A Reflection on Chelsea Handler

     On Saturday, Chelsea Handler's new Netflix documentary launches, and I thought this would be a great time to reminisce about going to see Chelsea's last show, Chelsea Lately. I was visiting a friend in L.A. in the spring of 2014, just weeks after Chelsea announced her final episode would be in august. It was a bittersweet thought, because I love to see comedians bash celebrities (R.I.P The Soup), but it looks like she is on to bigger and better things.

     The show was right after Memorial weekend, and the broadcast that normally airs at 11 P.M. on the east coast, was filmed in the afternoon in a studio at NBC/Universal. When we finally were greeted by our host, we got a glimpse of the real Chelsea we've all read about in her books. She doesn't strive to fake any feelings and speaks freely and honestly. She is not super friendly and thanking everyone for coming to the show, which was strangely refreshing, and the complete opposite of the "show business" air I've felt at other shows. Fully in show mode, Chelsea was a professional (not pulling a Naomi Campbell and throwing phones in people's faces as some might fear). She appeared to take the show's teaser clip in a simple sweat and skirt, and walked right over to the first area of the set to begin the show. The staff entertained us pre-show and in between sections with a D.J. (with her own booth on the 2nd floor of the studio) playing party jams and the production assistants threw free stress balls into the audience. Even Chuy, Chelsea's dutiful munchkin and assistant took part in the action. He asked us, "Do you really want this ball this bad?" The clear answer is yes,w we want the free stress ball. I brought Chelsea's most recent book Uganda Be Kidding Me to the show, and in between scenes, she signed all copies of the books. It was awesome!

     Chuy's segment was about hot Latinas and their tabloid gossip, and the round table of comedians delved into important issues such as the sale of Beats headphones, allegations that testing turns student gay, and a study that short men liver longer than taller men. Chelsea's round table group was John Caparulo (always in a baseball cap), Fortune Feimester (now bringing her charm to The Mindy Project) and Matt Braunger (just an average guy). The show's main guest was Sarah Silverman, who was truly delightful in person.

     Sometimes, I can't tell with comedians if they're really happy to be on talk shows and making appearances, but Sarah was open and friendly to Chelsea and to the people in the audience and staff. Sarah does have quite a potty mouth at times (not that I'm judging) and she promoted new movie, 100 Ways to Die in the West and role as an old timey prostitute, but she has such a young and high-pitched voice that you don't feel dirty about the conversation. Sarah and Chelsea also gossiped and ended the conversation about the problems they faced with  with dating famous men (Jimmy Kimmel for Silverman, former E! President Ted Harbert for Handler).

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Winter New Comedies 2016 Roundup

Happy Blizzard of 2016 everyone! It's time to catch up on new Winter sitcoms!

Telenovela- Mondays on NBC
     Eva Longoria heads this cast of lovable and attention-seeking soap stars. They work in Miami and end up with the traditional acting workplace drama of trying to cry on cue and meeting a cast member's evil twin. Their more extreme adventures include  getting stranded on set with no food during a storm, and battling another soap cast to build a home for a less fortunate family, and impressing a network executive who believes Eva's Ana can speak Spanish. It's not very deep, but I find myself drawn to watching more episodes. Ana also has to work with her ex-husband Xavi, a recent addition to the show. The scenes from the show withing a show, Las Leyes de Pasion are pretty hysterical. The show's villain Rodrigo defines his acting work and success by his mustaches.

Superstore- Mondays on NBC
     I did not like Superstore for the first episode, but it has grown on me. I have a soft spot in my heart for America Ferrera's Amy (Ugly Betty). Her grumpy banter with new store clerk Jonah (Ben Feldman, from many shows, including A to Z and Mad Men) is well-scripted, so I gave it a second chance, and a third, and a fourth, and I think this week I'll remember to watch it when it's on live. The Cloud 9 Superstore in St. Louis is a Wal-Mart/Costco type store, and all of the employees are miserable working there, but they never have a dull day.

     The employees have watched numerous training videos, had a old man die in the store, searched fro a secret shopper, brought kids to work, had a robbery/proposal, and been interviewed for the corporate store magazine. There was also a mannequin that looked like Jonah that they dressed up and placed all over he store in funny and inappropriate poses. Amy is the floor manager, and he bosses make her look pretty sane. The store manager Glenn tries really hard for everyone to like him, and by-the-book  Asst. Manager Dinah finds reasons to report him to corporate in every episode.

Cooper Barrett's Guide to Surviving Life- Sundays on Fox
     This show has been on for three weeks, and I've only watched it online so far. I'm not sure I like the character of Cooper, or his two friends, Barry and Neal. They are lazy slackers trying to launch a hangover cure and are constantly calling Cooper's older brother Josh (Justin Bartha, Doug from The Hangover) to bail them out. Every episode starts in the middle of the action and Cooper rewinds to show how they got there, and how the issue will resolve. I thought it was pretty funny when they were being robbed by Paul Abdul, who danced around and waved a gun at them. As it turned out, they were participating in a medical study and they were hallucinating a homeless man was Paula.

     I like the two female characters, Cooper's tough chiropractor neighbor, Kelly. Also, his at-first stern but wants to be liked sister-in-law Leslie rounds out the group. Plus, their landlord is played by the same actor that played Ramjet the driver in How I Met Your Mother (Marshall Manesh). Only three episodes have aired, with a break until February 14th. I read Alan Ruck (Speed among many things, and just a really nice guy) and Jane Kaczmarek (Malcom in the Middle) play Cooper's parents in an upcoming episode. This show could have a chance...

Angel from Hell- CBS Thursdays
     A post-Psych Maggie Lawson plays dermatologist Allison, who in the same week, meets her guardian angel and finds out her boyfriend is cheating on her with her best friend. It's a common rom-com cliche, but it doesn't look like she is going to go on a maddening quest to fix herself to try to win him back, or meet a new guy.   So that's a little progress in modern day storytelling right there! In a pretty amusing scene, her dad and brother plot to get back at the cheating boyfriend from the lame (a post-it on his front door saying "Not cool man, not cool" to placing a motorcycle in the bottom of a pool). Both men clearly care for Allison and their family dynamic is fun.

     Amy, the aforementioned  Angel, or "weird friend" is played by Jane Lynch, who is the antithesis of GLEE's Sue Sylvester, a dirty, drunk hippie that is all knowing, and into teaching life lessons. In episode 2, Allison tries to reconnect and apologize  to an old friend by getting NKOTB's Joey Mac to come to her friend's art gallery and sing. As it turns out, this is the latest in a long line of events Allison has ruined in her friend Callie's life, as Callie's boyfriend was about to propose at the gallery. The translation of that lesson is not to try too hard. I like the show, but I'm not sure everyone does because of the religious connotations of an angel among us.

Teachers- TV Land Wednesdays
     For the record, I enjoyed the movie Bad Teacher with Cameron Diaz, but I hated the TV show. I wanted to like this show, but the level of insanity of all of these teachers might be a little too much for me. I only watched episode one. The show comes from a web series and the teachers are part of an acting troupe called the katydids. The first episode focused on an anti-bullying program at the elementary school. Threatened with personnel cutbacks, 6 female teachers join a committee for anti-bullying programming, only to cause the kids to bully each other, One shy teacher has a crush on a child's single dad, another berates her students drawings of her while taking selfies, another gives the kids silent free time, a fourth confronts her high school bully and gets the kids to team up on their own bully, and one teacher is reeling from her breakup of 12+ months. I can't remember or do I really care what was going on with the last girl. I might check out the 2nd, but this show might have functioned better as a web series. Alison Brie (Community, Mad Men) guest starred as the mean anti-bullying program coordinator.

The bottom line here is that anything is better than ABC's new show, My Diet is Better than Your Diet!

Forever Series Finally Comes to DVD

    I have a soft spot for vampire shows (Vampire Diaries), and at that vampires solving crime is my jam (Angel, Moonlight). I just discovered ABC's sleeper hit, (my opinion, but maybe not the critics' feeling) Forever, is coming to DVD. The show's protagonist  Dr. Henry Morgan (Ioan Guffudd) is old (approximately 150-ish and looking good for his age).  All 22 episodes of doctor/detective tension (Bones, X-Files, and Castle as inspiration) and a the delightful Irish accent of the guy who rescued Rose from the freezing water in Titanic (and battled Sarah Michelle Gellar as twins on the CW show Ringer). My last happy thought on this is I get to see Judd Hirsch again, as he plays Henry's adopted son in a decidedly friendlier-than-that-guy-Taxi way.

It's Jess Again!!!

I am so excited New Girl is back!

     I'm not sure what to make of season 5 so far. As we left off season 4, Jess's roommate Schmidt and her best friend CeCe proclaimed their love for each other (after dating multiple people and Schmidt rescuing CeCe from her arranged wedding in the season 2 finale). The first episode of season 4 was a great montage of the gang attending 10+ weddings and the season closed with Jess hanging a save the date for Cece and Schmidt on top of all of the other wedding invitations om the fridge. Suffering from a bit of my own wedding fridge fatigue, I loved the idea.

     We are now in CeCe and Schmidt's engagement and Jess, as maid of honor, unites the gang to throw an engagement party. she arranges for Cece's mom to fly in from India, not realizing that Big Mama P does not know that Cece has gotten engaged again, and to a white, Jewish Metro-sexual at that.  Jess's longtime ex and Best Man Nick, agrees to pick up Cece's mom and in typical new girl catastrophe, brings the wrong woman to the party. Jess, recovering from a broken leg and arm (perhaps a way to disguise her real-life post-pregnancy body?) tries to win over the crowd with Schmidt appearing with a Bollywood dance group, but Cece's mom does not give her blessing for the union.

     Determined to work with a small budget, we take a pause on the wedding planning to catch up on everyone else's lives. Nick and Schmidt now co-own the bar and Nick struggles to be taken seriously as a boss. Jess tries dating a boring guy because he has great parents, roping Winston into the scheme. By the end of the episode, Winston fakes a police stop to distract Jess's date while his parents Flip and Nancy try to convince Jess to marry their very boring son. Jess gets chosen for Jury duty just as she has the option to become acting Principal of her school. Cece and Nick try to work out their differences to make Schmidt happy, and Winston goes back to hanging out with his cat.

     I'm not sure if this season is a bit of a letdown with the departure of Coach, or if I'm just confused by all of the random stories and jumping around. With such a strong first episode, I was a little confused by the next episode, although I loved guest stars Henry Winkler and Julie Hagerty as boring Fred's (SNL's Taran Killam) parents. Maybe some plot lines on the show just getting a little too real? Only time will tell as we prepare for a nearly interrupted season!

Book Club: Can I Get A What What For Jane Austen

     My book club recently finished ready Mindy Kaling's Why Not Me?, an engaging set of essays that detail life in Hollywood, struggles with weight and working out, camp, filming a TV show, dating a White House bigwig, having life-draining friends, and finding a person who is truly your "Soup Snake." We give it a wholehearted thumbs up. It was impossible to read the 200+ page boon in segments over 4 weeks because we just wanted more. Special shout out the the chapter where Mindy imagines her Rom-Com life as a Latin teacher at a hip NYC prep school. Two thumbs up from the whole group!

      Our next target is Laurie Viera Rigler's Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, because we've already read Pride and Prejudice enough times. A 21st century woman ended up trapped in Regency England after some troubling times. You know there is not enough wine in those times to drown your misery of having to put on a corset every day.

Cheers til next time, book friends!
 

Who's That Girl? Vanessa Ray Rules TV

     Some actors have ok careers, steadily acting in different shows like Lee Norris. Some actors like Jason Marsden have great years. Some actors like Vanessa Ray are killing it (literally) on two coasts and starring in two dramas at the same time. You go, Glenn Coco! See definition 2 of Glen Coco in the Urban Dictionary if you're not following us here.

Eddie Janko

     Just who is Vanessa Ray? She has regularly been appearing alongside the handsome Jamie Reagan (Will Estes) as his tough talking rookie partner as Edit "Eddie" Janko in the NY family cop drama Blue Bloods on and off for three seasons. She has shot people, arrested perps, been roughed up by a boyfriend, and faced her inmate father, among other things. She and Jamie remain close friends, but we've always gotten a glimpse of "will they or won't they." As of now, she is hoping to make detective soon, so maybe the partners will become more than partners if they're not chilling with beers after a long tour.  

Charlotte

     Ray may also look familiar to you from another popular role. Perhaps you recognize her as the long-masked sun-drenched villain of Pretty Little Liars, known as "A", Others may know her by her many aliases, such as  Cece Drake, Charles, and finally, as Charlotte DeLaurentis, Alison's "sister", who left Charles behind a long time ago. If you still don't know who "A" is, you have been living under a rock.

     In a nutshell, Alison had two older brothers Jason and Charles. Young toddler Charles loved baby Alison like a baby doll and tried to give her a bath, almost drowning Alison and getting himself a one-way trip to a children's institution. Charles realized he should have been born a girl, and mom helped out by having an operation to change him into Charlotte, letting dad believe he had died at age 16. Alison and Jason didn't even remember having a brother. Charlotte began a lot of mayhem to punish people, including the family that sent him/her away.

      In last week's season 6 premiere, Charlotte is released from the mental hospital and mysteriously "falls" off the church bell tower her first night home. A suicide, thought some. A murder, insisted the police. Now the liars must figure out who murdered Charlotte, and it possibly is one of the liars themselves. Maybe they could use the Reagans from Blue Bloods to help solve this case as the Rosewood police force are completely ineffective. 

Gimme a Beat

Barbie and The Beat Pkg.
 Image from Pintrest

     Tonight while cleaning I found some old cassette tapes that re-awakened my girlhood love of Barbie. The typical things were there,  radio mixes, the Grease movie soundtrack, the New Kids on the Block first album, but tragically missing was my "Macarena" cassingle tape.
* The Macarena tape was recovered two weeks later!*

     The other hidden gem in this collection was a hot 
pink cassette of singles from the fictional band Barbie and the Beat. I often called her Rocker Barbie (known as Disco Jeans Barbie publicly), but discovered is another Barbie known as Rocker Barbie). Nonetheless, she is one of the best and favorite dolls I have owned. Although Totally Hair Barbie makes it a close competition because you could cut her foot-length hair and style with DEP gel. Not only did my "Rocker Barbie" or "TB" for The Beat come in an awesome 80's outfit with denim jacket and skirt (a true denim suit), tons of pink skirts, a tube top and matching legwarmers, but she also had a tiny clip-in hat and big earrings!

My cassette
(c) PipPepPop

     The greatest part was her lime green plastic guitar! This instrument was tricked out in green and pink with a shiny strap that puts my ordinary acoustic to shame!  I found some images across the web to show barbie in all her glory. I tragically lost the denim suit on a plane ride in about '91 and was forced to dress Barbie in her pink cami top, mini skirt, and swirly crinoline, with matching leg warmers and pumps. Once her ponytail came out, she quit the music biz. My Barbie looks pretty beat these days.

     Best of all, there was an accompanying music cassette for her performances! There are 4 hit singles on this cassette full of girl power and attitude, and they sound very much like early Paula Abdul and a mid 80's Madonna (think Straight Up meets Get into the Groove meets Lucky Star. The cassette includes "Shine", "Jammin'", "The Beat" and one other that I can't read because the label is ripped.

'Robin Sparkles' Gif from
The Odyssey Online

Image from Ebay

     I could see an immediate visual comparison between "The Beat" Barbie and How I Met Your Mother's Robin Sparkles, as observed in this photo. But singing was just one of Barbie's many talents in the 80's Sheo also moonlighted as a Bangles-era Rocker Barbie. A list of her other careers can be found here, and another glorious rock star outfit. There were other videos, comics and movies that depicted Barbie's life as a rock star, and she even toured space in one animated movie, titled Barbie and The Rockers: Out of This World.

     My Barbie had the privilege of performing with  NKOTB's Joey McIntyre, who is apparently a rare 1990 collector doll selling for about $50.00 on Ebay. Unfortunately my Joe lost his ring, microphone, and cassette and was punished by my brother for cursing, resulting in a mouthful of soap.  Alas, the doll looks adorable and so does Joey, who just appeared in last week's Angel From Hell.

Freeform: Coming to your Local Television

     Tomorrow, ABC Family will change its name to Freeform. Since 2001, they have been known as the gawky teen cousin network of ABC, showing reruns of  Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Gilmore Girls, Step by Step and other 90's and early 2000's shows. The network also launched the wildly successful and addictive Pretty Little Liars (teen murderesses) and a host of other interesting shows and subject matter such as :

• Make It or Break It (gymnastics team with issues)
• The Fosters, (a charming Lesbian couple and their foster children, with issues) 
• and the often dialogue-plagued: The Secret Life of the American Teenager (pregnant teens- with issues)

     According to statements from ABC Family, they are trying to hold on to their 18-34 females demographic and feel this name change will help them become more accepted or cool. I find this a big funny for a network that built it's empire on teen dramas. Let's face it, the WB never tried to be cool, but it drew a huge pull of women in that demographic and both women older and younger than it , and still does as the current CW network. It also calls its demo (or its Demi Lovato, as comedians Nikki Glazer and Sara Schafer referred to the demographic of their short lived MTV show), the becomers. To me, as a woman in that coveted "Demi", I am really creeped out and a little offended. The Becomers sounds like the next Vampire Diaries spinoff. "The Becomers" will get you at 9 P.M. on Thursday night.

     We'll have to see how this all plays out. The same network held a blaze of glory from 1998 - 2001  as Fox Family Channel before it changed over to ABC. I was pretty upset at the time and may never recover from the lack of S Club 7 reruns. (S Club has shows in Miami and Los Angeles and they were amazing). Fergie of the black eyed peas also hosted a show where kids won prizes for the best lip sync to a popular song. It was truly a renaissance. Before that, the channel was known as the Christian-inspired  Family Channel and I'm not too sure it had any appealing programming other than old reruns of Bonanza.  

Let's Hear it for the Crazy Ex-Girlfriend!

Congratulation to Rachel Bloom on her win for best actress in a tv musical or comedy at the Golden Globes! See here speech here. Read more of my thoughts about her show Crazy Ex-Girlfriend here!

Cosby Show: Revisited

     It appears that I am not the only person who recently re-discovered The Cosby Show. I spent my new year's weekend watching bits and pieces of 80's America's  favorite family on Hulu to re-capture some of the magic the show brought me as a youngster, learning valuable life lessons with a hug and funky dance number at the end.

     Two highlights of this binge included  season 3's Cliff's 50th Birthday, where the children provide a presentation titled: Things that are older than dad. I also watched the last episode, And So We Commence, Part 2, where the family (minus Denise) come together for Theo's graduation from NYU. While the jokes were still the same, and the family love was bountiful, there was somethign creepy about Cliff Huxtable begging his son to take a visiting friend's daughter to the roller rink. It was almost as if he would take this girl and drug her if she didn't get out of the house.

     Maybe I'm just a little too into the Bill Cosby scandal, but I am having a bit of a tough time separating him from Cliff Huxtable, like in this Inside Amy Schumer sketch. I watched the A&E special Cosby: The Women Speak and heard over 10 accounts that started out, I was invited for acting lessons .... or I went to dinner..... and ended up with :I have no idea what happened, but I was violated. After checking out the great and intriguing new season of ABC's American Crime this week, I totally am very creeped out by Cosby. American Crime details a plot line about a teen boy who was drugged at a party and violated by someone on the basketball team.

Should the "Truth Be Told?"

     I really wanted to like Truth Be Told. I am programmed to like any show that Zack Morris (a.k.a. Mark-Paul Gosselar) stars in, including but not limited to Franklin and Bash, later seasons of NYPD Blue, Hyperion Bay, and Saved By the Bell: The College Years. Yes, there were other TV roles, but these are really the most notable after the original SBTB.

     Unfortunately, I had a bad feeling about this show from the start. First thing, the show was on at 8:30 on a Friday night in its first season. The program was led in by the live showing of Undateable (this is a separate but equally important  tangent to cover because this show is nowhere near the class of a live Will and Grace or 30 Rock). Gosselar plays Mitch, an ethics professor married to a Tracy, a Filipino lawyer (Vanessa Lachey). They live next door (and are only friends with)  an African-American newlywed couple, comedian Russell and pediatrician Angie.  Mitch and Tracy have a 4-6 year old daughter, Sadie that always need to be watched or baby-sat whenever something comes up, like backstage passes to a Jay-Z concert, or admission to the adult film awards. It is also important to note, I am almost certain Sadie was re-cast after the first episode or two for a less likable kid).

     The situation is laid out, so where is the comedy? Stereotypes, race differences and adult content are a big part of the jokes on this show. Taboos such as getting a medical marijuana card or using the same gym pass as another woman of the same race are the bread and butter laughs of this show. Mitch and Russel are mistaken as a gay couple when they are looking at cars and are offered a great deal by the dealer, who is also gay.  The perfect babysitter may be a former porn star, and the new babysitter is free on Friday night because she also works for a Jewish family across the street...
   
     Do you see where I'm going with this? A lot of issues in this show could be funny or story-worthy in real life, but hearing them out loud on TV makes everyone who can relate seem pretty shallow. It's not the same dark comedy of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, where not a single character has redeemable moral value. These people want to do the right thing, and it often gets them in trouble. In the Winter finale (which is likely the series finale a sets have been torn down), Mitch is asked to marry friends an Russell holds a grudge over it because he is the comedian of the gang. Angie holds a grudge over Russell making tons of jokes during his wedding vows, and Tracey spends the whole weekend trying to get Mitch to enjoy a childless night in the hotel room. This is unfortunately not the next Seinfeld. I guess the truth is still out there... (It really is, the X-Files is coming back to TV in a few weeks)!