Totally Tracey Online
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Busy week
UPDATE (Jan. 28): Not only will Tracey be on the Rachel Maddow program this evening, she'll also be on Bravo's Watch What Happens: Live. For writeups on all of her talk show appearances this year, go to the 2010 page on my site.
It certainly has been a busy week for Tracey. It started with her appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last Friday night, the first time she's ever appeared on his program. Then there was Live with Regis & Kelly on Monday morning, although Regis was still out recuperating from his hip surgery (Mark Consuelos was sitting in). There was State of the Union premiering Monday night (more on that in a moment). Then on Tuesday, Tracey appeared on Joy Behar's program on Headline News (they're calling themselves HLN officially these days); that was an appearance I didn't know about until the last minute. And now there's word that she'll be appearing on Rachel Maddow's program on MSNBC this Thursday (Jan. 28). How will Rachel react to Tracey's impression of her, which we saw Monday night? Might we get to see Dueling Rachels at some point? I wouldn't mind seeing Dueling Ariannas.... Anyway, I've written up summaries for the first two shows so far and will get to the others shortly.
Well, State of the Union had its season premiere Monday night. In many ways, the subject matter and the humor/satire were the same as in previous seasons. One big difference this year is that Tracey herself is directing the episodes. One wonders if Tracey the director ever has problems with Tracey the performer on the set... Back to the premiere: it contained the first instance during the series where I started laughing so hard, I started to cough. It involved the work done at a factory to distress jeans so that the wearer will look like he or she has done some significant labor, when in reality they haven't. One item in particular cracked me up, and I'll say no more about it here. Bernie Madoff (played in a cameo by Tracey's husband Allan) got it in three segments; I may never think of "Bloomberg minute" in the same way again. And there was a marvelous and intricate segment in an MSNBC makeup room where she was portraying five characters: Rachel Maddow, Arianna Huffington, Meghan McCain, Barney Frank, and Christiane Amanpour. With all that interaction between the characters, it reminded me of the Tracey Takes On... sketches and episodes where her characters would interact with each other; those were always among my favorites. Coming up on next week's episode: the return of Padma Perkesh.
It certainly has been a busy week for Tracey. It started with her appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last Friday night, the first time she's ever appeared on his program. Then there was Live with Regis & Kelly on Monday morning, although Regis was still out recuperating from his hip surgery (Mark Consuelos was sitting in). There was State of the Union premiering Monday night (more on that in a moment). Then on Tuesday, Tracey appeared on Joy Behar's program on Headline News (they're calling themselves HLN officially these days); that was an appearance I didn't know about until the last minute. And now there's word that she'll be appearing on Rachel Maddow's program on MSNBC this Thursday (Jan. 28). How will Rachel react to Tracey's impression of her, which we saw Monday night? Might we get to see Dueling Rachels at some point? I wouldn't mind seeing Dueling Ariannas.... Anyway, I've written up summaries for the first two shows so far and will get to the others shortly.
Well, State of the Union had its season premiere Monday night. In many ways, the subject matter and the humor/satire were the same as in previous seasons. One big difference this year is that Tracey herself is directing the episodes. One wonders if Tracey the director ever has problems with Tracey the performer on the set... Back to the premiere: it contained the first instance during the series where I started laughing so hard, I started to cough. It involved the work done at a factory to distress jeans so that the wearer will look like he or she has done some significant labor, when in reality they haven't. One item in particular cracked me up, and I'll say no more about it here. Bernie Madoff (played in a cameo by Tracey's husband Allan) got it in three segments; I may never think of "Bloomberg minute" in the same way again. And there was a marvelous and intricate segment in an MSNBC makeup room where she was portraying five characters: Rachel Maddow, Arianna Huffington, Meghan McCain, Barney Frank, and Christiane Amanpour. With all that interaction between the characters, it reminded me of the Tracey Takes On... sketches and episodes where her characters would interact with each other; those were always among my favorites. Coming up on next week's episode: the return of Padma Perkesh.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Late Night on January 22
I've posted my summary of Tracey's appearance last Friday on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon; you can read it here. I've done a better job with summaries this year than last. Don't forget, she'll be appearing on Live with Regis and Kelly tomorrow morning, and State of the Union kicks off tomorrow night!
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
An episode preview, and a Late Night visit
As we get closer to the Season 3 premiere of State of the Union, we're starting to see more promotion for it. Tracey will be appearing on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on Friday, January 22; it'll be her first time on Late Night since Letterman was the host, if I'm not mistaken. And Showtime has put up a preview of the first episode of Season 3 of SOTU. In this clip, Ruth Madoff, the wife of crooked financier Bernard Madoff, has experienced a major decline in her housing situation. As for Bernard, we see him in his prison cell, and we may never think of "Bloomberg minute" in the same way again....
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
New SOTU Behind-the-Scenes Promo
Showtime has just posted a new behind-the-scenes promo for season 3 of State of the Union. When I first saw this, I was laughing most of the way through. That has me feeling good about season 3 (coming up January 25).
Monday, January 04, 2010
As part of the buildup to season 3 of State of the Union coming at the end of January, Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith have featured Tracey in their column again. "As one critic put it, she's been moving away from Carol Burnett territory and more toward Lenny Bruce," they say, and she agrees, pointing again to the freedom she feels now that she's a US citizen. But she's "not mean-spirited. I love this country and I love these people and what goes on" and credits collaborator Bruce Wagner for inspiring her to take this approach.
Don't expect to see either of the Obamas appear in SOTU this season, but pharmacist Padma Perkesh will be returning, and newswomen Christiane Amanpour and Rachel Maddow will be appearing.
Don't expect to see either of the Obamas appear in SOTU this season, but pharmacist Padma Perkesh will be returning, and newswomen Christiane Amanpour and Rachel Maddow will be appearing.
Saturday, January 02, 2010
Season 3 promo
Here's a promo for season 3 of State of the Union. And while you're waiting for that, catch up on season 2 On Demand.
