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Amy Carlson, who later played the junior lawyer on "Trial By Jury," played a cop's wife who accused him of rape. It came out that they were both physically abusive toward each other, and I recall it was presented pointedly that she was much more violent toward him. I don't recall how the case was resolved or any further details about the way the issues were approached. I think the title of this episode was "Asunder," and it aired in season 2. I can't think of an episode featuring a male victim of IPV who was not also portrayed as an antagonist.

I used to be able to lip-sync it (Lynn's version, of course) as a sort of party trick when I was in college in rural Virginia. It doesn't have quite the same punch now that I live in California, but it's in my back pocket for my audition tape should I ever take up drag. 😉

I knew it couldn’t be, but when the first line of that lip sync played, as God is my witness, I thought it was the “I’ve Been Everywhere” that Lynn Anderson or Johnny Cash sang. You know, the one with the verses where they list a couple dozen places in a row. Now those would be lyrics to point to your mouth about! I have to admit I didn’t care for the song we did get: very average mid-tempo pop, which got a very average performance, IMO. I started to “get” some of these improv/acting challenges a bit more after moving to San Francisco, where a few promoters put on stage shows that parody movies and TV shows. Some use local talent, but one set in particular is always headlined by three or four of Ru’s girls. They’re very entertaining and are obviously making someone a lot of money, so I get that it’s a skill the show is prioritizing as what Ru queens do shifts. But I have to say, I’d take the corny scripted challenges over this improv any day. I think Cracker is so talented onstage, but offstage I’m more and more turned off by her. I know others feel she is very authentic and just gets in her head. Maybe that’s right, but she is 35 years of age and it’s time to work through some of the things that she herself has identified isolate her from others. That whole “I heard you were conspiring against me, explain!” thing was very seventh grade. I also know these shows are pressure cookers, but I really just want her to be quiet and cut this stuff out so I can root for her.

Yes, he did! It caught my attention because some of my pianist friends played for years there in an annual ragtime contest. I have yet to hear of Peoria in the context of, like, day-to-day life and have become convinced that nobody really lives here, it's just a place to have unusual conventions and competitions and so on. Anyway, I thought all those impostors were fairly convincing.

Rita Moreno was a treat. She first appeared on the show back in the 60s and did it again during the 70s and 80s. Who else have they had who'd been on past versions? I didn't see the first several seasons but I know Betty White did it. I know not everyone is a constipated suburban Catholic, but I really can't imagine making jokes about my mother's bust (see, I can't even type b-o-o-b, that's just how repressed we are!) or the crack at the end: "like many men before you, you are going to get to take home my mother." I also find all that very strange. I actually liked the to-do about the award for guessing right all four times, but that doesn't need to be about her! I really liked the way #2 from the archer's round kept letting #3 know what was going on that she couldn't see, without making a big thing about it. She seemed like a kind person. Elsewhere in the show, it seemed strange not to get the social media person's handle. This is interesting. I wonder why not mention that? The way they handle the impostors is a bit inconsistent, I've noticed. Sometimes they give their last name, sometimes no. Sometimes they give an occupation, sometimes just a little unrelated joke. In the old days, it was fun to find out that so-and-so was really a banker or teacher or whatever. I've come to the conclusion that they want to avoid drawing attention to the fact that many of the participants now are aspiring/working actors. The redhead from the "I ate a taco every day" bit earlier in the season said he worked at Taco Bell, but he looked familiar so I Googled him and found a pretty respectable IMDB page. The guy from this week's dating coach segment also looked familiar too. I'm still not sure whether I've actually seen him before: I live in San Francisco and, believe me, once you've seen one guy with that look, you've seen them all. At any rate, he's an actor, stand-up comedian, and podcaster. It doesn't bother me a bit that so many of these folks seem to come, literally, from Central Casting. Compared to the older shows, they present a lot more of an original story rather than trying to copy the details of the real person's biography without being detected, so I can see why that might require different skills or people. But the way they seem to go out of their way to avoid it seems a bit odd to me.

I'm glad it's not just me whose nerves Adam was getting on. I'm sure he's a great guy, but drink a Red Bull or something, mamma mia. Although the bonus round was not successful, I thought the ladies played it well. When they couldn't describe the person well, they pivoted to riffing on parts of the name. If they'd been just a little faster and gotten a different draw, they could've done it. But I guess that's just a fancy way of saying "if they hadn't lost, they could've won." 😉

I agree with those who thought all three of the presentations fell a little flat, although I thought jungle was by far the worst and gold was by far the best. Thinking outside the box, last week some of the girls did well by picking men who wouldn’t generally be considered sex symbols and riffing on that. I realize they can’t go back to the same well every week, but I would love to have seen a team do, say, a take on Grey Gardens: they’re trying as hard as they can to keep this hotel up, but it’s falling apart and so are they. Maybe a bit high concept given the brief and the materials provided, but the three presented were so generic that a bit of subverting expectations could’ve been a big hit!

I love what Cracker does in drag, but offstage she has qualities that I find both calculated and naive, and they combine in a way that is really not appealing. During the confrontation in the work room, she said: "The people that I respect are X, Y, and Z. Those are the people that I really look up to and those are the people I'm working well with. Everything else, I will learn and work on." There's a difference between "I'm enjoying working with X, Y, and Z because I respect them" and "they are the people that I respect." While of course Alexis didn't have to stick her nose in, I thought it was silly to pretend that the implication of that statement isn't that she doesn't yet respect the other girls. Also, naturally, they all know that conversations held at normal volume can be overheard in that space. I'm conscious of the effect of the edit, so I tend not to reach absolute conclusions about any of these people, but I think Cracker is a bit of an instigator. She didn't need to bring the whole thing up again while speaking to the judges either. This definitely seems to be an unpopular opinion, and I know some of my friends really admire what they perceive as her openness. For me, she just acts so much younger than 35. Didn't she say a few weeks ago that she has few friends and doesn't understand why people seem not to like her? No judgement on people who are putting in the work to self-improve, I don't think it takes Sherlock Holmes to solve the mystery. Something about this narrative just seems contrived and manipulative to me.

I think this show is such good fun. I really and glad I started watching it. Sad to see that Allee passed away. I think it might have been not at all long after the taping, since I don't think the show was renewed until November? Heidi Moneymaker is such a great name that I had to look it up and see if it's the one she was born with. It was, and she's not the only stunt performer in the family either! The model from the shark segment was pretty but so vacant, bless him. I wonder how many of the imposters are aspiring actors? Many if not most, I'd guess. The redhead from the Bigfoot bit reminded me of someone so I looked up his IMDB and he's been in a few things. Finally, I really liked this panel. I like the questions focusing on a specific bit of trivia. Sometimes you can just get a sense for the way they react to the question, other times you might know what the answer really is, and in a few rare cases, "pico." 🙂

I could never judge something like lip-syncs. I'm genuinely pleased by almost every performance. It's not like I have trouble forming opinions in general either. Watching others compare performances with such certainty therefore often fascinates me. And I really don't mean this as a bitchy read. I like to watch them back and try to perceive what others are saying, just for fun. I'm a human in my 20s, but I feel a bit like the conehead children trying to understand their classmates when I do this. 😉

I think some might find it difficult to frankly and meaningfully discuss this show in particular without touching on politics, but I get it. I’ll be good. 🙂 For me, this show is still fundamentally un funny and near irredeemably stupid, but I like to finish those I start. I think I have one or two episodes left now. I got a much bigger laugh than I should’ve from a sign in the background of one season that read “if you wish for space peace, prepare for space war.”

I've seen a million of these shows and saw it coming a mile away, but I'll be darned if it didn't just get me when they added the red Mercedes alongside the Chevelle.

It was a pretty fun episode. Jeremy Sisto stuck out for me because I remembered him from "Law & Order" and he did not seem like he wanted to be there at all. Perhaps he's just a bit of a shy person as himself? He did half his mini-interview with Jane staring at the sound.

I wish I had thought of ruh-roh. That's very good. I would've said jinkies, but did Scooby ever say that or was it Velma? Clearly I need a Scooby-Doo rewatch. They almost needn't've bothered halfway-blurring Raven's gesture. It was super obvious what it was. I liked her joking explanations about why this or that answer was a match after all, but she could've chilled that out a little bit for me. I know the ecosystem has changed in many ways since the 70s, but I'd still like to see more of the network's performer than we do. There are some great supporting players on ABC shows they might call. Then again, I'm pretty happy with the panels they generally have.

I like Ongina but there really was no other choice. I think the show as it is today doesn’t play to her strengths but I would still love to see her at a club sometime. I did honestly expect Sasha to be brought in the moment Shea won. Maybe she wasn’t available for this tape date so Shea will win again soon. 😉 It was fitting that the exciting lipsync to the Pointer Sisters aired the week Bonnie died at 69. May her memory be a blessing. Time to go play that again.

Me too, at first. I'm glad we're all on the same page. 😉

I tend to prefer word or trivia games, but there's something great about this revival. I'm not riveted for an hour, but it's great to watch while I'm folding laundry or whatever, just real feel-good TV from my point of view. Elizabeth seems really genuinely engaged and is, I think, a perfect fit. The contestants are also pretty well-selected for me. They're mostly fine in the question round and few of them grate on me during the rest of the game. They also pitch the family backstory and inspirational hopes/dreams of it all pretty well. Some other shows push it way too hard and it can seem trite, even irritating. But something about the way it's done here really gets me on their side. Finally, did Tillman's friend remind anyone else in look and voice of Drew Carey?

Doris did seem to know many of the answers last night. Maybe all of them? So that's a little annoying if it's true that she has inside info. She seems like a nice lady but I just don't get what she adds to the show a lot of the time. Like, who asked her whether Constance's little spiel about her choice in the first round was too long? I certainly didn't care. Patti, meanwhile, was a pleasure. I'm sure being a multi-platinum recording artist can buy a lot of great skin cream and so on, but my goodness, she looked great. I had to laugh a little at how eager she was to have the answer reveals in the last round, when they'd all voted for the same player, so the result wasn't going to change. She's very charming. Unfortunately I didn't get into the last round. I don't believe in parapsychology and all that, but I think nobody gets hurt if you check your horoscope or have your palm read on the boardwalk or what-have-you. I think that so-called psychic detectives, on the other hand are disgusting opportunists hoping to capitalize on a family's or community's grief. I found several stories along those lines about the woman featured, in which she offered absolutely nothing of value, but no doubt drew a nice paycheck. She can tell me all she wants about intuiting the latitude and longitude of some missing plane in New York and I'm just not interested. I wish we would stop giving people like her a platform.

Nor for me. I watched the lengthy ad with "Don't Get Tired." It was a cute visual, but watching those four idiots from Joizey squawk about how they were sure Obama was the 47th president, they had no idea where Hawaii was, etc. bored and infuriated me in equal parts. Talk about dumbing down. I can't root for contestants like these and am not sure why some of these shows think we want to keep seeing them. At any rate, I've always liked Adam Scott, and it endears him further to me to see him take a stab at one of my favorite genres while he still has quite a lot of work as an actor, but I won't be able to support him in this project. Godspeed, Adam. Don't spend the salary all in one place.

I was thinking about this last night but didn't want to turn on a dime from "J v d B seems like a lovely guy and I really liked the episode" to "and here's one big thing they need to fix," but I do agree with everyone who thinks something could be changed about contestant selection. I've always liked the old 70s version and have been watching it even more now that I've been at home more often. They regularly had contestants who were just awful at the game but utterly charming. I agree that they don't allow the time to stretch out interactions with them anymore. Even the intros seem edited to within an inch of their lives sometimes, but those could be some of the funniest moments with the spacier folks. I have a tendency to prefer things "the old way" (and I'm 26 so I don't know what my problem is) and while I really do enjoy this revamp, and think this season is off to a fine start, it could be just a bit better. They used to be able to do three rounds, two audience matches, and the head-to-head in a half hour, and still have that breathing room, but now we get slightly less content and yet it still doesn't seem to have any space. I don't think that's all the increased commercial time of today either. We could cut out the " 'so-and so is here!' - hold for applause - dull joke not related to much of anything" bits for all the celebs, from where I sit. Possibly not from where the celebs sit. ;) Gene occasionally had longer chats about what the panelists had to plug, but would do them while the panelists were writing their answers. All he did in its own space was a quick sign-off: "watch Gary on 'M*A*S*H,' this beautiful lady on 'Search for Tomorrow,' don't forget this fella on 'Family Feud,' and Betty on 'Mary Tyler Moore,' I'm Gene Rayburn for 'Match Game 77,' good night!" I really think that's all that's required, especially since we have Google now and can find what anyone who interested us is doing in seconds. That would free up time.

I thought that was odd. I'm not surprised that some places would comp a celebrity, maybe in hopes of a mention on social media or something, but I have to imagine they'd work a little harder to make sure it was really the person they thought it was. I don't recall him saying where it was, but I imagine it might've been outside a celeb-heavy area where they might have more of a protocol established. Maybe it's something to try, at any rate. Do you think they'd buy that Zach Braff likes to visit the Motel 6 by the beach in Santa Cruz? 😉 Nice surprise to have a new episode tonight, although I guess it's been in the can for a while? Good one overall, until that dog of a final round. I guess they won't always click, but yikes. Susan Kelechi Watson is really a beautiful woman, and I spent the whole episode trying to remember what I recognized her from before I remembered it was the Mr Rogers movie from last year. I really thought we were going to get to see the perm box she was on!

I don't know where I get this from exactly, but I have the impression that he's a big family man and isn't really preoccupied with being an "A-lister." These shows are probably not a bad way to make some money for relatively little effort. The sense that he doesn't think this kind of appearance is below him makes him even more likable to me. Being very shallow, if he'd just change this hairstyle, which I think ages him, we'd really be in business. I thought this was another fun episode overall. Ben Schwartz was suitably endearing for someone not doing too well at the game. After a few years they've got a good mix of semi-regulars like Jane and Caroline who have easy chemistry with almost everyone. The only thing that was sort of off for me was the strongman, who didn't really add anything. I guess it doesn't hurt to have one or two bits an episode, but that was just silly.

I was a little underwhelmed by most of the performances, to be honest, but I think the queens will have much more to show us as the season goes on. I tend to gravitate toward the comedy or recitative performances, and probably liked Mariah's the best. It couldn't have been more timely! But even then, I wanted a bit more from the visual. It felt like she only had a thimbleful of paint in those buckets. India's win did feel very scripted to me, both from "drama with Derrick" and "everyone is wondering what she's her for" angles. I enjoyed her but wouldn't've put her on top. And I know what you're all thinking. Producer manipulation? On Drag Race?! No, it couldn't be. I feel for Ongina. Her most memorable moments for me were a bit stripped down, which isn't something the show does much anymore. I am hoping she will dust herself off and surprise us with something to match her entrance look next week. I didn't connect with Derrick on her original season, but didn't like watching her break down then or now. She might've been perceived differently had she not put quite so much of a lampshade on things. Perhaps more of this is producer-driven than I think, but she didn't have to come in as Britney with a Britney line. She could've used her vocal chops in a non-Britney-style performance instead of the impressions. With a few adjustments, in general, her look could still be a polished pop-isn look without reading so much as Britney specifically. I also, by the way, fully support the validity of her relationship. All that said, if I heard she was doing a Britney show near me, I'd be tempted to come out. If I had more than $1.99 and a few buttons in my pocket, I would put money down that should they win, Alexis will face Vanjie, Jujubee will face Raven, Shea will face Sasha, and so on. We probably only avoided India facing Mimi by a hair.

I thought that was another highly enjoyable episode. Whoever writes their little lines for the statement at the beginning and the imposters at the end really gets my terrible sense of humor. Paul Rubens did spoil things for me a bit, because I didn't see him coming at all and subsequently had to spend the rest of the episode on very high alert for the FBI disguise chief from the other week. I still am convince that she's there somewhere. 😉 The only thing that's missing for me is stakes. This show was never played for much money but I think in the past contestants usually got to split a few thousand, maybe less. I'd love it if next time around the winning celebrity was given $10K for a charity of their choice or something like that.

My point was not that I think no person of that description can be trusted to offer their own view, but that such a person is exactly who one might expect Lea to treat solicitously, one she might perceive as having something to offer her. Sharing that he found her warm and welcoming had probably the opposite effect he intended on me. That's a good question. In the relatively recent past, I think many of the people it seems were ill treated by her were already in tenuous positions with perhaps few allies. It's very easy to say somebody should've complained about her, but to whom and with what effect? How many reports of different kinds of misconduct have we learned are regularly ignored? As for her much younger days, a childhood friend of mine was a performer known in regional theatre, and even before we were in high school her stage mother had quite a bit of heft. I find most galling the comments of writer and producer Marti Noxon, who deflected the discussion about Lea to remark that several men were also bad actors on set but nobody ever talked about them. I can think of few better than her to have done so. Certainly not one of relatively few women of color in the industry; understudies, guest stars, and extras considered very expendable; or some others who would've been in a position to notice.