Friday, November 5, 2021

who makes the fog surrounding the golden gate simply disappear?

When Phyllis, Cloris Leachman's spinoff from The Mary Tyler Moore Show, I wasn't what you'd call a regular viewer. I loved MTM, but just didn't get into the spinoff. I vaguely recall trying a couple episodes and not liking it. But I have few specific memories other than frequent mention of "Lars" and the clever theme song. So, for decades I thought of Phyllis as a sort of inferior copy of MTM.


But, recently, I found the first episode on Youtube. I forget how or why it came up, but there it was. And I started watching it. And found it quite funny -- not hysterical laugh-out-loud funny, but clever. So now I've been watching complete episodes on Youtube -- sadly, I can't seem to find them anywhere else.

I think my favorite character is Audrey (Phyllis' air-headed but well-meaning mother-in-law). One of my favorite exchanges (as Phyllis, Audrey and Jonathan (Audrey's husband) are sitting down at a fancy restaurant):

Audrey: Why, they serve every kind of fish in the sea here. I can't imagine why we haven't been here before.
Jonathan: You hate fish.
Audrey: Maybe that's it.

Another (when it dawns on Phyllis how old her daughter is getting):

Phyllis: It was only yesterday that I nursed her at my breast, played pattycake with her, put on her booties, sprinkled talcum on her little bottom. Only yesterday...
Audrey: I thought you went to that new Woody Allen picture yesterday.

Who knows? Maybe I'll even give Rhoda a shot. I really hated that when I was a kid.

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