June 2012
1 post
7 tags
I LOVE LUCY - "Job Switching"
(art by Aireen Arellano - to view larger version, click here)
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SHOW: I Love Lucy EPISODE: “Job Switching” FIRST AIRED: Sept. 15, 1952 In “Job Switching,” the Season Two premiere of I Love Lucy, Lucy and Ethel land jobs at a chocolate factory and find themselves battling the societal norms of the day – with mixed results. Assigned to the candy-dipping department, Lucy lasts all of...
May 2012
1 post
15 tags
THE TWILIGHT ZONE - "The Invaders"
(art by Aireen Arellano - to view larger version, click here)
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SHOW: The Twilight Zone EPISODE: “The Invaders” FIRST AIRED: Jan. 27, 1961 Submitted for your disapproval, an unspoken rule, a blasphemous observation, a cold hard dose of reality-shaking truth: half of The Twilight Zone’s episodes were just not very good. Of course, the classics are the classics are the classics:...
April 2012
2 posts
16 tags
THE X-FILES - "Elegy"
(art by Aireen Arellano - to view larger version, click here)
SHOW: The X-Files EPISODE: “Elegy” FIRST AIRED: May 04, 1997 In nine years of ghosts, monsters, beasts, aliens, and vampires (one of whom bore a striking resemblance to Ham), Fox Mulder himself remained the most improbable X-File. Prone to absurd leaps of logic yet always right, he somehow remained employed at the FBI despite...
9 tags
SMALL WONDER - "Vicki's Homecoming"
(art by Aireen Arellano - to view larger version, click here)
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SHOW: Small Wonder EPISODE: “Vicki’s Homecoming” FIRST AIRED: Sept. 07, 1985
Delving into the history of syndicated television is like bargain hunting in a shady thrift store that smells like week-old meat, but offers shelves of tchotchkes that hum with novelty and history. Syndicated programming, which...
March 2012
4 posts
9 tags
THE GOLDEN GIRLS - "My Brother, My Father"
(art by Aireen Arellano - to view larger version, click here)
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SHOW: Golden Girls EPISODE: “My Brother, My Father” FIRST AIRED: Feb. 06, 1988
The Golden Girls has gained a new level of respect by a modern audience that did not necessarily watch the show when it first aired. The passing of venerable actresses Estelle Getty, Bea Arthur, and Rue McLanahan and the career...
12 tags
TAXI - "On the Job"
(art by Aireen Arellano - to view larger version, click here)
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SHOW: Taxi EPISODE: “On the Job” parts 1 & 2 FIRST AIRED: May 07 & 14, 1981
Sadness. Despair. Dashed hopes. Broken dreams. Jokes about suicide. Welcome to the nonstop party room that is Taxi! All sitcoms necessarily operate under the same mission statement: make them laugh, the end. Comedy writers deploy...
15 tags
QUANTUM LEAP - "8 1/2 Months"
(art by Aireen Arellano / to view larger version, click here)
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SHOW: Quantum Leap EPISODE: “8 1/2 Months” FIRST AIRED: Mar. 06, 1991
It’s as durable and tested as a law of physics: think about time travel long enough, and your head will start to hurt. Quantum Leap is as smart and beloved as American time-travel franchises come, second only to maybe Back to the Future...
11 tags
THE MONKEES - "Too Many Girls"
(art by Aireen Arellano - to view larger version, click here)
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SHOW: The Monkees EPISODE: “Too Many Girls” FIRST AIRED: Dec. 19, 1966
The Monkees is one of the most beloved rip-offs of all time. Its primordial soup is a cynical stew of corporate calculation, an A-to-B paint-by-numbers formula meant to cash in on the popularity of a certain 1960s rock band that also just happened to...
February 2012
4 posts
12 tags
GET SMART – “The Groovy Guru”
art by Aireen Arellano (to view larger version, click here)
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SHOW: Get Smart EPISODE: “The Groovy Guru” FIRST AIRED: Jan. 13, 1968
The opening scene of “The Groovy Guru” finds our hero Maxwell Smart sporting an unfortunate mushroom coif and color-clashed getup that makes him look like a Monkee caught in a thrift store explosion. He meets up with an agent undercover as a hippie...
10 tags
THE WONDER YEARS – “Math Class” / “Goodbye”
(art by Aireen Arellano - for larger version, click here)
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SHOW: The Wonder Years EPISODES: “Math Class”/”Goodbye” FIRST AIRED: Oct. 10, 1989/Apr. 24, 1990
Broken into its Greek roots, “nostalgia” literally means “the ache of coming home.” It’s no great mystery, then, that the word comes to mind for virtually anyone who ponders The Wonder Years, a show that, technically...
10 tags
THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW – “Coast-to-Coast Big...
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SHOW: The Dick Van Dyke Show EPISODE: “Coast-to-Coast Big Mouth” FIRST AIRED: Sept. 15, 1965
Most enduring sitcoms stick in our collective consciousness because their central concepts play on some sort of universal yearning. The king and queen of social issue comedy, All in the Family and Roseanne, reigned due to...
6 tags
FRIENDS – “The One with Five Steaks and an...
art by Aireen Arellano (to view larger image, click here)
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SHOW: Friends EPISODE: “The One with Five Steaks and an Eggplant” FIRST AIRED: Oct. 19, 1995
Friends fans are legion and vocal, eager to belt the words to “Smelly Cat” or see if they can still name the Chandler Bing misnomer on his TV Guide subscription. But for every fan, it seems there’s someone in the vicinity just as...
January 2012
4 posts
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – "Illusion"
art by Aireen Arellano (to view larger version, click here)
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SHOW: Mission: Impossible EPISODE: “Illusion” FIRST AIRED: Apr. 13, 1969
The Tom Cruise Mission: Impossible movies get an undue bad rap from students of the 1960s TV show. Certainly, no points were won among longtime diehards when the makers of the first film disgraced the iconic Mr. Phelps in favor of a new out-of-nowhere...
7 tags
I LOVE LUCY - "Lucy Does a TV Commercial"
art by Aireen Arellano (to view the larger version, click here)
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SHOW: I Love Lucy EPISODE: “Lucy Does a TV Commercial” FIRST AIRED: May 05, 1952
You can find Lucy’s reeling, disgusted face, presiding over spoon and bottle, on T-shirts, magnets, lunchboxes, posters, postcards, and keychains. You can even buy Vitameatavegamin bottles filled with little heart-shaped candy. To swaths of...
8 tags
I LOVE LUCY - "Lucy Does the Tango"
art by Aireen Arellano (to view larger version, click here)
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SHOW: I Love Lucy EPISODE: “Lucy Does the Tango” FIRST AIRED: Mar. 11, 1957
By the sixth season of I Love Lucy, the creators moved Lucy and the gang from Manhattan to the Connecticut countryside, ostensibly to unpack new opportunities for comedy and storytelling. The change certainly underscored the show’s function...
8 tags
I LOVE LUCY - "The Diet"
art by Aireen Arellano (to view larger version, click here)
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SHOW: I Love Lucy EPISODE: “The Diet” FIRST AIRED: Oct. 29, 1951
In “The Diet,” Lucy plunges into a crash diet to wriggle herself into a size 12 dress and into Ricky’s show. It’s no Vitameatavegamin or chocolate factory escapade, but this early episode conflates the most well-worn atoms that floated in the I...
