Welcome to a new Sitcom Tuesday and more of our second annual RERUN series, designed to give yours truly a chance to get further ahead in coverage of our last few ’90s comedies. Regular programming will resume next month, but in the meantime, I’m excited to resurrect and re-examine some of my favorite Sitcom posts from this blog’s nearly six-year run!
As with last year’s series (begun here), my intention is to provide a link to each original piece and then offer a tiny bit of updated commentary, either on episode picks I’d call differently now (like in my famous “Regrets” post) or on something broader, like evolving thoughts on the year/series as a whole. I’ve picked a few goodies, so I hope you’re as excited as I am about revisiting our favorites… But please be gentle! Many of the posts you’ll see were written a while ago. The standards here have changed as I’ve changed. (There are plenty of typos, juvenile “hot takes,” and places where more information would now be appreciated.)
This week, I’m rerunning… The Five Best RHODA Episodes of Season Five. Check it out here: http://jacksonupperco.com/2015/05/26/the-five-best-rhoda-episodes-of-season-five/
Last week I reran a post that I had updated in September 2017, and this week I’m doing the same. You see, I promised that when the final 13-episode season of Rhoda came out on DVD, I would revise my original 2015 entry to include some higher quality screen captures. So, honestly, one of the main reasons I’m choosing to highlight this year here is that I, again, want to draw attention to the new pictures that were added over a year ago. However, that’s not all… Just as with the third season of The New Dick Van Dyke Show, revisiting these posts has left me with a regret, and it’s the same one from last week: I think I chose the wrong MVE. And, as usual, I think it had to do with the expectations game. I’d waited for years to see this MTM spin-off’s brief final season, and all online discourse surrounding the year suggested that “Rhoda Vs. Ida,” the series’ 100th half-hour, was the strongest. When it wasn’t quite as good as I had hoped, I allowed myself to be impressed by an offering that was better than I expected, “Martin Swallows His Heart,” which many online guides incorrectly cite as having gone unbroadcast during the original CBS run; my research shows that it was actually the final episode screened on the network — in December 1978. Because it exceeded my expectations — with fun moments for Rhoda and movement in the serialized Ida/Martin arc — I selected it as my MVE. But if I were making the list today, I think I would go for “Rhoda Vs. Ida,” which is more character-driven, indeed funny, and a better examination of the series’ second most seminal relationship, the one between Rhoda and Ida… So, check out the post above again, and feel free to share your thoughts on the series and its trajectory in the comments below!
Come back next week for another Sitcom Tuesday rerun! And stay tuned tomorrow for a new Wildcard Wednesday!