<<Greyson Fletcher... why? He surfed one time, he's skateboarded twice, and he can't act at all. I mean not even a little bit.>>

You've go to be kidding. Greyson is the son and grandson of seminal figures in surfing, and his family is the intended model for the whole program. He surfs very well, and he is one of the top skateboarders in the world. As for his acting, he is spot-on with his portrayal of a teenage Southern California surfer.

>I remember being forced to listen to that song every schoolday while my mom made breakfast.<

I remembered the first line and the chorus about getting ready for love but for some reason I never heard the whole thing--or tuned in on the rest of what the song was saying. (I suspect I was more into my Disney storytelling records than I was into adult lounge music. :)) In fact, it wasn't until W&L was used in the credits of THE FIRST WIVES' CLUB that I registered all the lyrics. Sheesh. Songs like that make one understand why feminism came about as much as all THE FEMININE MYSTIQUES and MS. magazines out there...:P

Heather...it'd be a very interesting piece if you could do a little digging into just WHY *The Wire* has been so completely ignored by the Emmys (except for one writing award for the first or second season, if I recall correctly). I'd be very interested in a hard-hitting piece on just what in hell's going on. The Wire was so *obviously* the best show on television last year. It's not even a competition. In a perfect world, *The Wire* would take every award in every category it could qualify for. The fact that it's been nominated for nothing at all just demonstrates the complete bankruptcy of the Emmys.

The standard story is that Emmy voters vote their wallets. And since The Wire is not shot in Hollywood, and does not use name Hollywood actors, it gets ignored, since very few or none of the Emmy voters will get work from show.

If that's true, and it probably is, it's about as pathetic a thing as I've heard lately. Emmy voters? If you're here, you suck.

As for JFC, I was with it until two weeks ago...then, I gave up. I went from being enchanted to feeling like my chain was being yanked. I also noticed that my enchantment diminished in direct proportion to the disappearance of the surfing sequences. In the first episode, when everything's totally fucked up, and Mitch says "let's get wet" it just made my day. Because, as a life-long surfer myself, there's nothing to beat a session to put life into perspective. It's all waiting for you when you come out of the water, but while you're out there, you're part of something much bigger, and your problems fade away.

I can't believe Milch hasn't make more out of that.

Instead, he's doing a domestic drama that makes very little sense (folks, storytelling really is important..and it's not for amateurs)...some of this I chalk up to Steve Hawk, who is one of the biggest hot-air balloons in a business full of them. If you heard him in Riding Giants (or was it Step into Liquid. I forget now) you know what I mean. Talk about a guy who takes himself too seriously..brother. He's a bad joke. When I saw he was involved, I knew there would be trouble.

I'm sorry the show is crashing. I think it had real potential, squandered by people who, apparently, don't have a David Chase or a David Simon keeping them honest, and making them remember what the point is: tell a good story.

>that awful 60's song, "Wives and Lovers" (which features the immortal advice-to-wives, "Day after day, there are girls at the office and the men will always be men, Don't stand him up, with your hair still in curlers, you may not see him again.") :)

deering, I remember being forced to listen to that song every schoolday while my mom made breakfast. Between that and Peggy Lee singing "Is That All There Is?" it's a wonder I ever got married.

So basically the rules generally are, the show has to be on a big network or a paid network like HBO and Showtime.

Then the show has to generally stay away from interesting explorations of the human existence and just banter about the everyday crap of sex, murder, and cheap laughs.

So that leaves shows on Sci-Fi, CW, FX, TNT, USA generally off the Emmy nod list, with occasional exceptions. Plus the big networks don't want you watching shows on those smaller networks, they aren't going to give you directions to go watch them by saying how great they are.

I saw a story about how the major networks aren't getting the numbers they used too, which eventually will reduce their ad revenue, which will reduce the salaries of directors, writers and actors. None of them want to see that happen, so they want the majority of Emmy nods to go to shows that are on NBC, CBS and ABC, HBO and Showtime.

Then there are just the shows that go against the status conservative quo, so shows like The Wire and Weeds are out. People don't want to think about areas where cops make decision to stop busting dime bag dealers or a suburban mom is selling pot for whatever reasons she's doing it for (I've not watched these shows yet, they are on my Netflix listing though!)

As for JFC, I like it, but some episodes have been really really boring and I check my watch to look if it's over yet and also, the characters aren't making me care about them too much either. Mitch is an asshole, Cissy is a bitch from hell, Luke Perry is boring so is Cass, Ed O' Neil is interesting and so is Kai, but other than those folks, I really don't care if I never see most of the characters again. Heck I want the drug dealers to go away just so I can hopefully see more of Kai, Butchie and Sean.

My grandmother saw Mad Men and she says she just couldn't stomach the return to what she calls the bad ol' days, but she is interested to see how I see it since I came about 20 years after the time period this show is set in.