Annie O'Donnell

Didn’t have a lot of posting time today, but here is a Filler Clip™ of a particularly For The Win nature: scenes from the second appearance of the second-greatest comedy guest characters of the last 25 years (after Mr. Bookman), Bob and June Wheeler, played by Brent Spiner and Annie O’Donnell. Written by series creator Reinhold Weege in a two-part episode called “Hurricane” that should have made the “top 100 episodes of all time” list, these scenes are not sophisticated in any way — including the old-fashioned reaction shots and “let me get this straight” type straight lines — but damn, low comedy is brilliant when it’s done right. Of course today, for the most part, it’s the good one-camera shows that are less afraid of corny jokes, old-fashioned plots and broad humour, like 30 Rock, which is in many ways the broadest and corniest show on the air. Many multi-camera shows, which theoretically are supposed to go for “hard” jokes to please the audience, in practice wind up going for very mild jokes because just about anything can make a studio audience laugh if it’s delivered with the right rhythm. But many of them would be better off with big, Vaudevillian turns.