When I was a kid, I watched a lot of Saturday morning television — Hong Kong Phooey, Underdog, Krofft Superstars, etc. But even though I've outgrown (most) children's TV, I never fully broke the weekend morning TV habit. My guilty pleasure of late has been watching Beverly Hills 90210 on SOAPnet on weekend mornings.

(Right now they're in the college years, and I keep enjoying little nuggets inspired by the year that Darren Star and I overlapped at UCLA.)

So you'd think I'd be excited about the news I heard the other day — a spin-off of 90210 is reportedly in the works. But, you know, I wasn't so much. In fact, I thought it sounded like a pretty stupid idea. (As Dlisted.com said, “9021-NOOOOOO!!!!”) The show ended eight years ago. (And it should have ended at least 10 years ago.) There's no word yet on which cast members will return, and Darren Starr isn't even attached to the project. Additionally, the original audience is all grown up, and I don't know that they would really be interested in much more than a reunion show. So, I don't really get it. But apparently, it's not for me; it's for the Gossip Girl crowd, and is intended to be essentially a West Coast companion piece. Which still doesn't explain to me why it's going to be a spin-off of a long-dead show.

Of course, 90210 has already spawned one uber-successful spin-off, Melrose Place.

Melrose was one of those crazily successful spin-offs that has probably spawned all sorts of spin-off envy in development executives. It wasn't a particular favorite of mine, but I did like it in the relatively tame first season, before Michael Mancini became Dr. Evil and when the main drama was the will-they-or-won't-they tension between Billy and Allison.

But rather than just puzzle over the 90210 spin-off, I'd rather reminisce about spin-offs I recall fondly. Here are a few of my favorites:

Rhoda (1974 — The Mary Tyler Moore Show) … continue reading

How surreal would it be to have Bea Arthur show up as your SAT instructor or private tutor? A few weeks ago, TV Land launched Back to the Grind, a reality show in which the TV stars of yesteryear "perform their TV jobs in real life." Bea Arthur's Golden Girls character, Dorothy Zbornak, played a substitute teacher, so on August 15, she will be seen teaching a Kaplan SAT prep class and tutoring an SAT student at the student's home. (The show airs regularly on Wednesdays at 10:30 p.m.)

Dorothy's profession did not play much of a role on the show, but I'm willing to ignore this because I like Bea Arthur. And I spoke to her on the phone 15 years ago, which made me like her that much more. (She was very nice.) Ergo, I'll certainly be watching.

You can watch a preview for the show here. Note when she peers in the window of one student's house. And her interaction with the mother of another student is priceless. … continue reading

Yesterday that photo of Holland Taylor and Allison Janney made my day, if not my year. Today I'm equally gleeful about this video (thanks, Jezebel). Feast your eyes and ears on some '80s luminaries, including Nell Carter, Bea Arthur, Marla Gibbs (The Jeffersons and 227), Charlotte Rae (The Facts of Life), Soleil Moon Frye (Punky Brewster) and even Alfonso Ribeiro (Silver Spoons and later The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.). They sing "We Are a Family" from Dreamgirls. It's like someone videotaped my dreams and didn't even bother to edit out the crazy.

It's not entirely clear why this video (shot in the mid-1980s) was made in the first place, other than to amuse and frighten us. "Here's to Punky Brewster, Family Ties and all the rest," after the jump. … continue reading

by scribegrrrl

The first season of Maude was released on DVD this week. Talk about long overdue. Is there a smarter, funnier, smarter (yes, I said that twice) show in all of television history? Not really. Especially not in sitcom-land.

Here's a snippet from LA Weekly that handily (if unedited-ly) sums up Maude's brilliance:

From the show's point of view, it wasn't important to think like Maude, but it was important to have the open, honest, maybe combative yet often surprising discussions about politics, sexual issues and personal health that Maude (Bea Arthur), her husband, Walter (Bill Macy), and their single-mom daughter, Carol (Adrienne Barbeau), got caught up in.

It just doesn't get better than Bea Arthur and Adrienne Barbeau. Funny is sexy, and, um, Barbeau-y is sexy.

On a sort-of-related note (in the sense that all brilliant TV is, arguably, related), episodes of Charlie's Angels are now available on iTunes. Or so says Variety, anyway -- when I checked the iTunes store just now, I found nothing. But I've never been much of a sleuth -- I'm sure Charlie never would have hired me.

I would assume that 6 out of 10 lesbians prefer Sabrina, but maybe I'm wrong: Who's your favorite Angel? Sabrina (Kate Jackson), Kelly (Jaclyn Smith) or Jill (Farrah Fawcett)? Oh, or Kris (Cheryl Ladd) or Tiffany (Shelley Hack)?