Attack of the TV (Game Thread)

[jensaltmann]

A new game, this time about TV.

It's like this: the one whose turn it is picks two TV shows from the 20th century. That means anything before 2001. Shows from 2001 onwards are off-limits.

I'm also excluding cartoons and animation. Not because I have a prejudice against them, but they are simply more generational than live-action shows.

I'm going to start this off, and at the end will pick a victim. I will offer this victim two TV shows to choose from. The victim will pick one of them and explain their connection to that TV show, up to and including DVD owning. If you don't know either show, it's okay. In that case, you simply tell us why you don't know it and whether or not you might be interested in watching/owning the DVDs.
Then that victim will re-offer the show they haven't picked, plus another one.

Sounds complicated? It's not. I'm starting off so you can see what I mean.

I choose The Professionals. (Mostly because, since it's British, it's less likely to come up.)



Okay, seriously, how can you not like a TV show where the credits start with a car crashing through a building? And that was what The Professionals was, to me, when it was new: bad-ass action. The show has been criticised for violence and accused of a fascist worldview. I didn't notice the latter. For teenaged me, the following example was simply tough and cool:

In one episode, criminals took hostages to blackmail the government into releasing their accomplices from jail. Instead of giving in, the CI5 team brought the gangsters to the hostage situation and said, "We will kill one of your friends for every hostage that you harm."

My adult self shivers at the thought that this was their idea of a hostage negotiation, and is quite aware of how illegal CI5's action was. My teenage self went, "That's showing them!" That's simply why I enjoyed The Professionals. They were bad-ass, they were not quite as sanitized as the American stuff that we got here on German TV (and definitely not as boring as the German stuff). They pushed the action envelope for their time.

The DVD boxes are available. I don't own them. The reason is, I suppose, easily recognizable: my adult self might not like it as much as my teenage self did. I plan to eventually borrow the season 1 box from the library to watch. If I still have fun, I just might get them for my collection. At the moment, however, I'm wary.

My victim is Kirk. Kirk, you get to choose from the following:

Scarecrow and Mrs. King



or Cagney & Lacy

[K-Box]

I appreciate you throwing me the softball with the first one.

Truth be told, though, both shows are connected in an interesting way:

The titular "Scarecrow" was, of course, my distant relative, Bruce Boxleitner, who also played TRON in the movie of the same name, but one of the recurring cops in Cagney & Lacey's precinct was played by Dan Shor, who also played Ram in the aforementioned film. Find an '80s show with Jeff Bridges, and you'd have yourself a damn cast reunion.

I actually watched Scarecrow & Mrs. King, although I remember it more for the MAD Magazine parody of it, and the fact that at least half the people I've met in my life have reflexively called me "Bruce" because of my last name.

It was, like so many '80s shows, based on an astonishingly flimsy premise, and fueled almost entirely by the UST of the two leads, although even as a kid, I sensed that Bruce and Kate were not exactly gifted with onscreen chemistry together.

By contrast, while Cagney & Lacey comes across like something out of a Lifetime cliche playbook now, it was actually groundbreaking for its time, not in the least because it was one of the first primetime dramas to deal with the rape of a male character in a sober and nuanced way.

[K-Box]

And I'll throw a softball of my own, to whomever wants to pick it up:



My own connection to the show?

HOWLING MAD MURDOCK.

As a little kid, before I ever saw Kirk on Star Trek or the Doctor on Doctor Who, Murdock was my LIFEspiration.

He's the reason I believe in Bigfoot, even as an adult, and he's the reason why, as a little kid, my parents always got told by my teachers, "Um, yes, well ... you have a very interesting child."

[jensaltmann]

Yeah, I did actually plan to start out easy. If this goes on long enough, shows will get obscure by themselves.

You forgot to answer the DVD question, though. And you *do* need to pick a new victim. If people get to pick their own shows to discuss, that'd be too easy.

[K-Box]

I doubt I'd get either show on DVD. They were okay, but not so much my thing.

OH! Another connection! Beverly Garland appeared as a supporting character in both shows, as well.

And I pick Mario.

[jensaltmann]

To summarize, then: Mario gets to choose between Cagney & Lacy, and A-Team.

[Mario Di Giacomo]

Tough one. I don't have ANY connection to C&L, except for the truly ephemeral MASH connection.

So I guess I'd have to go with A-Team. although I only started watching it because of Dirk Benedict (I needed a BSG fix, and there was a Cylon in the credits!).

Older I get, though, the more I identify with Hannibal. Although I may never actually smoke a cigar, I still love it when a plan comes together.

(I don't think I'd get the A-Team DVD, though. I don't buy a lot of DVDs these days).

Let's see. I think I'll pick Jesse next, and a show that I was so addicted to, I bought essentially the same doll (this was before "action figures") two years in a row.

We have the technology...

[jessebaker]

C&L was a horribly unfunny show; both the main actresses would go on to do less annoying work on other shows. That said, it's got snark value plus is a nice time capsule as far as watching a major TV network create the exact opposite of Charlie's Angels via doing a girl cop show where the two leads are the exact opposite of CA's jiggle TV.

That said; I'd watch it over Bionic Man if only because I find Lee Majors to be a boring block of wood and that Bionic Man pissed on a decent concept. It should have been more like the Fugitive: the Bionic Man is on the run, avoiding the corporation that caused maimed him so that they could use him as a test subject to create cyborgs. Hell. I'd watch the Bionic Woman remake over the Bionic Man!

As for my pick for the next round:

Bionic Man versus Melrose Place.

Melrose Place, in it's prime (IE Seasons two through Five) were probably some of the best TV in primetime during the 90s. While everyone gushes over Heather Lockler and Courtney Thorne-Smith, it was IMHO Marcia Cross and Laura Leighton who gave the show it's heart and the way that the show collapsed when they left after season five showed.

One of my prized possessions in high school was a VHS comp tape I made of all of Marcia Cross's scenes from Seasons 3-4, taken off of reruns of the show that aired on E!.

The show's on DVD (and supposedly less mangled than 90201, which has been said to have been outright butchered as far as it's DVD release goes) but I have yet to pick it up. Which is ok, since I have most episodes of the show on VHS tape.

So Paul: Melrose Place or Bionic Man?