In the 1950s, Lucille Ball chose Vivian Vance as her fictional best friend in I Love Lucy, under one condition: Vance put on weight to become the frumpy Ethel Mertz, and thus instantly older than Ball. At this point in television history, Vance most likely did not have a problem with this condition, because there were so few roles for women in comedy. Fifty years later, you would think that things have changed. You would be wrong. While there are many more women on TV now, and there are a few shows that are female-centric (though most are found on cable), funny women are in large supply with low demand for lead roles.
Enter Molly Shannon. She is best known for her time on Saturday Night Live, playing the incomparable Mary Katherine Gallagher. Who could forget Mary's unfortunate habit of sticking her fingers under her arms and smelling them when she gets nervous? Maybe you blocked that particular character quirk out, but Shannon was an integral part of the great cast of Saturday Night Live in the '90s, keeping up with Will Ferrell, Mike Myers, and Dana Carvey. I have often wondered why she did not go on to bigger and better things, leaving SNL for a film career that never took off. I was ecstatic, then, when I saw a commercial for her new NBC comedy, Kath and Kim.
When I heard that she was playing the mother of Selma Blair on the other hand, I was downright shocked. I was convinced that I was miscalculating the ages of one or both of them, so I consulted imdb.com to find that they are indeed just eight years apart. Shannon sacrificed her vanity and style to play an older woman so she could return to television in Kath and Kim, a show that I would say had one of the best pilot episodes of the 2008 fall season. She dons a blonde mom-haircut wig and tacky '80s style to play Kath, a woman looking to regain her youth through tight outfits, exercise, and a new fiance. The fiance is played by John Michael Higgins, who you might recognize from his scene-stealing turn as Jennifer Aniston's brother in The Break-Up. Blair plays Kim, Kath's self-centered daughter who's moving back home after leaving a husband she refuses to cook dinner for, among other things. The dynamic between Blair and Shannon is amazing - extremely reminiscent of Rory and Lorelei in Gilmore Girls, only more dysfunctional. Look for Kath and Kim to make a splash on NBC's "Must-See" Thursdays, with The Office serving as the perfect lead-in.
Spring Break
