While I never watched even one episode of Golden Girls, Estelle Getty’s recent death at age 84 has had an unexpected effect in our home. Our houseguest, Howard, has spent many long conversational minutes in the past 24 hours pondering how young she must have been whilst playing the oldest “Girl,” bringing the topic up time and again (Howard’s a bit of a stoner), and my husband, Mr. T, without prompting, blithely named her co-stars. Really? “We grew up with Bea Arthur and Betty White. They’re touchstones, TV icons.” And what about Rue McClanahan? “She was in EVERYthing.” Suddenly, his encyclopedic knowledge of all things Bowie is looking less alarming.
Whom do you suppose will be the touchstones, the TV icons, of our children’s generation? Miley Cyrus? Steve? Tim Gunn and Nina Garcia?
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Filed under Uncategorized, television.
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the 2003 HBO movie Normal, where Tom Wilkinson plays Roy Applewood, a middle-aged midwestern dad with a factory job who goes through a sex-change operation. It was a great TV movie, understated, no false notes. Wilkinson, as always, was convincing, funny, wrenching. His family had compelling and believable reactions, at times freaked-out, bemused, angry, compassionate. Workplace scenes were excruciating. And you rooted for Roy because you felt you knew him, and his desires seemed so completely understandable, and…normal.
Ace is now in day camp, and there’s a fellow camper who is a boy who dresses like a girl. And granted the camp is in a very touch-feely city in a very blue state, and is an arts camp to boot, and yet still, every day I’m amazed that everyone takes this kid in stride.
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Tags: cross-dressing, day camp, Normal, Tom Wilkinson
Filed under parenting.
Global media conglomerate DCI provides quite the personality test with its properties Discovery Channel and The Learning Channel. Both offer myriad possibilities for passively pursuing your interests, and what you pick may say much about you.
In a sweeping stereotype, it appears Discovery is for guys and TLC for chicks. Macho Discovery boasts Survivor Man, Deadliest Catch, MythBusters, Smash Lab, Future Weapons, Dirty Jobs and so on. Interpersonal TLC invites you in and maybe even helps you out with What Not to Wear, A Wedding Story, Jon & Kate Plus Eight, I Can Make You Thin, Take Home Nanny, Say Yes to That Dress. Sure, there’s crossover—The Learning Channel’s got American Chopper, not exactly a feel-good show. But by and large both channels seem programmed in broad, gender-based strokes. As for usefulness of this terrific edutainment, that’s for another post.
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Tags: DCI, Discovery Channel, Les Stroud, The Learning Channel
Filed under television.
Nielsen Media is expanding its analysis of the viewing habits of the average American to include Internet and mobile-phone statistics. Their “three-screen” report for May still puts TV way out in front as the medium of choice (121 hours that month on average!), but the other two screens are gaining exponentially. Americans averaged 2 hours and 19 minutes of video-viewing online in May and, of the reported 4.4 million subscribers to mobile video services, a whopping average of 3 hours and 15 minutes per month.
Around my house, we’ve yet to master using the Internet for video. Mr. T is watching coverage of the Tour de France online and we’ll probably watch some more obscure Olympic events on a laptop, too. But for a full season of the brilliant BBC series, The IT Crowd, Mr. T and I watched in bed (downside: we need more pillows or a decent headboard) with the laptop propped on his knees (hot after a while, plus the screen kept dimming out as Energy Saver mode kicked in, plus it wasn’t nearly loud enough). We’ve thusly watched a missed episode of Lost and the rest of the season of the canceled Andy Barker P.I., too, but it’s obviously not the ideal set-up.
How do you (comfortably) watch video over the Internet? What do you watch online and why? And do you watch stuff over your phone? Really? God, I’m old.
Image courtesy of stebbi at Flickr.com.
Filed under technology, television, video.
Blue’s Clues is currently enjoying a golden age at our house. Ace and Deuce generally get ½ hour of TV a day, and they have to agree on what they’ll watch or no dice. I’m not completely sadistic–they have sporadic lucky days where they get an hour, and each get to pick a show. Weekend movies are also personal choices. But usually it’s the joint ½ hour, and they better agree or I’m turning it off. Solomon I ain’t, especially by 5PM. And while I’m always gunning for the witty Charlie and Lola or George Shrinks, Blue’s Clues somehow fits all Ace-and-Deuce criteria, and frankly I’m just glad it’s not Johnny and the Sprites.
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Tags: Blue's Clues, John Tartaglia, Johnny and the Sprites, Steve Burns
Filed under children's tv.
Ace had a thrill the other night: she got to stay up late and watch Katie Hoff in Olympic trials swimming on TV. We’d just returned from a rare after-dinner swim, and she was delirious with her good fortune. And while I wasn’t so keen on her introduction to commercials (long live our DVR), I felt much the same way.
I love everything about swimming. I’m happy to get up at dawn in the middle of winter to head to the pool. This has nothing to do with willpower, and more to do with I just freakin’ love it. Side benefits include being alone with my thoughts and showering afterwards without my kids around, both huge. I swam in a race across Provincetown harbor when Ace was four months-old amidst blinding sleep-deprivation—when even folding laundry seemed daunting–and loved it. (The gay male kayakers in cheerleading outfits screaming encouragement helped, too.) I nursed Ace right afterwards, lowering my wetsuit.
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Tags: Katie Hoff, Olympics, swimming
Filed under technology, television.
Fans of Mad Men don’t just like it; they’re obsessed with it. Count me in. Last Sunday’s New York Times magazine cover story on the show, by Alex Witchel, was just what I wanted. She describes what happens on-set, how creator Matthew Weiner works, what ad executives from the 60s make of the show.
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Tags: Alex Witchel, Mad Men, Matthew Weiner
Filed under Uncategorized, television.
If, when you type “beaver” into the YouTube search box, you’re looking for a broad-tailed rodent to show your kids, TOTLOL may be for you. It’s a “community-moderated” web site where parents can find YouTube videos vetted by other parents for kids by age group. It’s free to join.
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Tags: community-moderated, TOTLOL, youtube
Filed under children's tv.
For a TV show with a suburban partner-swapping premise, Swingtown is incredibly boring. It takes place in 1976, and features several Chicagoland families facing the sexual revolution and, god help them, Change. While the 70s set and costume details are museum-perfect, the parent-characters comprise not only two-dimensional, clichéd couples, but also cringe-inducing, ham-fisted metaphors. On the left, there’s Tom and Trina, the group-sex-lovin’, congenially predatory pilot-and-former-stewardess combo always up for anything. To the right are barbecue-throwing Roger and Janet who’ve remained fussily behind in the Eisenhower administration. And stuck-in-the-middle-with-you are Bruce and Susan, freaking over is-that-all-there-is, though about to trade up from Janet and Roger’s middle-American neighborhood to tonier and creepier Tom-and-Trina-Land a few blocks over. The kids from all parts are largely rip-offs from movies, and you can find them played more convincingly in The Ice Storm and American Beauty.
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Tags: Swingtown
Filed under television.
Watching Kim Cattrall’s character on Sex and the City is about as pleasurable as sucking a cotton ball for me. I used to have a real Samantha in my life, back when I was young, new to NYC, and grateful to have someone to hang out with. She’d insist that we go out to bars that we couldn’t afford and allow men to buy us drinks and then tell them lies about ourselves. She had an alter ego, Margaret, who was sometimes a Rockette, sometimes an Ice Capades skater. She dubbed me ‘Sheila’ and told them that I was a casting agent for Spielberg or an up-and-coming furniture designer. I was not the best companion for her. As uptight as Miranda, as prudish as Charlotte, as “hopelessly romantic” as Carrie, I did not want sexual adventures with men I couldn’t be honest with. As soon as I could, I’d divulge my real name and occupation to the B-squad dude who was buying my drink, and try to figure out how to excuse myself to go home to my book without ruining her game.
For this and other less anecdotal reasons, I have never liked Sex and the City. However I understand the appeal of choosing which SATC character you are most like. (During a six-week strike in the 90s, my colleagues and I entertained ourselves on the picket line by casting each other’s bio-pics. I would apparently best be portrayed by either Susan Sarandon or Mary-Louise Parker. Nice, albeit disgruntled, co-workers!) So, which Sex and the City character are you? And, while we’re at it, who’d play you in your bio-pic? Who’d play your partner? Your kid(s)?
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Filed under television.
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