remindmeofthe | (no subject)

Hey, does anyone remember a show called The Torkelsons? It lasted twenty episodes in 1991, then was repackaged as something called Almost Home, which was a baffling decision that involved moving the family to Seattle and erasing two of the five Torkelson children from existence. Most of its viewership, such as myself, came from when the Disney Channel picked it up in the mid-nineties and aired it non-stop.

Anyway, that's not my point. My point is that, in 1991, someone in the marketing department was clearly smoking the finest crack available, because the episode I am watching right now (god bless you, YouTube) has the mother, Millicent, hallucinating Elmo out of sheer exhaustion. Yes. That Elmo. WTF is this? Were they trying to boost The Torkelsons's ratings? Or was this at around the time that Elmo came into existence and this was part of some sort of multi-show promotional thing that, when taken out of context, loses all logic and cohesion?

Either way, this is the weirdest canon crossover ever.

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I recall that show. It was such a depressing show when you look at it. I mean I was okay with the show, but man did it bring me down when I'd watch it. That's probably why Disney doesn't show it anymore because it was so fucking depressing.

Dude, seriously. I was explaining the premise to someone last night and I had to finish up with, "Um, and it's a sitcom." I didn't notice when I was younger how sad it can be, but now that I'm older and I've gained some perspective and distance from adolescence, I think I've cried at every damn episode so far. It really didn't flinch from showing some of the humiliations of poverty or agonies of adolescence - the pilot episode in particular has a couple of scenes that are a little hard to watch because it's just so rawly portrayed. It's wonderful television and I revel in the realism, but it can be a little painful sometimes.

On the other hand, sometimes it also features hallucinations of Sesame Street characters. So it definitely wasn't perfect.

I mean I think it would've been miles better if it was taken as a half hour drama. It did a good job showing the hardships and stuff and you'd feel for them...but they wrongly portrayed it as a sitcom and it just wasn't a good move.

Almost Home was lame though. So very lame. I do remember Brittany Murphy played the girl that Millicent nannied.

Yeah. I mean, there are some good laughs, but - barely scraping by with five children when their father is nowhere in sight except for when he feels like it is not high comedy.

I didn't even know Almost Home was technically a different show until last week, since Disney aired all the eps under the first show's name. I never could figure out why Steven Floyd and Ruth Ann had disappeared. (And I still can't, dude, seriously. The hell? Steven Floyd's a good character and offers a little balance against all the female characters, and Ruth Ann is becoming more awesome with every passing episode. But they kept annoying Chuckie Lee and even more irritating Mary Sue, whose name is hilarious to me now? Oy.)

lol, dude, I totally remember the Torkelsons. I'm pretty sure I used to watch it before it became Almost Home.

I just looked it up on IMDB and it was the show I was thinking of. I loved Olivia Burnette so hard. I was a depressed child when the Torkelsons suddenly disappeared. :(

Edited 2008-09-01 06:48 (UTC)

I remember a lot of obscure shows but I don't remember that one at all. I hate Elmo though. I wanna see Elmo get shot by Crips.