Small Business

SSSolved! WAGged SNL, then kept trying to acrostic! (Last 4 letters IMYM suggested …I Met Your Mother), and all the Ks made me fear a Kardashian variety show might be meant (LOL). But hardly classic, IMO. Then I re-read your puzzle post/intro and (SMH) used the mechanism similar to the one you referenced, FTW.

Nice one, Jay! I had to Google a bit, but it hit the spot just right. Thanks.

I know Matt G. has now decided against metas requiring this kind of unscripted insight, but I enjoy them. Thanks, Bird!

Enjoyed it! Just my speed today.

I too WAGged SNL before I got this one :) Great puzzle!

My WAG was off. But refection prevailed. Thanks, Jay.

Very nice!

Originally submitted as Three’s …. Got rejected and stared for a while thinking what the heck else could it be. Thanks for the quick turnaround, Jay!

WAGed SNL as well. Finally got it after the nudges. Thanks, Jay!

Hah... my first WAG was friends because of Mathew Perry (black humor on my part). Then I tried to solve legitimately and got nowhere. Then I read the first nudge about obituaries and thought, okay, it is an obituary, but obviously you didn't construct this in just two hours, and remembered Suzanne Sommers. And the title then made perfect sense.

Constructive criticism: DELL as an entry was quite distracting.

Such a great idea, Jay! I'm amazed how quickly you turned that into a meta. Thanks!

Fun one, Jay!

THIS show, I watched a lot of.

After reading nudge 1, I was wondering how to get NIGHT COURT out of the small businesses around the edges!

Well done. I needed the nudges because my knowledge of TV shows is extremely limited. But it all made sense in the end.

After a couple wrong guesses, third time's the charm! Haven't seen an episode of the show, couldn't tell you a thing about it, but unlike "Eight is Enough," I have heard of it!

the mind is weird sometimes... when you said it was mentioned in the news, i figured it was an obit, but i could only think of "friends" in that regard (and when that failed, i grasped at a lot of other straws and rabbit holes)... later, when i read the first nudge, which confirmed my above hunch but provided no other info, i got it immediately... i guess its been a tough time in tv world (not to mention what's been going on in the real world)... but anyway thanks for the puzzle

Very fun - thanks for this!

first nudge was enough. thanks for the Meta Jay

Unfortunately got it from the Obituary reference. Good thing it wasn't created this week or I would have said Friends. Thanks Jay, and it is not stealin, it is paying homage...

Played harder for me than the WSJ meta, but the first nudge got me there. Nice one!

Got it with the hints - thanks, Jay!

All I could think of was Mayberry RFD. :-) Maybe not a classic, although I'm sure Andy Griffith was. Also, it wasn't a company. Needed the first nudge, then had to cross-reference recent celeb deaths with remembering alternate answers that folks were promoting during 8 is enough week. Neither of those seem to have fallen into my TV watching days. The other 4 nudges were already apparent to me and so I was griping to myself about there being no hint as to the mechanism. Then suddenly, Oh! That's why! You were telling us to consider THREE letters and the idea of COMPANY; not where to place all those Ks and Ms and Ys!! :-) Nice aha in spite of myself -- Thanks, Jay! (Now I can go watch the end of the hockey game! -- Part of my TV diet.)