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.

Spent Christmas Vacation with 'thirtysomething's' Final Season

When I should’ve been eating too much and being positively merry and jolly during the Christmas/New Year's break, I was instead sick in bed with what my doctor suspected was the swine flu. Its symptoms plagued me for eight days. (If you wish more details on my “Flu-ey Little Christmas,” go here.)
So while my husband and three kids were enjoying Christmas dinner with my brother’s family and my parents, when they were out seeing movies (I again missed out on seeing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows with my daughter) and sledding in the snow, I was in the house feeling like crap.

One small bright spot during the cruddy past week was the fact that I had the fourth and final season of thirtysomething on DVD to keep me company, that and my dog Max who was chillin' on his new L.L. Bean dog bed.

A huge thirtysomething fan, I’d never seen the fourth season because, when it originally aired, I was a senior in college and, frankly, I didn’t have time to watch a lot of TV, plus I did some editing at my college newspaper on the night when thirtysomething was on TV. (This was a looonnng time before DVRs.) I have a vague recollection of a newspaper colleague of mine telling me one night that she was in a hurry to leave the newsroom so she could go to her apartment to watch Ellyn's wedding.

Even when the thirtysomething repeats were aired on Lifetime years later, I never was able to see Ellyn get married, Nancy be told her ovarian cancer was in remission, Gary die in a car accident, Elliot and Nancy pack up and move to California, and Hope and Michael come to the brink of divorce as the drama's marquee pair had become cold and distant with one another soon after the birth of their son Leo.

It was, by far, the saddest two dozen episodes of the show I’d seen, with those post-Gary’s death ones bringing tears to my flu-ey eyes. Sure there were moments of lightness, but they were few and far between in this solemn swan song for the top-notch drama which portrayed life in the ‘burbs on the cusp of fortysomething as dark and plagued by thoughts of mortality and “what-the-heck-am-I-doing-with-my-life” ruminations, much more so than it had in its previous three seasons.

Though I’ve waited all this time to finally see the last season, I’m glad I saw these 23 episodes at the age I am now because now I have much more perspective than I did when I was in my early 20s when the show first aired. The episodes proved more meaningful and, frankly, disturbing on many levels.

Now, if only the folks at Shout Factory who gave new life to thirtysomething would be able to get the third and final season of Once and Again released on DVD . . .

Image credit: Shout Factory.

Notes on Pop Culture: FNL's Julie Takes Off, Those Maddening World Cup Vuvuzelas & 'thirtysomething' Season 3 Makes Great Viewing

FNL's Julie Takes Off


Tami Taylor was brought to tears in the latest Friday Night Lights episode, “Stay,” but not because of the nasty campaign to make her life as the principal of West Dillon High School miserable – a campaign spearheaded by the dark-hearted Joe McCoy. She shed tears because her daughter Julie took off overnight (against her parents’ explicit wishes) to see a multi-day music festival with the still grieving, still lost Matt, who had started overtly questioning why he had passed up his chance to attend a presitgious school in Chicago to stay in Dillon. By the episode’s end, Matt, apparently decided that staying was a mistake and he was smiling as he was driving away, leaving his Panther past behind him.

While Tami would’ve normally lit into Julie for blatantly disrespecting her authority and blowing off her repeated phone calls – no scenes of Tami texting Julie though, isn’t that what them there teens do now, text all the time? – when Julie burst into tears upon entering the Taylor house, saying she thought Matt was leaving for good, Tami’s heart just melted, despite Tami’s earlier vow to “beat her ass” for taking off.

Loved the series of scenes with the East Dillon Lions coaches talking to the media – including Coach Stan’s ridiculous “guarantee” of a Lions victory -- and Eric Taylor angrily walking out of a TV interview when the reporter asked him about his “history” of quitting. Hey, at least the Lions only lost to a powerhouse team in a televised game by seven. Not too shabby. If they’d won, it would’ve seemed a bit too unbelievable, too fairy tale-ish.

The story with Tim Riggins and Lyla, well, I already knew that Minka Kelly wasn’t going to be full-time this season, so the fact that she didn’t stay in Dillon like Matt had, at least initially, didn’t come as a big surprise. What I did find surprisingly, though, how heartbroken Tim looked when he told Lyla that all he wanted was her, and for Riggins’ Rigs to succeed with her as their business manager. Cue Lyla’s exit.

Shut the World Cup Vuvuzelas Up, Pretty Please

I watched the US-UK World Cup game on TV Saturday and became insanely irritated by those god awful horns, called vuvuzelas. Broadcasters are complaining that the sound of the noise-makers is drowning out the commentators, and players are peeved, saying that the incessant honking noise is distracting. The hatred many have expressed for those horns has World Cup organizers contemplating banning them. I absolutely cannot imagine what it must be like to try and watch the games in person and have to listen to that sound for 90 minutes straight. Maybe, for future game viewing, I should just watch games with the sound off.

Speaking of the World Cup, The Guardian has a very funny clip, reenacting the “big” moments in the US-UK game . . . in Legos, complete with the sounds of the vuvuzelas in the background.

thirtysomething Season 3 DVD was Great Viewing

The third season of thirtysomething – which aired between 1989/90 – was released in DVD format recently and, after plowing through the episodes during the season widely remembered as the one “when Nancy got cancer,” I discovered that this season was even more emotionally raw and relatable than its previous two, critically acclaimed seasons. Other than the Nancy cancer story, Gary and Susannah had a baby and Hope was pregnant with baby number two as she and Michael started to drift apart. Hope even kissed a bearded guy who worked at a D.C.-based an environmental organization who worked on a failed campaign with Hope to try to shut down an incinerator project in her neighborhood. It’s also the season where the Machiavellian Miles Drentell dramatically locked horns with Michael and Eliot. My review of the season three DVD set is here.

I cannot wait until the fourth and final season is released as I never saw it when it originally aired as I was busy finishing my senior year of college. The ShoutFactory hasn’t yet announced its release date but it has been releasing the first three seasons about six months apart from one another.

Did you have a favorite episode of thirtysomething?

'thirtysomething' Season 2 DVD, Still Relevant 21 Years Later

Longtime readers of Notes from the Asylum are already familiar with my longtime admiration for thirtysomething which, for years, I gnashed my teeth over the fact that it was unavailable on DVD.

Last August, the first season was finally (!) released on DVD. Now, a short time later, the second season of the angsty, yuppie drama has been released as well.

After watching the 17 episodes of the sophomore season, I devoted my Pop Culture column this week to how relevant the work/life/parenting issues remain, despite the fact that Hope Steadman typed her freelance articles on a typewriter and shoulder pads were still in fashion.

I concluded:

"Looking at today’s pop culture landscape, I can find no current TV dramas which capture the gloriously messy and stressful, day-to-day slog of child-rearing, work and marriage as deftly and incisively as this 21-year-old series did. In this case, analog still trumps the digital."

Image credit: Shout Factory.

'Army Wives' Monday, er, Tuesday: As Time Goes By

*Warning: Spoilers ahead from the recent episode of Army Wives.*

I’m all for taking a show and putting a new, unexpected twist on it. But if you’re going to be moving viewers out of their normal comfort zones or employing a technique not usually used on the show, you’ve got to make sure it’s executed well. If you’re thinking about having your show’s characters, say, go back in time, maybe have them play people from another era, there should be a reason for it, shouldn’t there, maybe to progress the overall series plot a little?

An example of this done well was the season two premiere of thirtysomething, “We’ll Meet Again.” Hope and Michael were debating whether and when to try to have another baby while Hope was mulling whether/when she should return to work and how a second baby would factor into that. While working on a piece about household Radon levels for an environmental magazine, Hope discovered a trunk filled with photos, letters and a journal, kept by her home’s previous owner. She became obsessed with the love story between a young woman, who had lived in the house with her family, and a soldier with whom she met, fell in love with and married, in short order, before he went to serve in World War II. Hope read in the journal that the woman had a miscarriage not too long after finding out that her husband had been declared MIA. Once the husband returned, they planted roses in the backyard, which were still thriving.The poignant flashbacks to the World War II era featured other actors -- not actors from thirtysomething -- and were linked to Hope and Michael’s current situation, as the stories intertwined beautifully at the end of the episode.


This is my long-winded way of saying that while I laud the effort and notion of having a show about Army spouses pay tribute to the Greatest Generation, Army Wives could’ve done a much better job at folding the tales of the Fort Marshall World War II Army spouses into the episode. Despite the great costumes and music, "As Time Goes By" felt, to put it bluntly, ham-fisted. Having current characters in flashbacks playing OTHER characters whose life situations don't have any relation to the current characters made for somewhat muddled TV.

Pamela and Roxy met two World War II Army wives, Elsie and Virginia, and struck up a conversation about the older ladies’ experiences, which led to tales about the women's friends and spouses circa the 1940s. All of which was fine until the flashbacks to the women’s younger days, dramatized by the current cast of the Army Wives. (I'm betting it was better on paper than in reality.) While the tales of the World War II Army wives were compelling, because there were so many cast members to whom they had to assign stories, the portrayals wound up feeling shallow, like little CliffsNotes nuggets about the World War II era. And there was little that these flashbacks did to illuminate the current characters' stories.

It was as if they tried to do too much, with too many characters in a single episode: Tackle racial discrimination in the military, wounded soldiers coping with their post-war injuries, pregnant war brides losing their husbands, the rise of Rosie the Riveter and women in the military. They had Claudia Joy, complete with head scarf, working in a production plant while her husband became wheelchair-bound due to war injuries. Pamela played the pregnant war widow who'd been a newspaper photographer. Roxy, incongruously, was a New York socialite married to a soldier and was initially viewed as a lace-wearing snob. Denise was serving in the women’s branch of the Air Force, while her husband, former Air Force, ran a bar, what would later become the Hump Bar, the scene where her husband was knifed to death. Joan was a waitress/dish washer at the bar and was married to a perpetually angry Roland who was serving in the Army.

All valid stories, yes, but the way in which they were executed on Army Wives made them feel extremely uneven to me, which was too bad, because that era has so much potential which Army Wives could’ve mined more in depth. In fact, I could see an Army Wives-World War II spinoff (think of the wardrobe) really getting into these meaty issues, similar to the way in which Mad Men is a dramatic time capsule for the 60s. Considering that the networks have spun off NCIS, CSI and a bazillion Law & Orders, why not a 1940s Army spouses drama?

Next week, according to the previews, Army Wives will be back to the 21st century and the contemporary gals’ woes.

So what was your take on the Army Wives' time traveling back to the 1940s?

Image credit: Lifetime.

'thirtysomething' DVD Release Garnering Lots O'Attention

Everybody's got thirtysomething fever. I tell ya . . .

The thirtysomething gang of seven reunited on the set of Good Morning America to talk about the impact of their insightful, moving drama on pop culture as the first season of the show has now been released on DVD this week.

NPR's Talk of the Nation featured five members of the cast in a lengthy interview. It's a really great chat which I recommend.



A writer likened the Melissa Steadman character to a pre-cursor to Carrie Bradshaw. Hmm. . .

The Los Angeles Times mused on the Baby Boomer juggernaut.

The Washington Post, in reviewing the DVD set, said the show "still works remarkably well as a piece of relatable, well-acted and adult television, a program that -- contrary to popular opinion -- was more than just a whinefest."

The New York Times had a long Q&A with thirtysomething crew members, saying the show "perfectly captured the intimate details of the baby boomer lifestyle in ways no network series had previously, and sparked intense debate about its merits."

Entertainment Weekly gave the DVD set an A.

The Associated Press interviewed several of the stars (see below):

'thirtysomething' DVD Out Tuesday, Plus Cast Reunion on GMA

Finally!

For those of you who've been waiting so long.

It will arrive in stores on Tuesday.

The first of four seasons of thirtysomething on DVD.

Huzzah! Time to get your Michael and Hope Steadman fix and count how many times Melissa wears a lone earring and her numbers coat.

My celebration and dissection of the season one episodes plus the DVD extras is the subject of my Pop Culture column this week. The interviews and audio commentaries on the DVDs are good, as are the random bits of trivia I gleaned from them, for example, did you know that ABC execs initially hated the name, thirtysomething and wanted to instead go with the name Grown-Ups?

Also, don't miss the thirtysomething gang reunion on Good Morning America on Tuesday.

Image credit: Shout Factory via Amazon.com.

Suburban Mom's Pop Culture Week: Potter, Entourage, thirtysomething, Time Traveler's Wife

I've been mired in the doldrums of mid-summer amid inclimate, rainy days, bickering kids and having to take one of those kids to multiple appointments intended to rid her left ankle of pain. Amid that, here's what I've been consuming in the pop culture this week:

Films:

-- I took my twin 10-year-olds to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince soon after it opened nationwide. Had we not all read the book, we would've given it an unequivocal thumbs up, enthusiastically so. But given that we did read the book, it was hard not to be irritated by many of the changes made in the film version, including in the pivotal scene at the end where Harry was supposed to be immobilized by a spell, at least he was in the J.K. Rowling version. The way it played out in the film made Harry look wimpy.

That being said, I think that upon a second viewing -- when it comes out on DVD -- the kids and I will be more able to fully embrace the movie as the well done, two-plus hours of stylistic fantasy that it is. The teen actors are believable and many elicited emotions (laughter, tears) from yours truly, as well as from many other members of the audience in the theater.

-- Finally saw Hancock On Demand over the weekend with The Spouse. (Milk, which I got from Netflix about a week-and-a-half ago, is still sitting next to the TV.) It wasn't bad, but I'm a Will Smith fan so I'm predisposed to liking him. However I thought the "romantic" twist was silly and not well thought out. It could've easily played out better as a straight super-hero epic and been perfectly fine as an action hero flick without it.

TV:

-- I had an imaginary question mark lingering over my head after the recent episode of Entourage, where everything seemed to be unfolding re-al-ly, re-al-ly, sl-o-w-ly. Terrain that's already been trod is being revisited, which is growing tedious. Plus, I, frankly, could care less about Ari's business partner's extra-marital fling, though I find it interesting that Ari himself, to the best of my recollection, has not strayed from "Mrs. Ari."

I'm planning to stick with da boys throughout the season, although I'm starting to believe that this slow motion, underwater feeling I get when I watch the HBO show isn't going to go away any time soon.

-- Post-All Star Game Boston Red Sox games have been depressing, y'all. Now the Sox have fallen out of first place in the AL East, replaced by the Evil Empire. It's sad, yes, but I'm of the mind that the Sox fare better when they're underdogs as opposed to the top dogs. It's what kept Sox fans going through an 86 year championship drought.

-- I'm going to write about this subject AT EXTREME LENGTH soon, but I've been spending time traveling back to the year of 1987 with Keds, enormous shoulder pads, cassette tapes, Reagan and in which there was no internet, no cell phones, no e-mail, no BlackBerries, no On Demand. Why? I've been screening the first season of thirtysomething on DVD (goes on sale next month) in preparation for a column or two. I, a long time fan of the show, am in Michael and Hope Steadman heaven.

Books/Magazines:

-- I finished Half-Blood Prince and then polished off Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, but couldn't put away my box of tissues (the end of the both of those books make me snivel), because I started re-reading The Time Traveler's Wife. (The film based on this book comes out next month.) It's almost like reading it for the first time because it's been so long since I first cracked it open. After the past season of Lost, which featured mucho time traveling, the whole notion of moving back and forth through time now seems old hat.

-- For some reason I've recently found myself coveting recipes in Martha Stewart Living Magazine which have inspired me to stray from my food rut (a rut inspired by the aforementioned kids, two of whom rarely eat anything I make). I've been gazing at the recipes, the photos of what the food I prepare will never look like and hoping that when I present the food to the picky eaters, they'll be won over by the beauty and delectable aromas. Then I serve a Stewart meal -- shrimp, chorizo and veggies on a skewer over a bed of saffron rice (it was my idea to use saffron rice) -- and at least one kid requested a grilled cheese instead. This is the reason why my trying to cook anything from a lifestyle magazines tends to depress me.

What's your week of pop culture look like?

Image credit: Barnes & Noble.

'thirtysomething' Coming to DVD in Late August, FINALLY!

For years I've been complaining. In columns. On blogs for various web sites (including this one). Why, oh why, hadn't the award-winning drama thirtysomething come to DVD yet?

On a pop culture blog I used to have, each week when the new DVDs were released I'd viciously mock what crappy, mindless garbage were being put up for sale while thirtysomething remained on the Buena Vista Home Entertainment shelves gathering dust.

When thirtysomething first aired, I was a college student, obviously not in the show's demographic. By the time I finally became a thirtysomething myself, as well as a mom, I really wanted to watch it from my new perspective. Yet it was never released.

Instead, to get my thirtysomething fix -- to watch how Hope handled her angst about being a work-from-home writer (as I am), how Michael climbed the corporate ladder after his company went bankrupt, how they dealt with Hope's miscarriage and the challenges in their interfaith marriage, how Elliot and Nancy separated and then reunited and battled Nancy's cancer -- I've had to go to YouTube where, several months ago, one (or more) thirtysomething fan(s) uploaded episodes into five part-installments.

I've been able to watch some of low-quality versions of the episodes and, aside from rolling my eyes at the late 80s/early 90s duds (the shoulder pads!), I've found the issues explored in thirtysomething remain relevant.

Now, less than a month after leaving my thirties, I read in the Los Angeles Times that my wait is about to end. The first season of thirtysomething will be released on August 25, the Times said, and there will be a delay of six months between the release of the other three seasons. (I never did see the fourth season as I was working at my university's student newspaper on the nights when thirtysomething aired and never got around to taping the show on my VHS tapes, so I'm anxious to see how it ended.)

If only the final season of the other genius Herskovitz/Zwick series -- Once and Again with the amazing Sela Ward -- would be released. One battle at a time I guess.

Favorite Christmas TV Episodes

The Boston Globe's Matthew Gilbert got me thinking with his recent article about Christmas TV episodes. I like several of the selections on his list ranging from the slightly off-kilter (South Park's "Mr. Hankey and the Christmas Poo," which is about exactly what it sounds like, and Seinfeld's classic Festivus episode, "The Strike") to dramatic (The West Wing's "Noel," still a favorite of mine, can't stop thinking of it whenever I hear "Carol of the Bells") to dark (Six Feet Under's "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year," on the first anniversary of the death of Fisher family's patriarch).

Thus, I started thinking of other stand-out Christmas episodes from other shows. In particular, I remembered Once and Again's "The Gingerbread House" in its first season. Not only did it inspire me to seek out Tori Amos' haunting song "Winter," but it featured the main couple, Lily Manning and Rick Sammler, splitting up after Lily's confession that she'd slept with her soon-to-be-ex-husband from whom she asked for a divorce on Christmas Eve while decorating the Christmas tree.

In the third (and tragically) final season, Once and Again's Christmas episode, "Pictures," had the woman who broke up Lily's first marriage give birth to Lily's daughters' half-sister in Lily's bedroom, in the middle of a blizzard on Christmas Eve. Talk about melodrama . . .

A decade earlier, Christmas in an interfaith family was the subject of two episodes of thirtysomething, created by the same people behind Once and Again. In a first season episode entitled, "I'll Be Home for Christmas," Michael and Hope Steadman argued over how they should celebrate Hanukkah and Christmas during their daughter Janie's first year. The last scene makes me tear up every time, where Hope gets a menorah for him and Michael gets a Christmas tree for her.



In the second season, Christmas and Hanukkah evoked a crisis of faith for Michael in "The Mike Van Dyke" episode as Hope was in a serious car accident while out Christmas shopping. This is the one where Michael imagines himself as a character in the black and white "Dick Van Dyke Show."



Do you have any favorite Christmas TV episodes for which you'd like to give a shout out?

Stalking 'thirtysomething'

A stalker.

That's what my editor at Mommy Track'd called me . . . a thirtysomething stalker, to be more exact. But given that she too is a fan of the late-1980s drama about yuppies living in the Philly 'burbs, I didn't take it personally.

While messing around on YouTube recently, I discovered that a benevolent soul (or more than one benevolent soul) has uploaded dozens of thirtysomething episodes onto the web site, broken up into small chunks. And it was through this web site that -- after waiting for nearly the entire decade of my 30s to watch this show through a mother's eyes (the show was never released on VHS or DVD and hasn't been on the air in a very long time) -- I was finally able to watch the first season and write a column about how its portrayal of suburban parenthood has held up over the past 20 years. (My verdict: Very well, except for the shoulder-padded, extra large 1980s blazers worn by the women.)

So while the folks who created/distributed the much-heralded show refuse to release it on DVD, the only option for fans like me is YouTube. Thank goodness for YouTube.