YOU Make the Call: Eight Is Enough (Part 2)

Yesterday we took a brief look at the legendary star of Just Legal and Blood and Oil and asked if you would let him date your daughter. Today we have another suitor for the Bradford daughters on Eight Is Enough. Only, Don Johnson was dating Mary and was in a committed relationship--so committed that they tried living together.

This guy, though, has the nerve to try to date Susan and Joanie at the same time while being sneaky about it:

He LOOKS like a nice guy--sort of--and he even seems nice to Mary. He's David's roommate and co-worker on a construction site, so he can't be all bad, right?

 But look closely. Do you recognize this man who, years later would go on to terrorize Metropolis? That's right, it's LEX LUTHOR! Stay away, Susan and Joanie!

Fortunately, the Bradford girls figure out themselves what a creep he is, and they give him his comeuppance by...well, it's kind of goofy. They try to make him think that all 5 of them want him, which I guess is cruel when he figures out they're putting him on:

 

Knowing all this, YOU make the call: Would you let your daughter date this man?

Actually, the better question might be, would you let your daughter date THIS man? Yes, folks, it's time once again for the Grant Goodeve Gun Show:

YOU Make the Call: Eight is Enough (Part 1)

Folks, Mary Bradford, eldest daughter of harried but generally decent father of 8 and newspaper columnist Tom, is dating a new guy, and things are getting pretty serious. They want to live together.

I ask you, would YOU let your daughter DATE this guy, let alone shack up with him?

I mean, sure, this doctor in training is helpful at the beginning when Tommy breaks his leg in a football game...

but I don't like the attitude he is giving Tom here:

Still, to his credit, he does make nice with Tom at the end--and, yes, Tom concedes the Bradfords can be stubborn--and seems to be treating Mary right again.

I leave it up to you, readers: Does this man, who may or may not be the iconic star of a future iconic TV series (Nash Bridges, of course) look like someone you would want to date your daughter?

You Make the Call: The Key to Good Citizenship?

Last weekend, I was out for my daily constitutional when I spotted something on the ground. Always susceptible to the charms of a bright, shiny object, I bent down and saw a set of keys beside and almost underneath a driver-side rear passenger door of a nice SUV. The vehicle was parked alongside the curb of a house. I was 95% certain which house it was parked in front of., but it was far enough away from the mailbox to give me 5% of doubt..

I picked up the keys and walked up to the front door, then rang the doorbell. I waited a few seconds and heard some footsteps.  I rang the bell again, waited again, and gazed at the peaceful suburban cul de sac. That last part isn't really relevant, but I thought I'd try to add a little flourish to this post. Thing is, nobody answered the door! This despite the car in the driveway in addition to the SUV.

Folks. here's your chance to play along at home. What would YOU do in this situation? Yes, it's time again to play...

YOU MAKE THE CALL!

Do you...

A) Run back down to the curb, try the keys on the SUV, start it up, and drive off yelling, "So long, suckers!"

B)  Leave a flaming bag of dog feces on the doorstep (let's just assume you can get the bag on short notice), ring the bell several more times in succession, and run away laughing.

C)  Throw the keys as far as you can in the direction of the other side of that peaceful suburban cul de sac (Hey, that phrase sort of paid off, didn't it?)

D) Put the keys right back where they were (Note that a significant snowstorm was forecast for that evening and thus it might have been tough to find the keys later).

E) Cut your walk short and rush home to watch an episode of "The Larry Sanders Show," totally forgetting you still have the keys in your pocket, but, hey, so what, because you're watching "Larry Sanders."

E) Set the keys down on the door step in a gentle fashion, then walk away sheepishly, hoping you really were being a good Samaritan and not just preventing some poor clod from finding his damn car keys because he knows he must have dropped them right by the rear passenger door.

YOU Make the Call!

What would you do, sports fans, if this happened to ypu?

You go to the library and stumble upon the recent TCM Spotlight set of 4 Charlie Chan movies. Delighted, you borrow one for a week. Less than two days later, you note that Warner Archive Instant just added those same 4 movies to its On Demand lineup.

Do you:

1) Watch the movie on DVD since, hey, you already have it sitting there by the TV

2) Watch the movie on Warner Archive Instant since, hey, you're paying for that

3) Watch the movie on DVD AND on streaming to somehow "justify" the library transaction AND get value out of the streaming service

4) Shake your fist at the heavens, yell, "O cruel movie Gods," and refuse to watch the movie at all

5) Sit down and watch an episode of "Love That Bob" for no apparent reason

6) Go to the library and demand your money back, then write an angry letter to the local paper complaining about misuse of taxpayer dollars

7) Write a blog post soliciting advice

Fans, this is your chance to make the call!

You Make the Call: Kids in Restaurants

Recently, we were on the road, the Shark family, that is, and we stopped at a busy Wendy's for lunch. Since the place was jam-packed, I took my little girl to find a table and get her started while my wife waited (and waited...and waited...and waited) in line.

I positioned my daughter in a high chair so that she could see the group of kids sitting across from us. They were all tween-ish boys with a group of adults, and I figured she'd be entertained by getting all up in their business while I was getting her food ready.

The boys started to kind of split up a bit and scatter, but they were still within eyeshot--and earshot. At one point, I overheard a few boys talking about how late they were up the night before. That's when one of them said the following:

"I was gonna go to sleep, but then Dane Cook came on, and so I watched that and then went to bed."

Now, if I could hear it, I'm pretty sure my daughter could, too. Surely you see why I was concerned. How should I respond to something like this? I don't want my just-over-a-year-old baby girl thinking Dane Cook is worth staying up for...or worth watching at all, really. This is an impressionable age for her. My mind raced as I struggled to come up with the right thing to do.

YOU MAKE THE CALL, folks. If you're me, do you:

A) Pretend nothing happened, perhaps distracting your daughter with a goofy face or by putting a cheerio up your nose--anything to make sure that kid's idiotic statement doesn't "take."

B) Find the boy's parents and let them know you're not judging their letting him watch Dane Cook, but the least they could do is try to muzzle him from spreading his poor taste to the next generation.

C) Get up from your table and confront the boy in a civil but firm manner, reminding him that your young child (among others) is in the restaurant.

D) Remain seated and shoot your hand in the air, making that moronic Dane Cook hand gesture.

E) Accept the incident and, without making a big deal out of it, calmly discuss with your baby girl why that boy is so wrong.

YOU MAKE THE CALL!

The choice for me, sports fans, was E). D) was, of course out of the question. A) was an acceptable but cowardly choice. B) was tempting, but it was challenging at that point to determine who the boy's parents were or if they were even seated as opposed to waiting in line with the teeming masses. C) seemed a tad--just a tad--disproportionate. More importantly, it risked embarrassing my wife and making the rest of the ride home an uncomfortable scenario.

So I just looked at my daughter and said in an even tone of voice, "Now, honey, I know you heard that boy say he stayed up and watched a whole Dane Cook special last night. That's his choice, and he made it. Someday you'll be old enough to make your own decisions about avoiding stuff that sucks. But right now, I want you to know that, yeah. Dane Cook sucks, and I don't think you'll get anything out of watching any of his specials."

Then she made a loud raspberry noise and threw a Cheerio. But I think I made the right call, because the way she did it really indicated that my speech sunk in.

You Make The Call: Watching "The Spirit"

THE SCENARIO: You are enjoying a quiet weekend night at home watching a DVD with your wife. Somewhere in the middle of "The Spirit," Paz Vega is on the screen as "Plaster of Paris," apparently doing a French accent, but obviously doing a sexy dance in a skimpy outfit.

Your wife says, almost as soon as the scene begins, "Well, THIS is pointless."

What do you do?

YOUR CHOICES: Do you...

A) Stealthily hit the STOP button on the remote and pretend the DVD is messed up
B) Agree with a response like, "Yeah, this is lame."
C) Say the first thing that comes into your head, which is, "Uh, I can think of TWO great reasons why this scene is happening."
D) Sit there and say nothing at all until the whole thing blows over.

YOU MAKE THE CALL!

We'll be back after the break with what I did.

OK, we're back. The correct answer is D), and that is in fact what I did. Never mind the fact that Paz Vega is a really hot woman doing hot things in that scene. The rest of the world--i.e. the wife--doesn't need to hear about it. Instead of trying subterfuge, just sit there and wait it out.

YOU Make the Call: Sunday Matinee

Situation: Sunday afternoon, just after 1:00 P.M., you settle on the couch for an afternoon of football and maybe a little blogging. Your wife and her friends, who have been working in the garden, come inside, and minutes later, wifey tells you they want to watch a movie.

It's not just any movie, though, it's "Sex and the City: The Movie," which one of her friends brought over on DVD. And they want to watch it. Now. Downstairs. Where you have settled on the couch.

What would YOU do?

A) Stomp your foot and declare, "This TV will be showing FOOTBALL today!"

B) Beg and plead for your wife to have mercy on you and watch it some other time, preferably when you are miles away at work and not at risk for inadvertent exposure to the film.

C) Pack up your stuff and move to another room as quickly as possible, grinning all the while because now this means you don't have to waste a Netflix rental on it for the wife and risk a request to watch it with her.

You Make the Call! Toto on the radio

That's right, welcome to "You Make the Call," in which we present a pop culture scenario that may or may not be inspired from a real-life adventure and ask you to examine thyself and determine what your own course of action would be!

It's a gorgeous day. Sun is shining. Skies are blue. You're out for a drive, and the sunroof is open.

You turn on the radio to find "Hold the Line" by Toto playing. What do you do here? YOU MAKE THE CALL.

Do you...

A) Quickly turn the dial and get it off that station before anyone notices you.

B) Close the sunroof, make sure all the windows and doors are secure, then turn up the volume.

C) Leave the sunroof open and blare that song, baby, because ROCK AND ROLL WILL NEVER DIE! YEAH!

YOU MAKE THE CALL!