BW Manilowe

From SpoilerTV.com: Modern Family Renewed for 11th and Final Season by ABC A press release with more details will be issued later.

As someone else said upthread, it was an homage to Judy Garland/her character in the version of A Star is Born before the Streisand/Kristofferson version (2 versions ago... there have been 4 total... so far).

I think Megan Fox & Brian Austin Green reconciled. Or they’re still separated but called off the divorce.

Isn’t he in Puerto Rico, either rehearsing to perform in, or actually performing in, the limited run of Hamilton? I think it’s this month.

David Keith has been recurring since at least S2. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen the character (I thought maybe some posters thought he was a new character). Among other things, Gutches helped Joe & Steve/Five-0 when the members of that other SEAL team were being assassinated by various methods (& Steve had to skydive from an airplane to save 1 SEAL); he & some other SEALs/maybe the members of his team went along with Joe & Five-0 to help rescue Steve when Jenna Kaye lured him to North Korea, where he was captured & tortured by Wo Fat, because Gutches felt he owed Steve & Five-0 for stopping the SEAL team killings; he also helped Doris & Steve, & Steve’s PI friend/Doris’ partner, Mick, & maybe others, plan & execute the break-in of the office of Tyler Cain, a guy who Doris worked with at the CIA who, it turned out, was rather shady, up for a government position maybe somewhat akin to the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (as I remember) & had stolen a microfilm/microfiche record of all of Doris’ CIA ops, apparently because it had proof of his being shady or something, & Doris desperately wanted it back because she said it would (supposedly) keep the enemies she’d made through her work from harming Steve, Mary & John (when he was alive).

From Extra: Christine McGuire, of The McGuire Sisters, Dead at 92

As far as I know, it’s always been Murphy & Avery as the biological family unit (counting Miles, Frank, Jim, Corky, et al, as the extended family unit). After all Avery’s name, as we were told at least twice this season when Murphy was pissed enough at him, or whatever, to invoke his full name, is “Avery Robert Brown”, with no trace of the Lowenstein name added to it.

Nothing was discussed onscreen during the reboot.

It seems all the Food Network Star winners after the guy who used to be a football player & ended up doing BBQ-related shows have been relegated to either doing something that only airs online, on the FN website, or doing things like judging other FN shows, although they’re still filming pilots for their own shows & they’re still being promised, as I remember, their own show on FN. Including Jason, who’s mostly only been judging other shows. Although he also won 1 of the baking shows, but I think that only got him money; not a promise of his own show.

From The Orlando Sentinel Media Group: Ray Sawyer, Lead Singer of Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show, Dead at 81

Toni also has posted on FB under “Toni Tennille”. That’s the name I’ve been following her under there. Although I don’t blame her for using a pseudonym for posting about Australian Shepherds—but if you know anything about her, you know that’s the dog breed she has & likes. She even takes (or took) them as therapy dogs to various facilities. The last time I saw her post/write about the dogs, they were named Bebop & Lula.

I saw them in concert once too. After their third album, Come in From the Rain, was released. It was at the Coliseum (the indoor venue where all the major acts played back then) at the Indiana State Fair in Indianapolis. Loved it. Still have the “tour book” (those souvenir books about the show/artist with photos you can buy at concerts)—the cover is the cover photo from the Come in From the Rain album. Wish I could’ve seen them more than once, but I’m glad they retired on their own terms; I think 1 or both had fundamental issues with how the music business is/was run & Toni seemed to feel behind the scenes pressure from that contributed to Karen Carpenter’s anorexia-related death (they met when they were on the same record label). Toni went on to do a number of solo CDs (around 5, I think—but there are also at least 2 compilations in that number from among her original solo CDs) from the standards/Great American Songbook genre, which I believe is a favorite musical genre of hers.

From NBC News: Pegi Young, Ex-Wife of Singer Neil Young and Co-Founder of The Bridge School, Dead At 66 of Cancer

Toni Tennille has a presence on Facebook (& maybe Twitter; I can’t remember) where she posts & I follow her (being a fan of The Captain & Tennille & a fellow Alabamian by birth). I remember reading her post saying she was moving back to Arizona (she had been living in Lake Mary, FL, near 1 of her sisters & her family, since she & Daryl Dragon divorced). At the time, she had said Daryl was doing well (She said despite the divorce they were still friends & she still called to check up on him every couple of weeks or so); she was helping him get a handle on his memoirs (She published her own, Toni Tennille: A Memoir written with her niece Caroline, in 2016–if you liked The Captain & Tennille & weren’t aware of the book, I recommend it; it’s really interesting reading, & an audiobook read by Toni is also available. Especially when she writes about what their marriage was like, offstage). She also had said that, while she loved living near her sister & her family, Florida just wasn’t feeling like home, after all, & she felt like she should move back to Arizona (where she had lived, with Daryl, for a substantially longer period of time). But I wonder now if Daryl’s declining health wasn’t actually part of the impetus in her return to Arizona (they lived in/near Prescott).

Weird. I was over there last night, showing it to a friend. I’d swear it said then it was now available until the 4th—so you should’ve been able to get it. But the link I posted doesn’t seem to work now. I don’t know what’s up. Keri was even posing with the shirt in a pic in the ad that linked to the order form, & the shirt had her & Matthew’s autographs printed on it so I don’t think it’s like it was pulled for copyright infringement issues. Maybe they sold what they had printed. I’m sorry anybody missed it. I posted about it as soon as I could. Sigh...

The Americans T-Shirt (& Other Shirt Types) with Show Photos & Printed Autographs of Matthew & Keri The catch is, you can only get the shirt until TOMORROW, JANUARY 2ND. In the ad on Facebook, which I can’t (or can’t figure out how to) link to, Keri is pictured holding the T-shirt (And they have similar shirts for other pop culture-type phenomena/icons).

This, from The Hollywood Reporter (aka THR), which is also linked in the Media thread, may be where people are getting that Murphy won’t be coming back. I, myself, am even getting confused about whether or not it has a chance at returning; especially based on the wording of the headline. We know Murphy & the other show mentioned are ending their current runs. But I don’t know if it’s clear, or not, that there won’t be anymore (of either show) coming later/next season. I think Diane English may be right, & we may not actually know the show’s official fate until CBS announces the 2019-2020 (wow... already) fall schedule in May, if things don’t leak earlier.

Whether it was TV show themes (back in the late ‘70’s & early ‘80’s Norman Gimbel & his writing partner were responsible for most of the popular ABC sitcom theme songs—except for Full House, Step by Step, & Three’s Company, that I’m positive of... there may be a few more I’ve forgotten they didn’t write) or songs from the movies, Norman Gimbel always collaborated (or always seemed to collaborate, anyway) with a man named Charles Fox (giving credit where it’s also due for all/mostly all of Norman Gimbel’s famous songs). At least some of their movie songs received Academy Award nominations. Among their Oscar-nominated movie songs is “Ready to Take a Chance Again”, from the Chevy Chase/Goldie Hawn film Foul Play, which was sung in the movie over the opening & closing credits, & made popular, by Barry Manilow (my favorite singer & the main source of my screen name). Unfortunately (at least if you’re a Manilow fan, although the Oscar would’ve only gone to Mr. Fox & Mr. Gimbel, not Barry who only performed it), it was nominated the same year as songs from Saturday Night Fever were eligible & nominated & it lost to “Last Dance”, sung by Donna Summer in the movie & on the soundtrack. They also used Barry’s song “Copacabana” during another scene (I think about mistaken intentions, involving Goldie’s character & a supporting character played by Dudley Moore).

Jon played in either Wayne Shorter or Philip Glass’s tribute (not sure which because I’m not into either of those people’s artistry; presumably Wayne Shorter since he’s a jazz musician though). If you didn’t record the show, or otherwise missed it, you can still watch the whole thing or just certain performances on cbs.com or the CBS app. I did that this morning.

Cher said Los Angeles. I don’t lip read well enough to understand what she didn’t actually yell out. I fell asleep & missed most of the show & just finished watching the tributes I was interested in (Reba, Hamilton creators, Cher) on the CBS app. It really is fun watching the KCH each year (& I’m actually old enough to be pretty sure I’ve seen all or part of every show since it started airing); especially watching all those normally staid & proper, possibly stick in the mud Washington government officials “get down & boogie” at their seats when a musical artist they apparently like is honored. Like this year during the 3 tributes I watched; especially when Angelique Kidjo (who was in either the Wayne Shorter or Philip Glass tribute), Norah O’Donnell from CBS This Morning (I think it was; it might’ve been Savannah Guthrie from Today) & Kristin Chenoweth were enthusiastically enjoying themselves, singing & dancing together in the audience during the Cher tribute—even though none of them are Washington government officials. Though I also saw some people I didn’t recognize, who had to either be in government somehow, or their spouses/partners cutting up a pretty good rug too during the tributes I watched. Just for clarification, the song is just called “Believe”. When Adam was on Fox’s version of American Idol, he gave the same slowed-down treatment to “If I Can’t Have You” from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. I’d recommend it, if you’re an Adam fan & you liked “Believe”, but I’d be surprised if iTunes (which is/was at the time the official download site for AI performances) still has it available.

They were on their way to perform in my hometown when the plane crashed. And it’s just another of the negative things associated with our city that put us on the national news, at least briefly (other incidents include a major flood which got us a visit from then-President Reagan to survey the damage & do a photo op loading a sandbag, & an assassination attempt against civil rights leader/advocate Vernon Jordan, who was in town to do a speech). I didn’t have tickets to Reba’s show, but I can still remember the plane crash as clearly as Reba. I think the concert was supposed to have been on March 17th—St. Patrick’s Day—as I remember.

I know there’s still tomorrow in this week for her version of GMA, but at this point it looks like she’s on vacation until next week, meaning this coming Monday (or later). Unless she’s on tomorrow, the only day she’s been on this week was Christmas Day... & that’s probably only because those shows A) Traditionally include the entire regular cast & B) Are taped on some random day, who knows how long before Christmas; a day which happened to be when Robin actually showed up for work. I really shouldn’t care about this; it’s really no skin off my nose how often Robin actually anchors the show. I just feel badly for the rest of the hosts who seem to manage to be in the Times Square Studio or on the show from location at least 4 days outta 5 each week except for sick days, vacation days, unexpected emergencies, & stuff like when Ginger was either on maternity leave or given a leave of absence because she was doing Dancing with the Stars & that airs from LA, & dance rehearsals are in LA (unless the celeb has to be somewhere else for their usual gig) every day as long as the celeb’s still in the show; or stuff like Michael usually having Mondays off during football season because he’s still doing Fox’s NFL analysis/scoreboard show on Sundays, before, after & during the games Fox airs, & that usually airs from LA, except during most/all of the playoffs (when LA’s teams aren’t in the playoffs) & the Super Bowl (when Fox has coverage rights to the game & LA isn’t the host city for the game), & it’s maybe not all that easy to get back to NYC in time for the Monday show. If I were on GMA (& yes I understand she’s been hosting it forever), I might wonder who Robin thinks she is, getting all the time off she does/certainly seems to, when I get exponentially less. I just don’t think it’s fair to the other hosts she seems to not be there more than she is, when for them it seems to be vice-versa (they’re there more than they’re not).

From WANE-TV (Fort Wayne, IN): Jennie-O Recalls More Than 164,000 Pounds of Ground Turkey

From USA Today: Dr. Seuss’s Widow, Audrey Geisel, Dies at 97

Regarding the bolded: Murphy didn’t have a “sperm donor”; at least not in the sense she suddenly decided she wanted to get pregnant & went to a sperm bank because she didn’t have a man in her life she wanted to co-parent with. Avery’s biological father is Murphy’s ex-husband, Jake Lowenstein. He’s a fellow journalist, I think, who Murphy was married to for about a week. He came back into Murphy’s life briefly, during which time they might’ve thought about remarrying (I can’t remember for sure), & she got pregnant (& eventually decided to keep the baby & raise him/her herself, although I’m not sure she thought she was terribly maternal). Murphy originally thought the baby’s father was Jerry Gold, a competing radio-TV personality with a rather abrasive personality, who Murphy had been seeing in a “not that committed” way before Jake returned.