Bastet

I prefer - by a factor of infinity and beyond - the shows in which Ina simply cooks a fabulous meal. She's not an actor, and it shows painfully when she does ridiculous storylines with her friends. She's also almost unbearably annoying to me when she's fawning over Jeffrey. One of the episodes on today is "Rehearsal Dinner." It makes me think of the other rehearsal dinner episode, which is one that just baffles me -- the food being prepared (and bought) is for the tasting she and one other person are doing, not for the rehearsal dinner itself. Yet they wind up with enough food for a dozen people. Apparently, the next series of episodes will be titled "Cooking Class." I'm hoping these will be something akin to Martha Stewart's Cooking School on PBS. But maybe it will be something where Ina learns from other chefs how to cook things outside her wheelhouse. She has done a few episodes like that already.

Laura Holt was my first TV idol. There were women on television I enjoyed watching, but not many I aspired to be. And then this wonderfully accessible hero came along, not a fantasy, but someone I could truly emulate. Laura was smart, resourceful, ethical, independent, athletic, beautiful (cute, sexy, elegant and down-to-earth all in one), professional and relatably flawed. I wanted to be her so bad. Yes, partly because I wanted to be able to make out with Remington Steele. But mostly because of how cool - yet real - she was all on her own. I've seen Stephanie Zimbalist on stage numerous times over the years, and she's just wonderful. But never moreso than as Laura Holt: this was one of those times where actor and role just clicked in the perfect way. And I know she worked hard to keep Laura from becoming the rigid sidekick to Mr. Steele and his zany friends and escapades. We're all lucky to have had in Michael Gleason someone who understands that a female character written almost exclusively by men is problematic and thus it behooves those writing the character to listen to the woman playing her, but it wouldn't have mattered had SZ not cared enough about Laura to raise the issues in the first place.

The stupid husband portrayals drive me nuts, too, because the things they're shown being inept at doing are domestic tasks. It's all part of reinforcing the myth that women are innately suited to such work, whereas such drudgery is a waste of men's skill and intelligence. Fundamentally, advertising for household products has not changed much over the decades; the message is being conveyed in a different way, but it's the same message.

The 2000s is this week. The third time was the charm: Colby finally sported some clothes that fit him. He also finally managed not to annoy me. In his Teacher's Tournament, I wanted to reach through the television and wipe the smug off his face. In his Tournament of Champions, he was far less annoying but still didn't comport himself like the kind of person I'd like to see win. This time, he was just there. I was rooting for Celeste, though.

It's a bit like choosing my favorite chocolate, due to the embarassment of riches, but Dorothy is my favorite Golden Girl. We share a sense of humor - Her "Like what, [sarcastic answer to dumb suggestion] rejoinders are the type of thing that routinely fall out of my mouth - so I'm quite drawn to her dry, sarcastic wit. Bea Arthur is particularly adept at non-verbal communication, making Dorothy's reactions to those around her quite fun to watch. I really enjoy her relationship with Sophia, so fundamentally about love but with a heaping dose of frustration. I also like her interaction with Stan. Herb Edelman deserves a lot of credit for making Stan more than a caricature, but Bea Arthur also sold me on Dorothy's myriad feelings for the man.

This is the place to analyze the parade of stereotypes still being put forth by Madison Avenue, plus the commercials that break the mold. One of my many complaints: The plethora of cleaning product commercials that feature a child, a husband/father who acts like a child, and a wife/mother cleaning up their mess with a smile.

That's my impression, too, and it's an option that one either chooses or doesn't choose at the time of creating the thread. Personally, I don't like the idea of having to spoiler tag plot points of films that have been around for 70 years. I see The Long, Long Trailer is on tomorrow. I haven't seen that since I was a young teen, and I didn't have the affection for it so many seemed to, so I'm going to finally rewatch it and see what I think now. It's a little weird that Soylent Green is coming up again in a few days, since it just aired Friday night as part of the "Food in Film" series. And speaking of that series, I loved seeing Babette's Feast and Big Night back to back. Two of my favorite foodie films - not to be watched on an empty stomach.

While I don't dislike Mildred, and understand the logic behind Michael Gleason essentially condensing the secretary and additional detective into one role, I do miss Murphy and "Miss Wolf" in later seasons. And what I most enjoy about the season one dynamic is everyone in the office knowing that Laura is the real boss, and treating her as such. It's a home base where she doesn't have to grit her teeth while someone fawns over Mr. Steele for her work. I think the show started strong out of the gate. That what aired as the pilot was actually the second episode shot (the network bought it based on Tempered Steele, but requested a "premise pilot" showing how he became Remington Steele and thus License to Steele was born and aired first) alleviated much of the awkwardness inherent in a first glimpse at a new set of characters. My favorite episode (edging out Red Holt Steele by a hair) is from this season, Vintage Steele. I love that Susan Baskin, the only woman writing for the show, had what she called the "revolutionary notion of writing about the brains behind the operation" and think she gives nice insight into Laura. Also, playing charades with the monk is a hoot. "That makes him the Abbott of Costello." I also quite like In The Steele of The Night, with the old Hayvenhurst gang having to solve their own mystery, and A Good Night's Steele, where they are undover at the sleep clinic. "Believe me, Laura, I'm not trying to sleep with you; I'm just trying to sleep with you."

While I'm nowhere near the classic movie buff Steele is, I do enjoy quite a few of them. And every time I watch one of the films he cites as a comparison to one of their cases, I think about the RS episode and analyze how much the writers really did pull from the film. I watch the Thin Man movies quite often, and every single time I watch Nick and Nora preparing for the dinner party with the suspects in the first film, I see Mr. Steele and Laura doing the same in Tempered Steele and hear him saying, "You make a splendid Myrna Loy."

This is the place to discuss the enigmatic Agent Scully. I'm a t-shirt wearing denizen of Camp Scully, and my hat is off to Gillian Anderson for that. It's hard to play the straight man, especially when your character is the skeptic on a show about the paranormal. Not to mention when your character is a woman written almost exclusively by men. But in Gillian's capable hands, Scully became a fully-realized character. One of the many things I love about Scully is her ability not to lose sight of the individuals affected by their cases, seeing them as people rather than pawns in the larger game. As an example, I love her sheer frustration in Unruhe. They can't get Schnauz to crack, they didn't figure things in time to avoid a second kidnapping and they didn't find that victim in time to prevent the lobotomy. And this pisses her off as an investigator. I love it. She's also extra pretty when she's mad, so there's that.

This is the place to analyze the presentation of gender on television as a whole.

I consider Estelle Getty the weak link among the cast, but Sophia's unfiltered brain was an integral part of the show. I loved her "Picture it: Sicily, 1913" stories, most of her insults, and her relationship with Dorothy. I like that while she was not a particularly affectionate person, it was clear she loved Dorothy. And I like that she came right out and told Dorothy she was her favorite (this was when Sophia thought she was having a heart attack). Parents having favorites is a tricky area, but Dorothy had always been the most involved with Sophia into adulthood and by the point of the series was taking care of her.

Thank you, ABS (hm, that looks like I'm calling you Anti-Lock Braking System). He was only 13, and went into cardiac arrest out of the blue. I got him to the hospital, and they were able to resuscitate him after 19 minutes of CPR (which is virtually unheard of) and for three days in ICU it looked like he might be among the five percent of cats who (long-term) survive cardiac arrest, but on that third morning he arrested again. They called me several minutes into unsuccessful CPR, and with the underlying cause still unknown and thus the probability this would keep happening high, I told them to stop compressions. It was all very traumatic; my cats are family to me, so losing one is always devastating, but for it to happen so suddenly and unexpectedly was extra difficult.

Sarah Chalke's Becky always seemed like some generic blonde who had wandered into the wrong family. But Lecy Goranson's Becky was a wonderfully real character. Original Recipe Becky was utterly unlikable sometimes, as teens are, and that was an intriguing thing to see in a main character. Also, she said, "Moth-er" in the exact same inflection I used on my mom at that age, which was always good for a smile.

I liked Montana, Genesis and, especially, Kameelah from this season. Kameelah so deftly handling that little girl who said "I hate gay people" is something I will never forget. I also liked her schooling the guys at the T station on how to properly address a woman. If I'd had their job, I'd have pulled a Montana and given the kids wine so I could get fired and go work with adults instead.

I think this is the perfect title for our Small Talk thread. (And I love that we can have "meet markets" for every show.) It's nice to see so many familiar names from the TWoP forum.

Here we can pick apart the numerous continuity errors over the course of the series. The house used for the exterior establishing shots bears no resemblance to the layout of the interior sets, Dorothy married Stan because she got knocked up 38 years ago, yet neither of their kids is anywhere close to 38 years old ... the list goes on and on.

From the foolproof roast shrimp to the Honey Vanilla Poundcake of Doom, discuss your experiences replicating - or revising - the recipes seen on the show. My first rule for any Ina recipe: Cut it in half. Then cut the salt in half again.

It's nice to see familiar names from the TWoP thread, and I look forward to meeting new-to-me fans as well. And since we didn't have a Meet Market thread for BC before, it will be nice to get to know you all a bit beyond your postings. On that note, I guess I should introduce myself. I'm a civil rights lawyer living in Los Angeles with my cat Maddie (that's her in the avatar). My primary interest lies with women's rights cases (reproductive freedom, employment discrimination, Title IX, and much more) but I've had my hands in other areas as well. I like to cook, not so much to bake (which is interesting, since I generally like the more regimented and scientific aspects of life), and I eat chicken almost as often as Ina.

Thanks for starting this up, AntiBeeSpray (and thanks for converting it to our Small Talk thread, David). I look forward to reconnecting with those from the TWoP forum who migrate over here, and to meeting new faces that share my love for this wonderful show. For those who don't know me from the TWoP forum, I'm a civil rights lawyer living in Los Angeles with my cat, Maddie (that's her in the avatar, looking much happier than she does right now, having had three teeth extracted on Friday). Sadly, I lost my kitty Baxter - whose various travails were covered in the Meet Market thread over the years - unexpectedly just before Christmas. We live in a 1938 fixer-upper that, nine years later, I have finally actually fixed up. I finished all the major renovations before the end of the year (other than a total redo of the kitchen and bathroom, which is still several years away), and am STILL painting the trim work and new plaster resulting from my new windows.