"Charles in charge" ramblings

Over the last few days I have been getting up extra early. Sleep patterns a little off. Tired at night and so I sleep earlier but I end up getting up every early.

A few days ago I found out that an old sitcom Charles in Charge is on at 6.30 AM. It was really fun watching it as it was one of my favourite shows (mid 80s) even though I thought the acting was terrible and many scenes really "corny". :-) After watching two episodes over the last few days, I can confirm that I still think the acting is generally terrible and many scenes still corny! LOL

I think the episodes I watched were from the First Season. I stopped watching when they changed the supporting cast (Pembroke family) ... I think it was cancelled on Malaysian TV?

However I still like the show as I miss the old style silly sitcoms that had within its storyline a moral or story to teach. And I have always liked Willie Aames crazy character Buddy Lembeck. Girl crazy etc but so lovable. Best of all, never anything "graphic" beyond lots of soppy scenes of Charles kissing Gwendolyn Pearce. What amazed me though was that when I watched the episodes I found I could recall many of the scenes! Hmmm... TV certainly does have an impact! I also think that I subconsciously like the show because it was in a couple of episodes that I first saw Meg Ryan! LOL. I think she was the first actress I thought was "hot" :-) No, wait, the first was Diane Lane in "A Little romance" :-)

But getting back to the show ... I miss these kinds of shows ... where having a lesson to teach in each episode was an important part of script writing, and where even as Charles teaches and looks after the children, he also learns lessons from them.

In the first of two episodes I watched, Charles learns from Lila and her 14 year old friends about the importance of being truthful with his feelings (letting Gwendolyn know how he feels about her) because the older one gets, the harder it is to admit ones' feelings. He learns that in a large group of friends it is easy to be bold but it is very hard when alone. ...

And I saw this classic funny scene (I remember now that I actually used it in a sermon back in the 1980s!!) ... Charles is rambling on and on abut how he doesn't understand women (i.e. how Gwendolyn can go to an ice cream shop and order salad ... which ends up with them arguing and her later storming out). Along comes Mr. Pembroke (with the wise look) who agrees that it is hard to understand women but it will all make sense one day when he gets older. So Charles asks him when that happened for him. And his answer is something along the lines of: "I don't know. When I get to that age, I'll let you know." :-)

Then in this morning's episode, Charles learns that he can be Gwendolyn's friend without having to be her boy-friend ... a good "break up" as they are still too young to be exclusive and going too fast (They are 19 and in College). He learns from Jason (the youngest) that best friends will fight but they will still remain best friends (after a scene where Jason's and his best friend yell at each and declare they want nothing to do with each other - and his friend storms out with the final words of "And you had better be on time tomorrow to walk to school!" Really corny scene as Jason (really bad acting but so cute) says with a grin, "Don't worry Charles, we're still best friends for life" (or something like that).

Hmmm... maybe I should tape some of the shows to watch when I am free ...