Remember WENN Get Together 2000
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Hometown

Now, before Remember WENN, at least two of the ensemble had featured in a television series. George Hall, of course, was Professor Henry Jones, Jr. (that's "Indy" to you) in his nineties in The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. But John Bedford-Lloyd, as he was credited then, was part of the ensemble cast of Hometown. As sand falls through the hourglass, so hit movies spawn similar themed television series. The Big Chill, one of my very favorite films, spawned the dark, depressing Thirtysomething in 1986. But a year earlier, a much brighter, thoughtful Hometown had premiered.

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Linda keeps up with the internet, reads, views programs and joins in the discussion.

The pilot's central plot was hokey, the covers of hits reminded you that it wasn't the original artist, and it was just generally rough around the edges. Of course, the pilot is what was reviewed. As early as the 2nd episode, things were beginning to come together. The show dealt more with issues and observations I was interested in than the melodramas filling the tube at that time. "You want your friends to succeed, just not leaps and bounds over your own successes?" "Wouldn't it be nice...to be in love?" "What should be the proper ratio between aging gracefully and fighting to keep in shape?"

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Dana and Michelle with one of Michelle's collectible dolls.

Since the characters were only slightly larger than life (like Remember WENN) rather than over the top and the show wasn't wall to wall titillation, it was soon doomed. Forced to run from timeslot to timeslot, I performed video acrobatics catching each of the 9 aired episodes before it was yanked from the air. (Apparently 3 or 4 went unaired.)

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Lisa and daughter, Honor.

I'd always wanted other WENNers to see some of these so they'd know there was another side of JBL's capabilities than the very adult Victor Comstock. His character, Peter Kincaid, while an intelligent English professor, is very much the Peter Pan complex man-child.

So far, only James and Linda had seen these. I had two picked out. One showing the goofy, romantic side of Peter Kincaid and another about the writing process and how it becomes savaged once it's put into the hands of others with purely commercial sensibilities.

Medium (but animated, 641KB) Netscape advice: click on WAV link upon entry into page. After it's downloaded to it's Java player, reload the page to get the animated GIF. I suggest this because when I click on the WAV link, it stops the animation and the only way to restart it is to reload the whole thing..

My fellow WENNers indulged me. I started off with the 2nd episode where, due to emotional distress, the divorcing Barbara sleeps with Peter. Barbara wakes up horrified, but Peter thinks it's great, not understanding when she wants it kept quiet. Chewing up the scenery: "Oh, I see. It'll be our little secret. We can have meaningful eye contact and no one will know." As he leaped out of bed and dressed in an almost too-revealing shot, the girls went "Whooooo!" with some sighs here and there. I said, "What? He looks like a walking carpet." <g> But the friendship between Barbara and Peter wins out in the end.

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In the 4th episode of the series, Peter completes his play about Nixon, Jane Fonda and the fall of Saigon that he'd been working on since college. (To Ben's shame and surprise, he experiences jealousy that Peter was able to complete a work. He's the other writer in the group and he's let his writing slip away while starting a business and raising a family with Mary). After a interesting discussion between art for self-satisfaction and art for commerce and peer review, Peter's play looks destined for an off-off-Broadway performance. But the producers want to do it on a bare stage and introduce a non-existent black Pope into the show. It's not long before the play is canned and Peter spirals into a depression. When Peter stops answering the phone, they fear he may have tried suicide. Ben rushes to Peter's apartment and, sure enough, Peter's ingested... a entire bag of Oreo cookies. "I'm on a sugar now rush you wouldn't believe."

The group decide to stage the play themselves at their old college's annual festival. They rush to tell Peter and find him out cold. Joey (Daniel Stern's character) picks up an empty bag of sugary goodies. "Can you OD on snack treats?" Peter's okay and they put on the play, doing the directing and acting themselves. During the play, Joey freezes with stage fright. Their one review, from the campus paper, trashes the Saigon cast. Except for Joey, who's praised for his "pathetic mute."

Sunday Evening

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James, Michelle and Dana viddy.

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Dani, Diane, Michelle viddy.

Then we all relaxed and conversed for a spell, something we might have done too little of in our rush to go and see so many things.

During the Hometown episodes, Diane and Dani had left to see Cabaret. We held back some particular WENNs for them and pressed on with other episodes. Once they returned, we finished the night with the 2 held back episodes.

Monday

Monday morning...rush, rush...I was trying to get all my electronics put out of sight when I realized my room alarm clock was 9 minutes slow (and had been all weekend). Not wanting to hold everybody up I joined them so we could trek across the street to Bob Evans for breakfast. Once we returned, it was time to load up the MP3 player for the ride home. I collected all my luggage and electronics. Loaded the car; paid the hotel. Then it was noon.

Now that I had a chance to catch my breath, I relaxed and sat down with the group in the lobby. We chatted for an hour (much easier this way than the chat room and I can use gestures to illustrate my meaning). But, I had a long trip back and since I wasn't going to take the Pennsylvania turnpike, I'd have another half hour added to my trip.

The other route was a bit more scenic and I particularly enjoyed driving over the Monongahela River.

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