My Favorite Things

Greg Brady getting selected to be the next “Johnny Bravo” because he “fit the suit” on The Brady Bunch. Jimmy McNulty on The Wire. Any Seinfeld episode involving Frank Constanza or David Puddy. Howard Cosell on Monday Night Football. The theme...

Magnum Goes Home

Thomas Magnum, Hawaii’s private investigator extraordinaire, reconnected family ties in the Magnum, p.i. episode “Going Home,” a story with the rarity of taking place outside the 50th state. Returning to his childhood home of Tidewater, Virginia to...

The Life and Times of Murphy Brown

Premiering in 1988, Murphy Brown used the setting of a television news program to propel comedy.  Candice Bergen starred in the title role of a famous network newswoman who loves Motown music, hates Barry Manilow, and struggles with a string of incompetent...

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...