Three Days of Halloween

Some years, we've given tons and tons of holiday specials. Some years, we just do a few recommendations. But, we're so close to Halloween already, this time around we're just doing three days and listing only television specials, not movies. And, yes, we agree that Wednesday looks very sparse... not sure why! If you know of other specials airing, let us know!

And, remember, times given are for the Pacific Time Zone.

Pixar

Tuesday, October 29th

7am: Henry Hugglemonster “The Halloween Scramble” (Disney Jr.)
7am: Kickin’ It “Boo Gi Nights” (Disney XD)
8am: Imagination Movers “A Monster Problem” (Disney Jr.)
8am: Lab Rats “The Haunting of Mission Creek High” (Disney XD)
8:30am: Charlie & Lola “Halloween” (Disney Jr.)
8:30am: Little Bill “The Halloween Costume” (NICK Jr.)
8:30am: Billy & Mandy “Wrath of the Spider Queen” “Jacked up Halloween” (Cartoon Network) 
8:30am: The Funky Phantom "Ghost Grabbers" (Boomerang)
9am: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse “Mickey’s Treat” (Disney)
9am: Team Umizoomi "The Ghost Family Costume Party" (NICK)
9:30am: Sofia the First “Princess Butterfly” (Disney)
9:30am: Rolie Polie Olie “Queen of the Pumpkins” (Disney Jr.)
10:30am: Henry Hugglemonster “The Halloween Scramble” (Disney)
10:30am: Higglytown Heroes “Higgly Halloween” (Disney Jr.)
11am: Bubble Guppies “Haunted House Party” (NICK) 
Noon: Cheers "House of Horrors with Formal Dining and Used Brick" (TVGuide)
1pm: Dora the Explorer “Halloween Parade” (NICK)
12:30pm: Handy Manny “Sounds like Halloween” (Disney Jr.)
1pm: Fish Hooks “Halloween Haul” (Disney XD)
2pm: Special Agent Oso “Pumpkin Eyes” (Disney Jr.)
2pm: Tiny Toon Adventures "Stuff that Goes Bump in the Night" (HUB)
2:30pm: Jungle Junction “Lance and the Jumpy Pumpkin” (Disney Jr.)
2:30pm: Tiny Toon Adventures "Hare Raising Night" (HUB)
2:30pm: Spookley the Square Pumpkin (Cartoon Network)
3pm: Michey Mouse Clubhouse Minnie’s Masquerade” (Disney Jr.)
3pm: Animaniacs "Scare Happy Slappy" "Witch One" "MacBeth" (HUB) 
3:30pm: Little Einsteins “Little Einsteins’ Halloween” (Disney Jr.)
3:30pm: Dear Dracula (Cartoon Network)
3:30pm: Oddities “Vampires of Philadelphia” (Science)
3:30pm: R. L. Stine's The Haunting Hour "Punpkinhead" (HUB) 
4:30pm: Bill & Mandy “Jacked Up Halloween” (Cartoon Network)
5pm: Ed, Edd ‘n Eddy’s Boo-haw Haw (Cartoon Network)
5pm: Lab Rats “Night of the Living Virus” (Disney XD)
5:30pm: Lab Rats “The Haunting of Mission Creek High” (Disney XD)
5:30pm: Back at the Barnyard “The Haunting” (NickToons)
5:30pm: Adventure Time “The Creeps” “Bad to Worse” (Cartoon Network)
5:30pm: Jake and the Never Land Pirates “Night of the Golden Pirate Pumpkin” (Disney Jr.)
6pm: Scary Godmother: The Revenge of Jimmy (Cartoon Network)
7pm: Toy Story of TERROR! (Disney XD)
7:30pm: Laverne & Shirley “Haunted House” (HUB)
8pm: Big Time Rush “Big Time Terror” (TeenNick)
8pm: Laverne & Shirley "Murder on the Moose Jaw Express - Part 1" (HUB)
8:30pm: Laverne & Shirley "Murder on the Moose Jaw Express - Part 2" (HUB)
8:30pm: Big Time Rush “Big Time Halloween” (TeenNick)
8:30pm: Henry Hugglemonster “The Halloween Scramble” (Disney Jr.)
8:30pm: Kickin’ It “Wazombie Warriors” (Disney XD)
9pm: The Goldbergs “Who Are You Going to Telephone” (ABC)
9:30pm: Trophy Wife “Halloween” (ABC)
9pm: Wild Grinders “Wild Zombies” (NickToons)
10pm: Special Agent Oso “Pumpkin Eyes” (Disney Jr.)
10pm: Crash & Bernstein “Health-o-ween” (Disney XD)
10:30pm: Crash & Bernstein “Scaredy Crash” (Disney XD)

Wednesday, October 30^th

Midnight: Laverne & Shirley “Haunted House” (HUB)
12:30am: Laverne & Shirley "Murder on the Moose Jaw Express - Part 1" (HUB)
1am: Laverne & Shirley "Murder on the Moose Jaw Express - Part 2" (HUB)
1:30am: Laverne & Shirley "The Ghost Story" (HUB)
6am: Animaniacs "Scare Happy Slappy" "Witch One" "MacBeth" (HUB)
6:30am: Animaniacs "Hot, Bothered & Bedeviled" "Moon Over Minerva" "Skullhead Boneyhands" (HUB)
7am: Tiny Toon Adventures "The Horror of Slumber Party Mountain" (HUB)
7:30am: Tiny Toon Adventures "Toons from the Crypt" (HUB)
8:30am: Strawberry Shortcake's Berry Bitty Adventures "Nothing to Fear but Berries Themselves" (HUB)
9am: Strawberry Shortcake's Berry Bitty Adventures "The Berry Scary Fun Adventure" (HUB)
Noon: Pound Puppies "Nightmare on Pound Street" (HUB)
2pm: Tiny Toon Adventures "The Horror of Slumber Party Mountain" (HUB)
2:30pm: Tiny Toon Adventures "Toons from the Crypt" (HUB) 
3pm: Friends "The One with the Halloween Party" (TBS)
3pm: Animaniacs "Draculee Draculaa" "Phrankenrunt" (HUB)
7pm: Step by Step "Something Wild" (HUB)
7:30pm: Step by Step "Dream Lover" (HUB)
8pm: The Middle “Halloween IV” The Ghost Story” (ABC)
8pm: Sabrina, the Teenage Witch "A Halloween Story" (HUB)
8:30pm: Sabrina, the Teenage Witch "A River of Candy Corn Runs Through It" (HUB)
8:30pm: Back in the Game “Night Games” (ABC)
9pm: Modern Family “Open House of Horrors” (ABC)

Thursday, October 31^st

Midnight: Step by Step "Something Wild" (HUB)
12:30am: Step by Step "Dream Lover" (HUB)
12:45am: King of Queens "Ticker Treat" (TVLand)
1am: Sabrina, the Teenage Witch "A Halloween Story" (HUB)
1:30am: Sabrina, the Teenage Witch "A River of Candy Corn Runs Through It" (HUB)
3am: Roseanne “Skeleton in the Closet” (TVLand)
3:30am: Roseanne “BOO!” (TVLand)
4am: Roseanne “Trick or Treat” (TVLand)
4:30am: Roseanne “Trick Me Up, Trick Me Down” (TVLand)
5am: Roseanne "Halloween IV" (TVLand)
5:30am: Roseanne "Halloween V" (TVLand)
1pm: General Hospital Halloween Episode (ABC)
6am: Animaniacs "Hot, Bothered & Bedeviled" "Moon Over Minerva" "Skullhead Boneyhands" (HUB)
6:30am: The Haunted Pumpkin of Sleepy Hollow (HUB)
7:30am: Animaniacs "Scare Happy Slappy" "Witch One" "MacBeth" (HUB)
8am: Animaniacs "Draculee Draculaa" (HUB)10am: The Haunted Pumpkin of Sleepy Hollow (HUB)
11am: Tiny Toons' Night Ghoulery (HUB)1pm: Home Improvement "The Haunting of the Taylor House" (Hallmark)
1:30pm: Home Improvement "Crazy for You" (Hallmark)
2pm: Home Improvement “Let Them Eat Cake” (Hallmark)
2:30pm: Home Improvement “I Was a Teenage Taylor” (Hallmark)
3pm: Home Improvement “A Night to Dismember” (Hallmark)
3pm: Goosebumps “The Haunted Mask (HUB)
3:30pm: Home Improvement “Bewitched” (Hallmark)
4pm: Goosebumps “The Haunted Mask 2” (HUB)
4pm: Little House on the Prairie “The Monster of Walnut Grove” (Hallmark)
5pm: Little House on the Prairie “The Halloween Dream” (Hallmark)
6pm: Little House on the Prairie “The Ghost Story” (Hallmark)
7pm: Little House on the Prairie “The Nightwalker” (Hallmark)
7:30pm: ALF "Some Enchanted Evening" (HUB)
8pm: Sabrina, the Teenage Witch "Good Will Haunting" (HUB)
8pm: Parks and Recreation “Recall Vote” (NBC)
8pm: Deadtime Stories “Little Magic Shop of Horrors” (NICK)
8pm: It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (ABC)
8:30pm: Sabrina, the Teenage Witch "Episode LXXXI: The Phantom Menace" (HUB)
9pm: Grey’s Anatomy “Thriller” (ABC)
9pm: Everybody Loves Raymond "Halloween Candy" (TVLand)
10pm: Frasier “Halloween” (Hallmark)
10:30pm: Frasier “Tales from the Crypt” (Hallmark)
11pm: Frasier “Boo!” (Hallmark)
11:30pm: Frasier “Dark Side of the Moon” (Hallmark)
11:30pm: Secret Squirrel "Which Witch is Which" "Bold Rush" "Squiddly Double Diddley" (Boomerang)
11:35pm: Jimmy Kimmel Live “Half & Half Halloween Pageant” (ABC)
11:45pm: King of Queens "Ticker Treat" (TVLand)

Top Ten Memorable Video Gamers on Television

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Guess what? We're getting a new writer! J. Adams will be joining TheTalkingBox's staff starting tomorrow. You might remember that, a while back, we looked at a few television technologies and did some writing about not just what you watch on TV, but what you watch TV on. Well, how about other things that you DO with your TV? The list is quite impressive at this point, but our new writer will be focusing on video games, as a vast majority of those are played through consoles connected to televisions. We'll be starting with a look back on some video game history, but you can look forward to game reviews, recommendations, retrospectives, and more.

So, in celebration of this new branch to our site, today we take a look at some of the most memorable instances of video gamers on television - did you realize just how many shows depict characters playing video games at one time or another? Sometimes they're single episodes (like the Scrubs gang playing Unreal Tournament III or Kovac's impulse buy on ER), but other times they are regular activities for the characters, so let's dive right in and take a look. If we missed somebody you think should have made the cut, let us know in the comments!

10. Frasier "The Apparent Trap" (S07E09): Now, Frasier's son, Frederick, plays both console games and handheld games when visiting from Boston, but this episode sticks out in my mind because Niles repeatedly dies in the intro level. It's not rocket science, but the sitcom has built both Frasier and Niles into being so deficient in anything "normal" kids did (remember the later episode where Daphne has to teach them to ride bicycles?) that the character just dies as soon as Niles takes the controller. 

9. Friends "The One Where Joey Dates Rachel" (S08E12): Yeah, okay, the "main" story may have been about Joey and Rachel exploring their feelings for one another, but the memorable plotline is that Phoebe's wedding gift to Monica and Chandler finally arrives. She decided to present them with a retired arcade game, Ms. Pac-Man. While Phoebe and Monica are fiercely competitive initially, it's unemployed Chandler who becomes obsessed, ultimately filling the Best Scores board with dirty words. The clinching moment of the episode, however, is a tie between Chandler realizing that his hand is now cramped into a joystick position and Ross's son Ben walking in to hear Phoebe's diarrhea-of-the-mouth when she loses.

8. Seinfeld "The Frogger" (S09E18): This episode is remarkably close to the end of the iconic show, but it offers some great gaming moments. Not only is George obsessive about making sure his "top score" is preserved, but he also takes on the challenge of maneuvering the arcade game in traffic as if he were the frog in the classic game. Add in an overhead view and some cheesy sound effects and we've got ourselves an adult taking a game all too seriously. 

by pacman1990 at GIFSoup

7. How I Met Your Mother "The Third Wheel" (S03E03): Barney and Marshall are so engrossed in a game of Wii Tennis that they're actually not going to go down to MacLaren's. But wait, it gets better. As the trash talk begins to mount, Marshall removes his pants for "freedom and mobility" and Barney switches into British mode, using words like "crumpet" and "bangers and mash" to distract Marshall. Lily comes home and is there when Ted calls to announce he's got a "tricycle" building, and everyone needs to clear the apartment. While it would have been funnier if the men had refused to give up their game for the tricycle, they honor the Bro Code and hide to give Ted and the ladies the apartment.

6. Step by Step "Video-Mania" (S03E06): This is really an episode about perfectionism, which may explain why I'm particularly drawn to it. See, Mark, the brainy boy in the family, receives an "A" on an assignment. Normally, that would be great, but for children accustomed to seeing "A+" at the top of their papers, it causes some alarm. Stepfather Frank thinks that playing a video game will help Mark with his stress. Unfortunately, Mark can't enjoy the game for what it is; he makes it a constant competition with himself - to get to the next level, to have the highest score - and is soon up all night mashing the buttons. Frank and Carol wind up taking him to a support group for video game addicts, and BAM! he's cured.

5. Futurama "Anthology of Interest II" (S04E03): The Professor's "What If" Machine allows Fry to see what life would be like if it were a video game. Well, in the sub-story "Raiders of the Lost Arcade," Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Mario, and Space Invaders are all showcased in one way or another. This episode is particularly interesting because Fry must personally battle the Space Invaders as if the world depended on it - and I think that a lot of us can relate to the endscene, where Fry admits that he could never get the final one... his brother always did it for him.

photo credit: Futurama and Matt Groening

4. House: The brilliant doctor plays anything and everything - Metroid Zero Mission, Metroid Prime Hunters, MX vs. ATV, Ninja Gaidan II, racing games, and a couple of handheld consoles come to mind. Oh, and that one with the apes - it looked cool, though I think SavageScape was fictional. House plays alone, with Wilson on the weekends, and with Taub at work. Taub and Foreman also played games together when they were roommates. While there aren't specific episodes that come to mind, video games were showcased throughout several seasons of the show, and I particularly liked how they infiltrated work and home. 

3. Clarissa Explains it All: I may be wrong, but just about every episode I can remember had Clarissa DESIGNING her own video games. Yes, sometimes all she'd do is put her brother's head on something and kill it, but she was always creating thematic screens. But is was 1991-1994, and Clarissa was a girl, so Nickelodeon was really being a little edgy with writing her into being able to do such advanced stuff when she was 14 and the Super Nintendo was just coming out. Talk about girl power! 

2. South Park "Make Love, Not Warcraft" (S10E08): Yes, the kids do play video games on a multitude of platforms throughout the series. BUT, I don't know how you could argue that their most memorable gamer episode is when Kyle, Kenny, Stan, and Cartman become obsessed with World of Warcraft and killing a specific player, who has become drunk with power. The references to guys doing nothing but playing games for 21 hours a day for months on end are ridiculous - the kids are all overweight and acne-ridden, they survive off of energy drinks and hot pockets, and they use words like "pwned" in real life. In the end, they're able to defeat the "Griefer" and are happy that they can "finally play the game." Hardcore, my friends. 

southparkstudios.com

1. The Big Bang Theory: The guys are all into video gaming and even Penny plays a few times, showing some great beginner's aptitude. They're big on Halo, RockBand, and Age of Conan, though others certainly make appearances. Heck, there's a whole episode about Sheldon's World of Warcraft account getting hacked and someone stealing his ostrich, leading our favorite physicist to call the police, though it's Penny who delivers a swift kick to the thief's groin and gets back Sheldon's stuff. It's also good to note that the guys believe in owning every geeky item out there, so they don't discriminate when it comes to XBox vs. PS3 vs. PC games, allowing them to fully embrace the many gaming options available to them. And, with this series still going on, you can pretty much bet that we haven't seen the end of their gaming episodes! 

Favorite Episodes: Step by Step

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

I'm not really sure how this show slipped my mind in the beginning, as I began to compile a list of the shows I've seen every episode of. This show was my favorite for a short period of time (it's hard to compete with the heartthrobs on Boy Meets World and Home Improvement, haha), and I think that the premise (a more modern-day Brady Bunch) was an intriguing one, and something that was missing from television at that time. The kids were all really different from one another, and the random extra characters (which came and went) added some spice to the plots. It's another show that I saw here and there (anything that ran in 1993-1994 is that way for me, since I had a big move, and since I was a child my parents didn't really think that my television preferences were a priority, LoL), but I caught it all eventually.

I could not find any video clips of the mentioned episodes except for one (which I went ahead and embedded). It does seem that they were previously on youtube and were taken down.

Season 1: "Yo-Yo's Wedding" (S01E07) Frank and Carol find out that their Jamaican wedding wasn't legal, so they decide to go ahead and get married in Wisconsin. However, the date coincides with Brendan's birthday party. They don't think this will be a problem initially, since the party is before the nuptials. However, when the clown doesn't show up, Frank jumps in to save the day for his son. This does mean, however, that he is still in costume when it's time to say the vows, hahahaha.

Season 2: "Happy Birthday, Baby" (S02E14) Dana is turning 17 and wants to have an unchaperoned party. Carol and Frank are against that, so Dana rents a hotel suite to have a secret party. Unfortunately, Carol and Frank end up spending the weekend at the same hotel, just across the hall from the shindig. In the side-plot, Al washes Karen's shirt, and Cody acts as a judge about the whole situation.

Season 3: "Hog Wild" (S03E07) It's Frank and Carol's anniversary, and they're busy trying to get the other a perfect gift. It starts to get out of control, but Brendan's homemade gift reminds them that it's the love that counts. In a strange side story, JT tries to convince Cody to open up a motorcycle repair shop.

Season 4: "One Truck, Al Dente" (S04E16) Al becomes the fourth child in the household to start driving. However, she pressures JT into giving her lessons underage - in Frank's new truck. She scrapes up the side, and the two of them use putty to try and cover up the accident. Unfortunately, that doesn't hold long and Frank soon sees what happened. Elsewhere, Dana has had her wisdom teeth removed, and Cody is keeping her company while she is heavily medicated.

Season 5: "We're Going to Disney World" (S05E22-23) In this two-parter, the family (plus Flash and Rich) go to Disney for Frank and Carol's anniversary. The three older girls are all going to compete in a Country singing competition, although Karen gets much more intense about it than originally planned. Brendan and Mark help Flash try to make it to all of the rides in the park in world-record time. But the best part of the story is where JT tries to claim that he is from the Disney lineage to impress girls, but he and Rich end up blowing their entire savings doing so.

Season 6: "Macho Man" (S06E17) A bunch of the older kids are out at a fun center, playing mini-golf, batting cages, arcade games, etc. JT's girlfriend, Sam, beats him in every game, so he starts to feel stupid. To make matters worse, she stands up for him at the pool hall, and his confidence is shot. In a cute and strange side story, Jean-Luc takes Lily for a booster shot at the doctor's office, but he also ends up needing a tetanus shot.

Season 7: "Your Cheatin' Heart" (S07E03) Dana starts to get suspicious of Rich's faithfulness when he makes stupid excuses. Karen and Al discover that he's been over at another woman's house. Fortunately, it turns out that he is just taking dance lessons to impress Dana. Meanwhile, Frank and Carol can't get on the same page to spend romantic time together until they're both under the weather and unable to enjoy themselves.

Favorite Christmas Episodes, Part II

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Seinfeld: ''The Strike.'' (1993) It might as well be titled "Festivus" as that's what everyone remembers this one as. Elaine is busy trying to get a frequent-buyer sub card back from a guy she gave a fake number to. George is trying to hide the fact that his family celebrates a unique winter holiday, and Kramer takes an avid interest in bringing back Festivus. Kramer's bagel union stops striking after twelve years so Kramer goes back to work. PLUS, George gets out of spending money on office Christmas gifts by making donations to a fake charity... which works out until the boss wants to donate, too! oh, and Jerry's dating a girl who has a beautiful side and an ugly side. The included clip shows the Festivus celebration among other things.


Family Guy: ''A Very Special Family Guy Freakin' Christmas.'' (2001) This episode looks a lot earlier on than it was. Lois is completely in the Christmas spirit, but Peter isn't, really. She eventually gets him to do some of the Christmas chores, but he goes overboard and messes things up. Meanwhile, there's a funny sidestory about KISS saving Santa. Stewie tries to figure out how Santa can watch all of the children in the whole world at once. To make things worse, Brian burns down the living room and kitchen. Lois eventually goes crazy and the family is left at a loss... which leaves Peter to fix everything and he actually manages to. I believe the whole episode is embedded below. [originally I embedded the scene where Peter is trying to park the car, but the video has since been removed.]

Boy Meets World: "Family Trees." It's hard to tell this is a Christmas episode, but there is a Santa and wreaths and things at one point. Shawn finds out Verna wasn't his mom, and that sets him off in a world of lost. He tries hard to find other family members online. It's Alan's birthday and the family is trying to plan a surprise party. In the end, Alan offers to adopt Shawn formally.


Step by Step: "Christmas Story." (1993) Cody decorates his van and the yard, using Albert Einstein, Abraham Lincoln, and Alex Trebek as the wisemen, haha. Don Knotts plays a policeman when Frank and Carol are out at the toy store in the wee hours of Christmas morning. While the second half has some funny lines, the first half is more all-encompassing.


The Jeffersons: "The Christmas Wedding." (1976) Lionel and Jenny are having all kinds of problems planning their wedding... no thanks to their feuding fathers. So, Louise and Helen stage a wedding rehearsal in the living room... only it's the real thing!

Top 10 Disappearing Characters

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

This is a category that is up for much debate. For instance, on Saved by the Bell, most of the secondary characters appear on less than four episodes.

10. Chuck Cunningham. The obvious choice, since the idea of missing characters has become synonymous with "the Chuck Cunningham Syndrome." (He was Ritchie's older brother on Happy Days in the event you don't know what I'm talking about)

9. Jenny Kelly. The name probably doesn't ring a bell, but she was a best friend to Sabrina (The Teenage Witch) for the first two seasons. She even co-crushed on Harvey. But she was dropped like a hot potato with no explanation or warning!

8. Judy Winslow. Honestly, I watched Family Matters in original run and it took me a good season or so to realize that she was missing. (Cousin Richie also vanishes, as does Waldo, but that's beside the point...)

7. Bob on Becker. While Reggie's write-off was stupid (she went to travel through Europe for TWO YEARS with friends after sleeping with Becker...), Bob's was practically invisible. Jake mentions at one point that Bob had gone on vacation, but that's the only mention audiences have, with no big departure from Bob at all.

6. Maggie from A Different World. Maggie was Marisa Tomei character's, a military brat who was Denise's roommate during the "sophomore season." Come Season 2, no more Maggie. Probably because she wasn't black, and they were going for realism at an HBCU.

5. Eric, Jessie Spano's stepbrother. He was in two episodes, and in the end he decided to stay in LA, and make a life in California instead of New York. But in the next episode, he's gone without a trace. um, what? I guess he wasn't "Saved" by the Bell.

4. Sara Spooner. You know, Carrie's little sister on King of Queens? She even moved in with Doug and Carrie at the same time Arthur did - she got the office and he got the basement. But, after the sixth episode of this long-running series (207 episodes in all), she vanished. What's worse, it pretty much seems like Carrie is an only child after that!

3. Minkus. He made a good classmate to Cory and Shawn on Boy Meets World, and a good opposite after Topanga became cool instead of dorky. But the weirdest thing about it is the reappearance he makes at the end of the high school years, where he claims he's been there all along, just taking classes in a different hallway.

2. Brendan Lambert. You remember him... the littlest boy on Step by Step. He was cute, but other than sharing his birthday with his dad's wedding, he really didn't get many storylines to himself. What was even more amusing is that they age Lily so she's five years old, yet Brendan gets cut for being just a few years older.

1. Steven Floyd and Ruth Ann Torkelson. Of The Torkelsons five children, two of them disappear and are never mentioned when the remainder of the family moves from Pyramid Corners, Oklahoma to Seattle. Technically the show was then called Almost Home, but it kept the same story idea and such, so it should have included the entire family.

Possibly worth mentioning: Denise, who plays Little Richard's niece on Full House, disappeared as Michelle's best friend. But Teddy is still there (as is Aaron), as are newcomers Derek and Lisa.

Top 20 Television Sibling Rivalries! Part II

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Here we go, the top ten I chose for biggest sibling rivalries!

10. Doug & Judy Funnie. They're a pain in eachother's butts. They pick on one another, scheme to get the other's goat, and generally argue to no end. Doug tells a white lie to Judy about his Christmas List, and the next thing you know, Judy gets to name their baby sister Cleopatra, and Doug's joke of "Dirt Bike" becomes her middle name. Mom is too meek to really care about their arguments, and many times Doug and Judy just battle it out until the bitter end.

9. Marcia & Jan Brady. You should've seen this one coming. It's definitely one of the classic rivalries. We all know that Marcia is the pretty one and that Jan just gets ignored. Hating your glasses and wanting to wear a wig to get a different perspective is one thing, but inventing a fake boyfriend and having the operator call your house so you can pretend it's George Glass is another. Still, Marcia did a lot of showing off, whining, and proactivity to get her way in the family, so she deserved to be hated.

8. Raymond & Robert Barone. omg, who does Mom love more?!? such a big deal, for no reason at all! But, even when Robert manages to do something stellar enough for recognition, Raymond pretty much always manages to steal the spotlight in one way or another. There's not really a lot of different things that they fight eachother for, it's really a main focus on their "dear" mother.

7. Ren & Louis Stevens. I see this one as a real classic sibling rivalry. Ren was the smart one, Louis was the mischievous one. They often had to bribe eachother to get what they wanted, and the other would go along with it... sometimes. Rarely, they would actually go far to cover for one another, but generally speaking, they were cutthroat enemies. And they were CRAZY CREATIVE with how they got back at one another, which is something you see pretty rarely these days.

6. DJ & Stephanie Tanner. All Stephanie ever wanted to do was be just like DJ (except have a BFF smarter than Kimmy Gibbler. not that Gia was that great, but anyway...). Stephanie would con DJ into doing what she wanted (often because DJ would sneak out or make out or stop eating or get a bad grade or scratch the car or....). On MANY an occasion, Stephanie stole an article of clothing from DJ, only to have something go wrong (the mustard from the Funky Franks, for instance). Plus, how many times did Mr. Bear have to get thrown around to make a point?

5. Cory & Eric Matthews. They often fought over the use of their bedroom (and mysteriously switched sides of the room several times, so I guess their space issues carried on off-screen, LoL). They fought over belongings. They fought over girls. They each had their go-to parent, but sometimes wanted the attention of the other instead. Eric was the more athletic one, but Cory gave sports a try with wrestling at one point (although there was the baseball obsession, the failure at basketball, and the attempt of scuba diving in the first season... none of which really ever surfaced again). Lastly, I think part of the fact that Eric was so girl-crazy was that Cory always had the steady Topanga by his side.

4. Monica & Ross Gellar. Um, so the main reason they're so high up on the list is that they remind me of my relationship with my younger brother. As the eldest, I pretty much always got him to do what I wanted. We tricked eachother with trivia and played board games hardcore (even now, we rarely get together without playing a game of some sort). You might go as far to say that I'm the obvious favorite, and if my mom wanted to create an exercise room, there's a good chance she'd do it in my brother's room (since I have trophies and plaques and all that jazz). And if you didn't see the parallels and thought I was just talking about myself, you need to watch more Friends.

3. Becky & Darlene Connor. This one is a true favorite. Mostly because of the early years, when Becky was the smart perfectionist and Darlene was the tomboy who didn't give a damn. Becky's obsession with hair, clothes, and boys was often a subject of ridicule by Darlene. Likewise, Becky would tease Darlene for her drab clothes and pessimistic demeanor. Darlene would also make fun of Becky's "bubble butt," right up until "original Becky" left with eloped-husband Mark. Oh, and this is all before we consider their arguments over stuff like chores, the phone, and their generic, blue-collar, crappy life.

2. Mary & Lucy Camden. Yep, I'm totally defending how high I put them on the list. I don't even know that I can remember how many different boys they fought over. The same goes with outfits. And with the family's attention. And popularity. Plus, they have a full-out brawl at least twice. Even when they date separate boys, they still act in complete competition (think Ben and Kevin!).

1. Dana Foster & JT Lambert. They were enemies even before they were step-siblings! In the pilot episode we learn that JT put a (dead) rat in Dana's locker. Dana was definitely the smartass in the family, and would often come back at JT (and Frank and Cody) with witty insults. JT referred to Dana as "Barky," and she had an endless supply of nicknames for him, too. I don't know that I have a favorite interchange between the two, but this is from a very early episode, and it showcases the Lambert's famed way of consuming chocolate milk.


who didn't make the list? Tia and Tamara; Kim and Christine; Wally and the Beav; Mary & Laura. And many others, obviously. But these pairs were considered.

So what does this mean? There were no correct guesses. But never fear, a more exciting contest is in the making, to be brought to light as soon as I can secure a good number of players, so interested lurkers might want to consider sending me a message or making a comment! :)