Friday, February 23, 2007

Executive Decision


Due to a harrowing TIVO glitch—harrowing not because the glitch was irreparable or irreversible, but because any disruption in the time/space/TIVO continuum causes the earth to feel like it’s tilting and pitching wildly out of control and I’m quite sure I’ll slide off of its surface into a vast void of nothingness where surely there’s no good television to be found—Spencer and I just finished watching this week’s episode of 30 Rock. All I can say is thank god for NBC’s new marketing tools which include full episodes of its shows on-line.

And thank god for this episode’s being dead-on-the-money hysterical. I might have to run around the apartment yelling “There’ll be snacks!!” for the rest of the weekend (courtesy of one of Rachel Dratch’s brilliant bit cameos). But in light of my tendency for falling in love with well written jokes (“Yo, where’s Fat Balls at?” “He’s at the hotel management program at Cornell.” “Way to go, Fat Balls! That’s a good program.”) or super silly musical arrangements (i.e. a well harmonized Tomorrow), I have decided not to blog about sitcoms, despite their being my most beloved form of comedy.

Remember the SNL sketch, “The Chris Farley Show” during which Chris Farley would interview celebrities and it usually went as follows?

Paul McCartney: Well, it's great to be here.

Chris Farley: [ uncomfortable ] You.. you.. you remember when you were with The Beatles?

Paul McCartney: Yeah, sure.

Chris Farley: That was awesome!

I think that’s pretty much how it would go down should I endeavor to blog about sitcoms. It’s not like there are exasperating contestants to critique, complicated plots to recount, or maddening new items to dissect (or ridiculously bad interviews conducted by Ann Curry about whom I rant on a fairly regular basis to due the inconceivable fact that there are people at The Today Show and NBC who continue to let her engage in any sort of conversation with other people.). There are, one hopes, twenty-three minutes worth of jokes and enough plot and character to keep you watching. But even in the heyday of Ross and Rachel’s will they/won’t they hoopla, there wouldn’t have been enough to necessitate commentary and my retelling my favorite punch lines—Remember “Ms. Chanandler Bong?” That was awesome!—would probably grow tiresome.

So therefore, my royal decree is thusly:

TV ON A SCHOOL NIGHT will not post regularly on sitcoms unless there is something particularly supercalifragilisticexpialidocious on which to pontificate.

And yes a TV blog's second post has also referenced a movie. And yes, it’s another Julie Andrews movie. I can’t help it! I love the woman! I love when she plays a nanny! I love when she plays a governess! And Mary Poppins is also on television every damn year so it totally counts as a TV reference. The hills ARE alive with the sound of music and a spoonful of sugar really DOES help the medicine go down.

And on that note (if it were a note Julie Andrews were singing, it would be a really, really high one)…

Executive decision made!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

If not the dreadful state of today's sitcom universe, what will draw your wit and ire? Why not the inherent irony in "How I Met Your Mother" or such other compelling topics. Why not even an in depth study of the common threads between Mork & Mindy and Jimmy Neutron (alas I do have 2 small kids)? BTW, I absolutely know how to spell, though my constant fascination with the world of political idiocy compels me to forever reconsider the B/Q administration of the late 80's.

gigi said...

I knew your spelling error was cribbed from a certain VEEP from the 1980s, but you don't want me going down that road, cuz it's a very long one. Suffice it to say, is it 2008 YET??? And yes, perhaps someday I will write a compare/contrast on great space related sitcoms and chilren's programming. You never know what I just might find supercalifragilistic enough...

Gregg Temkin said...

Speaking of 2008, why haven't they caught that Obama guy yet?

Oh wait, you said no sitcom talk.

Cue the pinwheels.

Wait, could you at leeeast compare and contrast Pee Wee's Austrian Prince on 30 Rock with Martin Short's "The Bullet" on Arrested Development? Then again, what can compare to a body that doesn't produce joint juice?

gigi said...

Osama for Prez!! You know there'll be snacks at that campaign rally. And probably pinwheels. That don't spin. And maybe some baked by Hostess. Or were those made by the regionally specific Drakes (which I think is actually all part of the same company)?

Okay, I see your Paul Reuben and Martin Short royalty comparison and raise you one interpretive dance contrast: Pee Wee's Big Shoes "Tequila" v. Ed Grimley's triangle "classic Austrian piece that I couldn't even guess its name or begin to Google."

I see the makings of a joint thesis...