Ah, the themed collection of YouTube links -- the last refuge of the idea-free (or time-crunched) blogger.
While I haven't been able to justify using "NewsRadio" for one of my summer TV club entries -- I love it, but it ain't deep enough to merit extensive analysis -- it is wickedly funny (even at the comedy-rich time, but especially in comparison to the comedy scraps we get today) and profoundly silly, and so I offer up the following sampler:
- Bill and Dave struggle to give up their respective addictions to cigarettes and coffee
- Jimmy reads from his twice-translated memoir
- Bill tries plugging a new sponsor, then makes the mistake of getting slang advice from Catherine
- Matthew makes a big on-air gaffe
- Trouble with a baseball promo
- Beth designed a new hat
- Bill exercises his inner Mark Russell
- Matthew tries out some facial hair
- Dave reads Bill's message from beyond the grave (surprisingly funny given that the cast was still grieving Phil Hartman, then painful when Dave gets to the end, then funny again)
And if that's not enough, you can check out some of the show's best episodes over at Hulu:
- "Arcade" (pictured above), which exemplifies everything that made "NewsRadio" great (things like gross sandwiches and childish behavior)
- "The Bitch Session," the finest example of behind-the-scenes drama at the show turning into hilarious comedy
- "Review," in which Bill finds several thousand ways to conjugate "adequate"
- "The Real Deal," in which Jerry Seinfeld tries and fails to boost the show's ratings
For some reason, "Halloween," featuring the hotness that was young Dave Foley in a dress, is one of the random episodes that isn't up there.
God, I miss that show.