soccermom

I concede......

I was one of those kids who knew the TV Guide forward and backwards. I could tell you what was on every single day during the prime time family hours. I knew the histories of actors and actresses and their families. (I had a TV Guide cover with Blythe Danner and her baby girl , Gwyneth Kate, hanging on my bedroom wall for years) My television viewing ran the complete gamut. I loved game shows, variety shows, drama and comedy. I cut my television teeth on things like 'I Love Lucy', 'Combat', 'The FBI', 'The Outer Limits', 'Bonanza'and 'The Monroes.' In high school and college I branched out to soap operas. Heh. My initial career plan was to be one of those really mystical and mysterious television WRITERS. I loved the idea of writing dialog for characters already created...expanding their stories. I did it for fun all the time.

I was writing scripts for 'The Partridge Family', 'Here Come the Brides' and 'Owen Marshall', Counselor at Law'(HUGE crush on Arthur Hill for a while. I was wierd that way) for my junior high and high school friends to read. They were my biggest fans and fanned thoseburgeoning writer flames. I actually called the head writer for the show 'Seven Brides for Seven Brothers' and talked to her for nearly an hour once. She was encouraging but also discouraging. She knew a lot of talented writers who were driving trucks for a living. My dad just about killed me over that phone bill! I plugged along and became the go to girl for text for the year book....and wrote high school columns for three different newspapers for a while. I wrote an original novel in my senior year and won a writing scholarship. But alas....I have a hearing imparment and was surrounded by people who loved me and felt I should aspire for something more 'dependable'.....something that would enable me to support myself. I allowed them to sway me. I became a Teacher.

Don't get me wrong. I love my career. For nearly thirty years I have been blessed with spending my days with elementary age children - Kindergarteners for the most part. Is there really anything better than going to work each day with personalities that shine like the sun....forgive every mishap and misadventure...and always look for the good in people and find fun in every single situation? Of course not. Even in my newest position, as a Technology Teacher, I get to do all the fun stuff. Play.....as we learn to harness the World Wide Web, the editing tools and the creative avenues a computer offers us. I love my job.

But I love my secret life as a writer even more. I am a television reviewer here, a fan fiction writer on fanfiction.net and regular poster on a variety of web boards all over the place even more. I have another blog site elswhere as well. Heh. If my husband only knew. I am still enamored with the television world. I still long to be one of those who hold the reins on what viewers see there. But I concede. I am too dang old to start all over....and too dang young to quit what I have been doing for thirty years. But if there is anyone out there waffling about what they want to do with their life....don't waffle. Take the reins and run with your dream. That way you will never have to wonder 'what if?' You will never have to concede.......

Category: TV
Posted by soccermom, 11/17/2007 2:04pm 0 Comments

Reviews

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. - Anne Frank.

Posted by soccermom, 03/31/2006 2:54am 2 Comments

My Recent Reviews

9.8 Superb

In Plain Sight
Iris Doesn't Live Here Anymore
Avg Score: 7.19 Total Ratings: 50 Total Reviews: 6
Users who agree: 2

This was an excellent episode that brought home the reality of how devastating entering the Witness Protection program can be. A case of a teenager being in the wrong place at the wrong time sets in motion the disruption of a sucessful physcian's family. After working hard and living the American Dream - sucessful practice, accomplished children and wife, beautiful home - a man is hit square in the face with losing it all...and not wanting to. These characters were very well written....and very real. Iris, a teenager in love bucks the system when it comes to being seperated from her boyfriend who was wounded protecting her....and yet shows rage and absolutley no fear when it comes to identifying the perpetrator of the crime. Marshall was awesome as a picture of burbling rage as he dealt with the sheer snobbery of the dad who was losing the life he worked hard for. Awesome actress in the mom who was trying to balance it out for everyone. The Rafe/Brandi bits were comical and kept at bay enough to not distract from the story at hand. I loved Mary's reaction and voice overs to the confessions of eternal love and devotion by the teens in the story. Hee. So VERY Mary. But it was an interesting episode in that it totally belonged to the guest actors portraying the family....and to Marshall. I would have to hope that if I were ever in their situation, that a US Marshal like Marshall would care enough and be astute enough to bring some of it back...like a door with a bit of a family history. Very sweet.

Report Abuse Posted Jul 13, 2008

9.3 Superb

In Plain Sight
Who Shot Jay Arnstein
Avg Score: 8.14 Total Ratings: 63 Total Reviews: 8
Users who agree: 1

One has to wonder how many WitSec scenarios they will be able to come up with. We have five distinct and creative situations in the five episodes thus far. THIS one really takes the cake however. A guy dealing illegal art sales accepts witness protection for himself, his wife....and his mistress?? Mary is disdainful that she has to manipulate the three of them without the wife knowing. During a gallery opening we learn that the art displayed is probably bogus (per Marshall) and the wife learns about the mistress...again. The husband is shot and so who dunnit? The wife? The mistress? Nah. Too easy. Ah....but the wife had a lover in her Art teacher. Motive? It was SO much fun to see Sherry Stringfield in action again. She was a clear standout - sexy, sweet, happy, haunted....it was all there. The mistress was cute with Marshall leading the way to 'cleansing' herself of her demons. What a guy! Once again, I was a little perturbed with how quickly the 'mystery' was solved. The story seemed to take a back seat to the quirky goings on of our regular characters. Am loving Marshall and Mary's best buddy relationship. Mary and Rafe?? Not so much. HE belongs with Mary's sister, Brandi. Darn tootin'. Mary and Bobby. Nice to see the continued sparring between Witness Protection and the local police. And her surprise at HIS surprise when he finds out she doesn't think she is sexy. Heh.

And I am kinda not sure right now...but did we EVER find out who shot Jay Arnstein?

Report Abuse Posted Jun 29, 2008

9.0 Superb

In Plain Sight
Trojan Horst
Avg Score: 8.64 Total Ratings: 96 Total Reviews: 13

I LOVED 'NewsRadio'...and I could hardly wait for this episode just to see Dave Foley in action again. He didn't disappoint. Still the master at wisecracks! He was the 'witness of the week' and not exactly in the program yet. Mary and Marshall were to escort him, a wheezing diabetic assassin's agent named Horst, from one place to the other. We are treated to lots of gun fire and hostage angst in between. Trapped in an abandoned gas stattion in the desert with two carloads of assassins waiting for nightfall, Mary sets out to take them out beforehand and realizes that their first shoot out was a hoax. Horst doesn't hold the key to giving up a reputed assassin. He IS the assassin!! In the mean time, Marshall has been shot and Mary is distraught. She had been angry after learning that Marshall had been seeking employment elsewhere and didn't tell her. Not to worry though. They caught the bad guys and she got him to the hospital on time.... There was a secondary story line involving Mary's sister and mother but didn't really add much....except watching Lesley Ann Warren in all her boozy, floozy glory is SUCH a hoot. Everything was too pat for me in this episode. A viewer could easily peg Horst as the assassin from the get go. Sheesh. The title of the episode alone alluded to that. The bad guys were caught with far too much ease at the end. Especially since Horst was supposed to be some big time bad a$$ assassin himself. SOOoooo....I guess the point of this episode was to expand of the characters Mary and Marshall. We learned alot about them tonight.....and their feelings for one another. I am liking them...ALOT.

Report Abuse Posted Jun 22, 2008

8.5 Great

In Plain Sight
Never the Bride
Avg Score: 8.79 Total Ratings: 82 Total Reviews: 7
Users who agree: 1

Still enjoying this series. It's great summer fun. My favorite character is Marshall...played by Fredrick Weller. In the past two episodes he has been very staid. Very uptight. This episode allowed him to 'let his hair down' a bit. Hee.

Mary's client is Treena, the girl friend of a diamond smuggler who trades her protection status for information about the smuggled diamonds. While in protection she falls in love, gets engaged and has her pisture in the paper. Mary's disdain for the con artist that Treena is permeates the story and Mary is sucked into the woman's con herself. Introduced to the prospective groom and mother in law as Treena's 'best friend from college and maid of honor', Mary is horrified. Still more horrified as she is fitted for a crinoline dress for the wedding and jumps into a pile of garbage in it while chasing a photographer snapping pictures. The South African smugglers arrive and take the fiancee hostage. Mary and Marshall find him, rescue the fiancee and retrieve the diamonds. Very pat and almost too simplistic. Sometimes I like my cases more complicated....

But the other events surroundig the 'client of the week' made it enjoyable. I liked the comedy relief provided by the aformentioned staid BFF Marshall. Mambo dancing? The mistaken turn on as Mary 'smears lipstick' on him for a set up? And then there was the boyfriend - finally called up to the big leagues and attempting to propose with a ring in a cupcake. Morose, he takes a call from her at the airport as he is about to leave. Mary's decision to 'talk about it' before he leaves is derailed - quite literally - by a crinoline in the door of a stalled car on a train track. Superhuman Mary pushes the car off the track just in time...as we see a plane taking off in the air above her. I like Mary. I like Marshall. I like the series. It's fun.

Report Abuse Posted Jun 16, 2008

9.4 Superb

In Plain Sight
Hoosier Daddy
Avg Score: 8.81 Total Ratings: 101 Total Reviews: 8

A kid sees his mother shot, is put into protective custody, adopted by another WP family and becomes the center of a custody battle when his bio dad is released from prison for killing the kid's mother. What a clever twist for a story. I am surprised they would have this as the second epi. Makes me wonder what OTHER clever bits they have in store. I am REALLY REALLY liking Fredrick Weller's character and his 'tolerance' of Mary. He was outstanding in this episode. Cool, calm and there when he was needed. Just as I wound expect a Fed Marshal to be. Liked Mary's rapport with the WP kid. She knew just what to say to him from beginning to end. Snappy writing in the beginning. REALLY liked the twist with the bio dad in the end. Didn't really see it coming. Not liking the sister so much but Lesley Ann Warren's bubble head character is very much what she usually plays. Wonder if the actress reads much?? Her attempts and $10 'success' selling make up door to door was a hoot.

Report Abuse Posted Jun 12, 2008