Sitcoms Part II

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

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, 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 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 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 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, 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 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 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, 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 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 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. 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 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 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. 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 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 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, 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,

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 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 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 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, 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 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 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

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, 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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. 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? 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 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 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 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 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 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, 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 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 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 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, 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, 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

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 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 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 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

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, 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.

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, 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 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

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. 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 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 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 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 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 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 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, 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 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. 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 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,

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, 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 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, 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 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, 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 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 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,

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. 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 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, 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. 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 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, 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 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 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, 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. 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, 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 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 you have anything you want to retake this week? No, it's all good this time. All right, great. Well, thanks

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