Blergh

Well, if he actually shows, it should be interesting to see how he lives up/down to everyone's expectations (to say nothing of who/how he got persuaded to show)!

One thing they (AA, Mr. Butler and Miss Stewart) touched upon in the ZOOM interview was about how universally liked Dabbs Greer (Reverend Alden) was among the cast. They said he had an interesting approach to acting in which he made sure to learn ONLY the last four words the other performer/ character was saying to Rev. Alden as his cue to start his reply. However, in doing so, he'd be listening carefully to the other performer's words, actions and expressions beforehand so Rev. Alden could be as spontaneous and believable as possible in his Mr. Greer's interpretation of the scripted lines! Also, while Miss Stewart and Mr. Butler have become chummy in the years since the show's end via participating together in fan events,etc., their characters (natch) never met on the show. However, Miss Stewart revealed that she'd always known that Miss Beadle and Manley would never meet due to it being spelled out to her from the start that she had a four-year contract after which Miss Beadle would amscray to set the stage for a new teacher who happened to be the sister of Laura's husband to be brought on the scene (of course, it would be quite some time before they'd cast the performers to play Eliza Jane and Manley). Interesting that Mr. Butler has since become aware (and self-conscious) over the fact that the show's Spanish pronunciation of Al- MOHN-zoh was not how the any of the Wilders themselves pronounced it [Al-MAN-zoh- which made Laura's 'Manley' nickname seem more natural).

You'd really hate The Great Man's Lady (1942) which had Miss Stanwyck play a woman who not only spent the better part of a century hiding a politician's early bigamous marriage with herself but never even uttered a peep to him about their tragically drowned twin babies! I mean, COME ON! She made Stella Dallas look like Lady Macbeth!

What's interesting is that while Steve (Sidney Liebowitz) and Eydie (Edith Gorme/Gormezano) were both Jewish, they had a somewhat unusual union in that he was of an Ashkenazic (or Eastern European) background while she had been Sephardic ( Spanish via the Mediterranean and Middle East) though both were born in NYC! More importantly, they had great affection for each other and mutual admiration for each other's talent to the end. Hopefully, his mind is restored and they're now reunited! RIP, Mr. Lawrence. P.S. On a shallow note they each were quick striking in their day!

I just saw a ZOOM interview with Charlotte Stewart- and she said something I never realized before: the WG Schoolroom Blackboards were full of different lessons for the different grades- as would befit a one-room schoolroom teaching different ages of students. Moreover, Miss Stewart said that she had made it her personal mission to write out these lessons herself since she didn't think it would reflect well to keep solely the '1+1=2' lessons that seemed to have been the only offering before Miss Stewart added her input! BTW, there seems to be something in the near future called Simi Valley 50th Anniversary Days that AA and Dean Butler especially seem to be pitching! Also, Mr. Butler has written his behind-the-scenes prairie bio and it's scheduled for June of this year!

Or at least not hire her under her own name but maybe pay her under the table. . Some productions have been known to go on a limb and not always for the right reasons. .

If she took what she claimed to People magazine in December,2023 has been true, then why did she resign from the Board, etc.? It is not impossible that she added the 'undisclosed supplement' in the three months since the article's publication in addition to what she claimed she was taking-if not before then. Sorry, I don't think she's been as transparent or honest as you'd like to believe!

If this had been one of the supplements offered by WW, then why wouldn't Miss Winfrey not have just SAID so instead of refusing to disclose what it was. ..and resigning from the WW Board of Trust? As Judge Judy says' one explanation makes sense, the other doesn't . .and if it doesn't make sense, then it's a LIE'! Sorry, but I think it's more likely that Miss Winfrey did that somewhat drastic action out of pre-emptive strike over believing she might have been on the verge of being exposed for not having been totally candid about using WW (and its supplements) for her weight loss THAN her having done this solely out of the wanting to be honest. P.S. While a person's weight is technically their own business and no one else's, Miss Winfrey had MADE it everyone else's business when she became a member of the WW Board of Trust and (at the very least) let the public including the stockholders believe that her weight loss had been solely due to her having followed the WW program.

How do you know? Remember, Miss Winfrey has not (as yet) disclosed which supplement she was taking!

While cacao had been a staple in Mexico and Central America for many centuries before the Europeans first encountered it, when the Spanish first did, they decided to keep it a secret. Of course, originally it had been pounded and stirred into a cold beverage just peppers and corn which wasn't appealing to the Spanish. The Spanish decided to add heat -along with milk and cane sugar to make the cocoa drink that's been a treat for centuries. Of course, they decided to keep it a secret from the other European powers which resulted in English,French and other privateers ( AKA pirates) throwing 'worthless' bags of cocoa beans overboard when raiding Spanish galleons! That would change when the French king Louis XIII wed the Spanish princess known to history as Anne of Austria [though she never even visited Austria but had been born into the Hapsburg Dynasty which had hailed from Austria] in 1615. Anyway, the new French queen wasn't happy to go long without her comfort drink and had it imported to the French court. Very quickly, the drink became very popular among the French royals, courtiers and nobles and it wasn't before too long that cocoa quickly transcended class barriers and even borders and it would become popular all over Europe!

Well, the Behind the Scenes special was fun and informative re how and where they filmed in several communities in the Yorkshire Dales, I have to admit that I wasn't surprised that they didn't show any locals who weren't totally happy with the disruptions of the shooting schedule or not crazy about the show!

As per numerous legit news sources, Oprah Winfrey has resigned from the board of Weight Watchers after fessing that she's been using an undisclosed medical supplement to lose weight. After this she donated her interest from WW to the Museum of African-American History [Smithsonian Institute]. OK, while I'm always in favor of someone trying to preserve history, that donation alone doesn't erase the fact that (at the very least) she seemed to have been willing to at least let the public (and WW stockholders) believe that her weight loss had been entirely due to the the WW plan.

Same here! I also wish performer safety had been better taken care of. Even LHOTP was somewhat lax as per Miss Arngrim's bio including such things as having her being filmed zooming down a hill in a wooden wheelchair that was literally falling apart as well as her and Miss Gilbert expected to cross over fast moving rapids and grab onto a hidden float- or get swept away!

With Richard Lewis's passing, I think now's a good time to state my UO that Anything But Love was FAR better than Friends ever was and it's too bad that it's barely remembered. (Yeah, boo me!)

In retrospect while I agree that it's infuriating that they refused to allow his loved ones privacy when ML was dying, I'm a bit amazed that the rags didn't seem to pick up on his booze habits on the set (along with his extramarital escapades) and, in fact, it was only his colleagues' bios that seemed to have made it public knowledge.

I agree! Although (unlike Miss Spears's notorious case of parental greed and exploitaiton), I do think it's likely that Mr. Wilson has needed someone to ensure that his basic needs are being met and that he's well cared for despite his aging and galloping dementia. Poor Mr. Wilson had had a rough start then got badly exploited by a live-in shrink by the name of Landry for too many years. I only hope he got to have some peaceful years with his recently deceased last spouse Melinda Ledbetter Wilson before she became his caretaker. What's especially tragic here is that, no doubt, she left this world unsure of what was to become of her tormented spouse in his twilight that she'd spent so much time and effort advocating for. P.S. Does anyone else wonder why his managers and not his adult children by his first wife filed for the Conservatorship?

Actually, I think that the townsfolks would CRAVE Mrs. Oleson's rag as something to look forward to after their struggles to survive. Sensationalist rags thriveda great deal in the latter 19th century among the literate farm and industrial workers (and even 'respectable' papers often pulled no punches in hyping and making the news as lurid as possible- e.g. Lizzie Borden's father and stepmother's double axe-murder and Miss Borden's trial,etc.) . Cousin Sterling wasn't smart to have let that edition get distributed without having proofread it himself with a magnifying glass even if his eyesight wasn't what it once was which was why he'd hired the Ingalls and Garvey kids to set the type! Oh, yeah, I can easily imagine that both Miss Grassle and the late Miss MacGregor had their fun with Caroline [for once] actually giving it back to Harriet (and amazingly, Harriet not ONCE looking up at the loft to see Laura and Albert snickering at her). I also can't help but think that Nels (and Mr. Bull) had his fun when he conspiratorially winked at Willie after his young son read the altered version which had 'from a reliable source' that claimed that Harriet's hair and teeth weren't all grown from her own noggin. Could Nels have let those claims out to Laura when he got exasperated? Of course, it wasn't fair to Nels himself that the Mercantile had lost irreplaceable prized merchandise and monies to the '100 Percent Off 'sale. Willie seemed to be the only Oleson to have been unscathed from the Ingallses' Edit. Of course, it wasn't fun for that one-shot German pioneer family to have gotten so meanly dissed by Harriet for the transgression of having their teenaged son beat Nellie in the spelling bee! Yeah, more for their sakes, rather than the Ingallses themselves nor even the Garveys that I was glad to see Charles trash the paper from the pulpit (even though some if not all of his righteous indignation stemmed from ML's extramarital trysts being broadcast via contemporary rags).

It's VERY lucky for James that that company mascot bird needed him to fix his wing, otherwise, it's probable that the CEO not only wouldn't have brought him home Christmas Day but likely would have had him court martialed for desertion (a capital offense) for his AWOL stunt. Yes, it was noble of James to want to be supportive of Helen as her confinement was getting close (and for Christmas) but that was by no means a unique feeling among the troops who were frequently composed of family men! It was interesting that this was the very first time that Mrs.Pumphrey had ever entered the Drovers but, thankfully, she seemed to be charmed by it and accepted Helen, Jenny and Mrs. Hall's invites to stay! I imagine that Mrs. Hall and Mrs. Pumphrey (and likely every other woman connected to the fete) had saved their rations for quite a few weeks to pull off this Christmas bounty (and it would have been nice for them to have made mention of it instead of just letting the viewer presume that food was as plentiful and with the same varieties as before the War). Nice that they just showed the midwife arriving in time to help Helen with her baby seeing the light but NOT the birth itself. Better to leave something to the imagination AND to have Helen introduce her newborn son to both her husband and the viewers! They sure picked a tiny baby for the role who actually appeared as though he might possibly have been only a few days old instead of older. Not surprisingly that Helen insisted that they name him for James (as would happen in the books and RL). No doubt, he'll get doted on by his new mother, Mrs. Hall and his maternal grandfather and aunt (and I'll bet his paternal grandparents will try to make a beeline there ASAP). Mr. Carmody awkwardly pulled off being Father Christmas with his injured backside AND getting more looped than usual. The booze sure loosened his tongue and revealed that he hadn't had a fun upbringing with his parents,etc. Nice ending (though I imagine Siegfried and Mr. Carmody will find themselves soon struggling to stay patient with the newborn Jimmy's cries at all hours as the novelty of having a newborn under their roof fades). It also wasn't entirely clear whether the youngest Harriot was born during the waning hours of Christmas Eve or early Christmas Day. I hope it happened during the earlier day since that will give him more of a chance of having his loved ones celebrate his dedicated birthday instead of said birthday being overwhelmed by Christmas (although many a December baby has had that happen anyway). Yes, I know I've been late with my comments but my work shift has prevented me from seeing the show any earlier than Friday nights. Well, I look forward to Season Five next year (and hope Tristan and Callum Woodhouse will return for it)!

As per numerous news sources, on Thursday, February 22,2024, Roni Stoneman known as the First Lady of the Banjo died at age 85. She had been born Veronica Loretta Stoneman- and was the youngest daughter of 23 children [!] of the country music pioneers Ernest 'Pop' Stoneman (1893-1968) and his wife Harriet 'Hattie' Frost Stoneman (1900-1976) (both born in southwest Virginia)who first hit the heights of fame in the 1920's with their record 'The Sinking of the TItanic' (1926) . Despite their fame between the Depression and having such a large family, their fortunes had somewhat waned by the time of Roni's birth in 1938 in Washington, D.C. on 'a picking job' when when Mrs. Stoneman felt 'a sharp pain' which her daughter would recall with a laugh 'that was me'!Among other things she would recall was being unable to go to school due to the family being unable to afford shoes for the children! Anyway, she early learned to love performing in the family band and honed her talent with the banjo. She would become a regular on the syndicated show Hee-Haw for eighteen years initially as a banjo player backing the lead Buck Owens but later playing the rather frowsy, unhappily wed homemaker Ida Lee Nagger in skits. She would relate how the producers somewhat didn't consider it conventional for a woman to play the banjo and recalled how her heart broke as the song engineers cut her banjo's sound while she was performing in the band. Yes, she felt tempted to bolt right then and there. However, she said she also heard the voice of her late father 'Pop' Stoneman tell her 'you have five children to feed' (and he knew something about having to provide for a large family in less than ideal conditions) so she stayed put on the show for some time thereafter! Yes, she'd been married (and divorced) three times and had five children whom she wound up being the sole support of. However, she would eventually leave the show and perform in her own venues for over six decades until recently gaining her own fame breaking barriers as a female banjo player if not necessarily getting wealthy- and, to the end, having a strong love for performing, an authority of the history of the genre with a strong sense of humor of herself. RIP, Miss Stoneman and I'd like to imagine you strumming away with your parents and the rest of your departed loved ones in a band not in this world!

Does anyone think that Mr. Schneider would have considered it fair and just had The Dukes of Hazzard casting folks said ' Don't bother applying for the role! No viewers would think a strudel-eater like you could ever be believable as a WASP 'good ole boy'! Get some lederhosen and seek out an oompa-band along with that Fraulein Bach! '? What a maroon and dommkopf! And I say all the above as someone who's not a fan of Miss Knowles nor most current country music so I have no trapeze artist in either circus but I say let her sink or swim like any other singer attempting to try a new genre! P.S. I seriously doubt they'd have gotten discombobulated had Billie Eilish or Lorde have attempted to try a country album!

Yes, I felt sorry for Gerald even when understanding Audrey's belief that she needed to be stay longer in Darrowby to support Helen during her pregnancy AND to take care of her de facto family [who seemed to have treated her FAR better than her actual family had done]. However, it would have been a frustrating if not entirely futile exercise for Gerald to have dealt with the angst of tending to his ailing sister while attempting to pin all (or any )of his hopes on Audrey running to his arms the minute after Helen safely bore a heartily healthy baby! While Audrey is no longer legally wed to Robert Hall, in 1940 an unmarried woman accompanying her swain to a new community even for the ostensible purpose of caring for the swain's ailing sister would likely have set all the tongues in said community clucking a mile a minute [to say nothing of possibly the sister herself who may have turned out to have been a small-minded ingrate not above holding over Audrey's head that Audrey was being boarded on HER charity]. I'm NOT saying that Audrey would have (or should have) obsessed about the above mindsets but I'm surprised that she didn't at least consider them when making her decision. Sad but not surprising that Helen's father Richard Alderson and her late mother had had a stillborn son whom they never told their daughters about- which, of course, greatly contributed to her father's initial tight lips over how his late wife was when carrying Helen herself. Also, not entirely surprising that Helen would have actually believed it a probability that her own unborn child may have died before seeing the light after hearing Mr. Alderson's fessing. She's always been an empath- if not a bit of an insecure hypochondriac. Thankfully, Siegfried [despite the awkwardness of having to exam a human he was well acquainted with] DID find out to Helen's and everyone's relief that the baby's heartbeat is still going strong. In those days before ultrasound (and with X-rays being somewhat expensive -and rather risky to unborn children) , it was the best way to tell prenatal health (and no doubt Helen will wear out that stethescope before and during the delivery). Nice of Gerald to fix the sink on the way out to show that he had no resentment towards Siegfried and the others even though he couldn't pretend to happily accept Audrey's final decision. Also, great that Siegfried and Mr. Carmody saved both Gerald's dog and Mr. Alderson's calf. The only unresolved matter at the end seems to be Helen's father's bad knee. I can't help but wonder if he's worried that he'll be told that he has to stay off it for a lengthy time, have an operation and/or that there is nothing that can be done to prevent him becoming permanently lame [and as healthy and efficient as Jenny is, she can't do all the backbreaking farmwork that her father has had to do for decades]. OK, finale next week with James re-appearing AND likely the baby's first appearance. There's a 50 percent chance of me being wrong but since James and Helen's firstborn in the books, previous series and RL was a boy, I'm willing to wager that so will this one be!

One interesting 'behind the scenes' fact is that, contrary to most pre-1970 performers [including Art Carney and the recently deceased Joyce Randolph], Audrey Meadows DID get paid royalties for the series' reruns the rest of her life. That's because, in addition to her and her elder sister Jayne being performers, her missionary parents [with the surname of Cotter- not Meadows] had made sure that both their sons had become lawyers and the brother, in turn, were happy to use their skills make sure that the exec producer and star Mr. Gleason didn't nickle-and-dime their baby sister! BTW, although she spent most of her preteen life in [of all places] Wuhan, China, before the family permanently relocated back to the United States, Miss Meadows had been the only one of the four offspring to have been born in New York City instead of China!

I'm NOT saying that he should have done so to the underage Mary. However, it likely might have had her not be so frosty towards him- although in doing so, he'd have opened another can of worms.

Why haven't we seen Helen's father and sister's reaction to becoming a grandfather and aunt- or, for that matter, Mr. and Mrs. Herriots' reactions to becoming grandparents themselves? I think there should have been at least some discussion about whether it would have been better for the expectant Helen to remain in her husband's employer's domicile in town after his departure instead of returning to her father and sister's farm in the countryside.

Does anyone think Mary's dislike of Ma being more the cordially civil to Chris No Surname may not have been entirely her being the Absent Pa's Avenging Angel but with the possible contributing factor of Mary upset that Chris No Surname wouldn't have considered her someone worth . . .at least being more than cordially civil to? And may not have wanted to believe that Ma may have been more attractive to him than she was? Yeah, with no surname given, it would have been next to impossible to look him him - to say nothing of 'Chris' possibly being short for everything from Christopher, Christian to even Kris Kringle!