I just got finished watching my first episode of Partners, a new comedy that follows two lifelong BFFs, one straight and one gay, starring Michael Urie and David Krumholtz who play partners at an architectural firm.  Their “bromance” complicates the other relationships in their lives – especially with Joe’s fiance’ (played by Sophia Bush) and Louis’ partner played by Brandon Routh).

The series is based on its co-creators, David Kohan and Max Mutchnik, the Emmy Award winning duo behind Will & Grace who also happen to be real-life best friends.  Instead of a man (gay) and woman (straight) who are best friends, we have two men, but the issues that Will & Grace faced are similar here.  From relationship to work, everyday life, decisions, food, love – they share everything.

I have to preface this piece saying that I adore Michael Urie.  I saw him recently in How to Succeed in Business on Broadway and just fell in love with him all over again.  I was also an Ugly Betty fan and when that series was cancelled, I was in mourning.   He’s got comic timing and charisma and I love the way he acts all innocent but is quite snarky.  He’s got some GREAT one-liners and he delivers them splendidly (like “Whenever anything comes out a closet, it’s a gay event.”)  I also have to say how thrilled I am that network television is finally embracing gay and lesbian issues.  Ryan Murphy’s The New Normal, is another show of this nature that hit the airwaves a few weeks ago. I saw the first episode and was intrigued but have yet to tune in again.

I watched episode #3, which airs tonight on CBS at 8:30pm EST.  In this episode, Joe’s fiancée is moving in and he’s unpacking her boxes. When he gets to one marked “Private”, he commits to not opening it but does, finding a photo of her with Derek Jeter.  Louis convinces him to concoct a game of “Celebrity” to sneakily find out about their relationship as he’s clearly intimidated by her relationship with the famous athlete.  But it all backfires when Wyatt, Louis’ partner, draws Jeter and can only muster up “he had hot desert sex with Ali” as his clue. Meaning that Louis has a big mouth and told his boyfriend about the secret.

How many times have you been in that situation where you stupidly and inadvertently told a friend a secret that you had been sworn to secrecy to someone else?  I won’t lie that I have…more times than I’d like to admit.  It’s never fun getting caught and sometimes the friendships recover and sometimes they don’t.  It depends how strong the relationship is.  I’ve had friendships survive and friendships dissolve because of miscommunication or a slip of the tongue and I never deal with the loss well, to be honest, especially when I’m at fault.  Louis clearly can’t hold his tongue and disagreements happen often as a result of it, and they will carry many future story lines in upcoming episodes, I would assume.

But Joe and Louis are also business partners, and Urie has rightly called his character the ”sh—stirrer”.  He clearly likes to get into every affair of his parter’s life, both business and personal.  I run a business with someone and we are friends just as much as we are partners.  We balance the two by having weekly catch ups.  We keep the two worlds separate and when we’re busy and have deadlines, and we keep the conversation business focused.  We actually don’t live in the same town and don’t know the same people, so we can’t really get anyone in trouble when we do vent.  Neither of us are really like Louis, but we’re not around each other as much as they are.  The dynamics of mixing friendship and business are very interesting and I like that this show explores it in a deep and meaningful way.

The cast has unique chemistry that helps carry the show and each actor has good comic timing, complimenting each other and the writing.  I look forward to watching future episodes and am glad I was given the opportunity to review the show.

Tune into catch the show tonight on CBS at 8:30pm EST and see it for yourself.  At the same time, there will be a Twitter party going on over at #Partners (from 8:15-9:15 EST)  and they’ll be chatting w/ real-life bffs & biz partners, Vera Sweeney and Audrey McClelland, two people I know and respect in real life.  RSVP here.

Disclosure: I have partnered up with One2One Network to promote this episode.  They sent me a screener copy but all opinions expressed are my won.

Last week when I was asked to guest blog over at the Katie Couric Show, there was no way I could refuse.  The guest was Barbra Streisand, a Hollywood icon and someone who’s music, movies and career I’ve followed my whole life (haven’t we all?).  Fortunately, I was able to step out of my everyday life and spend the afternoon in the studio and witness an hour with Barbra.  I spent some time in the green room, avoided the lines to get into the show (bypassing the 2,000 on the waiting list) and was captured in a photo with Katie Couric herself after the show (and I was introduced to Jeff Zucker, which as a former worker in the TV industry was VERY exhilarating!)

The show has created what they are calling “Katie’s Crew”.  They’re bringing in two social media moms to the taping each day and are featuring several guest posts by these bloggers on their site to compliment the shows.  Mine ran yesterday and you can read it here (I’m loving the comments).  They set us up in the first row with our lap tops on our laps and had us “live blog” from the set.  It was definitely an interesting experience and I like the way the show is trying to incorporate the blogging community into the show. They didn’t introduce our blogs on air, but they announced them to the audience before the taping began and again during a break.

So, I had a week between the taping and the broadcast and was keeping mum about all of it, although it was truly not a day I would forget anytime soon.

However, yesterday’s reaction by my mom to my brief appearance on the taped show (if you watched the show VERY closely, you could catch a very quick shot of me reacting to the fact that Barbra has raised $22 million to help prevent heart disease) was the best.  My mom called to tell me that she can’t believe how FAMOUS I am.

Yes, that was the word she used.  I was sitting in the audience listening to a larger than life celebrity and she thinks I’m famous! What would I do without my mom?  Seriously. Imagine if I actually did something deserving of being on the telly?  I think she would have a heart attack.

I’ve had a smile on my face all day as a result.  It will probably last a week.

Thank god for mothers.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to screen a new documentary called DON’T DIVORCE ME! a new documentary airing on HBO next week.  I was instantly intrigued by the invitation, given the fact that I have newly divorced friends with young children and am the daughter of a divorced couple.  My own parents divorced when I was much older than the young children shown in this film, but I have always thought about the profound impact divorce can have on children.  I see it on my friend’s young children and I was curious to see how one could produce a sensitive, thoughtful movie on the subject.

And this film does.  It’s only 30-minutes long and it’s the kind of movie your own children could watch.  They don’t show parents arguing, they don’t talk about how the parents got to the place they’re in. The focus is on the kids.  It’s about how they are.  Throughout the film, they show kids holding signs, which express their feelings that read:

“Don’t take your anger out on me.”

“Be honest with me.”

“No fighting.”

“Don’t make me a messenger.”

It’s powerful stuff.  Whether these words are written on these signs or spoken out loud, these kids care.  They miss the life they once had with two parents living under the same roof and are struggling to move on.  Brooke, aged 7, boldly and wisely states, “No one invented families.  People made families to spread love.” These kids are let down that their family unit is no longer one. They are insightful and they are all working to build a new future, sometimes with their parents, sometimes alone in their mind,.  What strikes me about them is that they are incredibly resilient.  They even ask each other insightful questions about their situations and these are not kids holding their feelings inside their hearts.

During a “Lunch Bunch” scene where four children talk over lunch in a classroom, one tells the others, “Some people think it’s all their fault.” In the case of divorce, everyone feels responsible, especially the children. The film shows children equating memories to objects, as one little girl does in a special pink jewelry box, and how concrete aspects of one’s life makes a difference to kids.

Along the way, you have quick shots, great music (including “Should I Stay or Should I Go” by the Clash), drawings, songs and photos.

The film was made by executive producer Rosie O’Donnell (HBO’s “A Family Is a Family Is a Family”) and Emmy(R)-winning director Amy Schatz (HBO’s “Classical Baby”), and debuts THURSDAY, SEPT. 20 (6:30-7:00 p.m. ET/PT), exclusively on HBO. It’s truly a film from the hearts of the children interviewed in the film.  It’s a film that can help families going through it.

Disclosure: I was not compensated to write this review but I really benefitted from the experience and mean everything mentioned above.

In honor of the upcoming Mad Men finale, Wordnik has put together a list of their favorite words from Don Draper and the gang.  Since I’m a Mad Men fanatic, I do feel compelled to share the list.

Below is a sampling of some of the top words. A complete list can be found here.

1.  bitchin’

Peggy [holding up Michael’s work]: “Have I lost my sense of smell or is this good?” Stan [laughs]: “That’s bitchin’.”

Episode: “Tea Leaves,” April 1, 2012

Bitchin’ is slang for “excellent; first-rate,” and originated as “teen/surfer slang” in the 1950s. The word apparently plays on the verb sense of bitch, to complain, “in some inverted sense.”

2.  calice

Megan [upon realizing Don's surprise party has been spoiled]: “Calice.”

Episode: “A Little Kiss,” March 25, 2012

Calice is a Québécois French swear word which, according to Slate, “has its origins in Roman Catholic ritual—it’s the communion chalice.” Other French-Canadian swear words, says Slate, include “Calvaire! (Calvary), Ciboire! (ciborium—the container in which communion wafers are stored), Ostie! (communion wafer), or Tabarnak!“ Tabarnak is the Québécois equivalent of fuck and comes from tabernacle.

3.  consumerism

Megan [to Don]: “I didn’t think [the play] was such a strong stand against advertising as much as the emptiness ofconsumerism.”

Episode: “Christmas Waltz,” May 20, 2012

The word consumerism, which was coined in 1944, originally meant “the movement seeking to protect and inform consumers by requiring such practices as honest packaging and advertising, product guarantees, and improved safety standards.” Around 1960, it came to refer to “the theory that a progressively greater consumption of goods is economically beneficial,” and by extension an “attachment to materialistic values or possessions.” Here Megan is referring to this last meaning of consumerism.

4.  fresh

Betty [to Don]: “I wanted to know if you’d have any problem with me strangling Sally. I’m not joking. She’s fresh. And I prefer to not have her sourpuss ruining our trip.”

Episode: “Commissions and Fees,” June 3, 2012

Fresh in this context means “verdant and conceited; presuming through ignorance and conceit; forward; officious.” This sense originated in 1848 as U.S. slang, probably from the German frech, “insolent, cheeky,” which ultimately comes from the Old English frec, “greedy, bold.”

5.  go ape

Hanson/Handsome: “Billy Josephs and I were supposed to join up, but my dad went ape.”

Episode:“Signal 30,” April 15, 2012

To go ape means “to become wildly excited or enthusiastic,” and is attested from 1955. “I Go Ape” is a 1959 hit song from Neil Sedaka. To join up means “to enlist or enroll,” and originated around 1916.

Disclosure: Wordnik.com’s comprehensive word graph brings meaning and context to the evolving lexicon, helping people unlock the value of words and phrases to discover what information is most meaningful and matters to them. I was not compensated to feature this information.

Oh, yes, that is me in the middle with the big dark, curly hair.  I don’t show myself very often on the pages of this blog!

Coming up this Sunday, February 19th, is the season finale of the series, and you probably have as many questions as I do about the show.  Titled “1964,” here is a promo you can check out in advance.  I don’t know a lot about the show either, but I do know that MAD MEN‘s Darren Pettie (remember the repulsive Lee Garner Jr.?) guest-stars.  I also know a few more details – here is the finale’s summary:

Life has changed on a dime for the crew of Pan Am. Since President Kennedy’s assassination and as New Year’s Eve approaches for the start of 1964, everyone’s lives are hurtling towards new starts: Colette is caught up in a whirlwind courtship with a foreign prince, and Dean is still kicking himself over losing her; Amanda and Ted’s wedding plans are racing forward, thrilling his family, but making him more nervous by the day; Kate’s spy supervisor, Richard, is shot and she tries to figure out whether he or someone else is a double agent — He warns her that the first person to ask her how he is doing will be the double agent, but the first person who does is the one person she never imagined; and Amanda makes Laura a startling offer. Meanwhile, Broyles puts Maggie in a life-threatening position- which sparks a major attraction to him-  Laura forges on, still loving the man she can’t have, and Dean is put on trial for the decisions he made during the Haiti landing, on the Season Finale of “Pan Am,” Sunday, February 19 (10:01-11 p.m. ET) on the ABC Television Network.

Disclosure: I was not compensated to post this information, but I did receive a complimentary set visit and $25 American Express Gift Card by the folks at One 2 One Marketing.

Both actors were very forthcoming and clearly love being on the show.  They are waiting to hear whether the show is going to be picked up for next year.  I enjoy the show for it expresses and plays into my love of travel and seeing the world.  While we’re all waiting to hear, check out our interview.

Question: What have you learned about how it was for women at the time?

Margot: We did a lot of research. The main thing I try to remind myself is that it should be expected because that is the way it was. You shouldn’t be shocked – that was the time period.

The whole feminist is similar to how we deal with the racism issue. Again, it was so prevalent. It was before the Civil Rights Movement so it was still the way society was. It is a fine line between playing the way the script is written and ignoring your contemporary views a little. It is an interesting aspect and I like that it is incorporated into the script. It’s fun. It kind of makes us feel more, you know, more powerful as women because we are fighting against that stereotype. That’s why the stewardess were going against the norm.

Question: Wasn’t it better for men in those days?

Michael: I’m happy in 2012. The 1960s wasn’t all happy. I mean, you watch a movie like the Help and it is so obvious that the world was not that happy. I mean learning about the brain drain, squeezed them out. One of the biggest perk is that we get to learn, an excuse to re-learn history.

Margot: It’s not just based on America. Pan Am is a global airline. Especially, the Haiti episode, it really shows the global picture of the times.

Question: Do you have a favorite episode?

Margot: I have two – the Raingune (Sp?) and the Berlin episode.  They were just – I love the scripts for Berlin. It wasn’t really a huge storyline for me, but for Collette – Corinne’s character, her parents are being killed by the Nazi’s and she is in Berlin. It’s so interesting how everything was played out and how everyone’s actions are justified because it’s fact and that’s what happened. Everyone has real reasons for what they did. It was also really well directed. And the Rangoon episode was just a lot of fun. We were dancing on tables. It was a blast. What was your favorite episode (to Michael)?

Michael: I think that moment with Collette.

Margot. I agree.

Michael: When she says, America is loved and back into the fold and forgiven.

Margot. It’s so powerful.

Question: Do you have a favorite outfit?

Margot: I mean, I just love the uniform. Yesterday was my last day in it, so I open we come back for another season. I miss it already. You hold yourself differently. It’s really fun – all of the outfits.

Question: Does playing these roles (as stewardesses and pilots) make your feel differently about them in real life?

Michael: (laughs) Yea! Flying used to give me the willies. I don’t know why. But learning about it has been so fascinating. I mean between you and me, I think once they get everyone in the air – about 500 feet- they sit back, go into autopilot and have coffees. And they are up and coming down and out of autopilot.  They have been doing it for 100 years, everything is repeated. It is fascinating.  Vogel, the guy who plays Dean, is actually training to be a pilot.

Margot: Is he still training?

Michael: Yea, he is flying by himself. He said he peed his pants just a little bit. You have to naturally want it. It works out.

Question: How did you fall into these roles?

Michael: I needed a job?

Question: Did you audition for it? What was the process it?

Michael: I got to read the sides or Dean. I read it but then I saw the role of Ted and really liked him. So, I read for Ted and I got it.

Question: How much are you like your character?

Michael: I think Ted is a smart ass – I don’t think I am like that. I think he is sloppier – bumps into people. Very clumsy. Doesn’t think before he says things.

Margot:  He’s very funny.

Michael: Hopefully!

Question: Do you see the weird fan comments on Facebook? Have you had any weird fan encounters?

Michael: No, I haven’t yet.

Question: Do you get recognized?

Michael: I don’t know…maybe once in awhile. Maybe some kid in the mall will say, “Hey, man aren’t you from Scrubs?” Maybe a couple of times for PanAm. A guy bought me a drink in a bar.

Mitch: That might have been for something else.

Michael: You’re right. So, no, I haven’t.

Margot: Yea, I have. A little bit. It’s not as much as when you play a contemporary character cause you just look so different. I sound different, too so it really separates me from the character, which is good. My family came to visit from Australia and we were in Times Square with the huge posters of us. Mom made me take pictures in front of it – really embarrassing. It was mortifying at the time but the person that was taking the picture didn’t understand why we were in front of the poster. Afterwards, my mum was like “it’s my daughter!” The person kept saying, which one? I saw like, it’s me! They couldn’t tell. So, I guess there is a separation. When I do get recognized, everyone is really lovely.

Disclosure: I was a guest of One 2 One Marketing.  I was not compensated to attend this junket but I was provided with a $25 American Express card to cover my travel expenses. 

Source: HollywoodReporter.com

A few weeks ago, I was invited to tour the set of Pan Am, which airs on Sundays at 10 p.m. on ABC.  A fan of the show, I was not only very excited to walk through the replica of the Boeing 707 but also to visit Silvercup Studios in Brooklyn for the first time.  I’ll be reporting more on my trip to the set in the next few weeks and posting photos from the experience, but first things first, I got to interview Christina Ricci, an actress I have been a fan of for a very long time.  I can’t believe that it was 22 years ago that I first saw her in Mermaids alongside Cher, and since then some of my favorite independent movies including The Opposite of Sex and The Ice Storm.  She’s dabbled in television, too, appearing on Ally McBeal, Grey’s Anatomy (she won an Emmy Award) and Saving Grace.  I was curious how she likes working on this show, living in New York City and more, and Ricci was very honest, very open and very excited to be working on stage this spring.

Read the interview and find out what she’s up to and why you can catch her on the L train.

How do you like working on TV vs. film?

CR: I love it! It is a very similar process but with TV it is much longer and with the same people. The hours are more intense and the pace is faster. It’s really fun to be with the character for the amount of time. It’s fun to change little nuances. It was fun.

What was it about this script that made you want to transition to TV?

CR: Well, I have been looking to get into TV for a long time, actually. I have been doing this for a really long time and lots of traveling and different films. I have been looking for a more stable lifestyle, a regular lifestyle. A regular job. I thought TV was a great way to facilitate that and I also started seeing how the better writing was on TV. Better talent is on TV these days. So, I started looking. I always enjoyed guest starring on TV. I loved the work and how work was approached. So, I was looking for a while and I this just came up as an opportunity. I really liked the concept. I liked that it was on an airline. That seemed different to me. I liked learning about the history of Pan Am. I knew nothing about that. I really love the 60s and I am drawn to this period. I find it fascinating.  And I liked the people involved. I have a lot of respect for everyone on the show.

What traits do you like about your character?

CR: I like that she is sort of like the ‘wild card.’ I like that she had to work her way to the top – that she doesn’t come from money or a traditional background. I like that she had to create herself from what she perceived to be nothing and I like the fact that she sees herself as inferior. She takes risks. A lot of people can relate to it. Those are the things that get us in trouble in life and destructive behaviors, but it makes her very human.

How have you liked hanging out in NYC the past couple of months?

CR: Oh, I been having a great time. I have been living in Brooklyn and really enjoying it.  It reminds of the Lower East Side – where I lived as a teenager. Then I  moved away. I have been away for 10, 11 years. When I came back it’s so different…at least Manhattan is. Brooklyn reminds me of the way Manhattan was when I was a teenager.  I love living in Brooklyn.

Do you like the trains?

CR: I’m not very close to a train stop, but I will be moving for this play so I will be close to a train soon.

What play?

CR: I’m doing Midsummer’s Night Dream in Classic Stage Company  in March, so, yeah, I will be taking the train on a regular basis. Look for me on the L.

Disclosure: I was a guest of One 2 One Marketing.  I was not compensated to attend this junket but I was provided with a $25 American Express card to cover my travel expenses. 

Today was one of those days.

I was invited to a powerful discussion about an upcoming CBS News/48 Hours presentation to be broadcast on Friday night at 8pm EST called “Bullying: Words Can Kill”.

I have two very young children, ages 6 and 8, and I have yet to find them suffer from bullying, but I’m fully aware that it goes on in every school across the country.  Bullying is everywhere.  I grew up with glimmers of it in my own life, and I know how hard it can be on a child.

But we live in a new age.   A digital age.  My kids, and your kids, are fully capable of using all digital devices, and if you think about it, that kind of use is going to change over the next few years.  As my daughter grows up, she’ll go on Facebook; she’ll start to IM her friends.  Words that might be hurtful or derisive will not only be verbal, they’ll be cyber.  90% of all middle school students have phones.  Technology is more important to our kids than ever.  According to the 48 Hours report, reported by correspondent Tracy Smith, this cyber explosions is only making bullying worse, as victims cannot find relief from their tormentors in a 24/7 digital world. The report, with links to the CBS News website, will have important new information for parents, educators and legislators about how bullying affects children and how to address it.

For six months, producers and camera crews were allowed in-depth access to the classrooms, cafeteria and gym at Birchwood, a Rhode Island middle school that is one of the few in the United States that has openly acknowledged it has a bullying problem and has taken action to address it. The 48 HOURS special documents the real lives of students at that particular school, and has the powerful stories of other young people and their families from around the country who have felt the impact of bullying firsthand.

The CBS team behind "Bullying: Words Can Kill"

One constantly harassed 13-year-old told Smith, “They got inside my head. They did it because they knew it would hurt.” His mother said dropping him off at school was like “sending him off to war.” Tragically, more than 150 children have taken their own lives in recent years because they were victims of harassment in school and online.

We were introduced to Lisa Cagno, the mother of a victim of bullying who attempted suicide at age 14, who told us that her son was bullied so badly.   The bullying got so bad that he couldn’t shake the feelings. In the special, she says:

“He was hurting himself. He was cutting himself, and he would just (say), ‘I hate myself, I don’t want to live anymore. I hate my life. Nobody likes me, no one cares about me.’ And I just – I would just have to constantly just reassure him. I couldn’t get those feelings out of his head.”

We also met her school’s amazing social worker, Lisa Vachon, who has created the Can’t Bully in School Program.  She has integrated many helpful experiences into her school’s program including:

- Turning the student’s experiences into a dramatic play in which they act them out.

- Mentoring program

- Support Group

- Post anti-bullying messages around the school.

- Allowing the students to anonymously report bullying in boxes.

The panelists compared middle school to ground zero.  Personally, it gave me so much to think about.  As parents, we need to teach our children how to defend themselves, but how also not to hurt other children’s family.  They are smaller versions of our own selves, so let’s teach them how to be good kids, good friends, good people now. I’m planning a lecture at my synagogue about bullying in the upcoming months to help educate my community.  But at the end of the day, we need to keep the lines of communication open with our children and help guide them through these years.

So, don’t miss this program. Friday night at 8pm on CBS and viewers can join the conversation online on  Twitter.  Prepare yourself so you can help your children now or later. Remember, some kids may be too afraid to tell you what’s going on and you may need to look for the signs.  A lot of bullying goes unreported.

Here’s a video clip:

Disclosure: I was invited as a guest of the discussion, but no opinion was asked of me.  The ones expresses are my own.

Source: fabulously40.com

When I was growing up in the 1970′s, sitcoms were an important part of my family life.  The TV was always on and I remember watching them so vividly with my two sisters.  From The Brady Bunch to The Facts of Life to Laverne and Shirley, we watched everything.  The characters in the shows meant more to me than just regular TV shows.  I wanted to be them, and I learned a lot about life through their experiences.  I loved the family on The Brady Bunch, and yearned to be like them and wanted someone like Alice in my life.  Getting stranded on Gilligan’s Island didn’t look so bad either. We grew up on shows like The Partridge Family, Maude, Good Times, All in the Family, Bewitched, The Waltons, Welcome Back Kotter, One Day at a Time, The Jeffersons and more.   Oh, and Soap, I loved that one.

When I walked into the DR2 Theater in Union Square last night and sat in my seat, the first thing I saw on stage was the millions of pictures on the stage walls from all my favorite 70s shows, many of which are mentioned above.  I knew something interesting was about to come my way.

In the first minute of her show, Judy Gold lets us know that she’s a  6’3” Jewish lesbian mom of two sons. She grew up in New Jersey and learned almost everything she knows about anything from these television shows.  She kicks off the show with her own rendition of the theme song from The Brady Show called “The Gold Bunch”.   We learn immediately that she grew up thinking the parents of TV sitcoms were cooler than her own parents and that as a child, she spent “spent hours lying on my belly on the shag carpeting getting lost in the world of the 70s sitcom.”  She liked these shows because the characters in these shows actually talked to each other. In her own family, there were two kinds of communication: “screaming and not talking to each other.”   In the playbill and in the show, we learn that she learned about racism and politics in All in the Family and The Jeffersons, abortion and divorce in Maude, single mothers in One Day at a Time, poverty in Good Times and homosexuality in Three’s Company and Soap, unmarried professional women in Mary Tyler Moore. There was life outside the Gold home.

She then launches into a 80 minute recount of her existence on this planet, comparing every stage of life to a TV show.  As a young girl, when her mom informed her she was going to a Jewish sleep-away camp, she thought it would be more like Mash but was more like The Facts of Life.  She hated camp so much that she compared it to the Exodus chapter in the Bible and the showers to the the ones in concentration camps.   Gold’s own life with her parents was like a sitcom and it has certainly given her food for fodder as a comedienne, but she clearly loves them very much.

Gold’s memories of her childhood morph into tales about her young adulthood.  When she and here mom were looking at colleges, her mom said to her, “What are we, the Rockefellers?”  At Rutgers, just 15 miles away, she breaks out into her own, finding her love of comedy and coming to terms with her gay identity.

In the show, Gold spends time exploring relationships with women, the birth of her two children and her relationship with her father who she never revealed her lesbianism to, although he obviously knew, and deeply regrets that decision.  Judiasm and her mother are integral story lines, and I think, for me,  since I could relate to her mom’s nagging to her obsession with sweet & low, I enjoyed the show all the more. Her mother was..and is…(she’s 89) critical about everything she did…and still does.  Her motto was always, “I came.  I saw.  I criticize.”

And I related to Gold.  I used to want to jump into the TV screen, and when she sat at the piano and belted out my favorite TV show theme songs, I couldn’t help but smile.

Confident about her abilities as a comedienne, which she seems to have always had, Gold tells her audience that she decided to develop a TV show based on her life as a sitcom to networks early on her career, which she pitched in 1999, 2004 and 2009.  She have never given up on her dream and it’s an important part of the show.  She tells the audience that she wants a sitcom so that people can see families like her and she that they are not so strange – an observant Jewish lesbian with two kids, with an ex-girlfriend who lives in her building on another floor who gave birth to one son, Gold to the other son.  After the gay network rejected  her pitch (“Would this make a good animated comedy?” ended every pitch session) in 2004 because she didn’t want to make the show “The L Word on the Upper West Side”, Gold got excited when OWN recently picked it up.  She was crushed when they recently decided to can it after their financials came back and her show seemed “too risky”.  Still, I don’t think she will ever give up on her dream to have her own show, and I hope that she doesn’t.

Gold is engaging and funny, and the show, written by her and Kate Moira Ryan, flies by.  I highly recommend it.  You’ll appreciate it for its humor, slice of life mentality, but most of all, for its nostalgia and walk down memory lane.

“The Judy Show” continues through October 23rd at The DR2 Theater, 103 E. 15th St., New York. Call (212) 239-6200 or visit www.judygold.com.  You can get tickets here.

Source: NYT

Just when I was about to give up completely on summer television comes along a fab new Internet only show on AMCTV.com called The Trivial Pursuits of Arthur Banks.  It’s very Woody Allen, very Freudian.  It’s a homage to Allen, who I adore, not only because it uses narration and black and white video, but also because it’s about an actor/writer (played skillfully by Adam Goldberg) who is having an affair with a young protege.  He feverishly tries to sort out his life, while writing bits of it into his scripts.  His therapist, played by Jeffrey Tambor, adds the perfect neurotic touch and even the music is a la Woody.

The episode that I watched tonight is 12 minutes long and is called “I Pulled a Polanski” and was right up my alley.  If the writers weren’t channeling Woody’s fact and fiction, I’m not sure whey they got their ideas, but it was funny, poignant and I definitely want to keep watching.  Besides, I need summer material.  Check it out on Hulu.