Suddenly Susan

I thought the tribute to David Strickland last night was extremely touching and surprisingly enough very funny. I know in my heart they did David Strickland very well with the tribute and the season finale. There was real emotion and sadness. I did not see anything phony about their sadness, it was truly genuine. On a more personal note, I really thought David Strickland was very funny and very talented. What it really all boils down to is listening to our youth and trying to understand the problems, because no matter what, there are always warning signs.

"Suddenly Susan" isn't the best series it likes much in terms of the stories and plot work to make the many episodes interesting. I can say that if you like Brooke Shields at all then watch this series! Now don't you like the fact of having Brooke working in a magazine company! I always just liked everything about Brooke Shields she is so beautiful and very sexy. You can watch the "Suddenly Susan" reruns late at night on WGN. This is a must see if you like and enjoy watching Brooke Shields.

One of the reasons that Suddenly Susan works for me is the ensemble cast of characters including Brooke Shields. Even though she is the star of the show, she manages to evolve her supporting cast of characters like the unbelievable Vicki and Judd Nelson as her boss Jack Richmond. The show is well-grouped with this cast of zany characters working at a fictional San Francisco newspaper. When tragedy struck the cast, the loss of David Strickland who played Todd was so catastrophic for the cast and crew for it to ever recover from his loss. David Strickland committed suicide in a Las Vegas hotel room. The cast was never the same again without him. The pairing of Vicki and Susan living together brought great laughs. These two should get together and spin off the characters into their own series. The show was never an Emmy winner or critically acclaimed. But from all reports, this show actually had a pleasant environment to grow and mature. Brooke Shields as a producer was not afraid to let her supporting cast branch out which is why I like this show.

This was never a wonderfully written program. In comparison to shows like Frasier, Friends, Seinfeld, even Mad About You, the plots, the jokes, were just thin. One good reason why is that the subplots never meshed with the plots.

For example, I just watched a rerun of one: the subplot is about the photographer taking pictures of Nana in order for Shields to present a portrait to her grandfather. Predictably, the photographs are far more racy than Shields expects. The main plot is about Griffin's jealousy over Shields' "sudden" success as a star player on Griffin's basketball team - the jealousy spills over into jealousy of Shields' beauty (and she responds that no one has life easy, being so tall, etc.). The plot has NOTHING to do with the subplot. They could have been put in different episodes - that's not very good writing.

For me, the reason for watching the program is to watch Brooke Shields -whose graciousness, modesty and essential sweetness come through in all she's done as an adult. (I was too old to be a fan in her "Endless Summer", "Blue Lagoon" days). More than any other actress, she has that Mary Tyler Moore character's humility, that eagerness to please. I would expect that she is always one of the most diligent actresses in any project.

When someone so beautiful is also so obviously this lovely seeming a person, one's in danger of losing one's heart. That's why I watched this fairly weak program. Shields deserves better writers - and she's really born to be a movie star, not one on television.

After watching reruns of Suddenly Susan over the last couple of months I got strangely addicted to it. I find myself really looking forward to the "new" old episodes every day. I don't usually fall for American sitcoms, I prefer British sense of humour, but I really got to like this show. I love the characters (especially those in the first three seasons), and unlike some other viewers who have commented on it, I think there is real chemistry between Susan and Jack. I also think that Luis is an excellent character.