Notes on Pop Culture: Great TV Finales

We've just concluded the traditional TV season and were treated to ample season/series finales. Most of them were moderately entertaining, some were really good and many were disappointing. I really liked the season enders for The Good Wife, Parks and Recreation (Councilor Knope!), The Mentalist and Scandal. I wasn't all that thrilled with the finales of Grey's Anatomy, Awake (was ticked that it was so confusing and now we'll never know the real story because it was canceled) and House.

The folks at Entertainment Weekly, meanwhile, time-traveled back to the recent TV past to select 26 season finales (not series finales) of which they were fond. Why 26? You'll have to ask them. Among the finales they honored:

The third season Mad Men finale when Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce was born in a cramped hotel suite.

The stunning conclusion of 24's first season where Jack Bauer's wife was murdered in the CTU offices.

The season two finale of Alias when CIA agent Sydney Bristow learned that she'd missed the past two years of her life and that her longtime love, fellow agent Michael Vaughn had thought she was dead and married somebody else.

The season two finale of Grey's Anatomy when Denny died and Meredith and Derek hooked up again. As much as I hated the Denny storyline, this episode, plus its selection of tunes (almost all of which I later downloaded) haunted me for weeks. However Grey's season six finale, with the mass shooting in Seattle Grace, Derek getting shot, residents dying and Meredith miscarrying could give the Denny dying season two finale a run for its money.

"Not Penny's Boat" season three Lost finale where Charlie died as a sacrifice for his friends and the whole series flashed forward for the first time. Let's just forget about that last season, okay? That never happened.

All in all, some excellent choices, although I would've added the season three finale of The Mentalist where Patrick Jane shot the man he thought was Red John (the serial killer who murdered his wife and daughter), the fifth season finale of the Gilmore Girls when Rory moved in with Richard and Emily after dropping out of Yale and the season one finale of Friday Night Lights where the Panthers won the state championship, Tami learned she was pregnant and Eric took a job at a college a plane ride away from Dillon.

What was your favorite TV show finale, this season or ever?

Mad Men Characters as Comic Book Stars, in Ad Campaigns, Plus Other Mad Men News

The peerless Mad Men-obsessed illustrator Dyna Moe has created quirky new Mad Men images for those of us who simply can't get enough of the period AMC drama.

In addition to her book, Mad Men: The Illustrated World where she interpreted key scenes from the show in colorful illustrations, she keeps a Flickr stream where she uploades images inspired by the 1960s show.


Her latest pics have placed Mad Men characters into ad campaigns which complement their storylines, or as comic book heroes/villains or even on album covers.

Love.

Be sure to check out Sally as Nancy Drew, gal detective.

In other Mad Men news:

Jessica Pare, otherwise known as Megan Draper on Mad Men, is on the cover of New York Magazine's television-centric issue this week, talking all about her infamous "Zou Bisou Bisou" scene in the season premiere, becoming Don Draper's wife and the intriguing bit of trivia that she initially auditioned to be the prostitute who slapped Don in the face last season before landing the part of Megan.

Meanwhile, my retinas remain scarred from seeing Alexis Bledel -- forever Rory Gilmore from the Gilmore Girls to me -- in smarmy Pete Campbell's fantasy in the "Dark Shadows" episode, wearing a fur coat and underwear while trying to seduce Pete at the office.

In an interview on the Mad Men web site, Bledel said that her character Beth Dawes, a depressed housewife who sought out a fling with Pete, is intriguing. "I instantly wanted to know more about her because she's quite mysterious and she's conflicted," Bledel said. ". . . I felt for her right away. She is stuck in a bad marriage that is really taking a toll on her psyche I think, so I just wanted to explore what that meant for her."

I just keep picturing Bledel in season one of Gilmore Girls in the "That Damn Donna Reed" episode where Rory dressed up like a 1950s housewife, complete with faux pearls, serving up steak and instant potatoes to impress her boyfriend Dean. I know, I know, Bledel is in her 30s now. She's no longer a teen. And that episode aired way back in February 2001, but even now, you've got to admit, she still looks very young, way too innocent for the likes of Pete Campbell.

Image credits: Dyna Moe/Nobody's Sweetheart, New York Magazine and TV Fanatic.

At the First Hint of Fall, My Thoughts Wistfully Turn to the 'Gilmore Girls'

I just noticed the first hints of autumnal color in the leaves on the tops of two trees on my New England street. During the past two days, the temps haven’t made it above 70 and school has begun. As fall gradually unfurls, my thoughts turn to many things, like playoff baseball (Go Sox!), apple picking, making everything I can think of from the apples before they go bad, fresh cider and cider doughnuts, jack-o-lanterns and cozy sweaters.

And I also think about one of my favorite TV shows, the Gilmore Girls, a program which showcased fall in New England quite often. Set in a fictional Connecticut small town named Stars Hollow, about a half-hour outside of Hartford, it began in the fall, in September specifically. Its opening credits display the show’s title across a background of vibrant foliage. On the DVDs (I own nearly all of the seasons), you make episode selections by clicking on a leaf. The ABC Family web site which has a page for the show, is covered in fall leaves. Fall and the Gilmore Girls go hand-in-hand, despite Lorelai's professed love for magical snow.

 

Many memorable, quirky moments occurred in the fall: Rory Gilmore’s birthday was in the fall -- something that was marked during several seasons -- and she received her first gift from her first boyfriend Dean outside amidst the leaves while her mother Lorelai looked on through the kitchen window.

Luke Danes was constantly hounded by the Stars Hollow selectman, Taylor Doose, to festoon his diner with festive fall decorations, given its proximity to the town green where the Thanksgiving horn of plenty resided and where the fall fair was being held.

Rory got her first kiss in Doose’s Market while she was awkwardly clutching a box of corn starch from a Thanksgiving display (a box she inadvertently shoplifted), and then ran across the center of town, stepping around pumpkins and hay bales to share her good fortune with her buddy Lane.

Rory and Lorelai had four Thanksgivings one year when they were emotionally blackmailed and/or cornered by their friends and family and felt as though they couldn't decline the invitations.

The first one at Lane Kim’s house featured tofurkey, the second at Luke’s diner featured Luke’s gruff banter, the third at Sookie St. James’ house was highlighted by Jackson deep frying the turkey and Snooki getting drunk, and the fourth at Emily and Richard Gilmore’s was the site of an argument over where Rory should apply to college. The mother-daughter duo gave everybody a bouquet of fresh fall flowers, cranberry sauce and chocolate turkeys.

When Rory was a freshman at Yale, Emily and Richard insisted on tailgating prior to the Yale-Harvard football game (albeit tailgating alongside a massive motor home, using linens and fine china and the services of a wait staff). Richard got drunk, ran into an ex and, when Emily became jealous that he’d maintained regular contact with a former flame, she took out her anger on Lorelai who’d finagled an invitation to the tailgating soiree at the last minute.

Just a month or so earlier, Lorelai had eased Rory through the college transition by spending the night with her in her Yale dorm, inviting the female students into Rory’s suite as they ordered from all the take-out joints in the neighborhood so they could sample them, that was when Lorelai wasn’t arguing with Luke over his truck in which she’d left Rory’s Yale-issued mattress.

Are there any TV shows which remind you of fall? Any favorite fall-related Gilmore Girls episodes?

Image credits: ABC Family and The WB.



Julie Taylor Pulls a Rory Gilmore

Image credit: NBC

The Gilmore Girls’ Rory Gilmore was the consummate “good girl.” She was smart and became the valedictorian of her academically rigorous private school’s senior class. She dated a nice boy and then a bad boy but never let her behavior veer off into wild gal territory. She was respectful to her mother and her grandparents.But when she began attending Yale, things started going off the rails and Rory started acting distinctly unRory-like.


For example, she had an affair with Dean, her married ex-boyfriend which led to the breakup of his marriage.

Her next boyfriend, Logan, was an affluent, spoiled albeit very smart party boy. She was in his company when she suggested that they “borrow” (i.e. – steal) someone else’s boat at a marina for a joy ride. (Just before the joy ride, she had been told in no uncertain terms by Logan’s media magnate of a father that she had no future in her chosen profession: Journalism.) Following her arrest and probation, she withdrew from Yale, became estranged from her mother and went to live at her grandparents’ home, missing out on a semester of college as she tried to figure out what she was going to make of her life.


Now Friday Night Lights’ Julie Taylor is not Rory Gilmore. She got a tattoo when she was in high school. Her dad, her high school’s football coach, walked in on her when she was having sex with her boyfriend, the team quarterback. She went through a rebellious period, including the time when she went away overnight with her boyfriend in direct violation of her parents’ wishes, and she frequently clashed with them.

But by the time she was ready to head off to college, Julie and her parents were at peace with one another. Her parents were tearful as she pulled out of the driveway.


That was before Julie met Derek, a charming and handsome teaching assistant who took a shining to the college freshman. Derek showered her with attention and flirted until the flirting turned into a full fledged affair. Problem is, Derek was married. And Julie knew it but proceeded to screw around with him anyway.

Julie’s stealing-the-boat moment occurred when Derek’s wife slapped her across the face and screamed, “Julie Taylor is a slut!” in front of a whole bunch of her fellow students. In her shame, Julie fled school and headed home, even went so far as to intentionally smash her car into a brick post so she couldn’t drive herself back to school.

When Julie’s parents Eric and Tami finally learned why she was hiding out at home, why she intentionally totaled her car, they tried to make her return to school, like Rory’s mother Lorelai unsuccessfully tried to make Rory go back to school after Rory was busted. Eric became so irritated, that he tried to physically get her to walk to the door. That was a no-go. Frustrated, Tami drove up to the college to pick up her daughter’s books and assignments so Julie wouldn’t fail out of her first semester of college.


What does this mean for Julie Taylor’s future as a college student? Will she turn it around like Rory eventually did?

Image credit: NBC.

The Good Old Days: EW's Cast Reunions with 'Gilmore Girls,' 'West Wing' & 'Alias'

The latest issue of Entertainment Weekly, which is on stands now, has this great reunion package where the casts of favorite TV shows and movies (like Back to the Future) were brought together for new photos, interviews and the occasional video.

My favorite video – unavailable for embedding on blogs – was the Jennifer Garner/Victor Garber Alias reunion video where Garner and Garber (sounds like the name of a law firm) sadly, batted down any talk of an Alias movie (Garber said everyone’s too old) while they fondly remembered the hellish long days of filming the pilot episode. Garber, who officiated Garner's wedding to Ben Affleck, said he stays at Garner's house whenever he's filming in Los Angeles. They're so cute together.



Meanwhile, Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel from the Gilmore Girls also addressed the rumor of a Gilmore Girls film and reminisced about the season four episode "The Festival of Living Art" where they both posed on stage as famous works of art.



My other favorite EW reunion was seeing many of the castmates from The West Wing talk about what the show meant to them. I didn’t realize that Elisabeth Moss -- who played Zoey Bartlet and is now Peggy Olson on Mad Men -- was 17 when she started working on the show. And sometimes I forget that Kathryn Joosten was Mrs. Landingham before she was Karen McCluskey on Desperate Housewives.

Amid the New Shows, Four Favorites Airing Season 1 Repeats

Image credit: ABC Family

While there’s ample fresh material on primetime TV with new and returning shows all over the TV schedule (The Good Wife premieres its second season tonight), a number of the freshman seasons of some well liked/loved shows are currently airing in repeats on cable:

Gilmore Girls: My daughter and I, both fans of the Gilmore Girls (feel free to play “Six Degrees of Lorelai Gilmore”), have enjoyed the season one repeats on the ABC Family channel of the sassy mother-daughter duo and the loony antics of their Stars Hollow neighbors. At this point in the first season, Lorelai’s already broken up with Max once, Rory’s still pretty new to Chilton and they haven’t met Rachel yet.

Friday Night Lights: ABC Family is also in the midst of running season one of Friday Night Lights, starting back when Eric Taylor was the new Dillon head football coach and Tami was Dillon High's guidance counselor. Issues ranging from former Dillon QB Jason Street dealing with his sudden paralysis to racial tensions at Dillon High all made FNL’s freshman season powerful.

Grey's Anatomy: Want to go back to square one with Grey’s Anatomy? Lifetime is, this week, airing the first few episodes of the medical drama, before the mass shooting, before Gizzie, before Denny and before the ferry boat accident, or, as some former fans might say, back when the show was edgy and new and McShiny.

The New Adventures of Old Christine: Lifetime has also started airing Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ funny and sarcastic The New Adventures of Old Christine, featuring Louis-Dreyfus' Christine, a deeply flawed divorced mom who lives with her brother and is prone to make an idiot of herself. It’s good to see this show get a new home, particularly after CBS execs treated it so badly.

Image credit: ABC Family.

Fall TV Previews: Sookie St. James Gets Her Own Show with 'Mike & Molly'

. . . except she’s not Sookie the talented, uber-chef at the charming Connecticut jewel known as the Dragonfly Inn anymore, cracking wise with Dragonfly co-owner/best friend Lorelai Gilmore on the Gilmore Girls.

Sookie St. James has moved on, as has Lorelai Gilmore who’s now appearing under the name “Sarah Braverman” on Parenthood. Melissa “Sookie” McCarthy returns to TV this fall in the new CBS comedy, Mike & Molly. McCarthy plays Molly Flynn, a fourth grade teacher, who finds a potential love interest at a Chicago Overeaters Anonymous meeting in the form of police officer Mike Biggs.



I’ve always liked McCarthy. I just hope that Mike & Molly provides her with some funny/goofy material that will make me stop thinking of her as Sookie St. James. However the promos didn’t exactly have me rolling on the floor.


Mike & Molly premieres Monday, Sept. 20 at 9:30.

'Parenthood' Enters the Family Drama Arena

The premiere episode of Parenthood, which aired last night on NBC was, like most pilots, overloaded with storylines designed to introduce each character and place them into some kind of context. Once the introductory business is out of the way, the real test of whether a show's got staying power is by watching the next few episodes. I'll be looking to see whether the show can and will delve into what makes each of these characters tick. But I think it has promise.

That being said, in my Pop Culture column on Mommy Tracked I pleaded with the show's writers to NOT -- I repeat, NOT -- go down the road of cliche when it comes to working moms and will refrain from demonizing them. There's this one character who's a workaholic lawyer mom, Julia Braverman-Graham (Erika Christensen), and because she's always fielding work calls, messing with her BlackBerry and working long hours, her young daughter openly favors her at-home dad. A similar dynamic was played out on Brothers & Sisters a few years ago with the Sarah Wheedon Walker (Rachel Griffiths) character, and Sarah was threatened with the loss of custody of her children during her divorce proceedings because of the long hours she worked. Brooke Shields' movie mogul character in Lipstick Jungle also suffered similarly for trying to thrive in a tough career while raising children.

Meanwhile, over on CliqueClack TV, I compared Lauren Graham's iconic role of Lorelai Gilmore in the Gilmore Girls to her new Parenthood character, Sarah Braverman. While I initially found that there are more differences than similarities between the two characters, after watching the preview below which NBC just put on its web site and seeing that Sarah's potentially interested in dating her 16-year-old daughter's teacher . . . well that scenario was played out in the first season of Gilmore Girls. (Remember Max Medina? You can refresh your memory with repeats of season one currently airing on ABC Family.) If Sarah starts dating her daughter Amber's high school English teacher, there's a distinct possibility that I may have to reassess my conclusion about just how much Sarah and Lorelai have in common.



What did you think about the Parenthood premiere?

Say What? A 'Gilmore Girls' Movie? Is This a Joke?

Entertainment Weekly’s Michael Ausiello is usually on the mark when it comes to intel on all things TV. So when I read his report that the creative genius behind the fast-talking quirkfest that was the Gilmore Girls, Amy Sherman-Palladino, had said that not only did she not watch its series finale (she left the show before the final season), but that she had other season-ending plans for the characters AND that she wouldn’t reveal those plans because there might be a movie in the future, I went, “Hold on, what? A movie? Is this like the ghost that is an Arrested Development movie, which keeps getting discussed forever but never actually happens? Or is this like a Sex and the City movie that’ll actually see the light of day?”

I, for one, would love to see some fresh Gilmore material on the silver screen. I miss those wise, loquacious Gilmores and wasn’t quite satisfied with how the show ended. (They live on in repeats on ABC Family.) When the series wrapped in May 2007, Kelly Bishop, who played Emily Gilmore with exquisite aplomb, told the Washington Post that she felt as though the finale didn’t provide an adequate conclusion to Gilmore Girls and was “disrespectful” to the show’s many fans. “I felt like the bottom dropped out,” Bishop said.

While we fans wait patiently for any glimmer of news about even the mere possibility of a Gilmore Girls film, GG alumni have been popping up on a wide variety of TV shows:

Roles have been particularly plentiful for Rory’s old boyfriends. Rory’s first love Dean (Jared Padalecki) has been starring in The CW drama Supernatural (about Lucifer, demons and the like) for several years. Rory’s second boyfriend, Jess (Milo Ventimiglia) has had the most high profile role of all the Gilmore alums to date, starring in NBC's Heroes as Peter Petrelli, a man who absorbs superpowers of others. (Ironically, the woman who plays Peter Peterelli’s mother Angela -- Cristine Rose -- played Rory’s grandmother, Francine Hayden for two Gilmore Girls episodes.)

Rory’s final boyfriend – who proposed marriage to her at a party celebrating her graduation from Yale, and then she shot down his offer -- Matt Czuchry is a supporting character on CBS’ The Good Wife, playing a smarmy, over-confident young defense lawyer competing against Julianna Margulies. In recent The Good Wife episodes, Chilton Academy grad Francie (Emily Bergl), who tangled with Rory in the Chilton student government, also showed up as another junior associate at the defense firm after having appeared in 36 episodes of ABC’s Men in Trees for years.

Lauren Graham -- the queen mama Lorelai Gilmore who’s been in a number of films like Evan Almighty and Flash of Genius – was recently added to the cast of Parenthood, after Maura Tierney dropped out after she was diagnosed with breast cancer. (Tierney’s 44 by the way, an interesting fact for the US Preventive Services Task Force which wants to stop fortysomethings from getting mammograms.) I adored the 1989 film Parenthood and can only hope that the TV show adaptation is a fraction as good.

Among other Gilmore castmates, Lorelai’s ex-husband, Christopher Hayden (David Sutcliffe) appeared in a dozen or so episodes of Private Practice as Kate Walsh’s cop love interest. Others who’ve also appeared on Private Practice include: Lane Kim (Keiko Agena), Miss Patty (Liz Torres) and Sookie St. James (Melissa McCarthy) who’s slated to appear on the medical drama soon, now that her comedy Samantha Who? has been canceled.

Sadly, the only thing I’ve seen of Kelly Bishop was a one episode guest appearance on Army Wives. And we haven't seen a lot of Alexis Bledel, Rory the brilliant, who has appeared in a couple of films (the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants movies and the poorly received Post Grad this year). I’m still waiting for her to find a new role in which she’ll shine.

Another interesting factoid about Gilmore alums: Several have appeared on Grey’s Anatomy, including: Richard Gilmore (Edward Herrmann), Paris Geller (Liza Weil), Mrs. Kim (Emily Kuroda) and Liz Danes (Kathleen Wilhoite).

Fun Gilmore trivia: Which award-winning actor played a man who took Lorelai Gilmore on one of the most boring dates of all time? Place your guesses in the comments section.

So, Gilmore Girls fans, any interest in a movie?

Image credit: ABC Family.

Suburban Mom's Pop Culture Week: Entourage, Wired & a Small Film With a Kid Named Potter

TV:

-- The sixth season of HBO's testosterone-heavy Entourage premiered on Sunday and I've got to agree with a blogger from New York Magazine who said that it felt a bit dated with stuff like Vinnie appearing on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, given that Conan O'Brien has taken the reins. Ari made reference to his agency signing the star of My Name is Earl, a show that's now cancelled. "For a show that derives a great deal of its energy from the fact that it's supposed to feel recent and insider-y to viewers, these two factual slipups have us thinking that the show's creators are committed to once again running this season on autopilot," wrote Mark Graham.

That being said, it was a surprisingly mellow, low-keyed Entourage premiere, which quietly established the groundwork for the boys to finally be showing some inklings of budding maturity and no longer acting like, in Sloan's words, they live in "a frat house." It's about damned time. The women on this show always seemed light-years more mature than the men, except for E, who seemed like the only responsible boy in the bunch, though he has been susceptible to caving into pressure to be cool and go out with the dudes. (Vinnie is JUST getting his driver's license? How much arrested development does Vinnie have?) Will something like a suddenly mature Turtle change the dynamics of the show? Of course, but change can be good. Just ask the Lost people.

Additionally, I loved the Mad Men reference when Ari defended drinking the office in the middle of the day and Lloyd quipped that it won't seem so cool when the AMC show flashes forward to the 1970s and Don Draper & Co. have heart and liver disease.

-- Watched some of the episodes from the final season of Gilmore Girls that I DVRed over the past few weeks. ABC Family, which has been running Gilmore Girls repeats for years, in June finally got permission to air the final season, the one which saw Lorelai and Christopher marry, then divorce; Lane have twins and Rory graduate from Yale and turn down a marriage proposal while she went off to cover the Obama campaign. I only saw those episodes once after they were aired, so it's been nice to see them again, though the seventh season wasn't one of my favorites. Whenever I catch episodes from the first two seasons, I realize how much of that distinct, fresh, quirky something the later seasons were missing.

-- Are money and ratings the only reasons for the MLB All-Star Game to start at 8 p.m.? (Actually, the first pitch didn't happen until 8:50 p.m.) If this is supposed to be "America's favorite pastime," why is it on TV so late? Why can't it take place on a weekend day so that kids and people who work for a living can watch it? My children went to bed at 10 p.m. and only were able to catch an hour of actual play. (I DVRed the rest of it for them and they'll watch it later.) I'm completely on board with a column Stephen King wrote a while back in Entertainment Weekly lamenting this late-night practice and how TV had "ruined" baseball.

-- I'm eagerly anticipating the arrival -- via snail mail -- of Mad Men's season two DVDs. (Is it time for that show to premiere yet?) I'll be sure to post here after I've soaked it all in.

Films:

-- There's a minor movie that just came out last night, at midnight to be exact. You might've heard of it. The lead character's name is something like Palmer? Or Puddy?

My twin 10-year-olds have been literally counting down the hours until we go to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince tomorrow afternoon (tomorrow's the earliest when we can get someone to watch our nearly 8-year-old for whom I believe the film might be too intense). I must admit that I'm kind of psyched to see it as well. Brings out the kid in me. Here's to hoping the film's solid.

-- Over the weekend, The Spouse and I watched Iron Man with Robert Downey Jr. This was one of the films he'd added to our Netflix queue after he found the list to be too heavy with thinky, independent films, TV shows (The West Wing's on the list), romantic comedies and kids' fare. He joked that he'd injected more action-oriented testosterone into the list.

When we sat down to watch Iron Man, I fully expected to hate it, but surprisingly didn't. In fact, I found it very entertaining -- I had no idea there was an Iraq/military arms supplier backstory -- and stayed awake throughout the entire thing. (This is significant because we didn't start the movie until 10 p.m. after a long day of running around with the three kids.) The other Netflix movie sitting next to the TV: Milk. Might have to ply The Spouse with some caffeine beforehand.
Books/Magazines:

-- I finally finished re-reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and have commenced my second pass through Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I'd forgotten how deeply depressing the seventh book of the Potter series is. Nothing but downer after downer. Bleakness everywhere. Kind of puts me in a dour mood. In that world, it sucks to be Harry Potter.

-- I just got the August issue of Wired Magazine in the mail and found it to be packed with intriguing stories and blurbs. (FYI: My liking it has nothing to do with the fact that Brad Pitt is on the cover.) There are pieces on the etiquette of social media -- like should you follow your boss and your boss's boss on Twitter AND friend them on Facebook? -- and a brief musing on something I'd never heard of: a single-serving web site.

What's on your Pop Culture agenda this week? You planning on seeing THE movie of the summer?

Image credit: Warner Brothers via the Examiner.

Living Like Your Favorite Celeb. . . Who Would You Choose?

I was mildly amused by an article in the Sunday New York Times' Style section about a 35-year-old writer/performer/artist's attempts to live according to the word of Oprah for an entire year. Through her blog, Living Oprah, Robyn Okrant chronicles her exploits as she adheres to Oprah's recommendations (on what books, shoes, etc. to buy, how to de-stress, how to adopt a cat, to eat more slowly) dispensed either by Oprah herself on her TV show or through one of the reigning queen of all media's many other outlets (magazine, web site, etc.) (Okrant, by the way, has a literary agent and hopes this effort will spawn a book deal, the Times reported.)

Okrant's endeavor got me to thinking. If I were to model my life after someone, or choose someone whose recommendations I would utilize to guide my life, who would I choose? I couldn't come up with an answer.

For example, I aspire to be as witty as the character of Lorelai Gilmore from the Gilmore Girls, but Lorelai, sadly, wasn't real. Her fast-moving, smart banter was crafted, with a great deal of thought I'm sure, by the show's creative geniuses in the writers' room. No one talks like Lorelai in real life.

I have a few pop culture critics (from Entertainment Weekly, the Boston Globe, the New York Times) whose work I follow and whose tastes oftentimes mirror my own, but I can't see myself only watching, reading or listening to only those items that they like. I'd go mad.

There are a handful of pundits/columnists who make incredibly insightful observations and connections about politics, the cultural scene that might not have crossed my mind, but there's not a single one with whom I'd cast my lot 24/7, intellectually speaking.

And seeing as though the only kinds of TV talk shows I watch are political/news talk shows, there isn't an advice guru a la Oprah whose work resonates intensely with me. But maybe that's just me being me. (I'm not saying that Okrant doesn't have her own, idiosyncratic tastes; I'm sure she doesn't agree with everything Oprah says. Is there a person on the planet who agrees with everything ANYONE says?)

That being said, if YOU had to choose, is there a person or celebrity (because a celeb is distinctly different from a down-to-earth, garden variety person) whose advice and/or recommendations you'd be willing to abide by for a year? Would you ever consider adhering to anyone's recommendations for a year?

(My mother is likely thinking it'd be great for me to act on her every recommendation for a year. Sorry Mom.)

Image credit: New York Times/Sally Ryan.