In 1985, the year Gary and I were married, a television show named Moonlighting premiered. It starred Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis. Look - Bruce Willis with hair.
It never made it to syndication, so you might never have seen it. It was very quick-paced and quick-witted. They did entire shows in iambic pentameter. There was a film-noir episode in black-and-white. (Lost on us with our black-and-white tv.) Gary and I would snuggle on our couch made of brown plaid upholstery and wadded-up-newspaper (this is true) and wait for the opening chords.
And then Gary would say, "I hate this show!"
"Well then why are we watching it? Let's do something else."
"NO NO No, YOU like this show."
Then he would watch enrapt for an hour, and then at the final fade-out he would say, "I hate that show."
This went on for four years. Later on in the series, Bruce Willis developed his annoying smirk. See below.
The Smirk would cause Gary to scream at the TV: "I hate him! I hate him!" But still, we never missed the show. Remember: this was BV - Before VCRs, epoch 1 of the Pre-tIVO era. We had to be there in front of the TV.
Years later Gary said, "Remember Moonlighting? That was the best show..."
"What? You hated that show!"
"Never!"
"Every week you would tell me how much you hated that show!"
"Lies! I loved that show!"
So, since then I've watched Gary closely and when it comes to TV shows he only loves shows he claims to hate. The Love-So-Intense-It-Must-Masquerade-As-Hate only applies to TV shows. If he says, "I hate [Name of Movie][Name of Actor][Name of Cuisine]" that is accurate. He truly does hate Jim Carrey, for example, and will turn off a promising movie if Jim Carrey is in it.
Other shows Gary has claimed to hate:
House
Rescue Me
The Sopranos
Sex and the City
Northern Exposure
Hill Street Blues
This is all to say, watch Glee (Wednesdays, 8 Central). Gary claims to hate it after only two episodes. Obviously it is destined for an Emmy.
My 21 year old son thinks that Moonlighting is the best show ever made. He's been getting the discs from Netflix and watching them over and over.
My entire dorm was watching the night David and Maddie finally consummated their relationship. The roar was heard across campus.
I watched the pilot for Glee and I have to say, Gary is right. I need to set an alarm for Wednesday--I have missed both episodes since then. No Tivo, DVR here. And I'm not capable of figuring out whether or not I can record on the VCR with the digital converter box hooked up to my 1983 TV.
Hope you are feeling better. Which Babka tasted best?
Posted by: Wendy | September 17, 2009 at 08:28 AM
Moonlighting WAS one of the best shows ever made, Wendy's son is right! I never missed it (and my husband loved it too!)
Glee...fills me with The Joy. I smile for an hour. It's amazing.
Posted by: Candy | September 17, 2009 at 08:54 AM
I LOVED Moonlighting. And I keep meaning to watch Glee, but forget. I will definitely make a point of not missing it from now on.
Posted by: Kristie | September 17, 2009 at 10:49 AM
Me too, me too! I loved Moonlighting as well! It was so sophisticated and funny. But it went downhill sharply once the sexual tension was relieved (usual story).
Gary's dislike is an unerring marker for what's good, clearly. I bet my daughter has already found, downloaded and watched every episode of Glee.
Posted by: Big Dot | September 17, 2009 at 12:30 PM
Moonlighting was definitely one of the greatest shows ever. My Mom used to let me watch! hehe
Posted by: #0.75 | September 17, 2009 at 06:48 PM
Wendy -Oh, the boughten babka. And it's much easier. And you know you can see shows online, right? Unless you're at work...
Candy - Its imore nteresting now how they've now incorporate the music into real life ("I Put a Hole in Your Car" or whatever that song was.)
Kristie - I dont know if Id be watching it, but Gary hates it so much that it must be good.
Big Dot - It's very much a teenage show.
.75 - Oh, and how old were you? Ten?
Posted by: TheQueen | September 17, 2009 at 11:50 PM
Really? YOU say 'boughten' too? I grew up with that - except it was always 'shop-boughten''. I've never heard anyone else ever say that outside our family.
Posted by: Big Dot | September 18, 2009 at 03:26 PM
Oh, and that sounds ideal - she's very much a teenager. (Unlike - ahem - you and Gary...)
Posted by: Big Dot | September 18, 2009 at 03:28 PM
Big Dot - "boughten" is looking stranger and stranger to me. It still sounds right. Oh, now I have to look it up. (Moments later)
"adjective Northern and North Midland U.S. Nonstandard. store-bought."
Nonstandard? Hmph. I prefer the second entry in dictionary.com:
"bought·en (bôt'n)
v. A past participle of buy.
adj.
Commercially made; purchased, as opposed to homemade: boughten bread.
Artificial; false. Used of teeth.
American regional dialects allow freer adjectival use of certain past participles of verbs than does Standard English. Time-honored examples are boughten (chiefly Northern U.S.) and bought (chiefly Southern U.S.) to mean "purchased rather than homemade": a boughten dress, bought bread. The Northern form boughten (as in store boughten) features the participial ending -en, added to bought, the participial form, probably by analogy with more common participial adjectives such as frozen. Another development, analogous to homemade, is evident in bought-made, cited in DARE from a Texas informant."
Just letting the teenager comment slide.
Posted by: TheQueen | September 18, 2009 at 03:41 PM