Extra Criticum

Well look who the wind blew in...long time no post, Kathleen!

But one of my (albeit tardy) New Year's Resolutions is to be a more active poster here on Extra Criticum.

I've actually been traveling a fair amount for theater lately, so I've got some posts planned for that, and I'm cross-pollinating at the moment, with a link to a post I wrote this afternoon for Frommers.com's "Behind the Guides" blog, where they let me write about my fangirl obsession with The Amazing Race, which is only the most awesome reality show EVER! 

"Late Night" Thermometer

With Conan's last Tonight Show now a memory, I thought I'd do a quick run down of the winners and losers in the latest edition of the late night wars.

2nd Look: The Comeback. Valerie Cherish is Gorgeous

  

Full disclosure: a friend of mine was in this series and another friend of a friend wrote it. So, naturally, I was curious to take a 2nd look at a show that I'd seen only a few episodes of when it first aired on HBO. When my b.f. gave me the DVD as a gift, we seized the opportunity to watch the entire series -- the lone single season -- start to finish.

Frequent readers of this blog may recall my waxing hyperbolic about the unparalleled level of subtlety in the writing for Matthew Weiner's Mad Men on AMC. So, it came as a wonderful surprise to encounter equally subtle directing and acting on the short-lived Lisa Kudrow vehicle, The Comeback.

Twelve things I'm left with, three days after the Golden Globes

I’ve had a few days to digest the Golden Globes and these are the things that have stayed with me (even though I tried intense therapy to remove them from my consciousness)

"Sydney or the bush" time for Melrose Place

Truth to tell I never quite understood that old Peanuts saw of it being "sydney or the bush" but the meaning isn't hard to fathom - put up or shut up, do or die, succeed or fail and tonight MELROSE PLACE's success or failure hinges on how well or poorly Heather Locklear is received and how well or poorly they've written her in the reboot. Known for saving the Dynasty and then the Melrose Place franchises, Locklear has a unique reputation among viewers (and probably the folks in LA who hire and fire) for being a never miss actress. She saves everything she's in from being absolute dreck - and usually everything she's in is absolutely dreck - but there's something about her that elevates the material to campy dreck - and a lot of times that's all that people really want.

Project Runway Is Still Awesome

So I watch Project Runway on demand, rather than when it's broacast. Why? 'Cause I can't stay up till 11. Go ahead. Laugh. You have a 16-month-old wake you every morning at 5 and see how late you stay up.

ANYWAY...

When I watch Project Runway on demand, I have to click through this rather labyrinthine set of topics and subtopics until I come to a folder marked "Women."

(Thanks for that, Verizon Fios.) But it's all worth it.

Julia Child vs. Don Draper

The hot TV series of the moment, Mad Men, is set in 1963, the same year that Julia Child debuted on public television with The French Chef. Coincidentally, Child is a hot pop culture icon again (not that she ever really went cold), thanks to the book and film Julie & Julia. Would she have any affinity for Mad Men’s impeccably dressed but emotionally hollow protagonist Don Draper?

While waiting for another Mad Men episode, I started in on a “best of” DVD collection of The French Chef, which opens with perhaps her most famous episode, “The Potato Show.” This is the one in which she tries to flip a large potato pancake, which breaks apart on the way down and ends up half outside the pan. “You can pick it up when you’re alone in the kitchen,” she says to the camera as she grabs the errant pieces and puts them back in the pan. “Who is going to see?”

Some Thoughts on Catharsis and MAD MEN

Watching DVDs of Matthew Weiner's brilliant show, Mad Men lately and continue to find myself thinking about catharsis and what this country has just been through over the past eight years.

It has been pointed out by more keen observers than I, that a kind of illness had gripped the nation under the last regime and that amorality and unbridled cynicism in a society quite effectively trickles down... much moreso than money, for example.

Abu Ghraib is just one example of the corrosive and corrupting influence of a system that values power and power-grabbing above basic decency and humanity. (In short, the bad boys' attitude in the White House infected the world view of those young cadets serving in Iraq.)

Is it just me, or can Mad Men be viewed as a kind of opportunity for healing in a post-Bush era?

Mad Men: Keep it to yourself

Spoilers from “Out of Town,” the third-season premiere of Mad Men, ahead:

Unless the two-headed accounts department storyline wraps up very quickly, a major theme in Mad Men’s third season will be Pete’s struggle to keep his childish and petulant personality from sabotaging his career. Almost every TV series makes the argument that you can’t really change your personality; what makes Mad Men more intriguing is the idea that you can still change your behavior (and outward appearance) so as to keep your true personality under wraps.

My first "Fairly OddParents" episode, Friday night on Nickelodeon!

Dear friends - Some exciting news: my very first "Fairly OddParents" episode, "Fly Boy," premieres this week!  It's showing on Nickelodeon this coming Friday night, August 14.  Nickelodeon's broadcasting it in L.A. at 6 PM, but please check your local listings to find out when it's showing in your area.

"Fly Boy" was sneak-previewed to a large and wildly appreciative audience at Comic-Con this year, and I'm now delighted to have the chance to share it with you.  I'm really proud of the episode, so I hope you can tune in and check out my TV writing debut.

All the best,
Ed

Who Can Turn the World On With Her Smile?

I am a huge Mary Tyler Moore fan. So yes when I went to college in Minneapolis I had lunch in the IDS Tower at "Mary's Table" (I will not reveal whether or not I spun my heels and tossed my hat on the Nicollet Mall tho... some things should remain private). :)

Anyway, for those of you who love Mary with the same devotion that I do, season five is coming out on October 8th according to TVShowsonDVD.com

Earlier this year there was a report that all three of the remaining seasons of the Mary Tyler Moore Show would come out at the same time in a 'complete series' box set... meaning if you had already bought the first four seasons, well, you'd have to buy them again in the "complete set" in order to get the three seasons you didn't have. But this seems to contradict that. Hope it's true.... once I have the complete series: marathon!

To Be Continued... Whoops! Actually, No. (or: Not a Good Day for Soaps)

It is not a good day for the soaps.

Not only has ABC announced that it’s moving production of “All My Children” from New York to Los Angeles saying that LA has the advantage of having larger storage spaces for sets and the space to build permanent pieces, but also Nina Tassler, President of CBS, announced today in the New York Post that the 53 year old “As The World Turns” is in jeopardy of being the next show on the chopping block (“Guiding Light” is off the air in mid September after 72 years on the air).

It’s not surprising also that I’ve heard from my writer friends who write about the soaps online that ABC is in production for “The Aisha Tyler Show” a talk show starring the comic (known to most of America as that girl that nearly stole Ross away from Rachel towards the end of the “Friends” run).

GLEE is Bustin Out All Over

My favorite new series has only had one outing so far but I cannot wait for the real season to begin in just a few weeks.. yes GLEE was fantastic on it's initial one shot showing this past May but there's always that worry that they did what they could but that the rest couldn't possibly live up to expectations.. well, in this clip from the upcoming season, I think there's a reassurance that this is going to be something special. The last line of this clip just slays me..... 

Thank You SHOWTIME for NURSE JACKIE

So who's been watching the new greatest show on cable?  NURSE JACKIE starring Edie Falco is the next best thing to dark chocolate truffles for this lady writer.

As I struggle working on my own original tv series (and other female predominant 'vehicles' since I am a female) I am grateful that SHOWTIME (the new HBO) has put together someone of her stature and talent, a wonderful show starring a wonderful actress, and a woman in the lead role.