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"He used to be a caveman, but now he's a lawyer... "Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer"."

An amazingly unfunny character that was brought back several times.

 

Mary Catherine Gallagher was far more recognizable, because she got her own movie. It bombed, but she got one, It was one of a number of bombs.  After the success of "the Blues Brothers" and "Wayne's World," the Powers-That-Be at

SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE

thought they could get a successful movie out of ALL their regular characters. So, we had a bomb with "the Coneheads", we had a bomb with "Leon Phelps the Ladies Man", a bomb with Mary Catherine Gallagher ("Superstar"), we had one with Daily Affirmation's Stuart Smalley ("Stuart Saves His Family") and I forget if there were more bombs before they stopped cranking out bomb after bomb.  They released more bombs in a row than an Iraqi weapons factory.

*checks*  I forgot "It's Pat" and "Night at the Roxbury" (with the Butaki brothers.)   Supposedly, "Stuart Saves His Family" was pretty good, but it arrived almost at the end of a chain of bombs, all based on SNL sketches. So, the public was already primed to expect it to be just another bomb in a series of bombs.   As it was, I thought almost all of them were dreadful ideas for a movie from the first time I heard of each, but back then, they didn't exactly ask the public what they thought before going ahead with a movie.

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I avoided the terribly obvious ones like Killer Bees and Church Lady, but you are, of course, correct.

I actually thought the Conehead movie was OK.  I did see Night at the Roxbury and Superstar and agree that they sucked.

George

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In later seasons, the primary cast for this show went to work for the FBI, which allowed for a new direction for the show as well as a new setting.  A pair of the characters went into the private sector as security consultants instead, and settled down to raise a family.  One character who didn't, had previously been shown to be at risk of getting punched in the nose possibly once per season (justifiably.)

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In later seasons, the primary cast for this show went to work for the FBI, which allowed for a new direction for the show as well as a new setting.  A pair of the characters went into the private sector as security consultants instead, and settled down to raise a family.  One character who didn't, had previously been shown to be at risk of getting punched in the nose possibly once per season (justifiably.)

One character was especially fond of traveling- and being ready to travel, 24/7.  The early seasons set the action primarily in Sacramento.

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In later seasons, the primary cast for this show went to work for the FBI, which allowed for a new direction for the show as well as a new setting.  A pair of the characters went into the private sector as security consultants instead, and settled down to raise a family.  One character who didn't, had previously been shown to be at risk of getting punched in the nose possibly once per season (justifiably.)

One character was especially fond of traveling- and being ready to travel, 24/7.  The early seasons set the action primarily in Sacramento.

One character who retired from investigation work was a computer expert. The other was formerly on the Arson squad (before we met him.)  A third was a military veteran- he went on to work for the FBI in Austin (IIRC) as well as other places.

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In later seasons, the primary cast for this show went to work for the FBI, which allowed for a new direction for the show as well as a new setting.  A pair of the characters went into the private sector as security consultants instead, and settled down to raise a family.  One character who didn't, had previously been shown to be at risk of getting punched in the nose possibly once per season (justifiably.)

One character was especially fond of traveling- and being ready to travel, 24/7.  The early seasons set the action primarily in Sacramento.

One character who retired from investigation work was a computer expert. The other was formerly on the Arson squad (before we met him.)  A third was a military veteran- he went on to work for the FBI in Austin (IIRC) as well as other places.

When they worked for the FBI, they were joined by Agent Wiley. He hadn't figured out why some people had nicknamed him "Coyote" for "Wiley Coyote."  Most of the characters were called mostly by their last names for the entire run of the show, which, for agents, is not that peculiar.  One of them was a man named "Jane", who should not be mistaken for the man named "Jayne" who was on "Firefly."

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In later seasons, the primary cast for this show went to work for the FBI, which allowed for a new direction for the show as well as a new setting.  A pair of the characters went into the private sector as security consultants instead, and settled down to raise a family.  One character who didn't, had previously been shown to be at risk of getting punched in the nose possibly once per season (justifiably.)

One character was especially fond of traveling- and being ready to travel, 24/7.  The early seasons set the action primarily in Sacramento.

One character who retired from investigation work was a computer expert. The other was formerly on the Arson squad (before we met him.)  A third was a military veteran- he went on to work for the FBI in Austin (IIRC) as well as other places.

When they worked for the FBI, they were joined by Agent Wiley. He hadn't figured out why some people had nicknamed him "Coyote" for "Wiley Coyote."  Most of the characters were called mostly by their last names for the entire run of the show, which, for agents, is not that peculiar.  One of them was a man named "Jane", who should not be mistaken for the man named "Jayne" who was on "Firefly."

Rarely, the title character would perform a magic show of one type or another. Given his skills (and the show's title), this should not be surprising.  Another character was referred to by the name of a European city, even though she was not from there and probably has never even visited.  One of the FBI people was known by a name that was a religious title, despite him not seeming religious or it even seeming appropriate for him.

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Ooh I know this one.

Was the city in [very] western Europe?

Did the show overstay its welcome by resolving its central mystery only to keep going aimlessly?

 

Edited by Raf
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2 hours ago, Raf said:

Ooh I know this one.

Was the city in [very] western Europe?

Did the show overstay its welcome by resolving its central mystery only to keep going aimlessly?

 

It is, although the answer is not "Madrid."

I suppose it did. There was a plot to follow it, but the script-writers seemed to ignore it.

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5 hours ago, GeorgeStGeorge said:

It's not "The Magician," which was not an ensemble show and only ran two seasons.

Nor is it "The Magicians," which was about students in a secret academy (and didn't have a single title character).

I don't know.

George

Of all the people who do magic shows "of one type or another", one type is called "magicians", and another type is called "escape artists", and this show was not about either, but yet another type.

One of the original cast shared their last name with Lucy and Linus from the "Peanuts" comic strip, but that was probably just a coincidence.

When the title character ran into an old associate (a stage magician), the other man derided the title character's specialty, saying that they didn't actually do anything when they were on stage.

The title character, for reasons obvious in the show, also used to do a more controversial type of show, and had no guilty conscience for fooling the gullible. He gave it up after he faced some consequences for being a charlatan.

"Tyger, tyger."

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23 hours ago, WordWolf said:

In later seasons, the primary cast for this show went to work for the FBI, which allowed for a new direction for the show as well as a new setting.  A pair of the characters went into the private sector as security consultants instead, and settled down to raise a family.  One character who didn't, had previously been shown to be at risk of getting punched in the nose possibly once per season (justifiably.)

One character was especially fond of traveling- and being ready to travel, 24/7.  The early seasons set the action primarily in Sacramento.

One character who retired from investigation work was a computer expert. The other was formerly on the Arson squad (before we met him.)  A third was a military veteran- he went on to work for the FBI in Austin (IIRC) as well as other places.

When they worked for the FBI, they were joined by Agent Wiley. He hadn't figured out why some people had nicknamed him "Coyote" for "Wiley Coyote."  Most of the characters were called mostly by their last names for the entire run of the show, which, for agents, is not that peculiar.  One of them was a man named "Jane", who should not be mistaken for the man named "Jayne" who was on "Firefly."

Rarely, the title character would perform a magic show of one type or another. Given his skills (and the show's title), this should not be surprising.  Another character was referred to by the name of a European city, even though she was not from there and probably has never even visited.  One of the FBI people was known by a name that was a religious title, despite him not seeming religious or it even seeming appropriate for him.

The first arc was the hunt for the serial killer, "Red John", that had killed the wife and child of Patrick Jane, the mentalist in the title. They worked for the state investigative agency, the CBI, the California Bureau of Investigation.  As Red John was finally caught,  the CBI was dismantled due to large amounts of influence by Red John in the agency- one way he checked if they were close to catching him. The agents that were the main characters either joined the FBI or retired from investigation.

Rigsby and Van Pelt settled down to raise a family and formed a small security firm.  Patrick Jane was known for inspiring people to punch him in the nose. (I'm surprised it didn't happen more often.)  Patrick Jane was raised on the carnival circuit, doing a fake psychic act. His idea of a home was a good RV, so he got himself one.  Sacramento, the California state capital, was where the CBI was headquartered.

Rigsby went from the Arson Squad to CBI, then to security consulting, and Van Pelt was the computer expert.   Kimball Cho was a military veteran and fit in at CBI and the FBI quite easily.

When they moved to Austin and the FBI, the new computer expert was Agent Wiley.  Agents tend to call each other by last name, including consultants like Jane.

Patrick Jane could do a mentalist act, and could also do close-up stage magic. From time to time, he would do a little of one, the other, or both, either for one person, or for a stage, depending on the situation. He worked with Theresa Lisbon- no connection to Portugal. The agent in charge of their FBI unit was Agent Abbot- for his last name, not for an abbey.

 

 

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15 hours ago, Raf said:

Ooh I know this one.

Was the city in [very] western Europe?

Did the show overstay its welcome by resolving its central mystery only to keep going aimlessly?

 

A) Lisbon's the capital of Portugal, which is west of Spain, which almost puts it completely into the Atlantic Ocean.

B) After resolving the "Red John" story, there was the Blake Association story to address, an even bigger deal.  Oddly, the writers never followed up on that despite it being a big deal and one of the things that got Jane the FBI job-and out of prison.  The series "resolved" with settling things between Jane and Lisbon.

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13 hours ago, WordWolf said:

Of all the people who do magic shows "of one type or another", one type is called "magicians", and another type is called "escape artists", and this show was not about either, but yet another type.

One of the original cast shared their last name with Lucy and Linus from the "Peanuts" comic strip, but that was probably just a coincidence.

When the title character ran into an old associate (a stage magician), the other man derided the title character's specialty, saying that they didn't actually do anything when they were on stage.

The title character, for reasons obvious in the show, also used to do a more controversial type of show, and had no guilty conscience for fooling the gullible. He gave it up after he faced some consequences for being a charlatan.

"Tyger, tyger."

A mentalist has a stage act as well, and it's related to magic acts or escapology.

Agent Van Pelt never mentioned the "Peanuts" connection. 

The magician claimed that mentalists don't actually have an act when they're on stage.

Patrick Jane, before the series, pretended to be a psychic and consulted with the police. When he went on TV talking about Red John, RJ took it personal-especially that psychics are frauds- and killed Mrs Jane and their daughter.  Some time later, the series began.

Members of the Blake Association use this code word to identify themselves to each other- to get help if they're in trouble. Since many of them are in influential positions or are cops, investigators, etc, this is a lot more useful than you'd think.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

This show was originally to be an adventure drama, "Seven Against the Sea."  It was re-tooled as a comedy and was very successful.

The star of the show originally turned down the role, figuring that as an Oscar-winning actor, TV would have been a bit of a demotion.  But when talking with a young boy who didn't recognize him but who could name the stars of several TV shows, he decided to take the part, one for which he is probably best remembered.

George

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