Tuesday TV Touchbase: Wheel of Fortune

Last week, Wheel of Fortune finished up it's 41st season. It was a season that saw the show produce it;s 8000th episode.

It was also the last season for host Pat Sajak.  

Earlier in the season, there was no mention of this being Pat's last season.  But as the date drew closer, Pat began addressing this more openly.  As he said in an interview with his daughter Maggie, he didn't want the show to become some long memorial to his retirement.  

But doing anything for 41 years is worth some attention and I was wondering how the show would address this. 

Pat's last episode that aired Friday June 7th was pretty much a normal episode with 3 new contestants looking to spin the wheel, solve puzzles and win some money.  

There was one concession to the special day.  To make sure Pat had time to say a few words at the end, the first round was eliminated. The deal was Pat was going to spin the wheel and add $1,000 to whatever he landed on and all 3 contestants would get that amount for the first round.  He landed on the $1,000 wedge which meant a total of $2,000 for each player.

“You know what? It’s not my money,” Pat said as he announced each player was getting $5,000 a piece. 

The show opened with a clip from Pat's first day on the job. Not for the current syndicated version of Wheel but for the network version that ran on NBC's daytime schedule.  

“Wheel” announcer Jim Thornton paid tribute to Sajak’s long run. (Vanna White had a dedicated moment to speak about Pat Sajak in Thursday's episode.)  

The winning player went on to the bonus round, solved the puzzle and won another $50,000 which was a good note to end on.  

Then Pat took a few minutes to share his thoughts on the past decades of hosting Wheel of Fortune.  

Sajak kept his composure but there were flashes of emotion as he thanked  the “Wheel of Fortune” staff, his wife and family and for his 41-year partnership with Vanna White. 

Off camera, Pat Sajak has been... problematic. I would be terrible guest on Wheel of Fortune with Sajak:  "Well, Pat, it's great to be here. I'm married to my wonderful wife of 30 years, Andrea and we have a son and CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL, YOU PRICK!  Anyway, just here to have some fun and win a little money!"  

But on camera, Pat Sajak was good at what he did. He could vary his tone from snarky to empathetic according to the needs of the guest with a fairly good instinct when to go for a withering comic comment and when to go with a sincere understanding when a puzzle solve went wrong.   

Pat Sajak ended his time on Wheel with a level of energy and wit that suggested he could've gone on for another season or two. But Pat said, he would rather leave 2 years too early than stay 2 seasons too long.  

Well, we've got Ryan Seacrest on deck for season 42 and there are fans bitching he's too safe or too generic to take over from Pat Sajak.  Well maybe so but I think Ryan will do just fine and after the debacle of landing on a host for Jeopardy, I imagine "safe" is exactly what Sony was looking for with Wheel of Fortune.  

This fall will be kind of weird with new episode of Wheel of Fortune without Pat Sajak at the helm.  But he had a good run and he stuck the landing for this departure.  

That is that for this week's Tuesday TV Touchbase.

Coming up on future editions of the Touchbase:

• Hacks
• My Adventures With Superman
• The Boys
• Resident Alien 

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.  

Blog Bidness: No posts for Wednesday through Friday. 

New movie posts coming Saturday and Sunday.   

Doctor Who Is NEW!: Rogue

 Before we get into this week's edition of Doctor Who Is NEW!, a moment to mark the passing of part of the show's legacy.   William Russell passed away last week.  Hehe was in the original lead cast of Doctor Who, playing the role of schoolteacher Ian Chesterton from the show's first episode until 1965.

He recently reprised the role for cameo in the support group scene at the end of "Power of the Doctor". Despite his diagnosis of dementia, he was able to make an appearance and even had a line of dialogue.  His appearance in the scene earned William a Guinness World Record for the longest gap between TV appearances.

With the Doctor being originally written has an elderly man with a negative anti-social attitude, it was William Russell's role as Ian Chesterton to be the man of action and to make the speeches to call others to action, stuff we now associate with the Doctor themselves.  William Hartnell may have been the first Doctor but William Russell was the first hero of Doctor Who.

Rest in peace, William Russell and thanks for getting Doctor Who off to such a strong start.    

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It's time a new post of Doctor Who Is NEW!  as I look back this past week's new episode of Doctor Who.

We finally get to the much anticipated Bridgerton episode (and boy is it ever a Bridgerton episode!) and the also much anticipated debut of Doctor Who guest star Jonathan Groff.   

So what is going on here then? 

More on that after the break. 

There will be spoilers, honey! 

"Rogue"

by Kate Herron and Briony Redman

Let's get this out of the way early.  We're back to classic Doctor Who formula with the Doctor and companion going somewhere in time and/or space to have a good time only to have that good time spoiled by aliens up to sketch shit. 

The place is Bath, England in the year 1815 where the Doctor and Ruby have arrived at an upper crust high society regency soiree right out of Bridgerton. 

And any similarities to Bridgerton are entirely the point for the Chuldur,  shape shifting aliens who just love to cosplay all the drama that happens at this sort of thing.  

Except their way of cosplaying a human leaves the human dead. And uh oh, one of the aliens has set their sites on cosplaying Ruby. 

Meanwhile the Doctor has to contend with the alien bounty hunter known as Rogue.  Rogue at first mistakes the Doctor as the shape shifting alien he is in pursuit of.  The Doctor finally convinces Rogue he is a regenerating Time Lord and not a shape shifting Chuldur.   

The barriers of mistrust between Time Lord and bounty hunter are eroded by a lot of....   well, I was gonna say banter but let's call this what it is... a lot of flirting.  

The Doctor and Rogue are really into each other.  

It's Madame de Pompadour all over again except this time Madame is a Monsieur.   

The Doctor and Rogue have set a trap for the Chuldur that will zap them to a desolate far away dimension never to return. To lure them out into the trap, the Doctor needs to create a lot of drama. And there is no drama like two MEN dancing together at  a high society ball in regency England.   

The Doctor and Rogue are only pretending to create drama,right? 

I don't think so. 

This seems like more than flirting to me.  

OK, if you're gay and watching this, you're steeling yourself for some queer baiting. Nothing happened between the Doctor and Yaz, right? So nothing is going to...

NOPE!  

The big damn kiss that the Doctor and Rogue share is.... Wow! 

And the Doctor's palatable pain when Rogue sacrifices himself to save Ruby from the Chuldur....

The Doctor hasn't acted like this since he had to leave Rose on an alternate Earth and...

Is this... love?  

Jonathan Groff as Rogue is fantastic. We've got to get him back.

The scene of holographic heads swirling about the Doctor includes Jo Martin's "Fugitive Doctor" (sorry, Chibnall haters) and also of Richard E. Grant. Grant previously starred as the Doctor in the animated serial "Scream of the Shalka" (2003) and played a version of the Doctor in the Red Nose Day special "The Curse of Fatal Death" (1999).

So Shalka (or Fatal Death?) is in canon now? 

The episode featured orchestral versions of  "Bad Guy" by Billie Eilish and "Poker Face" by Lady Gaga at the regency ball.

And the Doctor keeps summoning up "Can't Get You Out of My Head" by Kylie Minogue to torment Rogue.  

And our Susan Twist moment comes in the form of a painting of a duchess whose eyes follow you all over the room.   

Next time, we get part 1 of a 2 part adventure and I will write about in a new edition of Doctor Who Is NEW!

Cinema Saturday: Lesbians of the 1950's

Hi there!  Feeling a bit burned out and need some wiggle room with blogging.  Since  it's June and Gay Pride Month, today's Cinema Saturday posts is taken from posts I wrote in June 2020 about lesbians in the 1950's. 

Seriously, it's a whole cinematic sub-genre.   

Screenwriter: I have a script for a romantic drama.

Producer: So?

Screenwriter:  With two women in the lead...

Producer: TWO women, you say?

Screenwriter: Yes and one of the women knows of the ways of lesbian love...

Producer: And is the other woman new to this whole thing?

Screenwriter: Why, yes, that's it exactly!

Producer: Can it be set in the 1950's?

The screenwriter looks down at the title page of her screenplay: "Lesbians In a Time of A.I."  . 

Screenwriter: Yeah, why not? 

Carol

Carol is a 2015 film directed by Todd Haynes that I saw in early 2017. I was at home recovering from my fall in January and came across it while channel surfing. I had heard of this movie from when it was making the rounds of the movie awards circuit a year earlier.  

It's Christmas 1952 when aspiring photographer Therese Belivet (Rooney Mara), working in a Manhattan department store, meets a glamorous woman, Carol Aird (Cate Blanchett).  

Carol is a woman of taste, means and social standing which is at risk of being undone by her vengeful divorcing husband. Also at risk is the loss of her daughter if her secret is exposed.  

Carol is attracted to other women. 

In 1952, homosexuality was still considered a psychological aberration in the medical books as well as being against any numbers of laws and morality clauses.  

Nonetheless, Carol finds herself drawn to Therese. 

In turn, Therese finds Carol compelling in ways that Therese does not fully comprehend.  Therese is mystified by this attraction she has to Carol.  

To escape the stress of her divorce, Carol decides to take a road trip. She invites Therese to accompany her.  

In a hotel room on New Year's Eve, Carol and Therese kiss for the first time and have sex. 

But Carol's husband has eyes everywhere. Or more to the point, ears. Specifically, a private eye with a microphone and sound recording equipment in the room next door.  

Things get worse from there but there is some possibility of hope for Carol and Therese at the end. 

Just a possibility, mind you. It's still the 1950's and a lot of bullshit for Carol and Therese to deal with if they are to have any kind of relationship. 

The screenplay by Phyllis Nagy is based on the 1952 romance novel The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith based on her encounter with a woman in department store as well as her two former lovers, Philadelphia socialite Virginia Kent Catherwood and psychoanalyst Kathryn Hamill Cohen.

Virginia Catherwood lost custody of her daughter in a high-profile divorce that involved secret tape recordings of her and her female lover which informs Carol's travails during her divorce and her battle for custody of her child.   

Tell It to the Bees

Tell It to the Bees is a 2018 British film I came across on cable last year. Much like Carol, this movie takes place in the very repressive 1950's and puts a woman at risk of losing her child if her relationship with another woman is exposed.  And similar to Carol, we're also dealing with two women who are not on equal footing when it comes to this whole lesbian thing.   

In a rural town in 1950s Scotland, Lydia (Holliday Grainger) is trying to make a life for herself with her young son Charlie after her marriage falls apart. Lydia makes a connection with the town's new doctor, Jean (Anna Paquin) after Charlie is injured at school after being bullied.  Jean bonds with Charlie who is very fascinated by the doctor's bee colonies. Jean suggests that Charlie can talk to the bees and tell them his secrets, like she once did.  

When Lydia and Charlie get evicted, Jean invites them to live with her.  And the two women find themselves drawn to one another. Jean understands what's up but this is all new and unexpected for Lydia. 

Unfortunately for our two would be lovers, it's a small town and its the 1950's. People start to talk about the suspiciously close women.  

Which gets back to Lydia's husband who makes a stink about taking Charlie away from her.  

Unlike Carol and Therese, there is no possibility of hope for Lydia and Jean. Lydia and Charlie will have to leave.  

Tell It To the Bees is a fine story but lacks some of the power and nuance of it's more famous companion in 1950's lesbian romance drama, Carol.  

There are a number of things that strike me about both films. One is that sex is not an instigator of either relationship. Both pairs of women do indeed have sex but only after a build up of not so much attraction as connection. Sex is a cumulative 
expression of these women just longing to BE with one another.  

Another thing that intrigues me is the in both couples, there is a woman who has little to no concept of what it means to have this kind of intimate relationship with a woman. If you're a woman and you're attracted to other women, just Google "How to be a lesbian" for a tutorial. For Therese and Lydia, this is not an option.  This deep feeling of intimate connection with another woman is totally unknown territory. Forging such a connection in the absence of information must be very frightening.  

And the repressive nature of 1950's society is just too much. Society in general has a market driven concept of what men and women are supposed to be doing with their lives and there was an especially hard sell on that kind of conformist, expected life style in the 1950's. Sexuality aside, the women in these films were following paths outside those mandated norms.  Never mind being a lesbian, Jean is having a hard enough time convincing the town she can be their doctor.  

Much progress has been made over the last 2 decades for equality and acceptance of the LGBTQ community. Sadly, for all that progress, the battles are not over.  Carol  and Tell It to the Bees give us a look at what it was like when the first shots of those battles were fired.  

 Desert Hearts

Here is another movie that is a romantic drama with two women in the lead, one who knows of the ways of lesbian love and one who is new to the whole thing and set in the 1950's. 

It's 1959 and Vivian Bell, a 35-year-old English professor at Columbia University in New York City, has arrived in Reno, Nevada to get divorced. You can get a divorce in Nevada quick with no fuss and no muss but you have to be a resident of Nevada to do that. The establish residency in Nevada, you have to stick around for six weeks. 

Vivian arranges to stay at a guest house ranch for women who are waiting for their divorces to be finalized. It is here that Vivian meets Cay Rivvers, a 25 year old free spirited female sculptor. Cay immediately is drawn to the proper, elegant Vivian.  Cay has had relationships with women in the past. Vivian has (you guessed it) no experience with this sort of thing.

While overlooking Lake Tahoe one night, Cay kisses Vivian. Vivian, much to her surprise, kisses her right back. Passionately.

Vivian moves out of the ranch house to a hotel where Cay follows her and after strongly insisting that Cay should leave, Vivian puts the "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door and slips into bed with Cay.  For a really long late night Cinemax quality sex scene complete with mood lighting and saxophone music. 

(My memory's a bit fuzzy about the saxophone music. If there was no sax with the sex, then that was an oversight by the director. There should always be sax with sex in the movies.)

When the six weeks are up, Vivian is officially divorced and can head on back to New York City. The movie doesn't end with Vivian and Cay in love for happily ever after but it doesn end with Cay agreeing to ride with Vivian on the train out of Reno to at least the next stop.

Unlike Carol and Tell It To The Bees which were produced within the last 2 to 5 years, Desert Hearts was produced all the way back in 1985. Which makes the forthright and frank perspective on a positive lesbian relationship all the more remarkable.

I don't remember the how and why I came to see this movie back in the late 1980's a few years after it was released but I remember that what struck me about this movie was how normal it all was. Swap out Cay with a 25 year old free spirited MALE sculptor and a lot of the dynamic with Vivian remains unchanged: a woman in her 30's from a background of education and eastern big city sophistication in a passionate romance with a younger, less refined lover.  The idea that Vivian's lover is another woman rattles her at first but it is not the only thing.

Reviews of Desert Hearts were not always kind when it was first released, owing perhaps to outdated and/or uninformed views of homosexuality.  For example, Vincent Canby of the New York Times complained that "we are not given enough information about the quality of Vivian's broken marriage, asking if perhaps her lesbianism was a hysterical reaction to her divorce."  Film historian Vito Russo's comment on Canby's complaint was that "this is the point at which many heterosexual critics disqualify themselves from perceptively reviewing gay films."

Swap out Cay with a 25 year old free spirited MALE sculptor and I bet Canby wouldn't be attributing her affair as a hysterical reaction to her divorce."

"Hysterical"? Desert Hearts came out in 1985. Vincent Canby was writing his review with a quill pen in 1785. 

I happened upon Desert Hearts again recently while channel surfing late one night/morning. The seams of director Donna Deitch's shoe string budget seem obvious to me. But she does a great job of evoking the era of the 1950's and the performances of Helen Shaver as Vivian and Patricia Charbonneau as Cay really carry this movie. It is not a great movie but it is not a bad one either.  It is simply a good movie about two unlikely people falling in love in Reno, NV in 1959. 

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Blog Bidness: No Cinema Sunday tomorrow.  

I'm really going to try to have new posts for next week's Cinema Saturday and Cinema Sunday.   

See you Monday for Doctor Who Is NEW! .  

Your Friday Video Link: A Ghosts Serenade

Your Friday Video Link for this week comes from the cast of the CBS comedy  Ghosts.

Goofing around on the set between scenes is  Román Zaragoza  (Sasappis) and John Hartman (Nigel)  sing "In My Life" by the Beatles.   

Fine Dining and Breathing

So June 3rd was my wife Andrea’s birthday where she hit the ol’ double nickel.

 

Yep, she’s 55. 

 

As in Sammy Hagar’s “Can’t Drive 55!”

 

Anyway, June 3rd was on Monday this year and both us took the day off and we celebrated as we always do when it comes to our respective birthdays and our anniversary: we eat at Olive Garden. 

 

I have not been all that happy with previous excursions to Olive Garden.  It feels crowded like a cattle car on a third world train. 

Now I'm a bit of a curmudgeon and easily annoyed but even Andrea seems to have become aware of the less than inviting environment of her favorite restaurant.   

 

But the experience on June 3rd was different. Our dining experience was almost...   civilized.

 

Andrea and I went to Olive Garden for lunch instead of dinner and it being a week day and not a week end, the restaurant was not over stuffed with people.  The songs from Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra were at a pleasant volume.

 

The key to enjoying Olive Garden is to go on a week day at lunch.  

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A few weeks prior, Andrea and I made what may be our last visit to Red Lobster for awhile.    

 

In recent weeks, Red Lobster made news by closing dozens of restaurants and declaring bankruptcy.  The blame was placed on customers eating too much limitless shrimp which used to be a special deal but then Red Lobster made it a regular thing. 

 

Offering unending shrimp all the time is a recipe for financial disaster but the woes of Red Lobster were a thing long before that.

 

A private equity firm bought Red Lobster and scored a crap ton of cash by selling the land out from under all the restaurants.  So the equity firm scores a quick billion and the restaurants have to pay rent to on land that used to be owned which just adds more pressure to bottom line.

 

As for Andrea and I perhaps not going there anymore, here’s that story. 

 

The Red Lobster in Greensboro survived the purge.   We’ve been going there for a few years now.  When we started they had a combo that we quite liked: an entrée and 2 sides.  The sides included baked potato, fries, slaw and salad and other things.  Andrea’s favorite combo was popcorn shrimp with baked potato and a salad.  

 

She likes shrimp but not “shrimp” with the tail on it and stuff . 

 

Then a couple of years ago, Red Lobster added an up charge for picking salad as a side.  

 

Then a year ago, they summarily removed the combo entirely.  Popcorn shrimp was still available with one side and a full charge for the side salad. 

 

Three weeks ago, Red Lobster dropped the bomb on Andrea:  NO popcorn shrimp.

 

Well, not exactly.  They offer it on weekdays but not on weekends.   What….?  

 

It was a death of a thousand cuts as Red Lobster kept hacking away at the last vestiges of Andrea’s enjoyment of her Red Lobster dining experience.  

Red Lobster's motto seems to be "If it ain't broke, break it."   

The Judgement of Donald Trump

 So last week a jury found Donald Trump guilty on....

How many counts was it?  

Guilty of 34 counts relating to paying hush money to the porn storm he had an affair with, falsifying business records in the process of paying said hush money and for the purpose of hiding this information from the electorate prior to the 2016 election.  

(Thanks to my son Dean for sharing the graphic for this post.) 

But does this really mean anything? 

All of us with at least two function brain cells to rub together who have seen past the facade from day one that Donald Trump is nothing more than a lying, cheating, ignorant, conniving asshole, well DUH! Donald Trump is guilty! 

For everyone else who is mindlessly devoted to cult of der Furher, a guilty verdict is just another example of his martyrdom. 

I really don't see the needle moving.

Come November, Donald Trump could still be elected President even with 34 guilty convictions that Trump needs to answer for from behind bars. 

The Judgement of Donald Trump by a jury of his peers is conclusive: guilty on all 34 counts.

The Judgement of the United States is still a whole other matter.

We may not win this one.  

Tuesday TV Touchbase: Star Trek Discovery

This week’s Tuesday TV Touchbase reflects on the series finale of Star Trek Discovery. 

 

The poor little Star Trek series no one asked for and no one wanted.  It began as an egregiously misconceived prequel to the original series.  It was a dark version of what has otherwise been a positive view of our future among the stars.  

 

It takes a lot of fortitude to get through season 1. 

 

But in it’s defense, Star Trek Discovery got better.

 

Season 2 with Anson Mount’s Capt. Christopher Pike taking over as interim Captain of the Discovery was a balm not just for the weary viewers who had put up with this show’s missteps but also for the crew of the ship. 

 

The plot device that propels Discovery to the 32nd century for season 3 is a major change to the status quo and finally gives the show a distinctive voice and vision, making it in my mind a worthy part of the Star Trek pantheon.  

Star Trek Discovery deserved better than it got, disrespected even in death. After completing season 5, then Paramount+ announced the show should not be renewed.  While the cancellation was not overturned, somewhere a saner head prevailed to let the Discovery crew come back to complete some additional scenes to make the season 5 finale "Life, Itself" a series finale.  

Let's break this down in 2 parts, first as a season finale and then as a series finale. 

"Life, Itself" brings to a action packed finale the quest for the Progenitors' tech.  The Progenitors were first introduced in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Chase" as the ancient race that seeded the galaxy with humanoid life.  The power of the Progenitors would have far reaching implications for good in the right hands and it also have extensive potential for death and destruction if it falls in the wrong hands.

Such as the militant Breen.    

After enduring trials and solving complex riddles as part of the quest, the Progenitors' tech accepts Capt. Michael Burnham as the right hands.  Burnham can keep the tech away from the Breen but is she or anyone in the galaxy really ready to be the right hands to possess this technology?  

Burnham let's it go. The Progenitors' tech slides past the event horizon of 2 black holes to disappear forever.  

This may seem to be a bit anticlimactic but it is in keeping with the spirit of Star Trek. Frequently in Star Trek, wisdom takes precedence over power.  Efforts to solve problems with MORE power often fail while approaches that involve intelligence, compassion and wisdom work.   

As the episode winds down,  Saru and T’Rina get married.  Saru gets a bad ass moment in "Life, Itself" where he makes a Breen dreadnought turn around with only the force and convioction of his words.  "Action Saru" strikes again! 

Saru, I'm going to miss you most of all, scarecrow. 

We find out that Dr. Korvich is actually the time travelling Agent Daniels from Star Trek Enterprise.  Well... that's somethng we know now.  Do we really care? Eh.....

But even in the 32nd century, 800 years from the time of the original series, it's a reminder that Star Trek Discovery is still part of this sprawling thing we know and love as Star Trek.     

Burnham and Book officially become a couple again.  Yay!

So that is that for the season finale.   

But we are not done yet. 

We have a series finale to contend with.   

Thirty years in the future...

We find Burnham and Book older now, living lives of quiet domestic tranquility.  Their son, now a Starfleet Captain, has arrived to collect Admiral Burnham for one more mission: to send Discovery and it's AI Zora off into deep space and await the arrival of something or someone called Craft.

Which is an effort to make the Short Trek “Calypso” fit in continuity.  That episode was released between seasons 1 and 2 when Star Trek Discovery was still a prequel set in the 23rd century.  

Sitting in the captain's chair one last time, Burnham reflects on her crew (giving us cameos of Reno, Bryce, Owosekun, and Detmer).

And one last command from Burham: "Let's fly!" 

And thus ends the saga of Star Trek Discovery.  

This was not an easy series to love at first. It was only when the show jumped the 32nd century that it became it's own thing and not bound to the limitations of being a prequel.  

In many ways, Star Trek Discovery encompassed the ideals of the original Star Trek better than a lot of other Trek projects, the pursuit of knowledge and understanding.  

The trolls unfortunately were out in force for Star Trek Discovery, deriding the show as "woke" and never accepting a black woman as Captain.  These trolls do not truly understand the vision and the ideals of Star Trek and to hell with them. 

The epilogue does give Star Trek Discovery a relatively good sense of closure, poignancy of over things lost coupled with hope for a future with more things to come.   

      

Next week, Pat Sajak says goodbye to  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.