TV Nostalgia

Since I have recently become reacquainted with some of the shows I used to love, I decided to make a list of some of the old sitcom standards I used to absolutely eat up: 1. The clueless character from a nutty town Sure, not-so-bright or spacy characters are still found all over television (as in Joey from "Friends"), but they don't seem to come from strange towns with their own bizarre sets of norms and customs anymore. Remember Woody Boyd from Hanover, Indiana on "Cheers"? The place that once voted Woody the "smartest student"? And, of course, Rose Nylund from St. Olaf, Minnesota? Does anyone else remember the episode where Blanche discovers Rose's St. Olaf war bonds and wants to cash them in? Rose pleads with her not to do it because it will bankrupt the town, and just as Blanche shreds the bonds, Rose tells her that St. Olaf is so grateful to Blanche that they're going to put a statue of her in the town square with money from the $500,000 emergency statue fund. Pure comedy. 2. The cross-over / spin off The women of "Golden Girls" lived down the street from Dr. Harry Weston of "Empty Nest." Sophia even kept Dr. Weston's dog when he was away. And, then, the hospital where Dr. Weston worked became the setting of "Nurses" and at one point starred a recently divorced Loni Anderson. "Growing Pains" spawned "Just the Ten of Us" by introducing Coach Lubbock. (I used to make my friends play "Just the Ten of Us" all the time with each of us choosing a character from the 4 older girls, Connie, Wendy, Cindy, and Marie.) "Who's the Boss?" gave us a young Leah Remini who moved to New York for "Living Dolls." "Diff'rent Strokes" gave us "The Facts of Life." Not since a hunky carpenter named Jake went from building a platform over the pool for Jackie Taylor's wedding to Mel Silver to living in an apartment building called "Melrose Place" have we truly seen a great spin-off. (This seems to keep coming up, but I prefer my spin-offs cheesy. I leave "Frasier" off my list, and for completely separate reasons, I'm also leaving "Joey" untouched.) 3. The over-sexed one I guess that a product of the openness of the 90's means that we can no longer have the truly over-sexed character. Remember when female characters were expected to be virgins when they got married? Tootie on "The Facts of Life"? Denise from "The Cosby Show"? And, the spectrum allowed its opposite: Mona of "Who's the Boss?" (whose constant cracks about Angela being flat used to amuse me to no end), the indomitable Blanche Devereaux, and Sue Anne Nivens of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," among others. Anyway, I just wanted to take a little walk down memory lane. Every time I accidentally end up watching something like "Four Kings" or "Home Improvement," I can't help but wish for the good old days.