YMMV / Still Standing

• Base-Breaking Character: While some find Bill's mother Louise's manipulative antics to be hilarious, there are others who find her controlling and passive aggressive behavior towards Bill (especially whenever he shows too much agency or tries to stand up to her) to be both bordering on emotional abuse and extremely difficult to watch. It doesn't help much that she starts making Judy a target of her psychological torment in later seasons, and rarely ever gets any kind of comeuppance (if anything, most episodes with her in them end with Bill and Judy apologizing to HER).
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The "Still Looking for Love" episode both establishes the death of Linda's cat Nathaniel Pawthorn and introduces her fiancée Perry as a recurring character on the show. But the episode starts off with Tina randomly choosing to play a cruel prank on Brian by loudly slapping herself and getting Judy to think that he was hitting her, resulting in Brian getting punished and Tina getting ice cream. Aside from serving to get Tina into the kitchen to have an interaction with Linda about the death of her cat, the gag has no bearing on the plot itself and is never mentioned again. Nor is the trick ever used on any other character on the show (which, given how twisted and potentially dangerous a prank like that could be, is probably for the best).
• Critical Dissonance: Critics didn't like this series very much, but it has a respectable 7.5/10 rating on IMDb.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • A pre-fame Ashley Tisdale plays Brian's girlfriend Bonnie.
  • Vanessa Hudgens makes her first onscreen appearance as one of Lauren's friends on their way to the Blink-182 concert (although, blink and you'll miss her).
  • Kingdom Hearts's recurring character Braig/Xigbar was played by James Patrick Stewart, Linda's boyfriend in this show.
  • Game of Thrones fans would recognize Mark Addy as King Robert Baratheon.
  • Oscar Nuñez plays one of Bill's poker buddies in "Still Hairdressing," two years before making it big as Oscar Martinez on The Office (US).
• Squick: United by their shared loneliness, Brian and his aunt Linda start hanging out with each other more often. They talk, they laugh, they do activities. They are really enjoying themselves, until Lauren points out to them that they're essentially dating. This brings everything to a halt rather quickly.
• Values Resonance: In "Still Parading," which aired in 2004, Fitz reveals that he knows his son Scotty is gay and has been actively supporting him for a year. Much like Bill, Fitz is presented as a standard sitcom Bumbling Dad who likes beer, sports, and other traditionally "manly" things; seeing such a father also presented as completely OK with his only son's homosexuality is still heartwarming.

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