My thoughts on The 100 Greatest TV Quotes and Catchphrases.

Everytime one of these lists comes out I usually list my ten honorable mentions, but this list featuring The 100 Greatest TV Quotes and Catchphrases fell short. I was very disappointed with the results. You may ask if there are sour grapes because I am never asked to contribute to the show? Damn right there are. Why not invite the CHILD OF TELEVISION to give his two cents, but I promise that my own personal bitterness will not affect my evaluation of this list.

#95 -- "This is the city ..." (Sgt. Joe Friday, "Dragnet") Where is "Just the facts"?

#93 -- "Resistance is futile" (Picard as Borg, "Star Trek: The Next Generation") is there but no Picard saying, "Make it so".

#92 -- "Oh, my nose!" (Marcia Brady, "The Brady Bunch") and #74 – "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!" (Jan, "The Brady Bunch") are there but how about "Mom always said, "don’t play ball in the house"" (Bobby Brady, "The Brady Bunch") "Oh, my nose!" should take a back seat to "Pork Chops and applesause" (Peter Brady, "The Brady Bunch")

#81 -- "Now cut that out!" (Jack Benny, "The Jack Benny Program") Where is "Well!"

#75 -- "I know nothing!" (Sgt. Schultz, "Hogan's Heroes") is there. Where is "Hogaaaaaan!" (Col. Klink, "Hogan's Heroes")

#61 -- "Say good night, Gracie" (George Burns, "The Burns & Allen Show") defiantly deserves to be there. My wife Donna and I owe a lot to the quote and Burns & Allen but, it should be mentioned this quote inspired "Say good night, Dick" (Dan Rowan "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In")

#52 -- "What you see is what you get!" (Geraldine, "The Flip Wilson Show"). Where is "The devil made me do it"?

#51 -- "Never assume ..." (Felix Unger, "The Odd Couple") Not nearly as memorable as Oscar! Oscar! Oscar!

#49 -- "You rang?" (Lurch, "The Addams Family") should tie with Darn! Darn! Darn! (Herman Munster, "The Munsters")

#40 -- "Stifle!" (Archie Bunker, "All in the Family") That is not the best of Archie Bunker. Where is "Meathead", "Dingbat", "Get out my chair" and some that I won’t quote here.

#39 -- "Would you believe?" (Maxwell Smart, "Get Smart") is list worthy as would be "Missed it by that much"

#38 -- "Sock it to me" ("Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In") helped Nixon get elected, but where is Dan Rowan’s "You bet your sweet bippie"

#34 -- "You've got spunk ..." (Lou Grant, "The Mary Tyler Moore Show") Why arn’t there more quotes from this show? Where is Chuckles the Clown quote "A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down your pants." Or the Ted Baxter sign off "Good day and may the good news be yours"?

#29 -- "Norm!" ("Cheers") There are several web sites that claim to have the best Norm quotes from Cheers. Here are three:

"What's new Normie?"
"Terrorists, Sam. They've taken over my stomach & they're demanding beer."

"Hey Norm, how's the world been treating you?"
"Like a baby treats a diaper."

"Hey Mr. Peterson, there's a cold one waiting for you."
"I know, if she calls, I'm not here."

#22 -- "Live long and prosper" (Spock, "Star Trek") would be complemented nicely with Dr. McCoy’s "He’s dead Jim".

#11 -- "Aaay" (Fonzie, "Happy Days") but no "Sit on it" or Mrs. C referring to Mr. C as "Frisky"

I think all the commercial quotes #59 -- "Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids" (Trix cereal ad), #50 -- "Tastes great! Less filling!" (Miller Lite beer ad), #31 -- "It keeps going and going and going ...", (Energizer Batteries ad)#30 -- "It takes a licking ..." (Timex ad), #25 -- "Whassup?" (Budweiser ad) and #7 -- "Where's the beef?" (Wendy's ad), should be on a separate list.

"Hi Bob" from "The Bob Newhart Show" should be in the list after all it started a popular drinking game. Speaking of Bobs who didn’t make the list here are two quotes, Buffalo Bob Smith would begin every episode of Howdy Doody by saying to the camera, "Hey kids what time is it?" and the Peanut Gallery would shout, "It's Howdy Doody Time".

Finally there are a lot of quotes from Saturday night live:
#99 -- "Yeah, that's the ticket" (Jon Lovitz as the pathological liar, "Saturday Night Live")
#70 -- "Schwing!" (Mike Myers and Dana Carvey as Wayne and Garth, "Saturday Night Live")
#43 -- "You look mahvelous!" (Billy Crystal as Fernando, "Saturday Night Live")
#36 -- "Well, isn't that special?" (Dana Carvey as the Church Lady, "Saturday Night Live")
#23 -- "Jane, you ignorant slut" (Dan Aykroyd to Jane Curtin, "Saturday Night Live")
#13 -- "We are two wild and crazy guys!" (Steve Martin and Dan Aykroyd as Czech playboys, "Saturday Night Live")

And they did not include "I’m Chevy Chase and you’re not". I need John Belushi’s help to end this blog entry. They could have had a great list, "But nooooooooooo!"

Stay Tuned or should I say, "Good night and have a pleasant tomorrow"


Tony Figueroa