For my next pick, Frozen TV Dinner is proud to select, in the Pre-80s category, The Love Boat.
The series debuted in the fall of 1977 after 3 made for tv movies aired in 1976 and early 1977. The series aired for 9 full seasons through 1986, mostly on Saturday nights, back at a time when people actually watched tv on Saturday nights.
The show took place aboard the Pacific Princess cruise ship (or one of its various sister ships for the show's frequent trips to destinations other than the west coast), and featured one of the largest parades of guest stars in television history. In fact, I'd say that if you were famous in the 1970s (or earlier) and didn't make a guest appearance on The Love Boat, you weren't really famous in the 1970s. Check out the list of everyone who made guest appearances on the show over its run: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...at_guest_stars
The series also had a small cast of regulars, including Captain Stubing (who was later joined by his daughter aboard the ship); Gopher, the ship's purser; Doc, the ship's doctor; Isaac, the bartender; and Julie, your Cruise Director.
Every week, the show had three main storylines, which usually didn't overlap with each other. One usually involved the show regulars in a humorous story; one was a humorous story involving one (or more) of the ship's passengers; and one was usually a more serious story between two or more of the passengers. As one would expect from a show with this title, the storylines typically involved love and/or romance in some way.
One of the often repeated premises was the single woman who confided in Julie that she was looking for Mr Right, and a single man who confided in Gopher or Isaac that he was looking for Miss Right, then the crew members scheming to get the two single people together...which they usually did by the end of the episode.
The opening credits...
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The Channel Surfers select Journeyman in the Serial category.
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The series centers around Dan Vasser, a newspaper reporter living with his wife Katie and young son Zack in San Francisco. For an unknown reason, one day he begins jumping backward in time. He soon learns that each series of jumps follows the life of a person whose destiny he seems meant to change. Dan's jumping affects his family life and his job, and instills suspicion in his brother Jack, a police detective. While in the past, Dan reconnects with his ex-fiancée, Livia, whom he had believed was killed in a plane crash but is actually a traveler like him.
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Dan's "shifts" through time occur seemingly at random. The only indication he has to an oncoming jump is a feeling in his head which varies from right before he jumps to several seconds of warning. Dan appears to have no control over the shifts. The first jump is typically several decades into the past; through a series of jumps, he jumps nearer to the present, usually years at a time.
The jumps manifest themselves with a small blue flash and a ripple as Dan appears to vanish from the present, and appear instantly in the past. He is missing from the present for a period of time unrelated to the period he spends in the past. His disappearances and reappearances are rarely witnessed by anyone else; it is unclear if this is a factor in his jumps, or merely coincidence. Dan does not arrive in the same location he departed, but instead arrives near the person who he is supposed to help. His jumps are typically restricted to the area he leaves from, usually keeping him in the San Francisco area. Dan is also trying to figure out the mechanics of his travels. He has questioned a physicist who seems to have known his father in the past, and has discussed the possibility of tachyon particles being able to cause time jumps. It is now clear that the scientist is aware of Dan's travels, as well as those of others like him. It has also been discovered that those born around the time of a rare passing comet have this ability.
Dan's journeys appear to each have an innate purpose, which is not always apparent to him, but involves positively changing the destiny of a certain person. Likewise, fate seems to conspire against him if he tries to alter other events beyond his current charge. Alterations Dan makes to the timeline affect the present and the memories of everyone in it. His own memories, however, are unaltered, and he recalls events as they originally occurred before his interference.
Dan is not alone in his tendency to time-travel. His ex-fiancée Livia, thought to have been killed in a plane crash, actually traveled back to her "home time", 1948, from where she jumps forward in time. Dan meets Livia on his jumps into the past, as she jumps into her future to offer her experience and assistance with Dan's missions. As revealed in the episode "Perfidia", there is at least one other person who also jumps through time.
Real shame this show got cancelled; it started off slow, but really picked up steam creatively and dramatically as the season drew to a close. I really liked how Dan's relationship with his family was portrayed in the series; it really takes a lot from the book The Time Traveler's Wife but gives it its own twist. And having his thought-to-be-dead fiancé meet him in the past as his guide? Brilliant.
Opening:
Last edited by Flamesguy_SJ; 02-05-2009 at 10:16 PM.
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The Couch Potatoes select from the Drama Category......
The Rockford Files
James Garner stars as Jim Rockford, a private investigator who lives and works from his trailer in Malibu, Los Angeles. Jim is an ex-con who had been imprisoned for five years in San Quentin for armed robbery – a crime which he did not commit and was later pardoned. Jim has a quarter page advertisement in the yellow pages, drives a tan Pontiac Firebird and has an answering machine, which plays at the beginning of every episode; "This is Jim Rockford, at the tone leave your name and message and I'll get back to you". A person then leaves a message – which usually has no relevance to the episode but is often humorous.
The series also stars Noah Beery Jr as Jim's father Joseph "Rocky" Rockford, a retired truck driver. Rocky offers words of wisdom, advice or even assistance in some episodes. Rocky frequently pressures his son to leave the PI business and take up safer, honest work, such as trucking.
Jim also has a close friendship with Dennis Becker, played by Joe Santos. Dennis is a Los Angeles Police Sergeant, later promoted to Lieutenant. Jim uses Dennis get information, police computer checks and often makes him the hero of the case Jim was investigating.
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In Sci-Fi/Fantasy, team Watching Through The Static chooses Lexx
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The crew of the Lexx is motivated largely by fear, lust, and insatiable hunger — factors which gradually came to dominate the story-lines more and more, eventually making Lexx famous for its sexual themes and often bizarre story-lines. Each episode in the later series takes the crew through another stage of their journey through chaotic, hostile universes without any legitimate authority while exploring the relationships between the protagonists and their individual histories.
The crew of the Lexx includes:
* Stanley H. Tweedle (Brian Downey) of planet Ostral-B, Security guard 4th class, the Arch Traitor, agent of a failed rebellion, and, by accident, captain of the Lexx
* Zev/Xev Bellringer of planet B3K, a half cluster lizard, and half renegade love slave. Played by Eva Habermann (as Zev) in the first season and the first 2 episodes of the second season, and Xenia Seeberg (as Xev) thereafter.
* Kai (Michael McManus), last of the Brunnen-G, an emotionless, undead Divine Assassin.
* 790/791/769 (Jeffrey Hirschfield), a robot head that received the love slave programming meant for Zev, in love first with Zev, then, starting in season 3, with Kai.
* The Lexx itself (voiced by Tom Gallant), with which Stanley regularly interacts.
* Lyekka (Louise Wischermann), man-eating plant woman and occasional Lexx crew member.
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"The problem with any ideology is that it gives the answer before you look at the evidence."
—Bill Clinton
"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance--it is the illusion of knowledge."
—Daniel J. Boorstin, historian, former Librarian of Congress
"But the Senator, while insisting he was not intoxicated, could not explain his nudity"
—WKRP in Cincinatti
I used to watch this on A&E with my grandmother when I was a kid. Great show, don't remember much about it other than the opening theme song, but knew I loved it.
Koodos
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Originally Posted by Maritime Q-Scout
I used to watch this on A&E with my grandmother when I was a kid. Great show, don't remember much about it other than the opening theme song, but knew I loved it.
Koodos
Thanks!
I love watching the reruns of this show. Angel Martin always makes me laugh
Famous actors, directors and writers reminisce about their careers and the philosophy behind their careers.
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For more than twelve years, James Lipton has sat down with more than 200 of the world's most accomplished artists — ranging from actors and directors to musicians and comedians — for penetrating, fascinating interviews. Lipton's studious research and enlightened curiosity has inspired his guests to open up and confess their deepest thoughts about their craft.
The series premiered with Paul Newman, an Actors Studio alumnus and former president (1982-1994). A partial list of notable featured guests includes Sally Field, Dennis Hopper, Jessica Lange, Christopher Walken, Nathan Lane, Julia Roberts, Meg Ryan, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Whoopi Goldberg, Jack Lemmon, Gary Sinise, Kathy Bates, Robert De Niro, Susan Sarandon, Meryl Streep, John Hurt, Harrison Ford, Spike Lee, Ed Harris, Ben Affleck, Mike Myers, Antonio Banderas, Kevin Kline, Gene Hackman, Debra Winger, Johnny Depp, Hugh Grant, Richard Gere, Benicio del Toro, Samuel L. Jackson, Sir Ian McKellen, Pierce Brosnan, Juliette Binoche, Martin Scorcese, Edward Norton, Julianne Moore, The Cast of "The Simpsons," Nicholas Cage, Renee Zellweger, Tom Cruise, Russell Crowe, Angelina Jolie and Al Pacino to name a few.
Hosted by Pace University, each episode is taped before an audience of students at the Michael Schimmel Center of the Arts and is now broadcast in 125 countries. In addition to his duties as host and executive producer, Lipton is Dean Emeritus of Actors Studio's MFA drama program.
The Couch Potatoes select from the Drama Category......
The Rockford Files
Great theme to that show. Good pick Dion.
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"The problem with any ideology is that it gives the answer before you look at the evidence."
—Bill Clinton
"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance--it is the illusion of knowledge."
—Daniel J. Boorstin, historian, former Librarian of Congress
"But the Senator, while insisting he was not intoxicated, could not explain his nudity"
—WKRP in Cincinatti
The Tick is a fictional character, an absurdist spoof of comic book superheroes. Created by cartoonist Ben Edlund, the character debuted as a newsletter mascot in 1986, was spun off into an independent comic-book series in 1988, and gained mainstream popularity through an animated TV series on Fox Broadcasting in 1994. A short-lived live-action TV series, video game and various merchandise have also been based on the character. The Tick was named the twenty-eighth greatest comic book character by Empire Magazine.
In the Drama category, Watching through the Static chooses The Pretender
There are pretenders among us, geniuses with the ability to become anyone they want to be... In 1963, a Corporation known as the Centre, isolated a young pretender named Jarod, and exploited his genius for their research. Until one day, their pretender ran away ...
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Jarod (Michael T. Weiss) is a child prodigy who was abducted at a young age and raised in a think tank called The Centre, based in the fictional town of Blue Cove, Delaware. Jarod's mentor and father figure is Sydney, a psychologist working for The Centre who coached him through a number of complex simulations designed to challenge his intellect. When Jarod discovered that the Centre was using data gathered from his response to the simulations for nefarious purposes, he escaped. Since that time, Jarod has been on the run, trying to make amends for those he has unwittingly hurt, and The Centre is never far behind.
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"The problem with any ideology is that it gives the answer before you look at the evidence."
—Bill Clinton
"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance--it is the illusion of knowledge."
—Daniel J. Boorstin, historian, former Librarian of Congress
"But the Senator, while insisting he was not intoxicated, could not explain his nudity"
—WKRP in Cincinatti
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The Couch Potatoes choose from the Canadian Category.......
Theodore Tugboat is a children's television show about a tugboat named Theodore who lives in the Big Harbour with all of his friends. The show was produced in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada by CBC Television and (the now defunct) Cochran Entertainment. It was filmed on a model set with radio controlled tugboats, ships, and machinery. The show has been off the air since 2001 but is said to still be shown in some countries. The show's distribution rights were sold to Classic Media. At one time, the show appeared in eighty countries. It premiered in Canada on CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), then went on to PBS (Public Broadcasting Service), the Noggin Channel, and qubo in the US.
The show dealt with life learning issues portrayed by the tugs or other ships in the harbour. Most of the time, the tugs would have a problem involving a struggle with each other or another ship, but they always helped one another to resolve these problems. Their main focus however, was to always make the Big Harbour the friendliest harbour in the whole world, and to always do a good job with their work.
