Couch Potato Blog

Do you find yourself screaming at the TV? Did you cry when Ross and Rachel broke for the first time? Did you cry when Ross and Rachel got back together for the umpteenth time? Do you live for TV? Then you’ll fit right in with the Couch Potatoes. Join Catherine Amos, Allison Brophy-Champion, Ray Finefrock and Jeff Say on the couch as they dish about their favorite, and most hated, shows on the ol’ tube.

Jeff Say: Most people hate Mondays, me, I’ve always loved them. Growing up at the feet of sports obsessed father, Monday’s meant Howard Cosell and Monday Night Football. In my college days, Monday night meant Monday Night Raw and sweaty guys throwing each other around as my buddies and I bet on a fake sport. And now … I watch CBS. OK, I guess that means I’ve grown up.

A few years ago, CBS was derogatively known as “old people” TV with shows that anyone under 50 probably wouldn’t watch. Then, magic happened on Monday night. “Two and a Half Men” was a surprise hit and Mondays became “young adult” humor night on the network.

Now, Mondays are anchored by two of the smartest, hippest and enjoyable comedies on televi-sion — “The Big Bang Theory” and “How I Met Your Mother.”

A quick background if you haven’t seen them — Jeff Say style. BBT is a comedy revolving around four nerds who work as physicists who befriend a hot blonde that moves in beside them. Nerd No. 1 (Leonard) falls for girl, at end of season one goes on date with girl (Penny) and then to start the second season, they never really explain what happens, but they don’t date.

“HIMYM” is how I live my life in my head — again five trendy people in New York grow up to-gether as the main character Ted explains to his future children how he met their mother. Clever title, huh?

OK, this week on BTB the guys create a killer robot, “Monte,” but in the process Nerd No. 3 Howard gets his feelings hurt when he’s too creepy toward Penny and he holes up in his mother’s house sifting through old comic books. Really, the main plot wasn’t that entertaining, in fact any time Penny is the focal point, the show lags. The real comedy lays with incredibly dorky dialogue that goes on between Leonard and his neurotic genius roommate, Nerd No. 2 Sheldon. After the guys are challenged to a robot street fight — how awesome does that sound — by a challenger who pronounces his “r’s” as “w’s” Sheldon accepts. Mostly to make up for the fact that he was beaten up repeatedly during his youth. But his bravado gets the best of him, and he ends up mourning the loss of “Monte.”

What makes the show great is its use of phrases, that, well you just don’t hear anywhere else. After paying Penny what he thought was a compliment, Penny points out his compliments are sexist — especially “it must be jelly because jam doesn’t shake like that.” Few lines in shows make me spit Orange Fanta out of my mouth, but that one succeeded.

Howard’s revelation that as a high school freshman he thought a girl had an overbite like a “sexy little chipmunk” automatically goes into my lexicon.

HIMYM came two seasons before BBT, and for a while was my favorite sitcom. But the epi-sodes earlier this season focused more on heartbreak and not enough on the true awesomeness that is … Barney. Barney, played by the just as awesome Doogie Howser (Neil Patrick Harris in real life, though I will always have a soft spot for Doogie) is the ladies man of his group. Ted is the romantic. Lilly and Marshall the dopey married couple everyone loves and says “awww” about and Robin is the Canadian-born former pop idol who has a thing for guys who fight, eh.

This time, Ted and Robin (who used to date) are now roommates, and to ward off fighting sim-ply slip back into the old routine and rekindle the physical part of their relationship. Leave an empty milk carton in the fridge? Hit the sack. Don’t replace the toilet paper? Don’t get mad, hit the sack. It piggy backs off Barney’s idea that every conflict in the world can be solved through sex. Peace in the Middle East, bring in “Gaza Strippers.” Really, a brilliant idea. Where’s Made-line Albright when you need her?

But in the process, Ted and Robin worry they will hurt one another, but the one who is getting hurt is Barney, who secretly loves Robin after hooking up with her last season. (Yeah, I know a lot to follow, do yourself a favor, pick up the DVDs of seasons one through three.)

In the end Ted and Robin end the hook ups and Ted figures out that Barney has a thing for Robin. Which sucks. The writers are taking the “Ross and Rachel” angle with Barney and Robin and no one who loves the show wants to see it.

Leave Barney as the loveable ladies man who can lie to anyone, it’s a fresh character that works on a show that already has one lovelorn fool in Ted.

When you can’t wish to be as awesome as Barney anymore, who will you wish to be?

And just as awesome as Barney is the fourth season of “Robot Chicken” on Cartoon Network. Don’t be like my wife and tell me cartoons are for kids, they’re for 30-year-old goofballs too. Hence RC.
Created by Seth Green of “Family Guy” and “Buffy” fame, the show is a 15-minute hodge podge of spoofs of every show you’ve ever loved, hated or just happened to flip through. Where else will you find David Hasselholf proclaiming “Why have a talking care if you can’t fart in it?” as KITT coughs in the background or have Breckin Meyer exclaim, “Hi, I’m Breckin Meyer, you might remember me.”

It’s not for those who take life too seriously, and for anyone who thinks they have an elevated sense of humor — check it at the door, this stuff is purely for the kids who never want to grow up. But also feel creepy going into a Toys ‘R Us.