Month: May 2010

There was some discussion among the creators of “Avenue Q” as to whether to make a change in their show since the superintendent of the apartment house is purported to be Gary Coleman.  Would such a portrayal, which at most could be considered bad taste (as one would expect from a show that proclaims the joys of Internet pørņ), now become something uncomfortable and even distressing?

It turns out…not so much.  Although they excised about twenty words of dialogue (for instance, instead of Gary–who, like Peter Pan, another individual who didn’t quite leave childhood behind, is played by a woman–saying that he’s a “former child star,” he now simply says “child star”) his character remains intact and undaunted by mortality.  Gary Coleman the man may be gone, but “Gary Coleman,” the unstoppable symbol of soldiering on no matter what life hands you, lives on off-Broadway.

PAD

I only had the opportunity to meet Linda a few times, but she was always very sweet and ebullient.  My deepest sympathies go to Mike and his family as they deal with this tragic loss.

PAD

My favorite moment in the original “Avengers” TV series involved a climactic battle wherein Steed and Peel are faced with about nine karate guys who are prepared to beat the crap out of them.  And Steed and Peel get separated by a big sliding iron door, leaving Steed trapped with eight of the guys and Peel gets one.  And it takes Emma, who normally can dispatch this kind of bad guy with alacrity, about five bruising minutes to take the guy out.  It was probably the longest sustained battle against one opponent she ever had, which gives you an idea of just how formidable he was.  And finally, exhausted, she runs to the closed door, punches a button, the door slides open…and Steed (whom we haven’t seen since the door closed) is standing there, leaning on his brolly, his hat firmly in place, calm as anything, and all eight guys are unconscious on the floor.  And her jaw just drops as she realizes that Steed took out, with no effort, eight guys in the time it required her to take down one.  It was one of THE great Steed moments, and I’d love to know which episode it was.

PAD

Remember the other day when I was live-blogging “Lost” and I kept mentioning the Mets game, which ended with them shutting out the first place Phillies?

Well, apparently they were just getting warmed up.  After having taken two out of three from the Yankees, they wound up shutting out the Phillies three games in a row.  Twenty-seven innings of no-run baseball.  The Mets haven’t shut out a team for an entire series since 1969, when they did it against (wait for it) the Phillies.  They’ve gone from being in the basement to being two games out of first.

Of course, we’ve been at this sort of tipping point for the season before.  The problem is that they then go on the road and promptly get blown out.  They need to prove they can be a formidable team somewhere outside of CitiField.  Now they head off to Milwaukee, so we’ll see if they can get it going against the Brewers.

PAD

Years ago, when my life was falling apart, and I was in as deep a funk as I’ve ever been–when I was so far down that there seemed no up possible, because my (admittedly rocky, but still) marriage had crashed and burned, Bill Mumy said to me, “You know what’s going to happen?  Years from now, you’re going to be lying in bed with another woman, and she’s going to be gorgeous, and you’ll be celebrating your ninth anniversary or something, and all of this stuff you’re feeling right now is going to be a distant memory and nothing more.  It’s going to get better.”

And at the time I thought he was absolutely crazy, because I knew of an absolute certainty that not only would I never love anyone again, but that–far more dámņìņg–no one would ever have cause to love me.

And I was wrong and Mumy was right.  And I offer that up as an object lesson for anyone who is feeling down in the dumps, for whatever reason:  A failed marriage,   a failed relationship, any emotional crippling of the soul, can eventually be nothing but a memory.  Especially if you’re lucky enough to find the ideal mate, which I was fortunate enough to do.

I have never been happier, and it’s all because of her.

Happy ninth anniversary, Kathleen.

PAD