The Life Of Reilly

The Duffless Foundation is very sad to hear the news that actor, director and game show personality Charles Nelson Reilly has passed away over the holiday weekend at the age of 76 from complications from Pneumonia . Charles will be sorely, sorely missed.

Reilly was an accomplished stage actor...winning a Tony early in his career. He was also on many television series, and was a frequent contributor to many talk shows, including The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. But who are we kidding, he is best known for his work on the long running game show...Match Game, hosted by Gene Rayburn. Charles was one of many stars who were regulars on the show, but he is often associated with Brett Somers, his neighbor in the top row of stars. Other regulars were Richard Dawson, Fannie Flagg, MacLean Stevenson and Betty White. The Match Game was really a groundbreaking show, with it's risque talk and subject matter.

After the Match Game, and a host of other Game Show appearances, Reilly made many guest appearances on shows such as The Love Boat...The Drew Carey Show, and one of Duffless' favorite xfiles ever. He was nominated for Emmies for both the Drew Carey Show and the Xfiles. He was later nominated for another Tony, this time for direction, and also produced the one man show...The Life of Reilly, in which he came out of the closet for the first time ever.

Charles Nelson Reilly also may be the greatest Halloween Costume I'd ever come up with ...until I pulled off Meatloaf a couple of years ago. I really need to find the pictures of that night.

CNR...you will be missed...and the Duffless Foundation salutes you and your tremendous body of work.

What Has Happened To The Sitcom?

First off...I'd like to also say that our 2 month hiatus was inexcusable and unnecessary, but I will do my best to keep this blog going strong and better than ever. So with that Let's start this blog up again for the second time!

i'm 30 years old...I was born in 1976 that means I was I was around during what I consider the golden age of the sitcom...let's say between the mid 80's and the mid 90's...Back in those days you could count on a steady diet of great 30 minute blocks of comedy, back to back pretty much every night of the week. Let's look at a typical weekly schedule on the 4 networks...every night there were at least two great sitcoms on. For example in 1988/1989 here were the Sitcoms on every night of the week:

Sunday Nights: Family Ties, Married With Children, My Two Dads

Monday Nights: Alf, Valerie's Family, Kate And Allie, Newhart, Designing Women (I'm not saying I liked them all mind you, but hey it's a sitcom)

Tuesday Nights: Who's The Boss, Growing Pains (the Wonder Years was added mid season)

Wednesday Night: Perfect Strangers, Head Of The Class

Thursday Night: Sledge Hammer, The Cosby Show, A Different World, Cheers, Night Court

Friday Night: Full House, Max Headroom

Saturday Night: My Sister Sam, Everything's Relative, Amen, 227, Golden Girls, Facts Of Life.

That's about 30 Sitcoms over the course of the week, and of those I'd say I watched about 15 of them pretty regularly...Let's compare that to 2006/2007.

Sunday Night: The Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad, War at Home (only one of which is live action!)

MOnday Night: The Class, How I Met Your Mother, New Adventures of the Old Christine, Two And A Half Men

Tuesday Night: None

Wednesday Night: 30 Rock originally aired on Wednesday, but I'll include that on Thursday cause that's where it ended up...so NONE.

Thursday Night: My Name Is Earl, The Office, Scrubs, The Afforementioned 30 Rock. Til Death apparently is on Fox, but I don't think anyone has ever watched this.

Friday Night: None

Saturday Night: None.

So basically 4 nights a week, there isn't a single Sitcom on the air. One night a week there is exactly one sitcom that uses actual actors...all the others are animated. So we'll say basically 4.5 nights a week, there isn't a single sitcom on the air. I figure that makes for 9 maybe 10 sitcoms per week...compared to 3o. Where have they all gone? Why are they not popular anymore.

I realize that there is so much to do these days, with cable, internet, dvd, etc...but back in the day...Thursday night was an event, everyone watched The Cosby Show and Cheers...Everyone! People still make an effort to watch hour long reality shows, or dramas, but not 30 minute comedies? Are they too expensive to make? Are struggling comedians asking for too much money these days?

Sometimes I don't want to invest 1 hour into a show, I want to laugh, and be done with something quick, which is why I love How I Met Your Mother, and the Thursday NBC lineup. but apparently no one else does because the only comedies even in the top 20 of the ratings per week are Two and A Half Men (unwatchable), and King Of Queens (not even on anymore!). I find this so hard to believe, EVERYONE talks about the office. I know for a fact that I will talk to people tomorrow about Pam and Jim going out to dinner! I'm going to talk about The Temp breaking up with Kelly, I'm going to talk about Shrute Bucks, and people are going to know what I'm talking about, yet it's not even in the top 20 of the ratings!

It just bothers me that good quality programming isn't getting made, because it's easier to win in the ratings with a 4th Law and Order, or a different quiz show hosted by a has been actor, or a show where people Sing or Dance and get judged. I may have failed in my attempt to make PBR the number one beer in America for the first time since 1893...but I won't fail in my attempt to bring back the Sitcom to the American Airwaves...

Bruce Campbell is The Man - and We're Back

No excuses, the Foundation dropped the ball these past two months, but now we are back and more useless than ever.

I'm not going to waste too much precious Foundation time to explain in in detail the man, the myth, the legend that is Bruce Campbell. If you haven't seen Evil Dead II, Army of Darkness or Bubba Ho Tep, what are you even doing here? Bruce is, basically the King of all "That Guys." So soon have you forgotten The Adventures of Brisco County Jr, or Jack Of All Trades???

I've been an FOB or fan of Bruce for years now. I was lucky enough to get to meet him and have my copy of his best seller, "If Chin's Could Kill" signed. Presently, he's the new spokesman for Old Spice. Old Spice is smart to use quirky marketing to reach a younger audience, as I believe the average has long since made the pages of the book of the dead. His cult status and "Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way" persona, might just give them the street cred they are looking for, so mad props to the marketing genus behind this. The latest ad just premiered this weekend and its even better than ever. So for your viewing pleasure I present, Bruce and Duran Duran:



For more Bruce action, I suggest you check out Spiderman 3 for no other reason than the Bruce cameo. A life long friend of Sam Raimi, Bruce appears in almost every Raimi movie, in addition to many Coen brother films. So far Bruce has been a Wrestling Announcer, a snooty theater usher/manager and now he's at his cult finest playing a snooty, possibly fake french accented matre'd. The movie was kinda lame, but Bruce's five minutes were spectacular. Word is the scene is up on You Tube, Yahoo, but since I don't feel like being sued this week, I'll leave you with that info. Bruce will also be releasing a documentary movie later this year

The Zombie March 2007 had a few references to Bruce this weekend. A sign recommending the election of Bruce in 2008 and a non zombie, Asian Ash from Evil Dead. Stay tuned for more about the Zombie March later this week. Now Gimme some sugar, baby!