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Buzz In: What is Your Favorite Old-School TV Show?

BuzzSugar — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:30:23 -0700

TV Land, home to classics like The Brady Bunch, Three's Company, and Bonanza, is branching out into original comedies. The network just announced that they're developing two scripted shows, titled Hot in Cleveland and Retired at 35. But will people actually flip to the channel to check out this new programming?

Personally, the older shows are the only reason I'd tune into TV Land. I used to be obsessed with I Love Lucy as a kid - I even had a Lucy calendar hanging up in my room. Thanks to Nick at Nite, I could watch it on a regular basis, along with Bewitched, The Dick Van Dyke Show, and Mary Tyler Moore. (I live for Rhoda!) Now, Nick at Nite plays mainly 90s favorites like Home Improvement and Family Matters, so TV Land has become my vintage channel of choice. Hopefully they won't go the way of MTV with music videos and make the older shows completely obsolete - that would just be sad.

Admittedly, I'm a bit of a dork when it comes to classic TV, but tell me, what is your favorite old-school show?

Lipstick Jungle Rundown: Episode Nine, "Thanksgiving"

BuzzSugar — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 11:30:53 -0800

With Thanksgiving fast approaching, the ladies of Lipstick Jungle whipped up their own feast on Friday night. Of course, like all family gatherings on TV, it was something of a disaster, with dead dogs, sobbing babies, and a wedding dress interfering with the calm Thanksgiving Wendy had planned. Want to chat about it? Just read more.

Ha, of course Wendy would be the one hosting the big Thanksgiving dinner. And, in an effort to be "greener," it's a locavore meal, where all ingredients must come from within 100 miles of NYC. Nice nod to NBC's green efforts there, but it was mostly funny as an avenue for the other characters to make disparaging jokes about it.
The first person making things harder for Wendy is her mom, who's back to make nasty comments about everything. I know a lot of you weren't thrilled with Mary Tyler Moore's first appearance on the show, but I could definitely see how someone like Wendy could be formed from her parenting style.
Meanwhile, Nico's holiday takes an unexpected turn when Megan shows up asking her to take Charlie for the day, which leads to one of my very favorite moments of the entire episode: Kirby's baby-calming dance:
Victory's planning to boycott Thanksgiving, so she's actually pretty excited when a man comes to her door (via Dahlia) looking for Victory to design a wedding dress for his wife-to-be. The story goes a little off the rails when the woman isn't a size two. There's a little dancing around the fact that the woman is plus-size and a lot of weird self-esteem-y comments. The whole thing just made me feel uncomfortable.
I actually think I would have been happier had it been evil Dahlia setting Victory up to fail - but apparently evil Dahlia is no more, thanks to some anger management classes at City College.
Also: The plus-size wedding dress Victory ends up designing? Ug-ly. I don't care how hard they worked to get that woman to believe in her inner beauty; the dress was fug.

In another strange plotline, Josie calls Shane in tears because her dog is dying. I thought this was a setup to lure him over to her apartment - and that works, I guess - but there also really is a dead dog. So Shane's stuck calling animal control while Josie watches football and takes off her clothing.
Then Shane misses most of Wendy's Thanksgiving because they get caught burying the dog in the park. Yeeah.
But back to storylines that make sense: Megan doesn't come back for Charlie and tells Nico she can't possibly raise this child. It's a little late for that kind of decision, really, but Nico starts to see the bright side: She's starting to feel a real connection with the baby. Kirby, on the other hand, thinks it was fun playing mommy and daddy - but only because they were playing.
Also, Maddie dreamily throwing herself at Kirby throughout Thanksgiving is just awesome.
Eventually, the life-changing duo of Dahlia and Victory show up at Wendy's, where they pour out Dahlia's coquitos and Dahlia flirts with Sal.
And! In the final minutes, Shane tells Wendy he wants to have another kid, which leaves her shell-shocked.

So! Nico might have a baby. Wendy also might have a baby. We've got two weeks now to contemplate what's going to happen to the ladies, so tell me: Where do you want the story to go next?

Photos courtesy of NBC

Mary Tyler Moore Will Put on Some Lipstick This Fall

BuzzSugar — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:30:56 -0700

I was thinking recently that Lipstick Jungle was just starting to get good at the end of its short Spring season, and it was a shame the show wouldn't have much buzz going into the Fall. Well, hello, instant buzz: TV legend Mary Tyler Moore is joining the show as a guest star, playing the mother of Wendy Healy (Brooke Shields).

Moore will make her first appearance in the show's Sept. 24 premiere playing Joyce, a high-powered businesswoman who - now retired - pushes Wendy to reconsider her work-life balance. According to NBC:

Having blazed a trail for working women back in the 1970s and 1980s, Joyce challenges Wendy's idealistic notion of "having it all" - leaving her overachieving daughter in a tailspin.

Few people know working women on TV better than Moore, who said in NBC's press release that "It's been great fun to watch the strong female characters of Lipstick Jungle go at it week after week." Granted, if I would have picked one NBC character who could be Moore's daughter, it would have been 30 Rock's Liz Lemon - but that might have been a little too on-the-nose.

Lipstick didn't quite live up to my expectations in the Spring, but a lot of that could have been blamed on the writers' strike, so I'd love for the show to come out strong in the Fall. This casting news seems like one step in that direction. What do you think?

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Buzz Gift Guide: Goodies For Grandma

BuzzSugar — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:30:00 -0800

Let the holiday gift lists keep rolling: Yesterday, I gave you my picks for dad, and today I'm tackling grandma. Sure, she pretty much likes anything you give her, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't put thought into her presents to show your appreciation.

Classic movies, Mary Tyler Moore, and TV game shows always seem like a safe bet, or if yours is like mine and can never find her reruns of King of Queens on the tube, I've thrown in a handy-dandy TV Guide subscription. I'm thinking of giving her that along with a Betty Draper tee - just so she can remind people of who the original 60s glam housewife really was.

Oh, and once you're done buying for grandma, don't forget to check out all of the gift guides across the Sugar network.