Jim (Con't): First up, Keelan is disappointed that Dona didn't do a piece on the same-sex wedding Archie comics just had.
Dona: Kevin Keller married Dr. Clay Walker in issue 16 of Life With Archie. C.I. covered it in "PTSD and other issues." Add in that I'd just covered the Archies the week prior and noted the equality of the series which really is behind an advance like the wedding or any other move that the characters have made previously. I did try to think if I had anything to add. But I didn't so there was no point unless I was just going to do some sort of, "Page one . . ."
Jim: On things that are covered, Lewis writes he's not sure what Mike's covering TV wise and what are the other sites covering TV wise?
Mike: I have a two week or so period where the two shows I was covering -- Fringe and Nikita -- were not airing new episodes. So I've offered during this time, to cover shows the readers like. Fringe and Nikita return with new episodes Friday, however, they're seven days behind when it comes to streaming so I won't be covering them next week. But those are the two I'm covering. Before that, I was covering Fringe and Chuck.
Rebecca: I cover Community and Revenge. I love Revenge. Community usually sucks. This has been the show's worst year and how long are they going to keep these adults at a two-year community college?
Betty: I cover Whitney and Desperate Housewives.
Marcia: I'm covering Whitney and Unforgettable.
Stan: I cover The Good Wife and Body of Proof.
Ruth: I cover Cougar Town.
Elaine: I cover Smash.
Ann: I cover Whitney.
Jim: And Ann, you've done some other shows too. That's part of the confusion on Lewis' part.
Ann: Oh, Sorry. I honestly planned to cover Revenge. Rebecca's done a great job covering it and made me really interested in the show. So I finally watch, love the show and then no new episodes for weeks. So I didn't see the point. I could cover Smash. I do like that show. Elaine does a great job covering it, by the way. But I'm in a state of flux right now. I'll most likely be grabbing Talk of the Town starting in April and I just want to relax before that comes up.
Ty: And, on the topic of TV, last week's "The week in funny" resulted in several e-mails. Most agreed with comments Jim made in his note, that the piece didn't just focus on the moments men had on TV "the way Entertainment Weekly does," Billy pointed out. Gretchen said she'd love to see that every week and most hoped it would be at least a monthly feature.
Rebecca: Well those things are always Mad Men, Mad Men, the males of Modern Family, Jon Stewart, 'oh what a funny week.' And that was true when Friends was airing new episodes. It has nothing to do with ratings even. It's just a bunch of men applauding male characters for saying things they wish they'd said. We actually had a big back and forth on that feature. It should have been easy to write and taken maybe six minutes. Instead, it was this major piece of, "Well is that as funny as . . ." Whitney was the easiest just because you have Marcia, Betty and Ann covering it and they're very strong advocates for what they believe in. But I do agree with the readers that this is a feature that should be a regular thing. And, yes, I know how hard it is.
Marcia: We'd toyed with it before in the last few years. And maybe before 2008 when I wasn't part of this. But Ava and C.I. pointed out that it's a way to note Whitney which is something Betty, Ann and I are really into raising awareness of. It's great that the show's a hit and one of NBC's few hits but there are still some people who haven't watched because of the sexist attacks on the show when it debuted.
Jim: Marc e-mailed asking when Kat is doing another album review?
Kat: I'll review Bonnie Raitt's new album in April. Other than that, I'm not planning on reviewing anything until then. If something special comes up, I will gladly grab it. I do write about music at my site.
Jim: And Charlie agreed with your "John Mayer and other trash" about how Mayer upping the price of MP3s is ridiculous. I think it's especially ridiculous, as you pointed out, in a bad economy.
Jess: Forget bad economy. What's the reason for the increase. With cassettes and CDs, they'd claim costs increased on reproducing the albums. Now it's an MP3. There's no excuse for an increase. It's nothing but greed. I strongly urge people not to download or buy John Mayer's new stuff. Send a message that we're not going to be bossed around and maybe this time they'll get the point. They wouldn't take this crap in England. Why are we always the suckers that end up paying huge amounts for our music?
Ann: And it's over 20 cents more per track. And we're talking about an artist who, instead of upping prices, should be begging for forgiveness. I wouldn't have that attitude if it weren't for his sense of entitlement. But that he thinks he can up the prices when, just months ago, he was in Playboy tossing around the n-word? I just can't get over that.
Jim: Isaiah didn't do a comic last Sunday at The Common Ills and that has several people upset because there was no heads up at The Common Ills or in the newsletters.
Isaiah: I usually take that day off every year. When we lose an hour due to the time change. After this taking place for years, I wrongly assumed it was a known. Sorry. I'll be doing one tonight and probably figure it out around 8:00 pm at the earliest. Losing an hour may not seem like a big thing but an hour can be a really big thing.
Jim: And, two or three weeks ago, we begged Isaiah to do a comic and he did it and the plan was for a series here, not a series of comics but using it for a series of articles. Then we didn't do it because we ran out of time. So I'll say I'm sorry for that and I'll note that we plan to pick that idea up next month. Theresa's bothered that Mike did not seem impressed with Modern Family.
Mike: I like Phil and his wife. I only watched three episodes. Gloria and Manny and Cameron are funny. So that's five that are funny. I can take Ed O'Neil or leave him. But Jesse Tyler Ferguson's Mitch is just a little bitch and I can't stand him. Always sneering at Cam, always thinking he's smarter than everyone else, it just gets old real quick. Ferguson's a one-note actor who has little to offer and will probably disappear when this show does.
Wally: And the other thing is that Christopher Lloyd and company really just rip off the work of Christopher Guest. Even in its best moments, you sort of feel like there should be a dollar amount in the corner of the screen letting you know just what a debat this show owes to the films of Christopher Guest.
Cedric: Right. Some would say, "No, no, it's like the Blumes!" And try to compare it to Arrested Development. But that treated comedy as a reality show each episode. That's not what Modern Family does. It goes ofr mockumentary in the way Waiting for Gufman and For Your Consideration and A Mighty Wind and Best In Show did. And those are hilarious films. I agree with Wally, Modern Family should be forking over monthly payments to Christopher Guest. And I agree with Mike about Ferguson. I can't stand his character and I can't stand the actor either. I couldn't take him in The Class when he was supposed to be straight but played the role exactly the same.
Jim: And the obvious question would be, is it because the actor's gay in real life?
Cedric: I thought they both were. Cam and Mitch. Wally told me Cam wasn't about three weeks ago. Until then, I'd thought they both were. And I love Cam. But Cam's someone who embraces life and Mitch is just a little priss with his nose in the air all the time. Unlike Mike, I've seen many of the episodes. We usually have the TV on now that we're in a house. Just because we're still getting used to so much space after being apartment dwellers. So the TV's usually on in the living room and we're taking care of this and that all over the house and meeting every once and a while in the living room. But I can't take Mitch. I've never been able to stand him. He's a priss and a snob and he's got no reason to be either. He's forever looking down on Cam.
Jim: There are some actors that people just hate. Stan's got one.
Stan: I can't stand Matthew Perry. He's supposedly coming on The Good Wife this season. I hope not. I hate him. He is the worst. He was the weakest on Friends. People don't get that but he wasn't funny in the scenes. The others interacted and he would sort of do this catty voice over, removed from it all -- kind of like what Cedric's saying about Ferguson's Mitch. So I'm really not in the mood for Chandler joins The Good Wife.
Jim: Anybody else?
Trina: I can't stand John Malkovich in anything. He always gets on my nerves. It's the same performance and it's always got an element of look-at-me-are-you-looking-at-me? to it.
Ruth: I loved George C. Scott, but I cannot take Campbell Scott. That voice. He sounds like a cartoon version of a TV anchor. If they made a film of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Campbell Scott would be perfect for the role of Tex Baxter.
Jim: Okay, Francis is thrilled with the rebirth of the sitcom and congratulates Ava and C.I. for pointing out, all these years, that the sitcom isn't dead. Francis wonders what sitcom meant the most to you. Let's start with Trina and everyone at her house.
Trina: Okay. I'll say One Day At A Time. That was a funny show and one I identified with. My husband and I are still together so I don't mean the divorced aspect. But Ann's problems with the kids -- Barbara and Julie -- were things I could relate to and I was relating to the adult on the sitcom, it was a real moment.
Marcia: Kate and Allie for me. But I couldn't watch the last season. They moved the show to Saturday and they married off Jane Curtain's character and what was the point? I couldn't watch that. That was a really important show for me because it was a show that I watched because I wanted to. Not because my parents did but because this was my show. And Susan Saint James and Jane Curtain were really something to see as Kate and Allie. They were funny and they were strong and they were friends.
Stan: Will & Grace. There's not a week that goes by that I don't remember something from that show. The cast was first rate and the writing was great. I can watch those shows over and over. Or just relive them in my head. The one where Grace meets the only woman Will's ever slept with? I know that one by heart.
Mike: I'd go with Stan and say Will & Grace. Friends made you laugh -- or made me laugh -- but Will and Grace was always bust-a-gut funny. Karen, Jack, Grace, Will, Rosario, they were hilarious. And Beverly Leslie and the other supporting characters were funny as well. The finale sucked but forget that and you've got a really solid, really hilarious TV show.
Rebecca: I'll go with The Mary Tyler Moore Show. It was a quality show with solid laughs throughout. If I ranked the best episodes, they would be the early ones before Rhoda leaves for her own show. After Rhoda leaves, you really need Sue Ann to bring the manic high to the episodes. Sue Ann was a freak with the hots for Lou and was brilliantly played by Betty White.
Kat: I'll go with Roseanne. That was a trail blazer show and so controversial that there's really not been anything like it. Even Raising Hope makes fun of the working class, treats them as idiots and ha-ha, they're stupid because they're poor. But Roseanne was a show about working class people, poor people, and they had integrity and they weren't a joke.
Betty: I think some really great things have been offered. I'll go to one that I watched all the way through, The Nanny. Fran Fine. How I loved her. And Val. Val and Fran were such great friends. And Sylvia and Niles. And CiCi. I loved that show. Fran was always getting into something. Like when Diahann Carroll was the guest star and Fran thought she might be her mother. That was hilarious as Fran began telling everyone she was Black. Or when she met the perfect guy and was so happy. Until they're making out and realize that they're cousins. That was Jon Stewart, in a guest spot, by the way.
Jim: And that's going to be it. We'll try to address e-mails again very soon. This is a rush transcript.