I don't know why it is, but MSW fans can't catch a break from cable. Despite the fact that we constitute a wide and varied demographic, for the past several years now it has been a battle - usually a losing one - to get the series aired at predictable intervals and in reasonable time slots. Since the Hallmark Channel got hold of the syndication rights, things have not gotten any better.
Have you looked at the schedule on the Hallmark Channel's website lately? After not showing any MSW at all for pretty much the entire month of June, they have brought it back - but only once a week, and only at one and two o'clock in the morning. Now, I don't know about you, but I'm asleep at that time of night. The eleven o'clock and midnight airings they had before were irritating, but at least I could occasionally stay up to watch if I didn't have to work the next day. Now? The only way I'd ever catch these airings is if I TiVo-ed it - and I don't own TiVo.
And what, exactly, has taken MSW's place in Hallmark's line-up? Golden Girls, which now airs not only at 11 and 11:30 PM, but also runs in solid blocks from 12 to 2 AM and 8 to 11 in the morning. Now, ordinarily I'd say that Hallmark (or its advertisers) are afraid of the MSW demographic, which for some bizarre reason they sometimes feel isn't worth advertising to - this has been raised as an excuse for its cancellation on more than one occasion. But that argument falls flat when one considers that Golden Girls targets the exact same age groups. Actually, it probably has a more narrow audience than MSW enjoys - I'd be willing to bet that more teenagers and young adults have become fans of MSW since it went into syndication than have become ardent followers of the Golden Girls, Bea Arthur's wonderful portrayal of Dorothy notwithstanding.
I'm not sure what is to be done, or if anything can be done. The wails and protests on the Hallmark MSW messageboard has been significant, but the executives in the front office don't appear to be paying any attention. We could write to the advertisers directly ... but who's willing to stay up until the wee hours of the morning to find out who they are? Our only source of consolation may be the DVD sets (Season 10 is due to be released on July 7th). Once MCA/Universal finishes releasing all twelve seasons and the post-season movies on DVD (fingers crossed that they do), then we can watch episodes of MSW whenever we darn well please, and turn our backs on these fickle cable stations - a just reward for them turning their backs on us.
The 2009 Tony Awards were given out this past Sunday night, and amid all the hype and fanfare surrounding uberproduction Billy Elliot, the most wonderful moment came when Angela Lansbury won her fifth Tony - best featured actress - for her role as Madame Arcati in Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit. If the open emotion she displayed is any indication, Ms. Lansbury was not expecting this accolade, which ties the record for the most Tonys won set by Julie Harris. I missed the broadcast of the awards ceremony myself, but thanks to a YouTube poster going by the name Indy7888, I was able to find a 
Afterwards, Ms. Lansbury took questions in the press room backstage; 
Another questioner asked how the 2009 award ceremony differed from the other ones she had attended:
The next question: "If you could work with anyone …"
On May 14th, I had the privilege of seeing Angela Lansbury in 
It is also a very different performance from what fans of MSW would be used to: aside from the fact that both characters prefer bicycling as their primary mode of transportation, there is very little, if anything, in common between Jessica Fletcher and Madame Arcati. Jessica is a grounded, practical character, not at all superstitious. Madame Arcati is the polar opposite, an eccentric with one foot planted firmly in both the physical and spiritual realms. She has been communicating with the dead since her childhood – she notes that her first ectoplasmic manifestation occurred when she was five – and uses a deceased fourteen year old girl with a head cold as her go-between with the spirits on the other side. She is very specific about what she is and what can and cannot do (no fortune-telling!) and at the same time is accepting of the fact that most people she encounters are skeptical of her skills. The rituals she engages in when holding a séance (including awkwardly dancing to music played on the gramophone) seem whimsical to the other characters, but she is entirely in earnest, and they take her lightly at their peril. Mystery writer Charles Condomine (Rupert Everett) discovers this the hard way: he invites Madame Arcati to his house to perform a séance simply to gather first-hand material about mediums upon which to base a character in a novel, but comes away with much more than he bargained for when the séance successfully summons his deceased, flighty first wife Elvira (Christine Ebersole) back from the other side of the Veil. 
We didn’t linger after the performance was over; it was raining outside, which Sarah told us made it unlikely that Ms. Lansbury would linger to sign autographs outside the stage door. So Bob and I parted company with Sarah and Noah and headed back to the hotel, in time to see the broadcast of the Late Show we’d attended that afternoon. The camera panned over the audience too quickly for us to pick ourselves out of the crowd.
Last week I shared pearls of wisdom gleaned during my family's week-long sojourn in Eireann. Today I move on to the second half of our trip, the week we spent in London, England, and share some things I observed there.
My husband, my parents and I just got back from a two week sojourn in the British Isles: one week in Ireland, and one week in England. In a two-part blog, I’ll share some of the things I learned from my visits to these two countries.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) – more commonly called Lou Gehrig’s Disease after it’s most famous sufferer – is perhaps one of the cruelest diseases known to medicine. For reasons still not fully understood, the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord responsible for controlling voluntary muscle movement shrivel and die. As this happens a person’s muscles become weaker and more atrophied until at last they cannot move at all. The heart keeps beating and the mind keeps working, but a person afflicted with ALS is doomed to eventually becoming a prisoner trapped within their own body. Although there are some therapies that can slow down the progression of the disease, there is no cure.
The PSA produced for television is particularly compelling in its stark imagery. Trading heavily on Angela’s best-known role as Jessica Fletcher, there is a distinct Murder, She Wrote feel to the analogy of ALS as the unseen – and presumably unavoidable – bullet. “If you don’t know anything about ALS, better known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, know this: it attacks your body,” Angela, seated on a plain wooden stool in a featureless grey space, says. As she speaks a gun is raised, aimed at her, and fired – but the bullet travels at an agonizingly slow speed. “Eventually your body will stop working - your legs, arms, your lungs – but your mind still works. You know what’s coming but you can’t do anything about it.” Her point is illustrated by the deliberate path of the bullet, of which she is still seemingly unaware. “But with your support in funding for global research the ALS Association can help people with ALS …” – here she moves aside just in time for the bullet to slam harmlessly into the wall behind her – “do this.” And she stands up and walks away, having “dodged the bullet” of Lou Gehrig’s Disease.