Cinema Tuesdays Review

Come and Knock on Our Door, and Thank You for Being a Friend
By Nathan Cone

Friends, I'll admit I'm a bit behind the pop culture curve when it comes to TV on DVD. While others have been raving about watching hour after hour of "24" on DVD, I have been content to catch "The Simpsons" in reruns. After all, what are reruns for, if only to enjoy those old shows again? With Nick at Nite in a serious downhill slide, airing episode after episode of "Roseanne" and -- ugh -- "Full House," I finally took the plunge this month and began scheduling my own reruns. But did I start with the hot discs now, like "Seinfeld," or Comedy Central's "Chappelle's Show," or HBO's "Deadwood," or "The Sopranos?" No.

Instead, while panning for DVD gold in the $5.50 bin at Wal-Mart, I came across the single-disc edition of "Three's Company Season One." From 1977 to 1984, Jack, Janet, and Chrissy, and then Cindy, and then Terri, enacted basically the same episode over and over again, and audiences ate it up. The plots always involved a misunderstanding of some sort, and as the seasons wore on, the amount of physical punishment Jack Tripper (John Ritter) took living up to his last name increased. Season One, only six episodes long because of its status as a mid-season replacement for ABC, is light entertainment, and lives up to the Lucille Ball blurb on the back cover of the disc: "[Three's Company] didn't set out to change the world. It just made us laugh and that is why we love it."

Most of the humor in the show holds up, although it is kind of cringe inducing to hear Mr. Roper (Normal Fell) constantly refer to Jack as "Tinkerbell," and Jack's tongue hangs further from his mouth in front of Chrissy than it would in subsequent seasons. There are no extras on the disc, and the video source is a bit washed out, but for such a price, who's complaining?

I've also been working my way through the 26 episodes of "The Golden Girls Season Two," which for some may be cringe inducing in and of itself. But if you can believe it, I actually watched the show as a teenager in the 1980s, and enjoyed it then.

A show like "The Golden Girls" probably would not make it onto the air today. Many sitcoms now feature the stock character of the crotchety or colorful mom or dad living with or near one of their kids ("Frasier," "The King of Queens," etc.), but for the daughter and her roommates to all be pushing retirement age themselves is decidedly too un-hip for today's general audience. Plus, the show's occasional maudlin sentimentality might be a bit too saccharine for this Age of Irony. But strong characters are what make a good show, regardless of their age, and "The Golden Girls" had four good ones. There was Blanche (Rue McClanahan), the oversexed southern belle, Rose (Betty White), the dim-witted but lovable one, Dorothy (Beatrice Arthur), the sometimes grumpy one, and Sophia (Estelle Getty), Dorothy's Sicilian mother, who's always going on about some story from the old country.

In Season Two of "The Golden Girls," we find the four friends dealing with Dorothy's ex-husband Stan, a disastrous vacation, a washed-up womanizing actor who seduces three of the four ladies, and, of course, that perennial sitcom staple, a baby (but only for one episode, as sitters). Throughout the series, the four actresses' comedic skills are well presented. Beatrice Arthur has some of the best reaction shots as Dorothy, and the key to making Blanche and Rose work is to play the characters absolutely straight, which McClanahan and White do. Estelle Getty's Sophia can be a little too much sometimes, but then I guess her daughter Dorothy thought that way, too. A few of the episodes on this three disc set fall flat, but thanks to the DVD format, I can come back and watch the good ones again and avoid the clunkers -- and the commercials!

One thing "Three's Company" has up on "The Golden Girls" is its fashion sense. We're dealing with two shows from equally hideous times, fashion-wise: the late 1970s and the mid to late 1980s. While both of the programs' wardrobes haven't held up well, I'll take a wide-lapel suit or a tight earth-toned sweater any day over some of the outfits worn by the Golden Girls, who probably stocked more shoulder pads at their Florida home than the Miami Dolphins.

They may not be as edgy as some of today's sitcoms, but both "Three's Company" and "The Golden Girls" deliver some nice laughs. Without finding them readily available on the air, it's nice to have shows like this available at home. I'm beginning to enjoy TV on DVD. Time to get back to shopping for more! For me, it's next stop, "The Twilight Zone…"

5/18/05

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