Reid About It

I'm starting a new feature here on Reid About It.com, a weekly vocabulary update. It's been pointed out to me there are certain words, phrases, and pop culture references I use that other people might not get. On "Reid-O-Pedia," I'll try and explain some of my enthusiastic incoherence. I know many of my readers are also writers, so I challenge you guys to drop one of my references into your own works and to share your quirks and expressions with me.

Our first entry: "Tony Danza bad" (TDB): Sometimes a movie/TV show is so implausible, and a hero is so unblemished and perfect he could only come from a situation where the star of the show has complete creative control over his character. The expression comes from a previous job at a TV station that required me to watch the entire run of "Who's The Boss," twice (my OSHA lawsuit is still ongoing).

As the show went on and the plots got farther and farther-fetched, Tony Danza's character (which like all of his others, is named "Tony") got more and more perfect. He was the perfect housekeeper, dad, boxer, painter, dancer, softball player, driver, etc. Literally anything his character had to do to further the plot was accomplished with skill and grace.

Here's another example. Once upon a time in 1987, Patrick Swayze was in a movie called "Dirty Dancing" that won the hearts of women everywhere where he played the world's greatest dancer. He was the most sought-after actor in Hollywood, so the next project he chose? "Road House", which I've stated many times is my favorite bad movie ever. In "Road House," he was the world's best fighter, lover, doctor, philosopher, mechanic, tai chi practitioner, knife thrower, psychiatrist, judge of character, and he had perfect hair at all times. He didn't have a single discernible flaw.

I named the phenomena after Danza because, let's face it, his catalogue is more embarrassing.

Using It In Context: "My God, I watched part of Beverly Hills Cop 3 on cable. That was Tony Danza bad. Why would a cop from Detroit also be an acrobat?"