Nose-talgia: "I Married Joan"

Why haven't we done this in a while? I got to thinking today about the great Joan Davis, one of America's most talented and unsung comediennes. You really have to be a certain age to remember watching her I Married Joan sitcom, either the first time around or in reruns, which is where I loved them. Joan played Mrs. Bradley J. Stevens, Mr. Stevens being the great comic actor Jim Backus, who was a wonderful foil for Joan's crazy adventures as she constantly threatened to destroy the dignity befitting a judge and his wife.

Joan Davis was a versatile actress with a knack for the comic, though her series was sometimes unfairly compared with Lucille Ball's I Love Lucy which had debuted in fall of 1951, a year before I Married Joan hit the air. (I did a post on TCM's Movie Morlocks blog a couple of years ago about Joan daughter Beverly, but there's lots of Joan Davis biographical info in it, too. You might like to take a look at it here.) Joan had plenty of successes, and movie fans will remember her great appearances in films like Abbott and Costello's Hold That Ghost, and many more.

What many of us do remember is the I Married Joan theme song, that with that driving do-do-do-do refrain and the singing chorus. There are several collections of episodes now available on DVD, and also some on YouTube for quick viewing. You'll find that Joan is a crazy, limber-limbed knockabout comic, with a unique physicality that is quite brilliant. She should be remembered more often by those of us who enjoy the funny ladies. For every Tina Fey and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, there was a Joan Davis or Lucille Ball who came before.

"Mad Men" Is Back!

It's fascinating to read what others have written about last night's 4th Season premiere episode "Public Relations" of AMC's stunning -- and there's almost no other word to describe it -- Mad Men. The series is cold and crisp and beautiful like a priceless diamond -- not the warmest gem out there, but so mesmerizing, utterly desirable and impossible not to look at.

Mad Men is Mid-Century America Kabuki, with its own kind of stylized costumes and a series of carefully constructed and elaborate tableaus where nothing is ever obvious and everything promises another layer of meaning left behind for us to peel away. Spoiler Alert: Here's a recap of the episode, but don't watch if you haven't seen it yet.



There's an interesting special interactive feature "Seeing History in Mad Men" from The New York Times, which has been thoroughly covering the return of MM with several recent articles. Last week they spotlighted different aspects of the series here, as well as looking into the use of period-appropriate language on the series with this "Mad Men-ese" story. Alessandra Stanley gave a look forward to Sunday's premiere here, and Ginia Bellafante wrote about it today.

Vanity Fair has a nicely detailed piece by James Wolcott, and The Onion's AV Club has a great overview of the episode here, too, and a few enlightening videos. I count myself among the folks who already knew what Peggy and her coworkers were riffing on with their "John...Marsha" routine, but it's evidently not exactly a universal pop culture reference point.

I also love Advertising Age and their coverage of the premiere episode, which of course contained a major scene involving the industry publication preparing a story about Don Draper et al's new agency. Rance McCrain writes about the portrayal of Ad Age in the show, and Larry Dobrow offers up a media industry-centric look at the episode. Both are great reads.

Also wonderful on a continued basis is the "Mad Blog" from Media Post Publications. Writer Dorothy Parker covers each episode with special insight.

If you've seen the first episode, you know that Mr. Draper got his freak on a bit, as seen below. Again, Spoiler Alert!

We've said it here before -- as TV series go, Mad Men is a slow burn. Too slow? Maybe a little, sometimes, but we've also said that it's more like a work of art than a TV show. We're supposed to look at it longer and deeper than the average TV show, so that's okay. We like a show what takes its time (with a deep nod to the great Mae West.)

Be sure to visit AMC's Mad Men site for much more information and behind-the-scenes features that will add to your appreciation of MM.

Get Mad with Us This Sunday

It's about cocktails and New York City and men in suits. It's about a time when Winston tasted good, like a cigarette should. It's about the glamor and horror of America's Camelot days, when there was still so much promise and hope but we had to walk a long dark road to get there.

It's about Don Draper, a terribly damaged human with the soul of a poet. It's about the birth of media and the magic of advertising. A Kodak carousel is not slide projector. It's a time machine, a circle of memories that lives forever in your mind.

Thank all the TV Gods that be, Mad Men returns this Sunday at 10PM. On AMC. To remember why we love it, click on this link.

Starz Brings Ken Follett's "Pillars of the Earth" to TV Beginning Tonight

If I had a dollar for everytime somebody asked me if I'd read the book, and then insisted I should because I hadn't -- well, I'd be several dollars richer, that's for sure. Starz, and producers Tony and Ridley Scott, take on the enormous task of bringing Follett's enormous novel to the small screen. Headlined by actors Ian McShane, Donald Sutherland and Rufus Sewell, and also featuring many other capable internationally-known thespians in the huge cast, Pillars of the Earth aims to bring back the Middle Ages like they've never been brought back before.



Is this a series or a miniseries? Eight hours long, it's somewhere between the two, and will be unleashed in hour episodes every Friday night beginning tonight at 10pm. We'd recommend catching it either on-air, On Demand or on the Starz website -- two episodes are up there now -- if for no other reason than to honor your high school European History teacher for all their hard and possibly futile work trying to cram this era into your brain.

In a TV world where viewers are grooving like crazy on the getting-to-be-bit-much antics of HBO's TrueBlood and the vampire and werewolf denizens therein, surely there must be a few hours of our time available for something that's at least based in real historical fact.

I'm not guaranteeing I won't fall asleep watching it -- which might make the computer the best choice for me, say -- but if you've got a hankering for a juicy Medieval soap opera, it looks like Pillars of the Earth is a solid choice. Will it be as steamy as Starz' Spartacus, and equally as bloody? We think it will have to be to hold viewers, and at least the network can trot out the "historically accurate" defense if the TV do-gooders ever squawk.

Check out the Starz website for Pillars of the Earth for more information and all things behind-the-scenes.

(For an actual review of the series, you might like to read this from the L.A. Times, and it's always great to read one from the trades, like this one from The Hollywood Reporter.)

Would I really rather be watching another season of Starz' cancelled comedy Party Down instead of Pillars of the Earth?

Yeah, I would. But that's another story.

Louis CK. We. Just. Love. Him.

Flaming Nose founders (Lisa and Jane) have long considered hot comics as rulers of the media roost when it comes to sex appeal. Leading men like Brad Pitt and George Clooney? Yeah, they're pretty but whatever. Clever hunks like the Old Spice Dude (Isaiah Mustafa)? Nice, but what would we actually DO with him. Don't answer that.

The truth is, what really floats our boat and leads us to all manner of interesting obsessive-compulsive behaviors, are the funny ones. We've gone nuts for Ricky Gervais hosting award shows and Jermaine from Flight of the Conchords makes us giddy. Eddie Izzard is a cross dresser, do you think that quells our passion for him one tiny bit? And we don't care how chunky Alec Baldwin gets on 30 Rock; let him cough up a one liner about the Peacock network and we swoon. Smart and funny...funny and smart. Bring on the dark wit to light up our day. Humor + brains = Flaming Nose aphrodisiac.

So without further ado, I would now like to declare our eternal devotion for Louis CK, the hottest comedian in the U.S.A. starring on the best (and weirdest) comedy on TV (Louis: Tuesdays at 11pm on fX). Is he funny? I've fallen off the couch laughing so many times, I should pad the floor. Is he smart? He's the Einstein of comedy. Is he gorgeous? Who the hell cares? Anyway he's got that Irish looking thing going on, which works for me. His TV show is also wonderfully nuanced and the writing is sublime. We get real pathos and brilliant characters along with the laughs. And I'm here to say that I don't just love Louis. I also like him a lot and wish he was my neighbor so I could invite him to a BBQ.

This week's amazing episode saw Louis flying from NYC to the deep south to do a stand up gig. It was like "Airport" mixed with "Deliverance" with a sprinkle of "Seinfeld". Actually, it was nothing like any of those things, but it did involve a deeply disturbed Bubba cop in Alabama who needed a kiss. Don't ask...just watch.

If anyone would like to join The Flaming Nose for a big Louis CK love fest, please let us know. Go ahead and watch it on fX or Hulu or YouTube, then come back here and tell us what you think. But we saw him first, so hands off!

Great News for "Hot in Cleveland" -- Classic Comics Unite!

TV Land's terrific new sitcom Hot in Cleveland just announced another great get for the show: Comic Tim Conway will guest as a rival with Carl Reiner for Betty White's affections! Reiner has already been featured in several segments as Betty's new boyfriend, and he's adorable and very appealing in the role. Betty White is, of course, peerlessly funny!

Read a good account of the Tim Conway news here from Ohio.com, from the Akron Beacon Journal.

The addition of Tim Conway should kick the comedy up even another notch. Hot in Cleveland is already honestly laugh-out-loud funny, and not just for a certain boomer demo. The writing is crisp, the characterizations solid, and the acting spot on. The show is a real delight. We're also thrilled to read about the addition of Dave Foley to the ensemble -- this show really has an eye for perfect casting. Couldn't be better!

If you're not already watching Hot in Cleveland, give it a try. New episodes premiere Wednesdays at 10pm. The only mistake TV Land is making right now is that they're really stingy with episodes available online. Only the current week's episode? Not enough! If you want to get fans hooked, let us watch the episodes! (I will say that with a little sleuthing you can find them around the net, but wouldn't you rather watch them on TV Land? I would.)

Silver Fish Catch! It's The Old Spice Man Again!

We hope you're visiting Old Spice's YouTube channel, where the insanely great, completely adorable and consistently -- and we mean consistently, not a clunker in there -- hilarious campaign has posted Old Spice's "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" Isiah Mustafa's reponses to questions sent to him via various social network outlets. The Christian Science Monitor had a nice article about it last week, and Advertising Age put Old Spice at the top of its Viral Video Chart, too. Responses like this one:



Would Hollywood please put Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Isiah "Old Spice" Mustafa together in a movie, playing adventuring brothers, or something? I'd pay to see that! Both these guys get it in a big way, with that pitch-perfect sense of the absurd that not everybody can pull off. Wonderful!

The video announcing the end of the responses is equally amazing!

What a guy!

FCC Rules on Indecency Struck Down -- A Good Thing?

Even though I'm as liberal as it gets regarding content on TV -- usually -- I think the glee with which Hollywood seems to be greeting the recent court ruling over Broadcast TV's indecency regulations is a little unseemly. Read this article from The Hollywood Reporter for all the details, and then come back here for our comments.

Commentary: This is one case where I hope the advertisers do push back and refuse to sponsor racier programming. If producers are holding cable up as a model, most of the cable shows containing more adult content don't run before 10pm, so the idea that now on Broadcast TV shows before 10pm are going to go crazy is a little unbridled.

Part of the reason why I object is that the Broadcast Networks hold a slightly different place in the television landscape. They collectively are the Sears, the Wal-Mart, the Target, if you will, of TV, not the Victoria's Secret, the corner drug dealer or the adult on-demand on your cable system. Their very existence has depended on the approbation of the masses, while certain cable networks have managed to very carefully and deliberately prepare their particular audiences for what they're offering. FX is the best example of this, with shows that routinely are so much more explicit than anything else -- even pay cable in some ways -- but manage to fit perfectly into their image.

I find it particularly uncomfortable and creepy when network sitcoms go racy -- ick, indeed! -- and I'll tell you why. Not that I think we have to make everything kid-safe, but kids do watch sitcoms -- they're kind of the transition between cartoons and adult programming (though of course nowadays many never make that transition, witness the success of Adult Swim). The often smutty humor in CBS' Two and a Half Men seems just plain unpleasant to me, and I've hated to see my favorite The Big Bang Theory take steps in that direction.

It's not that sexual situations aren't funny, but there's an "Ewww!" line that is too frequently crossed. The ladies on TV Land's Hot in Cleveland are also dancing on that line (with many not very-veiled references to cunnilingus and so forth), and they are funny. However, since few kids are going to be watching HiC, it's no big deal, but it still is a whole different level of comedy subject matter and I'm not sure we can assume everybody is on board with it.

Have I finally become an old lady, waggling my fingers and going "Tsk Tsk!" at naughty words? Hardly. I think Louie on FX is amazing, and you won't find anything as explicit and bleak as that show. Nobody loves profanity -- in its place -- as much as I do, so that's not it.

The problem I see is that this is America. This isn't Great Britain, say, where content is much looser and people expect it and it's no problem. America is still the land of the embarrassed giggle and the adolescent snicker and our boob obsession and every other infantile sexual attitude that we still hold dear. We simply can't handle the truth, the sexual truth, that is, and it turns so many attempts to inject adult content into a show into something weird and uncomfortable. (Violence is a different issue. Flaying women on crime shows regularly is practically a rule for the police procedurals. America loves violence and guns and all that kind of obscenity.)

America is still suspicious of sex; goodness knows there are whole blocks of people out there who are simultaneously completely obsessed by sex and yet would prefer it legislated away (except for their clandestine perversions, no doubt). A current debate about whether the new healthcare bill should pay for birth control isn't really about birth control at all, it's about sex. Should women be able to have sex and enjoy it without worry? It's not about medicine, it's about that deep misogynist vein in America. Until we at least get over that, TV just can't freely get to a place where sexual content on TV is a good thing.

Really, the advertisers will make the call on this one. Can't have Broadcast TV without commercials, and if the advertisers don't like what they're seeing, it's a moot point. Unfortunately, the kind of viewers who write letters to advertisers aren't the kind of viewers I support or agree with in any other way, so I won't be with them on this, either. Might a lessening of standards bring some kind of a political backlash against any and all things liberal in thought or deed? I can see it happening. With all the real problems in the country, worrying about dirty words seems like a perfect misdirection issue to take the heat off what really needs to get done.

Oh well. Go ahead, networks, tart up your shows and see what happens. Maybe it'll work. I'm not for the "good old days" when nobody could say anything, but just try not to frighten the horses, will ya?

So Long Captain Phil

A reminder to all fans of Discovery Channel's Deadliest Catch to turn in tonight at 9pm to say farewell to the late, great Captain Phil Harris. For six seasons, Captain Phil has bravely piloted his snow crab fishing boat the Cornelia Maria through the cruel and frigid waters of the Bering Sea. It's a tough, unforgiving job, and the Captain succumbed to a stroke after only 53 years on this planet (33 of them spent in the Crab Fishing business). He has passed his legacy and skills down to his sons Jake and Josh, and now they will be around to continue the 7th season of this highest rated Discovery Channel program ever.

In reality TV, a lost character can't be re-cast. No one would even dare try with Captain Phil. He was a true American original, and you could do far worse on a Tuesday night than to tune in to Discovery to say farewell.

Farewell to Harvey Pekar

We share a deep sense of melancholy today with the countless other fans and friends of Harvey Pekar, comic book author and creator of American Splendor, who died early this morning at the age of 70. If you saw the 2003 movie of American Splendor, starring Paul Giamatti (who should have gotten an Oscar or at least a nomination, but the film did receive a nom for Best Adapted Screenplay) and Hope Davis, you remember what a fascinating and unique character study Pekar's autobiographical work was. Even if you weren't a comic reader, and certainly the movie reached out far beyond that group, you felt a great empathy and appreciation for Pekar's life choices and philosophy.

Here's the trailer for American Splendor, and then a thoughtful little scene.

One of the signs of Pekar's rise to fame were his appearances on Late Night with David Letterman; author/illustrator/educator Stephen Kroniger has compiled them on his Drawger.com website and we highly recommend them.

Eccentricity is not always easy to embrace or even explain, but we're all the better for it in our lives and in other's. Farewell, Harvey...

Louis CK: Sick, Surreal and Funnier than Anything I've Ever Seen on TV Before

A few weeks ago, Lisa gave us a terrific heads up for a new show on fX called Louis CK. It airs every Tuesday at 11pm, right after Rescue Me. For once the hyperbole in the promo is true....there is absolutely NOTHING like this show anywhere on TV. It is the darkest, funniest, raunchiest and in many ways most brilliant comedy I've ever seen on the small screen. This guy is a genius. But before you rush right over to fX this coming Tuesday, I have to offer a disclaimer. Louis CK is not for everyone. It's graphic, it's explicit. It's definitely not for kids. If you are sensitive about R+ rated programming (plenty of sex and language...no violence), you better give Louis a wide berth.



I've seen two episodes so far and both made me choke they were so funny. Louis plays himself (stand up comic) but also a divorced Dad of two kids who is trying to re-enter the dating scene with horrific, disastrous results. On one encounter, his blind date keeps him waiting outside in the hall, where he is flashed by a naked octogenarian. There's a tiny glimpse of that psychotic moment in the promo below. In another episode, he plays poker with his other stand up buddies, and one of them starts a soliloquy about sex that is uncomfortable, screaming out loud funny and ultimately poignant. You have to see it to believe it. Or not, because...gotta mention that disclaimer again folks.... this is for mature audiences only.

Barney Fife and the U.S. Constitution

As part of our celebration of American history via TV, here's a hilarious moment from The Andy Griffith Show showcasing Don Knotts' brilliant performance as Deputy Fife.





"Okay, 'We'."

"We?"

"We."

"Are you sure?"


Classic comedy performed by two masters. Happy Fourth of July!

A Little Bit of "John Adams" in Honor of Tomorrow's Holiday

To get you prepared for the Fourth of July, here's just a snippet now from HBO's wonderful miniseries John Adams which was such a favorite here when it first premiered in 2008. This scene features Paul Giamatti, Tom Wilkinson and the sublime Stephen Dillane as Adams, Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, respectively, as they go over Jefferson's draft for the Declaration of Independence.




This is one miniseries that we can't wait to rewatch soon!