Suddenly, Women Pols on TV Shows is a Thing

In the recent documentary Miss Representation -- which criticized American culture and the media for its negative impact on women and girls -- child advocate Marian Wright Edelman lamented the scarcity of American women politicians saying that, "You can't be what you can't see." Given the latest uptick in the number of fictional female pols appearing on television, the vision of all those women politicians in their red, white and blue clothing ought to give Wright Edelman something to cheer about.

Female characters seeking or occupying elected office have been popping up on a number of shows across primetime from the new Shonda Rhimes drama Scandal and the dark HBO comedy Veep, to lighter comedies like Parks and Recreation and Modern Family. Alongside the strong, brainy women, there are a fair number of female pols who are occasionally depicted as tone deaf, goofy or a bit off, but the other male pols with whom they share the screen aren't exactly Nobel Prize winning brain trusts either.

Take, for example, the soapy, D.C.-based Rhimes show Scandal. In addition to the main character -- a powerful, savvy, whip-smart D.C. scandal fixer Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) who has a team of what she calls "gladiators in suits" who worship her -- there's a female vice president, Sally Langston (Kate Burton). And Vice President Langston is no slouch. She attempted to take quick political advantage of a situation when the president was caught doing something he shouldn't have. And while she didn't succeed in her maneuver, the viewers saw her as just as much a political player as her colleagues.

On the sardonic HBO comedy Veep, there's another female vice president who is also depicted as the "first" woman to hold that office. However while Julia Louis-Dreyfus' vice president Selina Meyer, a former senator, is intelligent and ruthless, she's very awkward, similar to the way in which Joe Biden can be awkward. She can be commanding when she wants to be, but isn't entirely convincing when she tries to smooth out political waves, largely of her own making. The latest plot twist -- the first female vice president was impregnated by her boyfriend and she's unmarried -- could've been ground-breaking, as I can't recall seeing a pregnant politician on a TV show. But having Meyer suffer a miscarriage, thus disposing of a potentially thorny plotline, left the vice president looking for a scapegoat to stave off the rumors of her pregnancy. Who took the fall? Meyer's quick-thinking chief of staff Amy Brookheimer (Anna Chlumsky) who claimed that she'd been the one who was pregnant, not the vice president.

Veep has also featured a powerful female senator, Barbara Hallowes (also played by Burton, the vice president from Scandal), who politically tussled with Louis-Dreyfus' Meyer on a few occasions. Burton's really good at the politician thing, perhaps even better than she was as Meredith Grey's mother Ellis on Grey's Anatomy.

One TV pol who shares some of Meyer's politician DNA but is painfully earnest (in contrast to the uber-cynical Vice President Meyer) is Parks and Recreation's Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) who spent the past season campaigning for a seat on the Pawnee City Council after taking a leave of absence from her post in the Parks and Recreation Department. Knope, a clever and big-hearted candidate, had to match wits with her moronic chief opponent's professional campaign consultant -- another knowledgeable woman -- who played very, very dirty. Knope held her own throughout the season as her campaign had little cash and a tiny volunteer staff, but Knope kicked some serious behind during the big debate, even bested her opponent after he threatened that his father would shut down the big Pawnee candy factory and throw a bunch of people out of work if Knope won. In the end, Knope squeezed out the victory.

Not so lucky was Modern Family's Claire Dunphy (Julie Bowen) who also campaigned for a spot on the Town Council but had an utterly disastrous debate performance, mostly due to the idiocy of her husband Phil and a Valentine's Day surprise that went terribly awry. The refusal of Town Councilman Duane Bailey to erect a stop sign at a dangerous intersection -- after Dunphy had collected all the necessary signatures from concerned citizens and made an impassioned argument for the sign -- was the catalyst for Dunphy's first bid for elected office. Although Dunphy lost, at least, in the end, her opponent gave her the stop sign she wanted.

As disappointing as it is to learn that all of these programs won't be airing new installments until the fall (or later in the case of Veep), there's at least one new summer show that will make the case that women can flourish in the political realm (or at least stumble around as well as the men do). USA Network's Political Animals will be premiering next month featuring Signourney Weaver as the U.S. Secretary of State and the former wife of a U.S. president who had difficulty keeping his fly zipped. With the exception of the "former" wife part, does the premise ring any bells, right down to her denial that she'll ever run for president . . . again?

Image credits: Carol Kaelson/ABC, TVLine/NBC and Peter "Hopper" Stone/ABC.

‘Modern Family’ to the Rescue: Delivering Laughs, Irreverence

Take one part political debate, one part farce and one part auto-tuned, viral YouTube video and what do you get? The really funny latest episode of Modern Family, “Little Bo Bleep.” I really needed to laugh out loud and this new episode delivered.

Remember a year ago during the ill-fated Valentine’s Day hook-up Phil and Claire tried to arrange at a nearby hotel? They were going to meet in a hotel room but Phil went into the wrong one, stripped down to his birthday suit and was discovered in a stranger’s hotel room and later was questioned by police. That incident came back to haunt Claire as the straight-laced mom of three saw her campaign for town council potentially derailed by the antics of naked Phil. And Claire was already worried about a new poll where voters said she was “unlikable,” hence her home debate prep with the Dunphy clan.

If you haven’t yet seen the episode, which also features a storyline about toddler Lily’s sudden affection for the F-word, do yourself a favor and watch. It’s available online for free.

Best line of the episode: "I am Phil Dunphy and I am not a pervert."

Sally Draper Takes a Stab at Therapy . . . From the Therapist's Chair

Missing Mad Men? Well I can’t give you any new clips from the fifth season yet (as they've not been released), but I can share this Funny or Die video starring Kiernan Shipka, otherwise known as Sally Draper, who’s playing the role of a “child star psychologist.”

As a therapist – who looks very mature (working on Mad Men will do that to you apparently) – Shipka sees “child star” patients including Nolan Gould, Luke Dunphy from Modern Family who is haunted by his desire to make funny asides to a camera that’s not really there.

Shipka also counsels a ridiculous pink peacock of a 6-year-old girl from the reality show Toddlers & Tiaras who says she has no idea what her “real” face looks like and fears her neck will snap from the combined weight of her hair and makeup.

Notes on Pop Culture: Assessing the New TV Season

The fall TV season starts in one big, mad rush as the networks simultaneously release their new and returning shows in a short period of time. It’s hard to figure out what’s worth your time and what’s not. Already, The Playboy Club (which I hated), Charlie’s Angels, Free Agents, How to Be a Gentleman (none of which I never watched) have been cancelled. Other new shows are still on the bubble.

As for returning shows, there’s been a mixed bag, ratings-wise, with some disappointing and others waging a strong showing.

Here are some of the shows that I have seen, liked and plan to stick with:

Modern Family: My beloved Modern Family had a precarious beginning to its third season. I wasn’t all that big on the dude ranch episode and the Manny-sells-wrapping-paper episode was only so-so, with Phil and Luke’s weirdly violent YouTube basketball moment being the highlight. I was starting to worry that my favorite comedy, which has been showered with love and golden statues, was losing its touch.

Then came this week’s episode and it hit on all cylinders. Claire’s going to run for town council because she’s ticked that the town won’t put a stop sign up at an intersection in her neighborhood. This has tremendous, clenched Claire potential. Cam’s sanctimonious take-down of the dad who he thought had brought two young children to see a violent movie, only to learn he and Mitchell were in the wrong theater, was priceless social commentary and Phil’s accidental bruising of Luke and his drugging of Alex were pitch perfect. Throw in Luke’s sudden savvy and I’m hoping the writers are in the groove once again. More of what we saw this week and less of Cam yelling, "Stella!" in suburban streets.

Up All Night: It was this past week’s episode of the Will Arnett/Christina Applegate freshman comedy Up All Night – I reviewed it here on CliqueClack TV -- that solidified for me the conclusion that this show is a keeper. Although it focuses on new parent experiences that have been covered many times before by many different shows, Up All Night always seems to put its new, fresh spin on the subjects. (Its major weakness is figuring out what to do with Maya Rudolph, but they improved upon her character this week.)

For example, we’ve seen new TV parents struggle with neighbors partying and being really loud while the parents are trying to sleep and they know their baby’s going to be up soon, or the baby can’t get to sleep because of the noise before, but the way Arnett’s Chris and Applegate’s Reagan coped was much different. In a piece for Modern Mom I compared Up All Night to thirtysomething, which aired a bazillion years ago. In thirtysomething, when the Steadmans’ neighbors were having a loud party, Michael ran outside to the front stoop and fruitlessly shrieked at them to turn the music down while standing there, lamely, in his boxers. In Up All Night, Chris called police about the noise his neighbors were making, but after he provided his name, he and Reagan feared the neighbors consider them uncool so they quickly got dressed and ran across the street to the loud party and pretended they’d been there all along.

Chris and Reagan are two cute, wannabe hipster parents who are simply exhausted and to whom you want to give a giant hug.

The Good Wife: Untethered from the responsibility of actually having to be a martyred, betrayed wife any longer, I’m really digging the new Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies) who's enjoying her illicit love affair with her boss Will Gardner. She seems to have developed a confident bounce in her step, loving her role as the public “good wife” who’s really having fun being bad. Adding Lisa Edelstein (formerly of House) to the cast and moving Eli Gold's political consulting work inside Lockhart Gardner were strokes of genius.

Homeland: The pilot episode of this Showtime terrorism/spy drama, Homeland blew me away. Who knew that Claire Danes, Angela Davis from My So-Called Life, could convincingly play a CIA agent with a drug problem who suspects a former U.S. POW, now regarded of an American hero, is a double agent for the enemy? Episode two is still sitting on my DVR awaiting a Saturday night viewing with my husband. If you miss 24, Homeland is for you.

Shows In Between:

Grey’s Anatomy: After a very strong seventh season, Grey’s Anatomy’s eighth season has been a disappointment thus far. We’ve seen the main character, Meredith Grey, become estranged from and practically shunned by her husband because she messed with a clinical trial of his, got fired (then quickly rehired) and then, as a result, the strained duo lost custody of their adopted daughter. Derek Shepherd has been transformed into an utterly unlikable, pompous character.

Owen and Cristina have been struggling with Cristina’s decision to abort their baby when he wanted to keep it. Though he’s trying to be supportive of her, it’s obvious that something’s shifted between them, and not just the fact that Owen has become chief of surgery after Richard took the fall for Meredith. These two have been among the few bright spots this season.

Last week’s episode was told from the men’s point of view and was, frankly pretty demeaning toward the male characters as it showed them stereotypically fighting over women and work, making erectile dysfunction jokes and wielding hammers and drinking beer as a way to cope with all that was bugging them. This week’s episode – which I reviewed here -- focused on a penile transplant and used the groundbreaking surgery as a clunky, clumsy metaphor for all sorts of things, from April Kepner’s virginity and Miranda Bailey dumping one guy for another, to Avery standing up for himself in the face of public ridicule from his mother.

After last season, I was expecting more than stunts like the transplant and men using power tools. I look for some emotional resonance when I tune into this show and I know it's something Grey’s can deliver.

Parenthood: There have been several heart-in-your-throat scenes in the third season of Parenthood, notably the scene where Alex said goodbye to Kristina and where the pregnant single gal who pushes the coffee cart around Julia's office turned down Julia's request to adopt her child, then, a few episodes later, changed her mind. (I reviewed that episode here.)

Adam looking for work and deciding to take a chance with his family's future by working on his brother's passion project is an intriguing idea, as is moving forward with having Julia and Joel adopt. But many of the other storylines have left me flat: Jasmine and Crosby dating other people and running into one another is thoroughly boring. Sarah dating the English teacher again hasn't gone anywhere. Amber trying to be bohemian and living in a rat-infested hole seems cliched. Zeek starring in erectile dysfunction commercials is just, what's the word . . . awkward.

It’s been a very uneven season thus far for Parenthood, which has been a letdown because the show has, in the past, seemed willing to delve deeply into issues, like Max’s Asperger’s or Alex's poverty for example. I think my problem with this season is that the episodes have been overstuffed with tons of storylines so they seem a mile wide and an inch thick. I like it better when they keep things simpler. However I’m not giving up on the Bravermans yet.

Still on my DVR awaiting my attention, the latest episodes of: Suburgatory, Homeland, The Middle, Parks and Recreation and The Middle.
What new/returning shows have you liked thus far this season?

Image credits: CBS and ABC.

Emmy Nominations: Love for 'Friday Night Lights,' 'Mad Men' & 'Modern Family'

Image credit: NBC via New York Post.

As it rounds the corner of its final season, Friday Night Lights and its two lead actors, Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton, have received Emmy nominations for the wonderful conclusion to the series which moved and delighted me. Though it’s highly unlikely that FNL will receive any Emmys -- it’s up against Mad Men, Boardwalk Empire, Dexter and Game of Thrones in best drama, Chandler faces Mad Men’s Jon Hamm who had a stupendous year while Britton is competing with Julianna Margulies’ powerhouse turn in The Good Wife), it’s nice to see the gang from Dillon, Texas get some props for a change.



And it was a testament to the outstanding high quality of the humor, writing and performances in Modern Family to see that all the parents in the show were nominated for an Emmy, the show is in contention for best comedy (an honor it won last year) and one of its funniest episodes, “Caught in the Act,” is vying for best comedy writing. It’s been nominated for 17 Emmys, deservedly so.

Image credit: AMC.

Then there’s my beloved Mad Men which has been nominated for 19 Emmys. A favorite for best drama, which it has won for three consecutive years, the amazing Don and Peggy-centric episode “The Suitcase”  (where they stayed up all night working on the Samsonite campaign) was nominated for best writing, Miss Blankenship (Randee Heller) was nominated for best guest actress and Elisabeth Moss is up for best actress.

Other nominations that made my day: Amy Poehler for Parks and Recreation, Michelle Forbes for her poignant work on The Killing and Andre Braugher’s Men of a Certain Age nod.

Who was left out of the Emmy 2011 party?

All the folks from Parenthood. No nominations. Zip. Nada. I thought for sure that Peter Krause would be on the list for his Adam Braverman (I’m thinking specifically about the episode where he punched the guy in the grocery store for mocking his son who has Asperger’s), or Mae Whitman for her portrayal of troubled teen Amber Holt.

Rescue Me. Its sixth season was strong and powerful and grim as Denis Leary’s Tommy Gavin, like Don Draper, hit his alcoholic rock bottom. (Both depictions were ugly and gripping.) Certainly the series and Leary deserved nominations.

Ray Romano. He proved, in his second season as the put-upon divorced dad Joe with a gambling problem on Men of a Certain Age, that he has acting chops.

Michael B. Jordan as Vince Howard from Friday Night Lights. During these past two seasons, Jordan has given an achingly beautiful performance as the East Dillon Lions’ quarterback who struggled with his previous criminal entanglements with deadly gangs, with his father returning to the fold after serving jail time (and disappointing his son by reverting to substance abuse), his mother’s rehab from drug addiction and omnipresent poverty.
Nick Offerman from Parks and Recreation. Just for the episode where he sported dreadlocks. Ron Swanson's Pyramid of Greatness. Seriously. He made me laugh out loud.
 
The folks from The Middle. I adored the episode where Frankie and Mike Heck attempted to "take back" the house from their kids but, inevitably, failed.

What nominations pleased you? Which omissions annoyed you?

Image credits: New York Post, Michael Yarish/AMC.

Loving the F Word & 'Modern Family's' Tricked Out Minivan

I didn’t realize how much I’d missed Modern Family until I watched the new episode last night. Ever since, I’ve periodically chuckled aloud to myself whenever these two sentences crossed my mind:

“I can’t be satisfied.”

“We love the word.”

I marveled at how the disturbed creative genius(es) got from the notion of Phil promoting his real estate business by shrink-wrapping the Dunphy family minivan (which Claire drives) with an image of the family . . . to Phil appearing as though he was a pimping out Claire and Haley. Phil’s confused conversation with the sicko who called his cell phone number – the number listed on the side of the minivan – who asked for “both of them,” and Phil replying by saying he’d scrub them both up was just classic Dunphy.

And while the over-the-top school play/musical has been done countless times on TV, Modern Family put its own unique twist on it with Luke hovering over the stage and feeling his heartbeat in his eyeballs and the unfortunate “We love the F word” meta-statement on the stage.

Notes on Pop Culture: 'Parenthood,' 'Shameless' & My TV Golden Globe Picks

Parenthood: Feelin’ the Guilt

The current Adam and Kristina Braverman storyline on Parenthood -- they banned their 16-year-old daughter Haddie from seeing a 19-year-old recovering alcoholic who has his own apartment and was emancipated when he was 16 -- is playing out in interesting ways.

This week, Kristina was trying to assuage her guilt about making Haddie break up with her boyfriend Alex by making her pancakes and offering to give Haddie's room a make-over. Little does Kristina know that Haddie is continuing to see Alex behind her back.

When Haddie's parents eventually learn that she’s lying to them, I’ll be curious to see what they’ll do to their class president daughter who gets good grades and is otherwise a model citizen, except that she lies to her parents about boys (and has done so in the past). Given that stern, strict parenting isn’t all that in vogue these days, where Parenthood will go with this is an open question.

My review of the latest episode on CliqueClack TV can be found here.

Speaking of Parenthood, I dedicated my pop culture column on Mommy Tracked this week to how Parenthood and other primetime TV shows are depicting the raising of teenagers as a harrowing proposition.



Shameless, Surprisingly NOT a Downer

Take an alcoholic single father of six, Frank Gallagher (William H. Macy), who was abandoned by his wife and is on disability and who drinks all the disability checks at a local pub, and the new Showtime drama Shameless has the makings for one, damned depressing show, especially when Frank is frequently brought home by the cops with urine-saturated pants and left to sleep it off on the floor.

Frank's oldest daughter Fiona (Emmy Rossum) is the only reason why the Gallagher family functions at all and why the children haven't been taken away by child protective services yet. And Fiona's a reckless twentysomething who likes to party hard. Fiona, who totes her baby brother to work with her where she cleans motel rooms, does the family's laundry, cooks and makes sure everyone, even the 8-year-old, contributes money so they can pay their electric bill when Frank's blown his monthly disability check.

So why did the pilot episode of this show surprise me? By the time I got to the end of it, I was smiling. It was actually uplifting to see that children, who are living in poverty and in awful circumstances, are somehow soldiering on, together, as a family trying to care for its own. The Gallaghers, Frank notwithstanding, have a whole lot more heart than, say, the Gavins on Rescue Me.

How Can You Not Love 'Modern Family's' Manny?

The kids of Modern Family also made Entertainment Weekly's list of the top entertainers of the year -- at number five -- but, without question, it's Rico Rodriguez who plays Manny Delgado who absolutely steals this show.

I adore the "born-old" Manny with his wingtip, Capone-esque shoes, his espressos and his soulful-looking eyes as he broods over things like a middle aged man. He's more mature than BOTH of the adults who live in his house. The recent "Manny Get Your Gun" episode was the funniest installment of Modern Family that I've seen to date and Rico Rodriguez was a big part of that.

Image credit: Entertainment Weekly.

In Between Peeling Potatoes & ODing on Turkey, 'Modern Family' Clips Provide Levity

As the level of stress starts to mount (if it hasn't already) and you gird yourself to host/travel to/put up with/revel in the great American Thanksgiving feast, here are two TV clips to give you a laugh and lighten the mood, if your mood needs lightening, as mine does when my To Do list is gigantic.

I watched the most recent episode of Modern Family -- "Manny Get Your Gun" – with my own personal, quirky version of the Dunphy family on Friday night, courtesy of our trusty DVR, and we laughed our butts off. (The barefoot Luke scene literally happened in my house hours before we watched the episode.) We agreed that this was the funniest installment of Modern Family we've seen to date.

ABC has posted two scenes from that episode online including the one below featuring Jay and Gloria’s argument over her lost car keys and Manny saying he was going to take a pass on his birthday party because he realized he’d completely missed his childhood. The scene was “capped” by Gloria’s effective use of Jay’s birthday gift to Manny, which made my 9-year-old son voice his desire for his own, personal BB gun, like Manny's (something likely to increase after we watch The Christmas Story for the bazillionth time):


 
And then there was the flash mob. En Vogue’s “Free Your Mind” has been stuck in my head since I watched the episode. (I actually own that CD from 1992. Gave it to my daughter who has taken a shining to the song.)



Hope you have a great Thanksgiving with the family, or without, whatever the case may be. Yours truly will be having two, count ‘em, TWO Thanksgiving dinners, one that The Spouse and I are hosting for a whole mess o’people (we're deep frying two turkeys, huzzah!) and one that we’re attending, to which we're bringing pies and side dishes. We’ve got a visit to Santa on tap, as well as a parade to see, along with at least one youth hockey game to go to and hopefully we'll do it all after consuming an ample quantity of gravy.

I’ll be back here on Monday, already feeling behind on my Christmas shopping (I do NOT participate in that Black Friday insanity), ready to break out the Christmas music and holiday TV specials. One of my closest friends joked that she's going to start answering her phone, "Buddy the Elf, what's your favorite color?" What a great idea. Wish I'd thought of it first.

Six Degrees of Lorelai Gilmore

Seeing that I’ve been writing about Parenthood for CliqueClack TV, coupled with the fact that my daughter has been watching repeats of the Gilmore Girls on ABC Family, I frequently think about Lorelai Gilmore, the well loved character played by Lauren Graham.

However last night I didn’t happen to be thinking about Lorelai/Lauren Graham at all when she suddenly came to mind because characters who’d appeared on Gilmore Girls with her kept appearing. There on The Event was Lorelai’s former fiancé Luke Danes (Scott Patterson), only he wasn't wearing his backwards baseball cap. (The Event also features the English teacher Lauren Graham’s new Parenthood character briefly dated.) While flipping through the stations, I spotted Lorelai’s other former fiancé, Max Medina (Scott Cohen) on Hawaii Five-O.

Could Lorelai Gilmore/Lauren Graham be a female Kevin Bacon?

As names of shows started popping into my head, I tested my fledgling theory:

Mad Men – There was Peyton Sanders, otherwise known as Don Draper on Mad Men (played by the awesome Jon Hamm), who Lorelai found to be such a dreadfully boring man that she refused to go on a second date with him, even though their second date was supposed to be attending a David Bowie concert.

Grey’s Anatomy – Lorelai’s father, Richard Gilmore (Edward Herrmann) did a three-episode stint where he played significantly older-than-usual surgical intern, Norman Shales.

The Good Wife – Lorelai’s daughter Rory dated Logan Huntzberger (Matt Czuchry) when they attended Yale. Now Logan’s making life difficult for one of Lorelai's peers, Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies) in Chicago on The Good Wife.

Lost (it came to mind because I was thinking of The Event): This route is more circuitous, but still gets you to Lorelai in six links or less: Matthew Fox was on Party of Five with Scott Wolf, who was on The Nine with Kim Raver, who’s now on Grey’s Anatomy which had Edward Herrmann.

24 – Chloe O’Brian, Jack Bauer’s most trusted ally, appeared twice in the Gilmore Girls, once in Kirk’s odd black and white film (the whole thing is on the DVD set) and once as a troubadour who flouted Taylor Doose’s crackdown on troubadours who were crowding the Stars Hollow streets.

Modern Family -- Julie Bowen, who plays Claire Dunphy, played Matthew Fox’s wife on Lost. See the aforementioned Lost connection.

You can also link Desperate Housewives and Boston Legal to Lorelai through Duck Phillips/Paul Young, Mark Moses’ roles on Mad Men and Desperate Housewives respectively. Chilton's Headmaster Charleston (Dakin Matthews) also appeared on Desperate Housewives as Bree's pastor, providing a more direct link between Wisteria Lane and Stars Hollow.

It’s a fun game to play once you start . . .

Image credit: WB.

Notes on Pop Culture: Poehler on 'SNL,' 'Grey's' Sneak Peek & 'Modern Family'

One of my favorite comedians, Amy Poehler -- of NBC's underrated Parks & Recreation -- is hosting the season premiere of Saturday Night Live. I cannot wait. She’s been especially good when she’s appeared on SNL since departing as a cast regular, though I don’t think it’s possible for her to top the "Palin Rap" she performed when she was pregnant out . . . to . . . there . . . in 2008. NBC has released some promos:



Meanwhile, ABC has released a sneak peek of Grey’s Anatomy’s season seven post-hospital shooting premiere. I watched that shooting episode repeat last week, eerily on the same day when a real life shooting took place at Johns Hopkins. I hope that Shonda Rhimes & Company can deftly capitalize on the raw human emotions that an event like that would spawn but in a non-exploitative way, allowing the after-shocks to linger, instead of just pushing them aside for crazy-case-of-the-week drama.

Judging by a video excerpt ABC released, Derek's response to nearly dying after being shot by a disgruntled patient's husband is to speed like a maniac on the highway and get busted for it.

Don’t forget, tonight Modern Family and The Middle both return tonight. I’m hoping they’ll build upon strong freshmen seasons and that the Modern Family crew -- like the Mad Men folks -- will take its award accolades with grace, not let it destroy the sharp humor of the simple in the show and not muck it up with too many guest stars. *fingers crossed*

Notes on Pop Culture: Bye-Bye 'My Boys,' 'The Big C' Gets Crazy, Fall TV Previews

Bye-Bye My Boys

Just as news about the reported sexual harassment of a female sports journalist is making headlines nationwide (I’ll write more about that in another post), TBS goes and cancels the comedy My Boys, whose lead character PJ Franklin, (Jordana Spiro) is a sporty woman who's also a sports reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times. That just stinks. I was fond of PJ.

The Big C Gets Crazy

While the latest episode of The Big C showcased Laura Linney’s cancer patient acting all wild, crazy and impulsive by emptying her 401K, buying a red convertible (without researching it in Consumer Reports first!), splurging on pricey champagne, bribing a restaurant waitress to keep her wine glass full during lunch and pretending to be her dermatologist’s girlfriend when she forced herself to accompany him on his house hunting trip, I wondered in my episode review on CliqueClack TV whether the show can keep this particular thread going: Watching Cathy go through various iterations of acting on every whim as a response to her dire cancer diagnosis.



Fall TV Previews

I surveyed the new and returning fall shows in my pop culture column this week. The show I’m most anxious to see: Modern Family. Can't. Wait.



After last season’s gripping finale, I’m looking forward to Grey’s Anatomy’s return as well. (There are abundant spoilers floating around about a wedding between a particularly challenged Grey's couple in the season seven premiere.)

One show about which I’m on the fence: Desperate Housewives.

I’m also intrigued by The Event but fear it may be a let-down a la FlashForward.

What fall shows are you looking forward to seeing?

Image credit: TBS via Entertainment Weekly.

One of the Reasons Why I Love 'Modern Family:' Manny!

When I saw Rico Rodriguez -- who plays Manny Delgado -- on the stage last night when Modern Family so justly won the Emmy for best comedy for one of the best freshman comedy seasons I think I've ever seen, I just wanted to give him a big hug.

How cute is he, the little fashion plate?!

Image credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images via New York Times.

'Mad Men,' 'Lost,' 'FNL,' 'Modern Family' Get Some Emmy Lovin'

Emmy nominations in a nutshell:

Mad Men: 17 nominations.

Modern Family: 14 (almost all the show's actors got nominated with the glaring exceptions of Ed O’Neill, who plays Jay, and Rico Rodriguez, who plays Manny)

Lost: 12 (including lead actor nomination for the much-maligned Matthew Fox who I, personally, liked very much as Jack Shephard)

Connie Britton and Kyle Chandler got nominated for lead actress and actor in Friday Night Lights. FINALLY!

Jon Hamm (Don Draper), January Jones (Betty Draper), John Slattery (Roger Sterling), Elisabeth Moss (Peggy Olson), Christina Hendricks (Joan Harris), Michael Emerson (Ben Linus) and Terry O’Quinn (Smoky Locke) all got acting nominations. Even Andre Braugher, who gave a brave performance on Men of a Certain Age, got a nod.

Missing from the nominations – complete list is here -- Grey’s Anatomy and Rescue Me actors and writers whom I thought deserved some accolades.

Here are the nominees for the two biggest categories:

Best drama: Breaking Bad, Dexter, The Good Wife, Lost, Mad Men, True Blood

Best comedy: Curb Your Enthusiasm, Glee, Modern Family, Nurse Jackie, The Office, 30 Rock

I wrote up my react to the nominations here at CliqueClack TV.

Who are you pleased to see on this list? Who’s missing?

Image credit: Carin Baer/AMC.

Anti-Dora the Explorer 'Modern Family' Promo & New 'Sex and the City 2' Trailer

It's Friday which, for me, means deadline time for a bunch of stuff, so I'm normally in dire need of a laugh of some sort.

The promo for the upcoming Modern Family episode -- where Mitchell is miserable being an at-home dad while Cameron is miserable working and longs to be at home and serve as Mitchell's "trophy wife" -- made me laugh, particularly the bit about Mitchell reveling in plotting the death of Dora the Explorer, something about which I've pondered on more than one occasion lo so many years ago.



Not so much providing laughs as providing me with questions was the latest trailer for the Sex and the City 2 flick which provides a bit more context for what's going on with the infamous gal pal foursome in their upcoming film, including the fact that Carrie's worried that, two years into her marriage to Big, they've lost that "sparkle" and she couldn't help but wonder, "What happens after you say, 'I do'?" Plus, Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha travel overseas in what looks like a ridiculous excuse to get the gals out of NYC for no apparent reason other than to have an excuse to put them in a different variety of clothing and make a joke about hot flashes in the desert.

'Modern Family:' It's Go Time

Rarely does it disappoint. Always does it provide me with at least one guffaw. It's smart, risk-taking and full of heart.

I simply cannot say enough about Modern Family. You could quote from it all day long. You see characters racing around through the scenes who resemble people you know in real life. (At least I feel like I know some of these people.) While other shows might be disappointing -- like Parenthood, for which I'm still clinging to hope -- this one has proven to be a solid keeper.

This week's episode, "Game Changer," focused on Phil's birthday and the fact that on his birthday the iPad was going to go on sale. Phil had all these plans to get up super early to go to the Apple store and stake out his place in line. But seeing that it was his birthday, Claire offered to get the iPad for him. (A much better gift than the one she got him for their anniversary, Spandau Ballet band member singing, True.) Only she fell asleep on the couch. The rest of the episode was about Claire trying to make up for her costly mistake and Phil sulking that his birthday sucked. He even crashed some kid Phil's birthday party at the batting cages.



In the meantime, Jay, Gloria and Manny locked their competitive horns over games of chess, while Cameron got a little too into listening to his neighbors' conversations via their baby monitor (which picked up the neighbors' monitor's signal) and uttered that awesome line, "It's 'Go Time.'"



If Modern Family isn't one of your favorite TV comedies, why the heck not?

RIP: Shel Turtlestein

Loved Modern Family's "Truth Be Told" episode on Wednesday. Shel Turtlestein. Claire's vampy Facebook voices. Phil's high school nickname "Ozone" when he used to break dance. Alex lying to her younger brother Luke by telling him he was adopted and that his father's ex-girlfriend was coming to the house to pick him up because she was his birth mother. The accidental slaughter of Shel Turtlestein. Jay's inept cover up. The "killer raccoon."

All of it. Just. Rocked.

'Modern Family' Promo More Entertaining Than Oscars

Loved that The Hurt Locker won best picture. Found it refreshing and inspiring to see Academy Award winning director Kathryne Bigelow holding two awards, breaking Oscar's glass ceiling. Found myself cheering when I heard that a fellow journalist got an Oscar for penning the Oscar winning Hurt Locker screenplay. Eyes teared up when I watched the films of my high school years featured during an Academy homage to the late John Hughes.

But all in all, I was not a fan of the 82nd Academy Awards. As much as I like Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin -- Baldwin simply owns 30 Rock -- I found their performance last night to be just so-so. Only about a quarter of their jokes were amusing and their opening monologue (or is it duo-logue) dragged. Comparing the Oscars to the Golden Globe broadcast, I think Ricky Gervais was much more entertaining and cutting edge . . . because I hear that the Academy Awards folks were all into getting them there youngsters to tune in, what with them recruiting the Twilight stars (sans R.Pat.), Zac Efron's hair and the slouching teen known as Miley Cyrus to present awards. If you're reading, Oscar show people: I want Jon Stewart back.

And while, in theory, I like the personal touch of having someone who actually knows the men and women nominated in the best actor/actress categories say something specific about each nominee, by the time we got to that point in the show, it was annoying and it made a long show (ditch the dance number, this is not the Tony Awards!) even longer.

By the way, was anyone else, other than yours truly, confused by the weirdness that was the documentary short acceptance speech where one guy was speaking when a "Lady Kanye," as she's being referred to online, hijacked the mic? Well Salon got to the bottom of that and found out that there was indeed prior conflict over who was going to accept the Oscar in the event of a win because there was behind-the-scenes acrimony. Oh, the cut-throat world of documentary shorts.

I'm ashamed to say that I actually fell asleep and missed the last few big awards. That's what I get for failing to caffeine up. It was the Oscars, for God's sake, I should've known better than to go into it caffeine free. And when I went to watch the rest of the show on DVR, it cut off mid-way through Sandra Bullock's entertainting acceptance speech because the show went beyond the scheduled 11:30 p.m. ending. (Damn Helen Mirren. I knew I should've extended the taping time!) So I had to go to the Oscar web site and watch the remaining acceptance speeches there.

The most amusing thing I saw all night? The Modern Family promo where the characters had a movie-themed night of charades.



What'd you think of the Oscars, both the winners/losers and the show itself?

Got Fingers Crossed for 'Parenthood'

Loved, loved, loved the 1989 film Parenthood starring Steve Martin. Loved how it covered parenthood from the beginning (with pregnancy, infancy and childhood), all the way through being the parent of grown adults. It provided a wonderful depiction of parenthood as a continuum where, on the one hand, you're doing everything for your young child and coaching his Little League team, and on the other hand you're dealing with an adult offspring by providing hands off support, wisdom and babysitting services.

So I'm left to wonder if the new NBC dramedy Parenthood -- starring Peter Krause, Lauren Graham and Craig T. Nelson -- will be as good as the movie, or, perhaps, even better because it can delve into issues with more depth? Will it be a different, more drama-focused version of Modern Family without becoming, say, a Brothers & Sisters sans a vineyard?

NBC has finally released some longer clips of the show, which premieres March 2.

What do you think?

'Modern Family's' Light Take on Doubts of an At-Home Mom

Typically, when the subject of a mom working or not working or working part-time or taking some kind of "mommy track," etc. crops up, there's a tendency for some people to get judgmental and mean. And when TV programs have tackled the topic, it's frequently done with the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

This is why I fell in love with Modern Family's recent episode, "Moon Landing," which featured Claire Dunphy (Julie Bowen), the at-home mom of three, feeling a bit shaken when she went to wine-fueled lunch with a former colleague of hers (Minnie Driver) who successfully climbed the corporate ladder and seemed to lead a glamorous life as compared to Claire's. In response to hearing about her friend's four lovers in different cities and her major work promotion, Claire mumbled, "Last night I vacuumed the radiator thingie, under the fridge, you know that collects the dust, because you should, and, I don’t."

My Mommy Tracked Pop Culture column this week gives some major kudos to Modern Family for bringing humor to an issue that can oftentimes be treated super-seriously.

Image credit: Mitch Haddad/ABC.