Crushed Hopes For My Lea Thompson Crush

I've noted here before that I am not one to follow reality shows. I have made a few exceptions to that; for example and inexplicably, ABC's music competition show Rising Star from this past summer. Once in a while, someone pops up on ABC's Dancing With the Stars who I've actually heard of and that I want to root for, even if I'm not watching the show itself. 

A few years ago, I was pulling for Katherine Jenkins, an opera singer who may not have been much known beyond her native Wales but Doctor Who fans knew of her from the 2010 Christmas Special and that was good enough for me.

This season, I was really hoping that Lea Thompson would make it to the end and claim the mirror ball trophy or at least make it to the season finale. 

But this week she and her pro dancing partner were voted out, unaccountably ahead of Tommy Chong. Yes, THAT Tommy Chong. One half of Cheech and Chong gets to dance another week while Lea Thompson is sent home. Where oh where is the justice in that? 

If I seem a little, how shall we say, too invested in Lea Thompson's success or lack thereof on Dancing With the Stars, it may well be because I have not quite gotten over my crush on her. 

Most of the fuel to the fire of that crush came from the heyday of Lea Thompson's NBC sitcom, Caroline in the City. This was a series about Caroline, a small town innocent in the big city drawing her syndicated comic strip based on her life. The comic strip Caroline bore quite a few similarities with the real world comic strip, Cathy. 

So Caroline would hang around her apartment and draw her comic strip yet she was always dressed nicely. I mean, it was no June Cleaver vacuum cleaning her home in high heels and pearls but Caroline would be frequently seen at her drawing table in a skirt . I love a well dressed woman, particularly one who well dressed when she does not have to be. (Of course in real life, Caroline would be at her drawing table in her sweats; but this was not real life, it's television life.)   

Anyway, Lea Thompson is in her 50's now (really!) but she's still rockin' it as far as I'm concerned. 

How dare she look as good as she did 20 years ago on TV? It's not fair. I don't look as I good I did 20 years ago. (OK, I never looked good 20 years ago but still...)  

But before Lea made her mark on TV in Caroline in the City, she was also in films including Back to the Future which was a good thing. 

She was also in Howard the Duck which was not. 

Marvel Studios is on a major roll these days, seemingly able to make a blockbuster movie out of almost any comic property in its line up. But back in the 1980's, the first big budget foray on the big screen for a Marvel Comics character was Howard the Duck which wasn't all it was quacked up to be. It laid a big ol' stinking egg. It didn't have a wing OR a prayer. (Come up with your own bad puns based on water fowl; it's FUN!)

Nearly 30 years later, Howard the Duck has become short hand in the lexicon of movie bombs. But Lea Thompson survived the experience and, it appears, embraces her connection to this box office bomb. 

Yep, that's a Howard the Duck jacket she's sporting there. So Lea's beautiful AND has a sense of humor about herself. And can you believe Lea Thompson is 53 years old? 53! Wow!  And you damn well better believe nobody but nobody wants to see Tommy Chong in a leotard and tights.  

So whoever was responsible for not supporting Lea during her time of Dancing With the Stars, shame on you. You kicked this....

...off of my living room TV screen.  

Oh, that pro dancer is one lucky dude. 

And having Tommy Chong dance for another week is NOT an acceptable substitute, I don't care how much weed this would score for me. 

...

Uh, drugs are bad?  

Good night and fare well, Lea Thompson. You are and will always be a winner to me.

All the rest of you, be good to one another. 

Dave-El 
I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You