My 110 Favorite TV Episodes: Charlie Brown edition

A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965): This was downright subversive and is doubly subversive today. First off, Charles Schultz refused to use a laugh track and employed child actors. However, what made A Charlie Brown Christmas so subversive in 1965 was its anti-commercial message. Fifty years later, its Christian themes have only increased the specials subversive nature.

Monty Python's Flying Circus: The Spanish Inquisition (1970): Seemingly unrelated sketches are tied together by Spanish inquisitors appearing out of the blue.

John Adams (2008): Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney star in an adaptation of David McCullough's masterful biography of the second president.

Greatest Comedy Movies: Honorable mentions

Austin Powers (1997)
Monty Python's The Life of Brian (1979)
Clerks (1994)
Spaceballs (1987)
This is Spinal Tap (1984)
Young Frankenstein (1974)
Vacation (1983)
The Pink Panther (1964)
Animal House (1978)
Old School (2003)
The Producers (1968)

Top 10 Comedy Movies

My opinion only...

Blazing Saddles (1974)
Duck Soup (1933)
Monty Python and The Holy Grail (1975)
Dr Strangelove (1964)
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
Candyshack (1980)
Ghostbusters (1984)
Airplane! (1980)
A Night at the Opera (1935)
Anchorman (2004)

The Greatest TV Episodes #1-10

1. MASH: Abyssinia Henry (1975): “Lieutenant Colonel... Henry Blake's plane... was shot down... over the Sea of Japan. It spun in. There were no survivors."


2. Newhart: The Last Newhart (1990): The ending is now legendary. Bob wakes up next to Suzanne Pleshette and mentions his dream about being a Vermont innkeeper.

3. Monty Python’s Flying Circus: The Spanish Inquisition (1970): Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition! The inquisition ran amok appearing seven times throughout the episode.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uprjmoSMJ-o

4. I Love Lucy: Lucy Does a TV Commercial (1952): Lucy is recruited to do a commercial for Vitameatavegamin. It’s a health elixir filled with 23% alcohol. After several takes, Lucy becomes Homer Simpson.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m1Nubw8XJw

5. A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965): Charlie Brown searches for the meaning Christmas in the midst of modern commercialism. In the meantime, Snoopy wins money, money, money.

6. The Bob Newhart Show: Over the River and Through the Woods (1975): What happens when the guys are left alone on Thanksgiving? Lots of drinking!! A drunk Bob is a must see and you can’t cook a turkey at 5000 degrees. Somehow, it ends up in the dishwasher as opposed to the stove. In the end, it’s time for Moo Goo Gai Pan!

7. Cheers: Thanksgiving Orphans (1986): No one has Thanksgiving plans except Diane (which involves a Pilgrim costume). Carla invites the gang to dinner and disaster follows. Vera even shows!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgZjqa4RrLE

8. Seinfeld: The Boyfriend (1992): Keith Hernandez joins the gang. The episode contains the infamous magic loogey scene in which Newman and Kramer are spat on by a second spitter (Roger McDowell).

9. I Love Lucy: Job Switching (The Candy Factory): (1952): Anyone that has ever worked can relate to Lucy and Ethel’s predicament.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wp3m1vg06Q

10. The Civil War (1990): For five nights in 1990, people watched PBS! No one knows for sure if anyone has watched PBS since.

Greatest Movie Scenes: Bill Murray Edition

131. Space is a disease: Star Trek (2009): McCoy meets Kirk for the first time. All I know is I do not ever want to catch Andorian Shingles.

132. The Dark Knight: Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975): I'll bite your leg off!

133. Bill Murray vs. Gopher: Caddyshack (1980): Nothing like mass destruction on a gulf course.

134. Whistle Dixie: The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976): Three blue coats run into Josey Wales, they don't want to face him, so Wales (Clint Eastwood) asks them if they were going to "pull their pistols or whistle Dixie?"

135. Stay Puft Marshmellow Man: Ghostbusters (1984): When the Ghostbusters were given the choice to choose their own doom...Ray (Dan Akroyd) remembered the Stay Puft Marshmellow Man.

Greatest Movie Scenes #141-145

141. The exploding stomach trick: Alien (1979): Sitting around the table, a guy's stomach explodes, and an alien pops out.


142. Always look on the bright side of life: Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979): Poor Brian. He was being crucified for being the messiah (I AM NOT THE MESSIAH)! The others being crucified with him strike up a song...life's a piece of shit, when you look at it...

143. You Look Like: A Hard Day’s Night (1964): A brief interlude during the film has John and a lady going back and forth. She could not quite place John. As he's leaving, he claims, "She looks more like him than I do."

144. The War is Over: The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976): Set after the Civil War, but analogous to Vietnam, Wales goes on a killing spree to avenge his pain. At the end of the film, Wales runs into an old friend, Fletcher (John Vernon). Fletcher tells him that the war is over. Wales (Clint Eastwood) responds, "I guess we all died a little in that damn war." That sums up America in the aftermath of Vietnam.

145. The Vendetta Ride: Tombstone (1993): This is what we should have done in Afghanistan.