Mikey Is Now 25. Feel Old Yet? "Look Who's Talking"

Look Who's Talking (1989)
Rated PG-13 for language

Starring  John Travolta, Kirstie Alley, George Segal, Olympia Dukakis and Bruce Willis

Directed and Written by Amy Heckerling

The Story:

Mollie (Alley) is an accountant whose biggest client (Segal) is having an affair with her.  And then along comes unplanned baby, Mikey (Willis).  When Mollie goes into labor, she takes a cab driven by James (Travolta) to the hospital.  You can guess how this romantic comedy unfolds at this point, no?

Another Heckerling masterpiece.

Funny dialogue, great characters and wonderful music that helps tell the story is one of Heckerlings many attributes.

This film gets overlooked between Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Clueless, but deserves to be mentioned with those cinema gems as well.

While everyone claims that Travolta enjoyed a career comeback in 1994 with Pulp Fiction, this was only 5 years earlier, so it's not like he had completely dropped off the map.  Alley was enjoying her tenure on Cheers and Bruce Willis was finishing up his Moonlighting stint and about to be Mr. Movie Star.

Lightning in a bottle that wasn't quite as successful with the subsequent sequels, but is still charmingly fun(ny) 25 years later.

Final Grade: B+

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: Yes to both, I'd forgotten how much fun this movie really was.

Tuesday's Streaming TV Show..."Melissa and Joey"

Melissa & Joey (2010)
TV-14

Starring: Melissa Joan Hart, Joseph Lawrence

Airs on ABC Family

The Story:

Melissa Burke (Hart) is a successful city council member who winds up as the legal guardian of her teenage niece and nephew when their parents wind up in jail and on the lam for embezzlement.  She's barely able to keep head above water with the two new kids in tow, and decides to hire a nanny.  Before she gets the chance, Joe (Lawrence) a disgruntled former co-worker of her brother in law comes looking for the money he is owed and offers to be the nanny as he is desperate for a job.  When he actually does a good job, Mel decides to keep him on for the time being.

Say, this sounds like Who's the Boss?

:)

That's okay, I liked that show back in the day.

So where was I?

Oh yes, so previously reviewed was My Fake Fiance ( My Fake Review! ), which starred both of our leads and aired on ABC Family.  As I commented, the two had a nice chemistry together.

Apparently I wasn't the only one that noticed, and shortly after that film aired, ta-da, a brand new sitcom starring them both is on the air, and beginning their 4th season.

Looking to watch something funny the other night, ran across this and figured, why not, 21 minutes never killed anyone.

21 minutes later, I let the next episode play.

Yep, it's a pretty cute show.  Melissa and Joe (am I referring to the character or the actor?!?) have the same chemistry and it makes for an enjoyable experience as they are clearly having fun with the show they are working on.

At Least One Chicken Was Harmed In the Making of This Episode

I am sure that someday the show will naturally force these 2 to become a couple, but for now, it will retain the chemistry and magic of the early Who's the Boss, Cheers, Moonlighting, Friends, etc. etc. of two lead characters who so belong together but instead create great sparks by getting on each other's nerves.

Therefore for now, I'm happy.

The writing is crisp and fast and works well for the duo to bounce off one another.

Not going to marathon this (30 episodes a season!), but whenever I have an hour or less to kill at night, an episode or 2 will do the trick nicely.

Available to stream instantly on Netflix as of this writing.

Final Grade: B+

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor  So far, I see no reason not to watch it again.  I've enjoyed each of the episodes that I've viewed thus far.  I'm now up into the 20s on Season One.  As for a purchase?  Probably not, I've found that aside from Psych, I just don't buy a whole lot of television shows anymore. 

Streaming TV Weekend: "Cheers"

Norm!

The Story:

Welcome to Boston, home of Cheers, the bar where everybody knows your name.  The owner is Sam Malone (Ted Danson) ex-ballplayer, former alcoholic and noted womanizer.  The rest of his staff includes Carla (Rhea Perlman) and Coach (Nicholas Colasanto).  Norm (George Wendt) is the bar regular that everyone calls out to when he comes through the door.  There's also a know-it-all mailman (John Ratzenberger) lurking around as well.

In the first episode, Diane (Shelley Long) comes to the bar about to be married, but her man needs to obtain the ring from his ex wife.

You can imagine that it doesn't end well for her.

And there you have the set up that would last for almost 5 years.

Starting in 1982, this 30+ year old NBC comedy series is still hilarious.

Created and written by the trio of James Burrows, Glen and Les Charles, whoever thought a show about a bar would be one of the better sitcoms in television history?

Having not seen the original episode since it probably aired in '82, it was a crazy trip on the way-back machine when I was surfing for something to watch.

It still holds up, it's still funny and doesn't appear to have suffered with age.

All good things, especially when dealing with sitcoms.

I have said before that I preferred the seasons after Diane left the show, but Cheers made the most out of the on-again/off-again romantic tension between Sam and Diane.  Unlike Moonlighting, the show didn't lose its steam by pairing up the two in later years.

The sweet reminder was just how funny Coach was.  It was sad when he passed away, but Cheers did great by casting Woody Harrelson to step in as the dimwit of the bar.

The show is still great, and if it's been some time since you've watched, now is a great time to revisit some old friends.

And if you've never seen it before, you're in for a treat!

Available to stream instantly on Netflix as of this writing.

Final Grade: A

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: I doubt I'll ever buy the 11 seasons, but it's nice to know that I can stream it at any point if I have time but don't want to go for a movie to have a pretty good sitcom on standby at a moment's notice.