It's always a bitch to write the obligatory Christmas episodes. They're just variations on the same four themes. So for ALMOST PERFECT we did a Christmas episode that ignored the holiday. There are Christmas decorations everywhere but they have nothing really to do with the story. Here, for the first time, is that episode. Ho ho ho.
23 comments :
Friday questions: Are Christmas episodes required by the network officially or unofficially?
Friends did a Hanukkah story since Ross was obviously Jewish and Monica was written to be Jewish.
I like the inside "joke" of the CHEERS theme playing as Kim picked up the phone Mike called from the pay phone.
Should have been.... picked up the phone when Mike called...
Wait a second, are you trying to imply that just because my office is decorated as if Santa exploded, everything that goes on this week does not have revolve around Christmas and that we're not obligated to even talk about Christmas if we don't want to? That's going to take a while to wrap my head around...
Granted, I'm the guy in the office who when confronted with a "Merry Christmas" greeting replies with "Happy Groundhog Day." Then to clear up the confusion, I tell them that I can far more easily believe and celebrate that a rodent can predict the weather than I could believe and celebrate that a god would impregnate a woman so that she could give birth to him in human form. (And no, I don't go to many parties because I can't drink to excess and don't enjoy being around people who do.)
Elf, do you really have time to be posting here? After all, tomorrow is your busy night, stopping Christmas from coming to Who-ville.
Friday question: Kim Cooper is watching Cheers when Mike Ryan calls her. In the Almost Perfect universe, the writer Ken Levine who works on Cheers and is probably credited as a producer on the screen is the same guy who's now running their lives?
Good lord! I totally forgot I directed this. How the hell does that happen?!
Well crafted, good episode. Amazing how you were able to do so much in a short time, keeping us interested every minute.
Wonder if this series would have worked better if these people worked somewhere else, and not a TV show...say an internet start-up, or an ad agency. First, they feel like a sit com writing staff, not a TV cop drama group (particularly since they're all in the office), and the work place here doesn't function in a way that has them interact in any way, except to make jokes.
The jokes are good, the people running and writing the series are great, the actors are good, but the work place is flat. Even a newspaper like the LA Weekly would have been a better work place. Consider this constructive criticism. The writing here is better than 98% of what's on now.
I didn't see this show when it was first on Television (I was living in a different country), but after watching this episode and another one that popped up when it was over (the one with Marie Osmond), I LOVE it! I went to youtube and found another episode (The Wrap--in 3 parts). They were all hilarious and I would love to have the whole series on DVD. Have you heard anything about that possibility, or it showing up on Netflix? Wow, the writing, the characters, the actors were all great.
Wait a minute, the first line is Who wants to work over the Holiday week? That is a holiday reference. Snap!
I used to subscribe to ZIP.ca (Canadian version of Netflix) and I would always watch Christmas episodes of sitcoms. The majority of them were from the '60s. I guess they went out of fashion in the 70's and 80's (Except for M*A*S*H* of course).
Diane D.: I'd love to see ALMOST PERFECT on DVD, or even rerun on a cable channel. Unfortunately, because of the way CBS/Paramount, who own it, has handled the series, it appears to have dropped off the face of the earth. It hasn't been shown anywhere for some years now, and it's not included at all in CBS's catalogue of their currently available syndicated programming.
It was a good series, but it had its problems due to unfortunate meddling on the part of CBS. You may be interested in reading the following two posts by Ken about ALMOST PERFECT.
http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/2014/06/what-killed-our-series.html
http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/2014/06/what-killed-our-show-follow-up.html
The bearded guy reminds me of Johnny Fever.
@Elf: I don't think being a lightweight has anything to do with why you aren't invited to many parties.
This perpetuates a myth that screwed me over when I went to Vegas to get married to my first wife. You CANNOT breeze in any old time and get a wedding license. The agency closes at five on Friday and is closed on weekends.
Thanks Gray! What an unfortunate story. In just the three episodes I saw, I fell in love with ALL of those characters.
Nice video Riskey christmas. I really enjoyed christmas episode of you and i love the characters and the way they played their role.
Cute-and not that you need the obvious re-stated, but better than most of what's on the tube today.
Funny with no lewd innuendo or giant boob jokes....
Cap'n Bob said...
"This perpetuates a myth that screwed me over when I went to Vegas to get married to my first wife. You CANNOT breeze in any old time and get a wedding license. The agency closes at five on Friday and is closed on weekends."
Maybe THE UNIVERSE was trying to tell you something.
Why was this show not a huge hit? Absolutely terrific!!
Nancy Travis is a bad actress
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