What's on Television?

I know that you have all been wondering, "What has The Grandstander been watching on television these days?", so it's time to tell you....

• The Pittsburgh Penguins.  Yes, it is Stanley Cup playoffs time, so it's time for me to start watching NHL hockey.  I freely admit that my knowledge of hockey can fill two, maybe three, thimbles, but I know enough to know this...the Penguins are good, very good.  In the Columbus  series I was impressed by the Pens' ability to keep the puck inside the blue line for extended periods of time, thus keeping pressure on the opposing defense.  Of concern, though, was the fact that Columbus was able to register 51 shots on goal in that last game.  Can any team be expected to win twelve more games if the goalie has to make 49 saves a night?  Just askin'.  Looking forward to subsequent playoff rounds, and hearing Doc Emrick doing the play-by-play.
• The Pittsburgh Pirates.  Well, I am still going to wait unto about thirty games are in the books before making any extensive commentary, but, whoa, it is not looking good thus far, despite that sweep of the Cubs last weekend.  It is looking like there will be a lot of "Bob gets to bed early" type games when it comes to watching the Bucs this season.
• "The Americans".  Marilyn and I both thought that this series stayed too long at the fair, so to speak, took a downward turn in quality this season.  It got to the point where we just didn't take time to watch it, and allowed three episodes to back up on our DVR.  However, our friend Mark told us that no, this series is better than ever, so based on that, we spent last evening binge watching those three episodes.  I will concede that the series has picked up a bit, however, it is not what it was in it's initial three seasons.  Too much staring and brooding by all of the actors involved.  And has any character or actor ever been as stiff as the guy playing FBI agent Stan Beaman.  What a dork!  And he's got two KGB agents living right across the street from him so he can't be much of an FBI agent either.  On the bright side, the producers are still delivering gratuitous nudity just about every week, including shots of Keri Russell's bare bum.  Must be in her contract,
• "Feud: Bette and Joan".  I am saddened that this eight week series ends with tonight's episode. I have absolutely loved the show about actresses Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, as played by Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lange.  As I put it in an earlier post, two terrific contemporary actresses chewing scenery as they portray two legendary actresses chewing scenery.  It has just been the textbook definition of a Guilty Pleasure.  Davis comes across as the better actress and person in this presentation, with Crawford as the villain and super-bitch. Both Sarandon and Lange are terrific, but I am guessing that the Emmy nomination will go to Lange once awards season rolls around.  In supporting roles, I love Stanley Tucci as Jack Warner, and who doesn't love Jackie Hoffman as Mamacita?  If you haven't been watching this, go to On Demand and watch it.  Now.

Mamacita

• "Fargo".  FX kicked off Season Three of "Fargo" and it promises to be another oddball, quirky, and violent series set in the cold north of Minnesota with all the odd accents of the folks up there.  It started with a scene in an East German police office in 1988, before transitioning to Minnesota in 2010.  Not sure how that is going to tie in, but we'll see.  The story appears to involve two feuding brothers and their disputed inheritance, a female (of course) Minnesota police officer, some strange parolees, including a sexy tournament bridge player, and shadowy criminals horning in on a legitimate business. Oh, yah, it's going to be a good one, you betcha.
• Sitcoms.  "The Big Bang Theory", "Modern Family" and "Life in Pieces" are three must see programs in out house.  Each continues to get better as the years roll on.  Big Bang, in it's tenth season, when shows can expect to be petering out, seems to have picked up a second wind this year and is as good as ever.  It has been picked up for two more seasons, and shows no sign of slowing down (unlike, say, "The Americans").
• HGTV.  Nothing can fill up an evening when there's nothing else on like back-to-back-to-back episodes of shows like Fixer Upper (we LOVE Chip and Joanna!), House Hunters, Property Brothers, or Love It or List It.  One exception: Tiny Houses.  That one drives me nuts.  These dopes who are looking to "go tiny", get into one of the places and say things like "it's a little tight in here" or "aw, no full size refrigerator" or "there's no closet space" or "it'll be hard to have friends over and entertain in here".  It's a trailer with 300 square feet of space. What the hell did they think it was going to be like???  As I said...dopes! We'll stick with these folks:

Chip and Joanna Gaines

So there you go.  What have you all been watching?

Bouquets, Brickbats, and Other Observations

Cleaning out the Mental In-Box.....

Saw the current Pittsburgh Public Theater's production of "Daddy Long Legs" on Sunday evening.  It might have been one of the very best shows we have ever seen at the PPT, and we have been attending productions there since the 1980's.

The show starred Danielle Bowen and Allan Snyder, both of whom were making their first appearance at the PPT.  One can only hope that they will be appearing there in many future productions.

 ********

Speaking of the PPT, it was announced a few weeks back that Managing Director Ted Pappas would be leaving that position at the end of the 2018 season.  Apparently, it was Pappas' decision to move on, and one can only wish him the best.  In his eighteen years in that position, he has made the PPT one of the true gems in the Pittsburgh cultural scene.  Good luck to the person that the PPT brings in to replace him.  He or she will have some HUGE shoes to fill.

********

"Feud: Bette and Jane" continues to be one of the most entertaining series on TV.  The scene on last Sunday's show wherein Joan Crawford, played by Jessica Lange, fires her William Morris Agency agents in one of the great scenes with one of the best lines ever delivered on series television, was an absolute classic.  

If you missed it, go to FX Network On Demand and click on Episode 4 of the series.  The scene I am talking about takes place in the first five minutes of the show - you'll know it when you hear it, believe me - so you won't have to invest a lot of time into it if you are not so inclined.

********

And while we are talking about TV series on FX, we are now three episodes into Season Four of "The Americans".  So far, I'm disappointed, and I fear that unless things pick up quickly, we could be talking shark-jumping for what has been a really good series for the first three seasons.

********

What was becoming a major embarrassment came to end last night when Duquesne University announced that Kevin Dambrot, late of Akron University, had accepted the position of Head Basketball Coach for the Dukes.  Apparently, Dambrot had originally turned down the job, and then so did everyone else the University approached about the job.  So, they went back to Dambrot and upped the ante considerably (seven years / $7 million), and he said yes.

For those of us who came of age when Duquesne was THE college basketball team in the city, and those of us who did are now all in our sixties and older now, we can only hope that, finally, things may turn around on The Bluff, and that Dukes basketball can be relevant once again.

********

So, the NFL lodge brothers approve the relocation of the Raiders from Oakland to Las Vegas by a note of 31-1. The Raiders then say that the actual move won't take place until 2019 or 2020, and that, by the way, the lame duck team will be raising ticket prices for the chumps in Oakland to attend their games.

(Oakland and the State of California would not cough up any public funds for a new stadium for the Raiders.  Vegas and Nevada is forking over $750 million of their residents' tax payments.  Just the way the NFL and other pro leagues like it.)

Mike Wilbon is right: the arrogance and greed of the NFL owners knows no bounds, and the sad part is that those suckers in Oakland will no doubt continue to pony up for tickets when it would serve the Raiders right to play in front of empty houses for their remaining years in the Bay area.

********

Has anything been more annoying than the  prominent role being sought out and granted to Lavar Ball, the father of UCLA basketball player Alonzo Ball, and two other hoops' prodigies.  The fact that the Bruins went down to Kentucky in the regional semis last week may have ruined a lot of peoples' bracket pools, but it spared the nation - for now, anyway - any further exposure to Lavar Ball.  By the way, Ball may well be the #1 pick in the NBA draft this summer, but in that game against Kentucky, he wasn't even the second best guard on the floor. Both of those kids from Kentucky were better, for that night at least.

I missed the Kentucky - North Carolina game on Sunday, but was somewhat surprised at the outcome.  I thought that Kentucky was the best team that I had seen play throughout the tournament up to that point.  Not completely surprised, though, because, after all, North Carolina IS North Carolina.

********

For what it's worth, I'm calling North Carolina to beat Gonzaga for the Championship come Monday night.  As always, watch but don't bet.  And for the record, the bracket pool that I submitted at the outset of the tournament had UCLA over Arizona in that game.  

Shows you what I know.

********

As for the movie scene, last week I pulled to favorites out of the DVD basket here at home, both from director and screenwriter Lawrence Kasden.  From 1981...

and from 1983...

I hadn't watched either one in several years, and both hold up well after all these years and are still terrific movies to watch.

Bette, Joan, and Baby Jane

I have been watching and greatly enjoying the FX series "Feud: Bette and Joan" these last several weeks.

The series centers around the long standing rivalry (to use a polite word) between actresses Bette Davis and Joan Crawford during the filming of the 1962 movie "Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?"  The TV series stars Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lange as Davis and Crawford, respectively. We are now three weeks into this eight week series, and it has been a real hoot to watch Sarandon and Lange chew the scenery while portraying two legendary divas chewing scenery.

Anyway, by an amazing bit of serendipity, earlier this week Turner Classic Movies showed the movie that is the subject of the TV series.

I think  that I saw this movie back in the 1960's when it finally appeared on television, but I had little memory of it, so I was anxious to see it, and it was interesting to watch, and see  Crawford and Davis, especially Davis, have at it in this movie, which has become a Camp Classic.

One of the real values of the Internet is that you can delve into it and find any number of articles and commentaries on just about any subject, and this movie and its stars are no exceptions.  It's as no secret in Hollywood that Davis and Crawford loathed each other.  It was also no secret that by 1962, neither had had a hit movie in years and were considered washed up by both the movie studios and the movie audiences.

It was director Robert Aldrich's idea to offer the roles of sisters Blanch and "Baby" Jane Hudson to Crawford and Davis.  The studios balked, but both actresses expressed interest and Aldrich figured that it would work because both actresses would work harder than hell to assure that the other  actress wouldn't steal the show from her.

From a 2008 essay ion the movie from critic Roger Ebert:

...it's possible that each agreed to do the picture only because she was jealous of the other's starring role. In the event, it was Davis who emerged on top, winning an Oscar nomination as the former child star who was now a shrill gargoyle with makeup pancaked all over her face. Davis was nothing if not courageous, as she abandoned all shreds of vanity and overacted her heart out. Crawford plays the quieter, kinder, more reasonable sister -- and, it must be said, the less interesting.

Ebert went on to make another interesting observation:

The impact of "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" was considerable in 1962. Today's audiences, perhaps not familiar with the stars, don't fully realize how thoroughly Crawford, and especially Davis, trashed their screen images with the coaching of Aldrich. Imagine two contemporary great beauties -- Julia Roberts and Cate Blanchett, say -- as aged crones. The personal dislike between Crawford and Davis no doubt deepened the power of their onscreen relationship; the critic Richard Scheib observes: "The irony that only came out in later years is that the roles were uncommonly close to the truth upon the parts of both actresses -- Crawford and Davis were both utterly vain, particularly when it came to their own celebrity, both abused their own family members and both had daughters who wrote books about the cruelty of their parents."

In his review of the movie at the time, Bosley Crowther of the New York Times wasn't enthusiastic, and while he did praise both Davis and Crawford, he also used the term "scenery chewing" not once, but twice, in his review.

I enjoyed watching this movie very much in light of watching the "Feud" TV series.  

Lange and Sarandon

as

Crawford and Davis

 Crawford and Davis

The "Originals"

The movie, by the way, was in

glorious black & white