Also, we were told in the Starlight Express episode that Dana was always in the school musicals (and she was always the lead), so it might have been a nice gesture if being cast in the musical had made Adam miss Dana even more intensely - she's his first real crush, after all. I get that the writers had enough to deal…

I think you're right.

I enjoyed The Goldbergs, as always, but it reminded me a little too much of my own awkward adolescence. This one was more dramedy than comedy, and the mood felt a little glum. I am not sure the Erica subplot amounted to all that it could have. (The subplot is basically an inversion of the Barry-Lainey relationship,…

That is an AWESOME idea, JDA! I would watch the hell out of that show. Maybe we could also have a supervillain, who is trying to steal the anti-aging serum, or whatever it is. Hijinks and battles ensue.

"Never that good"? More like "absolutely godawful." When I was thirteen years old, and Full House was on, I remember thinking: This is just the worst show. I couldn't watch a minute of it. And, believe me, when I was 13, I watched ANYTHING.

I liked your comment for your use of the word "doggedly." Hilarious.

She shares John Stamos' anti-aging, fountain-of-youth, deal-with-the-devil genes.

Yeah, sorry, I wasn't singling out the Richter show (which I liked). I was thinking more along the lines of The Trouble with Normal (kind of an odd show that never really worked, but possibly could have under different circumstances), and those other shows she was in that never got off the ground. I even once saw her…

Was he wearing a toupee? No way that was his real hair, right?

"That cheesy sequence of Stamos running the baby to the hospital." It's funny, when they had that inordinately long clip of Kramer versus Kramer (not exactly a movie people talk about all that much in 2015, although it is a fine film), it felt a little odd. And then Stamos running to the hospital. I was like, Oh, so…

I thought way too much care was put into this pilot - the snappy structure (almost all of the key exposition is basically taken care of in the first three minutes), the first-rate direction, all the performances - to easily dismiss it. It was generally high quality - must have cost the studio a not-so-small fortune.…

Brewster needs to take the lead role in something - something good. Her entire career has been about elevating mediocre (or subpar) material. She is consistently underutilized in TV, and that's a shame. In her few scenes in Grandfathered, with her subtlety and wit, she puts all the other actors to shame.

Especially since, far from being shy, he is actually quite assertive in a lot of ways (as we see in how he interacts with Stamos). My favorite scene in the episode was a very small, quiet moment, when Stamos said something like, "I'm trying to be honest," and the son replied, obviously hurt, "You are being…

Paget Brewster is an acerbic delight, but she is also able to imbue her scenes with a depth and a sadness sometimes too. She is a really brilliant actor.

The Goldbergs is a little bit like The Wonder Years sometimes. Funnily enough, Savage directed an episode of The Goldbergs.

I just didn't buy that the son was that awkward with women (especially with a woman who was the mother of his child!). Maybe I am being too critical, but that just did not ring true to me. It felt too much like a tack for the show (kid who is clueless about women must turn to his estranged, Casanova-like father for…

Paget Brewster is amazing. Her first scene with Stamos, outside her house, her reactions to him ("It's Pasadena!") were just so subtle and cutting and poignant. She just has such depth and wit as an actor. This show would be better if she was the lead, but, oh well…

Did you watch Grandfathered? What did you think of that one?

This show was way too familiar, right down to many of its beats (to say nothing of the cheesy, single-guy-spends-the-night-taking-care-of-a-baby montage, that was probably stale even when Three Men and a Baby came out). That said, some of the writing was smart, the episode looked great, and Paget Brewster is, in my…

I wonder why Savage hasn't directed any eps since 2010. I think he was a producer of that show at one point, too. Anyway, Savage's chemistry here with The Waitress was pretty good.