A Note A'bout the GREEK

First of all, strange weather going on...

That being said, happy belated birthday to Katy Perry and happy wedding to her and Russel brand. In a twisted kind of celebration, I finally saw "Get Him to the Greek" tonight. Interesting movie, although we turned on the subtitles because RB was "pre'ty bloody 'ard to 'ear," but then again, so was Diddy. This is definitely not a family movie,(even if you are forty) and other than the overall idea that Mr. Snow (Brand) needed to get on stage at the Greek theater, it wandered all over the place. The promos definitely hyped it up to look like more...

A Note About Post #50!

There have bene 50 posts realized (actually written and published) since that April night I started.

Cheers!

A Note About Celebrating Halloween Part 1: 90's Family Sitcoms

In honor of Halloween, I'm doing my most (and probably only) Halloween-themed event this weekend. Here are my five top sitcom Halloween episodes of 90's sitcoms. Check back for the five best Halloween drama episodes.

Sabrina the Teenage Witch
(Seasons 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 - but not 7)

A show about a teenage with has tons of Halloween-themed episodes, which makes the selection tough. (While the WB-year episodes in the later season weren't always filled with the best of storylines, and Season 7 was again basically lost season, there is some great material). Season 2's "A River of Candy Corn Runs Through It" is the best, where Sabrina's first mortal Halloween party turns into a disaster, complete with possessed furniture and a river of candy corn. "Good Will Haunting" from season 3 is also a great episode, where another haunting happens at Sabrina's house, during a Halloween double-date (by a creepy possessed doll).

Boy Meets World
(1,2, 5, 7-only in theme)

Point of contention here because Season 5's "And Then There Was Shawn" is not actually a Halloween episode, it was done in February of season 5 on top of the the Halloween-themed "Witches of Pennbrook." but has always been discussed among my friends as the best Halloween sitcom episode. This is my choice, with its "Scream" "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and "South Park References." During detention (and during the legendary Cory/Topanga breakup), Shaw, Cory, Topanga, Angela, and a guy named Kenny get sentenced to a horror of detention. Must see line: "We'll always remember he (Kenny) was that tall," where a pencil drilled a hole through Kenny's skull and into the wall and "It's against the Geneva Detention Convention." Jennifer Love Hewitt guest stars as Jennifer Love Fefferman (aka Feffy, who falls in love with Eric before death by library books. "Witches" gets an honorable mention for Jack dating a creepy witch girl (played by Candace Cameron (Bure) of Full House, and a guest appearance from Sabrina.

Home Improvement
(Halloween themed episodes in seasons 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8)

The Taylor clan was long known for elaborate holiday themed episodes including Tim's annual Christmas roof decorating and Halloween scare-offs. Season 3's "Crazy for You" is my favorite, where Jill takes a (successful) try at out-pranking her husband, the self-titled "King of Pranks." Tim believes he is being stalked at his Halloween party by an obsessed fan, Rose, who is actually Al dressed up like a woman. Jill recruits Al, Heidi, Wilson and others to pull off the elaborate prank. The Taylor boys also dress up as the Three Stooges, all as Moe. Great Jill quotes include "Death was a popular costume this year. Black is very slimming," and "The only costume that was left was this or Bob Vila." Honorable mention goes to season 7's "Night to Dismember," where Mark and a friend make a creepy film for school and worry his parents, playing the youngest of three sons on a killing spree.

Step By Step
(Halloween episodes season 4 and 7).

Season 4's "Something Wild" is one part Halloween and one part geek trying to be cool. Mark meets a punk girl (JJ Jenkins- the hottest girl in the 8th grade) that tries to turn him bad. He ends up leaving his family's party to throw eggs at a house (with a Mohawk). Cody also grows the world's largest pumpkin. Great Al line, "Great. Mr. Wizard is in heat." There's also a great scene where carol comments on her daughters' Halloween costumes, Karen the mermaid, and Dana the lady in a suit (she was dressed as Hillary Clinton). "Dream Lover" in season 7 (the lost season after it moved to CBS) was pretty lame. No honorable mention, just an acknowledgement.

Family Matters
(Halloween episodes seasons 2, 4, 6, 8, 9)

Now the season 8 "Steevil" episode gets a honorable mention for showing Laura cut up in the kitchen cabinets, but I'm picking the season 6 episode "Dark and Stormy Night" where Steve tells Little Ritchie a scary 1800's story about the Von Winslow Family. Check out Nana Winslow as Raggedy Anne and Eddie and Waldo as Siamese twins. Plus, Steve says "Didst I do that?"

A Note About Post-Teen Dramas

The more I watch OTH, the more I find myself thinking to the 2008 web/tv hybrid "Quarterlife." Like a much better and "real" version of My Generation (really??!!- that show only lasted three episodes?- shocker!- I was bored 45 minutes into the first of the one and a half episodes I watched.)

Back from that sideline, Quarterlife was one of those great shows about post-teen life that never got the potential to thrive. There was a scary sense of reality to that show that was so relate-able for me even though I was several years shy of the true quarterlife. AND it was created by the people who created Thirtysomething, which was in the 80s and was about people in a slightly older age bracket- but tackled the same themes and identity.

Now we don't all have those high and mighty One Tree Hill problems, like giving up a career in basketball or having your second kid at 24/25, trying to save your fashion empire, a parent that was sent to jail for corporate fraud, or recovering from a fatal shooting, but then again OTH has always taken the everyday problems and stretched them a little (Lucas's dad blackmailing him to move in because he has to lie to him mom about heart problems, Peyton dating Pete from Fall Out Boy, Uncle Keith getting shot by his brother, Brooke's parent moving out to Cali, starting Clothes over Bros- and really aside from Dan, Karen, and Deb, were anyone's parents really ever around)? But nonetheless, the issues deep down: love-sense of identity-family-friendships-and basketball, have always been relate-able.

Strangely, I've noticed the plots of Mouth and chase both being very real. Mouth losing his job and doing his sports podcast (like from treehillhoops.com back in high school), and Chase managing the bar and his relationships with Alex and Mia (it used to be an all ages club when Peyton started it). And Haley dealing with the death of her mom has also been real- for me- it got a little too real-(see the episode where she jumped in the pool- she was so out of character I thought she was being called Peyton!).

So the quarterlife crisis is alive and well . . .
And Thirtysomething was really the grandmother of all post-teen angsty drama (see example: Garden State)

A Note About Online Voting

I hate voting.

I hate blogger. Deleting two entries in the last ten minutes.

I hate voting for people's choice awards. There are too many nominees for nominations and too many categories.