Merch: Mr. Kotter: The Shirt

I featured this on Plaidstallions when I first opened but it's so wonderfully terrible that it requires a weensy bit more exposure. I wonder who thought a dress shirt with the face of Gabe Kaplan was going to be a hot seller?

I'm miffed that this person didn't think that this should have been a series which included apparal with the likeness of Abe Vigoda, Jack Klugman and Vic Tayback?

Now, those would have flown off shelves!

Shortlived: The Winner

The Winner was Seth McFarlane's (Family Guy) non animated sitcom about a successful man reflecting on his early thirties, when he was a clerk at a video store who lived at home with his coddling mother and not so pleased Father (sitcom veteran Lenny Clarke).

The show was an interesting mash of ideas but for the most part it felt like a less weird version of "Get a Life" with Rob Corddry pretty much being a more audience friendly Chris Eliot.

Fox aired the initial six episodes sporadically as possible and then it was gone, it seemed like they were placating McFarlane and nothing more. A lot of brilliant shows come out of Fox and they get plenty of support, then other times they cancel Futurama, Firefly and Family Guy, I don't get it.

Personally, I liked the series, Corddry is a great lead and the show was set in Buffalo, NY ( Having been weaned on Buffalo TV, I consider myself an honoury resident, no really). Also, the character worked in a lousy retail job in the early ninties, something I can certainly relate to.

I'm not surprised it didn't last though...

Never Seen Again!

Everybody knows about TVs lost characters, people who are lazily removed from TV shows without so much as a mention. The most popular character for most would be Chuck Cunningham from Happy Days, who was predominant in the first season then never mentioned or seen again. My guess is he did something really horrible and the Cunninghams disowned him, maybe he got into reefer or something.

Chuck is not alone in sitcom Limbo, here are a few more characters that were simply removed without notice:

That 70s Show: In an early episode, the gang is being driven crazy by Donna's bratty little sister, she is never heard from again. What the hell did they do to her?
M*A*S*H: Ugly John and Spearchucker Jones got the bum's rush after the first season, it's the army, they could have been transferred or sent home but we didn't get an explaination.

My Three Sons: Mike Douglas, the eldest boy of the guy who looks like Shazam just pfffft! disappeared in 1965, maybe he's with Adam Cartwright...

30 Rock: (edited) When I wrote this on Monday morning, the character of Josh hadn't been seen at all this year nor was he mentioned, he was once central to the plot of the series, so I assumed he had been written out. Last night, he mysteriously appeared again like he had been there all the time. He wasn't given much to do however....

Shortlived: Working

Working was Fred Savage's attempt to get back into TV and be taken seriously as an adult actor after years of child success on the Wonder Years. I don't know why it wasn't a bigger hit, the show was tapping into that whole "Cubicle Comedy" craze that Dilbert seemed to launch.

Savage proved to be a good leading man and the show was actually very funny, often absurd and over the top but I'm a fan of that. The second season did a big cast change (something I'm not a fan of, let a show grow I say) and it never recovered.

When I watch other Corporate Sitcoms like "The Office" and "The IT crowd", I have to admit that I think Working got the shaft.

Syndicated: Out of the World

Out of this World was the story of Evie, who on her 16th Birthday is told that her father is an alien, no, not like the gardener (an actual joke from the pilot) but a space alien. The onset of puberty brings along special powers for Evie like the ability to stop time.

If you haven't seen this show, I'll spoil it for you, it's not very good. I'll also confess that I've seen every episode! You see, OOTW (as we fans refer to it as) ran at 12:30 when I was in college. Which was right after "Leave it to Beaver" and either it was my love for series co-star Doug McClure or my hatred for Political Science (Oh how I failed that year) but somehow I sat through all 96 episodes. Maybe at the start of every show I got fooled into thinking it was Buck Rogers, seeing as the stock footage is all taken from there.

Burt Reynolds (yes that Burt Reynolds) did the voice of Evie's deadbeat space dad, which came out of a fancy lava lamp thingee. Evie and her mom (played by "Angie" Donna Pescow) were also beleagured by a crew of whacky neighbours and relatives such as their fat, food crazed Uncle Beano and "comedian" Buzz Bellmondo, who was truly the "Ray Jay Johnson" of the 1980s.

I wish I could back in time and beat the living hell of my college self...