Lists! Top five moments in television history
It’s Monday, which means list time. However, I’m breaking a few rules. First, this list contains just five items instead of 11. Why? Maybe it’s my own mini protest against the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ decision to include 10 nominees in the Best Picture category at this year’s Academy Awards. This new practice cheapens the significance of scoring a nomination and I’m not going to do the same to the items below. Also, I’m focusing on television. Deal with it.
Without further adieu, here are the top five greatest moments in television history:
1) “Clarabell’s Big Surprise”
On the final episode of the long-running children’s program, “The Howdy Doody Show,” Clarabell the Clown reveals to Buffalo Bob that he can, in fact, talk. After years of communicating through the honk of a horn and a penchant for spraying seltzer on fellow cast members, the loveable clown looks into the camera in the final seconds of the show and just barely above a whisper, tearfully says “goodbye kids” before the screen fades to black. I’ve seen a total of two episodes of “The Howdy Doody Show” in my life, but the characters cross generations. For anyone who has had to bid farewell to a favorite television show after multiple seasons, this moment encapsulates the feeling of loss. Looking at the show from an outsider’s perspective, it’s also heartbreaking to witness these guys basically losing a job they needed and loved. Just try watching this without shedding a tear. The big moment comes in at the 2:51 mark.
2) “Shut the Door, Have a Seat”
The season three finale of “Mad Men” will go down as one of the greatest finales ever broadcast. Between the caper-like feel of assembling a rogue team to launch a new advertising firm with Don Draper at the helm and the excrutiating demise of Draper’s marriage, the episode popped on so many levels. But, the stand-out moment occurs between Draper and his protégé Peggy. Angered by the way Don assumes she’ll do whatever he tells her and still smarting from a past meeting where Don takes all of his bottled-up frustrations and unjustly lays into her, Peggy takes a stand and flirts with other offers. This forces Don to pay Peggy a special visit at her home to convince her to join him in this new endeavor. He doesn’t beg or plead (that’s not Don Draper’s style), he calmly states her worth both professionally and personally. Peggy knows if she stays with the man who single-handedly allowed her to break the glass ceiling and move up from the secretary pool into her own office, she’ll have to endure Don’s mood swings and ego, but if she walks away from the offer, she’ll lose her mentor forever. “If I say no, you’ll never speak to me again,” she tearfully says knowing the answer before she even utters the words. And then, unexpectedly, almost uncharacteristically, Don looks her straight in the eye and stoically says, “No, I will spend the rest of my life trying to hire you.” After three seasons of rooting for Don Draper despite the infidelity, the lies, the inability to connect with another human being on any level other than “it’s just business,” this moment confirms that all is not lost. Don Draper can be redeemed. The heart-dropping scene occurs at the 3:40 mark.
3) “Losing My Religion”
The season two finale of “Grey’s Anatomy” stands as the most impressive multi-part episode in the show’s history. It’s a feat the show’s writers have yet to beat. In fact, it’s probably impossible. Izzy risked her medical license to ensure Denny finally received a heart transplant by cutting his LVAD wire while Burke suffered a gunshot wound to the arm, which threatened to end his career. They somehow managed to even squeeze in a prom at the hospital for the chief’s dying niece. In an episode with a jaw-dropping amount of emotional high and low points, the most memorable was the sight of Izzy, dressed in a rose-hued formal prom dress, draped across Denny’s dead body in his hospital bed. Somewhere between coming out of surgery successfully, proposing to Izzy and making it through the night, Denny’s new heart petered out. Meredith, George and Christina stand by helplessly while Izzy refuses to leave the side of her dead patient/boyfriend after all she risked to give him a happily-ever-after. Alex — battling his own feelings for Izzy and disdain for the patient who stole her affections — carries Izzy away from Denny’s lifeless body. While she sobs in Alex’s arms, the opening notes of Snow Patrol’s “Chasing Cars” begin. This moment made Snow Patrol stars in the States, contributed to Katherine Heigl’s Emmy win and induced the biggest cryfest among women ages 18 to 35 since “Titanic.”
3) “Self-esteem”
Angela Chase spends most of “My So-Called Life” pining for the elusive Jordan Catalano. When she finally gets to lock lips with the boy of her dreams, he wants to keep it a secret. Ditching out on friends and skipping a much-needed geometry review, Angela stealthily meets Jordan Catalano in the infamous boiler room for hot-and-heavy make-out session. Unsurprisingly, Jordan Catalano ignores her infront of his friends and at school. Fed up with the duality of the situation, Angela puts the kibosh on swapping spit in the boiler room and decides to turn her attention to more pressing matters like her failing grade in geometry. In the end, Jordan Catalano realizes he’s a bonehead and upon seeing Angela standing by her locker, struts towards her to the surging sounds of Buffalo Tom’s “Late at Night” in the background and asks if they can find a better place to…er…talk. She concedes and as they walk away, he takes her hand and leads her down the crowded hallway while everyone looks on. Some look on deflated, consumed by unrequited love (Brian), some with genuine surprise (Jordan’s friends) and others take in the view with a mixture of envy and joy (Ricky). In the series’ short-lived, but critically-acclaimed run, the moment Jordan Catalano clasps Angela’s hand remains a turning point and an enduring romantic gesture. Never mind that only a few episodes later he dumps the girl for not giving up her V-card. This is what high school dreams are made of.
5) Day 4: 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.
Jack Bauer can’t afford friends. He either ends up killing them, getting them killed, torturing them or suffering a betrayal at their hands. In season four of “24″ Jack calls on “the only person I can trust right now” to help him and Audrey out of a pickle. The list couldn’t have been very long, but viewers searched their brains to figure out the identity of the one who would come in and save the day — something Jack usually accomplishes on his own. As Jack and Audrey fend for their lives against a group of terrorists, Jacks’ knight in shining armor appears and it’s none other than the long-thought-dead Tony. The appearance of the original cast member elicited shouts of joy from viewers. There may have even been a few instances of fist pumping in certain households. The writers of “24″ have killed and resurrected Tony too many times as a tiresome plot device, but this was the first and sweetest.
Honorable Mention:
“You Don’t Bring Me Flowers”
Oh the pain! Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond’s duet on “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” at the Grammy Awards has appeared on nearly every highlight reel since it aired in 1980. The two mega-stars stand on opposite sides of the stage as they begin the divorcing couples lament and inch closer together as the lyrics pinpoint the happier times. When Streisand brushes Diamond’s cheek with a soft caress of her hand the crowd goes nuts. It’s seductive, it’s sweet, it’s pained and poignant. Say what you will about the sappy factor of the song and the loss of street cred one would endure by admitting allegiance to either artist, but based on this tour de force alone, they deserved every minute of their standing ovation.
