Traditionally, female characters on TV go one of two ways. Either they are doormats under the control of their husbands or they are super-masculine robots, incapable of having established relationships. Real women know that neither of those extremes is true, but are there examples in contemporary television of what a modern woman is really like? I say there are. Here are five women that set the new standard for a genuine modern woman.

Juliet O’Hara (Psych) – She’s blond. She’s petit. She’s also a tough detective that holds her ground with the crabbiest partner on the force. And she does it with a smile. Devastating female cop stereotypes left and right, Juliet O’Hara, known as Jules to her boyfriend and psychic consultant Shawn Spencer, has a positive attitude, can take charge with little effort, and is one of the most even characters on this zany crime/comedy show. She’s one of the most genuine woman characters on TV. She has relationship dilemmas, lives with her cats, and can fieldstrip a weapon in less than thirty seconds. And yet she still stays the girl next door.

Jane Bingum (Drop Dead Diva) – Going from rail-thin model to curvaceous lawyer would be a shock to anyone, but this unusual show pulls it off. Jane, previously a model called Deb, finds herself large and in charge, but she doesn’t let her size hold her back. Jane embodies what it means to be self-assured. She dresses to the nines, flirts with hot guys, and still holds out hope that she can win back her ex. Jane’s all about not allowing circumstances hold you back. She battles the court for everyone’s rights, even strippers. Along the way, she makes friends, has healthy relationships, and juggles two moms.

Ziva David (NCIS) – She’s a Mossad assassin. Her father is the leader of the Israeli secret service and she’s been taught to fight her whole life. If any woman could have ended up anemotionless, detached killing machine, she’d be a top candidate. But she’s not. She turns her back on what she knows and forms a new family, strictly platonic, with her co-workers. She picks up what it means to have compassion and faithfulness. She grows up. As an immigrant, she faces prejudice and racism, but she handles it with dignity.

DivyaKatdare (Royal Pains) – Despite her ultra-conservitiveIndian background, Divyamakes it through medical school, becomes a physician’s assistant, and persuades a doctor on vacation to open a concierge medical service in the Hamptons, all while concealing it from her parents. She even dodges an arranged marriage, in spite of the fact that her parents disown her and she has to work two jobs to make ends meet. Divya knows what she wants and isn’t afraid to go out and get it. She still loves her family, but she isn’t bound by the culture’s rigid rules. As a woman in a man’s field, she is repeatedly seen as a nurse or just incompetent, but she stands tall and shows them just how good she is.

Elizabeth Burke (White Collar) – The wife of an FBI agent would usually be a throw-away role but not for Elizabeth. She keeps her husband grounded, keeps his criminal consultant on the up-and-up, and even makes friends with some of the less savory characters her husband brings home. Not satisfied to be merely arm candy, she also manages her own business. She’s not scared to challenge her husband and correct him when he’s wrong, and she’s also not afraid to help his consultant bend the rules when necessary. She brings equilibrium back between her husband’s black-and-white world and his consultant’s shades of grey.

What do these five women have in common? They are well-adjusted. They are neither weak or unfeeling, and not altruistic or egotistical. They are normal. Like all women, they have their oddness and quirks, but they function in the real world and get things done. They’re not always perfect. They make mistakes and they have to live with them. And that’s what makes them great.

What are your choices for best female TV characters? Please share!

Author Bio

Mary Edwards is one of the contributors and editors for best dating sites. She is passionate about thought leadership writing, regularly contributes to various career, social media, public relations, branding, and parenting and online dating community. She can be reached at edwardsmary936 AT gmail.com.

By Pam

Are you ready for this? NBC announced today that Howard Stern, shock jock radio and TV star, will serve as a judge on season 7 of America’s Got Talent.

“Howard Stern’s larger-than-life personality will bring a thrilling new dynamic to America’s Got Talent starting this summer,” NBC’s Paul Telegdy said in a statement. “He’s a proven innovator and his track record in broadcasting is truly remarkable. Howard is very passionate about this show and is fully committed to its future success.”

Stern currently hosts his popular radio show, The Howard Stern Show, on SiriusXM radio based in New York. Production of  America’s Got Talent will be moving to New York so it appears that Stern will not be bogged down with any additional traveling as part of this new gig.

Stern will be replacing Piers Morgan and will be working along side fellow judges Sharon Osbourne, Howie Mandel and host Nick Cannon.

This seems like it could be a good move on NBC’s part. Stern can promote AGT on his radio show and the announcement itself will cause quite a buzz and bring attention to the program. On the other hand, advertisers might not look too fondly on the inclusion of the “shock jock” that many people find offensive.

What are your thoughts?
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By Pam

When I first moved to Los Angeles in 1980 I came across a morning television show called A.M. Los Angeles on KABC-TV hosted by Regis Philbin.  His co-host was Cyndy Garvey who was the wife of a well-loved Dodger baseball player, Steve Garvey. I was immediately attracted to this show because of Regis. He had lots of energy, was very witty and would throw out funny ad libs that would quite often get him in trouble. The show and Regis was rather different and more entertaining than anything we had back in the Midwest where I had transplanted from. He had taken A.M. Los Angeles from the bottom of the ratings to number one, where the show remained throughout his seven-year tenure.

It is somewhat hard for me to remember the exact events but I believe that Regis left the show first to host a national show with Mary Hart that bombed in a very short time and Cyndy Garvey divorced Steve and moved to New York to host a morning show there. I was disappointed at the time but Regis followed Garvey to New York and reappeared several years later, in 1988, to host a nationally syndicated talk show with Kathie Lee Gifford titled, “Live with Regis & Kathie Lee.”

Twenty three years later and a change in co-hosts, at the age of 80, Regis is calling it quits for this gig and explains: “This time, I said, `I really would like to do something else before I quit (the TV business).’ And frankly I’d like to have a little time off. I started in 1955 as (an NBC) page over at 30 Rock, so it’s been a long time.”

Regis Philbin has become a cultural icon in television broadcasting and although I no longer watch his show on a regular basis, I will miss seeing him once again on morning TV.  Regis’s last show will be this Friday, November 18th, and the show’s producers say his final hour on the air will be: “A moving hour long tribute to Regis” while adding “with many surprises for Regis and the audience.” Along with his current co-host of 10 years, Kelly Rippa, Regis will be honored by friends including Kathie Lee Gifford, Don Rickles, David Letterman, Donald Trump among others.

Regis says this will not be goodbye and that he will be back on TV after taking a much needed break. Rumors are that a Reality TV show might be in the mix. Not sure if Regis and Reality TV are a good mix but for now, I think I will tune in on Friday and say so long to an “old friend”.
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 By Pam

The 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards will be hosted by Glee’s Jane Lynch airing at 8 pm on Fox tonight. If you remember, last year the opening number included Lynch warning host Jimmy Fallon to not even think about excluding her from his “pathetic little group” in a dynamic musical number that included poking fun of Kate Gosselin’s dancing skills. Of course Kate was in on the fun!

Will you tune in to see if Modern Family (love, love, love that show) will win for Outstanding Comedy Series two years in a row or Mad Men will repeat Outstanding Drama Series for an impressive fourth time? Or would you like to see HBO’s period drama about Atlantic City during Prohibition, Boardwalk Empire, take home the honors? Friday Night Lights, which finished its fifth and final season this past spring and represents both cable and a broadcast network was also nominated in the Drama category. I personally will be pulling for this show because it is one of my all time favorite shows and had such a wonderful cast.

This will also be Steve Carell’s last chance to win for The Office in the Outstanding Lead Actor In A Comedy category. This is the sixth time he has been nominated and he has never won before. I say he deserves to win even though many critics are saying that this was not The Office’s best season. The show has been a huge success and Carell has played a major part in that. He followed in the footsteps of Ricky Gervais and many doubted early on that he could come close to that type of comedic genius. Carell stepped up to the plate and made that character his own in a very unique way. I say he deserves this Emmy!

I look forward to the Emmys more that I do the Oscars because I am usually more invested in these TV shows and their actors and actresses than the movies.  Below is a list of some of the nominees. Will you be watching? Who are your favorites?

2011 Emmy Award nominations

Outstanding drama
“Boardwalk Empire” (HBO); “Dexter” (Showtime); “Friday Night Lights” (DirecTV/NBC); “Game of Thrones” (HBO); “The Good Wife” (CBS); “Mad Men” (AMC).

Outstanding actor in a drama
Steve Buscemi (“Boardwalk Empire”); Kyle Chandler (“Friday Night Lights”); Michael C. Hall (“Dexter”); Jon Hamm (“Mad Men”); Hugh Laurie (“House,” FOX); Timothy Olyphant (“Justified,” FX).

Outstanding actress in a drama
Kathy Bates (“Harry’s Law,” NBC); Connie Britton (“Friday Night Lights”); Mireille Enos (“The Killing,” AMC); Mariska Hargitay (“Law & Order: SVU,” NBC); Elisabeth Moss (“Mad Men”); Julianna Margulies (“The Good Wife”).

Outstanding comedy
“30 Rock” (NBC); “The Big Bang Theory” (CBS); “Glee” (FOX); “Modern Family” (ABC); “The Office” (NBC); “Parks and Recreation” (NBC).

Outstanding actor in a comedy
Alec Baldwin (“30 Rock”); Steve Carell (“The Office”); Louis C.K. (“Louie,” FX); Johnny Galecki (“The Big Bang Theory”); Matt LeBlanc (“Episodes,” Showtime); Jim Parsons (“The Big Bang Theory”).

Outstanding actress in a comedy
Edie Falco (“Nurse Jackie,” Showtime); Tina Fey (“30 Rock”); Laura Linney (“The Big C,” Showtime); Melissa McCarthy (“Mike & Molly,” CBS); Martha Plimpton (“Raising Hope,” Fox); Amy Poehler (“Parks and Recreation”).

Outstanding supporting actor in a comedy
Chris Colfer (“Glee”); Jesse Tyler Ferguson (“Modern Family”); Ed O’Neill (“Modern Family”); Eric Stonestreet (“Modern Family”) Ty Burrell (“Modern Family”); Jon Cryer (“Two And A Half Men,” CBS).

Outstanding supporting actor in a drama
Peter Dinklage (“Game Of Thrones,” HBO); Josh Charles (“The Good Wife”); Alan Cumming (“The Good Wife”); Walton Goggins (“Justified”); John Slattery (“Mad Men”); Andre Braugher (“Men Of A Certain Age,” TNT).

Outstanding supporting actress in a comedy
Jane Lynch (“Glee”); Betty White (“Hot in Cleveland,” TV Land); Julie Bowen (“Modern Family”); Sofia Vergara (“Modern Family”); Kristen Wiig (“Saturday Night Live,” NBC); Jane Krakowski (“30 Rock”)

Outstanding supporting actress in a drama
Kelly Macdonald (“Boardwalk Empire”); Archie Panjabi (“The Good Wife”); Christine Baranski (“The Good Wife”); Margo Martindale (“Justified”); Michelle Forbes (“The Killing,” AMC); Christina Hendricks (“Mad Men”)

By Jennie

When I first heard about this show airing back in the UK some months ago, I was so jealous that I couldn’t see it. So when I heard that My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding was coming to TLC, I was over the moon.

I’ve had a fascination with Irish Travellers ever since seeing a piece on them on television (I think it was 20/20) years and years ago. The main thing I remembered about the story was that Travellers in the U.S. would have these parties where pre-teen girls would be tarted up in makeup and clothing that made the kids on Toddlers and Tiaras look modest and tasteful. The parties served as sort of a marriage mart since Travellers generally marry young, and being nomadic (though not as much as they used to be), it’s important to have get-togethers in order to meet other Travellers to look for potential spouses (since they also rarely marry out of their culture).

Since then, I have read occasional stories about Travellers in the U.S. – unfortunately usually related to con artist activity. My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding has not really addressed this aspect of the Traveller reputation yet, and since it’s a British production it focuses on Travellers in the U.K. Also, I believe that in spite of the title, the focus of the show is mostly on Irish Travellers, not the Romany people (otherwise known as Gypsies). Though there are many aspects of the Traveller and Romany cultures that are similar, the groups are not the same ethnically and typically don’t mix.

So far, MBFGW has concentrated on a couple of aspects of Traveller culture that make it unique. As the title implies, one of those things are weddings. Traveller weddings tend to be lavish, over-the-top affairs, especially in terms of wedding dresses and bridesmaids’ attire. A couple of qualities tend to mark these dresses: the bride’s dress usually features an incredibly huge and poofy skirt, and the bridesmaids are often dressed in very vivid colors. Also, the dresses may be extremely revealing or otherwise (what we would consider) inappropriate for a church wedding (Travellers are staunch Roman Catholics). To put it plainly (if a bit pejoratively), a lot of the outfits featured on the show are tacky and slutty.

This brings up one of the dichotomies about the Travellers that fascinates me so much: the young women are often dressed in a way that we would associate with prostitutes; heavily made up and spray tanned, even the very young ones. When they dance, they look like they are working a stripper pole – seriously, it’s disturbing to see an 8-year-old girl dressed in a hoochie outfit and thrusting her pelvis like a rap video vixen. Yet the culture is in other ways very, very strict, conservative and modest. Pre-marital sex is a no-no (which explains the young marriages to a degree, I’m guessing). Engaged couples tend to be chaperoned everywhere they go, and a girl seen alone with a boy will quickly get a reputation. The second episode featured an outsider marrying a Traveller; at one point she was sort-of-arguing with one of the Traveller girls who was to be a bridesmaid, after the Traveller girl disparaged non-Traveller culture. One of the Traveller girl’s criticisms is that a Traveller female would *never* be heard swearing in front of a Traveller male – the way the girl said it, it sounded like it was a mortal sin. I’m really curious about how the culture developed in such a way that girls were expected to be modest and chaste in behavior, but also to present themselves the way they do in appearance. I’m assuming this would be a more recent development within the culture.

In addition to covering Traveller weddings, the show has covered Traveller girls’ First Communions. The dresses for those are also elaborate, and the little girls are usually made-up and spray-tanned (and, in one case, sprayed with glitter).

The picture of Travellers presented on the show is fairly sympathetic, even while the viewer is invited to goggle at the outrageous outfits. The second episode featured some pretty tough-to-watch scenes of Traveller trailer parks being torn down. There have been cases where the Travellers have apparently bought land but were not permitted to build on it the way they did (essentially, creating a Traveller trailer park), and after lengthy court battles, the settlements would end up being torn down. While the whole story isn’t really clear from the show (Í’m guessing the respective city councils have a different perspective on these cases), it seems clear that anti-Traveller prejudice is at least part of the problem, and seeing family homes destroyed and a communities essentially dissipated is painful to watch.

There are some aspects of Traveller culture that are not just “different” but firmly at odds with contemporary Western values. There is a ritual among teenagers where the boys try to kiss the girls, which doesn’t sound too bad at first glance. But essentially the boys are allowed to trap the girls, even physically hurt them, and it’s considered an okay thing, a normal part of courting. Also, being a traditional, old-fashioned and extremely insular culture, there is really no “bettering” oneself in the Traveller world – girls are raised to be housewives and boys for manual labor. While it’s understandable that there is a desire to keep the Traveller community together, and that this in some ways precludes upward mobility, again, from a Western POV, it’s not necessarily something to be encouraged.

It should be noted that their depiction on the show has been disputed by those within the Gypsy and Traveller communities. Others (specifically participants in the shows) have said they feel that they were portrayed fairly and accurately.

You can see pictures of some of the dresses featured on the show here and here.

Has anyone else been watching this? What is your impression of the show and/or the culture portrayed?