Sir RaiderDuck OMS

Agreed. Healy's mail-order wife expected perfection and was pouting because he wasn't it. So if Red is Nicky's "mother," who was that Marko woman in the flashbacks? Nicky's stepmom? Or did Red just think of herself as Nicky's mom? Finally, it looks like Bennett's gone for good. And good riddance.

Many of us are old enough to remember when Breyer's ran ads in the late 1980s actively mocking ingredients such as guar gum, carageenan and the like that were found in competing brands. Now some of their stuff is so full of chemicals and additives, they can't even legally call it "ice cream."

A few years old, but still relevant:

Terri was at least a well-rounded character. Cindy was annoyingly one-note (i.e. always doing something clutzy to injure Jack).

Most actors are good at playing one specific character and don't stretch to other character types well. It's like the old joke about the difference between actors and movie stars: An actor pretends he is a character, while a movie star pretends the character is him. The vast majority of TV actors would fit the "movie star" description.

I suspect Gordon was making an exaggerated point about customers' expectations at the name. Despite his feigned ignorance, there is no way Sandy would be unaware of the identical name and potential for profit from customer mistaking his "Four Seasons" for a real one. I have no doubt that if Ramsay had not forcibly changed the name, Sandy would have been sent a Cease and Desist letter by The Four Seasons' lawyers the day after the episode aired, followed within weeks by a money-draining lawsuit.

Just checked their website. They seem to be doing OK and prominently mention their HH appearance, stating the main dining menu and beer garden menu were designed by "world renowned chef Gordon Ramsay;" also, the two rooms featured on the show (which were redecorated yellow and red) are labeled the "Gordon Ramsay Executive King" and "Gordon Ramsay Deluxe King", respectively. http://historichotelchester.com/website/

I absolutely love Spotify. New album comes out? No problem: just add the album as a playlist and I can listen to it immediately. Now if only they'd add the Beatles, AC/DC and Tool...

Can't even watch the show with him hosting. He's a closed-minded, hateful bigot. For proof, I direct you to: http://www.isabigot.com/2009/06/new-steve-harvey-video-on-larry-king-where-he-calls-atheists-idiots/

For me, Oz's transformation from a gritty prison drama to a prison-based soap opera happened at some point in Season 3, when Alvarez was repeatedly sent to Solitary "permanently," only to be let out an episode or two later. It bottomed out in Season 4 when Beecher's children were kidnapped and his son's hand cut off and mailed to him. Why would I even want to watch this?

Aedibisi to Poet when asking his former enemy to become his right arm in drug dealing: "If the bullet had been six inches to the left, you would be dead and Kenny Wangler would be my new best friend." Such a cold-blooded but realistic take on the realities of their situation. ETA: How could I forget Wilson Lowen's epic, EPIC smackdown of Schillinger? "You know, Vernie, I've got to tell you I never thought you were the brightest bulb in the chandelier. You always had this huge ego with nothing to back it up. You always had these big plans with no balls behind them. Shit! If it weren't for your daddy, I wouldn't have given you the time of fucking day; you're an embarrassment to the brotherhood."

Easily my least favorite character amongst the classic cast: She was such a sanctimonious wet blanket. I could never figure out what Michael and Victor saw in her.

Rarely has complete emotional exhaustion been portrayed so well than in Michael's final summation before the judge (after Williams' conviction had been overturned and the case sent back to LA court), which featured Michael breaking out the N-word in characterizing Flannigan's prosecution of the African-American Williams. Kuzak looked like he just couldn't take it anymore.

Favorite Brackman quote: Brackman tells the departed attorney Chaney's travestite secretary "You don't even have the guts to be a normal homo!" This is immediately followed by him eating a knuckle sandwich, courtesy of said secretary.

Of all the characters on the show, hers had the biggest evolution. Example: In one of the early seasons, Frank puts in for a Purple Heart because he "slipped in the mud on the way to the shower." When a nonplussed Henry questions this, Hot Lips prissily explains that the injury occured in a combat zone, and therefore is considered combat-related. The latter-seasons Margaret would have been offended as hell at anyone pulling something similar.

That's exactly why Wayne Rogers left. When he was cast, the show was supposed to be about the two army doctors Hawkeye and Trapper. But due to Alda's being the better actor and more relatable personality, the writers began featuring him more, and by the second season the show was about Hawkeye and his sidekick Trapper, which is not what Rogers had signed up for. So Rogers left and Trapper was replaced by BJ Hunnicutt, who was explicity written to be a sidekick.

Potter's defining moment came during his first season: soldier Arnold Chandler (funny how I still remember the name) claims to be Jesus Christ, and Flagg (for some reason) is called in. Flagg tries bulldozing Potter like he always bulldozed Henry, and Potter takes maybe three sentences to let him know that neither the attempted intimidation nor the insults towards the late Col. Blake are appreciated. Flagg tones it WAY down around Potter afterwards.

Favorite Winchester quote: "So...tell me more about Montana. Does it...have a city?" My favorite Winchester episode is the one where Colonel Baldwin (who had originally sent him to the 4077th to get out paying a gambling debt) visits, and Winchester spends the episode epically brown-nosing Baldwin in the hopes that he'll be sent back to Tokyo. But when Baldwin mistakes Margaret for a prostitute, tries to rape her, then falsely accuses her of attempting to seduce him and asks Winchester to back him up (explicitly promising a transfer to Tokyo in exchange), Winchester wavers briefly, then angrily denounces Baldwin in front of everyone. Even Hawkeye and BJ are impressed.

Larry Linville once said in an interview that after Margaret and Frank broke up, "it became too easy to run Frank into a scene, dump on him, get a laugh, and run him back out." It's easy to see why Linville would tire of playing that role and leave.

Remember that M*A*S*H was originally conceived as having two leading men: Hawkeye and Trapper. Wayne Rogers left after Season 3 specifically because of his unhappiness at his character devolving from co-lead to Hawkeye's sidekick. So it would make sense that when writing a replacement character, they would write someone specifically to be a straight man.

One thing I always forget until I see the episode in question: The first time Klinger meets Dr. Sidney Friedman, Friedman examines and actually offers him a discharge near the end of the episode! The only catch: it's a discharge for being a transvestite and homosexual. Klinger angrily turns him down, saying "All I am is nuts!"

Frank: "Go on then! Colonel Flagg and I don't need you!" Frank claps Flagg on the back Flagg: "My father did that once. To this day, he still wears orthopedic shorts." Crazy soldier: "[Frank] keeps waving the flag in my face!" Blake: "A thousand soldiers in Korea, and we had to get Betsy Ross!" Charles: "But know this. You can cut me off from the civilized world. You can incarcerate me with two moronic cellmates. You can torture me with your thrice daily swill, but you cannot break the spirit of a Winchester. My voice shall be heard from this wilderness and I shall be delivered from this fetid and festering sewer." The smirk he gives at the end is absolutely priceless.

It's also worth noting that after a long decline that began in the early 1980s, John Travolta was considered something of a joke: he was reduced to playing straight man to a bunch of talking babies and animals in the Look Who's Talking films. Pulp Fiction brought him back in a big way and Face/Off kept it going, but thinking he's been a big movie star for the last four decades is simply incorrect. To be fair, I've read two of Hubbard's earlier novels: Fear is a pretty good horror novel (with praise on its front cover from Stephen King of all people, which is exactly why I bought it) and Final Blackout, while not the classic its back cover would have you believe, is a pleasant enough page-turner.

Not sure if Mario Puzo's The Godfather is widely considered one of the "classics," but I love it nonetheless. It's both a classic American innocence-to-corruption story and has been enormously influential on one segment of society (as a lot of mafia organizations sort of used it as a guide as to how they should behave).

Doug's murder of Rachel had nothing to do with her being bisexual. It had everything to do with him following Frank's orders and murdering someone who could potentially become a threat (as unlikely as it was).