#FlashbackFriday

Over the past week my work has quietened down a bit so I have been able to voluntarily watch a bit more of the television. Lately the television stations have been a lot of shows from the past and it has been amazing! There is definitely truth in the saying “They just don’t make them like they used too”.

A lot of the shows that I’ve been watching as well are all comedies. Comedies are just my favourites. Let me refresh your memories and lets take a step back on a much “easier and kinder” time.

“Good Times” (ran from 74 – 79)

This show is a spinoff from the show “Maude” which was also a spinoff from “All in the Family”. The main premise of the show is two parents and three children living in a housing project in a poor black neighborhood. When I read more about the show I was a little surprised to learn that the show was originally meant to be more serious. It is a great comedy show though. I have never seen the show before and I was laughing through the whole way through.

“Who’s the Boss” (ran from 1984 – 1992)

Anthony Morton “Tony” Micelli (played by Tony Danza) is a former second baseman who was forced to retire due to a shoulder injury. He wants to move out of Brooklyn to find a better place for his daughter, Samantha (played the sweetheart Alyssa Milano). He ends up taking a job in up-scale location, as a live-in housekeeper for divorced advertising executive Angela Bower (played by Judith Light) and her son Jonathan. This was an interesting show as it portrayed a women/mother as the breadwinner (even though Danza and Lights characters didn’t date in the show until later). It was probably one of the first shows where this was the case and it was HILARIOUS!

The classic “Different Strokes” (ran from 1978 – 1986)

This show was based around two African American boys from Harlem who are taken in by a rich white businessman and widower and his daughter, for whom their deceased mother previously worked. Although this show is a comedy it has some extremely “hard core” topics, especially for it’s time. The main focus being about racism and in their personal lives all of the stars were hit with persona tragedy.