Before I get into this week's Tuesday TV Touchbase, I need to take a moment to acknowledge the passing of James Burrows who passed away last Friday at age 85.
Burrows had a long and prolific career that spanned 6 decades as a sitcom director. The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Cheers , The Bob Newhart Show, Taxi, Frasier, Friends, Will & Grace, Wings, NewsRadio, Caroline in the City and Mike Molly are just some of the shows he directed.
Burrows directed over 1,000 episodes of television,
He was still directing as of last year with the Hulu series Mid-Century Modern
Burrows was regarded as the best in the business, known for his comic timing, expert actor blocking and use of sophisticated lighting.
Whenever I saw the credit "Directed by James Burrows", the odds were really good I was going to experience plenty of laughs. He had a talent for making whatever he directed better.
Rest in peace, James. You will be missed
Last week brought back My Adventures With Superman for it's 3rd season, two full years since season 2.
Holy crap! Has it really been TWO years? Yep, my post from the season 2 finale was in the summer of 2024.
Picking up from season 2 where Kara Zor-El extricated herself from the cold cruel control of Brainiac, Supergirl is trying to figure out life on Earth and get used to the idea that there are people who love her and she is worthy of being loved. She spent her formative years with Brainiac as her father figure so there's some work to be done.
Clark, Lois, Jimmy and Kara are on the trail of a super secret cabal known as Project Caliban. And yeah, Lex Luthor is up to some fuckery.
I'm still enjoying the heck out of the idea that a show exists that has Jack Quaid as Superman. That alone is enough to hold my attention to My Adventures With Superman.
Moving from the bright and hopeful world of Superman, let's move to something completely different.
The show formerly known as Interview With a Vampire.
Welcome to The Vampire Lestat.
After two seasons of Daniel Malloy drawing out the confessional biography of Louis de Pointe du Lac with Louis' erstwhile lover and sometime enemy Lestat de Lioncourt as the antagonist, this new season, as you can tell from the title change, puts the focus on Lestat.
After becoming a vampire at the end of season 2 and publishing his Interview With a Vampire book, Daniel Malloy has been enlisted to tell Lestat's side of the story.
It may be that over two seasons, Louis was not a completely reliable narrator. Or as Lestat scrawls on his battered copy of Malloy's book, "never fucking happened".
Or perhaps Lestat himself is not a trustworthy teller of his own tale.
We meet someone who did not come up during Louis' sessions with Malloy in seasons 1 and 2: Gabriella de Lioncourt.
Lestat's mother and the first person Lestat converted into a vampire after his own conversion.
As his lover.
Yeah, you heard me.
It's an Oedipus type of thing.
As Lestat explains, "it's different for vampires".
The vampire community is still in a tizzy of a snit over Louis talking to a reporter who in turn published a book detailing the existence of vampires. Apparently there are some rules against that?
Vampires are not happy with Lestat who has taken up the career of a rock musician fronting a band called... The Vampire Lestat.
Lestat is channelling centuries of love, lust, pain, longing, despair and angst into power ballads and hard rock anthems.
Imagine your most gloomy pretencious poetry you may have written alone in your bedroom when you were 14 years old, desperately trying to give voice to your anger and your yearning for love. Yeah, that's what we're dealing with here.
The Vampire Lestat takes the aesthetic of Interview With a Vampire and cranks it up to 11 with an adrenaline boost.
This show is off on a wild ride.
That is that for this week's Tuesday TV Touchbase.
Coming up on the Touchbase:
- I finally (FINALLY!) finish the most recent season of Invincible.
- The return of Celebrity Wheel of Fortune.
Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.
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