With her floppy hat and flapping gums, Jackie "Moms" Mabley is mostly remembered these days for her outrageous appearances on late-'60s and '70s-era variety and talk shows, as mainstream as Ed Sullivan and as of-the-moment as the Smothers Brothers, performing racy and politically barbed stand-up routines whose sting was couched in a dirty-old-lady's guise.
Among those influenced by Mabley was Whoopi Goldberg, who performed an homage to the comedian early in her own career. In the HBO documentary Whoopi Goldberg Presents Moms Mabley (Monday, 9/8c), the View personality directs and participates in this tribute to the pioneering comic's life and legacy, with TV clips and audio excerpts (enhanced with crude animation) from her many comedy albums, which hold up surprisingly well.
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Question: I started watching Scandal from the start, when it was simply a problem-of-the-week plot mixed in with a little soap opera with Olivia and the President. They lost me a little bit last year when they temporarily dropped that element to completely focus on the soap opera element when the president was shot. With the addition of the B613 storyline (and possible new Harrison storyline), I feel the show has lost its focus. I was highly enjoying Lisa Kudrow's story and performance only to have the show dragged down by B613's machinations and apparent manipulation of Quinn. I get the fear the show could be the political Love Boat where the guest stars get all the meaty storylines, but I watch shows like Strike Back for my spy action and adventure. Have these writers learned nothing from the mistakes countless shows including Alias and recently Revenge have made with these over-the-top secret maniacal agencies? — Brian
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Look who's scared to death of dead people.
On Monday's episode of Mike & Molly (9/8c, CBS), Molly (Melissa McCarthy) visits Victoria (Katy Mixon) at her funeral parlor job as part of research for her book. Except not much research ...
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Business and pleasure are about to mix on Mike & Molly.
On Monday's episode (9/8c, CBS), Molly (Melissa McCarthy) decides she wants to write a crime novel. What better way to do research than to go on a ride-along with Mike (Billy Gardell) and Carl (Reno Wilson), right? Wrong!
25 unnecessary spin-offs
"Mike is not into it at all. Shocking, right?" Wilson tells TVGuide.com. "Carl wants it ...
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Glee has topped the People's Choice Awards nominations with eight nods, including favorite network TV comedy.
Katy Perry and Sandra Bullock follow with five nominations apiece. Bullock will face her fiercest competition yet in the favorite duos category: She's nominated against herself for Gravity with George Clooney and for The Heat with Melissa McCarthy.
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