TV Heaven

Hey everyone, So after the play i met up with cyd and we went back to her
apartment.  She lives in a great part of the city - smack in the heart of
soho.  Everything you could possibly want seems to be no more than 3 blocks
away.  And the best part is she lives right across the street from Cafe
Noir.  It's a great little latin bar/restaurant that we discovered on our
first trip to NYC almost ten years ago and has remained a favorite ever
since.  It's the first place I tried both cosmopolitans and sangria.  the
latter remains a favorite!  Naturally cafe noir was a sure stop for us
Thursday nite and their sangria is as delicious as i remembered.

The next day was museum day.  My original plan was to see one museum - i was
torn between the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) and the Museum of Television
and Radio.  I've been to MOMA before, but a Japanese architect has redone it
and i'd heard wonderful things about it.  The bad thing about it tho is the
price is now $20!  I took the subway to midtown and ran into a street vendor
who told me that Fridays were free after 4 pm (sponsored by Target).  I
confirmed with MOMA that this was true and sure enough it is - a great tip
for anyone who visits!  It was around 1:30 so i decided to hit the TV
museum, which was only a few blocks away.  I have found my own version of
Mecca!  Everyday they have exhibits running in this really nice theatre
there - this time it was a tribute to steven sondheim.  i sat there around
15 minutes, long enough to hear the original cast members of West Side Story
talk about gangs.  That was pretty funny.  I then went to the main
attraction - the library.  Once there, you can go to a computer and search
their inventory and pick four shows you want to watch.  Unfortunately you
can't browse thru all the shows they have on disk - you have to come
prepared with the shows you want to see.  This i did not do. I thought of
two things i really wanted to see - an old diet coke commercial and a
variety show that my mother in law, Marlene sang on.  i struck out on both
fronts.  The commercial was not in their inventory and i could not get hold
of Marlene to confirm the name of the tv show (she later called me back to
say it was the Milton Berle Hollywood Palace Show of Shows - next time!).

So i thought long and hard for a few minutes about the shows that would
interest me that aren't currently on dvd.  I came up with a few winners.
The first was easy - Fury.  My all time fav show as a child of around 4.
it's black and white and made in the 50s about this orphan, Joey, who comes
to live on a ranch and befriends a wild black horse named Fury.
Unfortunately around this time we moved to the country and no longer got the
station Fury was on so my love affair with Fury was cut short.  I've
obviously not yet gotten over it;).  Anyway, sure enough they had the
premiere episode of Fury.  I watched the whole thing and learned how Joey
came to stay at the ranch.  It's still a great show and Fury is still the
most beautiful horse in all the land.  A pony for Christmas remains the
ideal present for me, should anyone be reading this.

The next show I tried was Square Pegs.  Another short lived favorite.  This
is probably on dvd or will be eventually given that it starred Sarah Jessica
Parker of Sex and the City fame.  My favorite character tho was Jennifer
DeNuccio played by Tracy Nelson as the ultimate valley girl.  I picked up
all my gag me with a spoonesque lingo from her.  Once again I struck gold as
they had the episode "No Substitutions" guest starring none other than Bill
Murray as a substitute teacher.  He is soooooooo funny - he comes into class
with a pajama shirt and a really short poorly tied tie.  My evolution of
jazz teacher at SMU used to come to class dressed in a sweat suit and tie.
I hated him tho, so it wasn't nearly as funny.  This episode rocked tho.
SJP gets a crush on Murray that results in much teen angst.  The details of
the show impressed me.  At the beginning of the episode Murray asks the
class what they were studying and a student says the last thing their
teacher taught them was how to pick up straight men.   It's a throwaway
line, but at the end of the episode I noted on the chalkboard a list of ten
items:  "10. Hardware stores  9.  Football games.........1.  Bars!!!".  This
is definitely a box set i want to someday own.

You only get the computer for 2 hours so i wanted my third pick to be short
and sweet.  i decided on a cartoon.  i really screwed up here as my fav
cartoon of all time is the looney tunes with michigan j. frog singing hello
my baby.  This escaped me at the time and i instead chose a smurfs episode -
dreamy's nightmare in which dreamy decides to leave smurfville and travel
the world.  Shockingly chaos ensues and gargamel almost gets to eat all the
smurfs for dinner.  it all works out in the end tho, in case you were
worried.  i must admit i was a little bored with the smurfs.

Finally, i hit upon another brilliant idea - the Iran Contra trials.  I was
enthralled when they came on back in the 80s, even to the degree that i
didn't mind missing All My Children for it.  Oliver North, John Poindexter
and Brendan Sullivan (Olly's lawyer) were all my heroes that summer.  i even
watched them when we went to Creede.  Such was my obsession.  Luckily they
did have one tape of the trials.  i played it and was surprised to find that
I was spellbound once again.  If there exists a dvd of the entire trial, i
must have it.  i was disappointed that i didn't get to hear Sullivan deliver
his famous line, "I am not a potted plant!", when the special prosecutor
told him to quit interrupting,  but he and Ollie both delivered some good
ones.  The other thing that struck me while watching this was how things
have changed.  You could see cigarette smoke floating in the foreground and
there weren't a million graphics running all over the screen.  It was an
entirely pleasant viewing experience and the hour i spent watching it flew
by.  To sum it all up, i love this museum.   You can join it for $50/yr and
get to see all this stuff whenever you want.  you can bet if i lived in nyc
or los angeles (they have another one there) that i would be a premiere
member!

This is definitely a great comment topic - anyone else wanna select the four
shows you'd watch if given the choice?  

For tomorrow:  A review of the new MOMA, my brush with a famous face, the
kgb bar and reflections on the breakfast club.

-sunday