What did you watch this week in classic TV on DVD(or Blu)? (2 Viewers)

[ClassicTVMan1981X]

Hi Buddy - Tim HUtton's Nero Wolfe has several episodes on youtube. My favorite is an extended version never shown in the US. Has a bunch of additional by-play and jokes.
The 2000-2001 version is one of my personal favs. We have probably watched them thru 7 or 8 times.
Before I Die Extended WS

I read the William Conrad version of Nero Wolfe (1981) wasn't exactly true to Rex Stout's books.

~Ben

 

[Jeff Flugel]

I'm a sucker for most things Robin Hood and did a blind buy of that series a few years back. I was quite pleased with the way it was done. It's very enjoyable, though I do wish Michael Praed could have done S3 as well. It's not that Connery is bad - I just like Praed a bit better. Is the BR set region free? I've not gone to a region free BR player yet... I need to though...

That's the general consensus, Howie, (and mine) that, while Connery is just fine, most prefer Michael Praed's take on the role.

Network's Blu-Ray set of Robin of Sherwood is marked Region A B C, and plays on my Region A Sony Blu-Ray player with no problems, so it's definitely Region Free. It's an 8-disc set, discs 1 - 3 are Blu-Rays covering the 13 episodes in Seasons 1 and 2. Discs 5-7 contain all 13 episodes of season 3 on Blu-Ray discs. Discs 4 and 8 are DVDs and contain most of the special features, which are in SD. It's a terrific set, well worth the price if you like the show.

 

[Jeff Flugel]

I read the William Conrad version of Nero Wolfe (1981) wasn't exactly true to Rex Stout's books.

~Ben

Likely true of later episodes, Ben..."The Golden Spiders" (ep 1) at least follows the book's plot in general outline. I mean, it's hard to adapt a novel into a 50 minute TV episode, so I'm sure - as with many book to film or book to TV adaptations - several plot points were omitted or changed.

From what I've seen, I wouldn't call the Conrad series a lost classic or anything, but it seems a pretty entertaining detective show.

 

[BobO'Link]

S3 of Taxi has been viewed. Overall... pretty much a repeat of S1 and S2.

Here are a few "highlights" of the season.

Alex finds out his daughter, who he's rarely seen since he and her mother divorced when she was 2, is getting married and he wasn't invited. Oh, the horror! He invites Elaine to go with him to crash the reception. Yawn...

An Eliane story has her dating a guy who's homosexual. She knows but no one knows she knows so Tony goes to tell her and break them up. The guy makes a pass at Tony. Tony goes to Alex on advice on letting him down gently. Alex goes to the bar with him (a "gay bar") and winds up dancing with another guy. Yawn...

Latka's grandmother has died, leaving him her famous cookie recipe. Everyone loves them, in spite of them chewing like a piece of cud. They have a secret ingredient. Never mind how Latka manages to get this ingredient legally - just go with the story. Yeah... about as funny as it sounds.

The boxing commission revokes Tony's boxing license after a doctor discovers he's had far more than the "normal" times of losing by a knockout. Not helped by me disliking boxing in general and thus Tony's whole story line by association.

Elaine's apartment building is going coop so she has to move - in with Bobby, much to everyone's disgust (they don't trust him - or her). Just what happened to her kids? I don't recall them saying. Your basic comedy by misunderstanding type cliche' stuff.

A Bobby centric episode where he skewers a critic after said critic wrote some rather mean things about an actress friend. Louie pulls the letter out of the trash and sends it for fun (Bobby'd had second thoughts and trashed it). The critic goes to a one-man show Bobby's doing based on Darwin. Also not helped or funny because I just don't like the character at all.

In one of the better episodes, Louie hits an old lady with his cab (BUT - why is Louie driving a cab? He's not done this before making it a one-time setup for an episode which, due to the discrepency, really makes no sense) so she takes him and the Sunshine Cab Company to court for a million dollars. Alex remembers from a prior experience that she is a known ambulance chaser so Louie decides to go to court and fight her. Funny thing is she's truly injured this time - although she did it to herself trying her scam again. To prove she's OK, Louie pushes her wheelchair out the courtroom doors and it goes down flight after flight of stairs (heard, not seen).

A rather lame 2 parter in which Sunshine Cab Co. has closed (due to the demands for keeping the cabs in good repair - ran out of money) and the cabbies have moved on. They come together to tell their stories of what they're now doing. Yawn again...

And after bombing out trying to pickup a "hottie," Latka creates a suave but obnoxious alter ego, Vic Ferrari, to help him score with the ladies. No one likes "Vic." Will they be able to get Latka back? This one somewhat mirrors what Kaufman was doing in real life - acting the fool, being generally obnoxious, and apparently attempting to torpedo what career he had. Thus begins the downward spiral of Kaufman and the character of Latka. Full disclosure - I never, ever, cared much for Kaufman or any of his characters or the stunts he pulled under the guise of "comedy." They were all just too "one note" varieties with many being so obnoxious as to be disgusting. Vic, to me, feels like Kaufman growing tired of the limited box he'd painted himself into with the Latka character and wanting to "break out" with something "better."

The series lack of continuity with itself is becoming annoying. The writers are getting lazy and starting to throw stuff against the wall to see what works *or* just creating stories that violate the show's internal logic.

**EDIT**

I totally forgot that the episode where Jim's found by a detective and goes to visit his somewhat estranged father is in S3. That episode is the best one from this season.

**END EDIT**

To be continued in S4...

 

[Rustifer]

S3 of Taxi has been viewed. Overall... pretty much a repeat of S1 and S2.

Here are a few "highlights" of the season.

Alex finds out his daughter, who he's rarely seen since he and her mother divorced when she was 2, is getting married and he wasn't invited. Oh, the horror! He invites Elaine to go with him to crash the reception. Yawn...

An Eliane story has her dating a guy who's homosexual. She knows but no one knows she knows so Tony goes to tell her and break them up. The guy makes a pass at Tony. Tony goes to Alex on advice on letting him down gently. Alex goes to the bar with him (a "gay bar") and winds up dancing with another guy. Yawn...

Latka's grandmother has died, leaving him her famous cookie recipe. Everyone loves them, in spite of them chewing like a piece of cud. They have a secret ingredient. Never mind how Latka manages to get this ingredient legally - just go with the story. Yeah... about as funny as it sounds.

The boxing commission revokes Tony's boxing license after a doctor discovers he's had far more than the "normal" times of losing by a knockout. Not helped by me disliking boxing in general and thus Tony's whole story line by association.

Elaine's apartment building is going coop so she has to move - in with Bobby, much to everyone's disgust (they don't trust him - or her). Just what happened to her kids? I don't recall them saying. Your basic comedy by misunderstanding type cliche' stuff.

A Bobby centric episode where he skewers a critic after said critic wrote some rather mean things about an actress friend. Louie pulls the letter out of the trash and sends it for fun (Bobby'd had second thoughts and trashed it). The critic goes to a one-man show Bobby's doing based on Darwin. Also not helped or funny because I just don't like the character at all.

In one of the better episodes, Louie hits an old lady with his cab (BUT - why is Louie driving a cab? He's not done this before making it a one-time setup for an episode which, due to the discrepency, really makes no sense) so she takes him and the Sunshine Cab Company to court for a million dollars. Alex remembers from a prior experience that she is a known ambulance chaser so Louie decides to go to court and fight her. Funny thing is she's truly injured this time - although she did it to herself trying her scam again. To prove she's OK, Louie pushes her wheelchair out the courtroom doors and it goes down flight after flight of stairs (heard, not seen).

A rather lame 2 parter in which Sunshine Cab Co. has closed (due to the demands for keeping the cabs in good repair - ran out of money) and the cabbies have moved on. They come together to tell their stories of what they're now doing. Yawn again...

And after bombing out trying to pickup a "hottie," Latka creates a suave but obnoxious alter ego, Vic Ferrari, to help him score with the ladies. No one likes "Vic." Will they be able to get Latka back? This one somewhat mirrors what Kaufman was doing in real life - acting the fool, being generally obnoxious, and apparently attempting to torpedo what career he had. Thus begins the downward spiral of Kaufman and the character of Latka. Full disclosure - I never, ever, cared much for Kaufman or any of his characters or the stunts he pulled under the guise of "comedy." They were all just too "one note" varieties with many being so obnoxious as to be disgusting. Vic, to me, feels like Kaufman growing tired of the limited box he'd painted himself into with the Latka character and wanting to "break out" with something "better."

The series lack of continuity with itself is becoming annoying. The writers are getting lazy and starting to throw stuff against the wall to see what works *or* just creating stories that violate the show's internal logic.

To be continued in S4...

And I thought I was tough on some shows...

 

[BobO'Link]

And I thought I was tough on some shows...

The thing is I don't necessarily dislike the show. It's not bad, just not as good or funny as I remember it being during those original airings. During those original airings I primarily watched it for Marilu Henner and am finding she's still the main reason for me to keep watching. I'm glad I own a copy but don't see myself revisiting it very often.

I watched Evening Shade for the sole reason being Marilu Henner was a costar. I'm not much of a Burt Reynolds fan and I have an intense dislike for sports in general so tend to avoid TV shows/movies if that's a core part. That one turned out to be less "athletic" oriented than I thought it'd be and kept watching for the superb supporting cast. I'll soon know for sure if I still like that one as I purchased a copy of that series not long ago and plan to rewatch it in the near future.

I almost didn't watch Who's the Boss because of Tony Danza and not caring for him in Taxi. It was Judith Light (One Life to Live - which I occasionally watched between directing commercial production at an ABC affiliate) who kept me watching that one.

I didn't watch Cheers the first few seasons because its creators, James Burrows, Glen Charles, and Les Charles, were also heavily involved in Taxi. I later came to my senses and discovered Cheers to be one of the true classics of TV. In this viewing of Taxi I'm seeing *lots* of the future Cheers cast in small, and sometimes not-so-small, roles.

 

[bmasters9]

I almost didn't watch He's the Boss because of Tony Danza

I think you mean Who's The Boss?.

 

[BobO'Link]

I think you mean Who's The Boss?.

Of course... I caught that when searching for the show, and even thought it "correct" but typed it wrong, yet didn't correct it in the post (actually didn't proof it that well)...

 

[bmasters9]

Of course... I caught that when searching for the show, and even thought it "correct" but typed it wrong, yet didn't correct it in the post (actually didn't proof it that well)...

Noticed correction-- it happens (we're human).

 

[BobO'Link]

Surprise! I got a couple of good laughs out of Taxi S4!

One was in the season opener episode: Jim has a vision that Alex will die on Thursday at 7 p.m.. Louie is convinced that it is real, but Alex refuses to believe it. Things build up to the event as everything Jim predicts will happen to Alex happens. Louie is at Alex's apartment at the appointed time of death when the doorbell rings as predicted. Alex opens the door and there stands a "Girl Scout" with boxes of cookies. Louie screams! The girl screams! Louie screams! The girl screams, drops the boxes of cookies, and runs off. I laugh!

In the other, Tony meets a promising young heavyweight boxer and offers to become his manager; the problem is, a mysterious "syndicate" is also showing an interest in the rookie fighter. And that has nothing at all to do with what I found funny. In a side story, Louie has been betting on football games with Alex and is down $1200. He bets Alex double-or-nothing on a game, Alex agrees, and lets Louie pick the team he wants. The humor comes from how *Jim* handles Louie when he looses this bet.

Some of the absolutely best moments came from Jim and his interactions with everyone else. A standout episode has Martin Short as a network programming executive who takes scheduling suggestions from Jim to great success. Alex convinces Jim to stand up for his rights and demand recognition from his input. In another, Jim has tickets to see Itzhak Perlman and takes Elaine. In the elevator when leaving the theater a patron of the art gallery where Elaine works spots her, introduces herself to Jim, and invites the pair, much to Elaine's dismay, to a rather high-brow party. The pianist for the party fails to show and Jim saves the day by agreeing to fill in.

Louie's character was also somewhat stand out this season. In S3 his behavior was pretty irredeemable and while he's still obnoxious in S4 he's not nearly as malevolent feeling as in S3, shows some humility, and can be rather sympathetic at times. Basically, the character improved and became far less of a one note type.

Kaufman is apparently allowed free reign in the "Latka multiple personality" story line with it rearing its ugly head in many episodes in which Kaufman appears. One episode features this behavior exclusively with him even becoming Alex during a session with a psychologist. The multiple personality bit began with the last episode of S3 and pretty much came out of the blue. Wasn't funny in that episode nor any of the S4 episodes in which it manifested. Episode 15, in which Simka returns, is the last time we see Latka's alternate personalities this season. They're gone, with no explanation, to the betterment of the show. Hopefully they'll not return in S5.

There was a truly terrible episode where Elaine's ex shows up and takes the kids for a month. This prompts her to go to Europe on vacation and she convinces Alex to go along. It's one lame encounter after another, either Alex or Elaine or both, strung together with stock footage of European cities.

Another very "meh" episode for me sees Bubba Smith, IMHO a case of stunt casting due to his wearing of a Superbowl ring which helps introduce the character, making a single appearance as a cut 3rd string football player who comes to drive a taxi but instead coachesTony in a bid to regain his license and return to the ring. Cliche' thy name is Tony Banta boxing episodes.

Simka returns and marries Latka. I was surprised that her return, their "dating," and the, somewhat ridiculous, marriage consumes only 2 spread apart episodes. I recalled that sequence dominating the season during the original airings and that I absolutely did not like the story line. That could be due to Latka's multiple personalities ruining the funny whenever he appeared, which did occur in her return episode, and that my memories of disliking that continuing story line is the root cause of my dissatisfaction with the characters and *not* the marriage.

Bobby is gone - having gotten a shot at a network pilot. He appeared in 3 episodes, the first, one held over from S3 (S4E8), and the twelfth (where they say where he's been and give him a send off). In real life, the story is a producer found Jeff Conaway passed out apparently from drug use (Conaway was known to have had an addiction problem). They gave his dialog for that episode to other cast members, found it still got laughs, so let him go. Conaway denied that story saying he left because the producers "dishonored" him. It may sound bad, but I didn't miss the character at all and really didn't notice him being gone until doing some reading about the series.

And the season ends with yet another below average two-part episode that's mostly flash backs. This time they tell the stories of what lead each character to driving a cab. The absolutely best segment was Jim's where he's in college prior to becoming a druggie. His then girlfriend talks him into trying marijuana brownies. A highlight of that segment is Tom Hanks making an appearance as a stoned party buddy - at the time he was filming S2 of Bosom Buddies. The rest of those segments are quite forgettable with a very cliche' boxing origin for Tony, Louie taking over the dispatcher's job (a very short segment), Latka's leaving his home country (done entirely in subtitles that the audience appeared to find hilarious - they aren't), and Alex's failed promotion, where he was driving a Taxi part time already, leading to him driving full time.

All in all, I enjoyed S4 far more than any of the first 3 seasons, and had more laughs than the first 3 combined. It's also the first season the main show runners were no longer associated with the series. They'd moved on to produce and work on Cheers.

ABC cancelled the show after this season and NBC picked it up for the final one.

Stay tuned...

 

[bmasters9]

ABC cancelled the show after this season and NBC picked it up for the final one.

Stay tuned...

And one promo for that fifth and final go (the NBC one, 1982-83) was a blip, but got the point across quite well-- Danny DeVito's character Louie outside a taxicab, with late, great NBC voice Danny Dark saying, "Taxi's coming to NBC!," and then Louie saying, "Same time, better station!"

 

[JohnHopper]

__________________________________​

I'm still exploring season 9 of Gunsmoke and I'm at Disc #7.​

Festus returns again and now he is the Festus we knew.​

He performs many folk songs including “Since the Mud Creek Incident”.​

 

[BobO'Link]

Taxi S5 continued with the improved episodes I'd seen in S4 and only a few exceptions. I, again, got a couple of laughs, mostly involving JIm, who seems to have taken front seat in the series, and, surprisingly, Louie - or actually from comments made *to* Louie by others.

The absolutely worst episodes this season are a pair of flashback, true flashback, episodes. Both are nothing but a string of series "highlights" that were originally presented by Danny DeVito, who is inexplicably missing from the episodes on the DVDs. I'm guessing these may have aired in a partial live setting that wasn't recorded. PQ on these 2 episodes is also poor, looking like bad dupes, which, guessing again, likely are due to its original presentation (as if someone grabbed whatever copies they had off the shelf and threw them together in an edit bay the week before). These originally aired in March so who knows why they felt the need for such a lame retrospective 2/3 the way into the season. The show had also been moved to Saturday nights by this time.

Another kind of "meh" episode has Tony coaching Elaine's son in boxing. Imagine that, me not liking another somewhat cliche' boxing episode.

So... Jim episodes, again, provided some of the best ones this season. The one where his dad has passed away and Jim gets a trunk of his possessions is quite good. There's a scene where Jim drapes his dad's suit over a recliner which reclines after the coat is hung on the back that's somewhat poignant. The chair reclining was not in the script, and Christopher Lloyd's reaction of surprise was genuine, but he stayed in character and that was the take that was used. As Marv indicated, Stevie Wonder's "You are the Sunshine of my Life" is intact. I loved it when after putting the tape in the player and the song starts Jim says to the chair "I didn't know you liked Stevie Wonder!"

Louie continues to grow and become less abrasive and more sympathetic while still retaining the somewhat caustic comebacks and generally abusive nature. A stand-out episode with him has him meeting, and becoming involved with, a blind girl. She falls in love with Louie and he with her. She gets an opportunity to have a surgery which has the potential to restore her sight and Louie is terrified that it'll work, she'll be able to see him, and dump him due to his looks.

Penny Marshall (as herself) makes a guest appearance in an episode where Louie is trying to get a posh uptown apartment. The trouble is, so is Marshall.

Alex goes off the wagon - gambling wagon that is (was he "on the wagon?" I don't recall a gambling addiction for him being mentioned before). All goes quite well and Alex manages to stay in control - until Louie gets involved. Can Jim fix things?

Latka and Simka episodes also play a major role this season. I was surprised that I actually enjoyed these episodes as I distinctly recall not liking them during the original airings. Latka's multiple personality disorder *never* shows up again, to the the show's profit, and he and Simka are as normal as they can be considering their backgrounds.

A friend of Latka and Simka, who is a monk (Mark Blankfield - from Fridays and Robin Hood Men in Tights among others) under a vow of silence, comes to visit. It's revealed that he's about to enter a week of freedom, much like the Amish Rumspringa, where he can speak and partake of the world's offerings with no guilt or restrictions. He and Elaine hook up and have a week of bliss - they dance together in the cabbie room (which is empty and dark - in a business that operates 24/7 - go figure) to "The Way You Look Tonight." That's a favorite song so it greatly helped the episode for me. It's not really a stand-out episode but generally worked for me.

In an two-parter, Latka goes off in a blizzard to try and rescue a stuck cabbie. She's run the cab off the road, a window is broken, Latka can't get the cab to start, and they're about to freeze to death when she comes up with them making love as a way to keep warm until help can arrive. When Latka gets home, Simka knows immediately what's happened. Their "priest" tells them the only way it can be made right is for Simka to make love with one of the other cabbies, specifically one of Latka's friends. They come up with a way of choosing but will Simka be able to go through with it to save their marriage and avoid divorce?

NBC bounced it all over the schedule, starting with it following Cheers on Thursday night in its old ABC time slot, moving to Saturdays mid-winter, and then to Wednesday with 2 different time slots, one for spring and the last for summer (where it was practically buried). You'd have thought it following Cheers would have been a very good thing but this was also Cheers' first season and Cheers only managed to pull #76 in the ratings that season. Following Cheers was also the time slot where NBC had originally intended to air Mama's Family (also a new show) which was delayed until mid-season on Saturday nights when Taxi was picked up and scheduled to follow Cheers. Ironically, Cheers took over the Taxi slot on Thursday night mid-winter with a new lead-in that NBC hoped would boost ratings. With Cheers only garnering #76 you have to wonder just how bad Taxi's ratings were (I've been unable to find those numbers, but S4 finished at #34 on ABC). On Thursday the 2 shows *were* up against #7 powerhouse Simon & Simon and the #34 show, Too Close for Comfort (later called The Ted Knight Show).

Skip those 2 flashback episodes and you have one of the strongest seasons of the series. And it was the last.

I hear the 60s calling again...

 

[The Obsolete Man]

Going by Nick at Nite's old running order (which was usually production order), the two clip shows, IIRC, were shot last. They were probably just season filler. However, CBS has a hard-on for broadcast order, so that's why they popped up in the middle of the season.

 

[BobO'Link]

Going by Nick at Nite's old running order (which was usually production order), the two clip shows, IIRC, were shot last. They were probably just season filler. However, CBS has a hard-on for broadcast order, so that's why they popped up in the middle of the season.

I can absolutely see them being produced last just to fulfill the contracted number of episodes delivered, and even more so knowing the series had been cancelled. I'd like to know why they aired when they did (FWIW, both aired on the same day indicating a 1 hour "special" that's not reflected on the DVDs). It's an odd time for such filler as you normally see these things during holiday weeks when people don't watch much anyway. Was there a big sporting event at the time? I'm not a sports fan and have never paid attention to what's aired but I do know what "March Madness" is - could that have been the reason for those airing in late-March?

 

[The Obsolete Man]

I can absolutely see them being produced last just to fulfill the contracted number of episodes delivered, and even more so knowing the series had been cancelled. I'd like to know why they aired when they did (FWIW, both aired on the same day indicating a 1 hour "special" that's not reflected on the DVDs). It's an odd time for such filler as you normally see these things during holiday weeks when people don't watch much anyway. Was there a big sporting event at the time? I'm not a sports fan and have never paid attention to what's aired but I do know what "March Madness" is - could that have been the reason for those airing in late-March?

Checking out the schedules at TV Tango, looks like maybe the hourlong clip show might have been to "announce" a timeslot change.

The weeks before, the 9 PM hour was The Facts of Life followed by Family Ties. Then the Taxi hour week, and going forward the schedule was FoL followed by Taxi.

 

[BobO'Link]

Makes perfect sense from a TV programming perspective, although I imagine thousands of disappointed viewers expecting their regular shows tuned out. Thanks for the info!

 

[MatthewA]

I think you mean Who's The Boss?.

That was the one Tandem/TAT/Embassy show I couldn't stand then and can't stand now and I watched all the others in reruns (and remember the network runs of the ones still standing after Norman Lear sold out) at one point or another. In fact, that show more than any of the company's others put together made me think Lear's critics had a point and that his golf hat is on too tight. The only cast member I liked in anything else was Katherine Helmond. She was great on Soap, and discovering that show, as much as I came to love it, only made me even angrier at how she could be wasted on such an inferior show and how it could run twice as long.

I wish I liked Taxi more than I do because I love The Mary Tyler Moore Show and I like Cheers (but I cringe anytime anyone acts like it's the only 1980s sitcom that matters). Louie was funny. Latka was funny. Reverend Jim was funny. Jeff Conaway was good-looking and demonstrated genuine musical comedy ability in Pete's Dragon and Grease. Marilu Henner managed to hold her own against a stellar cast in Noises Off… But that damn Tony Danza ruins it for me every single time. And if I had been alive in 1980, I definitely would have been watching Diff'rent Strokes, which you keep bringing up your much-noted disdain for, when they were on Wednesday nights at the same time slot. For once, the general public agreed with me, and it got the best ratings of its entire run that season. And when ABC moved their sitcom to Thursday nights at 9:30 next year, guess who its competition was: Gimme A Break!, which had a tomboy named Samantha first. Strokes moved to the time-slot right before it and ABC ran a bunch of different sitcoms up against it, all of them canceled except 9 to 5 which they still mismanaged into a premature cancellation.

The only one of the white male domestic sitcoms of the 1984-1985 season that I liked was Mr. Belvedere. That and Webster were the first shows I was allowed to stay up past 8:00 PM to watch. Both have two seasons left until completion on disc.

 

[BobO'Link]

That was the one Tandem/TAT/Embassy show I couldn't stand then and can't stand now and I watched all the others in reruns (and remember the network runs of the ones still standing after Norman Lear sold out) at one point or another. In fact, that show more than any of the company's others put together made me think Lear's critics had a point and that his golf hat is on too tight. The only cast member I liked in anything else was Katherine Helmond. She was great on Soap, and discovering that show, as much as I came to love it, only made me even angrier at how she could be wasted on such an inferior show and how it could run twice as long.

That's a good point about Katherine Helmond. She *was* quite good in Who's the Boss? and practically wasted in that series.

I wish I liked Taxi more than I do because I love The Mary Tyler Moore Show and I like Cheers (but I cringe anytime anyone acts like it's the only 1980s sitcom that matters). Louie was funny. Latka was funny. Reverend Jim was funny. Jeff Conaway was good-looking and demonstrated genuine musical comedy ability in Pete's Dragon and Grease. Marilu Henner managed to hold her own against a stellar cast in Noises Off… But that damn Tony Danza ruins it for me every single time.

Danza and Conaway were the main reasons I didn't like the first few seasons of Taxi. I didn't feel they did that good of a job in that series, then and now, with characters which were decidedly one-note types. After that full series viewing I did I realized I like S4 & S5 more because those two characters are used far less frequently with more emphasis placed on stronger ones - Louie and Jim more than anything with Latka making a strong presence in S5.

Years later I was watching Babylon 5 and Jeff Conaway was added as a security officer. I was rather put off by his addition as he still acted the same way he'd done in Taxi. It took many episodes before that changed/improved and I accepted him in the role.

The only one of the white male domestic sitcoms of the 1984-1985 season that I liked was Mr. Belvedere. That and Webster were the first shows I was allowed to stay up past 8:00 PM to watch. Both have two seasons left until completion on disc.

Considering how long it's been since either of those has received a release I'd consider them abandoned.

 

[bmasters9]

Considering how long it's been since either of those has received a release I'd consider them abandoned.

That's horrible, leaving those two great ABC comedies short on DVD!