In this special Holiday Mini-Episode (the first of 2015 and the last until the Fall) Ken discusses his thoughts on Valentine's Day, his Valentine traditions, and his recommendations for Valentine's viewing.
Ken recommends staying in doors, drinking rose flavored soda and watching My Bloody Valentine, The Prowler, The Boogens, The Adventures of Pete and Pete, Mad About You, the Love Boat, Moonlighting, Brimstone, Chuck, Cheers, Cybill, The Facts of Life, Forever Knight, Gimme a Break, Growing Pains, Hey! Arnold, magic episode 18s, Mr. Belvedere, Newhart, Night Court, Punky Brewster, Roseanne, Spin City, That 70s Show, Supernatural, Wings, and The Wonder Years.
[music] Happy Valentine's Day everybody. This is Ken Reid, your TV guidance counselor and I've decided to do another special edition. This is a Valentine's Day episode. The episodes I did for all the other holidays in 2014 ended up getting a pretty good response, which surprised me. And I do have an extensive grid of Valentine's Day episodes and specials, so I thought I would share with you a playlist of things you might want to watch. I will also try and put another YouTube playlist together of some of these things if you like me and enjoy sitting inside and watching holiday themed things on that holiday. Valentine's Day is kind of a weird one. I know a lot of people hate it. I sort of hate it as well. I don't like corporate enforced purchasing or corporations and media telling us when we should be grateful for our loved ones, but it is a nice thing. It traditionally here in the northeast, it is usually in the coldest, darkest heart of winter, which is brutal. It's very cold. There's usually eight foot snowdrifts. As I record this, I've been shoveling for about two hours. It is a very not fun time of year. It's not exactly the time of year here that you want to get dressed up to the nines and go out on the town. It is not sort of the hot, steamy, sexy times that people like to make it out as. You may find that it is where you're from, where you don't have this brutal, miserable winter, but here it never really has been. I haven't had a lot of luck with love for the most part, but ten years ago I did meet my wife and we've been together for ten years and it's been great and I wouldn't want any other way. I bring that up not to brag, although I am bragging a bit because she is great and puts up with quite a lot from me, but I always thought I would be alone forever. I'm telling you that now before I get to the episodes here, and I haven't been. I had very little luck in dating. I was not popular with the ladies. As you would imagine, I would seem sort of exciting, weirdly, and then I would tell them that I am not exciting. I like to sit and sign and watch Valentine's Day episodes, for example. And after about two weeks they would realize that is true and I would be unceremoniously dumped. I don't think I've ever dumped anyone. I've always been the dumpy. Rightfully so. That was probably not good for dating. I was miserably single in high school, pretty much miserably single in college. It was not fun, and I would take huge advantage of February 15th to buy all of the half-price chocolate I could and eat until I was sick. I don't do it that often these days, although I do have a tendency to depression eat, which winter is great for. But as I said, I've been married for ten years this year. Actually, it's more than ten years. 2004 is when I got married and we're in 2015. So we do pretty low-key Valentine's Day. We usually get Chinese food or some takeout and we sit inside where it's warm and we just watch some movies. We actually really enjoy watching horror movies on Valentine's Day. It's fun. It's bloody and red. And it's a lot of fun. And there are several Valentine's themed horror movies, most notably my Bloody Valentine, which is an early 80s slasher movie, very cold movie. But it also has a remake from 2005, I think, 2006, which I actually, this is sort of blasphemous, but I think is a better movie. It stars Jensen Eccles from Supernatural, which is a show that I enjoy. It's pretty good. So I recommend both my Bloody Valentine films. They are very fun on Valentine's Day. You could also watch a movie called The Prowler, which takes place on Valentine's Day as well. Great early 80s slasher movie. There is also some wintery cold horror movies that are also pretty good for Valentine's Day. So most notably, I would recommend The Boogans, which is named checked in a very funny episode of New Heart, but is a pretty fun, weird little cold monster movie. So if you're looking for sort of stay inside and watch horror movies and eat pizza for Valentine's Day, there you go. There's a fun thing to do. And of course, people enjoy the vampire movies on Valentine's Day as they are. They are quite sexy for many people. But if you're looking for TV, here is what I have for you. I know there is a movie called Valentine's starring David Bory Annus. I did not bring it up because I took a girl on a date to see that movie. It was a little weird because we had been dating sort of in that weird zone where you haven't really been dating long enough to do anything of note on Valentine's Day. But you've been dating just long enough that you kind of have to do something on Valentine's Day. So we went to go see the movie Valentine and I think I was dumped before the movie ended. That's how bad it was. And weirdly still pre-ordered the movie on Amazon.com in the year 2000 because I wanted to hear the commentary track. That is what's wrong with me. I was very obsessed with pre-ordering DVDs in the late 90s and early 2000s went into quite a lot of debt. But I'm getting so much better now. Anyway, if you want to watch some Valentine themed episodes, I highly recommend the following list of them to watch. And as I said, I will put together a YouTube playlist with as many of these as I can find on there. And again, these are just sort of an alphabetical order. I did no research as per usual. I am sort of just going through them off the top of my head and recommending them to you as I see fit. There are many, many Valentine's Day themed episodes. People don't really think of it as a big TV holiday, but there are a lot of specials. There's a Bugs Bunny special. There is a Garfield special. There is Charlie Brown special. So, you know, all the major cartoon animated specials do have animated Valentine specials. There is a pretty decent Betty Boop special. But, you know, people don't ever name check it. It's very rarely brought up. And there's also a strange thing. My wife is from England, as you may or may not know. And in England, Valentine's Day is strictly a significant other holiday. It's for your lover. It is not for your mom. It is not for your kids. In America, and it is sort of weird. She pointed this out to me, and I hadn't really thought about it. But giving your mom a Valentine is strange, and giving it to your children seems strange to me. Not, you know, inherently sexual or anything, but just does seem a little bit odd. So, you know, although that being said, I do sort of have fond memories as a kid of buying and receiving a little cheap drug store Valentines with the super friends on them and making a little mailbox and being forced to give a Valentine to everybody at school and all that sort of thing. I did really enjoy kind of going through those things. I mean, I guess that goes back to my particular weird twisted brain where I enjoy obtaining things in popular culture. And Valentines always seem to be a great little snapshot of what is popular with kids at the time. So, you could look at vintage Valentines from any given year, really after the 1970s when they started becoming more pop culture. And you can see, you know, whatever was popular then. I'm sure there's disco Valentines and, you know, of course the care bears and, as I said, the super friends and whatever movie, Transformers or whatever is coming out. And that's fun to me to go through those. I also collect, again, not a surprise here, vintage Valentines, you know, sort of pre 1950, pre 1960 Valentines. I love the Bastille and Denison and Eureka die cut cardboard, Valentine's decorations. I love that kind of mid century stuff. So, we do have many sort of collages of vintage Valentines and nice frames up in our house, especially around Valentine's Day. So, I do like that aspect of it for sure. In fact, at many shows that I've done at this time of year, I would do Valentine's themed shows. Weirdly, people have booked me to host my own shows on Valentine's Day. And I make sure everybody gets a Valentine. Everyone has a little mailbox at their seat. I hand out Valentines to everybody. I try to serve rose flavored soda whenever possible, which is a thing. I highly recommend rose flavored things on Valentine's Day. Rose flavored soda. Very, very good. It's probably too late for you to order it now, but for next year, get yourself some. It is very, very good. And we always try to get some here whenever possible. You could get some rose water and probably make your own soda. It's very nice, very nice. Anyway, on to the episodes, I would recommend. And as I said, there are a ton of episodes. You would be surprised when you have 21 Jump Street. You have Alice, Alvin and the Chipmunks, American Dreams, anything but look. I mean, there's tons of shows. If you like a show, there is likely a Valentine's episode. And as always, if you would like a copy of this whole list, just email me at canandikendread.com or at TVguidenscounselor@gmail.com. And I would be happy to send you this list for your own amusement and your own perusal. These are just my sort of highlights for you. So my first one, and this is no surprise to anyone, is the Adventures of Pete and Pete. This is the Valentine's Day Massacre. This was one of the specials. It is fantastic, as you can imagine. Pete and Pete pretty much have a holiday episode for every holiday. They will never let you down. It is one of my all time favorite shows that is my first and foremost pick alphabetically. And just if you're always going to recommend one thing to you, it would be the Adventures of Pete and Pete, the Valentine's Day Massacre. Many, many Valentine's episodes are about unrequited love. There's also love triangles. These are the sort of and secret admirers. Those are sort of the themes that almost always come up in Valentine's episodes. Secret admire probably being the most popular sort of cliche in television Valentine's episodes. There are also shows that you can pretty much watch a marathon of and watch any episode. And it's a great Valentine's episode. You know, things like Love Boat. Things like Mad About You. And those did have Valentine's specific episodes, but those are just sort of fun shows to watch as a marathon on Valentine's Day generally. So, as I said, first and foremost, Adventures of Pete and Pete, my next recommendation is a show called Brimstone. Not a very well loved show, but this show kind of arrived in the wake of the X files when people were sort of getting into weird, spooky things. This was a fun show about an undead cop who was deputized by hell to go and recapture souls who had escaped. And there's an episode from the first and only season. It's episode 13, and it is called Morning After. It is a Valentine's episode. It is fun. If you're looking for something a little bit different, it is a fun episode. I would also recommend Cheers. They had a Valentine's episode in season 9, episode 18. It is called Sam Time Next Year. Great, great show. Another show that I haven't really discussed on TV guidance counselor is Chuck. It's almost a little bit too new for me to discuss it. But it's one of the shows from the last decade or so that I really, really enjoyed. It got a little long in the tooth. I think they got jerked around a little bit too much with the networks and thought the show was over several times. And then it wasn't and ended the show and had to restart it again one too many times. This is before that really affected things too much. This is from season 2. It is episode 13. It is Chuck versus the suburbs. It is a very, very good show. Again, the unrequited love falls into play here. Sibil had a great Valentine's Day episode appropriately called Valentine's Day. It is from season 3, episode 16. Very fun show against Sibil. Can't go wrong. Speaking of Sibil, moonlighting is kind of a show that is good to marathon on Valentine's Day with the sort of will-day won't-day relationship. It's sort of a fun Valentine's show just generally. So if you want to marathon something, go for moonlighting. There's not that many episodes. You could probably watch the entire series in a day, in a 24-hour period. I don't know about that. But you could watch sort of a curated, highlighted version of the series in a day. ER has three Valentine's episodes, all depressing as you can imagine, but quality television. Facts and Life also has a great Valentine's Day episode from season 8. This episode is 17 called Cupid's Revenge. The entire series was newly released on Shout Factory DVD. Season 7, 8, 9, 10, the sort of back half of that show are my favorites. Season 8 is particularly good. This is a very fun episode. Highly recommended. And on the vampire tip, you can go with the show Forever Night. It was originally a made-for-TV movie called Nick Night, which starred Rick Springfield. It then came back as a weekly series, hour-long series. I believe it was an American-Canadian co-production. Rick Springfield did not come back for the continuing series. It was recast. But it was about a vampire cop, not a demon-hunting cop. And they have a show from season 2. It is episode 15 called Be My Valentine. There's your vampire, there's your Valentine. There's your 90s cop show. You can't go wrong there. The Lovely Nail Carter. And Give Me a Break had an episode, season 3, called Valentine episode 16. Weirdly, weirdly, a show that I don't think actually did have a Valentine's Day episode that I would have thought would have is Kate Nally. I've seen every episode, and I can't think of Valentine's episode if I'm missing one. Let me know. That's a show that does holidays well, and Valentine seemed like it would be right for that show, but it didn't do one. Growing Pains, however, did. It's in season 5, which is a little bit after my favorite seasons. It's kind of a end of season 2, season 3, season 4 person. But season 5 had episode 18 called Mike, Kate, and Julie, which, as you can imagine based on the title, is a love triangle episode, but is a fun one. Herman's Head had a great episode in season 2 called My Funny Valentine. It is episode 18. You'll find that most 24 episode sitcoms, if they do have a Valentine's episode in a season, it is episode 18. It tends to be the number when that episode airs. If I don't mention your favorite show on here, and for some reason you don't want this list, check episode 18 of a season of Your Favorite Shows, and it likely has a Valentine's episode, that episode, or round that episode. Great cartoon. He Arnold, one of my favorites, has a show called Arnold's Valentine, which is from season 1. It is episode 20. It is a very fun show. That was one of the later day Nick Toons, and is very good. As I said too, Matt about you is just a great show to watch on Valentine's Day generally, and they did have two Valentine's episodes. One was from season 2. It is episode 16 called Cold Feet, and one from season 7 called Valentine's Day, which is episode 12, obviously, very good. Mr. Belvedere had a Valentine's episode in season 2, again, episode 18. It tends to be the more classic shows too, sort of pre-95. They would be episode 18 when things are a little more stringent, but this one's called Valentine's Day. It is also called The Valentine, and this is a secret admirer episode. Very funny, good episode. Mr. Belvedere can't go around. New Heart, the 80s Bob New Heart Show, which is an all-time favorite, which should not surprise you at all. If you are listening to this episode, actually question for you listening. Is this one of the first ones you checked out? I know these episodes are shorter, and I wonder if people listen to these as a little primer of the show, and they're unlike the other episodes of the show, as it's just me solo. But I wonder if people are listening to the show for the first time as a special edition episode. If you are, thank you, but these are not the most representative of the show. They might be a little dry. I don't know if they're interesting or not, but normally I do have a guest, and we talk about much more interesting things. And if you have listened to past episodes, you know that New Heart is one of my all-time favorites, probably my top 10, maybe my top 5, and may have a Valentine's episode from season 3. At this episode 14, it is called Once I Had a Secret Love, and it is very good. It is a Mary Fran episode, I believe you will like it. Night Court has one from season 2, sort of before Night Court got into the cast that everybody knows as Night Court. And this one had Billy in it. This is pre-Christine. And this one started Ellen Foley before you had Marky Post coming in as the public defender. And Ellen Foley is kind of an interesting case. She's a singer, predominantly. She's put out a couple of great records. And she's the date Mick Jones from The Clash, and she's staying back up on Sandinista. And actually, if you are a Clash fan, you probably already know this, but if you don't, her first two albums were sort of co-written, and her back up band was The Clash. They played under the name Volash, and they're really, really good. A lot of people don't necessarily like her on Night Court. I think she's very good on it, but I think people are really, really used to the sort of Mac, Christine years of Night Court, which are great. But season 2 is still pretty good. And this is episode 18. There you go. Again, it's called Billy's Valentine. Very good episode. Then, of course, Punky Brewster, a sad, sad show. From season 1, we have My Agent Valentine, which is episode 17. And Roseanne, which always has a lot of great holiday episodes. Surprisingly, it only has one Valentine's Day episode. And it is from season 3. It is episode 17. It is called Valentine's Day. It is very good, though. It does not reach the heights of Roseanne's Halloween and Thanksgiving episodes, but is well worth watching. Spin City, another one of my favorites. Again, I put that in my top 590 shows, has two Valentine's episodes from season 1 and season 2. One is called Kiss Me Stupid, and is episode 16 on season 1. And on season 2, you have The Marrying Man, which is episode 17, another show that comes up very frequently. Oh, I will say this. I'm not a huge that 70s show fan. It is occasionally entertaining, but they did a Valentine's episode pretty much every single year. They're the only show I can think of that did a Valentine's episode every single season, with the exception, I think, of season 2 and maybe season 7. But they had Valentine's episodes every year, and they're enjoyable. If you want to marathon one show and watch specific Valentine's episodes, that's really the only one I can think of that has Valentine's episodes in bulk. Supernatural, appropriately, had a show called My Bloody Valentine in season 5. It is episode 14. It is good. It is not their best holiday episode, but is a fun one. And, of course, Wings had two great Valentine's episodes. You had season 6, episode 17, Remembrance of Flings Past, and you had season 8, episode 15, Fave There, Gregory Girl. Wings show, totally underrated. Again, on my top 590 shows, great, great show. And I will wrap this up with probably my second right behind the Adventures of Pete and Pete as a show that if you're only watching a couple of Valentine's episodes, watch this one. Again, newly released in a complete series, Thanks to Time Life, who are not paying me for this. Valentine's Day on the Wonder Years is from season 3, episode 14. It is the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, and it is really great in capturing that sort of teenage, pre-teen Valentine's Day horrible magic that I never really moved on from. I don't know if adults, I always kind of consider Valentine's Day as a holiday for sort of tweens, sorry if we're using that word, and like old people, like people who've been married 25 years. Otherwise, in the middle there, it doesn't really seem like a real holiday. It might just be me, but this really captures the pressure of that sort of teenage Valentine's Day magic in the worst possible, but highly entertaining way. And I think the Pete and Pete does that as well, which no surprise there. I think Pete and Pete and Wonder Years have quite a lot of overlap in sort of vibe and style and the way that I enjoy watching them. So there you go. It's a quick one. It's just me. There's a quick list for you. We'll try to put together a YouTube playlist for you, but if you have these on DVD, you can do that or Hulu, Netflix, YouTube, Amazon, most of these shows are all available there. Nothing is too too obscure. Maybe Brimstone is. But if you do watch any of these, shoot me an email. Let me know or go on our Facebook page and post there. We have some fun discussions and conversations on there, so you should be a part of it. And as always, we will have a brand new episode of the show on Wednesday. And I want to mention it is the one year anniversary of the show. I started this show on Valentine's Day 2014, and I've been doing it for a year now, which is insane. But it's still the most fun thing I've done creatively. I cannot thank you enough for listening. Buy some half price chocolate on me. Well, not on me. I'm not going to pay for it, but you pay for it. But then just know that I told you to get it. I don't know if Valentine's works. I'm not going to Valentine's Day. Anyway, Happy Valentine's Day. Hopefully you've survived winter. And I will most likely not be doing an Easter or St. Patrick's Day edition of these. I hate St. Patrick's Day. Thank you. Growing up in Boston, you hate St. Patrick's Day. And Easter is just boring. There's no good Easter episodes of anything. If you know a good Easter episode, let me know, because I really am hard pressed to find one. I also don't like any of the Easter specials, the rank and best stuff. Even the Bugs Bunny Easter special is with the exception of the rehash of the classic "I want an Easter egg" cartoon. It is not that enjoyable. But if you know of anything that I'm missing, please let me know. I enjoy being proven wrong. So we may not have a holiday special edition again until probably, I guess, not 4th of July. Maybe. Maybe Halloween. But I don't know. Who knows? We'll see. So anyway, thanks again for listening. And we'll see you again next time on TV guidance counselor. And we'll see you for my Valentine. [Music]
