11 o'clock newscasts, Channels 4 and 10,
i.e. CBS4 and Local10, each ran stories
on women having surgery, plastic and
laser.
Sadly for viewers with a public policy
bent, these sorts of stories are the
longstanding bread-and-butter of
Miami TV stations, but are also part
of the reason that so many Men
aged 25-49 find it so easy to forgo
the local newscasts at 11 p.m. and
switch to ESPN's SportsCenter,
because they know from experience
that there will likely be at least one
if not two dopey, chick-centric stories
that center on women with some very
serious self-worth problems and
high-degree of shallowness.
That there are so many women like
that living in South Florida is NOT
exactly Breaking News, of course.
What is is the number who honestly
think that anyone else cares about
their self-worth issues or their
flabby arms or whatever.
Leave those private discussions to
your family and friends, please.
The rest of us just don't care,
comprende?
Screenshot I took 10/5/09 of Local10's teaser during ABC-TV's Castle.Some free advice for the female reporters assigned
to these stories that always center on somewhat
vain and self-centered women with more money
than sense, who are only too happy to have TV
cameras follow them into their doctor's office.
The next time you get stuck on one of these stories,
right before you close, look at the subjects and say:
"You're not alone because of your looks,
you're alone because of your superficial
personality."
Think of it as your doing a good deed for the
larger South Florida community.
Because you are!
ABC-TV's Castle is one of my guilty TV
pleasures.
I'm happy to see that in its second season,
airing opposite CSI Miami, the show
really seems to be getting better and more
nuanced, as the writers become more
confident of what the characters would
say or do in various circumstances.
http://abc.go.com/shows/castle
For me, last night's episode, Inventing
the Girl, was the best effort yet.
It featured a great back-and forth volley
between co-stars Susan Sullivan and
Nathan Fillion sitting on the sofa of Rick's
great apartment, perhaps the best-looking
living room on TV.
At one point, after talking about her grudging
acceptance of the fact that she'd been cast in
a Broadway show as the grandmother and
not as the fetching ingenue she once might've
been, Rick throws her a lifeline by saying
that she can now show "wisdom" on stage,
Martha suddenly pulls out from behind the
couch this 8 x 10 b/w glossy of herself,
below, which nearly caused me to jump off
the couch from a severe case of déjà vu.
Screenshot I took 10/5/09 of Susan Sullivan during ABC-TV's Castle.When I was living at Briscoe Quad
my first two years at IU, I had a male
friend who was a huge, huge fan of
Susan Sullivan,
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0838360/
who was then a star on CBS-TV's hit
Falcon Crest.
He had this same EXACT photo of
her in his dorm room!
If I remember correctly, I think he'd seen
her on Broadway before or something.
I mention this because of both the shock
of seeing that photo I recognize pop-up
on my TV screen completely out-of-the-blue,
and also because my friend was probably
one of a handful of persons I knew at IU
who was hip to whatever was happening
on Broadway, plus the scuttlebutt.
In his case, it was the result of his having
parents who were ardent live theater fans
who saw everything, no matter how obscure
or Off-Off Broadway.
He knew what actor and actress had
played what character in what show
-or been an understudy- as a result
of growing-up with a treasure trove of
Playbills in his parents living room,
arranged alphabetically within the year
the show had opened.
I was so envious listening to him talk
about it and the shows he'd seen, while
I'd had to make do with cast albums.
(If blogging had existed back then,
I have no doubt that his parents
would've surely had one of the most
popular and influential -and
profitable- blogs or websites around
on the subject of Broadway,
on-stage and off, including financing,
because they quite literally seemed
to know everyone who was anyone.)
Listening to him describe their collection
of souvenirs sounded a lot like me and my
perfectly preserved collection of Dolphins,
Hurricanes, Floridians, Gatos/Strikers/
Orioles game programs, going back to
1968, complete with used game tickets.
In a sense, my friend was sort of like
the theater version of me, and my keen
knowledge of American sports and
sports trivia, that often swamped others
who were older who thought they knew
a thing or two.
The benefit of having a very, very good
memory.
FYI: In real life, Susan Sullivan is
married to psychologist and author
Dr. Connell Cowan, who co-authored
with Dr. Melvyn Kinder, only two
of THE best books I ever read,
Women Men Love, Women Men Leave
and Smart Women/Foolish Choices.
I actually bought copies for friends when
they came out in paperback.
To end this unexpected tangent on Broadway,
The Jackson 5 from the early '80's
performing "Corner of the Sky" from
Pippin, a wonderful song from their
Skywriter album,
Along with a host of other songs,
my friends on the floor and I played this
a lot on Saturday mornings and afternoons
at IU on game days, with our stereo
speakers propped up in the windows
facing towards Assembly Hall and the
football stadium, so fans downstairs on
17th Street walking over there for a
game could get in the spirit of things.
