S02.E04: We're Going to the Catskills!

[Kromm]

I thought the Paris episodes became a bit of a snooze about halfway through the first of them, but the Catskills agrees with this premise. This has been much more entertaining.  And I'm old enough, and geographically and culturally correct to have been to them in their final waning days before most of the resorts went out of business, and saw the corpse of this culture, if not the healthy body.  At least enough to vouch how accurate this portrayal is, as wacky as it seems. 

And the Susie stuff, the stranger in a strange land aspect, is particularly hilarious.

[Kromm]

1 hour ago, Clanstarling said:

I would think the term would be typeface at that time, and so far as I know, it was in the late 70s or early 80s before IBM selectrics came out with an interchangeable type ball. It was pretty exciting at the time. (sits back in her rocking chair... let me tell you about when we first got line wrapping on computers...)

I can't testify 100% to what people said in 1959, but I know a few decades later (but still before computers were commonplace) people simply referred to it as "type" (without the "face" part).

As in... "we're using a new kind of type on our newsletter now!"

How they'd do that on a small scale for a newsletter I have no idea. Unless they actually had a printing press, which I find hard to believe.

[dleighg]

Yeah the first time I remember hearing the word "font" was in the very early 90s when it was my job to choose some new ones for a graphical user interface we were building. When I wrote my doctoral thesis in the late 80s, I'm sure there were "font" choices (and probably even called that), if I chose to delve into it (using the typesetting program LaTeX), the only things we concerned ourselves with were "bold" and "italic."

[Bec]

That Chicken Fat song made me laugh and laugh. Those lyrics are so fun - "give that chicken fat back to the chicken and don't be chicken again". Oh man, I need to exercise to it from now on. I just looked it up and it is available on iTunes (it's labelled "From the iPhone 5s 'Strength' TV advert - remastered"). Huh. Somehow I completely missed that ad back in 2014. Too bad it's not part of the Mrs. Maisel season two soundtrack. Oh, but it is available for free here (sounds like the "not remastered" version, but hey, freebie!)

Watching ASP's shows has introduced me to some of the best and weirdest music. Heh.

[Clanstarling]

16 hours ago, Kromm said:

I can't testify 100% to what people said in 1959, but I know a few decades later (but still before computers were commonplace) people simply referred to it as "type" (without the "face" part).

As in... "we're using a new kind of type on our newsletter now!"

How they'd do that on a small scale for a newsletter I have no idea. Unless they actually had a printing press, which I find hard to believe.

You're right, the memory is dim on that front - especially since I was to young to read at the time, much less type. ;)  (though looking it up the technical difference between typeface and font is more involved than I want to wrap my brain around right now).

16 hours ago, dleighg said:

Yeah the first time I remember hearing the word "font" was in the very early 90s when it was my job to choose some new ones for a graphical user interface we were building. When I wrote my doctoral thesis in the late 80s, I'm sure there were "font" choices (and probably even called that), if I chose to delve into it (using the typesetting program LaTeX), the only things we concerned ourselves with were "bold" and "italic."

I interned at Apple in the late 80's, so I was pretty familiar with the term at that point. They were the fountain of fonts at the time.

Edited December 14, 2018 by Clanstarling

[ShadowFacts]

3 hours ago, Bec said:

That Chicken Fat song made me laugh and laugh. Those lyrics are so fun - "give that chicken fat back to the chicken and don't be chicken again". Oh man, I need to exercise to it from now on. I just looked it up and it is available on iTunes (it's labelled "From the iPhone 5s 'Strength' TV advert - remastered"). Huh. Somehow I completely missed that ad back in 2014. Too bad it's not part of the Mrs. Maisel season two soundtrack. Oh, but it is available for free here (sounds like the "not remastered" version, but hey, freebie!)

Watching ASP's shows has introduced me to some of the best and weirdest music. Heh.

We had to do running around the gym and 'calisthenics' to that song in elementary school, and wow, did I hate it. 

[ChiCricket]

I'm cracking up at Susie:

Ugh! Shit... I ate another bug!

 It's mating with the other one.😂

[Suzywriter]

This show has taught me that I am poor. Not "money is a little tight", but broke, busted, thrift-shoppin', yay-ramen-is-on-sale dirt poor. I think my net worth is about $500.

[Suzywriter]

On 12/11/2018 at 1:25 PM, ZaldamoWilder said:

 

p.s. Zachary Levi? Good lawd.  

😂😂😂

Best comment of the thread!

[xaxat]

On 12/13/2018 at 5:13 PM, Kromm said:

I can't testify 100% to what people said in 1959, but I know a few decades later (but still before computers were commonplace) people simply referred to it as "type" (without the "face" part).

As in... "we're using a new kind of type on our newsletter now!"

How they'd do that on a small scale for a newsletter I have no idea. Unless they actually had a printing press, which I find hard to believe.

My guess is that they were printing the newsletter on a small letterpress printer.  I learned physical typesetting on one as a kid in school back in the seventies. (We were literally  ink-stained wretches.) I don't remember the terminology we used, but getting a new font would consist of buying a new set of metal letters to be placed in the press. (An absolutely miserable process.)

[laprin]

On 12/12/2018 at 8:53 AM, TV Diva Queen said:

Abe also works at Bells Labs. I think he’s a big shot engineer there. No?

Abe is a well respected mathmetician. Perhaps he has written books. I also suspect Rose may have come from money. She seems especially cultured. 

[dleighg]

7 hours ago, laprin said:

Abe is a well respected mathmetician. Perhaps he has written books. I also suspect Rose may have come from money. She seems especially cultured. 

as a PhD engineer, wife of a (PhD) engineer/academic, and daughter of a Bell Labs engineer---

That money came from somewhere else :)  Books that mathematicians write don't make you that kind of loot. I think it's just part of the not-quite-reality of the show so that they can make us drool over an over-the-top lifestyle.

Edited December 17, 2018 by dleighg

[WendyM]

On 12/15/2018 at 11:10 PM, xaxat said:

My guess is that they were printing the newsletter on a small letterpress printer.  I learned physical typesetting on one as a kid in school back in the seventies. (We were literally  ink-stained wretches.) I don't remember the terminology we used, but getting a new font would consist of buying a new set of metal letters to be placed in the press. (An absolutely miserable process.)

This was my guess too, that they either had a small press or paid a nearby one--we learned physical typesetting when I was in high school in the 70s. I still have a couple of large letters for my initials I bought from an old guy who sold these letter blocks years later. They're very cool artifacts.

My high school graduation present was a Smith-Corona electric typewriter (fancy!) and I got to choose between the Pica or Elite typefaces. I chose Pica (the larger, rounder one), to my great regret. Elite was much, much cooler.

[Gabs66]

On 12/6/2018 at 12:05 PM, shapeshifter said:

But typical of the time. 

I thought they would've brought a babysitter, but maybe they didn't want to cast and write for another character.

 I assume the baby was sleeping (hopefully) alone in a crib while they were watching the fireworks.

.I grew up in the Catskills. When I was in HS, I had a job babysitting at one of the resort hotels. My job was to sit outside the door to the room and listen in case the kid woke up. Lots of us did this. I remember reading Great Expectations one weekend. 

[NYCFree]

The unrealistic part of this is that Susie was upset about Midge’s two months in the Catskills. All the resorts, big and small, were dying for rotating nightly entertainment for their guests. All the comedians at the time would have spent summers doing shows in the Catskills. We saw tonight that Steiners had a big band, they would have wanted other acts as well so as to offer their guests different options.

In 1969 my parents bought a country house in the Catskills when I was three. It turned out to be just down the road  from where the Woodstock concert took place later that summer (pro tip: no where near the town of Woodstock). It was at the end of the heyday of these resorts and we watched them close one by one.

[EtheltoTillie]

9 hours ago, NYCFree said:

The unrealistic part of this is that Susie was upset about Midge’s two months in the Catskills. All the resorts, big and small, were dying for rotating nightly entertainment for their guests. All the comedians at the time would have spent summers doing shows in the Catskills. We saw tonight that Steiners had a big band, they would have wanted other acts as well so as to offer their guests different options.

In 1969 my parents bought a country house in the Catskills when I was three. It turned out to be just down the road  from where the Woodstock concert took place later that summer (pro tip: no where near the town of Woodstock). It was at the end of the heyday of these resorts and we watched them close one by one.

I'm glad you pointed this out. The Catskills were always a showcase for comedians. I thought Susie would have been glad to have Midge there and could have booked her more often. 

[dleighg]

1 hour ago, GussieK said:

I'm glad you pointed this out. The Catskills were always a showcase for comedians. I thought Susie would have been glad to have Midge there and could have booked her more often. 

But is Midge "out" yet to her parents with her comedy career? 

[NYCFree]

59 minutes ago, dleighg said:

But is Midge "out" yet to her parents with her comedy career? 

No, but Midge is adept at thinking up plausible reasons for her disappearing at night. She spun the tale of her dating a cab driver and carny worker at a moment’s notice.

[EtheltoTillie]

Yes , she could have kept sneaking out as she was doing at home. I think they skewed it so they could stage the ludicrous reveal where Abe was wearing a Hawaiian hat. 

[Clanstarling]

3 hours ago, NYCFree said:

No, but Midge is adept at thinking up plausible reasons for her disappearing at night. She spun the tale of her dating a cab driver and carny worker at a moment’s notice.

True - but there was always a risk that someone also vacationing at their resort would go out to see shows at other resorts. Though Abe's going was unlikely, others going - especially younger people - was  not.

[EtheltoTillie]

4 hours ago, Clanstarling said:

True - but there was always a risk that someone also vacationing at their resort would go out to see shows at other resorts. Though Abe's going was unlikely, others going - especially younger people - was  not.

That was the plot of Dirty Dancing!  What if someone saw them performing at the Sheldrake?  

Seriously, for me it was only fake drama that she couldn't tell her parents she wanted to be a performer. It just didn't ring true. Sure, Rose and Abe are peculiar prima donnas, but still . . .  What were they going to do?  Sit shiva?  

[Clanstarling]

2 hours ago, GussieK said:

That was the plot of Dirty Dancing!  What if someone saw them performing at the Sheldrake?  

Seriously, for me it was only fake drama that she couldn't tell her parents she wanted to be a performer. It just didn't ring true. Sure, Rose and Abe are peculiar prima donnas, but still . . .  What were they going to do?  Sit shiva?  

Yes it was. I'm not that deep and critical of a thinker.  ;)

Eh, the way they've been portrayed, sitting shiva seems like it might have been an option.

[mxc90]

No stand up for Midge in this episode! I'm sure there were a few times she wanted to grab the mic and deliver some jokes.

[shapeshifter]

On December 24, 2018 at 3:15 PM, Clanstarling said:

ON DECEMBER 24, 2018 AT 12:51 PM, GUSSIEK SAID:

Seriously, for me it was only fake drama that she couldn't tell her parents she wanted to be a performer. It just didn't ring true. Sure, Rose and Abe are peculiar prima donnas, but still . . . What were they going to do? Sit shiva? 

Yes it was. I'm not that deep and critical of a thinker.  ;)

Eh, the way they've been portrayed, sitting shiva seems like it might have been an option.

I can totally picture (and wish we'd seen) Abe and Rose sitting shiva for their comedienne daughter with Midge and others making hysterically snarky comments about it. But where would the plot go from there? I don't see a good way to paint the script out of that corner. Too bad. Unless . . . [to be continued in the general season 2 thread]

[EtheltoTillie]

19 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

I can totally picture (and wish we'd seen) Abe and Rose sitting shiva for their comedienne daughter with Midge and others making hysterically snarky comments about it. But where would the plot go from there? I don't see a good way to paint the script out of that corner. Too bad. Unless . . . [to be continued in the general season 2 thread]

Well, that's just it.  It would paint them into a corner. a corner that doesn't really make sense for these people.  They are not the type of people, usually the super orthodox, who sit shiva for a daughter who does the wrong thing (e.g., marries out of the faith).  But they have also been written as overwrought. overbearing, overinvolved parents.  Still, I can't see her having to hide a career as a comedian.   Just my gut feeling.

[shrewd.buddha]

For the most part, M. Maisel's wacky shenanigans are funny - and I view it as primarily a comedy, with the occasional dash of drama.
The casual wealth of the Weissman family sometimes takes me out of the story. Miriam needs a job .. sometimes .. but lives like a princess with great clothes and someone always watching her children, etc. 
Abe Weissman is a hoot, as long as you don't think too much about things like sabotaging someone's internship in order to have the same resort assistant every year.

It seems like the only reason that Joel is in the Catskills is to be the romantic rival for the new guy, Ben. He came to spend more time with the kids?? Please, no one spends time with the kids. Were there any scenes of Joel with one of the kids? 

For me, the reinvention of Joel in season two is not working. They villainized him too successfully in season one. Now, he is a seemingly celibate workaholic who never parties and never looks at other girls...? Sure. Joel's personality transplant is too jarring.  Season one Joel would not be the type of guy to go very long without a 'special lady friend'.
I guess we are going to have to endure Joel and Miriam's timing never being in sync -  with one wanting to reconcile when the other is unavailable or uninterested. 

Edited December 27, 2018 by shrewd.buddha

[Rosebud1970]

On 12/6/2018 at 8:31 AM, Pallas said:

Some, especially city-dwellers, and including some working-class families. The mothers and children, at least. Fathers would stay in town during the week and join their families on weekends, and for 2 - 4 weeks during the season. For long-term holidays midcentury in the northeast --  by what was called "tradition" -- WASP families headed to the New England oceanfront, mountainside or lakeside; Jewish families headed to the Catskills, the Poconos or the Jersey shore.

This was my childhood. Nothing so fancy as Steiner's but bungalow colonies in the Catskills. Moms and kids up there for the summer, Dads up on the weekends. 

Ironically, when I was in college, I was a camp counselor/lifeguard at a camp for over-privileged children in the Catskills, not too far from where Grossinger's used to be.

[AuntieMame]

I did some research into the old Catskills resorts too. Some are derelict but you can still see how amazing they must have been. Grossingers (I believe this might have been the model for Dirty Dancing) has an indoor pool with a wall of windows looking over the mountains that must have been stunning in its heyday. 

A few still survive but appear to be so expensive that you would need a bank loan for a week much less an entire summer. Oh if only vacation time travel were possible. The old Borscht Belt would be an amazing stop. I wonder if they let gentiles stay. 

[Blakeston]

There were a lot of things in this episode that felt anachronistic to me, beyond just the font talk, which was the worst offender.

I think a woman in the '50s, in that environment, wearing that bikini, would have been a major scandal - far more so than what we saw on the show. Bikinis were invented in the '40s, but they weren't popular until the '60s, and even in the early '60s they usually covered more skin than that. A mother dressing that way at a Jewish family resort? People would have been in a tizzy.

The lifeguard's sculpted body also didn't look like something you'd see in the fifties. There were very fit guys back then, but those kind of ripped abs weren't in vogue. A very small handful of men are genetically superior enough to get that physique without extremely targeted training, but those men are few and far between. It would have been more realistic if he'd been trim and muscular without being so sculpted.

Edited December 30, 2018 by Blakeston

[Scarlett45]

5 hours ago, Blakeston said:

There were a lot of things in this episode that felt anachronistic to me, beyond just the font talk, which was the worst offender.

I think a woman in the '50s, in that environment, wearing that bikini, would have been a major scandal - far more so than what we saw on the show. Bikinis were invented in the '40s, but they weren't popular until the '60s, and even in the early '60s they usually covered more skin than that. A mother dressing that way at a Jewish family resort? People would have been in a tizzy.

The lifeguard's sculpted body also didn't look like something you'd see in the fifties. There were very fit guys back then, but those kind of ripped abs weren't in vogue. A very small handful of men are genetically superior enough to get that physique without extremely targeted training, but those men are few and far between. It would have been more realistic if he'd been trim and muscular without being so sculpted.

Yes. And his shorts were VERY short, 1980s gay male scene short. Not that I mind 😂. 

[wendyg]

Selectrics are actually older than that - MAD MEN had one in the pilot, set in 1960s, and it was not an anachronism. It was the 1970s when you'd see them all over the place. A newsletter, as someone said, was probably letterpress, at least for the headlines and layout. I edited a student group newsletter in the early 1970s, and that's how we did it - I think we typed the text and cut it up and pasted it on the pages. One forgets...

For a daily thing you'd be more likely to see something mimeographed. Or some other technology - my brother, as a child in the 1940s, wrote a local newsletter, which he copied using a hectograph.

Based on prior art, I would say attempting to understand the finances of any Amy Sherman Palladino character is a lost cause.

[Clanstarling]

5 hours ago, wendyg said:

Selectrics are actually older than that - MAD MEN had one in the pilot, set in 1960s, and it was not an anachronism. It was the 1970s when you'd see them all over the place. A newsletter, as someone said, was probably letterpress, at least for the headlines and layout. I edited a student group newsletter in the early 1970s, and that's how we did it - I think we typed the text and cut it up and pasted it on the pages. One forgets...

For a daily thing you'd be more likely to see something mimeographed. Or some other technology - my brother, as a child in the 1940s, wrote a local newsletter, which he copied using a hectograph.

Based on prior art, I would say attempting to understand the finances of any Amy Sherman Palladino character is a lost cause.

I was given an old Selectric in the 70s that was at least 10 old, if not older. It was a warhorse, I typed all my college papers on it, and it was still running strong in the 80s when I lost it in my divorce. I loved that beast. 

[Iseut]

Quote

Miriam shouting, "we're going to the Catskills" should have been cheesy (even if done tongue in cheek), but Brosnahan totally made it work!

She gave it her best, but it was still too over the top for me, even for this show. Calm down, show. 

[Linderhill]

I'm slightly younger than baby Esther and was born and raised at the Jersey shore. Memorial Day weekend was the day the tourists would arrive and begin to take over the summer rentals. They were mostly New Yorkers and a some north Jersey residents. (the Philadelphia vacationers would go to the beaches south of us) It was always jarring because all of a sudden there was TRAFFIC and people that didn't know how to or ignored crosswalks and traffic lights. We were always thrilled when Labor Day would finally arrive and they would all go back up north. Everyone would always curse the tourists but the tourist trade was the life blood of the area. (to this day I refuse to watch any incarnation of the abomination called "Jersey Shore," we made fun of those people)

There was no such thing as a family vacation for us, both parents worked and there wasn't enough money for that.

On the subject of the show, I loved seeing Zachary Levi as a possible suitor for Midge. I also loved Susie and her camouflage plunger. I didn't miss having a comedy routine for Midge. She is more than her routine. I did wonder how the family managed to have all of that time in Paris and take two months in the Catskills.

Edited January 16, 2019 by Linderhill

[Bklyndeb]

I noticed today that the opening scene in this episode,  Ethan playing with Abe's  cigar box  non-toys, complete with crayon drawing summer 1959, was a shout out to the opening of "To Kill a Mockingbird "

Edited January 20, 2019 by Bklyndeb

[aradia22]

They left the baby in the car!?! I know it's 1959 but come on. Even then I think you'd know better than to leave a baby in a closed car on a summer day.

That yellow dress was gorgeous.

Abe: "How could you possibly help me with the tree? Explain yourself." 

Brandon Uranowitz! Nolan Funk and another Glee kid? I'm feeling spoiled.

I get that it's wrapped in the separation/divorce thing but being kicked out a beauty pageant doesn't seem like the worst of fates. Especially if she's already won eight times.

This resort is very Dirty Dancing.

I wish the singer during the dancing was featured on the compilation of music from this season. :(

I don't know if it was the bikini but Midge's legs actually looked quite odd when she was being the sash girl. Maybe it was her stance. 

ZACHARY LEVI!?! How dare you, show? OK, between that and shirtless Nolan Funk I'm back in. 

Also, shallow but in that fireworks scene it's impossible to not see how much more attractive Zach is than the actor who plays Joel.

[mmecorday]

Quote

I don't know if it was the bikini but Midge's legs actually looked quite odd when she was being the sash girl. Maybe it was her stance. 

I think it was the super clunky shoes she was wearing.

[lucindabelle]

On 12/6/2018 at 4:01 AM, Quilt Fairy said:

Wow, people really did that? Whole families spent 2 months on vacation in the Catskills? (Fair disclosure - all I know about this subject I learned from Dirty Dancing.)  And they must have great child care, we never even heard about baby Esther once they reached the Steiner resort. 

No.

people sent kids to summer camp for two months. Two months in the Catskills is not normal.

catskills resorts also didn’t usually have that kind of top notch entertainment )they’re getting it confused with the adirondacks) and why on tv and movies do they always show the Catskills and LAKES? There are lakes NEAR the Catskills but the Catskills are in mountains with rivers.

On 12/30/2018 at 2:42 PM, Blakeston said:

There were a lot of things in this episode that felt anachronistic to me, beyond just the font talk, which was the worst offender.

I think a woman in the '50s, in that environment, wearing that bikini, would have been a major scandal - far more so than what we saw on the show. Bikinis were invented in the '40s, but they weren't popular until the '60s, and even in the early '60s they usually covered more skin than that. A mother dressing that way at a Jewish family resort? People would have been in a tizzy.

 

 

 

It’s 1959. I literally have a picture of my mother in a bikini like that in that year. 

ETA: Jewish resorts were not places for Orthodox people. They sprang up because Jews weren't allowed in the other resorts. People wore bikinis.

I sometimes think people get their ideas about “the 50s” from “Mona Lisa smile” and advertising. My mom (going strong at 87) has a good laugh at the idea that anyone at any time did housework in pumps and pearls. That was advertising. 

Edited January 30, 2019 by lucindabelle

[Blakeston]

14 hours ago, lucindabelle said:

It’s 1959. I literally have a picture of my mother in a bikini like that in that year. 

ETA: Jewish resorts were not places for Orthodox people. They sprang up because Jews weren't allowed in the other resorts. People wore bikinis.

I sometimes think people get their ideas about “the 50s” from “Mona Lisa smile” and advertising. My mom (going strong at 87) has a good laugh at the idea that anyone at any time did housework in pumps and pearls. That was advertising. 

No one said the people at those resorts were Orthodox. But that doesn't mean that a mother (especially from a family as visible as the Maisels or Weissmans) could wear one of the more revealing bikinis from that era without some serious judgment/gossip.

If Midge had been visiting a beach in LA, or the French Riviera, I'd feel differently.

[lucindabelle]

You mentioned the "Jewish" as a qualifying factor which is why I said they weren't Orthodox. Again: got pic of Mom in 1959 in bikini. NJ Jew. I think you have some misconceptions about what might lead to gossip. I just asked Mom about that and she laughed... also, Midge had grown up there and had been a teen winner, so she would not be known to the folks there as a risque matron in any case, but as a chic young fashionable woman.

New York Jews were and are very fashion conscious, so I also don't understand the Los Angeles and French Riviera remarks.

This said it was 1959, but the hair makes me suspect it's a few years later. 

[txhorns79]

This is going to sound ridiculous, but the women in that picture aren't wearing bikinis.  They are wearing two piece bathing suits.   Sometimes the words are used interchangeably, but I think of a two piece as much more modest than a bikini.  Midge's bathing suit in the episode was essentially a more revealing two piece, not a bikini.   

[lucindabelle]

9 hours ago, txhorns79 said:

This is going to sound ridiculous, but the women in that picture aren't wearing bikinis.  They are wearing two piece bathing suits.   Sometimes the words are used interchangeably, but I think of a two piece as much more modest than a bikini.  Midge's bathing suit in the episode was essentially a more revealing two piece, not a bikini.   

You may be onto something... although I think these were called bikinis then, I'd absolutely love a suit like the yellow one far right. (not so sure about the bottoms, though). The second from left top could be a modern bikini top. But some of these tops are really pretty without looking like underwear. I guess they had something about covering the belly button, only far left girl shows hers.

It's also striking to me how skinny yet not muscular they are, and how the girls in the Catskills looked that way too. I know for Mad Men it was important to the creator to have girls who had 60s muscles, as in, non going to the gym look. Unless you were an athlete or a dancer people didn't look muscular.

 

Just realized in addition to Mom I have many pics of my aunt, who is 10 years younger, wearing two-pieces/bikinis at that time.

Also note how the postcard of the Catskills resort has a POOL. Most Catskills resorts were nowhere near a lake. With "Dirty Dancing" and this episode people may get the wrong idea LOL. Although they were pretty amazing places back in the day, apparently. There were also singles resorts (not sure if family) in the Adirondacks, and those did have lakes.

[smartymarty]

Itsy-bitsy Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini came out in June 1960, so bikinis are not so far off.

I wondered about there being a lake in the Catskills.

On 1/31/2019 at 2:55 AM, lucindabelle said:

Unless you were an athlete or a dancer people didn't look muscular.

Well, women certainly didn't because they were discouraged too. Until Title IX passed in 1972, girls/women were not exposed to heavier sports. It was scandalous in 1967 when Kathrine Switzer ran in the Boston Marathon (against the men-only rules).

Susie thought that Midge would only be away two weeks, thus didn't think to book her in the Catskills. Once she learned two months though, that was why she went up there -- to book her at other resorts.

Leaving the baby in the car and geez, almost everything concerning Abe at this point, are so over the top as to be annoying to me. And Joel came up there to be with his kids but his kids are nowhere to be seen. I guess at "kids' camp" all day. I understand the show not wanting to deal with child/baby actors, but it takes me out of the show sometime for things not to be portrayed realistically. And come on, writers. You really thought people talked about fonts in 1959? 99% of that audience would not know what a font was.

[shapeshifter]

<small-voice>The baby in the car didn't bother me. I'm sure she wasn't there very long, and I'm sure the car was in the shade with windows cracked open for cross breeze. All mine survived similar naps and went on to get scholarships to college.</small-voice>

 

9 hours ago, smartymarty said:

You really thought people talked about fonts in 1959? 99% of that audience would not know what a font was.

Yeah, I don't know why nobody thought to swap out the word "font" for "typeface" or "lettering."

[stillshimpy]

I really enjoyed the episode.  I'm pretty used to ASP's writing style and her lack of realism though, so the lack of believability doesn't bother me.  In this instance, it's almost as if she is illustrating the memory of the Catskills vs. showing what the Catskills were. 

Super bright colors, the fashion choices, the obsequious staff there to attend to all needs.   It came off like a person relating a memory, mundane details are missing.  Money seems limitless, children needless, alcohol almost without consequences.   It's fun for me.  I can completely see how it would be grating but she makes escapism when it comes to life responsibilities unless working is a plot point. 

Speaking of that, I'm glad to see the expansion of characters from last season. ASP took the time to illustrate Abe and Rose's growth, we've also been given a window into what's going on with Joel.  Who I'm actually starting to like even if the man was the architect and builder of his own house of misery.  In Gilmore Girls the main character's ex would show up as an everything-ruiner.  Chris, in that show, was so underdeveloped as a character, he came across as a plot device and Lorelai's attachment to him was mystifying in terms of his particulars. 

Enter Joel.  I have to hand it to the actor, after being scarred by Chris, my blood pressure used to go up when he was onscreen, and now he's just becoming a character I care about as well.  It's nice to see creative growth in a writer. 

Plus, oh my goodness, ASP is so happy with the Amazon production money!  Look at the blast she's having with it!  Her background as a dancer makes her favor choreographing the background like it's a dance in those scenes with a great many people.  I loved the unpacking scene.  

I also didn't freak out at the baby being relegated to the luggage.  The windows were open, ASP has clearly decided to go big or go home on conveying that this was a different time, people did not focus on their children to the exclusion of their own lives.  She's taken it to an absurd degree here but I like that Midge is not maternal despite having two children and it's not in a venomous way.  There's no malice or resentment in it, people had kids, it was what was expected of them and some were more focused than others.  This is, again, to a cartoonish degree here but I like the central message.  Nothing about Midge is really defined by her children. 

As to the income disparity on display here.  Amy Sherman-Paladino is very liberal as is her husband Daniel who wrote this episode.  The Weismann's are extremely privileged.  I think Abe's job at the lab is also supposed to be very prestigious but it just wouldn't have been this lucrative.  I just fanwank family money and move on.   

Also, I was semi-terrified of what the romper would look like but Shaloub pulled it off.   I'm having a blast with his over-the-top performance as well as Kevin Pollack's antics.  They are both playing it really broad and I like it.   I think mostly because I just love the actors involved.  

Edited February 10, 2019 by stillshimpy

[shapeshifter]

10 hours ago, stillshimpy said:

o been given a window into what's going on with Joel.  Who I'm actually starting to like even if the man was the architect and builder of his own house of misery

Hee. Exactly. Well put.

.

10 hours ago, stillshimpy said:

I also didn't freak out at the baby being relegated to the luggage.  The windows were open, ASP has clearly decided to go big or go home on conveying that this was a different time, people did not focus on their children to the exclusion of their own lives.  She's taken it to an absurd degree here but I like that Midge is not maternal despite having two children and it's not in a venomous way.  There's no malice or resentment in it, people had kids, it was what was expected of them and some were more focused than others.  This is, again, to a cartoonish degree here but I like the central message.  

Thank you for making me not the only one who wasn't horrified by a baby napping in a car.
However, if Midge's random neglect of her kids is cartoonish, then my sister and I can really mean it if we say our childhood was Looney Tunes.

[MoreCoffeePlease]

Abe to Ethan in the beginning of the episode, "Those are not toys!"

Ethan, "They certainly look like toys."  Cute.

[candle96]

Well, dammit show, if you're going to throw in a still-slightly-jacked-from-Shazam Zachary Levi as a doctor who doesn't take shit from Midge, you've officially lost me on Joel forever. The contrast between the two couldn't be greater. I have no idea what the end game is for Midge and Joel, but I'm glad it looks like Levi will be around for a bit to possibly become romantically entangled with Midge, shake things up for her.

The actor who's playing Joel is doing a fine job, so it's not against him, but I have yet to see any quality Joel possess that would make Midge fall for him. At the very least if they had cast a more handsome actor, I'd buy that she was charmed by his looks. But he's fairly average looking, IMHO. And a drip.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Although I've never gone so far as to make scale models of my luggage and car, part of me really appreciates Abe's effort. But poor Samuel. He's never going to be Jimmy but that's not reason for Abe to be a dick.

Does Abe only do his morning calisthenics when he's at the resort? It seems weird that ten months of the year he doesn't do any of his exercises.

My entire knowledge of summering in the Catskills is limited to watching Dirty Dancing. The guy in charge said this was the Weissmans' 27th year so Midge has been spending the summer at this place her entire life. It must be weird to have everyone she's known all her life staring at her because of what's happening with her marriage.

"Mink is the ultimate way for your husband to say, 'I love you'?" Hahahahaha, NO.

I loved that Susie's toilet plunger accessory worked exactly as she thought it would, but ewwwww at the thought of someone putting a used toilet plunger on their bunk bed.

Usually Midge and Rose are at odds so it was nice to see them  having fun together. When they jumped up in anticipation of the dance challenge, it was so cute. Then Rose had to revert to mom mode with her nonstop matchmaking. I loved when they were laughing at drunk Abe not watching the fireworks and threatening to sue the pickle people.

While I would guess that Zelda is thrilled to have two months where she isn't dealing with the Weissmans, what does she do for money during her two months of being unemployed?

[Clanstarling]

1 minute ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

While I would guess that Zelda is thrilled to have two months where she isn't dealing with the Weissmans, what does she do for money during her two months of being unemployed?

I guess I just assumed that's when she takes care of the annual, deep cleaning projects, like waxing the floors. Kind of the way school custodians do when school's out.