right side or left side?!

 

Posting here about the "Mad About You" episode where then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani appeared at the end, pretending to take seriously the fictional situation in that week's story--"New York is a great city and we're constantly striving to make it even better," he says--it's typical politician-speak, he plays it serious, even though we know he's in on the joke.  

He adds, "I just thought you should know that."  Layered meaning resides in that brief sentence, too.  Sort of--not as public-speaking-style as the rest of the address... "I just thought you should know that"...a little casual -- the personal touch that a politician might try for, and it's a real politician doing it for a fictional TV-show...  ("Meta"-?)

     He refers to one of the episode's comic bits with faux seriousness:  "Like any cab driver in any city, they merely wish to be told on which side of the street--the right or the left--their passengers want to get out.  I'm sure that you'll agree [politician thing, trying to find and point out 'common ground'], that's a very reasonable request."  [Everything's fine.  Allow me to lay it out for you, plainly and calmly.]

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"Right side or left side?"

"Well, see--it's right there..."

"TELL me!!!!"

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     I adored many things about that show, but then after Season 3 it changed, and wasn't as good.  

     Not nearly as good.

It ran for seven seasons in the 1990s.

Seasons 1 - 3:  excellent.

Season 4 - Still kind of good sometimes, but more hit-or-miss.

Then Seasons 5, 6, and 7 - each one got worse.  The rhythm, the tone, the musicality of dialogue, nuance, events and gestures--the aspects that made the show good were somehow no longer there.  I don't know how you mess that up.  

     I watched part of an episode from one of the last three seasons--one of the main actors said their line kind of flat and wrong, and disconnected or something...I thought, "How can you not know how to do this anymore?  You knew how to do it from 1992 to 1994...!  What the heck??!"

     At any rate, Seasons 1, 2, and 3 remain good, and they're on Amazon Prime right now -- those I can recommend.

     The one with Mayor Giuliani at the end is titled "The City."  It's Episode 10 of Season 3.

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