Sunday, July 15, 2007

Confession of A Couch Potato

I have a confession to make. I was a serious couch potato back then. I still am a couch potato but now I’m hooked on television shows that are more sophisticated with complicated human dramas like Grey’s Anatomy, the O.C and Heroes.

When I was about 13 or 14 years old, I would quietly sneak downstairs and switch on the tv to watch Golden Girls and Three’s Company and sometimes Dynasty or Dallas. Even when I had exams the next day I would still find time to watch television the night before. My favourite shows were the sitcoms. I lusted for John Stamos from Full House and Kirk Cameron from Growing Pains. I’m sure you guys have your own favourite sitcoms / comedy but I’m going to list down 10 of my favourite shows. Call it a trip down memory lane.


1. Full House

After his wife is killed by a drunk driver, Danny Tanner, a talk-show host, is left with his three daughters (D.J., Stephanie, and Michelle). Danny's brother-in-law Jesse and best friend Joey move in to help him raise the three girls. Later in the series Jesse gets married to Rebecca Donaldson, Danny's co host of the talk show. Jesse and Rebecca eventually have twins, Alexander and Nicholas Katsopolis.

Don't you think Michelle was much cuter when she was little? And John Stamos was so hot back then! No wonder he could bag Rebecca Romijn...heheh...



2. Facts Of Life
You take the good,
You take the bad,
You take them both and there you have the facts of life.
The facts of life.

This 80's TV show chronicles a group of girls attend a boarding school and experience the good and the bad of adolescence under the guidance of housemother Edna Garrett. I always thought Blair was like the younger version of slutty Blance from the Golden Girls, Jo was the sarcy Sophia, and Tootie was blur like Rose. Don't you wonder whatever happens to them?



3. Growing Pains
The series centered around the Seaver family, who lived on Long Island in New York. Dr. Jason Seaver is a psychiatrist who works at home because his wife, Maggie, has gone back to work. So it's Jason's turn to supervise the kids: Mike, more interested in having a good time than in responsibility; Carol, the smart one; and Ben, no slouch himself at getting into scrapes. The show's producers then introduced another character named Luke Brower played by Leonardo DiCaprio, who briefly lived with the Seaver family. They brought in the young Leo when the ratings of the show were going down and hoped it could survived a few more seasons. The show however got cancelled after the 8th Season. It was good while it lasted.



4. Family Ties
Steve and Elyse Keaton (Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter-Birney), once 1960s radicals, now find themselves in Reagan-Era American trying to raise a traditional suburban family. Son Alex P. Keaton (Michael J. Fox) is an ambitious Young Republican and his sister Mallory (Justine Bateman) is a shallow victim of the corporate culture, obsessed with music, clothes and boys. Their only normal kid is young Jennifer (Tina Yothers), a bit of a tomboy.




5. The Wonder Years
This TV show chronicles the life of Kevin Arnold, his friends and family, as he transitions from child to young adult during the late 60's.



6. Cheers
The main charachters are Sam Malone, the owner of the bar and a retired baseball player; Dr. Frasier - the "resident psychiatrist" who frequents the bar and could often use a little analysis himself; Norm - a semi-professional beer drinker and Cliff - a thirtysomething mailman who still lives with his mother. To get away from their "hum-drum" lives, they all come to the bar where "Everybody Knows Your Name".



7. The Cosby Show
My favourite character from this show was the cutey Rudy. Dr. Huxtable is like the perfect dad who is always understanding and forever making funny faces that could make you laugh no matter what situation you're in. Denise was the rebellious one and Theo was your typical male teenager.



8. Three's Company

Not the longest running sitcom by any stretch of the imagination, but by far one of the most pure-comedy shows of the decade. In any case, whether you prefer Chrissy or Janet, Mr. Roper, Larry, or Mr. Furley, this show managed to make everyone in the room laugh until they were in tears and on the floor. Perhaps John Ritter was so good at his role that he could never be cast as another character. R.I.P. Mr. Ritter.



9. Alf (Alien-Life-Form)

Well, what would you do if an alien's spaceship crashed into your garage? Call the police? If you lived in a TV sitcom, you would probably do just what the Tanners did--hide him in the kitchen and enjoy years of laughs. Actually, there was little more to the plot of ALF than that. The furry little creature, nicknamed ALF (For "Alien Life Form"), landed on the Tanners' garage when his spacecraft went out of control. Unfortunately the ship couldn't be fixed, and anyway, his home planet of Melmac had just blown up, so ALF took up residence in the pleasant suburban Tanner home, disrupting their formerly boring life and commenting sarcastically on the foibles of earthlings. The dense neighbors, never figured out what was going on.


10. The Perfect Strangers
In the beginning I found Balki Bartokomous annoying but then the show kinda grow on you after a while. Balki, a sheep herder from Mypos came to Chicago and decided to crash in with his cousin, Larry. Not only did he create havoc in Larry's life but he also became Larry's confidante. I just wish he would loose the accent though coz that was the annoying part about the whole show.


19 comments:

EDDY PURNAMA said...

hahahahha...i soooo watched all those shows...
kimmy gibler was so annoying as the next door meighbour...hehehehehhehe

on dynasty...use 2 watch until stupid fallon got taken by aliens ...stupid!!!

Desparil said...

last night astro channel 76 was showing.. what happened to child stars...

best siot.. urkle not a nerd now..

Crash Test Mom said...

aah... those were the days.. when i still have control over the tv remote (eh chop, masa tu still tukar channel manually lagi. bila time malas pakai kaki je.. hehe).

trueblue said...

Gosh..I grew up watching those sitcoms. Those were all my favourites too. Oh yes..and one more great sitcom was Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

Da Winged Acrophobic said...

What about MacGuyver? Were you around a little further back to watch the likes of The Six Million Dollar Man, Bionic Woman, Charlie's Angels?

Cik Puan Sri Quzz said...

Dallas & Little House on the prairie? i was so kanak2 when the program aired (serious babe..). still rmember melissa gilbert lari2 down the hill pstu jatuh tergolek2...

popcornelvis said...

ah rindunya family ties and growing pains!!!

i love michael j fox!

dont forget punky brewster and out of this world..he he

akula said...

Cheers for me!

ytxis said...

And i lust for Lori Loughlin,Justin Bateman,Danica McKellar,Kristie Alley & Lisa Bonet.And waited until they reached 18 (not kristie alley) to see them in playboy.Ngeh ngeh ngeh
Boy! i like sitcom and Hugh Hefner.

Cosmic_GurL said...

eddy - Hehehe...you and me mmg couch potato la...yeah man! I used to lust over Steven Carrington even though he was gay in the series...gay pun kahwin jugak dgn Sammy Jo...so weird this people

Desparil - u baru tengok ke? Yeah, who wouldve thought Alyssa Milano would grow up to be this hot kan?

shopper mom - pakai kaki? hahaha...pemalas to the max tu..i bullied my bros into changing the channel jer :P

trueblue - Fresh Prince tu in the 90s...will smith was so funny...love his bald-headed uncle..whatshisname?

WA - McGyver, A-team, Airwolf, The Six Million Dollar Man, Bionic Woman, Charlie's Angels are all heavy dramas. Yeah ive watched them all...what abt Manimal and Greatest American Hero? U watched them too? Love their theme songs

missy - Hehehe..yeah melissa gilbert was so cute...watched the show until the epi where she got married...wonder what happened to her other "sisters" from the show...hmmm..

superdzu - Micheal J. Fox tu kemetot la...mcm u la jugak. Muahaha! Tapi cute, pun mcm u :P

Yeah what abt Small Wonder, My Two Dads and Silver Spoons?

Akula - Aaahhh..you wanna go where everybody knows your name huh? :)

ytxis - Danica mcKellar was in Playboy?? Tipulah! She was so innocent and errmm..sweet...

Crash Test Mom said...

hahaha... i had no one to bully, the best way is to baring atas cushion close enough for my feet to reach the tv set. yeah, a sloth i was. :)

mal said...

ahhh the good old days are now but gone. replaced with income taxes, daily crude oil price checks, hills of legal documents, credit card bills and the ever present quandary of where to go for lunch. sitcoms didnt prepare me for life. :)
cool one sher! brought back memories for this ol' dawg...

Yours Truly ... XOXO said...

hmmm...how come i cant remember watching no 2.3.4.8 & 10...? Hmm...i used to love sitcoms too... Me and abah will be in front of the TV everynite watching our fav sitcoms without miss! ;P

Desparil said...

i'm stuck on channel 78 lah... :P

waffles said...

we are so fr the same generation. i loved alf!!! he always want to makan lucky the cat.

Anonymous said...

Hey,

DID YOU REALISE/KNOW that the actor playing Steven Carrington from Dynasty made a comeback as the cheerleader's dad from Heroes??

Cool, huh?

Also that the freckled face teenager Soleil Moon Frye who played Punky Brewster is now a full fledged actress and model for Gap. Look her up

Cosmic_GurL said...

shopper mom - Hahaha...yeah, tht would work too!

Mal - u said it bro..there's a lot of that going around i.e. reminiscing abt the past...makes u wonder whether the good ol' days were so much better than the present eh?

yours truly - kalau tak ingat then maknanyer u bkn same generation as org2 tua spt i la..hehehehe...

Des - Ch. 78 about what ah? Cars? mentang2 now bkn football season, if not u'd be stuck on Ch. 80, 81 and 82 just like my husb!

waffzonkle - hahaha..yeah me too! Jahat kan he? Cant leave the cat alone. But Alf was adorable back then :P

Anon - Oh yeah la...my god! He's so much cuter back then. hahaha! Now he's got a receeding hairline and wrinkles.

Red Raven said...

i still can sit down and watched them all over again...quality dude. Malaysian sitcom?? well...they only one I really enjoyed was Pi Mai Pi Mai Tang Tu and 2+1 the early years

UglyButAdorable said...

weii...dun forget HAPPY DAYS yoo!!! that's classic..

u pernah tgk punky brewster? i like that one too. pastuh allysa milano and tony danza tu, i like that too..oohh..too many laa..
i oso like knots landing, colbys dan berbagai lagie...

hantu tv jugak la i nie..