Thank You For Being a Friend

Rest in Peace

Estelle Getty

1923-2008

Lost Returns Tonight!

Get your TiVos ready and dim the lights, because everyone's favorite show is back on tonight (and no, I'm not talking about "Small Wonder"!). LOST returns tonight after a month-long hiatus and I am foaming at the mouth to see what comes next. As it is, I've been humming "Make Your Own Kind of Music" all morning.

Date: Tonight! Thursday, April 24
Time: 10:02pm
Channel: ABC
(thanks, ABC, for that real dick move of bumping it to a later slot AND pushing it 2 minutes back. Our TiVos thank you too. Asses.)

Thank You For Being a Friend

Today's Askville Answer of the Week is a very special question close to my heart. Before you check below to see what it is, I'll give you a hint: You might want a piece of cheesecake while you're reading this. *wink*, *wink*

Now com'on everyone, sing along!

Thank you for being a friend

Travelled down the road and back again.
Your heart is true, you're a pal and a confident.

And if you threw a party-,
Invited everyone you knew-,
You would see the biggest gift would be from me
And the card attached would say,
Thank you for being a friend-.

In between Golden Girls episodes, you can always find me on www.askville.com. Just ask for PenguinSage. Tell her Rose Nylund sent ya!

Woolly Lists - Top Ten Smartest TV Show of All-Time

MENSA-schmensa! Just because they sit up on high and judge the rest of us, doesn't mean they can judge our tv, too! Here's my list, obviously the more intelligent choice:

10. Get Smart - Anything that Mel Brooks lays his hands on deserves attention. And this witty send-up of spy thrillers really earns a lot of big laughs. Cheeky and clever.

9. Junkyward Wars - This game show challenged real-life contestants to work together and build machines or contraptions out of junkyard rubbish. It required scientific thinking, mechanical know-how, and a clever mind to build the best contraption and keep us so entertained at the same time. Who knew science could be so much fun?

8. The Mole - Stop cringing! This reality show actually was very intelligent. Contestants participated in daily games of physical and mental endurance to build up a prize money jackpot, knowing that there is a "mole" in their midst who is secretly sabotaging their efforts. Players are elminated based on not only their guess of who the mole is, but also how well they've kept track of the mole's activities.

7. The X-Files - This show just oozed smartness, sometimes literally. The writing always kept us guessing and challenged our perceptions of our world and universe.

6. Seinfeld - The show about nothing. And everything. It's the show about us and our flaws and failures. It made us see how ugly we can be, and made us laugh about it.

5. Arrested Development -The writing was so sensational, so bizarre, and so flat-out humorous that it makes other shows look like amateurs. Now this was real comedy.

4. All in the Family - Ground-breaking. Gasp-inducing. Funny. This show crossed the line over and over and made us laugh at our own flaws time and again. Astonishingly clever and unafraid.

3. M*A*S*H - This show always amazes me at how it can be so funny, and yet so dramatically sad at the same time. The writers and directors knew how to sway moods carefully to elicit the right emotional response.

2. The Daily Show - A fake news show is one of the most trusted news sources for millions of viewers. What does that tell you about its ability to report real news and events, lambaste the issues, and make us laugh at the same time?
1. Lost - Who didn't see this coming? It's a giant puzzle wrapped in a riddle. The show is an ever-changing thatrical-release quality masterpiece of science-fiction, mystery, and human condition. The characters are superbly developed and complex, the writing keeps us on our toes, and the plot leaps off the screen into a world beyond our television sets. Interaction with the show continues on websites, hotline phonenumbers, jigsaw puzzles, podcasts, and a number of other mediums. We're not just watching this show - we're playing a game, too. Absolute brilliance.

Daily Show photo cred

What is MENSA smokin'?

The Chairman of MENSA recently released a list of the Top Ten Smartest TV Shows of All-Time. Here's what he picked:

1. M*A*S*H

2. Cosmos

3. CSI

4. House

5. The West Wing

6. Boston Legal

7. All in the Family

8. Frasier

9. Mad About You

10. Jeopardy!

Pardon me while my face and limbs stop twitching. Mad About You?

The MENSA Chairmen, a 63 year-old government official, claims that he does listen to about 10 hours of television per day while it plays in the background of his daily activities. And he "pays attention" to about 6 hours worth. So it would seem he's actually watched Mad About You. And House. But you wouldn't know it by the distinctions he's given them. Yikes.

Here are my problems with a few of his selections:

3. CSI - Here's my big problem with this show: I solve all of the crimes 1/2 hour before the detectives do. And I don't need any unnecessary glow-in-the-dark gadgets or special computer imaging to do it. My pug is smarter than this show.

4. House - The show is only enjoyable for the first two episodes you see. It is so formulaic that it's the same episode over and over again. Can I get a House madlib over here?

Normal person with painful/disgusting symptoms enters hospital. House is reluctantly called in. They perform tests. Tests don't give answers. So House calls for controversial test that the administration doesn't approve of. House pops pills and limps. Controversial test is a success - but just barely. Patient has exotic condition caused by everyday habit or happening.

6. Boston Legal - Clever, yes. Funny, sometimes. But among the smartest shows of all-time? Not even close. Me thinks that Mr. Chairman has trouble focusing his mind beyond the here and now. This show may be trendy and popular right now, but it will soon fade into television obscurity as nothing especially intelligent or special.

10. Mad About You - I never knew in-law jokes, parenting humor, and awkward pratfalls were so brainy! Oh wait, that's right - they're not. This was a very ho-hum completely average sitcom. Worthy of viewing on Lifetime in the middle of the afternoon. But not exactly brain candy either. Com'on, you know Einstein would've just hated Helen Hunt.

The rest of his list is debatable. I can see his reasoning with at least a few of them - I'll give him M*A*S*H, and All in the Family. But otherwise this guy's out to lunch. Just goes to show that it does not, in fact, take one to know one.