Shark Bytes

When Gerald Mcrainey's started to show the effects of Delta Burke's giant ass sitting on his face every night.

I love the show and watched the "together " episode today and polly and John were married over a year before he brought up the adoption idea

Answering the questions first:

Major Dad has a much better ring to it than Lt. Col. Dad, and depending on how long he was a Major, he's not going to be eligible for Lt. Col. in just 2 years. Parker Stevenson was the other "Simon" in "Simon and Simon".

Onwards...

I'm military (Marine, no less), and liked the show. Attention to detail in terms of uniforms, rank structure, knowing what the ranks mean, and how they are addressed. etc. For a comedy show, its rare, but the Marine Corps did serve as advisers to the show.

I don't think it jumped.

"Dad" and his bratty kids both deserve a good hard spanking!!!!!!! Pro-military cheerleading of the worst republican sort.

If the Major hadn't left his medals in an area where Casey could get access to them, his Purple Heart wouldn't have been lost! That type of thing is partially the Major's fault. He should've kept them put away, for gosh sakes!

When the Major wanted to adopt Polly's daughters, he should've waited at least six months. That's the probate period. The reason is, the girls' late real father might've had relatives out there. They might've objected it, and taken the girls' away from Polly, leaving her with a broken heart, and the Major offering comfort.

I still fondly remember the episode when the wife Polly refused to sign her middle name on an application. No matter how hard the Major searched, he could not discover it. Not even her parents could say because Polly sued them into silence. No one could imagine what could possibly be such a horrible middle name for the wife to go to such great lengths to keep it hidden. At the end of the episode she finally told it, and it all made sense.
Esther.

It jumped when I realized Major Dad was never gonna smack his punk kids around.

This was never good enough to jump. Still, it had a few notable low-lights, like the Quayle appearance, and Major's chickening out of spanking Casey in the first season (which was the only thing he'd ever been right about!)

All I can say is this: when "Major Dad" first came on the air, I never gave it much thought, but it turns out to be an example of the pro-military idea of humor, while giving the right the idea it could be funny.

What made it worse was that reruns aired for a few years on "Turner South", a cable channel devoted to the Southern United States, where there is so much respect for authority it isn't even funny.

During the gulf war when major was stuck in a base the US not even an embassy or gitmo job. That was it for him in terms of rising in rank

Never jumped!

This was one of only two sitcoms in the history of television that I can honestly say that about.

The other one is I Love Lucy.

Please! Moving the majority of the action from Mac's family to his office with the delightful Beverly Archer and the dreamy Matt Mulhern made this show watchable. The contrast between the macho major and his three stepdaughters was just too drippy. Too bad that after Delta Burke was let go from Designing Women she didn't join her real-life husband on this show. He could have dumped his boring wife, Polly and those three icky girls and taken up with Delta--who could have really livened up things! Oh well...if I have to watch this show I can, just so long as Beverly or Matt (especially Matt) is being featured in the episode.

I have never met a blended military family where the kids call their step dad by their military rank! Absurd. Why don't they just call him Mr. Same thing.

When this show first debuted, I had a lot of hope for it. It was my understanding that the premise was a right-wing military major marries a left-wing journalist. The union would create conflict with their differences of opinion, but come to compromise because of their love for each other. It could have been nice and presented in a way that appealed to both sides of the political spectrum, but it didn't. The show quickly became a soapbox for Gerald McRainey and his ultra-conservative views. Shanna Reed's character went from a spunky journalist to a stereotypical "military wife" who, for the most part, just "stood by her man." The show went overboard when they moved to a military base and the show focused more on the major's career. It became un-funny and nauseating and I felt sorry for the original cast members who were forced to act in this propaganda.

I enjoyed this show very much, but if it had a shark-jumping moment it was, appropriately enough, when Gunny got a motorcycle. She rode it fast, pulled a couple of wheelies, then did donuts in the driveway. In a following scene she says something like, “I want something faster; I’m going to get a Harley”. In the first place, the bike she rode WAS a Harley (Sportster), and in the second place, no one EVER buys a Harley if they want something fast(er).