Fandango’s Dog Days of August #16
Fandango would like to know what my favorite TV show is and I have to say, it’s a tie. First of all, we’ve watched “The West Wing” at least half a dozen times during the Trump administration. Whenever we can’t stand the news anymore, we watch it. It wasn’t real. We know it’s a beautifully scripted television show but it reminds us that the U.S.A. used to have a government. A real one. With two functional parties. The last time we watched it, we saw it from start to finish then watched the whole series again.
After that, we discovered that “Boston Legal” was playing on Hulu and we watched all of it. We’ll probably watch it again, but right now, we are watching “The Practice” which was the show that came before “Boston Legal.” It’s not as good as “Boston Legal,” but it’s not bad either. And we’ll got back to “Boston Legal” again.
Meanwhile, if you’ve got nothing better to do and you need a touch of both humor and sanity, these are two great shows that might help you remember that we weren’t always like this. We weren’t always run by a stupid hulking man who apparently hates America and Americans. Just saying.
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Categories: comedy, Fandango's One Word Challenge, Government, Humor, Television, Word Prompt
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
I love The West Wing too and I’d watch it again anytime. It’s one of the few shows I’d consider buying a DVD box set of because I know I would watch them. It is usually screening somewhere although last time I looked it was with a channel I don’t take.
David loved Boston Legal. I sometimes watched it with him and found the plots interesting but I didn’t get into it as much as he did. I do enjoy a legal drama as I enjoy seeing how the cases are argued and they were especially good at that in BL. A lot of very quirky characters.
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You selected two truly outstanding TV shows. I enjoyed them both very much. But watching West Wing today just depresses me when I think about who is in the West Wing now.
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“The West Wing” has that impact on folks today given our current political chaos. I still LOVE the show, its characters and a political world that still could exist. “Wing” reminds me a lot of my “salad” days in TV News when guys like Jed Bartlett really existed. Tip O’Neill would be my best example. I fervently pray we get out tushes out to vote and give the current Oval Office squatter a rousing sendoff and return to oblivion/reality TV.
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I hope we can send Trump off with his tail between his legs, but I still worry that no matter the outcome of the election, he’s not going to go quietly.
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I’m just hoping the military is on OUR side.
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The sounds of his chains and handcuffs will make a 3 dog night howl.
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I liked both of these shows. The final episodes of The Practice laid the groundwork for Boston Legal if I remember correctly. I watched them regularly when they had their original runs.
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We really loved Boston Legal, especially because Garry had never seen it before. I saw parts of it, but those were days were watching TV wasn’t mostly what I did. I was working so many hours, by the time I got home, I made dinner and crashed. Now, though … well …
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Rich, “The Practice” is becoming Legal 101 on why so many lawyers are depressed and self-medicated. I met many a “counselor” during lunch and we shared our woes over all the human garbage we devoted our professionals lives to covering, defending or prosecuting. I love the Judge with a rapacious sexual appetite. Sad to say I never met anyone like her during the trials I covered. The other, really kinky clients are way too familiar to me.
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Two wonderful shows. We’re enjoying “Endeavor” now.
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I’ve been watching Endeavor as well. It is a great series.
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Where’s “Endeavor” and tell me more, please.
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Garry, “Endeavor” is on PBS, Masterpiece at 9 PM on Sundays in Los Angeles.
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Endeavour (we must have the British spelling) is a British series running on PBS. They’re on series 7 now. It is hard to equate them with seasons as they are varying length. This one is just 3 episodes. Two have aired here. It is an Inspector Morse prequel set in the 60s and now the 70s. You have to love those British mysteries.
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I haven’t watched the complete series but do like both of these shows! Is Martin Sheen too old to run for president, do you think…
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Sheen is 80 but I would vote for him anyway.
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I would too.
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Apparently — at least as far as I can tell — NO ONE is too old. Just too young. And maybe that will change.
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Well we tried an actor once and that didn’t really work, but maybe we just chose the wrong actor. Plus, we don’t have any guaranty that Martin Sheen would remain in character (Bartlett) for two terms? That being said, I’d vote for him. I also liked Jimmy Smitts.
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Becky, we just saw Martin Sheen in a commercial. He may be old but he still looks like he could run the Oval Office with class, empathy and humor.
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I imagine he could!
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Good answers Marilyn.
Leslie
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They really ARE our current favorites. We really enjoyed Boston Legal. Great scripts. Not only interesting, but also (a lot of the time) funny.
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I agree. Many of the clients are probably from “Barney Miller”.
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My husband is re-watching Boston Legal, we had watched it when it was on network television. He says he had forgotten how very good it was. The only shows I have ever rewatched were “Saving Grace” and “Midsommer Murders” and the early seasons of “Frasier”
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I saw some (but not all) of Boston Legal when it was first on, but I think it’s actually more relevant now than it was then.
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Hey! Where’s Poole? Don’t see him in the group photo?
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He was intermittent. Crazy and only popped onto the show when they needed a crazy partner for some reason. He wasn’t a regular.
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Yeah I believe it was the very first episode? Kinda set the direction of the rest of the series, wouldn’t cha say?
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These two, “West Wing” and “Boston Legal,” are tied for first place in my roster of favorite shows, with Boston Legal taking a slight lead due to the comedic element. The comedy in BL never takes away from the issues the characters are dealing with, whether blatant or subtle.
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A lot of the issues are more relevant now than they were back when. That had to be Capt. Kirk’s best role.
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I can only comment on WEST WING. Loved it, loved it….. Even we Europeans had to rewatch bits of it just to forget for a few hours the man who is sitting there right now! 🙂
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And the scripts were truly brilliant. Scripts. Good scripts. They cut across generations, political opinions, and everything else. We need better writers and networks who support them.
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We always said (not knowing anything really about How the White Hse functions): This could be ‘so’…. it’s so real…. (that’s what we thought then – little did we know! Now we know too much!!!)
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One of the things I got in the most recent viewing of West Wing was how many wrong decisions were made and how much more I understand now than I did then.
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I loved both of these shows when they aired.
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They are just as good now. Better, maybe.
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Scary isn’t it…?
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I think when we ponder how we got where we are now, we need to look at what we did in the past … and how much was wrong with it. One of the things I noticed last time we watched West Wing was how many very wrong-headed positions we took and never thought about it. What we have it what we allowed and even encouraged — unknowingly — to happen. I hope we have gained some political sophistication and won’t do that again because I think we are out of time.
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