I’m still in England and I’m still behind posting Ian’s links to the website. Here’s another quick and dirty links post for Episode 31. This was the episode in which we could only talk about one topic through the whole show as decided by listeners’ suggestions and the luck of the draw. Lucky us, we got to spend the whole episode talking about clip shows.
First, before we got down to the nitty gritty, I brought up the Beatles. I must admit I do like to talk about the Beatles.
Did you hear all those screams in Japanese? I could’t tell what they were saying!
Somehow Ian confused basketball legend Larry Bird with Lady Bird Johnson, the wife of US president Lyndon Johnson. They are definitely not alike. Hopefully this will cure Ian from talking about athletes.
Here are some visual aids:
- Lady Bird Johnson (Not Larry Bird)
Ian brought up Jeeves and Wooster. Fry and Laurie were actually created by God himself to play Jeeves and Wooster.
Somehow though, despite how great Fry and Laurie were in these shows, the series was never quite as great as it could have been.
Ian says we debated over The Trail of the Pink Panther. I don’t remember debating over this film. I think we both agreed: It sucks.
You could argue that the series became more self-indulgent as it went along, and a five minute credit sequence would prove that.
Here is an example of a Community clip show parody:
Ian is a big fan of Community.
Ian admits that he completely misremembered this episode of All in the Family. (Dave has to admit it all the time so it’s only fair if Ian has to admit it once in a while.)
I still think that clip shows and bottle episodes are very similar.
In the spirit of me misremembering things, Ian was right that there was no mention of Chuck Cunningham in the final episode of Happy Days and I can’t find the article I read online that gave me the impression that he did.
You know a show has gone on too long when the main character’s bratty little sister is the focus of the final episode. I have to admit that I’d jumped off this particular bus a long time before this episode.
Ian also wonders what happened to Fonzie’s friend, Sticks.
I actually think that Happy Days jumped the shark when Fonzie moved into the Cunningham’s spare room. Even as a kid I thought that was cheap.
Ian claims I was very happy to recall the show Hooray for Harold Lloyd and I was! If only to stretch out our petering conversation about clip shows. Plus I remember the show as being pretty great.
I didn’t remember it being that yakky though. Obviously I misremembered it!
Here’s one of the many, many Monty python clip shows that have been made been:
At least this one doesn’t have the remaining Pythons attempting to recreate Pythonesque humour. That always draws an “Ugh” from me.
Sigh…I misremembered All This and World War II as All This and World War III. All I can say is “Whoops!”
There are some pretty good Beatles covers on the record I have – and some pretty crummy ones too.
This is one of my favourite records of all time. It was given to me as a child and many of its songs influenced my musical tastes in all kinds of right directions.
However, we decided that it wasn’t a clip record – more of a theme record.
Here’s a very nice clip show celebrating actor Jack Soo on the Barney Miller show:
I’m not sure Ian believed me when I told him the early episodes of Barney Miller had scenes that took place away from the squad room. In your face, Ian.
They quickly winnowed the show down to its essentials.
Clip shows are a clever way to recycle material. Another clever way to recycle material is to write like Aaron Sorkin. (Thanks to Pia Guerra for this link.)
That’s quite the editing job. Remember when people used to put this kind of effort into uncovering Watergate?
Ian thinks this is what my Cockney accent will sound like when I get back:
Actually, it will sound more like this:
Finally, Ian sent me off to England with his best wishes and a punk rock song:
Cheerio!