30 Rock: Stone Mountain

She'll outlive us all.

30 Rock: Stone Mountain
NBC
October 29, 2009
Sitcom
DVD
B

John Riggi wrote this episode where Jack and Liz go to the location of the title, Kenneth's hometown.  (McBrayer plays two of the locals, one a mustached man, another a blonde woman.)  They're looking for someone for TGS, and Jack thinks a ventriloquist act is perfect.  Meanwhile, Frank, Toofer, and Lutz butter up Jenna so that she'll invite him to her gay friends' Halloween party, where all the hot girls will be.  And Tracy fears the Rule of Three of Celebrity Deaths will hit him next.  For a change, all three threads cross over in the end, when the obnoxious dummy (think Soap's Bob without a conscience and a filthier mouth) is beheaded by Jack, and so Tracy can relax and enjoy the Halloween party.

Blaine Horton repeats his role as Jenna's gay friend Sacha.  Frank Anello takes time out of his busy schedule to play a member of the Production Staff, and Sue Galloway is typecast as Sue.   Jimmy Fallon makes his first of four appearances on 30 Rock.  Then 87-year-old Betty White plays herself and in a nice sight gag is shown reading Milton Greene's Carter biography.

Mary Tyler Moore: The 20th Anniversary Show

"20" years later

Mary Tyler Moore:  The 20th Anniversary Show
CBS
February 18, 1991
Sitcom
VHS
B-

By now it should be clear that CBS was interpreting "20th anniversary" pretty loosely, eager to relive their glory days in the '70s.  This clip show at least has the advantage of getting the cast in a room together as themselves.  Much of it feels scripted, although the tears at the end look real.  MTM was one of those shows I watched all the time growing up but don't really feel inclined to get on DVD.  Still, it's nice to revisit.  This was taped after Ted Knight died, but the cast was then otherwise intact.

The Golden Girls: Isn't It Romantic? [fragment]

The Golden Girls: Isn't It Romantic? [fragment]
NBC
November 8, 1986
Sitcom
VHS
B-

There is only one reason I taped a scene from this episode, and it has nothing to do with the ground-breaking character of Dorothy's lesbian friend Jean.  No, it's because of those adorable clown-face sundaes Rose makes.  No wonder Jean falls for her!  (The photo is courtesy of https://thegoldengirlsreviewed.wordpress.com/2013/11/21/episode-5-isnt-it-romantic/)

Super Password finale [fragment]

Super Password finale [fragment]
NBC
March 24, 1989
Game Show
VHS
B-

My favorite game show of the time wraps up, although as Betty (whose husband Allen Ludden started the original version) points out, this is her fifth "last Password."  However, the "Phoenix didn't rise again" till 2008 it seems.  Mr. Belvedere himself, Christopher Hewett, is the other celebrity.  This is the 800th B- I've given, but then it is my default grade.

Who's the Boss?: Thanksgiving at Mrs. Rossini's

Who's the Boss?: Thanksgiving at Mrs. Rossini's
ABC
November 26, 1985
Sitcom
DVD
B

Aldredge & Bustany wrote this story that is significant for Tony & Angela's relationship, because of rather than despite it being mostly about his romance with someone else.  As the title suggests, the Bowers and Micellis go to the Rossinis' for Turkey Day.  (Mona is in the Macy's Parade as an elf.)  Mrs. Rossini has invited Gina, whom Tony hasn't seen since she was a little girl.  (Either she's much younger than Tony or she's been away awhile.)  Gina waits on Tony, and it's suggested that this is typical behavior for the old neighborhood.  Angela is disgusted, and then shocked when she walks in on Tony and Gina kissing in the kitchen.  (They don't see her.)

Angela has trouble sorting out her feelings about the old-fashioned "Neanderthal" Brooklyn Italian culture, and how Tony reverts to it, and about what is clearly her jealousy over Gina.  Tony doesn't get why she didn't hit it off with Gina or why she's reluctant to give him time off to spend in Brooklyn.  It's Mona that Tony tells he thinks of Gina as "not the type the girl you fool around with but the type of girl you marry."

With the Rossinis conveniently in Atlantic City, Gina has Tony over for dinner the next night.  But he realizes that not only doesn't she think he belongs in "her" kitchen (hey, Lady, you're a visitor, too), but he can't joke around with her like he does with Angela in the opening scene.  He returns to Connecticut early and he and Angela talk about how even though Gina is sweet, beautiful, and a great cook, he wants someone he can talk with and whose life wouldn't center around him.  Danza, Light, and the writers walk a tightrope here, but Tony can't completely admit, perhaps not even to himself, that Angela is the type of woman he wants now, and the closest it gets when he says he wants somebody like, and then pauses, so she suggests Meryl Streep.  He says, "Yeah, like Meryl Streep."

This time Betty White provides the voice of the Macy's Parade Hostess.  Bill Erwin, who was Jason's father the previous season, has his middle WtB role as Santa Claus from the parade.

We meet Mrs. Rossini's nuclear family, I think for the only time, and her father-in-law is named Joseph, her husband Joe (played by Ric Mancini, who was Sergeant Hodkey on M*A*S*H, two different characters on The Bob Newhart Show, and Mr. Lawrence on What's Happening!!), and her son Joey (boxer Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini, I'm not sure what relation to Ric, but he'd be back once more in this role), while Joey's pregnant wife is Theresa (not the one who works at Marty's Melody Room, and in fact this actress, Donna Ponterotto, had played Danza's sister in the 1981 movie Going Ape!).

Who's the Boss?: Eye on Angela

Who's the Boss?: Eye on Angela
ABC
February 19, 1985
Sitcom
DVD
B

Ellen Guylas wrote this farcical story, with special guest star the one and only Betty White, still in Sue Ann Nivens mode as Bobbie Barnes.  Bobbie hosts local TV show Eye on Hartford and she'll be profiling Angela.  She's looking for dirt and finds it when Tony and Angela, through an admittedly contrived set-up, accidentally wake up together in Sam's bed.  (Sam has a nightmare after the family watches Valley Ghoul, a nonexistent horror movie, on TV.)   Mona has spent the night in Jonathan's room so she's on the spot when Bobbie and her crew catch Tony and Angela in their nightclothes entering the upstairs hall, Angela saying, "I love when you put whipped cream on them!"  (Belgian waffles.)  Angela worries that everyone will think she's sleeping with her housekeeper.  Tony says she could do worse, so Mona says, "And has."  He invites Bobbie over, but it takes Mona, in full catty-but-protective mode, to blackmail former "weather bunny" Bobbie.

It's funny that even in the post-Three's-Company era, Angela possibly having sex with Tony is considered "kinky."  And, yes, there's a lot of shipping fodder here, especially in the tag, where Tony and Angela both claim they didn't dream while in bed together (Tony says he doesn't dream, which we'll later have proof is untrue), and yet we see them each remembering something that makes them grin, with a symbolic fire blazing behind them.

Match Game

Match Game
CBS
January 15, 1982
Game Show
DVD
C+

And so ends the "Best Of," with an episode that feels off.  Despite Brett drinking, Charles being random, and Betty being sweetly snarky about Richard Dawson, the glory days are clearly over.  Maybe Match Game wasn't supposed to run long enough for "Day O'Connor" to be an answer for "Sandra _____."  (I foolishly thought "Bullock" and then changed to number one answer "Dee.")  Maybe a cable-ready television shouldn't be one of the prizes.  And maybe McLean Stevenson shouldn't be a guest when he has a cold and a career in shambles.  As for the other two guests, you've got the forgettable Melinda O. Fee and the aggressively unfunny Skip Stephenson.  I still played along, obviously, but this is as good a time as any to end this.

Since the DVD has nine years unevenly distributed, I won't grade by season.  But the thirty episodes have a narrow range of C+ to B, with most of those B-.  (The '62 pilot also got a B-.)  I think it's more a matter of great moments than great episodes, since, unlike with a narrative program, the first five minutes might have little to do with the last five minutes on a game show.  This is, by the way, the 500th program of mine to air on CBS.  Other than the last season and a half of McLean's old show, there won't be a lot more.

Match Game

28-year-old Kirstie Alley

Match Game
CBS
July 21, 1979
Game Show
DVD
B-

More of the same, with Kirstie leaving after her two games.

Match Game

Match Game
CBS
July 21, 1979
Game Show
DVD
B-

We see more of Kirstie, Brett continues to seem plastered, and I start matching mostly Betty.

Match Game

Match Game
CBS
July 21, 1979
Game Show
DVD
B

A funny episode with everything from Betty, Brett, and Charles teasing each other to Gene pretending to die while waiting for one of the two "rotten contestants" to come up with an answer.  I can't believe "Catcher in the Rye" was the $100 answer while "Ham on Rye" was $500, but it figures that Jamie and I are too smart for the room.  And, yes, this is the debut of interior decorator Kirstie Alley.

Match Game

From that week

Match Game
CBS
July 21, 1979
Game Show
DVD
B-

The "best of" collection includes four episodes with this date, but this is definitely the first one, since it has Gene welcoming the "new kid," 20-year-old Jamie Lee Curtis, with a couple kisses.  Meanwhile, Charles gives some really random answers, like "war bonds" for a cattle drive.  I was thinking this was a "PM" episode, since the contestants face each other twice, but there's no mention of it in the title.

Match Game '78

Different episode from that week

Match Game '78
CBS
April 29, 1978
Game Show
DVD
B-

Gene gets so tired of Brett and Charles bickering that he rips out CNR's chair and has him move downstairs.  And Elaine Joyce manages not to annoy me.  This is it for MG '78, but the Best Of collection has quite a bit for '79.

Match Game '76

A different Mary Wickes episode

Match Game '76
CBS
December 10, 1976
Game Show
DVD
C+

Notable things about this episode:

• A female contestant says she doesn't have any children but she's going to have a dog;
• Gene whacks a tech guy with a cue card for not cuing him in time;
• Richard kind of annoys me, by overdoing a frog joke and by mocking Charles's perfectly fine answer;
• A winning match for "Daisy ____" is "Mae," which I doubt would work these days;
• and Brett claims Betty has had plastic surgery, little realizing that Ms. White would outlive everyone.

Match Game PM

Match Game PM
CBS
July 13, 1975
Game Show
DVD
C+

I would've gone with another B- but Elaine Joyce was too annoying.  Yes, this episode has the same airdate as the last one I reviewed, but it's listed as "0004" rather than "0003" on the DVD.

Match Game 73: #1.11

Match Game 73: #1.11
CBS
July 16, 1973
Game Show
DVD
B-

Week 3 begins with Brett and Charles debuting, as well as Betty White.  Brett is down in the lower tier, in the Jo Ann Pflug spot if you will.  But she is already BRETT, giving random answers and good-naturedly teasing CNR.  There's even a bit of her and Betty teasing each other.  Richard Dawson is next to Brett but they don't interact as much as they later would.  Note that this is pre-Gong-Show for Jaye P. Morgan and well before Password hosting for Bert Convy.