2000-07-20 - 20:23:16

I guess that there are a few things nominated for Emmys that I care about. Sopranos, Powerpuff Girls, Jack & Karen, Vanessa Redgrave for If These Walls Could Talk 2, Molly Shannon, Xena & Buffy, etc.

I overlook the (many) dumb things about "Will & Grace" both because it's funny, & because it's always exciting to see relationships represented on TV that aren't romantic. I even overlook the constant apologizing for their relationship, the tortured discussions of how their relationship is "bad" because it keeps them both from finding husbands. Ugh. I'm not even going to go into all of that shit.

What I am going to go into, however, is the fact that Will & Grace are not so pioneering as everyone thinks they are. They are not the first zany, ham&cheese fag/hag combo on prime time tv. Because before there was Will & Grace, Carrie & Stanford, RayAnne & Ricky, or any of the many more I'm going to think of & fill in later so check back at this spot, there was Charles & Brett, Brett & Charles.

Brett Somers & Charles Nelson Reilly reigned supreme (no disrespect to the D, this was pre-D) on Gene Rayburn's Match Game P.M. & they still do, on the Game Show Network which I am fortunate to have. Oh my god. Brett & Charles were the Loudest, the Drunkest, & the most Accessorized.

Brett was center, top. Charles sat top, right. His scarves, her glasses, her necklaces, his floppy hats. Incredible. I forever believed that they were drunk and/or stoned on the show. They do not act in any way like you'd be allowed to act right now on TV, unless you're some stoned young actress giggling through your interview at every terrible single entendre Jay Leno makes, & I'm not naming any names Lana, Queen of Karaoke. They act like your bawdiest relatives after a couple of highballs. They act like someone passed a joint around the hot tub backstage. They crack each other & themselves up at nonsense. I love it.

So, this was my suspicion forever, that they were always wasted, & then one day I was doing research on Richard Dawson online (what?) & found an interview with Gene Rayburn. He said that they would tape one show, break for lunch and a little "vino" (imagine the insinuating tone for this word - I LOVE IT), & by the time they taped the second show, it was pretty hard to keep it together. Um, YEAH. I noticed.

You may be wondering what happened to Brett's career, how she could have enough of one to be a weekly guest on a talk show ala Goldberg & Vilanch, yet you've never heard of her. Um, she didn't really have a career outside of MGPM. She was Jack Klugman's wife & he agreed to be a guest if she could also be one. He was apparently super lame, & she rocked. She stayed. Her credits on IMDB are slim, & include a role on...you guessed it, "The Odd Couple". Good for her. At least she got something out of marrying The Klug.

Ok, what else. I know that I need more examples of the hilarity between our 2 heroines, Somers & Reills. But that must wait, since I have very few memories of my times watching the show. I try to be as wasted as they are. Maybe if I keep a pen & paper by the couch, I can make note of the best times I have with them, & let you (YOU!) know.

It would be evil of me to mention my research on Richard Dawson (the Daws, Awesome like Dawson, I've got Dawson's Creek for ya, etc.) & not cough up my findings (ew). Well, Daws has some problems. I find him really sexy, in case you did not know. ON THE MATCH GAME. Not on The Feud. Don't be ridic. Anyway, for a time he had a permanent place right below Brett, from where he'd dribble near incomprehensible quips, always in a crazy voice that was either American South, W.C. Fields, or retarded white person trying to "speak Spanish" (swimming = el swimmo, kiss = el kisso, etc.).

I can't remember where I'm going with this. Oh, yeah. Dawson squandered his spoils. He had a good thing, making little or no sense week after week, & still being one of the more popular celebrities to be chosen for the individual matches with contestant. Yet Dawson eventually got too big of a 'tude with his fellow matchers, including pretty much refusing to speak while on camera, & being totally hostile. Somehow he got his own show out of the deal - The Feud. El Feudo. Feudola. Lewd, Crude, & Feud.

Um - now I really can't remember where I'm going with any of this. I think I'm done. Ok then. Next week hopefully I'll have great stories about the Xena convention Syd & I are going to in Minneap.

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