Two More Media Mentions of NJ

Melissa Rauch, who plays "Bernadette Rostenkowski", girlfriend of "Howard Wolowitz" in the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory, was the second guest on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson last nite. She mentioned learning to drive in New Jersey, and that she loves all the Housewives TV shows, esp. the "Jersey" version.

In that I have no fotos of the TV matters discussed, fotos today are progress pix of the construction of the Marriott Courtyard Hotel alongside Prudential Center at Broad and Lafayette Streets, part of the revival of this fine city. This first picture shows the concrete columns going up in late August (2011).

So I looked up Melissa Rauch in Wikipedia. It turns out she was born and raised in Marlboro (Monmouth County), NJ, two towns from Middletown, where I grew up. When I was young, there was a state mental hospital in Marlboro, and my grandmother's second husband (my functional but not biological grandfather) spent a short time there for something gone awry. I think he had electroshock therapy, and it did him a world of good. Still, "Marlboro" in my area meant "loony bin", as "Bellevue" does in NYC. The hospital closed in 1998, after abuses were exposed by Essex County's Richard Codey, who went undercover there! The Wikipedia article on the hospital talks about some things, like ghosts, mentioned by Weird N.J. magazine. One of the things that has been featured in Weird N.J. is "The Evil Clown of Middletown", which I used to pass every day on the school bus to Middletown High. I have shown here Newark fotografer John Masi's foto of that clown, on November 10, 2009.
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Wikipedia also says that she "is currently starring in the comedic stage show 'The Realest Real Housewives'." Tho "Howard"'s (Jewish) mother refers to "Bernadette" as a "little Catholic girl", the actress who plays her is actually Jewish.

The original lead character in The Big Bang Theory, "Leonard Hofstadter" (played by Johnny Galecki), is supposedly from somewhere in NJ, and his mother (played by Christine Baranski), who still lives somewhere in NJ, has made a few appearances on the show too. But the actors who play "Leonard" and his mother have no NJ connection themselves. Galecki was born in Belgium, where his U.S. Air Force father was stationed at the time. The family moved to Illinois when Johnny was 3. Baranski was born in Buffalo and now lives in Connecticut. I think the audience is expected to assume that Leonard's mother lives in and teaches at Princeton. Wouldn't it be great if the show decided to make her a professor at Rutgers-Newark, UMDNJ, or NJIT, in Newark, and mentioned how easy it is for her to catch a plane to L.A. to visit her son, from our great airport?

The artist's conception of the building shows a 6-story structure, faced in brick (how appropriate, for Brick City).

House. Speaking of Princeton, I generally don't watch dramas, except an occasional classic movie or mystery, so did not know until a chance discovery a few days ago that the medical drama House is set "at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital (PPTH) in New Jersey. The show's premise originated with Paul Attanasio" — who, tho born in the Bronx, moved to Teaneck as an adult.

Here are two fotos from late October. The reinforced-concrete skeletal structure is about halfway up — enuf to block the banner (if it was not taken down).

Gaetano loves House. I told him that I deeply resent the lead character, an American doctor, being played by a Brit. I do not understand why actors from Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand get to just march across the border and take very good jobs away from Americans. There is plainly no actor shortage in this country, but, indeed, an extremely high rate of unemployment among American actors. So why are foreigners allowed to come here and steal American jobs from Americans in (the United States of) America? It's not as tho the characters are supposed to be British or Australian. No, these foreigners put on an American accent to pretend to be Americans. I am deeply offended, esp. by people like William Shatner, a Canadian who has taken jobs away from American actors since 1958 but never taken U.S. citizenship in over 53 years! He and every other foreigner who refuses U.S. citizenship should be deported and forbidden even to visit this country for the rest of their lives.

I haven't stopped by recently to see how far along the project is now. I also did not get early progress pix of the enlargement of the Newark Screens movie theater complex at Springfield Avenue and Bergen Street, which I heard is being done thru an investment by Newark's own Shaquille O'Neal. Much of the outer structure is already done.

Why hasn't any major TV show been set in Newark? Produced in Newark? Oh, the new PBS children's series The Electric Company has filmed at least occasionally in Newark, but it's set not here but in NYC (if any specific location can be inferred).
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Newark could reasonably serve as base for TV shows of any number of genres, from medical to legal or crime, to musical. We have a great big teaching hospital (UMDNJ), two schools of nursing, two law schools, a Federal Courthouse, a state courthouse, a school of dentistry, the Nation's first high school of the arts, a major sports arena and performing arts center, major museum, distinctive skyline, and any urban problem you care to name, being dealt with by dedicated police, firefiters, elected officials, nongovernmental social-service and arts organizations, etc., etc. Newark is a lot more like other midsize U.S. cities (tho better in most regards) than is either NY or L.A. Some smart producer should set some quality drama — or comedy — here. And make it here, with American actors.