Benjamonster's TV

Here's a look at the Top 5 TV news stories of the week! #1 - JAMES CORDEN LEAVING "THE LATE LATE SHOW" It was announced on Thursday that James Corden has signed a one year extension but it will be his final year as host of The Late Late Show . Corden took over the franchise from Craig Ferguson in 2015, just a couple months before David Letterman departed from the lead-in, The Late Show . Early in his run, Corden was a breath of fresh air with viral sensations led by Carpool Karaoke. There was a time when there were rumors that he might even flip spots with a then-struggling Stephen Colbert. However, there has been more of a backlash to Corden in recent years with his visibility everywhere, hosting tons of award shows and appearing in too many movie musicals. I've always liked him when I've watched him but admittedly I really don't watch him that often. It'll be interesting to see what Corden does next, he may lay low for a little bit, we'll see. And al...

On Thursdays, I take a detailed and critical look at a TV show by season. Today I am looking at Part 2 of Season 2 of  Happy Days ! For Part 1,  click here ! 29. Fonzie's Getting Married (1/14/75) Fonzie decides to get married and doesn't know the girl he has chosen is a stripper. This episode is notable for being the first  Happy Days  episode to be filmed in front of a live audience. It was done as a test run for a possible switch which did happen for the third season. There's a noticeable difference in style as it feels broader. Maybe equally momentous - this is the first time Fonzie hits a jukebox to get the music to stop playing, an iconic Fonzie move. The performances are definitely more geared to a live audience. The story itself is funny at times with a good performance from Tom Bosley but it does feel a little out of place in season two. RATING: 5.5/10 30. The Cunningham Caper (1/21/75) Richie is the only one home when the Cunningham's house gets burglarized...

On Wednesdays, I take a look at a series that lasted one season or less. This week, I am looking at Bridget Loves Bernie ! BRIDGET LOVES BERNIE September 16, 1972 - March 3, 1973 24 episodes CBS Starring: David Birney, Meredith Baxter, Harold J. Stone, Bibi Osterwald, David Doyle, Audra Lindley, Ned Glass, Robert Sampson, Bill Elliott Created by: Bernard Slade Plot: Bridget Fitzgerald (Baxter) is an Irish Catholic teacher who falls in love with Jewish cab driver and aspiring playwright, Bernie Steinberg (Birney). The interfaith relationship irks both Bridget's parents (Lindley & Doyle) as well as Bernie's parents (Osterwald & Stone). Rounding out the main cast is Bridget's brother, Michael (Sampson), who happens to be a priest as well as Bernie's uncle (Glass) and best friend (Elliott). Brief Pilot Review: This was a really interesting pilot to watch because it some ways it felt like it was probably ahead of its time and in other ways, it felt incredibly dated n...

For my Top 10 this week, I am counting down the Top 10 The Dick Van Dyke Show Characters ! 10. STACEY PETRIE Trying to come up with a #10 for this list was difficult as we're basically reduced to guest stars, there are really only nine regular or recurring characters on the show. I put Stacey Petrie on the list because it's fun to watch Jerry Van Dyke and Dick Van Dyke interact with each other and because Stacey was a more fully realized character than a lot of one-off guest stars. 9. RITCHIE PETRIE I love The Dick Van Dyke Show but let's be honest, Ritchie is towards the bottom of the list as far as TV Kids go. He sometimes has some funny moments and there are some good moments for Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore interacting with them but more often than not, Larry Mathews is an unfortunate weak part of the show. He still comes in at #9 though because he's obviously an important character.

On Mondays, I take a look at schedules from yesteryear. Here's a look at Mondays in the 1994-95 season! ABC 8:00 8:30 9:00 10:00 Sep Coach Blue Skies Monday Night Football Oct Nov Coach Dec Jan A Whole New Ballgame Monday Night Movie Feb Mar Various Programs Apr Various Programs May After airing unscripted shows in the Monday 8pm timeslot for a year and a half, ABC went back to the scripted well in 1994-95 for its lead-in to Monday Night Football and then the Monday Night Movie . For the first time since the 1979-80 season, they tried a comedy block on the night led by a show that would seemingly be compatible with football. Coach was entering its seventh season but it had rarely had to show what it could do on the own as it had spent most of its ...

Here's a look at the Top 5 TV news stories of the week! #1 - NETFLIX TROUBLES There were two big stories this week involving streamers and you'd have to have been living under a rock if you haven't been hearing about Netflix this week. For years, Netflix was the pinnacle of streaming success. The king at the top of the hill that all the other streamers were chasing. That is still the case but Netflix showed the first major signs of trouble this week when they announced on Tuesday that they had lost subscribers for the first time in a decade and as a result, their stock plunged 35% on top of already declining stock numbers. There's a zillion think pieces on what's going on at Netflix from reasonable (raising prices, not enough "must see" content, streaming competition, economic anxieties) to ridiculous (Netflix being too "woke"). The streaming giant will probably be fine in the long term but they might have to right size their situation and pump o...

On Thursdays, I take a detailed and critical look at a TV show by season. Today I am looking at Part 1 of Season 2 of  Happy Days ! HAPPY DAYS: SEASON TWO 1974-1975 23 episodes Season Two of  Happy Days  is a better version of the same style show it was in the first season before the live audience joins and the show gets much broader. When I was a kid I used to like the later seasons more with the big applause entrances for Fonzie and things like that but as I've gotten older, I've grown to appreciate the gentle and sweet, nostalgic approach of the early seasons. This season also contains not one, but two of the all time greatest holiday episodes in TV history. Starring Ron Howard as Richie Cunningham  (23 episodes) Tom Bosley as Howard Cunningham  (23 episodes) Marion Ross as Marion Cunningham  (23 episodes) Anson Williams as Potsie Webber  (23 episodes) Henry Winkler as Arthur Fonzarelli  (23 episodes) Don Most as Ralph Malph  (23 episodes)...

On Wednesdays, I take a look at a series that lasted one season or less. This week, I am looking at  South Central ! SOUTH CENTRAL April 5, 1994 - June 7, 1994 10 episodes FOX Starring: Tina Lifford, Larenz Tate, Tasha Scott, Keith Mbulo Created by: Ralph Farquhar and Michael J. Weithorn Plot: Joan Moseley (Lifford) is a single mother raising her two children, Andre and Tasha (Tate & Scott) and foster child Deion (Mbulo) in South Central Los Angeles. Brief Pilot Review: I kept thinking as I watched this pilot how different things would be if this show aired today. Sure, there were a lot of topical plots but the whole feel to the show didn't feel authentic enough to me. It felt much closer to a standard sitcom than a realistic look at a family living in South Central Los Angeles. Having more serious plotlines and some different euphemisms doesn't really make it any different than a suburban white family sitcom except on a surface level. There's a passing mention of polic...

My Top 10 this week is Top 10 7th Heaven Characters ! 10. DEENA STEWART Deena is on this list solely because I was the same age as the character when the show first aired and had a huge crush on her at the time. I found Simon annoying and thought Deena really needed to be with me instead. She wasn't a great actress (but who on this list was?) but I was pretty heartbroken when she left the show. 9. SARAH GLASS CAMDEN The last gasp of solid episodes of 7th Heaven came when Sarah joined the cast as love interest and then wife for Matt. The show played up the fact that she came from a Jewish family with a Rabbi father while Matt was from a Christian family with a preacher father. But she was a down to earth personality and a good fit for Matt.

On Mondays, I take a look at schedules from yesteryear. Here's a look at Sundays in the 1993-94 season! ABC 7:00 7:30 8:00 9:00 10:00 Sep America’s Funniest Home Videos America’s Funniest People Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Sunday Night Movie Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Life Goes On had been cancelled after four seasons so ABC was looking for a new drama for Sunday night and they went with one that was very different from the family drama. First up though, America's Funniest Home Videos and America's Funniest People continued in the 7pm hour. They had moved there from 8pm during the previous season and were no longer ratings phenomena. The new drama was Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman . The series, starring Dean Cain and Teri...

Here's a look at the Top 5 TV news stories of the past couple weeks while the blog was on a break! #1 - "DANCING WITH THE STARS" MOVING TO DISNEY+ In a pretty seismic move for the shift to streaming, Dancing with the Stars will leave its home of 17 years, ABC, and move to Disney+ this fall with a two season pickup. The competition series was once one of the most watched shows on TV and has been a staple on Monday nights for over a decade. Even as most high profile comedies, dramas and creative talent has shifted to streaming in recent years, Broadcast TV was still the place for the big tent reality and competition shows like Dancing, American Idol, The Voice, Survivor and more. This is, without a doubt, the highest profile move of an unscripted show to a streaming service and it will be interesting to see if the many older viewers of Dancing choose to subscribe to Disney+ (not that we'll likely get a concrete answer on that). 

On Thursdays, I take a detailed and critical look at a TV show by season. Today I am looking at the first season of Happy Days ! HAPPY DAYS: SEASON ONE 1974 16 episodes Happy Days  famously started off as a segment on  Love, American Style  called "Love and the Happy Days." There wasn't much interest in a full fledged sitcom set in the 1950s until  American Graffiti  hit it big in the theaters. The first two seasons really leaned into the nostalgia with a very gentle, very sweet look at 1950s Americana. While the actors were still finding their character, it's really interesting to watch how demure the early years are considering how loud the show became. This first season is a real love letter to the 1950s. It's not always funny, but it's well done. Starring Ron Howard as Richie Cunningham  (16 episodes) Tom Bosley as Howard Cunningham  (16 episodes) Marion Ross as Marion Cunningham  (16 episodes) Henry Winkler as Arthur Fonzarelli  (16 epis...

On Wednesdays, I take a look at a series that lasted one season or less. This week, I am looking at Winnetka Road ! WINNETKA ROAD March 12, 1994 - April 16, 1994 5 episodes NBC Starring: Ed Begley, Jr., Josh Brolin, Kristen Cloke, Kurt Deutsch, Catherine Hicks, Meg Tilly, Paige Turco, Richard M. Tyson, Megan Ward Created by: John Byrum Plot: Actress Terry Mears (Turco) and her young son flee Los Angeles because her ex-boyfriend wants their son back. She returns to her hometown of Oak Bluff, Illinois and specifically (you guessed it) Winnetka Road and encounters old and new friends, including former high school flame, Jack (Brolin) and his new girlfriend, Nicole (Ward). Others in the main cast include an estranged couple, Glenn and Jeannie (Begley Jr. & Hicks). Brief Pilot Review: Things sure moved slowly in little old Oak Bluff, Illinois. As easy as it is to watch comedies from decades ago, it is interesting just how dated almost every drama from before 2000 (or technically, 1999 w...

My Top 10 this week is Top 10 8 Simple Rules Characters ! 10. JEREMY One of Jonathan Taylor Thomas' few post- Home Improvement acting roles came on 8 Simple Rules in a three episode arc as a tutor and then love interest for Bridget. The opposites attract story was pretty strong and the Thomas arc was one of the better post-Paul 8 Simple Rules things. There was a natural chemistry between Thomas and Kaley Cuoco that I wish could have developed more. 9. KYLE Kyle was a character who dated both daughters and also was friends with Rory. I always felt the show forced things a little bit when Kyle got together with Kerry though I guess it was sort of means to an end because that story was ore about the dynamics between the sisters. He was at his funniest though in the early days when he was Bridget's dim boyfriend sparring often with Paul.

Welcome back after a two week break! On Mondays, I take a look at schedules from yesteryear. Here's a look at Saturdays in the 1993-94 season! ABC 8:00 8:30 9:00 10:00 Sep Saturday Night Movie T he Commish Oct Nov George Where I Live The Paula Poundstone Show Dec Saturday Night Movie Jan Feb Mar Apr May ABC had a plan for Saturday night that wasn't going to get underway until November and by December, said plan was gone. A movie aired for the first couple months and was back in the 8-10pm hour a couple weeks later. For a brief time in November, there was an attempt at a comedy block. At 8pm was the new George , a family sitcom starring boxer George Foreman shortly before he launched his famous grills. It was followed by the second season of Where I Live , a sho...