Must See TV

Warner Home Video recently released Saturday Morning Cartoons: 1960's Volume 1 and 1970's Volume 1. I think this is a great idea: A sampling of what the world looked like at the time. I have long said to friends that I would love to see an "NBC Thursday Night '80s Lineup" DVD. Just like the two-disc Saturday Morning Cartoon volumes, they could take a similar approach here. Maybe a 1984 edition, capturing first season Cosby Show antics lifted straight from Cosby's stand-up routine, Family Ties and Cheers hitting their stride a couple years into their runs, pre-Markie Post Night Court getting off the ground with the genius of Selma Diamond originating the acerbic bailiff role, and the veteran Hill Street Blues to round out the package. They could do four volumes, one for each year the five shows were broadcast together (1984-1987). Legal entanglements, I'm sure, preclude this dream from becoming a reality, and I could do my own mix DVD of these shows if I wanted to since there are season sets available, but I'd be all over something like this!

Next up: Some ABC '80s Saturday Night with The Love Boat and Fantasy Island. Or maybe not.

"Y su nombre es 'Brent'"

I am not a fan of any incarnation of Star Trek. Never have been. I am aware of characters and actors associated with the franchise simply because they are a part of the pop culture vernacular. But never in a million years would I have ever guessed that one of the single most memorable lines ever delivered in an episode of Night Court was done so by a future Star Trek actor.

The down-on-his-luck West Virginian Bob Wheeler character always amused me in that sort of uncomfortable non-politically correct way most of Night Court did back in the ’80s. The whole show was sort of risqué for a kid who had only recently entered his teens and was getting to stay up late on a school night to watch TV with his parents. But Wheeler had a line that I still quote today as often as I do a line from Ghostbusters or Animal House or WarGames or any other pop culture touchstone of my youth. And I was surprised when I recently found out that Bob Wheeler was portrayed by Brent Spiner, who would gain geek fame on Star Trek: The Next Generation in the late ’80s and early ’90s, but I will now think of him every time I deliver the line “y su nombre es ‘Bob.’”

Check out the 5:58 mark of this clip from the classic "Hurricane" two-part episode from 1986. (And, yeah, that's Pam Grier as one of the pregnant ladies going into labor.)