Thoughts About TV and Password.

It has really been nice to just be home for a change. Of course, it would have to happen when there is absolutely nothing good to watch on TV. I'm so sick of all these game shows. And what pisses me off is that the one I really wanted to see, Password (with Regis), we totally missed. I hope they took it back to its pure form.

The thing about Password is that it was at its best in the earliest days when the show was about guessing random and the bonus round consisted of those word plates that popped up out of the table tops. I loved that! And I loved Alan Ludden's sly looks at the camera.

Then, some idiot invented "Super Password" and I totally hated that. Why? Because the words were no longer random. Now they had to fit into some totally stupid rebus of other words which, when fit together, suggested something else. That's when they started giving them words like "George." Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Boring.

I didn't mind the bonus round where they had to name words in alphabetical order, though. That was cool. Once again, except for the first letter, the words came randomly.

The only reality shows I like are the ones where the contestants have to actually do something creative. Like make a dress or cook a meal. (Project Runway and Top Chef). I get so tired of "Survivor," which is like a beach game olympics. I mean, seriously, who would have thought 20 years ago that one of the biggest shows on network teevee would consist of people playing beach games?

I also don't like "Dancing with the Stars." I'm so bored by the current culture, I can't tell who the stars are. Like when Donny Osmond was hosting "Pyramid," I never knew which person sitting there was the "celebrity." How many celebrities can there be on this planet? If everyone is a celebrity, then no one's a celebrity.

I do love "Battlestar Galactica," though, and not just because it's SF. It's because it's the best written show on television. If you haven't watched the current season, try to start from the beginning. It's so not about shooting things and blowing things up with ray guns. It's also about religion and personality cults.

The humans have all these gods in their religion. And they've been infiltrated by Cylons, who are synthetic humans who've suddenly developed a monotheistic religion. All of this happening aboard ships that are basically falling apart while they try to find their way to earth. Meanwhile, the guy that got the humans into most of the trouble in the first place has a personality cult going filled with lots of beautiful women.

It might sound confusing, but I love philosophy and religion and psychology. To drop all this complexity into a show about space ships is too good to pass up.

I'm also a little sad that The Last Session has closed in Norwich. Funny thing about theatre. When it's there, it's there. When it's not, it's gone. Brett Bernardini told me that wonderful and miraculous things happened during its run. I hope more theaters will pull together the courage to produce it.

Meanwhile, The Big Voice is getting its first independent production. One of my readers has organized his own theater within his church, and he wants to make The Big Voice his first big production. This is in Allentown, PA. Happily, we're going to get to meet him in Philadelphia in a couple of weeks.

Still, being here with Jim and Steinbeck here alone in the apartment, with no schedules, no traveling and nothing but each other, it's been really nice. I've been working daily on the scores and demos for "Pantheon" while cheering Kathleen McGuire on with her AIDS Life/Cycle adventure from San Francisco to LA. (We'll be seeing each other on Saturday).