Swingtown (new show on CBS) - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

AB · 06-06-2008, 06:01 PM

Did anyone get a chance to see this new show on CBS last night? It takes place in the swinging 70's. I thought it was pretty good. It had some rockin' 70's tunes playing on it too.

70s show watcher · 06-08-2008, 12:20 AM

i saw it and as werid as it was i still kind of liked it

AB · 06-08-2008, 01:15 PM

^ Yeah, I liked it too!

wew3 · 06-08-2008, 05:11 PM

Kinda boring. This show would be so gone if they aired this during the regular season, but since it's during the summer it would have to do pretty horrible in the ratings to not finish it's run.

AB · 06-09-2008, 03:45 PM

^ I guess its not for everyone. It kind of reminds me of Knots Landing.

Edison · 06-10-2008, 03:46 AM

Made a note to see it..forgot to read the note..anyway :
Wife Swap, the Early Years
It’s 1976, and CBS’ Swingtown is stoned on Thorazine.
By John Leonard Published Jun 1, 2008

Of course, you are too young to remember the seventies, so let me explain. After the cruel disappointments of the tambourine-and-tantrum sixties—the death of utopian fantasies about social justice, racial harmony, peaceable kingdoms, and multiple orgasms—America sought instead its inner hound dog. Some, like Elvis, found it in pharmaceuticals. Others boogied till they puked, under the glitter domes of disco. Many more soaked sore feet in the hot tubs of Esalen and est, hypnotism and health foods, acupuncture and biofeedback, tantric yoga and t’ai chi. Although assassination wasn’t nearly as popular as it had been during the previous decade, still an amazing number of people died in spite of being famous—Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, Igor Stravinsky and Louis Armstrong, Mahalia Jackson and Maria Callas, Pablo Picasso and Francisco Franco. And then there was swinging, an erotics of suburban wife-swap first described in John Updike’s lascivious Couples (1968) and then later deplored in Rick Moody’s lugubrious The Ice Storm (1994).
Swinging! Why CBS, of all the geriatric networks, should have thought we needed another look at such programmatic hanky-panky, not to mention the ridiculous clothes they had to take off to do it, remains mysterious. One would have imagined that the subject had been exhausted, if not by Moody’s novel, in which an acquaintance with Masters and Johnson, Milton Friedman, Erich Fromm, Eldridge Cleaver, and I’m Okay, You’re Okay rubbed up Watergate as a metaphor for existential terror, then certainly by Ang Lee’s 1997 movie adaptation, in which Christina Ricci and Elijah Wood played Franny and Zooey at Plato’s Retreat while reading superhero comic books. For that matter, who needs the lakefront Chicago suburbs of Swingtown when we’ve already got gated communities, restrictive covenants, armed response, and Mary-Louise Parker lost in the premium-cable Weeds?
But CBS is obviously hoping its hoary demographic will be nostalgic for power ballads, pet rocks, test-tube babies, WIN buttons, and swine-flu-vaccine booster shots. So we follow comely Susan (Molly Parker) and handsome Bruce (Jack Davenport) as they abandon such safe, straight neighbors as hysterical Janet (Miriam Shor) and sincere Roger (Josh Hopkins) for a well-heeled, hipper part of town, where there always seems to be a party going on in the busy home of slinky Trina (Lana Parrilla) and hydraulic Tom (Grant Show). Never mind the funny-smelling cigarettes, the dog-eared copies of Penthouse, the blonde cokehead with the tinfoil fetish, and the “playroom” in the basement. What we are really talking about, as one swinger tells another, “is a whole other level of intimacy.” And none of this probably would have happened if Bruce had a clue about foreplay.
Since Swingtown isn’t even peekaboo, much less dirty, I wish I could say that it’s played for laughs. But I don’t know what it’s played for. Most of the time, it seems as sincere as Roger. And all of the time these people are, well, gaping at each other. By which I mean they wear rapt looks, as if they were Easter Island monoliths, or stoned on Thorazine. This is especially true of Parker’s Susan. She was a delight in Deadwood. Here, with her fine red hair and freckle scatter, she seems stuck in reaction shots. You want to drag her out on the lawn and remind her that the seventies also consisted of Stephen Sondheim, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Gloria Steinem, and Shaft; of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Billie Jean King, and Robert Altman’s Nashville; of not just Roots but also Jaws. But she is full of dopey wonderment, as if sex were a cult.

AB · 06-10-2008, 03:41 PM

^ So, you don't care for it? (lol!)

Edison · 06-13-2008, 05:19 PM

Saw it last night, and I'm afraid Leonard is right (well, 'cept about me being too young to remember). But like him, I'm a big Parker fan, and I hope CBS will allow Swingtown to get a little more swinging.

JulieSomoski · 06-16-2008, 06:44 PM

I'm sorry, but I loved this show. I saw like the last half of the pilot (but watched the first at CBS.com), and last week's episode, and now it's like a secret pleasure of mine. I find it really good, and the music is awesome - so far I heard it's doing pretty well.

AB · 06-17-2008, 05:42 PM

^ I hope it does well enough in the ratings to stick around.

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wew3 · 06-17-2008, 07:13 PM

The kids stuff was the only thing I found interesting. The pacing is too slow. This show would maybe fit better on Showtime if they actually had some swinging going on.

Mr. Television · 06-17-2008, 08:20 PM

I was looking forward to seeing this show but after CBS dumped it in the summer I decided not to watch. It would have to set the ratings on fire for CBS to give it a regular season birth.

JulieSomoski · 06-18-2008, 12:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Clint Eastwood Fan

I was looking forward to seeing this show but after CBS dumped it in the summer I decided not to watch. It would have to set the ratings on fire for CBS to give it a regular season birth.

You should give it a try, it's a good show. I'm hoping ratings don't fall anymore than they did from last week. Luckily, this week it won't have the Lakers-Celtics game to bring down ratings, so I'm hoping it can jump back up.

*MIBabe03* · 06-25-2008, 10:06 AM

I have a feeling it'll heat up more after last week's episode. Because the Millers said they wanted to open up their marriage more, so that means more swinging. The episode coming tomorrow should be fairly interesting. Am I the only one who likes the overly conservative neighbor lady? I just think it's hilarious how uptight she is. She's like worse than Bree from Desperate Housewives, I mean that's like beyond uptight right there. I've got a feeling that her husband might do something with Mrs. Miller in the show, you can tell how he looks at her that he's attracted to her. I really hope they keep this show going.

AB · 06-25-2008, 03:22 PM

^ Yeah Janet is pretty uptight but still kind of nice. All the swingers don't seem to care too much for her. I got a kick out of her & Trina fighting over the food at the party.

And Janet's husband Roger does seem to give longing looks at Susan. That would definitely cause problems if he acted on it.

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06-06-2008, 06:01 PM	#1
AB Member Eternal Member Forum Icon Join Date: Dec 26, 2006 Location: The South Posts: 59,429	Swingtown (new show on CBS) Did anyone get a chance to see this new show on CBS last night? It takes place in the swinging 70's. I thought it was pretty good. It had some rockin' 70's tunes playing on it too.

06-16-2008, 06:44 PM	#9
JulieSomoski Roseanne Reboot - March 27! Forum Veteran Join Date: Nov 06, 2004 Location: Michigan Posts: 7,558	I'm sorry, but I loved this show. I saw like the last half of the pilot (but watched the first at CBS.com), and last week's episode, and now it's like a secret pleasure of mine. I find it really good, and the music is awesome - so far I heard it's doing pretty well.
	__________________ Click here to view some great articles written by my husband and I! All views are appreciated! Watch: Medium, Fridays at 9pm, on CBS! Big Bang Theory, Mondays at 9:30pm, on CBS! The Mentalist, Thursdays at 10pm, on CBS! Old Christine, Wednesdays at 8pm, on CBS! ABC's Comedy Lineup, Starting Wednesdays at 8:30pm, on ABC!

06-17-2008, 08:20 PM	#12
Mr. Television 22 Years at Sitcoms Online Forum Icon Join Date: Jun 06, 2003 Location: Somewhere you're Not Posts: 62,128	I was looking forward to seeing this show but after CBS dumped it in the summer I decided not to watch. It would have to set the ratings on fire for CBS to give it a regular season birth.
	__________________ Sonny

06-25-2008, 10:06 AM	#14
MIBabe03 Loving Swingtown! Forum 4000 Club Member Join Date: Jul 28, 2002 Location: TX Posts: 4,646	I have a feeling it'll heat up more after last week's episode. Because the Millers said they wanted to open up their marriage more, so that means more swinging. The episode coming tomorrow should be fairly interesting. Am I the only one who likes the overly conservative neighbor lady? I just think it's hilarious how uptight she is. She's like worse than Bree from Desperate Housewives, I mean that's like beyond uptight right there. I've got a feeling that her husband might do something with Mrs. Miller in the show, you can tell how he looks at her that he's attracted to her. I really hope they keep this show going.
	__________________ Laura and Mario November 10, 2006

06-08-2008, 12:20 AM	#2
70s show watcher Member Forum 4000 Club Member Join Date: May 20, 2008 Location: between point place and studio 8 h Posts: 4,548	i saw it and as werid as it was i still kind of liked it

06-08-2008, 01:15 PM	#3
AB Member Eternal Member Forum Icon Join Date: Dec 26, 2006 Location: The South Posts: 59,429	^ Yeah, I liked it too!

06-08-2008, 05:11 PM	#4
wew3 Member Frequent Poster Join Date: Mar 03, 2003 Posts: 167	Kinda boring. This show would be so gone if they aired this during the regular season, but since it's during the summer it would have to do pretty horrible in the ratings to not finish it's run.

06-09-2008, 03:45 PM	#5
AB Member Eternal Member Forum Icon Join Date: Dec 26, 2006 Location: The South Posts: 59,429	^ I guess its not for everyone. It kind of reminds me of Knots Landing.

06-10-2008, 03:46 AM	#6
Edison Member Senior Member Join Date: Oct 01, 2006 Posts: 2,430	Made a note to see it..forgot to read the note..anyway : Wife Swap, the Early Years It’s 1976, and CBS’ Swingtown is stoned on Thorazine. By John Leonard Published Jun 1, 2008 Of course, you are too young to remember the seventies, so let me explain. After the cruel disappointments of the tambourine-and-tantrum sixties—the death of utopian fantasies about social justice, racial harmony, peaceable kingdoms, and multiple orgasms—America sought instead its inner hound dog. Some, like Elvis, found it in pharmaceuticals. Others boogied till they puked, under the glitter domes of disco. Many more soaked sore feet in the hot tubs of Esalen and est, hypnotism and health foods, acupuncture and biofeedback, tantric yoga and t’ai chi. Although assassination wasn’t nearly as popular as it had been during the previous decade, still an amazing number of people died in spite of being famous—Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, Igor Stravinsky and Louis Armstrong, Mahalia Jackson and Maria Callas, Pablo Picasso and Francisco Franco. And then there was swinging, an erotics of suburban wife-swap first described in John Updike’s lascivious Couples (1968) and then later deplored in Rick Moody’s lugubrious The Ice Storm (1994). Swinging! Why CBS, of all the geriatric networks, should have thought we needed another look at such programmatic hanky-panky, not to mention the ridiculous clothes they had to take off to do it, remains mysterious. One would have imagined that the subject had been exhausted, if not by Moody’s novel, in which an acquaintance with Masters and Johnson, Milton Friedman, Erich Fromm, Eldridge Cleaver, and I’m Okay, You’re Okay rubbed up Watergate as a metaphor for existential terror, then certainly by Ang Lee’s 1997 movie adaptation, in which Christina Ricci and Elijah Wood played Franny and Zooey at Plato’s Retreat while reading superhero comic books. For that matter, who needs the lakefront Chicago suburbs of Swingtown when we’ve already got gated communities, restrictive covenants, armed response, and Mary-Louise Parker lost in the premium-cable Weeds? But CBS is obviously hoping its hoary demographic will be nostalgic for power ballads, pet rocks, test-tube babies, WIN buttons, and swine-flu-vaccine booster shots. So we follow comely Susan (Molly Parker) and handsome Bruce (Jack Davenport) as they abandon such safe, straight neighbors as hysterical Janet (Miriam Shor) and sincere Roger (Josh Hopkins) for a well-heeled, hipper part of town, where there always seems to be a party going on in the busy home of slinky Trina (Lana Parrilla) and hydraulic Tom (Grant Show). Never mind the funny-smelling cigarettes, the dog-eared copies of Penthouse, the blonde cokehead with the tinfoil fetish, and the “playroom” in the basement. What we are really talking about, as one swinger tells another, “is a whole other level of intimacy.” And none of this probably would have happened if Bruce had a clue about foreplay. Since Swingtown isn’t even peekaboo, much less dirty, I wish I could say that it’s played for laughs. But I don’t know what it’s played for. Most of the time, it seems as sincere as Roger. And all of the time these people are, well, gaping at each other. By which I mean they wear rapt looks, as if they were Easter Island monoliths, or stoned on Thorazine. This is especially true of Parker’s Susan. She was a delight in Deadwood. Here, with her fine red hair and freckle scatter, she seems stuck in reaction shots. You want to drag her out on the lawn and remind her that the seventies also consisted of Stephen Sondheim, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Gloria Steinem, and Shaft; of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Billie Jean King, and Robert Altman’s Nashville; of not just Roots but also Jaws. But she is full of dopey wonderment, as if sex were a cult.

06-10-2008, 03:41 PM	#7
AB Member Eternal Member Forum Icon Join Date: Dec 26, 2006 Location: The South Posts: 59,429	^ So, you don't care for it? (lol!)

06-13-2008, 05:19 PM	#8
Edison Member Senior Member Join Date: Oct 01, 2006 Posts: 2,430	Saw it last night, and I'm afraid Leonard is right (well, 'cept about me being too young to remember). But like him, I'm a big Parker fan, and I hope CBS will allow Swingtown to get a little more swinging.

06-17-2008, 05:42 PM	#10
AB Member Eternal Member Forum Icon Join Date: Dec 26, 2006 Location: The South Posts: 59,429	^ I hope it does well enough in the ratings to stick around.

06-17-2008, 07:13 PM	#11
wew3 Member Frequent Poster Join Date: Mar 03, 2003 Posts: 167	The kids stuff was the only thing I found interesting. The pacing is too slow. This show would maybe fit better on Showtime if they actually had some swinging going on.

06-25-2008, 03:22 PM	#15
AB Member Eternal Member Forum Icon Join Date: Dec 26, 2006 Location: The South Posts: 59,429	^ Yeah Janet is pretty uptight but still kind of nice. All the swingers don't seem to care too much for her. I got a kick out of her & Trina fighting over the food at the party. And Janet's husband Roger does seem to give longing looks at Susan. That would definitely cause problems if he acted on it.