Author: Al Daniel
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Burning questions for cancelled Fox sitcoms
One could argue Brooklyn Nine-Nine is now in its natural habitat. NBC had preexisting ties to the five-year-old Fox sitcom before salvaging it from the latter network’s bin this past week. As USA Today’s Gary Levin assessed, “NBC’s Universal Television owns the comedy…so extending it figures to increase profits on the show and give the…
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Breaking character makes SNL’s best moments
This Tuesday marks 25 years since a pivotal moment in reshaping the attitude over live actors breaking character. By giving his Matt Foley character a national glimpse, the late Chris Farley left his Saturday Night Live colleagues helpless. Farley had previously played the bombastic, caffeinated, not-so-exemplary motivational speaker in smaller, non-televised settings. And naturally, he…
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Muskegon Fury dynasty lives on at the dealership
The Muskegon Fury employed one or more of Rob Melanson, Robin Bouchard and Todd Robinson for 15 of their 16 seasons. The three contributed to one or more of the brand’s championships, combining for eight rings between them. Now they service Muskegonites as teammates – and as bona fide townspeople themselves – once again. Muskegon’s…
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Funniest Stanley Cup commercials since 1993
Not counting the 2004-05 season that never was, the NHL has logged 25 consecutive seasons of U.S. network television partnerships. Sure, it has been a revolving door between ABC, NBC, Fox and back to the first two. But the league and sport’s advocates would surely agree that beats the emptiness of the ’80s. With thorough,…
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Building the Springfield Gougers with active NHL veterans
Two years later, the missed opportunity by the AHL’s Western Massachusetts franchise still boggles the mind. In 2016 Springfield was getting a new team for the first time since 1994. That year the departing Falcons had flown in one month before The Simpsons premiered its hockey-centric episode, “Lisa on Ice.” During the 22-year interim, the series that…
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Monty Python’s best Shakespeare references
Silly and salacious are not mutually exclusive with scholarly and sophisticated. Monty Python proved and repeatedly reaffirmed that fact in its heyday. The revolutionary British comedy sextet — who combined for multiple Cambridge and Oxford degrees — wasted no creativity with William Shakespeare, along with other timeless key components of the national culture. Sometimes the…
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The mirthful mysteries of Dartmouth Hockey Twitter
It was Selection Sunday for men’s hockey; hardly a holiday in Hanover for 38 years and counting. The local Division I program had seen the curtain drop on a 16-17-2 run through the 2017-18 regular season and ECAC tournament one week prior. That meant an automatic disqualification from the NCAA bracket, which Dartmouth last reached…
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10 greatest NHL playoff series of the 1930s
The latter half of the 1930s saw the NHL playoff format evolve in a hurry. By 1937, the practice of awarding a two-game set based on aggregate goals was retired. Two years later, the best-of-five series in the tournament’s latter stages upgraded to best-of-seven. Now the clash for Canada’s most hallowed trophy, shared with U.S.…
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10 best hockey goal songs for the visiting team
When the visitor lights the lamp, the sound crew must lighten the mood. Celebratory hockey goal songs can and will become synonymous with a given home team’s identity. The best DJs in the game will establish that uniformity by cueing up the same tune for every favorable goal. No exceptions. But a scoreboard setback is…
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While the Cup Was Won: 1923-24 Montreal Canadiens
The Montreal Canadiens nabbed their first Stanley Cup as an NHL team March 25, 1924. A 3-0 blanking of the Calgary Tigers cemented a best-of-three sweep and delivered the Habs’ first title since they were still NHA tenants in 1916. Over the next seven decades, Montreal would add another 22 banners, which remains a runaway…