THE TKTV NEWSLETTER
Season 1, Episode 5 aired November 30, 1998

CONTENTS
1. Intro
2. Responses to Episode 4
3. New stuff on TKTV
4. TV Ramblings
5. Views on "Felicity" from a recent college grad
     -by guest writer Cicily Daniels
6. Don't miss
7. Favorite quotes of the week
8. TKTV's totally unrelated link

1. Intro

Oh wow, okay so this is really late. I have a variety of excuses, but let's face it, you're not really interested. Suffice to say, this newsletter will be coming out on Mondays (Sunday evenings when I've got it together) from now on.

I am reminded, once again, of why I prefer going out with my friends on weeknights rather than weekends. My friend Devon's band, Mighty Vitamin, was playing at this dive (it's a fun place, but it's a dive) called Sidewalk in the East Village last Saturday. We were all excited because they got the Saturday midnight slot which is much better than the 8pm Mondays they were getting in the past.

I arrive with four people at around 11:45, and am informed by Devon, first of all, that his band won't be going on for another 45 minutes or so (they actually didn't go on until 12:45am). Then we look around for a table. The place is packed, there isn't even anywhere we can comfortably stand. So we go downstairs to the pool room to find other friends who were supposed to be down there. Through the fog of smoke we manage to find our friends.... Now I have no problem with a little cigarette smoke in a bar, but within ten minutes my eyes were ready to call it a night. My friend Bill had to keep running upstairs to scout out tables. Once we fought our way to the bar and found drinks we had nowhere to put them down. We all hovered at the top of the stairs as the last band before Mighty Vitamin closed out their set, waiting to pounce on any tables that should become available. In the process I almost got pushed down the stairs by a large man with a bass. Finally, we squish ten people into a space that should have held six, excited to finally be sitting at a table where we can barely see the band and we're constantly avoiding puddles of past patrons' drinks. It's ten degrees too warm, claustrophobic, still too smoky, and to go the bathroom you have to make at least three people stand up.

So as happy as I am that Mighty Vitamin got a Saturday slot, I'd much prefer to go see them on Mondays.

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2. Responses to Episode 4

From David:
"TV Guide" had a blurb about Lucy Liu (which ignored her role as Amy Lee Steinberg on "Pearl") that said she was up for the part of Nelle Porter, and when Kelley and company decided to cast Portia de Rossi, they created Ling Woo specially for Liu.
From Daphne:
The basketball players are Grant Hill (Pistons) and Kobe Bryant (Lakers).

My colleagues and I have been bitching about "Party of Five" all day. First of all, Sarah is such a self-righteous bitch all of a sudden! Go on the Pill! Get a diaphragm! Get over yourself! Second, we're amazed that there's actually going to be an Owen story, though we're disappointed that it's going to leave him a hideously retarded vegetable because really -- do those kids need to have *another* terrible thing happen to them? And what the hell is up with Claudia, AWOL from Andover (oh sorry -- Hanover)? Like that would happen! And where did those tits come from??? they weren't there last week!
From Storm:
I just about lost a lung during "The X-files" when they called the worker in the nuclear reactor "Homer." Too funny.
From Rachel:
About those new shirts - I noticed one like that at Banana Republic earlier this autumn - I don't know if it's still there. But I'm totally going to keep my eyes open for them at the mall this week.

Also, I said the exact same thing about the swing dancing on Dawson's to a friend the other night. And you are so exactly right about the Joey "finding herself" thing - so stupid (though I thought her little dress was quite cute). They should have had her say "Dawson, I've dreamed about you for so long, that in real life - you just don't measure up. I liked it better as fantasy. Now, let's go back to being friends and discuss my new boy."

Oh, I totally totally love the Mazda Protege commercial "Backslash dot com all day long" and "a refreshing change from all your high maintenance relationships" -- so made me want one right away.

You have inspired me to try to catch that sports talk show - I'm going to make it my goal this upcoming week. (I read an article in The New Yorker about the controversy surrounding the laugh track - so interesting.)
Dana Hagerty, who runs the TKTV "Ally McBeal" site reports that Dyan Cannon used a body double for her nude scene. Ah well....

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3. New stuff on TKTV

So it hasn't gotten much hype, and it's by Spelling Productions, and it's on one of my least favorite networks, but the new show "Buddy Faro" is just wonderful. Dennis Farina is perfect as Buddy, the private detective/playboy that has spent the last twenty years drunk in a bowling alley in Mexico. And now TKTV has a site so that you too can learn about the wondrous Buddy Faro:
http://buddyfaro.tktv.net

The new "Fantasy Island." New, yet strangely familiar. Darker, from the dark suits that Mr. Roarke wears to the unwilling servants on the island to the results of most fantasies. It's taking some time to find its own, but it's back on the air now with new episodes, so give it a try. ABC is.
http://fantasyisland.tktv.net

Well, the show is already off the air, but its memory lives on. It started airing in the middle of the summer, and amongst all the summer reruns it was a breath of fresh air. The interpretation of Elmore Leonard's warped genius onto the small screen was spectacular, with beautiful direction and superb acting bringing the confused world of Deep Water, Florida to vivid, technicolor life. I already miss "Maximum Bob."
http://maximumbob.tktv.net

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4. TV Ramblings

Well, last week I spotted a friend in a Sprite commercial, and this week I noticed that the musical group "The Getaway People" was featured on Felicity. Okay, so I don't know anyone in the group, but their manager is a good friend of mine from high school. I highly recommend their album. It's fun, danceable, and they're still playing small enough venues these days that it isn't too expensive to go see them perform. I last saw them at the Wetlands here in New York.

Oh, and an old friend of mine, Creswell, was on "Jeopardy." Too bad he didn't win.

Ever wonder what happened to Scott Baio after "Charles in Charge?" Well, I think I might have spotted him directing an episode of the recently canceled UPN comedy, "Guys Like Us." His credit was "Scott James Baio." How many Scott Baios can there be?

Okay, so on "The Pretender," Jarod had never killed anyone, and had never had sex. Although he's wielded a gun many times, he's never actually shot someone dead, and even though in one episode he played a male prostitute, he somehow always managed to please his customers without ever actually sleeping with them. So now, as of this past weekend, Jarod has killed someone. Granted, it was someone that really really deserved to die, but nonetheless, Jarod was upset by it and it was a kind of turning point for him. So now when is he going to get laid?

I'm noticing another new trend on TV: getting kissed. It sounds strange, but there have been a number of situations recently in which people who are in relationships get kissed by people who are not the people who they're in relationships with. Okay, there were so many bad English things going on in that last sentence that I don't want to even deal, but I think I got the idea across. For instance, in last week's episode of "Jesse," Jesse gets kissed by Roy when she's involved with Diego. In a recent episode of "Dawson's Creek," Joey gets kissed by Jack even though she's dating Dawson. And in last week's episode of "That '70's Show," Eric gets kissed by his sister's friend from college even though he's dating Donna.

The act always has the same effect: the person being kissed is in immobile shock for a moment, and then pulls away, instantly regretting what happened. Then they have to decide whether or not to tell their significant other. It's a very legitimate problem. If you do tell, then you make your significant other feel threatened and jealous, even if you didn't do anything wrong. If you don't tell, then basically you're lying to your significant other. On "Dawson's Creek," Joey didn't tell Dawson, and he found out anyway, and they had a huge fight. On "Jesse," Jesse broke down and told Diego, and Diego felt threatened and walked out. On "That '70s' Show," Eric blurted out the truth and eventually got Donna to forgive him after much groveling. It seems like a lose-lose situation. What would you do?

Wow, so "Ally McBeal" is only a little over a year old, and already it's getting references on other shows. On "Hyperion Bay" last week, Jennifer said she felt like a trophy girlfriend and that her head was mounted over the fireplace, and Dennis countered with, "You're having an 'Ally McBeal' moment, aren't you?" Too bad they didn't actually flash us a picture of Jennifer's head mounted over the fireplace....

"Spin City" is one of the few shows that is actually filmed in New York, and considering that it is a show about the mayor of New York, I suppose it's only appropriate. So you think they'd be anal about New York fact checking. Last week Mike was joking that he was going to take James to Le Bernardin, which is one of the very best restaurants in New York. James asked if he could order an appetizer, and Mike said that he could. Only, Le Bernardin is one of the few restaurants in which everything is sold at a fixed price (except the wine, of course), whether or not James ordered an appetizer, the meal would have cost the same. Picky, I know, but I just wished they'd chosen a different restaurant. I still need to get tickets to go see that filmed....

More great inside jokes! Last week on "The Hughleys" we were briefly introduced to two of Sydney's little friends, Felicity and Buffy. I'm not even sure if their names were even mentioned in the show, but I caught them in the credits. The beauty of it is that the writers were trying to make fun of Sydney's little white suburban friends with their little white suburban names, but they were also giving a nod to their competition on the WB on Tuesday nights: "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Felicity."

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5. Views on "Felicity" from a recent college grad by Cicily Daniels

For several weeks I have thought, what a great, cool, well, written show. Then last week, Felicity rewrote that boy's paper, and I thought, my, she seems so much smarter than that. And this week, I was sad. I thought that I was happy to see a black woman character on any show, but then, predictably, there is a same race love interest although she is becoming friends with all of the other caucasian college students. Then I thought, goody for her to be pissed off for Felicity looking in your file, but way to be loser for making up an altogether unbelievable situation of a poor college student rejecting a loan for any reason. College students need money, all of them, from whomever.

I suppose that it is possible, but all of my friends who are on financial aid appreciate aid in any form, from anyone, without question. And, not that it matters, but I would think that the show for which I had so many hopes is falling into a world of predictability, because of course it was the black girl in the "interesting" financial situation anyway. And then, the conclusion of the episode seemed about to and did, end with that other girl saying that she was date raped.

Not that I think that date rape isn't a serious college/life issue. I do. Is it some horrible statement about society that I could predict that a date rape was the event that would "change their lives and tear them apart?" or is Felicity more of just a tv show, than a really great tv show, or is it that the actual "college student" writer doesn't exist and old people are writing a fairly good depiction of what they think is going on in college, but that some of it, to Cicily, the recent college grad and self designated college expert, doesn't hold up. "Drawing and redrawing 'the line'"?

(Note from TK: in case you didn't know, there was recently some big scandal about one of the writers of "Felicity" who told everyone she was nineteen, but then it turned out that she was really in her thirties and only told everyone she was nineteen so that she could get the job of writing for a show about an eighteen-year old.)

For more info on Felicity, see http://felicity.tktv.net

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6. Don't miss

Welcome to re-run hell after November sweeps. Keep an eye on the Don't miss page which will warn you ahead of time if your favorite show is in reruns and you shouldn't bother to stay home to watch it.

Don't miss this week...
For details and lots more fun TV to look forward to, see
http://www.tktv.net/upcoming.html

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7. Favorite Quotes of the Week

From "Ally McBeal"
"Jack Webb, the guy on Dragnet. I had a crush on both him and Mr. Ed... we're not going to go there." - Ally McBeal
From "Frasier"
"If my life gets any worse I'm phoning hell to ask about their exchange program." -Niles Crane
From "Jesse"
"That's really too bad, because I was so much looking forward to having some bread crumbs that have been shoved up a turkey's ass." -Diego
From "The Hughleys"
"Once upon a time there were three little pigs who moved to the suburbs. Now one of the pigs made his house out of stucco, and the other two pigs did the same 'cause nobody can be different in the suburbs. It's like the projects only they got grass." -Darryl
From "Hyperion Bay"
"There are four kinds of men. There's boy-boy, like Leonardo DiCaprio, boy-man, like Tom Cruise somewhere between "Risky Business" and "Top Gun," a man-boy like James Stewart in "Mr. Smith," and a man-man like Harrison Ford in... well, anything." -Jennifer

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8. TKTV's totally unrelated link

Bill Gates Net Worth Page

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