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Monthly Archives: July 2009

Weeds 5.7 “Where the Sidewalk Ends”

WEEDS 5.7

“WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS”

weed

…And now, the continuation of Weeds.

Nancy’s packing her things as Esteban tries to prevent her from leaving.  She wants to know who the stiletto-heeled Mexicunt was who is preventing their holy matrimony. It turns out that the lady is very well connected, and Esteban needs her in order to win the next election in his political scheme . He assures Nancy that they will indeed get married – after the election.
Meanwhile, back at the medicinal marijuana shop in Ren-Mar, Silas is still attempting to run a respectable business as Doug wanders around the store completely wasted, eating laced ice cream cones.  Deputy Jones enters the store out of uniform, having recovered in his car from his blow to the head last week, and he’s back to extorting Doug and Silas for 10K to keep him from filing assault charges.
Back at Esteban’s home, Nancy-who is very close to her due date finds out the house is being set up with a birthing room so she never has to leave the house for any reason.  So who does Nancy turn to? Andy, of course. And of course Andy shows up driving one of his new toys: one of 17 General Lee cars used in The Dukes of Hazzard in season 4. Or at least that’s what the guy he bought it from told him. He paid enough for it, so it better be. He drives Nancy away from Esteban’s Mansion, and admits he still loves her even though she is poison.  They go to see Dr. Alanis Morissette and induce labor, so she can have the baby on U.S. soil with a U.S. birth certificate. And may I add right here, that with all the hype of Alanis Morrisette appearing in this show, her character has had hardly anything to do. Of course that may have something to do with the fact that she can’t act, but I digress.

Meanwhile, we find Celia attending a motivational seminar given by the You’re Pretty! Cosmetics lady Raylene. Afterwards, Celia tries her hand at selling cosmetics to her co-workers from the mall, fails, and returns to the Botwin house, dejected.  Shane is there to meet her, since he was told by his mother to go there after school as part of their escape plan.  He wants Celia to tell Nancy she will take care of him so he can stay there. She’s not too keen on the idea until he starts giving her a foot massage. Then he tells her she’s selling the wrong product. She should sell what people really want. Drugs, for instance.

At the pot store, customers are all decked in full costume as part of Comic-Con, which is taking place nearby. Dean comes in to see Silas, who has hired him to dissolve his business partnership with Doug. They compromise – Doug will keep away as long as he gets a morning bowl every day. As soon as that’s decided, the DEA bursts into the store, and orders everyone down on the floor. They’ve come to arrest Jones for theft, extortion, and falsifying documents. Turns out the quiet, unassuming guy Silas hired to help them in the shop – whom Doug tried to fire earlier that day so he could hire a hot chick he wanted to bang – is an undercover cop.

Esteban and his goon come busting into the hospital. He bursts into Nancy’s room, where she is lying in bed talking to Andy and Shane. Thinking she is still pregnant, he starts to throw her clothes on the bed for her to get ready to leave. At this point, the door opens and a nurse brings in the newborn baby and puts him into Nancy’s arms. “He has your eyes,” she says.

What Next?

Stay tuned!!

As always, your comments are always welcome and encouraged.

Thanks for reading, and

Until Next Time…I am

Michael Queenstown

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Nurse Jackie: Season 1; Episode 7: “Steak Knife”


NURSE JACKIE: 1.7

“STEAK KNIFE”

Jackie tells Dr. O’Hara that they decided to send their daughter Grace to the private school “Immaculate Virgin”. Dr. O’Hara offers to pay for the school, but Jackie refuses. Before they enter the hospital, Jackie notices that Dr. O’Hara is wearing two different shoes and asks if everything is alright, O’Hara shrugs it off as if it was not a big deal.

A new patient named Zak is brought to the ER with multiple stab wounds to the chest. The patient’s date, a young woman named Lori, reveals that they were on their first date when her ex-husband showed up despite a restraining order and stabbed her date.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Akalitus discovers a baby in a baby car seat. When she asks for its parents, no one answers.

Dr. Cooper joins Dr. O’Hara and Jackie who take care of the stab wound patient. Jackie wants to send him away, but Dr. O’Hara tells a surprised Jackie that she prefers him to stay. Soon later, she tells Dr. Cooper to take over for her and leaves the room.

Jackie visits Eddie who texted her several times. He has a present for her, a bracelet, because it’s their anniversary. Jackie gets the date wrong (apparently she mixed up her and Eddie’s 1 year anniversary of having sex together, with her and Keith’s wedding anniversary), and when she doesn’t want to wear the bracelet, Eddie gets angry, apologizing that it’s not made of  Vicodin, and takes it back from her. This pisses Jackie off and she tells him to keep his bracelet AND his pills. 

Elsewhere, a child molester has been admitted, and Zoey needs Jackie’s help because she can’t take out the man’s katheder. When Jackie finds out the man is a child molester, she removes the katheder with a quick yank, causing the patient to scream in agony. Mo-mo who witnessed Jackie’s behavior orders her to go for a walk. She reveals she is upset because she had a fight with her boyfriend after she forgot their anniversary. Mo-mo, stunned to find out Jackie has a boyfriend, asks why she never told him. “Because you do all the talking, hun.”BRACELET

When Dr. Cooper is in Eddie’s dispensary for lunch, he swoons over the bracelet Eddie got for Jackie, and tells him to keep it. Later, Jackie talks to Lori, the friend of the steak knife victim Zak. She reveals that Zak is the first nice guy she met and after what happened she believes he won’t want to go out with her anymore. While this is all happening around her, Mrs. Akalitus walks through the hospital, still looking for the baby’s parents, and
Jackie notices that Dr. Cooper is wearing the bracelet Eddie wanted to give to her.

Jackie seeks Dr. O’Hara in her office to pour her heart out to her. Jackie tells her about the bracelet and the anniversary she forgot. Meanwhile, Dr. O’Hara takes a Xanax and Jackie wants to know what’s going on, but Dr. O’Hara still refuses to tell her. However, she offers Jackie a Xanax pill. While Dr. O’Hara looks away, Jackie takes more han one pill out of the box and hides them in her pocket. After Jackie has swallowed the pill, O’Hara advises her to clean up her mess.  Jackie goes to see Eddie and apologizes. She asks for the bracelet, but tells him that she doesn’t want to wear it at work.  Eddie agrees and takes the bracelet away from Dr. Cooper, who for my money was strangely too enamored with it in the first place!

Mrs. Akalitus still hasn’t found the baby’s parents, but is trying to keep it entertained by shaking a paperclip holder as a rattle, when Jackie approaches her and takes a paper clip out of the baby’s mouth. It’s at this time Mrs. Akalitus announces that she is informing social services about the baby.

Jackie checks on the steak knife victim Zak. She asks him to let Lori see him, but he refuses because he thinks it’s too dangerous. Jackie decides to increase his morphine dose. While he’s floating on his morphine cloud, she talks at Zak and tells him to see Lori and gives him Eddie’s bracelet to give it to Lori. Jackie sends Lori to his room, when O’Hara appears and tells her that her day wasn’t easy and she will be alone after work while Jackie will be going home to her family and Jackie invites her over.

At home, over a bottle of scotch, O’Hara talks about her trouble with her step father that has bothered her all day. The next morning, Fiona is making coffee for her, when O’Hara notices an unpaid bill from the water and power companies on Jackie’s kitchen table and puts it in her purse.  Soon after, Jackie and Kevin enter the kitchen, as well as Grace in her uniform of her new school.  While O’Hara helps Grace with her hair, Kevin spies the bill in her purse and takes out. Without saying anything, Jackie asks Kevin not to make a scene, but it’s pretty obvious to me that he was pissed.

So what’s up with Dr. O’Hara? How long can Jackie keep up her affair with Eddie before Kevin finds out? How will Grace cope in Catholic school? Will Mrs. Akalitus ever find the parents of the baby left at the hospital?

Keep it here!

And Until Next Time, thanks for reading and your comments are encouraged and more than welcome!

Michael Queenstown

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Weeds Season 5, Episode 6 “A Modest Proposal”

weeds_a_modest_proposal_s05e06“A MODEST PROPOSAL”

Weeds: Season 5 Episode 6

As we see on our screens as episode 6 opens, it is

SIX MONTHS LATER…

And I’m thinking to myself, “Not another Desperate Housewives moment!”, but as they only went 6 months into the future, I guess that’s better than 5 years, and it’ll help the story line along nicely.

Well, anyway, here we are 6 months later, at Esteban’s mansion, Nancy in the shower, and quite pregnant,and the proud papa Esteban reading a book on baby names.  She gets out of the shower and he hands her a box, saying “I’ve decided that we will get married.”  Quite the romantic, although the ring is big and purple and well, downright ugly. Turns out THAT ring was the championship ring of the soccer team he owns and with that he gives her the real deal. What is she going to say? No? I didn’t think so.

Shane has been picking up some spanish here and there hanging out with Ignacio, and drinking coffee, because Esteban told him it will put hair on his chest.  Shane decides to play hooky from school so he and Ignacio end up at a driving range and decide it will be fun If Ignacio honks the car horn every time someone tries to hit the ball, until one irate golfer decides to give Ignacio the finger, which of course ends up with Ignacio taking the man’s driver and beating him to a pulp, ala Tony Soprano, which makes Shane think twice about what “Fun” is.

Andy, in the meantime, is taking Nancy’s exit a bit harder. Growing a full beard and putting on some weight. He’s also gone through almost all of the $180,000 he got from Judah’s secret bank account and spent it on slot machines, pool tables, and a Ms. Pac-man video game. Oh, yeah, and he bought the General Lee car from the Dukes of Hazzard. He has not returned any of Nancy’s calls and she even goes to see him even when she goes to see him and talks to his voice mail in person.  He refuses to talk to her, even when she tells him she misses him and thats she’s engaged, but instead later shows up at Esteban’s to give the couple his blessings. And to inform Nancy that when things go wrong, and they will, and she becomes widowed once more, he will not be around for her.  But, as sure as I’m sitting here, she’ll end up in trouble, and as always, he’ll be there for her.

Celia, in the meantime, is still living in the garage, and has managed to find work at an athletic shoe store called “Super Sneakers” (referee style uniforn shirt and all) yet insists on wearing her high heels to work even though she has to run for the bus, which of course in pure Celia fashion, she misses. Good thing for her, because a beautiful blonde in a “You’re Pretty” Cosmetics car pulls up to the bus stop and liking Celia’s shoes, offers her a ride. We can only assume where this is going!

Oh, and Nancy finds time to go to the prison to visit Guillermo and rub her engagement and ring in his face. Why? I’m not sure, unless to prove he was wrong about Esteban, or that maybe the actor’s contract doesn’t run out until the end of the season?

Doug and Silas’ medical marijuana dispensary is up and running but with Deputy CP Jones always hanging around and helping himself to the merchandise, seeing as the boys have been coming up short lately with their payments, customers are not buying up the stock. Doug is on this George Hamilton kick as well, after reading his autobiography, even going as far as to having himself spray tanned. With Doug’s new “What would George Hamilton do?” attitude, he gets into an altercation with CP in the store trying to get him to leave and when CP takes a swing at Doug, missing, falling and taking a knock to the noggin, there’s no telling what will happen next.  We next see Doug scraping off his spray-on tan, saying that “George Hamilton can ‘Love at First Bite ‘ MY ASS!”

And just when you think things couldn’t get any worse, some crazy woman, barges into Esteban’s house, confronts him on the patio, and with Nancy over hearing, rattles off some stuff in spanish, leaves, and when Nancy confronts him, he tells her that things have changed and he cannot marry her.  HUH???

SPOILER ALERT!!!

If you want to know what was said to Esteban, here it is, as far as I know.

“You loved me good, until you got your BOY with her. But Marry her? Are you crazy? All the eyes of Mexico will be on you. All my hopes, my effort, my money, my time – I put into YOU?
You should have killed the f-in white b*tch when you had the chance! What I’m saying is you have to choose between me and the white woman.”

Is this woman his wife? Is he still married?  Is she the “Boss” so to speak of whatever mob, if that’s what it is, he is in? My guess is he truly loves Nancy, since he was supposed to have killed her already. But, we’ll see.

NEXT WEEK!!

So, Until Next Time!

Happy Viewing!!

Michael Queenstown

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Weeds 5.5 “Van Nuys”

WEEDS 5.5 “VAN NYUS”

The 5th episode of the 5th season, “Van Nuys”, begins with Andy and Nancy at the Women’s Health Center, to meet with her obstetrician Dr. Audra Kitson (played by guest star Alanis Morissette) to discuss the option of aborting her baby. Is this obstetrician someone Esteban picked out for her? I can’t imagine why she would want to do this, because she would be signing her own death warrant if Esteban ever found out, and if Dr. Kitson employed by Esteban and Nancy decided to abort the child, she could rat her out to Esteban.

Would she seriously consider an abortion, or as Andy put it, “go to Van Nuys”, or “You’ve gotta abort that gopher, Nance!” And she scolds a pregnant woman for eating junk food in the waiting area, even though the woman is there to have an abortion herself.  She must care something about the baby, right?  She leaves without having made her mind up but instead decides to plant a garden of nice smelling herbs to help curb her hyper-sensitivity to smells. Her garden is killed by grubs, as if almost symbolically by the end of the episode.

Meanwhile, Andy makes good on his promise by impersonating his dead brother Judah and going out on a date with the far from normal “Mags”, and they go for fondue, re-enacting her and Judah’s first date, and before Andy can enjoy dinner, she asks him, as Judah, to take her virginity, which of course causes Andy to do a spit take. Before their date is over they end up in the midst of a bunch of homeless guys and Andy ends up having sex the whack-job mags.  But, he ended up with Judah’s money and continues to try to convince Nancy to run away with him, with the baby or without,  as he tells her “These are very dark waters you’re swimming in, even for you.” But, it seems that Nancy hasn’t made up her mind about moving in with Esteban yet.

Elsewhere, Nancy finds she has a squatter in her garage. Celia! Complaining that she has no place to go, and she was left to die in Mexico, Nancy gives her two days to get out. She even asks Nancy if there’s any chance she can get her old job back at the mall. WEEDS (season 4)Gotta love that Celia. Poor

girl, nothing seems to be going  right with her these days. And,  best yet, when Celia looks in the  freezer in the garage, we finally  find out what happened to Sucio!  Celia runs up to Nancy’s      bedroom yelling “Dead  Mexican!!”  Nancy has to call  Esteban telling him, and he send  two of his thugs out to retrieve  the body.  Celia is there when they arrive and watch as they proceed to put Sucio’s body in a barrel of acid.  When Celia tells Nancy she is going to take a bath, Nancy tells her that if she does, the toaster will go in after her. But, it seems for the time being, Celia has all she needs to hold over Nancy’s head as she took pictures of the thugs disposing of Sucio’s body and that it’s taking place in Nancy’s garage.  Looks like Celia will be staying indefinitely. Although I’m not sure how the pictures will hold any water. She’s done plenty of things Nancy could come back with.

After getting ripped off by his teacher in the last episode, Shane, Isabelle and Ignacio pay a visit to Mr. Sandusky. Shane takes back the weed but also takes several items from the apartment and when Ignacio tells Shane to “shoot him in the leg” he shoots his pet cockatoo, thinking he meant to shoot the bird, not his teacher.  Later, Nancy makes Shane return all the items and bring over a new iguana to replace the bird, telling him birds carry disease and this would be better with the ladies. But, he retaliates against Shane, telling he is going to fail him, and knocking him to the floor. Nancy goes ape over this, picking up a baseball bat and using it to cut off his air supply tells him it’s not nice to steal from a child and makes sure he won’t take advantage of her son again before they leave and grounding Shane, including “no more tweetering.” There are still signs of the badass Nancy Botwin I’ve always loved.

Not a whole lot of Doug and Silas in this episode, although they do visit a “Weed  Agent” by the name of “The Wizard” as recommended by Deputy Jones (guest Larry Joe Campbell) to supply their “medical marijuana” store.  After some haggling over price with Doug counter offering with “suck my balls” they reach an agreement with some coaxing by “The Wizard’s” sword wielding “associate.” Doug did manage to throw a few one-liners in there as he and Silas were setting up shop. “I think I’m slightly retarded in the mouth,” says Doug after he and Silas hurl insults and then hug it out after Doug takes a punch in the mouth after blaming Silas for killing his father, and then recanted it by saying “you didn’t kill your father, Shane did.”

But, to me the biggest surprise came when Andy seems to have convinced a teary-eyed Nancy to run away with him, leave a goodbye note to Esteban saying he’ll understand if he truly loves her, and drive off and escape his evil, it goes the other way, Andy gets the goodbye note instead, and she and Shane end up moving in with Esteban.

Does she really like the guy?

Or is she just afraid he’ll come after her, which, of course, he would.

Will Andy be her knight in shining armor to rescue her from the so-called evil clutches of Esteban?

Has Esteban changed for the sake of his unborn child?

It’s going to be very interesting what happens now that she has moved in with Esteban.  I’m sure we’re in for some very interesting episodes to come!

Stay Tuned!

Until Next Time,

Michael Queenstown

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Nurse Jackie 1.6 “Tiny Bubbles”


NURSE JACKIE  1.6 “TINY

BUBBLES”

As Jackie’s sixth episode “Tiny Bubbles” opens we see the happy, if not dysfunctionally that way, family at Kevin’s bar. The girls, having dinner at the bar, Dad behind the bar working and Mom sewing. We find out Grace is going to be attending Catholic School, and Fiona, so adorably dressed as a sunflower, which I think must have been used as symbolism for Grace’s not drawing the sun in any of her pictures. Fiona wants to go to school with her big sister, but is reminded by Mom that if she did that, who would play the sunflower in her school’s “What’s So Great About Mother Earth” pageant? And Fiona agrees.  Fiona later calls Mom at work to ask if she could wear her costume to bed. Awwwwwwwww. Is this girl the cutest or what?

At the hospital, Jackie gets an unexpected visit from her friend, and former nurse at All Saints, Paula (guest star Judith Ivey), who as she says “has always been a bitch on wheels.”  Paula is dying of lung cancer and instead of hospice, which she is told is her only choice now, wants to die with whatever scrap of dignity she has left, and asks for Jackie’s help in doing so. Jackie puts her in bed 5, per Paula’s request, which I’m guessing has a history of being a deathbed, and the rest of the nurses stick together telling Mrs. Akalitus that they are waiting for a bed in the hospice.

Zoey has a heart-to heart with Dr. O’hara about Jackie. She is concerned that she is going through some “stuff” and she wants to be there for her. O’Hara suggest that Jackie needs a hug, and that no matter how she struggles or tries to run, not to let her. Poor Zoey, all the while never realizes that Jackie had been standing behind her and when she turns around Jackie shouts, “Boo!”, by which Zoey does a double take and realizing that they were both fooling with her, playfully slaps them both on the arm saying “you guys!”

I forgot about the guy whose genitals were attacked by his cat in the previous episode, but he makes yet another visit. Again, allegedly attacked by his cat, but this time supposedly the cat turned the garbage disposal on when he had his hand in it to retrieve a fork.  Paula finds this completely hysterical, especially after hearing, and not being surprised at the fact that the cat already attacked his testicles.  Afterwards saying that “that cat has to be killed!”  I wonder if this was in any way a tribute to Roy Horn from “Sigfried and Roy”? Probably not.

Eddie drops by to pay his respects to Paula, as if she’s already died, Paula confides in Jackie that Eddie was a great help to her after her hysterectomy with keeping her supplied with Percoset. This doesn’t sit well with Jackie at all, especially after Eddie started hangin’ with Dr. Cooper in the last episode and now it looks like she isn’t the only one Eddie has given drugs to on the sneak.  Just seems to me that Eddie is a Percoset pimp. And did he have the same type of physical relationship with Paula that he now has with Jackie?  And are there others Jackie doesn’t even know about?

In the bathroom we see Jackie in one of the stalls loading up a syringe of morphine (after doing a line herself, of course) for Paula and putting it in a glass of champagne. All the while of course Dr. O’Hara stands beside Jackie trying to make the situation more tolerable with witty remarks, as she sees her very good friend going through a rough time. After she dopes herself up first of course. All the nurses drink a toast with Paula. With her glass raised, Paula quips, “Here’s to you and here’s to me, and if we ever disagree, f**k you, and here’s to me!” As Paula dies and the nurses start to giggle over what she said, Mrs. Akalitus comes in, looks at the iv bag, points and says, “If there’s anything funny with that bag, I’ll have all your asses. Every single one of them!” I seem to remember Akalitus telling Jackie at the end of the last episode, “Daffodil” as she was recuperating from tasing herself that she knew every trick in the book and there was nothing that she had not seen or done. Well, it looks like she was wrong. Or did she know, and deep down, the nurse in her let it slide because she would have done the same thing for Paula?

Dr. Cooper’s background gets a lot more interesting as his mother (guest star Blythe Danner) is wheeled into the E.R. needing her gall bladder removed and as they argue as why her son is not allowed to perform the surgery on her, his “other mother” walks in!  HUH??  We learn that “Coop” is the only child of Lesbians, and the mother needing surgery is his birth mother, who insists that her son assist Dr. O’Hara in surgery. When her blood pressure drops during surgery, “Coop” has another one of his “neurological turrets” attacks and grabs O’Hara’s boob. After she gives him a look that lasted for what seemed an hour, he lets go. Always dignified, she replies, “now there’s a good boy.”  ”Coop” decides to keep the gall bladder and puts it in a jar for his mother as a keepsake.  Not sure why, but he must know his “birth mother” pretty well.  While he is sitting with his “other” mother (guest star Swoosie Kurtz), and tells her he loves her best out of the two because of everything she did for him growing up like being the best cook and sewing buttons on his clothes and spending the most time with him, his “birth mother” wakes up, and upon seeing her gall bladder in the jar, quips, “for all the pain it caused, it sure doesn’t look like much, which is the same thing I said when they cut the chord and put you in my arms.”  If that doesn’t sum up “Coops” issues with insecurity, I don’t know what does!

Dr. "Coop" Cooper (Peter Facinelli) and his lesbian birth mother (guest star Blythe Danner)

Dr. "Coop" Cooper (Peter Facinelli) and his lesbian birth mother (guest star Blythe Danner)

Before Paula died she went through her purse and gave “Mo-mo” her subway tokens, which she must have had for years, and gave Jackie the keys to her apartment, and in the final scene we see her go to Paula’s apartment to get things cleared out.  And I was not surprised to see what gave Jackie the look of surprise when she went through the door: Paula had all of her things boxed up before she went to the hospital.

This show just keeps getting better all the time, and the closing song, “When it Don’t Come Easy” by Patty Griffin was the perfect touch to a perfect, albeit bittersweet episode.

Until Next Time

Michael Queenstown

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Neil Patrick Harris To Host 61st Annual Emmy Awards!

Neil Patrick Harris

Neil Patrick Harris

NEIL PATRICK HARRIS TO HOST

61st ANNUAL EMMY AWARDS

Hot off the heels (make that high heels) of the Tony Awards, it can be reported that Neil Patrick Harris will be hosting the 61st Annual Emmy Awards, so mark your calendars for September 20, 2009 on CBS.

Last year’s Emmy Awards Hosts, if anyone remembers, were Tom Bergeron, Heidi Klum, Howie Mandell, Jeff Probst and Ryan Seacrest.  All were nominated for Outstanding Host of a Reality Show or Reality Competition. None of them went home with the Emmy, by the way, but their opening so-called “comedy” STILL has me in therapy.  And they Definitely won’t win the Emmy this year for hosting last years broadcast, thats for sure! Last year’s telecast was the lowest rated, least viewed ceremony in its televised history, so having Neil Patrick Harris hosting this year could not have come at a better time. Interestingly enough, though, Harris shared hosting duties with Sarah Chalke at the Creative Arts Awards Ceremony eight days prior to the Emmy telecast.

Harris is coming off a very well received hosting of the 63rd Annual Tony Awards telecast for CBS. Of course, being one of the biggest stars on CBS doesn’t hurt either, with his smash comedy hit How I met Your Mother, which oddly enough, or not, premiers its new season the day after the Emmy broadcast. Can you say, cross-promotion???

Anyway, congratulations to Neil Patrick Harris, I now have a reason after last year’s mess to watch the Emmy Awards again!!

Until Next Time!!

Michael Queenstown

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Karl Malden Passes Away At Age 97

March 22, 1912 - July 1, 2009

March 22, 1912 - July 1, 2009

KARL MALDEN PASSES AWAY AT

AGE 97

In a career that spanned more than seven decades, Oscar winning actor Karl Malden was featured in classic films such as A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront, and One-Eyed Jacks, as well as roles in Baby Doll, How the West Was Won, and Patton. His best known role was that of Lt. Mike Stone on the television series The Streets of San Francisco, and during the 1980′s was the spokesman of American Express, who reminded us card members, “Don’t leave home without it!“

Malden was born Mladen George Sekulovich on March 22, 1912 in Chicago, Illinois and raised in Gary, Indiana.  He changed his name from Mladen Sekulovich to Karl Malden when he was 22.  Switching the “a” and “l” in Mladen and making it Malden. He then took his grandfather’s first name, and it became Karl Malden. The reason for this was because the first theatre company he was in wanted him to shorten his name for the marquee. He thought they wanted to fire him and were using his name as an excuse, so he changed it not to give them the excuse.

In September 1934, Malden decided to leave his home in Gary, Indiana, to pursue formal dramatic training at the Goodman School, which was then associated with the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, and would later become part of DePaul University. Eventually, he made his way to New York City and appeared as an actor on Broadway in 1937, did some radio work and made his film debut with a small role in the film They Knew What They Wanted.

He began acting in several plays with the Group Theatre, and it was during this time he would be introduced to a young Elia Kazan who he would later work with on A Streetcar Named Desire in 1951 and in 1954′s On The Waterfront, both starring Marlon Brando.

He starred in dozens of films from the late 1950s to the early 1970s, such as Fear Strikes Out (1957), Pollyanna (1960), Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), Gypsy (1962), How the West Was Won (1962), The Cincinnati Kid (1965), and Patton (1970), playing General Omar Bradley. After Summertime Killer (1972), he appeared in the made-for-television film The Hijacking of the Achille Lauro (1989) (as Leon Klinghoffer).

In 1972, Malden starred as Lt. Mike Stone in The Streets of San Francisco. Filmed originally as a made-for-television movie, ABC  quickly signed on to carry it as a series.  Michael Douglas was hired to play Lt. Stone’s young partner, Inspector Steve Keller. The series ended in 1977, when ABC cancelled the series after Michael Douglas left the show to pursue other projects and the show’s ratings took a nose dive.  Malden was nominated for this role four times for a Primetime Emmy in the category of Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama, but never won.

In 1980, Malden starred in Skag, an hour-long drama that focused on the life of a foreman at aPittsburgh steel mill. Malden played a character named Pete Skagska, a simple man trying to keep his family together. The pilot episode for the series had Skag temporarily disabled by astroke, and explored the effects it had on his family and co-workers. Skag suffered poor ratings, but critics hailed it, even going to great lenghts to keep it on the air by taking full page ads out in the newspapers. Nevertheless the series was canceled after only a handful of episodes.

Malden’s last role in film or television was in 2000 in the highly acclaimed first season episode of the The West Wing titled “Take This Sabbath Day“.  Malden portrayed a Catholic priest and used the same Bible he had used in On The Waterfront.

One of his more familiar and often duplicated roles on television was that of spokesman for American Express Travelers Cheques in the 1970′s and 1980′s and his famous tag-line, “Don’t leave home without them”, became a household phrase.

On December 18, 1938, Malden married Mona Greenberg, who survives him.

Their marriage was one of the longest in Hollywood history, lasting more than 70 years.  In addition to his wife, Malden is survived by daughters Mila and Cara, his sons-in-law, three granddaughters, Alison, Emily, and Cami, and four great-grandchildren, Mila, Stella, Charlie, and Thomas Karl.

In 1997, Malden published his autobiography, When Do I Start?, written with his daughter Carla.

Many of Malden’s career achievements include winning the 1951 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for A Streetcar named Desire, and a nomination for his supporting role in On The Waterfront. He was a past president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, awarded an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series for his performance in 1985′s Fatal Vision, and awarded an honorary degree in fine arts by Emporia State University the same year. In 2001 he received an honorary degree Doctor of Humane Letters from Valparasio University, and on  November 11, 2004, his ex-Streets of San Francisco co-star Michael Douglas presented him with the Monte Cristo Award of the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center in Connecticut, for Lifetime Achievement.

In 2005, the U.S. Postal Service renamed the Los Angeles Barrington Postal Station as the Karl Malden Postal Station in honor, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Malden died at his home in the Brentwood section of  Los Angeles on July 1, 2009 at the age of 97. He is said to have died of natural causes, although it has been said he was in poor health for the past few years.

Malden’s manager said “It could be many things. I mean, he was 97 years old!”



Until Next Time!

“Don’t leave home without reading my blog!!”

Michael Queenstown

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How Desperate Can The Housewives Get?

Drea De Matteo Joins the cast of Desperate Housewives

HOW DESPERATE CAN THE

HOUSEWIVES GET?

One of the hardest working actresses on television is moving to Wisteria Lane.

Drea De Matteo, the Emmy winning actress best known for her roles as Adriana La Cerva on the HBO series The Sopranos, as Joey Tribbiani’s sister Gina on the short-lived NBC series Joey, and most recently for her role as Wendy Case on the hit FX cable series Sons of Anarchy, has signed a lease and is moving to Wisteria Lane.Matteo will be portraying the head of a new Italian family, the Vitale’s who move to the block for the upcoming  sixth season of Desperate Housewives.  Also joining her will be landscaping architect husband Nick and neurotic son Dominic, whose roles have not yet been cast.

Not to poo-poo the idea before the season even airs, it already sounds like the Vitale Family is going to be similar to the Soprano Family?  Well, only time will tell, but I’ll be glad to see Drea De Matteo joining the cast.  She is one of my favorite television actress, and should be a great compliment to the rest of the ladies on the show, since the departure of Nicolette Sheridan’s character Edie Britt.  And she was one of my favorites on the show.

On a side note, Kathryn Joosten and Lily Tomlin are in talks to play Karen McCluskey and her sister, Roberta, in a possible Desperate Housewives spin-off.

I would definitely watch that show!

Until Next Time!

Michael Queenstown

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Mollie Sugden Dead At Age 86

Mollie Sugden as Mrs. Betty Slocumbe

Mollie Sugden as Mrs. Betty Slocumbe

L-R: Mollie Sugden as Mrs. Slocumbe, John Inman as Mr. Humphries, and Frank Thronton as Captain Peacock

L-R: Mollie Sugden as Mrs. Slocumbe, John Inman as Mr. Humphries, and Frank Thronton as Captain Peacock

Mollie Sugden, Star

of Are You Being

Served?

Dead At Age 86

Sad news from across the pond. Comedic actress Mollie Sugden passed away July 1, 2009.

The Yorkshire, England born star of the hugely popular Brit-com Are You Being Served? passed away after a long illness in the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guilford.  According to her agent Joan Reddin, Ms. Sugden’s twin boys Simon and Robin Moore were at her bedside when she passed.

Mollie Sugden was 86 years of age.

Ms. Reddin began representing Mollie in the 1960′s, more than a decade before she became famous for the role of Mrs. Betty Slocumbe on Are You Being Served? “She was a lovely, lovely person” Reddin said.

Mollie was born Mary Isobel Sugden on July 21, 1922, and at the young age of 4, she realized she had the gift to make people laugh when at a village concert she heard a woman reading a poem which was making the audience roar with laughter. The following Christmas when she was asked if she could do something, she got up on a chair, read the poem, and had everyone rolling on the floor in laughter. Later in life she recalled that incident and “realized how wonderful it was to make people laugh.”

And the rest, as they say is history.

Mollie Sugden’s first regular sitcom role was from 1962 to 1966 when she played Mrs. Crispin in the sitcom Hugh and I.  Molly also played the role of Mrs. Hutchinson on The Liver Birds from 1971-79, and in 1996 when the series was revived.

But by far the biggest role of Mollie’s career was that of Mrs. Betty Slocumbe of the fictional Grace Brother’s Department Store on Are You Being Served? the long running BBC hit sitcom which ran from 1972-1985, and was a huge hit, maybe even more so here in the United States, and still is. The role gave her nation-wide fame as the department store saleswoman with the superior attitude, a repertoire of double entendres, a passion for bouffant, pastel colored hairdos, and of course, her pussy “Tiddles”. That’s her pet pussycat, of course.

Fans of Are You Being Served? will remember that the show was spun-off in 1992 as Grace and Favour, or Are You Being Served, Again? here in America and Mollie and Frank reprised their roles for the spin-off as well as did co-stars John Inman who played Mr. Humphries and Wendy Richard who played Miss Brahams.  Sadly, Wendy passed away of breast cancer at age 65 on February 26, 2009, and John Inman passed away at age 71 on March 8, 2007 from complications due to Hepatitis A.

L-R: Wendy Richard as "Miss Brahams" and Mollie as "Mrs. Slocumbe"

L-R: Wendy Richard as "Miss Brahams" and Mollie as "Mrs. Slocumbe"

Molly was married to actor William Moore whom she met in 1956 when she worked in the theatre. She was 35 and he was 39, and two years later they were married.  Mollie gave birth to the couple’s twin boys Simon and Robin six years later. The two were happily married until William’s death back in 2000.  Mollie’s agent Joan Reddin said she believes that Mollie never fully recovered from the loss of her husband, saying “They were very much in love, and started to go down-hill when he died.”

The character of Mrs. Slocumbe, along with John Inman’s portrayal of the flamboyant Mr. Humphries, will stand as two of the most iconic television characters of all time in the LGBT community, and Mrs. Slocumbe was an inspiration for countless drag routines the world over, including Australian comedian Barry Humphries who credits the character of Mrs. Slocumbe as an inspiration for Dame Edna Everage.

Frank Thornton, one of the very few surviving cast members who played Captain Peacock in Are You Being Served?  said: “Mollie, of course, was an excellent comedian. She was a jolly good actress.”

Yes she was.

You will be truly missed by fans like myself all over the world, Mollie.

“And I am unanimous in that!”

Until Next time!

Michael Queenstown.

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