Wait, Who is That???

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

I can't tell you how many times I've been watching 7th Heaven and someone in the rooms exclaims, "wait, who is that??" There were so many different secondary characters on that show over the years that it became near impossible to know who everyone was (and, whatever happened to them?).

The show centered around a reverend (Eric), his wife (Annie), and their children (Matt, Mary, Lucy, Simon, Ruthie, and later Sam and David). For eleven seasons and 243 episodes, they came of age in Glen Oak, CA. Matt started out a high school student, went to college, got married, had twins, and graduated from medical school. Mary played basketball for the high school team, had a variety of part-time jobs, moved to New York to try and become a firefighter, eloped, had a son and then twin girls, and became a flight attendant, later a teacher. Lucy turned thirteen in an early episode, suffered from middle-child-syndrome, dated a lot of guys, got married, had a daughter, became a minister, miscarried twins, and was pregnant with a second child at the show's end. Simon was a ten-year-old curious kid who spent high school trying to be cool, went to college a year early to escape harassment from a manslaughter he was involved in, got engaged, and was getting a degree in video production. Ruthie was a preschooler who graduated high school in the final episode, experiencing many typical problems along the way. Sam and David were born in the third season, and generally provide background humor, seeing things from the point of view of children.

With that many main characters, the supporting roles multiply quickly. Some characters stayed for years on end, while others disappeared after just a single episode (which was problematic in the early years, particularly when the children appear to have certain "best friends" but they seem to be forgotten about only a few episodes later. And while the final seasons (I pluralize because the tenth season was supposed to be the final year, but then there was a second final season) did a good job of wrapping up a lot of characters' storylines (although it got a bit extreme in the case of Christmas! in Season 11, where they brought back family members of characters that didn't make sense at times), there were quite a few people who we never heard from, even those who had large parts in early seasons (like the Hamilton family!). Robbie, Martin, and Chandler (and for the younger crowd, T-Bone) served as eye-candy for the female viewers of the show, while Roxanne certainly gathered some male viewers.

If you haven't questioned who any of those characters are, get ready for the real test...
Remember Ben Kinkirk (not Kevin)?
How about Deena?
Peter, Paris, & Vic Petrowski?
Meredith?
Shana?
Do you know who Lou is?
Mac?
Jeremy?
George Camden? (I had to think about this one!)

My favorite episode (and my sister's for that matter) is "Simon's Home Video," which is a video essay Simon makes for his college application. He gives a good history of the Camden family, focusing on relationships and mistakes made by various characters. I actually love this episode so much that one time I moved my television so that I could see it from the shower while I got ready for whatever I was doing that night.

I can't find the entire episode, but here's the opening few minutes. To see the whole thing, it's going to be the evening episode on WGN on January 7th, 2009!

When Babies Aren't Cute

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

When I moved to Florida and had cable television for the first time, I discovered Rugrats during a Nickelodeon marathon. My first thoughts were not that positive (it was the episode where the parents lose Tommy and Chuckie in the Toy Store - the first episode in Season 2), but after getting sweaty playing outside, I retreated back to the living room and the marathon. After a few more episodes, both of my siblings and I became fans. The second film premiered a week or so after I got my driver's license, and that was the first movie that I drove to see.

Basically, the show features a bunch of babies and their parents. Tommy Pickles, the main character and the leader of the group, usually ends up in some sort of trouble. Malapropisms abound, and it's quite entertaining that the adults in the show cannot comprehend what the television audience can. I guess that's what you get when you have kids between one and two years of age. Three-year-olds Susie and Angelica can understand and communicate with both the babies and the adults. In almost every episode, the parents never even realize that the kids have gone missing or are doing something they shouldn't, and the babies are able to return to their original destination and activities by the end of the show.

Rugrats has done an excellent job intriguing the eyes of older children and parents, particularly with its well-known Hanukkah and Passover episodes (Tommy's mother Didi is Jewish, while his father Stu is Christian). In the teenage spinoff, Tommy is attending classes in Hebrew to prepare for his bar mitzvah. Perhaps one of the reasons why the show finally died out is that the older viewers could just no longer relate, and the younger viewers were turning to crappy shows like Spongebob Squarepants. Or maybe it's because there are only so many things that babies can do, LoL. But somehow Klasky and Csupo were able to write enough scripts to keep the show flowing for years. I personally don't know how, as the babies were unlike any cutesy toddlers usually seen in shows, and all seemed like misfits in some way. Anywho...

Rugrats ran from 1991-2004, making an impressive fourteen years. It is the longest-running Nicktoon, and even has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (2001). It had four Emmy nominations for Outstanding Children's Program and four wins for the Best Cartoon at the Kid's Choice Awards. It also had a spinoff (which began as the ten-year anniversary special Rugrats: All Growed Up) and two theatrical-release movies (that each added a new character to the show). In 1998 with Rugrats: The Movie, the group added a three-month old to the how who has no communicative abilities, Tommy's brother Dil. In 2000, with Rugrats in Paris, Chuckie's dad gets remarried, adding a stepsister for Chuckie: Kimi. (There was technically a third theatrically-released film, but it was a crossover with The Wild Thornberrys, which I am not a fan of). From 2003-2008, the spinoff All Grown Up featured the characters as preteens and teens, with a total of 55 episodes. Now, technically there is a second spinoff, which only began about a month ago, but I have yet to see an episode so I don't know that I can really speak to it. If you're interested, it is called Angelica and Susie's Preschool Daze, and apparently runs on Nickelodeon at 6am on Sundays. Four episodes have aired thus far. There were also a bunch of video games... PlayStation's Rugrats: Search for Reptar is definitely a fun game though. The levels were based on various episodes, and you got to play as several different characters, including Spike the dog. And in case you didn't know, Reptar is a green T-Rex that the babies love.

Viacom has removed pretty much every clip of Rugrats on the internet, but here's a few pictures to show most of the main characters.

Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

This week I will address Power Rangers for two reasons. One, I did NOT realize that this show was still on! And two, because with the holiday season upon us, I am reminded of the year where the Power Rangers action figures were the hot item. Everyone was sold out, and there were tramplings at the local Toys R Us. My brother received two from an unknown source - they just showed up wrapped on our doorstep (with other toys we probably received from being underprivileged or something similar). While I was old enough to not get captured by the pop culture hit, both my brother and sister were big fans of the show, and definitely ended up with a ton of merchandise from Saban/Bandai. When my sister was four or five, my mother made her a spectacular Pink Power Ranger costume. She cut up my pink parachute pants and windbreaker to make it, but it was much better than the crappy plastic suits that were being sold at Wal*Mart at the time.

Anyway, the show began in August 1993, with movies in 1995 and 1997. The characters are mostly known by the color of his or her costume, which often dominated his or her wardrobe, as well. Red (Jason, T-Rex), Blue (Billy, Triceratops), Yellow (Trini, Saber-Toothed Tiger), Pink (Kimberly, Pterodactyl), and Black (Zack, Mastadon) were the basics. Tommy, the Green Ranger, with a Dragonzord, entered in a 5-episode arc during the first season (and later became the White Ranger). They can't use their powers for personal gain and can't reveal their identities to the general public. If you break the rules, you lose your powers. Zordon and Alpha 5 were the good guys, and Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd were the bad guys. The actors came and went like it was nothing, although a few have remained much longer than the others.

The show is based on the Japanese Super Sentai series, and many of the fight sequences have been dubbed. Because of this, the writers of the American series had to write storylines to fit those scenes. Over the course of 15 seasons, there have actually been 13 separate series! However, if you missed the in-between seasons (like I did), there's not much hope of seeing them on television... reruns are rare because the show does not meet FCC regulations on educational content in Children's Shows.

Kimberly was probably my favorite, mostly for her gymnastic prowess. The actress has been in several other things, and is now a singer. My brother was a Tommy fan, and my sister flipped her allegiance on and off from Kimberly to Trini. What is of note is that my next-door neighbor was really into martial arts, and pretty much had the kids in the hood convinced that he was the green/white power ranger. Haha, it stil makes me laugh to think about.

It won't let me embed today's clip, but here you can see a great visual history of the first three seasons. It shows the bad guys, the characters, the morphing process, and how the Dinozoids change and form the Megazoid.

Sexy

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Entertainment Weekly recently did an issue on "The 50 Sexiest Movies Ever" and since I have not seen most of them, was curious to see who has.

The list:
1. Out of Sight
2. His Girl Friday
3. Mr. & Mrs. Smith (sure, I saw it. Along with everyone else. It was a great action flick, let's not lie)
4. Body Heat
5. Bull Durham
6. Don't Look Now
7. Y Tu Mama Tambien (you know, I've heard about this one forever, and still don't care)
8. The Last of the Mohicans (maybe someday)
9. A Walk on the Moon
10. Before Sunset
11. Once
12. The Fabulous Baker Boys
13. Shakespeare in Love (I've only seen clips, but one of these days I'll sit down and see the whole thing)
14. The Year of Living Dangerously
15. Notorious
16. The Seven Year Itch
17. Mulholland Drive
18. Swimming Pool
19. The Notebook (saw it against my will. It was bad. I really did hate it and felt like I had wasted my time. And I still blame my boss for making me watch it.)
20. Titanic (like any teenage girl in the 90s, I saw it. and bought the 2-tape VHS the night it came out. But I definitely didn't consider it sexy. I didn't even realize they had sex in that car for the first six years I watched it)
21. Basic Instinct
22. Mississippi Masala
23. The Age of Innocence
24. 9 1/2 Weeks
25. The Postman Always Rings Twice
26. The English Patient (torn. haven't seen it, but don't know if I want to or not)
27. Unfaithful
28. Love & Basketball (definitely thought that the previews looked like crap, so I never bothered to rent it)
29. Bound
30. Maurice (the snippet looks good, maybe I'll add it to my watchlist)
31. American Gigolo
32. Cruel Intentions (this was also crap. And I watched it on the couch with my boyfriend when I was fifteen)
33. She's Gotta Have It
34. The Unbearable Lightness of Being
35. sex, lies, and videotape
36. Ghost (here's one that I plan on seeing someday, but only because it seems that everyone else has already seen it)
37. In the Mood for Love
38. Secretary
39. The Talented Mr. Ripley
40. The Last Seduction
41. The Bodyguard
42. Little Children
43. Dirty Dancing (here's another film I love, but not for the sex appeal. I love the soundtrack and the choreography. and that's it. I've never found Patrick Swayze attractive)
44. King Kong (yeah, I guess I should see it someday. not in any rush, but sure, I'll give it a go)
45. The Bridges of Madison County
46. Like Water for Chocolate (see, I find the mood-food concept fascinating, and that's why I'll take the time to watch it at some point)
47. Kissing Jessica Stein
48. How Stella Got Her Groove Back (I had a best friend who loved this movie. and that's why I'll see it. maybe there's a chance I'll find this movie sexy)
49. Yossi & Jagger
50. 300

and yeah, that's it. I've hardly seen any of them. What makes a movie sexy anyway? As I also don't really have a soft spot for romanticism, I guess I just don't go for 'sexy' movies. Oh well.

November's Movies

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

I've decided that I should do more movie reviews. I've been working on this throughout the past month, and now that it's no longer November, it seems more than appropriate to post.

At midnight on November 14th, I was seeing the new James Bond film, Quantum of Solace. On Thursday, November 20th I went to see Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. Friday the 21st brought on Bolt and Little Women (1933 version). Also saw Role Models the night before Thanksgiving.

Quantum of Solace is not my favorite of the 007 movies, but then again, I am not the fan that some are. I couldn't believe it had been two years since Casino Royale came out. I don't really care for Daniel Craig as James Bond... her's not nearly attractive enough for his alleged appeal to be believable. The storyline is decently intriguing, and my favorite scenes are those with Judi Dench (as 'M.'); she never ceases to pull off a breathtaking performance. My major nitpick: to fully understand the final scene of the film, you must be familiar with the last James Bond film. And as it neared 2am, there was no way I could even vaguely recollect what took place two years ago. C'est la vie.

Madagascar 2 was cute. Not as amazing as the first one (which was 3 years ago already!), but still a funny storyline. It was a little too Lion King at times, which was surprising. Alex (the lion) meets his family, has an evil uncle, gets exiled, and returns to save the pride and become King. Gloria (the hippo) comes into adulthood, wishing to mate. But, like animated movies do, she ends up falling for the sweet, kind gentleman Melman (the giraffe) instead of the 'hunk' Moto Moto (another hippo). Marty (the zebra) first finds himself in wonderment of other zebras, then despair as he realizes he's not as unique and special as he had thought, then content for being who he is. The monkeys and the penguins are not features enough in this film, and loveable/annoying Mort (the mouse lemur) makes strange appearances throughout the film... audiences often forget he exists, and suddenly he's back on the screen for a short segment, only to disappear again for another twenty minutes.
The best part: there's going to be a third installment, where the animals return to New York's Central Park, set to open in 2011.

Bolt, Disney's 48th animated feature, is about a little dog who starts off truly believing he has superhero qualities. After being separated from his co-star/owner, he sets off on a cross-country expedition to find her. A pessimistic alley cat and a daredevil hamster get caught up in the whirlwind along the way. Bolt sadly discovers that he is not a real "superdog," but with the help of his friends is able to find Penny once again. The movie was hilarious, particularly when Rhino (the hamster) tries extraordinary things. I could probably watch it a couple more times, but it's no 90s animated classic.

Upon arriving home from Bolt, I turned on the "free on-demand" movie channel and found Little Women to be an option. Since Rachel (a la Friends) adores the book, I figured I should become more familiar with this classic. Unfortunately, I did not find it to be very interesting, and believe it would be more accurate to call the book/movie Let's Screw with Jo. Louisa May Alcott may have based the book partially on the life of her and her sisters (Jo is based off of her own life), but seriously, Jo (short for Josephine) really got the short end of the stick every time. The only other downside to the film: it ends rather abruptly.

So, let's recap the events. When it begins, Meg is 16, Jo is 15, Beth is 13, and Amy is 12. Meg is vain (although Amy kinda is, too), but learns that looks are not everything. Jo keeps her aunt company, but apparently nobody really likes the aunt, so it's more of a chore. Dad (who is off fighting for the Union Army) gets wounded, so Jo sells her hair so Mom (Marmee) can go visit him. Beth contracts scarlet fever from a neighbor baby and almost dies. Jo now stays to care for Beth, and Amy goes to keep the aunt company. Meg gets engaged to a neighbor's tutor, and Jo is upset. Jo falls for Laurie (the neighbor), but since Beth might like him, she ends up going to NY to allow Beth and Laurie to be happy (Beth is Jo's favorite sister). But, Beth dies. The aunt takes Amy to Europe (Jo was supposed to go, but after Amy started visiting the aunt, the aunt liked Amy better). Amy falls for Laurie and they get married. Jo ends up with a professor who convinces her to write less abrasively.
Maybe the novel is better, but the movie was bad/sad.

I was pretty against seeing Role Models, but after both my brother and my best friend said it was so funny they had each seen it twice, I caved and and went with a small group to kill some time on Thanksgiving Eve. It was bad. Really bad. It bothers me to see a ten-year-old curse so much and have such an obsession with breasts. Wheeler's personality is no better, and so this duo ruined the movie. Paul Rudd's character was slightly better, but still rather unbelievable. The only parts of the movie that were enjoyable were the "Lair" scenes, although they are painted in a very negative light for the first half of the film. Kudos to Danny (Rudd) for understanding the importance of the RPG to Augie, and striving to create a country on the day of the "final battle" of the season so that Augie could participate. Still, a waste of money and time, when I could have been watching my choice, Four Christmases. Oh well, I imagine I'll be reviewing that before long anyway.

America, America, this is You

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

So while it used to be entertaining, perhaps one of the most annoying shows on television is America's Funniest Home Videos. I haven't tuned in for years, nor do I know anyone who still bothers. After so many episodes, all the slapstick jokes run together, every funny thing a child can say has been said, and every random accident that can take place has done so. AFV, as it is now commonly referred to, premiered in 1989, under the Master of Ceremonies Bob Saget. Saget suffered through this show until 1997, when it was taken over by Daisy Fuentes. Apparently there have been a few hosts since then, but I don't recognize their names, so I'm not even going to pretend I've seen them host this mess of a reality show.

Apparently some people are still watching this show though, as this season they're charging $90,044 for a 30-second commercial slot!

Now in its 19th season, the plot of the show is simple: mail in a clip of a funny thing that happened in a home video. Producers choose the top 3, then the studio audience votes on the Funniest video. The prize? $10,000 and a shot at making it to the season finale, whose winner gets $100,000. Consolation prizes include $3,000 for 2nd place and $2,000 for 3rd. As with most older game shows, the original runners-up prizes were merchandise, typically a television or VCR in this show. In the early 90s (when the show was worth watching), the $100,000 episode allowed viewers to vote from all 5 ABC studios across the country. This was done away with for a while, and now the home audience can apparently log on to ABC.com and vote.

So, while it is easy to tell that I've not been a fan of the show for years, I thought it was important to mention in this week's Monday Flashback because I don't think that many people realize this is still on. There were a few running gags on the show, including the popular Jackalope sequences. Today I leave you with a clip of one of these stupid/funny mini-episodes.