profreader

Oh. That. Must-Not-ache. It's got to go. My "look I made a whisker!" teen self is cringing in embarrassment. Also, I must be drunk because somehow Dylan looks semi-cute in some of these shots. Obviously NOT with the foot-picking because GAAAGHH but maybe it's angling his face down... ? Maybe...? I remember in last ep's Visual Aids his forehead looked like a dirt road after a hard rain so... who knows what I'm seeing in him now. And as always, I welcome our new overlords, Val's Boobs. The Overboobs. Uber-boobs, if you will.

Our family had an old-school Jeopardy home-edition board game (Mr. Betty White was Allen Ludden... they were quite the game show pair back in the 60s and 70s.) The answers were in blue overprinted with red, and then you slid the page into the "answer board" which had red plastic windows. We had a version of Password with a similar red-blue printing thing going on.

Oh my gosh did I ever love this mini. I want all things to be Canadianised. It made me think of one of Tara's comments from the Family Ties Canon submission not that long ago -- along the lines of, "Believe me, you never have to tell a Canadian if a celebrity is Canadian. WE KNOW."

12:08 PM pajamas are best pajamas!

I miss 2 Stars 1 Slot. It's fascinating to me how this happens so often. Also: Tara was of course right that RuPaul and Rue McLanahan was technically a cheat... but don't you want to see that mashup? ;)

^^^ Brilliant.

All of these were brilliant... and I want to see them ALL. I don't know why blustery grey days give me a hankering for these kind of dumb movies... like the entertainment equivalent of gooey caramel. And oh my god. Dave was not kidding. Feast your eyes on the list of Hallmark Christmas movies.

I really, really, really want to know who in the writers room ever thought all the Brandon-is-a-politico stories (and related ones, like WILL HE ENDORSE PROF CULTY?) would be something that the audience for this show would give one thin crap about. Whhyyyyyy the need to make anyone "important"? gaaaaah. And the TONE from Brandon and the BABY MEWLING from Kelly. Ehmagahhd. Thank god for Val -- she's the only one not taking herself seriously.

One of the best "assemble a TV show" minis ever. Loved it.

Emily Valentine's hair inspiration...

yeah... LipTonight Show. Chik-Fil-A Team was also fuzzy about "The" ... d'oh.

D'oh -- ! Dave was right -- "Der Wienerschnitzel" dropped the "Der"-- but the one I used to go to in high school kept it around forever (too cheap to change the sign, I guess.) But weirdly they had an ad campaign that still referenced the "Der." (Congrats Sarah - !)

Awesome game... so funny. And tough but not impossible.

This is making me want to rewatch the opening of Season 2 of West Wing now -- I remember exactly the moment Sarah describes, when they whip the motorcade around. Really fun Gametime too - ! And lookit Sarah go, two weeks in a row - !

David's hair just needs a couple of beady red glowing eyes and it's some kind of Lord of the Rings spiderbeast.

I DID TOO - ! I had to rewind that part like five times and was laughing like a maniac. I like to imagine somewhere along the line some sound person who is working on these episodes is like, huh, what burps do we have in the sound effects library? BRAAAAP. Yeah, good enough.

DAWSON'S CREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK. I'm sorry, I'll use my inside voice. [[[[Dawson's Creek pleeeease]]]]

Brilliant.

(oddball note: the link to the visual aids post just loops back here -- at least that's happening for me.) This is quite a milestone -- I remember when the podcast started and thought, how will they ever make it to the end of the Brenda years? And look, here we are -- and what a hilarious journey it has been. I don't know what it is about Shannen Doherty -- her mushmouth drives me crazy, she seems to have trouble getting along on sets, etc -- but she sure is watchable. I loved her on 90210 and on Charmed (and even on Scare Tactics, that ridiculous hidden camera show on SyFy.) I wish her well -- fighting cancer takes so, so much.

Also I must share the pain of these. Check out Betty White's "I'm Still Hot" and the trailer for NBC's "This Is Us" (where Milo Ventimiglia knew how to "strategically place his manhood" and in which the editors showed "his ass before his face.")

Here's a discarded question from the last section of Gametime, about Betty White: True or false? The U.S. Forest Service gave her the title “honorary forest ranger”; she got a badge and a ranger’s hat, and a hug from Smokey Bear. (This is true.) It was really interesting digging into the eeesh-ness of some of these characters. Check out this rundown of Kelsey Grammer's assholish memoir (where the "for broken women, the doctor was IN" quote comes from.) I want to do a dance remix of "Dental Plan/Lisa Needs Braces" now. And congrats Sarah - ! Back on the board.

Also: the shot of Ohhndrea in her PJ's ... I mean ... oh dear. Also also: this new band? Worse than Jazz. Lite Jazz, even.

I posted my thoughts re the actor possibly having issues with playing a gay role in the other thread. But, seeing screencaps of them both, I think the recast actor is cuter (for my personal taste at least) and fits more the "gay guy of the 90s" mold. I dug those kind of preppy-ish floppy haircuts. It is funny how body types have evolved -- is it that gym science (exercise-ology? I'm not a science person) has gotten better? Somehow so many people have figured out the secret to abs and whatnot. At the time I thought Jason Priestly was super cute and I could see the appeal of the others-- but today Brandon, Dylan and David all look like scrawny twigs -- and definitely don't have what "tv bodies" seem to be expected to be nowadays. Shannen Doherty can be really stunningly beautiful -- she must have been in a very unhappy place in her life, because in the episodes lately she looks unhealthy, strung out and like she just rolled out of the rag bag (to use my grandmother's expression.)

Re whether or not the gay element had anything to do with the actor being recast, etc -- right around this time, All My Children had a gay character that they cast without telling the actor that the character was intended to be gay. The character was a high school teacher & coach (nicknamed by fans "the dullest gay man in the world" because the actor was handsome but didn't have much of a personality.) There was at least one article in which the actor said he felt "blindsided" when the producers revealed to him the direction they were taking the character -- but he made the "brave choice" to continue on, etc. etc. So even in 1994, taking a "gay role" was seen as potentially harmful to an actor's career -- especially one who was not established. (Interestingly, All My Children ended up with three gay male characters in that plotline, which was some kind of record at the time. But we always had to have articles about how the actors were definitely, definitely, definitely straight in real life, blah blah blah.) I knew more than one closeted fraternity guy -- even in LA, it would have been hard to be openly gay in a frat -- and word would definitely have gotten to the alumni. I don't remember seeing this ep the first time around -- of all the guys, as Tara & Sarah point out, Steve would have had the least to worry about (sorry, pepperoni nips.) Of course Brandon is on hand to lecture anyone on social issues and how You're Doing It Wrong. It would have been verrrry interesting if they had made Brandon more directly the one suspected of being gay. Are you SURE you wouldn't like a cuppacino, Mr. Task Force?