Benjamonster's TV

For my Top 10 Tuesday this week, I am counting down the Top 10 Mom Characters ! 10. ALVIN BILETNIKOFF I think Alvin may have ranked higher on my list if I didn't end up liking Bonnie's next beau even better. Alvin was an interesting character who had both funny and sad moments in a nuanced portrayal by Kevin Pollak. His relationship with both Christy and Bonnie was great for character development and his (spoiler) death provided a really great character arc for Bonnie.  9. TAMMY DIFFENDORF I was not a fan of Tammy at all when she burst onto the scene in Season 5. I thought Kristen Johnson was doing a way too broad portrayal. But over time as Tammy integrated into the group of friends, she became much more tolerable. Never one of my favorites but one who provided some good dynamics in the group of friends and she was a way better character by the end.

On Mondays, I take a look at schedules from yesteryear. Here's a look at Fridays in the 1991-92 season! ABC 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 10:00 Sep Family Matters Step by Step Perfect Strangers Baby Talk 20/20 Oct Nov Dec Jan Baby Talk Perfect Strangers Feb Billy Mar Apr Dinosaurs Baby Talk May ABC's hit TGIF lineup had a big change for 1991-92 as Full House left the night after four seasons and headed over to Tuesdays. One of the reasons ABC was able to do that was the breakout success of Family Matters , which was entering its third year. Matters took over the 8pm slot and was not as powerful as Full House was in the slot but it proved to be a reliable lead-off for ABC's kid friendly block. It was followed by a new famil...

Here's a look at the Top 5 TV News Stories of the Week! A couple of these are from last Friday after the blog post went up, which was a busy news day. After this post, I will be taking a one week break due to Thanksgiving and blog posts will resume November 29! #1 - DISNEY+ DAY Disney+ offered up its annual "Disney Day" last Friday and the news was fast and furious about things coming to the streamer. There were also lots of first looks and trailers but no specific premiere dates though we did get some premiere months. Here's a few of the most notable announcements from the day: There will be a WandaVision spinoff series focused on Kathryn Hahn's breakout character called Agatha: House of Harkness . As someone who's not a Marvel fan but liked WandaVision  and especially Hahn, consider me intrigued. There will also be a spinoff of the upcoming Hawkeye series called Echo . There will also be an animated series titled Spider-Man: Freshman Year , a different look ...

Here is a look at all five seasons of Get Smart including the ultimate countdown of the best and worst episodes! GET SMART September 18, 1965 - May 15, 1970 138 episodes Starring Don Adams as Maxwell Smart  (138 episodes) Barbara Feldon as Agent 99  (131 episodes) Edward Platt as The Chief  (129 episodes) Robert Karvelas as Larabee  (83 episodes) Bernie Kopell as Siegfried  (14 episodes) David Ketchum as Agent 13  (13 episodes) Stacy Keach as Professor Carlson  (10 episodes) King Moody as Shtarker  (8 episodes) Milton Selzer as Parker  (7 episodes) Dick Gautier as Hymie the Robot  (6 episodes) Victor French as Agent 44  (6 episodes)

On Wednesdays, I take a look at a series that lasted one season or less. Here is a look at  Good & Evil ! GOOD & EVIL September 25, 1991 - October 30, 1991 6 episodes ABC Starring: Teri Garr, Margaret Whitton, Mark Blankfield, Lane Davies, Mary Gillis, Seth Green, Sherman Howard, Marian Seldes, Brooke Theiss, Marius Weyers Created by: Susan Harris Plot: This very odd satire focuses on two sisters, one "good" and one "evil." Denise (Garr) is the evil one and the CEO of the family's cosmetics empire while the good one is Genny (Whitton), a world class scientist. Their mother, Charlotte (Seldes) was still a force in the family empire as well. The rest of the cast includes family, friends and subordinates of the two sisters. Brief Pilot Review: This pilot started with a very bizarre and off-putting scene with hikers finding Denise's husband (Weyers) after he fell off Everest. We then meet Denise herself and the extent that this pilot worked at all was du...

For my Top 10 Tuesday this week, I am counting down Top 10 Everybody Loves Raymond Characters! 10. HANK MCDOUGALL The late, great Fred Willard was always good for some laughs and his Hank McDougall character was a great recurring addition to the cast in the later years of the show. The show sort of let Willard do his thing as his character was aloof at times and joyously judgmental of some of the behavior of the Barones and others. 9. JUDY POTTER I sometimes find Sherri Shepherd annoying but one of her earlier roles was one of her funniest. She only appeared in nine episodes as Robert's patrol partner but she was really funny in those nine episodes. She didn't put up with Robert's nonsense and she had a matter of fact delivery over the less matter of fact Barones. She made Robert's scenes better.

On Mondays, I take a look at schedules from yesteryear. Here's a look at Thursdays in the 1991-92 season! After this week, I will be taking a one week break for Thanksgiving! ABC 8:00 9:00 9:30 10:00 Sep Pros and Cons FBI: The Untold Stories American Detective Primetime Live Oct Nov Dec Jan Thursday Night Movie Feb Mar Apr May ABC had some small revamps for Thursday nights in 1990-91. The first hour was given to Pros and Cons , which was a revamped version of the drama Gabriel's Fire from the previous season. Despite an Emmy win for star James Earl Jones, Gabriel's struggled to find an audience and the network wanted the show to be more lighthearted as part of a network-wide initiative to get rid of more serious dramas. The revamped version was even less successful ...

Here's a look at the Top 5 TV news stories of the week! #1 - BRIAN WILLIAMS LEAVING NBC NEWS Brian Williams announced this week that he is leaving MSNBC and NBC News at the end of the year following nearly three decades with the company. Williams' contract was up and while he says he wants to spend more time with family, it also seems like an agreement for a contract extension could not be reached. The newsman hosted NBC Nightly News from 2004-2015 until a scandal forced him into a six month exile. The scandal seems pretty small these days compared to more recent falls from grace as it simply had to do with exaggerating a story about his own experience covering the Iraq War in 2003. Williams re-emerged on MSNBC and has hosted the 11pm show The 11th Hour since September 2016. Williams always seemed to like to dabble in the entertainment side of NBC as well, even hosting Saturday Night Live at one point. Some of those moves led to some criticism but I always enjoyed Williams'...

On Thursdays, I take a detailed and critical look at a TV show. This year, I will be splitting full seasons into two posts so today I am looking at the second half of Season 5 (the final season) of  Get Smart ! For Part 1,  click here ! 126. Moonlighting Becomes You (1/2/70) Max and 99 become part of a radio show to stop KAOS from transmitting information over the airwaves. I've always been a fan of this episode. I think it's a very clever premise, especially for season five, and I love the old school radio feel to it. It plays like a "who done it" with a lot of possible suspects. There's also a strong performance from larger than life (literally and figuratively) guest star Victor Buono, who will always be King Tut from  Batman  first and foremost for me. The on-going joke through the episode that 99 is starting to take after Max actually works decently too with Barbara Feldon doing a couple Don Adams-esque bits pretty well. A strong final season entry. RATING: 9...

On Wednesdays, I take a look at a series that lasted one season or less. Here is a look at The Royal Family ! THE ROYAL FAMILY September 18, 1991 - May 13, 1992 13 episodes CBS Starring: Redd Foxx, Della Reese, Mariann Aalda, Sylver Gregory, Larenz Tate, Naya Rivera Created by: Eddie Murphy Plot: Atlanta mail carrier Al Royal (Foxx) and his wife, Victoria (Reese) are looking forward to retirement when their daughter, Elizabeth (Aalda), arrives with her three children (Gregory, Tate & Rivera) in need of a place to stay following marital issues. Brief Pilot Review: I have never been a fan of Sanford and Son and part of the reason is I don't really buy into Redd Foxx's brand of humor. That was evident again from the first few minutes of The Royal Family 's pilot. It was just one insult-based joke after another between Foxx and Della Reese. Reese was game to go toe to toe with Foxx and had funnier delivery but it was such an off-putting way to start the series. From the lit...

This week for my Top 10 Tuesday, I am counting down my Top 10 Newhart Characters! 10. CINDY PARKER-DEVANE There aren't a ton of Newhart characters to choose from as the show often stuck to its cast of regular characters but I put Kirk's girlfriend, the clown, on the list partly to make a point about how I couldn't put the much more prominent character of Kirk on the list. He was so irritating and his relationship with Cindy made him only slightly more bearable. She had a few funny moments in a much smaller sample size which is why she makes the list. 9. LESLIE VANDERKELLEN Before there was Stephanie, there was Leslie. She didn't make as much of an impression but she had some funny moments in the show's uneven first season. It was almost like the writers had the right idea for a character but didn't know how to develop her. I don't put a ton of blame on her portrayer, Jennifer Holmes. I think the character was underwritten. Compared to the other character to ...

On Mondays, I take a look at schedules from yesteryear. Here's a look at Wednesdays in the 1991-92 season! ABC 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30 Sep Dinosaurs Various Programs Doogie Howser M.D. Sibs Anything But Love Good & Evil Oct The Wonder Years Nov Anything But Love Civil Wars Dec Jan Feb Mar The Wonder Years Doogie Howser M.D. Young Indiana Jones Chronicles Homefront Apr Room for Two Sibs May Various Programs Despite the fact that they pretty much have never worked in TV history, ABC went with three hours of sitcoms on Wednesdays to start the 1991-92 season and it lasted all of two months. Leading things off was Dinosaurs , which had a very short deb...

Here's a look at the Top 5 TV news stories of the week! #1 - NBC HOLIDAY PREMIERES NBC announced that it will air three holiday episodes of returning comedies and two comedy premieres over the course of three days in December. Workplace comedy American Auto will premiere after The Voice with back to back episodes. This is a similar strategy that was used years ago with Superstore (which came from the same creator as American Auto ) but of course The Voice isn't the powerhouse it used to be. The next night, NBC is premiering Grand Crew with two episodes about 8pm. That comedy is about young black professionals in Los Angeles. Finally on Wednesday, there are special holiday episodes of Young Rock, Kenan and Mr. Mayor . This is a UK style approach to air a special holiday episode out of season and sort of a fun idea. All five comedies will air their regular seasons in early 2022 but the dates/times haven't been announced.

On Thursdays, I take a detailed and critical look at a TV show. This year, I will be splitting full seasons into two posts so today I am looking at the first half of Season 5 (the final season) of  Get Smart ! GET SMART: SEASON FIVE 1969-1970 26 episodes The final season of  Get Smart  saw a network move from NBC to CBS and a jazzed up theme song. In its final year, the series also seems broader and there's a definite decline from the previous two strong seasons. This season also has the birth of Max and 99's twins and some real silly episodes. It definitely seemed less satirical and sharp and more playing as a straight farce. Its reprieve on CBS was short-lived as the network was heading into more sophisticated and less campy programming in the 1970s and  Get Smart  didn't really fit with that philosophy. Starring Don Adams as Maxwell Smart  (26 episodes) Barbara Feldon as Agent 99  (26 episodes) Edward Platt as The Chief  (24 episodes) Robert Ka...

On Wednesdays, I take a look at a series that lasted one season or less. Here is a look at Sister Kate ! SISTER KATE September 16, 1989 - July 30, 1990 18 episodes NBC Starring: Stephanie Beacham, Harley Cross, Hannah Cutrona, Jason Priestley, Erin Reed, Joel Robinson, Penina Segall, Alexaundria Simmons Created by: Frank Dungan, Tony Sheehan and Jeff Stein Plot: Sister Kate (Beacham) is a nun put in charge of a group of unruly kids and teenagers at a Chicago orphanage. The group of kids includes teens finding their way (Cutrona, Priestley, Reed) and precocious children (Robinson & Simmons) among others. Brief Pilot Review: The point of Sister Kate certainly seemed to be Sister Kate matching wits with the group of orphans and I guess it succeeds at that low bar. It felt so much like a lame family sitcom of the 80s with Stephanie Beacham filling the role of the "mother." It was hard for the pilot to service all the orphans so they primarily focused on a story involving Erin...

I was going to do this a couple weeks ago but did a couple weeks of spooky sitcoms for my Top 10. So now, a few weeks after its 200th episode, I am counting down the Top 10 Chicago Fire Characters! 10. LESLIE SHAY Chicago Fire has been on so long and I watch it every week but it's not a show I got back to after an episode has aired so it feels like a really long time since Leslie Shay was on the show. But she was a strong character with good stories over the first couple seasons. She was also the first major character to die on the show so it was a notable moment in the show's history. I always enjoyed her rapport with Gabby Dawson. 9. MATT CASEY There was a lot of attention to the 200th episode because of the departure of Matt Casey, a character who has been with the show since the first episode. I understand his important place in Chicago Fire history and that a lot of fans love him, but he's never been my favorite. I don't always think Jesse Spencer is a great actor ...

On Mondays, I take a look at schedules from yesteryear. Here's a look at Tuesdays in the 1991-92 season! ABC 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 10:00 Sep Full House Home Improvement Roseanne Various Programs Homefront Oct Coach Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Civil Wars Apr Room for Two May Coach Various Programs ABC Tuesdays ruled the roost in the late 1980s but by 1991, they were showing some signs of slowing down so they made big moves to the night in 1991-92 which mostly paid off. The biggest move was bringing Full House over from Fridays. The family sitcom had aired there for four seasons and was a key part of launching the TGIF lineup. But Fridays now had Family Matters as a lead off show and Tuesdays needed a jolt. Moving a show like that c...