SFK

Lena was rather strident. She was never my favorite, though I love this fake laugh take she does when Ron is giving a group of folks some dozens, "Yo momma so dumb, she sold the car for gas money!" Y&R, I totally remember that Mammy episode, I can't remember who it was who was setting all of those glass Mammy figurines out though, was it Nettie? They were "celebrating" their cultural heritage in America or something, I dunno, if memory serves they were trying too hard to sell folks on the idea that the Mammy memorabilia was okay when it's perfectly legitimate to take issue with that stuff.

This is one of my and my friends' favorite episodes! Whitley: Look at Kim lookin' like Millie Jackson! Kim: Sha-ka-ka-ka-KA-KA! Freddie:

I dunno, I think the show was always very good at taking characters down a notch when they got too extreme, like Carl's earlier example with Shazza. Even the racism ep I mentioned earlier tried to be fair and balanced, I mean, the black boys weren't racist like the white boys were which automatically gave them the leg up in the ep, but the show pointed out how Ron's ethnic jokes for example (white men being bad at sports) inflamed the situation. And having Ernie Sabella's character, the good ol' southern sheriff, married to a black woman only further drove home the point that young black males can't automatically assume that the white man is out to get them, that the actions of the authorities can in fact be motivated by the law and not personal prejudices.

Yeah, didn't she have the baby during a snow storm or something? A hurricane? Was it the episode where they had to plug the hole at The Pit with Whitley's coat? Terrence was so painfully geeky, oh my gahhd, that little rat tail on the back of his head. Ah yes, Mary Alice, Nettie and her obligatory snood. I really liked Walter (Sinbad), I liked his own sitcom too as a matter of fact, and I'll try to forget that Ray-J was on it. I can't stand that guy.

I don't think they had anything to do with the HBO Josephine Baker movie which my family also loved, but why can I totally imagine Phyl being a little perturbed that she wasn't cast? Okay, maybe not though because apparently she's not too keen on people bringing up that disco album. EricMontreal could chime in on that. And LMAO @you doing the Appollo get off the stage hand wave! Those kids are so creepy the way they're looking at her. Alisa Gyse (Kinu) played Deena, the Sheryl Lee Ralph (okay, and Beyonce ) role in the big '87 revival of Dreamgirls. I'm sure that's what lead to her casting on ADW. Of course Loretta Devine was in the first season of ADW, and she was in the original Broadway production (Lorell).

Yeah, I think she has Lupus (?) or something.

I thought Jaleesa was annoying on gp, I guess what I'm really saying is that I find DWTN (Dawnn with two n's) Lewis annoying. I never really cared for her and two annoying points for me in particular are her awful stuffed up nose voice when Jaleesa has the flu in one ep, and her rendition of The National Anthem in the racial Roshomon ep.

The moment she read that part in her obituary made my stomach sink to the floor, there were so many dramatic AIDS-related moments like that on TV when I was growing up. It's weird because at that point I think I only knew Tisha from Little Shop, not sure if she'd done School Daze yet.

That was a hilarious episode. I think that's the same one where they're trying to figure out if their new co-worker is gay and Corky says they can find out by telling him that there's something on his shoe. If he lifts his foot in front of him, he's straight, if he goes like *this* (raises hands and kicks pointed toe behind him looking over shoulder), he's gay.

One thing that I loved in particular about ADW and TCS was their use of New York theatre actors. For TCS, that was the audition pool as it taped in New York, but Debbie Allen had had a Broadway career of her own and she continued the TCS tradition by often recruiting talented NY theatre personalities like Anita Morris, Alisa Gyse, Jenifer Lewis, Roscoe Lee Brown, and the mother of ADW's executibe producer Susan Fales-Hill, the late great Josephine Premice. I caught an ep the other week where they did a talent show and Whitley performed a Josephine Baker number "J'ai Deux Amours" that Debbie is credited as choreographing in the credits. I couldn't help but see the additional connection as her sister Phylicia Rashad released a Joephine Baker disco album back in the '70s where she covered that song. Whitley around the 6:00 mark (embedding disabled by request): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orTj3s-9tNk Phyl: <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9EjW93ttrg&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param'>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9EjW93ttrg&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9EjW93ttrg&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object> Oh my God, my avatar is so next level with that blaring!

And people may kind of when Debbie Allen says it, but I think she's right that ADW made going to college "in" for a lot of young black people who hadn't seen it in their future. She has data that kind of supports this. The show made the culture of predominantly black schools known on a national level and a lot of people were drawn to that, as well as the promise of becoming educated professionals with a step ahead.

I don't know what exactly accounted for it, schedule change/I got into another show, but I know that Murphy went from weekly must-see TV to me barely seeing a full ep during the final season. I remember the ep where cancer-stricken Murphy had insomnia or something and was up all night with Lily Tomlin's character on the phone as Murphy frantically baked in the kitchen (???), but I did not care for Tomlin's character, I really enjoyed Miles Silverberg. I didn't really mind it actually, but I know that a LOT of people took issue with the final fantasy season of Roseanne. Yes, it got REALLY silly sometimes, but wow, what a downer of an ending. Geesh. Never watched MAY.

I hate it when I get in on a thread like this late. SO much to comment on, don't know where to start.

DOH, my bad, "The Vintage Years", confusing it with Y&R. Yeah, I watched about half of it, and LOL @Dorcas, yup, just how it looks, as in Malorcas. I don't know why they decided to put La Wyman in a wig, and I'm surprised she even went along with it. Rarely do you see PTB trying to age women on TV, especially ones who are already beyond "a certain age". My how times have changed. Kinda like the grey streaks they put in Stephanie Beacham's hair on "The Colbys".

Wow, I can't believe I've totally forgotten about it, that's what happens when you're spoiled out of the blue with just loads of classic TV, but does AOL still have its video channel? They were airing Falcon Crest, complete with the The Innocent Years pilot with Angela in the white wig, Richard as her son played by Duncan from ATWT, Clu Gulagher as Chase, Samantha Eggar as Maggie, Julia here called Dorcas (LOVE that).

I swear I remember a scene on AMC where Edmund and Maria were about to bone and the camera went out wide and out of focus and Eva La Rue was nude.

OMG, LOL with shame. But wow, that is really something, for them both to go within such a short span of time. He also appeared on B&B with Stephanie Beacham a few years ago, they played themselves visiting Jackie's boutique.

Yeah, I saw it on cable a few years back, I'd like to see the heavily recast series.

I thought that was Shayne, Marty West.

I just noticed a familiar name in the credits, Susan Howard (Donna, DALLAS) was on the writing team as well ("story by").

DP

He did say that, and maybe he even went as far to say that Blake, Krystle, and Alexis were a spin on Mac, Rachel, and Iris or that was just inferred from what he said, I don't quite remember. But he definitely said that primetime nabbed two of his names, Carrington and Ewing.

And as I said earlier in the thread, if you're doing I, Claudius, you don't wait until the end of the season cliffhanger to introduce your Livia. Well, at least not these days. I guess Fallon gave us a taste of that, but had they not been picked up for whatever reason, we'd have never had Alexis and the '80s would have been a much different place.

Ugh, I REALLY don't get that. Same deal with Linda Dano and Michele Lee. The heavy on a soap is always so much more fun to watch (and presumably play). What is with actors who are so pressed to be liked?? It's TV.

I could be very wrong, but why do I feel like that's mostly Esther's doing?