Dan Cortese as Burger King Spokesman (1992)

"BK TeeVee, I love this place!"

Time was, Dan Cortese of MTV Sports became the official spokesperson for Burger King's television advertisements. In so doing, Cortese, attempting hipness in the most goofy of ways, interacted with everyday customers and employees, all the while exclaiming, "I love this place!" If you watched television in the early 1990s, you could not escape this ad campaign.

Forgotten fact: Burger King offered popcorn to patrons waiting for their food.

Surprisingly, these commercials, once so ubiquitous, have little presence on the Internets. Nevertheless, Chronological Snobbery has cobbled together a few that do exist online to create this entry dedicated to a once annoying, now nostalgic consumer culture campaign.

"They give you popcorn, just to chill with."

"If you loved the movie, you'll love the cup!"

"What's up with that?"

"It's table service!"

Believe it or not, Burger King's advertising strategy in this campaign was a significant enough change of pace to warrant coverage in the paper of record, The New York Times. In late 1992, the NYT's Adam Bryant reported:

In Burger King's current marketing campaign, an MTV host, Dan Cortese, declares, "I love this place," as he mugs his way through a series of rapid-cut ads pitching the fast-food chain's new table service.

Now that Burger King has been running its "BK TeeVee" campaign for a couple of months, it seems fair to ask whether others are embracing Burger King and its table service as eagerly as Mr. Cortese, who in the ads elicits enthusiastic reviews from the customers and crew members he interviews in Burger King outlets.

...

Other than saying Burger King's dinner-time business has jumped and the dinner-basket promotion has exceeded expectations, [Burger King's marketing czar Sidney J. Feltenstein] is not sharing proof of how well the ads are playing in the hearts and stomachs of fast-food fans.

If nothing else, Mr. Feltenstein can pat himself on the back for working Burger King onto the radar screens of the late-night hosts David Letterman, who has chided the ads as annoying, and Jay Leno, who took a camera crew to a Burger King for a "Tonight Show" segment.

...

Some franchisees and industry watchers have criticized the BK TeeVee campaign as too focused on the younger set, thereby missing the slightly older crowd for whom table service might hold some appeal. But Mr. Feltenstein shrugs off the notion, saying Burger King is drawing customers of all ages. "Some people have perceived a weakness in this campaign that it is so focused" on MTV-age viewers, he added. "But one of the strengths is that it appeals to broader demographics."¹

(See also here² and here³ for additional NYT reporting on Burger King's early 1990s advertising).

In 1993, Cortese told Entertainment Weekly: "Burger King, that's not how I act in real life. Sometimes , people call out, 'Dan, Dan, the Whopper Man!' I go, 'Yeah, right, thank you.'''

So what is the former Burger King pitchman up to these days? Cortese was recently cast as the host of the new reality show, "My Dad is Better Than Your Dad." (Link courtesy of TV Tattle, which also linked one of the commercials above).

1. Adam Bryant, "The Media Business; Advertising; Official Tries to Reverse Burger King's Marketing Record," New York Times, December 17, 1992.
2. Stuart Elliott, "The Media Business; Advertising; Once Again, Burger King Shops for an Agency," The New York Times, October 21, 1993.
3. Stuart Elliott, "The Media Business: Advertising; D.M.B&B. Promotes to Executives to Shore Up Basics," The New York Times, November 6, 1992.

Zero Effect: The Television Pilot (2002)

As part of the Chronological Snobbery coverage of the tenth anniversary of the film Zero Effect (released ten years ago yesterday), today's post profiles the ill-fated 2002 pilot episode of the proposed television adaptation of the film (and features interviews with two cast members). Several years after the release of the film, Jake Kasdan, its writer and director, teamed up with Walon Green (the writer of Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch, among other things) five years later in an attempt to translate the film to the screen. British actor Alan Cumming replaced Bill Pullman as the brilliant and mysterious Daryl Zero, while Krista Allen, David Julian Hirsch (as Jeff Winslow, perhaps the replacement of the Steve Arlo character played by Ben Stiller in the 1998 film), and Natasha Gregson Wagner rounded out (presumably) the principal cast.

You will not be able to find a copy of this pilot on DVD or on the Internets. Many of those associated with the project never saw the completed pilot following its post production. There are likely copies somewhere in the vaults of NBC Television, Castle Rock Entertainment, and perhaps even elsewhere in the vast expanses of the Time Warner empire. Kasdan no doubt has a copy somewhere amongst his possessions and projects, but he is not sharing it.

Above: Bill Pullman as Daryl Zero.

Also credited, according to the pilot's IMDB entry, are Julio Leal and Andy Brewster (as Barfly and Barfly #2), Laura Ford, Tom Gallop, Patrick Wolff (as Room Service Waiter).

According to this Entertainment Weekly article, NBC passed on the series, forever condemning it to television limbo. But television pilots are a tricky business, as Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) observed almost a decade and a half ago in Pulp Fiction:

Well, the way they pick the shows on TV is they make one show, and that show's called a pilot. And they show that one show to the people who pick the shows, and on the strength of that one show, they decide if they want to make more shows. Some get accepted and become TV programs, and some don't, and become nothing. [Uma Thurman's Character] starred in one of the ones that became nothing.

Kasdan's show also became nothing, and for the most part, its existence is unknown. Kasdan no doubt built upon this experience when he wrote and directed 2006's The TV Set, a film starring David Duchovny as a television writer attempting to steward his own pilot through the treacherous network processes. But, alas, his prior pilot was not a special feature on that DVD.

Above: Zero (Pullman) illustrates his method.

Six years later, there is little, if any, information about the pilot on the Internets. Associates of Kasdan who responded to email inquiries remained tight-lipped. Said one person interviewed: "I'm pretty sure Jake would not be too interested in letting a copy out. . . ." Those who were kind enough to offer some memories could not recall specifics:

Remembers Leal, the aforementioned actor who portrayed "Barfly," about the project:

I was in LA selling a script and meeting with an Agent when a friend of mine was called to work for 2 days as a Medic for the show. I decided I would tag along. The Tavern in Aspen scene was set in a downtown motel bar. I was invited by Director Jake Kasdan himself to step in to the shot sequence in the Scene Featured along side the principle female Standing at the bar hearing a crazy Zero story that is being told by a thin white guy. The entire bar is listening enthralled.

David Doty, who played Officer Hagans in the 1998 film and just appeared in Kasdan's Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, had two small parts in the pilot, about which he remembers little:

i was in the pilot that jake and waylon green shot. but have never seen it. jake said they should promo it "from the people who gave you "freaks and geeks" and "the wild bunch."

An interesting tagline indeed. (There will be more from Doty in tomorrow's post dealing with the behind the scenes of the film.).

Above: Zero (Pullman) gazes into the distance.

There may have been some attempt to maintain musical continuity with the film, as well. Michael Andrews of The Greyboy Allstars (interviewed in more detail in Tuesday's post about this scoring of the film) believes Kasdan "might have used our music in the temp but we wrote no new material [for the pilot]."

But little else can be pieced together. (Multiple attempts by Chronological Snobbery to obtain a copy of the episode, or even it script were unsuccessful at best, rebuffed at worst.).

Above: Zero (Pullman) hiding in plain sight.

One wonders if Pullman was initially approached about reprising the character for the pilot. Surely, a film star such as he would not be enthusiastic about a weekly television series (directed the 2000 TV remake of "The Virginian" as well as a 2001 episode of "Night Visions" and even appeared in the 2005 series "Revelations" and a 1986 episode of "Cagney and Lacey"). (UPDATE: Here is a 2002 thread from Ain't It Cool News on the pilot casting).

Above: Zero (Pullman) rocks out.

Digital Boy, in his recent review of the film in conjunction with Monday's general post on the film's anniversary, posits an interesting theory:

It should be noted that in 2002, Kasdan attempted to resurrect the character Daryl Zero for television, with Alan Cummings in the lead role. However, NBC did not pick up the pilot, which is interesting as that was the same year USA Network debuted its breakout hit “Monk”, which features a brilliant, yet neurotic private eye. [USA Network was purchased by NBC when NBC acquired Vivendi Universal’s North American-based entertainment asset in 2003].

Knowing the NBC of 2002, perhaps Kasdan would have had more success if he had simply renamed it, "Law & Order: Zero Effect"?

Tomorrow: In tomorrow's coverage of the Zero Effect tenth anniversary, Chronological Snobbery focuses on the behind the scenes of the film with cast and crew interviews.

Philip Seymour Hoffman on Law & Order (February 5, 1991)

"Is he saying we did it? That's a load!" - Steven Hanauer (Philip Seymour Hoffman), reacting to a police officer's assertion that his drug dealer boss has implicated him in a rape, in "The Violence of Summer,"the fourteenth episode of the first season of NBC's "Law & Order," which originally aired on February 5, 1991).

A decade and a half before he would win an Oscar for playing Truman Capote, a 23 year old Philip Seymour Hoffman earned his first television credit - indeed, his first credit of any kind, according to the Internet Movie Database, playing a low level drug dealer on "Law & Order."

The episode begins with Hanauer, Hoffman's character, on trial for the gang rape of celebrity journalist Monica Devries (played by Megan Gallagher, who would later play Catherine Black on "Millenium" and Jillian Wallace on "24"). Hanauer's co-defendant is the equally unsavory Howard Metzler (played by Gil Bellows, who would go on to play Billy Allen Thomas, the love interest of Calista Flockhart's title character on "Ally McBeal").

Hanauer and Metzler receive good news when they learn that the charges pending against them are to be dismissed due to a lack of evidence. There is no physical evidence which link them to the crime, and the memory of the traumatized rape victim is shaky under the circumstances. By taking her to a hypnotherapist, the authorities learn that Hanauer, Metzler, and third offender who is now cooperating with police were not the only offenders. Indeed, the ring leader, Tim Pruiting (Al Shannon), had eluded capture, and even identification. Ultimately, the two detectives, Mike Logan (Chris Noth) and Max Greevey (George Dzundza) pit the perpetrators against each other and trick Hanauer and Metzler into implicating themselves as participants in the rape. Once the new inculpatory evidence comes to light, their lawyer, Louis Taggert (played by Samuel L. Jackson) accepts his clients' fate. The episode closes by noting their conviction and ultimate incarceration.

The episode offers a strange bit of trivia. Philip Seymour Hoffman is actually credited in the episode as Philip Hoffman, while the hypnotherapist, played by a different actor with the same name, is credited as Phil Hoffman (but as Philip Hoffman in IMDB).

The Year That Was (2007)

Blogs aplenty utilize this lazy time before the new year to extol their favorite this and thats from the preceding calendar year. Eschewing the traditional categorization of popular culture by the medium of its delivery, this list will simply lump all the bits, pieces and ephemera of popular culture from the year together. In no particular order, the best of 2007:

Above: "The Doggy Bounce."

The first season of HBO's "Flight of the Conchords," (June 17, 2007 - September 2, 2007)

Perhaps this show would not have received the attention and adoration it did had so many of its viewers not first seen clips of Flight of the Conchords, the band, on the YouTubes before learning of the existence of Flight of the Conchords, the HBO television program. The series' twelve episodes chronicle the misadventures of Bret and Jemaine, two clueless New Zealanders who have brought their folk duo New York City to seek fame and fortune. The dry wit of the series, coupled with the zany performances of the band's songs, was a marvel.

The Apotheosis of Jenna Fischer (2007)

2007 was the year of Jenna Fischer, who made appearances not just in NBC's "The Office" but in a variety of feature films (including Blades of Glory and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story). Her personal life was also newsworthy, as she fractured her back in four places after a fall (but fully recovered) and announced her separation from her husband, director James Gunn. As Pam Beesly on "The Office," she managed to project a sly and sweet sexiness with just a dash of attainability (as she had for several seasons). She is the girl next door to the nth degree.

Spinal Tap at Live Earth (July 7, 2007)

As a cultural event attempting to raise awareness of climate of change, Live Earth was an utter and complete dud. Spinal Tap, however, became the highlight of the series of concerts, when it brought nearly thirty bassists on stage to join them for their hit of hits, "Big Bottom." Joining them were James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, Nate Mendel, and many, many others (or as Spinal Tap's lead vocalist, David St. Hubbins, would note, "every bassist in the known universe").

Sad Kermit (March 2007)

Some enterprising filmmaker decided to mash-up the pain and moral decay of Trent Reznor's "Hurt" with Jim Henson's Kermit the Frog, thereby creating Sad Kermit. The video for same features the green muppet singing Reznor's song and engaging in the types of stereotypically sick behaviors associated with hard core drug usage. Disturbing, yet amusing.

Doctor Who's "Blink"(June 9, 2007)

Aired in the United Kingdom several months before it did so in the United States, "Blink" was the tenth episode of the third season of the latest incarnation "Doctor Who." It was perhaps the best episode of the entire re-imagining of the series, which is ironic, since it barely featured the title character or his companion. Rather, the episode focused on Sally Sparrow, an ordinary citizen caught up in a battle with the Weeping Angels, aliens who become immobile as stone when observed but may move when unseen. To boot, they dispatch their enemies not by slaying them but by transporting them decades into the past where they cannot remain a nuisance. Sparrow must defeat the Weeping Angels so that the Doctor can be rescued from the past, where he is stranded without the Tardis, his fateful time machine. Not only were teh Weeping Angels the most frightful villains in the latest incarnation of the show's three seasons, but the episodes offers a nuanced (and consistent!) portrayal of the perils of time travel.

Above: Billiam the Snowman v. Mitt Romney.

Billiam the Snowman v. Mitt Romney (July 2007)

Is this pop culture, presidential politics, or both? 2007 was also the year in which Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney became entangled in a news cycle over his refusal to address comments made by a snowman character on YouTube. (The snowman was later named one of the "People Who Mattered" in 2007 by Time magazine.). This was, quite frankly, hilarious. "Hello, Mitt Romney!" Billiam would declare. Enough said.

Alanis Morrisette's "My Humps" (April 2007)

That Fergie, then of the Black Eyed Peas, could in 2005 and at age 30 perform without irony a song called "My Humps" is in and of itself astonishing. But it took Alanis Morrissette's somber (and sardonic) cover of the song this past spring to truly highlight its utter silliness.

Arcade Fire's "Neon Bible" (March 6, 2007)

Reviewing Arcade Fire's spring show at New York City's Radio City Music Hall, a writer asked an intriguing question about the band's first single from its then newly released second album:

Would it be perverse to claim that "Intervention" sounded even better when it was a shared secret, circulating as a low-quality MP3 taken from a BBC broadcast, complete with a breathless D.J. "If that doesn't get you, man, if that doesn't get you somewhere special . . .” talking over the last few notes? Maybe. But even now, after all the attention and the big-hall shows, the best Arcade Fire songs still sound mysterious.

(Kelefa Sanneh, "From Little Clubs to Big Halls, an Indie Band Evolves," The New York Times, May 11, 2007.).

Why is it that things, whether they be songs or bands or television shows, are "cooler" when they are unknown and we feel that we have discovered something that throngs of others have not? Is the only quality that makes the "low-quality MP3" better the fact that it is accompanied by the knowledge that you are in on the secret, and thus, part of the cool coterie? Was this question truly necessary in a review of a concert held month and months after the release of the bootleg MP3, or was its only purpose to provide notice to the reader of the writer's indie street cred? Whatever the case, Arcade Fire second major label release was no sophomore slump, primarily due to the presence of "Intervention," 2007's dirge of choice.

NBC's "30 Rock"

Consistently one of the funniest sitcoms on television, Tina Fey's "30 Rock" is the heir to "Arrested Development" and other such trailblazing and wildly amusing shows. In fact, in the fall of 2007, "30 Rock" began to surpass the "The Office" as the funniest half hour on television. Couple that with the lovely and self deprecating Fey and her intrepid cast of characters (including an absolutely hilarious Alec Baldwin), and you have gold.

Radiohead's "In Rainbows" (October 10, 2007)

Radiohead's pay what you wish download scheme was novel and a direct assault on the traditional model of the music industry (although its impact was lessened a bit when it was revealed that it would be unavailable in higher bit rate levels for audiophiles). But if you ordered the special edition boxed set (which came with a second disc), you received the album in all of its glory, including the long awaited release of the studio recording of "Nude."

Honorable Mentions: Wilco's "Sky Blue Sky" (which sounds as if it were recorded sometime in the 1970s), BBC's six episode miniseries "Jekyll" (June 16, 2007 - July 28, 2007), NBC's "Journeyman" (Fall 2007), contestant Blake Lewis and his reinvention of Bon Jovi on "American Idol" (May 1, 2007), and the Obama v. Hillary 1984 political advertisement (perhaps the most creative unauthorized political ad of the season).

Dishonorable Mentions: The unnecessary sequels that were Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Spider-Man 3, and Live Free or Die Hard, the downward slide of TV's "Rescue Me" and "Heroes" (both of which became unwatchable in 2007), the cameo appearances of Roman Polanski and Max von Sydow in Rush Hour 3, the Writers Guild of America strike and its timing to coincide with the midst of the fall TV season, the fact that 2007's R.E.M. Live, the band's first official live album, was of a 2005 concert and not of something from the late 1980s.

Sad notes: The deaths of great film-makers Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni, on the very same day, July 30, 2007.

The Week That Was (12/17 - 12/21)

The Week That Was - Time Travel Edition: True chronological snobs can now pay $220 for a replica of the flux capacitor from Back to the Future, a device which might have come in handy earlier this month for Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day (more about which here, here, and here). On a similar note, Wednesday of this past week saw the airing of the thirteenth and final episode of NBC's "Journeyman," the time travel drama starring Kevin McKidd as a San Francisco newspaper reporter who inexplicably travels backwards in time to assist those in need. Although I voiced some initial concerns about the series at the time of its premiere, "Journeyman" actually improved over the course of its run and developed somewhat of an interesting mythology. Though the narrative took some early missteps, and its theory of time travel was hardly consistent, it had potential, and thus, it is a shame that it has now been forever consigned to the ether by the network. There are those that say the network would never have aired all thirteen episodes had they not been desperate for original programming during the Writers Guild Strike (which still continues as of this blog entry). That, coupled with the premature termination of the awful second second from "Heroes" from the airwaves, is perhaps one of the few good things to be prompted by the strike and its aftermath.

Quentin Tarantino on All-American Girl (February 22, 1995)

Above: Title card from the 1994-1995 television sitcom, "All-American Girl."

After achieving massive commercial and critical success with 1994's Pulp Fiction, a 31 year old Quentin Tarantino appeared on a 1995 February Sweeps episode of ABC's "All-American Girl," the short lived sitcom starring his friend, Korean-American comedienne Margaret Cho.

Above: "Pulp Sitcom" mock title card.

The episode in question was called "Pulp Sitcom," which originally aired on Wednesday, February 22, 1995. The episode was the season's second to last, and ultimately, the penultimate episode of the series (which would be canceled later that year after a period of limbo). More an extended comedy sketch than a true situational comedy episode, "Pulp Sitcom" recreates a number of the more famous scenes in Tarantino's magnum opus, all in the context of Cho's Valley Girl-like protagonist's relationship with Tarantino's pop culture obsessed character.

Above: Desmond (Tarantino) and Benny (Kusatsu) look in the briefcase.

The episode's plot is as follows: Desmond Winocki (Tarantino) is the video supplier to the retail book establishment of Benny Kim (Clyde Kusatsu), the father of the sitcom's protagonist, Margaret Kim (Cho). Winocki walks in to Kim's store to deliver a briefcase containing some videos he had requested. Desmond places the briefcase on the table, and he and Benny open it. Light shines from the interior of the brief case just as it did Pulp Fiction. From it, Desmond hands Kim a copy of Dorf Goes Auto Racing and a reading light, revealed to be the source of the mysterious glow. Thereupon, Margaret enters the room and is introduced by her father to Desmond. The two briefly discuss movies, leading Desmond to say, with proper irony, that the film Speed (released the previous year), was "a little violent for my tastes."

Above: Margaret Kim (Cho) attempts to draw a square.

Desmond then asks her on a date, to which she reluctantly agrees. She explains her initial hesitance to her father, noting that Desmond is, as they say, a square. To illustrate her point, she mimics Uma Thurman in Pulp by drawing a square in the air. She inadvertently creates a trapezoid instead. But the date is set, and the initial plan is to go to dinner and then return to Desmond's apartment to watch his new "favorite" film, Tim Burton's Ed Wood.

Above: Desmond (Tarantino) and Margaret (Cho) dance at the Fantasy Diner.

The two venture to Fantasy Diner, a send-up of both TV's "Fantasy Island" and Pulp's Jack Rabbit Slim's, complete with a Ricardo Montalban maître d', a crew of mimes, and an Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini waiter. They discuss actress Debralee Scott (who played Hotzi Totzi on "Welcome Back, Kotter" and Cathy Shumway on "Mary Hartman, Marty Hartman"), leading Margaret to remark that she "wouldn't have taken you for such a culturally aware guy." She orders the Warren Burger burger and the Pam Grier coffee, while Desmond orders a Hudson Brothers burrito. As a disco song comes over the restaurant's sound system, the two take to the dance floor and perform a number of silly dances, from the electric slide to the robot.

Above: Desmond (Tarantino) gives Grandma (Hill) a Watchman.

Smitten, she takes him to meet her extended family for a dinner at home. He is not unprepared. To her doctor brother, Stuart (B.D. Wong), he brings gourmet coffee, to her adolescent brother, Eric (J.B. Quon), he brings a football, and to her grandmother, Yung-hee Kim (Amy Hill), he brings a Watchman television. Doing his best Christopher Walken impression, he relates to her the great lengths to which he went to obtain the Watchman from a relative trapped in Grenada. When Margaret's mother, Katherine Kim (Jodi Long) needs assistance determining the temperature of the turkey, he raises a meat thermometer over his head and stabs the turkey just as John Travolta did with the syringe into Thurman's heart.

Above: Desmond (Tarantino) explains the perils of a life of crime.

But there's a catch: Upon a second trip to Fantasy Diner, Margaret discovers that Desmond is actually a criminal: he sells bootlegged videotapes, which risks both himself and her father. Cho and her two friends, Ruthie Latham (Maddie Corman of The Adventures of Ford Fairlane) and Gloria Schechter (Judy Gold) worry about the implications of his sinister endeavours. He convinces Margaret to accompany him on his sales route before terminating the relationship, and on so doing, she notes that she feels like she is in "Real Stories of the Highway Patrol." Along the way, Desmond stops at the home of an elderly man (the late Patrick Cranshaw, who played the part of Blue in 2003's Old School) to deliver some tapes. But he knows there are consequences to his life of crime: "You get caught moving a hot Yentl, you go to jail."

Above: The Kim family reacts to Desmond's despondency.

Margaret decides the relationship must end. She tells her father of the ordeal, who asks merely, "What do you mean, I'm selling hot Cool Runnings?" But Desmond appears at the Kim home and offers to give up his life of video piracy to be with Margaret. While there, he spills tomato juice on his shirt, leading to Mr. Kim, inexplicably wearing a tuxedo, to assume a Mr. Wolf like roll to remove the bright red substance.

There is only one problem: Average Tony (Robert Clohessy), Desmond's mobster employer who cannot be convinced to allow an employee to leave, has suddenly appeared at the doorstep with two of his 1970s style goons (dressed like Jules Winfield and Vincent Vega).

Above: Average Tony (Robert Clohessy) and his goons at the Kim house.

Frightened, Grandma Kim ventures down into the basement to find a weapon, choosing first a baseball bat and other options before settling on a samurai sword. Meanwhile, Margaret attempts to reason with Average Tony, who has implied that violence will be wrought unless Desmond returns to his employ. But there's only a few minutes left in the episode, so it turns out that it is just a giant misunderstanding and that Average Tony would never hurt someone over something as insignificant as video tapes.

But it is too late; the police have been called, and Desmond must flee. He makes his escape, pausing to kiss Margaret goodbye before vowing to someday return. Their relationship must have been true. After all, throughout the episode, Desmond refers to Margaret by a variety of nicknames, all deriving from popular breakfast treats: Post Toastie, Crunchberry, Pop Tart, Apple Jack, and Sugar Bear. By episode's end, Margaret calls Desmond her Boo Berry.

Above: Grandma (Hill) confronts the gangsters in her living room.

After the narrative ends, and as the closing credits roll, Tarantino and Cho chat with each other out of character. Tarantino exclaims that he will do "no more episodic television." But then Cho mentions the possibility of his becoming a "recurring character." "Like Ted Bessell on 'That Girl,'" he asks? No Cho replies, "like Bookman on 'Good Times.'" The episode ends.

Above: Desmond (Tarantino) makes his appearance early in the episode.

On the DVD, Cho offers a commentary track for the episode, although she remembers very little of its specifics. Instead, she generally shares a few general anecdotes of her friendship with Tarantino and her embarrassment of her 1995 hairstyle. ("I look so strange to myself," she says at one point during her commentary.). Other details were difficult for her to recall; she could not remember the name of the young actor who played her teenage brother on the program. (The commentary was recorded sometime in mid-to-late 2005; Cho references both her 2005 film, Bam Bam and Celeste, and Tarantino's stint as guest director on "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," which aired in May of that year.).

Above: Desmond (Tarantino) bids farewell to Margaret (Cho).

Describing "Pulp Sitcom" as an "unusual departure" for the program, she notes that the episode did not address issues of ethnicity and immigrant life, staples for the series. She describes Tarantino as "very good friend of mine" and notes that he was "such a good sport for doing all of this" and that it was "such a coup to get him." Cho praises him for "start[ing] a whole new way of looking at violence" and making cinematic violence "cartoonish" and "fun." (That was also a popular criticism of Tarantino then, as now.). She lamented that he "would never tell us what was in briefcase" but speculates that he himself did not know what was contained therein. (By February of 1995, there were certainly enough theories floating around on the Internet.). She relates a story of worry that took place at the initial table reading of this episode's script. Tarantino was tardy, and those affiliated with the show thought that he, as some sort of "weird bad body of cinema," would stand them up and be difficult. From Cho's commentary, we learn that Desmond's car is Tarantino's own; the 1964 Chevelle Malibu convertible was also featured as Vincent Vega's vehicle in Pulp Fiction. Cho waxes nostalgic about drives through Beverly Hills and "being very young Hollywood" with Tarantino in those days.

Because this was February sweeps, and because Tarantino was cinema's hottest property at the time, the episode received a fair amount of coverage immediately before it aired. Critical reaction was mixed. Mark de la Vina of the Philadelphia Daily News, apparently desperate to make a throwaway reference to the New German Cinema, offered:

Obscure cinematic references aside, the episode is more Ralph Malph than Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

Throughout the show, which at times runs like an excuse for Cho and Tarantino to swap '70s pop culture trivia, ''All-American Girl'' cast members ape various scenes from Pulp Fiction. However, the best poke at the movie is by Tarantino himself, especially his parody of Christopher Walken's now-legendary scene where his character explains how he hid a pocket watch when he was in a Vietnamese prison camp.1

Manuel Mendoza on the Dallas Morning News opined:

Too often . . . stunt-casting is a merely an exercise in self-indulgence, or worse, self-parody.

One of the clearest examples is Oscar-nominated director Quentin Tarantino's favor to his friend Margaret Cho - they have a pact that requires them to mention each other during their talk-show appearances. Wednesday, he's on her ABC show, "All-American Girl."

...

The nonstop references to Pulp Fiction and Mr. Tarantino's video-store background are for the most part forced, though the mocking of the movie's Christopher Walken watch scene and Uma Thurman wakeup scene are smile-worthy.

"That's it, no more episodic television," Mr. Tarantino says while credits roll. He must have seen his performance.²

Matt Roush of USA Today wrote:

What was funny in its brashness in Pulp Fiction is rendered feeble by this obnoxious, self-aware parody of the cult movie. It's almost as bad as a Saturday Night Live sketch. Quentin Tarantino, Pulp's trendy writer/ director, misguidedly guest-stars as Margaret Cho's new boyfriend, a spazzy video supplier who consorts with gangsters (one named "Average Tony"). The show spoofs Pulp totems - a glowing briefcase, a weapon in a basement, a dance in a retro diner, an incongruous tuxedo, a meat thermometer wielded like a hypodermic needle - without making them the least bit clever.³

Though the most caustic, the review by Eric Mink of the New York Daily News is perhaps the most accurate (and best stands the test of time). Mink wrote:

One thing is certain: If you haven't seen Pulp Fiction, you won't have a sliver of an idea what's going on in tonight's episode or why the studio audience is laughing. Given the use of laugh-and-applause signs, the studio audience itself may not have known why it was laughing.

I've paid to see Pulp Fiction three times, and I could be persuaded to see it again. I've seen tonight's "All-American Girl" episode once for free come to think of it, I was paid to watch it and I'm not likely to watch it again unless somebody manacles me to one of those A Clockwork Orange rigs where you're lashed to a chair with your head immobilized and your eyes held open with little stainless steel medical pry bars.

...

Yet even these scenes play with the same feeble sense of forced humor that marks the show on weeks when Tarantino is not present. None of the show's able cast is well served by this venture, Cho worst of all. She seems to have been sliced and diced through the Vegematic of network sit-commery and bears little resemblance to the bold, stereotype-busting standup she developed on the road in comedy clubs, college campuses and cable specials.⁴

So too were the denizens of Usenet worried. On February 20, 1995, just two days before the episode would air, Greg Sorensen, writing on bit.listserv.cinema-l, advised simply: "Be afraid, be very afraid . . ." Replying to Sorensen the following day was Melissa Agar, who attempted to explain:

Actually, Tarantino is friends with Cho and asked if he could be on the show. He is a tv junkie, according to an article I read, and would love to do more guest spots like this.

Apparently the whole thing will be filled with Pulp Fiction references.

FYI -- the character of Lance in PF is loosely based on a bit from Cho's stand-up routine.

(See also here for a March 1, 1995 post on the same subject by Marni L. Hager.). Reached by email over the past holiday weekend, Agar confirms that almost thirteen years after its airing, the episode has failed to remain fully in her memory. She writes:

I really don't remember his appearance all that much. I read the comment I made and don't even remember the things I make reference to. I do remember him being on the show (I was a fan of Cho's work even back then and watched that show religiously) and I was (and I suppose still am) a fan of Tarantino and do remember being really excited that he was going to be on.

It is likely forgetabble because "Pulp Sitcom," along with the series of which it was a part, are mostly forgettable relics of an era of mostly bad sitcom television. "Seinfeld" was at its zenith, but "Arrested Development," BBC's "The Office," and "30 Rock" were all years in the future. The true reinvention of the sitcom was not yet well underway.

Above: Tarantino, out of character, talking to Cho during the credits sequence.

Shortly after recording some commentary tracks for the "All-American Girl" DVD release, Cho offered some memories of the show on her official site's blog:

The problem with the show was that in the hysteria of this being the first Asian American family on screen, the writing was stuck in an identity crisis. If we are Asians, then are we funny? Are we racy funny or homey funny? Can we do this? Can we do that? Also, there seems to be a cast of thousands. I think it was because the idea of Asians on television was so outlandish that the executives thought to soften the blow by adding kids, parents, older siblings, twentysomething friends, cute white boys, and NO GAYS!!! Can you imagine???!!!

There were lots of people every week. I think I don’t remember a lot of it because I was not really there for any of it. Although it is ostensibly my show, my voice isn’t on it at all, which is a shame. I didn’t really have a voice then though, so my identity and race served as a makeshift ‘opinion.’ I think that is why there hasn’t been another attempt at an Asian sitcom, because the confusing conundrum of race as voice, of ethnicity as identity, prevails. I don’t watch shows because the characters are white or black. I watch for reasons that don’t factor in race. I know that sometimes people like to think that racism is over, but it isn’t. It is just far subtler and harder to identify.

Still, watching All-American Girl is pretty amazing, thinking of all the pressure we were under, and having no real vision of what it should be. It is like a pupu platter of jokes. One of everything, to please the uninitiated palate, an abrupt tutorial in Asian American life as seen by a bunch of innocent bystanders.

Cho echoes these sentiments on the "Pulp Sitcom" commentary, in which she observes that the show's producers simply "didn't understand the things I asked them to do." She also remarks that she "never understood the [sitcom] medium" with its various laugh tracks and that she didn't think she could do such a show in the present day.

Cho also addressed the life and death of her sitcom in I'm the One That I Want, a concert film.

There is no question that the sitcom was struggling both with the internal issues to which Cho refers in her blog entry but also external pressures from critics. Although it was second in its time slot at the time, it was 55th in the total ratings. Thus, the appearance by Tarantino late in the season during February sweeps may have been a last ditch effort to save the show. Tarantino did his part to promote his appearance. During an "Entertainment Tonight" interview, he quipped, "I'm thinking of giving up this feature film thing. Maybe this could be spin-off material."⁵ That, after all is what friends do for one another, and Tarantino and Cho were friends, if not more, during this period in the mid-1990s.

In fact, their friendship predated the episode and is what prompted his cameo. They met years before at the Snake Pit in the Melrose section of Los Angeles. ''We had the best time,'' Cho told the Philadelphia Daily News. ''We are just so connected in the ways we think about society and culture."⁶ On the commentary track, Cho recounts the times that she would watch movies in the Hollywood hills with Tarantino, who had just purchased the entire inventory from the video store at which he formerly worked in his pre-fame days.

De La Vina, writing for the Philadelphia Daily News, quoted Cho as follows:

''It's always hard to explain what our relationship is based on. I admire him so much. And he's such a good friend to me. And a real treasure. He's such a talent and he's just so intelligent and perfect - just everything that I want.''

Including a boyfriend?

Raising her eyebrows, Cho tossed off a knowing glance, yet remained mum.⁷

Despite her reluctance to confirm a relationship, Tarantino would take Cho as his date (or vice versa?) to the SAG awards that year. Cho certainly romanticized his appearance on her sitcom, calling it their"version of (the Jean-Luc Godard film) 'Breathless,' . . . [w]ith the two lovers on the run, you know, what it might be like, is 'Badlands.'''⁸ But in the end, even Tarantino could not save the show from cancellation, which it was after a hiatus in mid-1995.

Cho would later complain to Lydia Martin of Knight Ridder about the show's constraints, its future, and the revamp that was to occur before its demise was confirmed:

"I have been criticized very unfairly because of my ethnicity, because I am a woman, because of everything," Cho says. "They want the show to be the be-all-end-all. And that's really unfair."

While Disney producers wait to see if ABC will pick up the show for a second season, they have gone back to the drawing board, stripping Cho of her uptight family and moving her into a place of her own, which she shares with three guys.

If the revamped show airs, it will be kind of like a Four's Company, except Cho gets no Jack Tripper-style ogling from her roommates.

"I think the show will work better that way, because it's a lot closer to who I am," says Cho, who lived with two male roommates for years.

"When you are friends with guys for a long time, the whole gender thing gets lost. You become entities, like they don't consider you a woman at all."⁹

The members of the cast would go their separate ways. Wong would later appear on HBO's "Oz" with Clohessy. Cho would later appear in a failed pilot with Kusatsu in which she played his wife, as opposed to his daughter. Now a tattoo enthusiast, she has said that Margaret, Marisa Tomei's character from Four Rooms, was based upon her.¹⁰

"Pulp Sitcom" is available on the fourth and final disc of All-American Girl: The Complete Series (which was released on DVD in January of 2006 and available here via Netflix). That disc also features the immediately preceding episode of the series, "A Night at the Oprah," featuring guest star Oprah Winfrey and a young, pre-fame Jack Black.

1. Mark de la Vina, "Couple of Hot Prop-erties; 'Pulp Fiction' visits 'Girl,'" Philadelphia Daily News, February 22, 1995.
2. Manuel Mendoza, "Watch star go flying by: Sweeps guest shots aim at ratings boost," Dallas Morning News, February 21, 1995.
3. Matt Roush, "Critic's Corner," USA Today, February 22, 1995.
4. Eric Mink, "'Pulp' Parody's a Cho-Show No-Go," New York Daily News, February 22, 1995.
5. Leah Garchik, "Mirror Mirror, On the Wall, Who is Humblest of Them All?," San Francisco Chronicle, February 21, 1995.
6. Mark de la Vina, supra.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.
9. Lydia Martin, "Margaret Cho Hits the Road While ABC Decides Her Series' Fate," Philadelphia Inquirer, April 6, 1995.
10. Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith "Shore's Latest Flick is Reshot to Include O.J. Simpson Murder Trial References," Denver Rocky Mountain News, March 29, 1995.

Quentin Tarantino on The Golden Girls (November 19, 1988)

Before writing and directing 1992's Reservoir Dogs and 1994's Pulp Fiction, a 25 year old Quentin Tarantino appeared as an Elvis impersonator on a 1988 episode of "The Golden Girls."

The episode in question was "Sophia's Wedding (Part 1)," which originally aired on November 19, 1988. Directed by Terry Hughes, with a script by Barry Fanaro and Mort Nathan, the episode was the sixth of the fourth season. The plot was typical sitcom fare. Aging matriarch Sophia (Estelle Getty) returns to New York for the funeral of a longtime friend. Accompanied by her daughter, Dorothy (Bea Arthur), she meets Max Weinstock (Jack Gilford, known to modern viewers as Bernie from the Cocoon films). Sophia had dreaded seeing him again, for she blamed him for the long-ago demise of her then-husband's eatery. The two reconcile, return to Florida, become lovers, and decide to marry. Meanwhile, Rose (Betty White) and Blanche (Rue McClanahan) have formed a chapter of an unofficial Elvis Presley fan club. The confused Rose accidentally sends the wedding invitations to the Elvis impersonators she had planned to invite to a fan club meeting. Thus, they are the only guests. After the wedding, the assembled Elvii serenade the new bride and groom with "Hawaii Wedding Song," whereupon the episode ends. Tarantino did not appear in the episode's second half one week later.

Tarantino earned the walk-on role due to the efforts of his new manager, Cathryn James. She had taken him as a client after being introduced to him by an existing client, Craig Hamann, a long-time Tarantino friend. Hamann had worked with Tarantino on his first film, the never released My Best Friend's Birthday, in 1987. In the 2005 book Rebels on the Backlot, author Sharon Waxman recounts the tale of how the young actor got the role:

Cathryn Jaymes had taken Hamann on as an actor client after he worked in her office as a secretarial assistant, among his other jobs. One day in the mid-1980s he brought his friend Tarantino around to her office.

At the time, Tarantino didn't have much to recommend him: he was an aspiring actor but not exactly a kid at age twenty-five. He had no credits, no acting reel.

But he he definitely had something. He walked into Jaymes's live-in office in a ripped T-shirt and jeans with his hangdog shuffle, and he did the quintessential Quentin performance, spouting stream-of consciousness movie ideas, holding forth passionately about his favorite movies, about his plans to act and makes movies himself. He was funny, gregarious, charming - and engagingly manic. Jaymes, then thirty-four years old, loved him immediately and at the end of the meeting said simply: "I have no doubt you will become a major force in the industry." She signed him.

...

Tarantino was determined to act, so at first Jaymes got him jobs doing just that. She called up a friend, a casting agent over at the television show The Golden Girls. They needed an Elvis impersonator for one episode, and Jaymes touted her new client as "Elvis meets Charlie Manson." He got the walk-on, his first real job in show business.¹

Above: The scene in question.

Interviewed in 1994 by Margy Rochlin for Playboy, Tarantino recalled the experience:

Well, it was kind of a high point because it was one of the few times that I actually got hired for a job. I was one of 12 Elvis impersonators, really just a glorified extra. For some reason they had us sing Don Ho's Hawaiian Love Chant. All the other Elvis impersonators wore Vegas-style jumpsuits. But I wore my own clothes, because I was, like, the Sun Records Elvis. I was the hillbilly cat Elvis. I was the real Elvis; everyone else was Elvis after he sold out.²

(Rochlin's full 1994 Playboy interview can be found here.). Tarantino would also quip that "Bea Arthur is fine after she's had her morning coffee."³ In 2003, he would tell the tale of his audition during his now infamous drunk appearance on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."

His compensation for the episode, and ensuing residuals, sustained him as he pursued truer interests. In 1992, David Kronke of the Daily News of Los Angeles broached that subject:

The important lesson he learned from the work was how much money one can make doing one little job. "I made $3,000 over the course of a year for a couple of days' work. Every time I was running out of money, I'd get a check for $100 or $200 or $300. It was so great - now I understand why people do this."⁴

Actor Harvey J. Goldenberg played the minister officiating the wedding of Sophia and Max. He also agrees that Tarantino looked different than the other Elvii. In a recent email to this site, Goldenberg (whose official site is here) remembers the production of the episode in question:

The show rehearsed Mon-Wed as I recall. We gathered around a large table the first day and read through the script. Bea Arthur's big problem was that the bagels and cream cheese they brought in for her didn't taste like New York bagels. While she was never moody, the staff tiptoed around her. On Thursday with did a dry run through in the morning and then another after lunch. We shot the show twice on Friday. First a dress rehearsal with an audience about 2 p.m. and then the final show in front of another audience at night.

...

As for the Wedding sequence, the thing I remember is that I screwed up my last line. I had been letter perfect all during rehearsals. Then the last day, Estelle took umbrage at the expression "Man and wife." She felt it should be "Husband and wife." The writers graciously agreed to change the line to that. Of course I got flustered and said the original line which I think they went with.

"The wedding sequence didn't rehearse any longer than any of the others since the Elvises were not there until Thursday," he says. Of the Elvii assembled on the set , he remembers:

The thing I remembered about the singing Elvises is how few really looked like Elvis. Also how many of the Elvises took themselves seriously. Aside from his being the most strange looking Elvis I can recall seeing, I remember nothing about Quentin Tarantino being on that shoot.

Of the principal members of the cast, and its guest star, Gilford, Goldenberg recalls:

Estelle had the most lines this show and she was nervous about forgetting them. I went over them with her.

Jack Gilford and his wife were both very nice, easy people to be around. They had written a book in 1978 called 170 Years of Show Business.

...

Betty White was very quiet. Sat by herself and knitted.

Rue McClanahan [was] every bit as outgoing and charming in person as her Blanche Devereaux.

(Internal links added). One wonders if Tarantino, the pop culture addict, could resist the temptation to speak with Gilford (of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Save the Tiger, for which he was nominated for an Oscar), Arthur (of TV's "Maude" and "The Sid Caesar Show"), McClanahan, White, and Goldenberg (TV's "That Girl" and "M*A*S*H").

Goldenberg made news earlier this year for witnessing of an airport security incident.

In early days of the Internet, before TV episodes were easily found in DVD box sets and the Youtubes, rumors abounded on the Usenet newsgroups that the famed director had once appeared in an episode of such a tame sitcom. On September 23, 1993, Ola Torstensson, well ahead of the pop culture and Internet curve, noted on rec.arts.movies that he "just felt like pointing out that while Tarantino was writing Reservoir Dogs (and perhaps True Romance) he lived on the money that kept flowing in after he'd once been in a 'Golden Girls' episode playing an . . . . . . Elvis impersonator!"(See also here). There was little way to confirm the truth of the rumor unless one happened upon a cable rerun. On July 13, 1996, one "MondoFaust" posted an inquiry in the Usenet newsgroup at.video-tape-trading, of all places, asking simply: "Does anyone have a tape of the episode of 'The Golden Girls' on which Quentin Tarantino appeared (pre-Reservoir Dogs) as an Elvis impersonator?" The fourth season of "The Golden Girls" would not be released on DVD until February of 2006 (at which time IGN featured some screen captures highlighting Tarantino).

The Elvis impersonator footage would be re-used in a later episode of the series. Two years later, on May 12, 1990, the second part of a two-part Golden Girls clip show, "The President's Coming! (Part 2)," rebroadcast Tarantino's fateful scene. In that two-part episode, the principal cast remembers certain events of the preceding years as they prepare for a visit by President George H.W. Bush to their home. Prompting the memories is a Secret Service Agent investigating them prior to the President's official visit. The agent specifically asks Sophia why she is also known as Sophia Weinstock, leading to a few clips from the original episode in which Tarantino appeared, if ever so briefly. At the end of the episode, the four Golden Girls meet President Bush, played by an actor who is seen offscreen, save for his hands, which shake those of the main cast. (Harry Shearer played the voice of President Bush.). This episode was written by Marc Cherry, fourteen years before he would achieve massive success as the creator of ABC's "Desperate Housewives." On June 2, 1990, Gilford, also featured in the clip show, died of stomach cancer in Manhattan less than a month after it aired.

UPDATE (11/26/07): See here for a review and analysis of Tarantino's February 22, 1995 appearance on "All-American Girl," the sitcom starring Margaret Cho.

1. Sharon Waxman, Rebels on the Backlot: Six Maverick Directors and How They Conquered the Hollywood Studio System, p. 22-23 (HarperCollins, 2005) (ISBN 0060540176).
2. Margy Rochlin, "Quentin Tarantino. (filmmaker) (Interview)," Playboy, (November 1994).
3. Eleanor Ringel, "Quentin Tarantino Nonfiction," Atlanta Journal Constitution, October 9, 1994.
4. David Kronke, "Violent is the word for Tarantino; Director's zeal is his unbridled passion for film," The Daily News (Los Angeles, CA), October 23, 1992.

Adrienne Shelly on Homicide: Life on the Street (January 27, 1994)

"In our little community, word travels fast," - Tanya Quinn (Adrienne Shelly), a proprietor of a leather store catering to bondage enthusiasts, to Baltimore Homicide Detective Tim Bayliss (Kyle Secor), answering his question as to how she learned the case had been closed, in "A Many Splendored Thing," the fourth episode and finale of the second season of Homicide: Life on the Street in early 1994.

Today is the first anniversary of the passing of the actress and director, Adrienne Shelly, whose death at age 40 last year gained headlines not just because of her minor fame but because of the macabre circumstances surrounding it. Her death, initially thought a suicide, turned out to be a murder disguised as a self-inflicted death. Most American movie-goers didn't know her name. She appeared in mostly obscure indie movies of the 1990s and was a favorite of director Hal Hartley; in some ways, she was more the "Queen of the Indies" than Parker Posey.

On January 27, 1994, a 27 year old Shelly appeared in "A Many Splendored Thing," the second season finale of Homicide: Life on the Street. Not much has been written about Shelly's cameo on this episode, perhaps because it aired so many years ago before mass Internet usage.

Homicide was a procedural before that term became fashionable to describe such shows, and each week, Baltimore homicide detectives (or "murder police," as they called themselves) would solve, or attempt to solve, several murders over the course of any given episode. In 1994, it was still a powerful and innovative drama in its prime, several years away from its inevitable dilution at the hands of NBC network executives.

Like most episodes of the series, "A Many Splendored Thing" featured several subplots, among them Detectives Meldrick Lewis and Steve Crosetti attempting to solve a murder over a $1.49 pen as well as Detective John Munch confronting his puzzlement at the happiness of his older partner, Detective Stanley Bolander, who is dating 26 year old cellist played by Julianna Marguiles (at that time less than a year from appearing in the first season of ER.). The central plot, though, involves Detectives Frank Pembleton and Tim Bayliss working the murder of one Angela Frandina, who was apparently strangled to death. After some initial interviews with a neighbor, the detectives are led to Frandina's place of employment: the Leather Chain on Broadway, an establishment catering to enthusiasts of leather and bondage. It is there they meet Tanya Quinn (Shelly) who, in addition to maintaing a reserved comfort in her lifestyle choices, directs the detectives to her other job: Eastern Shores Telemarketing Co./Dial-Luv, a phone sex operation. Bayliss is horrified at the sordid employment choices of the victim and goes to great lengths to put his outrage on display for Pembleton, who can only shrug. The two even investigate an underground bondage club, Eve of Destruction, where Angela's last boyfriend worked. Get this: the former boyfriend character's name is Chris Novoselic.

Throughout the episode, Bayliss remains troubled. By 2007 standards, Bayliss's reaction to these underground communities seems almost quaint. But, of course, this episode aired originally in January of 1994, and was written in 1993, well before the Internet enveloped popular culture and made such things easily findable with the click of a mouse.

Upon revisiting Quinn and the Leather Store, the detectives ascertain that Frandina was strangled by something very much like the leather studded belt which comes with a certain leather jacket sold at the store. Such a jacket was purchased by Frandina's neighbor's boyfriend, who has now lost said belt. He ultimately confesses to the killing, which he believes was excusable since she enticed him into some type of seductive bondage game involving strangulation. The case solved, Bayliss returns to his work station, where he is greeted by Quinn, who has come to thank him. Explaining her lifestyle to him, she notes that ""[w]hen I've given myself over completely to the control of someone else, I'm free."

She then presents him with an unexpected reward: a leather jacket of his own. He initially refuses, but Quinn replies, forcefully, that he will indeed take it. He relents. The episode ends with a sequence involving Bayliss wandering the club scene wearing his new leather accessory.

What is it that makes Shelly's performance in an episode in which she appeared no more than a quarter of memorable after thirteen years? It boils down to this: certainty is an attractive quality, especially in someone who looks like Adrienne Shelly. She played the character with a mousy confidence of sorts coupled with a knowing comfort level in her subculture; she didn't give a damn about societal preconceptions, but there was a notable lack of pretension about those would not or could not understand.

Television critic David Bianculli certainly took notice of Shelly's performance. On the date the episode ran, he observed that "[g]uest star Adrienne Shelly, of the 1990 cult movie 'The Unbelievable Truth,' makes a stunning impression as the shopkeeper."¹ A year later, when the episode reran, he noted that "[i]t's a wonderful episode, and Ms. Shelly's Tanya is a wonderful character."² Bianculli was not the only smitten viewer. On February 1, 1994, just days after the episode's first airing, listserv poster Randy Reichardt quipped that Shelly "could put a leather jacket on me anytime." In an email earlier this week, Reichardt, now blogging here, shares that he now has but a "vague recollection" of the episode but notes that "[h]er death was beyond unfortunate, and she deserves to be with us today, still being creative and exciting to watch."

In the aftermath of her death, those who knew her established The Adrienne Shelly Foundation. (See here for a recent interview with her husband, Andy Ostroy, about both his and the couple's three year old daughter's efforts to cope over the past year.) Shelly's last film role was in 2007's Waitress, which she also wrote and directed. It was announced this week that Curb Your Enthusiasm's Cheryl Hines, who appeared with her in Waitress, will direct Shelly's last existing screenplay, Serious Moonlight.

"A Many Splendored Thing" can be found on the fourth disc of the DVD set, Homicide: Life on the Street: Seasons 1 & 2. (A transcription of the episode - not a formal script - can be found here.).

UPDATE (11/01/2007 6:13 PM): Jim King forwards the following clip from YouTube which features Shelly's final scene in the episode:


1. David Bianculli, "'Homicide' Faces its own Finale Tonight," The Baltimore Sun, January 27, 1994.
2. David Bianculli, "For a Reality Good Show, Sample 'VR.5'," The Baltimore Sun, March 10, 2005.