Cougar Town Plays Host to Tippi Hedren

Tippi Hedren, star of “The Birds” and “Marnie,” and the subject of last fall’s HBO film “The Girl,” made a guest appearance on the season finale of “Cougar Town” last Tuesday, April 9.

I happen to like “Cougar Town” quite a lot, so I was pleased to see Tippi appear in this touching episode. In the previous episode (which aired the same night) we learned that the father of series star Jules Cobb (played by Courteney Cox) is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. In this episode, Jules and her Cul de Sac Crew decide to reroute their planned Bahamas vacation to head to Hollywood so they can help her dad, Chick (Ken Jenkins), have his dream of meeting Tippi Hedren come true.

Along the way, much silliness ensues. Jules, who seems to be getting dopier by the minute (maybe she should lay off the vino?) thinks the stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame are gravemakers; Laurie (Busy Philipps) tries to divert a security guard’s attention at Hedren’s house by kidnapping her cat, Tabby Hedren; Travis and Tom hire a one-man band to serenade Chick and Tippi.

We don’t get to see Jules try to talk Hedren into her scheme, but apparently it works, as Hedren shows up to meet Chick and dance with him like they were old friends.

If you want to see what Tippi Hedren looks like these days—and yes, she’s just as good and actor as she ever was—or just catch a sweet episode of a series I really like, you can watch this episode, called “Have Love, Will Travel” on the TBS website here.

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“Castle” Salutes Alfred Hitchcock with “Rear Window” Homage

The April 1 episode of the ABC TV series “Castle” featured a tribute to Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rear Window”—the movie that I said here was even better than “Vertigo,” which as we all know is now considered the best movie ever made.

I admit that this is the first time I’ve watched “Castle,” but it wasn’t hard to figure out what was going on. Nathan Fillion plays Richard Castle, mystery novel writer and wannabe detective; Stana Katic is Detective Kate Beckett, Castle’s girlfriend. There isn’t much more you need to know going in; Beckett has partners and a gruff captain, and Castle has a young adult daughter, and the show is a mix of comedy and suspense, which lends itself perfectly to tonight’s fun.

Castle, laid up with a broken kneecap (ow!) from a skiing accident, is bored stiff while he hangs around his fabulous New York apartment, and so he starts peeking out the windows at his neighbors. When he sees a young couple having an affair, he’s intrigued, but when the husband arrives and looks like he’s going to stab his wife to death, Castle is horrified. Everything he thinks he saw is basically circumstantial, though, so he decides to break into the apartment to find some hard evidence.

In the end [SPOILERS!], the whole thing was a set-up, planned by Beckett as a way to keep him occupied while recuperating, leading up to a surprise birthday party in the supposed murderer’s apartment.

Meanwhile, the show gives us another Hitchcock homage, as if to say that this episode was created with real reverence to the Master of Suspense: In the real murder story, a female IRS agent is killed under mysterious circumstances. Her name? Mrs. De Winter—a name familiar to fans of “Rebecca.”

You can catch this episode on Hulu (that’s how I saw it), and it’s probably available on demand on some cable systems.

New URL, Same Alfred Hitchcock

When I started this blog a few years back, my goal was to watch and write about every movie Alfred Hitchcock ever directed. I accomplished that goal and more, and have written about all 53 movies directed by Hitchcock, as well as books, television series, radio shows and much more. And it seems that the more I learn about Hitchcock, the more there is to say.

So, as you probably gathered already, I’ve change the name of the blog to “The Hitchcock Report,” which I believe is a little broader than the previous URL, “Hitchcock and Me.” I have a long list of new posts in mind, and my new goal is to post more often than before, with shorter features on a broader range of topics.

Coming up, I’ll be looking at books that inspired Hitchcock movies, “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” TV shows that touch on the world of Hitchcock, new events and more. I think it’s going to be fun, and I hope you’ll stick around!