*toilet flush* *hooting from studio audience* It's The Vintage FOX Network Thread

[BUTT]

I used to watch Drexell's Class after the Simpsons. The thing I remember was that the older daughter (played by A.J. Langer of My So-Called Life - Brittany Murphy played her sister) had a boyfriend who was a longhaired guitarist named Slash. When I learned that GNR's lead guitarist was named Slash, I was confused as to who had the idea first. I was six, OK? Interestingly, the actor who played Slash, Phil Buckman (who also had a recurring role in that dead fourth season of Boston Public btw) was apparently the bass player for Fuel at some point in the last decade or so.

EDIT: He was also in Filter wtf

 

[BruiserBrody]

2010 isn't vintage for a lot of people ITT but @BUTT talking about the last season of Boston Public reminded me of the last season of 'Til Death. FOX only renewed that show so it could limp into syndication so the last season went completely bonkers and meta. Barely anyone watched/cared about the show from the start so they had a different actress play Brad Garrett and Joely Fisher's daughter every season (including Krysten Ritter and Kate Micucci at one point) so the big crux of Season 4 was the actor playing her husband having an existential crisis about being trapped in a sitcom that no one watched.

Of course, this was one of those shows that took place in that weird 5 or so year, post DVD, pre Hulu/Netflix era so it's not really anywhere to verify that this wasn't a fever dream. And no one watched the show so I can't find any YouTube clips. But I swear it happened and there was Brad Garrett inexplicably doing his Jackie Gleason impression and an even more inexplicable guest appearance from the cast of Blossom (minus Joey Lawrence) .

I watched at least some of Til Death. I wonder if someone on TSM at the time alerted us to the odd turn of the last season and thus I sought it out?

 

[King Kamala]

I feel like I posted about Season 4 of 'Til Death at the time. Another weird aspect that I forgot to mention is that they shelved about half of Season 3 and aired them at the same time of Season 4 so the weird meta episodes aired alongside and alternated between cliche wacky sitcom episodes with JB Smoove as the zany neighbor.

Reading the Wikipedia, they burned off four straight new episodes of the show on Christmas Night 2009 and two more against Super Bowl XLIV so they weren't even pretending that they weren't just airing these shows to get it to syndication.

 

[Mickey Massuco]

I’m surprised there hasn’t been much mention of the king of the hill. Most underrated show of the 90s maybe

 

[treble]

I remember reading this article around when it was posted in 2010. I didn't watch any of the show, though.

 

[King Kamala]

I’m surprised there hasn’t been much mention of the king of the hill. Most underrated show of the 90s maybe

KOTH might have aged the best of any of the Animation Domination shows. King of the Hill was a surprise hit in Season 1 but for the most part, I feel it's been way way more appreciated in retrospect than it was when it aired. I feel like syndication treated it better than FOX Network did after the first season or two.

It was usually buried in the 7 or 7:30 PM on Sundays timeslot that constantly got preempted by NFL on FOX. And it always seemed like Family Guy (back when the internet loved it), Futurama. and even maybe American Dad! at the end got more internet buzz. I don't think people truly appreciated what a great show it was until the last five years or so. Equal opportunity offender isn't quite the right term since it wasn't like South Park or even Family Guy levels edgy and it was never the type of show that hit you over the head (which is maybe why it never got a lot of buzz) but it managed to take jabs at people from all across life's spectrum and still seem good humored.

 

[Mickey Massuco]

Dale is Alex Jones without any influence, and his character pretty much foretold the last ten years of political discourse in America.

 

[King Kamala]

I feel like there's a decent to good argument to be made that King of the Hill is the best show out of Animation Domination lineup. It never reached soaring heights of Season 3 to 8 The Simpsons but Idk if it ever jumped the shark. I could buy taking 13 very solid seasons of KOTH over 6 or 7 spectacular, 3 or 4 pretty good but flawed, and 20+ mediocre to poor seasons of Simpsons.

 

[Brocklock]

I binged through the whole show around a year ago and I loved it. It didn't really jump the shark, but there was a little decline once they added the new character voiced by Tom Petty. Mike Judge and Greg Daniels didn't have as much involvement with the last 3 or 4 seasons and you could tell a little.

But, since there are like double the amount of bad seasons of The Simpsons to the good ones at this point, King Of The Hill is the better show overall. Obviously Simpsons Season 3 to 8 is the best thing associated with Fox's Animation Domination, but if I had to sit and watch an entire show it would be King Of The Hill.

And probably not a popular opinion round these parts, but I think the highs of South Park might of made me laugh more than KOTH. But, 90% of South Park has aged like milk so KOTH is the better show there as well.

 

[King Kamala]

I feel like KOTH did occasionally do stunt casting to try and prevent itself from getting canceled but the Tom Petty character, while definitely not the best on the show, didn't seem too forced. And I mean if you're really going to stunt cast and play for ratings. You'd cast Tom DeLonge as Luann's husband and not like a fiftysomething Tom Petty.

 

[Laz]

KOTH and Futurama have both aged like fine wine, really. Hank Hill is the best TV dad ever, too.

 

[strummer]

I binged through the whole show around a year ago and I loved it. It didn't really jump the shark, but there was a little decline once they added the new character voiced by Tom Petty. Mike Judge and Greg Daniels didn't have as much involvement with the last 3 or 4 seasons and you could tell a little.

But, since there are like double the amount of bad seasons of The Simpsons to the good ones at this point, King Of The Hill is the better show overall. Obviously Simpsons Season 3 to 8 is the best thing associated with Fox's Animation Domination, but if I had to sit and watch an entire show it would be King Of The Hill.

And probably not a popular opinion round these parts, but I think the highs of South Park might of made me laugh more than KOTH. But, 90% of South Park has aged like milk so KOTH is the better show there as well.

I don't think any show has made me laugh as consistently hard as South Park but with all the problematic stuff in retrospect it's tough to rank it for me now

 

[King Kamala]

Listening to my favorite TV history podcast and host constantly brings up the fact that Married...with Children was the runt of the inaugural FOX lineup and everyone thought the breakout hit would be Mr. President (a sitcom starring George C. Scott (!!!) as POTUS and Conrad Bain as Chief of Staff) or Werewolf.

MWC being their breakout hit really defined FOX's direction for first 15 years or so. It's an interesting "What If?" to think about what if FOX's predictions were more accurate. Though, FOX's history seems defined by them not knowing what would be a hit or not even more so than the normal unpredictability of network programming. "HIS FATHER IS THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY!

 

[alkeiper]

George C. Scott was just miscast.

 

[King Kamala]

George C. Scott as POTUS sounds like potentially great idea for a series. George C. Scott as POTUS in a sitcom though....despite co-starring in Dr. Strangelove (and the film adaptation of "Man Getting Hit by Football"), "funny" is one of the last words I would use to describe him.

 

[BruiserBrody]

I don't think any show has made me laugh as consistently hard as South Park but with all the problematic stuff in retrospect it's tough to rank it for me now

How can something that is intentionally being offensive be "problematic" if the whole point is for the stuff to be problematic to make light of the bigots and whatnot?

/here comes the "Oh Reallys"

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

because there's a number of things they did that weren't them trying to be problematic but was just them being dumbfucks and they've even admitted it and made entire episodes around apologizing for it.

 

[Mickey Massuco]

That show kinda sucked, anyway.

 

[King Kamala]

South Park is directly responsible for a lot of the culture involving shitposting and edgelords that indirectly led to Trump. In this essay...

 

[BruiserBrody]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1448788411595345924

Did Ed O Neil have a bad agent or what? Seems odd that a sitcom about a Hooter crazed depressed life long loser wouldn't translate into a guy to headline a kids movie.
Dutch had a little edge to it, and John Hughes' backing, so that was a good fit.

Maybe the post 80s sex comedy well was too dry?

 

[Mickey Massuco]

that movie owns

 

[Epic Springs]

Yeah WTF Little Giants rules. Granted, I haven't watched it in years but remember it as a fun sports comedy.

 

[geniusMoment]

I never liked the South Park political stuff, but I still find the stand-alone episodes they used to do (haven't watched in years, but they seemed to transition into more of a season long story formula) funny. The stuff like making fun of Al Gore for climate change never struck me as funny. Same with the later Trump/Garrison stuff.

But, the more wacky stuff like Gerald and Randy jacking off in front of each other in a hot tub at a party, and how they both reacted throughout the party throughout the night, I still find funny.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

There's lots of very funny South Park stuff. The stuff mentioned as well as the stuff where the kids are just being kids (the ninja episode or them playing as super heroes) are good examples. The political stuff really doesn't hold up nearly as well if it ever worked. The Trump stuff was terrible. They finally admitted how wrong they were on several things including Climate Change and did a whole episode apologizing for it.

 

[BruiserBrody]

that movie owns

I don't recall not enjoying it 25 years ago or whatever, I was commenting mostly on Ed playing against type.

I did hate the trailer showing the kid's snot. I get queasy just thinking about it now.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Man, I forgot how big FOX was to the evolution of the teen drama series in the 1990s: Beverly Hills 90210 started in 1990 and Party of Five came in 1994.

 

[King Kamala]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1449100774617780234

'the heck is wrong with people? It sounds like she'll be OK. She's a tough lady, who has survived a lot (perhaps most grimly, singing back up vocals on Gene Simmons 1978 solo album).

 

[BruiserBrody]

Watching the Packers, I see Fox promos for the Masked Singer and whatever the CPU avatar show is called and think "This crap is on network TV?"
Then this popped up on my twitter feed:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1453882101414219784

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

Oh, wow, Andrea Elson, had a huge crush on her when she was on ALF.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Watching the Packers, I see Fox promos for the Masked Singer and whatever the CPU avatar show is called and think "This crap is on network TV?"
Then this popped up on my twitter feed:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1453882101414219784

To be fair to FOX, that was a primetime made-for-TV movie and they were struggling for anything that would be a prime-time hit at that point. Outside of Lifetime Movies, that is one thing I do really miss. Having special TV movies premiering on a CBS, NBC, FOX, etc. made them appointment viewing attractions back then. Now I feel like any of that stuff goes the way of Netflix, Amazon, etc.

Here's another example of FOX dropping a "broadcast premiere" of DIE HARD!