Some TV Musings

Okay, it looks like my computer virus problems are behind me. Now I just have the usual problems with the PC - interminable waits for Internet connections, intermittent loading of my favorite BBC radio shows . . ..  Guess everything's back to normal.

Anyway, on to an entirely different subject - television. I haven't watched most of the new series on this fall, although my mother recommends Whoopi Goldberg's new sitcom. One new sitcom that did catch my eye is ABC's "I'm With Her," a guilty-pleasure-quality show about an average guy who dates a famous actress, which may or may not still be on come January. I'll have more on that later.

Tonight's episode of "Ed" dashed any hopes that the writers have stopped playing with us loyal viewers. The main plot involved Carol trying out for and accepting a job as a writer for a New York magazine called Bridge and Tunnel and Ed ready to sell his bowling alley for her (ironically, he bought the bowling alley because she kissed him after his return from New York) and move with her from their fictional Ohio town of Stuckeyville to the Big Apple. Here we go again. Will he go? Will she change her mind? And if they both go, what does that mean for their friends?

Why are the writers doing this? Two words - November sweeps.

"The West Wing" finds the Bartlet administration dealing with a renegade senator from Idaho threratening to upset the balance of power on Capitol Hill while C.J. grapples with being honest over an EPA report on the pollution from coal contradicting Administration policy - and Amy abuses her power as the First Lady's chief of staff to get funding for her own pet projects. And oh yes, Josh has an aide who is the the great-great-great-grandson of President Franklin Pierce (1853-1857) and who seems to be savvier than even Josh himself.

Okay, Franklin Pierce's two sons died before reaching maturity; hence, there aren't really any direct Pierce descendants. But if we can pretend that we have a liberal Democratic President who's a namesake descendant of one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, we can pretend that a White House aide is descended from the fourteenth President of the United States.

Finally, regarding "Frasier". . . .It looks like Martin, not Frasier himself, will find true love when the series ends in the spring. Kelsey Grammer has even warned us to expect a series finale that doesn't really resolve everything with dramatic closure, least of all for his own character. If that's the case, it won't be that much different from "Cheers," from which "Frasier" was spawned.

More miscellaneous musings another time . . ..