Instead it's just Alan Burns fantasy to jerk himself off.

It's like how if you remove the laugh track from The Big Bang Theory it becomes a compelling drama about the broken social lives of people living with autism

so... you get 80s Mad Men?

In any context, it's not something I would be interested in, but I can see how that idea would be compelling to others.

That sounds more depressing than compelling, but yeah

This show had to walk so that its stars could run. Away to much bigger and better things.

And WHY IS EVERYONE SHOUTING!?

@@MforMovesets Everyone yelled in 80's sitcoms, I assume so they could be heard over the buzz of radiation their televisions were giving off.

It was written by someone's creepy uncle.

The test audiences were so uncomfortable they did the "forced uncomfortable laugh" and because the men responsible were used to those they thought it was genuine

Some still haven’t figured that out and the way business works, the people who made this are still in charge if still alive

aka it's a cartoon, and this is more realistic. people hate the truth, this is how the majority of relationships are conducted in the modern age. except in 2024, it's not a triangle, more like a harem.

Thanks for the info!

Scott was totally a vietnam vet. I saw a documentary on TV about how he went there to save his brother.

Ironically Dabney Coleman, the original choice, would have been too old for Vietnam!

@@jb888888888 Yeah he was totally a vet! He must have been jumping out of helicopters a lot too, since according to the documentary it involved a bunch of "leaping" 🤣

I'm guessing your brother was not sent to Vietnam. In January 1973, the United States and North Vietnam concluded a final peace agreement, ending open hostilities between the two nations. By the time your brother would have finished basic training the U.S. was not sending any more troops to Vietnam. War between North and South Vietnam continued, however, until April 30, 1975, when DRV forces captured Saigon, renaming it Ho Chi Minh City. My step-brother joined the Air Force in 1967 and made a career of the military until he retired as a colonel in the late 1990s. He never went to Vietnam and does not consider himself a Vietnam veteran, even though he was in the service during the Vietnam War era. Unless a serviceman was sent to Vietnam and served a tour of duty he cannot call himself a Vietnam veteran. Scott Bakula graduated high school in June 1973 so even if he joined the military right after graduation, which he didn't, he would not have gone to Vietnam. Unless the Lutz character he played on this show is supposed to be older than Scott Bakula's real age, he could not be a Vietnam veteran. Another example of how lame this show is.

Let's just hope that Alex Kurtzman doesn't drag him up to make a new "Archer" series after "Picard" runs its course.

@@christophertheriault3308 If it wasn’t Kurtzmann, and they made Archer redeeming…it could be interesting

That is a VERY good question!

He was great in Enterprise

Because he’s not that great ask Star Trek fans

And there should probably be more.

​@@christopherb501 replace that probably with a definitely

LOL! That's an understatement, now that family courts are set up to punish men for becoming husbands and fathers

​@QuartuvLarry oh hey, we found the target demographic for this shitty show

@@eviljoel Oh come on! You couldn't make that response to any of my OTHER comments? I'm being astute, here!

That's the best episode of Quantum Leap ever made

Could he do that for Enterprise? Please.

@@clwho4652 This *is* the timeline where he fixed Enterprise. You don't want to know what we got instead in the original timeline.

Ain't that a kick in the butt....?

Yeah, like, for instance, Fresh Prince or Saved by the Bell. You as the viewer know Will and Zach are bringing things on themselves, but it works because A. they're likable in some capacity, well, Will is, and B. it blows up in their faces. They get away with the occasional stunt, but only very rarely.

Becker is an example of how to do this well.

It's like Allan Burns and the writers totally didn't get what the entire point of an antihero is. At all! By the way, I just looked up some information about the show and saw that it had almost as many credited writers as it had episodes. Ten! No wonder that thing apparently rolled like a brick and flowed like a clogged toilet from episode to episode. Four of the writers were women. How were they okay with how the female main characters got treated? I remember the 1980s. Female television characters were constantly infantilised, psychologically pathologised, talked down to, and generally treated as if they were stupid (which I was oblivious to very early in the decade because I was too young to understand it, but it started to bother me later, more and more the older I got) - but this is bad, even for the time. I watched an interview with a female veteran television writer a couple of years ago, who basically said that she had to perform a spine removal surgery on herself, psychologically - or else she wouldn't have been able to get - and stay - employed in the industry. I wonder on which planet that oh-so progressive Hollywood is supposed to be that conservatives constantly whined and complained about even back then. Because it sure wasn't on Planet Earth!

A story with an arse of a main character who gets his ass whooped daily for being a pig? That'd be Johnny Bravo. Except that he literally never learns a damn thing & we just laugh at his suffering.

@@LikaLaruku "he gets what he deserves" and that's why we can laugh and appreciate the show. In these cases the writing for the side characters is what's truly directing the show. If the main character is celebrated by the side characters despite their bad behaviour it feels unrealistic and unsatisfying. If the side characters disapprove of their mean actions and show them that its wrong it feels way more relatable.

Exactly, you just look at Al and kinda laugh, and the show's cartoonish style helped.

Married with Children, 'One of The Best TV shows ever...!!!

@@Sum_Yousah Um... how was he not? He was a sexist selfish asshole who constantly put women down, whether for being too sexual (his own wife), or too ugly to make his dick stand up (every other woman). He was a terrible husband and a father, and that was the point. The whole show was sort-of parody of all the perfect family shows that aired at the time, and I remember hearing "Peggy" say in an interview that she was surprised a lot of people related to the show.

Except when he insulted fat women at his work, in which case he was a hero. What magic allows you to be so consistently rude to customers without getting fired?

I love people who are just stuck on one older sitcom.

Was about to write the same thing.

Snitch Allen's one-note _"I just don't get these modern times, with wimmins havin' opinions and wantin' to do things"_ schtick was so incredibly tedious and boring. It was as if he played an 80-year-old, not a man in his early 40s. I hate-watched "Home Improvement" for a while - and every episode I asked myself why Richardson's character didn't divorce that turd. I really only continued to watch for Debbe Dunning, to be honest. I didn't even know that Pamela Anderson was on the show at first, because I didn't see any early episodes.

Watch her as an evil mom in Christmas Evil.

@@henrygvidonas9573 Man, I thought I was the only one on Earth who hated Home Improvement!

@@henrygvidonas9573 That isn't fair to Home Improvement. That show was a true reflection of boomer guys like my dad who were coming to terms with feminism. Patricia's character in that show was perfect - she was sarcastic and funny, and also very likable. Most episodes revolved around Tim learning something about modern times and evolving. Sorry, but it was a good show.

Well I think that he was romantic and thoughtful and sweet. But I know that some people don't really have a sense of romance, or maybe you don't believe in true love

I honestly don't know which is worse, these sleazeball types of those that fall for it hook line sinker.

That's why your skin crawls, because in real life you actually fall for that. To everyone else it's a farce of a sitcom that you just sit back and laugh at.

Sending good thoughts for the pupper!

Good luck!

I hope the dog is better now.

@@justwaiting5744 hey thanks so much! She's doing very well. We don't know what happened that made her so sick, but she's basically back to 100% now. Thank you again for asking.

Come to think of it, this kind of reminds me of this short-lived Fox sitcom with Henry Winkler from the '90s called "Monty". In it, Winkler played a Rush Limbaugh/Archie Bunker-esque TV personality. A pre-"Friends" David Schwimmer played Winkler's liberal son. "Monty" kind of had the same issue as this show with Scott Bakula. Henry Winkler just seems too much of an inherent nice guy/good guy to fully believe and accept him as a boorish, politically incorrect, Archie Bunker type of character for the '90s.

I guessing the line is making fun of "A mind is a terrible thing to waste."

It's very A Night in Sickbay: you can see him dying inside saying the dialogue

Are you on your period?

Wrong, the show was awesome and the actor enjoyed it, so did the actresses

@@JamesChessman What even is this argument?

it's not just the 80s.

Daytime 80s

I don't remember this, and I watched lots of bad sitcoms in the 80's. I even watched Small Wonder.

@@jimmym3352 I loved Small Wonder as a child and refuse to rewatch as an adult. I want it to live in my mind as a cute, fun show, and nothing more.

@@TwoMarshmallows1 100% this

Seinfeld actually did this very well. 90% of the plots on that show are 'George/Elaine/Kramer tries to pull some zany scheme and suffers hilarious consequences for their disregard for social mores and norms while Jerry watches from the sidelines/coffeehouse after-action-report as a sarcastic observer'.

@@SavageGreywolf True, but I think that's why "Curb" works better: the protagonist isn't a passive observer but active participant. Also I think Jerry was the least funny part of the show bearing his name, but that's just my taste.

She's arguing against the sexism and generalisation of women.. it would be hypocritical to include a clip criticising all men.

@@neilr818 my husband's name is Neil Rawls. I know you're not him, lol, it's just a really funny coincidence.

@@neilr818 Did you seriously fucking "not all men" this?

I KZfaq searched to see what you were referring to and got some the worst search results I've ever got on this site. So thanks for *that.* 🙄

@@Delightfully_BitchyI’m sorry for that. It’s from the Baywatching episode Free Fall

Hmm I don't know man, it wasn't a theme that I ever noticed in the 80s and 90s but I might have missed the shows u were watching lol.

I'm a little too young to have any first-hand experience of the era, but my sense of the matter is that it was a sentiment, but not as prevalent as stated. Also, it's a sentiment that reinforces the idea that a man's value is in being successful in his job, and that if he can't be the primary or sole financial provider, he's low value.

@@seigeengine Man win bread Woman make dinner Oooga Booga

It's insidious, too, because careerist people tend to be insufferable in general. But the sexist narrative likes to pretend that it's only bad when *women* are.

Men in general want to be with women who need to depend on them, and women in general want to be with men who are more successful than them. Why is that a problem? Are people not allowed to have a preference?

Almost all the effort is getting started. Once you're going, it gets a lot easier to keep going.

@@seigeengine This. The guy got sitcoms made because he'd already broken into the biz, which was the hard part. Once you're in, you have connections and clout and have a much easier time even if your best ideas are well behind you.

Nothing about this show was 10% as annoying as Karen doing that naration.

I understood that reference

I think the reviewer may have been really sarcastic.

@@SlapstickGenius23 Either that, or the reviewer thinks men/awesome women/horrible, amiright? 🙄 Would finding such a troll on the internet really surprise anyone?

I want to see him leap into the girlfriend. I also want to see him leap into the Enterprise episode with the genocide. There could be an entire season of saving the victims of his worst shows.

@@juststatedtheobvious9633 I mean, I meant more the _production_ of the show, not him leaping into the show itself (think “Future Boy”), but I like your interpretation here.

Huh, interesting. Doesn't mean I'd want to watch a show about their dating habits, but good to know it's not complete fantasy.

​@@miriamrosemary9110 A show about people like that could be interesting as an exploration of how they became that type of person and the consequences but not as a sitcom.

2. But more importantly was that funny? Otherwise the show doesn't make sense.

Patricia Richardson was on Quantum leap also. The one where they are locked in a radio station and "Sam" helps Cubby Checker with the twist.

I was wondering why this felt like if Sam Malone was even douchier

@@Tareltonlives Sam Malone was douchey enough for all of these characters. But the writers were smart enough to know that and use it to make him lose and look stupid way more often than winning. Though he usually got what he wanted anyway

@@HusbandofLois At least some of the jokes were on his expense.

He was famous on Broadway before becoming a TV star so that makes sense!

@@Tea-uo7ev Thank you. I was unaware.

Really! Like, the fact that the two women know about each other right from the get-go, is kinda refreshing and could've been really funny! If only they had bonded over how AWFUL he is and cracked up laughing drunk over his douchebaggery...

My thoughts as well, but networks would rather portray toxic, selfish lead characters being abusive to their partners than actually suggest you can have a successful non-traditional relationship. Much healthier that way!

Becky: 100% right. That would have been the correct way to do it. Just have it all honest and there's still plenty of stuff to make episodes about such a 3-way relationship

And if he was a communist spy seducing American women to get vital state secrets it could be a sitcom about the cold war. What's your point?

@@seigeengine I just thought it wouldn't take that much effort to turn this into a less toxic show about polyamory was all, no need to be rude.

Speaking a sitcom that did a jerk protag. better.

Scott Bakula would have been awesome in Threes Company.

Three's Company was awesome. What are you talking about?

Somehow I have serious doubts that Allan Burns had a good understanding of how satire works. Also, Scott Bakula as the "bad boy that women with daddy issues bend over backwards for, because they _want! to! need! to! have! to! FIX! HIM!_ - even if it ruins their own lives..." trope just doesn't work. He has no "dangerous-but-irresistible" or "forbidden-fruit" appeal as "Bud Lutz". He's just loud, obnoxious, and totally unappealing in this role. Actors playing against type can be interesting - but sometimes it doesn't work. In this case, it REALLY doesn't work!

it's interesting tracking down the actual truffaut quote- not that the paraphrase here is inaccurate- but he's pressed on the point, asked about paths of glory and stranglove, and he responds yes, I think kubrick likes violence very much in this case, i think allan burns likes misogyny very much lol

Yeah, it’s roughly contemporaneous with The Golden Girls, which routinely addressed ageism, misogyny, racism, homophobia…. Oh and Designing Women with those glorious Julia Sugarbaker reads where she’d put a bigot of some kind in their place with a fiery monologue

At the very least, we can take solace in the fact that The Golden Girls was an adored ang ground breaking show, who still honored and homaged today. While Einsenhower & Lutz was rightfully cast into Oblivion.

It's worse than Big Bang Theory?

I never saw it. What is mysogynistic about it.

Watch Too Many Cooks, it satirizes the living hell out of that and other sitcom tropes.

Bakula was actually in a TV pilot where he turned into a half cyborg, half human, funnily enough.

@@Tea-uo7ev i think he was actually in two of those. I'm not sure if the other one he was an actual cyborg, but still. There's a video on here about his other failed pilots.

The 80's ? They've been around since the caveman times & will continue to exist.. 🙄

@@ROBYNMARKOW I'm referring specifically to what the tv show is trying to capture. I'm well aware that men like this have existed prior to and since that day. But the character in this show was very spot on to a specific type of man in the 80's that I saw personally. But yes, men in general are terrible and everyone pays the price (including men). What a screwed up culture we've created and enforced.

@@ReflexVE True, that type of male behavior was more tolerated back then . However, the vast majority of those w/XY chromosomes are alright👍

@@ROBYNMARKOW I don't really agree that most of us are. The pressure we are put under by other men to behave in harmful ways is incredible, and men who attempt to make kindness, caring and emotional available are usually punished by the other men in their lives, and to a lesser degree by women who are socialized to expect abuse. Even when we are 'alright' it is via overcoming of the society pushing us to behave destructively, especially towards women and sexual minorities. A lot of this is covered extremely well by a channel on here, Pop Culture Detective. For anyone curious, here's the link: kzfaq.infofeatured

@@ReflexVE Honestly, people are terrible in general. If I had to say any way in which men are differently terrible, it's that we're more likely to be violent. That said though, I'm even sketchy on that somewhat, since the only person to ever start the fight with me was a woman. I was in a lot more altercations as a kid, but I swung first on all of those. Plenty of men have tried to physically intimidate me without actually taking a swing, on the other hand, whereas no woman has ever tried to do that.

They did occasionally have people ask for Eisenhower and then they would always get Lutz, but in the episodes available online, it was never more than a 30 second issue.

At least it’s at a stage in his career in which there was no way he could say no to a lead role in a show. If this show came out in the years between Quantum Leap and Enterprise it would reflect much worse upon him

Well, at lest we avoided the timeline where the show lasted two seasons and Bakula wasn't on Quantum Leap.

Oh wow thanks so much!!

They should be taken with a grain of salt.

The reviews must be coming from sarcastic people.

Everything is fine as long as it's consensual. Don't question his mind control powers.

Thanks!

When I saw a Star Trek clip with Bakula I thought it was a parody until now.

Thanks!!

Oh boy

Thank you!