WESTWORLD: A MODERN CLASSIC

Not many new television series thrill me. The majority of them are either idiotic reality shows or boring unfunny comedies. I was skeptical when I first watched HBO's "Westworld", but I was pleasantly surprised at what a great television series this is. Westworld is an American science fiction western thriller television series created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy for HBO. It is based on the 1973 film of the same name, which was written and directed by American novelist Michael Crichton, and to a lesser extent on the 1976 sequel Futureworld. It is the second TV series based on the two films, the first being the short-lived 1980 series Beyond Westworld. Nolan and Joy serve as executive producers along with J. J. Abrams, Jerry Weintraub, and Bryan Burk, with Nolan directing the pilot. The first season premiered on October 2, 2016, concluded on December 4, 2016, and consisted of ten episodes. In November 2016, HBO renewed the show for a ten-episode second season.

The story takes place in the fictional Westworld, a technologically advanced Wild West-themed amusement park populated by android hosts. Westworld caters to high-paying guests, who may indulge in whatever they wish within the park, without fear of retaliation from the hosts.

The series' debut on HBO garnered the network's highest viewership ratings for a premiere since the first episode of True Detective in 2014 and Westworld ranks as the most-watched first season of an HBO original series ever. Westworld has received largely positive reviews from critics, with particular praise for the visuals, story, and performances.

Anthony Hopkins and Evan Rachel Wood were the first cast members formally announced, taking on the roles of Dr. Robert Ford and Dolores Abernathy, respectively. Ed Harris, Jeffrey Wright, Rodrigo Santoro, Shannon Woodward, Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, Angela Sarafyan, and Simon Quarterman were all announced as cast members in August 2014. James Marsden and Eddie Rouse were also added to the cast. It's the cast that really makes this series. I am totally enthralled with the roles that Anthony Hopkins (original creator of the park) and Ed Harris (mysterious man in black). I had never really took notice of actress Evan Rachel Wood either, but she is great in her role as one of the robots who grows a conscious.

The shows just finished it's 1st season, and even before the 2nd season debuts, I know it is premature in calling a series as a future classic, but Westworld really has everything it takes to be a classic. It's one of those shows that take a life of its own, much like the cowboy robots the show depicts. I would not miss this future classic..

THE MIDDLE: A MODERN CLASSIC

The television comedy Modern Family is pretty much considered one of the great comedies on television today and rightfully so. However, there is another comedy which I think has pretty much reached greatness but does not get the recognition that Modern Family gets and that is another ABC show The Middle.

The Middle is an American sitcom about a working-class family living in Indiana and facing the day-to-day struggles of home life, work, and raising children. The show premiered September 30, 2009. on the ABC network. The Middle was created by former Roseanne and Murphy Brown writers Eileen Heisler and DeAnn Heline of Blackie and Blondie Productions. The show is distributed by Warner Bros. Television Distribution and Blackie and Blondie Productions.

The series features Frances "Frankie" Heck (Patricia Heaton), a working class, middle-aged, Midwestern woman and her husband Mike (Neil Flynn), who reside in the small fictional town of Orson in Southwest Indiana. They are the parents of three children, Axl (Charlie McDermott), Sue (Eden Sher), and Brick (Atticus Shaffer).

The series is narrated by Frankie, initially an under-performing salesperson at a used-car dealership and later a dental assistant. Her stoic husband Mike manages a local quarry and serves as a stabilizing influence in the family. The children are quite different from one another: oldest son Axl, a popular but under-motivated and cynical teenager, does well in sports but not in academics; daughter Sue is an enthusiastic young teen but chronically unsuccessful and socially awkward; and youngest son Brick, an intelligent but introverted compulsive reader with quirky behavioral traits. What is so appealing about this show is it is about real people with real story lines that common people can relate to.

The series was originally developed in the 2006–07 development cycle and was to star Ricki Lake as Frankie. Atticus Shaffer was the only actor to retain his role when the show was re-developed. The series was created by Eileen Heisler and DeAnn Heline and the pilot was directed by Julie Anne Robinson. The series is going to be entering its seventh season this fall. That is an amazing lifespan for a television show, let alone a comedy series...

THE WALKING DEAD: A MODERN CLASSIC

When it comes to television series, it seems like I always come late to the party. I love The Dean Martin Show, The Twilight Zone, and The Jack Benny Show, but they all aired well before I was born. I am a fan of the comedy series Seinfeld, but I did not watch the show until the final episode aired in May of 1998. My family joked me that in a couple years maybe I will discover I Love Lucy! I have recently discovered a television series that just ended its 4^th season. I did not think I would like it, but now I am addicted to the AMC series The Walking Dead. Amazingly the show is still on, and will air its new season in October of 2014. Based on the comic book series of the same name, The Walking Dead tells the story of a small group of survivors living in the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse. The first season mostly takes place in the Atlanta metropolitan area, and the second through fourth seasons in the surrounding countryside of northern Georgia, as the survivors search for a safe haven away from the shuffling hordes of predatory "walkers" or "biters" (as the zombies are referred to in the show), who devour any living thing they catch, and whose bite is infectious to humans. The plot focuses primarily on the dilemmas the group faces as they struggle to maintain their humanity during the day-to-day challenges of surviving in a hostile world. This includes battling the zombie hordes, coping with casualties, and dealing with predatory human survivors.

The group is led by Rick Grimes, who was a sheriff's deputy  before the zombie outbreak. At every turn they are faced with the horror of the walking zombies, the changing dynamic of their group, and hostility from the scattered remains of a struggling human populace who are focused on their own survival now that society's structures have collapsed.

The Walking Dead premiered on October 31, 2010, on the cable television channel AMC in the United States. It premiered internationally during the first week of November 2010 on Fox International Channels. Based on its reception, AMC renewed the series for a second season of 13 episodes, which premiered on October 16, 2011. Two episodes into the second season, AMC announced that the show would return for a third season of 16 episodes, which began airing on October 14, 2012. On December 21, 2012, AMC renewed The Walking Dead for a fourth season of 16 episodes, which premiered on October 13, 2013. On October 29, 2013, AMC renewed it for a fifth season.

The series has been well received and has been nominated for many awards, including the Writers Guild of America Award and the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Drama. he series has also attained strong Nielsen ratings, surpassing various records for a cable series, including viewership of 16.1 million for its season four premiere, making it the most-watched drama series telecast in basic cable history.

I was not sure I would like the series when I first watched it. Next to rats and death, I think I am most afraid of zombies, but it really only took me a few episodes before I realized the show was more than zombies. Its success is due to the character development. The zombies are second to the characters, and in some episodes one can forget about the zombies entirely. I am thankful I discovered this show while it was still on, and I recommend The Walking Dead. It is definitely a modern “classic”…

KING OF THE HILL: A MODERN CLASSIC

In the short history of adult cartoons, there have been many trend setters. The Simpsons expanded the genre that was started by The Flinstones decades earlier. Then South Park and Family Guy came along to shock, appall, and capture the attention of audiences. Nestled in the middle of The Simpsons and Family Guy was a charming little cartoon by the name of King Of The Hill.

King of the Hill was created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels that ran from January 12, 1997, to May 6, 2010, on the Fox network. It centered on the Hills, a middle-class Methodist family in the fictional small suburban town of Arlen, Texas. It attempted to retain a naturalistic approach, seeking humor in the conventional and mundane aspects of everyday life while dealing with issues comically.

Judge and Daniels conceived the series after a run with Judge's Beavis and Butt-head on MTV, and the series debuted on the Fox network as a midseason replacement on January 12, 1997, quickly becoming a hit. The series's popularity led to syndication around the world, and episodes run every night on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim.

In early 1995, after the successful run of Beavis and Butt-head on MTV, Mike Judge co-created the show King of the Hill with former Simpsons writer Greg Daniels. Judge was a former resident of Garland, Texas, upon which the fictional community of Arlen was loosely based; however, the show was based more specifically on Richardson, Texas, a Dallas suburb, as Judge stated in a later interview. Mike Judge conceived the idea for the show, drew the main characters, and wrote a pilot script.

FOX teamed the cartoonist with Greg Daniels, an experienced prime-time TV writer. Greg Daniels rewrote the pilot script and created several important characters that did not appear in Judge's first draft (including Luanne and Cotton), as well as some characterization ideas (e.g., making Dale Gribble a conspiracy theorist). While Judge's writing tended to emphasize political humor, specifically the clash of Hank Hill's social conservatism and interlopers' liberalism, Daniels focused on character development to provide an emotional context for the series' numerous culture clashes. Judge was ultimately so pleased with Daniels' contributions that he chose to credit him as a co-creator, rather than give him the "developer" credit usually reserved for individuals brought on to a pilot written by someone else.

The show became one of Fox's longest-running series, and at the time of its cancellation the second longest-running American animated series. In 2007 it was named by Time magazine as one of the top 100 greatest television shows of all time.

King of the Hill aired its series finale on September 13, 2009, with four episodes from season 13 unaired. The remaining four episodes aired in syndication on local stations from May 3 to 6, 2010, and on Adult Swim from May 17 to 20, 2010.

I know that grown adults probably should not be watching cartoons, but King Of The Hill is one of those shows that I can not stop watching. The show does not gross out or shock audiences, but it was a charming story about an average family doing average things. It could easily have been a live action comedy, and was much more funny than most of the sitcoms on television today. King of The Hill has been off the air for over two years now, but the show will always be king of the cartoons for me...