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This series is largely remembered for the stylish clothes Detectives Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs wore, the soundtrack, and its distinct visuals. But beneath the veneer is a surprisingly dark cop show. The cocaine boom of the 1980s framed many stories about drugs and murder, with Crockett and Tubbs often resorting to violence in the course of their work.
Former test pilot Sam Beckett finds himself trapped in time due to an experiment gone awry, leaping into the body of a different person each week. Al Calavicci, at first known only as The Observer, is Sam's holographic adviser -- he provides Sam with some details about his new identity and gives him guidance on how to help the people affected by his presence. But Al never gives Sam all the info he needs, forcing our hero to bluff his way through many a wacky situation.
An iconic 70s sitcom opening with the classic theme by Quincy Jones, Sanford and Son was the American version of the British sitcom Steptoe and Son. Red Foxx played the grouchy but lovable junkman Fred Sanford, who constantly threatened heart attacks whenever things did not go his way. Foxx was supported by an equally hilarious cast, including his long suffering son Lamont (Demond Wilson), arch-nemesis and sister-in-law Ester (LaWanda Page), and the goat-owning Puerto Rican Julio (Gregory Sierra).
Jerry Seinfeld portrayed himself as a young single comic in New York coping with dating, nutty friends, and the indignities of city life. The show revolved around Jerry; Elaine, his ex-girlfriend and platonic pal; George, his worrywart best friend; and eccentric entrepreneur Kramer, the next-door neighbor who constantly wandered in and out of his apartment.
Beginning its six-year run in 1982, St. Elsewhere was neither television's first ensemble medical drama nor, heaven knows, its last. Even now, when "reality" programming blights the landscape like some biblical plague, doc, cop, and lawyer shows remain staples of the medium, and while the likes of C.S.I., E.R., and Grey's Anatomy have it all over St. Elsewhere in the sizzle department--the production values are much flashier, the content sexier, more graphic, and faster-moving, the technology both in front of and behind the camera light years more sophisticated--the older show, despite its somewhat cheesy '70s vibe, is the hands-down winner when it comes to the actual steak. That's because it does it the old-fashioned way: by relying on good writing, vividly-drawn, identifiable characters, and excellent performances by an eye-opening group of actors.
A spoof of superhero melodramas, the cartoon Underdog has a similar Clark Kent-style character, the ordinary dog Shoeshine Boy. But whenever there is trouble afoot, Shoeshine Boy ducks into a phone booth to don his uniform and become Underdog (his quick change routine usually accompanied by the phone booth's explosion). Always speaking in rhymes, the heroic Underdog must thwart evil plots from the likes of Simon Bar Sinister, Riff Raff, and Overcat.
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