XWord Muggles Forum

I did not get this. I didn't have a TV for quite a while and have never even heard of Thirtysomething (as per Crossword Fiend it is the correct answer).

The first thing that came to my mind with dual role and Tallulah was Hannah Montana which also ran 4 seasons so I put it out as a guess.

This one seems better to back solve, but you have to have a clue first.

it was really hard to think of a good nudge for this one. The one I got was a bit too much: “The decade clue is important. The numbered squares are very important.” I can't think of anything that would be much subtler yet still helpful. I was thinking of, "Forget about the words -- in the grid and in the clues. Look for letters at specific locations in the grid."

My "I gotta stop doing this to myself" almost solution, based on quoted clues + 30D:

Anatomy of an Epiphany:

I don't know what other people's rules on nudges are, but I only ask for a nudge if I feel like I'm either a) really close or b) have gone through so many rabbit holes that I feel one of them was relevant.

Literally all I had until Monday night, assuming 30-Down wasn't a trap, was that, "This is a show that lasted 4 years and is about a certain decade."

This, then, would be a shorter show about a longer time (unlike, say, M*A*S*H*, which was a longer show about a shorter time). I had nothing, and one thing that's been a little dangerous to me lately is automatically assuming that longer entries are relevant to the meta. DUALROLE, for instance, was irrelevant here - and I struggled on the MMM "Autocorrect" by thinking the long entries (which were vibrant, DrTom, and well-done!!) were relevant - even though that wasn't the strategy.

So on Monday night, I told myself, "I'll give it one more look, and then if nothing, it's a no-go." And this was one where I was struggling to see how, if at all, the title would cue me into the mechanism: "Age Appropriate, Age Appropriate..." Hmmm. Nothing really happened in that regard, except I did think about decades of ages as opposed to historical decades (say, the 1960s). And a show's title that I knew existed popped into my mind:

thirtysomething (which was stylized in all lowercase).

So the first clue is a Google to see the season length: 4 seasons. Wow, okay. This seems really relevant.

And, then, oh my goodness...okay: the DECADE clue is at 30-Down. This has to be a win.

Now I wonder if that was what some people had already noticed when they cited the tenuous link. (Honestly, if I were making this meta, that might be all you would have gotten, haha). I did a quick search to see where the TV show was set - and it was set in Philadelphia, which maybe makes the 32-Down clue a little more relevant, perhaps.

And I'm still thinking, "Is there anything else to seal the deal?" I was telling myself there was no way I couldn't submit this because if this were the answer and I didn't, how much I'd kick myself.

So on a whim, I just decided to look at the other entries in the (30 + x) numbered squares (x less than or equal to 9), and of course, SOMETHING appeared. I found this interesting because step is almost the confirmation, even though this is really the main clue the grid gives us - whereas we can really only enter into that once we found our answer. I don't find anything wrong with that - it's rare, if ever, I'll not like a Gaffney (heck, I thought COMEDY CENTRAL was great) - but it was just different. And then I was beamed up.

I can't say I'm SHARP AS A TACK by any means...but I'm definitely THIRTYSOMETHING ("Oh, he's something all right...").

Mike

I had already given up on solving this meta but I guess I was still thinking about it in my sleep because I woke up and thought that maybe it's The Wonder Years! Then Google quickly shut me down because it was on the air for 5 years. I don't think I ever would have gotten the correct answer so I'm glad I didn't spend too much time on it while I was awake.

Here's the entirely useless mechanism I devised that I thought had a 100% chance of confirming my THIRTYSOMETHING suspicion, but nope.

1. What's related to TV here? Well, there are five actors/actresses mentioned with associated movies or shows.

2. Age appropriate.... hmmm? Let's figure out the age of the actors/actresses when their mentioned shows first aired, e.g. Tallulah Bankhead was born on 1-31-1902 and "Lifeboat" opened in theatres on 1-28-1944. Her age on that day was 41 years, 11 months, and 28 days (41-11-28)

3. The coincidental thing about this stupid idea is it happens to yield 5 sets of three numbers, ALL of which have letters in this grid:

41 years, 11 months, and 28 days (Tallulah Bankhead)
17 years, 7 months, and 26 days (Meadow Soprano, i.e Jamie-Lynn Sigler)
38 years, 10 months, and 29 days. (Nicolas Cage)
25 years, 2 months, and 10 days. (Cheryl Ladd)
29 years, 11 months, and 18 days. (Kaitlyn Olson)

4. Which gives us the answer of.... drumroll, please.... T Y A - D R B - N P L - N N P - L Y L

5. I was convinced I just didn't have the right date mechanism and that there was a way to get T H I - R T Y - S O M - E T H - I N G out of it somehow, so in the end I just went and listed out all the letters in the grid that had associated numbers and (groan) there was "SOMETHING" staring me in the face.

lol. Big fan of the show back in the day. But yeah...no way I was ever forward-solving this.

FWIW, I thought thirtysomething was the best thing to come along on TV. It didn't assume that the viewer was a moron. It had plausible problems and plots with no perfect solutions. The scripts didn't have the characters explaining their motivations, thoughts, and feelings. It didn't explain the references. I recall one episode where Gary and Melissa joke about the Halloween when they went as Will and Ariel Durant -- funny if you got it, and if you didn't, the show wasn't going to explain it.

The same team was responsible for My So-Called Life.

NoFeetMcGee wrote: ↑Wed Aug 25, 2021 10:52 am I feel so lost on this one, I don't know if I can even ask for a nudge because I have nothing to go off of. Have a hail-mary guess but it doesn't quite fit.

With some cryptic nudges and frantic googling, I barely managed to sneak in there! My first time being the very last person to successfully submit

I was 0-2 on last weekend's metas, but glad I didn't spend TOO much mental energy trying to get what I wasn't seeing!
Hope I have better luck or insight next week (oh yeah - tomorrow)!!!

Bird Lives wrote: ↑Wed Aug 25, 2021 2:30 pm FWIW, I thought thirtysomething was the best thing to come along on TV. It didn't assume that the viewer was a moron. It had plausible problems and plots with no perfect solutions. The scripts didn't have the characters explaining their motivations, thoughts, and feelings. It didn't explain the references. I recall one episode where Gary and Melissa joke about the Halloween when they went as Will and Ariel Durant -- funny if you got it, and if you didn't, the show wasn't going to explain it.

The same team was responsible for My So-Called Life.

As a 20 something when this was aired, I thought the show was too pretentious (maybe not the right word) - another baby boomer whiner drama that me and my peer group were over. I did think the writing and production were fantastic and I did like My So-Called Life a lot. Just an opinion and not trying to stir anything up .

I had THIRTYSOMETHING in mind from the very beginning, but didn't see it in the grid because I started looking for T-H-I-R-T-Y in the upper part of the grid. DOH!

In the end, for some reason I looked again at the bottom for "SOMETHING" and found those letters, then noticed all the letters I needed for that were in number squares, and that all the numbers were in the thirties... well DUH. It was a lovely aha moment... big smile of relief after pondering for days. Glad I waited and didn't ask for a nudge (let that be a lesson, self).

I also loved this show, even though it was a little heavy on the angst and overuse of the word "incredibly" in descrbing things: "I'm just incredibly tired" etc. I was in my late twenties, watching it... loved the architecture of the house, totally crushed on Ken Olin, appreciated the honesty of the marriages & depth of characters, even though I didn't LIKE all the characters because of their selfishness/immaturity sometimes. Blown away by the bike accident.

I agree that this one was hard to nudge without shoving! And Joe I am in awe of your OLD DYNASTY solution... though I'm sure it was hard to make it fit the title/theme.

HeadinHome wrote: ↑Wed Aug 25, 2021 2:54 pm And Joe I am in awe of your OLD DYNASTY solution... though I'm sure it was hard to make it fit the title/theme.

If the 2017-present DYNASTY (which has been running for four years) had been a prequel to the 1981-1989 DYNASTY, wouldn't that make the 2017 DYNASTY the "OLD DYNASTY?" That's the only twisted logic that could make it fit 30D. As for the title? BLOOIE!

I gotta stop torturing myself, these puzzles, and you all by posting my insanity. I beg your forgiveness.

I don’t typically get week 3 metas, but backsolved this one. I previously posted that it was my highest ever spot on the board, but I couldn’t mention my spot because of the possible spoiler - I was #30!

burghman wrote: ↑Wed Aug 25, 2021 4:12 pm I don’t typically get week 3 metas, but backsolved this one. I previously posted that it was my highest ever spot on the board, but I couldn’t mention my spot because of the possible spoiler - I was #30!

That's SOMETHING!