THE TKTV NEWSLETTER
Season 2, Episode 21 aired May 24, 1999

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CONTENTS
1. Intro
2. Letters from the viewing audience
3. Kim's Commercial Comments
4. Don't miss
5. TV Trivia
6. Favorite quotes of the week
7. A totally unrelated link

1. Intro

Well, we had two very momentous occassions occur at just about the same time last Friday night. First of all, Susan Lucci (Erica Kane on "All My Children") finally won the Emmy for Best Daytime Actress. Congratulations! For the two people out there who don't know the history here, Susan Lucci has been nominated for this award like twenty times, and has never won it until this year. (Madonna actually compared herself to Susan Lucci recently by saying that she was "the Susan Lucci of the Grammys." I guess it was both their years this year.)

At the same time on a different channel, the very last episode ever of "Homicide" was showing. I gotta say, it's a real shame that NBC couldn't have told the producers of "Homicide" a little earlier that the show was being cancelled so that they could write a proper series finale. In the case of "Newsradio," although they weren't sure they were going to be cancelled, they suspected, and so this season's finale was very appropriate for a series finale, with the entire station leaving New York for New Hampshire. However, the producers did say that if "Newsradio" were miraculously renewed for another season, then they were also prepared to go through with the New Hampshire move and change the setting of the show next season. "Homicide" had no such preparation, and so the season finale was just another season finale. Shame shame shame....

On a completely different note, thanks to Bren for telling me how to spell Pitocin. I knew when I included that quote from "Ally McBeal" last week that there was going to be something wrong with it. Apparently Pitocin is a drug that induces labor... thank God I have friends in med school.

TKTV has two new show sites this week. First of all, "The Norm Show" now has a home. This is the new Norm Macdonald vehicle on ABC. I think it's fairly funny, although I liked the short-lived "Everything's Relative" on NBC better, "The Norm Show" seems to have gotten a better reaction from the viewing public. "The Norm Show" stars ex-SNL cast member Norm Macdonald as a disgraced hockey player who was arrested and sentenced to community service as a social worker. His co-star is the ever-vibrant Laurie Metcalf ("Roseanne"), who desperately tries to keep Norm on the straight and narrow while Norm is busy looking for shortcuts. And if you miss Felicity's gay foreign boss from Dean & Deluca, Ian Gomez can also be found in a very different role from that on "Felicity."

The next new site is for a show that is not yet on the air, but is on ABC's fall schedule. It's the new David E. Kelley show, "Snoops," about high-tech Los Angeles detectives. I think it's got to be a hit, and I'm looking forward to seeing Paula Marshall ("Cupid") back on the air.

Last but not least, Rachel and I are pleased to announce that with a little help from a friend, the TKTV Party of Five site will have an exclusive interview with the new executive producer of the show, P.K. Simonds. Over the next couple weeks, Rachel will be collecting possible questions from fans. We will be compiling a final list which we will use for the interview. This will NOT be a live chat, so if you think there's something we should definitely remember to ask P.K., then you should send it to Rachel. The final interview will be up on the site later in the summer. We'll give more specific dates in future newsletters.

Please send your suggestions for questions to Rachel at rachel@tktv.net with the subject line of "simonds."

Because of the fact that I will be out of town for four days around Memorial Day, there will be no Newsletter next week. The next Newsletter will be sent out on Monday, June 7th. The site, however, will continue to be updated, so visit TKTV for your TV News and upcoming shows that you can't miss.

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2. Letters from the viewing audience

From my uncle Bob:
I don't believe you have ever recognized my favorite advertisement which is the Volkswagen Jetta one where all the action is in rhythm with the with the background music. Each time I see it there are details I missed before. It's very unusual for me to concentrate on an ad-- I'm the one who thought there was a Pepsi polar bear!
From Daphne:
I think I may have appeared on ABC's Wide World of Sports last weekend; can anyone confirm? (I was wearing a large black hat and a jaunty green scarf.) I was in the grandstand at the Preakness, and not only was I sitting right next to a big shot thoroughbred breeder, I was two rows behind Dan Rydell! He's awfully cute in person.

Note from TK: Dan Rydell is a character on "Sports Night" played by Josh Charles.
From Chris:
Bill Maher is presenting a week of Politically Incorrect from London which is also showing on TV over here - I thought it was terrible, how does he do stateside compared with Letterman and Leno?

Note from TK: not being much of a late-night TV watcher, I thought I'd throw this out to the viewing audience and see if anyone else had comments for Chris.
From Cristobel:
I thought you might be amused by some recent ponderings, which were brought to mind by Kim's ad comments. Last week, I decided that instead of going into marketing, I'd like to go into advertising, based on a great conversation my mother and I had about commercials. She watches television all the time, but I, as you know, watch maybe an hour a week.

Nonetheless, we had a lengthy conversation about the brilliance of the ad campaign for Volkswagen. We chuckled over the one where the guys tie the mattress to the roof and screw up their perfectly timed operation by tying the doors shut, with the slogan something like, "Well, it will at least make you LOOK smart." We discussed how intelligent, ballsy, and funny the ads for the Bug are, and how they appeal to people of all ages. We debated the commercial where the man and woman are ogling one another in their cars, and then an octopus lands on the dashboard, thrown by the kid in the car. I thought they were flirting because the cars were so cool, and my mother thinks they're flirting because they're married and have matching cars. She says it's a commercial filled with love and contentment, which put a whole different swing on it for me.

Now that I'm thinking about it, that might not be a Volkswagen commercial. Anyway, point being that I was affected by commercials even in my paltry amount of television viewing to consider taking up advertising as a career so I could make such cool things as those. (The inclination passed not because those things weren't cool, but because I'm not convinced that the ones I would make would be so cool.)

So those are a non-tv watcher's comments on non-tv, I guess.
From Amara:
I'm sad that Benjamin Bratt is leaving Law & Order. He is much hotter than Jesse Martin. Maybe Antonio Sabato, Jr. can move over to Law & Order in '00?
Letters from the viewing audience are always welcome. Please email any opinions, questions, comments, or random thoughts to TK at tk@tktv.net with the subject of "letters." Letters may be edited for length or content.

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3. Kim's Commercial Comments

Another week has come and gone... I can hardly believe it. Of course, once the weather gets nice time always flies by. It's amazing that I even found the time to write a column this week as I have been totally engrossed in my latest gardening project. My husband and I just put a little goldfish pond in our back yard. It's so cool! Not to mention the Star Wars: The Phantom Menace release I went to at 12:01 Wednesday morning. It really is a wonder I picked a spot that has nothing to do with Star Wars this week because the airwaves have certainly been saturated with them.

What spot has me laughing? Nike: Have you seen Mark?

This spot may not have cultural icons like C3PO, R2D2, or Darth Vader, but it has just the right combination of humor, familiarity, and modern-day superheroes. As the commercial begins, we see the familiar stance of Mark McGwire at the plate. Crack... he slams another one. The camera cuts away into the crowd. As the roar of applause and cheers get louder, we see the smiling face of Heather Locklear.

Cut to Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine. Glavine complains, "How long are they gonna worship this guy?" Maddux answers by yelling to the crowd, "Hey! We've got Cy Young winners over here!" The two exchange a mischievous grin, the music fades up...

The next shot is a HUGE billboard with Mark McGwire's mug and the words "It really is the shoes." So, of course, next we see Maddux and Glavine pushing a shopping cart with two Nike boxes in it. Now they think they're ready to learn to hit. We see them go through all the rigors of intense "training." Batting practice... extra workouts... reading _The Science of Hitting_ ... running... medicine ball. There's even a clever little scene where it appears Maddux is practicing his swing right into Glavine's midsection. The beat of the music is now much faster and we see the duo actually hitting the ball. Crack! Slam!

And then, wouldn't you know it, who comes walking by but Heather Locklear. "Hi Tom," she meows. Maddux and Glavine congratulate each other. "Chicks dig the long ball." The screen goes black and then to Nike's "Just Do It" slogan. Our heroes have succeeded.

"Hey, have you guys seen Mark?" Or so we think.

If you haven't seen this spot, you must go immediately to adcritic.com and watch it. So far it has made me laugh out loud every time I've seen it. It's great!

What spot has me cringing? Brawny: Granny and the 'Fridge

I can't help it. There's something about two little old grandmas discussing the finer points of picking out a paper towel that just makes me nauseous.

These two old, old women are sitting around having a leisurely cup of tea when one of them spills her cup. She goes for a paper towel to clean up the mess, but her friend tells her not to use the Brawny. We can use this other paper towel for a little bitty spill like that.

"Well, what kind of a mess do you use Brawny for?" asks the friend who is apparently mental and doesn't realize that her friend is mental as well. I don't think either one of them would even know notice if that big Brawny lumberjack dude came crashing through the window and kissed her on the mouth.

So granny number one goes over to the refrigerator. She pushes and grunts and shoves and puts all of her 92 pounds into turning over the 'fridge. When it finally does topple over, of course the door comes open and the contents make a nice stew on the kitchen floor.

"Now that's a Brawny kind of mess."

You judge for yourself about this spot. But there's just a part of me who wants these old grandma ladies to be soft, and sweet, and wise from all their years. A granny who could bench press me is just not something I'm interested in.

Anyway, until next week...

TKTV is always looking for new guest writers. Do you have an idea for an article? Write to TK at tk@tktv.net with the subject of "guestwriter."

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4. Don't miss

For details and lots more fun TV to look forward to, see
http://www.tktv.net/index.html?/upcoming.html

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5. TV Trivia

Last week's question was: what was the most watched season finale ever in the history of television?

And the first-place award goes to Jena and MikeyJake, whose answers arrived in my inbox at the exact same time. The correct answer was, MASH (yes, it's also spelled M.A.S.H.). Here in NYC I get late-night reruns of MASH on Fox, and it really is one of the most incredibly shows in the history of television. Who would have guessed they could make an incredibly funny and touching sitcom about the Korean War?

Second prizes for correct answers go to Erica, Monique (who got it by listening to the little voice whispering in her ear), Daphne, Tanya (who also suggested the last episode of Solid Gold), James, Linda, Allan (who remembers when his students asked for the day off from school to stay home and watch it), HMoLe33, Scott, ckstern, Suzanne, Chris (who reminds us that the title of the episode was "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen (RIP)"), jsenger, dattier, Lela (who reminds us that MASH was the 4077), jenoy, Josie, Jenny (who remembers people crying around the TV whe she was a little girl), rsimson, and Michaela (who remembers people buying a VCR specifically so that they could tape this episode, and then never using the VCR again).

The most common wrong answer was definitely "Seinfeld" followed closely by "Dallas" (Who shot JR?). "Dallas" was close, but "Seinfeld," as you can see below, didn't even make the top ten of entertainment shows.

Jenoy, who runs the "Felicity" site for TKTV, not only sent in an answer, but sent in these interesting statistics as well:

Top 10 shows in history:
  1. M.A.S.H, CBS, February 28, 1983, 50.1 million.
  2. Super Bowl 27, NBC, January 31, 1993, 41.9 million.
  3. Super Bowl 20, NBC, January 26, 1986, 41.49 million.
  4. Dallas, CBS, November 21, 1980, 41.47 million.
  5. Super Bowl 17, NBC, January 30, 1983, 40.4 million.
  6. Super Bowl 21, CBS, January 25, 1987, 40.03 million.
  7. Super Bowl 16, CBS, January 24, 1982, 40.02 million.
  8. Super Bowl 19, ABC, January 20, 1985, 39.39 million.
  9. Super Bowl 23, NBC, January 22, 1989, 39.32 million.
  10. Super Bowl 25, ABC, January 27, 1991, 39.0 million.
Top 10 entertainment shows in history:
  1. M.A.S.H, CBS, February 28, 1983, 50.1 million.
  2. Dallas, CBS, November 21, 1980, 41.4 million.
  3. The Day After, ABC, November 20, 1983, 38.5 million.
  4. Michael Jackson Talks To Oprah, ABC, February 10, 1993, 36.5 mill.
  5. Roots, Part 8, ABC, January 30, 1977, 36.3 million.
  6. The Bill Cosby Show, NBC, January 22, 1987, 36.1 million.
  7. Thorn Birds, Part 3, ABC, March 29, 1983, 35.99 million.
  8. Thorn Birds, Part 4, ABC, March 30, 1983, 35.90 million.
  9. Thorn Birds, Part 2, ABC, March 28, 1983, 35.4 million.
  10. Winds Of War, Part 7, ABC, February 13, 1983, 34.1 million.
So now that we're asking easier questions, we're definitely getting more of a response. Here is this week's question, which comes from Jenoy:

What television show did Felicity's Keri Russell, singer Britney Spears and N'Sync's Justin Timberlake make their performance debut on?

Send answers to TK at tk@tktv.net with the subject of tvtrivia.

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6. Favorite Quotes of the Week

From "The X-Files"
"You've won. What more could you possibly hope to do or to find?" -Scully
"My sister." -Mulder

From "Ally McBeal"
"As sad as it is to want something you don't have, it's much worse to have something you don't want." -John Cage

From "Frasier"
"Unlike you, he believes in my visions. He knows I have a gift." -Daphne
"Yes, and he's been trying to unwrap it for six years." -Frasier

From "King of the Hill"
"We fell asleep in a garbage can last night. Do you want that to be the highlight of our twentieth anniversary?" -Peggy Hill

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7. A totally unrelated link

Urban Myths

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Congratulations to Susan Lucci!