This being Thursday, it's time for another edition of Thursday Movie Picks, the blogathon run by Wandering Through the Shelves. Since we're at the last Thursday of the month, it's time for another TV edition. College students are going back to school, so an appropriate subject for this month is college. I had a bit of difficulty thinking of three TV shows, but eventually came up with three:
Coach (1989-1997). Craig T. Nelson plays Hayden Fox, coach of the Minnesota State Screaming Eagles, at least until the NFL came calling late in the series' run. Jerry Van Dyke played his assistant coach, Shelley Fabares his wife, and Bill Fagerbakke another assistant.
The Paper Chase (1978, 1984-1986). John Houseman spent much of his career as a producer, but in 1974 Fox gave him a plum acting role as law professor Charles Kingford in the law-school movie The Paper Chase. It earned him an Oscar, and made him an actor the rest of his life. A few years later, TV, as bereft of new ideas as always, decided to turn the movie into a TV series, with Houseman reprising his role. The network run lasted one season, and then a few years later cable brought it back.
A Different World (1987-1993). Before we learned about things like Quaalude-laden Jello pudding pops, Bill Cosby was the king of comedy, with his Cosby Show being the #1 TV show in the mid-1980s. Just like movies get remade as TV shows, characters in successful TV shows get their own spinoff series. Daughter Denise Huxtable (Lisa Bonet) goes from New York City to a historically-black college in small-town Virginia. Bonet left the show after one season, and it continued on for another five with Jasmine Guy taking the leading role.
Take a Girl Like You (1970)
22 hours ago
3 comments:
We match with Coach which I enjoyed watching at the time even though it was centered around sports. I actually own the DVD of The Paper Chase and tried watching the tv show but found it kind of boring. The opening theme music truly sucks not like A Different World where the music is quite good. I never did watch the show though
Despite being a fan of Craig T. Nelson I was never a regular Coach watcher but I did watch the one season of The Paper Chase, mostly for John Houseman. I watched the random episode of A Different World but it didn't engage me so I didn't stick with it.
At least you were able to come up with one drama I found looking for picks that the majority of college shows lean towards comedy so that's what I went with.
Blue Mountain State (2010-2011)-Risqué, amiable comedy from the now defunct Spike TV network about the "Mountain Goats" the hard partying football team of fictional university Blue Mountain State. While much of it took place on a football field this was more concerned with the crazy doings of the team’s members, chief among them Alex Moran (Darin Brooks), Craig Shilo (Sam Jones III) and scene stealing dunderhead Thad Castle (a fearlessly comic Alan Ritchson).
Boston Common (1996-1997)-Easy going and slightly goofy Virginia country boy Boyd Pritchett (Anthony Clark) accompanies his sister Wyleen (Hedy Burress) when she begins college in Boston. What’s supposed to be a short trip becomes permanent when Boyd falls in love with fellow student Joy (Traylor Howard) despite the fact she has a steady, but pompous, boyfriend, and decides to stay much to Wyleen's dismay. Being handy he gets a job as the college repairman sharing an apartment with Wyleen (and frustrating her attempts to spread her wings) while pursuing Joy and becoming enmeshed in no end of antic comedy. A huge hit in its first season this nosedived in its second when moved to a terrible time slot.
Delta House (1978)-Watered down but still amusing sitcom derived from the megahit Animal House about the rowdy Delta fraternity house at Faber College with several of the movie’s cast returning. This also served as an early spotlight for Michelle Pfeiffer as “The Bombshell”
Shame on me for totally forgetting about Coach. Love that show. I remember seeing The Paper Chase once or twice when I was a kid. Way too slow for me, then. And we have a match with A Different World. Yay!
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