bloggie blog

Another limerick, this one composed for the folks at Desperate Housewives. At the start of this its final season, Felicity Huffman said, “All bets are off.” I tweeted this to Jeff Greenstein, and he hit me back with a “Well done!”

Enjoy:

SAG Award nominees (announced today) will not receive my vote if they pertain to one of these shows:

Damages
The Good Wife
Harry’s Law
Hot in Cleveland
Modern Family
Nurse Jackie
Spartacus: Gods of the Arena
Suits

It’s not because of the quality of these shows, which is generally quite high, but because they are not SAG projects! SAG Awards go to SAG projects, in my opinion. But considering how the new shows are overwhelmingly AFTRA these last few seasons, it’s interesting to note that the nominations are not overwhelmingly AFTRA. (Not yet.)

See that information on the right side of my IMDb page? Watch me in CSI: Miami episode #10.11 on 12/11 @ 10 pm.

Though I hope you’ll watch me, you’ll probably hear me more than see me in the opening sequence of this cuh-razy episode all about pageants for little girls. See a preview on the YouTube.

Forensics update: Saliva analysis can now be used to estimate the age of the saliva contributor to within five years. At least, this is what I heard on Scientific American’s podcast 60-Second Science on June 22.

I wonder how long it will take from the time of hearing the news that saliva analysis is a possible CSI tool till it shows up on an episode of a certain forensics-heavy TV show? Let me know if you see age-by-spit in a plot.

That’s the end. The final episode of Big Love aired on March 20, and I watched every episode. Thank you for Big Love. Thank you to creators Mark V. Olsen and Will Sheffer, thank you to HBO, thank you to the writers and cast and crew, thank you one and all.

Watching BL, I frequently gaped, laughed or sighed. More than once, I bawled heavily. There were some missteps, as with most every TV show, and there were some mistakes central to the topic at hand. One minor character who was very active in her LDS faith would have said “Oh my gosh,” there. One major character mispronounced “Melchizedek” and “temple recommend” both. And, as I said, a few times it wandered in ways had nothing to do with its unique topic and drifted into unfortunate cheesy melodrama. But not very often. More significantly, it was well-made, gripping and pretty damn good. I will miss it.

Some Mormons are opposed to Big Love, whether they’ve seen it or not. I hope there aren’t too many like this, but I know of more than one who, because they’ve been told to be offended by it, by golly they are. Perhaps they imagine every episode over there on HBO is filled with nudity, cursing and wanton mockery of things Mormons hold dear. Nope. There’s a very small amount of that spread over 53 episodes. You could cut 2 entire scenes and 2 seconds of 2 other scenes and all that would be gone, so that’s not really much to get up in arms about now, is it? If it’s not for you, it’s not for you, that’s cool, but if you’re opposed to the message of this show, it seems to me you are opposed to good drama and opposed to a strong message of family, of faith, of being different, of love. Consider the irony.

Back to the motivation to write this post — which is that I will miss it. I’m going to miss seeing things on TV you don’t see on TV all that much. Multiple wives, yes, but also sayings like, “It’s good to have an open mind, but not so open that your brains fall out” (Nicki was always my crazy favorite), and references to “those GD protesters.” Sigh, sigh and sigh. With big gratitude, I bid you a big, fond farewell, Big Love!

I voted in the SAG Awards today. As I mentioned before, I didn’t intend to vote for actors working on AFTRA projects because I’m a literalist. I kept to that promise. Also, I didn’t vote for any project I hadn’t seen, and in fact I left about 3 or 4 categories blank. Skipping over my TV votes and without detailing my entire ballot, I will say that I voted for The King’s Speech whenever it was an option. There were many fine performances to choose from, of course, but that film moved me so much more than the others.

I look forward to the ceremony Sunday night! (More accurate: I look forward to reading about it on Monday morning!)

UPDATE: My vote went to the award recipient only 3 of 12 times. There were lots of good choices!

This morning, the SAG Award nominees were announced. I’ve pasted the actors nominated in episodic television below. There are awesome performances in amazing scripts here, that’s for sure. What I’m not sure about is who I will vote for.

I can say, however, that as a literalist, I will not vote for any work on an AFTRA show. Why? Because these are the friggin’ SAG Awards! With the exception of the Female-Comedy category, the majority of the nominees are working on SAG shows (shown in bold). AFTRA shows (shown in italics) will not get my vote, even if that has very little to do with the quality of the work.

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series
Steve Buscemi — Boardwalk Empire (HBO)
Bryan Cranston — Breaking Bad (AMC)
Michael C. Hall — Dexter (Showtime)
Jon Hamm — Mad Men (AMC)
Hugh Laurie — House (FOX)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series
Glenn Close — Damages (FX)
Mariska Hargitay — Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (NBC)
Julianna Margulies — The Good Wife (CBS)
Elisabeth Moss — Mad Men (AMC)
Kyra Sedgwick — The Closer (TNT)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series
Alec Baldwin – 30 Rock (NBC)
Ty Burrell — Modern Family (ABC)
Steve Carell – The Office (NBC)
Chris Colfer — Glee (FOX)
Ed O’Neill — Modern Family (ABC)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series
Edie Falco – Nurse Jackie (Showtime)
Tina Fey – 30 Rock (NBC)
Jane Lynch — Glee (FOX)
Sofia Vergara — Modern Family (ABC)
Betty White — Hot In Cleveland (TV Land)

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series
Boardwalk Empire (HBO)
The Closer (TNT)
Dexter (Showtime)
The Good Wife (CBS)
Mad Men (AMC)

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series
30 Rock (NBC)
Glee (FOX)
Hot In Cleveland (TV Land)
Modern Family (ABC)
The Office (NBC)

I am just now watching episode 10 of season 3 of Breaking Bad. It’s the episode about a fly. You know the one! It aired on May 23, so I’m a little behind. (I like to savor delicious things — or save delicious things for later.)

Pretty much only Mr White and Jesse have any lines. More significantly: It’s hilarious (for a while). I am laughing out loud and BB is not a Laugh Out Loud show. BB is a Freak the F Out show.

Anybody else remember and lurve this lovely episode about killing a fly? From pre-credits thingy, to whacking each with an impromptu flyswatter, this episode rawks. (Insiders, read this, too.)

Frequently, people tell me I remind them of Darrin Stephens on Bewitched. It’s confusing because Darrin Stephens was played by Dick York for 156 episdoes then by Dick Sargent for 84 episodes. Two Darrens, two Dicks.

Which Dick do I remind you of most? Links in Dicks’ names are to Google Images. Click, look, and weigh in via the comments.

From Bradley Whitford vomiting to clear a crime scene, to the poster art for the show, to Billy Squier’s “Stroke Me” introducing a sexy hot rod car, The Good Guys tickles my funny bone. Many months ago, I worked on the script for the pilot in an acting class, and I was hooked. I hope it lasts! Sometimes the good shows don’t, but The Good Guys, like Modern Family, could be a show we’ll be talking about for years to come.

It’s written by Ginsburg & McIntyre, and you can follow their shenanigans more on the Twitter.