Reunited And It Feels So…Umm…Good?
Much to CBS's surprise during the last November's sweeps, The Carol Burnett Reunion Show was a humongous ratings winner. An average of 30 million viewers watched this reunion show on that particular evening. 30 million people! That's a lot of viewers. Now if you were a network executive and bore witness to the unmitigated success of a show that primarily is approximately 80% old footage that is already shown a million times a day in syndication, what would you do? I'll tell you what you would do! You'd jump on that telephone and contact as many of the surviving members of The Love Boat crew as you could and see if they're available to do a reunion show. "Miss Tessmacher! Get me the number of that fella who played Gopher! And quickly!" Unfortunately as much as I personally hoped a Love Boat reunion show would be broadcast, I'm afraid it will never be. But, all three networks will each be showing their own reunion show's this month alone. NBC is going to be broadcasting the Cosby Show reunion. CBS will be showing the return of the Mary Tyler Moore cast and ABC, well…I'm going to save that for the end.

The Cosby Show was the late 80's ratings blockbuster that laid the foundation for NBC's fabled Thursday night line up. Come May 19th the entire cast will reunite to reminisce about Bill Cosby's various garish sweaters and reflect back on the humourous escapades of the Huxtable brood. Actually that is not entirely true. Apparently Lisa Bonet, now known as Liliakoi Moon, for whatever reason felt that returning for this event would be beneath her. This coming from the woman who sucked face with Mickey Rourke in the blockbuster smash, "Angel Heart" and is currently living off the avails of Lenny Kravitz's child support payments. Regardless this special will be shown with many hilarious clips, none of them however featuring Lisa…I mean Liliakoi. Now maybe I'm alone here, but doesn't it seem kind of soon to be having a Cosby reunion show? Although the show officially left prime time about nine years ago, it has still run rampant as a syndication staple on many other channels. I mean I really don't think that this show has effectively left our collective conscious as of yet. Do we really need to hunker down on the couch for two hours and watch clips of a show that we may have already seen over the past week in syndication? Regardless, I'll still tune in, besides I have to know what Keshia Knight Pulliam's (Rudy) been doing for the last 10 years. I heard rumours she almost died of cough drop overdose, but I doubt they'll discuss it on the show.

On May 13th, CBS will be broadcasting the Mary Tyler Moore reunion show. All of the surviving cast members will be interviewed by Mary and of course there will be clips abound. CBS is pulling out all the stops in promoting this event. In the city of Minneapolis a bronze statue has been erected that depicts the famous final scene in the opening sequence of the show where Mary tosses her hat into the air. You know the one I'm talking about…you're going to make it after alllllllllll….never mind. On that same day Ms. Moore also threw out the first pitch at a Twins game. I think it was a curve ball. I'm not going to lie, I'm looking forward to seeing this particular reunion. I love this show. I have seen every episode. It's been almost 25 years since it's been on prime time and it barely exists in syndication. So logically this show does deserve a reunion. My only potential misgiving about this show is seeing the cast in the present. I mean Mary Tyler Moore is 65 years old and looks relatively pleasant due to the miracles of modern science but what about the rest? Gavin McLeod? Ed Asner? I'd hate to admit it, but I think it would be kind of depressing to see how old these guys have gotten, especially if Gavin McLeod shows up in his Captain Stubing outfit. "No, Gavin, wrong show, the other one! The other one!"

Now my favourite. ABC has pulled out a real humdinger of a reunion show let me tell you. Of all the shows this network has produced over the years, ABC has chosen to reunite the cast of this particular show for the pleasure of their viewing audience. Can you guess? I bet you can't. No it's not Full House, thank the Lord. On May 21st you will be able to bear witness to the return of the hosts of that famous show of shows…That's Incredible! Do you remember this show? It essentially was a showcase for circus freaks and daredevil's and all the crazy stunts they performed. So, John Davidson, Fran Tarkenton and Cathy Lee Crosby are all taking a break from their dinner theatre gigs to reunite and bring back the magic that was That's Incredible! But here's the best part, the freaks are coming back as well. Talent that appeared on the show seventeen years ago are returning to do the same crap they did when they first came on. Like Rubik's cube champion Dan Knights who is returning to break his completion record of 15.6 seconds! Rubik's cube?! Do they even sell those things anymore? I'm not a psychic but I really don't see bonanza ratings in this reunion's future.

So let's see how long this will last. I'm interested in seeing how many more of these shows are going to crop up. I mean there's plenty of material out there. I can visualize the cast of "Alice", "One Day At A Time" or "Welcome Back Kotter" just sitting by their phones in their expectation of that magical phone call that will revive their careers to their former glory. So if we cross our fingers really tight maybe we'll be lucky enough to see Arnold Horshack live again!

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