The last two times The Doctor has regenerated, it has happened in a Christmas special. “The End of Time” was a two-parter, but it started at Christmas, and “The Time of The Doctor” gave The Eleventh Doctor his swan song in a town called Christmas on the planet of Trenzalore.
For five years, Chuck was a show that was perpetually on the bubble at NBC that stayed on air through the sheer force of will from its fans.
He comes shrouded in myth, a shadow lurking at the edges of your imagination. To most of the world, he doesn’t even exist; only a small subset of the superstitious believe in him, and even they might have their doubts. Yet they are careful, modulating their behavior, looking over their shoulders, wondering, worrying. He sees you when you’re sleeping.
Seinfeld’s “The Race” may not be one of those classic episodes that everyone thinks of when mentioning the classic sitcom, but it’s still a great episode (though, in truth, there really weren’t many bad episodes in the series 9 year run).
In the ever-increasing list of iconic television portrayals that were not rewarded with an Emmy, Hugh Laurie’s performance as Dr. Gregory House may be on the top of my list. Laurie’s performance is incredible when taken on its own, but those familiar with his work in things like Jeeves and Wooster, Stuart Little, 101 Dalmatians and a wide array of British television shows will appreciate just how much of a departure David Shore’s show was from his usual high-pitched, bumbling characters.
The Librarians (2014-ongoing) is a wonderfully cheesy show that believes in itself so much that the audience can’t help but be pulled along with it. The show was created out of a made-for-tv movie first broadcast on Turner Network Television in 2004 and developed by David Titcher called The Librarian: Quest for the Spear (2004).
“Marge Be Not Proud” is widely considered by fans to be the last (and in some cases, only) classic Christmas episode from the show’s run. “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire” will be always held up as a standard bearer, but its roughness has just as many detractors; “Miracle on Evergreen Terrace” and “Grift of the Magi” were signs of bad things to come.
The stories you have heard about the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special. This made-for-TV movie has built its own legend over time, mostly because it was shown once and was deemed so bad it was buried and largely destroyed. The only prints now seem to have been recorded by early home VHS recorders and later digitized and uploaded for anyone to find, much to George Lucas’ chagrin I’m sure.
The rule of thumb that people should keep in mind when it comes to sitcoms is that very rarely do they arrived fully formed and firing on all cylinders.
Trying to describe the insanity of Rick and Morty is nearly an impossible task. Created by Justin Roiland alongside Dan Harmon during his year in the wilderness that was season 4 of Community, imagine if Doc Brown was a drunk intergalactic war criminal who only has the tiniest flicker of a conscience, Marty was his awkward teenage grandson who constantly gets dragged into dangerous missions across the cosmos and multiple dimensions alongside his older sister and constantly fighting parents.