The Monkees and Saturday Night Live are favorites on their own merits, but they also get extra credit for having great opening AND closing songs. WKRP falls into this category also.

Yes! I loved that song. And sometimes, if I wasn't careful, I learned something before the show was done.

Nice list, in a world in which Law and Order doesn't exist.

I still can't believe Rocky hasn't come back to play. He can't lose enough times, in my opinion. What  a hard-on he was.

The stakes in that first episode post-Diane, which introduced Rebecca, were huge. It felt like everybody was getting ready to say, "Well, of course they weren't going to be as good without Shelley Long." But they knocked it out of the park—the funniest episode in a long time. Screaming Vikings all around!

I remember that show mostly for two hot women: Keely Shaye Smith, and whoever played Filipina ghostnurse Teresita Basa.

The book J.T., by Jane Wagner, made a big impact on me. It was originally an after school special in 1969(!), but I'd only read the book. It was about an inner-city kid who befriends a one-eyed stray cat. He builds a home for it out of an old oven in a junkyard. Then some bullies come and kill the cat. As a small-town…

Oh, blow it out your ass.

Yes, Sammy Davis Jr.'s illness had been in the news for a while, and that was totally expected. I remember hearing Peter Jennings lead off  by saying that two beloved figures in the entertainment world had died, and having to wait through the Sammy Davis Jr. tribute clip to find out who the second one was. "And, Jim…

Dr. Brain is awesome.

Is there anybody who watches a player hunt around cluelessly for idols and thinks, "Ooh, I hope they find one!"? All I could think while both Ozzy and Christine were walking around was, "Please, no…"

He's world-famous in Poland.

Apartheid Lover.

You're thinking of Seven Bridges Road.

I love John Teti's writing, but I get worried when a recapper starts consistently saying, "This is boring." I envision producers picking up on such signals and overresponding by ratcheting up the drama, manipulation, and artifice, ultimately spoiling a good and entertaining show. I don't mind watching these people…

Medical marijuana dispenser? Poker tournament player? If this guy isn't a former day trader, I don't know people. Oh, I just checked his bio. He "worked on Wall Street." I rest my case. Oh, and he's "started several successful businesses." He's 35 years old. I don't have an MBA (let alone one "from a top five school…

Maybe, but it looked to me that he already knew Samhar was doomed, so he already started laying the groundwork for who he wanted to go next. A few words from him and suddenly Cochrane is damaged goods. That kind of thinking ahead is what gives the returnees such an advantage here. He essentially saw that he had a free…

I watched this with someone who'd never seen early-in-the-season episodes before, and she was blown away by the interpersonal and pyschological aspect of it. We get jaded after a while with the old tropes, and we get annoyed by the new twists, but in the eyes of one unbound by context, it's a pretty damn amazing show.