Bastet

It's not clear what happens when they go over budget, even without it being a situation where a designer refuses to cooperate. Designers have said Paige will tell them how far over they are and have them remove stuff until what's left in the room is within budget, and we've seen that (on old episodes, plus in this revival, with Genevieve). But we've also seen episodes where the designers had to pay out of pocket their overage (it went into their "party fund," according to Paige). Just letting them go over and pay for it doesn't seem like a good option, so hopefully they've done away with that and designers do always have to take stuff out of the room if they go over budget. A Paige/Designer showdown where the designer insisted nothing could be removed and they would just pay the overage and Paige marched in and started grabbing pillows and vases would be pretty funny.

Then I suppose we should be thankful Alex didn't tell the contestants it was before their time.

Oh my gods, I laughed so hard at Alex correcting the TS/wrong answers in the Hip Hop category as if he knew the answers. As if, Alex. I also like that even though Alex pronounced the Let's Get Scienc"E" category wrong (duh, Alex), the contestants all did the play on words when requesting it. The LEV clue (in the auto abbreviations category) being a TS surprised me a bit, given the wording of the clue. I got O2S, too, but that no one could come up with what the S stood for didn’t give me pause because I felt like you kind of had to know what it does (which is what the clue described) to know that was the S in question. Low-emission vehicle seemed like something one of them would have reasoned their way to, though, based on V=vehicle being a pretty quick deduction, and then low-emission somewhat easy to come up with as something LE that would be environmentally friendly. I had no idea for FJ, got a kick out of "pache" as an answer, and then laughed out loud at "scoliosis with a p in front."

Ha - that reminds me of Darlene's alien-bursting-out-of-her-body Halloween costume in season three (to which Becky fantastically replied, "So, do you want some Pepto-Bismol or something?").

I don't think so; both jobs required fewer specialized skills than she possesses, so she'd naturally bristle at the idea of either one, but being a Build-A-Bear clerk doesn't sexually objectify her like being a casino cocktail server does, so I can see her being quicker to suck it up and apply for that one.

I meant to mention that, too - that was annoying, and there was enough in the clue without it. I don't eat fast food other than, about once a year, "treating" myself to a Super Star w/cheese from Carl's Jr. and fries from McDonalds, but I ran that category, just from commercials, road trips, and cultural osmosis.

Once I realized it was time for the upfronts, I meant to check on the C&L reboot, but got too lazy; thanks for posting. I don't know that I would have watched, because the number of cop shows I've ever truly liked can be counted on one hand (this one, Cold Case, Major Crimes ... there may be one or two more, but they aren't coming to me right now), but had an original show centered around two women as partners, one of whom was played by Michelle Hurd, been announced, I may have tuned in. I'd definitely have checked out the pilot had it been conceived as a feminist show like C&L was, and continued watching if it also realistically explored issues of class and race as well as gender. But to hijack Christine Cagney and Mary Beth Lacey to do it -- I just couldn't get on board. Some things are too special in my memories to be messed with. Moving from reboot to revival, for anyone who doesn't already know, Tyne Daly has been cast in the upcoming Murphy Brown revival (airing on CBS starting in September; Thursdays, I think). She'll be the new barkeep at Phil's, playing the late Phil's sister Phyllis, a character quite similar to Phil. I think casting someone of Tyne's ability will keep it from feeling false and forced, like they just tried to slide someone into the Phil role and it didn't work.

No, Alex, I do not love the mythology category; in fact, religion/mythology is probably my least favorite. I could have sat here until I started to rot and never thought to guess Trojan Horse for FJ. I came in just before the first commercial break, right in time for the etiquette question about responding to someone who has sneezed, and is the answer really “God bless you” rather than “Bless you”? That doesn’t sound right. I imagine either one would have been accepted, and what's commonly said varies by region. Really, show, putting a line with “Butch” in it and asking for the film in DJ (or at all, but in the DJ of a tournament is extra)?! I enjoyed Katherine’s amusement at Frank Lloyd Wright Said Fred, and her imitation when she first read the name of the Valley category. Why does it matter that Jack in the Box isn't a national chain; lots of clues deal with things that only exist in a certain part of the country (or another part of the world). In that same category, one of the answer's was Carl's Jr., so if you live in Hardee's country, you have to know that its western U.S. name is Carl's Jr., and just in general there are plenty of clues about cities, landmarks, attractions, etc. that any given contestant may very well not know of from personal experience, but from travel, study, or word of mouth.

Yes, they explicitly discussed that when Jackie suggested going into the business that became The Lunch Box and Roseanne initially declined -- the ever-present dilemma between using money to pay off bills, which will just turn around and pile up, so that your whole life will be just making ends meet, or taking a chance on something that could wind up putting you in a more secure position long term and let you be your own boss, have something that's really yours. (Not to mention the constant push-pull, which Dan and Darlene's conversation in this episode brought up again, between obligation and aspiration - how to meet your responsibilities without abandoning your hopes.) And one of the greatest things about season four is how the economic collapse of Lanford plays out over the course of the entire season; things are quite different when he loses the shop as they were at the time he opened it (which is why the previous guy was doing decent business with it, and why Dan and Ziggy believed they could, too).

Yes, and at least one of their kids was named Phil, too.

My best friend's niece used to, but that's when she was a little kid and in her "do everything Daddy does" phase - she saw him take the paper into the bathroom, learned why, and promptly started taking her book in there with her when she had to poop. I suppose if it took me a long time to go, I'd want something to do other than sit there and think about it, so under those circumstances I'd take something to read. But it doesn't, and I'm certainly not going to opt to stay in the bathroom longer, just hanging out on the toilet reading (in my own bathroom, never mind an office/public one)!

That got me fired up for it, and I like that they included Phyllis and "the new guy." They were all great, especially Murphy. "... and then we had an election." I also love the bit about pissed off vice presidents.

"Uh-oh, [I'm or other character's] in trouble." How does Roseanne introduce herself when she addresses the audience at the top of that episode?

I don't assume people handed over full bottles; in fact, the opposite - I think people gave/sold/traded for a ride their leftover pills (they were prescribed X number of pills, only took a percentage of them, and thus had some rattling around in the medicine cabinet, it came up in conversation that Roseanne was taking the same pills for chronic knee pain, and voila - over time, Roseanne accumulates a stash of pills).

Roseanne probably got some of the pills from people she met via Uber driving.

Darlene is a recent re-addition to the household; Roseanne has been managing her knee pain - which comes with cost-prohibitive surgery and reduced pain pill supply - for a while before we joined their new life in progress. I think she's talking in general terms about her chronic problem versus Dan's sporadic one, when he tried to equate his back acting up with her knee always being an issue.

Music licensing costs are the stumbling block, which is frustrating because this show was produced when future needs were known. It was in syndication for a long while (TNT and then ION), but this many years removed the price tag - with original music - may be forever too high, and that's the issue with DVDs. It's up there with Murphy Brown and The Wonder Years on the Shows With a Shit Ton of Music list, but those two have the excuse of not knowing during negotiations for the original clearance what was ahead. Murphy Brown only had its first season released on DVD; sales didn't justify paying the music clearance costs for future seasons. The Wonder Years was ultimately released in full on DVD, but with about a quarter of the music replaced. So, I don't think we'll ever see this on DVD, and even future syndication - at least intact - is iffy. And questionable online uploads will continue not to last long.

They put it through as a hold - a future charge of up to X dollars. Standard practice. They'll also take cash, which wasn't mentioned, but Dan and Roseanne probably didn't have enough on hand anyway! I love the kids passing around the check for Dan and Roseanne’s anniversary dinner, and Darlene offering to “babysit” her own kids as her gift to them for the occasion. Yep, these are the Conners. I was spoiled for “You have a Honey-Baked day, too” from the online promos back at the beginning of the season, but I still laughed. I was spoiled for several segments of this episode, actually, but still enjoyed seeing it all come together; this was a good episode. Jackie channeling her “back when I was on the force” self to investigate the supposed opioid theft was great. I also loved the return of Dan’s “Zut Alors!” exclamation when Roseanne talks about sexy times. Two great callbacks. And Darlene feeling like the cocktail waitress job would be giving up, and Dan saying sometimes you have to suck it up because of your responsibilities, was one of those things on which the series is founded. Overall, this was another episode that felt old school. Crystal recommending Darlene, instead of Becky who actually has server experience, for her old job was something I was curious about based just on reading it, but it played much better – Becky has a job, and Darlene is looking for one (and has kids to support), so Crystal’s thought process made sense. (That’s not something I say often!) Becky and Darlene’s conversation about their respective job options was great – especially Becky challenging because Darlene has kids, her problems will always be more important than Becky’s? Spot on commentary of a conundrum when resources are limited. As was the “I work full time; I don’t have time to go to school” aspect of the conversation. Aunt Becky doing “Baby Birds” with the kids and Jackie trying to join in was fun. Becky’s laugh at Darlene’s barmaid uniform reveal was everything. “And when your back goes out, you lay on the couch for two weeks and I wait on you hand and foot. What happens when my knee hurts?” was great, along with them trying to come up with the deductible for Roseanne’s surgery. I think they struck a good balance with the pills, touching on both addiction and “I’m hoarding pills [yet not taking them now] because I don’t know that I’ll get more in future” practicality. Becky’s birthday revenge was great, and then of course Darlene got even; a good tag is another callback. “Oh, no, Sir – ‘superior deluxe’ is our lowest-level room.” The actor playing the snooty clerk has played a snooty character in everything in which I’ve ever seen him.

The J! Archive has been updated with today's game, if you want to read along.

The Dashiell Hammett clue being worth $2000 had me grumbling at the show, and then it went unanswered and I switched my focus to the contestants. That being a TS was my big surprise for the night. I thought the Port-au-Prince clue was overvalued as well, as a DD in DJ, but at least that one was answered! This was another great game for me, and an instaget for FJ.

Things may be trickier if you're using the mobile version, I don't know, but on the "regular" pTV, if it's a YouTube video, all you have to do is copy and paste the URL and the site will automatically embed it as a video (giving you the option to display as a link instead). I think iSpot links can only be links, no embedding. For more info, here is the Embed Media Into Posts topic from the FAQ & Guidelines.

Here's that one:

Nope. And I can't come up with a good hint for it; it's been a stressful day, and my brain is tired. So I'll just answer it and you can put up a new one. She said it must be nice to be able to vacuum the entire house without having to change outlets.

I missed tonight's episode, as I did Friday's, but at least tonight I could go to the archive and "play" the game there (I didn't bother with Friday's as I'd already spoiled myself by reading here over the weekend). I don't set a timer or anything, but I try to answer within a short time. The first round was a breeze for me. The poetry clues were Poetry 101, so I actually knew them all (it's not a strong category for me), and other than one clue - the Dork Diaries one - I ran the round; I even got the scholarship TS (not from knowing that there was such a song [or even having heard of the artist], mind you, but just from the wording of the clue; what else would it be?). In the DJ round, I did almost as well, so it was a good game for me. I'm surprised The Wiz took two wrong guesses to get to. I got the Newsies TS, but that going unanswered surprised me far less in that category than the former garnering two incorrect guesses. My big surprises for the game were the netiquette DD being an "I got nothin'" clue for the contestant who landed on it - since I only read, not saw, did he at least have an "Oh, duh!" reaction when Alex revealed the answer? - and the lederhosen TS; even without having the picture available, that was an instaget for me. I hate GWTW, so for FJ I think that helped me put the book/film out of my mind and approach the clue from a geography/sociological standpoint; I am great with U.S. capitals, so I just ran through states infamous for being the worst of the south (Rhett probably meant his quote the opposite, but that's how I took it) looking for one with a name in the capital and it was an easy answer.

Yep, and she's been doing CC a favor for a while. She was ready to leave the role behind after the series, but then the WGA strike led Fox to greenlight IWTB because the script was already in the can, and she - and David - signed up for peanuts up front (in her case, also dropping out of a project she was excited about to do so) totally out of loyalty. But that was a muddled mess of basically a filmed first draft, and didn't wrap up shit, although the performances, hers in particular, were exempted from most criticism, so when FOX wanted to revive the show on TV, she agreed to reprise the role of Scully once again in a limited-run season in order to give the franchise the closure IWTB failed to provide. Except, surprise, CC - who can't ever let the fuck go - didn't use those episodes to give closure to the characters; he left them on some cliffhanger bullshit. So when FOX - based on the great ratings the initial revival garnered - offered a second, longer revival season, she signed on because the room to breathe created by more episodes and the ability to bring in more writers/directors - veteran and newbie - created by the lag between order and shooting that was missing the first time around when production was rushed should finally allow for a return to a nice little run of old-school XF episodes concluded by a wrap-up worthy of the franchise. And then -- some good moments surrounded by shit. Which the ratings reflected. Not to mention a total, utter, complete pile of dung for Scully in its final moments, such that few who'd loved her all these years would even want to watch her future. So, boom, done. She has every reason to thrust both middle fingers into the air and walk away from it all, whatever the ratings and the paycheck she could thus demand (which, of course, she'd have to negotiate up from David's offer, because, you know, penis). But the network wouldn't have ordered more episodes regardless - because of the ratings. So this should be about CC's failure to capitalize on opportunity after opportunity, not Gillian saying peace out.