Baby, if you ever wondered..

Keeping up with current events is awful. I feel that it is still necessary to do even though it is painfully soul crushing. Late at night after everyone goes to bed, I find odd comfort in re-watching episodes of the sitcoms I grew up with on TV. For a long time, MeTV aired episodes of Taxi once a week some time around 3 AM. It's amazing how much of that show I remember. And some of the bits still made me laugh even though I knew the joke was coming.

What does a yellow light mean?
Slow down.
Whhhhaaaaaat doooooeeees a yeeellllow liiiiiight meeeaan?

Gets me every time. I'd argue the Louie DePalma is one of the best sitcom characters of all time. The episodes of Taxi were thrown in with some Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart and Get Smart. I'd throw one of those in too once every so often. As much as I loved the old Bob Newhart show when he was psychiatrist in Chicago (the theme some is my cell phone ringtone), the episodes don't seem to hold up that well. And then they suddenly stopped showing Taxi reruns.

But what absolutely thrilled me was when I found they were airing episodes of WKRP in Cincinnati. Some episodes I remember completely. And others I don't really remember at all. They are currently starting the 4th season and I hope the wrap around and start at the beginning in a few weeks. I remember a lot of WKRP too.

WKRP...more rock, and Les Nessman.


I think Mother Carlson might have been the inspiration for Montgomery Burns. She's fantastic. All the characters are fantastic. I actually stayed in Cincinnati once for a conference. The hotel was across the street from the fountain in the credits. I vaguely remember having the theme song on a 45 too (along with the them from The Greatest American Hero). What's weird is that I even remember some of the names for the credits. I'd guess that's from always watching the credits because the music to the closing theme is great and ends up with a cat's meow. I recently discovered a long running joke with the show I had missed. While the music and tune to the closing song are very memorable, I never picked up the lyrics. It was one of those songs that the words had a tune but were just kind of there. I thought the opening line was something like, "Head to the bartender something something up tonight." Never really gave it much thought. Turns out the lyrics were intentionally gibberish. This is my favorite interpretation of the closing song lyrics.



There are more. Another version uses "whack-a-mole" instead of this version's "wackamo." Anyhow, if you get MeTV they are airing WKRP weeknights at 9:30. It's a nice way to wind down the day.