As you can see by Itzl's concerned look, this group is for us to check in at to let people know we are alive, doing OK, and not affected by such things as heat, blizzards, floods, wild fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, power outages, or other such things that could keep us off DKos. If you're not here, or anywhere else on DKos, and there are adverse conditions in your area (floods, heatwaves, hurricanes, etc.), we are going to check up on you. If you are going to be away from your computer for a day or a week, let us know here. We care!
IAN is a great group to join, and a good place to learn to write diaries. Drop one of us a PM to be added to the Itzl Alert Network anytime! We all share the publishing duties, and we welcome everyone who reads IAN to write diaries for the group! Every member is an editor, so anyone can take a turn when they have something to say, photos and music to share, a cause to promote or news!
Monday Youffraita
Tuesday ejoanna
Wednesday Pam from Calif
Thursday art ah zen
Friday FloridaSNMOM
Saturday FloridaSNDad
Sunday loggersbrat
Greetings friends. It is that time again! What time do you ask? Saturday! This means it is time for another of my rambling, off-beat diaries!
Until sometime in Junior High, or “Middle school” is you like that better, I did not have access to much in the way of recorded books, which meant in turn that I wasn’t much of a reader. So like most 80’s kids, I was a child of TV.
I grew up with Dukes of Hazzard, MASH, Alice, and Happy Days, as well as so many others! Now I am fairly sure, that whether you watched them or not, most of you are at least familiar with most of the shows I just mentioned, but were you aware that each of them gave rise to at least one spin-off?
The Dukes of Hazzard gave rise to an unfortunately short-lived series called Enos. The show was named for the good-natured, if naive deputy, who left Hazzard to seek life in the big city. Unfortunately, the show only lasted 18 episodes. Fortunately, Enos was able to return home to The Dukes of Hazzard, in 1982.
Alice, a TV sitcom about a waitress and single mother, ran from 1976-1985. In 1980, a spin-off was launched, starring Polly Holiday as the series’s namesake, Flo. The series ran for two seasons, a total of twenty-nine episodes as Flo did her best to run a roadhouse bar in Texas.
MASH, ran from 1972-1983, Inspired by the 1970 feature film of the same name, it follows the adventures of a group of doctors during the Korean War. In 1983, after the series ended, three of its characters moved on to AfterMash, a spin-off series that takes Dr, Sherman Potter, Father Mulcahe, and Maxwell Klinger find themselves working in a Veteran's Hospital. The show ran from 1983-1985, and in my memory, was very entertaining, very funny, and touching, even if it never quite caught the spirit of the original.
Happy Days 1974-1984: These were the adventures of Arthur “The Fonz” Fonzarelli and the Family Cuningham. This is the show that brought the 1950’s to life for a whole new generation, and gave birth to an amazing plethora of spin-off shows.
It started with Laverne and Shirly, in 1976. The show ran until 1983, and featured two single girls. They work as bottle cappers in a local brewery during the 50’s and 60’s and try to cope with friends, neighbors, and their would-be boyfriends.
From 1977-1982, Robin Williams and Pam Dawber brought us Mork and Mindy. This is a much-underappreciated comedy series in which Mork, an alien from the distant planet of Ork, comes to earth to investigate humans and their habits and report back to his homeworld, and Orson, on his findings.
Blansky’s Beauties in 1977. This show aired only 13 episodes in which a “Den mother” kept order in a Las Vegas apartment house full of showgirls.
After this came Out of the Blue, another single-season run in 1979 in which Random, an angel, moves in with a single woman and her Nieces and Nephews. The kids spend their time getting in and out of trouble, mostly thanks to Random's angelic magic.
In 1982, Joanie loves Chachi began its two-season run, in which the teenaged love couple from happy days reprise their roles, and try to make it in the world, together, in a rock band. I remember that this show existed, but that's as much as I can tell you.
Last. and probably least remarkable, Fonz and the Happy Days Gang, a show from 1980 and 81 in which Animated versions of Fonzie and his Happy Days Friends find themselves lost in time, with an alien from the future named Cupcake. I am pleased to say that I can not remember watching a single episode of this...tripe. Still, its a good example of what happens when television execs try to milk every last dollar out of a title.
Are there any shows and spin-offs that you rememvber as fondly as I do mork and mindy?