Does the caliber of men Leela would like to date even EXIST in the show? And Leela is attractive by the standards of the show.

Anybody remember the guy with a rainbow wig who tried to become a celebrity by jockeying for camera time at televised events, then declared he'd found God and continued to try and become a celebrity in God's name, then became dangerously crazy?

The George Foreman grill will return . . .

The commentary on Booze Cruise has them joking about the intelligence level displayed by their decision to write out Amy Adams, as if keeping the character around was an option.

AKA "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride" and currently in print under that title.

Hypno-Toad lunchbox.

On the context issue: Recalling a review I read years ago about a series of vintage all-black movies. A few featured Stephen Fetchit, and the reviewer commented his character was easier to take in a black ensemble, now just an eccentric ne'er-do-well instead of a representative of all African-Americans.

I can see where the name remains loaded. Ironically, the Chan films emphatically demystified the East. Chan affected the Fu Manchu mustache and fortune cookie aphorisms, but beyond that he was a businesslike cop and benign family man. And we were constantly reminded that his kids (played by Asian actors) were American…

As of now nearly all the Chan films are available in pristine legal editions. Fox, producer of the more polished ones with Scandinavian Warner Oland as Chan, released theirs with extensive special features to mitigate the stereotypes with interesting history (One covers how "Charlie Chan at the Olympics" not only…

Was there ever a Peanuts special about Snoopy's literary ambitions? It figured prominently in the strip for a long time, eventually spawning a stand-alone book that included a facsimile of the short but compelling "It Was a Dark and Stormy Night"l. Later there was a book of advice for writers, with a parade of noted…

Going way back, "The Dick Van Dyke Show" had Laura writing a children's book and Rob wanting to add his professional polish to it. In the end they met with a children's book publisher — played by John McGiver, one of the actors who was everywhere in the day — who recognized the plot as one Laura probably heard as a…

"Frasier" also offered Diane Chambers' barely-produced drama. Huge laugh as the curtain opens on a community-theater version of the Cheers bar.

Overture! Light the lights!
This is it! The night of nights!
No more rehearsing, or nursing a part;
We know every part by heart!
Overture! Light the lights!
This is it! We'll hit the heights!
And oh, what heights we'll hit —
On with the show, this is it!

And even as a kid, you could tell good Looney Tunes from the not-so-good (mostly last gasp Roadrunners and Daffy teamed with Speedy Gonzales).

Really enjoyed Daffy in his mock hero epics, with a calmly knowing Porky Pig humoring him and ultimately dealing with things.

Acting in trenches was fact-based, sort of. There's a famous story that young James Stewart was tested to play a Chinese character in "The Good Earth." They had the lanky actor walking in a trench to make him the same height as Paul Muni. Similar tricks were used to make actresses shorter than their leading men…

The Goodies had an episode where they joined a band of druids and ended up in an interfaith rugby tournament. The highlight was a match against a team of Catholic cardinals in full formal raiment. A "surprise substitution" added the pope, clutching the ball as his bearers carried his throne into the scrum.

I abandoned "Voyagers" when it offered up a wimpy Arthur Conan Doyle, which is like making Hemingway a meek Walter Mitty type.

There was a reference to its having its own brain, and presumably its own set of memories. I think it the past pieces of Bender, separated from the main robot, still picked pockets and such.

A media treatment of a crime, or of the solving of said crime, will generally prove more profitable than committing or solving the crime itself.