Category Archives: Everything I Know I Learned on TV

I love pop culture, as you know. But what I really love is ’90s pop culture. And what I really really  love is when ’90s pop culture BFFs pull off a modern-day reunion. Like the selfies above. The top, from Thelma & Louise, 1991. The bottom, from Susan Sarandon’s Facebook page, 2014. (Can we all just agree that these women are ageless?) Thelma and Louise basically stand for all things best friendy, and just seeing these pics reminds me why I started my partner-in-crime search in the first place.

In other ’90s-pop-culture-friendship-reunion news: Lifetime is set to air The Unauthorized Saved by the Bell Story. You read that right. Bayside is back, y’all.  The movie, which will air in September, will be about the behind-the-scene shenanigans of everyone’s favorite Saturday morning teen sitcom. You know, before Screech became a porn star. Lisa Turtle for president is all I have to say.

I will also admit, right here, right now, that I bought a number of hats at Contempo Casuals in an attempt to be more like Blossom and Six. I have a picture of my 5th grade BFF and me wearing our hats with giant flowers on them. I’d say it’s not my proudest moment, except I’m kind of into the fact that my 10-year-old style could best be described as Clarissa-meets-Blossom. I’ve never since been that much of a fashion risk-taker (that might be a good thing). All this to say: Yay! The Blossom folks reunited yesterday!

We live in a culture hungry for nostalgia. So I say thank you to my childhood heroes for feeding that craving. And, also, Party of Five, we’re all waiting.

Which old TV gang are you dying to see again?

Ok. Now that we’ve all seen Bridesmaids (more or less) can we commence discussions? When I first wrote about the movie I had seen a sneak preview, and was happy to give a glimpse into the competition between the Kristen Wiig and Rose Byrne characters.

As I mentioned back then, and now maybe you agree, I was surprised by just how much of the movie had real weight to it. Relatable situations. At its core, Bridesmaids was a movie about friendship more than it was about ladies pooping in the bridal salon and getting drunk on planes (though that whole airplane scene had me doubled over. “What kind of name is Stove, anyway? Are you an appliance?” “It’s called civil rights. This is the ’90s.”)

The relationship between Kristen Wiig’s Annie and Maya Rudolph’s Lillian is another one that deserves some analysis. They’re in that “we’ve been BFFs for life but now one of us is moving on and forcing the other to miserably re-examine her life” phase of the relationship that movies and TV shows (*cough* Private Practice) love to highlight. There is this sense in entertainment that whenever a woman gets engaged or pregnant, somewhere in the world one of her friends dies inside. I think that’s silly. 10 percent true and 90 percent silly.

I do think there’s truth to the distress that both Annie and Lillian feel as they see their lives moving in different directions. They adore each other, they want to still be close , and yet there’s no denying that one of them is about to be living a fancy country club life and one is unemployed and living with freaky British brother-sister roommates.

I’m happy to say I haven’t encountered this friendship conundrum. Yes, I’ve grown apart from friends. But not because one of us got married or because of any underlying jealousies. My faded friendships have been the result of living in separate cities and both parties becoming less and less interested in making the phone call effort. Suddenly you realize you haven’t spoken to one of your “good friends” in approximately six months.

That said, I’m young. When I see my mom-friends I don’t ooze with envy.  I’m not there yet. My reaction is more of the thank-god-I-can-still-sleep-in-on-a-Sunday variety. And when I got married, I was young enough that none of my single friends had those “she’s getting married and I’m going to die alone” thoughts. I don’t think.

As my friends and I get older and pass the ages at which we’ve arbitrarily decided we should be getting married or having kids, perhaps then this jealousy, or hostility, will kick in. I don’t know. I mean, I hope not, but what do you think? Do friendships get hostile and tense as we grow in different directions and develop separate lives?

It’s the rare moment that I laugh out loud while watching TV alone, but yesterday I couldn’t stop. I was watching one of my all-time favorite episodes of How I Met Your Mother, in which Lily performs in an off-off-off-Broadway play. When Barney tells her, honestly, that the play was wretched, Lily lectures him on how friends should support each other. Barney doesn’t see it that way and, in an effort to make his point, stages the world’s worst one-man show. He then characteristically forces the gang to sit through said show until they admit friends can’t always be supportive.

Lily’s argument: “I am going to sit through the whole thing and I am going to say something nice about it afterwards. You know why? Because that’s what friends do.”

Barney’s argument: “Friends don’t let friends come see their crappy play.”

Both arguments hold water. When I pour my heart into something, I want my friends to say something nice. Of course, I want them to be speaking honestly. But even if they weren’t, I wouldn’t need to know. Good ol’ fashioned support is a blessed thing.

But sometimes I participate in something—for whatever reason—that I’m not especially proud or enamored of. Maybe it’s a project I was asked to help out with, or something I had no choice but to work on. In those cases, I usually leave my friends out of it. I don’t want to bore them with my so-called crappy play.

Obviously in a world of Lily vs. Barney, Ms. Aldrin is almost always right. She’s Barney’s conscience, after all. But the episode made me wonder, in what circumstances is it better to be honest than supportive? When is “don’t quit your day job” the right response? (Maybe not those words, exactly, but that sentiment at least.)

When a friend decides she wants to pursue her life-long dream of acting or designing clothes or becoming the world’s oldest trapeze artist, at what point do you tell her it’s not going to work out?

Certainly before it comes to this:

On Saturday night, Entertainment Weekly published a blog post entitled “David Tutera is my reality TV BFF. Who’s yours?”

In case you are wondering (as I was) who David Tutera is, apparently he hosts a show called My Fair Wedding on WE.

I have come to the very surprising realization recently that I don’t actually watch very much reality TV. I came to that conclusion after repeatedly saying, “Oh I actually don’t watch that” in response to people’s comments regarding different shows, assuming that I would watch them because, well, I’m me.

“I actually don’t watch that” has, in the past 30 days, referred to: The Bachelor, Real Housewives of Anywhere, Teen Mom, 16 & Pregnant, Millionaire Matchmaker, American Idol, Bethenny Getting Married, Jersey Shore.

The reality TV I do watch is usually limited to the competition type: Survivor, Top Chef, Biggest Loser.

But still, I couldn’t resist a chance to chime in on a combo of my two favorite topics: TV and Friendship. So here you go—my reality TV BFFs.

1)    Jeff Probst, Survivor. I’ve had a thing for Jeff since I was 18. Embarrassing but true. He’s on my celebs-I’m-allowed-to-sleep-with list. Matt knows this. I actually have a video of him wishing me a happy college graduation. Long—but true!—story. So maybe he’s more my reality TV boyfriend than reality TV BFF, but I’m including him here. Those dimples! That incessant harassing of Survivor contestants and never letting them off the hook for anything! Love.

2)    Sahil and Joel of Girls Who Like Girls Who Like Boys. These guys are very different from each other but equally hilarious. I’ve not been shy about my desire for a Will to my Grace, but unfortunately these men are both taken. But whatever, this is my dream list. I can stake claims.

3)    Samir Patel, National Spelling Bee. Perhaps this doesn’t count as reality TV but I’m going with it. Watching the Scripps National Spelling Bee is one of my favorite traditions, and Samir made it five times. The poor guy never brought home the trophy but he won the viewers’ hearts. Including mine. Wikipedia tells me that people refer to him as “the Tony Romo of Spelling,” which just make me sad.

4) Jay McCarroll, Project Runway Season 1 (Winner). Tim Gunn or Christian Siriano are the obvious choices here and I do love them both. But I feel like Jay was the original style maven to emerge from Project Runway. If you ask me, the show went downhill after the switch to Lifetime, but that’s a discussion for another day.

5) Tiffany Derry, Top Chef. She just seems to have her head on straight. (That phrase makes me feel like my mom, or a middle school teacher, or both, but you know what I mean.) So many reality contestants are nuts, and the chefs especially can  get unnecessarily hostile and full of themselves. She’s funny but calls people out just enough when they are being crazy. I applaud that.

I know there are some reality stars I am missing. I feel like there is one show where the sidekick is sort of the deadpan awesome one, and I can’t figure it out. And I hear I would really love that Bethenny Frankel if I gave her a chance.

Who would make your list? Oh, and don’t forget to check out the Literary BFF and Scripted TV BFF lists.

You know you’ve reached cultural relevance when comedians start making fun of you. And Saturday Night Live is the mecca of mockery, yes? Which makes me think that getting parodied by a recently ousted SNL cast member gives a topic—one like, um, BFFness—even more street cred.

Imagine my excitement last week when the Internet took note of “Bestie x Bestie”, a new web series from former SNLer Jenny Slate and her comedy partner Gabe Liedman. I’m kind of in love with this video because, besides the sheer silliness, it reminds me of those laugh-at-anything-and-nothing fits that are the essence of friendship. Also, she says Merriweather.

(Click through to watch videos if you are reading in a feed or email.)

If you’re more interested in the Lorne Michaels sanctioned version of BFF hilarity, check out this Taylor Swift sketch. (Thanks for the heads up, Yamilette!) It’s not a bad re-creation of some best friends I’ve encountered in my day. (Perhaps I’ve even been one of them. But only at camp…)

Do either of these ring true for you? Isn’t it fun to laugh at ourselves sometimes? After all, it’s almost (so close!) Friday.

{If you’re having trouble seeing the videos you can watch them here and here}