Last week at work, my coworker brought up a scene from All in The Family, where Archie and Meathead have a discussion on the process for putting on shoes and socks. Then we discussed Mary Tyler Moore scene where she has a laughing jag at a funeral for a clown.

The weird thing is that while that was 30 years ago, my writers group was just talking about that. We were investigating how to write comedy. We want to write something that lasts.  For me, it was a scene on Taxi. Alex is intrigued by a woman he talks to on the phone. He finds out she is a large woman. I forget how he ends up not being a jerk, but he says he is not interested in a relationship. He then tells her some nice things. She begins to cry. She asks Alex, do you know how long its been since I cried.

Alex, says, I don’t know.

Her response, Half an hour!

There are many lines from TV shows that are always near my lines of thoughts.  On Mash, Hawkeye sends a jerk away in his jeep.  After the jeep pulls away, he tells BJ,”THe only thing gassed up in that jeep was us.” They were drunk.

From Cheers, it was, What’s shaking Mr. Peterson?  All four cheeks and a couple of chins.

From Roseanne, she hung up the phone and as she did so, as easily as one would say Ok, see ya, She said okay. Bite me.

I was visiting my parents and The Mary Tyler Moore Show was on because of Ed Asner’s death, and I remembered another TV scene that has stuck with me. People came over to Mary’s apartment under the assumption that she was having a house warming party. All she had to serve was peanut butter on cornflakes. (This is tasty, by the way. I had to try it.