Watching Sitcoms

I had some vague plan of writing a review of Idol Gives Back. But, honestly, I just didn’t care enough. I watched it, mostly in fast forward, but I watched it. I’m just not impressed with star studded variety shows. I’m just not that impressed with celebrities in general. So, I barely know who any of those people were. Sure, I’d heard of them, but I didn’t care.

I did watch a couple of parts, like Fergie singing with Heart. Although, I nearly didn’t recognize Heart. How the heck old are they anyway? Also, I watched Billy Crystal with Miley Cyrus (although not Miley singing, cause why would I?) and Robin Williams with Simon, Paula and Randy. I was good with just watching that much.

So tonight we are on to the results show and we will lose someone. Generally, the shocker week is anywhere between this week (8 idols) and the week with 6 idols. Someone usually goes home who most people think should have stayed longer. Examples are Jennifer Hudson, Trenyce, Constantine Maroulis, Jon Peter Lewis and Nadia Turner. All of them left between this week and the next two weeks. Some of the spoilery stuff I’ve been reading made me think a shocker elimination might be possible for this week, and I’d be OK with that. Depending on who’s getting the shock. Hopefully, it’s Carly.

I think I’ve mentioned before that we don’t seem to have anyone that people really hate this year. I mean, I hate plenty of them, but there’s no one like Sanjaya (there really isn’t!) who people keep asking why is he still on there. I’m not sure I like that, cause the controversy is what makes this show fun to watch.

First off, I note Brooke pouting at the mere idea of someone going home tonight. Get over it, Brooke, that’s what this show is all about and you are not going to win. Next, there is a recap of last night, they raised over $60 million so far, yadda, yadda, yadda. Then they again sing Shout to the Lord, which was the last song from last night. Because the show went over by several minutes, they probably decided that lots of people missed it. I know it got cut off on my DVR.

Then there are some more celebrity appeals and a random celebrity sing along to I’m a Believer. I don’t know why. And I don’t care.

There were 31 million votes Tuesday night, Ryan tells us, the highest so far this season. The best season ever. (I never paid attention before, but it would be interesting to see how many votes are there on a normal night of any season that isn’t “the best season ever.”)

On to the cuts:

First up is Brooke White. We have to find out why she was so emotional on Tuesday. Again, I don’t care. Anyway, she is safe, so I guess she’s not going to her sister’s wedding after all.

David Cook is next. They discussed him being arrogant, smug and pompous. He is also safe. Loud screams and applause.

Now we have David Archuleta. He is safe. (I don’t care enough to mention what he and Ryan chatted about.)

Right now I hate the fact that I am watching this live, cause I can’t fast forward through the commercials like I usually do on cut and chop night. Sigh.

Back from the commercials and into another celebrity appeal; Forest Whittaker in Africa.

Then I have to sit through Jordin Sparks singing with someone I don’t know. Sometimes (and this is one of those times) I wonder why I watch this show. I am so not a Top 40 crap music person. I didn’t like Jordin too much last year, and I hate whatever it was she did tonight. It’s not my style of music at all. Again, I wish I could be fast forwarding right now.

More commercials, more celebrity appeals. Fun Ford commercial to I Just Want to Celebrate.

Back to the results:

Up next is Jason Castro. Lots of screams. Discussion of the price of ukies. (Wow, the one I bought my hubby a few years ago was only $60.) Jason is safe.

Next is Kristy Lee Cook. Kristy is safe.

So the bottom three are Syesha Mercado, Carly Smithson and Michael Johns. Laura may cry. She is out of town and can’t watch tonight, so I have to text her. This is Syesha’s third trip to the Bottom Three since the Top 12. It’s Carly’s second and Michael’s first.

More commercials, more celebrity appeals, Presidential candidate appeals. At least John McCain was funny.

So who’s out . . . Michael Johns. Oh my, Laura is so gonna cry. He looked so sad, I might just cry a little myself.

I found the DVDs for the first season of Mork & Mindy at the library. I remember when this show came out, I must have been in like 7th or 8th grade. I had forgotten, however, that it was a spin-off from Happy Days.

The first couple of eps dealt with Mork coming to earth and showed a “flashback” of him meeting up with Fonzie, who sets him up with Laverne from Laverne & Shirley. I’m putting the term flashbacks in quotes, because that never actually happened on Happy Days, they just made it up for this ep of Mork & Mindy.

It’s pretty confusing, actually, although I don’t remember it being so at the time. The time line is like this: Mork’s first appearance, on Happy Days, was in the episode My Favorite Orkan, which aired on 2/28/78. They ended that ep as though Mork’s visit was all a dream. Once they announced Mork & Mindy for the fall schedule, they added another scene to that ep of Happy Days, which showed in the repeats, where Mork talks to Orson and tell him he made them all forget he was ever there and he is headed off to his mission in 1978.

The pilot ep of Mork & Mindy, with the Fonzie/Laverne flashback, aired on 9/14/78. In that episode, Mork tells Mindy he has been on earth before, and shows the “flashback” of his second visit to earth in the 1950’s.

In reality, the second time Mork is on Happy Days is the episode Mork Returns, which aired on 3/6/79, after the start of Mork & Mindy. In that episode, he actually goes back to see Richie, to talk to him about the problems he’s having adjusting to life in 1979 with Mindy.

Possibly the purpose of the fake flashback was to have both Fonzie (Henry Winkler) and Laverne (Penny Marshall) on this new show filled with pretty much unknown actors (Robin Williams and Pam Dawber) so that people would watch it. And, of course, Mork & Mindy was created by Garry Marshall, Penny’s brother and the creator of Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley.

In any case, Robin Williams is amazingly funny. I think I’d forgotten that. The DVDs are worth watching, just to see him act in his crazy way. Granted, Pam Dawber’s character was a little over the top, but it’s not that annoying.

Once again, we come to the Holiday Season, a deeply religious time that each of us observes, in his own way, by going to the mall of his choice - Dave Barry

I really haven’t any had time to watch TV in the last couple of weeks, but I promise to try to make it up after the holidays. Almost really. Added to the fact that ever night after work I’ve been baking or shopping or wrapping or, like last night, attending our work Christmas party, I’ve also had physical therapy twice a week in the morning. So I’ve lost out on that time that I used to at least try to babble on for a while so I could post something as a blog.

I don’t know about you all, but there’s only 3 days, 12 hours, 53 minutes and 10 seconds until Christmas and I am still not ready. I’ve still got to actually buy actual presents at the actual mall. I’m never this behind so I don’t know what the deal is this year. I guess I really have been busy.

I am very excited though, cause I’ve already received some incredibly awesome presents. My hubby and I broke down and bought a new flat screen 42″ HD TV (our present TV is probably at least 20 years old, so I’d say we were due). So we upgraded to digital cable and DVR, although I haven’t really had time to play with it like I want to yet.

Also, I may have previously mentioned that my DVD player hasn’t been working, so we haven’t been able to watch all the DVDs I got from the library, which included Happy Days and the Bob Newhart Show, even if we had wanted to.

But then yesterday, from my boss, I got a new DVD player with a surround sound home theatre system. Yay me!!! I love my boss and my job.

So as soon as Christmas is over, I’d like to take a week to just sit at home and watch TV. Maybe two weeks.

3 days, 12 hours, 34 minutes, 15 seconds . . .

Dave Barry, Happy Days, The Bob Newhart Show, Christmas, DVD, DVR

To keep going with the sitcom stereotyping, if you go back a few years, women were actually portrayed as the weaker sex, and as needing the strong male role model. Look at I Love Lucy. She was always getting into scrapes and needing to be saved by Ricky. (”Lucy, you got some “splaining to do.” Insert your own fake Cuban accent.) Now, compare Lucy to Raymond (this has apparently become our standard sitcom, against which all others are judged), who plays the buffoon to his strong wife, Debra. Although, that might just be Patricia Heaton, cause she pretty much emasculates Kelsey Grammer in Back To You, as well.

How about looking at parents and children. There used to be shows like Father Knows Best, Leave It To Beaver and Happy Days where the parents were shown as actually being a little smarter than their children. As actual authoritative figures. Compare those shows to something like Married With Children or Aliens in America. I’ve already commented on how obnoxious and annoying the parents came across on that show. I suppose you could argue that the parents of today’s shows are part of the Me Generation (which as far as I’m concerned is a label for the Baby Boomers, and which should not be confused with Generation Me, a label now applied to people born in the 1970’s, 1980’s and 1990’s, but only cause they are even more selfish than we Boomers and want the title for themselves) and as a result, they are more self-involved than the parents of the 50s. That probably started with Michael and Elise Keaton. Clearly, Alex P. was much more evolved than his parents. (But then they were all Boomers, right?)

Obviously, it’s a new world and maybe kids are smarter than they used to be. So what examples can you think of that prove or disprove my point?

I Love Lucy, Everybody Loves Raymond, Ray Romano, Patricia Heaton, Kelsey Grammer, Father Know Best, Leave It To Beaver, Married with Children, Family Ties, Alex P. Keaton, Micahel J. Fox