St. Claire

M*A*S*H doesn't hold up for me, at least not the later seasons. I loved that show so much when it was airing, and I used to watch the early seasons in syndication as the last few aired. During its original airing, I didn't have any issue with the anachronistic hair and non-uniform clothing (Maj. Houlihan's feathered 'do was ridiculous for wartime Korea) or with the heavy handed message storylines of the last couple seasons when Alan Alda was in more control. Now, though, those things strike me as cheesy and badly acted.

While I hate the whole construct of the commercial (honestly, even those of us who eat yogurt while trying to lose weight refer to the yogurt flavors as such- i.e., not "apple turnover" but "the apple yogurt" or something similar), I wasn't irritated by the phrasing of "what are you doing?" My husband and I, and many other friends and family members, use that as a sort of short hand for "why are you letting 30 seconds worth of cold air escape from the fridge when you are always fussing about the electric bill?"/"if you tell me what you are looking for, maybe I can tell you what shelf I saw it on" Also, I hate Yoplait. The only yogurt I eat anymore is Chobani, and it can't be the artificially sweetened stuff.

I liked Homicide: Life on the Street's finale (and ER, for the same reason) because it didn't tie up everything in a neat little bow; we got some movement/resolution for specific characters, but the police station/hospital kept on going as it always would. I loved FNL, because we got to see how life went on in that brief time period for the characters we loved (or loved to dislike, I suppose.) I think Tim's ending was perfect for his character; for him it was a happy ending because it's what he wanted in life. Life on Mars (US) ending was awful. Silly and contrived and not at all what I wanted. I can't say what I *did* want from a finale, but that wasn't it.

That's strange, because they usually have a token person or two of color. [or, y'know, what @heebiejeebie just said while I was posting]. Last year's (or at least the one I saw on YouTube) had a white-as-snow family of four- perfectly balanced, of course, with one boy and one girl- and one light skinned African American woman.

My husband and I saw the S'more commercial (him for the first time) on Saturday morning, and all weekend long he tortured me with it- as soon as I banished it from my head, he'd pass by and sing it to me. Part of what annoys me is the mushing together of the M-O into one note. It's like Billy Mack having to get that extra syllable into the first verse of "Christmas is All Around Us."

Let's stop with the victim blaming!!

I thought the point was that the whole process was supposed to be ridiculous so that Daniel would look totally unhinged. Which, mission accomplished!

The men aren't there because they had to go take another dose of Cialis.

What I don't get about those Buick commercials is exchange with "That's not a Buick!" "That's what I told him!" I mean, I get that they are trying to indicate that Buick is not the old, stodgy car everyone associates with the brand but (a) all the owner has to do to convince you that it really is a Buick is show you the logo, so there is no point trying to convince the owner that he/she doesn't know the brand, and (2) the style of the new Buicks isn't that much sportier than the stereotypical middle aged lady car that they are trying to disassociate with. (Full disclosure, I used to drive a Buick LeSabre. I was not yet a middle aged lady, but my husband insisted upon calling it my middle-aged lady car. That car was awesome, with the dual climate controls and the smooth ride and cushy seat. Now that I'm a middle aged lady, I drive an SUV instead of a luxury sedan. Go figure.)

yeeah. I came pretty close to breaking out in hives when I heard the song on the commercial, since I have double-plus-ungood memories of the "Chicken Fat, Alley Cat" album that my elementary school PE teacher, Mr. Farrell, used to break out during our square dance unit. Mr. Farrell was a mean, horrible man and humiliated me about my inability to climb the darned rope and I think he only did a dancing until because the county school system made him do it; the square dance unit was one of the few where I was one of the more adept students (the other unit being gymnastics/tumbling) and everyone acted as though holding each others' hands to do the dances was going to give us cooties.

Speaking of iconic voices who we've lost recently, here is the incomparable Casey Kasem for Chevy.

I totally disliked Bobbi's characterization in Small Town. She is set up as this complete lunatic (complete with screaming and buggy eyes), and the whole misunderstanding could have been easily solved by her telling Dan that she used to go by Roberta, and she looks different now, and gosh, don't you remember the [insert timeframe] trip you and your buddies took and got drunk on Rioja and crashed at the Hotel de Espana? Instead, Sorkin wrote her as a one-off caricature, then decided he liked Lisa Edelstein enough as an actor to bring her back. I swear to God, Lisa (pronounced with a z) and Gordon should have just hooked up and left Dana and Casey to their rudeness. I'm not a Gordon fan by any stretch of the imagination, but he put up with way more from Dana that night than any boyfriend should have to.

I do have to defend Dan slightly, since I found out after the series aired that there was an explanation. Apparently, something got cut from the script that included some reference to a European trip during which Dan and his friends took a drunken side jaunt that crossed into Spain (which blows my mind as someone who has only traveled with US and Canada, but give the densely packed geography of Europe is actually feasible). Thus "The Hotel de Espana is in Spain?!" in a later episode. It's almost like me saying that Kansas is not one of the states I've gone to, since I sometimes forget that one night of my conference in Kansas City, MO included us crossing over into the other side of the city for 30 minutes or so. The fact that the whole Bobbi storyline was played for laughs in this ep, only to be retconned in Eli's Coming, irks me, though.

One brief, tiny moment of connection between Gordon and Casey- when Dana was on the phone with Natalie, and Nat said "put Casey on for a minute," he was totally on the same page that he needed to just hang up and get on with dinner. Gordon's cheery "thank you!" when Casey handed the phone back was a rare bit of them actually being friendly to each other.

I think Casey probably knows that Dan's brother died some time ago (perhaps even knowing that he died in a car accident), but didn't know the details of the drug use and that Sam was doing the drugs at least partly because of his brother's example. [At this point, the nostalgia kicks in and I hear that 70s/80s PSA of the kid telling his dad "I learned it from watching YOU!"] My sister posted something on my Facebook wall that alluded to our tendency to randomly quote song lyrics or lines from Bull Durham. It makes me think of how many people I have in my life who actually understands what "[name] listens to the Starland Vocal Band, so..." really means.

I think that whenever I watch TV again, I am more equipped to find the things that I like among the things I don't. Upon first watch, the dislike is more prominent, but once I know what's coming I have a better time appreciating the smaller aspects that were more likable. Sometimes it's because things that were small and likable in early seasons pay off later, sometimes it's the nostalgia of the heyday of the show, and sometimes it's just because I am becoming more forgiving as I get older (I like the series overall, so I'm willing to excuse the previous mis-steps. Kind of like how I can forgive my kids for being boneheads as they get older in the moments when I look at how much they've grown up and become really good people.)

I would love to bring back Emily Fornell as a recurring guest star (provided her mom stays away; I can go quite some time without having to see her again). And Borin remains at the top of my list for recurring characters who can keep on recurring- she has not overstayed her welcome.

Clinton Kelly would make my day. I thing Jesse Tyler Ferguson would be a hoot- I like him when I see him to interviews, even though I don't watch Modern Family. I'd love to see Connie Britton as the designated "over 40 but still got it" representative. If Patrick Stewart is between Broadway shows, I'd love to see him (especially if Ian McKellan was in the audience!) As Mad Men wraps up, I'd love to see Jon Hamm, John Slattery, Christina Hendricks or Elizabeth Moss.

Just for the record, I have always heard the expression as "...birds home to roost," not chickens. This is another episode that is replete with quotes I love: He's talking about you, ya freak! I told many, many people. You're on at 2 AM; your competition is a Bonanza rerun and four guys making cheese. Are we really flirting? Or is this you pretending to be you flirting with me actually being me?

I don't really care for disco, hip hop and contemporary as the freestyle, finals dances. One of the reasons I liked Drew and Cheryl's freestyle waaaay back in the day was because they took elements of various Latin and ballroom styles and put them into a new routine. I am also not a fan of having jazz, contemporary and salsa as regular dances through the competition. I liked the old dances, with their clear rules and less of the flailing about. Also, get off my lawn.

That would make me sad. I like Tristan. Well, barring Tristan coming back, I also wouldn't mind Gleb or Artem as well as giving Henry another chance.

I'd be happy to see Henry step in, I like him. I'd rather see him dance with Candace than have Mark risk further injury.

Or Tristan- he's shown himself to be patient and nice, even when he had Nancy Grace as his partner.

If Derek and Maks leaving after this season means that I an see Tristan dance some more (and maybe bring Henry into the rotation), then I am all for it. And if Tristan is dancing next season, I'd like to see him with someone who has a chance to go the distance. He tried so hard with Valerie Harper, but everyone knew it would be an uphill battle.

When I was in college, I took a number of dance classes as electives. Some of the dance majors faced some challenges in the areas that were not their main focus. I remember the ballet dancers in my jazz class, trying so hard to make themselves be stompy and stacatto for a particular routine the teacher had choreographed, and being so frustrated. Eveyrone assumes that all of the dancers would be able to easily do all of the dances, but you body doesn't always react the way you want it to. Boxers should also be great with footwork, but there was a huge difference between Evandar Holyfield's performance and Sugar Ray Leonard's.