What’s Aged the Best?
"Don't you have homes?"; "The world needs ditch diggers too"; boat christening speech; gas-chamber line; "How about a Fresco"; Billy Baru; "Well, we're waiting"
In the discussion (9)
Approx. transcript time · 00:37:01Read transcript
- A special category is introduced for Ted Knight, going chronologically; the disdain of "don't you have homes?" to the poker players kills.
- Other Knight moments listed: his reaction to Lacey's joke, "the world needs ditch diggers too", the hamburger exchange with Spalding and the boat christening speech with his shorts too tight.
- "I've sentenced boys younger than you to the gas chamber" is read as revealing he is a complete asshole and sociopath.
- "How about a Fresco" was a running joke in college; it is barely a joke, but every Knight line delivery is the highest level of comedy.
- Cradling Billy Baru is insanity.
- "Well, we're waiting" is called one of the biggest Twitter memes, the go-to gif whenever someone teases a scoop.
- Per the quoted Ramis and Cindy Morgan recollections, Knight was a traditional script-following actor alienated by the improvising, and he was angry at the improvising around him; that real friction works on screen.
- A possibly apocryphal story says Rodney did nothing when Ramis yelled action because he did not know it was his cue.
- A 2020 equivalent of Knight is sought, perhaps David Hyde Pierce; he was a favorite character on that show, with good connection with Mary.