....Triva at its best!

Sherri Wrote: Quote from a book about TS: Just a little tidbit some of you may find amusing.  I'm in the process of reading a book titled "A Time for Love" about a woman who goes back in time from 1991 to 1876. One evening while she is sitting around the campfire with some cowboys she yearns for the banality of television, especially for "thirtysomething" ! She wonders, was Melissa ever going to find the right man? Would Hope ever stop whining and letting everyone know just how perfect she was? Such important questions-but now she might never know the answers. What a nice surprise to find that in the middle of a novel! The author must be a 30s fan.

Hal Wrote- Melissa's spin-off sitcom: Okay, I'm really going way back here, but maybe someone knows the answerto my question.  When TS was cancelled, there were rumors that Melanie Mayron would be the first to get her own show.  That a sitcom was being developed for her due to the strength of the "Melissa in Wonderland"episode. (She carried the entire episode quite well on her own)  As we all know, there was no sitcom, but does anyone know why it was
scrapped?  Was it because she was leaning toward writing/directing?
 Or did I hear a rumor that was just that: a rumor.  I was so
disappointed. I love Melanie Mayron.  I wish she would do more acting,
> although I'm glad she's doing so well behind the scenes

Becky Wrote- ABC previews: I distinctly remembering tuning in to a particular episode of 30s when it was on ABC because of the preview commercial they were showing.  It was
the scene when Michael is sitting on their stairs and Hope asks him, "Are
you having an affair?"  I simply can't remember which ep it was now.  But
that question was not really the most important thing in the ep.  I
remember it was asked sort of off-handedly during a discussion they were
having about not having (making) enough time for one another.  I think
the network showed that question just to get you to tune in, but really,
I don't think Hope actually thought Michael was having an affair

{Did Nancy go to the opening? Who was that woman w/the dark hat talking to
Elliot--} -
Mary W wrote - Melissa and Men: This has bothered me too.  I would love input on this (maybe from someone with this episode on tape).  It appears that the woman in the dark hat is
Nancy because they show her in several scenes with Elliot and Hope.  They
don't show her face though so they leave you guessing.  I think we are all
assuming it is Nancy because she would definitely be there and would most
likely have a hat on at this point in the show.  If it isn't Nancy, is there
a reason why she wasn't there??  Just curious.

Marie wrote: Other notable eighties trends:

black-stemmed wine glasses (manufactured by Dominique-we all had them!)
wooden plate drying rack (very cutting edge at the time-gave tupperware a run for its money!)
leggings
Hawaii shirts
brass lamp fixtures with beige pleated shades
shoulder pads
women's blazers worn over long loose skirts

Jbrun wrote about Retro-snacking: I can't address the origins of this marketing trend. But I just want to mention that the whole concept of retro snacking is a major inspiration for a show on the food network called "Unwrapped". They frequently mention two web sites that cater to baby boomers who want to eat the junk food they had as kids but can't locate now. One of the sites has even succeeded in getting a few candy items that are long since discontinued back into production. One of them is hometownfavorites.com. The other is a candy store in California - the address escapes me right now

TJL Wrote: Episode Towers of Zenith I, and II
"The towers of Zenith aspired above the morning mist; austere towers of steel
and cement and limestone, sturdy as cliffs and delicate as silver rods. They
were neither citadels nor churches, but frankly and beautifully office-buildings."
Zenith is a mythical composite midwestern city in Lewis's 1922 novel, where
lives the novel's main character, the middle-aged, middle American, totally
conventional and self-satisfied businessman, George Babbitt. A "Babbitt"
entered the American language as an unimaginative, conventional, conservative,
materialistic character, a "Philistine". Besides making contemptuous remarks
about Minneapolis and the Midwest, there is no mistaking what Miles Drentell
thinks of Bob Spano: I don't remember the exact line, but he says something
like, "So Babbitt wants to buy the business..." This is another one of ts
little tributes to literature. (Can you think of others?)

Also with "towers" part II, the final showdown between Michael and Miles:
When I first saw this scene, when Michael expects to be fired and Miles gives
him the odd compliment of keeping him on (as in 'keeping your enemies close'),
I thought they had staged it in an unnecessarily melodramatic and over-the-
top manner (at least for a non-fantasy sequence). Pounding rain and crashing
thunder indeed, I thought,...while they're at it, why doesn't Miles sprout
fangs and tear into Michael's neck with some spooky organ music thrown in?
It was only much later that I thought of the scene in "michael writes a story",
(a script excerpt is included in Joseph Dougherty's profile at the Writer's
Guild website www.wga.org/craft/interviews/thirty3.html), where Michael reads,
after his first "successful" encounter with Miles, "Watching his straight back
as he walked away, I realized how busy the office had been around us. I hadn't
noticed it. I'd been aware of a sound, but not a human one. I had turned the
sounds of the office into the sounds of a storm. Rain. Thunder. If I'd closed
my eyes I might have seen the lightning reflected on our swords."

D'OH! I had forgotten about Nashiru's art of management! Now the lightning
and thunder and blitzen and fritzen make perfect sense to me! D'OH

Jbrun wrote, episode Mr. Right: Speaking of which, I commented on the Geraldo Rivera fantasy from "Mr. Right" ages ago, before the Bravo run of 30s. During the same season (3rd), Miles' dentist in "Towers of Zenith Pt. 2" was named Gabriel Rivera, which is the name of one of Geraldo Rivera's children. Perhaps he was on the set with his father? Anyway, since the names of minor characters usually have some significance, it's likely that there's a connection. I thought maybe you could include this bit of trivia in the episode guide you are compiling