Thoughts on The Grove

Today, January 1, 2013, the Grove pilot, which was a little over an hour long was posted on youtube.com. The program had been filmed over the summer. Here are my thoughts on what I saw, hopefully no one will be too offended by this short summary.

The main characters are Nico Moynihan and Ivy Rodriquez played by Crystal Chappell and Jessica Leccia. They are committed together and in love. While we see flashbacks, this episode takes place right before their wedding. They were married by a judge in the short time same sex marriage was legal, but now they were doing it up right with their family. One thing that was weird was we met all of Nico's family, but Ivy's is nowhere to be found. I wonder if they aren't accepting of the relationship. Nico is a mechanic, while Ivy is a baker. When I think of these names I am kind of amused, and again it shows I watch way too many soaps. When I see the name Nico, my brain goes to Maurice Benard's All My Children character, who way back Crystal Chappell worked with on AMC. And well Ivy is the name of Jessica's daughter. Also having Ivy be a baker harkened back to the whole Natalia is great with baked goods thing on Guiding Light, though Olivia wasn't a car mechanic.

Nico's dad is played by Bob Woods, and Nico's ex-husband is played by Peter Reckell. And I sat there thinking One Life to Live Bo and Days of Our Lives Bo…their character names are Doyle and Johnny though when I think of Johnny and Peter Reckell I think of his prime time part of Johnny on Knots Landing. (Not sure which spelling of Johnny is correct as he is listed as both Johnny and Jonny on their character page.) Johnny and Nico share a child together named Poppy played by Linsey Godfrey aka Caroline on The Bold and the Beautiful. Poppy is certainly peppy and free-spirited. Nico also has a sister named Lauren played by Michelle Stafford (aka Phyllis on Y&R), they are half-siblings as they share Doyle as a father. Or in my mind, Bo was with red, but not his wife red Nora played by Hillary B. Smith, who was one of the producers of this project. Lauren has a half-brother named Sean played by Mark Hapka (was Nathan on Days). Before the wedding, there was a party with a speech by Doyle. This seemed like a parody of soap opera father of the bride speeches, and was so bad that I laughed. I hope it wasn't supposed to be a good uplifting parent speech or they totally missed the mark.

The other family in town is the Kincaids, the patriarch of that family is Patrick played by Jordan Clarke otherwise known as Guiding Light's Billy Lewis. When I saw the last name Kincaid spelled out on their website I felt a sense of relief as it wasn't Kinkead. Patrick and Doyle were best friends growing up, but life made things change as they were now in different world. Patrick's family now had the wealth while Doyle's family built up the town originally. Patrick is married to Gloria played by Beth Maitland (Tracy on Y&R). She obsessed with telenovelas even though she doesn't know Spanish and it didn't seem like the program was captioned. They have a son named Max played by Christian LeBlanc (aka Michael Baldwin), and Max and Sean interacted though I wasn't exactly sure what they were doing. Both Max and Gloria have issues with same sex relationships. Marigold played by Nadia Bjorlin aka Days Chloe is an outrageous kind of girl, who seems to have internet fame. She was amusing and at first I didn't recognize her. Kitty played by Bobbie Eakes (Krystal AMC or Macy B&B take your pick) is Patrick's niece, she doesn't seem to fit in with the rest of the family. Patrick also has a mistress named Prissy played by Judi Evans (currently on Days as Adrienne). The scene where Jordan and Judi were in bed together freaked me out, a lot as they worked together back in the 1980s. Billy and Beth in bed together what would Mindy think. Poor Melinda Sue if she saw her daddy in bed with her best friend -- that would have been beyond twisted.

The pilot ends with the wedding. Nico is in a tuxedo, while Ivy is in a white gown. Doyle walked them down the aisle. The location of the wedding was Patrick's land, though due to how it looked it reminded me of Guiding Light's outdoor wedding for Bill and Lizzie sans the mud. Bobby who works at the pub was played by Harrison White, he also officiated at the wedding. Doyle lost everything on a wager as everyone celebrated as the show went to credits.

I wish the show would have listed the cast with their character names in the credits. That would have been helpful, though since the actors names weren't shown at the beginning while watching there were some surprises. Before taping, some other actors were contacted to be part of the show, but were unable to do it. For that reason, I wasn't exactly sure who was in the cast. This didn't detract from the viewing.

From the tone of this blog entry, you should be able to tell that this pilot amused me. More than once while watching this I laughed out loud. I'm not sure if that was the intention of the pilot, but anything that gives that leaves a smile on my face I see as a positive. You can stream The Grove on youtube.com visit their channel for more information.