Daily Countdown: TV Shows #4

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#4

Whose Line is it Anyway?

Improv is hard, but there are a handful of people who can do it unlike anyone else. That is the concept behind the EYG Hall of Fame show Whose Line is it Anyway?

Whose Line started in England before being brought to the states by Drew Carey, whose pull at ABC was strong. The show ran for 21 years in America, at first on ABC, and then, eventually, over at the CW, when Drew Carey was replaced by Aisha Tyler.

There were three main cast members that were on the majority of the episodes, Ryan Stiles, Colin Mochrie and Wayne Brady. Stiles and Mochrie were regulars on the British version of the show and Brady became a series regular after season one of the American version (though he also appeared on the British show at times). There is a fourth recurring cast member, referred to as the fourth chair, which included a number of other improv comics such as Brad Sherwood, Jeff Davis, Chip Esten, Greg Proops, Keegan-Michael Key, Gary Anthony Williams, Denny Siegel, Kathy Greenwood, Jonathan Mangum, and Heather Anne Campbell. There were celebrities who appeared as the “fourth chair” including Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, Stephen Colbert and Kathy Griffin.

The show featured members of the cast performing improv games read off by the host. Some of these games included Helping Hands, Whose Line, Scenes from a Hat, Three-Headed Broadway Star, Doo-Woop, African Chant, Dating Game, World’s Worst and Hoedown.

Hoedown was particularly disliked by the cast, which became a running joke on the show.

The quick-witted performers had amazing ability to come up with funny responses consistently Stiles and Mochrie had an unbelievable chemistry with each other which led them to having many scenes together.

The game “Living Scenery” was used when guest star Richard Simmons was on the show and it led to, perhaps, the funniest scene in the entire show’s run. If you have never seen this game, do yourself a favor and find it on YouTube. It is as funny as anything you’ll ever see.

Ah heck… here it is…

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #46

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Spoilers

“Screaming Meemies”

I am not sure I was ready for that.

This episode, entitled “Screaming Meemies,” which was a slang term meaning a “heightened sense of panic or anxiety,” showed us the events of the night when Hugh took the kids and left the Hill House in the middle of the night. It was all from the perspective of Olivia, whose entire life had seemingly become a dream that she could not awake from.

I had not expected for the house to have driven her as mad as it did that she would try to awaken the twins (and Luke’s not-so-imaginary friend, Abigail) by having a middle of the night, surprise tea party, with tea laced with rat poison.

Poor little Abigail saved the day, in a sense, by sipping on her poisoned tea before the twins could, and she promptly died.

Much of this had been influenced by the ghost known as Poppy Hill, who showed up at the end of episode 7 to grab adult Luke when he tried to burn the house down. This Poppy was a nasty ghost who was planting the seeds of evil in the mind of the mentally ill Olivia, leading to this act of horror.

With this bit, in the penultimate episode no less, the last thing we need to discover from the past flashbacks, would be what happened when Hugh went back to the Hill House after he dropped his kids off at the motel. I am sure that will be included in the 70+ minute finale in episode 10.

We got to see the truth behind several of the odd things we had seen previously from Olivia, like the screwdriver she held at Hugh’s neck or breaking the mirror on the vanity that Steven had fixed up for her. Everything fit in nicely as we see the descent of Olivia into this house induced madness. We also see her “suicide”, aided by the push of Poppy Hill.

I expect that next week’s big finale will deliver big time, as this show has been truly firing on all cylinders the last four-five episodes.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2

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I was not a huge fan of the first Five Night’s at Freddy’s movie from a few years ago, but it was not the worst thing I had ever seen. Unfortunately, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 took a step back.

According to IMDB, “One year has passed since the supernatural nightmare at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. The stories about what transpired there have been twisted into a campy local legend, inspiring the town’s first ever Fazfest. Former security guard Mike (Josh Hutcherson) and police officer Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail) have kept the truth from Mike’s 11-year-old sister, Abby (Piper Rubio), concerning the fate of her animatronic friends. But when Abby sneaks out to reconnect with Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy, it will set into motion a terrifying series of events, revealing dark secrets about the true origin of Freddy’s, and unleashing a long-forgotten horror hidden away for decades.”

I did not like this one at all. It felt so forced. The story was weak. The inclusion of the animatronics was silly. The ending was poor. I just did not like much of anything about this movie.

I do have one thing that I thought looked cool and that was the look of The Marionette when combined with Charlotte. It was a really cool design and I did like that part of the film. However, all of the other robotic characters were just a waste.

I also hate when a movie provides a teacher who would just not be around in today’s world and Wayne Knight played one here. There was so much about this that did not work for me.

1.5 stars

Hamnet

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I actually did not know that this was a story featuring William Shakespeare until about 2/3rd through the movie. I knew Hamnet sounded like Hamlet, but I did not know how it was connected. In fact, as I walked into the theater, I thought to myself that I had no idea what this movie was about.

We meet Agnes and Will, who fall in love and get married. Agnes was initially believed to be the daughter of a forest witch, but that never felt like it was addressed. Agnes gets pregnant. They have a daughter and then have twins later, one of which seemed to be born dead, but survived.

As I mentioned, I had no idea this was meant to be Shakespeare and I also did not know that he had a son named Hamnet who died when he was 11, supposedly from the plague. That was believed to be one of the influences for Shakespeare to write his best tragedies, including Hamlet.

I was extremely bored through the first half of this movie. I was not enjoying it at all. However, there were two amazing performances in the heart of this film. Paul Mescal played Will and he did a great job, but the stand out performance in the film belonged to Jessie Buckley as Agnes. Even at the times when I was feeling bored with the story and the script, Jessie Buckley was bringing it hard.

I had heard that this was an Oscar possible nominated film and I was ready to rip that idea apart. There was an amazing scene with Buckley and Jacobi Jupe, who was playing Hamnet, but it still had not swayed my opinion.

Then, the ending happened. The ending was unbelievable! It absolutely took the rest of this movie and elevated it to a level that I could not believe. I came out of the film with serious feels. Most of the time, the example is the ending is bad and damaged the memory of a film. This time, I have a much more positive thought of the film because of the finale.

If Jessie Buckley does not win the Academy Award for this performance, they should just stop giving out Best Actress Awards. Jessie Buckley is sensational and totally carries the film on her back. I would have totally checked out from this had it not been for Jessie Buckley.

Oscar winner Chloe Zhao does a great job with the direction of this film. I loved the ending of this.

3.5 stars

EYG 2025 Year in Review: In Memoriam Part Two

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The second In Memoriam for the EYG Year in Review features the following:

Robert Redford

Roberta Flack

Wayne Osmond

Anita Bryant

Chris Robinson

Connie Francis

Dawn Little Sky

Denise Alexander

Leslie Charleston

Brenton Wood

Garth Hudson

Bobby Jenks

Irv Gotti

Udo Kier

Georgio Armani

Danny Seagren

June Lockhart

Jellybean Johnson

Tristian Rogers

Tom Lehrer

Terrance Stamp

Jane Goodall

Malcolm Jamal Warner

Marshawn Kneeland

Peter Yarrow

Rick Derringer

Steve “Mongo” McMichael

RIP to all

Daily Countdown #5

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#5

Picket Fences

David E. Kelley has had a couple of other shows on this list. Picket Fences is my absolutely favorite one of his oeuvre.

A little town called Rome, Wisconsin was home to all sorts of weirdness. I have been a fan of the genre of show that feature a strange, eccentric town full of bizarre things (from Eerie, Indiana to Twin Peaks). Rome is certainly in the mix.

The family at the center of this weird town is the Brocks, including Sheriff Jimmy Brock and his wife Doctor Jill Brock. Jimmy’s daughter from his first marriage, Kimberly, and Jill’s two sons, Matthew and Zach, were part of the family too.

Much of the action took place inside the Rome Court House, where Judge Henry Bone oversaw the court. One of my favorite characters of all time was the defense attorney for just about anyone… Douglas Wambaugh! “Wambaugh for the Potato man,” “Wambaugh for the steamroller, your honor.” Douglas Wambaugh was as bombastic as humanly possible, played with perfect precision by Emmy Award winning Fyvush Finkel. The combative relationship between Wambaugh and Judge Bone was one of the most original and entertaining relationships on TV.

Picket Fences was also where I was introduced to Don Cheadle, who played D.A. John Littleton. Cheadle went on to a successful movie career, including replacing James Rhodes in the MCU.

Some of the most amazing plot lines happened on Picket Fences, and somehow, they all seemed to have major impact on the Brock family. Any holiday where the Brocks gathered for a dinner was destined to turn into fireworks. Thanksgiving? Hold on to your hat.

Jimmy and Jill loved each other but they were never afraid to throwdown if the story called for it.

Some of the major events in Rome included the capture of the Green Bay Chopper, the arrival of serial killer Cupid, a mayor who was arrested for murdering the guy who carjacked him and then. before going to prison, spontaneously combusted, a woman who flattened her husband with a steamroller and blamed it on PMS, the iconic Dancing Bandit who eventually became Rome’s mayor (not the one that spontaneously combusted), and a town where one of the most dangerous appliances was the human sized icebox.

These are just some of the stories that populated this wonderful town.

Picket Fences ran for four seasons and wound up winning 14 Emmy Awards in that run, including Outstanding Drama Series twice.

Cast members included Tom Skerritt, Kathy Baker, Fyvush Finkel, Ray Walston, Don Cheadle, Holly Marie Combs, Costas Mandylor, Kelly Connell, Zelda Rubenstein, Adam Wylie, Justin Shenkarow, Lauren Holly, Marlee Matlin, Ray Dotrice, Leigh Taylor-Young, Roy Brocksmith, and Robert Cornthwaite.

As Judge Bone would so nimbly put it at the end of a case, “Now get out.”

2025 EYG Year in Review: Don’t Feed the Trolls Award

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We just had the Confirmed.. or is it? Award, which dealt with the Internet getting fooled. Now, we have the internet getting mad.

This happens daily.

Things cause so much rage-bait on the internet all the time. So this award is here to offer up the Insane Internet Rage Scandal of the Year… known as The Don’t Feed the Trolls Award!

The Don’t Feed the Trolls: Insane Internet Rage Scandal of the Year

Previous Winner:  Baby Yoda eats frog’s eggs (2020), Masters of the Universe: Revelations part one (2021), She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022), Twitter becomes X (2023), Trump (2024)

This year had a couple of runners-up. They were: Snow White and the CGI dwarves and Brock Lesnar’s return to the WWE.

But this year’s winner….

Superman (2025) is too woke!

Complaints about the new Superman movie went everywhere online. James Gunn dared to call this an immigrant tale and all the right wing haters came from everywhere to dump on this movie.

There are other haters, such as those who believe that Superman should not be covering his face (picture above). So much anger directed toward this film and there was too much joy from some when Superman did not make the amount of money they thought it should have.

Many believed that they made this too political (hey there Dean Cain) and had taken away his patriot symbol (“Truth, Justice, and the Human Way”… not American way???). It was all just noise to distract.

Superman was a great movie and any one claiming it was too woke… well, they do not have to watch it.

Daily Countdown: TV Shows #6

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#6

Monk

Adrian Monk, the defective detective, slips into the number six slot in our top 10. Monk ran for eight seasons on the USA Network and helped garner star Tony Shalhoub three Emmy Awards for Best Actor in a Comedy Series.

Adrian Monk was a homicide detective who had a series of OCD and other fears. However, when he met his future wife, Trudy, those traits calmed down. Adrian Monk was brilliant, seeing things at crime scenes that no one else could. Tragedy struck when a car bomb exploded, killing Trudy and sending Adrian into a spiral of neurosis and depression.

Adrioan Monk slowly got back to doing what he did best, though the police force understandably doubted his ability to rejoin the force. So Monk would work as a consultant on the cases that no oen could solve.

Monk was both a comedy and a drama, doubling down on the problems Monk faced. He was afraid of heights, crowds, enclosed spaces, as well as milk, bees, germs, needles, mushrooms, lightning and MANY more The show listed 312 phobias that Monk suffered from during the show.

He was also very compulsive, with everything needing to be just right. Everything had its order and Monk spent time vaccuuming and cleaning to make sure everything was as it had to be. Adrian Monk knew how ridiculous he was, but he just could not get past these compulsions.

The best episodes though were the ones where Adrian Monk, despite his massive list of fears and eccentricities, was able to overcome and still be brillaint. Monk showed his own personal determination, even through some of the most harrowing moments for the defective detective.

Tony Shalhoub led the cast which included Bitty Schram, Ted Levine, Traylor Howard, Jason Gray-Stanford, Stanley Kamel, Emmy Clarke and Héctor Elizondo.

2025 Year in Review: Confirmed… or is it? Award

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The internet is a wonderful place.

Every year there are rumors that spread about a certainty because someone has said it somewhere on the net. Many times, these rumors just are not true.

A few years ago, we added this award to go to the rumor that seemed to be the most secure.. only to turn out false.

Confirmed… or is it? Award

Previous Winner: Mephisto is in WandaVision (2021), Fantastic Four has been cast (2022), Everyone is cast as Reed Richards (2023), Spider-Man 4 was being secretly filmed (2024)

It’s ironic that our first winner of this award was how everyone believed that Mephisto was going to be introduced on WandaVision… but he was actually introduced this past year on Ironheart.

This year, the Confirmed… or is it? Award goes to…

WWE Rumors (Seth Rollins)

There are rumors of WWE every day. It has gotten to the point where I do not believe anything the dirt sheets have to say until I see it on the screen at a Premium Live Event, RAW or Smackdown.

Seth Rollins trolled the entire world with a knew injury he suffered in a match with LA Knight on Saturday’s Night Main Event. The injury was a work, and Seth was back at SummerSlam to cost CM Punk the title. There were people confirming Seth’s injury all over the place. Seth even used crutches to take his daughter to school.

The WWE and Seth trolled the world. Seth went on the Rich Eisen Show and lied his face off.

Of course, Seth Rollins injured his shoulder and is out, and the WWE is pretending that Seth donned a black mask and a black outfit and stomped Punk during the War Games. And with Seth’s history, who knows if it is true.

EYG Favorite Comic Cover of the Week

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December 4

Happy December all. We are into the final month of 2025 and we are underway with the Year in Review here at EYG. One of the big awards we added last year was Comic Cover Artist of the Year as well as providing medals for the top three regular covers and medals for the top three variant covers of the year. We gave one cover the Platinum Medal for the overall best cover of 2025. While the comic cover artist is wrapped up, the other medals for the Year in Review are still up for grabs. These will be reveal in a couple of week!

So we are up to this week’s medalists…

Also-Rans: First are the runners up of the week. They included Doctor Strange #1, Fantastic Four #6 (Jusko cover), Batman #4 (Bat-Gadget Variant), The Terminator: Santa Claus is Coming to Town #1, The Phantom #3, War Wolf #2, and Wild Animals #5.

Bronze Medalist

Dark Souls: Mother of Mourning #1

Foil Variant

Cover art by Bjorn Barends

I have never heard of this, but the shiny foil cover attracted me and I grabbed this new book from Titan Comics.

Silver Medalist

Blue Falcon and Dynomutt #4

Cover art by Lucio Parrillo

Blue Falcon bursting from out of the center of a fiery explosion? Yes, please. This series from Dynamite has had some real winners for covers in its short four month existence.

This is one more winner.

Gold Medalist

Something is Killing the Children #45

Virgin Foil Variant

Cover art by Stefano Simeone

A beauty of a cover for this epic Boom! Studios series. I loved this one and had to take it off the shelf. The gold foil teeth of Erica’s mask provides that perfect touch for the variant.

Daily Countdown: TV Shows #7

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#7

The X-Files

I Want to Believe.

The truth is out there.

FOX’s paranormal/suspernatural hit, The X-Files, comes in at number severn. I just finished a three year long rewatch of the show this past summer through all eleven seasons. The show even inspired two feature length movies.

The X-Files was created by Chris Carter and was the story of FBI agent Fox Mulder, who looked into cases deemed too mysterious or unsolvable for the FBI. Mulder was in search of the truth, spurning from his sister Samantha’s disappearance when he was a child. Mulder believed that Samantha had been abducted by aliens.

The FBI, afraid of secrets that Mulder might uncover, assigned agent Dana Scully to “debunk” his investigations. Scully, though a skeptic, was also honest and willing to listen to the insane scenarios Mulder would lay out. Scully became the only person Mulder could trust,

The show moved between episodes dealing with government conspiracies to monsters-of-the-week. Some of the best episodes of the series included “Jose Chung’s From Outer Space,” “Bad Blood,” “Home,” “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose,” “Small Potatoes,” “The Post-Modern Prometheus,” and “Humbug.”

The show was the best with the pairing of Mulder and Scully. Over the run of the series, both David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson were away or off the show and they were replaced by other actors, most notably Robert Patrick, who replaced an abducted Mulder, as Agent John Doggett. Though many episodes were still solid, the show was never the same without Mulder.

The show also had one of the greatest villains ever in the Cigarette Smoking Man. CSM, played by Willaim B. Davis, was a character that I hated SOOOOOO mcuh. I constantly just wished Mulder would shoot him in the head, and I called for that to happen on a regualr basis. CSM has to be near the top of any TV villain list.

The show was revived for a tenth and eleventh season in the mid 2010s. These seasons were shorter and had their ups and downs. Both Duchovny and Anderson returned to their roles for the revival.

The X-Files was one of the most successful FOX shows and transcended television.