Sullivan & Son is a throw back to the ’80s sitcoms and because of that I love the show that airs Thursdays on TBS at 10p. It is a show about a NYC lawyer who moves back to Pittsburgh to help run his family’s bar with his tough Korean mom and his Irish dad. Besides having his blood family at the bar all the time, there also is interesting group of regulars who are consonantly there. Let’s just say if you grew up in the North East and did the neighborhood bar scene, then you know these types of patrons. So that makes the show very relocatable.
Steve Byrne came up with show because of his friend Vince Vaughn someone he met on the comedy circuit and Vaughn was trying to help break into acting. Only problem is there weren’t that many roles for someone that is Korean and Irish, so Vaughn had an idea, “I sort of encouraged him to come up with a concept that he was passionate about, and I would kind of support him and kind of, you know, instead of waiting for that role to come around, you know, kind of create your own weight with it.” So after several meetings they came up with Sullivan & Son and the rest is Hollywood history.
One of my favorite parts of the show is Steve’s mom and I wondered how close she is to his own. He told me on a conference call recently about how much his TV parents are like his real ones, “Yes, I mean, there’s going to be some people that say oh, it’s a stereotypical Asian mother, you know, who speaks in an accent. Well my mother came over from Korea and she does have an accent. And she grew up very poor. So she’s almost got the mentality of some of our great grandparents who came up during the Great Depression, where they really value, you know, pocket change.
“So my mom did really have that mentality, and my father is really an outgoing, just Irish – he’s got like an Irish bartender’s ear. He’s just a really outgoing, loves story telling, loves having a good laugh, so they really are like my parents. But as the show goes on and the scenarios get a little crazier they become caricatures of my parents.” The scenarios have gotten crazier as the show has gone on and that is what makes it so funny. So when you tune into tonight, you can see how his parents have become something they are not real life, but still have a little dose of reality to them.
Today at 9p after 7 years Kyra Sedgwick says goodbye to The Closer and TNT says hello to its spinoff Major Crimes at 10p. Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson has been going through a lot recently and the death of her mom has changed everything for her and she is reevaluating her life. She is ready to make a decision that will change everything but something will happen that decides her fate forever. She will finally face off her arch nemesis one last time because what happens to one of them will be the final blow.
Tonight’s season finale is the perfect sendoff to Kyra Sedgwick and for The Closer.
Then at 10p Major Crimes is the perfect fix for everyone who is sad to say goodbye to The Closer. Mary McDonnell leads the LAPD’s Major Crimes division and GW Bailey, Tony Denison, Michael Paul Chan, Raymond Cruz and Phillip P Keene are all there to assist her. The show is pretty much the same, but without Kyra Sedgwick. Another change is we will get to know more about Captain Raydor’s life as she takes in a homeless juvenile who will be part of the series finale of The Closer.
Fans who are upset to say goodbye to The Closer will be very happy to say hello to Major Crimes.
Wednesday’s season finale of Dallas was full of a lot of jaw dropping moments, but the biggest one was when it was revealed that Rebecca Ewing is actually a Barnes. That’s right Christopher’s wife is his cousin and Cliff Barnes’ daughter. The day after the episode I was on a conference call with Julie Gonzalo and she answered our questions about her shocking lineage.
How long did the actress know she was Barnes? She said, “I knew before we shot the pilot. I remember getting the part and when we – after we all met and after reading the script and before we even took off to go to Dallas to shoot the pilot Mike and Cynthia let me in on the secret that I was a Barnes but that was it. That was all they told me. They were like you’re Cliff’s daughter but don’t play it and don’t tell anyone. So that was what I got. But that was it.” So did she tell any of her cast members or did she keep it a secret from us like TNT did? Shhh don’t tell, she revealed who she told her secret too, “I did spill the beans to Jordana because I was like I have to tell someone.” She then added what it was like keeping the secret from her cast, “But yes, no it was interesting. There were moments that like oh where’s this going, where’s this character going, where’s that going and I’m like I know where I’m going, I just don’t know how. But we never really talked it about. I think we were so invested in every script, we were so into like oh did you read it, did you read it last night, did you get it last night? I was like I got it at three in the morning but I still read it. We we’re so on the day.” Then she said how they reacted when they read the finale, “And myself Julie as a person lives day by day and moment by moment, like I don’t really get ahead of myself too much so to me it wasn’t about like we needed to keep it a secret like that because there was so much stuff going on in each script that I don’t even have. I think the impact will be when everybody reads it and it was and it was nice. It was really interesting to see it.”
So now that we know she is Cliff Barnes’ daughter and his sister Pamela was married to Bobby Ewing when they adopted Christopher that means she was married to her first cousin. How does Julie feel about that? She told us “Yes the reality of it all is that I am married to my first cousin, sure not related by blood but it is kind of weird. It’s interesting. It’s interesting to come from to know the reality of this role and I don’t know where it’s going and that’s to be completely honest with you. The idea that she is married to her cousin I don’t know. I think she is in love with him. She really is in love with him, she fell for him. She fell for her mark as we like to call it.” The she added more about the Barnes/Ewing rivalry that has been going on for decades, “And it’s great that Ken character Cliff had a line in the finale last night saying I can never trust you, you’re just like your aunt. I couldn’t trust her around the Ewings. I think there is. I think there’s like this superior energy that attracted the Ewings and the Barnes for evil and good and you see that in the original with Patrick and with Bobby and Pam and you see it in the Cliff and J. R. feuds and there is an attraction whether it’s positive or negative. So I do believe that Rebecca does have feelings for Chris, she did fall in love with him. But now I think the tables have been turned, the cat’s out of the bag and she might be a bit pissed. So I don’t know what the future holds, I really don’t. I wish I did but I can only be blessed that the writers are so talented and they’re so willing to write such beautiful storylines for myself and the rest of the cast. So I’m leaving it to their hands.”
Does she think Rebecca will get back with Christopher who dumped her when he found out that she lied about having a brother (he still doesn’t know they are cousins)? Her feelings on that are, “I don’t know. I don’t know. I think at this point she knows that things are pretty bad with Christopher especially that last scene that they both had. I think that there might not be a way out. I don’t want to say that she’s fully going into the dark side. I don’t know if she’s fully going to go evil. I don’t believe in villains. I believe that they’re all coming from a place that truth. Whether you want to take that as good or bad that’s your prerogative I guess. But I don’t know. I think she always saw it coming. I think that, you know, Elena has always been something very, very dear and special to Chris and she’s not stupid. Rebecca’s not a stupid girl. She’s a very, very smart girl. She’s a very calculating girl. You can tell that she’s going to be now. She can be very manipulative. In a way she fooled everyone. She fools Tommy, she fools Chris, she fools the audience, she fooled a lot of people so you can’t underestimate this girl. I just don’t think she’s going to be way too happy about it. But I wouldn’t want to be on the bad side of her.”
We will find out if we see her bad side when the show comes back to TNT in January? Is it 2013 yet because I can’t wait to find out what happens next on the first reboot to actually get it right!
Tonight at 9p Dallas ends its tremendous season with a bang and that is all I will say about that. I will tell you that someone dies, could it be Bobby who is on a respirator fighting for his life? Relationships will end and others will begin. There will be not one but two proposals. There will be an arrest and that person is going away for a long time. There will be plenty of blackmail, and those blackmailers will surprise you. And none of that will shock as mush as the reveal you will never see coming. It will leave you with your mouth on the floor and wondering how long you will have to wait until the best show of the year comes back for its second season. Yeah the season finale is a good as some show that ended its season with some guy by the name of JR being shot. What was the name of that show again???
Hard to believe it but there are only three more episodes of Dallas left this season and tonight’s episode on TNT at 9p is the most powerful one yet. John Ross is in prison accused of murder. Vicente Cano goes to visit JR’s son and tells him he wants his oil. When he can’t deliver he gets some men to beat the crap out of him. They attacked him so bad, John Ross is left clinging to life. Will he make it or will JR have no one to pass on his Ewing name? Meanwhile back on Souuthfork Bobby and Ann grow a pair and no one is going to want to mess with this tough couple. Seriously seeing Patrick Duffy get all powerful makes the best new show of the year even better. Plus seeing Brenda Strong being a no holds barred living woman makes me realize how much Everwood and Desperate Housewives underutilized her talents. She nails it perfectly on tonight’s Dallas. So tune in for the show that keeps striking liquid gold every week.
