My car, on the way to this big party
I have seen the name Ed Begley Jr.
mentioned countless times in various contexts of environmentalism and
Hollywood. Despite all my movie watching, I simply don't have the
faintest idea who that guy is, nor could I name even one movie that he
has been in. A few weeks ago, when I was flipping through the cable
on-screen guide, I came upon a movie that listed Ed as the male lead. I
was almost tempted to watch the first five minutes of this movie, just
for the heck of it, but then didn't really feel like it.
Last summer, since everything was reruns anyways me and my wife started watching Family Guy, since we had never watched that particular show before that because we had no idea how good it was. This summer we'll certainly do the same with the show Scrubs, another show that we never watched but now that we have seen a few episodes, has turned out to be so great that it annoys me to think that I have missed this gem.
In fact, structurally Scrubs very much resembles Family Guy with its fantasy cutscenes. One aspect that is much better in Scrubs when compared to Family Guy is that its writers have kept their eye on the first rule of writing farce: don't overdo it, but keep the whole thing as serious and close to reality as possible to better emphasize the actual farcical parts, because once it has been established that there are no rules but complete anarchy so that anything can happen, then nothing can actually happen. The ten or so episodes that we have seen so far have been from various seasons, and the show doesn't seem to have jumped the shark even during its fifth season, but has remained remarkably consistent. There are so many places where the writers could have made inane jokes better suited for the movie "Airplane" and its countless descendants, but they just don't do that, since they clearly know what this show is about and how it works.
Now that shows such as Family Guy and Scrubs and Ally McBeal have trained the audiences to handle fantasy cutscenes (in the spirit of the book "Everything Bad is Good for You"), shows that don't have them but are limited to linear acting seem almost boring in comparison. Perhaps in ten years, constant fantasy cutscenes are standard fare of every show, making the current shows look as slow, one-dimensional and boring as, say, actual sitcoms from the 1970's look like next to "That 70's Show".
Last summer, since everything was reruns anyways me and my wife started watching Family Guy, since we had never watched that particular show before that because we had no idea how good it was. This summer we'll certainly do the same with the show Scrubs, another show that we never watched but now that we have seen a few episodes, has turned out to be so great that it annoys me to think that I have missed this gem.
In fact, structurally Scrubs very much resembles Family Guy with its fantasy cutscenes. One aspect that is much better in Scrubs when compared to Family Guy is that its writers have kept their eye on the first rule of writing farce: don't overdo it, but keep the whole thing as serious and close to reality as possible to better emphasize the actual farcical parts, because once it has been established that there are no rules but complete anarchy so that anything can happen, then nothing can actually happen. The ten or so episodes that we have seen so far have been from various seasons, and the show doesn't seem to have jumped the shark even during its fifth season, but has remained remarkably consistent. There are so many places where the writers could have made inane jokes better suited for the movie "Airplane" and its countless descendants, but they just don't do that, since they clearly know what this show is about and how it works.
Now that shows such as Family Guy and Scrubs and Ally McBeal have trained the audiences to handle fantasy cutscenes (in the spirit of the book "Everything Bad is Good for You"), shows that don't have them but are limited to linear acting seem almost boring in comparison. Perhaps in ten years, constant fantasy cutscenes are standard fare of every show, making the current shows look as slow, one-dimensional and boring as, say, actual sitcoms from the 1970's look like next to "That 70's Show".
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