We'll miss you.

One wonders what The West Wing's producers are going to do about Spencer's death. A delicate matter, that, and dependent upon who the next president was going to be in the parallel universe the show occupies: if Alan Alda's character were going to win the election, they might not need to replace Spencer's character at all. If Jimmy Smit is destined to get the job, there are a lot of scriptwriters who are very busy right now.

I'm also starting to worry about whether middle-aged and elderly actors are going to be affected by the deaths of their brethren who die in the middle of acting commitments. After John Spencer, Jerry Orbach, and Richard Harris, I'm a bit concerned that casting agents are going to hire fewer seasoned actors and rely instead on makeup to make younger actors appear older. I certainly hope not.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 07:59 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 153 words, total size 1 kb.

The site's editors are getting a lot of mail about last Tuesday's egregious episode, which skipped over all the successes in Iraq to editorialize that our action there is a "disaster."

They link my cry for help, and report that the mail on "Witches of Mass Destruction" is running 50-50 pro/con. Apparently, however, a lot of the pro-war correspondents are being rude in their letters. I would like to remind war supporters that the stereotype of Republicans, conservative Democrats, and Libertarians is that we're less educated and thoughtful than the "intellectuals" who oppose us on this issue. Passion is fine, but if we want to persuade anyone we don't want to play into their preconceptions.

My recommendation for hawkish Boston Legal fans: When communicating with ABC or with those who run the fan site, concentrate on the fact that this show ignored our stunning successes in Iraq, and that any objective measurements demonstrate this success (the low civilian casualty rate, the fact of two elections with amazing turnout despite the citizenry taking great physical risk to vote, low Coalition casulties [particularly compared with Vietnam], the ratifying of the country's constitution, the diminishing insurgency, the progress in repairing Iraqi infrastructure, the accelerating rate of Sunni participation in the country's politics).

Alternatively, point out that we get saturation news coverage of all the so-called "setbacks" in the war, but virtual Heritage Media blackout on its stunning progress. The writers of Boston Legal assert that we're getting little or no news from Iraq, and that the war is garnering less attention than Vietnam did. That notion is simply laughable: what is meant is that those who penned Alan Shore's closing argument presume the American populace is ill-informed. Otherwise, more people would share their "enlightened" opinions.

This reflects the fact that the media and entertainment elites in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston and all universities simply do not come into contact with smart people who don't see eye-to-eye with them. And when they do, these people—like me, and sometimes my husband—stay mute on the subject of politics. Because we're tired of losing jobs over it.

Memo to ABC: Hire some bright people who disagree with you. Or encourage those who are in the closet about their beliefs to come out. (Hint: they don't necessarily look like the ultra-vanilla Brad Chase, or the flamboyantly Old School Denny Crane.)

And you will stop losing viewers. Guaranteed. If you're at a loss, for crying out loud, e-mail me: I know the two funniest television writers out there— both them, of course, discreet about their GOP leanings.

Just because you jumped the shark doesn't mean you can't jump back. It can be done.

Posted by: Attila at 11:29 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 461 words, total size 3 kb.

1 three.... ahem

Posted by: MacStansbury at November 05, 2005 07:04 PM (FmdLR)

2 I stand corrected!

Posted by: Attila Girl at November 05, 2005 07:49 PM (x3SIT)

3 "doesn't mean you can't jump back" I hope you are correct. I love the show when it avoids trying to address pop culture politics. ABC's ability to do so remains to be seen, however.

Posted by: MrSpkr at November 05, 2005 09:47 PM (28QFs)

4 Hire some bright people who disagree with you. Excellent advice for anyone. Especially, say, a Presidental administration. (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

Posted by: Christophe at November 07, 2005 03:44 PM (2rBIo)

5 Well, I'm wounded, but I'll likely heal.

Posted by: Attila Girl at November 07, 2005 06:28 PM (x3SIT)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

I'm at a crossroad. Boston Legal is delightful, but I cannot stand the political stances the writers are taking. In a way, it gets worse when they pretend to be "even-handed," since their hearts clearly aren't in it. And who, exactly, would be the voice of patriotic reason in that series? The main ongoing Republican character is bigoted and befuddled, and a judge "stands up for the military" with a speech that begins by declaring the war in Iraq a "disaster."

Yet I find myself addicted to their fast cuts, sexiness, and moments of surrealism. Not to mention Candice Bergen and William Shatner.

They've really got a hold on me.

Can I talk the show's producers into knocking off the political material, or must I accept this weekly fix as a guilty pleasure, and my one real tie to popular culture? Or shall I begin attending SLAA meetings and shoot my television?

—Addicted to Law

UPDATE, 11/4/05: More ranting at ABC here, with a special plea for reasoned feedback from bright hawks.

Posted by: Attila at 12:01 AM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
Post contains 176 words, total size 1 kb.

I've watched several episodes of Boston Legal recently, and found it to be funny, surreal and sexy. Tonight, suddenly, every single story line got serious. The jokes were muted, and there appeared to be an attempt to transfer the show from the parallel universe it occupied back to the shabby world I live in.

And, naturally, it's getting more flagrantly political in a rather unattractive fashion.

So were the past 4-5 episodes the anomaly, or was tonight? Has the show been a drama in the past, or the oddball comedy I thought I was watching?

Posted by: Attila at 12:19 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 99 words, total size 1 kb.

. . . everyone's really proud of me for watching two (2) hours of television last night.

My husband sometimes reads during commercials. But for the most part I think the commercials are better: they're written very tightly, as they must be. How else do you tell a story in 30 seconds? Some of them are awfully clever.

Posted by: Attila at 12:25 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 62 words, total size 1 kb.

Fascinating! It's like a restoration comedy: pure artifice. Very stylized. Yet interesting: they've created their own little world.

I wonder if Ally McBeal led the way for this?

Posted by: Attila at 11:46 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 34 words, total size 1 kb.

It's a bit tough to suspend one's disbelief. I'd say it's beyond "cheesy." It's pretty lame.

Of course, if Geena plays this right, she'll never be Thelma in anyone's mind ever again. So there's that.

Posted by: Attila at 11:42 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
Post contains 43 words, total size 1 kb.

1 And Donald Sutherland as the eeeeevil Republican is delicious. He's so lovely that I can't even get mad that his character is a cartoon.

Posted by: Attila Girl at September 28, 2005 12:33 PM (Kti1Q)

2 Listen, I didn't watch it, but I wrote about it anyway. It was better that way, totally accuracy-free, like the major media.

Posted by: Attila (Pillage Idiot) at September 28, 2005 07:43 PM (ZAnEO)

3 Accurate--but hardly fake.

Posted by: Attila Girl at September 29, 2005 12:13 AM (Kti1Q)

4 John Fund's column on September 27 in the Wall Street Journal gives Secretary Rice the respect she deserves and praises americansforrice.com for seizing the opportunity to create some political excitement............that means that the reporters from the mainstream finally got the story straight about us. CNN/Headline news has been reporting about our ad buy in New Hampshire on WMUR ABC/TV, which attracted AP and NBC as well. Radio interviews with our New Hampshire state chair Shari Demers have been one after another. This makes up for all the NO SHOWS by so-called reporters in Arizona and Tennessee who failed to come to our booth with hundreds of people gathering to see our ad, donate money, and walk away with pride knowing they have helped to get our message out to the nation. Too many people have confused us with a website that expresses only opinion and news. We are a politica action committee, meaning we drive and fly to set up our Condi for President booth at events across the nation. After 6 months, it is sure nice to finally have ABC news, Good Morning American ABC, and CNN reporting the news about us, the grassroots group promoting Secretary Rice for President. We have heard rumors that Hillary is pissed our TV ad on New Hampshire took all the buzz about a women becoming a real president in 2008. Well, she had her chance to be honest and put an ad on the program. I guess she is going to wait to admit she is running for president after the people in New York fall again into the gullible land of LA LA as she says she is not running in 2008.

Posted by: Crystal Dueker at September 29, 2005 10:18 AM (3DP6G)

5 Well, the difference is that the Condi movement is real--driven by others--and the Hillary possibility is driven by her and her husband (and their jumbo-size egos).

Posted by: Attila Girl at September 29, 2005 11:41 AM (Kti1Q)

6 Don't fall for the magician's misdirection. The dirty trick here is the opportunity to put nasty words in characters' mouths who are called "Republicans" on the show. Remember Rob Reiner's "American President?" He was the first to cross this line. Before that, they would have had to come up with a fake party name, like..."America First Party" or some such. Now, "Republicans" can say "Let's screw these MF's like we always do...That's what we Republicans do...They're too stupid to know we're screwing them!" Them Lefties are sure clever, huh? What was the "non-political" script in the ads they ran just prior to the premiere? "NEW ADMINISTRATION...NEW POLITICS....NEW HOPE!!!!!" Maybe Martin Sheen and Sean Penn can pop up as Republican senators now and again. And Ed Asner can be Dick Cheney wearing a Halliburton jacket...

Posted by: Darrell at September 30, 2005 09:33 PM (3JV30)

7 That's why I started watching the West Wing a year or two ago: it seemed that the current crop of writers had repented of this demonization of the GOP.

Posted by: Attila Girl at October 01, 2005 04:35 PM (Kti1Q)

8 I'll trust your judgement about "The West Wing"...So wonderful of you to watch so I won't have to. Maybe Al Gore can take some more "Butch" lessons from Naomi Wolf and be the new Vice President on Geena's show. "Maybe you can stop shaving your legs and underarms, Al." "Something."

Posted by: Darrell at October 02, 2005 08:54 AM (TQAQQ)

9

Posted by: Attila Girl at October 02, 2005 11:12 AM (Kti1Q)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

If you didn't see the crash-landing at LAX, we aim to please.

(I was listening before my T'ai Chi class last night, but had to rely on the radio announcers' descriptions, of course.)

Posted by: Attila at 12:06 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 39 words, total size 1 kb.

maybe it's just me. But I'd rather see Ellen DeGeneres making clean jokes dressed in a tux vs. Whoopi Goldberg making crude jokes in a velvet gown.

DeGeneres did a fabulous job, and I'd love to see her promoted to the Oscars.

Posted by: Attila at 11:57 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 44 words, total size 1 kb.

. . . speculates about what Martha's catchphrase (the equivalent to "you're fired") will be in the next Apprentice series. I happen to find that subject endlessly fascinating, as that sentence will be a trademark for the show (just as Trump's is for his version).

Posted by: Attila at 02:32 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 49 words, total size 1 kb.

1 "It's a good thing" comes to mind.

Posted by: Sissy Willis at August 13, 2005 10:49 AM (N6LnR)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

For those who haven't seen the video of the train hitting the strawberry truck (there is a Captain Queeg joke there somewhere) in Oxnard last week, go here. Link is middle right. Next stop was the underwear section at Target.

Every guy out there who had a train set as a child (or now), has tried this. Nothing more male then destroying our toys.

Posted by: William Teach at 09:25 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 70 words, total size 1 kb.

Jeff at Beautiful Atrocities has a roundoup of "Desperate Liberals," including Nan, Hill, Barb . . . and a few others.

Go go go.

(I think he's made a vow never to use a picture of the real Barbra Streisand, but always to stick with female impersonators. Which works, of course.)

Posted by: Attila at 12:59 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 61 words, total size 1 kb.

. . . has been transforming itself for a year and a half into something other than simply a panagyric to the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. It started last year, when two episodes featured the G.O.P. Speaker of the House as a fill-in for the President, whose daughter had been kidnapped and who felt he couldn't do his job.

That marked the beginning of the change. After that, I began watching The West Wing because it seemed to me when the show's ratings took a nosedive its producers finally realized a lot of the country (oddly enough) doesn't live in L.A. (which is just as well; traffic is awful here as it is). After that, the Republicans were no longer the enemy on the show: politics as usual was the enemy. Special interests were the enemy. Calcified thinking was the enemy.

Now, with Martin Sheen's contract nearly up, the next election in the West Wing parallel universe is going to take place a year early. Theoretically, the existing Vice President (whom few viewers take seriously) has a lock on the Democratic nomination, but there is at least one wild card candidate: Congressman Matt Santos, played by Jimmy Smits. A prominent White House staffer, Josh Lyman, is pushing hard to make him viable.

And then, there is the Republican senator, Arnold Vinick, played in a delicious role reversal by Alan Alda. There is the cognitive dissonance of hearing Alda denounce government spending, but it works. He's the GOP opposition here, and his views are delivered with respect.

There's also the ongoing sexual tension between Lyman and his former assistant, Donna Moss, who now works for the Vice President's campaign. Last night's installment had them staying in the same hotel, in rooms across the hall from each other. At one point Lyman crosses into the hall, raises his hand to knock on Moss's door, and thinks better of it. He goes back to his room alone, and the audience is left to wonder another week if those two will ever get together.

The episode ended with the renegade Latino congressman and the equally iconoclastic GOP senator sitting down in a hotel coffee shop to chat, and agreeing on a surprising number of things.

And the big question is, which of these two men will be elected President of the United States in the NBC parallel universe?

Some of the show's most avid fans see a split ticket in the future, but I can't imagine the show's producers would cross party lines and have one of these guys actually run with the other: the West Wing universe does, after all, need to parallel this one to some degree. What I can see is Alan Alda playing a Republican president in the show's next incarnation, with the Jimmy Smits character as his Secretary of Education.

I think it's going to play out something like that, and the transformation is meaningful because it represents NBC's ability to break out of its politically insular world, and admit that there are some good ideas to be found on the right.

It's time to give these people another chance; check it out.

Posted by: Attila at 12:09 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 532 words, total size 3 kb.

Attila the Hub and I watched Mitch Albom's The Five People You Meet in Heaven on ABC Sunday night. He wanted to see it because a friend of his is at ABC, and worked especially hard on this particular project.

My impressions:

1) I'd forgotten how grueling commercials can be when you don't have a good project you're working on during the breaks. Now I know why my grandmother used to knit! If I get the media job, I'll get TiVo in a hot Los Angeles minute, because I'll be watching a lot more television.

2) I love the premise of this story. I think we all have the impression that as we get older we'll get wiser, but even those who live to advanced ages may not really achieve wisdom in this lifetime. The premise that the learning process might continue past death is a charming one.

3) I have the sense that some story elements might have been cut out of the book in order to compress the story into three hours (really an hour and a half, plus commercials). As the main character meets people from his life on earth in order to absorb lessons from them, they continually tell him they've been "waiting" for him. We are left to wonder whom he might need to wait for when it's his turn to teach. My husband had a suspicion, but it isn't spelled out in the movie. Now we both have to read the book.

4) Michael Imperioli of The Sopranos put in an appearance, and it was nice to see him break out of the mafia mode for a while. Personally, of course, I kept expecting him to start cussing and beating people up—and I'm sure that's why he took the part, to avoid typecasting. He did a nice job: it was interesting to see him smile in a way that's genuinely warm. His character on Sopranos may be one of the hardest, most truly reprobate animals in the HBO cage.

5) The way I got the backstory on this, Mitch Albom of the Detroit Free Press keeps trying to write quiet little books, and they keep landing on the best-seller lists. After Tuesdays with Morrie, he concentrated on producing a little literary gem, but it became a best-seller as well.

This is a guy whose problems I'd really like to have.

Posted by: Attila at 01:26 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 410 words, total size 2 kb.

There's no way to talk about it without discussing the plot points. If you're following the show and didn't watch last night--but plan to see it later in the week--don't click on the extended entry.

Last night's episode, number 64, is entitled "Long-Term Parking." There are at least three meanings: collect 'em all.

Oh, and Kelly also took a crack at this show. We're all so shook up, doncha know. more...

Posted by: Attila at 05:21 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 938 words, total size 5 kb.

Is still good. I'm tending to agree with my husband: it's clear that the season we're watching now was written when negotiations were ongoing, and it wasn't clear whether this might be the last season. I'm wondering if subsequent shows will feel "tacked on." It feels like the overall story is peaking now.

As last season's climax drew near I was knocked over by the fact that Tony and Ralphie were tied together by a horse, and by two women. The horse appeared to symbolize women to a certain degree (and, for crying out loud, its name was "Pie Oh My").

This week's episode confirms it: the woman Tony "stole" from Ralphie, whom he first met at the stable, gets burned (just as Pie Oh My did last season). And in one dream sequence Tony is mounted on a horse in his wife's living room (see what I mean?). He tells Carmella he wants to move back in, and she says if he does that the horse has to stay out the house. In another dream sequence, Tony is screwing the wife of his childhood friend, the restaurateur, as the friend watches from the bedside and tells Tony to "stroke her muzzle."

Horses are women, and women are horses on this show. And women are animals in general: Tony is capable of displaying emotion when women are killed, as he usually cannot for men. (For instance, Tony strikes Ralphie repeatedly--and has to be pulled off--after Ralphie beats the stripper Traci to death behind the Bada Bing.)

Because animals--as with the ducks from the first season--are family (and Tony is reminded of Traci at one point, after her death, by his own daughter). And his family--his mob family in particular--are animals.

Posted by: Attila at 11:53 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 294 words, total size 2 kb.

. . . has gone all Jane Austen on us. I mean this in a good way, of course. That show is getting better and better.

Posted by: Attila at 12:44 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 32 words, total size 1 kb.

Penn & Teller have a new television show that airs here in the U.S. on Thursday nights. It's called Bullshit! and it exposes various frauds and fallacies--commercial, cultural, and political.

It is not a family show (that's why it's on at 10:00 p.m.). The language is probably a bit strong for some people. But it's an excellent show, so try to watch a few even if you're sensitive to language issues.

It's essentially a shorter, snappier version of the John Stossel specials on ABC: a whole lotta de-bunking going on.

The whole season is also available on DVD as well. So there are no excuses for those without Showtime.

Posted by: Attila at 11:36 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 119 words, total size 1 kb.

Attila the Hub thinks the Sopranos story lines are becoming very dense, almost busy--as if the writers were trying to cram too much in. I think the episodes are more and more brilliant--and in a comfortable, less-pretentious way than in the first few seasons.

It turns out we were misinformed about the show maybe dying at the end of this season: there will be one more set after the current one (#5), though given the 18-month lead time in filming these it's possible season 6 was in doubt while they were producing the ones we're watching now. This might explain all the "big moments" my spouse was beginning to tire of. All this saying goodbye--and then saying it again. Season 6 will be shorter, though: only ten episodes. Just enough for HBO to retain its lock on Sunday nights, and to have a full 75 shows to shop around for syndication.

Last week's installment was probably the best one I've ever seen. The primary story line had to do with Cousin TonyB, who as the episode opens has been trying to break away from crime as an occupation. He is trying to become a licensed massage therapist, and comes across an opportunity to open his own spa. Everything is clicking for him: he even finds some drug money that's been stolen and ditched. But he's still hanging around with his mob friends, gambling a lot and skipping sleep before he clocks in to work. He gambles the extra money away and squabbles with his girlfriend. Three days before his spa is supposed to open he picks a fight with his boss and beats him up. End of business opportunity.

The next day, he asks his cousin Tony if he can still get in on the "stolen air bag" scam he was offered when he first got out of prison. Tony tells him it's better not to do business with strangers. Implication: Keep things in the family. It's just at the moment of success that TonyB collapses and runs away from the opportunity in front of him, because the responsibility is too great, the change too wrenching. He goes back to the familiar.

Meanwhile, Carmella has her first real affair, and is enjoying herself despite serious qualms--some having to do with the Church's disapproval (for she and Tony will always be married, as far as the Church is concerned), and some having to do with her feelings of loyalty to Tony--and her fear that Tony might get violent if he finds out about this. (After all, The Sopranos is all about the sexual double standard.) But as a mob wife, she has the "quid pro quo" mentality, and it's natural for her to ask her boyfriend for favors on her son's behalf. When he begins to feel used, she attacks him. On her way out the door, she tells him he should watch his step. The threat is perfectly in keeping with her mobbed-up sensibilities.

Taken together, this installment has a lot to say about how hard it is for people to change. We try to consciously, but our unconscious minds sabotage us back into our comfort zones. Or we think we're taking the indicated actions, but our old habits are so ingrained we don't even see them.

We lock ourselves into the grooves we've cut through years of habit. We foil our best plans and call it destiny.

And then we rail at God, who wanted the best for us all along.

Posted by: Attila at 11:27 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 586 words, total size 3 kb.

Bill Rancic.

Yes. The Donald's latest enterprise has been a guilty pleasure of mine, at least off and on. I even stuck with it when they lost Troy and Nick--my favorites after the scrappy saleswomen whose mother had health issues.

I thought some of the finale show was brilliantly staged--for instance, the moment Trump announced Bill was the winner, and all the boardroom walls fell down to reveal the principals were on a stage in front of a live, cheering audience. Very nice.

Two hours was still a hell of a long time for this show. I know they could have done it all in an hour and a half. During the tasks, I found myself wondering to what degree the show's producers created or at least facilitated some of the snafus Bill and Kwame encountered. And I'm starting to really wonder whether Amarosa is getting paid extra on the side to continue to hang around and foment trouble. It's hard not to wonder whether someone could really be willing to behave that badly with cameras running--unless they were getting a little taste for providing extra drama, and for being the Diva Americans love to hate. She was caught lying on camera. Twice. Weird. I'm sure Mark Burnett would like to have her back, and The Donald would not. Perhaps they'll arm-wrestle for it or something.

It is interesting to feel like we, the American people, are getting to know Trump as something other than a developer of large properties featuring decent-to-indifferent design. more...

Posted by: Attila at 09:38 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 424 words, total size 2 kb.