Watching Sitcoms

I must be losing it, cause I meant to talk about the different stereotypes of the kids on The Secret Life of the American Teenager. First off, there was Amy, the “nice” girl, who plays french horn in the the school band and who had sex at summer band camp and is now pregnant, but has not yet found the nerve to tell her parents, played by Molly Ringwald and Mark Derwin.

The band’s drummer, Ricky, the school bad boy, is the guy who got her pregnant. His goal, apparently, is to sleep with as many random women as possible, in some way as payback for his father, who sexually abused him as a child. He sees a therapist or counselor, played by Ernie Hudson, who mostly spouts words of wisdom on deaf ears.

The bad boy has a pseudo girl friend, the sultry school vixen. Adrienne does have sex, but has made him hold out for the third date. She did not seem to mind, however, having sex with the big football jock, Jack, even without a date, even though he has a girlfriend, Grace.

She’s a pretty, shiny blond, just a little too sexy cheerleader, who comes from a shiny, happy WASP family, complete with Barbie and Ken parents (played by Josie Bissett and John Schneider), and a brother with Downs Syndrome. They are Christians, and Grace has promised her family that she will not have sex until she is married, and she won’t get married until after medical school. Hence, her Christian boyfriend slipping with the school bad girl.

There’s also the geeky guy, Ben, who is starting to fall in love with Amy - after just one date. Of course, there are various other and assorted people, like Amy’s two best friends, a perky little redhead who is on the yearbook staff, and a snooty black ballerina with a very commonsense attitude. Geeky guy also has friends, a small Asian chick, who likes to spout stats on teens and sex, and guy of unspecific ethnicity. There’s also a new, very young looking, counselor, who is Latino. Clearly, this is an all American, all ethnic kinda school.

I just saw a new show on ABC Family called The Secret Life of the American Teenager. I’m not sure how much of a family show it is, since it comes with a warning beforehand, but it did air at 8 pm ET.

I wasn’t sure if I was gonna watch it, but I had DVRed a couple of eps and since I had a little time this morning, I watched the first one. I only saw one ep, so far. I actually decided to watch it because saw that Molly Ringwald, John Schneider and Mark Derwin were in the cast. And I like all of them.

It was fairly typical of a teen show, mostly about sex, and with various necessary stereotypical teens. You know, all the kinds of kids you have to have when you have a high school. Although, I didn’t see any actual mean kids, at least not yet.

I thought the acting was a little stiff, and it seemed like they all didn’t know each other, which felt weird to me. I went to a fairly small high school, I guess, may 1,000 kids, like 350 in my class, and everyone knew everyone. It wasn’t liked we were all friends or anything, but we knew each other to say “hey” to. It just felt like this was the first day in a new school for everyone. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t even the first day of the year or anything like that, but it felt that way. That’s uncomfortable.

But for all that, I’m still interested in seeing what happens next.

Even when I didn’t have any actual sitcom stuff to blog about, I used to at least talk about what I was watching. But as it turns out, I’m not watching much of anything. Mostly cause there’s nothing much on to watch right now. Well, there is Doctor Who (on Fridays at 9 pm ET on SciFi), which still has a few more weeks. But other than that, its all repeats.

Luckily, next Friday, July 18, is the start of the seventh season of Monk and the third season of Psych on USA, at 9 pm and 10 pm ET, respectively. In the meantime, remember there’s always hulu.com, where you can watch all sorts of sitcoms and other shows as well. I went through the list tonight, just to see how many sitcoms were actually on there. I counted 8, just in the A’s and the B’s. I had actually started watching Arrested Development and I haven’t finished, so maybe I can keep busy with that until next Friday.

I also noticed that they had ALF on there. I have an ALF story. Back when ALF was on, it was opposite MacGyver (which, unfortunately, is not on hulu). I loved MacGyver, but didn’t care for ALF, however, my mom insisted on watching ALF, even though she generally fell asleep during it and I ended up watching it alone. There’s actually no moral to that story, or even much of a point, it’s just that I always remember that when I think of ALF.

Oh, there are also a few eps of both Monk and Psych on hulu as well. Hopefully, there’s enough to keep us all busy until Fall.

I just watched a video clip. It was from the pilot episode of a potential new sitcom called Teachers. The pilot seems to revolve around the life of a young, fresh-faced teacher named Tim Donnely, who is heading off for the first day of his new career.

I couldn’t tell you who all the actors were, because I didn’t really recognize them, but I did see one face I knew. Apparently, Constantine Maroulis, who finished in sixth place on American Idol Season 4, is a bad tempered music teacher, who considers himself a musical genius. But also, he appears to be playing himself, which is a little scary. Watch the clip and you’ll see what I mean. Here’s the clip:

I did a little research to see if I could find anything else out about this show, but so far it doesn’t even appear as a blip on anyone’s radar. It turns out there was another sitcom in 2006, also named “Teachers,” also with a fairly unknown cast (although I did recognize Kali Rocha from Buffy the Vampire Slayer), and that one only lasted 7 episodes. I don’t know if it was exactly the same premise cause there wasn’t too much info on that one either. I did see that that show was a copy of a show from the UK, so maybe it was different.

As for the Constantine version, I’d like to see it get picked up, just to see what he can really do. But honestly, after watching that clip, I doubt it. It didn’t seem too funny to me, but then Cavemen got picked up last year, so I guess anything is possible.

Talking about Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman got me to thinking about the other evening soap opera sitcom of that same time, Soap. The DVDs are available for all four seasons of Soap. Personally, I’m a little excited about that. When Soap first came out in 1977, I was still in middle school and the entire show was pretty risque. I imagine that after all this time it probably comes across as more tame. Unlike Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, Soap was shown during prime time, but it still dealt with issues that most other shows of the time didn’t discuss. It also had what I believe was the first openly gay character on TV. The story lines revolved around two sisters and their crazy family, dysfuntional families, and dealt with issues like infidelity, racism, religion, mental illness and impotence.

The cast included Katherine Helmond, Richard Mulligan, Cathryn Damon, Billy Crystal, Ted Wass, Robert Guillaume, and Diana Canova.

Most of them have gone on to do lots of other shows. Katherine Helmond was recently Debra’s mother on Everybody Loves Raymond, another great sitcom, and she was a voice in that movie, Cars, too. Robert Guillaume had a spin off to his own show, Benson, which was more mainstream and also really, really funny. Of course, we all know that comedian Billy Crystal turned out to be a major star. Soap wasn’t his first bit of acting, but it was before his stint on Saturday Night Live. Plus, Billy was one of the voices in Cars, as well.

Not only did the show have lots of great stars, there were also lots of guest stars worth watching, like Robert Urich, Howard Hesseman, Jack Gilford, Doris Roberts, Sorrell Booke, and Robert Englund.

If you’ve never seen Soap, you should check it out.

My husband and I were watching some random movie the other day. Don’t even ask me what it was, cause honestly, I don’t remember. Anyway, the mother of one of the character’s was familiar. My husband couldn’t name her, but right away, I recognized Louise Lasser.

I have fond memories from my youth of Louise Lasser as Mary Hartman in Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. I’m sure I was probably too young to watch it at the time, as it was considered quite racy because of the topics it dealt with and, even though it was a sitcom, it didn’t air until 11:30 pm. It was more like a soap opera than a sitcom, but that was the point. It was supposed to be a parody of soap operas, hence the double name . . . people always said things twice in soaps, or so Norman Lear felt. The show also aired every day, five days a week, with no repeats, and it had no live audience or laugh track.

Along with Lasser, MH2 (as it was sometimes known) also starred Greg Mullavey, Dody Goodman, Mary Kay Place, Graham Jarvis, Debralee Scott, Martin Mull, Dabney Coleman, Marian Mercer and Doris Roberts. Some of those names should also be familiar.

MH2 was only on the air from January of 1976 until May of 1977, but because it aired five episodes a week, there were hundreds of eps. You can order some of them here from Amazon or Deepdiscount.

Also, just so you can see the kind of strange, funny, weirdness that was Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, here’s a video of Mary and the Librarian:

Apparently, turkeys can fly. Well, at least wild turkeys can fly. We have some wild turkeys around this area, and I’ve never seen them flying, but I guess they do. I read a story from Canada (Niagara-on-the-Lake, actually, which is, by the way, a very nice little town to visit, and only about 45 minutes from where I live ) where a wild turkey flew into a school bus. Fortunately, no one was hurt (well, they were all a bit shocked, and one girl was taken to the hospital after being hit with some flying glass, but nothing too bad), and the turkey just walked away.

Remember that ep from WKRP in Cincinnati? I loved that ep, Turkeys Away, which orginally aired on October 30, 1978. Mr. Carlson (Gordon Jump) had this idea for a Thanksgiving turkey giveaway. Les Nessman (Richard Sanders), the news guy, was reporting live from the grocery store parking lot while turkeys were thrown out of a helicopter, with a banner attached to it saying “Happy Thanksgiving From WKRP”. Now that would have been crazy enough if these had been dead turkeys, what with something that heavy falling from the sky into a parking lot full of cars and people. But they threw live turkeys out of the helicopter, not realizing that turkeys can’t fly. It was funny and scary and gross, all at the same time. It was great ep and even better, you can watch it here at hulu.

It got me to thinking about how we remember the craziest things. I mean, that episode was back in the 70’s and yet, not only did I immediately think of it when I read the article, the person writing the article mentioned it as well. Clearly, sitcoms

Last night, I finally saw Hairspray. Call me cheap if you want, and it’s true, but I just don’t see the need to pay money to go see a movie in a theater, when I can just as easily wait a little while and see it for free on my big screen TV with surround sound, comfortably in my jammies. Beyond that, I am already paying for cable, and HBO, and Starz, and HBO on Demand, and Starz on Demand, and . . . you get the picture. So I just keep track of what’s coming to On Demand when and then I watch it. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is coming on June 23 and I’m very excited.

Anyway, back to Hairspray. I really liked it. My husband left about halfway through cause he couldn’t take any more singing. The wimp. But I’m a big fan of musicals. As a matter of fact, just last week we saw Grease (or at least I saw it; my husband does actually like Grease, but there was still too much singing) and The King and I (which my husband avoided at all costs). In any case, watching Grease and Hairspray, reminded me yet again why I like John Travolta so much. Not too long ago, I saw the first DVD of the first season of Welcome Back, Kotter. (You can buy them here from Amazon.) It was great. I keep meaning to get back to the library and get the rest of the eps. In any case, back then I was talking about John Travolta and how great he is at everything he does:

I’m always amazed at how many different genres in which he has performed and excelled. He’s been in comedies, dramas and musicals. He has sung and danced, delivered jokes and acted as the evil bad man, and he’s been believable. Plus, he’s been successful in both small and big screens . . . not many actors are versatile enough to do well on both TV and in movies.

. . . and now he’s proven that he makes a pretty good woman, too!

Am I the only person in the world who remembers that they just did an Incredible Hulk movie like 3 years ago? Seriously. The new Incredible Hulk movie is coming out on Friday, and I just can’t help wondering why someone thought it was a good idea, since the other movie was such a big hit. OK, for any slow students out there, that was sarcasm.

I didn’t actually hate the other movie, unlike so many other people, but then I’m a big comic book geek. Also, I loved Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno in the series, which was pretty lame in retrospect. (By the way, if you are interested, you can get the DVDs for that series here.) But still, what is the reasoning behind making another movie? The same movie. I mean, I’m sure the movie will be different, but you’re starting with the same premise and working with all the same characters, right?

When I first saw the promos, I thought it was going to be sequel and I wondered why. Then I saw it was going to actually be another movie and I really wondered why.

So if there’s anyone out there who has a clue, please tell me. I mean it. I’ve read a little about it and its almost like no one is even acknowledging the previous movie. Like it never existed. This confuses me. I would expect people to at least comment on the first movie. To say why they think there’s another movie being made, or to explain it all away for someone like me. Cause I have an enquiring mind.

Since my last couple of posts have been about food, and since I have to keep thinking of stuff to write about, I started thinking about this movie I like, Christmas in Connecticut. I know its only June, but Christmas will come eventually. It does every year.

If you’ve never seen it, you should check it out this year. Its one of those movies I try to watch each year around the holidays. I’m talking about the 1945 version, by the way. And what, you ask, does that have to do with me and food? Well, the story is about a journalist, Elizabeth Lane (played by Barbara Stanwyck), who writes a famous home making column, where she talks all about her farmhouse home, her husband and baby, and what wonderful meals she has made. The thing is, Elizabeth doesn’t have any of those things, she’s single, she lives in an New York apartment, and she can’t cook.

Then her boss, Alexander Yardley (Sydney Greenstreet), invites himself and a returning war hero to spend Christmas with her family on their farm. In order to save her job, she has to think fast, and hilarity ensues. Elizabeth agrees to marry John Sloan (Reginald Gardiner), a long time suitor she has consistently rejected. As it turns out, he owns a farm in Connecticut, and it seems like the perfect solution. The housekeeper there even watches babies for mothers working at a local factory. Elizabeth’s good friend, Felix (S.K. Sakall), a chef agrees to come and cook, as well.

Then Elizabeth meets Jefferson Jones (Dennis Morgan), the war hero, and things get really out of hand.

The difference is, I really can cook.

I need money, cause I’ve been off work so long. Well, maybe “need” is a strong word, but I want it. Then my sister tells me that she has direct deposit with the IRS, so she got her tax rebate check like two weeks ago. Apparently, if you trust the government with your bank account information, they reward you. I don’t trust the government, so I had to do some investigating to see when we’ll get ours. As it turns out, not soon enough.

The IRS site advises that the “economic stimulus payments” will be issued according to the last two-digits of the main filer’s Social Security number. For joint filers, the payments will go out based on the person listed first on the return. Payments will be made by either direct deposit or paper check, consistent with how people filed their 2007 tax return.

So here’s the schedule for DIRECT DEPOSIT:
Last two SSN digits: Payments will be transmitted
no later than (and received by
the end of the day of):
00 through 20 May 2
21 through 75 May 9
76 through 99 May 16

Which means, of course, that all those trusting people have already received and, possibly, spent their check. If you are like me, though, you are still waiting. Paper checks will also go out according to the last two-digits of the main filer’s Social Security number. But they didn’t even start to go out until all the direct deposit people had money. Why not, I wonder?

Anyway, here is the schedule for the PAPER CHECKS:

Last two SSN digits: Payments will be mailed
no later than (and received
a few days after):
00 through 09 May 16
10 through 18 May 23
19 through 25 May 30
26 through 38 June 6
39 through 51 June 13
52 through 63 June 20
64 through 75 June 27
76 through 87 July 4
88 through 99 July 11

You then need to allow some extra time for actual mail delivery, they say 3 to 5 days, but with our mail, it could be two weeks.

There was also some other info about people who didn’t file their 2007 taxes on time, and other reasons why you might not get your check according to the schedule. If you’re interested, you find it all at IRS.gov.

All I know is, I gotta wait at least another month to get my money. *sigh*

I know this isn’t a recipe blog, but I figured I’d share the Cherry-Apricot Cobbler recipe, too, since it was so good. Someone might care, right?

Anyway, its really simple. I use a baking mix, like Bisquick, about 2 cups (it depends on your pan size, really, but the ratios will be the same no matter what size the pan is) and a cup of sugar, some cinnamon, about a cup to a cup and half of milk and a teaspoon of vanilla. Mix that all together and put it in your buttered pan. A metal or foil pan works better and makes a crispier cobbler. If you want it more cake-like, a glass baking dish will work.

Next, I had a can of apricots halves in syrup, which I cut into quarters and scattered them over the top of the baking mix. Then a can of cherry pie filling, just scattering it around, and then poured the juice from the apricots over the top. Finally, I melted a stick of butter and poured it over everything. You bake it at 350 degrees for about an hour. Keep an eye on it, and once the top gets all browned and bubbly, it’s done. You can really use any kind of canned fruit with this, its awesome with peaches, too. Then I serve it warm with heavy cream poured over it, or with ice cream.

I’m just still not feeling well, and when that happens, I want lots and lots of comfort food. For those of you that read about my being sick, believe it or not, I’m now on my third antibiotic, plus some weird ointment and some other meds. It’s crazy. But I have faith that I’ll feel better some day. Meanwhile, I’ll be in the kitchen eating.

Food is my life. That’s gonna be the name of my cooking show, if I ever get a cooking show of my own. Which is doubtful. But if I did, I’d just cook all sorts of different stuff, both good for you and not so good for you. But all good. I just told my husband today, I’m too good of a cook to always cook healthy food. I made a cherry-apricot cobbler for dessert the other night and, on our diet, none of the ingredients would be legal. We are all always on a diet at my house, because we’re all overweight. But then, these days, who isn’t? I mean, am I right?

Anyway, I watch a few different cooking shows, and I never talk about them. One show I love is 30 Minute Meals. OK, Rachael Ray can be a bit much at times, but she’s good and she’s taught me a lot of shortcuts to use that do save time. I generally need more than 30 minutes, but still and all, I do cook faster than I used to, and I think I’ve become an even better cook. I’ve been cooking since I was really young, like 11 or 12 years old, cause it was just me and my mom and she worked really long hours. So I made dinner. At first, it was a lot of macaroni and cheese and stuff like that, but eventually, I learned.

Now, I usually cook with all fresh ingredients (no box mixes for me), and I generally don’t bother following recipes, cause I don’t really need them cramping my style.

Last night, I made this really great pasta dish that we all loved and which was perfectly legal on our eating plan. My husband said it was good enough to entertain with and it was super easy. If you’re interested, I’ll share it, but I warn you, I don’t measure anything.

It was Shrimp and Artichoke Pasta. I chopped and sauteed a small onion and four cloves of garlic in some chicken stock (I make my own, without salt), about a 1/2 cup of white wine, and a couple of tablespoons of lemon juice, and let the onions and garlic get all soft and mellow. I then added some crushed red pepper flake, fresh ground black pepper, parsley (fresh or not), and one can of artichokes (you could probably use frozen, too, but I had a can). I dumped the juice out and rinsed them off, and cut the hearts into quarters, first. Then I cleaned and thickly sliced a small package of white button mushrooms, but any kind would work, and added those. I’m a firm believer in using what I have.

Once all the veggies were looking good, I added some medium sized already cooked shrimp. I get the packages of frozen shrimp from Aldis and keep them in the freezer. Just dump them into a bowl with some cold water and they thaw out within a few minutes. I always de-tail them before adding them to anything I’m cooking, cause I hate having to deal with the tails when I’m eating, but you do what you want. After about 3 minutes, which is all the shrimp really need, I added about 2 or 3 handfuls of grated Parmesan cheese (OK, this is not strictly legal, but its worth it!) to the sauce and it thickened right up.

In the meantime, I had cooked some rice pasta, any kind would work, but we had spaghetti. Then I threw the cooked pasta into the sauce and mixed it all around and we ate. And ate. It was really good and had no salt, wheat or fat.

Best of the West. Did I talk about this show before, or did I just think about it? I do that sometimes, I think the whole thing out, just in my head, and then never get a chance to write it down. Then I forget everything I thought out that was so witty. Or whatever. Then I either forget about it entirely, or just think I already did it. So, I’m not sure about Best of the West and I’m too lazy to go back and check.

Best of the West was a western comedy back in 1981. And look what I found on YouTube:

This is just a few minutes of one of the eps, but it gives you an idea of what the show was like, for those of you, unlike me, who don’t remember it very well. I remember it really well. That Meeno Peluce (he’s related to Punky Brewster, you know) was such a little cutie, and Tracey Walter, who played Frog, was just so hilarious.

One episode I remember particularly well was about the railroad coming into town. The man who determined where the railroad would go was very religious. Since they wanted the railroad, they decided to pretend they were religious, too. They converted the saloon into a church, and draped the dancing girls in sheets, stationing them along the stairway, to be the choir. They start to sing the hymn, Rock of Ages, but no one knows more than just the title, so they keep singing that over and over to the tune of the song, “rock of ages, cleft for me” pause, “rock of ages, cleft for me” and so on. For some reason, that struck my mother and I as very funny and whenever we hear that song, we always sing it that way. Just goes to show you how people remember silly things.

The writer of the show, Earl Pomerantz, has a series of posts in his blog, entitled “Story of a Writer,�? where he talks about Best of the West and how it came to be. He mentions another funny bit in one episode where the wife is sweeping the floor and complaining that she can’t get all the dirt up, when the husband points out that it’s a dirt floor. Again, silly, but one of those things you remember, even nearly 30 years later.

I also found this link, to someone who has created a DVD of the show and is selling it. I might just have to get those.

I’ve been sick. For a really, really long time now and it just sucks. Plus, I lost my job. Well, see, it was like this. It’s like I read once somewhere. I think it was Shirley Jackson, or maybe it was Erma Bombeck, one of them anyway, who wrote about how whenever anyone else in her home was sick, like her husband or one of her kids, it was like the end of the world. They got to be as sick as they wanted and she had to take care of them. But when she got sick, she just had to keep going and no one noticed. She said she used to fantasize that the doctor would stop in for some reason, take one look at her and say she was so sick she should be in the hospital and how dare they not take care of her. That kind of thing.

That’s what its been like for me. I knew I hadn’t been feeling well for a long time, months. Maybe longer. My neck was killing me and I’d lost my voice. Even before my mom had surgery and I’d spent the entire month of October being a nursemaid, while trying to do all the other stuff I needed to do, which included my very full-time job and teach our choir’s sopranos to sing a dozen Christmas songs, I wasn’t well. Going into November, I was exhausted. I kept trying to get a day off to rest, but it wasn’t happening. I asked to take off the week of Thanksgiving, just to have “me” day, but it was a no. I had, I think, something like 17 people here for dinner on Thanksgiving, so I asked if I could take off just Tuesday and Wednesday to get ready. Tuesday was a no. So I took off just Wednesday and spent the entire day running at full-tilt to get everything ready. It was actually on that Tuesday, November 20, that I started to lose my voice. But I just kept going. All though the crazy holidays.

But when I finally gave in and went to see the doctor in late January, it turns out I was actually sick. Apparently, parts of my neck are fused together. Also, that little nagging laryngitis issue I had had for over 10 weeks? Turns out I had a hemorrhage on my left vocal cord. So I had to go through voice therapy and the doctor put me on disability cause he didn’t think it was a good thing for me to talk too much. My job is all talking. I actually had to stop talking for like five full days at first. Completely. It was very hard.

I loved my job. But, honestly, I don’t think my boss believed I had to be off work, cause she knows how much I wanted to take off and she wouldn’t let me, for months, and she probably felt guilty and mad all at the same time. So when the doctor finally released me to go back to work in April, my boss was real strange about it, like she didn’t know what I was going to do. I found out later, that she had already given my desk away to someone else. She had locked me out of my email a while before that, and I started to worry then, but I still thought I’d have a job when I got better.

Well, I found another position, but only part-time, which was what the doctor recommended for the first little while. I was supposed to start this week.

Guess what? I’m sick again. This time I have a bacterial infection of some sort, all over my face. At first I thought it was shingles, and I had to go to the Emergency Clinic cause my doctor’s office was closed. They told me it was a sinus infection and a staph infection, and put me on an antibiotic. I was on it for about five days when I could get in to see my own doctor. My doctor said it was some sort of bacterial infection, but wasn’t sure what exactly. He sent me for some blood work and put me on another antibiotic. Now, I’m completely nauseous all the time, as well as being all itchy and red and swollen in the face. I’m absolutely miserable. And I’ve been sitting around off work for nearly 4 months now.

You’d think with all this free time I’d have been able to watch more sitcoms. But it just hasn’t happened.