Modern Family, Adopt Me

Julie Bowen, congratulations. You have been in good show after good show and have either not gotten the recognition you deserve or had the plug pulled on you. Now, we warmly welcome you to great ratings and are delighted by your comedic talents in Modern Family.

I was a little skeptical at first by the premise of Modern Family. There is the “normal” family (with Julie Bowen), the gay couple, and the remarried couple. The good jokes seemed to be wasted in the previews and I expected another mockumentary that would get tired half way through the fall. But my girl Julie was in another show and I was going to tune in.

It took about 2 minutes to get hooked. The comedic timing in Modern Family is spot on and the characters are out of control. I’ve almost peed my pants on multiple occasions. I have a weekly debate with myself (and sometimes friends…) about which character is my favorite. Even though Julie is great and her skills definitely aren’t wasted, she sadly isn’t on my short list for faves.  Here are the contenders:

Phil Dunphy. Played by the hilarious Ty Burrell (where has this guy been?), Phil is the self-confessed cool dad. He is an awesome foil to his wife Claire (Bowen) and walks a perfect line between endearingly awkward and embarrassingly out of touch. Where Phil goes, antics follow and the fact that he sometimes looks like a vampire is only part of his charm. Best scene of the season: toss up between Coulrophobia, and shooting his son Luke (Nolan Gould) and daughter Haley’s (Sarah Hyland) boyfriend (Reid Ewing) with a BB gun.

Cameron Tucker (aka Fizbo). Cam is Claire’s brother’s boyfriend and parent to newly adopted Lily. Where to begin with Cam, perfectly played by Eric Stonestreet? First of all, I am very happy that the gay couple isn’t a cliché. They are solid characters with attributes beyond their sexuality. Cam is the cuddly one in the partnership, which balances out Mitchell’s (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) cynicism. He is so lovable just thinking about him makes me smile and is best described by himself during an interview post Mitchell’s deflowering of bargain shopping at Costco: “I’m sort of like Costco. I’m big, I’m not fancy, and I dare you not to like me.” Best scene of the season: uhhhh impossible to choose.

Jay Pritchett. The patriarch of the family, Jay (Ed O’Neill) is newly married to Gloria (Sofía Vergara) and stepfather to Manny (Rico Rodriguez) while Claire and Mitchell are his kids from his first marriage. I didn’t expect Jay to be one of my favorites, but his comments, usually directed towards Manny, always seem to come out of left field and crack me up, such as “if you notice from the absence of goats in the streets, we’re not in Colombia.” Despite being politically incorrect, his Full House-style closing comments at the end of the show are touching and clever. Best scene of the season: watching Miracle on 34^th Street with Manny. Innocente!

Modern Family is beyond charming. It is witty, sweet and hi-larious. If you aren’t watching, tune in, because you are missing some of the best friends you’ve never had.

Wednesdays at 9/8c

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Photographs courtesy of ABC, Patrick Wymore, Danny Feld, and Eric McCandless.

The New Adventures of Old Christine – A Guaranteed LOL Every Week

Who out there was a fan of Seinfeld? Whoa. I see lots of hands, and mine’s stretched into the air as well. It’s true. Now I’m typing with one hand. Seriously, though, if you enjoyed Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ character Elaine (Seinfeld) there is absolutely no reason you won’t get a kick out of Christine Campbell. I chose to write about this series because it’s one of my “musts” every week, and I’m continually surprised by how few people seemed to have discovered it.

As a way of recapping the past seasons and introducing the characters, here is a brief summary as well as some of my favorite moments. Christine Campbell (Louis-Dreyfus) and Richard Campbell (Clark Gregg) are the divorced parents of Ritchie (Trevor Gagnon). Richard is engaged to New Christine (Emily Rutherford) while Old Christine lives with her brother, Matthew (Hamish Linklater). She runs a gym with Barb, her divorced friend who is also her wife, played by Wanda Sykes. Barb is from the Bahamas, and in order to avoid deportation she and Christine got married. Now that gay marriage is illegal again in CA, she is still in the country illegally. Old Christine is insecure about being divorced and getting old, causing her to make her son a dependent momma’s boy. Also, she drinks too much, dates a lot, always says the wrong thing, and is lazy.

Their son goes to a snooty private school and several story lines revolve around Christine being picked on by the blonde, surgically enhanced, still married mothers. Christine and her brother have an odd (sometimes bordering on inappropriate) relationship that’s always good for a laugh. Basically, they are totally comfortable with who the other person is and don’t bother pulling any punches. Which results in hilarity. Early in the series Old Christine has been up all night worrying about something and finally decides to go talk to her brother about it. She gets out of bed in her nightgown, trudges out the back door to her brother’s little apartment, and knocks. He opens the door in his bathrobe, sees his sister, and without hesitation says, “This better not be about American Idol.” Bang. That’s their relationship.

Old Christine’s relationship with Barb is an ongoing nightmare, as from week to week there is no clear reason presented why Barb would stay friends with her at all. Wanda Sykes is always hilarious, and her sidekick role in this show is no exception. One of my favorite Barb moments was when she slept with Matthew (the brother) after her divorce. They quickly realized they had no feelings for each other, but continued to keep up a relationship charade to freak out Old Christine. Richard (the ex) and Old Christine have an interesting relationship, and are still friends while both totally agree they are much better apart. Old Christine and New Christine are friendly, though New Christine gets irked about the amount of time Richard spends getting his ex-wife out of trouble or talking her down off ledges.

My favorite Richard moment was last season, when Ritchie gets sent home from school with lice. Old Christine is considering changing schools after the way she was treated (again) and goes off to an interview while Richard and Matthew stay home to de-louse the kid. When Christine gets home, they are all sitting in the kitchen with olive oil on their hair covered by plastic wrap. Apparently, this is the remedy they came up with on the internet. Old Christine makes a big deal about Richard treating himself as well, since he is almost completely bald and one must have hair to have lice. She tells them to get cleaned up and get to the new school, because the principal wants to meet Ritchie. When they arrive, all of their hair is slicked down and oily from their ‘treatment.’ Old Christine freaks out because they look like the Addams Family, then turns on her ex – “Richard, what are you doing? You’re a tiny mustache away from invading Poland!” One of the Best. Lines. Ever.

The writers are insane on this show, and I mean it in a good way. Sometimes they take things just a step farther than I would, or than is necessary, but it always makes me laugh. The actors have settled into these parts, and the dialogue dances off their tongues. It’s funny, it’s quirky, and we’re never stuck too long in one plot line wondering when the heck they are going to move on. I always encourage people to watch it, so now I’m encouraging you. I promise, if you don’t crack up at some point in the first episode you watch, I’ll stop eating Hershey’s Kisses for a week. Okay, a day. Maybe. Seriously, though, if it doesn’t make you laugh, there might be something wrong with you. Just sayin.

Wednesdays at 8/7c on CBS

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Photographs courtesy of CBS.

Jone Dome Holiday Episode: Best Songs of 2009

Best Songs of 2009 - Ference & Double Edge give you their top songs of 2009.

Excerpt Credits:

Written by: Ference and Double Edge

Produced & Edited by: Zuberi B. Williams

Venue: Austin Grill (Silver Spring, MD)

Music: Harry Connick, Jr. (Must have been ole Santa),

Jay-z Feat: Alicia Keys (Empire State of Mind),

Michael Franti (Say Hey (I Love You))

Leopold Bros. Distillery

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(If the show does not play using the link at the bottom of the page, you can download it: Download|Podcast Alley)

T. Dubb is a lover of the arts and enjoys drawing, listening to music, and watching movies in her spare time. Originally from Los Angeles, she currently resides in Davis, CA.

SUNDAY, 27th (Week of Dec 27 – Jan 2nd)

SOUND OF MUSIC: The hills are alive with…four hours of the Sound of Music!  Obviously, this is only for the brave.(7pm/ABC)

MONDAY, 28th

CBS COMEDY NIGHT: Have yourself a comedy marathon with sitcoms like How I Met Your Mother and the Big Bang Theory. Sure they’re repeats, but would you really rather watch Bank of Hollywood? (8pm/CBS)

TUESDAY, 29th

THE 32ND ANNUAL KENNEDY CENTER HONORS: Please don’t tell me Jack Black is being honored tonight for his work in Year One?! (9pm/CBS)

WEDNESDAY, 30th

THE REAL WORLD: Don’t expect this new group of Real World-ers to actually be serious and political just because they’re in D.C. this season. (10pm/MTV)

THURSDAY, 31st

DICK CLARK’S ROCKIN’ NEW YEARS EVE: …with help from Ryan Seacrest. This is the classic N.Y.E. program to watch even though this years line-up of singers is a little “meh.” (10pm/ABC)

FRIDAY, JAN 1st

TOURNAMENT OF ROSES PARADE: Nancy O’Dell has clearly moved on from Access Hollywood to bigger things… like hosting this parade alongside Al Roker. (11am/NBC)

SATURDAY, 2nd

DOCTOR WHO: THE END OF TIME PART 2: David Tennant’s Doctor is about to undergo a regeneration when his run on the show ends. Tennant’s shoes will be some big ones to fill! (8pm/BBC America)

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