Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, a blessed Eid, a bibulous Yule, a peaceful Solstice, a delirious Kwanzaa, and a wonderful New Year!
And enjoy whatever else you'll celebrate these coming days.
A heartfelt Thank You to all those named and un-named who again helped me this year to keep this site the way it is.
Oh - and special thanks to Michael T. Weiss!

Source (where you can also download this new headshot in high-res full size)
Full program magazine of "O.P.C." at the American Repertory Theater

This year you have the chance that your Seasons Greetings and New Year's Wishes reach Michael T. Weiss indeed at the time they are meant to, as he'll be performing in "O.P.C." till January 4, 2015. So you might want to send your cards to:
Michael T. Weiss
c/o American Repertory Theater at Loeb Drama Center
64 Brattle St.
Cambridge, MA 02138
USA

Jane Fonda (yes, THAT Jane Fonda!) tweeted on Dec 13, 2014:

I'm at Eve Ensler's new play "OPC" in Cambridge with daughter and granddaughter ... All recycled set.

Source: Jane Seymour Fonda

And after the show she joined the cast for a picture:

The cast of #OPCplay was joined by the wonderful Jane Fonda this past week.
Jane Fonda, center, with O.P.C. cast members, from left, Liz Merkel, Michael T. Weiss, Kate Mulligan, Peter Porte, Nicole Lowrance, Nancy Linehan Charles, and Babak Tafti.

Source: American Repertory Theater

Jane Fonda at the ART
Actress Jane Fonda brought her daughter and granddaughter to a weekend performance of "O.P.C." at the American Repertory Theater. The play was written by Fonda's friend and occasional collaborator Eve Ensler. Afterward, the 76-year-old Oscar winner posed for a photo with the cast. [See above]

Source: The Boston Globe, Dec 16, 2014

[...] Romi's father and Smith's husband, Bruce will be played by Michael T. Weiss. He's filling in for David Thornton who dropped out because of a back injury; Stephen Collins, originally cast, took himself out of the play amid divorce proceedings, followed by accusations of child molestation. [...] From: Cape Cod Times, Nov 21, 2014
[...] Michael T. Weiss is aptly innocuous as the girls' virile-milquetoast dad [...] From: The Artery, Dec 7, 2014
[...] Romi's father Bruce (Michael T. Weiss) has real sympathy for his daughter, and Weiss makes him a likeable, appealing guy as he tries to serve as the bridge between daughter and his wife/Romi's hard-driving mother. [...] From: The Herald News, Dec 8, 2014
[...] The supporting cast is strong. Michael T. Weiss is a sympathetic father by the numbers, providing a refuge for Romi from her more intense mother. [...] From: Boston Stages, Dec 9, 2014
[...] Michael T. Weiss has nothing much to do in a severely underwritten role. [...] From: TheaterMania, Dec 11, 2014

"O.P.C." @ ART (American Repertory Theater) at Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle St., Cambridge, MA 02138
Boxoffice Tel. 617.547.8300, Tuesday - Sunday, noon-5PM
Tickets, further information, and photos from rehearsals and from stage
Run time : 2 and a half hours with one intermission
Remaining performance dates (no shows on Dec 15, 24, 25, 29 and on Jan 1):
Thu Dec 11 2014, 7:30 PM
Fri Dec 12 2014, 7:30 PM
Sat Dec 13 2014, 2:00 PM + 7:30 PM
Sun Dec 14 2014, 2:00 PM
Tue Dec 16 2014, 7:30 PM
Wed Dec 17 2014, 2:00 PM + 7:30 PM
Thu Dec 18 2014, 7:30 PM
Fri Dec 19 2014, 7:30 PM
Sat Dec 20 2014, 2:00 PM + 7:30 PM
Sun Dec 21 2014, 2:00 PM
Mon Dec 22 2014, 7:30 PM
Tue Dec 23 2014, 2:00 PM
Fri Dec 26 2014, 7:30 PM
Sat Dec 27 2014, 2:00 PM + 7:30 PM
Sun Dec 28 2014, 2:00 PM + 7:30 PM
Tue Dec 30 2014, 7:30 PM
Wed Dec 31 2014, 2:00 PM + 7:30 PM
Fri Jan 2 2015, 7:30 PM
Sat Jan 3 2015, 2:00 PM + 7:30 PM
Sun Jan 4 2015, 2:00 PM + 7:30 PM
ASL Interpreted: 12/30, 7:30 PM + 1/4, 2:00 PM
Audio Described: 12/30, 7:30 PM* + 1/3, 2:00 PM*  *Touch tour 1 hour prior
Post-performance discussions will take place after the following matinee performances: Sat 12/13, Wed 12/17, Sat 12/20
Talkbacks (open to anyone with a ticket to any performance of O.P.C., space is available on a first come, first serve basis): Sat 12/13 + Sat 12/20, following the 2:00 PM performances: Discussion with Cast Members and Production Dramaturg
Ticket pricing: $25.00 - $65.00

How Michael T. Weiss became part of the cast of "O.P.C."
[...] The production process itself has had its share of ups and downs. This month, Academy Award-winning actress Melissa Leo withdrew from the role of Smith because of what ART described as “artistic differences.” (Attempts to reach Leo or her representatives were unsuccessful.) Kate Mulligan of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival flew in to take over, with just a week to learn the role before previews began Friday.
Earlier, Stephen Collins had dropped out of the cast, citing personal reasons, and a few weeks later it was reported that he was being investigated for allegations of child sexual abuse, an issue central to Ensler's activism and art. Then his replacement withdrew at the last minute before his casting was even announced; Michael T. Weiss stepped in four days after rehearsals began on Oct. 28. [...]

Actor Dylan McDermott and his "Stalker" costar and real-life romantic partner Maggie Q attended a Saturday performance of Eve Ensler's play "O.P.C." at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge. McDermott, formerly of "The Practice" and "American Horror Story," is Ensler's stepson. We had heard that McDermott and Q - whose show premiered on CBS in October - have been together for months, but the ART said she's his fiancée, so congrats to the couple. After the play, McDermott and Q (above, far left) posed with Ensler and the "O.P.C." cast, which includes Olivia Thirlby from "Juno" and Oregon Shakespeare Festival favorite Kate Mulligan, whose TV resume includes "The Practice."

"O.P.C": The Play About Trash That Cannot Be Thrown Away
Long before stepping into the theater and finding their seats, the audiences that bought tickets to watch Eve Ensler's O.P.C. at the American Repertory Theater received a 45-page program. However, unlike the majority of the programs obtained when going to see a performance, the O.P.C. program arrived via e-mail.
Why not stick to the traditional way of distributing programs? Well, it is just the first step the creators of the play have taken to promote their environmentally friendly approach to art.
As the receivers of the e-mails began reading their electronic tomes, they read about curious developments. "Rather than pre-ordering wood and other supplies, O.P.C.'s scenic artists took their inspiration, and their raw materials, from local waste." Trying to picture how the production department incorporated garbage into the set design proved challenging for the curious soon-to-be spectators.
Finally, performance night arrives, and the eager audiences arrive at the theater prepared to see if their imagination, fueled by the descriptions of the set they previously read, matches the final product. They discover it is even better. Cardboard boxes cover the walls. Strings of water bottles dangle from the ceiling. The set pieces are made out of trash and create the space in which the actors play. Without a doubt, the stage aesthetics are truly unlike anything else.
The people who live in that world are equally fascinating and captivating. Romi, the female protagonist, played by the amazing Olivia Thirlby, is humane, compassionate, and headstrong. She classifies herself as a "Freegan", a person who rejects the consumerist culture of modern society and uses other people’s excess and waste to sustain themselves. Romi lives such a raw lifestyle in the hopes of improving the world. Unfortunately, her politically active mother, Smith, rejects her eldest daughter's behavior since Smith believes Romi will negatively affect her campaign for senator. Romi's sister, Kansas, who manages Smith's campaign, shares the same feelings. The only member of the family who defends Romi by stating she is not weird but simply "different" is Bruce, her father.
The family therefore struggles to freely communicate with each other. In an attempt to soften things with Smith, who feels unsupported, Romi presents to her mother her latest creation of "High Trashion": a dress made out of recycled apricot skins. What at first seems like a bizarre idea ends up boosting Smith's image and her campaign. Romi is propelled into stardom with her designs using fruit skin, but the sudden success causes Romi to struggle between her Freegan ideals and the resurfacing of consumerist behavior. Nervous breakdowns and much argument ensue.
The solid performances by the cast, mixed with highly interesting character development and good moments of humor dispersed throughout the play make O.P.C. a must-see show. More importantly, the overall message Romi communicates leaves audiences re-imagining a few things.
Romi believes people should care more about their impact and interaction with the world. People should reconsider what it means to call something "trash". People should learn how to live with the bare necessities without all the additional material things. People should break free from institutions and ideas sold to the masses. And for the sake of humanity, she may be right.

First Look at Eve Ensler's O.P.C. at A.R.T.
The American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University, under the leadership of Diane Paulus, Artistic Director, presents the second production of its 2014/15 Season: the world premiere of Eve Ensler's O.P.C. (Obsessive Political Correctness), directed by Pesha Rudnick, running through January 4, 2015 at the Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle Street, Harvard Square.
A new comedy from the author of The Vagina Monologues, O.P.C. is a wildly funny exploration of consumption and politics that asks, "How are we to survive as a species if we insist on destroying the world we love?" Romi Weil, a dumpster-diving Freegan, is doing just fine squatting in an abandoned apartment. But when her mother, a candidate running for the Senate, tries to make her toe the party line, radicalism comes into comic collision with mainstream liberalism. As Election Day approaches, mother and daughter wrestle with the inconvenient truths at the heart of consumer culture, tossed between political compromise and Obsessive Political Correctness.
The cast includes Olivia Thirlby as Romi, Kate Mulligan as Smith, and Michael T. Weiss as Bruce; supported by Nancy Linehan Charles as Mrs. M, Nicole Lowrance as Kansas, Liz Mikel as Sister Ro, Peter Porte as Damien, and Babak Tafti as Prakash.
The creative team also includes scenic designer Brett J. Banakis, costume designer ESosa (The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess, Witness Uganda, Father Comes Home From the Wars), lighting designer Bradley King, sound designer Jane Shaw, and projection designer Shawn Sagady (All the Way).
O.P.C. opened on November 28, had its official premier on December 3, 2014 and runs at the American Repertory Theater's Loeb Drama Center until January 4, 2015.
Written by Eve Ensler (The Vagina Monologues), directed by Pesha Rudnik. With: Nancy Linehan Charles, Nicole Lowrance, Liz Mikel, Kate Mulligan, Peter Porte, Babak Tafti and Olivia Thirlby as Romi and Michael T. Weiss as Bruce.
Tickets from $25. Box Office: 617.547.8300. For tickets online and more information visit americanrepertorytheater.org.
The 45-page program

Liberty Mitchell's "Pornographer's Daughter" may be a TV miniseries

Liberty Bradford Mitchell, 44, spent the first few decades of her life trying to escape her past. Her father, Artie Mitchell, and uncle, Jim Mitchell, were porn pioneers and operated the Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre in San Francisco. As a child, she was exposed to rough-cut porn movies and given her first safe-sex talk by her dad's girlfriend, a porn star. Then her uncle shot and killed her father.

In 2013, Bradford Mitchell, a mother of two, decided she was ready to embrace her past. She wrote a production, "The Pornographer's Daughter," which premiered as a one-woman show in San Francisco in early 2014, directed by Michael T. Weiss. Bradford Mitchell is now in talks to turn her colorful life story into a television miniseries.

Q: What was the reception to "The Pornographer's Daughter"?
A: We had a really incredible response. Audiences tended to be quite riveted. Speaking with people afterward was really moving. So many people who have faced adversity, from abuse to having lost a loved one, reached out to me. A lot of people around my age who grew up in the '70s with progressive parents found the production really disturbing because it resonated on such a deep level. It was a colorful time, but not always an easy way to grow up.
Q: What surprised you about the response?
A: I guess I was pleasantly surprised there were no outbursts during the show. You don't know what you will get in live theater. It was a big challenge for me to do this in San Francisco, and I knew a lot of skeletons would come out of the closet. The biggest surprise was how therapeutic it was. At the end of the day, it was me up there telling my story. I was grateful I was allowed to share my truth.
Q: What is the status of your story being made into a miniseries?
A: Things are moving forward. I'm in third-round contract negotiations for a television series. It’s unfolding as we speak. I'd be a creative consultant, and it would be based on my story. We're also working on doing a spring production of "The Pornographer's Daughter" in West Hollywood. We may do another run in Seattle. Our goal is to take it to New York.
Q: You have said that the arts - writing in particular - were always your salvation.
A: It is a catharsis. What I love about being an artist and creating work is that you go in with one intention, one idea of what it’s going to be, and over time it evolves into what it means to you. This work has continued to really inform how I perceive myself as an adult woman and how I want to use my voice going forward as an advocate for women.
Q: What is the ultimate message of "The Pornographer's Daughter" going to be?
A: It means different things to different people. At 44, it's been so empowering to bring the show to the stage. It's intense content and a very active show. Every time I did the show, I got a little more insight into my own life and into my family. I had this capacity to channel all of these demons. I've turned these lemons into lemonade. Storytelling is what carries us.
Q: You put a lot of family skeletons out for the theater-going public to see. Any skeletons still to be revealed?
A: I don't believe so. I've shared plenty. There's more in the vault, but I have to reserve a bit of grace for everyone involved. I said what I needed to say - and it paid off.
Julian Guthrie is a Bay Area writer.

Trick or treat! Happy All Hallows' Eve everyone ....

Do you miss Jarod? Then it is up to you to choose the nominees for the The People's Choice Awards 2015!
Type "Jarod - The Pretender" in the box as a write-in candidate (and click to choose one of the names on the list if the vote button is not active), then click the vote button @ http://vote.peopleschoice.com/#!/home/all/49/2
Nominee voting is until Thu, Oct 30, 2014 at 11:59pm EST and you can vote as often as you want!
The five finalists in every of the 54 categories will be announced on Tue, Nov 4, 2014 at 12pm EST, and then the voting for the winners begins. More infos about the awards.

The team behind Liberty Bradford Mitchell's one woman piece The Pornographer's Daughter, directed by Michael T. Weiss. Keith Stater, one of the members of the backing band "The Fluffers" commented on the photo: "I'll miss you all until the New York run."

Update from Liberty Bradford Mitchell on The Pornographer's Daugher:
Director Michael T. Weiss & I got some heat in Ginger Coyote's HOT GOSSIP column in this month's Punk Globe! Thanks, Ginger!
"LIBERTY BRADFORD MICHELL had to cancel a fall run of THE PORNOGRAPHERS DAUGHTER in Hollywood because Director MICHAEL T WEISS had obligations in New York City.... But she is planning a spring run at The Matrix Theater on Melrose Ave.... MICHAEL as many of you may remember was on DAYS OF OUR LIVES, THE PRETENDER and the fantastic film FREEWAY directed by MATTHEW BRIGHT."
Taken from: http://www.punkglobe.com/hotgossip1014.php
(Disclaimer: We have not booked The Matrix theater in West Hollywood for our spring '15 run, but certainly would love to! Any other 99-seat suggestions??)

According to a note from Liberty Bradford Mitchell, creator of this one woman piece, which was directed by Michael T. Weiss and premiered in San Francisco in January, "... the play will next open in Los Angeles in spring 2015. Dates and venue coming soon."

No wonder that no TV network is interested in financing a final film, because only 173 people voted for "The Pretender" v/s" Burn Notice" (which got 295 votes - also not much, but at least this show made it into round 2!) in yesterday's round of the Spoiler TV Favorite TV Show Competition.
So folks, stop moaning for a conclusion of the story, when you can't even take part in such an easy poll - where TPTB do take notice of the results ...
But at least "The Pretender" got some nice comments.

Voting for "The Pretender" v/s "Burn Notice" at The SpoilerTV Favourite TV Series Competition 2014 (day 10) will start as follows:
UK/London time: Mon, 15. Sep, 22:51h (10:51pm); D/Berlin+SA/Johannesburg: Mon, 15. Sep, 23:51h (11:51pm); US/Hawaii: Mon, 15. Sep, 11:51am; US/Los Angeles: Mon 15. Sep, 2:51pm; US/New York: Mon, 15. Sep, 5:51pm; Japan/Tokyo: Tue, Sep 16, 6:51am; Australia/Canberra: Tue, Sep 16, 7:51am. For other time zones, you can use this converter.
After exactly 24 hours, the leading show will win the battle and progress into the next round. This is the link where you can vote: http://www.spoilertv.com/2014/09/the-spoilertv-favourite-tv-series_15.html

Congrats! "The Pretender" (as "Pretender") has made it into the competition of the 64 finalists of 'Spoiler TV Favourite TV Series Competition 2014'. From now it will be one on one - two shows will go into battle in a poll, where after exactly 24 hours, the leading show will win the battle and progress into the next round. Two polls each day, btw.
For the full rules, and to vote got to: The Spoiler TV Favourite TV Series Competition 2014 Draw
You have to scroll to the far right, to see that "Pretender" will be up against "Burn Notice", "Legends" v/s "Person of Interest", and "Desperate Housewives" v/s "House" in a few days.
It is a new URL for each poll day of this competition, and you can vote as often as you want for your favorite shows as long as they are in the poll.

You can submit your favourite two 'Current Series'* and your favourite two 'Finished Series'*, along with your name to the Spoiler TV Favourite TV Series Competition 2014.
*A current TV series is any show that has aired/will air new episodes after 1st June 2014. A finished TV series is any show that had aired its final episode by 1st June 2014.
Submit "The Pretender" in 'Finished' ... maybe? Although it is technically unfinished ...
And if you might want to give a nod to "Legends" in 'Current', it would be much appreciated.
You have until Sep 4 to enter your submissions. The top 32 current TV series and the top 32 finished TV series will make the final 64.

I had asked Steven Long Mitchell & Craig W. Van Sickle, the creators of tP this: "What do you think of the upcoming (Aug 13) new TNT series "Legends", based on a novel by Robert Littell, about a man (Sean Bean as Martin Odum) with a serious identity crisis, due to the many personalities he has to take on as part of his job as an undercover operative for the FBI - and all of a sudden he has to ask himself, 'Who am I?'. To me, this story line sounds quite familiar."
Also with Ali Larter, Tina Majorino, Amber Valletta, Sean Harris, Morris Chestnut and others.

And this is their answer: "Interesting premise! To say the least."

Some hours ago, Liberty Bradford Mitchell, creator of "The Pornographer's Daughter" posted this picture of Michael T. Weiss on the play's facebook page:

"Director MTW and I met yesterday to discuss prelim pre-prod for The PD -- Los Angeles! (He was too devastated over Brazil's loss in the World Cup to show his face ;-) )."

Yesterday, Liberty Bradford Mitchell, creator of "The Pornographer's Daughter" posted on its facebook page:
"Check out our updated website for upcoming show dates and more! Blog coming soon. www.PDthePlay.com"
The website reads: "Coming soon. Los Angeles. Late 2014."

Liberty Bradford Mitchell (of the one-woman-piece The Pornographer's Daughter), who is currently looking at theaters for an L.A. run of the play this fall, posted this photo of her and her director Michael T. Weiss, taken on May 12, 2014 with these accompanying words: "An auspicious talisman while scouting theatre venues in WeHo with Michael T. Weiss!" on her facebook page today.
So Michael is currently blonde!
In case you don't remember: A green door plays an important part in her play.

Book Review: 'The Pretender - Rebirth' by Steven Long Mitchell and Craig W. Van Sickle
By: Savannah Mae
The Pretender may be best known (or remembered) for its four-season run on NBC from 1996-2000. The directors, Steven Long Mitchell and Craig W. Van Sickle, have updated the story of our pretender Jarod, played by Michael T. Weiss, and have released the first novel carrying on this tale of pretenders living among us. Now, it is my understanding that this is not so much a continuation but a new look at a story that millions of fans loved in the TV series.
Jarod is our pretender, a brilliant protagonist with the ability to transform himself into any role or person that he wants. Jarod was taken from his parents in 1983 and raised in a think tank at The Centre, a mysterious company that has used Jarod’s abilities for their evil doings. Among other lies and deception, Jarod believed that his parents were dead and when he finds out more details surrounding The Centre, he manages to escape on a mission to find out who he really is and who his parents are. With this newly found freedom, Jarod discovers the simple joys of life, like ice cream and candy, things he was denied at The Centre growing up.
Personally, I do not remember this TV show. It is very possible I watched it, but I just can't recall for sure. What I can say is that from the very first page, I was sucked in and could not put this book down until I was done. The authors have written this book so that every scene is perfectly laid out and it could play in my mind as if I was watching this on TV.
There are several key characters in The Pretender - Rebirth, and all are very well developed. Those who may have watched this show on TV years ago will be familiar with the characters, and those who are being introduced for the first time are sure to be fully satisfied. I am more than excited to get my hands on book two, which is not yet available. I have no idea how many books are planned for this series, but I hope there are more than three.
I did see some reviews from fans of the TV series who did not like this "rebirth" take on The Pretender. Sometimes people don't like change. I guess I have the same feelings about Batman. I just cannot accept anyone else but Michael Keaton as Batman. It just isn't right. I haven't watched any of the new movies because of my association with Keaton playing the role. Seems like some old school Pretender fans are in that same boat. I think it could really be a hit or miss with the old school fan base, but readers like me - who don't have any pre-set expectations already established - might just be blown away like I was.
Emmy Nominees Steven Long Mitchell and Craig W. Van Sickle have outdone themselves with 'The Pretender - Rebirth', and I absolutely loved it. 5 stars!

From the creators of The Pretender: Heartfelt thanks to all the fans who made The Pretender: Rebirth such a rewarding experience for us as our first step into the revival of the Pretender. We're especially indebted to the keen readers who were kind enough to share improvements and suggestions for the text of the book. We listened. Your feedback inspired us to go forth with a second edition of Rebirth so that the story of the Pretender can be everything we'd always intended it to be, and as great as you deserve. We're proud to announce that there is now a revised edition - The Pretender: Rebirth, Second Edition. While there are no changes to the story in this new edition, it does include a treat: Michael T. Weiss has graciously written us a special forward. His thoughts and insights about Jarod are as incredible as the experience of working with him over the series' five-year span. Thank you, Michael, you are the best. And so are all of you with whom we are proud to be sharing this ride. Steve and Craig

It's already available on Amazon, both on kindle and paperback, but according to amazon.com, the paperback edition is currently out of stock.

I have moved the news from 2012 to their own page.
I have moved the news from 2013 to the 'News Archive'.
So if you have bookmarked them, please update those!

Also - strange news from Facebook:
Thank you to 'The Anglophile Channel' for bringing these new facebook rules to our attention. Apparently a person has to be *active* on your page a minimum of 3 times within any calendar month period. i.e. Click 'like' on a post or photo, share post/pix, comment etc. If you're not considered *active*' FB will remove the "Like"....
What? That's just insane. But it explains why I'm only getting a handful of pages in my own private newsfeed anymore.
So...Please "Like" us, "Share", "Comment" etc etc. @ http://www.facebook.com/AskDr.Mike
Thanks for sticking with us everyone! EFi, webmiss

Yesterday, Liberty Bradford Mitchell, creator of "The Pornographer's Daughter" posted on its facebook page:
"Starting to look at theaters for an L.A. run this fall. Suggestions?"
If you have any ideas for theatres in Los Angeles with about 150-200 seats, please contact her via Twitter or info(at)pdtheplay.com or the facebook page of the play.

Your webmiss is finally back and back online.
Ten reasons "The Pretender" was the best show of the 90s: "The Pretender" may have only had 4 short-lived seasons on TV, but its legacy still burns bright. In celebration of the new Pretender novel, Saving Luke, coming out this month, here’s a trip down memory lane to the ten best moments of the series.
See the BuzzFeed Community for the 10 clips.

Your humble webmiss will be off to foreign shores and adventures for a while, and therefore be offline. It will be taken care of both this website and its facebook page, but during that time will you please be so kind to post news about Michael T. Weiss' activities over @ http://www.facebook.com/AskDr.Mike - IF there are activities .... To read them you have to check for 'Recent posts from other users' there.
I should be back sometime in April. In the meantime, take care - EFi

Doch kein "Blue Bloods" im deutschen Free-TV:
Ab dem 5. Februar sollte 'ProSieben Maxx' die neue Free-TV-Heimat werden. Im Anschluss an den Start der neuen Serie "The Americans" sollten weitere Folgen der 1. Staffel als Free-TV-Premiere gezeigt werden. Aber noch vor Beginn der Ausstrahlung der neuen Episoden wurde dort nun wieder umdisponiert - die Reagans bleiben im Archiv. Im deutschen Pay-TV bei Fox läuft die 2. Staffel, in den USA die 4. Staffel auf CBS.

Bad news for the German fans of the series: The final episodes of "Blue Bloods" with Michael T. Weiss, and also the following seasons, that were announced to be aired on German free-TV network 'ProSieben Maxx' from Feb. 5 on, won't be aired there. No new date or network were announced so far.

From "The Pornographer's Daughter" facebook page, posted there last night:
"Our farewell performance of The PD in SF. Going out with a full house and flags flying. THANK YOU family, friends & fans (!) for your support on this amazing ride."
And they added a few hours later:
"Los Angeles will be our next run... Watch this space!"
"We hope to do a run in LA this fall!"

A very special HAPPY VALENTINE'S Day wish to all from "Ask Dr. Mike" ... Instead of flowers. Enjoy! EFi, webmiss

Happy Birthday dear Michael!
Have a great day, with lots of fun and presents, to be followed by a wonderful new year of your life.
EFi, on behalf of "Ask Dr. Mike"

The PORNOGRAPHER'S DAUGHTER is entertaining and The Real McCoy
'The Pornographer's Daughter' lives up to its name. Liberty Bradford Mitchell is the real thing: daughter of Artie Mitchell, who with his brother won the Cannes Film Festival Award for the ground-breaking “Behind the Green Door,” and who ran the Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Street theatre that earned a "must see" in Playboy Magazine back in the day.
Liberty is the survivor of a crazy-ass childhood, viewing porn when she was in grade school, in a world of reefer and coke and free love and loony people all around.
Her mismatched parents - her mom the black sheep of a Eastern Establishment family who ran away to the Summer of Love, and her infamous dad, the son of a Okie poker player - lead off her story of her upbringing in a wildly contradictory, counterculture universe.
The climax is the events and trial of the murder of Artie by his brother Jim. Her story is not unlike a distaff Hamlet, and invokes the lines, "I, the son of a dear father murder'd, / Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell, / Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words, / And fall a-cursing, like a very drab, / A scullion!"
Video by Skye Borgman is used expertly in a blend of her childhood photos with her family and clips of X-rated movies including the famous one with the with Marilyn Chambers - the girl on the Ivory Snow box turned porn star.
Producer/designer Jeff set has just enough to evoke the mood and for practical movement including the brilliant touch of a scarlet/purple plush seat encircling a round pillar onstage; stage right there a looming and provocative Green Door. His lights are the greatest. They follow her expertly, and transport you to the interior of that famous place at the corner of O'Farrell & Larkin - with which this reviewer was all-too-familiar in his younger days.
The band is named “The Fluffers” and the joke was not lost on the rowdy bourgeois/bohemian crowd (if you don't know what a “fluffer” is, maybe this show isn't for you - or maybe you need to see it to round out your cultural education - anyway): "Fluffer". They were perfect accompanists, getting the crowd in the mood, and providing emphasis for Liberty, and backing her on the one song she sang with a trained, talented, and heartbreaking voice.
Our star is a very pretty and wholesome 43-year old blonde mom who looks younger with sparkling blue eyes and rounded features. She is a graceful, compelling and sexy dancer, and we keep hoping for the next time she takes a turn. When she sings the one song, we hear a soulful and talented voice.
But she's not an actress. If this wasn't her show, you wouldn't want to see her up there. In this auto-biopic she pokes fun and nearly everything in her life while letting a little pain seep through, but still it is presentation in an overdone fashion. Which is probably good for us, because putting the gloss on this Cain and Abel family story with a seamy underbelly makes it good fun and palatable while the lascivious side seduces us into having a damn good time. The l'envoi about her work with women is misplaced and undoes the tone which needs an uplifting end rather than a moral about this seemingly amoral time and enterprise.
While Director Michael T. Weiss does an excellent job of staging, developing a non-actress into an off-handed and realistic delivery requires a diligent coaching that most directors aren't equipped to do which was not obvious in the final product.
In another incarnation, and I think this show “has legs,” we hope that the delivery gets more polished and more of her soulful singing is integrated.
No matter my picayune comments, it is a great story, a rousing good time chock full of Bay Area history and plenty of erotica and an fun weekend happening with shows at 8 and 10 pm, till Feb 16.
By John A. McMullen II
Z-Space (Z-Below Theatre) at 450 Florida @16th St., San Francisco, CA
For more information on the play: www.PDtheplay.com

'The Pornographer's Daughter' a legitimate, solo show of justice and liberation
Liberty “Lib” Bradford Mitchell, in her raucous new one-woman show “The Pornographer's Daughter” at Z Below in the Potrero District, sees the big picture. Bradford-Mitchell wrote a ballsy 80 minute monologue with no intermission about her life as the first child and daughter of the infamous Mitchell Brothers who filmed one of the first feature-length adult films, “The Green Door”. A $60,000 investment turned into fifty million dollars in the days before the internet, personal sex tapes and sexting.
Accordingly, Liberty Bradford Mitchell's ingenious set will be a green door and a chair, designed by Jeff Rowlings. The Fluffers join her on stage and play live music from the 60s to the 80s. Lib sports a rock star demeanor and a lovely, feminine singing voice, something Janis Joplinesque.
Warning, some plot spoilers ahead!
The brothers cast aspiring model Marilyn Chambers in the 60s when she had just arrived in San Francisco from Massachusetts, before her profile adorned an Ivory Snow box with her holding a baby. She responded to what she thought was a legitimate casting call.
This was after Bradford-Mitchell's parents met at San Francisco's “Summer of Love” and the era's burgeoning freedom of expression after the repressive 1950s. It was, during the Mitchell brothers' rebellion against The Man, i.e. traditional values including sexual hypocrisy and racism. Actually it started in the garage in Antioch, where the boys learned they could earn some easy coin by showing a short piece of a woman masturbating against a sheet hung for use as a screen.
The truth is rarely pure and never simple - Oscar Wilde
Thankfully, jaunty Michael T. Weiss, who lives in Los Angeles, directs “The Pornographers” daughter. The tall, lean man with a soft brown beard seems like a gentle soul. Weiss mingled at the reception in the lobby and seemed to have a casual and caring, soft spoken manner - definitely not a control freak or dominating but more like somebody there for guidance and who is just there for you.
Weiss said he and Lib get along very well with the collaboration. His toughest job was just cutting parts as it was so long. Lib had been working on it since college and the draft was almost a foot high she said. In the end it’s a succinct, powerfully written piece with a distinctive sense of humor and mirth, the black comedy propelled through the decades with dramatic foreshadowing.
The Obscenity or Art question
So Lib starts with a bang, her irreverent act opening with a quick paced slideshow of sex depicted in the arts throughout the ages. It's the kaleidoscopic videography of Skye Borgman. Indeed, Lib goes on to say, the Mitchell brothers had big dreams of becoming legitimate film makers. Lib begins by relating the story of how her parents met when Artie told the hot chick with brains, Lib's soon-to-be mother, that he was a film director. He invited her over to his pad in the Haight. Eventually “The Green Door” would be about a pure White girl who gets kidnapped and obligated to have a lot of sex including with a Mandingo, the film ending with her doing four men at once, one on a trapeze. The brothers submit it to the film festival in Cannes and the French audience gives it a standing ovation.
However Lib, at 42, a mother herself with a husband and a mini-van, seems more at peace than she ever has been as the spawn of Artie Mitchell, the revolutionary adult film maker behind the O’Farrell Theater in the Tenderloin. She even lived for a time in Lafayette when her parents divorced. The culture shock produced her first feelings of being a social outcast with a shameful secret, a dork. She began to lie about what her father did.
She would take her entire young life to deal with social conflict between reality and expectation and norms, finally “coming out” in college at USC at a party. She finally had the cajones to be honest but remained a virgin throughout her freshman year, which she spent dressing up and going to dance clubs but it seems always going home alone. She had found solace in Entenmann's bakery treats.
Family is as family does
Lib tells a great story about attending the adult film awards and joining the hefty drag queen emcee on stage dancing. Lib had found her inner fag hag she said and reveled in the experience. She shows a slide of the moment, Lib with her perky blond looks and a red party dress kicking up her heels in a chorus line of porn stars and drag queens on stage. The mafia was also in attendance. Nevertheless, Lib was finding herself at her own pace. The shy girl began expressing her newfound love for musical theater and it's group energy and sense of family.
Ultimate resolution comes with the sense of liberation she got after the death of the second Mitchell Brother, Jim. Jim died in Petaluma on his ranch of what was considered natural causes, although it was a heart attack, just in 2007.
Lib's father Brother Artie died in 1991 in Marin, shot to death by his brother and business partner Jim. Jim's attorney argued successfully it was an intervention gone wrong not an assassination. So, Lib not only felt traumatized repeatedly growing up but ultimately by Jim's attorney who was smooth as silk at the murder trial she said in the show.
Brother Artie had fired the family attorney over a personal matter, that was Lib's WASP flower child mother from East Coast society. Consequently the criminal attorney was able to force Lib to testify without giving her an opportunity to speak her mind and the truth. The man handling and manipulation, the staged and forced misrepresentation under the auspices of testimony, compounded Lib’s suffering and grief. Consumed by the need for revenge if not justice and the truth, Lib has fought a lifelong problem with anxiety, panic attacks and depression and just plain feeling awkward socially.
Feel the magic
Yet Lib Bradford Mitchell emerged on stage last night as “The Pornographer's Daughter” a gifted, strong young woman who has worked hard to get control of her own life. She pulls no punches, uses strong language and strong visual images and live music to punctuate her points, a commanding presence as a master of legitimate artistry. She earned her new found self-esteem and rebirth, her spiritual freedom, through painstaking soul searching and on the merits. Her father's daughter, she is no longer controlled by the man and lives up in triumph and defiance to the name he gave her.
Lib seems to have a lot of family support and that of friends, including Elisa Florez who appeared in the sequel to “The Green Door”. The film used rubber but not for bondage or S & M. The Mitchell Brothers knew of the devastation of the AIDS epidemic and created a porn film using safe sex - dental dams, condoms and rubber gloves.
Girl Power: It's all about the shoes
Elisa Florez as Missy Manners arrived about 7:30 with a bouquet of roses for Lib and the girls mugged for friends and media around the stage after the show. “It's all about shoes” and the girls posed like Rockettes with their platforms. Missy wore a black knit mini dress, long straight blond hair with bangs. Her silver sparkly platforms showed off her ankle tattoos.
Lib changed from her 1970s free spirit cotton top into rockin' see-through plastic platforms. She like Missy showed lots of leg as Lib emerged like a rock star in a short, sparkly silver dress.
The effect: The evening took on a cockatil party look with a lighthearted, girlish and playful feel, a girls' night out. Lib seemed jubilent and triumphant, her sense of relief after the raucous, no holds barred one-woman show seemed to mean the experience has been cathartic.
Band members of the live trio The Fluffers mingled. The young men looked like characters out of an X-rated Alice in Wonderland during the wine and champagne reception, one in a mad hatter top hat, with a feather in his cap. Geoff Knoop, guitar and vocals. Keith Stater, bass and vocals. Kevin Swartz, drums.
Rating: ***** (5 stars)
Cindy Warner. Photos from the Post-show Party

Z Space specializes in hot new work. It's a little intimate theater and each seat is good. Tickets cost $32.
The show, a world premiere, runs to February 16, 2014.
Shows on Thursday at 8:00 p.m.; Friday/Saturday at 8 pm and 10:30 pm; Sunday at 5 pm.
Chuck Sperry designed the classic rock poster with Lib's face from when she was 16.
For more information on the play: www.PDtheplay.com

'The Pornographer's Daughter'
Liberty Bradford Mitchell has a pedigree, children. Actually, she has two. The first, from her mother's side of the family, takes her back to the Mayflower and Boston society. The second, from her father's side, gave her a close-up and personal ride into the great pageant of San Francisco porn. With a story like this, and a fine sense of how to hold an audience, Bradford Mitchell's "The Pornographer's Daughter" will rivet you to your seat --- the good way.
It's pretty graphic, folks, at least on the video screen above the stage. Bradford Mitchell was born in 1969, the year the Mitchell Brothers opened their O'Farrell Theater as an outlet to screen their home-made pornographic shorts. Her stories of how brothers Jim and Artie catapulted themselves into mainline cinema and a screening at the Cannes Film Festival with "Behind the Green Door," the first feature-length pornographic movie ever made, starring the Ivory-Snow girl Marilyn Chambers, is absolutely priceless. Bradford Mitchell's personal revelations are terrific too -- like how she hated being "named Liberty in a world of Heathers and Jennifers."
The dark side is there, and we get the sense we've only heard the half of it. Her father, Art Mitchell, was arrested 187 times and her uncle Jim 188. Of course, the last time was when her uncle murdered her father. Liberty's last words to her dad must haunt her to this day.
Music is provided on-stage by The Fluffers. Their finest moment is when they play riffs from '60s songs as the show is opening. We could definitely use some more interplay between Bradford Mitchell and the band. Also, she needs to get some of her facts straight -- USC is not in Watts, for example. She needs to check her dates about Francis Ford Coppola.
But these are quibbles. In the end this is the story of a woman who has been through a lot and come out on the other end unapologetic for the way her father and uncle made their living. As she says about her family: "We put the fun in dysfunction."
(And Marilyn Chambers was really beautiful. Just sayin.')
RATINGS: ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ALMOST
The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division awards "The Pornographer's Daughter" Four Stars, ALMOST.
The show is definitely good enough for four stars, and will almost certainly soon grow into them. The ALMOST is for her tears at the end. They ring false for the character on the stage we have seen laughing everything off with a wave and a F-bomb. Liberty Bradford Mitchell is a tremendous talent. Who could be surprised if "The Pornographer's Daughter" still has a few kinks?

'Pornographer's Daughter' a bawdy yet touching tale of life with Mitchell Brothers
Liberty Bradford Mitchell invites you to peek behind the green door in her saucy solo show "The Pornographer's Daughter."
Mitchell explores the thrills and torments of growing up in the sleaze business as her father Artie and her uncle Jim launched a porn empire at San Francisco's Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre in the 1970s. A cheeky 85-minute romp about coming of age amid the bodily fluids, vice raids and g-strings of the adult entertainment industry, the breezy one-woman show is making its world premiere through Feb. 16 at San Francisco's Z Space Below.
Directed by Michael T. Weiss, this is a poignant personal look at a notorious local legend that's become part of the colorful fabric of San Francisco history. If the show feels a little underdeveloped, there's no denying the operatic nature of the Mitchell family saga.
Liberty Bradford Mitchell invites you to peek behind the green door in her saucy solo show "The Pornographer's Daughter."
The 43-year-old mother of two certainly has a treasure trove of bizarre material to mine here, from her parent's Summer of Love-era romance to the tragedy of her uncle murdering her father in 1991. Accompanied by the San Francisco band the Fluffers, she regales us with what it was like to learn about the birds and the bees amid the swirl of booze and drugs that marked what Hunter S. Thompson dubbed "the Carnegie Hall of public sex" in America.
It's not an entirely tawdry tale of tittilation. Indeed, Mitchell notes that before they became porn kings, the brothers, who grew up in Antioch, actually had aesthetic aspirations. "Behind the Green Door," considered one of the earliest feature-length adult movies, which starred Marilyn Chambers, was arty enough to get them invited to the Cannes Film Festival. The 1972 picture earned the brothers 50 million dollars and forever changed their fates. Big business soon won out over more artistic considerations. Her parents divorced. Cocaine played a starring role in her father's X-rated lifestyle.
A witty and poised performer who writes vividly, Mitchell is at her most moving when she describes the way the family business shaped her childhood. She may not be as nimble an actor as she is a writer, but it's hard to resist her candor and vulnerability on stage.
She saw her first skin flick at age 4½. Torn between loving her daddy and feeling ashamed of the realm of stripper poles and pasties, she soon learned to hide who she was. Her Berkeley Montessori schoolteachers would have disdained her otherwise.
Her father may have been an unashamed huckster but she was always shy. The older she got, the more Mitchell gravitated to her mother's side of the family, the part that was more blue blood than blue movies. She escaped into summers on Cape Cod and the fantasy that she could get out from under the shadow of obscenity.
While the solo show loses steam after the slaying of her father, when Mitchell descended into rage and depression, her pluck is quite endearing. She is also fast on her feet. At a recent performance she ribbed two theatergoers who kept entering and exiting the theater in search of cocktails without losing her groove.
Still there are rough patches here. Mitchell can sing but the musical interludes don't yet seem to flow from the narrative. She also doesn't etch her journey to healing with as much nuance as she does her tainted past.
Eventually, it seems, she came to cherish parts of her family lore. She still feels the pain of her story but she also remembers Artie and Jim as anti-establishment entrepreneurs who were as proud of their Dust Bowl grifter roots as of their mob connections and mansions. Certainly she inherited some of their flair for showmanship, the lust for the spotlight.
By Karen D'Souza. Contact her at 408-271-3772. Read her at www.mercurynews.com/karen-dsouza and follow her at www.twitter.com/KarenDSouza4.
"The Pornographer's Daughter"
Written and performed by Liberty Bradford Mitchell
Through: Feb. 16
Where: Z Below, 470 Florida St., San Francisco
Running time: 85 minutes, no intermission
Tickets: $32; www.zspace.org

'Pornographer's Daughter': Good story could be better told
Musical autobiography. Written and performed by Liberty Bradford Mitchell. Directed by Michael T. Weiss. Through Feb. 16. $32. Z Below, 470 Florida St., S.F. 80 minutes. www.pdtheplay.com
Liberty Bradford Mitchell has a ready-for-prime-time story to tell about growing up on the X-rated fringes of the Mitchell brothers' San Francisco porn empire and the murder of her father, Artie, by his brother, Jim Mitchell. In "The Pornographer's Daughter," which opened Wednesday at Z Below, she just doesn't tell that story very well.
It may be that Bradford Mitchell is trying to cram one too many stories into one short show. The 80-minute "Daughter" - performed by the author, intermittently supported by a rock trio called (nudge-nudge) the Fluffers - covers both her childhood and coming of age at the porn core of the free-love 1970s and the murder, trial and its aftermath.
Original story
The growing up is the better story, less headline-grabbing but more original and evocative.
It starts promisingly enough, on a set - by Jeff Rowlings, who co-produced the show with PD Productions - filled with such porn iconography as a large green door. Director Michael T. Weiss opens and punctuates the narrative with video designer Skye Borgman's history of graphic erotic art, from the Stone Age to the present (yes, there will be clips from the Mitchell brothers' breakthrough "Behind the Green Door"), as well as family and news photos.
Bradford Mitchell grew up "half blue blood, half blue movie," the daughter of a mother from an old, prestigious New England family (just do a search for Mayflower Bradfords) and a father from "a long line of Okie grifters" - or, as she also puts it, "The Mayflower meets 'The Grapes of Wrath.'"
The script is full of such pithy coinages, many quite funny but delivered in a straightforward style, more lecture than nuanced performance, that makes the writing begin to seem wearyingly self-conscious. Substance trumps style as Bradford Mitchell's parents divorce when she's young and she grows up with her liberated lawyer mother, visiting her dad at the O'Farrell Theatre and becoming more conscious of the porn film rushes and live G-string-clad bodies.
The story of Marilyn Chambers' "Green Door" and Ivory Snow celebrity is particularly well told. The material about going through puberty with neither parent bothering to explain the facts of life is tellingly resonant.
Thinly told
By comparison, her father's murder, though the act is graphically described, is thinly told. Bradford Mitchell's account of the trial sounds as if she's paying a debt to herself, trying to make amends for her testimony at the time. This apparently was the focus of the play she started writing two decades ago, and it may have the makings of a potent family tragedy if properly filled out.
As told here, it's only a somewhat tedious appendage to the story of the little girl growing up in the family behind that tragedy. And that story is not only more unique and intriguing, but has a great deal to tell us about our own lives and times.
Robert Hurwitt is The San Francisco Chronicle's theater critic. E-mail: rhurwitt@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @RobertHurwitt

Justin Pollard tweeted on 18. Jan.: "Just saw The Pornographer's Daughter. A really entertaining and heart wrenching piece! (at @ZSpaceSf)"

"The Pornographer's Daughter", the new directorial work by Michael T. Weiss, which will begin its previews on Friday, Jan 17 at 'Z Space Below' in San Francisco at 470 Florida Street, now has its website up: http://pdtheplay.com

Porn mogul's daughter confronts pain in 1-woman show
"The Pornographer's Daughter," a one-woman, multicharacter show Liberty Bradford Mitchell began writing years ago as a theater student at the Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle. She performs its premiere Jan. 17 - Feb. 16 at San Francisco's Z Below, accompanied by a San Francisco rock band named the Fluffers. [...]
"It was really helpful for a long time to look at my family members as characters. It gave me some distance and objectivity," says Mitchell, whose show is directed by Michael T. Weiss, best known as an actor featured in the TV series "The Pretender." He signed on after seeing Mitchell workshop the piece in Venice last spring. [...]
"I can actually say I'm doing some real acting work," Mitchell says with a laugh. "It's exciting."
For more information, go to www.zspace.org.

Seems that Michael T. Weiss will be the director of "Winter Spring Summer Fall Winter", and child actor Reece Cody will co-star as 'Hector'. No idea so far if Mike will also step in front of the cameras ...

"Winter Spring Summer Fall Winter" - Perhaps this will be a new film with Michael T. Weiss, because not only actor/director Alex Ruiz has posted this photo on Dec. 20, 2013 at his Alex Ruiz @ facebook page, with the byline: "Michael T. Weiss, my 'son' Reece, and me. Winter Spring Summer Fall Winter Introduction/Holiday party. Gettin' ready to start.", but also young actor Reece Cody has posted a similar photo with the byline: "Cast Party for upcoming film with Michael T Weiss and Alex Ruiz."

L.t.r.: Alex Ruiz, Reece Cody, Michael T. Weiss ; Source: Reece Cody