minor TV observations

I do agree that the flaws of Monica particularly are about a hundred times as likely to be ascribed to women as men, but I'd have thought Rachel's brand of shallowness is no more stereotypically female than Joey's is male, and Phoebe's ditziness doesn't seem to me to resemble the usual dizzy blonde stereotype at all.

I mean, Cheers was funny for a while and played on gender stereotypes and everything, but it also (at least when Diane Chambers was around) allowed the women to have a certain degree of sophistication. Again I'm really not bitching or anything, I just think it's interesting -- I mean, it took me a long time to notice how old fashioned and (potentially) offensive the stereotypes are and I'm just surprised hard-core humorless feminists haven't latched onto this to get attention for themselves, you know?

Strong female characters such as Cybill S playing the Bruce Willeses off a break may have represented progress, back sometime around 1986. But surely with that 'lesson' now learnt it's time to move on again.

Yeah, OK, hey while we're on the subject, I think Everybody Loves Raymond is interesting in this respect. Raymond's wife (I forget her name) is a stay-at-home mom/housewife and on the surface fits exactly into what you're talking about ... but, is it just me, or is she like the only family sitcom wife/mother (with the exception of Marge) who is actually funny? I think it's interesting that her intelligence and sophistication are a big part of what makes her funny.

by which I mean, the women in the audience.

generally male comics are far more revered than female ones too - this is more than just a minor observation though so perhaps should be on another thread but why should this be anymore?

French & Saunders used to get loads of complaints from women, you know, complaining that their comedy characters were negative images of women, and they should be providing strong, intelligent, capable role models. I don't think this is likely to lead to huge hilarity, and I don't think that, to take as good parallel examples as I can, Rik & Adrian or Fry & Laurie got the same kind of complaint.

Seeing John Humphreys conduct a bit of "informed" banter (typical question "but aren't they a bit miserable?") with the least-likely-looking Smiths fan in the world, and hearing questions about How Soon Is Now? on Mastermind was one of the weirdest things I have seen on TV this (or any other) year.

am smiling thinking this was one of the actual quiz questions asked

Is this the shortlived sitcom that Drew Carrey had a role in?

this = dumbing down.

on a different note, paxman's chiding of the contestants when they couldn't do the binary arithmatic on university challenge last week was funny. after about 5 seconds he'd start hurrying them up whilst they were busy adding 2^7, 2^6 and 2^1 and dividing it by 2^3 plus 2^1.

andy

its so dumbed down, rickshaws are running over it

In the final Magnus Magnusson series, one of the specialist subject was the Discworld novels; I knew more of the answers than the contestant did. But I wouldn't try to argue that they were asking easy questions, just because I knew what the answers were.

this was wrong. obviously. the first 2^1 should be 2^3 (200 / 10 = 20)

sorry.

/me hangs head

andy

"Bonjurrrr, yeh Cheese-eatin' Surrender Monkeys"

I occasionally forget that all good things come from the Simpsons. I'm sorry.

Here's news: YOU'RE NO OIL PAINTING YOURSELF, LOVE.

usually they wait until last week of october but both some air freshener thing and boots have already started.

andy

Magical New TV Show I Think As Many People As Possible Should Be Watching: ABC's "Threat Matrix". It's highly engaging and not one of those serial-type series that one would be totally lost over if one were to suddenly start watching it. Each hour-long episode highlights one complete story, and not every episode ends neatly or nicely. I'm really hoping the ratings for this show improve so it won't get cancelled.