Regalbuto Whisperer

This is a weird "coincidence."

Let's see where do I begin?

Okay, on Fridays I watch Ghost Whisperer, but this past Friday (yesterday) I missed it. I wasn't even able to tape it. Boo hoo. Anyway, the episode title was "Save Our Souls."

Okay now rewind to 1988. (This is how I remember it.) My mom and I were on vaca in L.A. and we got tickets to see a taping of Murphy Brown. Not just any taping, this was the pilot. So there were a lot of "important" people in the audience, chatting before it started. We were seated next to Faye Dunaway (at least for a little while...she said something about better seats and then was gone). My mom and her were talking about the guy on the show who plays Frank. They commented that the actor has been in so many things, but they could not think of his name. They found out his name was Joe Regalbuto.

This guy has guest starred on sooooo many classic '80s TV series. Golden Girls, St. Elsewhere, Knotts Landing, Mork & Mindy, Barney Miller, Bosom Buddies, just to name a few. So from then on, my mom and I referred to any actor who has had a ton of small or guest roles but you have no clue what their name is, as "Joe Regalbuto." The legend was born. And ironically, he went on to star on Murphy Brown for the next 10 years and has barely been heard from since. As soon as we learned his name, he stopped being a Joe Regalbuto!

Okay now fast forward to the present. Well, 10 minutes ago. I was looking up the new movie What Just Happened 'cuz I have a pass to an advance screening. So I looked it up on the IMDB. Stanley Tucci is one of the stars. I thought to myself "hmm, he's one of those Joe Regalbutos who's been in so many good things but nothing I could really tell you off the top of my head." And then I thought "I wonder what Joe Regalbuto has been up to. Has he reclaimed his Joe Regalbuto status?" So I checked IMDB. He's only got about a dozen credits since 2000. The most recent credit?

Ghost Whisperer
-Save Our Souls

I swear I did not see previews for this episode or anything. I had NO idea.
Isn't that weird?????????


P.S. Okay maybe it wasn't a total coinky dink.

When I said "I wasn't even able to tape it" that wasn't entirely accurate. I got home around 8:30 and pressed record. So I got the second half on tape, but I hadn't watched it cuz you know, what's the point? I'm not sure, but most likely I turned the TV on to start the recording and then I turned it off or muted it and got on the computer. So I did see a literal glimpse of the episode. I just played the tape. It begins with Jennifer Love Hewitt and our boy Joe exchanging a couple of lines. So I must have seen his face. Even though I had no recollection of it 10 minutes ago, and I don't think I even acknowledged it at the time, my subconscious must have taken note. Once he was in my subconscious I was more likely to refer to the Joe Regalbuto phenomenon in my head and to get curious about his resume. It wasn't really out of the blue that I clicked on his IMDB after all. But I sure was convinced.

Just goes to show, what seems like a strange coincidence could just be an example of the quiet ways your subconscious influences everything you think, say, and do!

Best career for a TV actor

I've figured out the prized role for an actor if you can't be a regular character on a show but you want to at least be a recurring character.... Shrink.

Bringing a psychotherapist in is an easy way for the writers to explain a character's motivations or sum up a story line, and everyone's got problems, especially characters on TV, so you'll always have work. It may be months or years even between episodes, but they will bring you back.

As long as you're a good psychologist and stay neutral you won't be in danger of getting written off. Rarely does anyone on TV or in real life end a relationship with a therapist permanently. People are much more likely to end relations with or kill lovers, even family members. Therps are safe. Look at Lorraine Bracco on The Sopranos. She played Dr. Jennifer Melfi throughout the series run. Not many characters on that show survived til the end!

Here are a few other examples of actors steadily working as shrinks...

Patricia Wettig played Dr. Judy Barnett on Alias for 12 episodes over 3 years. 3 in season 1, 4 in season 2, and 5 in season 3. That'll keep the bills paid, right?

Jane Lynch plays Boston Legal's "sexual surrogate" (a sex therapist with benefits) Joanna Monroe. She has been in 4 episodes over 3 years.

Jane Lynch has also been playing Dr. Linda Freeman the last 4 years on Two and a Half Men. She has counseled Charlie in a total of 8 episodes.

I'm sure there are more. Anyone wanna help me out? Comment with your favorite TV therp.....

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FX shows movies like this: movie for 10 minutes, commercials, movie for 10 minutes, commercials.... A 2 hour movie becomes 3 hours! (One example: Mr & Mrs Smith is 120 minutes but takes 3 hours on FX. I couldn't sit through it!) I avoid watching movies on FX, especially recent movies shown near primetime, I think it's worse then.

I love the way Fox does the commercial breaks for Fringe. They come fairly frequently, but are usually under 2 minutes and start with "Fringe will return in x [60, 90, etc.] seconds." It's just enough time to run to the bathroom or grab a drink from the kitchen or compare notes with whoever you're watching with. Not enough time to get bored and start flipping channels or doing something else. You may even just sit and watch the two commercials (and that's a good thing for the sponsors).

About a year ago, I watched a movie on one of the cable stations (like AMC or something), and they had a different way of presenting commercials. The commercial breaks were pretty normal, except for one thing: there was scrolling text along the bottom of the screen that related to the movie. Stuff like trivia about the movie's production, facts about things related to the movie, multiple choice questions about the plot, quotes from the director.... So you could be entertained throughout the break and never even think of changing the channel. While you would be distracted from the ads by the text, the fact is you would be staring at the screen, hearing only the commercial's audio. So it's good for the viewer, good for the sponsor.

I liked this way better than some of the other attempts at adding extras to movies on TV... Regular trivia and quizzes surrounding the commercials are rarely anything worth resisting the urge to "flip" for. There's the whole Dinner & a Movie and Movie & a Makeover thing on TBS. But come on, who really wants intermittent recipes with hosts no one really cares about? I do like when they play the special features from a DVD before/after the commercial breaks.

Standards & Poppyc--bleep--ck

I hate the way TV censorship works. It doesn't make sense. A word or phrase might be bleeped out in one show, but then included in another show. I guess it's not all based on a clear cut law. It depends on the station, the sponsers, the time of day, etc.. It's just silly.
I hate when a station with pretty strict standards show movies that obviously will need a lot of editing. I remember TBS aired Glengarry Glen Ross, written by David Mamet. It was a lot of "Forget you! Forget this place!" and other ridiculous phrases. Or when a station whose programming is full of content bordering on indecent airs a movie similarly indecent, and bleeps out a bunch of PG-rated words. Comedy Central does this with a lot of movies. And then the same channel allows Chris Rock swearing unedited late at night.
Tonight I watched the SciFi Channel bleep the word "ass" in Total Recall and then on ABC Family, a character in Samurai Girl said something about kicking "ass." If it's okay on ABC Family, shouldn't it be okay in a movie with a record-setting body count?
On TruTV they were showing the O.J. Simpson Las Vegas trial closing arguments, and the attorney said (quoting the tape of O.J.) "shit" and it wasn't bleeped. And it wasn't even live--it was footage from yesterday.
TNT allowed "assholes." Usually the "hole" gets bleeped.
TNT also allowed Jack Nicholson's naked butt in Something's Gotta Give. Aren't butts usually censored?

P.S. Check out this great blog entry about writing for MASH and dealing with S&P back then!

Dino-mite!

The History Channel has a new show called Jurassic Fight Club. Each episode starts with some sort of fossilized dinosaur remains which experts analyze and interpret for us. They concoct a plausible storyline for how those remains got there and the story comes to life with cable-TV-quality CGI graphics. So it's kinda fun and interesting. Anyway, the weird thing is that just as this show is starting, there was a very similar segment on a new episode of Nova Science Now. The PBS Paleontologists pieced together the story of a couple of Mammoth skeletons just as "Dinosaur George" and the others on THC did with the Majungatholus remains.
It's a weird coincidence. And it's happened before. I think there were one or two other shows on PBS with subject matter eerily similar to shows on History. Both channels had shows about how the earth might end. I think on History, it was called Last Days on Earth, and it was a countdown of 7 ways life as we know it on our planet may end. On PBS, it could've been Nova, Nova Science Now...but they talked about the same stuff. And I think PBS did an episode similar to History's Life After People and maybe that show they did on the year 2052? I just remember a couple of those speculation shows being copied on PBS! Usually PBS covers material a bit more compelling than the History and Discovery Channels.

TV commentary from '07

June 2007 I wrote:
I've spent the last year with no cable TV. It sucked but you'd be surprised how satisfied you can become with 6 channels (not including the Spanish, shopping, and religious channels). Anyway, for the last two weeks, I've been watching CABLE! (And yes, I do mean two weeks straight--practically.) So here's what's been fun to watch...
Flavor Of Love Girls' Charm School with Mo'nique I didn't really watch Flavor Of Love, but this show is great.
Simple Life Goes To Camp As if Paris Hilton isn't on every channel all day long! But I love this show. The new season is great. I don't care if it's scripted or whatever, Paris and Nicole are too much!
Tori & Dean: Inn Love Cute....
Breaking Up with Shannen Doherty I caught a couple episodes of this on Oxygen. It was not what I thought it would be. It was better! I thought it would be Shannen going around, being a b*tch, breaking up with people. But she's not really b*tchy (on the show), she just helps people. She talks to the "breaker" and then tries to help the "breakee" see that maybe the time has come.... And it's not always a simple break up. One segment was about two guys--just friends--who had grown apart and one wanted to "break up." Another segment ended up with the boyfriend seeing how he was being a jerk and the girlfriend giving him another chance.
The Real Housewives of Orange County Can I be one?!
Untold Stories Of The E.R. I used to watch this all the time. I love it.
It's Me Or The Dog It's a cross between Supernanny and Dog Whisperer. This one British family had spent over $100,000 on their two dogs. Dog Nanny to the rescue!
I could sit all day watching VH1 and E! specials like I Love the 80s, I Love The 70s, True Hollywood Story, etc. I hate to admit it, but I just can't change the channel when Hal Sparks or Michael Ian Black are on...even if I've seen it five times already!
And on my old-timer 6 channels, I've been watching So You Think You Can Dance, Hidden Palms, Traveler, and reruns....
And I'm still trying to tune in to The View and The Tonight Show every day. And when I can The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson and The Ellen Degeneres Show. My friends at the local news (channels 3, 8 & 13) have been badly neglected. I miss you guys, but there's just so much else on.....

April 2008 I wrote:
My recent TV habits…
There's a new show on A&E called Parking Wars. It's a reality show that follows the workers of the Philadelphia Parking Authority. There are the meter maids/men, the boot guys, the towing guys, and the people at the impound lot office all dealing with angry people. It's a good show. At first, I was like "interesting idea for a show, but sounds kinda boring" but it is really fun to watch. I admire those employees, they stay pretty calm no matter how irate the "customers" get. I have been one of the angry people at the impound lot several times, so it's interesting to watch from a different perspective.
There are 2 series on The Travel Channel that I enjoy. The first is True and Amazing Vacation Homes, which tours some fabulous vacation homes (duh). Second is the Adventures of Mark and Olly, which follows the daily life of two white guys living in the Kombai and Mek tribes of West Papua. They really embrace the tribal culture and the tribe members really embrace Mark and Olly.
On Animal Planet, I like It's Me Or The Dog (I don't get the Dog Whisperer channel!) and Showdog Moms and Dads.
I like Real Housewives of Orange County, and now there is Real Housewives of New York City. They are fun shows!
I've been watching I Know My Kid's A Star on VH1. Step It Up and Dance on Bravo. Can You Duet on CMT. And of course American Idol and Dancing With The Stars.
I watched some of Millionaire Matchmaker. Seems pretty funny/interesting.
Pop Fiction is great (celebs play tricks on paparazzi).
New(ish) network shows I like: Big Bang Theory (combined with How I Met Your Mother makes an hour of nonstop one-liners, which is a nice change of pace from all the dramas and reality shows I watch otherwise); Chuck; Jericho; Terminator The Sarah Connor Chronicles; Aliens In America. I liked Life, but couldn't really get into it. I try to catch Beauty and the Geek. And I enjoyed the short run of Miss Guided.
Finally, as for talk shows….I schedule my day by The View (10am), Ellen (3pm), and Jay Leno and Craig Ferguson (11:35pm).

Multiracial Idol

As the new season of American Idol gets into the top 24, I want to take a minute to share a trend I've observed. In the past seasons of American Idol, as well as in other talent shows, as well as Kid Nation, I've noticed something about many of the contestants. When they show the contestants parents/family/friends, so often the parents appear to be one black and one white or some other racial mix. Just a few examples: Diana DeGarmo, American Idol season 3 finalist, Italian and Mexican Justin Guarini, American Idol season 1 finalist, African, Irish, and Italian. Camile Velasco, American Idol season 3 finalist, Filipina, Irish, and Spanish. Corey Clark, AI season 2 finalist, Hungarian/Irish/Native American/etc. mother, black and Native American father Jordin Sparks, AI season 7 winner, white mother, black father Sanjaya Malakar, AI season 7 finalist, Italian American mother, Indian father Alex from Kid Nation, appears to have white father, Asian mother Gianna from Kid Nation, appears to have white mother, black father Zach from Kid Nation, appears to have mixed parents Morgan from Kid Nation, appears to have mixed parents I can imagine a lot of reasons this might be the case…. 1) The country in general is becoming more mixed. I just read an article on this. No longer can people fit into 3 or 4 boxes (white, black, Hispanic, other). More children are being born to parents of different races, so naturally we're going to see more of that on TV. 2) I heard a comedian joke that, when people of different races or ethnicities have children, the children are always beautiful. According to UrbanDictionary.com "Usually a multiracial person is either really good-looking, or really not." Beautiful people tend to get on TV more than uglies. 3) Black and white parents that are upper-middle class are probably well-educated (ignorance breeds racism) and value education and diversity. Having parents that are supportive (emotionally and financially) of dancing/singing lessons, private school, driving you around to auditions, etc. is a big plus toward making it on one of these shows. What do you think?


After I posted that on my MySpace blog, Veronika made a comment. Here it is:

You have some interesting thoughts here, I'd love to see if there have been any studies done on the prevalence of multi-ethnic relationships and class/income/education levels. It is very interesting just how mixed our society has become.

On the other hand sometimes I'm really surprised at how little we integrate ourselves. I've seen many people who have an ethnically diverse crowd of friends follow their family lines of marrying within their race/color. Not that they intentionally chose someone of the same ethnicity, that's just who they tend to date. Do you have any thoughts on this?

Then I responded:

Hmm. Well, I've been meaning to post something about this link, and now seems the right time.

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/

It's the site for a study on "Implicit Association" and they have several tests you can take online. The idea is that everyone has certain biases and attitudes about skin color, sex, and other attributes, that may or may not be conscious. Oprah talked about this test on one of her shows. I consider myself an open-minded, non-racist, non-prejudiced person. For the most part at least. But I scored a "moderate automatic preference for White people compared to Black people." It's pretty scary--take it, you'll see. We don't realize how much we are influenced by the media and the people around us.

Discovery Health...the Mommie Channel

There's a new show called Mother May I on Discovery Health with an irresistible premise. Each half hour follows a subject (young adult female struggling with various facets of her life) as she spends a few days working with a life coach. The life coach sends her tips and assignments via text message. At the end of the few days, the woman meets face-to-face with the source of the guidance, who is none other than her MOTHER! It seems mothers who love to nag--I mean give advice--all the time may actually know what they're talking about!
So it's kind of a mean-spirited show. I feel bad for the duped daughters. Although, after they bring out the mom they do bring out a REAL life coach to offer some professional insight and suggestions (for mother and daughter). And in the end everyone's learned something (hopefully). The daughters will listen to mom with an open mind, and the moms will present their advice in a more detached way. That's what I think the key is to moms coaching daughters.

Ready for Fall '08

I checked out the networks' upcoming fall schedules, and I'm pretty excited. This past season has felt like a bit of a rip off, because of the writers' strike. I don't know if there were actually less episodes, or if it just felt like it because of the strike break. So I'm looking forward to a new, full season of my faves. Unfortunately there are a couple shows I really liked that won't be coming back.
MissGuided (they only made a few episodes but I was digging it)
Jericho (I got into it late, but I would love to see it go on)
Kid Nation (fun, dramatic, inspiring!)
Beauty and the Geek (watched one season and it was fun)
Bionic Woman (saw a couple episodes, looked interesting)
Aliens In America (this show was so funny and cute, I'm most sad about this one being cancelled)
What I will be watching...
ABC: Boston Legal, Dancing With The Stars
Fox: Terminator The Sarah Connor Chronicles, House, Fringe, Madtv
CW: 90210
NBC: Chuck, Life, Medium (in January)
CBS: Big Bang Theory, HIMYM, Two and a Half Men, Without A Trace, Criminal Minds, Ghost Whisperer, Numbers, Cold Case
What will YOU be watching?