My Most Memorable TV Episodes

I couldn’t sleep at 2:30 this morning, but that’s why I have a notepad in my nightstand. Inspired by the third episode of The Last of Us, I started to make a list of single TV episodes that I remember most. These shows all shocked me in one way or another, often resulting in my jaw on the ground.

If you haven’t seen them, I suggest you do. Most times, you don’t even have to watch the rest of the series. I’ve tried to avoid pilots and series finales, since they have their own special importance. Here are my most memorable, in chronological order.

“It May Look Like a Walnut” – The Dick Van Dyke Show 1963
“The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice” – Moonlighting 1985
“The Last of Newhart” – Newhart 1990
“Beyond Life and Death” – Twin Peaks 1991
“The Contest” – Seinfeld 1992
“Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose” – The X-Files 1995
“Hush” – Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 1999
“Two Cathedrals” – The West Wing 2001
“Objects in Space” – Firefly 2002
“Pilot” – Lost 2004
“33” – Battlestar Galactica 2004
“Slap Bet” – How I Met Your Mother 2006
“Blink” – Doctor Who 2007
“Pie-lette” – Pushing Daisies 2007
“The Getaway” – Dexter 2009
“Remedial Chaos Theory” – Community 2011
“The Rains of Castamere” – Game of Thrones 2013
“Michael’s Gambit” – The Good Place 2017
“Long, Long Time” – The Last of Us 2023

Happy New Year!

I don’t have any resolutions for 2023, but here’s my forecast for the new year…

This is what Heaven looks like.

In Heaven, you get your car washed, and it’s all for charity. This was a Slave Leia Splashdown charity car wash held in Los Angeles, with special appearance by a Playboy bunny in White Padme outfit.

My quest to listen to music that is not forty years old has failed again.

I hate Classic Rock. And then I look into the mirror that is iTunes and I discover…

…I AM CLASSIC ROCK!

God help me, I love you, Tarkus.

When Greg Lake asks, “Did you stand beside the spectral torch?” I scream YES and tears come to my eyes.

Even though I know that synthesizer at the end there sounds like a duck.

Best of Swearingen.

If you forget how awesome Deadwood is, watch this. NSFW. Includes the “C” word. No, not that one, the other one. Al Swearingen, you are THE MAN. This video starts with my favorite quote. PERIOD.

Thanks to Kindralas for this one.

Dr. Mario: the perfect drug.

Crime Scene: Scene of the Crime.

Kristen Bell was Veronica Mars. If you didn’t watch that show, go see all the episodes and come back. I’ll wait.

See? That’s why I love Kristen Bell. Even though she’s not tall and not brunette. She’s in a new movie called Forgetting Sarah Marshall. There’s a commercial for this movie that shows her for about 1 second. I didn’t recognize her.

Why? Because cute little Kristen is in a very tiny bikini. Mkae referred to this commercial as “the movie with Kristen Bell.” I said, “Which movie?” And then LWC realized that I didn’t recognize Kristen in the commercial because she was in a very tiny bikini and… well… I didn’t have time to look at her face. In Trouble again.

Anyway, there are several “viral” websites for this upcoming movie. One of them is about the TV show Crime Scene: Scene of the Crime on NBC. Sarah Marshall, played by Kristen Bell, plays Maddie Stark on this fictional show. There are short clips full of cliches and bad acting, along with several hair flips. Very funny.

For further reference, you can check out I <3 Sarah Marshall and I Hate Sarah Marshall. I don’t know if I’m even gonna see this movie, but I’m enjoying the websites. I guess I’m infected with “viral” marketing.

Niagara Falls! Slowly I turned…

If that headline sounds familiar to you, then you grew up with the Three Stooges just like I did. I heard Al Roker do this bit on Today, just an ad lib. It’s an old vaudeville routine, like many of the Stooges’ bits. Here’s a video of the whole deal, provided by the scholarly Mark Evanier. It’s funny and unforgettable, and I don’t know why.