The Terrible Catsafterme

SEASON 1 – CBS

Theme music by Henry Mancini

NOTE: Although not technically a spin-off, the final episode of the series indicated that the entire series was a continuation of “The Bob Newhart Show”

• 001. In the Beginning – 10/25/1982
  • Dick Loudon (Bob Newhart), a how-to author from New York, and his wife Joanna (Mary Frann) are being introduced to the Stratford Inn, a 1774 inn in Vermont, on which they have placed a down payment. Despite the fact that the place needs quite a bit of work, the caretaker George Utley (Tom Poston) seems inept, and their neighbor Kirk Devane (Steven Kampmann) is a habitual liar, the Loudons decide to go for it. After hiring a maid, the filthy rich Leslie Vanderkellen (Jennifer Holmes), they begin to take guests. One of the first groups that comes to the inn is a group of women from the Daughters of the War of Independence whose ancestors had stayed there. Dick must deliver a speech and deliver the unsettling news that he just found out that the Stratford had been a cathouse during the Civil War. Jack Dodson appears as Mr. Shaver, the real estate agent.  5/8/13 Read the rest of this entry »

SEASON 1 – CBS

Developed by Bob Brunner and Arthur Silver based on characters created by Bill Lancaster

This series is based on the 1975 film of the same name, and its sequels “The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training” and “The Bad News Bears Go to Japan“

Theme Song: “March of the Toreadors (Carmen Overture)” by Georges Bizet, arranged by David Michael Frank

• 001. Here Comes the Coach – 3/24/1979
  • Pool cleaner Morris Buttermaker (Jack Warden) is arrested after driving the Cadillac of a customer who stiffed him into the customer’s pool, and is sentenced to either go to prison or volunteer to coach at the local W. Wendel Weever School where kids with discipline problems are sent. The baseball team he is given consists of Rudi Stein (Billy Jacoby), Regi Tower (Corey Feldman), Timmy Lupus (Shane Butterworth), Ahmad Abdul Rahim (Kristoff St. John), Mike Engelberg (J. Brennan Smith), Leslie Ogilve (Sparky Marcus), and Tanner Boyle (Meeno Peluce). After seeing how terrible the team is on the practice field, Buttermaker quits, but when the school principal Emily Rappant (Catherine Hicks) shows up at his house with the police, he recants and resumes coaching. Their first game against the Lions with their obnoxious coach Roy Turner (Phillip Richard Allen), ends with the Bears forfeiting after they are losing by 39 runs in the first inning. The Bears want to quit the team, but Buttermaker gives them a speech about quitting and they take to the practice field once again. 5/5/13 Read the rest of this entry »

SEASON 1 – NBC

Created by Tina Fey

Theme music composed by Jeff Richmond

• 001. Pilot – 10/10/2006
  • New Vice President of Development Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) arrives on the scene at NBC and calls for a meeting with the head writers of The Girlie Show, a comedy variety show starring Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski). Jack hopes to re-tool the show to achieve higher ratings, so the writers Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) and Pete Hornberger (Scott Adsit) are told to hire wild card comedian Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan). They are both resistant, but Liz arranges a meeting with Tracy, who shows up with his entourage of friends. Eventually they wind up at a strip club, and although she tries to talk him out of it, Tracy accepts the job. Liz finds out via phone that Pete has been fired. Liz, now drunk and disheveled, shows back up at NBC in time for the evening’s Girlie Show performance. Tracy makes a surprise appearance during the show’s ‘cat lady’ skit – much to Jenna’s surprise. Liz demands that Jack give Pete his job back and Jack gives in. Jack McBrayer plays page Kenneth Parcell. Judah Friedlander, John Lutz, Lonny Ross, and Keith Powell are writers Frank Rossitano, J.D. Lutz, Josh Girard, and James “Toofer” Spurlock. Grizz Chapman is Grizz and Kevin Brown is Dot Com, both members of Tracy’s entourage. Rachel Dratch appears as cat wrangler Greta Johanssen. Maulik Pancholy is Jonathan, Jack’s secretary. Teddy Coluca is the stage manager. Tom Broecker is Lee. 5/4/13

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SEASON 1 – CBS

Created by Rod Serling

Theme song by Bernard Herrmann, narrated by Rod Serling

NOTE: The 1957 pilot for this anthology series was entitled “The Time Element”, which was broadcast in 1958 on the anthology series “Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse.”

• 000. Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse: The Time Element – 11/24/1958
  • A man named Peter Jenson (William Bendix) visits psychologist Dr. Arnold Gillespie (Martin Balsam) to tell him about a recurring dream that he has been having. He describes the dream, which starts when he wakes up with a severe hangover in a strange hotel in Honolulu, even though his last memory is of being in New York City. He is quite disagreeable with everyone he meets, including the hotel bartender (Jesse White). He also meets a young newlywed couple, Ensign Janowski (Darryl Hickman) and his bride Edna (Carolyn Kearney). When Janowski mentions being stationed on the U.S.S. Arizona, Jenson mentions that shop sinking in Pearl Harbor on December 7. When Jenson sees their startled reactions, he checks the newspaper and sees that the date is December 6, 1941… which is seventeen years earlier than 1958, the date he believes it to be. At this point in the current day in 1958, Jenson tells Gillespie that he believes that the entire occurrence is not a dream at all but that he is time traveling in a loop. He continues to describe the situation in Hawaii, where he starts making bets on sporting events of which he knows the outcome. When Janowski stops by to see him to make sure he is okay, Jenson pretends that he never mentioned 1958. Jenson begins to worry about what will take place the next day and heads to the Honolulu News to report the impending attack to the editor Mr. Gibbons (Bartlett Robinson) and reporter Hannify (Don Keefer). They humor him at first and then try to throw him out, but again Jenson is forced into a physical altercation. The men subdue Jenson and call an army doctor (Alan Baxter) to examine him. Although Jenson slips up on naming the current president and vice-president, after he leaves, the men agree that he is not crazy and really believes what he is saying. He meets up with the couple for drinks again, he starts to pity what will happen to them, and again returns to telling them that he should not be on the Arizona the next day. This earns him a punch in the mouth from Janowski and then when he starts singing World War 2 songs, from the bartender. Jenson wakes up the next morning in his Honolulu hotel room and sees the Japanese planes flying over. Back in the present, he tells Dr. Gillespie that he feels there is more to the dream but he has always awakened at this point. Gillespie tries to convince him of the impossibility of time travel, as making one small change in the past cold drastically alter the future. Jenson tells him that he looked up Janowski and his wife and called Janowski’s mother, only to find out that they had been killed in Pearl Harbor. Jenson then falls asleep on the doctor’s couch and begins the dream over again, as the doctor watches him. This time, as the planes are flying over, Jenson is shot and killed through his window. Back in the office, Dr. Gillespie has a strange feeling that something has happened, but Jenson is nowhere to be found. Gillespie doesn’t have any memory of him and leaves for the day. He stops at a bar for a drink on the way home, and he sees a photograph of Jenson hanging behind the bar. The bartender (Paul Bryar) tells Gillespie that it is a photo of Peter Jenson who wants tended bar there, but he has been killed in Pearl Harbor. Desi Arnaz introduces the episode and provides commentary on it after the show. He speculates that the doctor had seen the photo in the past and then dreamed the entire encounter with Jenson. Lucille Ball appears as herself to promote the next episode of The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour. Joe DeRita is the drunk at the bar. Jesslyn Fax is the hotel maid. 1/29/24 

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SEASON 1 – HBO

Created by Jonathan Ames

Theme music: “Bored to Death” written by Jason Schartzman and Jonathan Ames and performed by Coconut Records, with lead vocals by Jason Schwartzman. 

• 001. Stockholm Syndrome – 9/20/2009
  • Jonathan Ames (Jason Schwartzman) is an aspiring writer living in Brooklyn who has published one book and is working as a journalist for Edition magazine. His girlfriend Suzanne (Olivia Thirlby) leaves him because of his addiction to pot and white wine. In a funk, he puts an ad on Craigslist identifying himself as a private detective. Sullen about the breakup, he attempts to talk to his friend Ray Hueston (Zach Galifianakis), a comic book artist, but he has relationship problems of his own with his girlfriend Leah (Heather Burns). His boss George Christopher (Ted Danson), a well-known liberal figure in the city and editor of Edition, uses Jonathan as his supplier of pot. Soon a call comes in from a girl named Rachel Klein (Ryena de Courcy) searching for her missing sister Lisa (Fiona Dourif). Jonathan tracks down her boyfriend and finds the sister there, tied up on the bed. The police show up, but the girl claims that it was consensual, so it is Jonathan who is arrested. He is let go with the warning to stop impersonating a private detective, but soon enough, another call comes in from a potential client. 5/4/13 Read the rest of this entry »