What was on TV? Wed, Dec 7, 2004

20 years ago, ringtones were a billion dollar industry. Let's see what was on TV.

8:00 Lost on ABC

1x11 "All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues" (record Top Model on UPN)

Available on Netflix and Hulu

This is not a great episode, and it marks the beginning of a real rough patch for the series. But there's still so much to enjoy here. I love the beginning, everyone panicking and making bad decisions (this is such a post-9/11 show, truly). This is actually one of Kate's better episodes, she gets to push back on Jack's bullshit, and her reaction in the fucked-up saving Charlie scene is so effective. That scene is one that plays better on rewatch, at least for me. The first time, it played like a hero moment. Now, I see it as some larger power validating Jack's worst impulses, and I love it.

Supporting characters get a lot of great scenes too: Sawyer and Sayid deciding not to fight, Hurley and Walt playing backgammon, and Locke and Boone waiting for rain. And the hatch makes its first appearance! By this point in the show's lifespan theories were flying and people were sure the show would disappoint them. Comparisons to Twin Peaks and The X-Files were made, and not in a nice way. But everything to do with the hatch and what's inside and what it means? Not disappointing in the least. Knowing what's coming makes me giddy, all these years later.

This episode was written by Javier Grillo-Marxuach. Marxuach is one of the most accomplished and beloved tv genre writers of his generation. He is the creator of the cult favorite The Middleman and has also written on The 100, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, and The Witcher.

This episode was directed by Stephen Williams, who worked as a producer and director on the show for its six-season run along with Jack Bender. He later directed episodes of Watchmen and Westworld, and also the pretty fun period drama Chevalier.

9:00 The West Wing on NBC

6x08 "In the Room"

Available on Max

This episode introduces Alan Alda as Senator Arnold Vinick, a cool Republican to satisfy the fantasies of moderate Democrats everywhere. Like a lot of The West Wing, Vinick feels miles away from our current political reality, in ways that make me insane.

But Arnold Vinick still makes makes for good TV. Alan Alda was having a real moment at the time: he would be nominated for an Oscar, a Tony, and ultimately an Emmy in 2005. And he's great in the part, breathing new life into The West Wing's talented ensemble. Even better, he turns the upcoming election into a real contest: if he's their opponent, the our Democrat heroes can't afford to take it easy.

It's also thrilling and even radical to see President Bartlett use a wheelchair at the end of the episode. Sorkin wasn't bold enough to go there, and I'm glad that the new team did, once they found their footing.

This episode was written by Lawrence O'Donnell, the MSNBC guy.

This episode was directed by Alex Graves. He has worked as a director and producer on The Diplomat, Foundation, and Game of Thrones (he directed THAT Jaime Cersei scene and his tone-deaf statements about it earned him a place in the pop culture news cycle for awhile).

10:00 Project Runway on Bravo

1x02 "Vision"

Available on Tubi and other FAST services

I had totally forgotten this, but the models are a big part of this show! The big dramatic moment in the first episode comes when Kara's model is late (Kara's reaction to this crisis made me a fan for life). The models are a whole-ass commodity, the designers pick them at the beginning of each episode, one by one, and the one that isn't chosen is eliminated. It's like a twisted version of P.E. class, horrible. It gets worse when you realize many of these girls are teenagers! And then the designers start telling dishy stories about them while explaining their designs to the judges. I was kind of horrified, and I couldn't find any discourse on this online. Would love to see a reckoning with this whole mess, and to see if the treatment of the models changes as the show progresses.

What Else Was On

The Billboard Music Awards were on Fox. This show is a RICH text.

• They gave out a "ringtone of the year" award for the first time ever (50 Cent won for "In Da Club")
• Ryan Seacrest hosted. He did so much crowd work.
• Fox also trotted out the cast of MadTV. Key and Peele appeared in a Clay Aiken sketch, playing Ja Rule and Ludacris respectively.
• Green Day was introduced by Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie.
• Billboard gave a special award to promote legal downloads of songs, as they tried to put the genie back in the bottle. Maroon 5 wins, we cut to commerical, and almost immediately see an ad for AOL specifically touting their free antivirus software. The ad is obviously pitched towards people who download music and other stuff illegally.
• Ashlee Simpson won an award and you could hear people booing during her speech.
• Nelly's performance had some drama in the background involving a guy fighting with a homeless man? But also there was a sportscar and a fog machine?
• Usher won 13 (thirteen!) awards.
• My favorite performance was "My Immortal" by Evanescence.

Even more stuff on TV!

• ABC aired the annual Barbara Walters 10 Most Fascinating People Countdown. The 2004 edition featured the founders of Google, Mel Gibson, Ken Jennings, Michael Moore, Curt Shilling, Usher, Donald Trump, and Oprah. And the most fascinating person was...Karl Rove.
• This Duracell ad is bonkers.
• I also enjoy this tv spot for Closer.
• Doing this project means I can't go a week without hearing a bad Clay Aiken joke. So I was happy to see he had his very own Christmas special on TV. I think that Aiken was kind of...important? He was an out gay man who existed (and succeeded!) in an Evangelical cultural milieu. I imagine he made lots of kids feel less alone in 2004, all while selling buckets of records to old ladies. I hope he heard all those bad jokes and laughed all the way to the bank.

TiVo Status

The three-hour Masterpiece Theater miniseries The Lost Prince and The Office Christmas Special from across the pond (2 hours), and one episode of Top Model. 7 hours with 21 hours of space left.