The Terrible Catsafterme

SEASON 1 – CBS

Created by Bernard Slade

Theme song: “Love Is Crazy” by Jerry Fielding (music) and Diane Hildebrand (lyrics)

• 001. Bridget Loves Bernie – 9/16/1972
  • Jewish New York cab driver Bernie Steinberg (David Birney) and rich Catholic teacher Bridget Fitzgerald (Meredith Baxter) are in love, despite the obstacle of their religions. Knowing this, they visit Bridget’s brother Mike (Robert Sampson), a priest, for advice. He can only offer his understanding, but warns of their parents’ reactions. The couple visit Bernie’s family – his father Sam (Harold J. Stone), mother Sophie (Bibi Osterwald), and uncle Moe Plotnik (Ned Glass), and Bridget ends up sick from the Jewish food. Then they visit Bridget’s family – her father Walter (David Doyle) and mother Amy (Audra Lindley). After mistakenly thinking that Bernie’s black friend Otis Foster (William Elliot) is Bernie, they are relieved to find out that he is only Jewish. Still the diner is uncomfortable as they try to appease him by serving him something other than ham. Bernie almost breaks it off due to all the potential problems, but Bridget talks him into eloping. When the couple do not come home, their worried families all get together and eventually find them both in bed. They are somewhat relieved to find that they are married, and all hold a reception with their new in-laws. Uncle Moe hides the Fitzgeralds’ hub caps for fear that their German car would be robbed in the Jewish neighborhood. Ivor Barry plays the Fitzgeralds’ butler Charles. 1/14/14 Read the rest of this entry »

SEASON 1 – FOX

Theme song: “The Simpsons Theme” by Alf Clausen

NOTE: This series began life as a series of bumpers and short subjects as seen in the variety series “The Tracey Ullman Show” between 1987-1989

• 001. Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire – 12/17/1989
  • The Simpson family – Homer (Dan Castellaneta), Marge (Julie Kavner), Lisa (Yeardley Smith), Bart (Nancy Cartwright), and Maggie – are preparing for Christmas by attending Lisa’s school Christmas pageant and putting up decorations. Homer works at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant and their boss Mr. Montgomery Burns (Harry Shear) announces that the workers will not be getting a Christmas bonus this year. Marge has saved a jar of Christmas money, but has to spend it to have a tattoo removed from Bart. Homer is crestfallen that he will not be able to provide a good Christmas for his family, so after visiting Moe’s, a bar run by Moe Szyslak (Hank Azaria), he decides to train to be a department store Santa. Bart ends up unmasking him, and Homer confides in his bonus situation. The pair take his $13 Santa money and go to the dog track and bet it all on a long-shot dog named Santa’s Little Helper. He loses, but when the dog’s owner kicks him out into the street, Homer and Bart bring him home, and the family considers it to be a great Christmas gift, despite Marge’s two sisters Patty and Selma’s (both voiced by Julie Kavner) constant bashing of Homer. The family sings Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer with the standard and not-so standard interjections from Bart and Lisa. Pamela Hayden is the voice of Todd Flanders and Milhouse Van Houten. Dan Castellaneta is Barney Gumble and Grampa Abraham Simpson. Harry Shearer voices Principal Seymour Skinner.  1/14/14

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SEASON 1 – Starz

Created by John Enborn, Rob Thomas, Dan Etheridge, and Paul Rudd

Theme music by Josh Kramon

• 001. Willow Canyon Homeowners Annual Party – 3/20/2009
  • The Los Angeles-based Party Down catering company is working a homeowners annual party in Willow Canyon. The team is led by the ambitious team leader Ron Wayne Donald (Ken Marino). The others on the team include aspiring comedian Casey Klein (Lizzy Caplan), saccharine screenwriter Roman DeBeers (Martin Starr), aspiring actor Kyle Bradway (Ryan Hansen), and former actress Constance Carmell (Jane Lynch). Coming back to work on this particular day after an absence of working as an actor is Henry Pollard (Adam Scott). The party is hosted by Gordon (Enrico Colantoni) and Liddy McSpadden (Rebecca Creskoff). Ron briefs his team on sensitivity training, not eating the guest’s food, and putting out the trip jar, and then introduces Henry to the others. Casey shows up late while bickering on the phone with her husband Mike Klein (Wes Armstrong), causing Ron to give her a final warning. The host Gordon is drastically underdressed and unenthusiastic about the party, much to the irritation of his wife. Many of the guests start to recognize Henry, but he won’t reveal what has made him famous. Casey is worried that her husband Mike will show up and cause a scene since they are in an argument. She asks Henry to look out for him and warn her if he shows up, and then realizes that she recognizes him as ‘that guy’. Roman messes with Kyle by calling and leaving a message for him, telling him that he is being considered for a role. When Ron has an accident while juggling a bottle for some kids, he tries to go clean it up in the bathroom. Kyle and the hosts’ teenage daughter Monica (Eden Sher) are making out in the bedroom nearby, and she thinks that Ron is masturbating. Ron gives her an impassioned speech to her about not saying anything or he will destroy her. Gordon shares with Henry how miserable he is with his lifestyle. Kyle finally recognizes Henry from his beer commercial, and recalls his famous line “Are we having fun yet?” Once he mentions it in front of the party, the floodgates open for everyone quoting it to him and asking him to say it. When Mike shows up at the party, Henry tries to stop him and have him wait outside, but Mike pushes him into the pool. Gordon takes this as his cue to get completely naked and jump into the pool, but no one will join him in the pool. Kyle gets the message about the part being offered to him, which mentions that the character now has cancer. Roman encourages him to shave all of the hair off of his body. Casey thanks Henry for trying to stop Mike, but she winds up getting fired by Ron, who then puts her back on ‘final warning’ when she threatens to sue. Casey tells Henry that her husband got a job offer in Vermont, so they will likely be moving there. When Casey sees Kyle shaving off his eyebrows, she tells him that it was Roman who left the message. Ron tries to fill out the comment card for Party Down, but Liddy tells him that she wants to do it herself. Each of the Party Down employees gets $14 in tips, but Henry gets $13.36. However, he gets a hand job in the car from one of the female guests named Heidi (Jackie Debatin) who recognizes him from the commercial. Cantrell Harris is the black party guest Mike. Andrea Lwin is the Asian guest. Dan Sachoff is the guest who notes they lost. Andy Siegel is the boring fat guest. 1/13/24

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SEASON 1

Created by Bonnie Turner and Terry Turner

Theme music composed by Ben Vaughn.

• 001. Brains and Eggs – 1/9/1996
  • Four alien life forms on an extraterrestrial expedition take the life form of humans known as the Solomons and move into an attic apartment in Rutherford, Ohio, owned by landlady Mamie Dubcek (Elmarie Wendel). The leader of the expedition is High Commander Dick (John Lithgow), who gets a job as a physics professor at Pendleton State University. Second in command is Security Officer Sally (Kristen Stewart), the only entity to take on a female form. Tommy (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is the oldest being and Information Officer, who has taken the form of a teenage boy. Harry (French Stewart) is seemingly the most dim-witted of the crew, but has a transmitter in his head. As the aliens begin to understand the bodies they now inhabit, Dick finds that he is both appalled and attracted to his colleague anthropology professor Dr. Mary Albright (Jane Curtin), while Tommy finds himself obsessed with teenage sexual desire, and Sally is disgusted at the prospect of having dead cow on her hands as she prepares meatloaf. During his physics class, his students Leon (Ian Lithgow), Bug Pollone (David DeLuise), Aubrey Pitman (Chris Hogan), and Caryn (Danielle Nicolet), discuss how ‘feelings’ are the core of the human experience, which inspires Dick to extend his ‘family’s’ mission. The Solomons attend a party at Dean Sumner’s house, during which Dick expresses his desire to experience feelings with Mary. He ends up kissing her, gets slapped, and gets kissed back. After the party Dick pontificates how fascinating humans are, leading the others to speculate that he has ‘probed’ Mary. Simbi Khali plays secretary Nina Campbell. Jennifer Rhodes is Mrs. Sumner. Marnette Patterson is the volleyball girl. Dan Gilvezan is the voice of the D.J. Susan Leslie is the kissing woman. 1/18/16

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SEASON 1 – NBC

Opening theme song music by John Adair, Steve Hampton, Korbin Kraus, lyrics by Steve Levitan

• 001. Pilot – 9/23/1999
  • New York City editor and nebbish germaphobe Henry McNeeley (Neil Patrick Harris) is given a new assignment by his boss Audrey Radford (Harriet Sansom Harris), and although he hopes it is with respected author Jonathan Dalton (Stanley DeSantis), it turns out it with horror novelist Ian Stark (Tony Shalhoub), who once had a major hit with a book called Below Ground. Henry visits Ian who seems to be suffering a severe case of writer’s block, and he, along with assistant Jake Donovan (Eddie McClintock) seems to have no interest in Henry, but rather playing a barrage of practical jokes on him. Henry finally gets tired of it and walks out on Ian, accusing him of being afraid of being a one-book wonder. This finally inspires Ian to start writing again, in a fashion that greatly impresses Henry… but he still wants to leave him because he thinks Ian is crazy. Henry is assigned to Dalton, but finds him so boring, that he returns to Ian, pretending to hang himself as a practical joke, but getting stuck hanging from the ceiling. He pleads with Ian to both help him down and take him back on as his editor… but Ian leaves him hanging both literally and figuratively. Heather Dubrow aka Heather Paige Kent plays Maddie the bartender at the bar where Ian sings in a band. 1/16/16

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