By Kathryn Ware

Trivia gleaned from Comcast’s Sounds of the Season Music Choice Channel. Better than watching a burning log.
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1. In Poland, the gift bringer is Star Man. (Not to be confused with Starman.)
2. In “Prancer Returns” Charlie finds a baby reindeer in the woods and immediately believes it to be Prancer.
3. On New Year’s Day 1876, in honor of the centennial, the first Mummers’ parade was held in Philadelphia, PA.
4. Christmas Island is located in the Pacific Ocean.

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Posted on December 26, 2007

By Kathryn Ware

Our tribute to the 35th anniversary of the debut of Maude continues.
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Season 1, Episode 13
Episode Title: The Slum Lord
Original airdate: 19 December 1972
Plot: For this episode, the Findlay living room has been nearly transformed into a greenhouse, with houseplants everywhere. Maude has followed the advice of every book and magazine, talking to her plants for weeks and she’s scolding them now for not responding more favorably. (I’m guessing any benefit of talking to the plants was outweighed by all the yelling in this household.)
Carol rushes through the front door to tell Maude that a black man is picketing their front yard with a sign that says, “A slum lord lives here.” Maude can’t believe what she’s hearing. “Don’t be ridiculous Carol! Do you know what a slum lord is?” She then gives a lengthy definition of “slumlord,” prompting me to wonder if the writers’ felt it was necessary to define slumlord for the viewing audience.

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Posted on December 20, 2007

By Julia Gray

Recently I finished my master’s in journalism and now that I’m even more unemployable than ever before, I spend my days keeping the couch down and giving my remote the best workout ever. During my travels up and down the TV channels, here’s what I’ve discovered: the writer’s strike has sucked the life out of my television viewing so much so that I actually look forward to the commercials and, gasp, reality TV.
Join me on my little journey.
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Flipping Out
This little gem airs on the same channel as my ultimate guilty pleasure and is about another set of Southern Californians working their 15 minutes of fame to the very last second. Meet Jeff Lewis, the main house-flipper, drama queen and star of the show. He acts more like a movie studio head honcho than one of the thousands of house-flippers in the nation. His ego alone is bigger than the LA basin and while he’s monumentally obnoxious, he’s also mesmerizing. He’s very good at his job and turns some of the ugliest homes into hip abodes. He lives in his “flips,” is constantly moving and strongly relies on the power of house blessings/psychics when buying and selling a property.

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Posted on December 19, 2007

By Kathryn Ware

Our tribute to the 35th anniversary of the debut of Maude continues.
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Season 1, Episode 12
Episode Title: The Grass Story
Original airdate: 5 December 1972
Plot: The drug references fly fast and furious in this episode. Pay close attention kiddies and you just may learn a pill-popping thing or two.
The episode kicks off with a slam-bang argument between Maude and Walter that’s been raging since Wednesday. No, since Tuesday. No, it was Wednesday. No . . . you get the idea. When the doorbell rings mid-yell, a panicked Maude shouts, “Maybe that’s Jeff with the marijuana!”

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Posted on December 14, 2007

By Kathryn Ware

Our tribute to the 35th anniversary of the debut of Maude continues.
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Season 1, Episode 11
Episode Title: Maude’s Reunion
Original airdate: 28 November 1972
Plot: Following the controversial “Abortion Episode,” Bea Arthur and company lob a softball with an episode about Maude reuniting with an old friend she hasn’t seen in 25 years. In preparation for the visit, Maude has pulled out boxes of ancient history from the attic. Carol and Walter entertain themselves going through old yearbooks – “First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes Maude with the baby carriage.” Or in Maude’s case, “First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes love and another marriage, then comes love and another marriage, then comes love and another marriage . . . ”

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Posted on December 4, 2007

By Kathryn Ware

Our tribute to the 35th anniversary of the debut of Maude continues.
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Season 1, Episode 10
Episode Title: Maude’s Dilemma (Part 2)
Original airdate: 21 November 1972
Plot: The episode begins with a voiceover welcoming us back to Part 2 of “Maude’s Dilemma.” It’s the day after and Maude has just woken up from a restless night of baby-filled nightmares. What’s more, she has a nasty cold on top of her morning sickness.
Over a couple of cups of black coffee, daughter Carol reiterates that Maude shouldn’t feel guilty or afraid to consider not having the baby. (“. . . for you to have a baby at your age [47] could be very risky!”) Maude tells Carol that after a lot of soul searching, she’s decided to have the baby. She’s convinced she knows her husband and this is what Walter really wants. Not that they’ve actually talked about it. No, given this very important decision, Walter and Maude instead have had a series of vague “I want what you want” conversations.

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Posted on November 26, 2007

By Kathryn Ware

Our tribute to the 35th anniversary of the debut of Maude continues.
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Season 1, Episode 9
Episode Title: Maude’s Dilemma (Part 1)
Original airdate: 14 November 1972
Plot: This is it, the controversial episode Maude is most famous for, the segment generally referred to as “Maude’s abortion.” Just eight episodes into the first season, Maude’s creators pushed the envelope of acceptable TV entertainment to the extreme, so much so that advertisers balked and some local CBS affiliates refused to air the two-part episode. Thirty-five years later, it’s impossible to imagine a network sitcom using abortion as a featured storyline.

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Posted on November 20, 2007

By Steve Rhodes

I didn’t sleep well last night. Here’s what I kept flipping between.
1. The Devil’s Advocate.
I love this movie.
KEANU: Why the law, dad?
PACINO: Because it puts us into everything.
I’m not terribly fond of Keanu Reeves’ performance (has he ever been good except unknowingly perfect as Johnny Utah in Point Break?), but Al Pacino as John Milton, a.k.a., the devil, is mesmerizing. While the theology is confusing, Pacino’s oration in the final scene (“I’m a fan of man! . . . God is an absentee landlord! Worship that? Never!”) is spectacular.
2. Jerry Maguire.
I detest this movie. On about 50 different levels.

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Posted on November 19, 2007

By Julia Gray

The Real Housewives of Orange County has returned for another season loaded with pregnant questions for diehard viewers like me who can’t get enough of this show despite its validation of society’s sick fascination with the rich. That’s because the show serves an alternative validating value: Repeated viewings verify the fact that the rest of us might not be as beautiful and wealthy as the “housewives” featured here, but we get weekly proof that we’re much smarter, cooler and better people than these self-absorbed half-wits with horrendous taste.
These women, in fact, have nothing to offer society except to show how not to wear your hair over 40 and that bragging about how much money you have is klassy.
But sometimes it’s fun to scratch the surface and get more surface. Let’s take a look.

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Posted on November 13, 2007

By Steve Rhodes

I don’t know which was more depressing, watching the hopelessly far-gone alcoholic on Intervention hiding huge bottles of discount mouth wash all over her house while babbling nonsensically to her poor husband and children, or Chris Matthews actually officially projecting Hillary Clinton as the Democratic nominee based on all the information available to Hardball despite the fact that a single vote has yet to be cast in a single primary. Earliest Projection Ever.
Not that I don’t have compassion for one of the subjects of my TV viewing last night: The drunk.

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Posted on November 6, 2007