Any concerns you or I might’ve had about “Jericho” not being able survive for a full season are now officially wiped away with the news that CBS has given the show a full-season commitment.
Sweeeeeeet.
I said it before and I’ll say it again: this is due to CBS’s very wise move of placing the show as the only non-reality show in that timeslot. Good on them.
Here we are, back again, with another bunch of shows…
The Facts of Life: The Complete Third Season – Fortunately, the show’s theme song sums itself up handily: you take the good, you take the bad, you take them both, and there you have…“The Facts of Life.” Except that instead of “good” and “bad,” you’ll want to substitute “cheesy fun” and “occasionally excruciating dialogue.” It ruins the flow of the song, but it’s far more accurate, I can assure you. By this time, the series had settled into its primary five cast members: Mrs. Garrett and her four favorite girls, Blair, Natalie, Tootie, and Jo. Ah, sweet Jo…I had such a crush on you. That must be why I recognize just about every episode here. That’s right, I watched “The Facts of Life.” You wanna make something of it…? Better you should complain about the total lack of special features on this set than my taste in television circa the mid-’80s.
Blue Thunder: The Complete Series – Did the world really need a series based on the Roy Scheider film about a hi-tech police helicopter? Well, considering that a fair amount of stock footage was recycled from the film and that, instead of Scheider, the series starred Dana Carvey, Dick Butkis, and Bubba Smith, I’d say, no, it did not…which would probably explain why it only lasted eleven episodes. Not even a cool theme song and James Farentino in the lead role of Frank Chaney…in no way to be confused with Scheider’s character of Frank Murphy, of course…could save this show from a quick demise. In a nutshell, it’s no “Airwolf.”
Three’s Company: Season Eight – Otherwise known as the last season of everyone’s favorite farce…and I’m sure you’ll be as shocked as I was to discover that there are a fair amount of misunderstandings and ensuing wacky hijinks contained within the plots of these 21 episodes. Only diehard fans will have stuck around for all eight seasons of the series, but the special features – bloopers, reminiscences of John Ritter, and the 30th anniversary special – will thrill that particular demographic to no end.
That ‘70s Show: Season Five – Hey, everybody! Donna and Eric are back together! Some would say the funniest thing about this season is that every single episode is named after a Led Zeppelin song (if you don’t believe me, check out the official episode guide and see for yourself ), but I love this show. It’s a great ensemble. The special features on these sets, however, have dropped off dramatically since the show went off the air; there’s not even a single audio commentary! But on the other hand, Donna wears a Catholic school uniform for most of the season, so, to come full circle, let us return to the “Facts of Life” theme song. You take the good, you take the bad…
Another week, another disappointing episode. I’m sick of complaining about the ups-and-downs of each season, though (since I know the writers will surely make up for it in the end), so I’ll get right to the commentary. Tonight’s flashback was for Jin and Sun, and aside from the usual behind-the-back secrecies, nothing new was disclosed. Oh, except for the fact that Sun was sleeping with that bald Asian dude (Jae) from last season. And seeing as how they’ve only been on the island for three months, it’s still possible that it could be his baby. Not that it matters. After Jin was sent to kill him by Sun’s father, he decided just to scare him into leaving the country. Of course, Jae didn’t take too kindly to the threat, and instead chose to leap from the building to his death. Nice.
Back in present day, Sun and Jin are still hanging out with Sayid on the sailboat, awaiting their rendezvous with Jack and Co. When Sayid notices track marks on a nearby island, however, he plans an ambush on the Others. Unfortunately, it doesn’t exactly go according to plan, and while Sun is temporarily kidnapped (along with the boat), she manages to get out alive. On a side note, it’s good to see Jin finally taking a more aggressive approach to life on the island. He’s obviously capable of being a physical threat, and Daniel Dae Kim has proven himself a capable actor. Just let the guy learn some damn English so he can go places without needing Sun around to translate.
Meanwhile, the Others have put Kate and Sawyer to work breaking up large rocks. There doesn’t seem to be any discernible reason as to why they’re doing this, but some annoying guy says that he’ll shoot them if they don’t. Okay… But seriously, don’t any of these people realize that the Others have built their “empire” based on empty threats? They’re not going to kill you. If they wanted you dead, they would’ve done it months ago when you began poking your nose in places that weren’t yours. Either Sawyer knows this, or he just doesn’t care anymore, because he managed to make a pretty successful play for control by beating up a couple of the goons and stealing a rifle. He must’ve forgot that Kate was with him, though, because she always manages to botch up a good coup d’etat by getting in the way. Oh well, at least he knows all of their strengths and weaknesses now; except the fact they’re watching them via surveillance cameras.
And while I wasn’t at all upset that Kate and Sawyer were given more to do this week, I absolutely hated seeing Jack again. I understand that he’s the main character and all, but the next time you pick a main protagonist, could you please (please) make him a little smarter? I mean, really, how many times are you gonna call Henry Gale’s bluff (I just can’t get use to calling him Ben) before you finally just give in? He knows everything about you. Everything. And no, we don’t know why just yet, but I’m sure the writers will be ready to tell us as soon as they’ve figured it out themselves. Any more questions?
And finally, a new character alert: Paula Malcomson (Trixie of “Deadwood” fame) made her first appearance on the show tonight as Colleen, a tough-girl Other who was shot by Sun on the boat. It was just a gut shot, though, so I’m confident that she’ll be back. Then again, we’ve seen plenty of other characters die the same way…
WARNING: If you missed this episode, head over to CBS’s Innertube and watch it now. Otherwise, we’re getting ready to spoil it all to hell for you.
So we’re four days after the bombs have dropped and one day after the fallout has cleared; people are finally starting to run out of gas, and the attempts to gather more are the major goings-on in the background of this episode.
Eric and his wife continue to have their problems; he pisses her off by having a beer at the bar rather than coming to help her at the clinic, then when he runs around town to get gas to power the clinic’s generators but is beaten to the punch by brother Jake (who, I swear, I hear someone call Jimmy this episode), she basically says, “Yeah, whatever.” So he promptly turns around and – figuratively speaking – spits in the face of her profession as a saver of lives by allowing the out-of-towner with radiation poisoning to have a drug administered that leads to his death. Hopefully, these two will just cut the ties that bind sooner than later and be done with it. Oh, and about the aforementioned out-of-towner, it was a little odd that Gail (Jake and Eric’s mom) seemed to latch onto the task of caring for him so adamantly; I’m wondering if there’s some reason for that.
The ongoing saga of Robert Hawkins and his family is unfolding too slowly for my liking; he’s become progressively more unsympathetic with each episode. In fact, he’s barely the same guy we met in the first episode. Since arriving in town, he’s quickly gone from Mr. Gung Ho to Mr. I-Don’t-Think-So. Obviously, he knows more than he’s willing to reveal – as further evidenced by the fact that he turned out to know the guy with radiation poisoning – but as a character, I wish they’d write him more consistently.
There’s a throwaway line in the episode that I really liked, where Jake and Stanley are trying to figure out who’s going to put the gas in the steel tank, and one of them says, “Remember those pacts we made to live to be a hundred?” It’s about time they once again touched on the fact that these guys have been friends for years upon years. (It was indicated when Jake first returned to Jericho.) I also wish they’d focus more the pairing of Jake and Heather, as we saw a bit of tonight; the flirtation between Skeet Ulrich and Sprague Grayden is nice and realistic.
Additional observations:
* Mark my words, Mayor Green’s cough is a death rattle.
* That paranoid deputy who’s suggesting that the tanks spotted last episode might be Chinese or Korean? He’s gonna end up killing somebody.
* The guy at the gas station being concerned about the fact that his bosses might show up and get mad that he’s given away the fuel was just silly.
* And as far as the complete stupidity of the rich teenagers having a big-ass party…well, I’ve made my annoyance of this subplot pretty clear. To paraphrase “Say Anything,” bitches stay with bitches, and, hey, what do you know? The bomb went off, and their mutant genes DID still form the same cliques!
I was legitimately surprised when Jake led the townsfolk to where the 20 sick people were, only to find them all dead. That was dark. But the way-too-motivational speech by Mayor Green took away any edge it had. Talk about getting CBS’ed.
Seriously, I really do. She’s totally the kind of woman who I’d make a fool of myself over if I were still single…but I’m not, so I won’t. And I was very proud of myself for keeping my cool when I got to talk to both Fey and her “30 Rock” co-star, Jane Krakowski, about their new show. Clearly, I was more focused on Tina than Jane, but, honestly, that’s more because – as I explain to Jane – I hadn’t yet seen the new version of the pilot when I was talking to the two of them. (Krakowski was added after the fact, as you’ll read below.) In closing, let me just say that it’s a good thing it was a phone call rather than an in-person conversation; it allowed me to get away with victoriously pumping my fist in the air whenever I succeeded in making Tina Fey laugh.
Bullz-Eye: Tina, do you happen to recall the obscenities that you uttered when you first heard about “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip”?
Tina Fey: (Laughs) I swear so much all the time, anyway, that it probably wouldn’t even have interrupted my constant flow of swearing. That was probably happening over just the quality of my lunch.
BE: Did you find yourself a little disconcerted knowing that there was going to be a similar-premised show on the air at the same time?
TF: Well, it’s funny, because I had friends coming up to me, saying, like, “Oh, I’m so sorry that you’re not going to get to do your show!” And I said, “Well, y’know, I haven’t really heard anything…” And, really, within the same day, (NBC President) Kevin Reilly called me at home to assure me that we were still…because we were in pre-production for the pilot, and he assured me that we were still going to shoot the pilot and that he believed in both shows, and so I took him at his word. And so far, so good.
BE: And I’m one of those who has not seen the revised pilot yet, but I’m led to understand that, Jane, you’re taking over the role that more or less belonged to Rachel (Dratch) in the original pilot…?
Jane Krakowski: Um, well, I’m playing the star of “The Girlie Show,” which is the fictional show within the show. The role has been quite rewritten, I would say, and made a little bit different, but I love the show so much, and I was so thrilled to be asked to join into the cast.
TF: And what sort of what happened was, once we realized after doing the pilot that we were never going to see sketches, then we wanted to take Rachel, who’s a sketch player, and use her differently. She’s still in the show and she’s going to play a series of characters; if you do get a chance to see the revised pilot, you’ll see she plays a cat wrangler in that pilot, and then she’ll come back another week as a different character, and a week or two after that, she’ll come back as a different character.
BE: How much of Tracy Morgan’s character is inspired by Dave Chappelle?
TF: Well… (laughs) …I will say that I don’t know Dave – I’ve barely ever met him – but I do know Tracy, and, so, I would say that it’s primarily Tracy if Tracy were nuts, more than anybody else. But I think anything any celebrity does, let alone an African-American celebrity, is gonna be fair game for Tracy to do. Maybe Tracy will leave a bag with a million dollars in jewelry in the airport, I don’t know!
BE: Will “The Girly Show” have guest hosts or celebrity guests?
TF: I don’t think it will. I don’t think it’s that kind of show…unless all of us change our mind and it does. But I don’t think that’s really on the horizon right now. I’ve spent nine years writing for celebrity guest hosts, and I’m very excited to write for just my cast.
BE: Tina, what “Saturday Night Live” joke or sketch are you the most proud of?
TF: Oh, that’s a good question! Most proud of… (Pauses) I wrote a sketch once called “Census.” It was about a census taker, and it was just Christopher Walken and Tim Meadows, just the two of them, and that was maybe my favorite sketch that I ever wrote. Unfortunately, it was on the same show as “we need more cowbell,” so it has long since been forgotten! But that was maybe the best show that we had in the whole nine years that I was here, that show with Christopher Walken.
BE: Was there ever a sketch that didn’t make it on the air that you were really thought should’ve?
TF: Usually, the ones that don’t make it, it’s for very good cause! They’re usually pretty stinky!
BE: And a throwaway closer: has anyone ever approached you that was writing an unofficial biography of Lindsay Lohan, looking for dirt from the set of “Mean Girls”?
TF: (Laughs) No…but I am open to offers if they’re extremely lucrative.
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