by jphilo | May 1, 2012 | Top Ten Tuesday
Downton Abbey fever is alive and well at our house. My enthusiasm grew with Season 2, and I’m waiting eagerly for Season 3…whenever it begins. For those of you who haven’t been smitten with the Downton Abbey bug, check out these top ten reasons to become a fan of this Masterpiece Theater period drama.
10. Seeing is the only way to believe how long Lady Mary’s neck is.
9. Downton Abbey is an easy, painless way to learn English history from pre-WW1 England, through the war to end all wars, and the Roarin’ Twenties.
8. Maggie Smith.
7. An observant cook can learn a great deal about turn-of-the-century cooking.
6. Life has to turn around for poor Lady Edith. First he writers gave her sisters pretty names like “Mary” and “Sybil,” but stuck the middle sister with “Edith.” Surely, they won’t sentence her to eternal life as the ugly duckling middle sister. Such behavior is simply not allowed in escapist entertainment.
5. You will gain a new appreciation for central heating.
4. The women’s costumes are stunning. As for the men, today’s wife beater shirts and cargo pants don’t hold a candle to Edwardian men in custom tailored suits.
3. Anna needs a large network of friends and families to support her while the lawyers attempt to rescue her husband of integrity, Mr. Bates, from the hangman’s noose.
2. A baby and a wedding are in the works. Unless the writers employ the Bonanza death-before-the-wedding strategy, Season 3 will make Rhoda’s wedding and the birth of Little Ricky on I Love Lucy look like child’s play.
1. All the bad people at Downton Abbey smoke cigarettes. All the good people either don’t smoke or indulge in the rare cigar. So viewers don’t waste emotional energy sorting baddies from goodies and can concentrate on enjoying the show.
Did the top ten list convince you to give Downton Abbey a try? Then check out or rent Seasons 1 & 2 so you’ll be in the know when Season 3 begins. If you’re already a fan, what would you add to this top ten list? Leave a comment.
by jphilo | Mar 1, 2012 | Three Thoughts for Thursday
We were monkeying around in warm and sunny Savannah yesterday when the news came that Davy Jones, the cutest of the wacky Monkees, had died. Maybe the setting and loss explain the content of these three thoughts for Thursday:
- Live stream internet radio is a pick-me-up for Midwesterners vacationing in the south. What’s better than sitting on a condo’s back porch in shirtsleeves while listening to storm warnings and school closings back home?
- For those who need proof of the power of music, consider this. I can remember only the names of two of the Monkees – Davy and Mickey – but can remember every word of the theme song.
- My parents were not fans of the Monkees TV show, but since it wasn’t scheduled opposite The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, Petticoat Junction or Bonanza, they sometimes relented and let us watch it. Looking back at the quality of those shows, who says TV has gone downhill since the good old days?
by jphilo | Feb 16, 2012 | Current Events, Three Thoughts for Thursday
Since this week began with a smokin’ episode of Downton Abbey and moved on to Valentine’s Day, it’s no wonder this Thursday’s three thoughts include love triangles. But as for the fixations with hot flashes and Pinterest, I have no idea of their origin.
- The minute Lavinia Swire walked into Downton Abbey, she was the doomed member of the love triangle. In our family, we call it the “Bonanza” principle. It’s named after the 1960s – 70s TV western series where beautiful, female guest stars always died. How about you? Did you see it coming?
- If a picture is worth 1000 words, is there any place on Pinterest for writers?
- If women in their 50s were in charge of utilities companies, they would already have invented heat pumps that could be attached to menopausal, hot flashing women, thus alleviating human suffering and solving the energy crisis in one, fell swoop.
Now it’s your turn. Leave a comment about your Thursday thoughts, even if they don’t include Valentine’s Day, Downton Abbey, Pinterest, and hot flashes.
by jphilo | Oct 31, 2011 | Reflections on the Past
If you watched Bonanza on Sunday evenings in the 1960s, you know this grizzly truth: women who caught the eye of one Pa, Adam, Hoss, or Little Joe suffered a fate worse than death. Not because those hardy Cartwright men were serial killers or members of a weird cult.
Television of that sort wasn’t allowed in the 1960s.
Every one of the little fillies (that’s what Hoss called the girls at Ponderosa hoe downs and barn dances) never lasted long. They either suffered a variety of maladies, like blindness or rabies, that felled them in a show or two. Or they stuck around for three shows, just long enough to reveal a major character flaw.
And break the heart of one of them strappin’ Cartwright fellas.
Well, last night PBS spilled the beans during the TV Westerns installment of their Pioneers in Television series. Apparently, one of the creators of the show, David Dortort, nixed the idea of marrying off the Cartwright men. He didn’t want to make them appear weak or beholden to women.
I guess we know who had issues with his mother, don’t we?
But – and this is purely conjecture on my part, not something stated during the documentary – Mr. Dortort thought it was perfectly okay for the Cartwright men to be beholden to Hop Sing. You remember him? The tiny Chinese cook who ran into the dining room brandishing an enormous butcher knife with frightening regularity.
Hop Sing aside, last night’s documentary finally laid to rest one of the last, unanswered questions from my childhood. Now I understand why Hollywood starlets didn’t hang their hopes on being cast as a Cartwright love interest. And I understand why my cousins and I argued continually about who got to be Little Joe when we played Bonanza together. In the absence of female roles to claim, Michael Landon was the prettiest person on the Ponderosa. So how did they always talk me into being Hoss?
I think I figured it was better than being Hop Sing.
by jphilo | Feb 3, 2010 | Reflections on the Past
Ever since I read Pernell Roberts obituary in the paper Sunday, I’ve been worrying about my sister. She’s been in love with him since the manly man, playing the part of Adam (the manliest of the three manly Cartwright sons), first struck a manly pose astride his horse during the opening of the most manly show known to man – Bonanza.
Adam was the first and only Cartwright man to leave the Ponderosa, and when he did, it nearly broke my big sister’s heart. So I’m thinking the obituary probably set her back, too. After all, Pernell, at age 81, was the last of the manly Cartwright actors to die. How is she handling the end of such manly valor?
Pernell/Adam was also the only one of the four manly Cartwrights who could sing worth a hoot. I know this because my extended family owns a copy of the coveted Ponderosa Christmas CD. Pa, Hoss and Little Joe fake sing, ala Rex Harrison, by speaking the lyrics as the strains of an orchestra and the humming of the homey and loving townspeople swell in the background. But Adam actually sings his songs, which goes to show my sister knows how to pick a winner.
By the way, the coveted CD’s liner notes, so copious they are written in type so small it’s only readable with a magnifying glass, divulge the juicy details of manly life on the Ponderosa. No wonder the CD surfaces each year during our white elephant gift exchange, and our greedy clan fights about who has to, I mean gets to, take it home.
But I digress. As previously stated, I’m worried about my Minnesota sister. Between Pernell’s death and the Vikings losing another Super Bowl bid, her mental stability is suspect. Either one of those blows would be tough to bear, but two major whammies in seven days? I don’t know.
So Sis, here’s the deal. Since you’re coming to visit Mom this weekend, would it help if I came down and we listen to the CD together? Or would you rather order some DVDS and have a Bonaza marathon slumber party this weekend? Or we could watch old footage of the Vikings losing the Super Bowl, if you like. I’ll do whatever it takes to ease your grief for your first love – Pernell Roberts, the most manly of all manly men.
