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McCain Isn't the Only One Who Watches Army Wives

Posted by Vogt
at June 11, 2008

Army Wives

John McCain and Barack Obama know where the votes viewers are.

The second-season premiere of Lifetime’s Army Wives, featuring testimonials from both presidential contenders, soared to the top of the cable ratings.

The Sunday hourlong averaged 4.5 million viewers, per Nielsen Media Research. That’s up nearly 30 percent over the show’s opener last year, the network said.

Overall, Army Wives finished second among all scripted shows, behind an original episode of USA’s Law & Order: Criminal Intent (4.53 million).

Launched in June 2007, Army Wives focuses on civilians who are married to the service, literally. Familiar faces Kim Delaney (NYPD Blue) and Catherine Bell (JAG) are among the stars.

On Sunday, McCain and Obama, themselves familiar faces, were seen in individually taped segments, with both paying tribute to real-life military families.

Republican McCain did his Democratic challenger one better, saying he knows Army Wives has a “lot of twists and turns” because his wife “Cindy makes me watch with her.” Earlier this spring, the 71-year-old professed to “never miss an episode of The Hills.”

No word on whether Obama plans to start beefing up his viewing habits to keep up with his apparently remote-savvy opponent.

Here are other ratings highlights for the TV week ended Sunday:

In the network races, CBS won the week in total viewers, averaging 7.2 million viewers; Fox, which didn’t air basketball, hockey or Swingtown, managed nonetheless to capture the flag among young adults.

In a rarity, all four networks were up in viewers when compared to the same summer week last year.

In cable, USA (2.6 million) was the most watched prime-time network, followed by Disney Channel (2.1 million) and TNT (1.9 million).

Here’s a look at the 10 most-watched broadcast network prime-time shows for the week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research:

  1. NBA Finals Game 2 (Los Angeles vs. Boston), ABC, 13.5 million
  2. NBA Finals Game 1 (Los Angeles vs. Boston), ABC, 13.4 million
  3. Two and a Half Men, CBS, 9.81 million viewers
  4. 60 Minutes, CBS, 9.8 million viewers
  5. Million Dollar Password, CBS, 9.62 million viewers
  6. CSI, CBS, 9.6 million viewers
  7. So You Think You Can Dance (Wednesday), Fox, 9.56 million viewers
  8. House, Fox, 9.4 million viewers
  9. Hell’s Kitchen, Fox, 9.36 million viewers
  10. So You Think You Can Dance (Thursday), Fox, 9.3 million viewers

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Army Wives: Would You Know My Name (season premiere)

Posted by Vogt
at June 9, 2008

cast The season finale for Army Wives last summer was a cliffhanger. It was an explosive, shocking and dramatic conclusion to a season filled with the characters’ ups and downs, the good times and the bad, the yin and the yang of the lives of military families on Fort Marshall in Charleston, South Carolina.

This season two opener is no less stunning. It was a powerful episode, as the tribe, as the Army spouses like to call themselves, deal with the aftermath of a suicide bomber walking into the Hump Bar determined to fulfill his mission and take all of them with him. The watering hole was filled with patrons, and the question fans wondered since then has been, who survived the blast?

The new show begins four days later, using Pamela’s radio show, Have At It, as a framing device to reveal what happened. It was interesting to hear the story told from Pamela’s point of view primarily because she wasn’t in the Hump Bar that night. However, as we learn later on, just because she wasn’t there doesn’t mean she’s not traumatized. Her comments about watching the TV for news of the tragedy was reminiscent of 9/11, watching the news with hopes that somehow it won’t be as bad as you know it is.

The episode unfolded like an onion, layer by layer, creating suspense as we wonder who made it out of the bar alive. As we find out, there were casualties.

When Pamela explains that someone as close as family has slipped away, and Denise is in the hospital and starts to cry, I suspected that we were going to hear that Claudia Joy was the victim. It would have been a hell of a shock considering that Kim Delaney is the biggest star in the show. So when her character appeared with her daughter Amanda at the train station to take her to college, it was a relief. Aside from some scratches and bandages, Claudia Joy and Amanda seemed fine.

Sally Pressman really stood out in this show. She’s looks like Kristin Chenoweth and Reese Witherspoon’s little sister, and she’s one of the best things about Army Wives. As Roxy, who’s usually such a happy, vibrant character, this episode was a chance to show her dramatic side. She was a complete wreck and desperately needed to know that Trevor, who deployed before the explosion, was all right. She’s in her pajamas for most of the episode, not bothering to dress. It was a good touch, better than if she were shown swigging from a bottle. Basically, Roxy’s incapable of moving from the house till she knows her soldier is safe. She’s also reacting to the fear that she faced death herself at the bar; staying at home in her jammies gives her the feeling that she’s safe when she knows that she’s not.

Ever the therapist, it’s Roland who counsels Pamela about her guilt feelings regarding Marilyn. In flashbacks, she relates what she wished she’d done for Marilyn, then what she actually did, which was giving her the keys to her car so Marilyn could meet Eddie at the bar. You can really see Pamela’s point of view, if she had intervened, George wouldn’t have found Marilyn at the bar. If he didn’t find her, George may not have blown up the bar. If only…

So the trigger didn’t go off the first time. Marilyn’s lover Eddie struggled with George and in those few moments, Roland saved Denise. Betty forced Roxy out the door. Amanda wouldn’t go without her mother. The scenes at the college took on a hazy, dreamlike quality then. “Why did you go into that bar, Amanda?” Claudia Joy asks, and her daughter answers, “For you, Mom.” She then adds pointedly, “Show me the mother and I’ll show you the child,” a tribute to the kind of parent Claudia Joy had been to her daughter.

The tears shed by Michael, the ultimate stoic solder, says it all. The patient could not be revived, and when Claudia Joy comes to in the hospital, it’s clear that Amanda didn’t make it. The pain of Amanda’s death is palpable.

This was a really sad Army Wives episode, minus the levity and good humor that balances most of the others. But for sheer emotional impact, this season opener packed a wallop. It’ll be interesting to see the fall out in the weeks ahead.

Other points of interest
— Pamela’s narration underscore the theme of Army Wives, the kinship among the soldier families, the connection and the support that is continually reinforced.

— Roland showed why he’s a stand up guy, apologizing to Joan for the affair he had while she was away. It looked like the first step towards a reconciliation…perhaps. She’s still not saying what she’s going to do about her pregnancy.

— Roxy mistook the CID investigators for U.S. Army reps there to tell her that Trevor’s dead. Knowing that Roxy is new to being an Army wife, this made a lot of sense. She always rails against the rules and regulations.

— They gave Betty a last name. The bartender who’s dying from breast cancer was one of the most severely injured in the blast. Ironically, she had no medical coverage and couldn’t pay for treatment of her cancer. The explosion landed her in a hospital bed. If she survives, will the doctors treat her breast cancer or not?

— When Denise and Pamela go to comfort Roxy with a bottle of wine, she opens the door and says, “It feels like I’m the wrong end of an intervention.”

— Wonderful moment with Claudia Joy and Amanda, when the mother admits she did regret leaving Harvard because she was pregnant with the daughter.

— Joan isn’t in uniform when Roxy confronts her, but she’s wearing an Army tee-shirt, her hair is pulled back, and she swiftly takes charge reminding Roxy that she is a Lt. Colonel and Trevor’s commanding officer. She then shows her Army Wives heart by assuring her that Trevor is still in transit to Iraq and that’s why he hadn’t contacted her.

— Trevor is too damn perfect. That DVD Roxy finds from him was sweet and romantic — and a complete fantasy fulfillment.

— Actress Kim Allen as Amanda looks like a mini-version of Kim Delaney — great casting.

Celebrity TV
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Attention! Army Wives back in training

Posted by Vogt
at May 28, 2008

Army WivesCynopsis reports that now that the writers’ strike is over — hallelujah! — Lifetime Television will soon begin production on the second season of Army Wives with episodes scheduled to air in early summer. This is great news for fans of the Lifetime original drama series that was a ratings juggernaut when it premiered last summer. In fact, Army Wives was the most successful series in Lifetime’s 23-year history! During its 13-episode run, Army Wives was the highest rated drama on cable among women, establishing new Lifetime marks for an original scripted series. The soapy-drama was scheduled to return in April, but then the writers struck and the show has been in hibernation — I mean, hiatus — ever since.

With familiar TV faces heading up the cast, including Catherine Bell (JAG) and Kim Delaney (NYPD Blue), Army Wives was a bit of a surprise success. Not many in the know anticipated a “Desperate Housewives in military fatigues” would capture the hearts and minds of viewers, but it did. Said Susanne Daniels, President, Entertainment, Lifetime Networks: “It is incredibly gratifying when a critically acclaimed show is also a successful show, and we are grateful to the four million loyal viewers who tuned in every Sunday to make this series a huge hit for Lifetime.” And now all four million — and more — can look forward to a summer-filled with fresh, new episodes.

Celebrity TV
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Kim Delaney Biography

Posted by Vogt
at May 9, 2008

Kim Delaney.jpg

A willowy brunette who segued from soap star to primetime performer, Kim Delaney began her career as a model while still attending high school in her native Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After graduating, she headed to NYC to try her hand at a career and was signed by the prestigious Elite Modeling Agency. Soon, her face was decorating the covers of such popular magazines as Seventeen and Glamour. At the same time, Delaney was training for a crossover career in acting, studying with well-known NYC teacher William Esper. Her determination paid off when she landed the role of the virginal teen heroine Jenny Gardner on the long-running ABC daytime serial “All My Children” in 1981. Over the course of her three years on the show, her character, who was from the wrong side of the tracks, underwent numerous trials as she attempted to hook up with her true love, the all-American Greg Nelson (portrayed by Laurence Lau).

Not one to stay put for very long, Delaney was chafing under the confines of her contract and the rigors of working in daytime. Although she had appeared in the CBS movie “First Affair” in 1983 and earned a Daytime Emmy nod, the actress opted to walk away from “All My Children” while her character was at the height of her popularity. When Jenny was killed by a deranged stalker, fans mourned, but Delaney had already set her sights on feature films.

Delaney made an auspicious debut in Hollywood as the girl who comes between friends Emilio Estevez and Craig Sheffer in the teen drama “That Was Then … This Is Now” (1985) but the film proved only modestly intriguing to its target audience. Having been raised Catholic, it was perhaps not much of a stretch for her to play a nun in “The Delta Force” (1986; interestingly, her ex-husband Charles Grant also acted in the film). Like a lot of actresses, though, she had a hard time finding juicy roles, instead relegated to genre fare like the college comedy “Campus Man” (1987). Delaney did land one intriguing part, that of a woman who picks up a hitchhiker and after a night of passion, finds herself unable to be rid of him in the low-budget thriller “The Drifter” (1988).

Returning to the small screen, Delaney landed a 1987 recurring role on the hit NBC series “L.A. Law” in the first four episodes of the show’s second season. Several unexceptional TV-movies followed before the actress co-starred with Joe Cortese (who would become her second husband) in the NBC sci-fi miniseries “Something Is Out There” in 1988. The following year, she was hired for the recurring role of journalist Alex Devlin in the Vietnam-set drama “Tour of Duty” but left the series when she became pregnant with her son.

After time out for motherhood, Delaney was again cast as a reporter, this time one on the trail of a undercover agent suspected of murder in the short-lived spy drama “The Fifth Corner” (NBC, 1992). She offered a strong performance opposite Jimmy Smits in the based-on-fact drama “The Broken Cord” (ABC, 1992), about a couple who adopt a Native American child born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. She rounded out that year cast in the title role in the NBC miniseries adaptation of “Jackie Collins’ Lady Boss”.

Delaney then got sidetracked in number of subpar projects (like 1994’s direct-to-video “Temptress” and “Darkman II: The Return of Durant”). She caught a break landing the role of alcoholic cop Diane Russell in a four-episode arc on “NYPD Blue” in 1995. Again cast opposite Smits (as Det. Bobby Simone), the actress sizzled in the part and the producers made overtures to the actress to have the character return on a regular basis. While Delaney had been prone to walking away from success in the past, she made the commitment and joined the permanent cast of the popular police drama in the fall of 1995. Over the course of her six-year run on the drama, Russell coped with her relationship with Simone, his untimely death and other troubles. In 1997, she received the Emmy Award as Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. While working on the show, she managed to find time to appear in several telefilms, including “The Devil’s Child” (ABC, 1997), a spin on “Rosemary’s Baby” that marked her debut as a producer.

Producer Steven Bochco recognized that Delaney’s talents weren’t always being given a proper forum in an ensemble-driven series like “NYPD Blue”, so when she opted to leave at the end of her contract in 2001, he created the ABC legal drama “Philly” expressly for her. The role Bochco wrote was a dream part for any actress — a divorced woman juggling raising a son as well as maintaining a high-powered law practice. Delaney tore into her first series lead and proved more than capable of carrying a drama series. In 2002, she co-starred with David Caruso in the CBS crime series “CSI: Miami.”

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