BC - Fri, 2/25/11

I see that Madison now has a noticeable baby-lump.

Did Scott really sign up for the sleep study?  He subsequently told Madison that he's the guy who tallies up the results.  There's just a slight conflict-of-interest when the subject of the study (who is getting PAID to be in the study) is also the person who compiles the results of the same study. 

JAR tells Ryan that "the jet's fueled and ready to go".  Anyone else having flashbacks to Dimitri?  He used to say that quite often -- it's right up there with "beefing up security" :-)  Of course, when the people in PV talk about beefing up security they don't tell us that what they MEANT was that the security guards will have to feed the cows.

I googled "amc dimitri jet fueled ready" (in google groups), just to reinforce my memory, and the first post I saw was from Patti O'Roarke on 7/11/99.  She was "FAC Dimitri's Jet (Fueled and Ready to Take Off at a Moment's Notice)".  THAT'S how often he said words to that effect :-)  FYI, "FAC" means Favorite AMC Character, and several ratsters claimed ownership of various characters that were not necessarily people, and we spoke on their behalf on occasion.  Patti's post stated:  " I don't want to crash, it's demeaning and likely to give me a bad reputation. No, I think I'll just make a very steep turn over the Atlantic with my emergency doors open. And then I'll spend the rest of my days sipping Mai Tais in a hanger on a tropical beach somewhere while scantily dressed island men wax me all over. My engines are getting all shivery just *thinking* about it! "  We miss you, Patti!

Auntie Greenlee volunteers to tuck Spike and Ian into bed for a nap.  The boys cheer!  Most kids do NOT want to take a nap.  What does Auntie Greenlee do during the tuck-in process that's so special that they would actually cheer?  She carries Ian and herds Spike out of the room.  She returns to the living room approximately 35 seconds later.  I'm guessing the something special is that she throws them into their beds from the doorway.

Robin "she's a veritable Madonna, that one" Coutellier

BC - Thu, 2/24/11

Cara and Tad are in the middle of explaining to Liza that they just fell in love and have been engaged for a while now.  Then Cara is paged.  She looks at her phone and exclaims that "It's the hospital!"  She seems genuinely surprised that a hospital, of all places, would be paging HER.  You know, the DOCTOR who happens to work there.

Sounds like Cameron Mathison is sick.

Are the ultra-white top front teeth of Reverand Ricky's lady friend fused together?  They look like one really wide tooth.

I think I liked Susan Lucci's stint on Hot In Cleveland much better than Wendy Malik's stint on AMC. 

Robin "maybe because I was expecting it" Coutellier

BC - Wed, 2/23/11

When I saw Erica coyly covering Jack's eyes in Krystal's and then their discussion of possibly breaking up and Jack's assertion that SHE was the one who plays games, not him, I couldn't help but think of a post I had put into the archive I previously mentioned.  On 3/1/00 (before I started putting them on the web, but I had a text file so I included it) I said the following (note that the Spike we know today didn't exist yet, so I was just adding some flavor):

"Jackson: "Why Erica Kane, this is unexpected to find yourself in a COMMON joint like this [BJs]!" [FAC BJs on] "HEY! Watch it, Spike!" [FAC BJs off] After some banter wherein Jack slyly lets Erica know he knows she didn't just accidentally happen to walk into BJs and see him, but specifically sought him out, KNOWING he eats breakfast there on a regular basis, he asks her why she wanted to talk to HIM. "Because," she says modestly batting her eyes, "not so long ago ... you were in love with me." "Well, yes," says Jack, "but, much like chicken pox, I got over it, albeit with a few lingering scars." Okay, he didn't say that, but you KNOW he was thinking it!"
Things don't change much in 11 years.  Even the restaurant is the same, just with a name change.

I was surprised that one of Krystal's objections about the girls and the marriage was that they didn't even know Cara.  How about the fact that Tad could possibly be drawing attention by the bad guys to the girls and the rest of his family by marrying Cara?

Robin "I'm sure Ruth & Joe will welcome their 15th (or thereabouts) daughter-in-law with open arms" Coutellier

BC - Tue, 2/22/11

Colby tells Liza that Opal told her that Tad and Marian slept together when Liza was back in college.  I'm not positive, but I think they were still in HIGH school or at least not in college yet.  I could be wrong, though.

I don't really have anything to say about the rest of it.  It's not like we didn't see Colby's big revelation coming that Liza slept with Damon. 

Blasts From The Past: 
I've decided to move my old Boogie Chillens and extremely detailed Friday Updates from my mostly inactive personal website to a blog on Google (http://boogiearchive.blogspot.com).  I had started putting them on the web starting August 25, 2000.  There are lots of long-gone characters in them, including Leo and Vanessa; they had some of the BEST lines!

Here's one from 9/6/00 that made me LOL as I was skimming over it.  For you newer viewers, Leo was played by Josh Duhamel and Vanessa (Leo's mother) was played (with great relish and campiness) by Marj Dusay.

Leo to Vanessa after seeing her hand over a rare (presumably Faberge) jeweled egg to run a tab at the bar (like the bartender would know it's value - as far as HE knows she bought it for $1.59 at McFrugals): "Vanessa, did you STEAL that?" Vanessa: "No, Leo, of course, I LAID it." ROTFLMAOPIMP!!!

From 9/5/00: 
I cracked up after Arlene locked Stuart in the attic and he said: "I'll wait here!"

Robin "I really miss Stuart (and Arlene, for that matter)" Coutellier

BC - Mon, 2/21/11

Cara disappeared for a long time after she and Jake split.  Had a baby, did she?  Oh, cancer.  Or is she making THAT part up (about it coming back, not about having it in the first place)?  You never know with her.  She DOES have a history of making things up when it comes to her names, whereabouts and reasons for moving around, after all.

It is absolutely LUDICROUS that Jake was allowed to sit in on the interrogation of Cara!  And all he could do is call them names and belittle them, despite Tad's warning to him not to antagonize them.  I wouldn't be surprised if they had grounds to charge HIM with something.  He's been to many of the same places as Cara, after all, and he voluntarily inserted himself in the war in Chechnya.

Will the people filing a complaint about Cara for the way she acted over their cancer-survivor daughter throw a wrench into efforts to keep her in Pine Valley?

David tells Annie (at least he THOUGHT it was Annie) that he told her to go straight to his cabin.  HA!  I KNEW it!

Tad bursts into the room where agents are interrogating Cara (nice security) and orders them to take their hands off of his fiance (they are handcuffing her).  It was hinted on RATSA yesterday that Tad would use the old married-to-a-US-citizen gambit, and it looks like it's true.

Robin "is it my imagination or is Cara using slightly less makeup today?" Coutellier

BC - Fri, 2/18/11

After finding out how much danger Cara is in and why she cannot go anywhere near Mexico or even back to Doctors Without Borders, Tad tells Jake about it and says they have a duty to warn her. Jake tells Tad not to tell Cara about it because HE should be the one to do it. Why?

If Cara left Jake in the first place in order to protect him, then why isn't Griffin worried about his own safety now? More to the point, Why isn't Griffin worried about his own mother (he just mentioned her in passing)?

When did Amanda and Jake move into a house? I thought they lived in an apartment.

Bianca says she doesn't think there will be any problems with the divorce or custody issues -- they just need a friend to help them handle the divorce. How civilized. Bianca doesn't expect any problems as far as custody of Gabrielle goes since Gabrielle has been with her all this time. eBabe tells her to be prepared because things can change once Reese is faced with permanently losing her rights to Gabrielle. WTF? Why would Reese lose her parental rights? Didn't she adopt Gabrielle once they got married (Gabrielle was born in 2008 and they were married in 2009)? I don't think she adopted Miranda.

Robin "now that you know Ricky is a bad guy, would you buy insurance from him?" Coutellier

BC - Wed, 2/16/11

As much as it pains me to say it, I have to agree with Ryan -- JAR should have thought about Emma and told Ryan that Annie was going off the rails.

Looks like Bianca has been taking makeup lessons from Cara. Ugh! Watch the scene in the hospital when Bianca is telling Kendall about how bad she feels about Reese not getting on the plane. Alicia Minshew has not gone for that raccooon look (she's back to her regular makeup), and she looks gorgeous. Bianca is pretty, but she, too, looked like black warpaint had been applied to her eyelids.

OT/TAN: I saw an anchorwoman yesterday and she looked VERY odd. She was blond and pale (nothing wrong with that). She had so much foundation on, though, that she looked as if her face had been completely sanded down and then the eyes were painted back on, very thick and very black. Lipstick defined her mouth, so at least I could see when it was moving. All I could think of as I watched her was a) her face had been erased (it was hard just to get past THAT part), and b) she looked like a pale beige sock puppet. I realize this is the makeup trend now, but IMO it looks ridiculous and it looked particularly ridiculous on her.


Robin "it was like watching a Twilight Zone episode" Coutellier

BC - Tue, 2/15/11

Uh, if there's a gas leak in the attic, JAR should considering (upon rescuing her) moving both eBabe and himself a little further from the attic than 2.5'. It's not like the air is going to be much fresher there, especially since the door to the attic is still open.

Greenlee sends Emma through the Fusion bar (admittedly empty) out to the patio to get her makeup bag. When Emma doesn't return, Greenlee tells Ryan that Emma is probably just playing with her makeup. Oh yeah, Greenlee's going to make a GREAT step-mommy.

Did Colby bring a change of clothes to the beach house? I only ask because she's not wearing the same clothes as when she was handcuffed to the table. Of course, after being handcuffed to the table for all that time, I can certainly understand why she might NEED to change her clothes.

Now JAR and eBabe are down in the living room and JAR calls someone to tell them to shut off all gas lines to the attic. Uh, why are they still in the house? If they managed to move all the way to the ground-floor living room from the aforementioned 2.5' from the attic door, what was a few more feet to the outside? Idiots. Did they bother to notify Lucretia before she lights the stove?

O.M.G! I paused the Tivo long enough to type the paragraph about them needing to go outside considering, you, a GAS LEAK, and when I press Play again, JAR is pacing in front of the LIT FIREPLACE!!! These people really ARE too stupid to live!

How did Krystal manage to whip up a wedding cake on such short notice. I'm thinking she went to Costco or Sam's club.

WTF did Colby insist that she and Asher play strip poker (other than to show them in states of undress)? That came out of left field. Oh ... that's why (she escaped -- Asher was keeping her from interfering with JAR and Annie).

Shouldn't Colby's arm be not only checked out, but photographed at the hospital as evidence that Annie handcuffed her to the table? I suppose that could be done at the PVPD, but Liza should have insisted on it from both aspects, as a mother and a DA. Of course, the beach house is now a crime scene. They'll have some 'splainin' to do as to why Asher kept her there after freeing her from the cuffs.

I hope Annie gets pulled over for not having Emma strapped in.

I have to say I'm surprised David allowed Annie to go. What did he do, give her his car? I hope he has an ulterior motive, such as arranging for her to be caught. Did he send her to his little cabin in the woods? If so, the cabin that tiptoed down from Mt. Evangeline into the middle of town must have tiptoed back up the mountain. He could see that Annie was unspooling and that even Emma could tell something was very wrong. As evil as he is, he doesn't strike me as someone who would deliberately endanger a child, yet it appears that he was complicit in doing just that, just to get back at Greenlee and Ryan.

Robin "he MUST have a plan" Coutellier

BC - Mon, 2/14/11

I noticed the little actress playing Emma was having trouble holding her smile during the wedding (I think she was getting fatigued at having to hold the same expression -- that's hard for anyone to do -- it's not natural to hold a fixed smile for very long). She recovered quickly. What was funny to me was that I was already in the process of trying to come up with some appropriate lines for her when she did it. You know, something like "Oh PUH-LEEZE! My parents NEVER stay married to anyone, so why pretend this is going to last more than a few months?"

Greenlee and Ryan are finally married! Yaaaaay! Let the countdown to them splitting up again COMMENCE!

Here's something I don't understand. If Greenlee and Ryan wanted a small, intimate ceremony with only the children and Jack (with room for Erica) there, why did they have the ceremony on the ConFusion patio? There are so many other options. For instance, the penthouse terrace (although that IS where David was shot and where Ryan has had sex with countless other women). Or Ryan's living room (where he has had sex with countless other women). Or the fugly Fusion office. For that matter, why was it on the patio at all, given that it's the dead of winter? I'm sure there were torches or other heaters there, but it IS Pennsylvania, after all.
Will JAR light a match to see better in the attic? We haven't had a good explosion for a while.

Every time I see Spike with his spiky hair, I think of Baby Zoolander (aka Derek Jr) and his first "look". Rather than give a link to any particular site, if you want to see what I'm talking about, go to images.google.com and search for "zoolander magnum" (without the quotes). Better yet, watch the movie -- it's hysterical!

Speaking of Spike, did you catch him tossing something around while Ryan was holding him after the reception? I'm not sure what it was, but it was small and white.

Hah! Annie's so crazy now that even Emma looks a little freaked out when Annie shows up and beckons her to come with her.

Robin "Mommy, you're crazy again - did you take your meds today?" Coutellier

Ryan and Greenlee talk on the phone, giddy because it's their wedding day. I'm not even a minute into the show and I'm already feeling like I might hurl.

Scott chides Madison for working in the Fusion office while Ryan and Greenlee are going to be married down at ConFusion that same day. Let's see, when is Valentine's Day? Oh yeah, 2/14. What day of the week is that in 2011? Monday. You know, a WORKday.

Emma's becoming quite the pro at being a flower girl. How many of her parents' weddings has she attended? Let's see, there was Ryan and Annie (almost), Ryan and Greenlee, Annie and Adam, Annie and Scott and now Ryan and Greenlee AGAIN. How many mother figures has she had? Greenlee, Kendall, Erica, Madison, and now Greenlee again. And I'm probably leaving someone out on one or both sides.

Caleb really shouldn't stand next to Erica while he's in profile and wearing a coat.

Robin "it looks like she's standing next to a bear" Coutellier

BC - Tue, 2/8/11

Kendall's mighty energetic considering she just had a stent inserted into her aorta (under a local anesthetic, at that) in a wrecked ambulance.

They put an oxygen mask on Kendall (once she stopped fighting it). Wouldn't that have been helpful when Dr. Hunky was operating on her?

Kendall is STILL in the wrecked (and not particularly sterile) ambulance, yet Jack and Bianca both leave for unimportant things (Jack to get food at Krystal's and Bianca to go home and reassure the boys that Kendall is okay). Hello? Kendall just had her AORTA operated on in iffy circumstances after a rollover crash! You'd think they would want to hang around to make sure she's REALLY okay now.

Why is Cara's butterfly bandage only near one edge of her wound, and why isn't it actually holding the wound together? If anything, it's holding the skin APART.

OT/TAN: Well, I have to save I was moved by a commercial. It was about "intense feminine itch". The voiceover sounds very understanding as it assures the woman that it KNOWS that's the LAST place you want your itch cream to fail (which oddly implies that there ARE circumstances during which you WOULD want your itch cream to fail) . The poor woman who is being bedeviled by intense feminine itching is a bride being prepped for the ceremony, and she looks very apprehensive and worried.

After some product info from the voiceover, the bride subsequently looks very happy, itch-free and confident as she and her new husband descend the stairs while people toss flower petals at them. Obviously she took the voiceover's advice and used Vagisil for her intense feminine itching. That's all well and good, but the poor woman still has something of a feminine problem on her HONEYMOON, doesn't she? I feel bad for her. I hope the newlyweds plan to use protection until she can see a doctor, because whatever is causing it in the first place might be communicable.



Robin "did she have pre-wedding jitters or pre-wedding jitterBUGS?" Coutellier

BC - Mon, 2/7/11

She's normally very pale, anyway, but they did a good job of making Kendall look super-pale.

Why didn't anyone look for the other vehicle (you know, the one Annie was in).

Where do the lights on top of emergency vehicles get their power? I ask because they are making multiple points of the fact that there is no juice going anywhere in the ambulance and they can't turn things on. But the lights on top of the ambulance were still flashing after they crashed. The EMT and firefighter lights were on later, but theirs was still on, too. And how did the inside of the ambulance get so well lit before help got there?

Wouldn't the strobelight effect of the other emergency vehicles be distracting to someone trying to operate on an aorta in the back of a wrecked ambulance?

Why is Colby pulling on the handcuff to drag the table closer to the coffee table so she can get to the phone? That's putting all the strain on her wrist. I know she's not particularly bright, but even SHE should be able to figure out that it would work better to pull by her hand on the center pole. It reminds me of the Gary Larson comic where a kid trying to get into the School For Gifted Children is pushing as hard as he can on the door, which is clearly labeled "Pull" (or vice-versa).

Don't they have masks in the ambulance (there should be some in the other emergency vehicles)?

Robin "are they going to go in again & double-check the field work?" Coutellier

BC - Fri, 2/4/11

I really like the blouse Colby was wearing as she stupidly taunted Annie after telling her that she recorded Annie's confession (such as it was) about assaulting eBabe and stealing her stuff. Here's an idea: record a conversation and then take it to whomever you plan to take it to, WITHOUT cluing in the perp about it before anything can be done. Not that the recording would likely hold up in a court of law, since it was not legally sanctioned, but at least others might hear it and know that Annie DID do it.

The three main doctors at PVH all abandoned their posts to go out in an ambulance looking for Kendall. So who's running the hospital? Maybe Dr. Kravitz and Dr. Bender are holding the fort.

OT/TAN: My latest commercial annoyance: the Amazon Kindle commercial where a man in the sun is trying in vain to read a book on his ebook reader, but there's too much glare. He asks the woman next to him, who is engrossed in whatever she is reading on HER ebook reader, how she's doing it. She smugly says that it's a Kindle and it's only $139. Even more smugly, she remarks that she paid more than that for her sunglasses. Must be nice to have money to toss out on such expensive sunglasses, let alone an ebook reader. It might have been tolerable if she simply stated that the price was $139 and left it at that, but the sunglasses part makes me want to SLAP her. The gist of the commercial that really stood out to me, though, is that while they show the screen of the man's ineffective ebook reader in the sunlight, they do NOT show the screen of the Kindle in the sunlight. So how do we know how much better it is in the sunlight it is than the man's, other than going by the smugness of the bitch with the expensive sunglasses?

Robin "talk about a glaring omission" Coutellier

BC - Thu, 2/3/11

Why is eBabe dressed for 100 degree weather?

If Cara had time to go to the Slater place, get stuff for her brother, and stand around and chat with Tad while the boys drew get-well pictures for their Mommy, why wasn't there time for Kendall to see her boys before the surgery?

If Kendall's aorta is to the point where it could burst at any second, why isn't she at least being PREPPED for surgery NOW? Does everyone have amnesia from when Angie and Jesse took a personal day to have sex and the uninsured patient with an aortic aneurysm bled out because no one signed off on approval?

Why is Annie still hauling around that sharp letter opener? She grabbed it on the spur of the moment, but she's been all over the place since then -- you'd think she would have obtained something more reliable than a letter opener with which to threaten, maim and/or kill someone; not that sharp letter openers haven't made effective impromptu weapons in PV in the past. It isn't "impromptu" anymore, though.

I see the food theme is continuing. The kids are on the Slater couch watching a movie and happily munching on popcorn.

Robin "how long before one of the characters becomes a celebrity sushi chef (or just plain sushi?" Coutellier

BC - Tue-Wed, 2/1-2/11

If David is so weak, why is he standing in his cell? He said he was sedated, which made him weak, but he wasn't standing up before now anyway, for MONTHS (that we know of).

Why would the South Philly police dept hire Natalia without any references?

Soooo, I guess Natalia won't be around much anymore, if at all. At least she finally got laid first.

I thought Scott was broke and could only afford hot dogs from a stand in the park. Now he's going to go downstairs to Fusion to get some mac and cheese for Madison's cravings. Something tells me that ConFusion is NOT cheap -- it probably costs $8 for a cup of coffee. Scott did say it was Happy Hour and they had free food, but it seems unlikely that mac and cheese would be part of that free food.

At Confusion, the guys toast to Ryan before he takes "the big plunge" into married life ... again. It occurred to me that of the four guys, Tad, Jake, Ryan and Frankie, only Frankie has had only one marriage (that we know of). Considering that they have about 14-15 marriages between them ALREADY, somehow, the phrase "taking the plunge" seems like overkill in that particular circle of friends (except for Frankie). One of the ex-wives, Gillian, was married to both Ryan and Jake. Then Scott joins in. He's been married to Annie, one of Ryan's ex's. Jake has also had sex with Greenlee. "Stepping into" might be a more appropriate term than "taking the plunge". In fact, "stepping into" might be more appropriate on a number of levels.

Looks like Scott and Frankie were just passers-by to the core of Ryan, Tad and Jake. I was wondering why Frankie was there "toasting", considering his obvious anger and disgust with Ryan because of his treatment of Madison.

I'll say it again -- for someone who's been in a coma for several months and could barely stay sitting up mere hours before, David is quite energetic and strong.

I was expecting Scott to take Madison to yet another room at the Yacht Club, despite his dire financial straits, so I was pleasantly surprised when he took her to his messy, furnished room.

For someone who just wants to "heal and rest and spend time with my kids", Kendall sure has foisted them off on other people a LOT. As usual, during a life and death situation, Kendall chooses to be stupid, obstinate and heedless of consequences. And now she's either going to have surgery and/or die and, at the very least, be in the hospital for a while or the afterlife for good. How many times have her children been without their mother for extended periods of time? She's always either in the hospital, in jail, on the lam, at work or running around butting into other people's business.

Robin "and STILL looking mighty perky, all things considered" Coutellier

BC - Mon, 1/31/11

OMG, Annie put a sharp, knife-like letter opener into her purse! Do you know what this MEANS? It will tear a hole in the purse lining!

I guess Ryan didn't learn anything from the time he and a couple of others pretended to hang Richie and it almost happened for real.

Kendall and Greeenlee have a day of beauty treatment ... in the Fusion main office area. GMAFB! I know for a fact that they have a lounging area; the viewers SAW it -- it's the one with a stripper pole.

So Ryan arranged to have the entire security camera system crash just before he brought David up to the roof and they had to reboot the whole system, so David doesn't have to worry about proving Ryan took him there. Wow, I guess that would have been a good time to steal a baby or drugs, or perhaps murder someone. Too bad video evidence of anything ELSE that might have happened why Ryan took David to the roof is now lost forever.

If Krystal was really concerned that Annie might go after eBabe, why didn't she just CALL her instead of rushing over to the Chandler home? Even way back before the time of cell phones we knew about them new-fangled thingamajigs called TELEPHONES. And we complained then because all the characters in town would go over to someone's house to tell them urgent news or give dire warnings for their safety instead of just calling them.

What shrink from a loony bin just drops in unannounced on a former patient (who is staying at a hotel, not her former place of residence that would be listed in their records) at the urging of someone else, especially without any backup? Then he gets back to that other person and says that, from what he saw, he IS concerned. Talk about HIPAA violations!

All things considered, shouldn't Jesse at least wheel David INSIDE the building, given that it's, you know, JANUARY, in PENNSYLVANIA, during HISTORICALLY bad weather and David is wearing nothing but two thin hospital gowns and a lap robe? The mean temperature in Philadelphia on 1/31/11 was 24 degrees.

Robin "just sayin'" Coutellier

BC - Fri, 1/28/11

On Friday's episode, Tad gives Jesse chocolates to give to Angie. They both promptly start eating the candy, with gusto, while they still talk. Ok, who at AMC got the sudden urge to show the cast chewing, swallowing and talking all of the sudden?

I can understand why Natalia and Brot used the hotel room the first time, but why are they using it again? Don't they both have their own places?

Okay, now I have to take AWAY props from the Props department; either the telephone handset that Greenlee is holding is WAY too big or she has a very tiny head.

OMG, I was just JOKING about where Jake was going to put his fingers -- now he's telling David that he's scheduled him for a colonoscopy (right after David says he can handle "a few jabs")

So not only does Cara have no idea how to apply eyeliner, but she's rude, too. She just goes up to Tad at Krystal's, plops herself down and starts talking, completely oblivious to the fact that Tad is sitting WITH someone (someone he's investigating for possibly stealing drugs from the hospital). Then she asks him if he's worked any good cases lately.

Fusion is seriously going to have an ad campaign glamorizing a woman carrying a GUN? What next, they create an applicator shaped like a gun? They should go to Cara to find out where she gets hers from, because I suspect she uses a bazooka for that.

Robin "will the gun shoot lipstick tubes shaped like bullets?" Coutellier