TV's Funniest

I was just watching a program showing the 30 funniest moments from the last 60 years on TV. It was good to see some of the clips again - Tim Conway as the clumsy dentist and Harvey Korman as his patient. I remember watching the Carol Burnett Show and hoping to see Tim and Harvey together in a skit. Tim always managed to break up Harvey. Another great scene was their spoof of GONE WITH THE WIND, which they called WENT WITH THE WIND. Carol as Scarlett O'Hara makes a dress from the draperies. The line was priceless, "Thank you, I saw it in a window and just had to have it."

There were other good clips, some which I saw when they originally aired. Bob Newhart made a great happy drunk ordering food. Who can forget when Sammy Davis, Jr. appeared on All in the Family and kissed Archie? Or when Raymond's parents backed their car into the house.

Some of my favorites were missing though. There was one time on the Carol Burnett Show when Tim Conway played a young man who was allergic to cats and went to the doctor for treatment. After receiving a shot to build resistance to the allergans, Tim took on the mannerisms of a cat - washing his face with his hand, jumping on furniture, etc.

Tonight's show said that a Chris Rock routine was the funniest. My vote would go to the Bob Newhart Show's final episode. This is the series where Bob is the owner of an inn in Vermont. In the final episode, he wakes up from a dream and tells his wife Emily (from the first series in Chicago) about the weird dream he just had about the characters from Vermont.

I think I watch too much television.

Old Television

This is fundraising month at PBS. I must admit that I rarely watch PB S except for "AS TIME GOES BY" on Saturday night.

Tonight while surfing the channels I found a program on Victor Borge. What a great entertainer, both classical pianist and comedian. Watching some of his routines, I found myself sitting alone in the house and laughing out loud, even though I saw many of them before. I particularly enjoyed his inflation language. Instead of things being "wonderful", they were "twoderful", "create" became "crenine", etc. His talent as a pianist came through when he would play "Happy Birthday" in the manner of various composers - Verdi, Beethoven, Brahms, etc. What a fun hour.

Now Bob Newhart is on. Time for more good times. I still have a copy of his album, "The Button Down Mind of Bob Newhart", and of course, his two series were great. More on Bob later.