(HOPING to get some DARIA-RELATED stuff back on this newsgroup, so PLEASE respond to this on the newsgroup.)
Daria DID NOT make TV guides list of ``25 top Cult Shows'' They defined CULT as
a) the fans worship it (Daria definitly has that- the fan fics are plentiful and actually good)
b) some of it has entered the main culture, for example, ``beam me up scotty'' Daria does NOT have that, but neither do many other shows on the list.
Two entries on the list that make me thing Daria should have made it: Freaks and Geeks, and My so-called Life.
Heres the list and some random comments.
25 Top Cult Shows TV guide May 30, 2004
Freaks and Geeks 1999-2000
Absolutely Fabulous 1994-present
Forever Knight 1992-1996
H.R. Pufnstuf 1969-1971 Does anyone still remember this one? I don't.
Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman 1975-1978 Great show, but I'm surprised its on the list.
Twin Peaks 1990-1991 Weird for its own sake. Not that good in retrospect.
Dark Shadows 1966-1971 (Soap- had over 1000 episdes)
Doctor Who (1963-present)
The Avengers 1966-1969
My so-called life 1994-1995`
Quantum Leap 1989-1993 A little too main stream to be a cult show.
14) Beauty and the Beast 1987-1990
13) Babylon 5- 1994-1998
My personal favorite. I want to write a fan-fic crossing B5 with Daria
but all I could come up with was
Trent is Kosh (they both say stuff that doesnt' make sense)
Daria is Garabaldi (don't trust anyone)
Jane is Lyta (not sure why, but it fits)
Family Guy 1999-2002
MST 3000 1989-1999
Pee Wee's Playhouse 1986-1991
Xena Warrior Princess 1995-2001
The Twilight Zone 1959-1964
The Prisoner 1967-1968 Wish the ending made more sense, but a good show.
6) The Simpsons 1989-present
Too main stream to be a cult hit, but excellent anyway.
Beginning to age.
Monty Pythons Flying Circus 1969-1974
Farscape 1999-2003 Didn't know it was that popular. Maybe its not.
Buffy the Vampire slayer 1997-2003
The X-files 1993-2002
Star Trek (the original series) 1966-1969 The very definition of Cult TV.
Overrated. I liked the stuff Jenny Saunders did with Comic Strip more.
Never heard of it.
Yes, I vaguely remember it. I wasn't that impressed though.
Never heard of it.
I can see why this might make a list like this one though.
Never heard of it.
To be expected, though I'd expect it to be higher on the list. It should be noted, however, that there are cults within cults, and the new series has yet to air, so we don't know what people are going to think yet.
Fair enough, but it was a bit hit-and-miss IMO.
This is one of those "fad" things. The trouble with lists like this is that some shows sneak in under the guise of cult, only to get pushed out when everyone gets fed up and moves on. The age might rule in favour of it though.
Maybe, but I have met QL fanatics.
Nope. Don't get this one.
Hmm... :)
Nah. This is certainly far too mainstream.
Not seen it, but I've encountered enough MST3K fans online.
Never heard of it.
I used to know a fanatic at one of my former workplaces. Yup, I can certainly see this one!
I suppose so...
Yup. Not one of my favourites, but yup.
They really should start to consider ending it, IMO. They have flogged this particular horse until, although not quite dead, it is beginning to attract vultures.
Certainly. Remember, when two or three are gathered together, then they shall perform the Parrot Sketch.
It is an ex-parrot.
It has ceased to be.
I do know some folk that like it, but it seems that most of them are fans of other titles and like Farscape as well.
Oh YUK!!! No way.
Overhyped, IMO, and it went further down the toilet the longer it went on.
True.
However, it does seem to be a very skewed list. Did "they" say where they got the statistics to make this list up with, or was it just constructed off the top of some journo's head to fill column space?
All I remember of the show is a dream I had one night where a black-ops type assassin was sent to kill H.R. Pufnstuf. No idea where that came from, but whenever I've seen the character since, my mind's eye fills with this square-jawed guy dressed in black saying, with deadly seriousness, "H.R. Pufnstuf is going down!"
I've heard a bit, enough to think that it clashes with the rest of the list. Maybe there's something I'm missing, but I've had more interaction with Simon & Simon uberfans than Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman uberfans. No, really.
Another vampire thing. Did Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman have vampires?
To (mis)quote the Completely Useless Encyclopedia - a humorous book that hit close to the truth often - they'll slag it off as being too cartoonish/cheap/"not real Doctor Who" and think back on the old days. And in the old days they were slagging off the then-current output as cartoonish/cheap/"not real Doctor Who" and thinking back on the older days. I'm waiting for the day when someone talks about the telemovie lovingly while mocking the current output. Then I will laugh. (I liked the telemovie, sue me.)
The Completely Useless Encyclopedia even points out that calling down the current output is "Half the fun of being a fan."
I thought cult stuff had to have a following that lasted longer than that.
I've seen it. I liked it a lot. Part of the cult status no doubt comes from how well the premise lends itself to fan fiction, since the idea could be applied to anything. It's almost grown into a standard form of parody... even some people who don't use the MST3K characters use the idea: Characters trapped in a place and subjected to some incredibly bad form of "entertainment". Characters make humorous comments to relieve the boredom.
Bad fanfic is, of course, a big target for the MST3K fanfics. I've also seen MST-parodies of such things as the notorious (amongst D&Ders) Jack Chick tract "Dark Dungeons". There's even an MST of a homemade text adventure floating around. (Which was itself playable.) Essentially, anything that takes itself far too seriously (without reason) is a target.
Pee Wee Herman doing surrealist camp, if I remember correctly from what little I saw. Clearest thought in my mind is Laurence ("Larry") Fishburne as "Cowboy Curtis".
Speaking of camp, why isn't Batman on this list?
Never seen it, know of it. I seem to be the only person who remembers the PC game, in all its CGA glory. I never played it, but the review in the then-freshman publication Game Players stuck with me. I guess I found the screencap of the Grim Reaper kind of neat. Typical skeleton with long flowing robes, but with a more contemporary touch - a shirt and tie were visible IIRC under his robes and he wore a fedora-like hat instead of his regular cloak.
Ah, just an unnatural fascination with various renderings of Death, I guess.
(Snip Chicka's response.)
Which is the problem with these "cult" lists. Some people see anything that's not standard as "cult" entertainment, even if everyone watches. The Simpsons, being prime-time animation that doesn't fit well in the standard sitcom mold, is often considered "cult TV". (I know that Daria is exactly that, but the Simpsons is more popular, so it gets on the list. I know that's completely illogical for a cult TV list, but the people who put these together have no need of logic. I'm surprised there's not more lists like these of called "10/25 words/names/dates the writer/editor pulled out of his ass")
No one where I went to school had even seen it. I sang the spam song once for my circle of misfit friends. (We were friends mostly because we didn't like any of the school's cliques - the group grew apart and reformed multiple times. Last growing apart was mid-Grade 12 when one of us got involved with a girl - his brother's ex-girlfriend of all people - and I simultaneously fell hard for Doom and PCs in general. Ah, love.)
Ah, that one iteration of the spam song won two converts who remembered that one thing and later saw the show listed on the schedule grid, and got hooked. Last I saw one of them, I made some Pythonesque comment and he had to correct me - I'd misquoted it.
So I'm not the only one who doesn't worship it. Thanks.:)
Most top X lists *are* off the top of some journo's head to fill column space! The ones that aren't are too boring, mostly because they're not unique - everyone runs the same list of the 10 biggest GDPs, for instance - and people don't dispute them. On the other hand, there's probably five groups dedicated to TV shows simultaneously bitching how their show isn't on this list!
Well then, if we don't agree with this list, lets make our own!
I'm gonna start with my own top 25.
1: Daria (Duh) 2: Downtown 3: Doctor Who 4: UFO 5: The Adventures of Brisco County Junior 6: Red Dwarf 8: Babylon 5 9:Angel (So sue me, I like it!) 10:The Dukes of Hazzard (More corn than a corn field!) 11: The hitch-hikers guide to the galaxy 12: Eerie, Indiana 13: Futurama 14: Thunderbirds 15: Dangermouse (LOVE that show!) 16: The Avengers 17: Andromeda 18: LEXX 19: South Park 20: Last of the Summer Wine 21: Any WB cartoons be they Tiny Toons, Animaniacs or Loony-Tunes 22: OK, now I'm really struggling, um...... 23: Spongebob Squarepants (It's High Art! Really!) 24: Star Trek and spinoffs And Finally......... 25: Get Smart ( Sorry Trent, peace and love do NOT beat a Get Smart lunchbox! ) :o)
"Len Pitre" wrote in message news:e6rtc.48762$[email]...