Ultimate Guide to Streaming Betty White

 When Betty White passed away on New Year's Eve she left behind a body of work that dates back to the beginning of television in this county and goes all the way through to a recent blockbuster movie. Thanks to steaming services, we can sample a large portion of her filmography. Here's a sampling of some of the incredible legacy of Betty White that you can easily find and enjoy...

 

The crowning jewels of Betty White's filmography are the two most popular sitcoms she was involved with: The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Golden Girls. Luckily, the entire run of both of these classic shows can be found on Hulu. Betty White joins the cast of Mary Tyler Moore in Season 4, appearing sporadically and then becoming a permanent fixture on the show for Seasons 5-7. The best introduction to her character Sue Ann Nevins the "Happy Homemaker" is S4E1 "The Lars Affair." Betty is also present for S6E7 "Chuckles Bites the Dust" which is often considered one of the single funniest episodes of a sitcom ever. 

The Golden Girls features Betty White's most memorable performance as Rose Nylund. The show ran on NBC from 1985 to 1992 and was a big hit for the network. Reruns of The Golden Girls have become a staple of late night television over 30 years after it's debut, running on several cable outlets all night - every night. Watching the show on Hulu not only gives you the opportunity to watch every episode in order but my experience has been that the commercials are dropped in the right places. When the show is on television now, it is a re-edited syndicated package where the episodes are slightly trimmed and the pacing is off due to shifting the commercial breaks around. Sitcoms are written and edited with the commercial breaks in mind and having these shows in their pure original form is the best way to experience the brilliance of The Golden Girls, or any sitcom for that matter. 

Hulu has also recently blessed us with The Golden Palace, a 1992-1993 spin-off/continuation of The Golden Girls. When Bea Arthur left the show, the producers switched up the setting and had the remining girls buy a hotel and run it. It aired for one season on CBS before getting canceled and since then has only showed up briefly on Lifetime in the mid 2000's. I loved this continuation when it was originally on and I'm currently making my way through all 24 episodes on Hulu. Many people dismiss this show simply because Dorothy is missing and the first few episodes are a bit unusual and clunky as the show finds it's footing. But by the seventh episode, the show is running fully as an 8th season of The Golden Girls. It's a great show and another 24 funny episodes that most people haven't seen.

While we're on Hulu, let's talk about To Tell The Truth. Betty was known as the Queen of Game Shows, not only did she love playing games but she's appeared on dozens of game shows since TV's earliest days. One of her first game shows to guest on was To Tell the Truth, which was recently rebooted in 2016 with host Anthony Anderson. Betty White is a panelist on the first 5 episodes and those along the rest of the series can be found on Hulu.

Mrs. White also did guest spots on dozens of episodes of shows including the Damon Wayans family sitcom My Wife and Kids. I've never really seen this show before but I just watched S4E26 "The Maid" (guess who Betty plays) and I found it not only very funny but it's also kind of a tribute to the magical nature of Betty White. It's definitely worth checking out. Now is also a good time to mention Hulu is the streaming home of Family Guy and Betty can be heard in S4E24 "Peterotica."

We mentioned Betty White's love of game shows and a cool find to stream is a week's worth of the classic game show Password Plus. Amazon Prime and it's spinoff service IMDb TV has all five episodes from the week of 2/5/1979 available listed as Season One episodes 20-24. Here you'll see her play her favorite game along side her favorite game show host, husband Allen Ludden. I love finding old game shows, especially when they feature celebrities, and these episodes are very fun to watch and play along with, plus you get to see Betty unscripted. 

Another unique find in the Betty White catalog is her 1999-2001 CBS sitcom The Ladies Man, which popped up on free streamers CRACKLE and PLEX late last year. The short lived show stared Alfred Molina as a husband and dad living in a house full of women. The sitcom all-star cast included Sharon Lawrence, Stephen Root, Dixie Carter, Park Overall and even Kaley Cuoco. Watching pros like White and Carter bounce off each other with precision comedic timing is an absolute joy to behold. This show is pretty good although the storylines always revolving around sexual politics gets a little tiresome.

A much more polished and successful sitcom is Hot in Cleveland, the first original sitcom from cable channel TV Land. The series ran from 2010-2015 and stared Valerie Bertinelli (One Day At A Time), Jane Leeves (Frasier) and Wendie Malick (Just Shoot Me) as three middle aged women who make the move from Los Angeles to Cleveland, OH. Betty White originally singed on for a guest appearance in episode one and had so much fun she ended up as a regular for all 6 seasons. Every episode can be found on Paramount+, and what I really love about this show is that Betty White's character, Elka, is usually not at the center of the storyline which allows every single line she delivers to be absolutely hysterical. Pamamount+ also carries The Roast of William Shatner. This off-color 2006 Comedy Central special is credited as the key element in jump starting the resurgence of Betty White's career in the later part of her life.

It's that pop culture breakthough that led her to host a legendary episode of  Saturday Night Live on May 8, 2000. This is a fantastic episode from start-to-finish with Betty appearing in every single sketch including Weekend Update. Although you'll only find an edited version to stream, S35E21 can be found on both Hulu and Peacock.

Life With Elizabeth is a 1953 sitcom staring Betty White. Each episode consists of three vignettes of very gentle humor. It's currently available on Prime Video, The Roku Channel, Tubi, PlutoTV and Plex. There's another 50's sitcom she stared in, Date With the Angels, which I find to be very entertaining. It's on Roku Channel and Tubi.

There's a pretty solid biography called Betty White: First Lady of Television, currently on Peacock. You can learn about Betty's love of animals in the documentary Betty White: Champion for Animals found on Tubi and Hoopla. Betty hosted a talk show about animals in 1971 called The Pet Set, where celebrities would visit with their pets. The series has been unavailable until it was released on DVD and digital earlier last year. You can stream the show for free on Tubi, Crackle and Plex. There's also a 2013 television special Betty White Goes Wild, which deals with Betty's love for lions, tigers and other big cats. The National Geographic special was recently added to Disney+.

Disney+ is also home to a vast library of Betty's voice over work. She played Mrs. Claus in the charming animated short Prep & Landing: Operation Secret Santa. She also lent her voice to the elephant movie Whispers: An Elephant's Tale and animated series Hercules S1E52 "Hercules and the Fiff on Olympus" and Teacher's Pet S2E19 "The Turkey That Came To Dinner". Two episodes of The Simpsons feature Betty, S11E15 & S18E16. Betty plays the old toy Bitey White in both Toy Story 4 and her final credited performance in an episode of Forky Asks A Question S1E5 "What is Love?"

There's another animated oddity you can find over at Peacock, the adult series Father of the Pride about Sigfried and Roy's White Lions. Betty White guested on S1E4 "Donkey" which also features Eddie Murphy reprising his Shrek role.  

Betty White made numerous appearances on The Carol Burnett Show. Tubi carries the syndicated edited episodes, I was able to find Betty hanging out in S10E12 and S11E21. She was also the guest of honor on an episode of Dean Martin's Celebrity Roast S1E4 available on Prime Video.

My last crazy, cool find from the amazing life of Betty White is, what appears to be the only surviving episode of, her brief talk show The Betty White Show. I found the November 29, 1954 episode streaming on a Roku channel/app called ZP TV Direct. Do with that information what you may!

And here's some of Betty White's movie credits that I found streaming...

*Hard Rain (1998) Cinemax

*Dennis The Menace Strikes Again (1998) Hoopla

*Holy Man (1998) Hulu

*Lake Placid (1999) AMC+

*The Retrievers (2001) Peacock, Tubi, Prime

*Bringing Down the House (2003) Prime

*Annie's Point (2005) Up Faith & Family

*Ponyo (2008) HBOMax

*Love N' Dancing (2009) Roku Channel, Tubi, Plex

*You Again (2010) Disney+

*The Lost Valentine (2011) Hallmark Movies Now

*The Lorax (2012) Peacock

*Dog Gone Trouble (2019) Netflix

A new special Celebrating Betty White: America's Golden Girl airs on Monday, Jan. 31 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on NBC and will be available to stream on Peacock the following day.

As we all know, things come and go from the streaming services on a monthly basis. These listing are correct as of 1/19/2022

Silver Bells

This week we're featuring some YouTube clips of various Christmas songs from various sources. Join us all week for festive holiday fun, won't ya!? First up is the odd pairing of Bob Hope and Olivia Newton-John lip synching SILVER BELLS.

Silver Bells is one of those Christmas standards that you assume has just been around forever, but it's origins are actually directly connected to Bob Hope. The song was written for the 1951 comedy musical THE LEMON DROP KID staring Hope along with Marilyn Maxwell and William "Fred Mertz" Frawley. The movie debuted in March of '51, but in Christmas 1950 a recording of Silver Bells was released sung by Bing Crosby. When the record became such a huge hit, the movie studio quickly brought the stars back in to film a more elaborate musical number to do the song justice.

The song, of course, became a classic and Bob Hope used it as his signature Christmas song and performed it almost every year on his annual Christmas special. He asked Olivia Newton-John to join him in a performance in his 1977 descriptively titled special THE BOB HOPE ALL STAR CHRISTMAS COMEDY SPECIAL. Along for the ride in the special was Christmas staple Perry Como, Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker and The Muppets!

Sadly, nobody has uploaded the entire special (at least I couldn't find it) but here's Bob and a much younger Olivia (uncomfortably) flirting through a snow covered Burbank soundstage singing the holiday classic:

The Ultimate Netflix Christmas Episode List

Saved By The Bell "Home For Christmas"

Christmas television programing continues to gain popularity with each passing year. What used to be a few prime time specials every December has turned into 24 hour Christmas movie channels, marathons of Christmas Specials and Christmas episodes and more and more new original Christmas content making it to our screens each year. It's a great time to be a Christmas TV fanatic. Christmas themed episodes of beloved television series have become just as much a part of some people's holiday viewing traditions as Rudolph and Charlie Brown. There are several DVD compilations of vintage Christmas episodes and of course the closer we get to Christmas, the more you see jolly episodes of reruns airing. A great place to find loads of Christmas from television's past is Netflix - which features not only the latest "binge-worthy" trending series but plenty of goodies from the last several decades.

We've scoured the merriest corners of Netflix to compile a fairly comprehensive list of Christmas Time Episodes from a variety of series. The Netflix interface varies from platform to platform, so we've included the Season and Episode Number for each episode for the easiest searching. Happy Viewing!


About A Boy S2E8 "About A Christmas Card"

Ally McBeal S1E11 "Silver Bells"; S2E10 "Making Spirits Bright"; S3E7 "Saving Santa"; S3E8 "Blue Christmas"; S4E8 "The Man With the Bag"

The Andy Griffith Show S1E11 "A Christmas Story"

The Bernie Mac Show S1E7 "A Christmas Story"

Bob's Burgers S3E9 "God Rest Ye Merry Gentle-Mannequins"; S4E8 "Christmas In The Car"

Bojack Horseman "Bojack Horseman Christmas Special" (individually listed)

The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That "The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About Christmas"

Cheers S6E12 "Christmas Cheers"

The Cleveland Show S1E9 "A Cleveland Brown Christmas"; S2E8 "Murray Christmas"; S3E7 "Die Semi-Hard"; S4E6 "`Tis the Cleveland To Be Sorry"

Crossing Jordan S1E10 "Blue Christmas"

The Dick Van Dyke Show S3E13 "The Alan Brady Show Presents"

Doctor Who S2E1 "The Christmas Invasion"; S4E1 "Voyage of the Damned"

Everybody Loves Raymond S2E12 "All I Want For Christmas"; S3E12 "The Toaster"; S4E11 "The Christmas Picture"; S5E11 "Christmas Present"; S6E12 "Season's Greetings"; S7E11 "The Thought That Counts"; S8E10 "Jazz Records"

Frasier S1E12 "Miracle of Third or Fourth Street"; S3E9 "Frasier Grinch"; S5E9 "Perspectives on Christmas"; S6E10 "Merry Christmas, Mrs. Moskowitz"; S7E11 "The Fight Before Christmas"; S8E8 "Mary Christmas"; S10E10 "We Two Kings"; S11E11 "High Holidays"

Friends S7E10 "The One With the Holiday Armadillo"; S9E10 "The One With Christmas in Tulsa"

Futurama S2E8 "Xmas Story"; S4E2 "A Tale of Two Santas"

Girl Meets World S1E16 "Girl Meets Home For The Holidays"

Glee S2E10 "A Very Glee Christmas"; S3E9 "An Extraordinary Merry Christmas"; S4E10 "Glee, Actually"; S5E8 "Previously Unaired Christmas"

Handy Manny E19 "Flicker Saves Christmas"; E20 "The Ayala"s Christmas Extravaganza"

House, M.D. S3E10 "Merry Little Christmas"; S5E11 "Joy To The World"

House of Mouse "Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse" (stand alone)

It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia S6E13 "A Very Sunny Christmas"

Jessie S1E10 "A Christmas Story"

Last Man Standing S1E10 "Last Christmas Standing"; S2E7 "Putting A Hit on Christmas"

MacGyver S5E11 "The Madonna"

Malcom In The Middle S3E7 "Christmas"; S5E7 "Christmas Trees"; S6E6 "Hal's Christmas Gift"

30 Rock offered up several holiday episodes during its seven season run.

M*A*S*H S5E15 "Dear Sis"

Melissa & Joey S3E16 "A New Kind of Family Christmas"; S4E2 "A Melanie & Josiah Christmas"

Murder, She Wrote S9E9 "A Christmas Secret"

NCIS S6E11 "Silent Night"; S7E10 "Faith"; S9E11 "The Newborn King"; S10E10 "You Better Watch Out"; S11E11 "Home Sick"

New Girl S1E9 "The 23rd"; S2E11 "Santa"

The Office (U.S.) S2E10 "Christmas Party"; S3E10 "A Benihana Christmas"; S5E10 "Moroccan Christmas"; S6E13 "Secret Santa"; S7E11 "Classy Christmas"; S8E10 "Christmas Wishes"; S9E9 "Dwight Christmas"

The Office (U.K.) S2E7&8 "Christmas Special"

Orange Is The New Black S1E13 "Can't Fix Crazy"

Parks and Recreation S2E12 "Christmas Scandal"

Pee-Wee's Playhouse "Pee-Wee's Playhouse Christmas Special" (individually listed)

Psych S5E14 "The Polarizing Express"

Quantum Leap S3E10 "A Little Miracle - December 24, 1962"; S5E11 "Promised Land - December 22, 1971"

Rules of Engagement S5E12 "Little Bummer Boy"

Rosewell S2E10 "A Rosewell Christmas Carol"

Saved By The Bell S3E24&25 "Home For Christmas"

30 Rock S2E9 "Ludachristmas";  S3E6 "Christmas Special"; S4E8 "Secret Santa"; S5E10 "Christmas Attack Zone"

The Twilight Zone S2E11 "Night of the Meek"

The Vicar of Dibley S2E2 "The Christmas Lunch Incident"; S3E2 "Winter" (There is also a whole section of Vicar of Dibley Christmas Specials which lists four more episodes)

The Wonder Years S2E3 "Christmas"; S4E9 "A Very Cutlip Christmas"; S5E9 "Christmas Party"; S6E10 "Let Nothing You Dismay"

The X-Files S5E6 "Christmas Carol"; S6E6 "How the Ghosts Stole Christmas"


Missed any good ones? Drop us a line or leave a comment!
Netflix availability as of 11/12/15

Look What's Gonna Be On The TV

The new Fall TV Season is just around the corner. Here's what looks interesting to me:

Mulaney  Sundays at 9:30 on FOX First up we have a very traditional sitcom with a great cast. John Mulaney is a pretty funny guy. I'm familiar with him from Best Week Ever, he's made a few appearances on SNL and he's pretty good on Kroll Show. Here he plays a comedian, living in New York...if that sounds familiar, look at his apartment - it also looks like Seinfeld's apartment. The supporting cast includes the great Nasim Pedrad, defecting from SNL to fill the Elaine roll. Comedy legend and one of my very favorite personalities, Martin Short is also on board. It's a multi-camera sitcom, of which I'm a huge fan of the dying art form.



Gotham Mondays at 8:00pm on FOX Premieres September 22. Last year was the year of the Hour Long Drama for me. I've almost never watched any hour long shows until last year when I got engrossed in five different series! This new Batman-less Batman show sounds interesting. It follows the lives of all the Batman characters before they became the characters we know from the comic books and movies. My appreciation for comic book projects in growing, and this new drama feels like it's going to feed my hunger.

Marry Me  Tuesdays at 9:00pm on NBC Premieres October 14. If you've spoken to me in the past three years, then you've probably heard me go on and on about the show Happy Endings, which was in my opinion the best written show on television in a long time! Well, it was cancelled after three glorious seasons but the creator of that show in back with Marry Me, which feels like it will be very similar - it even has Happy Endings' cast member Casey Wilson as the lead!


Selfie Tuesdays at 8:00pm on ABC This looks like a train wreck, but I will watch.

The Flash Tuesdays at 8:00pm on The CW Finally, we have another superhero show - this one looks like it will be fun. I really wished I had got into The CW's Arrow series, so here's another chance for me to jump on from the beginning.

#EverySimpsonsEver Marathon (The First Half)

People always talk about how The Simpsons isn't as good as it used to be. What they are basically saying is, "I don't watch The Simpsons anymore. It's been on for too long. I've lost interest. Hey, let's watch videos of people dumping buckets of ice water on their head!" The Simpsons has been consistently one of the most funniest, and at times THE funniest, show on television for the past 25 years. Sure, they have had some off episodes that weren't as funny as others. But nowhere else on the tube will you find the rich, biting satire on American culture that the folks in Springfield have been providing season after season.

The Simpsons became a series in 1990. I was a junior in high school at the time. I have been watching The Simpsons for more than half my life! It's unimaginable to have a world without The Simpsons. Hopefully the show will be around for a long time.

Speaking of long times, cable network FXX (yes, that's a real station) is running every episode of The Simpsons starting Thursday, August 21 (my birthday) and running for 12 days until they run every single one of the 564 episodes and the feature film...in order, non-stop. That's pure television joy right there. I'm not in the position in life to lay around on the sofa for a day and watch non-stop, but here's some of the highlights from the schedule - so set your DVRs accordingly!

The #EverySimpsonsEver marathon kicks off this Thursday at 10:00am with the 1989 Christmas special "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" and continues to run all of season one until 4:30pm EST.

Season 2:
8/21 5:30pm - Treehouse of Terror
8/21 7:30pm - Bart Vs. Thanksgiving
8/21 8:00pm - Bart The Daredevil
8/21 9:00pm - Bart Gets Hit By A Car

Season 3:
8/22 8:00am - Flaming Moe's

Season 4:
8/22 3:30pm - Kamp Krusty
8/22 6:00pm - Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie"
8/22 9:00pm - Marge Vs. The Monorail
8/23 12:00am - So It's Come To This: A Simpsons Clip Show

Season 5:
8/23 2:30am - Homer's Barbershop Quartet
8/23 4:30am - Treehouse of Horror IV
8/23 9:00am - Lisa Vs. Malibu Stacy

Season 6:
8/23 3:00pm - Itchy & Scratchy Land
8/23 9:00pm - Bart vs. Australia
8/23 11:00pm - Two Dozen and One Grayhounds
8/24 1:30am - Who Shot Mr. Burns? Pt. 1

Season 7:
8/24 2:00am - Who Shot Mr. Burns? Pt. 2
8/24 3:30am - Bart Sells His Soul
8/24 6:30am - The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular
8/24 12:00pm - 22 Short Films About Spingfield

Season 8:
8/24 8:30pm - Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious"
8/24 9:00pm - The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show
8/25 2:00am - The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase (perhaps my favorite episode)

Season 9:
8/25 3:00am - The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson
8/25 7:30am - Miracle on Evergreen Terrace

Season 10:
8/25 5:30pm - When You Dish Upon A Star

Season 12:
8/26 7:00pm - The Worst Episode Ever
8/27 12:00am - Simpsons Tall Tales

Ok, it goes on for days. You get it...this should be a good start!

Can You Guess Why I'm Going To Watch This Season of Celebrity Apprentice?

One question: What's an Aubrey O'Day?

Alf Promos

Because I'm a dork...

Classic Commercial Sunday - #79

This one is airing now and I think it's great...

Baltimore WNUV 54 Community News and BTV Ad

I found this ultra-nerdy clip on YouTube the other day I thought I'd share with ya'll. It's a few minutes from a Baltimore station that I logged many, many hours with in my youth. They don't really do these simple Community News bits anymore on the ol' tube but it looks positively ancient compared to TV nowadays. Second is a quick ad for BTV - Baltimore's Top Videos, a weekly music video show hosted by DJ's from the now defunct B104 FM. The DJ in this ad looks like he's dressed for a shift operating Space Mountain.

The Quotable Alf

"If you love something, let it go. If it comes back to you, it's yours. If it's run over by a car, you don't want it."

"I learned one thing about eating jigsaw puzzles : an hour later, you're hungry again."

"When the going gets tough, the tough gets going. Many are called, but a few are chosen. And you can't get anything done by standing here talking cliches."

"I don't want to be an orphan! I saw "Annie!" Orphans have to eat gruel and tap dance with mops!"

"Did you say I should get hair in the peanut butter, or I shouldn't?"

"I never met a cat I didn't like!"

"Hey, you crawl under people's houses, you hear things."

"Trust me on this one, I've been wrong so many times before."

"Don't look back. Something might be broken." (quoting his Grandpa Satchel)

"Hey I'm still young. If I'm not married by the time I hit the big 4-0-0, then I'll panic."

Proper Smurfing

A few weeks ago I ended up watching the premier of Matthew Perry's new show, Mr. Sunshine. Normally, I wouldn't have had any interest in the program but the previews kept showing a shot of somebody punching somebody in a Smurf theme park costume. Well, if you're going to take the time to work a Smurf into your show than the least I can do is watch it. Well, the first episode didn't have a Smurf and I was felt pretty used after sitting through the show. After the case of "bait and Smurf" I never watched the show again. Thanks to the internets, I found out that the Smurfs finally did make their appearance. On the show, Perry's character runs a giant events arena and Smurfs On Ice was booked. Here's a clip from the show, even though it features Allison Janney smacking Papa Smurf's blue rump - it's alot more respectful to the Smurfs property than a certain live action film we discussed earlier this week.

What's Good on the Tube

This is a feature I've been meaning to do for years where I sporadically weigh in on the top 5 shows that I'm enjoying on television at the moment. If you have exquisite taste in entertainment, like myself, you should watch these shows too!

Hot In Cleveland (Wednesday 10:00pm, TV Land) Simply put, Hot in Cleveland is the single best traditional sitcom to air on television in at least five years. The comedy all-star cast features Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves and Wendie Malick as three gals who decide to uproot from their hectic L.A. lifestyles in and settle in Cleveland, Ohio where they are all considered hot and glamorous. Golden Girl Betty White plays the owner of the house they all live in. As you should know, I've been a huge Betty White fan since her days on The Golden Girls. I didn't just jump on this new Betty Bandwagon after her Super Bowl commercial and SNL appearance last year. I've been seeking out her appearances for years. Watching her work is watching one of the all-time comedy greats practice their craft. Mrs. White nails every single line with pin point comedy precision - it's amazing to watch. Hot In Cleveland doesn't get by on just Betty White alone, not only is the rest of the cast great but the show doesn't shy away from using tried and true sitcom plots and conventions to have a good time. This show celebrates it's sitcom heritage, not only by shooting in front of a live studio audience but also by casting several familiar faces from TV comedies past in supporting roles. It's just another great reason why I love this program and look forward to it every week. (Season One just came out on DVD!)

Holly's World (Sunday 10:30pm, E!) You know I loved me some Girls Next Door, which appears to have been canceled but this spin-off is the next best thing. All three of the gals from Next Door have had their own shows. Kendra has Kendra, which to me feels like it's grabbing at straws trying to come up with material to justify it's existence. Bridgete had Bridgete's Sexy Beaches which was a really fun travel show but it was cancelled after one season. Holly's World follows Holly Madison as she stakes her claim as the new Miss Las Vegas. Holly stars in Peepshow at Planet Hollywood in Vegas, as well as having her hand in a ton of other charities and events around town. What made Girls Next Door so interesting was it's behind the scenes look into Playboy Magazine and life at the Playboy Mansion. In this show, we get to see the inner workings of a town like Las Vegas, plus Holly and her friends are all good fun. Really fun half hour of tube that I look forward to each week!

Parks and Recreation (Thursday 9:30pm, NBC) Right now NBC is running a three hour block of comedies on Thursday night. That's not attempted much in network television. Of those 6 shows, 3 are on my list here today. At the moment, Parks and Rec is my favorite simply because it's the newest but also because the show has really found it's voice in it's third season. The characters, the actors, the writing and the situations have all gelled nicely. Season three saw the addition of two new cast members including the always terrific Rob Lowe. Amy Polher, Aziz Ansari and Nick Offerman are three more reasons why this show is so terrific.

30 Rock (Thursday 10:00pm, NBC) In my opinion, television writing has never been better than what is on display at 30 Rock. Each episode is packed the the gills with so many clever jokes, references and more jokes that it's sometimes exhausting trying to keep up. 30 Rock has also maintained a good pace of keeping story lines flowing from week to week without turning the show into a soap opera. Each show is a comedy masterpiece. Alec Baldwin continues to be The Man!

The Office (Thursday 9:00pm, NBC) While I've never abandoned The Office, I felt it strayed off course in recent years. The storylines kept getting in the way of the show just being funny. The shows seems to have settled down into just being laugh out loud funny week after week! Steve Carell is heading off the show at the end of this year, but this is one show that seems to be able to keep on chugging without it's star. There are of other characters to keep The Office open for many more season. According to some tweets I've read, Will Ferrell is expected to do a multi-episode arc later the season. That should be comedy gold! (As long as he doesn't play a 70's sports star.)

NFL Best Fans Ever Super Bowl Commercial

Highlight of last night's telecast including brief clips from two of my favorite shows:

SNL Recap 1/15/11 - Gwyneth Paltrow

I though SNL was really on fire this week. There were alot of great celebrity impressions and just about every skit was right on the money. Host Gwyneth Paltrow has a good comic sensibility and even the musical guest Cee-Lo (who ever that is) got in on more than one sketch. Seth Meyers even cut loose with a little bit of stand-up during Update. But I think easily, the highlight of the show was the Digital Short which featured an impressive guest cast.

(This is safe-for-work, but probably not for children. It's not vulgar, but it does have a few PG-13 words in it.)


There's already some buzz of Pee-Wee hosting later this season!

We Didn't See Michael Scott

The week before Christmas we found ourselves about 30 minutes outside of Scranton, PA and decided to make the trek into town to visit the home of the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company as seen on the hit NBC show The Office. Now, I wouldn't consider myself a huge Office fan, but I do watch the show every week and I had heard that even though the show is filmed in LA, the real town of Scranton has sort of embraced their celebrity status and a had a few sites for Office fans to check out. Since none of the shows I'm ever really into reach that sort of status, I though it would be cool to check out the sights of Scranton. (Until they build an Alf Amusement Park or a Family Ties Museum in Columbus, I'll take Scranton.)

The Scranton Welcomes You sign (pictured above) is the actual prop used in the opening of the show.

We actually didn't tour much of the city of Scranton, but instead made out way to The Mall at Steamtown, which is a pretty average mall on the inside but it's inside what appears to be an old train station. The mall also has a pretty interesting parking garage where you can enter the department stores underground. In the food court (which features not only a Nathan's but also an Arthur Treacher's) there are advertisements for various local businesses including Dunder Mifflin, Inc.

The mall's center court was hosting Santa Claus. Around the giant Christmas tree were cutouts of two characters from the show, Kevin...

...and Angela.

Here we are outside the mall...

Here's the advertised Dunder Mifflin Store, which was actually only a cart...

Well played, Scranton Mall! Ok, so there is a Flintstone's Bedrock City Theme Park that I may have been to before in South Dakota, and I may have also considered taking a trip to Vermont to stay at the Inn used in the exterior shots of Newhart. But, this Office stuff was all pretty cool too!

Hey Vern, It's More Ernest on DVD!

Golly Bob Howdy, I have been waiting for somebody to release Hey Vern, It's Ernest! on DVD. Haven't you!? You know, the Emmy award winning Saturday morning show staring Ernest P. Worrell and all his buddies and alter egos!

Once again I'm sending kudos to the dudes at Mill Creek Entertainment for making this dream a reality. All 13 episodes of the wacky show will come in one handy dandy set for the unbelievable price of Ten Bucks! Can you believe that!? I can't wait to scoop up a copy and finally put to rest my grainy VHS copies that I taped in reruns off the old Family Channel back in the early 90's.


Each episode revolves around a central theme and is filled with quick skits and jokes from Ernest and his off-screen buddy Vern along with the rest of the neighborhood: Auntie Nelda, Dr. Otto, Sgt. Glory, My Father the Clown, Existo the Magician, Earl the Barber, and of course Chuck and Bobby.


My kids have seen a few episodes and they really enjoyed them. Can't wait to sit down and enjoy `em all once again. Hey Vern, It's Ernest! The Complete Series plops on DVD January 18, 2011.

And speaking of our good buddy Ernest, if there is some reason why you don't have all these movies in your personal DVD library by now - here's the perfect chance to pick them up. Mill Creek has licenced from Disney the rights to Ernest films #1, 3 & 4; Ernest Goes to Camp (1987), Ernest Goes to Jail (1990) and Ernest Scared Stupid (1991). They are all coming out, also on January 18, in a triple feature pack. (It looks like Disney has hung onto the rights to 1989's Ernest Saves Christmas.)

In Goes to Camp, Ernest is a handyman at a summer camp who helps the camp fight against some evil land developers. I love evil land developers! In Goes to Jail, our hero is a janitor at the fictional Howard County Bank where a wacky case of mistaken identity ends up with Ernest in jail. Like in real, really, really, really, really real prison. You know, the hoose-gow, the slammer, the joint, Alcatraz, San Quentin, Sing Sing! And Scared Stupid is the Halloween entry in the franchise which I have gone on about before on this blog.

Obviously, all three are really fun films. This new triple feature DVD might be worth the purchase for die-hard fans if the films are presented in widescreen. Only Camp and Christmas got a widescreen release when initially released to DVD in 2002. Next up, I'd like to see them do a triple feature set for the very excellent Ernest Rides Again (1993) along with Ernest Goes to School (1994) and the horribly embarrassing Slam Dunk Ernest (1995).

Vintage Christmas on DVD

I've been enjoying the holy heck out of this 4 disc DVD collection, Holiday TV Classics. The fine folks at Mill Creek Entertainment have gathered up 49 episodes of vintage Christmas television programing from the 1950's & 60's, slapped it on 4 DVDs and put it out for only $9.99 MSRP. If you pick it up at WalMart it's actually only $5.00!

I love old television, especially stuff produced for the holiday season. I wasn't around in the 1950's, but it seems that Christmas meant just a little bit more back then. I guess the country had been through some rough times and the holiday season was a really special time to slow down and appreciate everyone and everything around you. Anywho, this collection of old TV shows is great for someone like me who just loves the history of television. The footage on most of these shows is top notch and the audio is also fantastic for material that hasn't been remastered or probably preserved very well.

Now, I haven't watched all 49 episodes...yet. But so far what I've watched has been very enjoyable. Most of the original sponsor cards and announcements are still in place, and some of the shows still have their original commercial breaks still intact. The Bell Telephone Company sponsors Telephone Time, which I was expecting to be a game show but was actually a dramatic anthology series which ran on CBS for two seasons. The episode on this disc is called "A Picture of the Magi," a creative reworking of O'Henry's classic tale.

I, of course, also enjoyed a holiday themed episode of Date With The Angels one of Betty White's earliest network roles. The episode take place mostly in a department store and for my money there isn't a thing much more Christmasy than a 1950's department store at Christmas! From the looks of old movies and shows that I've seen, Toy Trains were the ONLY toys available to boys in the 50's.

There are plenty of shows that you have heard of before sprinkled among the set's 4 discs. There's several episodes of The Beverly Hillbilllies, The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet, Dragnet and The Jack Benny Program. Holiday TV Classics is a real treat for the shows that you can't readily find on DVD...or VHS for that matter: Screen Writers Playhouse, The Paul Winchell Show, Dear Phoebe, and Racket Squad - just to name a few.

I watched the Lux Video Theatre episode, which I later discovered was a redramatization of the movie Holiday Affair. I also enjoyed discovering The Bob Cummings Show, which was racy for it's time but is now as tame as a Disney Channel Show (just more entertaining.)

This is a great collection of material that will provide nights of entertainment throughout the season. Look for Holiday TV Classics at WalMart in the $5.00 DVD section. At almost 21 hours of vintage Christmas television, that's around twenty three cents per hour for your entertainment dollar. Beat that!

Crabs For Christmas

I think a neat little project for some company to put together would be a CD of regional Christmas songs from all over the country. I'm sure there's some Christmas song about the Bears in Chicago, and I bet New York has got a least a half dozen obnoxious Christmas carols of their own. There's probably even a song about a Christmas Lobster in Maine. But in good ol' Maryland (pronounced Mary Land) it just wouldn't be the holidays without a couple of rounds of "Crabs For Christmas," an enjoyable little ditty by native David DeBoy which pays homage to the most sacred of all Maryland traditions: steamed crabs! (Good eats!)

Even though I now only live an hour outside of Baltimore (pronounced Bawl-more) I realized a few years ago that we didn't get to hear "Crabs For Christmas" on our PA Christmas radio stations. Anytime drivetime spent in Maryland over the holidays would be dedicated to hearing "Crabs" on good ol' Lite 102. I believe it was last year that my wife surprised me Christmas morning with a copy of the "Crabs For Christmas" CD. Now I can have Crabs for Christmas whenever I wants, hon!

Somebody on Facebook posted this clip the other day. It's David DeBoy performing his hit song on local TV show "Crabs". "Crabs" was a Maryland style Saturday Night Live that ran for quite a few seasons starting in the mid-80's. It gently poked fun at the Maryland way of life through a half hour of skits and songs, all televised live. Pretty ambitious for local television back then, and completely unheard of now. This clip is from the tail-end of the show, it also features the closing credits of the program.

Ebert Scared Stupid

Honestly, I would have payed double the admission price to sit with my back to the screen and just watch Siskel and/or Ebert's face while screening 1991's Ernest Scared Stupid. Just the fact that two esteemed film critics who enjoyed Merchant Ivory productions and French New Wave Impressionist Cinema ever sat through an Ernest film warms the depths of my heart.

Super Fun Superhero CD

I'm not really big into superheroes but I do appreciate their place in pop culture. After all, superheroes are essentially cartoon characters that fight instead of throw pies and run into walls. One thing I am a fan of though are TV theme songs! So I gotta tell ya, I enjoyed the heck out of the new CD The Music of DC Comics: 75th Anniversary Collection.

This is an awesome collection of music from various television shows and motion picture outings for several of DC Comic's top stars. It's not just the amount of superheroes that are represented here that makes this CD impressive. It's the span of time the tracks cover. The first track on the CD is the theme music to the old Max Fleisher Superman cartoon shorts of the 1940's. The music takes us all the way up to the jazzy retro theme song for Batman: The Brave and the Bold, a newer series currently in it's second season on Cartoon Network.

DC's two biggest stars have always been Supes and the Bat, and they are represented here the most. The Superman tracks include the John Williams theme to the 70's/80's film franchise, themes to the Filmation cartoons of Superman and Superboy, and the music to the prime time entries Lois & Clark and Smallville. The Caped Crusader tunes include the opening to the 1943 serial The Batman, various cartoon shows along the years and the themes to both Tim Burton and Chris Nolan's incarnations of Batman. One of the inclusions that sold me on picking up this CD is the groovy theme to the 1960's Adam West Batman show - which is really where I got my first taste of superheroes.

Another great show from my childhood was The SuperFriends. There have been several reboots of the concept over the years. Six different series are represented on this disc but none greater than Hoyt Curtan's theme to The All-New Super Friends Hour from 1977. That show was the bomb!

There's still 10 more tracks after that! How great is a CD with the theme to The Plastic Man Comedy Adventure Show and Swamp Thing!? And where's Wonder Woman you ask...this compilation ends with not only the theme to the recent Wonder Woman animated film but also the classic Linda Carter television series from the 70's. Well played, DC...well played!

An eclectic mix of all sorts of shows and films that the DC Universe has populated over the last 75 years. A great and unique listen!