Ep. 79: The Play's the Thing

Hi! My name is Terry J. Aman and this installment marks my 79th episode of VideoFuzzy, reporting the progress I've made in cataloging nearly 3,000 VHS transfers and digital recordings. Wishing everyone a safe and healthy 2022! For this installment, titled "The Play's the Thing," in my Friday Night Feature I talk about show-within-a-show plot points I encountered in "Leverage," "Burn Notice," "The Closer," "Monk," "Hung," "In Plain Sight," "The Simpsons," "Drop Dead Diva" and "Better Off Ted," and their place and use in productions.

In Cross Connections, I explore K. Callan's appearances as a Golden Thread through a lot of the media I grew up watching and throughout my media collection, and representing the tightest connection I've found so far to "Knives Out" through Frances Conroy in "Remington Steele" and Ed Begley Jr. in "St. Elsewhere" to "Six Feet Under," binding quite a few shows to the mystical center of my media collection in my "Studio Six Feet Under" challenge. I also noted Justina Machado in the "One Day at a Time" reboot puts every Norman Lear production also one step removed from "Six Feet Under." And K Callan's involvement in several shows featured in Chris Cooling's podcast "Forgotten TV" gave me a great opportunity for a quick shoutout to that excellent production.

Other connections I talk about in my Classic Collection discussion include Christine Baranski's appearance in "Psych" with the more usual recurring character of Cybill Shepherd in "Cybill." Also, John Schneider's appearances in "Dirty Sexy Money," "Nip/Tuck" and "Leverage," and connections through "The Closer," "Cougar Town," "Drop Dead Diva" and "Rescue Me."

In Fond Reflections, together with the loss to the world of Betty White, I extend my deep condolences to the "All About Agatha" podcast team, with the sudden passing of cohost Catherine Brobeck, celebrating her contributions in superlative discussion, debate and insights into the vast majority of mystery novelist, Queen of Crime Agatha Christie's body of work, and all the best to Kemper Donovan in the wake of the devastating loss of his friend and cohost in this more than five year journey. It was so good to have this too brief acquaintance.

In my Classic VHS-to-DVD collection, discussion of dustups on "Rescue Me," additional cross connections, a screen capture of cool art I saw in "Burn Notice" I posted to VideoFuzzy's Instagram account, a clip from Portishead's "Only You" in the cold open for "Warehouse 13," and the Comedy Central Roast of Joan Rivers.

Also, tracking the car crash I foreshadowed a couple episodes back, documenting some weirdness I encountered in hopping from Binder No. 6 to Binder No. 7 – a blank disc, two copies of disc 1241 (now marked 1241-1 and 1241-2), and the odd displacement of Disc 1449, now exhaustively documented among this latest installment of "History's Most Boring Mysteries."

In my Current direct-to-digital collection, discussion of "Doctor Who: Flux," exploring Weeping Angels, Division, an Ood, the Mad Mole of Liverpool, a snake alien involved from the earliest beginnings of UNIT, and at the center of it all, a tri-phasic Doctor and her team with chameleon arch tech, a grumpy doggo, a planet called Time, the Temple of the Mora and a confrontation with the Vanquishers while a Gallifreyan scientist tries to destroy the universe from outside of it.

Also, commentary on "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind," "Queens," "Live in Front of a Studio Audience: The Facts of Life and Diff'rent Strokes" and the 2002 Bruce Willis movie "Bandits" featuring Tanita Tikaram's "Twist in my Sobriety."

And in What I've Been Watching, Ralph and I have been watching "My Hero Academia," and we recently took in the prequel installment, "The King's Man." Fun show.

Finally, a link to my eighth installment of "VideoFuzzy: The Video" with comments from my Friday Night Feature: https://youtu.be/Xdn6tRm2LU4

TOP TEN: Here's a "top ten" episode guide for people looking for a quick read-in on this blog and podcast effort. Enjoy! https://videofuzzy.libsyn.com/about