Quiz: Television Couples

Posted on February 12, 2010 at 8:00 am

Another Valentine’s Day quiz about some of the all-time favorite television couples. How many do you recognize?
1. The very first issue of TV Guide featured the real-life baby of this sit-com pair whose on-screen race to the hospital to give birth was one of the most watched episodes of its era.
2. Perhaps inspired by the glamorous and elegant occupants of the White House, this sit-com couple, a writer and a former dancer, lived with their son in New Rochelle, New York.
3. She grew up on one of the top shows of the 70’s and then had a spin-off series of her own about her life with her cute boyfriend.
4. This loving couple broke some barriers by having the first inter-racial marriage on prime-time television.
5. Sparring detectives generated a lot of romantic chemistry in this glossy romantic mystery series.
6. The viewership for the wedding of this soap opera duo broke records and even ended up on a magazine covers.
7. This couple did things a bit out of order — they had a relationship, they were on a break, they got married, got divorced, had a baby, and then ended up together.
8. This couple on a popular new series just adopted a daughter from Vietnam.
9. One of the most loving marriages in television history was between this doctor and lawyer, parents of five children, who loved to dance with each other.
10. A journalist and an aspiring actress became engaged in the last season of this popular series.

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Quiz: Romantic Movies for Valentine’s Day

Posted on February 11, 2010 at 8:00 am

Get in a romantic mood for Valentine’s Day with a quiz on some of the classic movie love stories. And then pick one to watch with your valentine!
1. A bookkeeper falls for a baker though she is engaged to his brother in this tempestuous love story.
2. She wants to kiss him but doesn’t know where the noses go.
3. Their characters’ first date is a baseball game in this movie whose stars became a real-life couple off screen.
4. The first English-language version of this story about a couple who does not know they are in love was in black and white. The second was a musical. What is the name of the third version, updated to the internet era? (Bonus points for naming the first two.)
5. Adam gets married to a woman he just met and discovers only later how much he loves her in what film?
6. A mysterious blonde in a white car mouths “I love you” to a teen-ager played by what future Oscar-winner in a classic film set in California?
7. A runaway princess and a reporter find live in what city named in the movie title?
8. An unhappy couple take extreme measures to try to forget each other in what trippy love story?
9. A pampered young woman has to learn how to manage a farm while the man she loves is away at war in what romantic film based on an acclaimed novel?
10. A devoted husband of many years visits his wife in a nursing home to read her a love story in what movie based on a popular book?

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For Your Netflix Queue Quiz

Tim Gordon’s Romantic Movie List

Posted on July 22, 2009 at 3:58 pm

My dear friend and fellow critic Tim Gordon always has something interesting to say about movies. I love to talk to him after screenings about what we’ve just seen and how it compares to some of our favorites (and least favorites).
He has posted his list of 21 top romantic movies and it has some great choices, mixing popular classics like “Titantic,” “Love Actually,” and “Bull Durham” with neglected gems like “Love and Basketball” and “Jason’s Lyric.” Every one on the list is well worth seeing — and sharing with someone you love.

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The Most Romantic Movie Moments of 2008

Posted on December 26, 2008 at 7:59 am

2008 was not a great year for romance on screen, as I have already noted. But there were four very touching movie love stories that deserve special mention:

Wallâˆ™E: Love brought two mechanical creatures to life in this tender romance about a rusty trash compactor with a sentimental soul who falls in love with a sleek little exploratory drone. Together they learn that the real prime directive is devotion and that some rules must be ignored.

HIgh School Musical 3: Senior Year One of the best things about the third in the HSM series is the relationship between Troy and Gabriella. No silly misunderstandings. No pettiness, power-plays, or jealousy. Just sweetness, respect, and support. When Gabriella’s special program prevents her from attending the prom, Troy brings the prom to her — nothing big or showy, just a recognition that they don’t need anything else to make their music.

“Slumdog Millionaire” Two children grow up in a world of unspeakable abuse and poverty but the purity of the love they share keeps their souls intact. At the end of the film, he leans down for their first kiss and instead of her lips, he kisses her scar, showing her that he cannot help be grateful for everything that made her who she is and brought them to this place together.

Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist One of the very few falling-in-love stories of the year, this was this adorable romance starring Kat Dennings and Michael Cera. It beautifully catches the way that falling in love at the same time transforms us and makes us our most authentic selves.

The good news is that there is a good love story opening up in the first month of the new year, an indicator, I hope, of a better year for movie romance in 2009.

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Beliefnet’s Movies about Faith in Love

Posted on October 29, 2008 at 4:00 pm

Idol Chatter has a great post with a list of the best movies about putting your faith in love (and cry in the process). I don’t agree with all of the choices — I find “The Other Sister” and “Stepmom” manipulative and maudlin and while I know “The Notebook” has zillions of passionate fans, it never moved me as much as I wanted it to. But I love the idea of this list and have a few movies to add:

1. “Truly, Madly, Deeply” One of the greatest films ever about love and loss with heart-wrenching performances by Juliet Stevenson and Alan Rickman.

2. “Brief Encounter” A woman who thinks she is perfectly content with her life finds that she is capable of a deeper love — and a more painful sense of loss — than she ever imagined. See also the underrated “Falling in Love” with Meryl Streep and Robert DeNiro.

3. “Sophie’s Choice” Loving someone cannot save them. Streep and Kevin Kline. Get out your hankies.

4. “An Affair to Remember” Watch the shipboard romance and skip through the kids singing but don’t miss that final scene, when Cary Grant finds out why Deborah Kerr wasn’t waiting for him on top of the Empire State Building.

5. “Dark Victory” Bette Davis is a headstrong party girl who finds love with the doctor when it is almost too late. See also “Now Voyager,” where Davis tells the man she loves but cannot be with not to ask for the moon because they have the stars.

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