Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Crimson" data-source="post: 415997" data-attributes="member: 5079">As I was watching the half dozen or so episodes of PHYLLIS before moving on, I&#039;d had a similar thought.&nbsp; One of the recurring themes of Phyllis-centric episodes of MTM was Phyllis taking on a new passion project (politics, real estate) only for it to fizzle.&nbsp;&nbsp; Settling her into a season long job so quickly seemed like a mistake, as there was so much possibility of Phyllis trying and spectacularly failing at new career types.&nbsp; That would have limited the recurring supporting cast, but an employment agency could have provided some consistency of characters.It&#039;s always a tad jarring to me, as I rewatch MTM, how &#039;quickly&#039; Bess grew up.&nbsp; Logically I know it&#039;s because there was a five year span (seven, including PHYLLIS) but when you watch the episodes in a two month crunch it feels like she grew up in the blink of an eye.Even the MTM book I have cited here doesn&#039;t get too into the weeds on PHYLLIS.&nbsp;&nbsp; I think it&#039;s worth nothing that even MTM&#039;s ratings were dropping in the final two seasons.&nbsp; The book&#039;s premise is that the &#039;sophisticated&#039; sitcoms of the early 70s had fallen out of favor in the later half of the decade, as lighter fare like HAPPY DAYS and THREE&#039;S COMPANY grew in popularity.&nbsp; Alternately, with more than 300 episodes between the three series, maybe audiences were just getting tired of the MTM-verse.&nbsp; LOU GRANT would go onto new success, but with a drastic change in tone.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Crimson, post: 415997, member: 5079"] As I was watching the half dozen or so episodes of PHYLLIS before moving on, I'd had a similar thought. One of the recurring themes of Phyllis-centric episodes of MTM was Phyllis taking on a new passion project (politics, real estate) only for it to fizzle. Settling her into a season long job so quickly seemed like a mistake, as there was so much possibility of Phyllis trying and spectacularly failing at new career types. That would have limited the recurring supporting cast, but an employment agency could have provided some consistency of characters. It's always a tad jarring to me, as I rewatch MTM, how 'quickly' Bess grew up. Logically I know it's because there was a five year span (seven, including PHYLLIS) but when you watch the episodes in a two month crunch it feels like she grew up in the blink of an eye. Even the MTM book I have cited here doesn't get too into the weeds on PHYLLIS. I think it's worth nothing that even MTM's ratings were dropping in the final two seasons. The book's premise is that the 'sophisticated' sitcoms of the early 70s had fallen out of favor in the later half of the decade, as lighter fare like HAPPY DAYS and THREE'S COMPANY grew in popularity. Alternately, with more than 300 episodes between the three series, maybe audiences were just getting tired of the MTM-verse. LOU GRANT would go onto new success, but with a drastic change in tone. [/QUOTE]

Verification

What month follows July?