(Roughly) Daily

If you’ve found yourself watching hours and hours of “comfort food” TV during the COVID-19 outbreak, you’re not alone. CableTV.com recently conducted a survey of nearly 7,000 housebound viewers and found that they’re spending a lot of time with old friends—capital “F” Friends, to be exact….

While we fully expected beloved 1994–2004 comedy Friends to top the list, we were blindsided by second-place winner Rick and Morty. The animated series’s existential nihilism couldn’t be more of a contrast to the warm fuzzies of Friends. You’re obviously going through some stuff, America…

The full breakdown, state by state (and a larger version of the map above) at: “What the US Is watching during COVID-19.”

* Dan Harmon, co-creator of Rick and Morty (and creator of Community)

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As we shelter in (very different) places, we might send sympathetic birthday greetings to Theodore Martin (Ted) McGinley; he was born on this date in 1958.  An actor with a long and successful career on American television, he has become the “victim” of a Hollywood legend that has deemed him “the showkiller.”

After having popped up on a few long-running shows in their waning months/years (Happy Days being the most prominent, but there was also The Love Boat and Dynasty), McGinley began to be known via tongue-in-cheek observations as the greatest show-killer of all time.

Indeed, McGinley has been called “the patron saint of shark-jumping” by jumptheshark.com founder Jon Hein.

Does the evidence bear this out? …Not entirely. Both Happy Days and The Love Boat lasted about 60 episodes once McGinley was cast. Even by the old longer-seasons standards of TV, that’s a lot of episodes. Married…With Children lasted eight years and 167 episodes from the point that McGinley was cast as Marcy’s second husband, which by all rights should have put the show-killer thing to rest forever. And can we really blame McGinley for Sports Night being the brilliant-but-cancelled brief gem that it was? (Though I suppose the Ted McGinley Show-Killer thing isn’t about blame as much as it is about cosmic justice.) But if even a nondescript sitcom like Hope & Faith can last for 73 episodes past the Curse of McGinley settling on their doorstep, maybe we can call the show-killer thing debunked?

Except … the legend is more fun, isn’t it? [quoted material: source]

McGinley himself has a very good sense of humor about it all, and has made fun of the legend surrounding him in appearances on Married… With Children and Cartoon Network’s Batman: The Brave and the Bold (where he was re-teamed with Happy Days co-star Henry Winkler)

McGinley (left) with Henry Winkler and Anson Williams on Happy Days

source