Beech Tree News Network

A good catchphrase helps make a tv show.  A great catchphrase can help make a tv show memorable for years after its end.  From Ed McMahon hailing the arrival of Johnny Carson for 35 years with “Heeeere’s Johnny (also used by Jack Nicholson in The Shining). In Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation of The Shining, this famous line was improvised by Jack Nicholson, who played the character Jack Torrance.  The line is a reference to the introduction used by Ed McMahon.  Every night, McMahon was the man behind the curtain who said “Heeeere’s Johnny” to introduce Carson.  He said it from day one of the show in 1962.  The Shining was released in 1980. 

A forehead-smacking Homer Simpson popularized the “D’oh”.  Other residents of Springfield (the Simpsons town) have said it at one time or another.  The Oxford English Dictionary even deemed it worthy of an entry.  Up next is Sinfield.  The ultimate show about nothing gave us more than its fair share of catchphrases, but this signature uttered by Elaine to gloss over a bad date and favored by George’s felonious girlfriend is still really something. 

I can’t imagine how many times “How You Doin’, Joey Tribbiani’s nest pick-up line was tried out by Friends fans during the shows heyday.  It’s safe to say that nobody said it better than Matt LeBlanc      In retrospect, a go-to phrase when you just had to tell a pal he was speaking nonsense is “What choo talkin’ ‘bout, Willis”. Gary Coleman’s unforgettable delivery of his character Arnold Jackson’s trademark line on Diff’rent Strokes is said to this day.

Long before the advent of cable news, revered newsman the late Walter Cronkite closed his nightly CBS News broadcast with the iconic and definitive words “and that’s the way it is”.  The Price Is Right contestants have been rushing the stage for more than 40 years upon hearing this command. 

How I Met Your Mother’s Barney Stinson (played to perfection by Neil Patrick Harris) was a one-man one-liner machine.  The most well-known of those brilliantly captures his bravado.  Everybody knows it and everybody has said it.  “It’s gonna be legen-wait for it-dary”.  There’s Ralph Cramden’s “Baby, you’re the greatest” from the Honeymooners, “Yabba dabba doo” from Fred Flintstone, “To the Batmobile”-Batman, Coumbo’s “Just one more thing”.  Adrian Monk (from Monk) “Here’s what happened”, “Who loves ya, baby”-Kojak (Kojak).  The catchphrase article from whence this came appeared on www.tvguide.com .  They did leave out a favorite of mine, of which I’ll bring this week to a close: “Don’t be ridiculous” said perfectly by Bronson Pinchot’s Balki Bartokomous on the tv series Perfect Strangers.  I could hear every single one of these as I shared them.  I hope you could, too.  Check out my podcast, Blendertainment, at the links below!

https://open.spotify.com/show/61yTPt9wXdz37DZTbPUs16?si=lw4gR-7xQ22E-zhyGDyHyg and https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/blendertainment/id1541097172