Things I Learned From TV - "Moonlighting"

So kudos to this new channel on Comcast (I think it's basic cable), "Ion", that seems to show only episodes of the "Wonder Years" and "Alice".

I've been strangely obsessed with "Alice" lately in spite of still not having watched a whole episode of the show in, oh, 20 or more years. I think it began some weeks ago when I caught a bit of the movie "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" and discovering for the first time that the show was a spin-off of this film. (I also just learned that Cheryl Ladd played Flo in the film version, then played Flo's short lived replacement "Belle" on the tv show, before she was replaced by Jolene, who seems to show up - the actress, not the character - every few months lately in movies or a TV guest spot)
I caught a few minutes of an episode last night that reminded me that I can say with certainty that this show introduced me to the concept of "moonlighting" (working a second job, presumably in the evenings). Mel was staunchly against his waitresses moonlighting, and Alice was always trying to do it. So I grew up thinking this was a huge deal and that if I ever got a job I better not do it or my boss would be very angry. Little did I know much of the country works 2 jobs to get by...and I actually moonlighted during my first real 9-5 job, working some evenings and weekends in the sky boxes at Wrigley Field.

As a side note - some new (to me) observations on the "Wonder Years":
The show was good because it was first a show about growing up, and second a show about a specific time period.
The later shows (I'm pretty sure the episodes I've been seeing are all from the last season) weren't very good. They were pushing too hard for sappy and forgot the funny.
They never really gave Danica McKellar (Winnie Cooper) much to do beyond react to Kevin. She never really had much dialogue beyond these little monologues meant to awaken Kevin to the ways of women.
Anyway....later seasons aside, here's hoping they someday manage all the music licensing issues and get some season sets out on DVD.