Party of One: Unpopular TV Opinions

[WinnieWinkle]

52 minutes ago, Mabinogia said:

The closest male equivalent  to Ellen I can think of is Bill Cosby who, at least in my circles, was torn to shreds when the truth came out. But still has those who think it's all made up, much like I'm sure Ellen still has fans who think she's being unfairly persecuted.

I lot of the pro-Cosby stuff I remember reading wasn't focused so much on saying things were made up but saying that he was more harshly treated because he was black.  They pointed to white males who had done crappy stuff (Polanski, Allen, Stephen Collins etc) and who they believed were not held to the same standard because they were white. I honestly don't know if there's any validity to that or not - I think people turned on Cosby the way they did because he'd spent his whole career pretending to be a caring family man.  A good guy.  Would it have been different if he'd been white?   I don't think so but I can understand why others might have a different POV.

[BlackberryJam]

4 hours ago, Ambrosefolly said:

I am not going to defend someone comparing fan fiction to rape, but all the wizard author was doing was stating her opinion and comparing fan fiction to unauthorized redecorating. I think she would be a super drama queen if she went through her lawyers and demanded people to stop writing fan fiction that they weren't even making money.  I am still a bit stung when James Cameron demanded that Avatar the Last Airbender remove "Avatar" from the title, despite The Last Airbender using the the thousands years definition of the word, while Cameron appropriated and redefined the meaning of the same word, and it can be argued he took story ideas from others for his own work. 

Isn’t Avatar just Fern Gully fanfiction? 

Fanfiction is a great way to practice writing, and it gives voice to under represented relationships and sexualities. I am so damn tired of authors complaining about fanfiction as if it’s lesser writing. 

If the fanfiction author is making cash off the work, that’s one thing, but if it’s not for cash? Just stop. I mean, how many budding painters have worked on a variation of an old masterwork? How many musicians have used variations on other works to learn?

Ugh. #StopDegradingFanfiction2021

[RealHousewife]

10 hours ago, WinnieWinkle said:

My issue with all this is IMO Ellen is getting crap for being a terrible person but not really being much different from men who have demonstrably acted the same way in positions of power.  Powerful men get credit for being powerful even in that means they treat "the little people" like dirt  and you never really hear about it - powerful women do the same stuff and it's front page news.

That's exactly how I see it too. Not being dismissive of anyone who's been mistreated by Ellen, but I doin't know if there would be huge news if she were a man. 

[ratgirlagogo]

On 4/25/2021 at 11:31 AM, truthaboutluv said:

With Katherine Heigl, my memory of when things went particularly left for her, is when she publicly dragged Knocked Up, a few years after the film came and was a huge success. There had been some think pieces when the film came out calling it out on have some sexist undertones and being kind of problematic in parts.

And in the interest of fairness, I personally don't think it's wrong for actors to reflect on their past roles and if they think some things didn't work or there were problematic elements to it, to say, "yeah I see now why some see it that way, etc." Viola Davis has said something similar about The Help. 

The problem with Heigl was that she went all the way in against the film, flat out calling it misogynistic and sexist and I may be wrong but even not so subtly accusing Judd Apatow, the film's writer/director, of such as well.

And what pissed many people off was as they noted, Heigl read the script, knew what the film was, agreed to do it, enjoyed the initial smash success it had that then allowed her to book more leading lady roles. And then she turns around and just drags it with no nuance or context to her opinions.

It just really pissed a lot of people off. And I do remember many at the time wondering if she was deliberately trying to get herself blackballed in Hollywood

If she had waited a few years before criticizing either Grey's or Knocked Up, she might have faced less hostility.  With Grey's Anatomy, she actually OPTED OUT of the whole Emmy competition AFTER being nominated, on the grounds that the writing on Grey's was shitty.  She was correct of course - Shonda Rhimes is a schlockmistress.  But if Heigl had just dummied up and gone for her Emmy, she could have expressed her frustration later on.  Maybe after she had gone on to more satisfying projects.

 

"she publicly dragged Knocked Up, a few years after the film came [out]"

Again, no.  The film came out in June 2007 and her Vanity Fair interview was in January 2008 - in other words right before awards season.  The only person she hurt by expressing her feelings on the subject was herself.  Unfortunately for her.  Too bad  because I also think she was right about Knocked Up:

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/the_highbrow/2007/12/katherine_heigls_knocked_up.html

https://www.flickfilosopher.com/2007/06/knocked-up-review.html

 

She shot herself in the foot, indeed.  Poor thing.

eta: spelling

Edited May 14, 2021 by ratgirlagogo

[Crs97]

I thought Knocked Up had a lot of ad libbing and rewrites.  I never saw it, but I thought the script was more of an opening idea that changed throughout the filming and editing process.  I could be wrong.

[Danny Franks]

3 hours ago, RealHousewife said:

That's exactly how I see it too. Not being dismissive of anyone who's been mistreated by Ellen, but I doin't know if there would be huge news if she were a man. 

While I do see a double standard to a point. I think it depends on the man. If it's someone who has been known to be an arsehole in the past, or who has the on-screen persona of an arsehole, then it wouldn't be huge news.

If it was Tom Hanks or Dwayne Johnson, who are famed for their kindness and consideration of others, or Conan O'Brien who does pretend to be a jerk but is clearly adored by everyone who works for him, then I think it would be, although probably not to the level of this. And that's the bracket Ellen put herself in, with her 'cool and groovy aunt of daytime chat shows' persona. People are always eager to dig into revelations that someone is a fake, and that's what they feel they're getting with all these Ellen stories.

Especially when her humour on that show has often had an undercurrent of cruelty to it.

[Blergh]

7 hours ago, Mabinogia said:

I can't think of a male whose entire career is built on being America's Sweetheart who really isn't. 

 

Ryan Seacrest, perhaps?   

[RealHousewife]

1 hour ago, Danny Franks said:

While I do see a double standard to a point. I think it depends on the man. If it's someone who has been known to be an arsehole in the past, or who has the on-screen persona of an arsehole, then it wouldn't be huge news.

If it was Tom Hanks or Dwayne Johnson, who are famed for their kindness and consideration of others, or Conan O'Brien who does pretend to be a jerk but is clearly adored by everyone who works for him, then I think it would be, although probably not to the level of this. And that's the bracket Ellen put herself in, with her 'cool and groovy aunt of daytime chat shows' persona. People are always eager to dig into revelations that someone is a fake, and that's what they feel they're getting with all these Ellen stories.

Especially when her humour on that show has often had an undercurrent of cruelty to it.

Oh absolutely! Ellen herself expressed regret with her whole "be kind to one another" schtick. I think most people can't stand phoniness. I just don't take it to the point where I prefer the asshole who's got a soft side to the nice person who isn't perfect. 

I've never watched her show on a daily basis or anything, but I generally find pranks and scaring people quite mean. I always thought maybe it was just my personality being more sensitive or something, but then I found out others thought the way she treated her guests was kind of messed up too. 

Also, I'm not someone who thinks sexism is always toward women. I'd get more into that but don't want to get O/T. 

[Shannon L.]

I saw an interview once with people who worked for celebrities.  One was a maid for Michael Landon and she said he was horrible to work for. The audience gasped.  I was young then, so I don't really know if he was well loved by America or not. If the internet had been around then, though, I wonder if we'd have heard more stories and if it would have been a scandal.

[Katy M]

45 minutes ago, Shannon L. said:

I saw an interview once with people who worked for celebrities.  One was a maid for Michael Landon and she said he was horrible to work for. The audience gasped.  I was young then, so I don't really know if he was well loved by America or not. If the internet had been around then, though, I wonder if we'd have heard more stories and if it would have been a scandal.

That's the audience's fault for thinking that a celebrity is necessarily anything like they put out to the public.  They're just people.  

[ifionlyknew]

43 minutes ago, Shannon L. said:

I saw an interview once with people who worked for celebrities.  One was a maid for Michael Landon and she said he was horrible to work for. The audience gasped.  I was young then, so I don't really know if he was well loved by America or not. If the internet had been around then, though, I wonder if we'd have heard more stories and if it would have been a scandal.

There has always been ways for celeb's bad behavior to be publicized. When I was growing up and into my adulthood it was the tabloids. And then it was TMZ and shows like that.  Gossip websites became a big thing in the early 2000s.  I do think social media has made it more easily spread to the masses.  Also it's about having so many sites/blogs/shows/whatever that need content 24/7.  Tabloids were weekly. Shows were daily. But now with everyone having a smart phone attached to them even D list celebs have their lives documented. Warts and all.

[WinnieWinkle]

11 minutes ago, ifionlyknew said:

There has always been ways for celeb's bad behavior to be publicized. When I was growing up and into my adulthood it was the tabloids. And then it was TMZ and shows like that. 

In the olden times (as my granddaughter says) it was easier though to ignore negative stories.  Most people I knew (and know) didn't put much stock in anything the tabloids might have to say.  As a kid if you wanted to believe your TV crush was the greatest guy who ever walked the earth you bought  Teen Beat or 16 for instance.  It's not like there weren't tell all books out there but you had to go looking for them - now the tell all stories hit you in the face whenever you go online.  I admit I'm kind of avoiding doing any google searches on ny former crushes or on celebrities from back in the day that I admired.  If they suck as people I don't want to know!

Edited May 14, 2021 by WinnieWinkle

[DoctorAtomic]

I assume they all aren't particularly nice people. It's a vicious business. 

[Blergh]

25 minutes ago, DoctorAtomic said:

I assume they all aren't particularly nice people. It's a vicious business. 

I try to give folks the benefit of the doubt that they're kind and honest unless I find proof otherwise regardless of their profession or background. 

The late Suzanne Pleshette admitted that it had become more 'mean' in the latter part of her career than it had been when she was an ingenue- and urged folks who might have wanted to do anything besides be in the entertainment business to DO anything else. 

[Wiendish Fitch]

1 hour ago, Shannon L. said:

I saw an interview once with people who worked for celebrities.  One was a maid for Michael Landon and she said he was horrible to work for. The audience gasped.  I was young then, so I don't really know if he was well loved by America or not. If the internet had been around then, though, I wonder if we'd have heard more stories and if it would have been a scandal.

I remember Allison Arngrim, who played Nellie Olson on Little House on the Prairie, saying in an interview that the image people had of Michael Landon as a saint "cracked [her] up". She has expressed great admiration and respect for Landon in her memoir, but she also said that he was very intense, offbeat, and hardly a teddy bear. She wasn't dragging his name in the mud, she was just being honest. 

We do sometimes expect way too much from celebrities, even when they're victimized. I'm old enough to remember the Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya Harding scandal, and for a while we were (understandably) cooing in sympathy over what happened to Kerrigan... but then she made a face when she came in second at the Winter Olympics, griped about her gig at Disney, and suddenly, to paraphrase Lois Griffin, Kerrigan was a "bitch who had it coming". 

Okay, fine, from what I've read, Kerrigan was at the time considered kind of a brat (and not even a very interesting one), but you know what? She still got attacked, she was still a victim, and this is true even if she isn't exactly a saint. As for her pulling a face when she came in second... she was probably bitter because she could have won the gold, but didn't because she had been injured, and now she'll never know! This was the pre-internet meme days, so she didn't get the McKayla Maroney treatment.

[Ambrosefolly]

A study was done that say the people most satisfied with their medals are the gold and bronze winners. Gold for obvious reasons and bronze because they almost didn't get a medal at all. Silver is always a bit bitter because they were so close to the gold.

Edited May 17, 2021 by Ambrosefolly

[Ohiopirate02]

7 minutes ago, Ambrosefolly said:

I study was done that say the people most satisfied with their medals are the gold and bronze winners. Gold for obvious reasons and bronze because they almost didn't get a medal at all. Silver is always a bit bitter because they were so close to the gold.

Nancy had a right to be bitter in 94.  She skated a cleaner free skate than Oksana Bauil, but apparently Oksana was more "artistic" and that made up for her falling.  This was back with the old judging system where politics played a role and deals were struck by various countries before events.  

[Zella]

1 hour ago, Wiendish Fitch said:

I remember Allison Arngrim, who played Nellie Olson on Little House on the Prairie, saying in an interview that the image people had of Michael Landon as a saint "cracked [her] up". She has expressed great admiration and respect for Landon in her memoir, but she also said that he was very intense, offbeat, and hardly a teddy bear. She wasn't dragging his name in the mud, she was just being honest. 

That seems to be the impression many of the cast members had of him. I think Michael Landon had a bit of an unusual career in that he was on TV for so long with more than 1 show, but in each one, he was a character that was supposed to be heroic/likable. Especially when he wrote the episodes. LOLOL But because of that, I am not surprised that so many people expected him to be Little Joe or Pa Ingalls because they literally spent decades seeing him on TV as one or the other, and of course, he wasn't. 

Edited May 14, 2021 by Zella

[janie jones]

10 hours ago, Blergh said:

Ryan Seacrest, perhaps?   

There's another person I think comes off like a total asshole. If he wants to be America's Sweetheart, I'm not buying what he's selling.

[DearEvette]

I have always given Ryan's Seacrest the side eye.  Imo, his rise was too meteoric for not to have been some ruthless shenanigans.  He went from being a host nobody really heard of to being an American Idol host to being credited as an executive producer Dick Clark's NYE show within 4 years with a full on production company and first look deals. 

I can't help it. I look at a picture of him and his smarmy smile and immediately think asshole. LOL.  That has never NOT happened for me.

[proserpina65]

On 5/5/2021 at 10:55 PM, Zella said:

I tried to read the first Outlander book and fucking hated it. I don't think I have ever hated a book so much. I was propelled to finish it purely by rage. I then tried the first season of the show and liked it slightly better but still really disliked it. 

So, I know I am starting with a low bar, but Diana Gabaldon also just creeps me the fuck out. Her little meltdowns about fan fiction in which she compared them to raping her husband (?!) is one of many reasons I don't think she's operating with a full deck. 

I tried to read the first book and didn't get very far because it was so badly written.  Never bothered with the show because I didn't think either Charlie Hunnam or Sam Heughan are attractive enough to spend time looking at them.

And yes, Diana Gabaldon's reaction to fanfic was unhinged.

[Zella]

5 minutes ago, proserpina65 said:

Sam Heughan are attractive

Yeah he didn't do anything for me, either. I like watching him and Caitriona Balfe on talk shows. They seem like perfectly lovely people, but I didn't like the characters, and I don't find him attractive. And I like redheads! 

[Wiendish Fitch]

Just the premise of Outlander annoys me, all that arrogantly casual time-traveling. I just want Jamie and Claire to step on a butterfly and live with the horrible consequences.

[Ohiopirate02]

27 minutes ago, DearEvette said:

I have always given Ryan's Seacrest the side eye.  Imo, his rise was too meteoric for not to have been some ruthless shenanigans.  He went from being a host nobody really heard of to being an American Idol host to being credited as an executive producer Dick Clark's NYE show within 4 years with a full on production company and first look deals. 

I can't help it. I look at a picture of him and his smarmy smile and immediately think asshole. LOL.  That has never NOT happened for me.

He does give off the perfectly bland male vibes which I believe have helped him achieve his fame, but I would not be surprised to find out he rose to the top via blackmail.  

[Kromm]

32 minutes ago, DearEvette said:

I have always given Ryan's Seacrest the side eye.  Imo, his rise was too meteoric for not to have been some ruthless shenanigans.  He went from being a host nobody really heard of to being an American Idol host to being credited as an executive producer Dick Clark's NYE show within 4 years with a full on production company and first look deals. 

I can't help it. I look at a picture of him and his smarmy smile and immediately think asshole. LOL.  That has never NOT happened for me.

It may be an unpopular opinion, but yes, I agree. Seacrest is smarmy and unlikeable. 

Then again, I don't understand why his current partner Kelly Ripa is famous either. She's annoying beyond belief.  I'm thinking that's an unpopular opinion too, given her decades of success. 

Edited May 14, 2021 by Kromm

[proserpina65]

On 5/6/2021 at 6:59 PM, Annber03 said:

do agree that making money off of fic is wrong, though. If the laws ever change in that regard someday and it becomes okay, then fine, whatever, but I just think there's far too much potential for things to get really messy in that regard. If I want to make money from my writing, I'll do it with my original stories, not with someone else's property. 

I write fan fiction and have been struggling to organize the various bits and pieces into something which might be publishable as a coherent story.  But (and this is a big but) my stories have been built around a very minor character in the Horatio Hornblower series and if I were ever able to get it into actual novel form, anything which could identify the character or his origins would be changed beyond recognition, and would have no other connection to C.S. Forrester's original work.  Specifically because of any intellectual property issues.

So I do get where those authors are coming from.  If, however, Diana Gabaldon's works started out as Doctor Who fan fiction, then she really was out of line with that tantrum.

I'll admit to having had fanfiction-y ideas about Jamie McCrimmon back in the day watch Frasier Hines run around in that kilt.  (And yeah, she totally used him as inspiration for Jamie Frasier - how did I not see that until just now?)

[proserpina65]

2 hours ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

Nancy had a right to be bitter in 94.  She skated a cleaner free skate than Oksana Bauil, but apparently Oksana was more "artistic" and that made up for her falling.  This was back with the old judging system where politics played a role and deals were struck by various countries before events.  

Eh, I much preferred Oksana's free skate to Nancy's even if the latter's was slightly cleaner.  It's a sport with artistry, and it's all subjective.  I doubt there was any kind of deal behind it.  Kerrigan had every right to feel however she wanted privately, but acting like a bitter ass in public was not a good look at all.

[Ambrosefolly]

58 minutes ago, DearEvette said:

I have always given Ryan's Seacrest the side eye.  Imo, his rise was too meteoric for not to have been some ruthless shenanigans.  He went from being a host nobody really heard of to being an American Idol host to being credited as an executive producer Dick Clark's NYE show within 4 years with a full on production company and first look deals. 

I can't help it. I look at a picture of him and his smarmy smile and immediately think asshole. LOL.  That has never NOT happened for me.

He also took over for Casey Kasem American Top 40. His voice is fine, but nothing particularly interesting like Casey. I never liked Ryan. I have heard of a lot of radio personalities across the country losing their jobs because his show took over their time slots. While I never understood the need for two cohosts on American Idol, I always felt sorry for Brian Dunkleman because he knew was going to be fired in favor of Ryan. He also grew the influencer culture with the Karadashians that Paris pioneered. Now everyone wants to be one. Famous for being famous shit. 

[Hiyo]

Ryan gave us Keeping Up With The Kardashians. That is reason enough to despise him.

[ifionlyknew]

1 hour ago, Kromm said:

It may be an unpopular opinion, but yes, I agree. Seacrest is smarmy and unlikeable. 

 

1 hour ago, Kromm said:

Then again, I don't understand why his current partner Kelly Ripa is famous either. She's annoying beyond belief.  I'm thinking that's an unpopular opinion too, given her decades of success. 

Those two opinions are not as unpopular as you think.

Kelly Ripa has her career by sheer luck. She happened to be Live with Regis and a psychic asked her if she was pregnant.  It was great TV and here we are 20 something years later.

[RealHousewife]

6 minutes ago, Hiyo said:

Ryan gave us Keeping Up With The Kardashians. That is reason enough to despise him.

E! used to have fun guilty pleasure shows, then it became all Kardashian, all the time. 

[Kromm]

Try this for an unpopular opinion: 

I like the Seinfeld final episode. A lot. 

 

Doubling down:

While there are problems with it, (because it wasn't filmed as a finale and was awkwardly jury rigged from an unaired older episode) I don't totally hate the Quantum Leap final episode. 

 

[DoctorAtomic]

I really was hoping Outlander would be more about the time travel. I wanted to see another iteration of trying to stop Collodeon and realizing they were making it worse. 

[WinnieWinkle]

On the Roseanne show I like the Sarah Chalke incarnation of  Becky better than Lecy Goranson!  I'll go sit quietly in a corner now...

[Annber03]

10 minutes ago, WinnieWinkle said:

On the Roseanne show I like the Sarah Chalke incarnation of  Becky better than Lecy Goranson!  I'll go sit quietly in a corner now...

"Personally, I like the second Darrin much better." :p. 

[WinnieWinkle]

Just now, Annber03 said:

"Personally, I like the second Darrin much better." :p. 

Do you know I don't think I've ever 'met' anyone who held this opinion.  There had to be one!  Poor Dick Sargent!!

[Annber03]

4 minutes ago, WinnieWinkle said:

Do you know I don't think I've ever 'met' anyone who held this opinion.  There had to be one!  Poor Dick Sargent!!

Right? I feel bad for the guy, too. It's tough coming in and replacing someone who made a role so memorable. 

[Avabelle]

17 minutes ago, WinnieWinkle said:

On the Roseanne show I like the Sarah Chalke incarnation of  Becky better than Lecy Goranson!  I'll go sit quietly in a corner now...

Agreed. I absolutely preferred her. 

[JayDub1987]

I loved "How I Met Your Mother," including the finale. 

[Hiyo]

“On the Roseanne show I like the Sarah Chalke incarnation of  Becky better than Lecy Goranson!  I'll go sit quietly in a corner now...”

Hey at least Sarah got to go to Disney World!

[Zella]

2 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

I write fan fiction and have been struggling to organize the various bits and pieces into something which might be publishable as a coherent story.  But (and this is a big but) my stories have been built around a very minor character in the Horatio Hornblower series and if I were ever able to get it into actual novel form, anything which could identify the character or his origins would be changed beyond recognition, and would have no other connection to C.S. Forrester's original work.  Specifically because of any intellectual property issues.

I love Horatio Hornblower! That sounds fun! 

[Bort]

1 hour ago, WinnieWinkle said:

On the Roseanne show I like the Sarah Chalke incarnation of  Becky better than Lecy Goranson!  I'll go sit quietly in a corner now...

Must not be too unpopular an opinion, I’ll chime in on agreement as well. For one thing, Sarah Chalke is a much better actress.

[Irlandesa]

1 hour ago, Kromm said:

Try this for an unpopular opinion: 

I like the Seinfeld final episode. A lot. 

 

Doubling down:

While there are problems with it, (because it wasn't filmed as a finale and was awkwardly jury rigged from an unaired older episode) I don't totally hate the Quantum Leap final episode. 

 

I'll sit with you.  Sort of. I kind of wish Seinfeld had stuck with a finale about nothing because I think that aligned better with the theme of their show than what they did.

But I am a defender of the melancholy QL finale and what it all meant.  It worked for me.

[Kromm]

1 hour ago, Annber03 said:

"Personally, I like the second Darrin much better." :p. 

 

1 hour ago, WinnieWinkle said:

Do you know I don't think I've ever 'met' anyone who held this opinion.  There had to be one!  Poor Dick Sargent!!

I'm a second Darren fan too. 

I don't hate the second Gladys Kravitz either. The first one relied far too much on pulling faces and big overreactions. The second one was a little more grounded, and I think I preferred that. 

1 hour ago, JayDub1987 said:

I loved "How I Met Your Mother," including the finale. 

Ouch. That's a tough one for me.  Even if I kind of get the IDEA of what it was shooting for, I can't help but think the actual execution was terrible. 

[Kromm]

20 minutes ago, Irlandesa said:

I kind of wish Seinfeld had stuck with a finale about nothing because I think that aligned better with the theme of their show than what they did.

I think the problem here is that the show wasn't ever actually about nothing. Jerry and Larry just thought it would be hilarious if the fictional version of the show inside the show was pitched as that. Seinfeld itself was about how comedians got their material from their real lives. That's the entire reason it always started and ended with (a version of) Jerry's stand up act. 

In a sense, the "about nothing" grew out of the fact that a lot of that inspiration turned out to be really banal stuff. It was actually something, but not always something very high minded or enlightening. That dovetailed into Larry's ending, because the characters were always posed as too self-absorbed to really be bothered by how petty and banal most of their experiences were. 

[GreekGeek]

1 hour ago, Kromm said:

I think the problem here is that the show wasn't ever actually about nothing. Jerry and Larry just thought it would be hilarious if the fictional version of the show inside the show was pitched as that. Seinfeld itself was about how comedians got their material from their real lives. That's the entire reason it always started and ended with (a version of) Jerry's stand up act. 

 

I thought the show dropped the "beginning and ending with Jerry doing his act" bit after awhile. I was disappointed when it did. I'm not sure that's a UO.

[Kel Varnsen]

1 hour ago, Kromm said:

Ouch. That's a tough one for me.  Even if I kind of get the IDEA of what it was shooting for, I can't help but think the actual execution was terrible. 

My unpopular HIMYM opinion is kind of the opposite. It's that the finale is kind of proof that planning out your ending from the start isn't always a good idea and that notes and suggestions from people outside of the main creative team aren't always bad.

1 hour ago, Kromm said:

I think the problem here is that the show wasn't ever actually about nothing. Jerry and Larry just thought it would be hilarious if the fictional version of the show inside the show was pitched as that. Seinfeld itself was about how comedians got their material from their real lives. That's the entire reason it always started and ended with (a version of) Jerry's stand up act. 

In a sense, the "about nothing" grew out of the fact that a lot of that inspiration turned out to be really banal stuff. It was actually something, but not always something very high minded or enlightening. That dovetailed into Larry's ending, because the characters were always posed as too self-absorbed to really be bothered by how petty and banal most of their experiences were. 

Yea the show about nothing thing is often misunderstood. It was only for the show within a show and it just means the show doesn't have some unique descriptive hook to describe it. It doesn't actually mean nothing happens.

12 minutes ago, GreekGeek said:

I thought the show dropped the "beginning and ending with Jerry doing his act" bit after awhile. I was disappointed when it did. I'm not sure that's a UO.

I think they dropped that in the last couple of seasons after Larry David left. I can't remember if they did that because they had burned through all of Jerry's classic bits and it was getting harder to write new stuff or because the show was getting shorter due to commercials and they had less time for plot.

[DoctorAtomic]

3 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

But I am a defender of the melancholy QL finale and what it all meant.  It worked for me.

I didn't not like it, but I think it wasn't fair they didn't get a two hour finale. There was a lot going on that was crammed in that could have used the extra time to breathe. There was a larger context there that Sam really didn't have time to really ponder. 

In the end, he basically made the decision to erase himself from time, but getting to that point was hugely rushed, and it didn't give the viewers the room to understand what was really going on. 

[ifionlyknew]

I liked Piper on Orange is the New Black.

I didn't like Christina on Grey's Anatomy.

[Blergh]

9 hours ago, janie jones said:

There's another person I think comes off like a total asshole. If he wants to be America's Sweetheart, I'm not buying what he's selling.

Actually, I agree (and have put in more than one post re detailing why I dislike him as a person and performer AND the whole AI deal). 

However, Mr. Seacrest sure has pitched himself as being 'America's Male Sweetheart'- and, even though I've NEVER bought that, there are some folks out there who have!