Weekend Assignment #313: Meet a fictional character

It's been a little while since I've participated in the weekend assignments (sorry Karen and Carly), but I'll try to get back on schedule. Most of the time I've forgotten what day it is and missed the deadline. Think I'm making it up? Today, Wednesday, the kids get out of school 30 minutes early and I forgot. I pulled up to school and wondered where everybody was going. Luckily, I was early and was going to wait in the parking lot. I think I was about five minutes late. Not that my son didn't notice.

Anyway, on to the assignment!

Weekend Assignment #313: Through some miracle of colliding realities, you have the opportunity to meet a fictional character, face to face. Which character would you most like to meet, and why?

I've been thinking about this for a while. Who would I want to meet? I like Die Hard, and watch it whenever it is on, but would I want to meet John McLane? Probably not, he seems like he'd be hard to get along with. He's too much of a loose cannon you know.

I thought about Mulder and Scully from the X-Files, but I would think Mulder is a wacko and Scully is too annoying and has to be right all the time. Her and her so-called analytical thinking.

KITT? Ugh, even more annoying than Scully. I don't know how Michael Knight didn't drive KITT off a cliff and end it all. Oh...so that's why the car is indestructible. I understand now.

So, I was thinking I should go back further into my childhood. I was thinking about Mork, from Mork and Mindy. That would be an interesting conversation. Though I would think I'd come away with the thought that Mork was the stupidest person on Ork. Am I right?

So, I'm going to go even farther back (Jenn can probably see where I'm going) and say I'd like to meet Lt. Columbo. Wasn't he the best. He was great at playing dumb and allowing the bag guy (or girl) to think he had know idea what was going on then let them hang themselves, so to speak. It's still on of my favorite shows. I wanted to go as him one year for Halloween, but Jenn thought nobody would get it. Maybe she was right. I need to find an old Peugeot to drive to complete the outfit.

I would ask him what made him to decide playing dumb, or was it an accident. (Actually I don't think it was always that way. If I remember correctly, in the first movie he was quite a bit more direct. I think he even pulled a gun! Sorry, for the Columbo geek-out).

Extra Credit: What question would you most like to ask that character? Extra extra credit for posting the character's likely reply!

I imagine his answer would be something like this: "Oh, it just kind of happened. You know, when your clothes look like mine people tend to look down on you and not take you too seriously. I decided to use that to make them feel at ease. Like I wouldn't notice if they changed their story, or their answers didn't make sense because I was too impressed y how important, or rich they were. I worked out pretty well for me." Then he would turn and walk away, stop, turn halfway back to me, raise his hand in a slight wave, and walk out of the room; cigar smoke trailing behind him.

Anyway, go check out what others had to say over at Karen's blog.

Weekend Assignment #266: TV that Mattered

Hey, Karen picked one of my favorite subjects; TV of my youth. I did a lot of TV watching when I was a kid but it didn't rot my brain at all. 

Weekend Assignment #266: The release of the blockbuster Star Trek prequel movie reboots a franchise for a cult tv show that had a huge impact on generations of sf tv viewers. Is there a tv series from your youth that you remember especially fondly?

Does she mean only one? Wow, that is near impossible for me. I'll talk about a few, with one being the most fondly remembered. Sound good to you? 

Now, some of these shows may not match up with my age since I watched in reruns, but I don't think that matters. 

One show I watched all the time, and still do, is M*A*S*H. Since this show was on forever I watched it as a combination of reruns and first run episodes. I clearly remember recording (on a Betamax!) the finale for my mom since it was her bowling night. I believe I was in eight grade then, so it was okay to leave me alone, don't go calling the cops on her. 

I think I like the first few years of the show the best. With the team of Hawkeye, Trapper, Henry and crew, it was just the right mix of comedy and seriousness. Maybe a little to heavy on the comedy in the beginning since I thought it would be fun to be in a M*A*S*H unit when I was young and impressionable. 

I think the last few years of the show, especially after Frank and Radar were gone, weren't quite so fun, but it was still interesting to watch. But, really, wasn't Col. Potter just a bit old to still be running things out there. When I watch it now it looks like he was in his 70's. Maybe he wasn't, but shouldn't he have been a desk jockey somewhere? 

I also watched Magnum PI all the time. Though, at the end of the show I was out of high school, so I watched it less. Wasn't that a perfect show for a teenage boy, though? A guy lives in a mansion, gets to drive in a Ferrari to catch bad guys, and has friends that run a bar and own a helicopter? Who wouldn't want to be Thomas Magnum?! Oh, and he lived in Hawaii! Jeez. Actually, my ringtone on my cellphone is the theme song from the show. Jenn found it for me, but I kept it. Too bad I'm going to lose it when I get a new phone. Did I ever mention that when Jenn and I were in Hawaii a long time ago I wanted to rent a Ferrari for the day? That would have been great, and expensive. But, mostly great. 

The last show I'll mention is one the Jenn rolls her eyes at every time I watch it. It started off as a Movie of the Week thing a long time ago, actually the pilot debuted before I was born, but the show continued in various formats for a long time. That show was Columbo.  This is one of my all time favorite shows. 

I don't know why I like this show so much. I love watching Columbo trap the supposedly smart bad guys and bring them down in his own charming, bumbling way. No guns involved, by the way. I don't think I've ever seen him fire a gun. 

Sure, some of the movies from the 90's and later weren't as good as the classic episodes, but they were still good. I think a lot of it had to do with Peter Falk himself. He knew the character so well that he could just slide into it, good script or not, and make Columbo come alive. 

You know, I'm sitting here trying to pick out a favorite episode, but I can't. It's not that I don't remember any, it's just hard to pick a favorite. I think that is a sign of a good show. At least that is my opinion, and I'm sticking to it. 

To make it easy on all of you I'm leaving off Quincy, Mork and Mindy, Speed Racer, and many, many more. 

Extra Credit: Have you bought the aforementioned tv series on DVD? If not, would you if it were readily available at a reasonable price?

No, I don't have any of these shows on DVD. Shows that I do have are, for the most part, shows that won't come back and were cancelled early in their lifespan. Plus, Columbo is kind of expensive on DVD. At least last time I looked. 

What are some of your favorite shows?