THE TKTV NEWSLETTER
Season 1, Episode 1 aired October 15, 1998
CONTENTS
1. How did I end up on this mailing list?
2. What is this thing?
3. TKTV's comments on the fall season
4. TKTV's favorite TV ad
5. Don't miss
6. ABC's new Saturday night shows
7. TKTV's totally unrelated link
1. How did I end up on this mailing list?
You ended up on this mailing list one of three ways:
- You're a friend of mine
- You're on the funstuff list
- You're on the Party of Five site updates list
This mailing list is not automated yet, so if you never want to see another one of these newsletters ever again in your entire life, just mail me at tk@tktv.net and I'll take you off the list immediately. I apologize profusely to anyone who received this and really didn't want to. You gotta start somewhere....
top
2. What is this thing?
This thing is the brand new TKTV newsletter. TKTV is a new web site dedicated to Television. It can be found at http://www.tktv.net. TKTV has episode guides to new shows, an incredible "Party of Five" fan site, upcoming TV events, TV news, and more. This newsletter will be starting out as bi-weekly, and then moving to weekly as I start to get my act together. Comments, questions, and contributions are welcome.
top
3. TKTV's comments on the fall season
Linda Lavin, who I really only remember as Alice on "Alice," is just wonderful on CONRAD BLOOM as Conrad's mother. And what perfect timing to do a show about how badly Molly wants great season tickets to the Yankees just before the Yankees in real life make it to the World Series. Congrats, Yanks! Well-done, Conrad.
I have to admit, I love that FELICITY all takes place in my neighborhood. Felicity's dorm is three blocks away from my apartment. But what was up with that panic button on the car keys? Did we need to be hit over the head that hard with the metaphor? And who has a panic button on their car keys anyway?
THE BRIAN BENBEN SHOW was doing okay until it decided to do a two-episode fat joke that lasted a year in show time.
Michael J. Fox is getting old. I still love him, but there was a close-up on his face in the season premiere of SPIN CITY that kinda made me sad. And I really don't like the opening sequence. What happened to the great spinning man-hole cover of the first season?
Okay, so I really do like the self-examination of DAWSON'S CREEK. Yeah, the metaphor is a little heavy, but I appreciate it much like I appreciate the obvious metaphor of "Little Red Corvette" by Prince. There was the season ender cliff-hanger last spring: the episode opened with Joey ragging on cliff-hangers and the obvious gimmick of them, and then the episode ended with Dawson and Joey actually kissing. Yet we were still left hanging... wondering what would happen after the kiss and how their relationship would change. In the season premiere there are numerous references to other great "will-they won't-they" couples in TV history, such as Sam and Diane of "Cheers" or Mulder and Scully of "The X-files." And at one point someone even mentions that they want to go watch "Beverly Hills 90210" because they heard the character of Dylan was back - a nod to "Dawson's Creek's" new time-slot opposite the Beverly 20-somethings on Fox. Yeah, it's all obvious, but it still makes me grin.
Why is the opening sequence of VENGEANCE UNLIMITED a summary of the upcoming show? This show is pretty much "The Pretender" without the whole pretender part....
On WILL AND GRACE Jack performed at the Duplex, one of my favorite friendly small gay piano bars in the West Village. Although the set that they used on the show was not the Duplex, it was obvious someone had done their research. It was modified so that it would work with the show, but the walls and tables did remind me of the actual place.
I was so looking forward to the season premiere of ER, and then they had to go and focus the entire thing on a character I don't know and don't care about. Kelly Martin (as Lucy) is fine and all, but I wasn't ready for a whole show about her yet.
top
4. TKTV's favorite TV ad: Banana Republic Suede
Okay, I don't get them. They're weird. They sort of make me want to buy suede, and they sort of make me want to hug a cow. But they're really pretty ads. The music, the models, the cinematography.... Can you really say "cinematography" when you're referring to a television ad? Anyway, they make me stop fast-forwarding my tape when I see them.
top
5. Don't miss
This Sunday and Monday (October 18th and 19th) NBC will be showing the "epic" "A Will of Their Own" that portrays women in the 20th century. The only reason I would watch this, and I probably won't, is because there are lots of familiar TV actors starring: Lea Thompson ("Caroline in the City"), Thomas Gibson ("Dharma & Greg"), Eric McCormack (who I love in "Will and Grace"), and Charlotte Ross (used to be on "Days of our Lives" and soon to be seen in "Trinity"). And, of course, there will be the unforgettable Faye Dunaway. I take it back, I might watch this after all. Hey, I'm a woman in the 20th century!
8-11pm on the 18th, 9-11pm on the 19th
For more upcoming not-to-be-missed television events, see the TKTV web site.
top
6. ABC's new Saturday night shows
Fantasy Island (9pm Saturdays on ABC):
Okay, I admit, I was a fan of the cheesy 70's Aaron Spelling shows. I have seen every single episode of "Charlie's Angels" at least once, and I spent many an afternoon as a kid catching re-runs of "Hart to Hart" (wow, television seemed so easy back then). So when I heard that "The Love Boat" and "Fantasy Island" were being resurrected, I was incredibly excited.
I caught the first three episodes of "The Love Boat" on UPN last spring (it was like the first thing I ever watched on that network other than Star Trek). Boy, was I disappointed. (And why did Robert Urich ("Spencer For Hire") think that was a good idea?) And yet, I held out for the new "Fantasy Island." I figured ABC might have higher standards than UPN (is that like network discrimination? Am I being un-PC?), and I kept hearing from magazines that the treatment of "Fantasy Island" was going to be much better than "The Love Boat." Plus, it was supposed to be this neat, darker "Fantasy Island."
Well yeah, it's darker, I mean Mr. Roarke (Malcolm McDowell) is wearing black suits now. But really, it's just as cheesy as it used to be in the 70's, and there's no nostalgia mixed in to make it cool. There were a couple neat special effects, like a woman morphing from one appearance to the other, or a garden growing in an instant, but other than that, it felt very low budget, even with the beautiful tropical sweeping scenes. There's some strange underlying plot about the people who work on the island being trapped there by Mr. Roarke, and Mr. Roarke himself is completely unlikable and way too all-powerful. I think he's supposed to be spooky, but he just comes off as self-important and kind of sad.
My recommendation: you must have something better to do on a Saturday night.
Cupid (10pm Saturdays on ABC):
Okay, so I didn't watch much "Ellen" in my day. I think I missed it when it was best, and by the time I tuned in it was just one gay joke after another and nothing else. And boy, was Jeremy Piven annoying. This is one of the main reasons I was so pleasantly surprised by "Cupid." Jeremy Piven is incredibly charming as a Greek god deposed from Mount Olympus and sent to earth without his bow and arrow to try to create couples the old-fashioned way: by match-making.
Another reason I was pleasantly surprised is that I find fantasy (not science-fiction, but real fantasy) to be generally poorly treated on TV. But in this show, fantasy is treated as realism. No one believes he's Cupid. He has no magic. And his psychiatrist (the very likeable Paula Marshall), although partly taken in by his charms, refuses to humor him.
I also loved seeing Connie Britton in the series premiere do something a little more serious than her usual role as Nikki on "Spin City." She guest-starred as one half of the first couple that Cupid manages to get together, and she is strikingly realistic as a pretty, well-adjusted woman who is scared by the fact that she is still single.
Okay, so as a single person the show can be a little depressing, but at the same time, it makes you believe in love again much the way a good romance movie can. So now that I sound as cheesy as "Fantasy Island" is, I'll stop, but the next time you're home on a Saturday night, try to catch Cupid at 10pm on ABC. Hell, set the VCR.
top
7. TKTV's totally unrelated link
http://www.sfnb.com
Security First Network Bank. The first totally online bank. They have no branches. Pretty cool.
top
That's the end of the first newsletter. Let me know what you like, what you hated, and what else you'd like to see. And again, if you'd like to unsubscribe, just email me personally at tk@tktv.net.
Back to Archive Listing