Screen Junkies » sitcoms

7 Funniest School-Related Sitcoms

Wookie Johnson — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 18:52:54 +0000

It’s back to school time, which means things are about to get hilarious. Well, that’s the case if television is any indicator. In real life, going back to school is probably fun at first, but that new excitement tapers off pretty quickly. But you know what is fun? Watching TV. Even when the show you’re watching is about school, which we’ve already established as being a pretty crappy time. So, in honor of this return to the halls of academia, I’ve compiled this list of the seven funniest school-related sitcoms*. Plan your study breaks accordingly.

*With apologies to Drexell’s Class. That was some of Dabney Coleman‘s finest work.

Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper

It’s a plot as common as the nose on your face. Comedian Mark Curry stars as an NBA superstar who screws up and has to fall back on being a substitute teacher and gym coach. Just about every school in America has a former professional athlete on its teaching staff, because everyone knows that’s where the real money is.

Boy Meets World

Boy Meets World showed us life through the eyes of Cory Matthews, a kid growing up next to his teacher in suburban Philadelphia. Throughout the run of the series, we followed Cory through grade school, high school, and college as he learned various life lessons with help from his big-chested classmate, his imbecile brother, and his physically and emotionally abused best friend. TGIF!

Saved By The Bell

As the quintessential 90′s teen sitcom, you’ve gotta know this one. Re-runs air all over the world, even in small Eastern European villages. In fact, I believe Screech is viewed as a messiah in some of those villages.

A Different World

As a spin-off to The Cosby Show, A Different World had a lot riding on it. However, it stood on its own as a quality show thanks to Dwayne Wayne’s weird flippy glasses/sunglasses. It was the late 80′s. That’s all you needed back then.

Head Of The Class

Designed as a vehicle for Howard Hesseman, Head Of The Class followed the gifted students of Monroe High School in Manhattan and their rebel rouser teacher. However, the talented cast of students comprised of actors like Brian Robbins, Robin Givens, and Dan Frischman quickly stepped into the spotlight, as well as Leslie Bega, who looked like this on the show:

But now looks like this:

Arvid looks pretty good these days too.

Welcome Back, Kotter

The one that started it all. By that, I mean John Travolta’s fixation with shoving hoses into guys.

Community

Though Community is a sitcom in the traditional sense, there’s hardly anything traditional about Community. Birthed from the brain of Dan Harmon and starring a hilarious cast, Community is (or maybe was) the best source for cutting edge comedy on network television. Hard to say where the show is headed now thanks to behind-the-scenes shake-ups, but we’ll find out soon enough when it returns for another season. And then hopefully a few more. And a movie.

9 Movies Inexplicably Turned Into TV Shows

Wookie Johnson — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 16:41:04 +0000

Sorry for being out of breathe. It’s just that I got this news I didn’t see coming. It really knocked the wind out of me. I hate to be the one to tell you, but there’s talk of FX adapting Fargo for a television series. I know. That’s hard cheese.

It’s only because I love Fargo that I’m opposed to this. It’s poisoning the well. The last thing television needs is another crime procedural. Even if that procedural centers around an extremely pregnant investigator. The saving grace is that this is in FX’s hands and they’ve got a great track record. But honestly, just focus on making the Powers television series awesome enough to air and don’t go down this road.

Do you really want to be in the company of these shows?

The Firm

It took ten years to develop a small screen version of John Grisham’s The Firm and about ten minutes for it to flop. The series debuted this past winter to the weakiest premiere numbers NBC has ever suffered. And this is the network that aired .quarterlife we’re talking about here. Oof.

Ferris Bueller

It was a foolhardy venture to try and adapt a character as beloved as Ferris Bueller for the small screen. Audiences weren’t into seeing the character played by not-Matthew Broderick and the show was crushed by the competition — Major Dad. It is notable however for giving America a short glimpse of Jennifer Aniston. However, her work here wasn’t popular enough to influence America’s choice of haircut.

Blade: The Series

I didn’t want to believe it at first either, but Spike TV‘s Blade: The Series was actually really good. Like surprisingly good. It’s a shame that it didn’t make it to a second season. As always, lead actor Sticky Fingaz is a man ahead of his time.

The 11 Most Mismatched Couples In Sitcom History

Archibald Bayou III — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 14:06:05 +0000

Tonight marks the premiere of the new CBS sitcom ¡Rob!, starring Rob Schneider as a white man who has married into a Mexican-American family, and must now deal with a series of hi-larious cultural differences. While this premise is perfectly believable, the notion that a woman as smoking hot as Claudia Bassols would marry a shlub like Rob Schneider is much harder to swallow. You can’t blame Schneider for abiding by tradition, however, and it is a long held T.V. sitcom tradition that a beautiful wife must be married to a man no less then 5 points below her on the hotness scale. But in all fairness, some of these mismatched couples were the centerpiece of sitcom classics, so perhaps ¡Rob! will be just as terrific! Well, no… probably not.

Check out the ¡Rob! Bingo card.

The King of Queens

The best and most recent example of this phenomenon occurred on the hit CBS series The King of Queens. The notion that gigantic delivery man Doug Heffernan could score cute, busty Carrie was pushing fiction to the extreme. However, Doug was funny and charming, and as the writers at Screen Junkies all know, cute women prize a sense of humor over good looks any day of the week. Of course, Doug also put up with Carrie’s insane father Arthur, so that scored him some points.

Friends

It’s become fashionable over the years to bash Friends as overrated. The truth, however, is that the middle years of the show hold up quite well, both in writing and acting. But not even ten Oscar winners could convince me that Rachel Green was so hung up on giant dork Ross Gellar. Even if you do buy into the notion of one of the hottest women in America getting knocked up by a palaeontologist, I submit exhibit B: Monica and Chandler. This show was bordering on Sci-Fi.

Money On His Mind: Snoop Dogg Will Star In A Family Sitcom

Penn Collins — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 23:37:15 +0000

And to think, he would still be in jail for the 1993 murder of gang member Phillip Woldemariam if those charges had stuck, but no! Now he’s America’s most beloved weed smokin’-est, b*tch f*ckin’-est, snitch throat-slashin’-est sitcom star.

Rapper Snoop Doggy Dogg (Doggy Dogg, Doggy Dog) has teamed up with My Wife and Kids creator Don Reo to play the patriarch of a family in a multi-camera sitcom. This will follow E’!'s reality show Snoop Dogg‘s Father Hood, which shined the light on Snoop Dogg’s domestic life with his wife and three kids.

Only three kids? That doesn’t sound right.

Snoop’s music career has curtailed to the point where he is teetering on the verge of becoming a novelty act, so the transition to acting is a natural one, in the vein of Ice Cube and other rappers whose musical career seemed to have hit an expiration date.

On this show, I’m sure he’ll be telling jimmy jokes about our mamas that we ALL like!

Clips From ABC’s New Comedies Comin’ Atchya

Col. Longshanks — Tue, 17 May 2011 16:35:40 +0000

ABC has a whole slew of new shows for you to enjoy or ridicule. Half of them premiere this fall and the other half in the spring. I hope you like comedies that skewer life in suburbia as well as the trials and tribulations of the male persuasion. If nothing else, we get to see Tim Allen grunt again. Oh how I’ve missed his take on manhood. Check out the clips below then move onto the full schedule posted at the bottom.

“Apartment 23″

Krysten Ritter tries to run a poor, innocent Midwestern girl out of her apartment, but finds out that kitty’s got claws. Also, James Van Der Beek plays himself, which is awesome. Put that flannel on, Dawson!

“Suburgatory”

Cheryl Hines and Jeremy Sisto play eccentric parents in suburbia.

“Last Man Standing”

Tim Allen is back, but without Al. But who will cut him down to size now? Oh, maybe his wife.

“Man Up”

In the face of female adversity, men try to find where they left their testicles.

“Work It”

“Bosom Buddies” without Tom Hanks and the other guy. Milton Berle is rolling over in his grave.

ABC’s FALL SCHEDULE

New shows in bold.

MONDAY

8:00 p.m. “Dancing with the Stars”
10:00 p.m. “Castle”

TUESDAY

8:00 p.m.                    “Last Man Standing”
8:30 p.m.                    “Man Up”
9:00 p.m.                    “Dancing with the Stars the Results Show”
10:00 p.m.                  “Body of Proof”

WEDNESDAY

8:00 p.m.                    “The Middle”
8:30 p.m.                    “Suburgatory”
9:00 p.m.                    “Modern Family”
9:30 p.m.                    “Happy Endings”
10:00 p.m.                  “Revenge”

THURSDAY

8:00 p.m.                    “Charlie’s Angels”
9:00 p.m.                    “Grey’s Anatomy”
10:00 p.m.                  “Private Practice”

FRIDAY

8:00 p.m. “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”
9:00 p.m. “Shark Tank”
10:00 p.m. “20/20”

SATURDAY
8:00 p.m. “Saturday Night College Football”

SUNDAY

7:00 p.m.                    “America’s Funniest Home Videos”
8:00 p.m.                    “Once Upon a Time”
9:00 p.m.                    “Desperate Housewives”
10:00 p.m.                  “Pan Am”