Guilty Pleasures Week: TV

I have a crazy week ahead of me, so I’m going to be blog-lazy with a theme week: my guilty pleasures. Each day I’ll spill the guilt in a different category. I just hope you respect me in the mornings. The Haahnster may join me in Guilty Pleasures Week, so click over to his (always entertaining) blog when you're done here.

My television viewing habits are somewhat respectable, maybe because the shows I tend to like — Arrested Development, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, and Get a Life, for example — are quickly canceled and my frustration leads me to turn off the TV. I get my news and commentary from The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, and my news magazine is CBS Sunday Morning (is it me, or has Sunday Morning lost its punch?). My late-night preference is Letterman (hate, hate, hate the Leno). I’ve avoided the reality show bug, having seen maybe 30 minutes of American Idol’s complete run and just half of the first Survivor.

But.

I do suffer from one reality show addiction. Cannot miss it. E-mail with friends the morning after a new episode. Read the online blog and Entertainment Weekly’s wrap-up. Spread the viewing gospel to others. That show, my friends, is Project Runway. (Back me on this, Keith.)

Why do I love Project Runway? On the one hand, it’s fascinating to watch the designers’ process in concepting and creating an outfit from a given assignment — say, a frock out of flowers. They have little time and a small budget, and still some of them create works of art. Others design crap, which can be just as entertaining. I could almost forego the drama and cattiness. Almost. It does add to the fun, although that’s not why I watch.

On the other hand, I adore Tim Gunn. I love his dedication to fashion. The way he clucks and fusses over the designers’ ideas and executions. And, well, he’s just a wonderfully elegant man. Always impeccably dressed. (Did you notice that he was wearing jeans in this season’s first episode?) My friend Kathy saw him in Manhattan recently, and said he looked wonderful (she tried to get a photo for me, but the taxi was going too fast). But I think what I love most about Tim Gunn is his voice. Silky smooth. I actually miss Santino this season just for his dead-on imitations of Tim.

“Make it work, people.”

BTW, I was quite sad to see Malan booted off last week, even though the top of his dress looked like the tree that the Keebler elves live in. His story about his evil mother and his few friends choked me up. Wish they’d voted Vincent off; I hope the producers aren’t keeping that freakazoid on for the drama. He creeps me out.


The Guilty Runner-up

Really, my very favorite show is Isaac, Mr. Mizrahi’s talk show on the Style network. I’ve been an Isaac Mizrahi fan since I saw Unzipped in 1995. He’s funny, over the top, wildly creative — and great friends with Mark Morris. What’s not to love?

Isaac used to come on every evening at 7 p.m., which actually made me leave the office by 6:30. But Style isn’t running it much these days (I just checked; three airings this week, and all are reruns). Too bad. It’s the perfect end to a long workday: fashion and accessories, lightweight interviews, an outrageous gay man who makes me laugh. Just shallow enough to be relaxing, just interesting enough to keep me watching. I especially love Sketches & Answers, where Isaac takes questions from the audience and sketches out the perfect solution to their fashion predicaments.


Interesting. Both of my guilty pleasures involve fashion and fabulous gay men. Are we seeing a trend here? Although, I must admit that I quite enjoyed the few episodes of Flava of Love I saw.

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