As I posted earlier, Don Knotts’ character on The Andy Griffith Show, Barney Fife, is what I consider to be the funniest in television history. I’m sure that will spark some debate here. If there’s one thing I love, it’s humor. And there have been a lot of funny people on television over the years.
Here are my top 10. I’d love to read yours:
1) Don Knotts as Barney Fife in The Andy Griffith Show
2) Homer Simpson in The Simpsons
3) Tim Conway in The Carol Burnett Show
4) Carroll O’Connor as Archie Bunker in All in the Family
5) Art Carney as Ed Norton in The Honeymooners
6) Bob Newhart in Newhart
7) Danny De Vito as Louie De Palma
Roseanne in Roseanne
9) Ted Danson as Sam Malone in Cheers
10) Matt LeBlanc as Joey in Friends
Honorable Mention
Estelle Getty as Sophia in Golden Girls
Jackie Gleason in The Honeymooners
Ted Knight as Ted Baxter in The Mary Tyler Moore Show
John Ritter as Jack Tripper in Three’s Company
Garry Shandling, Rip Torn and Jeffrey Tambor in The Larry Sanders Show
Gale Gordon as Theodore Moony on The Lucy Show
Kevin James as Doug Heffernan on The King of Queens
Irene Ryan as Granny on The Beverly Hillbillies
Steve Landesberg as Det. Arthur Dietrich on Barney Miller
Redd Foxx as Fred Sanford on Sanford and Son
It’s time to once again dissect my favorite show on television. Which, ironically, includes my least favorite character on television. Which (even more irony) is the character whom after the show is named _ Dr. Meredith Grey (played by Ellen Pompeo, left).
She slept with Dr. O’Malley, a dreadful thing for her to do. She claimed to feel really bad about it, but I don’t trust this manipulative woman as far as I could throw her.
I recognize love is complex. What I don’t understand is why Dr. McDreamy is so captivated by this horrible woman. And why he won’t throw himself into a reconciliation with his gorgeous and very together wife (as played by Kate Walsh, left) instead of remaining so focused on Dr. Grey.
I think we need a poll here among all of you Grey’s Anatomy aficionados. Should Dr. Shepherd pursue Dr. Grey? Or should he focus on making things work with his wife? Granted, she did cheat on him with his best friend, something which cannot be dismissed lightly.
Still, my vote is for McDreamy to work on his relationship with his wife. Throw Dr. Grey to the curb once and for all. PLEASE!!!!!
Now that I’ve been faithfully going to the Y five times a week, I have had time to become thoroughly disgusted by some of the things I see. Here are the four things they don’t tell you about when you get your YMCA membership:
1) Occasionally, old men will walk through the place in really short shorts or spandex shorts. They must be re-living their youth. They’re showing way too much skin. I’m guessing they don’t have a woman at home to tell them how to dress. I wish they had somebody.
2) Kids, kids, kids. A lot of parents seem to look at the Y as a house of babysitting. So they drop their kids off and let them romp through the place, unsupervised. They get in the way.
3) Wipe off the machines when you’re finished using them. This is done as a matter of practice at the Northeast Y, my personal favorite. It doesn’t seem to be done much at all at the West Y.
4) Grunting on the weight machines. I recognize lifting weights can be difficult and, at times, excruciating. But if you’re grunting while you’re lifting, you’re trying to life too much weight. I think some of the men who make noises while they lift believe it sounds macho. Nope, fellas, it sounds pathetic.
The news hit me pretty hard when my son informed me that Don Knotts had died. In my humble opinion, Knotts’ Barney Fife character on the old Andy Griffith Show is the best character in the history of television.
I have probably watched everybody episode of that show 100 times, but only the episodes that included Knotts. When he left the show to make movies (some of them were really funny, too) I stopped watching. Not that I didn’t enjoy Andy, Opie, Aunt Bee, Floyd, Gomer, Goober and all the others, but Knotts made the show.
It’s been probably a year since I watched an episode. I used to TIVO them because when I got home at the end of the day I couldn’t think of anything more relaxing than watching Barney Fife plays this incredible, wonderful character. I’m going to do that again. And I’m going to lament the loss of one of the people who has given me great joy over the years.
Some cute girls, huh? And even a few who can sing.
My first-night impression from American Idol is that one of three women _ Katharine 
McPhee, Lisa Tucker and Paris Bennett _ are going to reach the finals. I don’t see any way for anyone else to sneak into the competition. They’re all too good, far and away the best of the 12 who participated 
on Tuesday night’s show.
I’m really pulling for Kellie Pickler because she’s such a down-to-earth, sweet girl who has been through a lot of difficult times. I wanted her to win from the first time I saw her. She might go on to do things in the music world, but she’s out of her league in this competition. Sorry to say.
I have a soft spot for Melissa McGhee, who looks like a girl I had a crush on in high school. I have often wondered what happened to that girl. I wonder if she wonders about me? Sorry, doing a little daydreaming there. Anyway, McGhee is cute, but not one of the best singers.
Most of the women are really likable. But unless somebody shows something they didn’t show Tuesday night, it’s a three-woman race.
Here’s the order of finish after Round 1:
1. Katharine McPhee
1a. Paris Bennett
1b. Lisa Tucker
4. Mandisa
5. Kellie Pickler
6. Kinnik Sky
7. Ayla Brown
8. Melissa McGhee
9. Becky O’Donohue
10. Brenna Gethers
11. Heather Cox
12. Stevie Scott
Stevie, you’re going home.
Wow. First just let me say that after watching Sunday night’s episode, I long to work in a place with as many love triangles, rectangles and even octagons as the hospital in this television show.
Everybody loves everybody. It seems like everybody is having sex with everybody else. There was even a patient on Sunday’s show whose medical problem was uncontrollable orgasms.
Here’s the problem: Dr. Grey, the annoying and mousy Dr. Grey played by Ellen Pompeo, still loves Dr. Shepherd. He loves her. But he’s with his ex-wife, whom he left because she was cheating with his best friend. His best friend showed up in Sunday’s episode professing his undying love for Dr. Shepherd. Not him, her. She said she loves Dr. Shepherd, but seems well aware that he doesn’t love her. So she might still love the old best friend of her husband with whom she had an affair.
Now Dr. O’Malley, the sweetheart of the show, finally told Dr. Grey he loves her. That he’ll never leave her. That he always wants to be with her. As Sunday’s episode ended, the two of them were alone in a bedroom _ next so surgical rooms bedrooms are highly popular on this show _ and Dr. Grey was taking off Dr. O’Malley’s shirt. I don’t think it was to do a chest exam.
What this show has taught me above everything is that medical interns and residents are probably the horniest creatures on Earth. I’ll be watching next week to see who sleeps with who.
And I repeat, this stuff does not go on at The Wichita Eagle.
I’m pretty sure I have never had food poisoning before. I’m also pretty sure I have it now. I could tell you why I’m so sure, but this is a family blog.
OK, all I had to eat yesterday was a salad from Dillon’s. I’m guessing there was a bad piece of chicken in that salad. And it made my Thursday evening and night one of the longest on record. I was up at least once every hour doing _ well _ doing. I had no idea a human body could carry so much fluid. Yuck, I’m grossing myself out.
Anyway, I am feeling slightly better now. But not a whole lot. I have absolutely no appetite. I can’t imagine ever having an appetite again.
This food poisoning stuff is nasty. Thought you should know.
I was reading the Suzanne Tobias’s blog (you should check it out on Kansas.com) and noticed where she had made a list of some of the common misconceptions people have about her.
She could only think of four and asked readers to come up with a fifth.
Well, I want to play. And, of course, I want it to be about me.
What are the misconceptions about me?
People think I’m intolerant. OK, true. I don’t suffer fools very well. It’s something I should work on. Then again, why suffer?
People think I’m grouchy and curmudgeonly. Guilty. But not as much as you might think.
People think I’m bright, witty and articulate. Boy, do I have them fooled.
People think I like stirring things up in my newspaper column and on my radio show with Bruce Haertl. Well, duh. Given the tremendous fortune to do both, why wouldn’t I try to stir things up? Doesn’t mean I’m always right _ just most of the time.
People think I’m kidding when I tell them I don’t have an emotional investment to Wichita State, Kansas and Kansas State. As a journalist, I cannot have an emotional investment to the teams I write about. What I can say is that it’s more fun to cover a good Wichita State basketball team than a bad one. The same holds true for the other two Kansas schools. But either way, I don’t lose sleep.
I can’t think of any others. If you have any, let me know. Just be nice.
I’m a man and I enjoy looking at attractive women in skimpy swimsuits. I am the dead-on target audience for the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, which I’m hoping is in my mailbox when I get home tonight.
I believe there is a spread on tennis player Maria Sharapova in the magazine. I’m giving you faithful blog readers a first look at one of the photos. Thank me later.
I watch a lot of television. It’s true. I have found that watching TV is easier than reading books and actually thinking.
Having said that, my favorite television show of the moment is 24. It’s in its fifth season and I never miss an episode.
Never!
If it’s Monday between 8 and 9 p.m., you know what I’m doing.
This season has been typically brilliant and Jack Bauer is involved in saving the world for the fifth time. He is chasing terrorists who want to unleash nerve gas on American soil and so far their plan is unfolding.
Kiefer Sutherland was born to play the Jack Bauer role. So far, in five seasons of 24, he has been responsible for ridding the world of 107 wrongful souls. There is probably more killing on 24 than any other show in history. It makes The Sopranos look like Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.
The show includes a goofy-acting president and his not-all-there wife, which isn’t exactly a stretch. Just kidding, all of you Bush people. It has great character, especially Chloe and Edgar in the ICU office. You don’t know who is good and who is bad. The action is non-stop. An hour of this show skips by in what seems like a few minutes.
If you watch, share your thoughts.
