Finding Your Roots With Henry Louis Gates Jr. - General Discussion

[Driad]

Article about 2019-2020, including list of guests.

[sempervivum]

11 minutes ago, Driad said:

Article about 2019-2020, including list of guests.

Yay! Jeff Goldblum! 

Some of those look like reruns, though.

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, sempervivum said:

Some of those look like reruns, though.

Yes:

Quote

Season Six will return in early 2020 with eight weeks of new episodes featuring both new guests and re-mixed thematic combinations of former participants’ stories. FINDING YOUR ROOTS returns in Fall 2020 with six additional new episodes showcasing new and re-mixed episodes. This extended broadcast footprint will serve to expand FINDING YOUR ROOTS’ reach to its viewers throughout 2019 and 2020.

Makes sense.

Specifically:

Quote

The sixth season of FINDING YOUR ROOTS on PBS features 27 fascinating new guests who are game-changers in their fields, with family histories that illustrate the power and diversity of the human experience. Among them are actors Jeffrey Wright, Sigourney Weaver, Melissa McCarthy and Sterling K. Brown; groundbreaking director Jordan Peele, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi; acclaimed journalists Gayle King and Norah O’Donnell; musicians Queen Latifah and Jon Batiste; legendary fashion designers Diane von Furstenberg, Narciso Rodriguez and Zac Posen; as well as a host of other luminaries, including Jeff Goldblum, Anjelica Huston, Isabella Rossellini, Terry Gross, Marc Maron, Eric Stonestreet, Issa Rae, Amy Ryan and Justina Machado. Some of the guests whose stories we will revisit this season include actors Scarlett Johansson, Julianne Moore and Marisa Tomei; journalist Lisa Ling; radio talk show host Joe Madison; musician Questlove; and late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel

[Yeah No]

12 hours ago, sempervivum said:

Yay! Jeff Goldblum! 

Some of those look like reruns, though.

I'm not loving the idea of having to sift through episodes I've already seen to find the segments I haven't seen.  Also, my DVR isn't loving having to use the space taken up recording these things before I get a chance to go through them.  I don't know why they chose to do this.  If they want to show repeats, just show repeats, but don't re-mix them and call them part of a new season.

[biakbiak]

Just now, Yeah No said:

I'm not loving the idea of having to sift through episodes I've already seen to find the segments I haven't seen.  Also, my DVR isn't loving having to use the space taken up recording these things before I get a chance to go through them.  I don't know why they chose to do this.  If they want to show repeats, just show repeats, but don't re-mix them and call them part of a new season.

The schedule they released indicate which are new episodes and which are not. The first two episodes when the show premieres in the fall are new and than there won’t be a new episode until 2020.

[Yeah No]

2 minutes ago, biakbiak said:

The schedule they released indicate which are new episodes and which are not. The first two episodes when the show premieres in the fall are new and than there won’t be a new episode until 2020.

Yes but they're calling all of them part of the new season, when some of them are not.  My DVR is probably going to record the repeats as new if they list them as Season 6 (which based on experience with this show will probably be the case as my DVR often records repeats because they're not listed by my PBS station as repeats).  Then I have to remember if I've seen each episode before and decide whether or not to record it.

[deirdra]

I almost turned off one of the "new" Season 5 episodes because I was 99% sure that I had already seen the first segment, but had it on in the background long enough to see the start of the second segment, which was indeed new.  I was also wondering if celebs were so narcissistic that they were appearing on any and all genealogy shows, making everything seem like a repeat.  Not the way to attract new viewers and donors.

Edited August 7, 2019 by deirdra

[Yeah No]

15 hours ago, deirdra said:

I almost turned off one of the "new" Season 5 episodes because I was 99% sure that I had already seen the first segment, but had it on in the background long enough to see the start of the second segment, which was indeed new.  I was also wondering if celebs were so narcissistic that they were appearing on any and all genealogy shows, making everything seem like a repeat.  Not the way to attract new viewers and donors.

Yup, I had the same experience and I agree completely.  And at my age it takes me a while to remember if I saw a segment before or not.  By the time I'm sure I've seen it I'm already 5 minutes in!

[shapeshifter]

4 hours ago, Yeah No said:

Quote

…Not the way to attract new viewers and donors.

Yup, I had the same experience and I agree completely.  And at my age it takes me a while to remember if I saw a segment before or not.  By the time I'm sure I've seen it I'm already 5 minutes in!

Heh, I'll see your age and raise you 5 years, to the point where I probably slept through 50% of the first viewing anyway.

So I'd wager I'm the target audience —if only my pockets were deep enough for donations.

[meep.meep]

Viewers like me!

I assume that they are trying to emphasize a theme when they mix old and new, but it is confusing.

[Mu Shu]

On 6/2/2019 at 6:02 PM, Driad said:

American Ancestors has a new database GU272 Descendants with information on the enslaved people sold by Georgetown University.  It is free to use; you may need to set up a free guest account.  It is a work in progress, so if you don't find the people you are looking for, try again later.

Thanks for saying enslaved people. I did a tour of a house in Savannah where the tour guide constantly said “the slaves this, the slaves that”, blah blah. I have a big mouth and asked why he couldn’t just say the people who were enslaved.

not only that, but the house we toured was the first house in the US with running water, and he wouldn’t let us look on the first floor bathroom. So when he got pulled aside for some tour guide urgent matter, I took everyone on a quick tour of the bathroom. It sucked, because nothing was in it. Damn, if you charge 20 bucks per pop, at least put in a fake terlet for decoration. 

[Driad]

There does not seem to be a forum for "Family Pictures USA" on PBS.  I saw and enjoyed the first episode, North Carolina.  The host talks with people who show family photos (some quite old), talk about their ancestors, and show where they lived and worked. 

[biakbiak]

Kal Penn talks about being on the show and with a twist. Starts at around the 3 minute mark:

[shapeshifter]

On 9/26/2019 at 2:52 PM, biakbiak said:

Kal Penn talks about being on the show and with a twist. Starts at around the 3 minute mark:

OMG! My mother used to complain in the 20th century "There is no quality control anymore," but that is now times a zillion everywhere. We are so going to blow ourselves up by accident. Which has already happened. Why bother with the sneakers at the airport? Okay. To quote a very sage, old carpenter who taught my 70s college painting class how to make stretchers for canvas: Measure twice; cut once.

So sorry for Cal, but really love that there are people like him in this world. (Not so crazy about his new show, though.)

But now we want to know: How many other mistakes has FYR made? 

[Yeah No]

8 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

OMG! My mother used to complain in the 20th century "There is no quality control anymore," but that is now times a zillion everywhere. We are so going to blow ourselves up by accident. Which has already happened. Why bother with the sneakers at the airport? Okay. To quote a very sage, old carpenter who taught my 70s college painting class how to make stretchers for canvas: Measure twice; cut once.

So sorry for Cal, but really love that there are people like him in this world. (Not so crazy about his new show, though.)

But now we want to know: How many other mistakes has FYR made? 

Not defending them AT ALL, but all he would have had to do is Google that number and he would have found out that haplogroup doesn't exist.  Wouldn't he have been curious enough about it to want to find out more about it online?  He would have probably found out before the tattoo.  I remember when I found out what my haplogroups are I went online to learn more about them.  But even if you get it right it could still change.  My father's father's side haplogroup was originally assigned as one by 23 and Me, but then they changed to another similar one a couple of years later due to new, more accurate research.

[shapeshifter]

New episode tonight “Hollywood Royalty” with Isabella Rossellini, Anjelica Huston and Mia Farrow. I find the episode title a little off putting.  

[deirdra]

21 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

New episode tonight “Hollywood Royalty” with Isabella Rossellini, Anjelica Huston and Mia Farrow. I find the episode title a little off putting.  

It was quite good, focusing on their ancestors' hard lives, not their "Hollywood Royalty” (actors who were the daughters of actors/directors), including early parental deaths, slaves and Mia's dilated pupils.

Edited October 9, 2019 by deirdra

[sempervivum]

11 hours ago, deirdra said:

Mia's dilated pupils.

She is, as my mother used to say, 'a piece of work'. She looked sweaty and in need of a shampoo. And that time-traveling-teen-from-the-60's-voice and the dozens of stretchy bead bracelets covering her forearms! 

And once again, she wants to take credit for distant ancestors: somebody was named 'Makepeace' so of course that reflects her woke virtue.

[Blergh]

50 minutes ago, sempervivum said:

She is, as my mother used to say, 'a piece of work'. She looked sweaty and in need of a shampoo. And that time-traveling-teen-from-the-60's-voice and the dozens of stretchy bead bracelets covering her forearms! 

And once again, she wants to take credit for distant ancestors: somebody was named 'Makepeace' so of course that reflects her woke virtue.

I don't disagree but having outlived three of her children to say nothing of having had to endure an ugly custody battle one cannot say Miss Farrow has had a happy life much less has been a 'happy actress'  contrary to what she's declared. 

   It was interesting that Miss Huston had thought her maternal grandmother Angelica  was somehow from a higher class than her grandfather but she had worked in a cotton mill from teenhood on and SOMEHOW saved enough money to buy passage back to Italy before the two of the permanently settled in NYC. 

 I liked Miss Rossellini's amusement with finding out that her first ancestor calling himself Bergman could very well have changed the name to intimidate the students he was teaching and his wild hair & stache seemed quite the picture. I also liked her fascination in finding out that the Bergman progenitors had all lived in the same lakeside town for centuries and she seemed eager to visit it. On a shallow note, I think it's interesting how when she was younger she seemed to resemble the Rossellini side more but now the Bergman features have shined through. 

[One Imaginary Girl]

Let's discuss the important thing: do you suppose that five-strand necklace Isabella Rossellini was wearing was made of real pearls?  Wow.

[buckboard]

5 hours ago, sempervivum said:

She is, as my mother used to say, 'a piece of work'. She looked sweaty and in need of a shampoo. And that time-traveling-teen-from-the-60's-voice and the dozens of stretchy bead bracelets covering her forearms! 

And once again, she wants to take credit for distant ancestors: somebody was named 'Makepeace' so of course that reflects her woke virtue.

And her institutionalized grandmother was a Savage, but I don't recall her taking credit for that.

[BusyOctober]

The Mia Farrow segment bugged me a bit.  I don’t care about her political leanings, but her reaction to finding out about her paternal grandmother’s story was ridiculous.  It bordered on an uninformed toddler tantrum.  She was mad and pouty about her grandfather putting his wife in asylum without taking in to consideration the time, the medical practices, the lack of psychiatric knowledge and the patriarchal laws that ruled most of the world in the 19th (20th, 21st...)century. While it is very sad that the poor woman was committed and no doubt suffered, why did Ms. Farrow jump to the conclusion that the GF was some evil misogynistic abuser?  Maybe his wife was so despondent that she tried to hurt herself, or the baby? Maybe despite whatever medical treatment available, she was getting worse, and he had no choice? He still needed to work, and maybe he couldn’t afford a caretaker to watch her and the son?  Then as soon as she heard how her GF raised her father alone, and joined to fight WW I, she was all, “OK, he was a good guy!”

She isn’t the first guest to do this...it just annoys me that people living today project today’s norms, laws, morality, etc on what happened centuries or even decades ago.     It is ignorant to look at history from a distance, and through privileged and/or entitled lenses.  

Loved Isabella Rossellini though!  She always seems full of joy! 

[Yeah No]

4 hours ago, BusyOctober said:

She isn’t the first guest to do this...it just annoys me that people living today project today’s norms, laws, morality, etc on what happened centuries or even decades ago.     It is ignorant to look at history from a distance, and through privileged and/or entitled lenses.  

Thank you, I just watched this and came here to say pretty much the exact same thing almost word for word.  Mr. Yeah No and I froze the picture and had quite the discussion about this.  We have held for years that Mia is a drama queen/kook and I should have known that only 2 minutes in I'd want to reach into the TV and smack her for something.  When she later said that maybe she shouldn't jump so quickly to conclusions I restrained myself.  Yikes.

Isabella Rossellini was quite the breath of fresh air, thankfully.  I remember her from her modeling days and when she was the face of Lancome.  I have long been a fan of her mom's and have always seen her mother's face and general way of being in her.  It was really nice to see her again as I haven't seen much of her in years.  Seeing how much she still resembles her mom almost took my breath away.

I'm so glad this show is back.  So many of my favorite shows have bit the dust for one reason or another and this fall has been sort of TV gloomy for me.

[12catcrazy]

20 hours ago, One Imaginary Girl said:

Let's discuss the important thing: do you suppose that five-strand necklace Isabella Rossellini was wearing was made of real pearls?  Wow.

I make jewelry, so knowing the price of things like real pearls (especially at that size), my guess would be no, they are not real.  They are probably crystal pearls like Swarovski.  And even if that was the case, a necklace of that size is not cheap.  And yeah, I was eyeballing that necklace every time she was on screen!

[12catcrazy]

Ok, so off topic - but I've become obsessed with those pearls!  I started doing searches to find stills from Isabella Rossellini on the show.   Looks like the pearls are 6 strands and uneven in size and shape, so they could be real pearls as crystal pearls and other man-made pearls are usually very round or if in a "shape" they are all similar.   Doing yet more 'net diving, I've found large cultured pearls sold loose that could be similar to what her necklace looks like.   Oh to see it up close and in person (especially the back of it).   So yeah, maybe real pearls....  BTW, Jackie Kennedy back in the day wore signature fake pearl necklaces which became all the fashion.  They still look good today.  

[Yeah No]

7 hours ago, 12catcrazy said:

Ok, so off topic - but I've become obsessed with those pearls!  I started doing searches to find stills from Isabella Rossellini on the show.   Looks like the pearls are 6 strands and uneven in size and shape, so they could be real pearls as crystal pearls and other man-made pearls are usually very round or if in a "shape" they are all similar.   Doing yet more 'net diving, I've found large cultured pearls sold loose that could be similar to what her necklace looks like.   Oh to see it up close and in person (especially the back of it).   So yeah, maybe real pearls....  BTW, Jackie Kennedy back in the day wore signature fake pearl necklaces which became all the fashion.  They still look good today.  

I would expect that Isabella Rossellini would never be caught dead in fake pearls, her being the high fashion/Hollywood royalty star that she is.  If you google on her name and "pearl necklace" you'll see over a dozen photos of her over the years wearing a similar, longer multi-strand pearl necklace.  She was also featured on this pearl necklace blog (scroll down for the photo), and this Italian one.  I imagine that she is very old school and has a few very expensive jewelry items, perhaps that were handed down to her from her very famous mother, that she wears again and again.

[shapeshifter]

On 10/9/2019 at 6:14 PM, BusyOctober said:

The Mia Farrow segment bugged me a bit.  I don’t care about her political leanings, but her reaction to finding out about her paternal grandmother’s story was ridiculous.  It bordered on an uninformed toddler tantrum.  She was mad and pouty about her grandfather putting his wife in asylum without taking in to consideration the time, the medical practices, the lack of psychiatric knowledge and the patriarchal laws that ruled most of the world in the 19th (20th, 21st...)century. While it is very sad that the poor woman was committed and no doubt suffered, why did Ms. Farrow jump to the conclusion that the GF was some evil misogynistic abuser?  Maybe his wife was so despondent that she tried to hurt herself, or the baby? Maybe despite whatever medical treatment available, she was getting worse, and he had no choice? He still needed to work, and maybe he couldn’t afford a caretaker to watch her and the son?  Then as soon as she heard how her GF raised her father alone, and joined to fight WW I, she was all, “OK, he was a good guy!” 

Yes. this was bothering me too, but initially for slightly different reasons, that is, I wondered wouldn't researching the laws and traditions and "best practices" of medicine for that time and place be part of the FYR researchers' job? I know when my mother was depressed in the early 1950s, the doctor's prescription was for her to get pregnant (with me). I don't even think my father was consulted. So I am guessing it is quite likely Mia's grandmother's doctor wrote an "order" for her to be "placed" in the institution. Horrible, but not necessarily the grandfather's doing. 

My second thought was to wonder if Mia's grandmother was schizophrenic, since that is the age when it typically manifests. 

But all of this^ is as much speculation on my part as were Mia's conclusions, and ultimately she reached a pretty accurate assessment on her own: That her grandfather was neither good nor evil. 

So I can see why HLGjr was satisfied with letting Mia tell the story as it unfolded to her in her imagination, since it is her story, and, true to form, it resonated with her voice.

**********
Edited to correct “father” and “mother” to “grandfather” and “grandmother.”

Edited October 16, 2019 by shapeshifter

[Blergh]

shapeshifter,

 I don't disagree with your conclusions re Miss Farrow's reactions but it was her maternal grandmother with the original surname of Savage NOT her own mother Maureen O'Sullivan who got institutionalized not too long after giving birth to Miss Farrow's father! 

[shapeshifter]

39 minutes ago, Blergh said:

shapeshifter,

 I don't disagree with your conclusions re Miss Farrow's reactions but it was her maternal grandmother with the original surname of Savage NOT her own mother Maureen O'Sullivan who got institutionalized not too long after giving birth to Miss Farrow's father! 

Oops! Yes, of course! Thanks! Corrections made. 

[2727]

Fun episode with two nice people this week. It was a bit of a relief since disliking two of the three participants last time made for a lot of fast-forwarding.

Melissa's family being put on blast in the local newspaper was hilarious, but only in retrospect.

I often well up in a sympathetic reaction when the guests get emotional and Eric's tears were similarly moving to me. Such a sweet grandmother to encourage his clown dreams!

[Blergh]

17 minutes ago, 2727 said:

Fun episode with two nice people this week. It was a bit of a relief since disliking two of the three participants last time made for a lot of fast-forwarding.

Melissa's family being put on blast in the local newspaper was hilarious, but only in retrospect.

I often well up in a sympathetic reaction when the guests get emotional and Eric's tears were similarly moving to me. Such a sweet grandmother to encourage his clown dreams!

Yes, I agree that it the rag-style reporting of that branch's dirty laundry in the local paper was funny in retrospect but HAD to have been humiliating for Miss McCarthy's wronged great-great-grandmother as well her her innocent, minor great-grandmother- regardless of how successful the elder woman was in providing for her offspring after that mortifying spectacle of discovering her husband in that state with her own relative!  Not surprised that she listed herself as a widow at the next census despite the VERY public record of the divorce with cause but possibly she may have heard about her onetime husband's death even if it got lost in the official records (and perhaps HE didn't remarry) before that census.

  I agree that it was touching how Mr. Stonestreet's paternal grandmother encouraged his clown dreams (and even his parents didn't dump    on his ambitions). It's interesting,too, to find out exactly WHERE in Austria his direct paternal line came from. Sad, though, that his maternal grandmother's folks had had to register as 'enemy aliens'  in WWIto keep from being incarcerated despite having been pillars of their farming community! Not entirely surprised that they opted to become US Citizens after WWI considering the dual factors of having raised their family on their farm in the US AND the fact that Weimer Germany was a rather chaotic, impoverished place to live- even if either of the great-grandparents had kept any family ties to the Old Country. 

[Suzn]

I found this episode interesting because there were points of commonality with both guests and me.   Something did bother me and would only matter probably to fellow Kansas City Kansans - Kansas City Kansas is a city that covers most of Wyandotte County so I wonder where the hog farm actually was.  I guess there are some outlying areas of the county where it's possible.

I knew that there was anti-German feeling in this country during WWI but never made the connection to my Prussian born Grandfather and Great-Grandfather!  They came to this country in about 1882 and were naturalized before the war but they spoke German and I'm sure still sounded and identified as German.  I've never heard any stories about any mistreatment but feel like it is another gap in my knowledge of them.

[Mermaid Under]

Quote

Fun episode with two nice people this week. 

While I agree that both guests are likable (and there have been a couple that weren't)  I didn't find anything about their stories interesting or unusual.  Except for new information about types of clowns.  Who knew?

[Lovecat]

I was half convinced they were going to turn out to be distant cousins, especially when Melissa's Scottish/Irish ancestors were found to have been living on Stone Row...Stonestreet, Stone Row?  C'monnn!  But then Eric's people were identified as German and Austrian, so there went that theory out the window.

[Jadzia]

3 hours ago, 2727 said:

Melissa's family being put on blast in the local newspaper was hilarious, but only in retrospect.

2 hours ago, Blergh said:

Yes, I agree that it the rag-style reporting of that branch's dirty laundry in the local paper was funny in retrospect but HAD to have been humiliating for Miss McCarthy's wronged great-great-grandmother as well her her innocent, minor great-grandmother- regardless of how successful the elder woman was in providing for her offspring after that mortifying spectacle of discovering her husband in that state with her own relative! 

As a genealogy nerd with subscriptions to several old newspapers, I am always amazed at how much dirty laundry used to be published in newspapers and often in a very gossipy and salacious way. Instead of social media, they just published everything in the paper.

I was actually surprised that Dr. Gates didn't point this out, that this kind of reporting was actually pretty common back then.

Even articles about accidents back then were often very graphic and gory. I often look up articles about my ancestors and then get lost for hours reading some of the other weird stories in the newspaper!

[Silver Raven]

I was sort of half wondering if Melissa's gggrandmother hadn't buried her husband somewhere and that's why he and his girlfriend were never found again.  😄

[Suzn]

11 minutes ago, Jadzia said:

As a genealogy nerd with subscriptions to several old newspapers, I am always amazed at how much dirty laundry used to be published in newspapers and often in a very gossipy and salacious way. Instead of social media, they just published everything in the paper.

I was actually surprised that Dr. Gates didn't point this out, that this kind of reporting was actually pretty common back then.

Even articles about accidents back then were often very graphic and gory. I often look up articles about my ancestors and then get lost for hours reading some of the other weird stories in the newspaper!

Absolutely true!  I've looked at miles of microfilm of old newspapers and it takes some getting used to.  Accidents and death from all causes are reported in blunt detail. Also they didn't seem to worry much about being sued for expressing their opinion of the behavior of the citizenry either. 

I have a big file of stories of truth more interesting than fiction.

Edited October 16, 2019 by Suzn

[Blergh]

20 hours ago, Jadzia said:

As a genealogy nerd with subscriptions to several old newspapers, I am always amazed at how much dirty laundry used to be published in newspapers and often in a very gossipy and salacious way. Instead of social media, they just published everything in the paper.

I was actually surprised that Dr. Gates didn't point this out, that this kind of reporting was actually pretty common back then.

Even articles about accidents back then were often very graphic and gory. I often look up articles about my ancestors and then get lost for hours reading some of the other weird stories in the newspaper!

Sad but true. However; the famed sharpshooter  Annie Oakley would put a damper on this by 1910 after winning 51 of 55 libel cases she launched against the rags. Lead by William Randolph Hearst, they had printed interviews from a cocaine addict  in 1904 claiming to be her and said rags  continuously repeating  the other woman's claims as though it was the Gospel Truth . They had completely disregarding the fact that Miss Oakley herself had been badly injured in a railroad accident and the reason she was out of circulation was due to her trying to recover her health before she had the insults to her very real injuries!  Alas, she wound up paying more in legal expenses than the bounty of the judgments in her favor but at least she did serve notice that they couldn't print stuff without making SURE it was accurate without risking consequences (as would Carol Burnett in 1981). 

 To bring this back ontopic, I'm sure Miss McCarthy's ancestresses would have preferred to keep their factual marital schism out of the papers (or at least more tactfully related). 

[bybrandy]

On 10/16/2019 at 11:19 AM, 2727 said:

Melissa's family being put on blast in the local newspaper was hilarious, but only in retrospect.

My grandmothers sister was killed as a result of a domestic violence incident with her husband who was also her pimp.   This very gory details were printed in the local paper and that was painful enough, I'm sure, for the family.  

However, it was reading these articles in the local library years and years later where my cousin learned that his mother had been a prostitute.  

On 10/16/2019 at 2:40 PM, Jadzia said:

As a genealogy nerd with subscriptions to several old newspapers, I am always amazed at how much dirty laundry used to be published in newspapers and often in a very gossipy and salacious way. Instead of social media, they just published everything in the paper.

On 10/16/2019 at 2:03 PM, Mermaid Under said:

I didn't find anything about their stories interesting or unusual.  Except for new

information about types of clowns.  Who knew?

Old time newspapers are totally old time Facebook especially in small towns.  love them.  

No, seriously, when I found myself googling types of clowns as I watched so I could learn more, I knew this episode was't really holding my interest.

I liked both celebs.  I like the show in general but this one was pretty dull for me.

[biakbiak]

Skip revealed that he was not a fan of Modern Family because Eric’s character Cam has actually explained the different types of clowns on the show and his charcter’s  clown persona, Fizbo, is also an Auguste who has made several appearances.

[bybrandy]

1 hour ago, biakbiak said:

Cam has actually explained the different types of clowns on the show and his charcter’s  clown persona, Fizbo, is also an Auguste who has made several appearances.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I've seen every episode of Modern Family and while I believe you that Cam has explained this (and I remember seeing Fizbo several times) I had no recollection of Cam explaining the types of clowns.

[biakbiak]

24 minutes ago, bybrandy said:

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I've seen every episode of Modern Family and while I believe you that Cam has explained this (and I remember seeing Fizbo several times) I had no recollection of Cam explaining the types of clowns.

It was in the episode called Fizbo in season 1 where we first meet him. Can’t find the full clip but the auguste part is a gif.

https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/2ea90815-d744-44b9-a6ce-42e23850d0ab/gif

Edited October 21, 2019 by biakbiak

[Suzn]

8 hours ago, bybrandy said:

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I've seen every episode of Modern Family and while I believe you that Cam has explained this (and I remember seeing Fizbo several times) I had no recollection of Cam explaining the types of clowns.

I remember the episode with Cam explaining the types of clowns.  What surprised me was that Eric Stonestreet originated the clown Fizbo prior to being on the show. I hate clowns...

[zoey1996]

So we’re into the “encore episodes” until January.  Even the reruns are fascinating family stories.  I appreciate the lower key responses that aren’t overly dramatic and don’t broadly attribute a characteristic that could easily be “nurture” as much as “nature” (heredity).

[Yeah No]

3 hours ago, zoey1996 said:

So we’re into the “encore episodes” until January.  Even the reruns are fascinating family stories.

Thanks for that bit of information.  So I guess that's why my DVR hasn't recorded anything since the Melissa/Eric episode.

[deirdra]

On 10/16/2019 at 1:40 PM, Jadzia said:

As a genealogy nerd with subscriptions to several old newspapers, I am always amazed at how much dirty laundry used to be published in newspapers and often in a very gossipy and salacious way. Instead of social media, they just published everything in the paper.

My grandmother was orphaned at age 6 and there was a tiny article in the Ottawa Citizen asking if any relatives wanted to take her.  She had several living aunts & uncles, and one did take her on, though his wife treated her like Cinderella.  When Gma was ~12 she moved in with the neighbours who treated her like one of the family (she also babysat their 6 boys) and we've all kept in touch.  It wasn't until Gma was ~70 that I asked how exactly she was related to these "cousins" and she explained that she wasn't related at all.  She did spend some summers on a farm with a different (blood) uncle, but during the school year and until she got married, she lived with the nice neighbours.

Thanks for mentioning the encore episodes - I've changed my DVR settings to include repeats!  I often find tidbits that didn't really hit me when watched the first time.

Edited November 4, 2019 by deirdra

[One Imaginary Girl]

Jimmy Kimmel was a guest recently on Martha and Snoop's Potluck Party Challenge, and he mentioned to Martha that they have something in common: when he had the DNA test on Finding Your Roots, it revealed that he and Martha were matches. I wonder why the show didn't show this.  

[shapeshifter]

2 hours ago, One Imaginary Girl said:

Jimmy Kimmel was a guest recently on Martha and Snoop's Potluck Party Challenge, and he mentioned to Martha that they have something in common: when he had the DNA test on Finding Your Roots, it revealed that he and Martha were matches. I wonder why the show didn't show this.  

My first guess is that Martha didn’t give permission at the time of the airing.

[biakbiak]

11 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

My first guess is that Martha didn’t give permission at the time of the airing.

Or it wasn’t part of the story of Jimmy’s family history that they told. They film for several hours so not everything makes the ep.

Edited November 23, 2019 by biakbiak

[Driad]

Best and worst reactions to surprising ancestral news? In "The Pioneers" (not new but I just caught it) Neil Patrick Harris was told that an ancestor of his was accused of witchcraft. He said things like "I like magic" and "I hope she really was a witch." Not the worst, but why do so many guests act as though everything is about them? Does Prof. Gates ask them (off camera) to relate their ancestors' experiences to their own personalities?