Class of '87, This One's For You!
OK, first off, how fun was last week's interview with
Joss Whedon? You guys went to town on that one. Honestly, I haven't taken that many hits since high school, if y'all know what I mean.
Which brings me to this week's bidness. Being November, the month of Thanksgiving, I've decided to devote each of the next four columns to shows I am grateful to have on DVD. And since high school is on my mind these days- just had my 20th class reunion last weekend (and let me tell ya, we still look good!)- the first batch are all shows from back when the Bonner boys were wearing our Capezio jazz shoes, thin leather ties and trying to understand why all the Prendie girls thought their massive Aquanetted walls of hair and liquid eyeliner looked good. So for Jerry Leyden, Chuck Wurzbach, Art Hoath and the rest of the crew, I offer you the best of the Class of 1987!
The Cosby Show By its third season, Denise was just about to show off her
Angel Heart (and more), Rudy was miles away from the intersection of cute and annoying, and none of us had yet realized that
Bill Cosby's sweaters were the ugliest things this side of my sister-in-law's embroidered ski-slope sweatshirt. In other words, it was still brilliant. And happily, if I recall correctly, it remained that way until Cliff and Claire waltzed off the set in the series finale, like 100 years later. As for the Season 3 set, all I have to say to you is this:
Gilbert Gottfried crushing Cliff's chances of haggling with a car dealer in "Say Hello to a Good Buy." Daawwwkkktaaahh Huxtabuulllll! That's good stuff, right there.
Cheers Another one of the Thursday night dynamos, the fifth season collection comes packed with two things every other show should be jealous of: the funniest Thanksgiving food fight ever and an abundance of
Bebe Neuwirth's Lilith Sternin. Like
M*A*S*H was for our dads, this may be the sitcom we late-30somethings watch over and over again without getting bored.
Family Ties What would we do, baby, without
Michael J. Fox's chronically capitalist Alex P. Keaton? My senior year was all about the as-yet-unreleased Season 5, but Season 2 just hit the shelves last month and I think I watched the entire thing in about a day and a half. Seriously, I lost a weekend. And you know what? No shame! Because buried in this one is "A Keaton Christmas Carol" and
Tina Yothers will never be better than when she was a dirt-selling street urchin scrooged over by her own brother. Plus, there's the Alex-on-diet-pills episode and he so worked that crazy years before Kelly Taylor over-Dexatrimmed. Sha la la laaaaah.
The Golden Girls It's
Sex and the City with support hose. Try and say something bad about this one. I'll cut you.
Dallas Confession time: I never watched much of this show when it was on. In the Holbrook house, it was
Dynasty or nothing. So imagine the glee I get from catching up with J.R. and company one set at a timeat my leisure! And while they have yet to get around to releasing the Bobby-in-the-shower shizz that was all the talk when I was prepping for Senior Week 1987 down in Wildwood, Season 7 dropped this summer and if ya loved the oily Ewings, you know that this is the year good old Bobby supposedly "died" and went to cliffhanger heaven.
Full House Laugh now, but this embarrassing gem, which didn't actually show up until the fall of '87, ran for 8 seasons, gave us more
Dave Coulier than we deserved and unleashed the
Olsen twins on the world. And don't even get me started on the
Stamos mullet.
House rocked, plain and simple, mostly because it was plain and simple. Sadly, we'll never see a silly family comedy like this again, unless it's being spoofed, so my suggestion is to go hit the CoinStar and grab the Complete Series Collection that was released yesterday.
Miami Vice Every Friday night, that damn
Jan Hammer theme song was playing as I headed out to either a party at Maria Plower's house or a trip to Mike Golden's parents' Mexican restaurant (R.I.P., Taco House!) But for all the dated pastels and pushed-up sleeves, the MTV-ized magic remains whenever I dip into one of the individual season sets for a shot of
Don Johnson and
Philip Michael Thomas. Next week, a Complete Series release is set to make a splash and it's OK to want it. This was
our cop showand I have pictures of dudes in
Vice-inspired prom tuxes to prove it.
Moonlighting My friend Joe McB. has a very um, pubescent fondness for this detective dramedy, but I'll forever adore Moonlighting because the late Helen Holbrook loved it. "Oh, that
Bruce Willisthere is just something about him!" What can I say, my mom was weird. It did, however, have the best dialogue I'd ever heard and all of the seasons available on DVD crackle with the chemistry between Maddie and David that made other TV couples look like punks. Even better, I just got to interview
Cybill Shepherd for new issue TV GUIDE (page 84, if you're wondering) and she was
sooooo much cooler than you can even imagine. Extra points right there, folks!
Next week: More headtrippin' down memory lane for classic DVD delights you can help but give thanks for. Until then, don't hog the remote!
Oh! And check out this
One Tree Hill coolness so y'all can get up to speed for the new season...and December's Season 4 release!
http://cwtv.com/thecw/fastforward
