Author Topic: 100 Greatest TV Episodes Of All Time: "Murder by the Book" ("Columbo")
Zaz 
Title: Manager:
The Amphitheatre

Registered: Oct '98
40038_Jawa
Date Posted: 5/8 6:09am Subject: RE: 100 Greatest TV Episodes Of All Time: "Third Rock From the Sun"
74
COMBAT!
March 12, 1963


"The talents of director Robert Altman and actor Vic Morrow blend beautifully in "Survival," a strikingly cinematic episode of this 1960s World War II drama. Sergeant Saunders (Morrow) gets separated from his platoon behind enemy lines. Instead of dialogue, we get stark images: Saunders staggering in shock out of a burning farmhouse; a soldier without boots struggling in agony to keep up; Saunders staring hungrily at an apple that dangles enticingly out of reach of his scorched hands. In a medium of constant, relentless talk, Altman lets the pictures tell the story -- memorably."


Never saw this series.

 

Post Reply | Quote Reply | Active Topic Notification | Private Message | Post History
Zaz 
Title: Manager:
The Amphitheatre

Registered: Oct '98
40038_Jawa
Date Posted: 5/10 9:30am Subject: RE: 100 Greatest TV Episodes Of All Time: "Combat!"
73
MISTER ED
September 29, 1963


"With the Los Angeles Dodgers in a slump, manager Leo Durocher gets a helpful dugout phone call from architect "Wilbur Post," but in fact he's getting advice straight from the horse's mouth. Mister Ed's tip works: The Dodgers win. Before you know it, Wilbur (Alan Young) and Mister Ed are at Dodger Stadium, where the golden palomino takes batting practice. Stepping to the plate against Sandy Koufax, Ed hits one to the outfield wall and gallops around the bases. When Johnny Roseboro sees the hard-charging charger round third and head for home, the Dodgers' catcher immediately climbs the backstop to avoid him. This could be an inside-the-park homer. Slide, Mister Ed, slide! OK, an ersatz Ed may have been yanked down the third-base line by visible wires, but there's certainly nothing fake about the place "Leo Durocher Meets Mister Ed" has in sitcom-sports history."

Never seen this either...it sounds awful.

 

Post Reply | Quote Reply | Active Topic Notification | Private Message | Post History
Zaz 
Title: Manager:
The Amphitheatre

Registered: Oct '98
40038_Jawa
Date Posted: 5/12 9:02pm Subject: RE: 100 Greatest TV Episodes Of All Time: "Mr. Ed"
72
THE X-FILES
April 20, 1997


"Fans patiently waiting for the sparks between Mulder and Scully to explode are finally rewarded in "Small Potatoes" -- sort of. A loser named Eddie (Darin Morgan) uses his "striated muscle tissue" to bed women by morphing into the men they love -- leading to a rash of babies born with tails. When Mulder uncovers the scam, Eddie knocks him out and assumes his shape. What follows pokes fun at every hallowed X-Files tradition, with Eddie, now played artfully by David Duchovny, slouching into Mulder's shoes and ridiculing everything from his first name (Fox) to his geeky friends. He even discovers a message from a phone-sex operator on Mulder's answering machine. The finest touch comes after Eddie (as Mulder) is busted while putting the moves on Scully over a bottle of wine. Eddie disappointedly confides to Mulder, "I was born a loser, but you're one by choice." A superbly twisted, yet oddly unsettling, romp."


I have seen this one, and it's very twisted indeed. I remember one of the morphs this guy used was Luke Skywalker. Duchovny gives a terrific comic performance.

 

Post Reply | Quote Reply | Active Topic Notification | Private Message | Post History
somethingfamiliar 
Registered: Aug '03
42760_Asajj Ventress
Date Posted: 5/12 11:50pm Subject: RE: 100 Greatest TV Episodes Of All Time: "Small Potatoes" (The X-Files)
I love that episode.

 

-----signature-----
I'm not a quitter, but that human pile of garbage would make Satan weep.
Post Reply | Quote Reply | Active Topic Notification | Private Message | Post History
Zaz 
Title: Manager:
The Amphitheatre

Registered: Oct '98
40038_Jawa
Date Posted: 5/13 7:19am Subject: RE: 100 Greatest TV Episodes Of All Time: "Small Potatoes" (The X-Files) - Date Edited: 5/13 11:12am (1 edits total) Edited By: Zaz
There's a horribly funny scene where Mulder interviews Eddie's true love (the one on which he used the Skywalker morph). Mulder's face (it's really Eddie in morph) as she complains about Eddie's '100 annoying habits' is bliss.

 

Post Reply | Quote Reply | Active Topic Notification | Private Message | Post History
somethingfamiliar 
Registered: Aug '03
42760_Asajj Ventress
Date Posted: 5/13 11:00am Subject: RE: 100 Greatest TV Episodes Of All Time: "Small Potatoes" (The X-Files)
I think my favorite bit was Eddie-as-Mulder posing in the mirror working on the coolest way to say "FBI." I just read a couple weeks ago that the actor who played Eddie was one of the series' writers and that he had previously appeared as Flukeman, the white-skinned sewer monster with the creepy gaping maw.

 

-----signature-----
I'm not a quitter, but that human pile of garbage would make Satan weep.
Post Reply | Quote Reply | Active Topic Notification | Private Message | Post History
Forcefire 
Registered: Jul '00
19942_A New Hope
Date Posted: 5/13 11:14am Subject: RE: 100 Greatest TV Episodes Of All Time: "Small Potatoes" (The X-Files)
Yup, Darin Morgan. Wrote some of the greatest X-Files episodes of all time, including my personal favorite, Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose.

Small Potatoes is definitely entertaining. A little bit of humor, a little bit of deconstruction.

 

-----signature-----
"Dear Diary, today I was pompous and my sister was crazy.
Today we were kidnapped by hillfolk, never to be seen again.
It was the best day ever."
Jayne Cobb, the Hero of Canton
Post Reply | Quote Reply | Active Topic Notification | Private Message | Post History
Zaz 
Title: Manager:
The Amphitheatre

Registered: Oct '98
40038_Jawa
Date Posted: 5/13 11:19am Subject: RE: 100 Greatest TV Episodes Of All Time: "Small Potatoes" (The X-Files) - Date Edited: 5/13 11:19am (1 edits total) Edited By: Zaz
Here are more details: Darin Morgan

 

Post Reply | Quote Reply | Active Topic Notification | Private Message | Post History
Rogue1-and-a-half 
Title: Manager: Amphitheatre
Registered: Nov '00
16485_Wedge Antilles
Date Posted: 5/13 2:40pm Subject: RE: 100 Greatest TV Episodes Of All Time: "Small Potatoes" (The X-Files)
One of the finest eps of the series; it takes a firm hand to do comedy and drama in one series and The X-Files pulled it off with true panache. Duchovny's mugging after he breaks the tail off the corpse deserves special mention.

And for true greatness:

"You spelled Federal Bureau of Investigation wrong."

"Typo."

"Twice."

Any number of X-Files eps could make this list (where's Jose Chung, One Breath and Sanguinarium, I wonder), but this is a fine representative (though others do make the list later).

 

-----signature-----
All they found of the Duchesse d'Alencon was her head.
Post Reply | Quote Reply | Active Topic Notification | Private Message | Post History
DarthBoba 
Registered: Jun '00
8187_Luke Skywalker
Date Posted: 5/13 3:57pm Subject: RE: 100 Greatest TV Episodes Of All Time: "Small Potatoes" (The X-Files)
Pfft, Rogue, the three-parter of Gethsemane-Redux-Redux II blow every other X-Files episode clean out of the water. Those're a better movie than the movie tongue

 

-----signature-----
Neils Bohr:
prize-winning physicist,
Olympic medalist,
costumed superhero.
Post Reply | Quote Reply | Active Topic Notification | Private Message | Post History
Forcefire 
Registered: Jul '00
19942_A New Hope
Date Posted: 5/13 6:41pm Subject: RE: 100 Greatest TV Episodes Of All Time: "Small Potatoes" (The X-Files)
See, I would take Anasazi/Blessing Way/Paper Clip set over those three. Gethsemane never really sold me on its cliffhanger, and I seem to remember one of the Redux (the first, I think) relying a bit too much on some so-so narration.

 

-----signature-----
"Dear Diary, today I was pompous and my sister was crazy.
Today we were kidnapped by hillfolk, never to be seen again.
It was the best day ever."
Jayne Cobb, the Hero of Canton
Post Reply | Quote Reply | Active Topic Notification | Private Message | Post History
Zaz 
Title: Manager:
The Amphitheatre

Registered: Oct '98
40038_Jawa
Date Posted: 5/13 9:29pm Subject: RE: 100 Greatest TV Episodes Of All Time: "Small Potatoes" (The X-Files)
There is another X-Files episode coming up.

Next: "71
THE PATTY DUKE SHOW
May 24, 1964


"This episode re-creates the first meeting between those "identical cousins" Patty and Cathy Lane, in which cultured Cathy gets her Uncle Martin (William Schallert) fired from his job as managing editor of the New York Daily Chronicle and breaks up Patty's romance with Richard (Eddie Applegate) -- all before the second commercial. This frothy family comedy boasted good writing and clever camera work, but its real distinction was Patty Duke's extraordinary dual performance -- never more noticeable than in "The Cousins," in which she plays Cathy imitating Patty and vice versa. You can lose your mind when cousins are two of a kind.

REWIND
"I always had the impression that I was working with two different people," recalls Schallert. "Patty created two such totally different girls. What was amazing was that she could do that with such subtle changes. It really was marvelous acting on her part."


You were; Duke suffered from undiagnosed bipolar disorder for years. She had a mean English accent as Cathy, though.

 

Post Reply | Quote Reply | Active Topic Notification | Private Message | Post History
Zaz 
Title: Manager:
The Amphitheatre

Registered: Oct '98
40038_Jawa
Date Posted: 5/14 7:29am Subject: RE: 100 Greatest TV Episodes Of All Time: "The Patty Duke Show"
70
STAR TREK:
THE NEXT GENERATION
Week of June 18, 1990


"Star Trek: The Next Generation, the whippersnapper spin-off that few took seriously at first, triumphantly came of age with "The Best of Both Worlds, Part I." This third-season finale saw the villainous Borg enter Federation space, kidnap Picard, and transform him into one of its own. The surprise-a-minute teleplay by Trek producer Michael Piller -- who broke Gene Roddenberry's number-one rule by allowing intense conflict among the Feds -- climaxes with Commander Riker (Jonathan Frakes) weighing the lives of his crew against that of his beloved captain. He issues the command to destroy the Borg ship carrying Picard. Three of the most frightening words in Trek history -- Mr. Worf, fire! -- are followed by three of the most exultant -- to be continued -- for, with this episode, TNG boldly went into a fourth season, a feat the original series never managed."

 

Post Reply | Quote Reply | Active Topic Notification | Private Message | Post History
RX_Sith 
Title: Monopoly host
Registered: Mar '06
42342_Star Wars Monopoly
Date Posted: 5/14 7:35am Subject: RE: 100 Greatest TV Episodes Of All Time: "Star Trek: TNG: "The Best of Both Worlds, Part 1"
This is undoubtedly the Best Star Trek episode and cliffhanger ever.

 

-----signature-----
Chief of Staff - The SWC Rebel Scum
Post Reply | Quote Reply | Active Topic Notification | Private Message | Post History
gonzoforce 
Registered: Feb '02
13912_Darth Gonzo
Date Posted: 5/14 10:06am Subject: RE: 100 Greatest TV Episodes Of All Time: "Star Trek: TNG: "The Best of Both Worlds, Part 1"
I remember when it first aired, was one of the first trek episodes I had ever seen. I had seen some of the movies, but had not really seen either TOS or TNG up to that point.
Still remember the MR Worf fire line. Was one of the first cliffhangers I remember seeing and got me into watching TNG.

 

-----signature-----
"The sea was angry that day my friends, like an old man trying to send back soup in a deli" - George Costanza
"My name is George, I’m unemployed and I live at my parents" - George Costanza
"You're an anti-dentite" - Cosmo Kramer
Post Reply | Quote Reply | Active Topic Notification | Private Message | Post History