TVSquad

A high profile family like the Bluth clan requires a large staff to meet its needs. They need to keep up the image (make that illusion) of their lifestyle, after all. Yacht crews, maids, and Segway repairmen are basic necessities. The skilled professionals were the ones that kept the Bluths going. Here are a few of my favorites:

Gene Parmesan (Martin Mull) - As private eyes go, Gene was not a top-notch detective. If he spent more time investigating and less time on his disguises, he might have discovered George Sr.'s infidelity back in the day. I can't decide which is funnier: Gene's satisfied smirk whenever he took off his disguise, or Lucille's screams when he tricked her. It's a shame that Martin Mull only stuck around for a single episode. Perhaps the writers wanted to let Gene leave on high note after locating George Sr. and hanging out with G.O.B.

I'm not a regular Oprah watcher, but on Monday I happened to see actress Jamie Lee Curtis' appearance. I've been really curious about Jamie lately, especially since seeing her on those Activia yogurt commercials. Damn, she's just two years younger than I am and she looks great! What is in that yogurt anyway?

But Jamie Lee was on Oprah to vent. Turns out that the cover shot she did for AARP magazine, which the editors chose to proclaim as a nude shot, was a sham. The picture was not a naked photo shoot. She was wearing a strapless top and was photographed in a swimming pool. The illusion of nudity was created by the way they cropped the picture. Jamie Lee said she was shocked. She held up a copy of the magazine and said to Oprah and the world, "Isn't it fascinating that this constitutes being naked. What the f*ck are we talking about? In my world, this is called strapless. I didn't go around saying I was topless."

It's tough being Tori Spelling. She's spent better than a decade living under the spotlight and having every mistake magnified. Granted, she brought a lot of it on herself, but I think she has probably taken more than her fair share. It's just so easy. But given all that, I think she gains a lot of points for being able to make fun of herself, because when you get right down to it, that's what so noTORIous is all about. Laughing at the absurdity that is her life.

I think that those years of bad press and bad jokes may have been the biggest problem that this show had. One that it faced before they ever shot a scene, and one that they were never really able to overcome. A lot of people simply dismissed the show for no other reason than it was starring Tori Spelling as herself. And that's too bad, because I'm here to tell you that they made a pretty funny sit-com.