Here’s a piece of advice for you couch potatoes out there: If you had a favorite TV show while growing up, don’t ever watch it again.
Chances are, once you see it as an adult, you’ll be greatly disappointed.
More importantly, don’t watch your favorite shows from yesteryear with someone who’s never seen them. Because not only will they not like them, they’ll make you feel like a chump for ever saying good things about them.
Case in point: Yesterday, I watched several episodes of Welcome Back, Kotter with my wife. I’m about seven years older than Candi so she was too young to remember the show from the mid- to late-70s. But for me it was a staple, right there with “Happy Days,” “Laverne & Shirley” and “The Muppet Show.”
For years, I told Candi how great “Welcome Back, Kotter” was because in my memory, it was. As a kid, my friends and I would always imitate John Travolta’s Barbarino character, repeating great catch phrases like, “Up your nose with a rubber hose!”
Hilarious, right? Right up there with “Sit on it!”
But as we prepared to watch “Kotter” on DVD, I became a little nervous. After all, I’d built up other shows and movies from my youth, only to be embarrassed upon seeing how bad they actually were, leading Candi to no doubt think: “And you thought this was funny why?”
Sure enough, a few minutes into the first episode, my wife was flummoxed.
“What the hell is with this show?” she asked.
The implication, of course, was: “What the hell is with you?”
Then pointing to the great Arnold Horshack character, she spat: “And what is that guy supposed to be?”
Early on, things clearly weren’t going well. And, even I had to admit, the jokes were horribly dated and cheesy. Yet, being a trooper, Candi continued to watch the entire DVD, and eventually – though she didn’t want to admit it – I think it grew on her a little.
I got her to admit that while, sure, the writing wasn’t always great (The word “sucks” might have crept into the conversation.) the show had a sweet charm. Travolta showed why he became such a star. And there was a very definite nod to the Marx Brothers and Vaudeville.
And, hey, before and after each episode, you get to hear that awesome theme song.
Posted on February 29th, 2008 by Pat
Filed under: TV
I recently began watching old episodes of “Who’s The Boss?” through the website hulu.com. I watched the show as a kid, and I liked it at the time. But it hasn’t held up at all. I think most TV shows (especially sitcoms) don’t have very long shelf lives.