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TV Show Mash-Up


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Two episodes, "The Boys' Night Out Job" and "The Girls' Night Out Job," were shot simultaneously.

The show supposedly takes place in Boston, but was shot in Portland.  In the final season, the show moves to Portland.

In one episode, the main characters go to a "dress-as-your-favorite-detective" party.  The leader, played by Tim Hutton, dresses as Ellery Queen, a detective whom his father (Jim Hutton) played on a TV show about 35 years earlier.

The main characters are a Hitter, a Hacker, a Grifter, a Thief, and the Brains.

When the actress playing the Grifter got pregnant, Jeri Ryan joined the group (as another grifter).  She was introduced in "The Girls' Night Out Job."

Regardless of its title, this TNT show does not feature a fulcrum.

George

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It is, indeed.  Tim Hutton plays a man who lost a daughter due to insurance company malfeasance and decides to take revenge on "big guys" taking advantage of "little guys."  He hires four ex-criminals to help him.  I realize that there are literally hundreds of different shows out there available to watch, but I highly recommend watching at least a few episodes.

George

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Ok, another cartoon round. Name any to take the round.

There have been some attempts to make cartoons to teach kids. A few have taught history.

A) This cartoon followed 3 teenagers through the American Revolution, as they stumbled across all the key events.  Voice actors included Walter Cronkite as Benjamin Franklin.

B) This cartoon, inspired by a kids' game show which was inspired by a video game series,   followed 2 teenagers across time and space as they pursued a criminal and her gang. (I will accept the name of the cartoon, the show, or the video game, as a correct answer.)

C) This madcap romp by Warner Brothers did indeed teach some history- in between all sorts of gags of every kind. Father Time was one of the characters, as was the World's Oldest Woman.

D) This Terrytoons series, all but forgotten, took place in history.  The title character- and his smart, little dog Winston - dealt with bumbling through history on their own.  The title character was known for wearing a blue, wide hat and was rather short.  His nemesis was a big bully named Benedict (no, not Arnold.)

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1 hour ago, GeorgeStGeorge said:

Is (C) Animaniacs?

George

Animaniacs did not teach history, nor was it intended to. (C) was intended to, and did.   They did air in similar time-slots at roughly the same years, with roughly the same production teams and voice actors.  In fact, Mrs Wolf saw them aired together and thought they were the same cartoon,  

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9 hours ago, Raf said:

B. is Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego.

A. is something something  Liberty.

Is D. Hector Peacoat?

I would accept any of these as a correct answer, on the grounds that 2 are close enough, and the other named something I already said I would accept.  I will explain.

(So, CORRECT ANSWER, YOUR TURN.)

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On 1/16/2019 at 12:26 AM, WordWolf said:

Ok, another cartoon round. Name any to take the round.

There have been some attempts to make cartoons to teach kids. A few have taught history.

A) This cartoon followed 3 teenagers through the American Revolution, as they stumbled across all the key events.  Voice actors included Walter Cronkite as Benjamin Franklin.

B) This cartoon, inspired by a kids' game show which was inspired by a video game series,   followed 2 teenagers across time and space as they pursued a criminal and her gang. (I will accept the name of the cartoon, the show, or the video game, as a correct answer.)

C) This madcap romp by Warner Brothers did indeed teach some history- in between all sorts of gags of every kind. Father Time was one of the characters, as was the World's Oldest Woman.

D) This Terrytoons series, all but forgotten, took place in history.  The title character- and his smart, little dog Winston - dealt with bumbling through history on their own.  The title character was known for wearing a blue, wide hat and was rather short.  His nemesis was a big bully named Benedict (no, not Arnold.)

A) "Liberty's Kids." 

 

B) "Where In the World Is Carmen Sandiego?" was the video game that inspired the game show. (It also inspired the game show "Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?") The game show inspired the cartoon series "Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego?",  Rita Moreno provided the voice for Carmen Sandiego in the cartoon.

(One drawing somewhere showed Carmen Sandiego meeting Waldo, and both thinking "Where have you been all my life?")

 

D) "Hector Heathcote."  It's almost forgotten, except by people who were fans during the few airings.  It's been so long that those people remember little enough. (Several episodes are on YT, I discovered the other day.)   BTW, some sources online claim HH himself was a time traveler. No, he was just some guy living in what was his present. His present changed based on the plot, so his continuity was anachronistic.  He and his dog Winston stayed the same no matter when and where they were. Someone said the claim he was a time traveler was an attempt to capture some Peabody/Sherman fans as fans for HH.    I suspect it was just an attempt to make his continuity make sense, along with dim memories failing someone. The first episode that aired was his attempt to become a "minuteman", and there is no suggestion that he's anything but a local man trying to make the cut- contrary to time traveler claims.

 

C) "Histeria!"  This show had some actual history in between lots of gags. It was made by the Animaniacs team, included many of the same voice actors, and hit the markets alongside Animaniacs when it aired.  In fact, where I'm posting from, they both only aired together until fairly recently, so it was easy to confuse one for the other here.

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

This was the first television sitcom to feature a Jewish lead character.

There had been Jewish characters before, but they were always supporting.

This is a spinoff. In the original series, the main character had a sister named Debbie. Debbie is never mentioned in the spinoff.

Though their characters are Jewish, the lead actress and her mother are* not. (The actress who played the mother is dead: she was also famous for appearing in TV commercials for a common household product).

Foster Brooks was approached to voice one character, but turned it down. 

 

 

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It is not.

Soap is not a spinoff.

The main character gets married early in the series. Because she was so popular from the parent series, and because it was a crossover event, it was one of the most watched tv comedy episodes ever. At the time, only the birth of Little Ricky on I Love Lucy drew more viewers.

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Ok, let's see.

I'm thinking "Mary Tyler Moore"-verse.  That could meant that show (I doubt the title character was Jewish, and I don't think that was a spinoff of something.  It HAD spinoffs, though. I have trouble picturing "Lou Grant" as the one described here.  So, I'll go with "Rhoda."  (Did we ever see Carlton the doorman?)

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Carlton your (alcoholic) doorman was never seen on the series (he's in a cartoon pilot episode that went nowhere)

Rhoda is Jewish. Lou Grant was not a sitcom, plus I'm sure if Lou DID get married, it wasn't a big deal.

Rhoda's wedding was a BIG deal. ("Maybe you'll get it after all" was a subtle allusion to the MTM theme song).

Rhoda's sister is played by Julie Kavner (Marge Simpson), which would have been the next clue.

Their mother wa played by Nancy Walker, also famous for Bounty paper towel commercials.

 

You're up!

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It's amazing how much useless trash from commercials is still in my head. I remember Nancy W in those Bounty commercials ("the quicker picker-upper") and thought she was Madge, but Madge was the Palmolive character.   I DID remember NW was in the movie "Murder By Death", a spoof of all the old detectives (Miss Marple, Poirrot, Charlie Chan...) 

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"When they came for me, I ran like a thief right into Grand Central Station. They trapped me in a pay toilet."

"Beautiful."

"Cost them four dollars in nickels to get me out."

"I love a volunteer."

 

One recurring character was interesting.  He once claimed to be with the CIA, but said he had to stop because that made people think he was with the CIC, and he was actually with the CID all along.  In fact, he once tried to get into the CIC's offices by crashing a car and setting himself on fire.  He also claimed to try not to sit for more than 2 hours a day, IIRC. ("It's bad to put pressure on your brain.")   He prided himself on neither laughing nor smiling. "I've trained myself not to laugh or smile. I watched a hundred hours of the Three Stooges; every time I felt like smiling or laughing, I jabbed myself in the stomach with a cattle prod."

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