Sitcoms Part II

Listen in now for part II of our homage to sitcoms. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to stuff you should know a production of I
heart radio. Stuff you should know is recorded in front
of a live studio audience. Hey, and welcome to the PODCAST.

(00:22):
I'm Josh and there's Chuck and this is part two
of our very special two part episode on Sitcoms. SITCOMS, everybody.
That's right, and we'RE gonna shoot for thirty minutes here.
If you remember an episode one, we explained all about
how sitcoms are made, in the history of Sitcoms, and
today we begin with part two of whether or not

(00:43):
these things were successful. And boy were they. Yeah, Um, apparently,
between nineteen fifty and two thousand nineteen, the top rated
show for the entire year in America at least, was
a Sitcom for twenty six different seasons. So that's a
pretty significant number, considering there's all sorts of different kinds
of shows. Sitcoms are not the only kind of show

(01:04):
out there. Yeah, that's Um, I guarantee you that between
nineteen fifty and two thousand that number is more like eighty,
I would yeah, I would also say, especially if you
were going from nineteen seventy to two thousand, it's probably
you're probably right, a hundred and four percent as a
nomage to our menstruation episode, which we I bift pretty bad. UH, well,

(01:29):
we both bift that. Um. Here's a remarkable statistic, though,
if you refer back to our Nielsen Ratings episode. Uh,
I love Lucy, in nineteen fifty three had a sixty
seven point three Nielsen Rating, which meant that close to
seventy of every household in the United States was watching

(01:51):
that TV show. Okay, and that's crazy and it's the
highest season rating for any TV show ever. But Chuck
Um and ED uses. For comparison, the highest rated show
in two thousand one was friends, and they had a fifteen.
Lucy had a seventy, right, and friends huge. Friends was huge.
Consider this, though, Lucy had it way easier. There were

(02:13):
fewer TVs and fewer shows to choose from. Friends came around. Yeah, because,
let's say ten people had a TV, Lucy had seven
of them watching friends. But you know five, five million
TVs were out there and of them were tuned to it.
So if you really think about it, friends was more
dominant than Lucy. Yeah, we should call this section in

(02:35):
defensive friends or why I learned to hate I love Lucy.
I it's not that, and I'm also not defending friends,
believe me. So these shows back then were shot on, uh, film,
Thirty five millimeter film, but it's still different. These cameras
weren't like movie cameras at the same time either. Um, but,

(02:56):
and that's a bunch of technical stuff we won't get into,
but starting in nine teen, I guess, Seventy one, when
all in the family debuted, we started shooting things on
videotape and if you've ever seen those sitcoms of the
seventies in front of a studio audience, they had a
very specific video tape look. Um, it was kind of

(03:17):
great a lot instalgia for people in our our demographic
for Gen x and, I guess, some younger boomers. But uh,
this to us was sort of the heyday and I
think generally the heyday of of sitcoms. Yeah, because in
the fifties there were still tons of variety shows and
quiz shows that kind of edge sitcoms out. The sixties
there were like lots of Westerns, but part of the

(03:39):
problem with it too is sitcoms were corny and phony
and didn't really speak to anybody's actual life. They were
escapist right. And in the seventies, the very early seventies,
starting with all in the family, uh, sitcoms started to
take on actual issues like out there in the real world,
but they were doing it in a funny way, so
it was more digestible and easy to kind of think
about and talk about with your friends then it would otherwise,

(04:02):
if you know, sixty minutes was just shoving it down
your throat. Yeah, and you know, in a funny way,
in that episodes still had to have some laughs. But
there were some episodes of some very famous sitcoms that
went very serious and dark on what was later to
be called like a special episode. Um, there are a

(04:23):
few real notable ones. One was all and I remember
seeing this episode as a kid and I was like
shaken because I didn't I didn't know any of this stuff.
I think it's where I learned about that sexual assault
was a thing, and it was when edith bunker was
was almost or attempted, uh, sexual, sexually assaulted on the show.
And that episode was uh, very, very, very serious and

(04:48):
in a marked departure from what sitcoms we're all about. Yeah,
Um Maw. It is also Um, frequently pointed to as
having like an early effect on tackling like hard stuff
when the the main character maud in a two part
very special episode, chooses to get an abortion, um, to
terminate her pregnancy when she gets pregnant at age forty seven.

(05:10):
And that was like, I mean if you did that
today it would be controversial. And this is like the
early mid seventies that they did that. So people are like,
like TV show producers are starting to like really take
on more and more stuff Um, and that very special
episode did become a thing beyond the seventies. Like another
really good example is Um different strokes, very special two

(05:31):
part episode about child exploitation with Um. Uh, Mr What
was the guy's name from W K RP, the station owner? Oh,
Mr Carlson, he was the guy. Yes, and you don't.
If you've not seen it, then good don't, because you'll
never look at Mr Carlson the same way again, because
he played this creepy child molester like perfectly. He owned

(05:55):
a bicycle shop. He lured Arnold and Dudley over there,
took pictures of them in their underwear. Remember. It was
like really jarring episode and one of the hallmarks which
I know we've made fun of before in previous episodes
of a very special episode is the audience doesn't clap
at the end and it makes it even more weird
and jarring and creepy to end an episode like that.

(06:16):
But that's definitely a hallmark of it. Yeah, and Um
also that you mentioned that was a two part or
the all in the family episode with Edith was, I believe,
just a one hour. I don't even think they aired
it in two parts. I think they just broke format
entirely and it really shows that. I mean the MoD
when MoD got an abortion. That was pre Roe v

(06:37):
Wade even. It really shows that. The despite it being
kind of a Corny, silly format generally, these writers and
producers like I think they knew they had an audience
to to really sort of get a message across at times,
as long as they didn't like hammer it too hard.
I think shows like mash dabbled much more in that

(06:58):
realm than other ones. Yeah, for sure, but as far
as doing this kind of stuff on all in the
family in different strokes, it was. It was groundbreaking stuff,
it was, but it got picked up by just about everybody.
Remember our I think our last Christmas episode, we talked
about that Alf Christmas special with the dying girl. Oh
my God, everybody did that. I think everybody, with the
one exception of small wonder, did a very special episode. Say,

(07:21):
by the bell did that episode where Jesse was addicted
to speed. Remember, I didn't really watch that show. Okay, well,
that's that one alone is worth watching, at least for
the Jesse. Which one was at? Uh, the Jesse Spano?
She was slater's girlfriend. Suld Um, oh, she'd be so
mad that I just referred to his slater's girlfriend. Um,
slater was her boyfriend. was that tippany and Ber season? No, no, Um,

(07:48):
I don't remember her name. She went on to starring
show girls. Oh, Elizabeth Berkeley. Yes, I forgot. I was
started on. So she was Um really trying to prepare
for studying finals and then like there was this show
um coming up where she was going to sing the
pointer sisters. I'm so excited, and so she was taking
all the speed and Zach found out about it and

(08:11):
it was like, you know, throwing the speed out the
window and Jesse was like, I'm so excited, I'm so excited.
Really funny. It's really worth watching, man, and watch the
whole episode because it's a masterpiece of like unintentional hilarity
from start to finish. Uh. Yeah, I guess I think
I was a little too old for that show when
it hit its prime, but I definitely taught it here

(08:33):
and there because I know all those characters. Basically, it's
still on Sunday mornings on metvs. Really. UH, Sitcom's obviously
hit their sort of zenith in the seventies and eighties, uh,
into the nineties even, of course, with shows like uh,
Seinfeld and friends were huge, but in the two thousands
is when they really kind of started to dip. Of

(08:55):
course thanks to not thanks too but unfortunately because of
things like reality TV. Um, the gold standard, like we
talked about, was hitting syndication, and that's you know, that's
the reason Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld and every member
of friends, I mean they all went on generally went
on to do other stuff, but you know, it's why
if Matthew Perry never worked another day in his life,

(09:18):
he doesn't have to, because they are still all making
money hand over fist, because these shows will live forever.
They'll be showing Seinfeld in a hundred years probably. Yeah,
because you make a show and it's a hit show
and you can take those episodes and sell them to
one person, sell them to another person and sell them

(09:38):
again and again and again. So this one body of
work just turns into a cash register. I saw that
for Seinfeld and Larry David or the show in general,
since I entered syndication has generated three billion dollars in
Syndication Chie. That's amazing and Ed points out, you know,
very aptly, one of the reasons, and there are many

(09:59):
fact there's why those kind of sitcoms aren't around as much.
I'm certainly prestige TV and sort of that's the thing now,
but when you watch a show like that these days
you're competing not just against what's on right then, but
you're still competing against Seinfeld in the office and friends
in Fraser like people still watch this comfort food time

(10:20):
and time again. I do it, we all do it. Yeah,
and I mean it was, you know, popular enough in syndication,
but now it's on streaming. You can watch every episode
back to back if you've got a long weekend, you know,
or ten years. One of the two. All Right, uh,
let's take our first commercial break, because the fine folks
have been gay have been waiting. I want to learn
about a terrosortic college act, how to take a perfect movement,

(10:42):
all about fractals, kiscon's hunt, the lizzie border murders. That
a kind of all runs on the plane. Everything we
should know. Word up, Jerry Geh. I hope Ben Gay

(11:07):
is actually going to give us some money for this.
We should maybe alert AD sales. They'd be like who,
they're making fun of us, so chuck. Like we said,
twenty six out of you know about of seasons from
ninety to two thousand were sitcoms, the highest highest rated show.
The reason there's a right, there's a reason that they're

(11:27):
so popular. One they're like really easy to digest. They're funny.
That's the point of them. But there's another thing too,
that when you zoom in on a set of like
four or six characters and you spend, you know, half
hour nuggets in their lives, in just very small worlds
of their sets Um paying attention to their foibles and

(11:48):
their weirdness and who they are and, like what they
believe in, the audience really gets to know those people
and you can really play with that as a writer
and actor and a producer and it's some really great,
like all time great characters have kind of come out
of that and one of the cool things you can
do is make a character one way and then all

(12:10):
of a sudden, out of left field, you can have
them do something else and it suddenly makes them, you know, human,
whereas they used to be like a one dimensional, hilarious person. Yeah,
but that can really shake up an audience who was
invested in a character, because I think there's so many
shows where, uh, friends is an obvious example, or sex
in the city, where most women, I think who watched

(12:33):
sex in the city, and I watched it too, but
I think it was largely like a show that appealed
to women. I would all say like just a shock,
you know, I'm a Samantha or or I'm you know,
or I'm a joey or I'm a Ross. Like. I
think people kind of looked for themselves in these characters
and everyone had their favorites. People would watch these shows

(12:54):
and maybe hate one of the characters out of the
six every time they came on the screen, but still
get into it. Uh, it's pretty interesting. They're super voyeuristic. Um,
they hold a prism up about sort of our society
and you know, they're aimed at the largest demographics. So
a lot of these shows would be about like working

(13:15):
class families who struggle to pay their mortgage or who
get into the sort of Um sort of site. You know,
there was any situations, but a lot of times they
were situations based in reality such that people could really identify.
Like I've been in that same situation with my boss before. Yeah,
like Al Bundy has to like, you know, sell a

(13:37):
bunch of blood to like get his car fixed or
something like that. Like that's a great situation for an
episode that you can resolve in a half hour. That yeah,
maybe the viewer hasn't ever sold blood to get his
car fixed, but it's maybe been in that position where
they had to consider doing that. You know, yeah, absolutely. Uh.
They also, Um, I think, to their credit, have been
able to hold up Um, not a mirror. What's it

(14:01):
called when you're looking at someone else? I guess a
lens on people that aren't like you. UH, yeah, telescope
for people who you don't identify with and you can
learn something about uh. There was a period in the
seventies where you had these three great shows, uh, the
Jefferson's good times in Sanford and son at a time

(14:22):
where it gave White America a real view into three
very sort of UH set demographics of black America. Um,
and we'll talk about spinoffs, but the Jefferson's was a
spin off. There originally the bunker's neighbors and UH, George
Jefferson opened up a dry cleaner that hit it big,
so they got to move it on up to the

(14:42):
deluxe apartment in the sky. Uh. You had good times
to sort of that middle ground family that kind of
struggled a bit, and then you had Sanford and son
as the Junkyard Uh guys. And you know, it gives
and and with other ethnic ethnicities as well. It really gave,
I think, largely wide America chance to sort of even

(15:03):
though it may not be the most realistic, sort of
take a peek at what other how other people lived. Yeah, Um, yeah,
which is Great. I mean that's a great part of sitcoms.
Like it can make you identify with people you might
not interact with normally. Right, absolutely, Um, and it can
go the other way to like it can make us
very sympathetic to the rich, like, you know, people like

(15:23):
watching effluent families as well, Um as, just as much
as they like watching families that are struggling financially too.
Oh yeah, I mean fresh prince, the cosby show. He
was a doctor again, the Jefferson. So it's interesting how
sometimes people love watching the sort of working class families,
sometimes they like the escapist of watching the rich families.

(15:47):
There's something for everyone, yea, and sometimes it's not even
a thing. Like in cheers there was not really a
lot of class stuff. It was basically everything but that
like no one seemed to have any real money trouble,
but also nobody was particularly rich. It was just not
a thing. So it can also just be totally absent.
I've got a little tidbet for you want to throw in?

(16:08):
Let's hear it. I read that George Jefferson was mentioned
on all in the family three years before he physically
appeared on it. Really because, yeah, because Norman Lear knew
exactly who he wanted for George Jefferson, Sherman Helmsley, but
Helmsley was involved in like a really lengthy Broadway contract
that he couldn't get out of. So Norman Lear just

(16:29):
set it up and waited for him to come and
he finally arrived and made TV history. That's pretty cool
to like hold out that long for an actor that
you fall in love with. Yeah, it was a good
move too. I mean norman lear was a genius. Oh yeah,
I mean, yeah, sure, we can't talk about sitcoms without
bowing at the feet of Norman Lear, and now we've
done that, so the box is checked. So, Chuck, one

(16:51):
of the best things you could possibly do is sit
around and talk about great moments in Sitcom History, and
I propose we do just that right now. I'm sure
they're entire podcasts that do this, and we should also
start each one with remember the time. Uh Well, we
went over some of the more serious ones, but I
think we should stick to sort of the more fun
ones now. Obviously just sort of tops of the list

(17:13):
if we're going historically. where, chronologically, is the UH well,
there's a couple. The grape stomping and I love lucy,
but especially the conveyor belt episode from September two, with
Lucy and Ethel working in in the factory with a
conveyor belt. I think it was chocolates. Yeah, it was chocolates,
and the conveyor belt speeds up and like Lucy and

(17:36):
ethel are just doing this physical comedy that like it's astounding,
especially when you stop and realize like this was live
to tape, basically. You know. Yeah, there was another thing
that Lucy really broke ground on Um with the birth
of little ricky. Um. The film or the show was
either aired or shot about twelve hours after her her

(17:57):
real life. So yeah, then they they aired the birth
of little ricky, which is huge. But Mary Kaye and
Johnny did it first. You're in love with that show.
I just I think they're an unsung show. They're another
one that was not preserved in any way. It was
filmed the kinescope, but the Dumont Network, which was really cheap,

(18:18):
um threw all of their reels into the East River, apparently.
And there's one episode left of Um Mary Kaye and
Johnny and it's at like a like a media Um
Museum in Los Angeles. You know now that you mentioned
that our colleague Alex's show ephemeral Um, he has an
episode about the kinescope. Okay, like an entire episode. I

(18:41):
remember now. I think that was in season one. Yeah, great,
great show. Uh. So maybe we should talk about the
Mary Tyler Moore Show, one of the great shows. Yeah,
I mean like if you gotta, if you bow at
Norman Lear's feet, you have to bow at Mary Tyler
Moore's feet too. Yeah, there was an episode in nine
called chuckles bites the dust, historic TV episode where a

(19:02):
clown is killed in a parade accident and, uh, it
tackles death in a really funny way. Like they definitely
sort of talk about mortality and stuff like that, but
the whole time they're laughing and they can't contain their
laughter about this clown and how the clown died, and
it's a very funny episode. It is because poor Mary

(19:22):
Tyler Moore has to play it straight for everybody else
and like is scolding them for laughing and she they're
all trying not to laugh and she's having to keep
it really serious. And then, in addition to that, Um,
there were some really great jokes in there, like one
offs where Um Ted baxters asked if Mary can have
a ride to the funeral with him and he goes sure,

(19:44):
the more the merrier. The Great Ted Knight. Yeah, it
was Ted Baxter, right, I think that was a character's name. Right, okay, yeah,
and the actor was Ted Knight. Yeah, yeah, from caddyshack
and from too close for comfort. Yep, another Sitcom. I
actually quite enjoyed that show because it was I thought,

(20:06):
who was the guy? Jim J bullock, was very funny.
I thought Ted night was hysterical and, of course, as
like a young boy, I just thought that the beautiful
blonde and Brunette daughters. I was like, give me that
show all day long. Right. I think that is how they,
a lot of Um shows, got Um popular. Like Three's company.
It's just DREC man like. The writing is terrible, like

(20:29):
the plots are terrible. The physical comedy is good, like
is great. But if you think about it, he's really
the only good actor character, at least in the whole show,
because he was the only one that had good stuff
written for him. But you had like Chrissie and Janet
and Cindy, I think, came after Chrissie. I'm sure they

(20:50):
definitely contributed to it. Come on, Mr Roper. Okay, Mr
Roper is pretty, pretty funny. We talked about that in
the UH, the fern bar episode of our bars podcast.
Happy days. Of course we have to mention Fonzi jumps.
The Shark, which was and of course that became in
the episode Fonzi literally Um Water Skis and jumps the

(21:14):
ring of sharks. I think it was sharks, maybe just
one shark, because jumps, jumps the sharks the same, same
ring to it. I can't remember how many sharks it was,
but that became it sort of looked back as the
moment where happy days went bad and now is used
as an expression of when any show goes bad. But
Ed points out like there were some a lot of

(21:35):
good happy days, episodes and seasons that happened after that, true,
but that season, season five, they also had mork from
ORC arrived at Arnold's drive in class and it's yeah,
it is classic and it turned out for the best,
but the point is it was like a huge departure from,
you know, the norm that that show had set up

(21:56):
for itself in the previous five seasons. So I think
it's not even necessarily just a show turns horrible, it's
just it takes like, Um, much more bizarre turns, you know,
to maybe boost ratings. I think that's really what jumping
the shark is for me. Yeah, I think you're right.
The other thing that stuck out to me too, is
apparently that that phrase is from. It's that old. Oh Really? Yeah,

(22:19):
there was some particular dude who came up with it
and wrote a book about it and started a website
later on, and it was really like a single person,
or maybe two people, introduced that slag into the Zeitgeist.
That person right now, if they're listening, he says some
particular dude thank you right, thanks a lot, other dude.
Thanks a lot, master researcher. Alright, fine, I take that challenge.

(22:43):
I can talk before we break about a couple of
more landmark events in TV Sitcom history. One, of course,
it's the final episode of Mash Uh. Notable because, a,
it was one of the biggest shows ever and it
be because it was one of the biggest final finales,
final finales of all time and all the way up
and this was and it was the number one audience,

(23:07):
top audience, of any broadcast in TV history until the
super bowl in that was what a run like one
of the best like television episodes of all time, like
it just got in the bread basket. Over and over
agames called goodbye, farewell and Amen. Ellen coming out was
a big deal. There was a gay character in Billy

(23:27):
Crystal on the Sitcom Soap Um. But Ellen actually coming
out on the show after she came out in real
life was a very big deal and conservatives hated it.
You get this Jerry folwell called her ellen degenerate for
coming out of gay. He called her a degenerate for
for saying, guess I'm actually gay, rather than staying in

(23:49):
the closet, and that disgusting. What a good dude. And
that episode they code named it the puppy so no
one would have any idea what was coming. It's pretty funny.
Uh A, right, should take our final break. Yeah, let's,
and then we'll come back and talk about more Sitcom stuff.
I want to learn about a terrosortic college act, how
to take a perfect but with all about fractal Kiscun.

(24:10):
That's another hunt. The lizzie border murders that they kind
of all runs on the plane everything this time we
should know. Word up, Jerry George. All right, we're gonna

(24:33):
finish up with what Ed calls odds and ends, which
I think is perfect, because some of these are significant moments,
some of these are just little other random BITs, um tropes,
what have you. One is a trope for sure, which
is the couch in the center of the room. Uh,
it's obviously done this way because it just makes a
lot of sense to have sort of the central action

(24:57):
being framed around the center part of a living room.
But it's funny if you go back and look at
all in the family, the cosby show and at least
married with children, those three sets are almost identical and
that you have your entry door on the right, the
couch in the middle and a set of stairs behind you. Uh.
And then of course shows like friends in Seinfeld and

(25:19):
it's it's not like landmark to say, Hey, let's center
the action on the center of the room. But the
couch in the center of the room definitely became a trope. Yeah,
it allows it allows actors to interact with the person
on the couch without standing in between them and the
camera to stand behind them. Right. So it makes total
sense in Sitcom world, but it is bizarre if you
step back and think about it. That actually ties in

(25:41):
chuck with another little tidbit about sitcoms called the fourth wall.
And it's not just sitcoms but any TV show, but
for sure, but it particularly applies the sitcoms because if
you look at a Sitcom set, there's usually three walls.
There's the back wall and two side walls, but the
front wall is imaginary and it allows you, the viewer,
to look in on the action. But the people in

(26:03):
the action, the actual characters, don't recognize that you're looking
back at them, or they're not supposed to. But you
can really toy with this whole thing because every once
in a a while the character can turn and address the you,
the viewer, and that's called breaking the fourth wall. Yeah,
which can be fun. It can be funny if, if
Burt Reynolds does it, it gives this little signature laugh

(26:24):
in a movie, that's funny. If Ferris Bueller does it,
it's funny. It can be a little weird and disconcerting.
So breaking the fourth wall is something that, whenever it's
entertained by a director or production or writer or whatever,
it's always very much like, let's put a lot of
thought into this, because it can really go bad. That's right, right. Yeah, yeah,
you don't wanna, you don't want to do it wrong,

(26:45):
because I would guess you could sink like a whole
show doing it wrong. Yeah, it's not a willing anything
how about spinoffs? I love spinoffs. There's been a lot
of very bad ones, but in some cases spinoffs have
been at least as popular as the original show. Um,
you have great shows like Mash which had trapper John
M D, which was pretty popular, and then the very

(27:08):
not great aftermash. Yeah, that was weird, terrible title. And then, Um,
that's pretty good too. Two is not bad. Um. What
about happy days, though? Happy days had Morkan Mindy, of course,
very popular show. UH, joanie loves CHOCY, not so great lavernon.
Surely that was from happy to right, a great, great show.

(27:31):
And then there were two more which I didn't even
know about. One called BLANKSI's beauties, the one called out
of the blue, and the reason you don't know about
was because they were terrible shows. But also, like they
introduced Morkin season five and gave him a spinoff. These
guys were introduced. They would introduce the character out of
the blue for the first time and then the next

(27:51):
night they would premier their spinoff show and it just
was a format they were trying and it just quite
worked out. Yeah, it didn't work very well. Uh, the
Jeffersons I mentioned spun from all in the family. Um,
another really popular show was a different world that spun
out from the Cosby show. Benson was a spinoff from what. Okay,

(28:13):
and I love Benson as a kid. I love that show. Uh,
facts of life was a great spinoff from different strokes.
Of course, Frasier, one of the all time great shows. UH,
spun off from one of the all time great shows. Yeah,
from cheers. You remember. Frasier was, I think he dated
Diane for a little while, didn't he? He that? He
was introduced dating Diane and then later dated that Lilith,

(28:35):
of course, one of the great characters, right. Yeah, and
she actually made it over to the spinoff two. Yeah, yeah,
she appeared on Frasier for sure. So all in the
family is apparently the the all time spinoff champ with
seven shows that it produced. The reason it was able
to do this is because it was so popular. Some
of its spinoffs had spinoffs, like, I think Rhoda was

(28:57):
a spinoff from all in the family and it ended
up spinning off Gloria, I think, or something. Yeah. So,
all told, all in the family generated eight hundred and
sixty episodes of television. Wow, yeah, that's it's almost like
the the Tommy, what's his name, verse from Tommy Westfall Universe. Yeah,

(29:18):
it is very much like that. I was trying to
explain that to emily and some people the other day
and just totally botched it. I need to retake that
one too. Just get me on the phone, put me
on speaker phone. Uh, and then when you know, recently
we could. We don't get a lot of spinoffs anymore,
but we should definitely shout out grownish, which is a
newer spinoff of blackish. Right, so it still happens. Another

(29:42):
thing that happened that was kind of like a landmark
bomb in the Sitcom world, and not bomb in the
bad way, but like meaning it was consequential. The flintstones
came out in and not. To that point no one
had even conceived of an animated Sitcom, but that's absolutely
what it was, so much so it was essentially an
animated rip off of the Honeymooners, based in prehistoric times. Yeah,

(30:06):
and uh, animated sitcoms became a staple of TV at
primetime television, with the jetsons, of course, Our Beloved Simpsons
and Future Rama, and now Bob's Burger's is one of
the family guy of course, and then Bob's Burgers, one
of the longest running current sitcoms. Animated Sitcoms? Yeah, there's
also rick and Morty, South Park. There's tons of animated

(30:26):
sitcoms and they can all thank the flint stones for
that and and, to a lesser extent, the JETSON's. It's
funny to think of South Park it's a Sitcom, but
I guess it is totally. It's just so offbeat it
doesn't seem to, you know, fit that mold, but it
is Sitcom Um. And then chuck. There's one other like
a significant moment in TV I want to like definitely

(30:46):
shout out. Was the last episode of New Heart that
aired in did you see it? I did. I was
a big fan of both the original Bob Newhart show
and reruns and then loved, loved the new heart show
where he was the in the first one he was
a psychologist married to Susanne Plashette, and in the second
new heart he was a B and b operator in Vermont,

(31:09):
right yeah, named Dick Loudon. And the second show new heart,
was much more weird and wacky and just kind of
went out there, whereas the BOB new heart show from
the seventies was a little more like down to Earth and,
you know, stayed uh, it had like new heart stead Pan,
you know, humor. I just accidentally did a new heart period. Um.

(31:30):
And so in the last episode of New Heart, Um,
the second show, uh, it starts at the last couple
of minutes. Started out in a darkened room and all
of a sudden Bob Wakes up, or Dick loud and
wakes up, you think. And it turns out he wakes
up his wife next to him and it's Susanne Plashette,
his wife from the BOB new heart show from the seventies.
And it turns out the entirety of new heart took

(31:53):
place in a dream of Bob Hartley's in the show,
the BOB new heart show. It's one of the greatest
aries finales of all time of any show, not just sitcoms.
Absolutely uh, it's. It's, for my money, maybe the only
time the it was all a dream thing worked to perfection,
because it's kind of become a trope, like a bad trope,

(32:15):
where it just is a sort of a lazy way
to do something. The reset button. Yeah, but boy, it
just they pulled their card at the right time. The
original new heart show was so beloved, I think in
Susan Plachette, so recognizable and beloved. Uh, it was just perfection.
It worked great, totally. Something that didn't work great and
I say this is the thing we go out on.

(32:36):
How about that? All right, it's called the Darren switch
or the other Darren, and it happened on the more
the two dicks, right, that's true. Um, it happened on
the sixth season of bewitched, right, and this was uh,
Darren was the husband, Samantha's husband. I'm bewitched, a great,
great show, originally played by Dick Yorke, and then another

(32:58):
Dick came in, Dick Sargent came in, and they just
swapped it out. They never explained it. Uh. This has
happened quite a few other times in TV history too,
write so much so that, like I said, it's a
trope called the other Darren, where they just bring in
a new actor without any explanation whatsoever, to start playing
an established role. Happens most often on soap operas, I've heard,

(33:22):
for sure, some of the other notable sitcoms, though. The
MOM on the fresh prince was swapped out Oh yeah,
on that seventies show. This one is very sad. Eric's
older sister was played by Lisa Robin Kelly at first
and she had drug and alcohol problems and she was
booted from the show and replaced and ended up dying

(33:43):
of a drug overdose. MORTY Seinfeld was different in one episode,
like in the middle of the run. Well, it was
the first time he was ever in an episode. It
was played by a different actor just for the one
episode and then we got uh, the Great Barney Martin
just owned you know. He played Lizam Nelly's Dad and

(34:04):
Arthur two, one of my favorite comedies. But if you
look back to that first Morty, uh Larry David didn't
like it and he's like he's too soft and he
swapped him after Barney Martin. That's awesome. Sometimes your father
forgets and I have to steal uh Ross's ex wife
Carol changed. Oh yeah, that's right. Okay, I knew that. UH, Angie,

(34:24):
I'm thirty rock, was another one episode run before they
switched to a different actor. Which one was Angie? Angie was?
Who Was Angie? I haven't seen thirty rock in so long.
I think she was just on the crew. Maybe I
can't remember that exactly. Um, or was she? I can't remember. Bewitched.

(34:46):
Um also had a switch, and that the gladys, the
nosy neighbor. Uh. The actor who played her died of
ovarian cancer and so they did a double switch twice.
And then finally, in True Mitch Her which Uh Fashion,
Mitch Hurwitz. He was the show runner for the rest
of development. And you remember and the boyfriend, I'm sorry,

(35:09):
the girlfriend of of what's his face? Michael Sarah was
like completely forgettable and the dad never no one ever
remembered who she was. So his idea was to have
a different actor play and in every episode, is that right? Yeah,
to kind of, you know, just make fun of the
trope a little bit. And he did that twice and
he ended up really, really liking the second actor so

(35:31):
much I think he was like, I can't like fire you.
So he did it once and then I had the
same actor player, which is pretty funny. That guy is brilliant. Um.
So I guess that's it for sitcoms. Huh. Like we
could just keep talking about significant Sitcom moments all day,
but I think we should probably stop. I think so
we ran a couple of minutes long, but, uh, do

(35:52):
you have anything you want to retake this week? No,
it's all good this time. All right, great. Well, thanks
for joining us, everybody. If you want to get in
touch with us and let us know what you thought
about the two part very special Sitcom episode, you can
send us an email to stuff podcast in IHEART RADIO
DOT com. Stuff, you should know, is a production of

(36:21):
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