TV Madness - THE FINAL FOUR!

So here we are.  It's finally over.  Or almost over.  The championship game will appear next week.  But after all the drama and all the comedy and all the voting, we are down to the 4 greatest television shows in Vague Space history.  Thanks to everyone who voted over the past month and I hope you enjoyed this endeavor.  Now, on to the matchups.

2 - It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (Active Shows) vs. 6 - Arrested Development (Comedies)

I like the idea of comparing the greatest episodes in history so we'll stay with that.  Here's the Sunny list from the last post:

1. Dennis and Dee Go on Welfare (season 2)
2. The Nightman Cometh (season 4)
3. Sweet Dee is Dating a Retarded Person (season 3)
4. The World Series Defense (season 5)
5. The Gang Dances Their Asses Off (season 3)
6. Mac's Banging the Waitress (season 4)
7. The Gang Gives Back (season 2)
8. Paddy's Pub: Home of the Original Kitten Mittens (season 5)
9. The Gang Hits the Road (season 5)
10. A Very Sunny Christmas (after season 6)
11. Underage Drinking:  A National Concern (season 1)
12. The Gang Reignites the Rivalry (season 5)
13. Who Got Dee Pregnant (season 6)
14. Mac and Dennis Break Up (season 5)
15. The Gang Gives Frank an Intervention (season 5)
16. Frank Sets Sweet Dee on Fire (season 3)

And here's the Arrested Development list:

1. Afternoon Delight (season 2)
2. S.O.B.s (season 3)
3. Justice is Blind (season 1)
4. Missing Kitty (season 1)
5. Amigos (season 2)
6. The One Where Michael Leaves (season 2)
7. Shock and Aww (season 1)
8. Development Arrested (season 3)
9. Staff Infection (season 1)
10. The Ocean Walker (season 3)
11. The One Where They Build a House (season 2)
12. Visiting Ours (season 1)
13. Good Grief (season 2)
14. Making a Stand (season 3)
15. Burning Love (season 2)
16. Spring Breakout (season 2)

Let's see how they match up:

1. Dennis and Dee on crack to get welfare + Charlie and Mac on a spending spree with hookers and limos + Frank hiring welfare "slaves" to work for him.  Wow.  The Afternoon Delight episode is the Christmas party classic where Michael and Maeby perform the song and realize it's really not appropriate for an uncle and niece to be singing together.  Good times.  But did I mention Dennis and Dee are on crack?

Winner:  Sunny (by a lot)

2.  S.O.B.s is the episode toward the tail end of the series where the writers and actors openly beg the viewers to "Save our Bluths", realizing their show is about to be cancelled.  It's over the top but absolutely brilliant.  Of course, it's not beating The Nightman Cometh.

Winner:  Sunny (by a lot)

3.  Julia Louis-Dreyfuss as Maggie Lizer in the second of a 2-parter that is funny as a main plot with the whole fake blindness stuff but even funnier when Tobias sneaks into the house using his "cat-like" reflexes and then there's the whole subplot about Maeby's "twin sister" Surely.  Good times.  Of course, it's facing the song that started "The Nightman Cometh".

Winner:  Sunny  (by a little)

4.  Gob's spring break grand "illusion" wins out here.

Winner:  Arrested Development

5.  Everyone ends up in Mexico to find George Sr., including Ann Veal.  Her?

Winner:  Tie

6.  Michael tries to leave the family several times but can't get very far before realizing they are not concerned and going back to tell them he's leaving again.  Meanwhile Tobias and Lindsey try an "open" marriage.  

Winner:  Sunny

7.  This episode of Arrested features Heather Graham as Miss Baerly.  The Gang Gives Back is them "coaching" basketball for local kids.  

Winner:  Arrested Development

8.  Kitten Mittens vs. the finale of Arrested Development, when the renewal of the series was pretty clearly not going to happen and all the threads of the amazing series were mostly tied up, including George Michael finally - maybe - admitting his feelings for Maeby.

Winner:  Tie

9.  Buster, Gob, and Lindsay all are forced to work for the Bluth Company which leads to anarchy.  The Gang Hits the Road but never leaves Philly.

Winner:  Arrested

10.  Michael discovers that his fiance is retarded.  The family discovers that she's rich.  The Christmas episode that wasn't aired on TV is just brilliant.

Winner:  Sunny

11. Sunny
12.  Sunny.  I was about to give it to this one just for George Michael's attempts to hide from heading to jail but Flip-a-delphia is just about unbeatable this low. 
13.  Arrested.
14.   Sunny.
15.  Arrested.
16.  Tie

And the final tally:  Sunny 8, Arrested 5, Ties 3

Actually it ended up closer than I thought.  At some point in this contest, particularly after my wikipedia trips down TV memory lane I realized that Sunny was going to make the Finals as my favorite comedy (active or not).  And so there it is.  Great run by a 6 seed but ultimately the Final Four is the furthest Arrested Development will go.  It's more a Butler than a Villanova or NC State.

Winner:  It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia 

The other matchup?

2 - The Daily Show (Other Shows) vs. 1 - Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Dramas)

I went on and on and on about Buffy in the semifinals, dissecting my favorite episodes in detail but it's almost impossible to compare it to a show like The Daily Show, which is (a) still on the air, (b) airs daily (or mostly), (c) is a comedy, (d) is political, and (e) features some of the most important and hilarious social commentary in modern America at a time when we desperately need a sane voice in the American political landscape.  Meanwhile, Buffy was a show about high school kids fighting vampires.  So, you know, not really much of a comparison here.  I'm not entirely sure what if anything more I could say except that I really expected Buffy to win this whole thing but when it comes right down to it, can I really pit the abbreviated and now-distant brilliance of Joss Whedon up against the current, constant, ongoing brilliance of Jon Stewart?  Can I really ask Joss to win that battle?  Well, in the first season of Buffy alone, she found out she was a vampire slayer, moved to a new school, found the greatest evil ever known (at the time, this was only Season 1 of course), fell in love with a vampire with a soul, got thrown out of school, and you know, actually died.  And she came back to life (thanks to Xander's CPR), came back to a second season on a fledgling network with no viewers and no hype, and kicked ass all the way into one of the greatest series in the history of television, peaking with a Season 3 that not only included the greatest "Big Bad" ever invented (The Mayor) but also Faith (!) and Oz (joining the cast as a regular) and high school graduation and Angel returning from his own death and then leaving the cast and Spike (returning sans Drusilla) and Mr. Trick and Wesley (Alyson Hanigan's future husband) and Cordelia turning back into a bitch and Willow/Xander 'shipping and the "Class Protector" Award and did I mention The Mayor?  And that was all just in a single brilliant season.  Seasons 2, 4, 1, and 5 were also all kinds of great (in that order), not to mention Once More With Feeling.  So yes, I'm doing it.  Sorry, Mr. Stewart.  The underdog vampire slayer stakes its way into the finals (sorry, but pun intended).

Winner:  Buffy the Vampire Slayer

The Finals - Buffy vs. Sunny

Buffy the Vampire Slayer It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

pollcode.com free polls

Comments

[LegFuJohnson]

What are the odds on the finals matchup?

Might need a LegFu lock.

[Bill]

Right now it's Buffy -110. Very close matchup. And I haven't written the post or decided yet.

[Liqa Myquchi]

can I vote for none of the above

[Bill]

This isn't Brewster's Millions. No you cannot.

[Burberry Outlet]

the aforementioned Primavera Sound Rock Festival, and the Sonar New music Festival.

[oakley half jacket sunglasses]

Good article, thanks for sharing, I also have the habit of writing articles. by yzi112
Sunny in the morning, perhaps windy at noon.

[true religion outlet]

I baked cookies and breads and made dips and worked tirelessly on our little holiday party.

[Kayla]

10? facts abut? you:1.? You are reading this conemmt2.You are realizing that is? a? stupid? fact4.you? didn't notice I skipped three.5 You're checking now6. You're smiling7.You? are still?? reading my conemmt9? You didn't? realize I? skipped eight10. You're checking again and? smiling? about? how you fell for it again.11. You are enjoying this 12. You didnt realize there are? only? supposed to? be ten facts. post this? to one video? and tomorrow will be the best day ever

[Umesh]

Hi everyone,Since over a year has pasesd since we published this post, we're closing the comments to help us focus on the work ahead. If you still have a question or comment you'd like to discuss, free to visit and/or post your topic in our .Thanks and take care,The Webmaster Central Team

[Sergio]

My point was not that Biblical criticism is sueipror to Buffy crystal ball criticism. My point in the paper is that unlike Buffy crystal ball textualism in general, which is heavily text centred, Biblical criticism does engage in extra textual analysis on occasion, archaeology and empirical research on urbanism and writing, for instance. To move from Buffy to the history of Biblical criticism (which was not central to my paper) let me make one point: The JEPD hypothesis and the Q hypothesis are purely textual like so much Buffy textual criticism. There is not, as far as I know, any extra-textual empirical evidence for either hypothesis. Personally, I prefer to think less of documents and more of oral tales when it comes to the composition of the Torah text. On the other hand: One thing the JEPD hypothesis has going for it is that it does make sense of the numerous doublings in the Tanakh (the two creation stories, for instance).A sociology of knowledge point: perceptions of the Biblical text, be they those of higher biblical critics or fundamentalists, tell us perhaps more about cultural life and ideologies in the 19th and 20th West than the ancient contexts of the Tanakh/Bible. Higher Biblical criticism certainly tells us much about the impact of Darwinian notions of evolution on Western intellectual culture.By the way my specialty is modern comparative history and Settler society history not Biblical Studies.

[Ars]

I was a big fan until Oz left. Then I was just a fan. Then Angel left Dawn arrived, and I steppod watching pretty soon after that.I am easily put of a series if I don't like a change that's made. Alias, Dark Angel, and Battlestar Galactica are just three examples off the top of my head of shows that I was a rabid fan of until something changed and I just gave up on them.I'm four episodes from the end of season 4 with farscape. My feelings on it are mixed. There's a blog post coming one of these days. Reply

[Artuur]

Season Two is when the show REALLY takes off. The first season is just claissc. The writing gets to be superb. There's not much continuity in the first season but the first season was originally a filler on the WB and not meant to go on for as many as seven seasons. I think you'll find that the show gets better and better and should not be judged by it's beginning episodes.

[Farzad]

There were actually 2 from Season One, they wrkeod together. Dan Smith Steve McDonagh(yes, they're a couple in real life), they have that show Party Line with The Hearty Boys. Don't know if it's still on, I didn't really like them. And yes, Guy was the Season Two winner.Caught it, but knew what you were meaning.