Bastet

Exactly; it wasn't the celebrating I was talking about (although I did find much of it over the top for an engagement), but that horrid "the one thing she's always wanted" line.

Mad About You was a show I watched for a few seasons at the time because I lived with people who did, but didn't like (didn't hate, but didn't like), and then several years ago came across it in late-night syndication, gave it a whirl, and decided I still didn't like it. (A lot of that was and is Helen Hunt; I think of her acting as a collection of tics she employs in every role.) But there wasn't a sense of "this doesn't hold up/I can't relate to this anymore" -- I think if I'd liked it at the time I'd still like it now, just as I didn't like it then and don't like it now. For my several issues with it, I think it, being relationship-based, isn't particularly tied to any given era and thus stands the test of time. Frasier I never could stand - but I was one of the handful of Americans who never got into Cheers, either - but Just Shoot Me, I watched faithfully yet don't remember a whole lot beyond Wendie Malick and Enrico Colantoni, both of whom I like in just about everything I've seen them in, and Laura San Giacomo's character; I'd be curious to check that out today -- Maya's feminist perspective on a fashion magazine's treatment of women could come off as awkwardly of its time, or resonate equally well today.

Holy hell. The commercial was destined to be offensive pretty much from jump, and I thought it was going to be telling Mom she's going to be a grandma, so had my rage percolating, and then it turned out to be telling her "I'm engaged!" was the "one thing she's always wanted," and my rage meter was instantly pegged. I should have predicted what I was in for from you saying it was a commercial for Jared, but I think I ignored that before clicking and then, after, perhaps subconsciously figured they were hawking some over-priced crap stone "Grandma-to-Be" ring as the next stupid thing people should buy.

A lot of people will only go to the kitchen to get a drink of water, because they have filtered water there; between those who think unfiltered water contains too much of various things to consume and/or those who find it tastes different than filtered, it seems pretty common. (Me, I will generally walk to the kitchen to get more water - because I want it chilled. But if I'm sick or otherwise impaired, room temp water from the bathroom tap will do just fine, because my priority is getting back in bed with as little exertion as possible.)

Oh, come on – “bed surfing” has been said by precisely no one, ever, to indicate crashing at a series of friends’ houses. (Bed hopping, sure, but to mean something quite different.) The idiom is couch surfing. Fireflies was a surprising TS; lightning bugs were ruled out, and fireflies rhymed, so I was expecting one of the two to guess it. Byron surprised me a bit, too, but that was about it for TS. The missed DD of cold-blooded did a bit, too, as did guessing Detroit as the most populous city on Lake Michigan (he must have been thinking of the state rather than the lake). With FJ (an instaget for me, but I'd have to go flog myself if it wasn't), I guessed that two of them would get it, so at least there I was accurate in my prediction of how contestants would do (and was even right on who the two would be). Same with childbirth and Everything But the Girl - I figured both of those were going to be TS. I wasn't expecting much of myself in the SNL category, since I don't watch the show, but I knew - from other things - all but Bill Hader. I’m so bummed Julia lost.

Will Pope is always out for himself first, and while he put up with a lot from her, he nonetheless did Brenda dirty a few times, but once he had the Chief position well in hand, he also made deals to save her job (of course, he did it as much because preserving Major Crimes, and keeping her in charge of it, made him look good since that was his brainchild and she was his pick, but he still gets points for that final stretch of season seven), so he's an interesting character. Taylor was just a snake until the very end (and then the only reason he starts running interference for her instead of being an interference is because he knows he's going to be made Asst. Chief) and then Major Crimes, but Pope was always much more nuanced, and I liked that. I think the show handled their history well overall, how it gave each of them blind spots for the other sometimes, but also made them both feel comfortable manipulating the other.

Okay, since the thread in question was one of the few that was also set that way (follow without notifications) for her, I just wanted to add some data for troubleshooting.

I'm not the OP, but this stood out to me. Off is the default position for "notify me of replies" when I pull up a reply box, and I never change it to On (and all my forum/topic follows are set to just follow, no notification), so all of my replies are submitted with "notify me of replies" set to Off, and I've never had a topic disappear from my CHP after replying in it.

Also, no TV kid ever invited a few friends over for some simple "the 'rents are out of town!" fun and just had those friends show up -- it always turned into an "Oh no! So-and-So blabbed and now the whole class/school is here!" mess. This covered the cases where the parents didn't come home in time to catch them -- in the crowd, something always got broken or otherwise ruined, and the kids rushed around the next day trying to fix/hide it, pulling it off just in time for Mom & Dad's arrival. But just when they thought they were home free with it, the damaged item fell out of its hiding place or the repair job gave way and the item fell apart as the parents walked by.

A few months ago, I watched an episode of Major Crimes in syndication, and noted that while it's still one of my favorites (and one of the funny ones), it's a little sad to watch now, because out of the outstanding guest cast of Doris Roberts, Ron Glass, Tim Conway, Marion Ross, and Paul Dooley, Roberts and Glass are dead and Conway is in such bad shape he'd be better off that way. So I'm relieved for him (although I'm not sure how aware of his condition he was). But also sympathetic to his loved ones, especially because in a situation like this relief is often one of the many things they are feeling, too, and that sense of relief can make you feel guilty, giving you another aspect of grief to deal with. Especially given the family battle that made it to court over how to best care for him, I hope this isn't an ugly time. Yes! I have that on my computer, and pull it up whenever I have a day that really needs a laugh break.

Ellen Gates Starr, but they never ask about her. It's always Addams (and even her the contestants frequently don't know).

It fell flat to me, too, when it could have been some pretty funny and biting satire. The focus group that can't focus long enough to actually watch what happens in the commercial, so when the first participant trots out what is probably her usual "I'm not sure if that's appropriate for children" reaction to everything, the rest of the group's response is to get sidetracked down various irrelevant paths of commentary, all while Flo has no success redirecting them to discussing what they're actually supposed to be commenting on. There's potential there, but they didn't really go for it, so it winds up kind of a dud.

It's in the first post in the Mod Notes thread, which is pinned as the first thread in the forum, but new posters who don't check the Mod Notes thread and veteran posters who read it back when it was posted and then forgot about it along the way probably make up a good number of posters. So I agree it would be good to have as a pinned post in the season thread each year. Especially this year, with the temptation to (negligently, not maliciously) post about James's latest victory, or loss when the time comes, it would be nice to make sure everyone is on notice to wait until the assigned time. (There's also a Spoilers thread for those who just can't contain themselves, which could be linked to in the pinned post.)

That's what I figured. And, granted, he had some rather foolish answers tonight, but they can't just assume he confused her daughter's name with her sister's. I'm surprised that didn't get retroactively credited to him (at the time, he should have been prompted to BMS, and then if he answered Kennedy instead of Radziwill, he'd indeed have been wrong, but they didn't give him the chance). Now, he probably did confuse the names, if he didn't object during the break that Lee's first name was Caroline and that's who he meant. But still; the answer card should have noted the full name to account for this possibility. A number of the TS surprised me tonight: conjunction and, especially, adverb (they're teachers!), the OED, Gulf of St. Lawrence (complete with highlighted map, but geography has got to stop surprising me as a very weak category for contestants), and cholesterol were all clues I'd have predicted someone would get. I’m also a bit surprised none of them have ever heard of Mountain Dew Mouth. Jane Addams didn’t surprise me, but it did make me sad.

They've already begun airing a brief TCM Remembers interstitial (below), and will indeed air a 24-hour memorial marathon, on June 9th beginning at 6:00 a.m. EST. You can find the line-up here.

Which is why, despite the presence of Myrna Loy, I can't ever re-watch Midnight Lace. Day doesn't give a good performance in it, but she didn't want to do it in the first place, but her latest asshole husband (Marty Melcher), one of the film's producers, talked her into it. The main reason she didn't want to do it was playing the character's terrorized reactions; she didn't want to go there as a character given where she'd been as a person. But, she agreed to sign on, and, indeed, to get in the character's mental state she brought up memories of Asshole Husband Number One (Al Jordan)'s abuse. To convey the character's hysteria in one scene, she took herself back to the time when Jordan had pulled her pregnant self out of bed and hurled her against the wall. Living the character's emotions while re-living her own caused such emotional trauma she collapsed at the end of the scene and production was briefly suspended.

Right. It's the basis of him finally getting his shit together. When he gets suspended for five months, the extensive therapy he has to undergo makes him realize the root of his anger is his pregnant wife's death, specifically his belief the doctor caused it by telling her she could stop taking her medication while pregnant. When he feels confident he can confront the doctor without beating the crap out of him, he does, and learns that she made the decision against medical advice (she even signed a form to that effect) and just made it sound to Julio like the doctor had said it was okay. Finally coming to terms with that tragedy at the root of his anger issues is what puts him in the place where he's ready to foster a child, and eventually become Mark's guardian. Which is why I think if he'd been able tell Sharon about the job transfer, he'd have expressed his thanks for setting in motion and holding him to the process that led him to this new phase of his life. She was the one who finally cracked down on his inappropriate behavior with suspects; she brokered the compromise that allowed him to remain on active duty in exchange for undergoing regular, frequent (I think it was twice weekly, but if not it was weekly) anger management sessions for a year and told him the deal would be off, period, if he didn't stick with the program. When, a very short time into that, he beat the shit out of Burning Man and jeopardized not only their case against him but possibly their ability to learn the escaped Stroh's whereabouts/plans, she oversaw that five-month unpaid suspension. Satisfied, via Behavioral Science's evaluation and her own ongoing meetings with him, that Julio had changed, she took him back over Taylor's objections and - also over Taylor's objections, but not against a direct order, because this is Sharon - insisted on putting him right back out in the field, because she knew he was struggling to feel like he still belonged there. Then when it became clear he was grappling with feelings about his wife's death that had risen to the surface, she arranged for him to talk to a witness whose wife died in a similar fashion and for Provenza to be there to talk with Julio afterward, knowing he needed to confront and express those feelings. Julio did the work, but she insisted on and then facilitated each big step along the way. And Julio would never say anything until he was on his way out the door, and he'd keep it quiet and simple, but he would say something. So I think, in the wake of her death, he's left a slight bit relieved he didn't get the chance to tell her he was leaving (she died thinking the team was intact), but mostly disappointed he didn't get to acknowledge her role in him having been ready for and granted this child he was now taking a transfer to better be able to raise.

I had quite a crush on him in Julie & Julia (I think the only other thing I've seen him in is Argo, and I liked him in that, but not in a crush way - maybe it was the late '70s attire).

Beyond the obvious shenanigans that annoyed me about that stripper segment on general principle was also Ty's "I've sent a firefighter stripper over to that house because it's so hot at this one without AC" bullshit -- unless I heard wrong, this took place in Valencia, CA. That's a far outer suburb of Los Angeles, where it gets seriously hot each summer (numerous 100+ days); ain't no one other than those in far worse financial straits than Sabrina's sister and mother going without AC. The only way the no AC thing in that house was true was if the episode was filmed while the central unit happened to be in need of repair, and the timing doesn't match up; it was not an intrinsic issue. That was pure manufactured bullshit for storyline purposes. It does speak to the overall family dynamic, though. They apparently all live in or routinely visit the greater Los Angeles area - since Sabrina said this was unique in that she'd have to see her mom/sister's neighbors after the show - and the Mom/Sister home seems like one where the Sister has settled with her family and given Grandma a room in exchange for a lot of help; Maria's bedroom wasn't just a bedroom, but her room, period (for sleeping, watching TV, doing her craft projects, etc.)

“Zoo Story” is another episode that leaves me wondering where they were going with the SOB spinoff, this time re. Fritz’s heart attack. There is no way the LAPD would let him out in the field at this stage, so is he hiding it from Taylor the way he’s hiding it from Brenda? And was that a planned storyline, the repercussions when it comes out? I just can’t figure out what they were intending. (But I like Fritz grumbling he has an electric blanket strapped to his chest.) The other thing that makes me roll my eyes about this episode is Officer Sherman – a blonde white woman who looks about 18 – working gang intel. My main beef is with the fact Amy is not only with them, but armed, when they pull over the truck to rescue Officer Sherman and arrest the smugglers. Um, no. She shot a suspect, so she has to remain at the scene to be interviewed by FID. They will take her gun and, after the interview, send her back to the office. She will not be in the field, armed, until the investigation is complete (which will be up to 72 hours). But that’s a small price to pay for the Showdown of the Sharons, so I like the episode. As I said before, the first time I saw the screen fade to black after Sharon sat down across from Rusty’s mom at County, I sat up in bed and told my cat, “This is going to be epic.” Sharon plays it so perfectly; she just lays out how it’s going to be, and how very much worse it will be with any little slip. And then closes with the fact Sharon Beck is the one in a blue jumpsuit surrounded by guards while Sharon Raydor is the one getting up to go home – and leaves the “to your son” unstated. And this all happens on the same day; Sharon doesn’t take the night to decompress after solving a cop’s kidnapping/young woman’s murder and being confronted with Rusty’s horrible experience, no, she heads over to County and gives Sharon Beck her deal and threatens her with six years upstate. It’s pitch perfect in its balance of venom and restraint. The scene precipitating it also hits all the right notes, when the guys show Sharon the tape of Rusty’s visit with his mom. Provenza stands back with his hand on his face and his eyes closed, and Andy never takes his eyes off Sharon; as she watches this horrifying display unfold, he watches her face, and when her heart breaks for Rusty his breaks for her. It’s a lovely moment. And there’s something extra revolting about the fact asking her son to prostitute himself is Sharon Beck’s first suggestion. It wouldn’t be any better if she suggested it after he vetoed her other idea, but it's still somehow worse that it’s her go-to idea for raising some quick cash. As Rusty said when she threw his hustling in his face in "Do Not Disturb": “And where do you think I learned that from?” I like the touch that this, being a missing LAPD officer, is one of the times Sharon goes to the crime scene, joins in the field arrest, etc. I also like the touch that Officer Sherman is strategic and physical, but she’s also not some super-human match for two people with horse tranquilizer; she fights but goes down. And, as I said about “Two Options,” I like the interaction between Sharon and McGinnis (in light of Sharon’s history as the LAPD’s Women’s Coordinator), especially here where McGinnis is so stressed and frustrated – she’s still very respectful of and even somewhat deferential to Sharon, despite outranking her and disagreeing with her. We’ve seen her backtalk Taylor, and I think if it was someone other than Sharon the case was being handed to, she’d put up more of a fight. The actor playing the club manager does a great job conveying his terror at being threatened with deportation (which will mean death for him and his family). He’s kind of an interesting character, too – he’s a fucking perv who has bathroom cameras, but he also follows drunk women to make sure they’re not about to be raped. It’s nice watching “Down the Drain” right after, to quickly go from Rusty having his mom ask him to subject himself to prostitution in one episode to having Sharon officially made his new mom in the next. I love him saying he’ll get time off to “change mothers,” and Sharon’s bewildered sadness that he still doesn’t understand why she considers herself lucky to have him in her life. Yes, she quite possibly saved his life, and she certainly changed it in a significant way that was highly unlikely to happen had she not taken him in. She was just fine before he came along, while he was in dire straits – he’s a bonus to her, while she’s a lifesaver to him. But she’s so thankful for that bonus. He can’t wrap his mind around it, though. It’s very touching. Their faces after Judge Richwood declares them officially family are beautiful, especially that - after all the conflicting emotions about his other mom and his perceived unworthiness - Rusty is all smiles. And Ever Carradine is also great in this episode, balancing the ways in which Sharon Beck is reactionary and defensive whether drunk/high or sober with the ways she’s nicer and less manipulative when she’s sober. I always get a kick out of Andy’s irritation at all things Badge of Justice, so I like the way his happy smile at Sharon’s news the adoption can be finalized this week immediately changes to “He’s just a consultant!” annoyance when Sharon calls it “Mike’s show.” I’m also always tickled by how terrible Morales finds the show (which gives me a laugh in season five's "Dead Drop," when it turns out his dad the detective is a big fan). Amy ribbing Provenza about not being able to pronounce “episiotomy” is fun. As is joking about “the Hollywood glamour machine” via Rusty’s PA job. And Judge Richwood having a bottle of antacids on his desk. Plus Taylor’s desperation to get the baby out of his office, which pales in comparison to how funny Provenza and Andy are arguing over how to entertain the baby. And I like that Sharon is pleasantly surprised by how good with babies Andy is, but that’s it – she doesn’t swoon over it or anything, and she never even touches the baby. So many shows have women – whether mothers or not – stop everything in the face of a baby, and lose their minds over men who are good with them. I also appreciate the way the three couples are presented, because TV is littered with desperate, baby-crazed people who’d literally kill to have one. These folks, though, sit around and have a reasonable discussion (I think the TX couple bows out as much because they want a biological connection as because they have the resources to start over, and their desire for that connection isn't the same as the gay couple's need for it, but still - whatever everyone's reasons are, they all sit and hash them out to decide who should raise this child). Not so much with how the surrogate is presented, because TV is also littered with surrogate as scam artist to desperate infertile folks stories when the reality of the surrogacy system is these women are highly vulnerable to exploitation. Andrea's resistance to their interview strategy is oddly overblown (she kind of takes Taylor's usual role as the dunce in this one), but that's my only quibble.

Shit on a Shingle. It's a military thing, some sort of creamed, chipped/ground beef nastiness served on toast. People who actually consume it can link you to a typical recipe; I only know it by reputation.

Aww. The Mod Squad, of course, but I also love that she put herself back out there in the acting world after a 15-year break (other than a Mod Squad reunion) to focus on raising her daughters - who seem to have turned out well - and ultimately gained a second round of recognition via Twin Peaks.

Watching this family dynamic is like a psychological case study, because Sabrina is really annoying around her family. Their history tells her what behavior to anticipate, but she "responds" to it before they've even done it - or even if they never do it. Her mom saying, "I didn’t say anything yet,” when Sabrina warned her she can’t treat her like her daughter, not as the designer, made me laugh. But Maria had me at "a bar would be nice" in discussing her room. In Ty's room, that paper looked nice on the doors, but I shared their apprehension about how the lighter version was going to look on a section of wall and ceiling. His team sucked to just not do it, though. Wallpapering is a crappy homework assignment; it takes concentration to line up and keep smooth and gets easily frustrating, so it's not something to do into the night when you've already been working all day. But leaving a major design element undone until day two is even crappier. I'm amazed it came out as well as it did (meaning, from a distance, it looked okay). The woman on that team was a Negative Nancy overall, and would be annoying to work with. I have to grant her a fair degree of resistance, though -- when someone tells you he wants to put paper airplanes on the wall, turn barf bags into candle "holders," and literally spell out Cuba for someone who said not to go with a Cuban theme? That stuff was all easy to ditch, and what was left was nothing exciting, but nothing bad, either. Sabrina's room was another underwhelming but inoffensive design, but those chairs she brought in are a serious downgrade from what was there. The two on the ends might be okay, I didn't get a good look, but those plastic IKEA chairs she put on the sides are notorious for not being comfortable to sit in for very long (probably not even long enough to eat a meal) and being prone to cracking.

I'm with you - I'm not much of a casserole fan, and I'd use a recipe like that one as an example of why not. (Especially the variation made by some of the commenters, who top it with dollops of ketchup!) Getting back to commercials, I don't know who Anna Kendrick is, and none of these recent descriptions of her Hilton commercials sounded familiar, so I just looked a few up. They were mostly neither annoying nor entertaining, but I did laugh at her booking the rest of her family on vacation in Miami and booking herself into the Waldorf Astoria in Beverly Hills.

Yeah, I still pull mine out for a season one rewatch every couple of years. But the fact season one - released when the show was not in syndication, so DVD was the only way to watch it at the time - didn't sell well enough to justify the release of subsequent seasons (there's a reason they did season one as a trial balloon, rather than a full series boxed set) meant something would need to happen to change that. The revival presented that opportunity; had it been a hit, the renewed interest may have led to at least another trial balloon. But with that having under-performed as well, it means there isn't likely to be any future event that changes things and suddenly makes a DVD release profitable.