www.ambiente.us JULY / JULIO 2008
SORDID LIVES comes to LOGO TV
‘Sordid Lives: The Series’ is a comedy prequel to the stage
play and 2000 full-length film of the same name that featured
performances by Olivia Newton-John, Beau Bridges, and
Delta Burke among others. The television series debuts on
the Logo channel this July.
"…most of the stage and film cast will reprise their roles,
except McClanahan and Rhea, who did not appear in the
original film. In addition, Grammy Award winner Olivia
Newton-John will be performing five new original songs
exclusively for the show. Throughout the series, there will be
several guest star appearances, including Margaret Cho,
Candis Cayne, Carson Kressley and Georgette Jones, the
daughter of Tammy Wynette, playing her mother in a
dream sequence." - LOGO TV
Sordid Lives: The Series’ twelve half-hour episodes are a humorous look at a dysfunctional family and the
denizens of Winters, Texas, as well as an institutionalized brother (Jordan) who channels Tammy Wynette
(Jones). The series also chronicles the handsome young son of one of the sisters (Bedelia) who is
struggling with coming out to his Texas Republican Baptist family while pursuing an acting career in Los
Angeles.
Review by Maitland McDonagh
Stagy and coarse, this big ol' Southern-fried mess of strenuous eccentricity involves a Texas family whose
skeleton-filled closets are ripped open when the clan gathers for the funeral of matriarch Peggy Ingram
(Gloria LeRoy). Peggy's daughters are easy-going, good-time gal LaVonda (Ann Walker) and uptight Lattrelle
(Bonnie Bedelia), who's mortified that mama not only had the bad taste to die in a sleazy motel room after
tripping over her lover's wooden legs, but had become best friends with honky-tonk honey Bitsy Mae Harling
(Olivia Newton-John), a lesbian ex-con who strums a mean guitar. Lattrelle and LaVonda butt big-haired
heads most vigorously over the fate of their younger brother, "Brother Boy" Earl (Leslie Jordan), a gay
transvestite with a serious Tammy Wynette fixation, whom their mother institutionalized 23 years earlier.
LaVonda wants to bring him home, while Lattrelle would prefer he remain out of sight and out of mind.
Though she'd never admit it, Lattrelle's determination to keep Brother Boy in the closet may be related to the
homosexuality of only son, Ty (Kirk Geiger), an LA-based, former soap star. LaVonda, meanwhile, must patch
things up with her best friend Noleta (Delta Burke), whose husband, G.W. (Beau Bridges), was the wooden-
legged lover in the motel room with mama. Much of the colorful confrontation takes place in the home of
LaVonda and Lattrelle's good-hearted aunt, Sissy (Beth Grant), who's trying to quit smoking but is driven back
to butts by the incessant bickering. Playwright-turned-director Del Shores seems to specialize in tales of
squabbling siblings coming home to Texas for family funerals — he also scripted DADDY'S DYIN'...WHO'S
GOT THE WILL? — and his endlessly game cast tries its damnedest to make the cliched gags about self-
delusion, tacky décor and hair teased to a fare-the-well seem fresh and even insightful. But they're
undermined by Shores' vulgar script, adapted from his own play, and the film's flat, over-lit look (it was shot on
high definition digital video) only heightens the resemblance to a low-brow TV sitcom.
Copyright © AMBIENTE MAGAZINE. Do not reproduce without citing this source.
Copyright © AMBIENTE MAGAZINE. Do not reproduce without citing this source.
SORDID LIVES comes to LOGO TV
‘Sordid Lives: The Series’ is a comedy prequel to the stage
play and 2000 full-length film of the same name that featured
performances by Olivia Newton-John, Beau Bridges, and
Delta Burke among others. The television series debuts on
the Logo channel this July.
"…most of the stage and film cast will reprise their roles,
except McClanahan and Rhea, who did not appear in the
original film. In addition, Grammy Award winner Olivia
Newton-John will be performing five new original songs
exclusively for the show. Throughout the series, there will be
several guest star appearances, including Margaret Cho,
Candis Cayne, Carson Kressley and Georgette Jones, the
daughter of Tammy Wynette, playing her mother in a
dream sequence." - LOGO TV
Sordid Lives: The Series’ twelve half-hour episodes are a humorous look at a dysfunctional family and the
denizens of Winters, Texas, as well as an institutionalized brother (Jordan) who channels Tammy Wynette
(Jones). The series also chronicles the handsome young son of one of the sisters (Bedelia) who is
struggling with coming out to his Texas Republican Baptist family while pursuing an acting career in Los
Angeles.
Review by Maitland McDonagh
Stagy and coarse, this big ol' Southern-fried mess of strenuous eccentricity involves a Texas family whose
skeleton-filled closets are ripped open when the clan gathers for the funeral of matriarch Peggy Ingram
(Gloria LeRoy). Peggy's daughters are easy-going, good-time gal LaVonda (Ann Walker) and uptight Lattrelle
(Bonnie Bedelia), who's mortified that mama not only had the bad taste to die in a sleazy motel room after
tripping over her lover's wooden legs, but had become best friends with honky-tonk honey Bitsy Mae Harling
(Olivia Newton-John), a lesbian ex-con who strums a mean guitar. Lattrelle and LaVonda butt big-haired
heads most vigorously over the fate of their younger brother, "Brother Boy" Earl (Leslie Jordan), a gay
transvestite with a serious Tammy Wynette fixation, whom their mother institutionalized 23 years earlier.
LaVonda wants to bring him home, while Lattrelle would prefer he remain out of sight and out of mind.
Though she'd never admit it, Lattrelle's determination to keep Brother Boy in the closet may be related to the
homosexuality of only son, Ty (Kirk Geiger), an LA-based, former soap star. LaVonda, meanwhile, must patch
things up with her best friend Noleta (Delta Burke), whose husband, G.W. (Beau Bridges), was the wooden-
legged lover in the motel room with mama. Much of the colorful confrontation takes place in the home of
LaVonda and Lattrelle's good-hearted aunt, Sissy (Beth Grant), who's trying to quit smoking but is driven back
to butts by the incessant bickering. Playwright-turned-director Del Shores seems to specialize in tales of
squabbling siblings coming home to Texas for family funerals — he also scripted DADDY'S DYIN'...WHO'S
GOT THE WILL? — and his endlessly game cast tries its damnedest to make the cliched gags about self-
delusion, tacky décor and hair teased to a fare-the-well seem fresh and even insightful. But they're
undermined by Shores' vulgar script, adapted from his own play, and the film's flat, over-lit look (it was shot on
high definition digital video) only heightens the resemblance to a low-brow TV sitcom.
Copyright © AMBIENTE MAGAZINE. Do not reproduce without citing this source.
Copyright © AMBIENTE MAGAZINE. Do not reproduce without citing this source.
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