ATWT: Towels are Evil

Thursday, April 15th:

Lord knows I’ve voiced my opinions on Dr. Reid Oliver, which are mostly not in favor of him. And I still stand by many of them. Reid is selfish, hypocritical, etc. Still think so. But I honestly do not blame him at all for simply finding Luke hot. The guy may be a jerk but he does have good taste in men. I mean, come on, dude’s in a towel. There were some joyfully coined expletives that went through my mind during that short but scorching scene which aren’t appropriate to mention here, so let’s just say I‘m not going to condemn him for enjoying that scene just as much as I did.

When I’m watching Reid, I’m reminded of the part of How The Grinch Stole Christmas with the picture of the Grinch’s heart inside that box being entirely too small. When talking about that girl who died, it’s like it grew just that little bit much. Luke is so right. He has this incredibly annoying defense mechanism of being a jerk whenever he shows any sort of emotion.

Sometimes it seems Noah’s represented enough and in most other cases - he’s not. Today he was not, even though I was glad to see the phone conversation. Noah’s supposed to be living with Alison now? Why no scenes with the two of them together. They could, I don’t know, BE TALKING ABOUT THIS WHOLE MESS?!

If anything happens with Luke and Reid it’s so obvious that it’s going to be just one big, fat, humongous, ginormous, incredibly large rebound.

Ugly Betty: Finale

Overall I felt it was a tad rushed. It’d have really been nice if ABC had not shortened the show’s episode order of episodes from 22 to 20. In spite of that though it was still a good finale.

I loved how Wilhelmina managed to get control of Mode without scheming or manipulating. I was also wondering if they’d bring Grant Bowler back for the finale. I’m glad they did.

I know there was a little criticism from some with Justin coming out so late in the series, but I think the show handled this just right. I mean, sure, anyone who’s a hardcore fan of the show would have known immediately from the pilot episode. But it really doesn’t matter how obvious you may be to others, for many gay people. That doesn’t make it easier to come out and there’s still a denial process. They also did an excellent job with Austin. Also, great role reversal with Justin giving Marc advice.

It was extremely hard watching the goodbyes exchanged between Betty and her family. Absolutely impossible to get through it without getting teary eyed. You could totally tell Mark Indelicato’s tears were real. There’s one thing I don’t understand about how they’re ending things with Ignacio, though. We’ve been introduced to a love interest for him, which has evolved into a relationship. Odd she wasn’t on the episode at all or even mentioned.

When a show ends I’m normally a closure fanatic, wanting EVERY loose end tied up. But in the case of Daniel and Betty, I’m kind of glad it was left to the individual viewer’s own interpretation.

The title screen at the end with the “Ugly” in Ugly Betty fading away to just simply “Betty” was a very nice touch.

I’m really going to miss this show; especially considering all of the positive messages it’s presented over the past four years.

Remembering Dixie Carter

I was heartbroken to find out this weekend that legendary actress Dixie Carter passed away this weekend at age 70 of cancer endometrial cancer.

Her earliest television work was on One Life to Live in 1974; and then she worked on The Edge of Night, where she played Brandy Henderson from 1974-76. Years later she was on Diff’rent Strokes as Maggie McKinney. But she was perhaps best known for her role as Julia Sugarbaker on Designing Women, which ran from 1986-1993. She also had a main role on the drama Family Law from 1999-2002, and a stint on Desperate Housewives as Orson Hodge’s mother Gloria.

My favorite role of Dixie’s hands down was on Designing Women. Julia Sugarbaker was one of the best and strongest characters on television, and Dixie did a magnificent job portraying her. I always loved it when she would go off on someone and give one of her famous “speeches.” She was also one hell of a singer.

Online Pick of the Week (4/9): Murphy Brown

The pick this week is an old revisited favorite of mine, Murphy Brown, which ran on CBS from 1988-1998. Candice Bergen starred as Murphy Brown, a tough-lipped and feisty interviewer who worked for the fictional news program FYI in Washington DC. A recovering alcoholic, at the beginning of the series she came back from a 30-day stay at The Betty Ford Clinic. The cast also featured reporter and friend of Murphy’s Frank Fontana (Joe Regalbuto); Corky Sherwood (Faith Ford), a former Miss America whose stories on FYI were often frivolous; stiff anchor Jim Dial (Charles Kimbrough), and Miles Silverberg (Grant Shaud), who at the beginning is 25 and brand new to FYI and has very little experience running a show. Murphy for six seasons also had Eldin Bernecky (Robert Pastorelli), a house painter, who appeared often to work on her house and share his philosophies.

I know some people seem to think that Murphy Brown is rather dated now, considering the fact that it relied on political and topical humor, and that it took place during the Bush (that’s George H.W., gang) and Clinton administrations, but I don‘t think so. I grew up watching the show; and in seeing more of it again for the first time in the past few years, I’ve come to understand more of the jokes now than ever. It taking place in a certain time doesn’t stop the laughs from coming. I also love how they constantly referenced other real reporters and anchors. I mean, can you imagine Frank and Jim kicking back and having a cold one with Ted Koppel and Tom Brokaw? Morley Safer and the 60 Minutes personalities playing baseball against the FYI team? And some of the real reporters such as Katie Couric and Edwin Newman appeared on the show overtime. Lesley Stahl also hosted a retrospective in the seventh season.

The show is as hilarious as ever, and that makes it all the more of a damn shame that only the first season so far has been released on DVD; especially since the set that’s out now is so well done. All of the episodes are uncut, are in great quality, and ALL of the original music is there.


I was going to choose the pilot episode “Respect” but since the greedy folks over at Warner Music Group blocked out the audio for the first part of that, I’ve picked the season three episode “Terror on the 17th Floor.” In it, a conglomerate buys out the network and hilarity ensues as the staff at FYI deal with the cutbacks. And what do you know, 19 years later, many people who watch certain networks these days point out their disdain with how they’re being run after certain big corporations or companies begin taking over things and running them, the networks of Viacom and GE in particular being perfect examples. See? Still relevant.

Murphy Brown, my online pick of the week.

ATWT: “Date” Night

Friday, April 9th:

So wow, Reid was back to being a jackass QUICK when things didn‘t go his way. Today is a perfect example of why I wouldn't want Reid having anything serious in the long run with Luke. One wrong move and he'll turn on you with his ego in a heartbeat. So far Noah’s worst days have been a walk in the park compared to this guy’s. And what a hypocrite. Reid wants Luke to use his influence and help like crazy now; and this is the same person who made fun of him for wanting to do the same thing with someone he actually loves.

I had heard about Noah “dating” this Richard guy and wondered what this could mean. But after today it’s obvious there’s no intention that Noah’s wanting to move on with this person. Hell, his “dinner date” didn’t even have any lines! I can't believe all they did was just laugh. I kind of hated the way Noah answered Luke’s questions, but it’s obvious it wasn’t going to go well based on Luke’s reaction. He repeatedly insisted it wasn’t anything serious and Luke kept pushing him.

This didn’t play out as badly as I feared. However it’s still contrived like a mother, which can really make a storyline with actual potential hard to enjoy.

ATWT: From Naughty to Nice… In a Flash

Wednesday, April 7th:

I know Luke did it for Noah, but I didn’t really care too much for Luke contacting that deceased child’s father. The way it was done kind of rubbed me the wrong way and resembled too much of Damian style behavior.

Dr. Reid doesn’t get involved in his patients’ personal lives? Are. You. Kidding. Me. This is the same person who had no problem getting involved in Luke and Noah’s personal lives by instructing Luke to stay away from Noah. Contradiction much, writers? And I love how nice Reid is all of a sudden. After all that’s happened, you’d think he’d go off at the idea of Luke trying to end his lawsuit business for him.

Thursday, April 8th:

FINALLY! Nice to see Noah be a significant part of the episode. This storyline as far as points of view are finally starting to get somewhere. The last time he was on with Luke and Reid it pretty much just cameo appearances. There really has not been enough Noah in this story. Also considering Noah and Luke’s interactions, it’s obvious how much they miss each other. Noah wanted to tell Luke so bad about the possible progress with his blindness but didn't want to get Luke's hopes up.

As for Reid, I’ve seen many a soap character be introduced as a pure jerk. And somehow overtime, the character matures or the jerk-like behavior is dialed down and it’s a rather natural progression. Some kind of light bulb goes off. Depth is emphasized with the character and he becomes more human. But not in this case. With Reid it’s been such a forced, unnatural transition from the ass he was introduced as. And it’s all for the plot to work. Oh, this show. Though I did love it when even he thought Luke and Noah were endgame.

Online Pick of the Week (4/2): Match Game ‘79

For the fans who haven’t had the chance to see it yet, I can think of two reasons why this episode of Match Game is worth watching.

First, it’s from 1979... a year we were about to see within the next several months, but unfortunately who knows how much longer it will be considering GSN’s latest schedule change. Secondly, it’s a big treat for people who love behind the scenes stuff. It features the show’s director Marc Breslow’s audio feed, so you can easily hear all of the shots called. Everything. All of the camera directions and studio happenings, from the slate reading to the end credits.

What’s really to be noticed is that there aren’t any stop downs to be seen here. There were some back then obviously, no show tapes perfectly. But not as many apparently. With a lot of current game shows, you usually hear about more and more of those. This episode ran like a well-oiled machine.

The Match Game ‘79 director’s track… my online pick of the week!