goldenageoftv

Friday Night Lights' showrunner Jason Katims post-mortems the series finale

2011-07-17T05:37:00.000-07:00

Jason Katims has had a lot longer to say goodbye to "Friday Night Lights" than the rest of us. The series' longtime showrunner already wrote or co-wrote two previous episodes - season 1's "State" and season 3's "Tomorrow Blues" - that might have had to serve as series finales if not for 11th-hour renewals from NBC and/or DirecTV, and he wrote the series finale, "Always," which wrapped production back in the summer and just finished airing on DirecTV's The 101 Network. (You can read my "Always" review here.)

The day before the finale aired, I spoke with Katims about letting go of these characters he's shepherded for five years, about opportunities missed, about the controversial season 2 murder plot, and about the many things that made "Friday Night Lights" so damn great.

This is, by my estimation, the third series finale you've written. How different was this experience, going in knowing it was definitely the end this time?

It was very different this time, because with the other season finales we knew they had to live one or the other: as a season finale or a series finale. However, we were very much hoping it was going to be a season finale and we were very much wanting to lean into what was provocative about the ending, and what was open-ended about it. In this case, since we knew from when we first started breaking the stories for season 5 that this would be the final season, we were really able to steer towards a true ending. And while I'm not happy about the show ending and still very much miss the show and think we could have continued to do good work, I'm so happy to have been able to be in the position to write a real ending for the show. I'm very happy with how that episode turned out.

How did you come to decide on this ending, for both the Taylors and the team?

I had that image in my mind, kind of early on in doing the show, that the end of the show would be Coach and Tami leaving Dillon, and have it be bookended with the pilot, where he's coming to this town to coach this team and he's just arriving there. I always have that image of them leaving, because what we tried to do above everything else on "Friday Night Lights" is we tried to be as honest as possible about what would really happen. And I do feel that that is often the life of a high school football coach, where they wind up going from town to town and making those towns their home. I had that idea in mind, and coupled with that was our desire to find a story for Eric and Tami and put them front and center in this fifth season - to find a story for them that was going to be worthy of all the work that they've done previously on the show, and worthy of the relationship they had created. We wanted to figure out what would be a conflict that would be real for them to play and resonate. And we thought the idea of Tami being offered this opportunity, first of all seemed very believable to us because we had seen her grow as a professional over the course of the entire series. I do believe that Tami Taylor has a lot going for her, and somebody would offer her a job like this. And we thought that that would create a really great conflict for them. As wonderful of a couple as they are, they've always been following Eric's dreams. That's what's brought them from town to town and job to job and place to place. It seemed that for Tami to be offered a job in a place where Coach didn't really want to go, or took some time to get there, seemed to be very compelling to us, and a conflict that we hadn't yet played with them.

In terms of the team, it was one of those things that, while we had made this move to East Dillon, ultimately Dillon was still Dillon. West Dillon still held this power. I thought it was an interesting way to go, ultimately, where we leave this town not that different of a place than where we found it. There's a lot of back-office politics around how the football programs are run. The other thing that was interesting to me was about how the budget was affecting this town. They could only support one football team in the town, which alluded to where we find ourselves now.

Who, by the way, is the new coach of the Panthers? We see Crowley and Billy and Spivey in the final montage, but it's not clear if any of them is in charge.

The head coach is somebody new that comes in who we didn't really highlight in the cut. It was just the next person. You did see the familiar faces that were kind of back and part of the team. I think the the intention was it was somebody we had never met. Similar to how Coach Taylor was brought in.

Was there a particular rhyme or reason to which of the original castmembers came back here at the end? Was it just actor availability, or did you specifically want Tim and Tyra as opposed to Tim and Lyla or Tyra and Landry?

When we knew it was coming on the last season, I did have a desire to bring as many of the original castmembers back as we could. But what we did was what we'd always done: let story drive those decisions. As we had done earlier in the series where we said goodbye to these beloved characters - Smash and Street and Tyra, etc. - we felt like we'd tried to do it at a time that was right from a storytelling point of view in a way that was authentic. The decisions about who we brought back was based partly on actors' availability, but beyond that it was who we felt we could service storywise. We didn't want to bring people back as window dressing, and I'm sure they wouldn't have wanted to come back that way. We felt like the Tim and Tyra connection was alluding to where we first started with the series. I thought it would be surprising, and I really wanted to see where Tyra had been. We hadn't gotten to revisit that character. We had tried to bring her back in the fourth season but weren't able to because of her schedule. We thought that was a story, that connection between them, first of all alluded to the beginning and would be a surprising story to tell, and it felt right that the two of them would wind up, if not together, with the potential to be together

One of the things I often hear your counterparts at other shows say is that there is nothing more boring to watch than a happily married couple. And you have spent five years proving how ridiculous that statement is with Coach and Mrs. Coach. What was the secret to that? What did you understand that nobody else seems to? Is it Kyle and Connie? The writing? What?

I would say there's two things. When you look at the success of that marriage, you have to start with Kyle and Connie and what they did with those roles. They had incredible chemistry together, they had such integrity about how they approached each of their roles and their relationship. I think a lot of it is that. The other thing I would say is that we tried to approach the stories with them in a way that would be real conflict - real things that would come up. And I do believe that within a marriage and within a good marriage, there are always challenges to that. There are always conflicts, where you don't wind up on the same page of things. And we explored many of those things. There was a tremendous amount of conflict between Eric and Tami over the years. It was just that the conflicts didn't feel put upon. We didn't go to the place of having them have affairs, or having an alcohol problem, or a divorce. We didn't want to go there, we didn't particularly believe that this couple would be going through those things, and we found conflicts within the things you wouldn't think of as a big storyline. The idea of whether or not to buy a house was a story you wouldn't necessarily think, "That's a story I want to see on TV," But what they did with that story was they made it incredibly real, and it became much more than the house - it became where they found themselves at this age, at this time, and would the dream be something they would ever be able to capture. These are things that people can relate to. We tried to stay with material where we knew how great Kyle and Connie would be, so it would be honest and real. Try to find real conflicts between them and not lean into melodrama.

You talked before about the move to East Dillon, which was a pretty radical thing for a show to do. Most high school series would have sent all the kids off to UT-Dillon, and Eric would have gotten a job coaching them there. Was there ever any discussion in the early seasons about doing it that way as opposed to that reboot?

In the first two seasons, we didn't deal that much or think about it that much, because we didn't necessarily think - we were living hand to mouth in terms of our life on television. We didn't know how long the show would last. We were really trying to tell the best stories. It was at the beginning of the third season where we as writers felt like we had to make some decisions here. We had sort of skirted around who we said was a sophomore and who was a junior, and we took a little poetic license with the logic of that stuff to keep the characters there as long as we did. But we decided that rather than try to skirt around the reality of it, we would lean into it, and we would make the third season about graduation, and make that the main theme of the year. And that allowed us to start looking at stories of where these characters were headed, what their future was going to be, whether they'd get out of Dillon or not. We found once we'd committed to that decision, it put us in a very great place from a storytelling point of view. That arc with Smash having his tryout and Jason leaving to go east, Tim taking the trip with him, to be with his child, and Tyra getting into college - all of those stories, I thought, were some really strong stories. While it was difficult to make that decision and we loved those actors and the characters they had carved out and dimensionalized in this time, we felt we really had to always stay with the basic premise of the show, which was to try to make it as authentic and real and honest as possible.

Want More...
Friday Night Lights?

Check out everything there is including photos, reviews, videos.

Go There ►
I have to ask about season 2 and the Tyra/Landry murder storyline. In hindsight, is there anything you could have done differently with that so people wouldn't have reacted the way they did, or do you think it was fundamentally the execution of it - pardon the horrible pun - that was always going to be a problem?

I definitely think that it was that people rejected the idea of that story at a seminal level. I don't think people were really responding to the execution of it. They just didn't believe this was the show they'd signed on for, they leaped to, "This is the network forcing a story," which wasn't true. I don't know that doing differently would have really affected how people responded to it. But then again, I could be wrong about that. We told that story in a similar way as we tell other stories. It wasn't that different. I think people just rejected it from the basic idea of it.

Well, you and I talked about this back when that episode aired, and you said the idea was to create a circumstance that brought Tyra and Landry closer together. Do you feel that that worked, or do you regret having done it in any way?

Bringing Landry and Tyra together?

No, no. Just doing it this way as opposed to "Landry joins the football team, Tyra sees him in a different light," or any number of different options instead of "Landry brains a guy with a lead pipe."

I don't know how to answer that. I clearly didn't intend to do anything that viewers of the show would reject. I wasn't trying to piss anybody off. I kind of learned from doing it how invested people become in something that is, and if you're going to change what that is, how that is and how it looks, you should have a good reason to do it and be careful doing it. On the other hand, there were lots of choices that we made in doing the show before that and since that that were bold choices that we went with that people might have rejected. You could say the idea that we're going to take the show we've lived with for three years, throw away two-thirds of the castmembers and the school and we were still going to have a good show, you could say that was not a good idea. And I think that was the best idea - literally the single best thing we did in the show.

Season 2 got truncated by the writers strike, and it did feel like you cut the cord with most of it when you came back for season 3. Santiago wasn't mentioned again, Smash's problems were unrelated to the problems he'd been having in those last few season 2 episodes, etc.

We had two issues to deal with between seasons 2 and 3. One was that people so rejected that storyline in season 2 that I did feel at that point it was important to not do something that people would reject. We almost got canceled at the end of season 2, and so I felt it was our stay of execution and I wanted to make those 13 episodes we got as good as they could possibly be, and make up for the fact that we didn't have an end for season 2, and had that been the end of the series, I would've been bummed forever. Because the end of season 2 was aborted, we didn't really get a chance to finish the show. The other thing about season 2, other than the murder storyline, that I felt was problematic was that it was very light in football. People responded to that, and we were about to go into a very big football storyline when the strike happened. We were faced with this decision of would we tell this arc that we knew where we were going, so do we just pick up and tell those stories for four or five episodes and then jump to the next fall? Any way we thought of that, it just felt like it wasn't whole cloth. It felt like we would be starting and stopping, so we decided to make a clean break and move forward to the next year of school, and with that, there were some leaps that the audience had to take with us. It was a bigger jump, not only in terms of time but in terms of story that we would normally do. We never got to see what happened to these characters for what would have been the last seven or so episodes of that season.

Whether in season 2 or in those shorter later seasons, were there any specific stories you never got to tell, or even just general topics of this universe that you never got to address?

We might have told them in slightly different ways than if we'd had more episodes and time to explore, but we got to explore a lot of stuff. When we moved to a 13-episode season, we really tried to make our storytelling as aggressive as we felt was right for the show, and tried to push story forward. I think for the most part, the show benefited from the sense of urgency that came with the 13-episode season. 13 episodes more reflects the amount of games in a football season, that really helped energize the third or fourth or fifth season. You're really following a season of football, so even if you don't see a game, you know they're two games away from the playoffs, etc. That sort of engine helps feel like the story's moving forward.

I don't have any huge regrets in terms of stories we didn't tell. The beauty of the show is we had such an incredible cast. Not just the series regular cast, but the extended cast was so wonderful. I wanted to tell stories about all of them. I regret certain things, like not being able to bring Smash's mom back and do more stories with her. grandma Saracen since Matt left, we couldn't find ways into story for her. We lost Tim Riggins for the greater part of the fifth season. That was a decision made because of a movie role that he had. I would've liked to have brought him back earlier in the season and done more with him. What Taylor brings to that character is just indescribable and the heart of the show. But this is all to say it was a good show. We told a lot of great stories, but there were always more we could have told.

So something like Coach Stan being gay and in the closet is the sort of thing you could've dealt with, but you're okay with having not.

That was a good example of a story that we didn't feel we had time to follow up on. There were a couple. We didn't have many. Following up on that story that we planted, we never had the opportunity to follow up on that story because we were on such an accelerated pace in the fourth and fifth season. We couldn't find the real estate

In looking for publicity photographs to accompany my finale story, I saw a shot of that final scene of Billy and Tim building the house on Tim's property, only Jason Street was there, too. Was he just cut out of that? Was he going to be in more of the finale? What happened?

Scott Porter really wanted to be part of that moment. It wasn't that he was cut out. It was something that we shot as a potential alternate for the ending. It's a good example of having an embarrassment of riches in terms of your cast and your story. We knew that final image was going to be Tim on his land. The question was who is he going to be with on the land. At one point it was Tyra. We shot the possibility of it being Jason Street. But we felt that we had to come back to what was most right and most honest. And we felt that those two brothers, after what we had seen them go through, the image of them together at the end was the one that we felt was the most correct version.

And finally, one of the things that made the show great was that rawness of emotion, in moments like Matt staring at his father in the coffin. Did that just come from the filming style you used, or was there more to it than that? And are there ways other shows can learn from that, or do you think that rawness in any way helped prevent the show from being a bigger hit than it was - that people don't want to feel that deeply about the characters they watch at 8 o'clock on NBC?

The reason why some of these moments resonated as they did was a combination of several things. I think the incredible cast, I think the writing and directing, but I do think that a part of it is that the filmmaking process, the vocabulary of how we shot really allowed us as an audience to really get inside this world in a way that sometimes you don't. Sometimes a lot of filmmaking doesn't allow you to be as intimately there in the space with these characters as our show did. And also the filmmaking style allowed the actors to expand on what was in the script and improvise and live in these moments, and never know when the camera was on them for the close-up, or whether it was on them at all. They never knew, and that was really a part of it. They were able to exist in the moment and not have to think about the artifice of what they were doing. They didn't have to worry about the technical part of being an actor at times and free themselves to be inside the moment. I do think that was a part of it.

In terms of other shows, I can only speak to "Parenthood." In doing "Parenthood," which is a very different show visually, I absolutely have tried to take from "Friday Night Lights," to the degree that is appropriate for that show, to its great benefit. We shoot with three cameras, try to shoot both sides of coverage if possible. That allows the actors to overlap and to find moments that feel more authentic and real than what you sometimes would normally get in a scripted drama that's shot more classically. And that's something in Parenthood that has evolved. The pilot was done in a very classical style of shooting. And over the series, the show has evolved. it continues to grow and deepen as the episodes go on. You absolutely take from it what you can.

The other side of it is the look of the show was cinema verite, and that allowed us to shoot in that style. We never did rehearsals, the lighting, while beautiful, was pretty much set up. We would never light specifically for a close-up the way most shows would. It worked for the look of the show. It's not easily done. It's not appropriate, necessarily, for other shows. To shoot in that extreme of a way would only work if the subject matter, if it made sense.

Alan Sepinwall may be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com

A ‘Friday Night Lights’ Farewell

2011-07-16T08:52:00.000-07:00

By GINIA BELLAFANTE

There are few series I can think of whose conclusions occasion feelings of sorrow. “The Sopranos” ended amid confusion and awe. We may miss the narrative and the ingeniously black comedy of it, all if not the actual characters, none of whom you really want tucking you into bed at night. The same can be said of “Big Love,” another of the greatest family dramas ever on television. Though we may miss its intelligent social commentary, we do not necessarily pine for the people in it to re-enter our lives. HBO renders characters ambiguously; we are not supposed to fall in love with each and every one of them.

As a network series, “Friday Night Lights” operated under certain constraints and the result was not only an exquisite bit of anthropology — life in a small, working-class Texas town – but a show in which beloved characters became intimates in our own lives. The series is over now, and I can genuinely say, I’m sorry that I won’t be able to see how these lives further unfold — how Tami and Eric make out in the Northeast, how Tim and Tyra do as a married couple, how Becky and Luke manage his time in the military, how Billy and Mindy will manage with twins.

The world of “Friday Night Lights,” was, for the most part, a world of exceedingly good people. The closest our hero –Coach Eric Taylor — ever comes to being morally unpalatable is resisting marital compromise. The final episodes have Tami anguished over the prospect that Eric might want to stay in Texas forever, depriving her of the best career opportunity of her life. The scene in the final hour, when she and Eric take Matt and Julie out for dinner to explain the challenges of marriage, was heartbreaking for Eric’s blindness to his own hypocrisy. But, of course, he comes around, giving up the chance to coach the East Dillion-Panthers super team and hitching his wagon to Tami’s new academic career. One of the hallmarks of this series has been the extreme close-up, as faces forlorn or contemplative consumed the whole frame. I liked the way the camera was so often pulled back in the finale, putting some distance between us and our adored Dillon-ites, readying us for goodbyes. The device seemed especially noteworthy in the shot of Eric and Tami outside the restaurant. This is among the most intense and difficult moments we’ve ever witnessed between them — “It’s my turn, babe,” she tells him — and the direction, in a sense, gives the characters their privacy to experience this.

Eric and Tami do abandon the Lone Star life and move to Philadelphia. In that last montage, some months after East Dillon has done the inconceivable and won the State championship, they are shown as the East Coast peopl, Eric thought they could never be. Tami is the dean of admissions of a pseudo-Haverford and Eric is coaching football somewhere nearby. Julie and Matt are in Chicago; whether they have married I’m not sure, but we know that they are together and happy. I’d like to believe that they are not married, that they’re saving that for the time when they are at least both 25. And I’d like to know that Julie has transferred to Northwestern.

It’s clear that Tim and Tyra will be together. We know that Tim will be in the hands of a woman who really loves him and also one who will accept his deficiencies and challenge him where she knows he can grow. Tyra wants to do something useful in the world. Tyra tells him she has plans (to which he affectionately replies, “Don’t.”) I wish I could see the extended Riggins family Christmas, 10 years down the road, with Billy and Mindy’s brood and Tim and Tyra and their kids in Tim’s house with, by then, its newest addition.

Vince, we imagine doing fantastically on the super team, and heading to a top-notch SEC program. And Landry, of whom we saw not nearly enough, will surely do something wonky. Do we worry about Luke? Sending him to the military was realistic but I wish we’d be guaranteed a happy future for him. And I wish, in some small way, that “Friday Night Lights” were a cheesy enough enterprise to promise us a reunion show.

The Ed Wynn Show with Helen Forrest & The Three Stooges : 3 nov 1950

2009-11-17T16:35:00.000-08:00

Part 1 of 3

part 2

part 3

Actor Basil Rathbone hams it up with Milton Berle 1951

2009-11-07T19:43:00.000-08:00

Distinguished actor Basil Rathbone, best known for his role as Sherlock Holmes in the 1930s and 40s, hams it up with Milton Berle in a comedy sketch set on the high seas on The Texaco Star Theater, broadcast live September 29, 1951. Comic actors Milton Frome and Arnold Stang also appear.

TV Series That Ended in a Dream

2009-11-04T06:39:00.000-08:00

Coming up with a good series finale is a very tricky thing. There’s a lot of pressure for the writers to find a unique idea that will, in some way, cap off the series. Of course, no matter how good it is, one way or the other, they’re not likely to please everyone. Popular themes for finales have included moving out, job changes, graduations, births, deaths, and the return of a significant character from the past. And then, there’s the “big dream” explanation.

Just a handful of TV series have attempted to go out this way. Sometimes it works and sometimes not. What’s the difference between a finale that’s dreamy and one that’s simply a nightmare?

It ultimately comes down to what’s right for the particular show. Does the dream scenario fit in with the rest of the series? Or, does it seem like it was just tacked on to the end because the writers couldn’t think of anything better? The good ones are surprising but satisfying. The bad ones feel like a bad case of bait and switch that make you question why you watched the series to begin with.

Here are five examples of shows that were all a dream, from best to worst. Take a look and give us your opinion below.

Newhart — “The Last Newhart”
In the final few moments of the show, Dick Loudon (Bob Newhart) is hit on the head with a wayward golf ball. When he wakes up, we realize that the entire series has been a dream of Newhart’s character, Dr. Bob Hartley, from his previous sitcom, The Bob Newhart Show.
Which dream ending was the best?

Though the dream ending wasn’t planned very much in advance, it fits perfectly. Newhart plays essentially the same character in both shows and, as Dick Loudon, he runs into a few characters that are very reminiscent of those from The Bob Newhart Show. There are also plenty of bizarre events in the series that are best explained as the result of having eaten bad Chinese food the night before. Not only does Newhart’s clever series-as-a-dream scenario work, it ensured that the quiet 1980s sitcom will never be forgotten.

Life on Mars (US) — “Life is a Rock”
Sam Tyler (Jason O’Mara), a 2008 detective who’d been inexplicably been thrown back to 1973, wakes up in a space capsule that’s just landed on Mars. It turns out that the 2008 scenario was part of sleep-induced fantasy that went wrong as the result of spaceship malfunction. The other members of his Mars crew are people he encountered in the 1973 dream and his strange 1973 memory flashes make sense.

You have to hand it to the writers of this UK series remake for coming up with this clever ending. They had this ending in mind from the start and crafted the series in such a way that they could end it at any time. Even though the ABC show was cancelled rather abruptly, they assembled an unforgettable finale that works. And, like the car that hit Sam in the pilot, it was something that nobody saw coming.

Life on Mars (UK) — Series Two, Episode Eight
After two short seasons and finally getting acclimated to living in the 1970s, Sam Tyler (John Simm) wakes up from a coma in the present day. Once he recovers, Sam returns to his regular life but feels terribly out of place. He realizes that he’d prefer to live in his coma dreams and leaps off a tall building. That ending was a little too dark for some so an epilogue was tacked on at the end. After jumping, Sam ends up back in the 1970s and, with his friends and girl, drives off into the sunset.

The original Mars has a satisfying (though still quite dark) finale but it hardly comes as much of a surprise. Considering the outstanding series as a whole, the finale is a bit of a letdown.

Roseanne — “Into That Good Night, parts one and two”
The long-running sitcom was set to end at the end of its eighth season and John Goodman’s Dan was going to die of a heart attack. At the last minute, ABC decided to bring the show back for an ninth year. Roseanne Barr decided to go out with a bang and turned the last season of the blue collar sitcom into a crazy version of Absolutely Fabulous.

Goodman was only contracted for some of the episodes and so Dan and Roseanne have marital problems in the show and he’s not around very much. In the last season, the family wins the lottery, battles terrorists, and meet celebrities.

In the show’s final moments, we learn that the entire show has been in Roseanne Connor’s imagination. She’s been writing her memoirs and has changed the details of her life that she didn’t like. We learn that, in reality, Dan had died of the heart attack, daughter Becky married David (instead of Mark), daughter Darlene married Mark (instead of David), and sister Jackie is gay (instead of mother Beverly). Barr then reads a very long T.E. Lawrence poem that seems to go on forever.

The whole dream twist comes out of left field and feels completely out of character for what began as a simple blue-collar sitcom. So many could identify with it for so long that to end it this way feels very cheap.

St. ElsewhereSt. Elsewhere — “The Last One”
This groundbreaking and critically-acclaimed medical drama effortlessly mixes issues like life, death, and AIDS, with elements of black comedy. The strong ensemble includes actors like Ed Flanders, Norman Lloyd, William Daniels, Denzel Washington, Alfre Woodard, Mark Harmon, and even Howie Mandel.

By the end of the series, the struggling St. Eligius hospital is about to be closed for good, characters have left or are leaving, and Dr. Auschlander (Norman Lloyd) dies at his desk. There are comic elements in the last episode as well, including the cliche fat lady singing and bits that are reminiscent of other finales.

In the final moments of the show, it’s revealed that the entire series has been imagined by Donald Westphall’s autistic son, Tommy (Chad Allen), as he stares into a snowglobe that contains a tiny hospital. Though the big twist is a shocker and has gone down in history as one of the most memorable finales in television history, most faithful viewers couldn’t help but feel cheated.

Karnak Skit #9

2009-10-19T06:27:00.000-07:00

I Love Lucy - Vitameatavegamin

2009-10-19T06:00:00.000-07:00

Karnac The Magnificent

2009-10-15T11:14:00.001-07:00

Twilight zone Four O'Clock

2009-10-13T16:47:00.000-07:00

Part 1 of 3

Part 2

Part 3

Wine making

2009-09-02T07:38:00.000-07:00

I love Lucy.

Tom Waits on Fernwood Tonight

2009-08-23T15:36:00.000-07:00

Johnny Carson - The Tonight Show

2009-08-20T21:10:00.000-07:00

LikeTelevision Embed Movies and TV Shows

All in the Family: Watch the Final Sweet Moments

2009-08-14T13:24:00.000-07:00

All in the Family ended more than 20 years ago, on March 25, 1979, but the characters continued on in a new series, Archie Bunker’s Place, in the Fall. The new sitcom focused more on Archie’s neighborhood bar. Stapleton appeared in some of the episodes and then asked to be written out of the show. After that, Edith was mentioned but not shown. In the second season opener, we learn that Edith has passed away from a stroke and Archie and Stephanie are left to continue on together.

Edith’s death is foreshadowed a bit in the series finale of All in the Family. In “Too Good Edith,” Archie calls on Edith to help cook the food for the St. Patrick’s Day celebration at his bar. Unknown to him, Edith has a bad case of phlebitis and has been told by her doctor to stay off her feet. She doesn’t want to disappoint her husband but finally it catches up with her and she can’t walk. The doctor chews out Archie and then feels badly that Edith hadn’t told him.

In the final few moments of the series, Archie visits Edith in bed. Though the characters would continue on, the last scene makes a sweet end to the series and shows the heart of a bigot like Archie Bunker. Take a look.

You Asked For It - Episode one (1950) - B&W - 27 min

2009-08-13T17:42:00.000-07:00

LikeTelevision Embed Movies and TV Shows

Sammy Davis Hosts Hollywood Palace with The Supremes & Raquel Welch 1967

2009-06-12T05:42:00.000-07:00

part 1 of 6

part2

part 3

part 4

part 5

part 6

Johnny Carson - Ed Ames Tomahawk Incident

2009-06-10T07:32:00.001-07:00

A clip from the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Ed Ames is the guest, showing how to properly throw a tomahawk.

Fred MacMurray hosts Hollywood Palace

2009-05-17T06:14:00.000-07:00

Fred MacMurray hosts Hollywood Palace Aired: 5/16/1964
-- Dorothy Collins (singer)
-- The Marine Pacific Drum and Bugle Corps
Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Conclusion

Benny Hill helps prepare Lady Godiva's horse

2009-05-09T08:49:00.001-07:00

Argument to Beethoven's 5th

2009-05-05T18:45:00.001-07:00

CAPTAIN VIDEO & HIS VIDEO RANGERS 60 minutes

2009-04-07T14:09:00.000-07:00

"It Pays To Be Ignorant"

2009-03-21T11:15:00.000-07:00

From The Jackie Gleason Show "It Pays To Be Ignorant" Professor Irwin Corey, Jayne Mansfield, Frank Fontaine

Rindercella by Archie Campbell

2009-03-10T16:09:00.000-07:00

Monty python Hitler in England

2008-12-31T07:50:00.000-08:00

RIP Eartha Kitt

2008-12-27T08:26:00.000-08:00

Ernie Kovacs- Aesop Broadcasting Co.

2008-12-27T06:30:00.000-08:00

Kitchen Symphony (1961)

2008-12-24T05:21:00.000-08:00

Musical short produced by Ernie Kovacs in which various objects in the kitchen come to life. The music they dance to is "Cherokee" by space age pop maestro Juan Esquivel.

Video: Ernie Kovacs Meets Esquivel in "Musical Office (1961)"

2008-12-24T05:17:00.000-08:00

Archie Bunker on Politics

2008-09-12T05:56:00.001-07:00

2008-09-12T04:08:00.000-07:00

Elevator Psychology

2008-09-03T09:58:00.000-07:00

s there a law somewhere that says we all have to face the same direction in an elevator? Apparently so, since we all obey that law. This old clip from Candid Camera is funny because we all understand it. In real life, the behavior is a little more ambiguous, as seen in the elevators of the London Underground that have doors on both sides of the elevator.

Gong Show strange act from 1976

2008-07-27T01:52:00.000-07:00

The worst version of Chuck Berry's Memphis Tennessee EVER

2008-07-16T17:55:00.000-07:00

This was the first time John Lennon and Chuck Berry had met, on the Mike Douglas show in 1972.
as much as i like these two, their performance is *atrocious*!
what is icing on the cake is Yoko Ono in the background on a conga.... suddenly she decides to start shrieking into her mic -
take a look at the expression on Chuck's face at 1.21 when he first hears her "background vocals"

Alfred Hitchcock on Dick Cavett

2008-07-16T12:48:00.000-07:00

Mr. Hitchcock shares some stories with Dick Cavett.

Moments of Alfalfa, Carl Switzer

2008-04-28T14:32:00.000-07:00

Ernie Kovacs: Aesop Broadcasting Company

2008-04-24T06:20:00.000-07:00

The late great TV pioneer, as a Roman Empire TV news host.

The Wonderful Stories Behind 6 Classic TV Theme Songs

2008-04-18T10:50:00.000-07:00

Many of today’s TV shows have dispensed with the traditional theme song in an effort to squeeze in more commercial time, which fills traditional television fans with a sense of melancholy. Does anyone out there still remember a time when a show’s theme song told the back-story of the series, or was catchy enough to become a Top-40 hit? As Archie and Edith might sigh, “those were the days.” Stroll down memory lane as mental_floss takes a look at the stories behind some of TV’s classic theme songs.
1. All in the Family: How Budget Restrictions Turned Actors into Singers

The cozy picture of Archie and Edith Bunker sitting at the piano singing “Those Were the Days” seems so in context with the series, it’s hard to picture All in the Family without that opening. However, that homey tableau that seemed so perfectly designed to set the tone for the series was concocted strictly out of necessity. Producer Norman Lear had used up his allotted budget by the time he’d filmed the pilot, leaving no money to hire professional singers or musicians to perform the theme song. Series stars Carroll O’Connor and Jean Stapleton stepped in at the last minute to help him out.

2. Gilligan’s Island: Explaining a Show’s Premise in a minute (or less!)

Cheers, The Addam’s Family, and of course, Gilligan’s Island all after the jump.

When producer Sherwood Schwartz first showed network executives his pilot for Gilligan’s Island, the suits liked parts of it, but demanded some changes before they bought the series. By the time the first episode aired, new actors had been cast as the Professor, Mary Ann and Ginger and the group was already shipwrecked. In order to explain the premise of the series, Sherwood Schwartz jotted down some lyrics and worked with George Wyle, who came up with the melody and fine-tuned the words to “The Ballad of Gilligan’s Island.” Their intent was to explain precisely why these seven disparate personalities had ended up shipwrecked on an uncharted tropical island. By the way, it was series star Bob Denver who went to bat for Dawn Wells and Russell Johnson and demanded that the theme song lyrics be revised for the second season from “and the rest” to “the Professor and Mary Ann.”

3. Happy Days: How Royalty Fees Changed the Show

Happy Days premiered in 1974 to the strains of Bill Haley & His Comets performing their classic “Rock Around the Clock” as the opening theme song. The show became a massive hit, and programmers expected it to have the legs to run in syndication for several seasons. Studio bean counters, however, quickly realized that they might lose money in the deal because of the steep royalties they had to pay for the song. The good news was that Paramount had commissioned (and owned the rights to) the show’s closing theme, written by Norman Gimbel and Charles Fox. So beginning with Season Three, the familiar “Sunday, Monday, Happy Days….” song was repurposed as the opening theme for the series.

4. How Cheers got its Theme Song

The first collaboration between Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart Angelo began in 1981, when they were brought in to write the songs for a proposed Broadway musical called Preppies. One of the first tunes they churned out was “People Like Us.” Months later, out of the blue, a Hollywood producer contacted Portnoy; he’d somehow heard a demo tape of “People Like Us” and wanted to use it as the theme to a new TV show scheduled to appear on NBC. Unfortunately, the song contractually belonged to the Preppies folks, and they refused to let it go, especially for use on a [derisive snort] sitcom. Time was running out – the airing of the show’s pilot was quickly approaching – and the duo frantically wrote and submitted five more songs before NBC finally decided “Where Everybody Knows Your Name” was the perfect fit for their new show, Cheers.

5. Snapping to It: The Addams Family opener

Vic Mizzy is a legend when it comes to TV and film songs; he’s the man responsible for everything from the Green Acres theme to the spooky organ theme from the Don Knotts film The Ghost and Mr. Chicken. But his most popular composition is undoubtedly the theme song for The Addams Family. Filmways was tight with their production dollars, so Mizzy ended up not only composing the tune, but also singing it. (He recorded his vocals on three separate tracks and then blended them together in the final mix.) Once the song was in the can, it was time to film the opening credits. Mizzy approached director Sidney Lanfield and explained his vision of close-ups of finger-snapping cast members. He added that a “click track” (the steady beat of a metronome on tape) would be required so that the actors could snap on cue. Lanfield basically replied, “What do I know from click tracks? Do it yourself.” So Mizzy ended up directing the opening scenes where the cast members impassively stared at the camera while snapping their fingers when prompted.

6. How a pair of Monkees Wannabe’s Turned Lemons into Lemonade

Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart had a successful track record as a songwriting duo; they’d composed the 1961 hit “Pretty Little Angel Eyes” as well as the theme song for the soap Days of Our Lives. Boyce & Hart were not only songwriters; they were also performers. That led them to audition for parts in a new NBC sitcom based on a rock and roll band. Neither Tommy nor Bobby made the final cut for The Monkees, but their musical ability impressed producers enough for them to be brought on board for a steady gig as the show’s chief songwriters. The duo composed the show’s theme song “(Hey Hey) We’re the Monkees,” as well as “Last Train to Clarksville,” “(I’m Not Your) Stepping Stone” and 20-some other tunes for the Prefab Four.

Ernie Kovacs Show, Mr. Science skit

2008-04-11T18:54:00.000-07:00

Ernie Kovacs Show, Mr. Science skit from 7/9/1956. Just six minutes of our television heritage.

The Today Show with host John Charles Daly and guest Harpo Marx (1961)

2008-04-06T08:09:00.000-07:00

Smothers Brothers: Boil That Cabbage Down

2008-03-15T16:36:00.000-07:00

2008-03-12T09:43:00.000-07:00

The Frank Sinatra Show with guests Elvis, Joey Bishop, Sammy Davis Jr, Peter Lawford and Nancy Sinatra (1960)

2008-03-11T16:46:00.000-07:00

LikeTelevision Embed Movies and TV Shows

Alfred Hitchcock Presents with guest stars Bill Mumy and Alan Soule (1961)

2008-03-08T06:32:00.000-08:00

A recognizable young face and a recognizable old face in this excellent episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. You've got to love the design of the grocery store set in this one. Bill Mumy, other than appearing in Lost in Space and The Twilight Zone, went on to form one half of Barnes & Barnes famous for their novelty hit FishHeads.

2008-03-04T17:18:00.000-08:00

The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour with guest George Carlin (1968)

2008-03-03T06:14:00.000-08:00

A Collection of Bob Hope Special Monologues (1954-1975)

2008-02-27T06:47:00.000-08:00

Part 5

A Collection of Bob Hope Special Monologues (1954-1975)

2008-02-27T06:45:00.000-08:00

Part 4

A Collection of Bob Hope Special Monologues (1954-1975)

2008-02-27T06:44:00.000-08:00

Part 3

A Collection of Bob Hope Special Monologues (1954-1975)

2008-02-27T06:37:00.000-08:00

Part 2

A Collection of Bob Hope Special Monologues (1954-1975)

2008-02-27T06:05:00.000-08:00

Part 1

The Twilight Zone - Odyssey of Flight 33

2008-02-27T03:55:00.000-08:00

The Twilight Zone - Odyssey of Flight 33

Add to My Profile | More Videos

Twilight Zone: The Midnight Sun

2008-02-27T03:54:00.000-08:00

The Midnight Sun

Add to My Profile | More Videos

The Twilight Zone - Time Enough At last

2008-02-27T03:52:00.000-08:00

The Twilight Zone - Time Enough At last

Add to My Profile | More Videos

The Twilight Zone - The New Exhibit

2008-02-27T03:51:00.000-08:00

The Twilight Zone - The New Exhibit

Add to My Profile | More Videos

Twilight Zone: Monsters Due on Maple St.

2008-02-27T03:48:00.000-08:00

The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street

Add to My Profile | More Videos

The Steve Allen Show with guest Foster Brooks (1970)

2008-02-20T20:23:00.000-08:00

Jack Benny with guest Frankie Avalon (1963)

2008-02-09T11:19:00.000-08:00

The Steve Allen Show featuring Don Knotts (1960)

2008-01-18T17:20:00.000-08:00

Don Knotts performs a very funny routine that, as far as I know, he also wrote. This bit is also featured on his only comedy LP (and unfortunately, Don Knotts doesn't make an appearance on Capitol Records' The Andy Griffith Show album) An Evening with Me on United Artists. I think I'll try and upload both of those records sometime very soon.

To Tell the Truth with guest William M. Gaines

2008-01-18T17:13:00.000-08:00

I've always wanted to see this! Mad Magazine publisher, William M. Gaines on To Tell the Truth! I imagine that panelist Gene Rayburn may have had the upper hand here, seeing as how the head writer of Match Game was Dick Debartolo, one of Mad's most prolific contributors. So perhaps Gene was acting coy when he delivered the wrong answer. Debartolo makes a rare public appearance without his moustache at the end of the show.

Steve Allen_The_Diamonds.

2008-01-13T10:46:00.000-08:00

The Paul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney Variety Show (1954)

2008-01-13T10:37:00.000-08:00

It's ridiculous how many different names the exact same show had, but it never lets you down. And it's another full episode.

Paul Winchell & Jerry Mahony

2008-01-13T10:34:00.000-08:00

The Steve Allen Show with guests Jonathan Winters and Phil Harris (1960)

2008-01-13T09:53:00.000-08:00

DeanMartinCelebrityRoasts-RonaldReagan

2008-01-13T06:42:00.000-08:00

DeanMartinCelebrityRoasts-JackieGleason.

2008-01-13T06:40:00.000-08:00

DeanMartinCelebrityRoasts-SammyDavisJr.

2008-01-13T06:38:00.000-08:00

Dean Martin Volume 5

2008-01-13T06:36:00.000-08:00

Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts - Frank Sinatra

2008-01-13T06:33:00.001-08:00

Dean Martin Volume 10

2008-01-13T06:32:00.001-08:00

Dean Martin Volume 12

2008-01-13T06:29:00.000-08:00

Nat King Cole Show -Cab Calloway

2008-01-13T06:24:00.000-08:00

Nat King Cole Show -Johnny Mercer

2008-01-13T06:20:00.000-08:00

Nat King Cole Show -BillyEckstine

2008-01-13T06:17:00.001-08:00

Nat King Cole Show -St. Louis Blues

2008-01-13T06:15:00.000-08:00

Nat King Cole Show with Mahalia Jackson

2008-01-13T06:13:00.001-08:00

Nat King Cole Show with Ella Fitzgerald

2008-01-13T06:11:00.000-08:00

NatKingColeShow-1957.Vegas

2008-01-13T06:06:00.000-08:00

2008-01-01T07:02:00.000-08:00

Perry Como's Music From Hollywood 1977

2008-01-01T06:37:00.000-08:00

Omnibus: Fear and Loathing in Gonzovision

2007-12-18T14:44:00.000-08:00

A BBC film crew follow Hunter S. Thompson and illustrator Ralph Steadman to Tinseltown; with Thompson's commentary on politics, The American Dream, and his funeral preparations. Included are very rare glimpses into Hunter's personal life on Owl Farm, his wife, and his child.

Originally aired in 1978. Part 1 of 5. RT: 50 minutes.

Hunter Thompson: Fear and Loathing in Gonzovision 2/5 Entire

Hunter Thompson: Fear and Loathing in Gonzovision 3/5

Hunter Thompson: Fear and Loathing in Gonzovision 4/5

Hunter Thompson: Fear and Loathing in Gonzovision 5/5

William Shatner: It Was a Very Good Year

2007-12-18T14:34:00.000-08:00

William Shatner does his rendition of the Sinatra classic "It Was a Very Good Year" on The Mike Douglas Show in the early '70s.

Mike Douglas: Alfred Hitchock and James Brown

2007-12-18T14:27:00.000-08:00

While promoting his movie Topaz, Hitchcock stops by the Mike Douglas show.

Other guests on the show include: bestselling poet and songwriter Rod McKuen ("Seasons in the Sun," Listen to the Warm), Joan Rivers (when she was a mousy housewife comedian you could look at without wincing), and the one and only James Brown.

When this was re-aired, the host of the syndicated package mocked Brown for getting the name of "Psycho" wrong, and calling it "Homicidal." What the Godfather of Soul was referring to is the very Hitchcockian William Castle 1961 chiller of the same name.

goldenageoftv

Friday Night Lights' showrunner Jason Katims post-mortems the series finale

A ‘Friday Night Lights’ Farewell

The Ed Wynn Show with Helen Forrest & The Three Stooges : 3 nov 1950

Actor Basil Rathbone hams it up with Milton Berle 1951

TV Series That Ended in a Dream

Karnak Skit #9

I Love Lucy - Vitameatavegamin

Karnac The Magnificent

Twilight zone Four O'Clock

Wine making

Tom Waits on Fernwood Tonight

Johnny Carson - The Tonight Show

All in the Family: Watch the Final Sweet Moments

You Asked For It - Episode one (1950) - B&W - 27 min

Sammy Davis Hosts Hollywood Palace with The Supremes & Raquel Welch 1967

Johnny Carson - Ed Ames Tomahawk Incident

Fred MacMurray hosts Hollywood Palace

Benny Hill helps prepare Lady Godiva's horse

Argument to Beethoven's 5th

CAPTAIN VIDEO & HIS VIDEO RANGERS 60 minutes

"It Pays To Be Ignorant"

Rindercella by Archie Campbell

Monty python Hitler in England

RIP Eartha Kitt

Ernie Kovacs- Aesop Broadcasting Co.

Kitchen Symphony (1961)

Video: Ernie Kovacs Meets Esquivel in "Musical Office (1961)"

Archie Bunker on Politics

Elevator Psychology

Gong Show strange act from 1976

The *worst* version of Chuck Berry's Memphis Tennessee EVER

Alfred Hitchcock on Dick Cavett

Moments of Alfalfa, Carl Switzer

Ernie Kovacs: Aesop Broadcasting Company

The Wonderful Stories Behind 6 Classic TV Theme Songs

Ernie Kovacs Show, Mr. Science skit

The Today Show with host John Charles Daly and guest Harpo Marx (1961)

Smothers Brothers: Boil That Cabbage Down

The Frank Sinatra Show with guests Elvis, Joey Bishop, Sammy Davis Jr, Peter Lawford and Nancy Sinatra (1960)

Alfred Hitchcock Presents with guest stars Bill Mumy and Alan Soule (1961)

The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour with guest George Carlin (1968)

A Collection of Bob Hope Special Monologues (1954-1975)

A Collection of Bob Hope Special Monologues (1954-1975)

A Collection of Bob Hope Special Monologues (1954-1975)

A Collection of Bob Hope Special Monologues (1954-1975)

A Collection of Bob Hope Special Monologues (1954-1975)

The Twilight Zone - Odyssey of Flight 33

Twilight Zone: The Midnight Sun

The Twilight Zone - Time Enough At last

The Twilight Zone - The New Exhibit

Twilight Zone: Monsters Due on Maple St.

The Steve Allen Show with guest Foster Brooks (1970)

Jack Benny with guest Frankie Avalon (1963)

The Steve Allen Show featuring Don Knotts (1960)

To Tell the Truth with guest William M. Gaines

Steve Allen_The_Diamonds.

The Paul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney Variety Show (1954)

Paul Winchell & Jerry Mahony

The Steve Allen Show with guests Jonathan Winters and Phil Harris (1960)

DeanMartinCelebrityRoasts-RonaldReagan

DeanMartinCelebrityRoasts-JackieGleason.

DeanMartinCelebrityRoasts-SammyDavisJr.

Dean Martin Volume 5

Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts - Frank Sinatra

Dean Martin Volume 10

Dean Martin Volume 12

Nat King Cole Show -Cab Calloway

Nat King Cole Show -Johnny Mercer

Nat King Cole Show -BillyEckstine

Nat King Cole Show -St. Louis Blues

Nat King Cole Show with Mahalia Jackson

Nat King Cole Show with Ella Fitzgerald

NatKingColeShow-1957.Vegas

Perry Como's Music From Hollywood 1977

Omnibus: Fear and Loathing in Gonzovision

William Shatner: It Was a Very Good Year

Mike Douglas: Alfred Hitchock and James Brown

The worst version of Chuck Berry's Memphis Tennessee EVER