I don’t know that I’d have the courage to stay at Schrute Farms, so I have to hand it to Pam and Jim for battling the elements and spending the night, even if they did it for nefarious purposes. With all the sobbing and in-your-face antics of Andy, I actually felt sorry for Dwight this week, but he always bounces back.
Jim: “You okay?” Dwight: “I am better than you have ever been or ever will be.”
I have to mention Dwight’s three themed rooms: America, Irrigation and Nighttime. WTF?
“Put the manure down, Moes.”
The nice thing about Pam and Jim is that they saw that Dwight was down and they weren’t willing to make his life any worse. It was great when Dwight reached out to touch Jim in the stairwell only Jim was long gone.
Meanwhile, Michael has got himself in quite the financial pickle. I’m not sure why he doesn’t have the balls to stand up to Jan; I guess he’s still too enamored with her boob job to say anything. His “Die Hard” vs. “Die Hard 4” comparison was hilarious…
“Dude, you should review movies.”
The money troubles led to Creed’s suggestion that Michael declare bankruptcy, which he did a few moments later (to the people in the office) with very little thought. That brought Oscar in for a hilarious assessment of Michael’s finances.
“This scary black bar represents expenses that no one should ever have for any reason.”
I thought Michael’s race for the train was pretty funny, especially when he was trying to time his jump, and finally jumped on just as the train stopped.
Jan found him and the two had a very sweet moment.
Jan: “So where is this train taking us?” Michael: “I think the engineer left.”
Ryan made another funny appearance this week, but it would be nice to see him get down a notch or two. The PowerPoint presentation was pretty funny, especially the back and forth about the correct usage of “whomever” and “whoever.” Michael had a great line when Oscar put in his two cents. He looked at the camera and said, “Not a native speaker.”
“Ask and ye shall receive,” sayeth the good book, and after today, I certainly can’t argue.
Yesterday, I ended my review of “Buried Alive” by hoping that I’d be able to find something…anything…better to watch for today’s Scare of the Day. Lo and behold, this afternoon’s mail call brought just such an item: a copy of “The Paul Lynde Halloween Special,” courtesy of the fine folks at S’More Entertainment, and, people, this thing is awesome.
The show opens with Paul Lynde dressed in a Santa outfit, because…ho, ho, HO!…he’s gotten the holiday wrong! The gag continues with Lynde vanishing long enough to put on a full-body Easter Bunny costume, then reappearing to sing a verse of “My Funny Valentine” (which, thankfully, does not involve him wearing Cupid’s traditional attire). Eventually, however, his housekeeper, played by legendary Maxwell House spokeswoman Margaret Hamilton, buys him a clue; he wishes viewers everywhere a happy Halloween – adding, “Whoopie!” – and it’s off to the opening credits, where you won’t find a more definitively ‘70s list of guest stars without breaking out an episode of “The Love Boat.” Making appearances are…well, let’s not give away the whole game in the first inning.
Given that Halloween is a decidedly child-friendly holiday, it’s no surprise that Lynde only hesitates for about half a second before launching into a lyrically-tweaked version of “Kids,” his signature number from the Broadway musical, “Bye Bye Birdie.” While belting out the song, which includes hip new lines like, “There’s too much Alice Cooper / Not enough Alice Faye,” Lynde is being chased around by dancing young’uns; although they all team up for a chorus line of Rockettes-styled kicks toward the end, the conclusion finds Lynde tied up and thrown in a trash can, with the lid put on by none other than…Donnie and Marie! (They both flash their pearly whites at the camera and give the “OK” sign.)
From there, it’s off to the premise that keeps the rest of the show going. Lynde and Hamilton are off to visit her sister, but when they arrive, Lynde discovers that her sister is none other than Witchie-Poo (Billie Burke), and that his beloved housekeeper of the last 15 years is actually The Wicked Witch of the West. (For trivia buffs, it turns out that this particular appearance is officially the only time Hamilton deigned to put on the whole outfit, makeup and all, onscreen at any point after filming “The Wizard of Oz.”) Turns out that they’d like Lynde’s help in softening the image of witches, and they’re willing to offer him three wishes in return. He’s skeptical at first, which allows for guest appearances by Billy Barty and Betty White, but, eventually, he realizes that they’re serious about their offer.
So what’s his first wish…? He, uh, wants to be a trucker.
One magic wand wave later, and, God help us, Lynde is transformed into Big Red, a.k.a. the Rhinestone Trucker, so called because his driving outfit is a rhinestone-encrusted jumpsuit. (The front of the outfit is open clear down to the middle of his chest, revealing way more tufts of hair than anyone needed to see.) The CB radio jokes fly fast and furious for a few moments before settling into a storyline where we discover that Big Red and another trucker – played by Tim Conway – are both engaged to the same girl. If the CB jokes don’t nail down with some precision as to when this special was made, the actress who plays the girl does: it’s Roz Kelly, a.k.a. the long-legged, leather-clad Pinky Tuscadero on “Happy Days.” I mean, really, how long was the window where she was enough of a “name” to warrant a reference in the opening credits of a special like this one…? It can’t have been more than a year or two, tops. Anyway, the sketch ends up turning into a square-dance-styled number where Lynde, Conway, and Kelly sing and strut around a stage that’s dominated by two 18-wheelers. There’s a reason why they don’t make ‘em like this anymore, but, even so, you won’t be able to take your eyes off the screen.
Next up, it’s KISS! The performance of “Detroit Rock City” is clearly lip-synched, but, fuck it, who cares? It’s the classic foursome in all their glory, so it hardly matters. From there, Lynde wishes himself into the life of a rich sheik that kidnaps a woman – played by Florence Henderson – and tries to woo her to become his bride, in the process sneaking in jokes with punchlines involving “Laverne & Shirley” and “Baretta” (gee, y’think this originally aired on ABC?). Upon his return to the witches’ homestead, they made a request to go to “a real Hollywood disco,” and, shockingly, Lynde says he can make that happen. After a quick raiding of Liza Minnelli’s closet for just the right satin-encrusted jacket, Lynde takes the ladies to a haunted discothèque where…what luck!…Florence Henderson just happens to be performing a disco-fied version of “That Old Black Magic.”
AWESOME.
Perhaps sensing that viewers would be a little too riled up after Henderson’s number, the producers decided to bring the mood down a little. Cut to Peter Criss sitting at a piano in full make-up, offering a heartfelt rendition of “Beth.” Eventually, Criss’s bandmates emerge from the shadows and flank him, and after the song ends, Lynde and Hamilton join them to trade one-liners for a few minutes. (Lynde: “I can take one look at you four and tell you how you got your name and how you got your act: you had a fight, and your mothers told you to kiss and make-up!”) Soon, however, it’s time for Lynde to make his last wish, and he’s so smitten with the foursome that all he wants is for KISS to play another song! Say, guys, how about “King of the Nighttime World”? Done and done.
The show comes to its grand finale with the return of Roz Kelly, as she and Lynde duet on a god-awful song called “Disco Baby,” and all of the guest stars dance around the stage as Lynde hollers out, “I like that funky stuff!” Oh, wait, did I say all of the guest stars? Not true. Donnie and Marie never re-appear again (not too much of a surprise, since they weren’t mentioned in the credits to begin with), and the guys from KISS wisely ensconce themselves in the balcony, only looking down to frown at the shenanigans going on below. Paul Lynde closes by addressing the camera directly and offering his thanks to all the viewers, adding, “I hope that we were a howling success.”
Oh, yeah, I was howling all right…with laughter. As an artifact of the ’70s variety era, this is right up there with “The Brady Bunch Variety Hour.” It’s a must-see.
“He made some big mistakes,” said Feldman, in an interview with US Weekly, “and I am not sure why he made them. I am a bit confused by it all. He has big issues.”
Frankly, we’re a bit confused, too. We figured anyone who’s had as many issues as Corey Feldman has over the years would be a little more sympathetic.
The opening of this episode had the same general feel as the season premiere, where we got to see the Bennets as a semi-normal family unit…um, except for Claire’s little brother. Funny that he showed up later in the episode. I’d already written this in my blog entry before he showed up: “What’s the story on him? Did I miss when he was essentially written out of the show…? I’ve already forgotten if we’ve seen him at all this season, but if we did, it certainly wasn’t for more than about two seconds, given the lack of impact it made on me.” Of course, he still didn’t make any impact on me, but at least I can confirm that he’s definitely been on.
When Claire accepted the application for the cheerleading squad, I instantly thought, “Oh, geez, she’s just stupid enough to do that, isn’t she?” I have to admit, though, that there were moments in the scenes with Claire and FlyBoy that actually felt less fake than their previous one-on-one conversations…well, except for Claire’s lame lie that her dad’s just super protective. (Actually, Claire’s a pretty consistently crappy liar, based on the way she came up with that lame-ass going-to-the-library ruse…but at least she admitted it herself later in the episode.) Overall, though, the romance angle is way too schmaltzy for my liking; I know I’m always blaming network suits and their demographic studies, but, honest to God, I just sense that, over the summer, someone at NBC said, “You know, everyone already knows the whole ‘save the cheerleader, save the world’ line, so let’s make sure she’s front and center this season, too!” Thing is, I’m just not entirely sure that Hayden Pantierre is all that great an actress to warrant that much of the spotlight…but maybe that’s just me. Anyway, I think it’s safe to say that Claire’s totally gonna screw up across the board by being a cheerleader and dating FlyBoy…and almost certainly sooner than later.
Maya and Miguel meet Sylar, eh? I know Sylar’s powers are MIA, but my first thought when they came across him was, “Okay, what would be totally awesome is if Sylar killed Miguel, and then we had to deal with the repercussions of Maya without having her brother to help reign in her powers.” I laughed out loud when Sylar told them his name was Gabriel, but I wasn’t laughing at that look he shot at the camera as he drove away with his two new pals…or, for that matter, when it cut over to dead ol’ Derek, lying in a pool of blood.
This episode is named after Tami’s decision to stay in Dillon and have her baby while Eric left for Austin to coach for TMU. I thought it was odd at the time that Tami would insist on staying in Dillon, but if the Taylors had all left for Austin, there wouldn’t be much of a show to watch.
Tami is hanging on by a thread. It was pretty ironic that she told Glen that he had to connect with the kids and then Julie came into the kitchen and yelled at her. Her rant in Glen’s office was terrific, but not in the usual witty way. Based on the scenes for next week, she may be getting some much needed help soon.
Eric is struggling in Austin, but his interaction with Antwone in the car led to a hilarious line. When the two were talking about Antwone taking gifts from boosters, he said, “This started for me in pee wee. I got ice cream.”
Anyway, the split is just one of the many conflicts within the series, which have given the show a much darker feel than season one, and it seems like the series has lost some of the lightheartedness that made it so great. This has a lot to do with Landry’s situation, which just got a little worse now that he realized that he lost his watch while getting rid of the stalker’s body. Methinks that will come back to bite him at some point. He did have a great line when he met his new rally girl – “Do you think all humans are capable of evil?”
For the moment, the incident has brought Landry and Tyra closer together, and at the end of the episode, it appeared that the unrequited love finally became…um…requited.
There is also less humor surrounding Matt since he’s becoming more and more jealous of Smash and the depression/anger that will no doubt stem from being dumped. (By the way, what is with Smash rapping all the time? That just seems really odd to me.) There is some potential, however, with the introduction of the new in-home nurse. She’s sassy, pretty and is moving in, so I wouldn’t be surprised if something romantic develops between the two now that Julie is out of the picture (for the time being).
Buddy also provided a lot of the humor in season one, and he’s going through his own depression over the loss of his family and over his reduced role as a Panthers booster. His meltdown at the party was painful to watch, but it did lead to a funny interaction between Lyla and Riggins when the former asked the latter about what was wrong with her dad. Riggins responded, “I don’t know, Lyla. Maybe he’s had one too many. What do you think?”
It’s clear that the Riggins/Lyla relationship is going somewhere, but I’m not sure if Lyla is going to drag Tim over to the light side or if he’ll convince her to give up clean living to spend some naughty time with him. It could turn into a battle between Jesus and Riggins, which is especially funny considering Landry’s “WWRD” bit in the first episode.
Finally, I sure hope Jason doesn’t go to Mexico to have experimental spine surgery. That just sounds like a bad idea from the start.
Hey, maybe that was the inspiration for the episode’s title.
