Although those “Desperate Housewives” engage in their share of tabloid-worthy antics, when it comes to Chicago newspapers, it looks as if they prefer their news from a broadsheet.
On Sunday’s episode of “Housewives,” it sure looked as though Edie Britt (Nicollette Sheridan) picked up a baiduhai from Mrs. Huber’s front porch.
When Britt, Mrs. Huber’s former roommate, grabbed one newspaper from a pile on the local busybody’s porch, part of the top of the newspaper was visible, including a bright blue banner. The newspaper was folded, but the word “Tribune” was visible, preceded by what looked like the letters “-ago.”
Perhaps the Tribune is the smoking gun in the Case of Where Is Wisteria Lane, the street on which all the housewives live. To our knowledge, the ladies’ city or state of residence has never been identified on the show.
What’s more, we’d swear that the headline on the paper Britt held featured the words “Marshall Field” in very large type (or at least we saw parts of those words). And what says Chicago more than Marshall Field’s?
We asked ABC about the shout-out to the Tribune, but they remain mysteriously mum.
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Anyway, let’s assume those housewives are somewhere in the Chicago area — what suburb (or city neighborhood) has winding lanes and colorful Victorian houses like the ones seen on the show? We racked our brains, and came up with Riverside, though the architecture there is somewhat different than what we see on Wisteria Lane. If you have a guess as to what ‘burb the wives are from, e-mail [email protected].
GAPPED OUT: Can I just say that if I see a Gap ad with Sarah Jessica Parker one more time, I might just have to turn my TV off forever?
JUST KEEP TREKKIN’: Last season, “Star Trek: Enterprise” hit a creative high point with the lengthy Xindi arc, and there’s been just as much energy this season, which has so far featured a zingy guest stint by “Next Generation” star Brent Spiner and a swell three-parter set among battling Vulcans. Yep, there’s plenty of life left in the old spaceship.
According to executive producer Manny Coto, the next upcoming mini-arc will focus on Capt. Jonathan Archer’s attempts to forge an alliance among the cranky Andorians (they’re the blue guys with wiggly antennae on their heads, whom the Enterprise has already met several times), the Vulcans and a species called the Tellarites, in a bid to thwart the wily Romulans.
“The Tellarites are a species who basically interact through insults. So there’s some fun stuff there,” Coto says. “After that, we’ll be doing a two-parter with Klingons, which will begin to explain why the Klingons in the original [`Trek’] series are different than the Klingons in the later series,” though the Klingon two-parter deals with much more than just the fierce race’s appearance.
Coto says that at this stage, there are still no concrete plans to bring William Shatner to “Enterprise” this season, though he’d love to make that happen if possible. “I’m not sure what’s happening there, it’s probably a combination of money and scheduling and all that,” Coto says of Shatner, who just received a Golden Globe nomination for his work on “Boston Legal.”
Could Spiner return before the year is out? Coto says he wouldn’t “rule it out.”
Season 5 of “Enterprise,” if there is one, will explore the founding of the multiplanet Federation, Coto says. But will “Enterprise” come back next year, given that fewer viewers are tuning in to see the show now that it’s been moved to Fridays?
“Enterprise’s” renewal won’t be decided until May, UPN head Dawn Ostroff says, but she adds that “We’ve gotten great feedback from fans. . . . The show is at a great place [creatively] and we’re very happy with the ideas and execution.”
BACK TO THE FUTURE: Ben Browder of “Farscape” fame is joining the cast of “Stargate SG-1” in the show’s upcoming ninth season, and executive producers Brad Wright and Robert Cooper have already decided that Browder’s character will be a military guy, part of a Stargate team viewers haven’t seen yet on the Sci Fi show.
“Specifically, he’s the [pilot] that leads the squadron that fought [an enemy named] Anubis in Antarctica,” Wright wrote in an e-mail. “He was badly injured when his fighter crashed, nearly killed but was promised a place on `SG-1′ if he made it back to fighting form.”
Read more of my e-mail dialogue with Wright at chicagotribune.com/watcher.
TOO MUCH EX: The WB’s third edition of “High School Reunion,” which brings several classmates from a small Florida private school to a stylin’ beach house in Maui (where there’s plenty of alcohol on hand, naturally), may be the best one yet.
This season I’m really rooting for Gianni, “The Basketball Star,” and Loretta, “The Dream Girl,” who are slowly making the kind of connection that Gianni was too shy to attempt in high school, despite his status as a popular jock. Will Loretta go for it with Gianni, despite the fact that Gianni lives in Italy? Or will their budding romance be shot down by Gianni’s bizarrely obsessed ex-girlfriend, Jaime, who mistakenly thinks he’s still got a thing for her? Only time will tell. I’ll sure be watching on Tuesdays.
DADDY DEAREST: Fox announced that on Jan. 3, it’s airing “Who’s Your Daddy?,” a special on which a young woman will try to figure out which of eight men is her dad. If she guesses right, she gets $100,000; if she guesses wrong, the man she picked gets the cash.
Our first thought was, “Hey, Maury Povich has been doing daddy DNA tests on his talk show for years!” So we called the Maury folks, to see what they thought.
Their reaction? “Imitation is the sincerest form of television,” said “Maury” spokesperson Gary Rosen.
READERS WRITE: There was strong feedback to my Dec. 17 piece on the finale of “The Apprentice,” in which I called the 3-hour coronation of Kelly Perdew “a bloated horror show” that was distinctly unfair to fellow finalist Jennifer M.
S. Smith of Chicago wrote: “I will never watch `The Apprentice’ again. If I want to be reminded that the good old boys network still exists, I will simply continue to get up each day and go to work. I do not consider it entertainment to watch a reality that I live with every day.”
THANK YOU, TV SANTA: Christmas is a time to reflect on the blessings the year has brought to us, and when it comes to the small screen, I’d like to offer my gratitude to the elves of TV-dom for the following shows:
Extreme gratitude: “Lost,” “Veronica Mars,” “Gilmore Girls,” “Arrested Development,” “The Office Special,” “Without a Trace,” “The Daily Show” and “Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars.”
Serious gratitude: “Jack & Bobby,” “Everwood,” “The O.C.,” “American Dreams,” “Joan of Arcadia,” “The 4400,” “Star Trek: Enterprise,” “Stargate SG-1” and the return of “Alias” (Jan. 5) and “24” (Jan. 9 and 10).
Sincere gratitude: “CSI: New York,” “Judging Amy,” “Survivor,” “Boston Legal,” “Cold Case,” “Reba,” “Kevin Hill,” “Stargate Atlantis,” “Third Watch.”
Just plain old gratitude: “JAG,” “High School Reunion,” “Surreal Life,” “Extreme Makeover,” “America’s Next Top Model,” “Chappelle’s Show.”
Note: “The Apprentice” might have made this list, had its Season 2 finale not made me regret that I watched a single minute of the second season, and “The Amazing Race” would normally be in the Extremely Grateful category, but this season, the presence of the loathsome Jonathan Baker, not to mention a ridiculous “To Be Continued” at the end of Tuesday’s episode, instead of the usual elimination, has forced me to put the show on probation for the moment.
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For more on “Stargate SG-1,” “Star Trek: Enterprise” and for reader feedback on “The Amazing Race” and “The Apprentice” finale, go to chicagotribune.com/watcher. E-mail: [email protected].