I was having a conversation the other day with someone and I made a couple of mentions of television programmes ... There was a pause, and no response then they asked:
"You watched alot of tv as a kid didn't you?"
"Um," I stammered, "Yeah I guess I did ..." I went on to explain (or perhaps justify) that it was pure escapism for me ... I love to laugh ... I love to just take a break and have fun ... and the sitcoms in the rerun schedule after school and before primetime fit the bill ... I watched Gilligans Island, Hogan's Heroes, M*A*S*H, All in the Family, Benson, Three's Company, Different Strokes, Fawlty Towers, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Jeffersons, Laverne & Shirley, Mork & Mindy, Happy Days, Cheers, and WKRP in Cincinnati, among many, many others ...
YES, I watched alot of tv ...
But that got me thinking lately - what was the funniest SCENE ... not programme - but scene I've ever watched on TV ... I spent some time on one of my bike ride thinking about it, and for me there is only ONE answer:
It came from WKRP in Cincinnati, and it ran like this:
Les: It's a helicopter, and it's coming this way. It's flying something behind it, I can't quite make it out, it's a large banner and it says, uh - Happy... Thaaaaanksss... giving! ... From... W.... ... K... ... R... ... P!!
Les: No parachutes yet. Can't be skydivers... I can't tell just yet what they are, but - Oh my God, Johnny, they're turkeys!! Johnny, can you get this? Oh, they're plunging to the earth right in front of our eyes! One just went through the windshield of a parked car! Oh, the humanity! The turkeys are hitting the ground like sacks of wet cement! Not since the Hindenberg tragedy has there been anything like this!
Johnny: Les? Are you there? Les isn't there. (composing himself) Thanks for that on-the-spot report, Les, and for those of you who just tuned in, the Pinedale Shopping Mall has just been bombed with live turkeys. Film at eleven.
Then as a profound understatement, Mr Carlson, said "As God is my witness, I THOUGHT turkeys could fly !!"
I still laugh, even just reading it ... I think for pure laughter, WKRP had it for me ... So many scenes ... the Pig painting the lobby, the Bomb at the transmitter, the switch to Rock'n'Roll, Herb the Hard worker, loyal husband, fine person of the Real Families, wearing his matching shoes and belt, and of course Les with his yellow taped walls enclosing his "office" wherein he stored his coveted silver Sow award ...
Good memories all of them ... Yes, I watched too much tv as a kid ... and I can repeat entire scenes of dialogue ... but it was fun ... and it still is ...
I still collapse into peals of laughter recalling the simple line - "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly ..."
1 comment:
My father, Roger Bowen, was a character actor back in the 70s and he once had a stint on "Barney Miller." He played a guy who was arrested for pulling out a gun at a subway station and shooting at a candy machine. When Miller questioned him, asked why he did it, my father, (his character) explained that every day, on his way to work, he would put money into the same machine, press the button for a Butter Finger candy bar, but the machine would never dispense the goods. When they asked why he didn't just use the OTHER candy machine that was positioned beside it, my father, who was obviously out for revenge said angrily, "There was something about THAT machine!"
I must say, that was my all time favorite scene on TV...
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