TV Moments That Make You Cheer

[slashgirl]

Question: what are the TV Moments that make you so happy, that when they happen, you cheer? For example, the episode of All in the Family, when Edith had menopause & she told Archie to "stifle," I squeed like a pig with its ass on fire.

Post your favorite cheer-worthy TV moments here.

[Smilla]

I've always loved the scene in the pilot episode of The West Wing when, after half a day of drama surrounding the fictional Al Caldwell's Christian Rights League characters bitching at and trying to intimidate his staff, Jed Bartlet finally shows up to figuratively smack the CRL upside its self-righteous collective head:

Abbey told me to not drive while I was upset and she was right. She was right yesterday when she told me not to get on that damn bicycle while I was upset, but I did it anyway, and I guess I was just about as angry as I’ve ever been in my life. It seems my granddaughter, Annie, had given an interview in one of the teen magazines. And somewhere between movie stars and make-up tips, she talked about her feelings on a woman’s right to choose. Now Annie, all of twelve, has always been precocious, but she’s got a good head on her shoulders and I like it when she uses it, so I couldn’t understand it when her mother called me in tears yesterday. I said, "Elizabeth, what’s wrong?" She said, "It’s Annie." Now I love my family and I’ve read my bible from cover to cover so I want you to tell me, from what part of the Holy Scripture do you suppose the Lambs of God drew their Divine inspiration when they sent my twelve year-old granddaughter a Raggedy Ann doll with a knife stuck through its throat? [pause] You’ll denounce these people, Al. You’ll do it publicly. And until you do, you can all get your fat asses out of my White House.

[Deleted]

Yeah, that's a good one. The other West Wing moment I really liked was when that Dr Laura/Ann Coulter type woman was attending some event there and Jed called her on her statements about homosexuality, and she defended herself by saying it was in the Bible, and he just took her down, and then, to top it all off, told her that no one sits down while the President is standing.

[phenobarbara]

Smilla and Erinnyes, I couldn't agree more about those WW moments. That show - in its heyday - had so many of those types of moments.

[foxyepicurean]

Since there's no Funniest Line Ever thread for TV Shows (yes, I'm too big a pansy to start one) and since this line made me cheer as much as it made me laugh, I have to mention this beauty from Angel.

Spike is watching his nemisis Angel and a recently rescued damsel in distress converse from a nearby rooftop. He helpfully supplies both sides of their dialog, including this gem which definitely makes me cheer:

Spike as Angel: No! Helpin' those in need's my job. And working up a load of sexual tension and prancing away like a magnificient poof is truly thanks enough.

I cheer every time Spike's a catty bitch to Angel.

[Smilla]

I have always been entirely moved to cheer by the M.A.S.H. episode in which Trapper John decides that he wants to adopt an abandoned Korean boy who has shown up in the camp. After he writes a passionate letter home to his wife about it, she immediately writes back in assent, even going so far as to tell him she has told their daughters they are getting a little brother. When Trapper reads the letter, he jumps up in the air with joy, and Hawkeye embraces him. Maybe Trapper and his wife's reactions were anachronistic, but it was still adorable to see a white, presumably upper-middle class couple from suburban Boston be so charitable as to want to open their home to an older child from a war-torn Asian country simply because that child is in need of parents. The supportive attitudes of the rest of Trapper's comrades during that situation were similarly cheer-worthy.

[dnt]

I cheered, I laughed, I did a happy dance when I saw that DirecTV had added TV1 to my lineup and now I get "New York Undercover" reruns! I loved that show so much in the 90s. Torres had to be the hottest cop ever, and now I've got a season pass to his sexy Latino goodness on my TiVo.

[Deleted]

Watching Greg Louganis make his final, difficult dive in his last Olympics for the gold medal.

[Deleted]

Band of Brothers. In the first episode, David Schwimmer played the incompetent Captain Sobel, CO of Easy Company. The men much preferred the second-in-command, Lt. Winters, and threatened to mutiny rather than go to war under Sobel. The brass got the message, and replaced Sobel with Lt. Meehan, a nice guy who unfortunately got killed in the invasion of Normandy, leaving Winters to take charge on D-Day.

Take charge he did, and the series follows him as he leads the company through Normandy, Market-Garden, the Battle of the Bugle and the discovery of a concentration camp, in the process being promoted to Captain and then to Major and battalion commander. In the last episode, Winters and some of his men are watching a German colonel give a surrender speech to his troops. Sobel, who had been reassigned as a supply officer, goes walking by:

Winters (at first debating whether to say something, calls out): "Captain Sobel."
Sobel (gives curt nod): "Major Winters."
Winters, sternly: "Captain Sobel."
Sobel stops.
Winters: "Captain Sobel, you salute the rank, not the man."

And then Sobel has to give a salute. OMG, if you've seen Band of Brothers you know how that is one of the most satisfying moments of television EVER. I literally screamed, "Hell YEAH!"

[Deleted]

Foyle's War: In 1940, Howard Paige, an American entreprenuer and Anglophile has murdered his ex-business partner, but cannot be arrested owing to his importance to a pro-British organization that is influential in securing America's participation in supplying Britain with weaponry and supplies in World War Two. Inspector Foyle, who has been denied the arrest, asks to 'say goodbye' to Paige, who sneeringly calls him a 'sore loser' and tells him that it's the war. Foyle's response?:

"Yes, Mr. Paige, it's the war. But no war has lasted forever, this one will be no different. Ten years, one year, but it will end. And when it does Mr. Paige, you will still be a liar, and a murderer, and I will not have forgotten, and wherever you are I will find you. You're not escaping justice, Mr. Paige, merely postponing it. Au Revoir."

Brilliant moment. The calm, polite sincerity of Michael Kitchen's acting, couple with the gradual draining of 'Paige' (the actor's name eludes me) that makes you utterly certain that no matter what, this isn't over.