Entry 1:

Dot,

And on a lighter note ...

Isn't that how Katie Couric would segue from a story about failed Mideast peace talks to the segment where she interviews Yasmine Bleeth? Here we are in what certainly qualifies as a longish national nightmare, and you and I have been invited to fill this space with musings about television's November sweeps. To add to our challenge, the pickings this month were mighty slim--Jackie, O.J., Bible stories (last year NBC gave us leprechauns, this year lepers), and last night's pièce de résistance: A movie everybody in America had already seen twice. It did play a little differently this time around, though, what with President-Perhaps George Dubya Bush making a surprise cameo appearance just as the Ship of State ... er, Dreams began its grim and irreversible descent. A little surreal? I think so; I was waiting for the vice president to show up in the closing credits to sing "My Heart Will Go On."

Anyhoo, Leo and Kate are a romantic couple nearly totally devoid of chemistry. Not unlike Niles and Daphne. Do you agree (as confirmed by Wendy Lesser in the New York Times yesterday) that Frasier's gotten almost too embarrassing to watch, now that the requited lovers are called on to engage in public displays of affection? You know I love Niles like a brother, but so, it seems, does Daphne. Maybe after Daphne is delivered of her phantom nonbaby, they'll be able to get a little closer when they hug.

My favorite Niles and Frasier episode wasn't on Frasier at all; it was when David Hyde Pierce and Kelsey Grammer played brothers Sideshow Bob and Cecil Terwilliger on The Simpsons. That was an example of inspired casting. With TV writing all too often a dismal disappointment, brilliant casting may be all we can hope for these days. So, here's my game: Cast your ideal TV show(s). No movies, just TV. Last week my PBS station showed Where the Boys Are (PBS? go figure), and I was transported to a world that included Paula Prentiss. Paula Prentiss! Tall, brunette, sensible Paula, of the Texas drawl and the snappy comeback. And I thought, why isn't Paula Prentiss on television? Geena Davis has her own show, and though she may be tall and brunette and have won an Academy Award, she can't shine the boots of Paula Prentiss, as my mother would say. I would love to have Paula Prentiss and Jim Hutton in a show with Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen. Unfortunately Jim Hutton's current status renders him unable to star on network TV (though he is, apparently, still eligible to be elected senator in your neck of the woods), so I would settle for Paula and husband Richard Benjamin as Mary's kooky parents. It'll write itself.

Bonus round: For one of the TV movies that must surely be in development, will somebody PLEASE cast Rebecca De Mornay as Hillary Clinton? Don't laugh. Check out The Hand That the Rocks the Cradle and get back to me.

Your move,
Melinda