Top Ten #61

1) One Day at a Time: The revival of the 1970s/1980s sitcom scored decent ratings in its return on Pop TV, and Pluto TV launched a tribute channel devoted to the original.  Of course, every time I turn it there, it's showing All in the Family, but I guess that's close enough.

2) Amerika: BOTNS investigated an unusual network promo and wound up digging into this 1987 multi-evening event.  That's right, "miniseries" is far too mundane a term for the ABC epic presentation:



3) The Facts of Life Down Under: And this was the movie that started the investigation.  I have to say, at first I laughed at the ad NBC ran to promote it, but if I had to watch this or 14 hours of Amerika today...




4) John Tesh: I can't tell you how thrilled I was when TESH was the answer in a crossword puzzle my girlfriend and I did recently.  I can't tell you because I am very ashamed.

5) Johnny Carson: Shout! Factory TV is touting that Carson reruns are coming in April, but there is already a lot of old Tonight Show on Prime Video, and it's big-time hacked up, but it's great.

6) The Muppet Show: Earlier this week, we looked at and were disappointed by a Vanity Fair website piece claiming to explain why the classic series is not on Disney Plus. It did not.

7) Alex Trebek: Remember the classic episode of Cheers (Season 8's What Is...Cliff Clavin) which features Cliff's spectacular performance on Jeopardy! I had vivid memories of Clavin's shenanigans but forgot how good Trebek was.  The whole thing is great.

8) Dianne Kay: Happy birthday to the former Nancy on Eight Is Enough, prominently featured in this promo campaign:



9) John Candelaria: This weekend I watched a compressed version of a May 1984 Pirates/Dodgers Game of the Week from Three BY GOD Rivers Stadium because why not? Vin and Joe were in the booth, luminaries like Steve Sax and Pedro Guerrero played for the Dodgers, and how about that immortal 1984 Bucco outfield: Joe Orsulak, Marvell Wynne, Doug Frobel!

But it was cool seeing tall lefty The Candy Man on the mound for the Pirates.

10) Quincy, M.E.: Yes! Another "new" Quincy promo is on YouTube! Nothing better to take my mind off world events than seeing a good one of these:





Oh, man. A virus? It had to be a virus episode?