They're all Doin' It The Best They Can.

April 8, 2017 3:25 PM

Just the Ten of Us (1988-1999) is an American sitcom about a basketball coach, his wife, and their eight children, who all move to California. The Twitter account, Just The Ten Of Us (@justthetenofus), discovered that the theme song, I'm Doin' It The Best I Can, works with everything from No Country For Old Men, Ghostbusters, Wonder Woman, and 2 Fast 2 Furious. Even James Bond is Doin' It The Best He Can. (Direct link to YouTube playlist.) [via]
posted by Room 641-A (29 comments total)

This was a spin-off of Growing Pains?
posted by bq at 3:33 PM on April 8, 2017 [2 favorites]

There's one with that Pepsi commercial.
posted by dw at 3:38 PM on April 8, 2017 [3 favorites]

I remember this show! I liked it, but I was just reaching the age when it occurred to me that some things on TV were, in fact, stupid, and this show was one of those that made me begin to think about this.

The directors of Too Many Cooks clearly remembered this show pretty well, too.
posted by Countess Elena at 3:38 PM on April 8, 2017 [13 favorites]

If one can be said to experience love at first sight with a song, then I have experienced the polar opposite of that.
posted by Wolfdog at 3:41 PM on April 8, 2017 [4 favorites]

I don't often like to speak in absolutes, but this is a very bad song.
posted by Wolfdog at 3:41 PM on April 8, 2017 [7 favorites]

To be fair to the premise of the post, it does work equally work well with all of those things.
posted by Wolfdog at 3:42 PM on April 8, 2017 [2 favorites]

I only remember this show because Heather Langenkamp from A Nightmare on Elm Street was on it. She played the responsible sister.
posted by cazoo at 3:43 PM on April 8, 2017 [5 favorites]

It is impossible for me to watch that without expecting the guy from "Too Many Cooks".
posted by davejay at 3:47 PM on April 8, 2017 [5 favorites]

I want to see one with Requiem for a Dream.


Actually, it might work the other way around, too.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 3:49 PM on April 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

George Bailey Is Doin' It The Best He Can ("It's a Wonderful Life")

A++

Thanks for this post. Delightful.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 3:54 PM on April 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

Uh...the show only ran through 1990... not 1999.
posted by davidmsc at 3:58 PM on April 8, 2017 [2 favorites]

Three thoughts:
•I just remembered the crush I had on JoAnn Willette.
•That first verse is, on its own, one of the legendary twelve bottles of the quintessence of the 80s.
•For whatever reason, I have a hunch this jingle was a second runner for the theme song to "Perfect Strangers."
posted by kimota at 4:55 PM on April 8, 2017 [9 favorites]

I'm at the end of my work shift on lunch, still 2 more hours, I needed this slight reprieve and small bit of weird joy. Thank you.
posted by Fizz at 5:16 PM on April 8, 2017

To be fair to the premise of the post, it does work equally work well with all of those things.

That's my thought--that it's such a nothingburger of a song, perfectly suited for the pointless and scarcely-missed spin-off that it was created for, that it seems suitable to anything and everything because there's nothing there to listen to.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:37 PM on April 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

For whatever reason, I have a hunch this jingle was a second runner for the theme song to "Perfect Strangers."

What?! Nothing's Gonna Stop Me Now is AMAZING.

And while googling for a link to the song, I found this. Wow.
posted by juliebug at 7:12 PM on April 8, 2017 [5 favorites]

Metafilter: Doinit the best eye cans
posted by blue_beetle at 7:25 PM on April 8, 2017

Please tell me I'm not the only one who thought maybe this was the one with the introduction with the paint gag?

No? It's just me who's still obsessed with an unanswered question from 2.5 years ago? Okay. It's all okay.
posted by slipthought at 7:56 PM on April 8, 2017 [7 favorites]

We do not speak of the paint roller.
posted by dephlogisticated at 8:04 PM on April 8, 2017 [6 favorites]

bq: "This was a spin-off of Growing Pains?"

Yeah. The coach showed up on two, maybe three eps of GP to set up the spin-off.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:40 PM on April 8, 2017

So, I recognized the name Matt Shakman, the kid, and had to look him up since something was familiar. Producer / Director for Sunny Philly and has a few eps of GoT and some other shows under his belt. Not quite what I was expecting, but a lot nicer than what happened with a lot of 80s child stars.
posted by lkc at 10:43 PM on April 8, 2017

I'd completely forgotten that this song (and show) existed, but two seconds of exposure and whomp there it was, maybe hidden under a Who's The Boss episode. Maybe the one where Tony saw Angela naked. An episode I didn't want to see. I didn't want any of it, actually - Who's The Boss, whatever this disaster was - I just watched a ton of crap TV because around that time, I lived in a place requiring access to a car to see anyone under 35 (that I liked), and there were only yay many channels. And now it's 3 am, and I'm excruciatingly aware of how much time and apparently neural real estate I've actually lost (to banal sitcoms, or any of a dozen other stupid things that have nothing to do with bad city planning). I should have gone to the park instead, any time I had a chance. (I'd have needed a car for that too, but, whenever I had the option. It's the plan going forward.)

I don't think I regret time given to The Golden Girls, and maybe Murphy Brown. Or Moonlighting. Or Johnny Carson. I had a sib who liked Alf though (or maybe just watched it to spite me). No end to grief for that time.
posted by cotton dress sock at 12:13 AM on April 9, 2017 [1 favorite]

Oh shit, this is where I'm compelled to show off my shameful knowledge of this show. Goddammit. (Look, it was the early '90s, I was channel-surfing after school and I landed on Nancy Thompson having a heated argument with Herb Tarlek, who was dressed like a priest. HOW DO I NOT WATCH THAT)

I only remember this show because Heather Langenkamp from A Nightmare on Elm Street was on it.

And JoAnn Willette, from Elm Street 2. And Brooke Theiss, from Elm Street 4. Matt Shakman wasn't in any of the movies, but was often seen sporting a Freddy t-shirt as an in-joke.

Langenkamp made a direct reference to A Nightmare On Elm Street in the first episode. This was back when her character was excitedly morbid to the point of near-psychosis; unfortunately they phased that out real fast. I could watch a whole show of her gleefully declaring that her new kitchen looks like a torture chamber, then staring with dark fascination at a butcher knife that's stabbed into a carving board while a laugh track uneasily rolls on.
posted by brianrobot at 2:13 AM on April 9, 2017 [5 favorites]

I remember this show. I remember this song. Sometimes it still pops into my brain, forcing its way past important information. I can't tell you my blood type, but I can tell you that seeing it from where I stand, nothin' comes easy.

Does this song actually pluralize "days" as "dayses" to force the rhyme? Good lord.
posted by Servo5678 at 5:43 AM on April 9, 2017 [2 favorites]

Also, so many worthwhile obscure 80s songs are on YouTube in muddy, AM-radio lossy format, but this one is available in pristine HD quality? This is the cleanest, most well-preserved TV theme song I've ever heard. I'm actually kind of in awe of that. Someone chose to preserve this.

I have little room to talk though because I own the first two seasons of Perfect Strangers on DVD and would buy more if they were released. At least I can watch the two-part episode where they get snowed in whenever I want.
posted by Servo5678 at 5:51 AM on April 9, 2017 [3 favorites]

I just noticed that this is sung by Bill Medley of The Righteous Brothers, so if something sounds familiar, maybe you were thinking about people Having The Time Of Their Life.
posted by Room 641-A at 8:32 AM on April 9, 2017

I am horrified to discover that apparently I had memorized this theme song back when it aired and now it's all come back to a prominent place in my brain... curse you, Metafilter!
posted by TwoStride at 5:11 PM on April 9, 2017 [2 favorites]

This is strongly reminiscent of the brilliant Walk of Life Project.
posted by likethemagician at 11:34 AM on April 10, 2017

This new one is very good: Walter White Is Doin' It The Best He Can.
posted by Room 641-A at 5:23 PM on April 10, 2017 [1 favorite]

I remember seeing the promos for this show, thinking "pfft, an 8 is Enough knockoff? Why bother?"

I'm old-school like that.

You can decide if it had a better theme song or not.
posted by emjaybee at 9:45 AM on April 12, 2017