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papermoonloveslucy · 3 years

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THE HEALTH FARM

May 7, 1950

"The Health Farm” is episode #87 of the radio series MY FAVORITE HUSBAND broadcast on May 7, 1950.

Synopsis ~ Liz and Iris are fed up with their husbands taking them for granted, so they check in to a fat farm.

This episode features elements that later went into the “I Love Lucy” episodes “The Diet” (ILL S1;E3 ~ October 29, 1951) and “The Charm School” (ILL S3;E15 ~ January 25, 1954). Lucy Carmichael and the Countess Frambois went to a fat farm run by Mr. Mooney in “Lucy and the Countess Lose Weight” (TLS S3;E21) on February 15, 1965.

“My Favorite Husband” was based on the novels Mr. and Mrs. Cugat, the Record of a Happy Marriage (1940) and Outside Eden (1945) by Isabel Scott Rorick, which had previously been adapted into the film Are Husbands Necessary? (1942). “My Favorite Husband” was first broadcast as a one-time special on July 5, 1948. Lucille Ball and Lee Bowman played the characters of Liz and George Cugat, and a positive response to this broadcast convinced CBS to launch “My Favorite Husband” as a series. Bowman was not available Richard Denning was cast as George. On January 7, 1949, confusion with bandleader Xavier Cugat prompted a name change to Cooper. On this same episode Jell-O became its sponsor. A total of 124 episodes of the program aired from July 23, 1948 through March 31, 1951. After about ten episodes had been written, writers Fox and Davenport departed and three new writers took over – Bob Carroll, Jr., Madelyn Pugh, and head writer/producer Jess Oppenheimer. In March 1949 Gale Gordon took over the existing role of George’s boss, Rudolph Atterbury, and Bea Benadaret was added as his wife, Iris. CBS brought “My Favorite Husband” to television in 1953, starring Joan Caulfield and Barry Nelson as Liz and George Cooper. The television version ran two-and-a-half seasons, from September 1953 through December 1955, running concurrently with “I Love Lucy.” It was produced live at CBS Television City for most of its run, until switching to film for a truncated third season filmed (ironically) at Desilu and recasting Liz Cooper with Vanessa Brown.

MAIN CAST

Lucille Ball (Liz Cooper) was born on August 6, 1911 in Jamestown, New York. She began her screen career in 1933 and was known in Hollywood as ‘Queen of the B’s’ due to her many appearances in ‘B’ movies. With Richard Denning, she starred in a radio program titled “My Favorite Husband” which eventually led to the creation of “I Love Lucy,” a television situation comedy in which she co-starred with her real-life husband, Latin bandleader Desi Arnaz. The program was phenomenally successful, allowing the couple to purchase what was once RKO Studios, re-naming it Desilu. When the show ended in 1960 (in an hour-long format known as “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”) so did Lucy and Desi’s marriage. In 1962, hoping to keep Desilu financially solvent, Lucy returned to the sitcom format with “The Lucy Show,” which lasted six seasons. She followed that with a similar sitcom “Here’s Lucy” co-starring with her real-life children, Lucie and Desi Jr., as well as Gale Gordon, who had joined the cast of “The Lucy Show” during season two. Before her death in 1989, Lucy made one more attempt at a sitcom with “Life With Lucy,” also with Gordon.

Richard Denning (George Cooper) was born Louis Albert Heindrich Denninger Jr., in Poughkeepsie, New York. When he was 18 months old, his family moved to Los Angeles. Plans called for him to take over his father’s garment manufacturing business, but he developed an interest in acting. Denning enlisted in the US Navy during World War II. He is best known for his roles in various science fiction and horror films of the 1950s. Although he teamed with Lucille Ball on radio in “My Favorite Husband,” the two never acted together on screen. While “I Love Lucy” was on the air, he was seen on another CBS TV series, “Mr. & Mrs. North.” From 1968 to 1980 he played the Governor on “Hawaii 5-0″, his final role. He died in 1998 at age 84.

Gale Gordon (Rudolph Atterbury) had worked with Lucille Ball on “The Wonder Show” on radio in 1938. One of the front-runners to play Fred Mertz on “I Love Lucy,” he eventually played Alvin Littlefield, owner of the Tropicana, during two episodes in 1952. After playing a Judge in an episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” in 1958, he would re-team with Lucy for all of her subsequent series’: as Theodore J. Mooney in ”The Lucy Show”; as Harrison Otis Carter in “Here’s Lucy”; and as Curtis McGibbon on “Life with Lucy.” Gordon died in 1995 at the age of 89.

Bea Benadaret (Iris Atterbury) was considered the front-runner to be cast as Ethel Mertz but when “I Love Lucy” was ready to start production she was already playing a similar role on TV’s “The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show” so Vivian Vance was cast instead. On “I Love Lucy” she was cast as Lucy Ricardo’s spinster neighbor, Miss Lewis, in “Lucy Plays Cupid” (ILL S1;E15) in early 1952. Later, she was a success in her own show, “Petticoat Junction” as Shady Rest Hotel proprietress Kate Bradley. She starred in the series until her death in 1968.

Ruth Perrott (Katie, the Maid) does not appear in this episode.

Bob LeMond (Announcer) also served as the announcer for the pilot episode of “I Love Lucy”. When the long-lost pilot was finally discovered in 1990, a few moments of the opening narration were damaged and lost, so LeMond – fifty years later – recreated the narration for the CBS special and subsequent DVD release.

GUEST CAST

Elvia Allman (Mrs. Fataway) was born on September 19, 1904 in Enochville, North Carolina. She started her performing career on radio in the 1920s, as both a storyteller and singer. This led to work voicing cartoon characters for Warner Brothers. Simultaneously, she was pursuing stage acting, appearing at the Pasadena Playhouse. Allman made her film debut as an actress in 1940’s The Road to Singapore as a homely woman who pursues Bob Hope. Allman played the strident forewoman of Kramer’s Kandy Kitchen in “Job Switching” (ILL S2;E1). She would return to the show as one of Minnie Finch’s neighbors in “Fan Magazine” (ILL S3;E17) and as reporter Nancy Graham in “The Homecoming” (ILL S5;E6). She made two appearances each on The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour“ and ”The Lucy Show.“

EPISODE

ANNOUNCER: “As we look in on the Coopers today, we find George in his office at the bank. Suddenly, the door bursts open and in strides Mr. Atterbury, his boss.”

Mr. Atterbury is upset that somehow Liz’s girdle got entered on his balance sheet. George is worried about Liz. She has been buying lots of new clothes lately. Mr. Atterbury tells him the trick of combating new clothing bought by wives. When they try it on and ask “How do you like my new dress?” you say “What new dress?” They immediately return it as looking just like her old one!

Liz and Iris are out shopping. Liz shockingly says she’s not going to buy anything today. She is doing it because of George’s concern about her budget.

They see a sign: GET YOUR SPRING TUNE-UP! WE CAN MAKE A 1950 MODEL OUT OF AN OLD WRECK! SPEND 11 GLORIOUS DAYS AT FATAWAY FARM

Liz sees some ‘dirty words’ that tempt her: “Gigantic Clearance Sale!” Liz attempts to turn her back away from temptation, but when somebody is looking at the same dress she likes - she give in to temptation.

Liz and Iris arrive home with their shopping. They go to the bedroom to put Liz’s new things away: a dress, a bag, and shoes. She now has to think about what lie to tell George before the bill arrives in a month. Iris tells her that George won’t notice if she wears the dress because husbands only notice OTHER women!

IRIS: “Every time I get a new dress I show it to Rudolph and he says ‘What new dress?’ and as long as he doesn’t know it’s new, I keep it!”

Iris dares her to put the new dress on and see if George notices. George comes home and Liz takes the dare. Liz parades in front of George in the new dress. Just as Iris said, George doesn’t notice anything. She finally breaks down and asks him about her new dress.

GEORGE: “What new dress? I’ve seen it a hundred times!”

Liz is indignant that George takes her for granted and bursts into tears.

ANNOUNCER: “As we return to the Coopers, we find Liz and Iris Atterbury down at the corner drugstore. Iris is trying to console Liz, who believes George takes her for granted.”

LIZ: “What are you supposed to do when you think that you’re the apple of your husband’s eye and find out you’re the core?” IRIS: “You’re not alone, Liz! The world is full of single apples and married cores. It’s part of living.”

Iris tells Liz that she’s expecting her husband to act like a fiancé! Liz realizes she’s let herself go. She’s taken herself for granted. They remember the ad in the beauty shop and decide to go for the free tune-up - if not the whole overhaul! They decide to tell their husband’s that they are staying at Marge Van Tassel’s country place.

At Fataway Farms, they arrive at the office. Mrs. Fataway (Elvia Allman) greets them, and outlines their plan. They get scared of their fierce founder, but they are locked in!

Mrs. Fataway leads Iris and Liz in exercises, which they struggle with mightily. Next Liz and Iris try out the steam cabinets.

LIZ: “If they don’t come soon, they’ll have to pick me up with a blotter.”

Liz is a limp rag when Mrs. Fataway finally opens the cabinets. She announces a two-mile hike!

LIZ: “Keen dipped in pickle juice.”

On their hike they finally reach their destination. They have the option to ride back or march back. Liz is to weak to even express an opinion, and ends up walking back.

After 11 days, Liz and Iris arrive home, feeling rejuvenated and revitalized! Their husbands greet them with affection.

George notices that Liz looks thin and calls her a plucked chicken. Liz breaks down in tears.

GEORGE: “I didn’t want you beautiful. I want you just the way you were.”

Liz is relieved and starts to gorge herself with food! Iris is just about to join in, when Rudolph stops her!

MR. ATTERBURY: “I like you just as you are now!”

End of Episode

In the live Jell-O commercial tag, Lucille plays a siren from ancient mythology and Bob LeMond a sailor being lured toward the rocks.

Lucille’s first line as a siren is to imitate a police siren. She then lapses into a chirpy, pinched nosed voice.

LUCILLE / SIREN: “Oh, sailor! Oh, sailor boy! I have Jell-O tapioca pudding!”

He asks her if she has Jell-O orange coconut tapioca.

LUCILLE / SIREN: “A wonderful blend of refreshing orange and tropical coconuts?” BOB / SAILOR: “Yes! Do you?” LUCILLE / SIREN: “No. I just wanted to see what happened.”

The siren lures him to the rocks. The sound effects end with a motorboat crashing with a big boom!

ANNOUNCER: “Watch for Lucille Ball in today’s issue of Parade.”

#My Favorite Husband #The Health Farm #Lucille Ball #Richard Denning #Bea Benaderet #Gale Gordon #Bob LeMond #Jello #Elvia Allman #Health Farm #Fat Farm #I Love Lucy #The Lucy Show #CBS #Radio #1950

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eggoreviews · 5 years

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E3 2019 Nintendo Direct - BREAKDOWN

Oh wow. That big ol direct sure was something. So now I’m here to break down everything that happened in unnecessary fashion and give my personal reaction to everything that happened with my tried and true Excitement Rater. Want to see my heavily scientific and not at all arbitrary process? Then click down to see the deets.

Before we kick off my (very very scientific) breakdown of this year’s packed direct, I thought I’d briefly go over how I rate things:

A random string of letters/numbers = Immeasurable excitement

YEEHAW BABEY = Big excitement

Heck Yeck = Vague excitement

Yeah! = Not really excited, but still could be good

Sure, why not? = I’m more confused than excited but sure

Oh = The excitement isn’t there

Oh no = Used on the rare occasion I really don’t like what I’ve seen

The Hero from the Dragon Quest series in Smash!

After a brief montage of some games that already came out I guess, the direct jumps straight into an ominous shot of World of Light baddie Dharkon, followed by a seemingly hopeless fight between Link and one very possessed Marth. Then the Luminary turns up gloriously on his horse. With all the leaks that had been flying around for so long, I think pretty much everyone had accepted the presence of Dragon Quest at this point and I was totally stoked when this happened! I love Dragon Quest! And my boi from 11 is here, along with a few other DQ veterans as alt swaps and a pretty awesome looking stage overlooking what seems to be the land of Erdrea and the World Tree. Now to wait until summer and hope the Smash team have some sick ass remixes for us when the time comes!

Excitement Rating: YEEHAW BABEY

Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition

In a move that makes it a lil obvious that DQ’s Smash addition was more than a little commercially minded (not that I really care I’m still big hyped), a trailer for the expanded edition of the series’ latest installment follows. Seeming as I’ve already played this, I doubt I’ll be picking it up again but I still heartily recommend the game to any JRPG fan. Admittedly, the fact you apparently get to explore worlds from past games is pretty exciting.

ER: Heck Yeck

Luigi’s Mansion 3

In a way I thought was surprising, Nintendo’s first proper focus of Luigi’s Mansion 3 actually took up more time than Animal Crossing, but I guess that’s because it’s further along in development. We now know that the game is set within a haunted hotel and had some new gameplay features shown off, including the various ways Luigi can succ a ghost. Most exciting I think for me was the various multiplayer aspects, such as the local co-op option to play as Gooigi and the seemingly challenge and minigame-based ‘Scarescraper’ which I think incorporates online co-op too. Overall, this is looking to be a creative and well thought out entry in the series and I’m here for it.

ER: Heck Yeck

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance - Tactics

A licensed tie-in game for a thirty year old film feels a little odd, but I suppose stranger things have happened. This looks to be a sort of top-down tactical thingy involving the various characters from The Dark Crystal and for some reason Netflix is involved, I don’t know, but I guess it could be interesting.

ER: Sure, why not?

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening

The adorable remake of this classic Game Boy title seems to be coming along great and this direct’s extended trailer gave us a good look at what we’ll be exploring come September 20th. The overhaul Koholint Island has had is phenomenal, giving us designs for Link and various other characters that we’ve never seen before and that makes this remake look especially unique. Another very exciting aspect for me was the dungeon builder that looks like great fun! You collect different dungeon parts as you go and then you can build and explore your own! Am I a goblin child or does that sound like the best thing ever?

ER: YEEHAW BABEY!!

Trials of Mana / Collection of Mana

I’ll admit I’m not really familiar with the Mana series, but from what I was shown in this direct, it looks to be a fairly standard JRPG. That’s definitely not a bad thing, as most JRPGs are amazing, but nothing in this trailer really stood out and came into its own. That being said, the gameplay and graphics look pretty solid and I’m sure the Mana fans have been fairly starved for content for a while so that’s something to look forward to. On top of this remake/new game with the same title as an older game (I really don’t know), the Collection of Mana containing the series’ first three games is being released real soon on the eShop.

ER: Yeah!

The Witcher III: Wild Hunt - Complete Edition

Following a few scattered rumours, we finally have confirmation that a Witcher 3 port is in fact in the works, coming packed with all the game’s DLC. This basically legendary RPG is not one I personally had a great experience with, but I’m sure a lot of people are gonna be happy to play this in handheld. I’d keep expectations tempered however, with the likes of Assassin’s Creed 3 and Saints Row the Third proving that these ports don’t always function brilliantly on this platform.

ER: Yeah!

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Yet another and probably our last Fire Emblem trailer was shown in this direct, giving us a better look at how the story might play out and what our villains are going to be. With most of the gameplay features explored in the previous February direct, it’s good to have a slightly better idea as to what’s actually going on in terms of story and, to me, the results seem pretty damn good. Definitely one to keep an eye on!

ER: Heck Yeck

Resident Evil

In a slightly unnecessarily convoluted advert, we were given a two minute reel of two teenagers playing the original RE in tabletop mode in an abandoned house (??), along with the kind of less than exciting announcement that we’re getting the two weakest entries in the series for Switch, RE 5 and 6. I probably wasn’t the only one who felt a little passive about this whole thing. That being said, definitely not complaining about 1 & 4 being ported over.

ER: Oh

No More Heroes III

After the very slightly disappointing Travis Strikes Again, I really wasn’t expecting them to drop a trailer for the series’ third mainline installment so soon after. What we’ve seen looks pretty much like classic Travis, with a smidge of gameplay seen that looks just a bit more like what we’re used to. Of course, with this being the first reveal, there’s still a lot to find out but this looks very promising.

ER: Heck Yeck

Contra: Rogue Corps / Contra: Anniversary Collection

I’m not gonna pretend to be familiar with the Contra series, but this doesn’t at all look like what I’ve seen in the past. Honestly, this seemingly tactical shooter didn’t elicit much excitement from me and neither did its rushed character drops or its oddly rough textures. I’m unsure of actual fan reactions to this, but in my mind this one kind of sits in the ‘guess this exists’ category. As well as this, we got a shadowdrop for the Contra Anniversary Collection, whereas Rogue Corps comes on September 24th.

ER: Oh

Daemon X Machina

In what seems to be almost a mainstay in Nintendo directs, we’ve got another vague trailer for this mech shooter that finally has a confirmed release date of September 13th. The gameplay looks harmless enough, with the mechs seeming to be a blast to pilot, but beyond that, I can’t really see a lot of substance that would draw me in beyond the cool robots. I’m sure it could be good, but not really one for me.

ER: Yeah!

Panzer Dragoon

I was completely unsure of what this one was, but it looks a bit like a cross between The Last Guardian and those bullet hell sections from Kingdom Hearts 2. They’ve certainly nailed the smooth graphics and the cool looking creatures, but this one is mostly a case of needing to know more.

ER: Yeah!

Pokemon Sword & Shield

This one’s obviously a title so monumental that it consistently needs its own directs, but there wasn’t any *real* news about it in this direct. We were given a brief explanation as to how the Pokeball Plus works in conjunction with the games (something to do with taking your Pokemon for a walk) and the fact that we’ll see more gameplay during Nintendo’s Treehouse streams. Still, excitement remains pretty high for these titles.

ER: Heck Yeck!

Astral Chain

This game, to put it bluntly, looks awesome. The newest Platinum Games IP seems to be set in Blade Runneresque futuristic city with an alien threat and some cool ass looking fighting police people. Our second proper look at this game has cleared up a few murky doubts as to what exactly is supposed to be happening, so now we’ve got a much better idea of what this game is going to be. The story seems pretty full and polished, the gameplay looks like brilliant fun and I’m definitely not mad at the cool monster designs. This is one I’m definitely watching.

ER: Heck Yeck!!!

Empire of Sin

I know very little about what this game is supposed to be, but it looks to be a 40s gangster XCOM, substituting alien fighting marines with gun toting mafia dudes. The trailer went for style over substance, giving us an edgy visual thing of some burning playing cards and broken bottles, but the little gameplay we saw looked decent enough and may just end up injecting more variety into this genre.

ER: Yeah!

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order

An obvious pick for any Marvel fan, this hack-and-slash is jam packed with various heroes and villains from the comic series’ rich history. Ghost Rider and Elektra were among those revealed to be playable, while the likes of Mysterio, Hela, the Destroyer, Doctor Octopus, Surtur and MODOK are seemingly part of growing cast of villains. Looks like a good bit of fun if nothing else, though the immediate presence of a season pass is a tiny red flag.

ER: Yeah!

Cadence of Hyrule

In an unexpected but greatly welcomed crossover between Nintendo’s RPG titan Zelda series and the indie developed Crypt of the Necrodancer, a new rhythm based dungeon crawler with some brand new Zelda remixes and the presence of Link and Zelda as playable characters. This game’s retro graphics look totally adorable and the addition of the Gohmaracas were a definite highlight.

ER: Heck Yeck!!!!!

Mario & Sonic at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games

Tell you what, this definitely looks like a Mario and Sonic Olympic Games game. There looks to be a decent amount of variety in terms of what sports are involved and with its online multiplayer, there’s no shortage of vaguely cartoon sportyness to be had with friends both real and virtual. I’d be lying if I said I was totally disinterested because it does look a bit fun, but we all know it won’t be anything groundbreaking.

ER: Yeah!

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

In a fairly drastic formula change, Nintendo have decided to strand us on a desert island rather than move us innocently to another village, but Tom Nook is still here and oh yes he’s coming to collect his bells. From this surprisingly brief trailer, most of Animal Crossing’s core gameplay seems to be intact, with the return of craftable items from Pocket Camp, and the sudden bombshell that the game has been pushed back to March next year. Never going to be a bad thing if the finished product is all the better for it, but I guess that just means more info is to come!

ER: Heck Yeck

Highlight Reel

In what looks like a list of honourable mentions, Nintendo gave us a laundry list of other titles coming to the system:

Spyro Reignited Trilogy is joining Crash on the Switch with his acclaimed remaster trilogy.

Hollow Knight: Silksong, the prequel to the original game, looks just as charmingly dark as its predecessor.

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is showing up I guess, but I’ll come out and say I know nothing about it except that it looks cute.

Minecraft Dungeons looks better than it has any right to be and looks a bit like blocky Diablo I guess

The Elder Scrolls: Blades sure exists and I’m unsure of what it’s trying to be, but whatever quells off the need for Elder Scrolls 6 I guess.

My Friend Pedro, another strangely unique title from Devolver Digital, looks like it somehow incorporates banana peels into its combat system.

Doom Eternal looks like Doom always does, but a distinct lack of gameplay may put its dual release with the other consoles into question.

The Sinking City with its Lovecraftian inspiration looks totally brilliant and looks to be a unique experience for sure, so eyes firmly open for this one

Wolfenstein Youngblood definitely looks all Wolfenstein-y, but rumours of Dishonored-like sandbox levels has definitely piqued my interest.

Dead by Daylight still looks unfortunately a bit eh, with its slightly not great graphical quality from what we’ve seen in the trailers.

Alien Isolation was an extremely odd one, but I’m not gonna say no to more good horror content on the console.

Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles seems to be continually delayed, but they’ll probably get round to it eventually.

Dragon Quest Builders 2 looks adorable and I’m very into the idea of Dragon Quest Minecraft, so sign me up.

Stranger Things 3: The Game looks a little more SNES-like in terms of graphics than its 8 Bit mobile predecessor, which is definitely a decent step. An obvious pick for fellow fans of the show.

Just Dance 2020 is definitely a Just Dance game. Yep, sure is. I even checked. And it is.

Catan is a tabletop game of sorts, but I really couldn’t figure out what kind from that few seconds of vague footage.

New Super Lucky’s Tale looks like Bubsy, but actually good and worth real money

Dauntless looks like a bit of a Monster Hunter clone, but you know, doesn’t look terrible.

And lastly, Super Mario Maker 2 was tacked on the end there to remind us all that Nintendo is taking our money in 2 weeks.

Banjo-Kazooie become Smash Ultimate’s 3rd DLC Fighter

Just when we all petering out a little and the hype seemed all but dormant, they go and drop this on us out of nowhere. While I personally don’t have an attachment to the bear and bird, I’m fully aware of their significance and how much they mean to a lot of people out there. And that excitement ended up being contagious, so this fact coupled with a pitch perfect reveal trailer has got me hugely hyped to see these guys join the fight come autumn.

ER: YEEHAW BABEY

Sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

And now, dear reader, for the reveal that removed my scalp and cut out my eyeballs. At first, I was totally confused as to what this could be. And then I recognised the symbols, and then my perfect lil Hyrule eggs come on the screen and it’s all spooky and there’s dead Ganondorf and I don’t clock the fact that I’ve just screamed out loud. A direct sequel to my absolute favourite game of all time is happening and it’s real and I get to live another adventure in the best game world ever crafted all over again. I think it’s safe to say I have transcended the definition of hype when it comes to this one.

ER: AAA!!! AA!!! GFFGF!!! THIS!!! ZELDA!!!! HGGGG!!!!

So there’s my probably a little stupid breakdown of everything Nintendo bestowed upon us this E3. Guess I’ll jump in after the next direct to give you yet another heavily scientific analysis of its events. Or I’ll babble at you until I start punching the keyboard. Either way, happy trails my dudes. Don’t let the hype bugs bite.

#e3 #e3 2019 #zelda #loz #the legend of zelda #mario #smash #super smash bros #super smash ultimate #astral chain #fire emblem #animal crossing #pokemon #Luigi's Mansion #dragon quest #final fantasy #nintendo #marvel #resident evil

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samdukewieland · 4 years

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Stuck Inside Media Diary Week 4

On my birthday I made a 100 song playlist for myself with the criteria of choosing my Top 20 favorite bands/musicians, five songs from their catalog-preferably only one song per album-and that was it. This was part-exercise-part-how-do-I-celebrate-myself-and-my-excellently-unique-tastes-on-the-one-day-this-is-allowed. I had already gone through the painstakingly unasked for “challenge” of whittling down of a Top 5 for a project in college and it’s gone unchanged in the past four years, and being the way that I am, I am generally always considering what the Top 10 would be. Anything beyond Top 10 is egregious, but because I was deeply unsatisfied with a 25 song playlist, I just kept going until I settled on 20 and 100.

It then dawned on me (I couldn’t sleep that night, BIRTHDAY JITTERS and all that) afterwards that this is technically a list of what I’d consider to be the top 100 songs and that was just all wrong. I love every song on that playlist; I chose obvious songs and I chose obscure deep cuts that would make yer average me chuckle and say “heh, that one huh?” But if I were asked to make a list of the 100 greatest songs ever recorded, I don’t think I could leave off something like “Hey Jude” (The Beatles) or “Wonderful World” (Sam Cooke) or “The Champ” (Ghostface Killah) and yet I did. What a dweeb.

Sunday, April 12

Starship Troopers, Verhoeven 1997

Listen, I love Paul Verhoeven. This is my least favorite Paul Verhoeven movie and it’s still incredible. And it’s a me issue too (though, I’m not taking all the blame here-this obvious issues here are that there’s no good actor here besides Michael Ironside, Jake Busey and Neil Patrick Harris), though I think that’s part of the point of it. Or at the very least there’s been enough revisionist history and nostalgia slapped onto this thing that Denise Richards gets a pass-“well yeh, she’s bad on purpose” they’ll say; this movie is lemonade.

Three Busy Debras, “Sleepover!”

Probably the biggest difference between Three Busy Debras and Stella (which is what Three Busy Debras reminds me of the most) is that Stella was so unconcerned about saying anything about anything. This is not a knock on Debras, not in the least bit, but that’s ultimately what I landed on when I was thinking about the two next to each other. Three Busy Debras is very good and very, very funny and reminds me of one of my favorite television comedies to ever exist.

Beef House, “Boro”

When I went and saw Tim And Eric’s live tour back in January they were going to show the first episode of Beef House after the main show, but then they surprised us by having John C. Reilly come out as Steve Brule and do a bit with an audience member for like 15 minutes, probably less time. Watch Beef House if you like Tim and Eric, but you already know that if you do.

Joe Pera Talks With You, “Joe Pera Lights Up The Night With You”, “Joe Pera Talks to You About the Rat Wars of Alberta, Canada (1950–Present Day)”

At this point you can tell that I probably just turned on Adult Swim after finishing Starship Troopers and just kept it on, because a Sunday night on Adult Swim is the only thing that could rival an HBO Sunday night. Alright, so I had only ever seen one episode of Joe Pera Talks With You before these two episodes and I liked it fine, but didn’t have great context for it and was probably just not in a great headspace for it. Sure, I liked it fine back when I had watched that episode, but I was not motivated to continue watching it and I didn’t. Until this particular night. I know for sure that I’ll be writing more about it next week, so I’m just going to say now that this makes for incredible “watch before bed” programming.

Mad Men, “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” [Series Premier]

And thus the great Mad Men re-watch has begun. I’ve only watched this all the way through once and that’s when I got caught up on the DVDs for season 4 back was when I was in high school. This pilot is one of the most pilot-y pilots I’ve seen/re-watched in a long while, and maybe it’s so glaring to me because of what I studied in college and how I just generally spend a lot of my time as a person. But it’s a very old fashioned pilot, maybe the last prestige TV classical pilot? You just don’t see very many shows now that have their first episode be as thirsty for another shot as this one is. Not bad, but more just very in your face.

Monday, April 13

Rashomon, Kurosawa 1950 [this might be available on Criterion-I just DVR’d it]

Baby’s first Kurosawa. This one has really stuck with me, just in its simplicity in telling a story and I’m going to stop talking about it here, one because like we really need another 26-year-old white dude talking about Akira Kurosawa movies and two, should I continue to talk about this movie, I will turn even more into what I hate and who I consider to be my arch-enemies: the film school kids.

Parks And Recreation, “Rock Show” [Season 1 finale]

Whenever I start a Parks re-watch, I always start with “Rock Show.” It’s now just in full fledged Simpsons territory that I wouldn’t be able to tell you how many times I’ve seen certain episodes and that it is incredibly comforting to watch where I can turn off brain while watching, but know exactly when to start re-paying attention because of jokes I like. I don’t know when it’ll be as recognized as The Simpsons (maybe it never will be?) or seen as the true predecessor, but it’ll feel good once it does. Though if there’s a show that demonstrated how irrelevant recognition for hard work was, it was Parks.

Tuesday, April 14

The Wicker Man, Hardy 1973 [as of now this is available on Netflix]

I feel confident that I’ve lied to friends of mine about having seen this movie. Pretty easy to do, considering it’s a pretty straight forward story and you can get by with saying stuff like “I mean yeh, it’s just like a pretty fucked up movie.” And it is! on both accounts. Though I guess not as unsettling as I figured it would be, but as soon as the animal masks come out I did get squirmy. That and choir singing folk music with vaguely disturbing lyrics juxtaposed over not totally right images-it’s like the opposite feeling when someone uses “Perfect Day” too ironically.

Better Call Saul, “Bad Choice Road”

Kim. Wexler. I guess what I love about Vince Gilligan is that he zags (though zagging in this case is kind of old fashioned) and saves his big thing to happen for a season’s finale and not the penultimate episode. But he doesn’t rob you of a wild penultimate episode either-just kind of nice and takes confidence.

Parks And Recreation, “Pawnee Zoo”

Wednesday, April 15

Obvious Child, Robespierre 2014 [as of now this is available on Netflix]

Got sick Wednesday night, ralphed twice!, and needed something I absolutely didn’t have to think about. I had started watching this probably like a year and a half ago in a waiting room while my mom was getting some kind of dental procedure done and had never picked it back up after putting 20 minutes down. It’s good, though I think it resonates better for other people than it did with me, but that’s no knock. Loved very dialed in Gaby Hoffmann and it feels like Max Silvestri mighta supposed to originally have the Jake Lacy part, but Jake Lacy is contractually obligated to play this sort of part whenever it is written into existence every year or so. Tough break.

Parks And Recreation, “The Stake Out”

Thursday, April 16

Targets, Bogdanovich 1968

I caught this recommendation from....I think Matt Singer on twitter and also @nextontcm (which is a first tier twitter follow) and man, this thing is great! I forgot that Bogdanovich comes from the Roger Corman school of directing, but ole Rog doesn’t let you forget with this one. It’s a movie I would imagine Steven Soderbergh really likes (and I say that, because The Limey is the only other movie that I know of that uses another movie’s footage in reference to one of the characters in the movie-like I’m sure there’s other, I haven’t seen every movie, leave me alone). TCM’s apparently doing a podcast series on Bogdanovich, which is kind of weird, but he did a short interview with Ben Mankiewicz afterwards and it was hilarious, because surprising no one, Peter Bogdanovich really doesn’t give a shit about what he says anymore.

Top Chef, Season 17 episode 5

This was the first time in Jen’s Top Chef career where she didn’t fall victim to the yips, which shows progress. But it’s also helping make the case that Jen Carroll might be the worst evaluated draftee in all of Top Chef? That sounds harsh, and I have no doubt that Jen Carroll is phenomenal, this just doesn’t seem to be her strength; there’s no rule that says competitive people have to always be good at what they get competitive about.

Mad Men, “Ladies Room”, “Marriage Of Figaro”

It’s weird seeing Don not as partner, but just a dude who’s really good at his job that people respect, but is also not in charge of everything and doesn’t aspire to be in charge of everything. Though not without trying to be in control of everything. I haven’t watched this since I was in high school, so I’ve both forgotten a lot of stuff and also just like know more about life and characters and didn’t realize how sad of a character Pete is. Man, Vincent Karheiser really doesn’t get enough credit for how good he is as Pete Campbell, a character who could’ve easily been just another Christopher Moltisanti (full disclosure: Christopher is in contention for favorite Sopranos character) and is so much sadder in a different way.

However, I’m still just dumb guy, and maybe that’s not the complete reason, but there’s some Betty stuff that is just like not very interesting. I think if they had gone down an avenue of “let’s try and radicalize her with Kennedy” story, that would’ve worked better than other stuff, but I don’t know. Betty’s complicated! But that she has to be the character that bridges Glen’s story to the main one is incredibly detrimental.

Friday, April 17

Parks And Recreation, “Beauty Pagent”

Brooklyn Nine-Nine, “Ransom”

Every season needs at least one Cheddar episode. This is not at all a controversial opinion, but it’s worth saying out loud in case anyone thought differently.

Big Night, Scott & Tucci 1995 [as of now this is available on Amazon Prime]

When Ian Holm isn’t running away with this, Isabella Rossellini (Big Beef and Cheddar in hand) is and when Isabella Rossellini isn’t running away with this, Minnie Driver is and when Minnie Driver isn’t running away with this, Tucci and Sheloub just keep passing it back and forth to each other while Liev Schreiber just silently stares at them from afar. This is a fantastic way to spend a Friday evening.

Mad Men, “New Amsterdam”, “5G”

Saturday, April 18

Parks And Recreation, “Practice Date”, “Sister City”, “Kaboom”

“Practice Date” is the first “modern” episode of Parks. “Sister City” feels like one they had drafted for S1 and just couldn’t figure out how to get it in there (it’s definitely not a bad episode, but it feels way more like steps backward than forward). “Kaboom” is a wonderfully silly episode and a great debut for Aisha Muharrar (who is a Tier 1 Parks writer-please don’t ask me to rank them).

Defiance, Zwick 2008 [as of now this is available on Netflix]

I had never watched this movie, because in the back of my head I’ve always suspected it would be real dumb and bad, because a WWII movie with Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber, on paper, should be something people talk about more, but nah, this thing’s real dumb and bad. But not even fun-bad, just forgettable bad. It’s dumb-guy-Munich.

Mad Men, “Babylon”, “Red In The Face”, “The Hobo Code”, “Shoot”

The Dick Whitman childhood really suffers from Al Swearengen just having a much better “raised by whores” story and also you can tell that Matthew Weiner thinks he’s doing important work by writing this stuff. And not to sound like a blog from 2007-2015, but Rachel really was the perfect match for Draper, holy shit. It’s also this stretch of episodes where Peggy starts to shine and Elizabeth Moss is definitely someone I take for granted, because I don’t really have to think about how good she is, because I know she’s good, but man she is really good at playing Peggy Olson. What an MVP.

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qqueenofhades · 7 years

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Black Sails s4/finale thoughts

Okay, so I caught up on episodes 4x05-4x10 with @thelittleschemer over the past few days, and as such finished the season/series. Now I have many thoughts and need to write them down, welp.

I held off on finishing the show because I didn’t want it to interfere with what I had planned for TDH, and I can definitely say that it did not change anything about what I had worked out for the ending of said fic (which I really need to get around to doing soon). I was pleased to see that there were/will be a few points of concord, but yeah, TDH will definitely remain its own entity/story.

Tagging @prairiepirate and @ransomideas, who have expressed interest in my thoughts on said subject, heh. Under the cut for length and possible unpopular opinions.

Okay, first and foremost: Overall, I really liked it. The writing generally remains some of the best on TV, the acting is phenomenal, and as usual with Starz’ historical dramas these days, the production value is jaw-dropping. The sets, costumes, ships, etc are all just so real, and it definitely set up well for Treasure Island. It finished off its narrative arcs cleanly (or mostly so) and it continues to provide some excellent meaty commentary on the nature of stories, who tells them, who remembers them (hums “Who Lives Who Dies Who Tells Your Story” because lbr, theme song of this whole show) and the roles we play in creating and managing and remembering our own. This show was (and remains) incredibly intelligent and complex and subversive, you have to pay attention to all of it or you’re going to miss important plot developments (and probably still be confused on a few points) and it’s otherwise not at all what you’d expect from the premise (and first few episodes). As I said, just overall really impressive on many levels. The final few episodes also had a very POTC feeling to them, with mysterious islands that nobody can find, ghost stories, swashbuckling sea battles, hidden treasure, and so forth, and that was a lot of fun.

That said: Time to deconstruct it!

My main issue with the second half of s4 was that they seemed to throw all constraints of time/space/travel out the window, especially when it involves the characters sailing long distances at sea over incredibly cramped time-frames. Possibly writing TDH has made me too well-informed in said matters, heh, but they’d have us believe that Jack sailed from Nassau to Philadelphia, back to Nassau, out to Skeleton Island, and then back to Philadelphia in what.... a week? It’s been hard to gauge a reliable timeline for the show, since they’re moving historical events around freely and playing fast and loose with the facts to tell a good story, but we have the Maroons arriving and Madi’s mother saying that pirates from as far away as Massachusetts (which made me briefly hopeful for a Sam cameo, I AM NOT GONNA LIE) have heard of the fall of Nassau and have come to fight. In what... again, a day or so? I realize it’s important to keep the plot moving, and that nobody is actually going to watch two weeks of Jack and Anne stuck on a ship on the way to Philadelphia (although lbr, it’s probably still amusing), but for a show that has prided itself on its gritty realism, it kept taking me out of the story because I was all, NO WAY THEY’RE THERE ALREADY. WAIT. WHAT. THEY’RE BACK AGAIN? OKAY THEN.

(Aka, every historical/historical fantasy show has to contend with the fact that they need to get characters/news to places faster than historically accurate transport can actually take them, so things get compressed and skimmed over and squashed together, etc. It wasn’t enough to ruin anything for me, but I did keep noticing it, so yeah.)

My other issue was the involvement of the Spanish. Once again, I understand the narrative choice behind the decision: they needed a wild card/way to shake things up/break the standoff between the English forces and the pirates, and re-change the balance of power on Nassau. However (and I feel like they were aware of it and tried to finesse it to some degree in the narrative) are we really supposed to buy that the Spanish hate pirates just that bit more than they hate Rogers, agree to sail to Nassau, sack the place good, and then.... pack up and leave, never to be seen again or to have any further involvement with trying to reclaim the Urca gold (which would at least be a full-circle thing)? Within the span of an episode? I feel like the writers needed the shakeup, and to obviously provide an impetus for Rogers’ poor decisions to blow up in his face, but they knew they didn’t have time to adequately deal with the outcome, so we had the Nobody Expects The Spanish Inquisition and then poof, gone. This connects to the other sense I had, which was that they knew they had to wrap things up for the final season and find a way to stop a full-out war from happening, so the Spanish had to disappear after their use as a one-off shit-stirring device, the Maroons and the pirates and the English had to hastily make treaties to avoid said war, and despite a few really excellent action scenes, it still felt, idk, a bit... anti-climactic? As if they wanted a relatively happy ending for these characters (which is understandable) but didn’t have time to play everything out, so it just got compressed and a bit watered down.

Speaking of characters...

I love that the show has such intensive character studies/conversations/setpieces. However, I also feel as if the pacing ended up being a bit off as a result. We kept having long, multi-minute scenes of just two characters talking to each other (and again, exchanging important information in most cases, so you can’t really tune out), followed by a brief action scene, usually followed by yet another long dialogue scene. It’s always enjoyable to see the acting chops on display (I mean, these are not easy scenes to work through and require a lot of line memorization and facial nuance and other skill), but at several points I was wondering when everyone was going to stop talking and get back to the issues at hand -- as noted, if they’d cut some of the talking and focused on solving their plot problems, it could have flowed somewhat more smoothly. It felt as if they went too often to the well of “flashback followed by voiceover explaining plot twist” and had to TELL us information rather than SHOW us. Which again, it’s a good problem to have when your narrative is rich and complex and intelligent and has a lot of moving pieces, but again, everything could just be a bit, well, tighter. At least, that was the overall impression I was left with.

I was successfully kept on pins and needles over Madi’s fate (I had a few choice words when it looked like she was dead) and I hope she and Silver do end up together (I think it’s implied she does come back to him at the end) because I really like that relationship for both of them. It added a bit of selflessness and sympathy to Silver’s otherwise completely self-interested character, as did the scene where Flint presses him to explain his past and he doesn’t; we can tell he simply wants to forget everything that existed before Long John Silver (and I love how both that persona and “Captain Flint” were treated and twisted as distinct narrative entities for both characters) and that his life has probably been incredibly tragic too. He’s just dealt with it differently than Flint (which again, fits with them well as each other’s foils/yin and yang.) Their conversations/one-on-one faceoffs were some powerhouse acting from both Toby Stephens and Luke Arnold, and I appreciated the way things came full circle between them/to the logical end, but with a twist and with callbacks to their relationship in the pilot (as well as Silver finding the cook belowdecks). Madi is also generally a queen of everything and I love that she, a dark-skinned African woman, was made a central love interest and given emotional and narrative power/sympathy in her own right, and that the subject of slavery and her telling off Rogers to his face remained front and center. The show has always been so good with that (and LGBT representation, to the point where it’s a shorter list to think of who ISN’T LGBT than who is) and I really appreciated that.

On the subject of Rogers: Luke Roberts did an incredibly good job. Like damn. You can see the anger and insanity and grief rising and rising in him, but he’s almost scarier because it never breaks the dam entirely, because he’s always (almost always) self-controlled and dangerously calm and driven to do whatever he has to, and yet has no qualms with absolutely anything that is going to take. I was yelling at him for being the worst (and as noting, side-eyeing the decision to involve the Spanish both on a story and a meta level), and rooting for him to get his just desserts, but also genuinely being scared of him and respecting that he was good at what he was doing. You’re aware that he CAN hurt/kill/otherwise cause serious problems for our faves, and you’ve seen him do it, sometimes in gruesome detail. So yes, he served as an effective villain. You never could relax with him on screen, or be quite sure which way he was going next.

As for him and Eleanor, I’m still not entirely sure what to take away from that. I never bought that she genuinely loved him, as Eleanor is way too selfish to do anything, even a relationship, without personal benefit, and she got together with him in the first place as an alternative to incarceration/hanging. Even Flint questions whether her relationship with Rogers is somehow different from all the men she’s bragging about overcoming. Eleanor’s motives/nuances remained opaque until the end -- I believe that she wanted to rule Nassau again, and that she wanted to survive (hence the sad irony in her fate: that everything she did and everyone she sold out trying to save her neck led to her dying anyway) and that she saw in Rogers a way to do it. Likewise, I think he loved the idea of controlling Nassau through her more than her, and that it was easy for both of them to attach their feelings about ruling/controlling this place to the person of the other, to the point where even they might have been fooled/willing to believe it was true (if somewhat twisted) love. Hence as well why neither of them ended up in charge of it, she died, and he was ruined by his wife’s family, but not the wife he expected.

Jack and Anne were, as usual, fab, though as noted, their Super Speed Ship Travel had me side-eyeing hard. I noticed that their story, at least for now, ended far more happily than it does in history. Glad that Max got the chance to come out on top (I never ended up fully connecting to her as a character, but she’s definitely a BAMF).

Billy.... damn. Talk about a 180. Going from the man willing to do anything to keep your crewmates safe from Flint, to shooting them down in the water aboard a boat full of redcoats? Not cool, bro. Not. Cool. (Though I did enjoy the final face-off between him and Flint on the yards.) When that’s contrasted with Flint giving orders to make sure everyone is evacuated from Nassau and nobody is left behind, it strikes you how much they’ve changed places and how Billy has become objectively no better -- indeed, possibly worse -- than Flint, and doesn’t even have Flint’s self-awareness to know it. He has gone down a road by himself, by choice, and which fits fairly well with his upcoming role in Treasure Island/estrangement from the others (real talk, how does he get off?) but which made him pretty hard to root for by the end. I also think it’s no accident that he got paired with Rogers. Both characters are convinced they are acting for a greater good on their respective sides, but both are willing to do anything to achieve it, stubborn and independent to a fault, and unwilling to take any responsibility for their mistakes.

And okay, so... Flint.

He is my favorite and as such, I’ve had to save him for last, since I probably have the most thoughts/investment on the end of his story. In a nutshell: I have mixed feelings. I was convinced that he was going to die for most of the season, so I am obviously happy that he got some measure of solace/happiness/reunion at the end. However, I am also not sure that it wouldn’t have worked better for him to die, or at least leave his fate more open-ended. Hint that Silver wasn’t telling the whole story and that Flint was still alive, but for it to remain ambiguous where he went or what he did or why.

This obviously is a strange place to be for my favorite, but after a season of fairly hard-hitting emotional moments/notes and some pretty bloody action, I almost feel like they chickened out of killing Flint at the end and wanted to give him some happiness instead -- aka, an unexpectedly sunny “Everyone Lives!”-type finale for what has been a pretty dark show. Which again -- I have no problem with, because heaven knows the man deserves some happiness, but I still found myself vaguely unsatisfied with how it was pulled off. See above for my feelings on how well they dealt with the legends/personas of “Long John Silver” and “Captain Flint” in their own right, and I did appreciate that the end of season 2 (Flint wants to leave it behind and settle down with Miranda, but she’s killed) was paralleled with the end of season 4 (Flint does get a chance to leave it behind/is reunited with Thomas). However, on a narrative level, this... doesn’t quite work for me, because Thomas was never built up on-screen to be a character capable of carrying this emotional weight. We saw him only in a few season 2 flashbacks. We saw a bit of his and Flint’s relationship and how that backfired, but all we ever really knew about Thomas mattering to Flint was that we were told he did. We cared about Thomas because we cared about Flint and Miranda, but there was never really enough for him to become any more than a motivating/backstory figure in Flint’s own story.

Hence, I feel as if Thomas worked better as such (a backstory figure) rather than as Flint’s presumably somewhat-happy ending. Yes, I am a diehard Flint/Miranda shipper, but I was more invested in Flint and Miranda’s relationship because of all the time the narrative spent on making me care about it. We saw them together for two seasons. We saw their arguments, their disagreements, their tender moments (”I was hoping to have you all to myself for a few days”/”I recognize you, do you recognize me?” will never not kill me). We saw Miranda fighting to be with Flint and reminding him that she has been loyal and devoted to him for ten years, and him finally accepting that and letting her come with him to Charlestown and the two of them planning to make their home together and leave piracy behind... only for, yeah, welp, noooo. We saw Miranda’s relationships with other characters and we saw her own struggle in how exile had changed her and the sacrifices she had made for allowing Flint and Thomas to be together and the blame she took for the scandal. We had Flint wanting to die and be with her and his flashbacks/dreams of her for half of season 3, and him even saying that this was worse than losing Thomas (”But you... I am ruined over you.”) In other words, I was invested in them because the show spent so much time making sure that I was. I cried out loud when Flint compared Silver’s apparent loss of Madi (the woman he was willing to give up the war for/wanted to be his wife) to his own loss of Miranda. Flint and Miranda were both real characters in their own right, and Thomas just by nature of his role in the story was someone that they had lost and whose memory they still honored. To pluck him out and make him alive again seems a bit, well, pat.

Don’t get me wrong, my super bi ass is definitely incredibly appreciative that Flint, a bi character who has had two great loves in his life (Thomas and Miranda) ended up with his same-gender partner, and that they got to be reunited on screen. But I also feel as if the most poignant and fitting end for his story would either for him to explicitly die, and for his reunion with both Thomas and Miranda to take place in the afterlife (I so wanted that scene of the three of them together again/Thomas and Miranda being there to finally bring Flint back to them) or for his fate to not be spelled out, as it is in Treasure Island. I.e., for it to be pretty clear that Silver didn’t kill him and let him go, but for us not to know where he went or why, and that is why the legend remains and lives on. That way they can have the symmetry of him letting the persona of Flint “go back to the sea,” and to also keep the tragedy and romance and true loss of his story. He HAS changed forever in being Flint. He can’t give that up, he can’t wake from his nightmare. He’s lost everything and everyone (including his ship, poor Walrus). The ending with Thomas was nice enough, but again, I don’t care that much about Thomas in his own right, because the narrative never spent time on making me do that. I am happy FOR Flint because I love him and I know it’s what he would have wanted, but I don’t feel the gut-wrenching relief/sadness/cry-for-days-but-love it that I would have with Flint dying and finally getting to be with both Thomas AND Miranda again, and for us to see them once more as a threesome and a whole. Again, I feel like they ducked out of bringing Flint’s story to a sadder and arguably more fitting end, and while I can’t argue with my fave getting to live, yeah.

Anyway! Damn. That was a long-ass meta. As I said, overall I did like it very much, I certainly had feelings, and the rest of the show was generally so well-written that I can forgive them some pacing and plot hiccups here and there in this season. As I said, this is absolutely one of the smartest and most subversive and diverse shows on TV, and I am sorry to see it end. I would watch the shit out of Treasure Island if they do it (as I think they were kicking around). I just wish they could have hit some even more powerful notes in a few places. But thanks for the great adventure.

#hilary for ts #black sails #black sails spoilers #black sails meta #captain flint #flint x miranda #silver x madi

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kapusoprgirl-blog · 7 years

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GMA Network rewards its viewers with superior and world-class 2017 program launches

GMA Network soars even higher this 2017 as it delivers a new roster of trendsetting and pioneering programs that will surely excite and captivate the hearts of Kapuso viewers.

Produced by the GMA Drama Group, these shows are top billed by only the brightest, hottest and up-and-coming Kapuso actors and actresses in Philippine show business.

First on the list is the original primetime soap Meant To Be. This romantic-comedy series revolves around Billie, portrayed by Barbie Forteza, a struggling millennial who meets four guys with different nationalities: Ken Chan as the Chinese-Pinoy Yuan, Jak Roberto as the Pinoy Macoy, Ivan Dorschner as the Fil-British Ethan, Addy Raj as the Indian Jai. All four boys will fall in love with Billie. Joining them in Meant To Be are Manilyn Reynes, Sheryl Cruz, Tina Paner, Keempee de Leon, Sef Cadayona, Mika dela Cruz, Stephanie Sol, Zymic Jaranilla, and Ms. Gloria Romero. Under the helm of LA Madridejos with Renei Dimla as head writer and Hazel Abonita as Program Manager, Meant To Be premiered last January 9. The primetime series is also a clear winner in nationwide ratings after consistently beating its competition during its pilot week.

For its Valentine offering, the Kapuso Network brings to light the much awaited soap Destined To Be Yours starring the phenomenal love team—Alden Richards and Maine Mendoza. In the story, Alden breathes life to the character of Benjie, a hardworking and charming architect who wants to acquire a piece of land owned by the family of Sinag played by Maine. Sinag is a loving daughter who works in a radio station in their province. She deeply cares for the environment and the community she belongs to. Anticipation is high for the first ever primetime soap of Alden and Maine which will definitely be an exciting treat for viewers of all ages. Completing the powerhouse cast are Lotlot de Leon, Gardo Versoza, Dominic Roco, Sheena Halili, Ina Feleo, Juancho Trivino, RJ Padilla, Koreen Medina and Boots Anson-Roa. This also marks the comeback of Ms Janice de Belen to the Kapuso Network. After her successful directing stint on the big screen, budding female director Irene Villamor gets her first and biggest directorial job on the small screen as she sits at the helm of this heart-warming primetime show. Des Garbes-Severino is the head writer while Camille Hermoso-Hafezan is the program manager.

Soon to soar viewership ratings is the much-awaited Pinoy remake of the hit Koreanovela My Love From The Star. Ultimate Star Jennylyn Mercado reprises the immensely popular character of Steffi, the popular, beautiful and sought-after actress and endorser. And for the character of Matteo, the extremely intelligent yet cold extra-terrestrial being, GMA Network introduces newest Kapuso actor and heartthrob Gil Cuerva who auditioned for the role. Joining them are Gabby Eigenmann, Glydel Mercado, Christian Bautista, Jackie Rice, Renz Fernandez, Spanky Manikan, Melissa Mendez, Nar Cabico. And to give her own interpretation of My Love From The Star is acclaimed TV and movie director Bb. Joyce Bernal. Des Garbes-Severino is the head writer while Cathy Ochoa-Perez is the program manager.

In line with GMA Network’s Lipad 2017 battle cry, Kapuso viewers are in for something grand and spectacular this year with the launch of Mulawin vs. Ravena. This telefantasya is the biggest production of GMA this 2017 as it presents a one-of-a-kind and extraordinary primetime masterpiece. Mulawin vs Ravena is headlined by Drama King Dennis Trillo. Making this primetime offering extra special is Ms Regine Velasquez-Alcasid as she joins her first-ever full length telefantasya. Featuring the hottest young Kapuso love teams Miguel Tanfelix and Bianca Umali; Derrick Monasterio and Bea Binene. Completing the star-studded cast are Chynna Ortaleza, Dion Ignacio, Winwyn Marquez, Kiko Estrada and Roi Vinzon. And to helm this ground-breaking program are two of GMA’s acclaimed directors Dominic Zapata and Don Michael Perez who is also the head writer of the series. Helen Rose Sese is the program manager of Mulawin vs Ravena.

GMA-7 offers a compelling drama to its Afternoon Prime block with one of Regal Films’ blockbuster movies in 1987 Pinulot Ka Lang Sa Lupa. Set to premiere on January 30, the series is headlined by Julie Anne San Jose, Benjamin Alves, Martin del Rosario and LJ Reyes. With equally important roles are Ara Mina and Ms. Jean Garcia. Joining them are Victor Neri, Allan Paule, Geleen Eugenio, Lharby Policarpio. Directed by Gina Alajar, Pinulot Ka Lang Sa Lupa tackles the life struggles of two women intertwined by lost love. Ali Nokom Dedicatoria is the program manager while Marlon Miguel is the head writer.

Showcasing a story of love, triumph and forgiveness is the original Afternoon Prime series Legally Blind. Kapuso actress Janine Gutierrez tackles her most challenging and mature role as a rape victim who gets blind and who will become a lawyer to seek justice from her perpetrator. She will be paired with two of the Network’s talented leading men: Mikael Daez, Rodjun Cruz. Adding star power to the Afternoon Prime soap are Chanda Romero, Lauren Young, Marc Abaya. Legally Blind is under the helm of actor and TV director Ricky Davao with Christine Novicio as head writer and Redgynn Alba as program manager.

Another intriguing drama that will surely make the viewers’ glued to their televisions screens is the remake of the successful TV series Impostora. It is also the first GMA-produced TV drama adapted by a foreign country. This soap tells the story Nimfa, an ugly street vendor who willingly undergoes surgery and complete facial reconstruction to pretend to be Rosette, a wealthy and beautiful but unhappily married wife seeking to escape her husband. This highly controversial drama is top billed by Kapuso versatile leading lady Kris Bernal and playing opposite her are versatile actors Rafael Rosell and Ryan Eigenmann. Impostora is under the direction of Albert Langitan with Denoy Punio as head writer and Anthony Pastorpide as the program manager.

GMA Drama unveils another original show using the elements of interview, dramatization, actual videos and photos with Case Solved. Kapuso Primetime King Dingdong Dantes is tapped to host this newest docu-drama as he presents to the viewers the know-hows of crime prevention. Under the helm of Direk Albert Langitan, Loi Landicho is the head writer while Nini Matilac is the program manager.

GMA Network continues to offer all-out entertainment as it brings in new shows and adds flavour to its trademark programs.

Beginning January 15, Sunday afternoons will never be the same as the Kapuso Network brings one-of-a-kind entertainment to its loyal viewers with an exciting and fun game show People vs. The Stars. Hosted by the delightful power couple Drew Arellano and Iya Villania, the program allows celebrities to play for a chance to win two hundred thousand pesos (P200, 000.00) via a variety of eight (8) mind-boggling questions with respective cash values. If the stars fail to answer any of the questions correctly, the question’s cash value will be given to the televiewers by answering the “People Question of the Week” through text. People vs. The Stars is directed by Rico Gutierrez.

Celebrity Bluff, the multi-awarded comedy game show on Philippine television, returns to Filipino homes for a bigger and amazingly fun new season. This all-original game show will be hosted once again by award-winning game show host, comedienne and actress Eugene Domingo and award-winning actor and TV host Edu Manzano as the Master Bluffer. Celebrity Bluff promises to deliver wholesome fun, laughter and thought-provoking information for the whole family not as a weekly game show but a daily afternoon fare.

Full House Tonight is another pioneering weekly comedy-musical show top billed by Asia’s Songbird Regine Velasquez-Alcasid. The outrageously hilarious program unleashes a powerhouse ensemble of comedians, actors and musical artists all set to give Saturday nights a whole new experience beginning February 18. Full House Tonight showcases the sultry Solenn Heussaff, teen idols Miguel Tanfelix and Bianca Umali, all around performer Joross Gamboa and comedians Philip Lazaro, Nar Cabico, Tammy Brown, Terry Gian, Sarah Pagcaliwagan and Kim Idol.

GMA Network's Heart of Asia will bring Korea's best drama series this 2017.

The Big One, which will air beginning January 23, is about two doctors trying to save Seoul from a natural disaster and Pretty Woman, a love story that stars Hwang Jung-eum, Park Seo-joon, Go Joon-hee, and Choi Siwon.

Meanwhile, extra-terrestrial and supernatural teenagers will also take over the morning block, with adventure series Lightning Point and Wolfblood.

Kapuso viewers are in for a fantastic treat as GMA brings the blockbuster films to be aired on free TV. These include Jurassic World, Furious 7, American Sniper, Mad Max: Fury Road, San Andreas, Minions, Imagine You & Me, and Enteng Kabisote and the Abangers.

Viewers can only expect better and more innovative programs from GMA Network with the other program launches to watch out for this year including I Heart Davao, D’Originals, Daig Kayo Ng Lola Ko, Project Achieved, Lip Sync Battle Philippines Season 3 and Text Serye.

#gmanetwork #kapuso #2017shows

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papermoonloveslucy · 3 years

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ABSENTMINDEDNESS

February 25, 1949

“Absentmindedness” (aka “Liz’s Absent-mindedness”) is episode #32 of the radio series MY FAVORITE HUSBAND broadcast on February 25, 1949 on the CBS radio network.

Synopsis ~ Liz goes to see a doctor about her absentmindedness, and then reports her car to be stolen when she forgets that George dropped her off at the doctor! Liz takes a memory course. It works in reverse and she ends up with amnesia and George finds himself in jail.

REGULAR CAST

Richard Denning (George Cooper) was born as Louis Albert Heindrich Denninger Jr., in Poughkeepsie, New York. When he was 18 months old, his family moved to Los Angeles. Plans called for him to take over his father’s garment manufacturing business, but he developed an interest in acting. Denning enlisted in the US Navy during World War II. He is best known for his roles in various science fiction and horror films of the 1950s. Although he teamed with Lucille Ball on radio in “My Favorite Husband,” the two never acted together on screen. While “I Love Lucy” was on the air, he was seen on another CBS TV series, “Mr. & Mrs. North.” From 1968 to 1980 he played the Governor on “Hawaii 5-0″, his final role. He died in 1998 at age 84.

Ruth Perrott (Katie, the Maid) was also later seen on “I Love Lucy.” She first played Mrs. Pomerantz (above right), a member of the surprise investigating committee for the Society Matrons League in “Pioneer Women” (ILL S1;E25), as one of the member of the Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League in “Lucy and Ethel Buy the Same Dress” (ILL S3;E3), and also played a nurse when “Lucy Goes to the Hospital” (ILL S2;E16). She died in 1996 at the age of 96.

Gale Gordon and Bea Benadaret had not yet joined the cast in the roles of Rudolph and Iris Atterbury.

GUEST CAST

Hans Conried (Doctor Millmoss / Doctor Grimly) first co-starred with Lucille Ball in The Big Street (1942). He then appeared on “I Love Lucy” as used furniture man Dan Jenkins in “Redecorating” (ILL S2;E8) and later that same season as Percy Livermore in “Lucy Hires an English Tutor” (ILL S2;E13) – both in 1952. The following year he began an association with Disney by voicing Captain Hook in Peter Pan. On “The Lucy Show” he played Professor Gitterman in “Lucy’s Barbershop Quartet” (TLS S1;E19) and in “Lucy Plays Cleopatra” (TLS S2;E1). He was probably best known as Uncle Tonoose on “Make Room for Daddy” starring Danny Thomas, which was filmed on the Desilu lot. He joined Thomas on a season 6 episode of “Here’s Lucy” in 1973. He died in 1982 at age 64.

Conried played Professor Millmoss in “Be Your Husband’s Best Friend” (December 4, 1948).

Frank Nelson (Sergeant Nelson) was born on May 6, 1911 (three months before Lucille Ball) in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He started working as a radio announcer at the age of 15. He later appeared on such popular radio shows as “The Great Gildersleeve,” “Burns and Allen,” and “Fibber McGee & Molly”. This is one of his 11 performances on “My Favorite Husband.” On “I Love Lucy” he holds the distinction of being the only actor to play two recurring roles: Freddie Fillmore and Ralph Ramsey, as well as six one-off characters, including the frazzled train conductor in “The Great Train Robbery” (ILL S5;E5), a character he repeated on “The Lucy Show.” Aside from Lucille Ball, Nelson is perhaps most associated with Jack Benny and was a fifteen-year regular on his radio and television programs.

Frank Nelson previously played Sergeant Nelson in “Liz Learns To Drive” (November 13, 1948) and would play Sergeant Nelson on TV in “Ricky and Fred Are TV Fans” (ILL S2;E30).

Officer Joe is played by an uncredited and unidentified actor.

EPISODE

ANNOUNCER: “As we look in on the Coopers it’s about ten o’clock at night and Liz and George are just coming home. They’ve put the car in the garage and are walking around the house to the front door.”

George and Liz are upset that they drove to the Ricky’s and they weren’t even home. Liz realizes that she got the night wrong and they aren’t due there till tomorrow night. George says that Liz’s absentmindedness is getting out of control. She can’t find her front door key - the fifth one she’s lost this month. They ring the bell and Katie the Maid lets them in.

When Liz explains why they are home so early, Katie says that she’s not surprised - the Ricky’s were there for dinner! Liz invited them for dinner and forgot.

GEORGE (dramatically): “This is getting serious. Who knows where it could lead? First you forget little things; your keys, social engagements. Pretty soon you forget your friends, your family. You forget who you are. They find you wandering in the streets. They take you to a sanitarium. Give you shock treatments. But nothing does any good. And there you are; a nameless nobody!” LIZ (sarcastically): “Thank you, Olivia de Havilland.”

Olivia de Havilland (1916-2020) was a British-American actress whose cinematic career spanned from 1935 to 1988. She appeared in 49 feature films and was one of the leading actresses of her time. In November 1948, she appeared in The Snake Pit, a detailed chronicle of a woman during her stay in a mental institution. It earned her an Oscar nomination. She had been previously nominated for Gone With The Wind (1939) and Hold Back The Dawn (1941) and won for To Each His Own in 1946. She would win a second Oscar for The Heiress (1949). All were highly dramatic roles.

George says that a co-worker took a course in memory training, but Liz doesn’t think she needs that drastic a step. Katie wonders which dress Liz wore to the Rickys. Liz insists she wore the blue one, but Katie says its still hanging in her bedroom. Liz checks under her coat and immediately decides to enroll in the course!

George drives Liz to Doctor Millmoss’s Memory School. He drops her off and takes the car to work. The Doctor interviews Liz and guarantees she can improve her memory. He tells her memory is based on association of idea. To remember her name he associates COO with birds and PER with the purring of cats.

DR. MILLMOSS: “I can never forget that your name is Birdie Katz!”

He tests her on her car license plate number, which is written on her driver’s license: 37MW66. 37 reminds her of George’s age. MW reminds her of Mae West. 66 is the number of the Lincoln Highway.

In reality, Richard Denning (George) was 34 years old when this episode aired.He turned 35 a month later.

Mae West (1893-1980) was a stage and screen performer who capitalized on her sex appeal and was well-known for her scandalous sexual innuendo. Liz did an imitation of West in a 1948 episode “You Matrons League Tryouts”. In a 1977 episode of “Donny & Marie” (above) Lucille Ball did her Mae West impersonation yet again this time in full costume and make-up.

Route 66 was not the same as the Lincoln Highway - except for three blocks - briefly! The Lincoln Highway was the first paved, transcontinental highway, ultimately stretching 3,400 miles, from New York to San Francisco. Route 66, however, is a different, but no less storied highway. It originally ran from Chicago, Illinois, to Santa Monica, California, covering a total of 2,448 miles The two historic highways cross paths only in the town of Plainfield, Illinois. They were one roadway briefly, when the postwar Route 66 Bypass alignment (aka Route 59) met the Lincoln Highway and merged together for three blocks. Could this be the model for fictional Sheridan Falls?

Doctor Millmoss ends the first lesson because he has a house call to make on Bundy Drive. Liz says that since she lives on Bundy drive, she’ll drive him. If she can only find her car keys - and then her car! After a ten-minute search, she decides to call the police from the cigar shop pay phone.

Sergeant Nelson (Frank Nelson) answers the phone and asks Liz to describe the car. She replies that it is a green Nash, which doesn’t clash with her hair. He asks her if she knows her license plate number.

LIZ: “My husband is on the Lincoln Highway and why don’t you come up and see me sometime?”

The quote is Mae West’s signature line, which she first spoke as the character Lady Lou in the 1933 film She Done Him Wrong. What eventually became, “Come up and see me sometime,” began its life as, “Why don’t you come up some time and see me...” Nash Motors was founded in 1916 by former General Motors president Charles W. Nash. It continued to make vehicles even after it was acquired by AMC, who finally dissolved the make in 1957.

Despite the tantalizing offer, Sergeant Nelson agrees to put out an APB for the missing car.

Later, at the Sheridan Falls Police Station, Officer Joe hauls George Cooper in to be booked by Sergeant Nelson. They don’t believe him when he claims to be the car’s owner and vice president of the Second National Bank.

NELSON: “Oh, sure you are. And I’m President Truman. And this is Margaret.” JOE (falsetto voice): “Charmed, I’m sure!”

Officer Joe sings randomly as he locks up George for auto theft!

Harry S. Truman (1884-1972) was the 33rd president of the United States from 1945 to 1953, succeeding Franklin D. Roosevelt after his death. His daughter Margaret (1924-2008) was the only child of Harry and Bess Truman. As such, he was a doting father, who was very protective of his daughter, who fancied herself a classical singer.

Later, Liz arrives at the police station to press charges against the thief. She thinks he should get the ‘hot seat’ (electric chair). Officer Joe brings in George and Liz gasps!

The police are convinced of George’s identity, but to cover up her memory loss, Liz pretends to have complete amnesia! Sergeant Nelson says he knows all about ‘magnesia’ because he reads the medical page of Time Magazine.

Lucy Ricardo pretends to have amnesia in “Lucy Fakes Illness” (ILL S1;E16). “Lucy Gets Amnesia” (TLS S3;E4) on “The Lucy Show” too, but isn’t faking.

Sergeant Nelson and George try to remind her of who she is. George tries kissing her, but to no avail. George promises to forgive her anything she’s ever done. Liz comes to her senses - until George’s tone turns threatening - then back to amnesia. The psychiatrist Dr. Grimly (Hans Conried) arrives and wants to know who “snapped her twig”. Before the doctor can give her a sedative, Liz runs out the door.

Catching up with Liz on the sidewalk, she is distraught that he may not love her anymore. A big smooch fixes everything. Except that now George can’t find where he parked the car! They assume it is stolen and agree that one of them will have report it to Sergeant Nelson. Liz volunteers to be the one since they already think she’s crazy.

During this Liz / George dialogue, Richard Denning stumbles over his lines a bit, but gets back on track.

In “Ricky and Fred Are TV Fans” (ILL S2;E30) Sergeant Nelson (Frank Nelson) accuses Lucy and Ethel of being Sticky Fingers Sal and Pickpocket Pearl.

Before they get there, Sergeant Nelson and Joe are wondering if the Coopers may in fact have been Red Top Rosie and Willie The Weasel, who were also car thieves. Just then, Liz walks in and Officer Joe draws his gun. Nelson accuses them of being Red Top and Willie. She facetiously claims to be Lizzy the Louse and Cooper the Snooper. Dr. Grimly enters.

LIZ: “Uh, oh. Snake Pit is back again.”

The Snake Pit (1948) was hinted at earlier in the episode with the mention of Olivia de Havilland in the context of sanitariums.

Instead of a needle, Dr. Grimly intends to hypnotize her. It backfires and Sergeant Nelson goes under instead! Grimly snaps him out of it, but Liz teases him and says he did a naughty striptease while under hypnosis. Dr. Grimly takes another tact: word association. But after a rapid-fire exchange, Officer Joe reveals that the real Red Top Rosie has been in jail for years. Liz is free to go.

On the street she tells George why it took so long. They suddenly see their car and decide to drive it right home - but it is out of gas. The police race up and want to know where they are going in a stolen car!

SERGEANT NELSON: “Well, what do you have to say this time?” LIZ AND GEORGE: “Where am I?”

End of Episode

Bob LeMond reminds listeners that Lucille Ball will soon be seen in Sorrowful Jones.

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