What’s All This Then? Beautiful British Lesbians? Mr. Paul Newman?


Highly recommended for viewing this Memorial Day weekend are two fairly divergent choices but both well worth your time. You can nab a front row seat on Showtime this Saturday night for the much-praised recent version of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, directed for James Naughton (who many of us unfortunately can’t ever forget as one of the stranded astronauts in the long-ago Planet of the Apes TV series) and featuring Paul Newman. This production of the play, conceived by Artistic Director Joanne Woodward for her Westport County Playhouse and subsequently moved to Broadway, was filmed in late January of this year and features other familiar faces such as Jane Curtin, Frank Converse, and Jeffrey DeMunn in key roles. Whether you’re already steeped in this play or coming to it for the first time, the sentiments brought forth in the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama have continuing resonance for all. This Our Town will also be seen on PBS this fall, but don’t wait until then to catch it.

And now for something completely different, have a go at BBC America’s controversial and chocked-full-of-naughty-bits three-part miniseries Tipping the Velvet, based on Sarah Walter’s acclaimed picaresque lesbian-focused novel from 1999. The object of tremendous audience interest because of…wait for it…lesbian sex – surprise! – it nevertheless more than holds its own as a fascinating glimpse into a faraway and long ago world. Americans will probably find it especially exotic, as we’re ignorant to the ways and traditions of Victorian England Music Hall, the predominant milieu of this opulent production. Tipping the Velvet was mildly criticized by some as taking a too comic approach to the material; without having seen beforehand I should think that would be a perfect way to handle it. The bawdy knockabout nature of Music Hall particularly and show business in general back in those days hardly requires somber treatment, and that the producers of Tipping the Velvet chose to embrace the theatrical traditions of the time seems an excellent choice.

What most viewers probably tuned in to see was a program promising comely young ladies, including Diana Rigg’s lovely daughter Rachael Stirling, engaged in some steamy lesbian antics, and that’s what they got, and hopefully we’ll get the same over here. BBC America is good about not editing – except sometimes unfortunately for time constraints – and it seems unlikely that anything in this show will require snipping. There was some stir over in Britain about a scene with a dildo, but this is hardly hardcore pornography, so don’t get your hopes up.

Think of this as Lesbian Masterpiece Theater and you’ll have a good idea of the sumptuous production values and top-rate acting in Tipping the Velvet. The cast includes Anna Chancellor (Four Weddings and a Funeral) and Jodhi May (A World Apart); those of you who follow British comedy will be pleased to see Alexei Sayle (The Young Ones) in a small role.

In short, how often do you get to see a musical comedy/drama about a young and beautiful oyster shucker who becomes a celebrated lesbian entertainer? And she’s not been working with oysters for nothing, you know. Expect plenty of arcane and delicious (cunni)linguistic turns of phrase in Tipping the Velvet, which in case you’re wondering, is indeed Victorian slang for cunnilingus. Wink wink…nudge nudge, say no more!


Paul Newman in Our Town premieres on Showtime East Saturday 5/24 at 8pm and on Monday 5/26 at 7pm. For a complete run schedule and more information on the play, check out Showtime’s website.

Tipping the Velvet airs on BBC America beginning tonight, Friday 5/23 at 10pm Eastern, with an encore at 1pm. It goes into a strange repeat cycle which actually makes sense, with the two other new parts premiering on Saturday and Sunday nights at 10pm, and then with the opportunity to catch up from Episode One forward each night at midnight. It’s a little confusing, but take a look at BBC America’s Tipping the Velvet webpage for more information and full run schedule.

Also check out BBC UK’s Tipping the Velvet site for lots of extra information.

And here’s a good review of the book from Salon.com.

And a great official fan website for those of you who simply can’t get enough Velvet.

And here's everything you always wanted to know about British Music Hall but didn’t know you even wanted to find out.

 
Put a Stake in It

Although I’m getting a little weary of reading all the “Farewell, Buffy” articles lately, I’m looking forward to tonight’s episode on UPN, the last one ever. As I said a few days ago, I’ve watched the show from the very beginning, not so much because of all the accurate portrayals of teen angst (being well out of my teens, thank god), or all the emotional/love stuff, but rather because I loved the monster hunting. My favorite character all along: Xander, for sure, whose self-deprecating sense of humor was always a leavening ingredient in what could sometimes become a little too brooding, especially during all the episodes that centered around doomed romances and the like. In the midst of impossible grand passion, it was always a nice relief to be able to count on Xander bringing things down to earth. I have no idea what he’ll be up to tonight, but he’s already given an eye to the cause and anything could happen.

And for a great one-two TV punch, switch over to Fox at 9pm and catch this season’s last 24, though of course the show will be back next year. Also ending their seasons tonight are Jag, Gilmore Girls, all the sitcoms and NYPD Blue on ABC, and if that isn’t enough, you can give Hitler a tumble over on CBS as they finish their miniseries. As might have been expected, it wasn’t exactly a ratings blitzkrieg on Sunday, but did make a splash with older men. I watched a fair bit of it but couldn’t quite stick with it and ended up switching back and forth between it and Law & Order: Criminal Intent, an episode which was supposed to star Andrew McCarthy (as listed in TV Guide) but at the last minute he dropped out because he reportedly didn’t get along with series star Vincent D’Onofrio. I’m not a regular viewer of the show and was amazed what a non-charismatic performer V D’O is, but then again, that’s the hallmark of all the Law and Order series. Strictly dullsville, and I thought damn near somnambulistic.

Every time I hear somebody say what a great show L&O – or its sister shows – is, I wonder…how did they miss the leaden performances, plodding pacing, and the total predictability of every line and every reaction from every character at every moment? But anything other than that, and they wouldn’t be the hit shows they are, I get that. At least Dick Wolf does the audience a favor by sounding that metallic clunk everytime they do a location change – it’s a great snooze-stopper – and putting a “We Are Here” graphic up in case you’re gotten lost somewhere during the breakneck pace of the proceedings. I know why people watch lousy reality shows – cheap thrills, carnival-level stunts, melodramatic plotting gimmicks – but what bugs me more is when people say the Dick Wolf shows are brilliant. They are workmanlike at best, and they do the job – getting ratings and appropriate demos -- well. For that I respect them, but let’s not flatter the audience by deeming the shows “genius” and therefore automatically upping the taste level of the viewers via semantics alone.

But I digress. Anyway, your choices are good tonight. Go forth and view.


The last episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer airs tonight at 8pm on UPN.

24 wraps up its season on Fox at 9pm.

And Hitler: The Rise of Evil concludes at 9pm on CBS.

 
Evil Meets Its Match


The next couple days are network TV’s very own version of the Axis of Evil, what with Martha Stewart, Adolf Hitler, the baddies on 24, the undead and assorted malcontents on Buffy all making appearances as the May sweeps wind down and series finales abound.

Tonight, your best bet, unless you want to revisit ABC’s salad days with their three-hour ABC's 50th Anniversary Celebration at 8pm (which means they’re basically ducking out but using the opportunity to preach to the converted), is probably NBC’s Martha Inc.: The Story of Martha Stewart TV movie, from the book of the same name. Starring Cybill Sheperd, who promises to bring an over-the-top but probably empathetic take to the material – remember, back when she was making her sitcom her own reputation was that of a neurotic taskmaster, and doesn’t that sound like perfect training to play Ms. Stewart? Seldom does popular culture create a perfect character like Martha Stewart – controlled to the point of mania, preaching the art of gracious relaxation yet behaving (reportedly) more like the commandant of a concentration camp, incredibly monetarily successful from getting a large portion of American womanhood to buy into her idealized vision of life, yet so greedy that she’s not above getting involved in shady stock transactions to get a few extra bucks – and it’s no wonder that America wanted to knock her down. Unlike Iraq, we don’t have oversized busts of our national personalities sitting around in townsquares waiting to be toppled over by angry mobs, but we accomplish our version of the same kind of reckoning via the media. This TV movie is part of it, and honestly, if Martha Stewart can’t stand the heat, she ought to get out of her immaculately appointed kitchen. I normally avoid things that some people would describe as being “a hoot” – and I don’t doubt that this term is being bandied about re: this Martha movie – but all students of the media and watchers of pop America will probably enjoy seeing how television behaves when it turns on one of its own.

If Stewart-skewering isn’t your cup of freshly brewed herbal tea, you might enjoy watching Monica Lewinsky on Fox presiding over the last episode of Mr. Personality, which I like to think of as the "Musk in the Iron Masks." Or over on CBS, somebody’s getting married on an extended Everybody Loves Raymond, and then you can watch an elongated CSI: Miami season finale starting at 9:45p. I love the whole phenomenon of networks stretching episodes to create trick scheduling gimmicks; it’s so amazingly desperate and completely understandable, and goodness knows any programmer worth their salt does everything they can to bridge the hour and half-hour mark, giving viewers no alternative but to hang in where they are, stranded at a weird time and helpless to join any other show in mid-stride. And guess what? The technique works, and congrats to the networks for being able to use it as much as they have with new shows that required additional production. Hey, every five minutes of a terrific rating means something, so go for it.

Last night I watched the E True Hollywood Story on Jerry Lewis, who isn’t looking so great these days but is a fascinating talent, as always. All jokes and tired (and untrue) truisms about him aside – such as nobody but the French like his movies – Lewis was one of the jazziest of American comedians, obeying his own comic beat and often eschewing typical Hollywood movie humor construction to create characters that are downright weird and therefore tremendously memorable. His Julius Kelp in The Nutty Professor has never been topped, and for a moment that will have you in a real schizo hold, try laying his “Lady!” yelp over the suave and heppest of hepcat turns as he dance-descends the staircase in Cinderfella. Anybody can move from the sublime to the ridiculous, but the absolute best is when the two are combined, and that was one of Lewis’ specialties. I don’t see another encore on the schedule at this point, but I’ll post the date when I do.

For more on Jerry Lewis, check out the better-than-expected website for the show on E last night.

Or here's the Official Jerry Lewis website from Lewis himself, where there's a link to an album of Lewis prank phone calls from decades ago, and boy, does that sound like it would have Crank Yankers running for cover....

And here's a really nice fan website for Jerry Lewis, once again showing that the web, at its most personal, is where it's at.

More later on what’s coming up on Tuesday television, and I’m nearly done with the 2003/2004 new TV season analysis, coming soon!