TV Guide's 60 Greatest TV Catchphrases

[JamesG]

TV's 60 Greatest Catchphrases
Sep 9, 2013
by Diane Clehane


These indelible and infinitely quotable words spoken by our favorite TV characters and personalities are forever etched in our brains. Not that there's anything wrong with that.





1. "Heeeere's...Johnny!"

Ed McMahon hailed the arrival of Johnny Carson from behind the "Tonight Show" curtain for 30 years and it never got old. Just ask Jack Nicholson.




2. "D'oh!"

A forehead-smacking Homer Simpson popularized it, other residents of Springfield have said it at one time or another and the Oxford English Dictionary even deemed it worthy of an entry.




3. "Yada, yada, yada."

The ultimate show about nothing gave us more than its fair share of catchphrases, but this "Seinfeld" signature uttered by Elaine to gloss over a bad date and favored by George's felonious girlfriend is still really something.




4. "How you doin'?"

We can't imagine how many times Joey Tribbiani's best pick-up line was tried out by "Friends" fans during the show's heyday, but it's safe to say no one said it better than Matt LeBlanc.




5. "What'choo talkin' 'bout, Willis?"

Gary Coleman's unforgettable delivery of Arnold Jackson's trademark line on "Diff'rent Strokes" made it the go-to phrase when you just had to tell a pal he was speaking nonsense.




6. "The tribe has spoken."

Reality TV has spawned countless elimination catchphrases, but Jeff Probst's final words to the ousted "Survivor" competitors are the perfect blend of camp and cool.




7. "And that's the way it is."

Long before the advent of cable news, revered newsman Walter Cronkite closed his nightly broadcast with these iconic words. And we understood we'd just seen and heard everything we needed to know.




8. "Who are you wearing?"

When Joan Rivers first took to the Golden Globes red carpet to ask stars about their designers, the E! host spawned an infotainment genre and turned celebrities into walking billboards.




9. "Come on down!"

"The Price is Right" contestants have been rushing the stage for more than 40 years upon hearing this command, most famously uttered by Johnny Olson.




10. "It's gonna be legen — wait for it — dary."

He's a one-man one-liner machine, but our favorite Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris) quote on "How I Met Your Mother" brilliantly captures his bro-vado.









The Other 50 (by Decade):


1950s:

"Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Superman!" — (Adventures of Superman)

"Baby, you're the greatest." — (The Honeymooners)







1960s:

"Yabba dabba doo!" — (The Flintstones)

"The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat." — (Wide World of Sports)

"Ruh-roh!" — (The Jetsons)

"Danger, Will Robinson!" — (Lost in Space)

"To the Batmobile!" — (Batman)

"This tape will self-destruct in five seconds." — (Mission: Impossible)

"Live long and prosper." — (Star Trek)







1970s:

"Sock it to me!" — (Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In)

"Book 'em, Danno." — (Hawaii Five-0)

"Just one more thing..." — (Columbo)

"Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!" — (The Brady Bunch)

"Stifle!" — (All in the Family)

"You hear that, Elizabeth? I'm coming to join you, honey." — (Sanford and Son)

"God will get you for that." — (Maude)

"Jane, you ignorant slut." — (Saturday Night Live)

"Who loves ya, baby?" — (Kojak)

"Dy-no-mite!" — (Good Times)

"Kiss my grits!" — (Alice)

"Good night, John Boy." — (The Waltons)

"Aaay!" — (Happy Days)

"De plane, de plane!" — (Fantasy Island)

"Nanu-nanu." — (Mork & Mindy)

"Tenk you veddy much." — (Taxi)







1980s:

"Let's be careful out there." — (Hill Street Blues)

"You look mahvelous." — (SNL)

"Well, isn't that special?" — (SNL)







1990s:

"Make it so." — (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

"Resistance is futile." — (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

"Cut it out." — (Full House)

"Eat my shorts." — (The Simpsons)

"Did I do that?" — (Family Matters)

"No soup for you!" — (Seinfeld)

"I'm listening." — (Frasier)

"It's a good thing." — (Martha Stewart Living)

"Holy crap!" — (Everybody Loves Raymond)

"Oh, my God! They killed Kenny!" — (South Park)

"Bam!" — (Emeril Live)







2000s:

"Is that your final answer?" — (Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?)

"I'm Rick James, bitch!" — (Chappelle's Show)

"Will you accept this rose?" — (The Bachelor)/(The Bachelorette)

"Dude." — (Lost)

"You're fired!" — (The Apprentice)

"Make it work." — (Project Runway)

"Everybody lies." — (House)

"Who's your daddy?" — (Veronica Mars)

"Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose." — (Friday Night Lights)







2010s:

"Bazinga!" — (The Big Bang Theory)

"We've got a situation." — (Jersey Shore)

http://www.tvguide.com/News/TVs-60-G...s-1070102.aspx

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my favorite are:
set on it happy days
you big dummy Sanford and son
did I do that family matters
one more time bang zoom to the moon alice the hooney mooners
dyominte good times
what your talking about wills different strokes