Three cheers for the former Lois Lane! Or make that six cheers, seeing that both Teri Hatcher (who portrayed the Man of Steel’s love interest on TV’s Lois & Clark) and Margot Kidder (Miss Lane in 1978’s Superman and its various sequels, opposite Christopher Reeve) were in fine, hilarious form on ABC’s Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters respectively last night.
I’m not sure which actress surprised me more. I’ve pretty much abhorred Hatcher’s klutzy, fickle Susan Meyer (pictured, left) since midway through Housewives‘ first season, but I howled with laughter last night watching her set ablaze Ian’s stuffy mother (Lynn Redgrave) in an outdoor barbecue mishap. (Given her history, no one should trust Susan near an open flame.) I’m just hoping the show’s writers ditch gloomy Mike Delfino (the suddenly wooden James Denton) and set Susan free of the same recurring plotline she’s been stuck in since the series began. Who knows? Maybe then I can finally stop daydreaming that she’ll be the next Wisteria Lane resident to meet an untimely demise.
Kidder, meanwhile, brought a breath of blowsy air to Brothers & Sisters as Nora’s kooky pal Emily Craft (at right). I’m not sure if Kidder was partially improvising her dialogue last night, but her critiques of Nora’s potential date outfits ("That was maybe nice when Fawn Hall was around!") and double-entendres ("This may be a cocktail party, but I don’t know which blanket that little piggy’s gonna be under, if you get my drift") were deliciously daft and freewheeling. Can’t this character get a spinoff, maybe as a life coach for women of a certain age? Emily’s Crafty couldn’t do any worse than Emily’s Reasons Why Not, could it?
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Margot Kidder is the best comic-relief-free-spirit-sidekick-to-matriarch since Kathy Bates in Six Feet Under.
Why can’t you provide a weekly TV Watch recap of Brothers and Sisters? It is probably one of the best shows on TV right now and it deserves its own recap column.
True dat about Kathy Bates’ Bettina in “Six Feet Under.”
Though I have to throw out my personal favorite free-wheeling-sidekick-to-a-matriarch: Sharon Angela’s Rosalie “Ro” Aprile.
I love me some Margot Kidder and always felt she got stuck after the Superman movies typecast her. Then there was that whole going crazy thing. But the best celeb actors are always eccentric. Wouldn’t it be slick if she did a spin off with Robert Downey?
I seriously hope that they don’t kill off Susan’s love interest/husband on D.H. I am so over Mike Delfino and his limbo plot line, move on already.
I am getting tired of the same desperate housewives, susan with her mishaps, lynnette always wanting to be right, gabriel being a slut, can we please change the stories already and stop giving us 5 reruns and one new episode, abc is loosing so many viewers because they show too many reruns by the time we get to a new episode we forgot where they left off, I guess the network does too if not they would not offer special on the shows to keep us up to the stories.
Teri Hatcher is fantastic. I’m sick of people on this site dissing her because her character became one-note through a big chunk of last season (which I’ll admit, it did, along with a lot of other characters on that show.) But Hatcher more than carries her weight on DH, and she deserves all the praise she can get. Good for her.
I also enjoyed “Lois Lane Sunday” last night. I nearly fell off my recliner when Susan set Ian’s mother on fire! And Margot was a real hoot dispensing that awful advice to Sally on B&S. Maybe this mention of Brothers & Sisters will bring us a step closer to a TV Watch for it. It certainly deserves it. B&S and Ugly Betty are tied for my fave new series this season.
“abc is loosing so many viewers because they show too many reruns by the time we get to a new episode we forgot where they left off, I guess the network does too if not they would not offer special on the shows to keep us up to the stories.”
ABC also does that for Lost and now Grey’s Anatomy and Ugly Betty. It’s not unique to Housewives.
I may be under 20, but I usually pride myself in catching boomer pop culture references. But I have to admit, I did not know what Fawn Hall was, nor do I still. But I was watching with my mom and she thought that was pretty damn funny. Love the character.
Yes! TV Watch for Brothers & Sisters please!! Margot Kidder is great.
Yes! TV Watch for Brothers & Sisters please!! Margot Kidder is great.
Remember, Teri Hatcher is an actress. She performs the material given her by the writers. If she’s given lame material, she has to work with it. So don’t blame her if she’s stuck doing pratfalls and acting goofy all the time. Yes, last season wasn’t good, but that wasn’t Teri Hatcher’s fault. I got home late from celebrating Easter at the in-laws, so I missed Susan setting Ian’s mom on fire (damn!), but her scenes with Mike and also with Ian at the end of the episode were really well done. I still like Bree best and really miss Marcia Cross, but I get tired of all the Teri Hatcher bashing. All the actresses on the show are great, and if any of them left, there’d be a huge hole in the storylines.
I barely even recognized that “Emily Craft” was Lois Lane! She has not aged well at all! When you think that her and Sally Field are supposed to be the same age – please! What is up with her mouth? When gross old laides talk dirty it just freaks me out. Norah is too classy for her. Needs a new cohort -stat.
Margot is such a fantastic comic actress… What a joy to have her on “Brothers & Sisters.” Hope ABC offers Margot a contract for additional episodes… Would love to see her as a permanent character.
Watching Margot again was like seeing an old friend… I love this lady. She’s the perfect foil for Sally’s slightly repressed character. Sign her up for more episodes, please!!
I love Margot. It’s so great to see that since Smallville, she’s getting out and about more.
Teri’s still the best Lois to watch on TV right now thought.
The chemistry between Sally Field and Margot Kidder is very special. They feel like genuine lifelong friends… the kind of friends everyone hopes to have at their age.
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