Best comedy TV questions of 1993

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Question: Counting his role on Cheers, Kesley Grammar has played Fraiser for twenty years. Is this the record for the longest portrayal of a character by a TV actor?

Answer: It equals the record of James Arness of "Gunsmoke" for the actor who's played the same part on TV NOT in a soap opera. If you include soaps there are two main contenders - William Roache, who's been playing Ken Barlow in "Coronation Street" in the UK since 1960. Don Hastings has been playing Robert Hughes in US soap "As the World Turns" since 1960 as well.

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Janitor Dad - S4-E6

Question: When Chet and Verna are arguing about Chet getting a job, visible in the background is a painting of what I believe is an oak tree on a yellow background. Does anybody know the name and/or artist of this painting? My Grandparents used have a painting similar to it (if not the same one) and it also looks very similar to (and possibly the inspiration for) the cover art for the debut album of the band Days of the New.

Phaneron

Answer: I learned the answer to this one today. It is "Tree of Life" by Garé Barks.

Phaneron

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Question: This might be a stupid question, but why do all three of the children speak in typical American voices? Wouldn't their speech have a British influence because of their father, and also Niles?

Answer: Children's brains and language skills are still developing at that age and they adapt to the environment they live in. My former boss was born in England and moved to the US at about eight years old. She completely lost her British accent by her teens, even though her parents still spoke as typical English citizens. A Japanese co-worker and his wife, also Japanese, spoke English as their second language. Their two children learned both English and Japanese simultaneously while growing up and spoke each language with the appropriate accent.

raywest

Answer: Kids tend to take on the accident of where they live. I once had a British student who lost his accent after a couple of years in the US.

Brian Katcher

Not just where they live, but also after their peers (who live there, but you know what I mean).

KeyZOid

Answer: Not necessarily. Their late mother being American would've probably made the most impact on their speech, considering most kids spend most of their early years more with their mothers than fathers.

Rob245

Gracie is young enough that she doesn't remember her mother. The episode "I Don't Remember Mama" was about this.

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Answer: According to the Animaniacs Wikia: "Baloney is one of the few people capable of truly terrifying Yakko, Wakko and Dot, largely due to being impervious to their violently physical brand of humour and his inability to understand how much they despise him."

lionhead

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Question: Whenever Clark uses his X-ray vision, why does he lower his glasses? Lowering them when he uses heat vision is understandable but there's no need to do it when Clark uses X-ray vision.

Answer: I don't recall if it was ever mentioned in an episode, but it's possible that the frames and/or lenses of his glasses are lined with lead, the one compound his X-ray vision can't penetrate. Speculative, of course, but it likely would have been done at a point in his youth when he wasn't in complete control of his powers.

Cubs Fan

I think the other answer has good speculation. I would add it could also just be an "acting gesture" that Dean Cain utilizes as part of his Superman character and not because there's any practical reason. That way, the audience immediately recognizes what he is doing.

raywest

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