After over two months, we’re just into the start of what would be the start of an ordinary March Madness. It’s our second round, but we’re gonna keep it at the eight songs a week as it matches the days of week (we believe in Beatles math here). We’ve got a couple Mike Judge shows, a couple Mike Schur shows, the original office residents and Our Favorite Family from Springfield. Let’s kick this second round off in style… with a sedate vote on the shows at hand.
The Match-Ups
Section A
#1 Parks & Recreation vs. #9 Frasier
It’s another battle in the ever-raging fight between Pawnee, Indiana, and Seattle, Washington rolls on. Talk show host Niles Crane squares off against Galentine’s Day founder Leslie Knope in a battle of a somewhat unconventional conventional family against a traditional unconventional family.
#2 The Daily Show vs. #7 Futurama
It’s your moment of Zen vs. the pure razzle dazzle of Globetrotter astrophysics as the top faux (on purpose) news source takes on an 104-year old man from the Year 3000 and his crew. One show has survived two host changes, the other survived two cancellations.
#6 Designing Women vs. #14 Beavis & Butt-Head
In a match that features two very different sorts of insults, it’s the ’90s most vacant-eyed couch-potato teens vs. the ’80s Southern ladies of Sugarbaker & Associates (heh! heh! she said sugar baker!). It’s that battle of the kid in the Winger tee vs. Meschach Taylor that you’ve always longed to see.
#4 Bojack Horseman vs. #5 Taxi
This Hollywoo-NYC battle is the impossible match for me: even trying to choose between Bob James‘ and Patrick Carney‘s evocative jazzy, funky themes is a head trip. Both were gritty-yet-funny slices of life that took a real look at issues like friendship, addiction, depression, and mental illness–and one was about a cartoon horse!
Section B
#1 The Simpsons vs. #9 Black-ish
Here we’ve got a pair of often clueless fathers just trying to do their best to raise their families in a confusing landscape. Interestingly, it’s the only match-up in this round of two shows which are still on the air–arguments of whether they still should be should not factor into your choice! Marge vs. Bow–good luck with that!
#2 The Good Place vs. #7 Monty Python’s Flying Circus
That both shows skewer hypocrisy while featuring strong opinions on heaven and hell is about as much as I can summon up as connective tissue between these two classic half-hours of comedy which appeared roughly a half-century apart. Oh, and interestingly enough God shows up many more times in Monty Python.
#3 The Office UK vs. #6 Family Ties
“Unorthodox” boss David Brent takes on Reagan-Republican-in-training Alex P. Keaton in a battle of blowhards of varying degrees on the “redeeming qualities” scale. It’s the office comedy which put the name to the already-existing concept vs. one of the ’80s best family sitcoms in a match that’s very hard to pull a thread through.
#5 Daria vs. #13 The Odd Couple
While I do not want to influence the voting, I have my doubts anyone is scrolling down this far anyway, so here goes nothing: this one strikes me as an upset waiting to happen as the underseeded classic 1970s comedy of manners goes up against a cult classic Mike Judge-world show (that was not created by Judge) whose protagonist (like almost all Judge characters not named Hank Hill) cares very little about manners.
Screen Scholars 