Shameful

There should be a special place in TV Hell for anybody that was associated with the recent "Will and Grace" homage to "I Love Lucy."   Talk about creative grave robbing.   From the actors to the writers to the producers....a pox on your houses.   

A little back tracking, first.  I'm still shaking my head in disbelief that this sitcom was brought back for a second go.  When "Will and Grace" first appeared in the late 90s, I found it quite amusing.   

For about three seasons.   Then they all got on their respective soap boxes and the show became all about the actors mugging shamelessly.   Not an uncommon result, I am told, when you are directed by the overrated James Burrows, who is famous for taking the check with little work involved during the twilight of his career.

Inexplicably, "Will and Grace" ran on for another six or sixty years.   The car had long run out of gas before somebody decided to put it in the garage.

Then, following Trump's election to the White House, the "creative" minds behind the show decided they had more to say about the status of life in our country.  NBC took the bait and brought it back for all of us to reactivate our gag reflexes.   

If you thought the actors were the equivalent of Easter hams in the first incarnation, they are now worthy of the showcase window at your local Honey Baked retailer.   They show little shading and nuance.   It's your drunk aunt or uncle at Thanksgiving.   Indeed, "Will and Grace" was now the television equivalent of the Coronavirus.   

Following an initial sampling, there was a dwindling audience for these shenanigans.   The Nielsen numbers never warranted a presence in the prime time schedule.  But, mystically, it lasted three seasons.   The "series finale" is due in late April.  Fingers crossed that it remains dead this time.

But, in its waning days, "Will and Grace" saved its worst for almost last.   Several months ago, I read they were planning an homage to the best sitcom of all time "I Love Lucy."   This was all done with the blessing of Lucie Arnaz who controls the rights to all things "I Love Lucy."   I used to have a lot of respect for Lucie.  No more.   Nothing "I Love Lucy" should ever be mentioned in the same paragraph as "Will and Grace."   Admittedly, I just did and I'm slapping my hand as I type.

Of course, I was curious to see just how bad this homage was going to be.   The advance press was about how the producers and writers and actors were honored to be part of this.   Debra Messing, who I hear is as dumb as a door knob, particularly was touched to be playing her favorite redhead.   Listening to all these self accolades made me realize that this whole production was not being done for the audience's amusement.   It was all about the creative people admiring themselves.   A complete and shameful vanity project.

But, wait, there's more wreckage up the freeway.  

Their idea of a tribute was to essentially restage famous scenes of the "I Love Lucy" series.    Vitameatavegamin.   The grape stomping episode.   The candy conveyor belt scene with the opportunistic Lucie Arnaz dusting off her acting chops to play the boss in it.   

All scenes were virtually verbatim.   Word for word copies as originally written by the late Madelyn Pugh Davis and Bob Carroll Jr., two geniuses I was honored to know.   Okay, Len thinks, I expect to see a nice hat tip to Madelyn and Bob at the end of the show.

Nope.   

I ran the credits three times, frame by frame, to see if I missed it.   

Nope.

In a sea of garbage, this was the biggest piece of trash.   How could they use these classic scripts without an acknowledgement to the original authors?   Are there no Writer's Guild stipulations on this?   If, indeed, it was up to Lucie Arnaz to get this done, she failed miserably.  Instead, she was just intent to get her mug on camera again and get off the Palm Springs property where she watches her husband grow a new chin a week.

I was as repulsed as I have ever been watching something on television.   The only silver lining is that "Will and Grace" will be gone for good in two weeks.

Please, please, please make it be so for eternity now.

Dinner last night:  Leftover ham and rice.