TVSquad

(S01E01) In the first five minutes of this show, viewers are treated to a visual definition of the phrase "fish out of water."

I generally don't like any comedy that starts out with the the main character losing everything and starting her life all over again. In a drama, it kind of works that the hero has to go from town to town searching for something she lost. In a comedy, it just means that we'll be spending the next half hour watching the hero say things like, "What did I get myself into?"

As I sit in a converted dorm room at a college in Castine, Maine, waiting for either the start of my stand-up show or the sweet embrace of death to break up the monotony of my day, I find myself with gobs of time to explore some of the less-traveled corners of Wikipedia. After reading a 500 word analysis of what state Benson may have taken place in (really!), I moved on to the entry for "Jump the Shark." Gary Marshall is quoted there as admitting that even he felt a little weird watching Fonzie, leather jacket and all, jumping over that now mythic shark. He points out, however, that Happy Days remained a top-twenty hit for seven more years and produced more than 100 more episodes after it aired.

It occurred to me that had the internet existed in the 1970s, the backlash to the jumping the shark episode would have been immediate and crushing....

(S05E12) I can't help myself, I just need to blurt out tonight's winner: Doug Benson!

You almost thought I posted a pre-jump spoiler, didn't you? Admit it, you were sharpening your commenter fingers just ready to eviscerate me for ruining the show!

Well, I did no such thing. The only person who is ruining this show for you people is Bill Bellamy, and that's the way it's gonna stay!

Let's get on with the review...

Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.

• Benson - Season 1
• A Bit of Fry and Laurie - Seasons 3 and 4
• The Crow: Stairway to Heaven - Complete Series
• Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law - Vol. 3
• Isis - Complete Series
• Land of the Giants - Giant Collection
• Philip Marlowe, Private Eye - Season 1
• The Pink Panther Show - Vol. 6
• The Real McCoys - Season 1
• Spenser: For Hire - A Savage Place and Judas Goat
• Star Trek - Captain's Log Fan Collective
• Stargate SG-1 - Season 10
• Suspense - Lost Episodes, Vol. 1
• Tales From The Crypt - Season 6
• Underdog - Vols. 1-3
• Weeds - Season 2
• Woody Woodpecker - Classic Cartoon Collection
• X-Games - Best Of

A new weekly feature here at TV Squad, as we list some recent deaths of those involved with TV, on screen and behind the scenes.

• Roscoe Lee Browne: The veteran actor appeared in a number of TV shows, including All in the Family, Benson, Columbo, Mannix, The Invaders, Will and Grace, and a voice actor in cartoons. He was a classically trained film and theater actor as well. He died April 11 in L.A. of cancer at age 81.
  
• Stan Daniels: He co-created Taxi and won several Emmys for that show and his writing on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. He died of heart failure on April 6 at age 72.

Carey played Officer Carl Levitt on the classic sitcom Barney Miller (remember, James Gregory would always call him "Levine?"). He died Tuesday in Los Angeles after suffering a stroke.

Besides that role, Carey appeared in several other TV shows, including Benson, Alice, Lucky Luke, and the New Love American Style. He was in a bunch of movies too, including High Anxiety, Johnny Dangerously, History of the World, Part 1, Fatso, and The Out of Towners (the original). His last role was in the 1999 movie Food For Thought.

His real name was Ron Cicenia and he stood 5 feet 4 (hey, I'm only 5 feet 5, so it's always good to see other short guys become a success!).

Just the other day I was wondering what happened to Richard Stahl. He was so funny in so many character parts, and then he seemed to vanish. He had been battling Parkinson's Disease for the past ten years, and died last Sunday in Los Angeles.

Stahl was in tons of TV shows over the past 40 years, including All in the Famly, Columbo, Laverne and Shirley, Benson, Good Times, Maude, Bonanza, That Girl, Love, American Style, Happy Days, Soap, Barney Miller, The Facts of Life, the original Love Boat TV movie, and was a regular on the 80s sitcom It's A Living. I'll always remember him from several very funny appearances in The Odd Couple. He was also in several movies, including Five Easy Pieces, Billy Jack, and Slaughter House-Five.

(That's him on the right in the photo, being attacked by Son of Blob.)

Here's a piece of advice: don't ever, ever tune into TV Land on a Saturday when you don't have anything planned. If they're playing the right show, you'll get completely sucked in to the point where the sun will go down and you'll have never gotten out of your pajamas.

How do I know this? Because I've been watching the Benson marathon since about 10 AM, and have barely switched away from it since. I was going to pick up dry cleaning and go out for a nice lunch, maybe get some writing work done. But here it is, 5:00, and all I've done is laugh my ass off at one of my all-time favorite shows (one I haven't seen in many years). God, Kraus was funny. And Benson's insults towards her and Clayton were legendary, and... oh, crap. I need to go out for dinner tonight. Guess I'll actually need to leave the apartment...

Okay, so I wasn't as on top of this news as some people, but I was pleased to find out that Benson, one of my favorite shows to watch with my family growing up, is coming to TV LAND. Benson, as if it needs an introduction, was a spinoff of the popular series Soap and featured Robert Guillaume as a man hired to help out a widowed governor and his young daughter. Like his role on Soap, Benson stood as the only voice of reason among a throng of morons. If TV LAND keeps this up I may just hook my brainstem directly to the TV and live out the rest of my days in blissful nostalgia. Or at least until I get bored.