TVSquad

Television has often been a benchmark of current popular culture. Whether it's clothes, cars or furniture, people have always looked to TV to help them decide how to look and how to live. Here are ten great examples of how TV characters have "helped" us look our best.

Daisy Duke's Daisy Dukes (The Dukes of Hazzard)
No one knew it at the time, but when Catherine Bach slipped on those ultra-short denims, she was making an impression on more than the teenage boys who were watching. Years later, a brand new and very different generation embraced the Daisy Dukes, much to the delight of those teenage boys who were now old enough to know better.

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....

A roundup of TV people from in front of the camera and behind the scenes who have passed away.

• Gloria Cromwell: She appeared in a number of TV shows over the years, including Kate & Allie (she played Janet, their landlord), Ryan's Hope, Murder, She Wrote, Moonlighting, Hill Street Blues, The Golden Girls, Hunter, Cop Rock, Designing Women, Coach, L.A. Law, and many others. She was also in many films, including Say Anything, The Odd Couple: Together Again, The War of the Roses, and The Parent Trap II. She died on March 3 (age unknown).

Reunions are hot, you know? On February 12, for example, Oprah reunited (most of) the kids from The Cosby Show, with Bill appearing via satellite. Well, never one to let a good idea go to waste, NBC jumped on the theme. They recently had a Family Ties reunion on Today, so now the morning show is commencing tomorrow with a series of more "Together Again" features. Tune into 8:00 a.m. hour each day so you don't miss a thing!

What's going on at the other TV blogs via the internets.

• Kiefer Sutherland won't wear headphones.
• Which Happy Days episode was worse, jumping the shark or riding the bull?
• CNN: "the most trusted name in best political teams."
• Tom Bergeron is going to has a new show called Supper Club, where he will host a dinner party at the home of Universal Studios head Ron Meyer and talk about the environment. Huh?
• Microsoft might buy Yahoo, but Yahoo is definitely buying Maven, which does video for several sites, including CBS Sports and FOX News.
• Are you ready for Food Network: The Magazine?
• Letterman's writers might be back to work, but the strike blog goes on.

It looks like the "Bronze the Fonz" campaign worked. The archetypical Happy Days character will be getting his own bronze statue in the city where the T.V. show was set.

This isn't the first time a television character has gotten a statue. I live near New York City and I walk past the Ralph Kramden statue every time I take the bus. The cable channel TV Land has arranged for a half-dozen statues to be placed across America. TV Land is co-sponsoring the Fonzie statue as well.

What's happening on other blogs via the interweb.

• Who would win in a fight between Captain Kirk and The Fonz?
• A quiz: Is it from Shakespeare or The Hills?
• Everything's better on the set of Grey's Anatomy this season.
• In the Huffington Post's video round-up, Meredith Vieira tries extreme sports, Gordon Ramsay gets into an argument with a restaurant patron in New Jersey, and Tila Tequila gives a grandmother a lapdance.
• Which Wisteria Lane character is going to die tonight?
• The writers from The Late Show with David Letterman are keeping a funny blog during the strike.
• That interview that Bill O'Reilly did with ALF the other night was incredibly lame.

Right away this list from Burbia.com of the 12 Top TV shows based around the suburbs doesn't make any sense. Sorry, any show that doesn't include The Dick Van Dyke Show just doesn't know what it's talking about. It was the show that epitomized the suburbs in the early 60s, but it doesn't even get a mention on this list.

Instead we get recent shows like The Sopranos, Weeds, and The Simpsons. They might even be good choices, but whenever a list leaves out a show that is so obvious the entire thing becomes suspect. They did include some classic shows on the list, including Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (and some that didn't make the list but are mentioned anyway, like Mr. Ed), but I have to ask: since when is Milwaukee (Happy Days) a suburb? Wasn't My Favorite Martian set in L.A.? And I wouldn't really call Beverly Hills (The Beverly Hillbillies) a suburb either.

What other shows should have been on this list?

TV Land isn't making statues of their TV characters any longer (after everyone from Mary Richards to Dr. Bob Hartley were made into statues and put in various cities around the country), but that isn't stopping a group in Milwaukee from raising money to make a statue of The Fonz for their city. And they have the permission of Viacom to do it.

Vist Milwaukee and others have raised $57,000 of the $85,000 needed to make a statue of Arthur Fonzarelli for the city. Artist Gerald Sawyer says it's going to be one of the Fonz's classic poses, so I'm guessing he'll be standing and giving a "thumbs up" sign. (Please don't let it be of him in a leather jacket and swim trucks on water skis...). It won't be of him on a Triumph motorcycle as in the show, because Milwaukee is the home of Harley-Davidson!

The statue will be placed near the Chase Plaza office tower.

Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.

• 60 Minutes - Here Come The Millenials
• Futurama - Bender's Big Score
• Happy Days - Season 3 and Seasons 1-3 set
• The Land Before Time - Good Times and Good Friends
• Laverne & Shirley - Season 3
• The Man From U.N.C.L.E. - Complete Series
• Mork & Mindy - Season 3
• Naruto - Vol. 18
• The O.C. - Complete Series
• Power Rangers - Operation Overdrive: Vol. 3, Blue Sapphire

(S03E10) "Dr. Pronto to reception please." - Nurse

The simple decision to recap last week's episode in such a comically dramatic style is one of the things that sets My Name is Earl apart from other sitcoms.

After watching Catalina's scene with Joy's children, I now understand why they have so little screen time. They are bad actors. While I give the show credit for using kids who actually look like their parents, I feel that these kids could easily fall into the DJ Conner trap where their continuing lack of cuteness reveals their lack of talent. As a side note, seeing Catalina with those kids really made it difficult for me to enjoy her scenes in my usual way. Hey, I'm a creep not a criminal.

For whatever reason, the name Chuck has turned out to be very popular this year. On TV, Pushing Daisies has a major character named Chuck and, of course, there's the new series Chuck. in the theaters, Chuck and Larry were happily married and Dane Cook was a Chuck with extraordinary luck. All these Chuck's got me thinking (not to mention craving a hamburger) some of the greatest people on television have been named Chuck. Here are a few.

Chuck Cunningham (Happy Days)
When the Cunningham family first made their appearance, Chuck was clearly the funniest part of the family. Unfortunately as the show progressed, it became clear that there simply wasn't enough room for Chuck in the house or on the series. Chuck Cunningham lives on, however, as the most famous forgotten character of all time.

This very important anniversary was actually a week ago today but I just realized it this morning as I was eating my Happy Days cereal and wearing my Fonz pajamas and Ralph Malph slippers.

September 20th marked the 30th Anniversary of the day Arthur Fonzarelli (aka "Fonzie," aka "The Fonz") put on his leather jacket and a pair of water skis and jumped over a cage filled with stock footage of a man eating shark. Of course, we know that the famous episode launched a very successful catch phrase and web site called "What choo talkin' bout Willis?"

After the jump, a video of that classic TV moment. I haven't seen an episode of Happy Days in years, but it was probably well on its way to getting away from the original intent of the show before this. But yeah, this scene is even more ridiculous than you remember it.

[via LAObserved.com]

Well, I don't know how it is in the rest of the country but the summer is in full swing here in Los Angeles. It's really hot here and the pool is filled with people every day. The biggest indicator, however, is the arrival of the summer reality series.

Hell's Kitchen, American Inventor and the most insidious of the summer shows, Big Brother. I look forward to the premiere of BB the same way that kids look forward to the last day of school. I revel in the voyeuristic thrill that comes from seeing complete strangers behave in the most ridiculous manner.

Scott Baio has a new reality show coming to VH-1 called Scott Baio Is 45...and Single. The only problem is, Scott Baio isn't really single. This story says that the former Happy Days actor is actually in a long-term relationship with former Playboy Playmate Renee Sloan.

Baio has supposedly been dating Sloan for a couple of years, including during the filming of the reality show. Sloan also used to be Pam Anderson's stunt double on Baywatch. Baio dated Anderson too. It all gets kinda tricky. Was Sloane Anderson's stunt double in her private life too?