Who Do You Think You Are?

[ikmccall]

Renewed for a second season


I know some of us discussed this show in the SJP thread so I thought I'd put this info out there for you.

[angelaudie]

Yay! I have been really enjoying this show so I'm glad that it will continue!

I must admit I wasn't quite feeling Brooke Shields's episode. I couldn't shake the feeling she already knew much of the "shocking" information found. I wish more time had been spent on her mother's side instead of her father's. Yeah, I get his side had royalty but still.

[ikmccall]

I totally agree with you on the Brooke episode. Her acting was so bad. She didn't know the basic facts about the Louvre? Really? I think I learned that in junior high. And I went to a public school in Delaware. She was a French Lit major, for frigging sake. At Princeton. And that farmhouse in France wasn't so humble for the the era when it was built. Made of stone with a slate roof and it was big and it was still standing in 2010. @@

[angelaudie]

I totally agree with you on the Brooke episode. Her acting was so bad. She didn't know the basic facts about the Louvre? Really? I think I learned that in junior high. And I went to a public school in Delaware. She was a French Lit major, for frigging sake. At Princeton.

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. I know Frech Lit wouldn't focus completely on French history but in my Brit Lit class we did learn a little specific bits of British history so we could understand the context of the story being studied. So, yeah surely at some point the Louvre at one being a palace would have come up! Even if it didn't I thought the Louvre museum being housed in the Louvre Palace was common knowledge.

And that farmhouse in France wasn't so humble for the the era when it was built. Made of stone with a slate roof and it was big and it was still standing in 2010. @@

Yeah, my first thought when I saw the house was, "That's a big house for a family of humble means!" Granted, compared to the palace it was small but I'm sure Brooke's house is small compared to that palace!

[mrsbowling2]

I loved this show until the Brooke episode. That was really cheesy. I second or third the thing that said she should have explored her Dollinger side of the family instead. There is no way her Shields family grandma was a princess without that family history known. That's what royal people do--they know their lines and pedigrees, it's kind of their job.

[batmom]

I thought it was odd that they glossed over the De Medici connection. They didn't even say her name (you could just see it on the registry) - a De Medici was the mother and the Henry (IV?) was the father. The De Medici line wasn't much to sneeze at, even if she was a mistress.

[margojata]

Funny how we all think alike! Yeah, Brooke was the weak link in this series so far - and I too thought that the stone house was pretty damn nice.

I'm sure there's a lot of research going on to find the best story for the celebs. I found the story of the drowned sibling of Brooke's grandma way more interesting than the Louvre. I'm sure some family trees just go nowhere, so they've been pretty lucky with finding good stuff for TV.

I'm jealous because I can't go back very far. None of my grandparents left many clues in coming from Eastern Europe (Germany and Russia). Names even changed. It would take a detective to find out where they came from and why.

[Spinderella]

I really was disappointed with the Brooke episode. She KNEW that she had a lot of royal blood in her family beforehand.

Her grandmother was a Princess and her father was 4th Prince. Give me a break. The only part that was interesting was finding more about how the family became royal and their original roots in France. But what about her mother's side? They totally dropped off after they found out that her grandmother's siblings died young, along with her great-grandmother. That's it? Pfft.

I found that the Matthew Broderick episode was awesome. He was genuinely surprised and touched by all that he learned and had a better appreciation of his Broderick line and helped solve a bit of a mystery to where a great-grandparent was buried.

I'm looking forward to Susan's episode.

[Deleted]

I loved the Matthew Broderick episode, it was obvious he didn't know much at all about his dad's family and was genuinely saddened by hearing about the bad things that happened to them. It's great that his ancestor will finally have a name attached to his grave.

The Lisa Kudrow episode made me cry.

[mrsbowling2]

One thing that all these shows has made me is happy I know as much as I do about my family--I mean I'm glad that my family is big and connected and we know stuff about each other. We have our own myriad of issues and dysfunctional members, but I know all the maiden names and cousin connections and stuff going a good ways back. And what's really funny is that my parents are lik 5th cousins or something so both sides of my family go back the same way at one branch in the tree.