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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.

TV Tonight: Lipstick Jungle

BuzzSugar — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 06:30:08 -0700

I'm really not even sure how it happened that I started rooting for Lipstick Jungle. I was pretty lukewarm about the show's first couple of episodes when it premiered last Winter. But slowly, I started to turn the corner, finding myself pulled into the stories of Wendy and Nico more than I ever expected (Victory, not so much, though even she got to me eventually). The show never got great ratings, and even the best episodes had clunker storylines, but by the end, I felt like it was finding its footing.

Tonight, the show returns for its second season with a second chance to prove itself. To do so, it's certainly beefed up the star power, most notably adding Mary Tyler Moore for an arc as Wendy's mom. (I have a brief clip of her below the jump - looks like we'll be seeing some acerbic wit around the Healy household.) Rosie Perez is coming on, too, as a meanspirited publicist working for Victory, and Carlos Ponce will play a potential new love interest for Ms. Ford (so look out, Andrew McCarthy).

Did any of you catch the first episode online? Or will you be tuning in tonight? To watch a promo and that quick Mary Tyler Moore clip, just read more.

Photo courtesy of NBC

What to TiVo: Tuesday

BuzzSugar — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 23:50:47 -0700

Check your local listings for President Obama's address to the nation

Fox has a repeat of House
NBC is new with Biggest Loser: Couples
CBS is new with NCIS and The Mentalist
ABC is new with Dancing with the Stars and Primetime: What Would You Do?
The CW is new with Reaper and has a repeat of 90210
Bravo is new with Real Housewives of New York
MTV is new with From G's to Gents
Comedy Central is new with The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report
Late-night highlights include Condoleezza Rice, Bill Hader, and PJ Harvey and John Parish on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on NBC; Mary Tyler Moore, Blake Lively, and White Lies on Late Show with David Letterman on CBS; and Rachel Maddow, John Cena, and Gabriella Cilmi on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on NBC

Who are the Top TV Icons of All Time?

BuzzSugar — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 05:30:00 -0800

What names come to mind when I say the words "television icon"? Dick Clark? Mary Tyler Moore? Kermit the Frog?

Those three - and 97 others - have made the list of the 100 greatest TV icons of all time, as declared by Entertainment Weekly and TV Land. The top 50 will be counted down in a TV Land special that premieres this Friday.

At first glance, the list - especially the top 10 or 15 - looks pretty good. I can't argue with Johnny Carson getting the No. 1 spot, and I'm pleased that the top 10 is almost perfectly balanced between the genders: five men, four women, and one cartoon (Homer Simpson).

But there are a few curiosities. John Stamos hits the list at No. 90, but Bob Saget doesn't rate a mention despite his years as both Danny Tanner and the host of America's Funniest Home Videos? No Big Bird or other Sesame Street characters? No Star Trek faces, not even Leonard Nimoy or LaVar Burton (whom, I'd argue, deserves a spot for Reading Rainbow alone)? It also seems like a bit of a cop-out to lump the casts of In Living Color and the original Saturday Night Live together while limiting themselves to one cast member from Melrose Place, Friends, and Beverly Hills, 90210. And I wonder how Miss Piggy feels about being passed over for Kermie.

Which icons do you think deserve spots on the list - and which of these choices would you kick off to make room for yours? The full list is over here, and you can see the top 50 if you read more

50. Larry Hagman
49. Calista Flockhart
48. Jimmy Smits
47. Simon Cowell
46. Lassie
45. Sarah Michelle Gellar
44. Susan Lucci
43. Flip Wilson
42. James Gandolfini
41. Jon Stewart
40. Sally Field
39. Jennifer Aniston
38. Bea Arthur
37. George Clooney
36. Diahann Carroll
35. Michael J. Fox
34. Bob Barker
33. Ellen DeGeneres
32. Henry Winkler
31. Sarah Jessica Parker
30. Alan Alda
29. John Ritter
28. Howard Cosell
27. Regis Philbin
26. Farrah Fawcett
25. Heather Locklear
24. Michael Landon
23. Barbara Walters
22. Milton Berle
21. Kermit
20. Carroll O'Connor
19. Andy Griffith
18. William Shatner
17. Bob Newhart
16. David Letterman
15. "Not Ready for Primetime Players"
14. Ed Sullivan
13. Jackie Gleason
12. Dick Van Dyke
11. Roseanne
10. Dick Clark
9. Homer Simpson
8. Jerry Seinfeld
7. Mary Tyler Moore
6. Carol Burnett
5. Walter Cronkite
4. Bill Cosby
3. Oprah Winfrey
2. Lucille Ball
1. Johnny Carson

Source and Source

The Results Are In: Recast Empire Records

BuzzSugar — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 15:35:44 -0700

Every other Wednesday on BuzzSugar, I post a Recast challenge, where I ask you to choose new actors for a classic TV show or movie. The reader who submits the best cast wins a BuzzSugar t-shirt!

I'm glad to see everyone shared in my enthusiasm for one of my favorite movies out of the '90s, Empire Records! These are really fun characters to recast and I'm sure young actors in Hollywood would die for a part in a movie like this.

I liked that both daisydidi and lookwhatimade suggested Mandy Moore for the character Liv Tyler played, Corey. Mandy is someone I could see in an independent record store, yet she gives off a "once I'm done here I'm off to the Ivy league" vibe.

I was also totally thrilled to see Olivia Thirlby's name pop up many times; I think she'd be right at home in a movie like this.

For the boys, I liked Whip's idea for Joseph Gordon-Levitt to play A.J. (he's another one of those actors whose name makes me smile), and my friend Citizen's pick for A.J., Michael Rady (a.k.a. the cutie from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and now Swingtown), is great too.

In the end, I went with the cast that's hard to argue with: Congrats to Mary_Sofi!

To see who she chose, along with a new cast photo, read more.

Mary_Sofi's cast list:
Corey - Nikki Reed
A.J. - Adam Brody
Gina - Blake Lively
Debra - Ellen Page
Lucas - Josh Gad
Mark - Andy Samberg

Lipstick Jungle Rundown: Episode Two, "Help"

BuzzSugar — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 14:36:44 -0700

After a season premiere that brought the three main characters together over a tragedy, Lipstick Jungle sent them out in very different directions this week. Victory's story was sweet, Nico's was hot, and Wendy's was heavy (though also a little bizarre), and I was surprised by which of the three I liked the most. Want to chat about it? Just read more.

I don't know what's come over me, but I'm kind of loving Victory right now. And I'm really liking this flirtation with Carlos Ponce's character, the environmentally friendly contractor of her dreams. They eat hot dogs together! She spies on him via closed-circuit security cameras! They go shopping at flea markets at midnight and buy crystal doorknobs together! It must be love.
Also, her reverie about the history of the crystal doorknob is pretty sweet - and kept from being too cheesy when she snaps out of it and demands a chandelier.
While Victory's off being all McFlirterson with Rodrigo, Nico's working on moving on, which is a little hard when the subject of her late husband's affair pops up demanding his sweater. Ultimately, I thought Nico's offer to help out was classy and generous - right down to giving her the name of the best OB/GYN in New York. But my favorite part was the way she responded to the request for his sweater: "You already have something to remember him by."

Nico's also searching for an outlet for her grief and recovery (at Victory's jewelry sale: "I'm ready to bargain!"). Luckily for her, it doesn't take long for Kirby to show up at Nico's door, and it takes even less time for "we're making soup together" to progress to "we're swapping clothes with strangers and, as Usher might say, makin' love in this club."
Also, it's hard to take Kirby seriously when he's wearing rainbow suspenders.
Meanwhile, Wendy seemed to be on some other show altogether, dealing with Noah, an old friend (had we heard about him before?), actor, and ex-drug addict who was key to her John Lennon movie. Turns out, Noah's erratic and unreliable behavior is all due to an inoperable brain tumor, but Wendy can't let him die without playing Lennon and forges some paperwork so he doesn't have to pass the studio physical. Now, it looks from the previews that her decision will have serious consequences in the coming weeks, but it really seemed to come out of nowhere.
Brief aside: Wendy's storylines seem to jump around the most on the show (last week: mother and daughter issues; this week: big professional decisions), and I wonder if it's because the writers don't know how to handle writing for a relatively happily married person? Without a Kirby or Joe Bennett, what is there to drive Wendy's story forward?
When Victory's assistant first turned up nearly naked, I was too confused to figure out that he might have been evicted. It's good of Victory to offer him the top floor of her new building - to take another step toward getting her way with Joe.
Where were Mary Tyler Moore and Rosie Perez? I assume they'll both be back, but it was a jolt to lose them so soon.

Overall, I didn't like this episode as much as the premiere, but it still set up some interesting things for the future. What did you think? Surprised by where any of the stories are going? And do you prefer things hot, fast, or cheap?

Photos courtesy of NBC

Lipstick Jungle Rundown: Episode 1, "Pandora's Box"

BuzzSugar — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 11:32:08 -0700

Lipstick Jungle wasted no time diving straight into the drama in its season premiere, dealing with unexpected death, teenage antics, overbearing mothers, and breakups that don't seem to stick. We met two new characters - Wendy's mom (Mary Tyler Moore) and Victory's assistant/publicist (Rosie Perez) - and said goodbye to an old one or two. So, how did this return trip to the Jungle work for you? To see my thoughts, just read more.

When Kirby and Nico took those pictures way back when, I figured they'd get leaked to the media - and then I was disappointed when that didn't happen. Well, I take it back. What the writers actually gave us was so much better: Charles sees a print of one of the photos and buys it for Nico, filling her with overwhelming guilt.
So that sets Nico adrift, looking for something that will make her feel close to Charles and forget about Kirby. And she must really have been desperate, because on the advice of Victory's new assistant/publicist, she gets a collagen shot "down there." That's the one part of the episode that didn't work for me; I think it was supposed to be comic relief, but it just came across as sad, especially later on. Or maybe I'm just a prude.
Meanwhile! Charles ends up at the hospital for heart surgery - at which point, given the opening funeral scene, I was pretty sure he was a goner - and while Nico is pacing in the flower shop and saying cheesy things about "literally breaking his heart," his horrible student turns up . . . pregnant. I of course spent a long time wondering how much time had passed and trying to figure out if it was possible that she's suddenly that pregnant, but whatever: Charles is a cheating, lying fool. Not that Nico isn't - but come on, I can't even imagine opening up your husband's desk and finding out that he was trying to build a case against you for your affair because he's gotten his fling pregnant. Sheesh.

Thus, all the giggling at the funeral, then Nico wandering the streets of New York alone. Does this pave the way back to Kirby? Or will she take some time to heal?
Meanwhile, Maddie sure seems to have grown up in a hurry, sneaking into bars with a fake ID that claims Wendy would have had to give birth to her in the third grade.
I'm curious to see how Wendy's new resolution to do it all and do it better will be challenged by her own mom. What we've seen so far is that Wendy's mom sacrificed her parenting for her career - but she's still feeling unfulfilled ("He said I should go back to Connecticut and open a yarn shop"). I think that must be Wendy's worst nightmare.
Victory's plotline, meanwhile, is pretty light: She wants a new store to free herself from Joe Bennett; Joe Bennett owns all the good real estate in New York. Mostly dull, but I still get a kick out of Joe Bennett, so that's fine. And Rosie Perez's character pushing her gigantic breasts as close as possible to Joe Bennett's face at the funeral was classic.
Line of the night: a tie between "He left me for someone who sleeps in nightgear" (Nico) and "Did you Google something that I haven't Googled?" (Joe)

Overall, I don't think Lipstick is totally there yet, but this episode did a good job of building on last year's finale and put some interesting things - Nico's widowhood, Wendy's mothering issues, Victory's icy relationship with Joe - into motion. What did you all think?

Photos courtesy of NBC