BW Manilowe

Kelsey Grammer was on The Talk (CBS' The View clone) yesterday, talking about his current project--starring in the Los Angeles Opera's production of Candide with Christine Ebersole. But they started the interview--How could they not?--by talking about John Mahoney. They mentioned the Tweet above. Kelsey said something about he never really Tweets; he has people who do it for him when necessary. But he said to Tweet that (what was actually posted) about John Mahoney. Kelsey also said that John Mahoney played his father (in Frasier) longer than he knew his real father, & so John really did feel like his father (& I guess his death really felt, to Kelsey, like his real father had died). Kelsey also said that he never really had a brother either, but that David Hyde Pierce feels like a (real) brother to him. You really should watch the clip, to get Kelsey's emotions. It's not very long at all.

From USA Today: Internet Pioneer, Grateful Dead Songwriter John Perry Barlow Dead at Age 70

Sorry for the late response; it seems I get everywhere but here lately. Anyway, if you haven't already heard, Danica Patrick is Dating Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers. She announced it around the middle of January/about 3 days before the date on the post by you quoted above. So, at least for now, she's no longer single. And she's planning her last 2 races to be this year's Daytona 500 (for which she has sponsorship from Go Daddy & a car to drive); & Indy 500 (the Go Daddy sponsorship covers this race, too, but she still hasn't got a car to drive in Indy). Their first public event as a couple was, apparently, when Aaron played in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Celebrity Golf Tournament this past Tuesday.

I live in Fort Wayne (IN). Despite the tour bus accident in Iowa, they appear to have gotten here in 1 piece (I know they canceled the Ames, IA show after the accident--that's what they said in what I read about the accident, anyway--but I wonder if they stopped wherever you'd think they were supposed to stay after the Ames show, or if they just drove straight on through to here). & they were apparently able to do the show here last night. Unfortunately I didn't get to go because of my ongoing health issues. Also unfortunately, neither our print or all-digital local papers printed much, if anything, about the show. The only thing I saw, besides notices the tour was coming to town & ticket sale info, is this small thing; it's an extra edition of our (usually on Tuesdays) local restaurant news column (from our now primarily digital evening paper--they still print certain content from this paper & publish it as an insert with our daily morning paper), saying that Frankie Muniz apparently got his lunch yesterday from a local Jimmy John's sandwich shop, which is "within walking distance" of the Embassy Theatre, the local venue where the show played.

From Deadline: ABC's Once Upon a Time to End with the Current Season 7

From Amazon.com (in this case AmazonSmile; it has the same products as Amazon, but when you buy eligible products--which is still pretty much everything on Amazon--through AmazonSmile, 0.5% of your purchase price goes to the charity of your choice; you select your designated charity from a list they provide): The Americans Season 5 DVDs are now available for pre-order through Amazon/AmazonSmile. They're $29.99 list price; 4 discs; due out on March 27, 2018 (the day before the final season premiere). I don't have/Amazon doesn't have any info on whatever "bonus" material might be included. But Amazon does have 1 of their "Pre-Order Price Guarantee"s on the DVDs. That means, if the price changes (normally, goes down) between when you ordered them & the day of release, you'll be charged the lowest price instead of the price at the time you placed your order. If you shop at Barnes & Noble, I can't find Season 5 there yet. They have other seasons though.

I couldn't find Gary Sinise in any of the pics either. But it's probably him. Most or all of the actors you listed are members of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago; among his zillion professional & humanitarian accomplishments Gary Sinise is a co-founder of Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company, along with actors Jeff Perry (Cyrus Beene on Scandal) & Terry Kinney. John Mahoney was also a member of the company.

In response to someone who wondered about the remaining number of (new) eps for the season, given that there's such a long period where there are either no new eps, or no eps at all (February 2-March 2), Peter Lenkov Tweeted that there will be 25 episodes this season, which is 1 more than the last time we got an official episode count. Also, CBS is repeating the 150th episode (Catherine wrecks Steve & Lynn's romantic [Valentine's?] dinner by coming to tell him that his mother, Doris, has been captured while trying to get Wo Fat's father out of prison) on February 10th; & CBS will repeat the ep where terrorists invade Gracie & Will's school's Winter Formal, which Danny is also chaperoning at, in order to kidnap another student who's the son of a Filipino diplomat, on February 16th.

From TV Line: More on the Charmed Reboot: Character Names, Descriptions, Etc. 1 Sister's Now a Lesbian

I just tried it & I can get in just fine. Maybe you had a glitch. Try it again.

How could I forget Mrs. L & Fitz?! Thanks for the additional info. I swear I'd always heard, though, that Mrs. L was killed off because (the late) Kathryn Joosten, who played her, had gotten a part in a new series pilot & if that was picked up, she wouldn't be able to do both shows. So, Aaron wrote that very dramatic exit for her. But according to this, it apparently may have been just a storyline-related departure, after all. The only problems were, the pilot for the other show didn't get picked up as a series, & Mrs. Landingham couldn't go back to TWW after that because Aaron wrote Mrs. Landingham out by killing her off--which is irreversible, of course, unless you're Patrick Duffy & the "creatives" behind the original Dallas series & you explain away a major character's (Patrick Duffy's) death & return to the series like he'd never died by saying the character of his love interest dreamed/had a nightmare in which Duffy's character was dead (snork).

From CNN: Indianapolis Colts Linebacker Edwin Jackson, 26, Was 1 of 2 Men Killed Early Sunday by a Drunk Driver Who Was an Illegal Immigrant Previously Deported From the US Twice

My maternal grandparents lived in a small town in Alabama between Huntsville & Birmingham. South of Huntsville, north of Birmingham; closer to Birmingham. Their network TV came from Birmingham, not Huntsville, & we always flew into Birmingham when we went to visit, if we didn't drive. Yes, it was basically "out in the sticks". Anyway, my grandparents had a party line with their next door (next hill) neighbors for as far back as I can remember when I was growing up & we'd visit. I don't remember why they had to share a party line to start with, but they eventually ended up with private lines; I wanna say by at least when I was in late Elementary School, Junior High, or High School, but I don't remember when. Once they got it, they had it until they died.

Bill Tweeted this:

Maybe. I'm in Northeast Indiana & we have them (if they haven't been replaced by the nacho fries), or we had them (if they've been replaced). I thought they were a national thing though, like the nacho fries supposedly are.

I think it kinda sucks that Five-0's doing the best it has, ratings-wise, in years & CBS is pre-empting it for the rest of the month (which is also a Ratings "Sweeps" month) because of the Winter Olympics. I get why you pre-empt/hold new eps for the duration of the Winter Olympics; I would too. It comes back on March 2nd. What I (think I) wish is the Olympics hadn't been scheduled in a "Sweeps" month--but I'm not kidding myself either (especially since I have a Radio-TV-Film degree); if an Olympics can be held in a "Sweeps" month, they will be because they usually get ratings. Five-0 doing better this season could've possibly helped CBS' ratings this quarter if they could've aired new eps throughout February. Oh well; it is what it is.

Danny was extradited to a Colombian prison, by a corrupt CIA or FBI agent (some kind of Fed, anyway) for killing Marco Reyes; Marco was a Colombian "big bad" who Danny's brother, Matt, was laundering money, & maybe engaging in other illegal acts, for. And Reyes killed Matt after Matt went on the run, following a visit with Danny, Gracie, & Rachel, & after meeting Steve, instead of owning up to what he did (he was also a hedge fund manager who embezzled from his clients' funds) & taking his punishment like a man. Reyes killed Matt because Matt stole money from him & hid it on the island during his visit; he attempted to get the money back from Danny before Danny really knew about it. I think Reyes called it "ransom" for Matt's safe return--even though it's pretty likely Matt had been dead for a long time before Reyes ever crossed paths with Danny & Five-0. And he wasn't above threatening the rest of Danny's family (Charlie wasn't being recognized as Danny's child yet) &/or Five-0 to get what he wanted. The corrupt agent who went after Danny may have had a connection with Doris. Once Steve got in to see Danny, before the extradition, he kept telling anyone who'd listen that he was just as complicit in Reyes' death, but nobody took steps to arrest Steve; they only wanted Danny. Apparently Steve wasn't arrested thanks to an intervention by his mother, Doris. I don't think Doris gets along with Danny, so she let Danny get arrested for it, no problem.

What I don't get is, he's all "Taco Bell's never had fries." Maybe they didn't have the kind that looks like what you get at Mickey D's, but they did have a fried potato side, maybe they still have it; I could get the info on it off of their online menu. I give you Cheesy Fiesta Potatoes. They are/were fat, kinda chunky potatoes with nacho cheese sauce & sour cream on top. They used to have green onions too, but at least some of the NY/NJ Taco Bell's, maybe stores in other states, had a big outbreak of E.coli in 2006, which led to the chain completely removing green onions from their food for awhile. Then once the outbreak was taken care of, & the green onions were back, they were permanently removed from some of the menu items which had included them before; I'm pretty sure these potatoes were among the items that had them, but now don't have them.

Thanks. I forgot about the Florida guy.

Danny "drank the Kool-Aid" & gave up on trying to get Steve to play by his (Danny's) book (how cops should behave professionally), long ago. As for Lou, back in the 4th season (his first) he initially called McGarrett &/or Five-0 "Steve McGarrett and his merry band of 'do whatever the hell you want'"; this was when Lou was HPD SWAT Commander. He also went to then-Governor Denning to complain about the tactics Steve & Five-0 employed; Governor Denning's response was to send Steve & Lou, together, to somewhere on the island & have them serve a subpoena on/arrest somebody for unpaid parking tickets. That person was computer hacker Ian Wright (Joe Jonas' character); from the time they got to Ian's, he was more trouble than he was worth. He got them into a shootout with people he apparently helped commit a bank robbery. Then he threatened an airline flight full of people with disaster if Steve & Lou didn't let him go to Tahiti, or somewhere. He did slip away from Steve & Lou & came back during the S4 finale to terrorize the team--Lou, in particular--again. Lou got fired by Governor Denning, while he was still with HPD SWAT, for what he did when Ian returned & threatened his family. Five-0 then took him on their team (for 1 thing, he & Steve had a better relationship since their first encounter with Ian Wright). Then we found out Lou had some of his own demons--the death of that baby & his father, which Lou couldn't stop, during a domestic disturbance; &, later, the belief that his best friend/longtime partner at the Chicago PD killed his wife (she allegedly fell off a cliff, or something) during a 20th anniversary trip to/visit with the Grovers in Hawaii; that was also complicated by the fact that he also thought his ex-partner took some money that was meant as evidence during a drug bust in Chicago (Lou eventually found some/all of the money hidden in the front tire area of a "beater" car his friend oddly kept in his garage during the rough Chicago winters while keeping the shiny new car he bought as a replacement outside & exposed to the elements). Lou was never able to prove the guy killed his wife, but he was able to at least get him sent to prison for taking the drug bust evidence money, which was at least something. Lou didn't really have to "drink the (McGarrett/Five-0) Kool-Aid"; it turned out he had his own brand of crazy, which helped him fit in at Five-0. There's no way he's going to the Governor about Steve/the team now; besides, as I pointed out before, complaining about Steve/his tactics to the Governor before just ended up with something he didn't like or want: Lou being forced to work with Steve when he couldn't stand him.

With all due respect, if you want plausibility in the plot perhaps you should watch a different show. Considering the team was given/has had immunity & means since it was formed by the late Governor Jameson, I figured things wouldn't always, if ever, be strictly by the book--no matter how much Danny, at least initially, tried to get Steve to behave that way. I enjoy the show for what it actually is; I don't care that it's implausible most of the time. I go along for the ride regardless, & watch because I like it; not so I can snark it after.

It's for the pee pads. There are a couple of pics after the flight-related Tweets on Bill's feed where Bill (or maybe the brother doing this with him) took pics of material on conveyor belts or something. The second pic was of quilted-looking red material. Bill captioned the pic telling everybody the fire hydrants on it were red. He's on his way home, as I type.

There's an episode that aired in about the middle, or toward the end, of season 3, It's on the DVDs at least in the US, & I assume iTunes has it with their downloads (but I haven't honestly checked to be sure). It's apparently not on Netflix with the other eps though. It was considered a "special" episode because nothing in it connects to the rest of the storylines, either before or after the ep; it's a standalone ep, like "Isaac & Ishmael" (which also doesn't connect to the rest of the storylines before or after it). It's called "The Documentary Special". And I hadn't realized, or maybe known, this until writing this post but this episode won the 2002 Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Class Program. Real White House staff (mostly former) & former Presidents Ford, Carter, & Clinton talk about what life is like when you work (& live) in the White House. Clips from various episodes aired up to that point are shown that connect to/illustrate the story being told or the point the speaker is trying to make. I think someone mentions in that that real life White House jobs--at least those among the Senior Staff/those who advise & counsel the President--have a pretty high turnover rate. The only thing is, since this White House was fictional & being run by people only pretending they work in the political world (though many of them are really politically savvy in real life), & most/all of these people were under contracts securing their professional services for a certain amount of time, the Bartlet White House couldn't have as massive a staff turnover at 1 time as the real 1 might possibly. I think, up until the storyline involving the election of Jed Bartlet's successor, the only "White House employees" who left their jobs were Mandy & Sam, among the regular characters (the actors left the cast), & Ainsley Hayes (the actress left because Ainsley was only a recurring role & Calleigh on CSI: Miami was a regular character) & Vice President Hoynes who was replaced by Vice President Russell; I don't know if the actor who played Hoynes wanted to leave or if he was replaced for some storyline purposes. Leo left his White House job, due to illness. He was replaced by CJ as White House Chief of Staff but remained on the show as a Special Adviser to Jed/the White House until he was named as Democratic Presidential Candidate Matthew Santos' Vice Presidential running mate; he was unseen after the real-life death of the actor who played Leo during the December/January holidays when S7 was being filmed. And the character of Leo was declared dead on the same Election Night which would determine whether or not he had been elected as Vice President of that fictional version of the US. Also, though Richard Schiff remained on the show, his character Toby was fired from the White House for disclosing to a major newspaper reporter the existence of a top secret military space shuttle which had been used to rescue some astronauts stranded at the International Space Station, or something; Toby told about the military space shuttle because of something to do with the cancer-related death of his brother David, who was a NASA/space shuttle astronaut. When the storyline shifted to finding the President who'd succeed Jed, that's when we got close to the more realistic turnover in White House staff. Josh left to run Santos' campaign & he was periodically advised by Leo during the primaries, as well as Toby, very secretly, during the campaign; Will left to run Vice President Russell's campaign after he had previously been shifted to the Vice President's staff; Donna finally got tired of Josh not letting her really grow in (or out of) her work, left her job as Josh's Assistant & joined Will on Russell's campaign, which pissed off Josh. Also, after "growing out of his job" as Jed's body man, Charlie became CJ's new assistant. All of these actors were still on the show, just in new jobs for the characters. Which is how they handled the issue of showing a major White House Staff turnover.

I'm not completely sure how you'd classify it--it was probably just a whole new show unto itself--but from 1971-1974, CBS aired The New Dick Van Dyke Show. It was created by Carl Reiner, but the characters & actors were all different. The title was the closest thing to a reboot from the original, & it had the word "New" added to it. It started during a period when Dick (I think & family) was living in the Phoenix/Cave Creek/Carefree, Arizona area. I don't know if he just wanted a change from California or if he was semi-retiring, or what. This show was basically the same format as the original--the eps were a mix of his work life & co-workers & his family life. He was a local TV talk show host in Phoenix the first 2 seasons; the third season, amid declining ratings, Dick's character suddenly became the star of a daytime drama set in/around a hospital & taped in LA--the soap character Dick played was a doctor--& the family (& real life filming of the show) moved to LA. And then we have The Arsenio Hall Show. It was a syndicated talk show, usually airing after the late local news, that ran from 1989-1994. Then it was brought back in 2013-2014 & was very similar to, though not an exact copy of, the original. The media seems to say they this was a "revival" not a reboot. It did well enough to get a second season, but something, I don't know what, subsequently happened & the show ended after just that 1 season.