive and old enough at that time
would think highly of her, but apparently you're not the
only one who was blind to her purported charms. (I'm not a huge fan either, which is why I had no problem butterflying her fame.)
phx1138 said:
Don't recall it, but have heard of it. The irony of it stuck with me.
Well, since this thread has demonstrated a knack for bringing people out of the woodwork, allow me to throw down the proverbial gauntlet. Has
anyone reading seen
E/R?
phx1138 said:
You will notice, this time, I didn't suggest Ritter
himself fall under a bus.
I should hope
not! His OTL death was
plenty tragic.
phx1138 said:
The line is, and I quote: "
As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly."
I particularly Liked the episode In Concert. They handled the serious subject very well.
"In Concert" and "Turkeys Away" seem to be the two episodes everyone remembers. I've often found that a sitcom is truly iconic if people can remember at least two episodes.
One tends to assume that farce is such a characteristically 'English' form of comedy that you get surprised when you see it elsewhere, but this is probably giving ourselves too much exceptionalist credit. I mean I even found out recently that America used to have pantomimes back in the day...
Any doubts that American television and farce go together can be allayed with three simple words:
I Love Lucy
I had the "pleasure" of watching Williams perform at The Punch Line" in San Francisco either in late '83 or '84. (I was stationed at Alameda for a big chunk of the 80s and can only place the incident in reference to deployments.) It was a "pleasure", you see, because Williams wasn't scheduled to perform...
"The Punch Line" was part of a skyscraper complex. A multi-story parking garage takes up the entire block there with the skyscraper further rising from just a portion of the block's footprint. The rest of the garage's roof is taken up by a small park and "The Punchline".
The club is long and narrow with the bar and stage set opposite each other along the long sides of the building. We were on an otherwise normal weekday night watching an otherwise normal weekday line-up. A female comedian, whose name I never remembered and whose face I never saw again, was at the mic working her way through a formulaic routine about her boyfriend when a voice from the bar shouted "BULLSHIT!"
The stage hand quickly swung a spot onto the heckler because that's exactly what a heckled comedian needs; you must quickly, savagely, and humorously strike the heckler down to keep the crowd on your side. The spot swings around, all eyes follow it, and the heckler is revealed as...
... Robin Williams. (Which you'd already guessed.)
We all stare in shock as Williams leaves bar, walks through the shallow seating area, gets up on stage, takes the mic from the woman who had been working there, and proceeds to do 10 minutes of stream-of-consciousness stuff that left us gasping.
We were all still goggling when Williams simply stopped in the middle of some riff, handed the mic back to the female comedian, and left the club. She stood there for a brief period, hung the mic up, and walked off.
At first we all talked about how amazing the whole incident had been but within minutes we all also began to realize what an world record example of titanic egotistical douchebaggery we'd witnessed.
Before this, I'd been content to enjoy Williams in small doses. After this, if Williams was on fire I wouldn't cross the street to piss on him.
I read many years later that Williams had been going through a bad period during this time. The story was that the cruel hangover that always follows immediate overwhelming fame was hammering him, that his personal life was in a shambles, that he was using a lot of cocaine, plus a lot of other usual excuses. I also read that what we'd witnessed at "The Punch Line" occurred in other clubs in other cities across the US; Williams would finish his headliner set at some big venue, then sneak off to some small comedy club, hide at the bar for a while, and then take over someone's set.
What a swell guy.
I'm sure we've all heard of or received this advice concerning women: If you want to judge a woman's character watch how all other women treat her. The same holds true across the board. You can judge someone's character by watching how their peers treat them. Williams, like Leno, is despised by other comedians and that treatment has been earned.
I want to thank you
so much for sharing this with us, Flubber - what an incredible experience that must have been. Obviously it's something that you remember vividly, even thirty years down the line. And it makes for a fantastic story! I have only
one burning question: seeing that you were stationed in Alameda throughout the 1980s, I must ask if you were there when
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home was filming. Were
you at the Alameda naval base where the nuclear wessels are? Across the bay, in Alameda?
As the commenter "responsible", I feel somewhat obligated to give my opinion
By all means!
The Blue-Eyed Infidel said:
Susan Anton - I feel this is an upgrade; I honestly never found Suzanne Somers talented or (and I realize this is somewhat idiosyncratic) all that attractive.
Poor Suzanne Somers. I would almost feel sorry for her, except that I don't feel sorry for her at all.
The Blue-Eyed Infidel said:
Pam Dawber - I can see this causing a slight shift in the characterization, but pretty much a one-for-one swap.
Well, OTL has demonstrated that Dawber can convincingly play a woman in love with a goofball... take from that what you may
The Blue-Eyed Infidel said:
Irene Lorenzo - I found Audra Lindley fairly grating, but I suspect this is as much a function of the writing as the actress in question, so again, probably a one-for-one swap.
I've not seen Lindley in anything other than
Three's Company IOTL, so I'm not sure if that was her
type or not. Garrett, I think, would play it
slightly warmer and softer.
The Blue-Eyed Infidel said:
Norman Fell - Glad you decided to keep him in the role, and that it will last longer than OTL; while Don Knotts didn't do a bad job as the replacement for the Ropers, I thought Fell was quite good in the role.
As do I - he made much more of an impression on me than Knotts, actually (as he
also appears to have done in popular culture, despite the latter's much longer run).
The Blue-Eyed Infidel said:
Not a fan; while I actually thought he was OK in Roseanne (which was the last time he allowed himself to play an unsympathic character) and excellent in Oh Brother, Where Art Thou (where his smarminess actually works with the characterization), I've been left cold by the rest of his performances - those that I've seen - for pretty much the reasons you state.
Thank you, TB-EI - between you and the handful of others who share my distaste for Clooney, I'm not feeling so lonely anymore
Of course he was, it was the second time he played a landlord.
And he would play one
again in an episode of
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, complete with the requisite shout-out to
Three's Company
One more page to go...
I can hardly believe it. And then, 20 posts later, yet
another milestone ending with several zeroes!
Seriously, all of you guys are
amazing. It's a pretty busy time for me IRL, but I hope to have the next update ready soon