There are comedians that I think are not funny. Yet because of certain roles or events, they are forever deemed funny. For example I don't think Eddie Murphy is funny. I think he's a good actor, and I've enjoyed his movies, but I don't find him really funny. His stand up special was pretty funny about 20 years ago, but what have you done for me lately? I do not think Robin Williams is funny. I did...
The death of Mary Tyler Moore master writer David Lloyd, and the announcement that the sixth season (with "Chuckles Bites The Dust") will be released on DVD, got me to wondering which season of the show is the best. This isn't an easy question to answer. Some shows have one season where everything comes together, that combine the best qualities of the early and later seasons, and where a...
Legendary comedy writer, David Lloyd, passed away passed away on Tuesday from prostate cancer. David wrote for many shows such as The Bob Newhart Show, Lou Grant, Rhoda, Phyllis, Taxi, Dear John, Amen, Wings, Cheers, Frasier, but he was...
Writers are asking me to note the passing of the prolific TV comedy writer David Lloyd. He'll always be remembered for winning the Emmy in 1976 for penning that "Chuckles Bites The Dust" episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show considered one of the genre's best. According to news reports, Lloyd started his career writing jokes for The Jack Paar Show, and also worked on The Bob Newhart Show,...
Matthew Greenberg - Worst Episode Ever – David Lloyd, writer for ‘Mary Tyler Moore Show’ – and the man who killed Chuckles the Clown – dies - True/Slant : "Tomorrow, when you read the obits about veteran television comedy writer David Lloyd, who died after a long illness, they’ll surely mention “Chuckles Bites the Dust” in the first paragraph. David...
I was excited to learn yesterday that the sixth season of The Mary Tyler Moore Show is finally being released on DVD on February 2. The 3-disc set will include such memorable episodes as "Edie Gets Married", "Ted's Wedding", "The Happy Homemaker Takes Lou Home" and, of course, "Chuckles Bites the Dust", in which Chuckles the Clown dies in a freak accident when...
I'm going to show my age here - and at my age be thankful that's all I'm going to show - but I can recall growing up as a kid in Toronto and we had one telephone in the house. It was a wall-mounted, black rotary-dial affair behind the door in our kitchen. If you stretched the cord you could actually sit down at the kitchen table while you talked on the phone. This was in the mid-50s, hardly on the...
One of the great TV writers of all time has passed away. David Lloyd has written some of what are considered everyone's favorite sitcom episodes. His credits are momentous: "Mary Tyler Moore","Frasier", "The Bob Newhart Show", "Cheers", "Wings", and "Taxi."...
This December every weekday in the 5pm hour on AmericanLife TV they will have classic Christmas episodes of many classics all month long! The holiday fun begins Monday, November 30 and lasts every weekday through Thursday, December 24 all in the 5pm hour. Classics in order of airing are Lou Grant, The Big Valley, WKRP In Cincinnat, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show, Newhart,
By Mike Branam “With the fearful strain that is on me night and day, if I did not laugh I should die.” - Abraham Lincoln” Laughter gives us distance. It allows us to step back from an event, deal with it and then move on.” - Bob Newhart Laughing. Smiling. We know how important these things are in [...]
The journalism gods turned prankish Friday. As Chesley Sullenberger was taping a PBS News Hour interview about how he how saved 155 lives by landing safely in the Hudson River last January, two other pilots were overshooting Minneapolis by 150 miles. The incident recalled an old standup routine in which Bob Newhart comes on the intercom as a clueless cockpit voice to ask, "Would any of you folks...
This afternoon I saw Suzanne Pleshette in Gunsmoke (as "Glory Bramley" in the 1970 episode, Stark .) Boy! She was beautiful. It reminded me of how much in love with her I was as a kid - actually all my life. I was very sad when she died of lung cancer two years ago at the young (to me at least) age of 70. Suzanne Pleshette was born in Brooklyn to a Jewish show-biz family and got started on...
I didn't think it was healthy when American women confessed to dreaming about Obama. So, I'm not quite sure what to think about this unexpected confession by Chad the Elder. Saint Paul, of course, is quick to diagnose the underlying issue : It was quite a mix of symbolism and revealed subconscious needs and anxieties. What could it all mean? Based on some undergraduate psychology courses, years of...
Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project : 7.5 out of 10. Full disclosure: I've always loved Rickles. He's the best of the insult comics, and I love insult comics. Rickles is damn funny, and I love funny. Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project is a great little documentary by John Landis. You know you're going to have a good time when the doc opens with a Harry Dean Stanton singing "Old Blue". We...
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