It really weirds me out to watch Peter Krause play another character going into business with his brother - and the other brother is the fuckup. I do love Parenthood, though.
Awwwwwwwwwwwww.
How is it 15 years later and there is no show comparable to this on prime time television? With a cast of Black folks (or really any POC) that represent a cross-section of personalities and cultures within their race just living life and doing their thing? And a token White character?
Ugly Betty came close but now what…after 15 years??? Is that progress?
This show was the bomb. Any of you who were too young or missed it growing up should check it out on Netflix.
Seriously. Actually, I know a lot of you who follow me were too young. Watch it! SO good, even if I was never particularly into Lisa Bonet—everyone else was a-ma-zing.
I totally remember watching this as a kid, but I’m not sure how, since my family was totally not into sitcoms (making my choice of dissertation project some sort of extended adolescent rebellion?). I definitely thought Hillman College was a thing for a long time.
Network television changed a lot in the 1980s and 1990s, particularly when the 1996 Telecommunications Act allowed networks to produce a majority of their own programming (thus keeping more of the profits - and potentially some of the risk, thus obviously pushing them even further away from “risky” programs than they already were). Significantly, this also changed the profitability of exporting programming worldwide (a trend that also rose with the increased popularity of satellite in countries that had previously only had 1 or 2 national networks), so networks looked for programming that would “translate.” Additionally, these period also saw the rise of a) FOX, UPN/WB/CW, which followed similar strategies of building their programming around shows prominently featuring people of color until they reached a tipping point of popularity/profitability at which point they abandoned that audience. More importantly, b) cable. So even as broadcast networks remain incredibly powerful and able to set the terms of the debate, they’re no longer pretending to be serving a national, diverse audience, but rather a series of profitable niches which they’ve defined to largely exclude shows that appeal to “just one” niche, and shows prominently featuring people of color are not presumed to transcend that “niche.”
So TV executives created a logic rooted in racism, that furthers racism, that they can explain as the result of “just doing business.” Nothing new here.
(via aka14kgold)
I got up in the snowstorm on Saturday morning and went to an indoor farmer’s market (thanks, brave friends who joined me!). The good news about that was discovering that Sun Street Breads is going to be opening a proper bakery at 46th and Nicollet in the Spring! After this heroic effort (6 inches of snow in mary janes, yes inappropriate footwear!), reinforcing my belief in my ability to drive in the snow, I deserved a break. It was even better than being hungover, because I felt my lazing was virtuous.
But I watched 16 and Pregnant on MTV. I know, I know I am so behind the times on this, but DAMN. First of all, these bieber-looking boyfriends, it’s just shocking how young they are (the young men much more so than the young women). And it does seem like this show is serving an important function in dispelling some of the myths discussed in the blog post I link to above. In one episode I watched, the young mother’s boyfriend is getting a scholarship to university (where they had planned to live in married student housing), she says, “I thought having the baby would bring us closer together.” Oh honey no. The whole thing was awful, but it did seem important…for a different audience, maybe. (this episode was also interesting because the young woman’s mother kicked her out of the house after she refused to get an abortion. that wasn’t really discussed. actually, there’s so much not discussed. the silences are fascinating.)
Like, exactly. Rory sat around reading the Journals of Sylvia Plath and The Second Sex. I guess having so much boy-related sturm und drang in her life was the only way she could get away with that on TV.
So apparently the actor who played Dean on Gilmore Girls is on this whole other show now, but actually his name isn’t Dean, that’s the name of his brother? How confusing, CW.
I feel about Gilmore Girls the way I feel about Buffy, actually, and that’s that these are the shows that made me into an anti-shipper, because I never felt that any of the male love interests were good enough for the female leads. Especially considering the Luke shenanigans of seasons 6 and 7.
And don’t get me started on Jess. Or Spike.
Catching a rerun of this morning’s Oprah
It’s about 30 year-old virgins. At once a little freaked out by Oprah’s pathologizing these women, and also recognizing parts of myself in them.
I think I might need to liveblog this episode. It’s simultaneously offputting and compelling (but not compelling in its offputtingness, if that makes sense) - Oprah and Dr. Laura Berman ventriloquizing these women’s desires/psychological histories WHILE THEY ARE SITTING THERE…so bizarre. And the neoliberal, self-maximization rhetoric that is juuuust steering clear of shaming these women, reminding us of what a fine line it is to walk between virgin and whore (Shayla, the woman who shut down sexually after her dad coped with his grief/sexual desire after her mother’s death by working through a parade of women he treated dismissively, is particularly helpful in this regard). And getting an expert to guide you through a journey: so classic!
But Carmen’s relationship to her body is making me cry. Listen to Madonna, ladies: “Until I learned to love myself, I was never ever lovin’ anybody else.” Maybe even “like myself.”
1256: Ohhh, Carmen has PCOS. And is apologizing for saying “period.” Also, n.b., she looked way cuter in the therapy session than she does on the stage here. I hope this isn’t the “after.”
1257: Carmen needs to mobilize herself!
101: “Self-stimulation” is way better than “masturbation,” which Shayla can’t even bring herself to say. Seriously, it’s such a horrible word.
102: Dr. Berman just said “vulva.” Now Shayla’s really freaking. And learning what it is, which is…sort of sad.
103: Breaking down the virgin-whore dichotomy…sort of. Nice girls can still touch themselves.
104: It’s been 15 years since the O.J. Simpson acquittal. Seems like it should be longer ago.
107: Why are these commercials so loud?
107: I think I would make an excellent sex therapist. How do I get this bitch’s job?
110: Has Shayla never gone on a date with herself before? I feel like that’s all I used to. I am an awesome date.
111: Carmen needs to check out the MOFL referenced earlier on this blog.
111: Sigh, this Marie Claire columnist… She’s super cute, though. I wonder if Carmen has any fat friends.
115: I don’t think I can make fun of Shayla’s video letters to her parents. :(
116: I can make fun of this wack group date Shayla’s friend is setting her up on? What the what is going on? She has to tell them about her homework?
Okay I have to sleep now, but I’ll let you know if these women get laid, since their sex lives are totally our business! Thanks for alerting me to this episode, TSG!
you know what’s a great idea?
Having a test of the Emergency Broadcasting System during the 8th inning of Twins/Yankees. Unless North Korea is attacking, I don’t want to hear it.
