"now I'm vaguely curious about Green Acres. Thanks a lot, internet, for once again promising me joys and enlightenment I shall likely never receive."

Independence Day vs Mars Attacks!

"A better question is, why on Transformer Planet did they feel the need to become Volkswagens? Is it just some random quirk of evolution?"

How long before someone writes up a "Which AV Club Commenter are You?" quiz?

Maybe that restraining order finally did the trick.

TV Club candiate?
Perhaps this has been mentioned already but I would love to see a TV Club entry for Mr. Show. Especially now that the SNL and SCTV ones have dropped off.

"do you think when he gets wherever we go that maybe Ed will go straight to Phil Hartman and punch him in the face for doing his impression of him?"

No worries Sybil!

Beth's daymares
So I love lists and inventories. Here are the references I could identify from Beth's daymare:

Poor Howie! Thank god they didn't go with the full kicker of his wife being dead. It'd be too much to bear! Although it would've created an interesting callback to the pilot episode and former news director Ed's deceased friend at a rival news station.

I've always thought Dick's performance on Newsradio is underrated. Or at least eclipsed by his off-screen behavior and life. "Movie Star" may be one of his funniest and most endearing turns. He and Caan have a great chemistry together - particularly since they don't have too much dialog in their scenes.

Although I disagree with "Daydream" being _too_ slow I do agree it doesn't have the normal Newsradio frantic energy and pace. I actually think that's a strength of the epsisode. It's a reflection of how the staff is feeling with the busted AC and the stifling heat. The episode does a great job (maybe too good?) of…

Outside of the season 5 opener, I think the "Howie" scene has got to be the most heartbreaking moment of the show. Indeed one of the most heartbreaking moments on any show - sitcom or otherwise.

Ed McMahon actually commented kindly on Phil Hartman's impression of him in various interviews. McMahon also said that the catch phrase "You are correct, sir!" was popularized by Hartman and McMahon had to "try his best" to imitate Phil Hartman imitating him.

Here's the transcript of the restaurant sketch (not as good as an actual video but better than nothing):

"The Shinning" is really a masterpiece in and of itself. Probably one of the finest and funniest parodies "The Simpsons" has ever done. It perfectly captured the mood, scenes and characters of Kubrick's movie. It's particularly impressive given that the short is what - seven or so minutes long?

Yeah, but think of the upside. They could then go on to bigger and better things - like inventing a baby translator.

The NR gag reels included on the DVDS are actually quite good in that respect. I don't normally like bloopers/gag reels because most of the time they're composed of the same actor(s) laughing or flubbing their lines on the same scene over and over again. But the NR ones are actually pretty interesting to watch. You…

For anyone in the East Bay (California) Ici ice cream is worth the trip out to Berkeley and the wait in the inevitable line out the door. They don't do the mixing thing (at least not that I'm aware of) but their ice cream is superb and you can get it in homemade waffle cones with chocolate on the bottom.

I'd have to go with (b). I seem to remember all of them as being pretty funny. Adequate no less! I see them as a nice little bonus to the episode. Breaks up the monotony of the standard credit/music blackscreen when they have the little outtakes/bonus scenes at the end.