what may or may not be hard reality

11 TV Characters I Love More Than Anything - Really, I just wanted an excuse for another meme. And every once in a while I list my top 10 hotties, but I did that not too long ago, and then AfterElton had a thing about 'TV characters you wanna marry', so I thought about that, but I realized that really, most of my favourite TV characters I don't necessarily wanna marry, so 'love more than anything' in this case mostly refers to how much affection I feel for them, how much watching them be awesome makes me all warm and fuzzy, how sad it makes me when they're miserable (tho of course there's a huge overlap with hotties and favourite shows etc). It's crazy how much I love these characters. Pictures under the cut!

( 11 TV Characters I Love More Than Anything )

There are plenty of things that have changed since I was 10 years old, but some stay just the same. This is still the prettiest girl in the world. (In related news, reading AfterEllen's Hot 100 List makes me feel old and outdated...)

Once upon a time there was a little show called Dangerous Curves, that had two really pretty ladies named Gina and Holly. Holly was played by the subsequently famous, and gorgeous - OMG the hair, Michael Michele. Gina was played by a lady by the name of Lise Cutter, who has since proceeded to drop off the face of the earth. Holly was the gorgeous one, but Gina was my favourite, spunky and redheaded, with a shady past and a thick accent. And tonight she showed up on Remington Steele! I knew she'd guest starred, because I'd seen it on her IMDb, but I hadn't thought about it in a long time, and then suddenly, there she was! She's so pretty... I gotta go dig up those ancient VHS tapes I have of Dangerous Curves. (Or even scarier, re-read that ancient fic I wrote... eek.)

Unidentified triathlon worker: "Where are the H's... out of order of course. Ah, Holt, here we are, have a good race!"
(Which means that for a brief moment in time back in '85, Lise Cutter and Stephanie Zimbalist were at the same place at the same time, which makes my little shippy heart ever so happy!)

Birds of Prey: "Some music may differ from original broadcast." - Meaning that awesome fightscene at the series finale that previously happened to tATu's "all the things she said" now takes place to some inane indistinguishable techno beat...

Witchblade: "Features an all-new soundtrack selected by the executive producer." - Meaning... well, not much, it'd had been so long since I watched the show I didn't really notice a difference.

Remington Steele: apparently someone forgot the disclaimer, or the sound-editor didn't read the script...
Laura: "Whooo-ooo-ooo-aaaa, Giiiiirls just wanna haaa-aave fuuu-uh-nnnn!!"
Simultaneous radio: "Hey mister, look in my eyes, tell me what do you see? I believe in myself, cause I know..."

Did casting directors think TV audiences were stupid in the 80s, or did they simply think that at a time when most households didn't even have a VCR, much less TiVos or DVD-sets, that no-one would remember actors from one season to the next? So far I've noticed three actors who've played prominent different, yet so similar, characters, on Remington Steele in the first two seasons. And I know this still happens all the time, but this is three times with prominent characters in just the first two seasons, but you at least get the sense that they try to avoid making it completely obvious these days. Space it out with a few seasons between, or at least make them look a bit different or play significantly different characters.

( Lynne Randall )

( Cassandra Harris )

( J.D. Cannon )

Other things I dislike about the 80/90s:
Now, this is going to sound terribly naïve, but it's not like I'm not aware of times having been different 20 years ago, it's just not something I spend a lot of time thinking about. Every once in a while it takes me by surprise that times being different as late as 20 years ago is not just something portrayed on TV for our entertainment, it was the real life experience of women living then (and I lived then as well, but I was a quite young child and didn't so much pay attention to gender roles in society).

Take a show like Remington Steele; a woman invents a male boss to be taken seriously, and then does all the work herself but presents it in his name. Like the producers have said in the commentaries, you couldn't do a show like that today. As a women, I would be horribly offended if someone made a show like that today. But this is set in the 80s, with an air of glamorous 50s, and times were different then, and while the show itself never treats Laura as any less capable than Steele (its saving grace, definitely), she runs into a lot of characters along the way who do. But in some part of my mind I've sort of chalked that up to television, and preferred not to think about the fact that life only 20 years ago was a lot like that for a lot of women.

A point I've had driven home to me lately. I've spent quite a bit of time this past week watching old interviews and talk show appearances with Stephanie Zimbalist, from the 80s and early 90s, and while the things they talk about haven't changed much, the way they talk about them and their relevance to women in particular is sort of creeping me out.

One that stands out is a panel-interview on Marilu, Stephanie and two other actresses, and they very seriously discuss how to balance being a wife and an actress, because don't the husbands get jealous when they cavort around on screen with hunky Hollywood men? Which is a question that might still be asked today, but the way it is asked in 1992 (or whenever this takes place) is as a question that it is something that makes it double difficult for *women* in the acting profession. Stephanie, not being married, opts out of the discussion and talks about her puppy, but the other two women very seriously talk about how important it is to be married to a man who is strong enough in himself not to have his ego be threatened. And this is very pointedly treated like an issue that is only relevant for *actresses*, not actors in general. So not only does the stereotypical man in society feel that he is more important than his significant lady, the stereotypical woman in society perpetuates this image quite well on her own (female talk show host, 3 female guests, and 98% women in the audience who found this topic really interesting).

And women are still treated as less important in society, but I'd like to think it's getting better. The 'how does your spouse feel about this' question is still being asked, but from what talk show interviews I've seen it is treated as an 'actor' question, asked of both male and female actors. And a lot of other things. I think I'm gonna go read some feminist rants by Sarah Warn to wash my brain out.

...and she's on my desktop!

Stephanie Zimbalist/Laura Holt wallpaper:

In honor of the spring equinox I decided that winter was over and cracked my bedroom window open just a tad yesterday, and will, barring a severe late-spring cold snap, not close it until the fall equinox. The air was a little chilly when I woke up this morning, we still get close to freezing degrees at night, but the windows face east so it gets warm quickly as soon as the sun rises, and accompanying the chilled air was the sound of birds singing outside, which made it well worth it. How I've missed not-winter.

Argh!, though. OpenOffice ate one of my fics! The last time I had it open was a few days ago, and I had to turn the computer off the non-correct way (I have some trouble with stand-by mode, sometimes it gets stuck half-way, never goes to stand-by, but I can't bring it back either, and so I have to press the Key of Doom for 3 seconds and power off). And since I know this occasionally happens, I never point it to stand-by without making sure all my documents are saved first. And this happened, and then the next time I turned the computer on it asked me if I wanted to restore the documents that had been open, and knowing that I'd saved them I said no. And yesterday, a few days later, the entire document is missing from the computer. How can it do that??? The other two documents I had open were where they were supposed to be, and were just fine. I had a back up, but it was a couple of weeks old, and I'm missing a bunch of editing, and two scenes. Grrr.

New random 'of the Day:' category:
Random Screen Cap of the Day (click to enlarge):



Caption that one, people.

Title: Waiting
Author: fallon_ash
Rating: G
Word Count: 553
Fandoms Crossed: Remington Steele/The Love Boat
Pairings/Characters: Laura Holt/Julie McCoy
Seasons/Spoilers: None, but set relatively early in the RS verse.
Warnings/Disclaimers: They do not belong to me.
Summary: She appears immersed in her work, diligently pencilling in word after word on the paper, but there is a smile on her face for no apparent reason.
Author's Notes: Thanks to sakuracorr for the beta!

***

( Waiting )

***

Just watched Steele Crazy After All These Years, or whatever the episode was called, Season 1 of Remington Steele, and there, suddenly, glimpses by a very very young Sharon Stone. I adored Sharon for a while after seeing her in The Quick and the Dead, but then she slipped out to my peripheral general pop-culture awareness, only to crash right back in when I first saw If These Walls Could Talk II a few year ago, and then I've seen her on Ellen a couple times, and generally liked her. So, while she's no obsession, she's been somewhere above average in my consciousness for years, and most recently brought to the forefront by overtly flirting with Ellen a couple of weeks ago.

Which is the backstory of why I was really excited to realize that it really was her playing that teeny supporting role on Remington Steele at the tender age, of, oh, 20? 25? Something like that. Adorable and young. While her character in the end turned out to play a significant role in the episode, she really didn't have much more than 3 lines, and was credited among such characters as Driver#2 at the end, as opposed to having Guest Star status at the beginning of the ep, amusingly (which, had this been a movie, would have been enough to put her picture on the front and giving her top billing *cough*WithoutEvidence*cough*) enough as these days she's described as a rather imposing and feared lady, from the look in her eyes alone. She is featured a fair amount, though, in the form of larger-than-life-sized cardboard cut-outs of her placed strategically all around the university(high school?) campus the ep was taking place, even if she was only present in person for two rather short scenes.



( 3 more pictures of an adorable young Sharon Stone under the cut )

In unrelated news, I can't find my May 2005 issue of Allure, which makes me really sad.

Started out the day nice and quietly with some Ellen (which doesn't differ from most other days, which shows this is not necessarily a recipe for wasting a day, but rather a good guide to starting out your day in a nice and healthy fashion, providing you assume I generally lead relatively productive and happy days). Puppy Episode commentary from my new pretty Season 4 box! Yay! Three of the writers, I think it were, and basically they talked about Ellen, what a wonderful actress she is, and other aspects of the Great One, which I whole-heartedly approve of. Compare with Fireflycommentary by Mal and Wash where they spend the entire hour raving about the beauty of Gina Torres (yay!) vs. Bats commentary by Lou Diamond-Phillips (did you know he was married to Melissa Etheridge's ex? I think I have known, at some point, but was reminded again just the other day) and some other dude, and they mentioned Dina Meyer once (nay!).

Continued the day with more Ellen, but this time in movie format, which is slightly different from most days. Goodbye Lover, starring Patricia Arquette, whom I found surprisingly pretty, having written her off completely after seeing those Medium previews. Erotic thriller comedy, I believe it was billed as when I saw it late one night many many years ago, (I was littler then) because it had Sound of Music in the tv guide summary. And even if the Sound of Music had relatively little to do with it, I still remembered liking it. However, I had not seeing it again until today, but it was still good. I rather liked it a whole lot, actually. Ellen was, of course, fabulous. She curses, and glares, and insults, and SHOOTS A GUN and ( spoiler )!!!! Wooo. And is pretty darn great at all of it. My mother didn't even realize it was her, did a double-take, and went I had no idea Ellen could actually look evil. Good movie. Fun movie. Even if ( spoiler ) It's a silly movie, but gosh, I adore it. Go watch it, people.

Quote of the Movie:
Ellen: "We wanna separate potential suspects from your average scumbag citizen."
Naïve Rookie Partner: "Ma'am, you know, we're sworn to serve and protect. If you hate everybody so much, why are you doing this job?"
Ellen: "'Cause every once in a while, I get to shoot somebody."
~Goodbye Lover

Finished off with some Remington Steele episodes and commentary from my new shiny boxes. *proud owner of all five seasons!!* Again, commentators I approved of. Creator and producer/director. They spent most of their time either talking about how much fun they had setting up various scenes and shots, which I enjoyed listening too, but still left a whole lot of time to talk about how beautiful Stephanie Zimbalist is, and what a great actress she is, and how good she and Pierce Brosnan are together, and basically fan!squeeing, which I whole-heartedly approve of. She is gorgeous, young Stephanie, (and if you don't know who she is, then shame on you! you need look no further than my icon here, isn't she lovely?) and the nostalgia over all the love my innocent little baby dyke heart felt for her way back when is sweet and strong and I still love her, and the show, and mmm... Gosh. How could I not *know*?

Which managed to get me through most of the hours of daylight.

Ended the evening with some more Remington Steele, and some behind the scenes thing it was billed as with "revealing character profiles". It was mostly present-day interviews with various people involved, and by the gods they'd managed to dig a lot of people out of the woodwork. No Stephanie, though. Which I'm simultaneously saddened and secretly relieved at. Little 10-year-old me worshipped her so intensely there's still a part of me that might be disappointed were she to turn out to be just a regular human being.