TVSquad

(S04E01) "William was a cheater. He had this bottle-blond tramp across town..." - Nora's mother to Holly

The dysfunctional Walker clan is back, and it didn't take long for the squabbling and worrying and break-ups and tragedies to surface. Things open right away with Nora's feeling of foreboding, and with this family, it's usually warranted. There's generally a nice mix of comedy and drama in Brothers & Sisters, and this episode followed suit.

What's happening on other blogs via the interweb.

• Saturday Night Live now has a web site devoted to politics.
• Actually, maybe The CW is going to renew Reaper after all.
• Kathie Lee Gifford says she wants to be cremated.
• Ricky Gervais is filming a movie in Massachusetts with Tina Fey, Jennifer Garner, Rob Lowe, Jason Bateman, John Hodgman, and Louis C.K and blogging about it.
• Marion Ross answers questions from Entertainment Weekly readers.
• Jeff Zucker wouldn't mind Katie Couric coming back to NBC.
• A look at the new CBS series Swingtown.
• Not only is the season one DVD set for Mad Men coming on July 1, there will also be a CD of music from the show released on June 24.

Reunions are hot, you know? On February 12, for example, Oprah reunited (most of) the kids from The Cosby Show, with Bill appearing via satellite. Well, never one to let a good idea go to waste, NBC jumped on the theme. They recently had a Family Ties reunion on Today, so now the morning show is commencing tomorrow with a series of more "Together Again" features. Tune into 8:00 a.m. hour each day so you don't miss a thing!

This very important anniversary was actually a week ago today but I just realized it this morning as I was eating my Happy Days cereal and wearing my Fonz pajamas and Ralph Malph slippers.

September 20th marked the 30th Anniversary of the day Arthur Fonzarelli (aka "Fonzie," aka "The Fonz") put on his leather jacket and a pair of water skis and jumped over a cage filled with stock footage of a man eating shark. Of course, we know that the famous episode launched a very successful catch phrase and web site called "What choo talkin' bout Willis?"

After the jump, a video of that classic TV moment. I haven't seen an episode of Happy Days in years, but it was probably well on its way to getting away from the original intent of the show before this. But yeah, this scene is even more ridiculous than you remember it.

[via LAObserved.com]

I'm a bit late with this, so forgive me, but it's still worth mentioning.

The podcast Just My Show recently interviewed Marion Ross of Happy Days and Dan Lauria of The Wonder Years.

The interviewer is no Jesse Thorn, and he doesn't so much ask questions as just mention items from the interviewees past and ask for comments, but it's still a pleasure to hear these two TV parents talk about their roles.

Over at TV Guide, Michael Ausiello is reporting that Marion Ross will be joining Brothers & Sisters as Nora's (Sally Field) mother. Her character is said to be "tough, obstinate, judgmental, direct, and uncompromising." Is it just me, or doesn't that sound a whole lot like Ross' Trix Gilmore character on Gilmore Girls?

It will be interesting to see where they go with it. I suspect we'll learn that Nora had a whole boatload of mother issues herself before her relationship with Kitty (Calista Flockhart) went all haywire. I could even see the Nora/Kitty relationship getting more rocky if it turns out that Kitty and her grandmother are fast friends. However it shakes out, you can never get enough Mrs. C on your TV. Even if it is a crankier, more curmudgeonly, Mrs. C.

Related:
Rob Lowe joining cast of Brothers & Sisters
Brothers & Sisters gets full season order