The Good Old 1-2

Many a cop has said that Barney Miller is the most realist cop show of all time.  Not Hill Street Blues.  Not Naked City.  Not Delvecchio.  Not Dragnet.  Not NYPD Blue.  Not even any of the shows in the Law & Order family. On an episode of Jon Favreau’s...

There’s No Business Like the News Business

When Broadcast News premiered in 1987, it revealed the harsh realities of the television network news business, beginning with the necessity of answering to the bottom line.  Once upon a time, perhaps, a television network’s news division was prized for its...

Letterman, Leno, and Late Night

Tonight, the first full week without David Letterman in late night television begins. Letterman, the informal successor to Johnny Carson as the ruler of the late night kingdom, began his television talk show hosting career with a morning show in 1980.  It won two Emmy...

The Yellow Brick Road Goes Through Minneapolis

Take a sweet, innocent, and wide-eyed young woman from the Midwest and put her in an encounter with three men.  One is fairly wooden, showing emotions rarely.  One does not have much in the way of intelligence, common sense, or decorum.  One growls a lot, but is...

I’d Like to Buy Don Draper a Coke

With a final scene that rivals Bob Newhart waking up in bed with Suzanne Pleshette in Newhart, Hawkeye leaving the 4077th by helicopter and seeing that B.J. used rocks to spell out the word “Goodbye” in M*A*S*H, and the deaths of the major characters...