Situation Comedies

In the last couple of days, links in various places have led me to Menudo appearing on Silver Spoons and the (original) Brady Bunch kids singing "Sunshine Day." I watched The Brady Bunch reruns every afternoon in middle school, but totally missed Silver Spoons. That got me thinking about the TV shows I watch regularly, and none of them are sitcoms. Battlestar Galactica is not even accidentally funny. Dr. Who has funny moments, but it's not a sitcom either.


I was going to write that the last time I watched a sitcom regularly was the summer of 2003, when I was laid up on the couch for six weeks. I managed to watch about four years' worth of Roseanne, which I liked the first time around when I would occasionally catch it at Harry's Mother. I remember now however that I saw about three seasons of As Time Goes By last year, another show I'd first watched years ago on Oregon Public Broadcasting.


When I was a kid MASH, WKRP in Cincinnati, and Taxi were my favorites (they weren't reruns in those days either). Now for a walk down memory lane as you read these titles over:

Mork and Mindy
The Facts Of Life
The Cosby Show
Family Ties
Cheers
Diff'rent Strokes


Mom told me and No that we weren't allowed to watch Diff'rent Strokes because the situation in one episode was that an obstetrician's office called to say that the girl had left a textbook there during her visit that day. I specifically remember that the boys took it upon themselves to tell the dad that his daughter was pregnant and did so by the younger boy (Gary Coleman's character) saying, "Let me put it to you this way: 'Hello, Grandpa.'" The situation was funny because the girl wasn't pregnant after all - it was her friend. Ha ha ha! Mom saw enough of it to declare that a show that made fun about teen pregnancy was a bad show with bad values. Of course, that's the only episode I remember.



PS "Sunshine Day" is an earworm. And I'm only a little sorry about no links; I'm feeling lazy. It's been a tough week.