Friends

Friends (1994-2004, created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman) was an iconic sitcom of the 1990s and a cornerstone of NBC's "must-see TV" Thursday night lineup for ten years. In a similar vein to Seinfeld, its airing partner for many years, Friends is a show more or less about nothing, but rather than crotchety thirtysomething misanthropes, the show was about six young hip singles who spend a lot of time hanging around the coffee shop and talking. There's Rachel, raised rich but committed to making it on her own; Monica, a type A chef with a rent-controlled apartment; Ross, Monica's brother, a whiny paleontologist; wiseacre Chandler; beautiful but dumb actor Joey; and woo-woo new-agey Phoebe. The show ran for a full decade, taking the characters from finding themselves in their mid-twenties to marrying and having children in their mid-thirties.

Ongoing Storylines (Spoilers)

The biggest ongoing storyline through the series was the on-and-off romance between Ross and Rachel. The pair love each other unrequitedly at different times, finally getting together midway through season 2, only to break up in a spectacular fashion midway through season 3 (the famous "WE WERE ON A BREAK" storyline). They continue to occasionally pine for each other for awhile, but for a good stretch, the show seems to have moved on. Then in season 8, it is revealed that Rachel is pregnant due to a random one-time hookup with Ross. Ross and Rachel attempt to parent baby Emma while broken up, but end up finally getting together in the series finale.

The group's other surprise romance was Monica and Chandler, who appeared to have zero interest in each other for the first four seasons, abruptly and drunkenly slept together in the season 4 finale, and spent season 5 gradually and sweetly moving from friends with benefits to a loving relationship. They marry in the season 7 finale, and the series finale sees them adopting twin babies and moving to the suburbs.

Joey and Phoebe never date, although many fans wished they would, for symmetry. Joey was always the ladies' man dating a lot of different girls, although in the final seasons, there is a long storyline in which he falls in love with Rachel. His feelings are not requited, but are the most serious he has ever felt about a woman, making him realize he wants to settle down.

Phoebe has a few different romances with big-name guest stars, but her biggest storyline doesn't concern romance but family. She meets her long-lost half-brother, and winds up serving as a surrogate mother so that her brother can have children with his new wife (who is also his ex-home ec teacher). Toward the end of the series, she embarks on a long-term relationship with Paul Rudd, whom she ends up marrying.

Key Episodes

1.1 Pilot: The first episode is a good setup and point of comparison for the rest of the show, though it's paced oddly. The pilot centers around Rachel, who has just left her fiance at the altar and broken away from the privileged, scripted life that her family has planned for her. She now has to make it on her own in New York, with help from her old friend Monica and Monica's group of kooky friends.

The look of the show changed so much over the years that it's fun to go back to season 1 and see how very, very 90s it is. It's kind of hard to watch, actually. There's an old-yearbook, "is that what we looked like back then?!?" quality. Everyone has enormous fluffy hair, except for Ross, whose helmet of hair is flattened onto his head with about eight tons of gel. Monica wears lipstick the color of her brunette locks. Everyone wears experimental outfits. Chandler looks like Kyle Maclachlan.

2x15 "The One Where Ross and Rachel… You Know": Though Ross and Rachel have their first kiss in the previous episode, this one features their iconic first date, a makeshift picnic in the museum after hours because Ross had to work late. This is also the episode where Monica launches a major romance storyline, dating her 20-year-older, mustachioed ophthalmologist (Tom Selleck).

3x25 "The One at the Beach" & 4x1 "The One with the Jellyfish": The season 3 finale/season 4 premiere two-parter has the friends taking a trip to the beach so Phoebe can meet her birth mother. Ross and Rachel are on the cusp of getting back together but it devolves into another important but soul-deadening fight, as Rachel writes Ross a lengthy letter about their relationship which he does not read. (This is where I would have put the nail in the coffin of their relationship, personally.) Some sweet, light Monica and Chandler flirtation is killed when Chandler has to pee on Monica's jellyfish sting. Along the way, there's plenty of quirky hangout time at the beach cabin, which is full of sand after a flood. The gang plays strip Happy Days game, makes a Joey sand mermaid, etc.

4x23-4x24 "The One With Ross's Wedding" & 5x1 "The One After Ross Says Rachel": The end of season 4 and beginning of season 5 extended sequence concerns Ross's disastrous wedding to Emily, in which Ross says "I take thee, Rachel" instead of "I take thee, Emily" in the vows and explodes the relationship mid-ceremony. I'm not a huge fan of this storyline as it's (a) ridiculous and (b) brings the Ross/Rachel drama back into our lives, but this set of episodes is undeniably memorable and plot-important; aside from its importance in the Ross and Rachel saga, it notably kicks off Monica and Chandler's relationship.

Bonus Episodes

3x2 "The One Where No One's Ready": This isn't a key episode plot-wise, but it's probably my favorite episode of the series. The writing is just top notch. The whole episode takes place more or less in realtime as Ross tries to persuade everyone to get dressed and out the door for an event at the museum. But Rachel is mad at him, Monica is freaking out about a message she left on Richard's answering machine post-breakup, and Joey and Chandler are having a turf war about a chair, leading to increasingly un-ready antics.

3x13 "The One Where Monica and Richard Are Just Friends": Monica and Richard run into each other post-breakup and decide to be friends with benefits, but realize they still have feelings for each other… and still have the same problems that led them to break up. I found this to be a sweet and romantic, if ultimately tragic, episode. The B-plot is also a classic: Rachel and Joey agree to reach each other's favorite books, which leads to Rachel getting freaked out by The Shining and Joey getting the feels over Little Women.

3x15 "The One Without the Ski Trip": It's hard to pinpoint which episode you should watch for the "we were on a break" thing. It happens over several. This episode features the worst of Ross and Rachel's fighting about the issue, as they compete for the attention of their friends post-breakup. Things to note: Ross being a huge asshole; Rachel having legitimate points (why does she want to be with him again?); character-revealing behavior for Chandler as he increasingly shows off like a divorced kid as the couple's fighting intensifies.

4x8 "The One with Chandler in a Box": This is probably my second-favorite episode. To apologize to Joey for stealing his girlfriend (a guest appearance by the always great Paget Brewster), Chandler spends Thanksgiving inside a shipping crate. Monica has an eye emergency and winds up spending Thanksgiving wearing an eyepatch and flirting with the stand-in opthalmologist, Richard's son. This is just classic Friends Thanksgiving where the gang is hanging out at the apartment trying to accomplish a normal holiday but everything is keeps getting more chaotic.

4x12 "The One with the Embryos": The gang has a trivia game to see who knows who better: Monica and Rachel or Joey and Chandler. The stakes keep getting higher, and in the end, they stake the apartment, leading to an extended period of time where the pairs have swapped apartments. Meanwhile, the episode's title refers to Phoebe's storyline. Having agreed to be a surrogate mom for her brother's family, Phoebe is implanted with the embryos, and worries that they won't stick. This lends a seriousness to the episode, but really, I'm recommending it for the trivia game.

5x3 "The One with the Triplets": Phoebe gives birth to her brother's triplets. The "episode in a hospital where someone is giving birth" trope gets really weary (and this is the second time Friends has done it, the first being the birth of Ross's son Ben in season 1), but this is well done, especially the scene where Phoebe has to say goodbye to the babies. Meanwhile, Chandler and Monica have to make decisions about their relationship.

6x25 "The One with the Proposal": This episode is pretty bad, actually, as is the entirety of season six, but the actual scene where Monica proposes to Chandler is really sweet.

8x12 "The One Where Joey Dates Rachel": Joey takes Rachel on a "date" to cheer her up as she's having trouble dating while pregnant. This is the one where Joey realizes he has feelings for Rachel. It's kind of a bummer storyline ultimately, but Joey's appreciation for Rachel is genuinely sweet. I thought I didn't care about the show by the time, but, darn it, the show made me kind of ship them.

10x18 "The Last One": I heard the finale talked up so much that I was expecting a lot, and I have to say I didn't think it was that great. That said, it's important if you want to know what happens to all the characters. And seeing Monica move out of the apartment is really weird.

Better Off Ted

Better Off Ted (2009-2010, creator Victor Fresco) was a surreal workplace comedy by the creator of the even shorter-lived, cultishly followed surreal workplace Andy Richter Controls the Universe (and featuring several of the same actors). 

Better Off Ted centers around the ridiculously evil corporation Viridian Dynamics. Ted Crisp (Jay Harrington) is a handsome, chipper, eminently likable middle manager who optimistically tries to maintain his team's humanity in the soulless corporate atmosphere. Portia de Rossi plays Ted's boss, Veronica, a steely power suit-wearing executive who gleefully buys into the company's worst excesses. Ted's underlings are goofy scientists Phil and Lem (Jonathan Slavin and Malcolm Barrett). Rounding out the ensemble is ineffectually rebellious cubicle monkey Linda (Andrea Anders), who is Ted's will-they-won't-they romantic interest.

The show lasted for only two partial seasons, a total of 26 episodes. Most episodes are fairly amusing and the show maintained a fairly even level of quality, so this is a show where I'm comfortable recommending that you watch the whole thing if you like one or two tester episodes. The first couple of episodes tended to be a bit harsher and more satirical with later episodes mellowing into more absurdist humor. There's not a lot of continuity, so you can pick up anywhere
. The Key Episodes I'm recommending are basically my picks for the best or most memorable episodes in my opinion.

Key Episodes

1x8 You Are the Boss Of Me Bosses overstepping boundaries with their employees is the theme of this episode in which Ted joins Phil and Lem's after-work medieval fight club, and Linda regrets trying to befriend the terrifying Veronica. Although the groupings in this episode ignore one of the central relationships of the show--Ted and Linda's Sam and Diane relationship--this is a great episode to get to know the characters: Ted's effortless skill at everything, Phil and Lem's nerdy pathos, Linda's overeager friendliness, Veronica's chilling core of pure evil.

1x12 Jabberwocky Ted gets into a jam after making up a top-secret project to divert funds to Linda's green initiative, and he and Veronica find themselves roped into giving a presentation on the suddenly-hot new "Jabberwocky project."

2x10 Lust in Translation This is just a good all-around episode, with sharp, on-point writing that provided me with numerous status messages. Ted tries to mix business and pleasure when he dates a potential German investor. Trouble is, he can only communicate with her with a hastily-thrown-together translation device with Phil's voice. Meanwhile, Veronica becomes overly competitive when playing a bagel-tossing game Linda made up.

Bonus Episodes

Like I said, most of the episodes are pretty solid, so if you like the show, just watch from the beginning--it's not that long. That said, here are some other memorable episodes.

1x2 Through Rose Colored Hazmat Suits Veronica gives Ted's eight-year-old daughter a lesson in business, and a biohazard scare forces Ted and Linda to confront their feelings for each other.

1x4 Racial Sensitivity The company's new, cheap motion detectors don't register black people, and the company responds in typical tone-deaf fashion by deploying white people to follow around black employees.

1x10 Trust and Consequence A mystery of sorts: an investigation into a faulty product reveals that somebody on the team is responsible. Features flashbacks to Linda's first week on the job.

1x13 Secrets and Lives A new facial recognition search software reveals a secret which threatens to undermine Veronica's authority. (I wouldn't watch this as your first episode, since the humor hinges on Veronica acting out-of-character.)

2x1 Love Blurts In an effort to save in future insurance money, the company starts a dating service where it pairs off genetically compatible employees. Ted and Linda make a pact to ignore the company's suggested dates, only to be tempted by seemingly perfect mates. Phil is glum when the company's offer to him is a free vasectomy.

2x6 Beating a Dead Workforce Ted is disturbed when the company literally works a man to death and Veronica gives a stirring, pro-work speech at his funeral.

Seinfeld

Seinfeld (1989-1998, creators Jerry Seinfeld & Larry David) was a revolutionary sitcom of the 90s: a show about nothing. Plot was secondary to leisurely, aimless conversations about pop culture, social awkwardness, and everyday aggravations, often in coffee shops, laundromats, and grocery lines. Seinfeld’s show truly captures the spirit of his observational comedy act, snatches of which are interspersed in the show, accompanied with the signature guitar riff and acapella popping.

Jerry Seinfeld plays an anal-retentive stand-up comedian whose tendency toward overanalysis and pettiness often lands him in social scrapes, along with his sad sack best friend, George (Jason Alexander); his spitfire ex-turned-platonic-friend Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus); and his wild-haired next-apartment neighbor Kramer (Michael Richards), whose bizarre, harebrained schemes often drove the more surreal plotlines.

The show’s comedy must have particularly resonated with young singletons in New York City, but at its height, it had broad appeal, so that even suburbanites, oldsters and baby children like myself were throwing around catchphrases like “Not that there's anything wrong with that" and "yada yada." I credit Seinfeld with so desensitizing Little Laura to the norms of casual sex and serial monogamy that I was extremely perplexed when pre-marital sex was suggested to be problematic on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. (I… I may have watched too much television.)

Seinfeld’s legacy is its impact on the sitcom medium and the lexicon of pop culture in the 90s. For the key episodes, I’ll focus on the ones that introduced particularly novel, sticky, or talked-about concepts.

Key Episodes

2.11 “The Chinese Restaurant” - This episode is frequently cited when trying to explain the Seinfeld “show about nothing” concept. It takes place in real time as Jerry, George, and Elaine wait for a table at a restaurant. Each one is anxious for their own reasons, and they very quickly erupt into neurosis.

4.11 “The Contest” - Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer enter into a contest of honor to see who can abstain from masturbation the longest. “Are you still… master of your domain?” A well-known episode for its edgy (if coded) subject matter.

7.6 "The Soup Nazi" - Probably the most famous one-off character from the series, a vaguely Eastern European soup stand proprietor known as the "Soup Nazi" (Larry Thomas) punishes those who take too long to order or otherwise show disrespect in his shop with his catchphrase "No soup for you!"

Bonus Episodes

I'm listing a lot of these, but bear in mind that the show ran for nine years, so there are about 200 episodes that I've not listed. And I rewatched them all for you, reader!

1.3 “The Stake-Out” - Early Seinfeld had a slightly different flavor than golden age Seinfeld--slower paced, less manic--and it’s worth catching episodes at various points to see the evolution of the characters and relationships. In this third episode, Jerry and Elaine are still trying to work out the terms of a platonic friendship emerging from what seems to be a fairly recent relationship. With just a little too much time to plan a fib, Jerry and George come up with a fictitious friend, importer/exporter Art Vandelay. Jerry’s interactions with his visiting parents are on point; I especially love him playing Scrabble with his mother.

2.2 “The Pony Remark” - Jerry makes a disparaging remark about ponies in front of an elderly relative who, unbeknownst to him, is a pony aficionado, and Kramer has a new idea for remodeling his apartment: “Levels.” The first appearance of Jerry’s uncle Leo, a very authentic-feeling irritating uncle.

2.9 “The Deal” - Jerry and Elaine try to navigate friends with benefits (before that was a term that people used).

3.3 “The Pen” - Jerry and Elaine visit Jerry’s parents in Florida, and Jerry accepts the gift of an astronaut pen from a neighbor. A true-to-life episode about adults’ relationships with their parents, including poor sleeping arrangements, parents and children alike downplaying discomfort while visibly suffering, and those little issues that get hammered and nagged into full-blown Incidents. Like all the best Seinfeld episodes, everyone makes far too much ado about nothing, spiralling into a terrifically chaotic climax.

3.6 “The Parking Garage” - Another bottle episode has Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer wandering around a mall parking structure, desperately searching for their lost car.

3.11 “The Alternate Side” - A hodgepodge of classic bits: Jerry chats with the thief of his stolen car on his car phone, and bickers with a rent-a-car company (“You know how to TAKE the reservation. You don’t know how to HOLD the reservation.”) Elaine’s 66-year-old boyfriend has a stroke, causing her, Jerry and Kramer to freak out with half-remembered first aid. George takes a part-time job parking cars and fails utterly. And Kramer has a bit part in a Woody Allen movie, saying the single line, “These pretzels are making me thirsty.”

4.3 “The Pitch” - Jerry and George pitch an idea for “a show about nothing” to NBC executives, literally explaining the conceit of the show they are in. (They use “waiting in line at a Chinese restaurant” as an example episode.) The only downside to this as a Key Ep is that many of the storylines in this episode (particularly involving Crazy Joe Devola) don’t pay off until an episode or three later.

4.17 “The Outing” - An interviewer mistakenly reports that Jerry and George are a gay couple, confusing their friends and family. Jerry and George feel compelled to follow up every denial, no matter how angry or heated, with, “Not that there’s anything wrong with that!”

4.20 “The Junior Mint” - While observing an artist friend’s surgery, Kramer accidentally drops a Junior Mint into the patient. Thinking the artist is about to die, George agrees to buy his terrible art. Meanwhile, Jerry can't remember his date's name, except that it rhymes with a part of the female anatomy.

5.13 "The Dinner Party" - In another classic semi-real-time kind-of bottle episode, the gang is trying to get a dinner party the whole time, with seemingly simple stop-offs to get wine and cake for the hosts turning into harrowing odysseys. A black and white cookie is featured.

5.21 "The Hamptons" - The gang visits a friend's cabin in the Hamptons and George is upset when the woman he likes sees him naked after getting out of the pool. Credited with giving a new meaning to the word "shrinkage." Meanwhile, Elaine tries to hit on a doctor (Richard Burgi of The Sentinel) who gives vague compliments.

6.10 "The Race" - Jerry runs into an old classmate who accuses him of cheating in a race in high school, goading him into agreeing to a new race to clear his honor. References to Jerry as Superman abound.

6.11 "The Switch" - Jerry and George face their most difficult scheme yet: trying to do the roommate switch (Jerry wants to date his girlfriend-of-the-week's roommate, instead of her, without upsetting the original girl). Also, KRAMER'S FIRST NAME IS REVEALED! (Which everyone knows now, but it was a big deal at the time.)

7.1 "The Engagement" & 7.24 "The Invitations" - These episodes are not adjacent, but they are the beginning and end of one of the few season arcs on the show. In "The Engagement," George and Jerry are sick of dating one woman after another and breaking up with her for bullshit reasons, and they make a pact to make serious changes in their lives. George honors the pact and proposes to his old girlfriend, Susan. Meanwhile, Jerry loses interest. George is engaged to Susan for season seven, and the show gets a lot of mileage out of the new territory of long-term relationship humor, as well as George's foot-dragging and attempts to delay the wedding. The arc ends in "The Invitations" when George's cheapness at picking out budget wedding invitations inadvertently leads to Susan's death. (Spoilers, but, it's a twenty-year-old show.) This is the point where the show's/characters' morbidness and callousness led my mother to give up on Seinfeld completely.

7.9 "The Sponge" - Elaine's favorite birth control method, the Today sponge, is discontinued and she begins hoarding them, carefully weighing if the men she dates are "spongeworthy."

7.11 "The Rye" - A sequence of events involving the last marble rye at a bakery ends up with Jerry mugging an old lady.

8.3 "The Bizarro Jerry" - Elaine dates a man who is just like Jerry, but opposite in key ways; for example, he's nice. He also has friends who are Bizarro versions of the other characters. References to Superman continue, and some nice visual gags in Bizarro Jerry's opposite apartment.

8.9 "The Abstinence" - George stops having sex and becomes a scholar and a gentleman.

8.19 "The Yada Yada" - Another episode famous for the concept or catchphrase it popularized than for the content of the episode itself. George's new girlfriend glosses over unpleasant topics with "yada yada yada."

9.2 "The Voice" - Jerry makes up a silly voice for his girlfriend's sleeping belly, a jovial "Hellooo!" "La, la, la!" It's a fun voice that's impossible to stop making, and my coworker does it daily to this day.

9.8 "The Betrayal" - The famous backwards episode. But it's pretty terrible.

9.18 "The Frogger" - George buys a Frogger arcade game from a pizza place that's going out of business because he has the high score, and becomes obsessed with the increasingly complex logistics of getting the game out without letting it lose power and reset the scores. Meanwhile, Elaine eats her boss J. Peterman's antique cake.

9.23 & 9.24 "The Finale", parts 1 and 2 - In the series finale, Jerry, Elaine, George, and Kramer go on a trip to celebrate Jerry's show finally getting picked up, run afoul of a Good Samaritan law after making fun a man getting robbed, and are put on trial for all their various crimes against decency during the run of the series.

Judge John Hodgman (Podcast)

Judge John Hodgman (2010-present) is a podcast on the Maximum Fun network in which real-life friends and loved ones present a personal dispute to John Hodgman, the deadpan comedian known for contributions to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and This American Life; for being the PC in the Mac vs. PC commercials; for writing The Areas of My Expertise, a book of dubious facts (including a lengthy list of hobo names); and for being a former literary agent to Bruce Campbell. Cases range from everyday squabbles (what kind of soap goes in the kitchen soap dispenser?) to philosophical arguments (are machine guns robots?). After questioning each side, Hodgman rules on the case, determining who is right, who is wrong, and what the sentence is.

When I first heard about this idea, I said, “YES. That is the part John Hodgman was born to play.” Hodgman’s cult following know that the stuffy, Solomonic persona comes naturally to him, and that he is a sharply witty improviser with a knack for succinct and precise descriptions that highlight the unique oddities of any given situation. Fans of Hodgman’s pieces on This American Life also know what a good interviewer he is. He is a careful, alert listener who always manages to interject at a key moment with a brief but extremely specific follow-up question that zeroes in on the most bizarre, illuminating, juicy details. And like all the best Supreme Court justices, Hodgman ends each case with an eloquent closing statement drawing in all the aspects of the case and tying them to the larger issues they represent.

Maximum Fun creator Jesse Thorn is an excellent bailiff, funny in his own right and delightfully amused by the proceedings, and the occasional guest witnesses culled from John Hodgman's friends include all your favorite small-time celebrities.

Key Episodes

8. To Tree or Not To Tree (December 20, 2010) - A wife wants to put up a Christmas tree on the first of December, but her husband objects, with an increasingly bizarre theological argument concerning the solemnity of Advent. Judge John Hodgman’s creative solution to this problem is inspired. (Updates at the end of the December 22, 2011 episode; the 2013 Holiday Special; and the 2014 holiday episode)

38. Pepperoni Pauper (October 19, 2011) - A girlfriend is embarrassed by her boyfriend’s habit of picking the trash for unused sweepstakes tickets at an unnamed Toronto pizza chain (I KNOW WHICH ONE!!). This episode is notable not so much for the dispute but for its origination of Judge Hodgman’s hypothetical restaurant Canadian House of Pizza and Garbage, which went on to spark a t-shirt and a jingle.

54. Die Flederhaus (April 4, 2012) - Judge John Hodgman and Bailiff Jesse Thorn can’t keep it together when questioning two brothers about their decision to live in a bat-infested shell of a house. (Update in the 2013 Holiday Special)

Bonus Episodes

5. The Long-Necked Custody Battle (November 29, 2010) - Two best friends and former roommates argue over which one should take possession of a joint-owned robotic giraffe. In a reverse of the classic Solomon case, each friend argues vociferously in favor of the other. (Update in the 2013 Holiday Special)

9. The Parenthetical Petition (January 3, 2011) - A couple argues over whether authors should be allowed to use parentheses in fiction, a matter which seems abstract but turns personal very quickly. This energetic live recording is MC'd by guest bailiff Elna Baker (author of The Tenth Annual Regional Mormon Halloween Dance, and that great This American Life piece about working the Lee Middleton Doll Collection at Christmas.)

10. A Cone-Tractual Dispute (January 21, 2011) - A fairly straightforward dispute over payment for services rendered is plagued with bizarre details about waffle cones and ironic basements, which an aggrieved John Hodgman attributes to the guests’ hometown of Portland, Oregon.

22. Tips, Tricks, and Justice (April 29, 2011) - Morgan Webb of Xplay is a guest expert in an argument about whether using a video game strategy guide constitutes cheating. Judge Hodgman describes George Plimpton’s Video Falconry.

40. The Abuse of Flower Power (November 2, 2011) - Judge Hodgman requires a lot of backstory to rule on the garden dispute of a pair of lesbians who live in a storage unit.

73. Gavelbangers Ball (August 30, 2012) - John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats is an expert witness as a boyfriend tries to convince his girlfriend to like metal. Given that Hodgman has a strong stance on convincing people to like things (he doesn’t), this seems like it should be an open-and-shut case, but the episode provides the judge, the girlfriend, and the listener at home a startlingly convincing case for the band Merciful Fate.

105. To The Victor Goes the Spoiled (April 10, 2013) - Alton Brown of Good Eats is a well-informed and sharply witty guest expert ruling on the acceptability of eating moldy, spoiled food. (This is Brown’s second appearance; he also appeared episode 53, Cannery Row, about a mother/daughter relationship torn asunder by differing home canning practices.) This episode was written up on Food Republic.

137. Six Feet Plunder (December 4, 2013) - A woman wishes her friend would stop calling her a grave robber, just because she steals miniature Christmas trees from cemeteries. This was my first episode of JJHO, and it holds a special place in my heart, but I also maintain that it's a great episode. It's one of those stories that immediately unfolds to reveal layers and depths far beyond the original scope of the problem as presented. Both guests are weird and charming and unaware of how weird and charming they are. John Hodgman gets to the heart of matters with laserlike focus, while allowing plenty of time to explore side avenues and give us a glimpse of a sweet friendship in the bizarre world of professional watch repair.

166. My Legal Pony (June 25, 2014) - A woman and her friend disagree on whether her Shetland ponies are ill-mannered or not.

30 Rock

30 Rock (2006-2013, creator Tina Fey) is a sitcom about the behind-the-scenes story of a Saturday Night Live-esque live comedy variety show, particularly the personal life of its frazzled single head writer, Liz Lemon (Tina Fey). A love song to television, 30 Rock lovingly plays on the tropes of classic single-woman sitcoms (Mary Tyler Moore show, et al), giving them a modern, often surreal twist.

At the heart of 30 Rock is the unlikely friendship between outspoken liberal Liz Lemon and her conservative, classy businessman boss, Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin), which Liz describes in one episode as "work husband/uncle" and Jack describes as "coworker/little brother." The ensemble cast also includes unhinged star Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan), self-centered diva Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski), and TV-obsessed hillbilly Kenneth (Jack McBrayer, who won my heart before I ever saw 30 Rock playing an old-school dad with a pipe in an improv show at UCB Theater).

I find 30 Rock incredibly comforting to watch and to marathon. It's a clever, good-hearted workplace show with classic TV roots. Storylines and relationships do build, so it's worth watching the show completely and in order if you're enjoying it. This is not a show where some episodes are wildly better than others. Within seasons, I think they're fairly even in quality. My favorite seasons are 1-3, 4-6 are fine, and 7 is a little weak.

Key Episodes

1.7 “Tracy Does Conan” - Tracy goes off his meds and flips out just before an appearance on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, and a blood-donation-exhausted Liz must run around putting out fires in an episode that builds to classic 30 Rock increasing mania. A good snapshot of Liz’s relationship with the epitome of bad boyfriends, Dennis Duffy (Dean Winters), some classic lines from coolly uninvested Jack, and a guest appearance from a very special hallucinated blue dude (Rachel Dratch). This is a good introductory episode; it’s the first episode where 30 Rock seems to hit its stride, and gives you a good idea of the characters and relationships.

1.18 “Fireworks” - Jack faces off against fellow low-talking businessman Devon Banks (Will Arnett), and Liz makes the immediately backfiring decision to fraudulently join AA to woo her dream man (Jason Sudeikis). With as much genuine tension and speechifying as a romantic comedy, combined with Jack’s corporate drama, this is 30 Rock hitting its cinematic storytelling golden age.

2.13 "Succession" - In an exciting conclusion to the writers'-strike-shortened second season, Jack's boss Don Geiss (Rip Torn) tips him off that he'll be the next president of the company, and Jack preps Liz to take over his own corporate role, but does Devon Banks have another trick up his sleeve? Meanwhile, Tracy is seized with inspiration to design a porn video game in a strangely moving parody of Amadeus.

Bonus Episodes

1.1 "Pilot" - In her book Bossypants, Tina Fey describes the pilot as sweaty and unpolished, and compares it unfavorably to the pilot of Cheers. But personally, I think the Cheers pilot is dead boring, and the pilot of 30 Rock does a fantastic job of setting up the triangle of Liz, Jack, and Tracy and the complete clash in their worldviews.

1.9 “The Baby Show” - A biological clock-affected Liz accidentally steals a baby. A classic episode with some strangely heartfelt conversations, and the first mention (but not appearance) of Jack’s difficult mother.

2.1 “SeinfeldVision” - Jack comes up with an idea to save the network which enrages Jerry Seinfeld, and Liz deals poorly with heartbreak by buying a discount wedding dress.

2.4 “Rosemary’s Baby” - Disappointed with her own selling out, Liz is excited to stick it to the man by offering a guest writer spot to her comedy writer idol, Rosemary (Carrie Fisher), who really pushed the envelope on her Smothers Brothers-like variety show in the 70s, but it slowly dawns on her that Rosemary is totally bonkers.

2.9 “Ludachristmas” - Families descent on the set for Christmas. Jack tries to ditch his critical mother Colleen (Elaine Stritch), and remains perplexed at the unconditional love and support of Liz’s cheerful family (Anita Gilette, Buck Henry, and Andy Richter).

3.4 “Gavin Volure” - Liz discovers the upsides of dating a hermit when Jack introduces her to eccentric millionaire Gavin Volure (Steve Martin), Tracy uses a Japanese sex doll of himself to outsmart his sons whom he worries are going to “Menendez” him, and Kenneth’s new job as floor marshall makes him a hero of the third-act climax. Features one of my favorite 30 Rock lines from Gavin Volure: “We’ll go to Toronto! It’s just like New York, but without all the stuff!”

3.12 "Larry King" - When the Asian markets go crazy, Jack has to decide between business and love of a good woman (Salma Hayek); Tracy happens to be the inappropriate guest on Larry King during the crisis and stirs up panic; and Liz allows Kenneth believe they are friends instead of just co-workers so he will escort her through the apocalyptic wasteland the city has become. A classic example of 30 Rock's ability to weave intersecting storylines building up to an over-the-top tizzy. While the world goes off the rails, the storylines are still ultimately rooted in characters and relationships, generally ending in adorably childish friendship morals.

5.4 “Live Show” - I’m personally not a big fan of 30 Rock’s two experiments in live televised events, but they’re famous so you sort of have to watch one. The energy is good, but the storytelling is necessarily simplistic, and I do not like laugh tracks, even real ones.

5.17 “Queen of Jordan” - Another famous gimmick has 30 Rock parodying reality shows. It is completely spot on.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994, created by Gene Roddenberry) is the sequel series to the classic 1960s science fiction groundbreaker Star Trek. I'm not too familiar with the iconic original series, but as a child of the 90s, The Next Generation is dear to my heart and so ingrained in my brain that I'll probably be talking about Lt. Cmdr. Data and engineer Geordi La Forge long after I've forgotten my own name.

Like its 1960s predecessor, TNG follows the adventures of the intrepid crew of the exploration and science vessel Enterprise, run by the utopian Federation in an intergalactic space traveling future. Most episodes are completely self-contained and explore some sort of moral or intellectual question related to a science fiction concept. In a departure from the original series, the captain is not a brash and headstrong ladies' man, but a diplomatic peacemaker whose most powerful weapon is his intellect. In a brilliant casting decision, Captain Jean-Luc Picard is played by Royal Shakespeare Company alum and future knight Patrick Stewart, whose subtle and powerful performance consistently outshines every other aspect of production and lends the show more emotional depth and legitimacy than it probably really deserves. Accordingly, most of my Key Ep choices are Picard-centric.

Key Episodes

5.2 "Darmok" - Everyone I talked to agreed this should be on the list; several people independently suggested this episode as a good introduction to TNG when I described the idea of the Key Episodes blog. The Enterprise crew runs up against a metaphorical brick wall trying to communicate with the Tamarians. Universal translator technology is advanced in the Star Trek universe, and indeed individual words are correctly literally translated, but the sentences and thoughts don't seem to make sense. "Darmok and Jelad at Tenagra," the Tamarian captain urgently tells Picard as they struggle to survive on the surface of a nearby planet. Mistrust turns to genuine friendship as Picard makes inroads to understanding. This is a fantastic episode for giving Patrick Stewart a showcase for acting talent (as all the best TNG episodes are), the idea is cool to think about, and the moral lesson about finding common ground with an alien culture is central to the whole mission of Star Trek. Also, I love using the phrase "Darmok and Jelad at Tenagra" as a conversational shorthand to describe a situation where it's hard to understand someone because they use references I don't know; it's like an Ourobouros of meta-meta-metaphor.

5.23 "I, Borg" - The Enterprise ambiguously imprisons/rescues an injured member of the Borg, that fantastically terrifying TNG all-star enemy dedicated to erasing individuality and subsuming all cultures in its monolithic collective. Against Dr. Crusher's Hippocratic objections, Geordi LaForge volunteers to reprogram this Borg (what's the singular of Borg?) with a virus and release him as a Trojan horse. But as he examines the prisoner to understand his tech specs, he's gradually won over. "Hugh" (as Geordi names him) is full of guileless curiosity about his captors, the concept of friendship, and what being an individual even means. Even Picard is eventually convinced, leading to a tough decision: go ahead with the genocidal plan with the new knowledge that Hugh is a lovable exception (and therefore that other Borg individuals may be "rehabilitated"?) Or offer Hugh asylum, knowing that this will only paint a target on the Enterprise for their most vicious and powerful enemy? Even though there's not a huge amount of Picard in this episode (though he does have a few good scenes), and even though the emotional arc relies on selling us on the relationship between Geordi and a half-machine one-off character, this is a moving episode that's a far superior exploration of the Borg, and of the contradictions of wartime morality, than the big-budget "Best of Both Worlds" (see bonus episodes). Hugh is pretty cute, too.

5.25 "The Inner Light" - A strange probe sends a beam that locks onto Picard, rendering him apparently catatonic to the crew. Cut to: Picard waking up in a small, comfortable home in a sunny, Grecian-inspired village on a planet long ago and far away. In a series of cuts, we watch Picard grow and age, becoming a member of the community, having a family, living an entire lifetime (including an appearance by Patrick Stewart's actual son). It's another Picard ep, of course, so his acting does a lot of heavy lifting (in spite of truly terrible and unnecessary age makeup). But the writing is also top notch here, tapping into those bone-deep feelings we humans have about aging, the continuity of generations, memory, love, and music to tell a story about the mortality of an entire planet.

Star Trek, particularly in TNG, but maybe all of them, at its heart, has three goals: it wants to tell thought-provoking stories about cool speculative and science fiction concepts; it wants to tell emotional stories that touch your heart and make you feel something; and it wants to tell character stories that explore the psyches of its intrepid heroes. (The movies also want to be action blockbusters with lots of explosions, but we'll leave those aside.) The best episodes hit one or two these marks really well. "The Inner Light" is a rare one that hits all three, amazingly well.

Bonus Episodes

1.02 "Encounter at Farpoint, Part 2" - Augh, Season One of TNG. It's so cheesy. Everything is goofy and over-the-top, and even Patrick Stewart hadn't yet decided what he was going to do with the character of Picard. I'm not recommending this episode because it's good, but because it's important and iconic. The first part is dead boring, so you can feel free to skip that. Jump in when Q arrives.

2.9 "Measure of a Man" - A scientist wants to disassemble the Enterprise's android second officer, Data, to find out how he works, and hopefully, to build more like him. Data is skeptical of the research and refuses, but Starfleet refuses his refusal, classifying him as property. The question of Data's personhood all comes down to a courtroom battle with Picard mounting a passionate defense. This is a good introductory episode, focusing on the essential conflict of the fan-favorite and often plot-central character of Data, and featuring TNG's best hallmarks: the exploration of weighty moral and metaphysical questions, and a climactic Picard speech.

3.15 "Yesterday's Enterprise" - An extremely solid alternate-timeline story that just throws you right in. Everything comes together in an "ah-ha!" moment in the second act, and it's all very tight and nicely done, a good example of Star Trek doing cool things with time. Note that this episode is something of a Tasha Yar rehabilitation, so if you haven't seen any of the first season episodes with her character (including her lame final episode, "Skin of Evil") you might not enjoy this one as much.

3.21 "Holo Pursuits" - In an amusing departure, this episode is told from the point of view of the shy and bumbling Lt. Barclay, with the main bridge crew seen as intimidating bosses and assorted jerks. It gets uncomfortable when we learn that Barclay's virtual reality retreat on the ship's holodeck takes the form of casting his co-workers as sex kittens and fools in a vaguely Robin Hood flavored adventure, but this is overall a fun and memorable episode.

3.23 "Sarek" - The Enterprise is visited by the illustrious Vulcan diplomat Sarek (he's Spock's dad, but that's not relevant in this episode). Sarek's been brought out of retirement to mediate a tense and important negotiation, but the mission is threatened when Picard discovers he's suffering from a form of Vulcan emotional dementia. This is a fairly interesting exploration of the Vulcan condition, but mostly, it's setup for one of the all-time great Picard scenes.

3.26 "The Best of Both Worlds Part 1" & 4.1 "The Best of Both Worlds Part 2" - In a fan-favorite two-parter, Picard is captured by the Borg (see "I, Borg" in Key Episodes). This is the first introduction of the Borg, who represent not only a cool sci-fi idea but a metaphor that totally works to make the Federation look awfully good for its lip service to cultural variety. Picard gets to wear cool make-up and everything here but all this excitement doesn't, to my mind, end up advancing plot or character or interesting moral quandaries that much, so I don't count it as a key episode, although it's fairly entertaining.

4.2 "Family" - This slow, introspective, character-based episode has Picard dealing with the emotional fallout of his Borg experience by visiting his family on Earth. I love it, but it really has nothing to do with anything.

4.9 "Final Mission" - Boy genius Wesley Crusher's final mission before he leaves for Starfleet Academy turns into a disaster when the shuttle crashes, Picard is hurt, and Wesley needs to gather all the leadership capability he can muster to control the roguish shuttle captain and find a way to survive. While a lot of people aren't Wesley fans, I like him, and he has good mentor/mentee chemistry with Picard in this episode, which conveys a sense of grit and real danger more effectively than some of the more sanitized and cerebral eps.

4.25 "In Theory" - Data is hit on by a coworker (not Geordi), and after delightfully seeking the advice of every crewmember, Data decides to try dating. At first, his girlfriend thinks it's sweet that he's devoted subroutines to becoming the perfect lover for her, but she begins to feel it's not enough, raising questions about the nature of romantic relationships: if your boyfriend is good to you, does it matter that he can't, technically, feel love? If you've never been in a relationship, what does it mean to "just be yourself" in a relationship? As long as Star Trek is going to raise questions, I prefer that they be about the nature of romantic relationships.

6.10 "Chain of Command Part 2" - Picard spends the whole episode in captivity being tortured by a Cardassian general after a secret mission goes badly. (Part 1 explains this, but it's a remarkably boring and phoned-in episode, probably because they really didn't have enough material; they should have just jumped into Part 2 in media res, we would have gotten it.) I recently rewatched this after complaining about how I can't stomach watching the torture on Game of Thrones, which gave me special insight into what makes this episode, by contrast, so enjoyable. It rides the line, high-stakes and stressful enough to grip you, but it never feels brutal or pointless. The torture is more psychological than physical, and Picard gets in a few moral wins here and there, too. Both Picard and his captor, played by David Warner (who will forever be Bob Cratchit to me), are amazing actors, extremely charismatic and full of gravitas. It's a master class to watch them play off each other, even if Warner is covered in Cardassian makeup.

6.15 "Tapestry" - Q sends Picard back in time into his own past to set right what once went wrong. Just like Quantum Leap, we see Picard as his regular Patrick Stewarty self, while the other characters react to him as if he's a young cadet, which makes for some awkward/great scenes of him attempting to use mature diplomatic tactics on his brash young friends and flirting with a young lady in a strangely avuncular way. Notable for featuring that scene from a hundred fanvids where Picard and Q wake up in bed together. I like the thoughtful and interesting moral of this story, and a fantastic Patrick Stewart performance, as usual, rises this episode above the level of its writing.

6.19 "Lessons" - This is by no accounts a key episode. It's probably one of the least key ever. But it's my faaaaaavorite. An episode with shockingly little science, plot, or danger, 90% of it (all except about 5 minutes near the end, and even that is iffy) is just a chronicle of Picard's nice relationship with a scientist on board. It's delightful getting music-swell episode breaks on things like Picard smiling after playing a duet with his girlfriend. Between the stately pace, focus on characterization to the exclusion of all else, and Patrick Stewart's tender and nuanced performance, this is a charming, moving, bittersweet exploration of love, emotional vulnerability, duty, and why Picard never seems to date.

7.25 & 7.26, "All Good Things..." - I'll get the bad part of the final episode out of the way first: the solution to the mystery seems dumb at first and just seems dumber the longer you think about it. There is at least one major plot hole to which the only possible explanation is, "I guess the writers got confused about that." Now here's the good: it's suspenseful, gripping, and completely succeeds in drawing you into the mystery; it's technically cinematic with tight, effective editing and superior special effects; it's Picard-centric as well as team-centric, giving a little storyline to almost everyone while allowing Patrick Stewart plenty of time to chew the scenery; it's deliciously sentimental, and uses multiple timelines to give a simultaneous sense of epilogue, retrospective, and continuing mission. A big Picard speech even saves the world one last time. This episode gives good closure and is most effective if you've watched a lot of episodes, and especially if you've seen the opener "Encounter at Farpoint." Save it for last.

This American Life (Radio)

This American Life (1995-present, creator Ira Glass) is a public radio show. There is a TV series also, but I'm more familiar with the radio show, and I'd like to make a case for talking about it here. It's long-running, has a lot of episodes, and is great, so it's something you might want to introduce people to, but be overwhelmed about where to begin. I'm here to help!

Key Episodes

175 Babysitting This is what TAL is all about: taking some ordinary aspect of life and examining it through little, surprising momens. All the stories in this episode are solid, but the story about the boy and girl who made up a family to baby-sit is probably one of the best TAL has ever done; Myron Jones, the interviewee, is so interesting and warm and delightful.

220 Testosterone This is a good example of the show taking on the human side of a science topic, as interviews with a man who lost his testosterone and a trans man just beginning to take testosterone illustrate the effect the hormone can have on people's personality and experience. Also, there is a fun behind-the-scenes throughline as the producers of the radio show have their testosterone levels checked and try to guess who will be the highest. This may be more fun if you listen to it later after getting to know the various producers better, but it's also a pretty good introduction to them.

328 What I Learned from Television I'm not sure if this is a legit best episode or just the best one for followers of this blog. In this live show recording from 2007 features fun TV stories from an all-star roster of regular contributors: witty David Rakoff learns to embrace reality TV; history geek Sarah Vowell describes a short-lived Puritan-themed sitcom; host Ira Glass gets emotional eulogizing The O.C.; sex advice columnist Dan Savage examines the bizarre worldview of his son's then-favorite show, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody. Maybe it's because I love TV so much, but there are no bad moments in this episode.

Bonus Episodes
The TAL staff has put together a pretty good list of fan favorite episodes, which is a good place to continue your (or your friend's) journey. I've tried to stray off that list for some of my personal favorite episodes.

65 Who's Canadian? CANADA PRIDE WHOOOO ahem. David Rakoff explains to Ira Glass what happens when he hears the name of someone he knows to be Canadian.

88 Numbers: Notable for containing the Best and Worst songs in the world. I also like all the stories about measuring love with Excel.

190 Living the Dream: The story about transsexual prostitute teenagers is awkward listnening these days, I think, but John Hodgman's story about Bruce Campbell describes his appeal 100% accurately, plus Adam Davidson's hilarious childhood diary about becoming the next Prime Minister of Israel.

226 Reruns Another episode I love for its TV references: Starlee Kine explains why she loves Boy Meets World, and Sarah Vowell talks about people comparing themselves to Rosa Parks (including the great scene from Sports Night). Plus, Robert Krulwich and John Hodgman telling stories with their wives.

268 My Experimental Phase: Three stories, each great in their own way: producer Nancy Updike talks to Ira Glass about convincing herself she was a lesbian (I love when the staff talks among themselves, and this is a good introduction to Nancy); a totally quintessential TAL story about a punk rocker and a Hasidic Jew who form an unlikely friendship and musical partnership in Williamsburg; and a strangely hilarious live stage recording of a woman reading from her 8th grade diary.

293 A Little Bit of Knowledge: Nancy explains the concept of "Modern Jackass"--this show is worth it just for that--plus stories about those childhood misconceptions we don't bother re-examining until well into adulthood, and Dan Savage's story about his six-year-old son's opposition to gay marriage.

323 The Super One of the most memorable TAL stories ever, I think, is Jack Hitt's amazing tale of the super in his old building.

339 Break-up: My favorite story in this one is the one where Starlee Kine gets advice from Phil Collins on how to write a torch song and how to get over a break-up.

355 The Giant Pool of Money: I'm not sure how well this one would hold up, but this contemporary plain-language explanation of the global financial crisis of 2008 was impressive and eye-opening at the time (critically, and to me).

379 Return to the Scene of the Crime: I saw this in theaters as the live show, but it's also fun on radio, with Mike Birbiglia's non-Sleepwalk with Me story and Joss Whedon performing his song about DVD commentary from the DVD commentary of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.