Inquisitionist

Teebax, I'm on the same party bus as you and peeayebee. When Jake climbed over the fence only to see his car being lifted to its seeming doom, I thought the episode was feeling too caper-y and Jake-centric. The Holt plan reveal, however, was astonishingly good, and I'm sure I'll appreciate the entire episode much more on rewatch. Well done, show!

She wishes she could have? What was stopping her?

I sometimes felt this way about the characters, too, but I rationalize that they had lives outside of what we saw, encompassing activities that did not fit within the show's main theme and perspective.

This show was feeling like a bit of a chore to watch last season, and I haven't been exactly fired up about it this season. I've watched the first two episodes, but the 3rd and 4th are sitting on my DVR in tentative limbo. Is there anything about them that comes anywhere near the magic of S1? If not, I may just bail now... (Feel free to send me a private message if you don't want to spoil anything for others here.)

Check out the Ron Swanson thread for my report on seeing Nick Offerman last night. :-)

The special guest was Peter Sagal, host of NPR's "Wait, Wait,.. Don't Tell Me!" who conducted a conversational interview with Nick for about 45 minutes, followed by about 20 minutes of Q&A and a 10-minute reading from Nick's book, Paddle Your Own Canoe. I was in the second row, center and shot my hand up as soon as Peter started taking questions, so he called on me first. I asked Nick "How did Megan come to play Tammy on P&R and what was your favorite scene with her?" After making a joke about come/orgasm, Nick noted that several cast members have comedically talented spouses (Will Arnett was married to Amy at the start of the show, Chris Pratt's spouse is Anna Ferris), so the show runners just sort of gravitated to writing parts for the ones who were game to appear. They wrote Tammy II specifically for Megan, who immediately said she'd do it as long as she got to show a lot of cleavage. As for his favorite scene with his beloved, Nick chose one that is coming up in S7, which he claims blows all their previous scenes out of the water. "Even the motel scene?" I shouted out. Yes, better even than the motel scene, he averred. We shall wait with bated breath. Overall, it was a delightful evening. Nick is very engaging and genuine and (as you'd imagine) sharply funny. I love the way he laughs as himself. It's not exactly a Ron Swanson giggle, but it's definitely goofy and real. He declined to demonstrate his break-dancing skills, though the passage he read from his book mentioned that phase of his life. Looking forward to reading my signed copy!

Totally stoked that I'm getting to see Mr. Ron Swanson himself (OK, his doppelganger, Nick Offerman) this evening. He's appearing at the UP Comedy Club in Chicago, where he'll be reading from and signing copies of his book. Ooh, ooh -- just saw that Nick is bringing a "special guest" this evening. Could it be Megan/Tammy lending moral support?

Peggy and Betty are in the same shot in The Beautiful Girls when Betty picks up Sally at SCDP, but it's very brief and Peggy doesn't speak. I don't recall any other times the actresses shared a scene.

OMG, Mozelle, that Key & Peele bit had me laughing out loud!

Don't forget "Gary Hart. Senator Gary Hart. Could-have-been-president Gary Hart" in Strange Bedfellows, Part 2.

EW reports that Misty Upham's family has confirmed her death. If this next part is true, how doubly awful:

Thanks, DollEyes. I have to admit that I don't always hear Diane's lines clearly. Will need to turn up the volume!

Titanic was released in Dec. 1997, so it had been out for 18 months, but still going strong, IIRC. DiCaprio was definitely very hot stuff at the time, but I agree with ktwo that his name didn't have the same impact as JFK, Jr.

Horrible news about Misty. Do you know why she was taking medication? Another must-rent movie is Frozen River.

Although the headline is about Carrie being a whore, I took this as a joke (pointedly followed by [laughs]). Noth was just contrasting how much of a player Big was portrayed as being versus actually being by pointing out that Carrie had many more sexual partners on the series than he did. He also called her a strong, smart woman (which is a very generous view, IMO).

JFK Jr. died in a plane crash a few weeks after the episode first aired in July 1999. I'm sure they thought it could be perceived as disrespectful (or at least insensitive) to highlight a fictional version of him in an episode that was still in airplay soon after that.

??? This was a major premise of the show: women enjoying sex-as-sex just as many men do. This might be true of Miranda later on, but in her early dealings with Steve, I don't think she needed to compromise about what sort of relationship she was interested in having (or not having) with this guy she'd just met, any more than Aidan should have compromised on Carrie's smoking. Steve was a bartender who slept around a lot. He knew what a one-night-stand was -- and probably would have blown off any woman who tried to turn what he perceived as a ONS into a "relationship" that he didn't want.

The article makes it sound as though TGW will almost certainly continue after this season. Not sure I can sustain interest (although I say that every year...) But really, there are so many set-ups in this season already that make it feel like it could be the perfect book-end finale to the opening season.

If you haven't seen Lone Star, please rent it NOW. Elizabeth Pena and Chris Cooper are both terrific in it.

Blergh. Miranda would never change her name.

OK, now I'm crying. Thank you, Nora Dunn.

Thanks -- I'll set my DVR!

Was there also some uncertainty about whether Chris Noth would sign on for a 2nd season?

Have they ever done much in the live shows to acknowledge deceased former cast members? A "Best of" special feels more appropriate to me. The current cast members didn't know Jan Hooks any better than I did.

Whatever the illness was, Hooks was very private about it. Not even TMZ seems to have a clue. It was so cool seeing Jan as Jenna Maroney's mother, Verna, in 30 Rock a few times in recent years. Perfection,