Between "Knocked Up" (2006), "Juno" (2007), and Pam's recent baby arc on "The Office," the pregnant ladies have been dominating the media for quite a few years. Recently, however, senior citizens have taken two major steps towards a hilarious run at the title.
First came the premiere of "Sunset Daze" this month on WE tv. The show has been deemed the geriatric version of MTV's "Jersey Shore," and that basically sums it up. It follows the antics of a group of senior citizens going about their daily lives in a retirement complex in Surprise, Ariz.
The pilot episode highlights three characters. First came Sandy, a 68-year-old widow who clearly has adopted the attitude advertised in the show's promos: "sex, like wine, gets better with age."
Although she enjoys BOB (her "battery-operated boyfriend" that she mentions on no less than three occasions during the first 21-minute episode), her true crush is on her skeet shooting instructor. He is not only "doable" (her words), but meets her number-one standard: he has his own teeth.
We also meet Ann, a former nun with a thick Irish accent who left the convent after 21 years and who now wants to go skydiving and Gail, deemed "The Actress," who has a lisp and a hairstyle that looks like it came from the musical "Hairspray." Beyond directing the retirement home theater productions, Gail's main story arc appears to be the debate over whether she will agree to watch her son perform in a gay rodeo. You can't make this stuff up. Just try to imagine a way in which that is not entertaining. It's impossible.
Sometimes, "Daze" is uncomfortable I can only handle a certain amount of hearing about how much Sandy's blind date wants to "get in her pants." Sometimes it's inspirational, as when we watch the 70-year-old Ann living her dreams in an indoor skydiving simulator. Mostly, though, it's hysterical.
The true trump card for Team Old Ladies, though, is 88-year-old Betty White, who hosted "Saturday Night Live" this weekend, after rejecting three previous offers to host. It seems the grassroots Facebook campaign that grew and grew over the past few months finally convinced her to take the job.
The result was a hoot. The White-hosted Mother's Day special which also featured a number of prominent female SNL alums including Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Rachel Dratch '88 brought the show its highest ratings since Ben Affleck hosted a November 2008 episode that also featured Sen. John McCain.
White's a pro at the naughty-old-lady shtick she uses her wide-eyed sincerity and feeble sweetness as a license to deliver cutting insults and pure vulgarity with complete immunity. Whether it's using the word "muffing" as a euphemism or repeatedly uttering the line "The Wizard of Ass," White uses her age to draw out the comedy and kept me laughing more than any other SNL host has all season.
Hollywood may be obsessed with youth and beauty, but this week it's been all about the elderly. By now, Betty White's Facebook fans have commenced a campaign to get her to host the Oscars, and another group was created to bring the 77-year-old Carol Burnett to SNL. The end of the "Sunset Daze" credits offers something of a mission statement for the cast members: "We're living out our bucket lists, so watch out."
I think I'll just watch.
