Called Uber after the episode ended. It took them over 10 minutes to arrive. I just barely got to work on time. It was 7 minutes going home at 1:30. No traffic or trouble either way.
No trouble at work, either. The head bagger said she was going to help the floral department manager with Valentine's Day bouquets, but she ended up doing carts with me instead. It was a little busy, not as overwhelming as you'd think for a holiday weekend. No trouble whatsoever. At least it was a nice day, too, still chilly but nothing like the last few weeks, sunny and with less wind.
Did my weekly grocery shopping after I got off. Restocked oranges, yogurt, coconut milk, probiotic soda, and granola bars. Found my favorite pecan shortbread cookies on the bakery clearance rack. Thought I'd try a small slice of chocolate fudge cake on sale, too. Tried a sample of sushi and liked it so much, I bought California rolls for lunch. Saw the new Coke Cherry Float Zero $2 for 5 and grabbed two of those as well. (And tried one on the way home. Oooh, they are good! They really do taste like cherry cream soda.) Found fabric Band-Aids with watercolor covers on the clearance shelves. Grabbed sliced Swiss for sandwiches next week.
Oh, and I got my schedule at work. In good news, Wednesday is the only double-shift day this week, and I work later in the day on the weekends. I even have President's Day totally off, no Acme or school. In bad news, I'm surprised at the lack of hours. I usually get a lot more in mid-February. I guess not as many employees opted to use their vacation time in February this year. It hasn't exactly been vacation weather unless you're a devoted skier.
After I got home, I ran The Backyardigans while I put everything away and had my sushi lunch. Uniqua, Pablo, and Tasha, are the roughest, toughest, and nicest biker group you've ever met. They call themselves the Do-Gooders, and they have no desire to make trouble. Mailman Tyrone assumes they're more stereotypical bikers and takes off. The trio go after him with his mail bag, remind him that he has a "Special Delivery" for them.
Switched to the Peanuts next. Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown focuses heavily on the Peanuts' (mostly imaginary) romances. Linus has a crush on his teacher Miss Othmar and buys her a huge box of candy. Sally thinks it's for her. Lucy would be glad if Schroder would just acknowledge her and get away from his piano. Snoopy's putting on messy and melodramatic "paw-pet" shows, and poor Charlie Brown is waiting for someone, anyone, to give him a valentine.
A Charlie Brown Valentine was made to fill an hour slot with Be My Valentine, but it has some entertaining material in its own right. Chuck pursues the Little Red Haired Girl, while Peppermint Patty and Marcie pursue him. Lucy demands Snoopy write her something romantic, while Sally tries to tell her Sweet Baboo how much she likes him.
Finished the last three episodes of Remember WENN after the Peanuts ended. Gertie's writing for the brand-new medium of television this time in "The Sunset Also Rises." Hilary becomes Norma Desmond with Scott as Joe Gillis in a satire of Sunset Boulevard. The others keep intruding and re-writing Gertie's script. Hilary wants to play the ingenue, the others want to play Norma, and Victor...somehow gets in there, too.
"At Cross Purposes" begins with a lady in a dress entering WENN...which is actually Jeff in costume for Charley's Aunt. It becomes more than a costume when a process server turns up with papers from Pavla, and the entire cast ends up in drag to avoid him. It's newsgirl Betty who comes up with far more devastating news by the end of the episode...like the attack on Pearl Harbor...
"All Noisy On the Pittsburgh Front" brings Victor back in, claiming he's now running WENN and a new military station. Betty thinks Scott is making cushy deals, but he's really doing something far more important. Jeff is rejected for military duty, then discovers Hilary is married to someone else, there's a military nut who thinks he's Captain Amazon (J.K Simmons) running around the station, and Eugenia proposes to Mr. Foley...
And that, sadly, is that. AMC ended the show on those cliffhangers, after having mangled the fourth season rather badly due to a new management that didn't respect it. "Sunset Also Rises" is a good example of this. Sunset Boulevard neither fits the show's tone, nor its time period. Rupert Holmes didn't even write it, and it's a mess of overlong and weird gags. Why they rejected Rupert's original suggestion for a spoof, The Maltese Falcon, I will never know. Maybe it wasn't glamorous enough for them. "Cross Purposes" and "All Noisy" are better, two of the best episodes of a troubled season...but they're also hard to watch now, knowing how things ended, or didn't.
I still adore this show, and I still highly recommend it to anyone who loves historical fiction, Media history, great wordplay, or terrific ensembles...but fair warning on those sudden unresolved endings. At least AMC is actually acknowledging its existence now. The full series is on AMC Plus; the first two seasons are free on Plex. The first three seasons can currently be found on YouTube and (in part) on the Internet Archive.
Put on The Price Is Right while I did research on condos in near-by towns. I'm guessing this one was from 1984 or early '85. Johnny Olsen was the announcer and Bob Barker had gray hair. The "story" Showcase was one of the strangest I've ever seen...and certainly one of the most early-80's-centric. Johnny apparently entered a Boy George Look-a-Like contest...and won. Most of the prizes centered around all things British (including a trip to London) or music-related. The models thought it was just as weird as I did. They bundled Johnny off to a new van by the end!
Let it run into Match Game Syndicated as I had dinner. We started off with the remaining existing episodes of the Louise Sorrel week. The next week, with Charles Siebert and Phyllis Davis, is also missing episodes...but it also has one of the funniest episodes of 1980. Gene and Charles jump a mile when a bulb blows on-stage. Charles carries a prop bulb for the rest of the show...and the panelists are seen climbing on top of Gene to screw it on by the end of the episode.
Moved to The Wild Wild West at Pluto TV next in honor of Valentine's Day and Friday the 13th. Artemis Gordon and Jim West are trying to warn a millionaire industrialist that he's in danger in "Night of the Vicious Valentine," but they're too late. The man dies playing his own piano. Turns out all the victims married pretty young woman who were recommended by a certain matchmaker, Emma Valentine (Agnes Moorehead), shortly before their murders. Valentine wants to use the ladies to take control of the wealth of the entire nation. What she didn't count on was the most recent girl she groomed to actually fall for the industrialist she married, or for Jim and Artemis to interfere with her plans.
Ended the night on YouTube with The Berenstain Bears' Comic Valentine. I went further into this adorable 1983 special at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog back in 2023.
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