Oh, man, this brings back a foot-in-mouth memory.
I remember the night the Season 3 opener aired, the one where Lois wore the shiny dress, the "Pocahontas" dress, and I think some other outfit that looked fairly unusual -- for Lois. After the show was over, I went on IRC for the post-episode discussion. There was a full house online, and just about the biggest topic was Lois's wardrobe.
Most people found it jarring -- rather un-Lois-like. While watching the episode I hadn't really thought about it too much. But most of us turned into "fashion police" when we got on the channel, and I joined in too. Some just hated the outfits. Others thought they looked OK but didn't jibe with Lois's personality. The more I thought about it, the more that seemed a valid point -- she's a no-nonsense career woman, so what happened to the understated clothes she usually wore? Others pointed out that her new look wasn't necessarily out of character, because as a woman newly in love Lois may have been expressing herself in a new way with some new clothes. But most of us just dissed the duds. We went on and on ... and on. It got pretty snarky.
And unbeknownst to us, Teri was on the channel anonymously, if I'm remembering right. We didn't find out until later. Zoom or someone told us Teri had been lurking to find out fans' reaction to the season opener, and that the wardrobe choices were mostly hers. Yee-ikes. I remember hoping we hadn't hurt her feelings.
That's actually the last I heard about Teri checking in on us on IRC -- something she'd been reported to do occasionally. But I wasn't an IRC regular, so maybe some other old-timer who was more plugged in to the chat scene knows whether or not we scared her away for good. (Hope not!)
I hadn't thought about the infamous wardrobe chat for years until I read her book, "Burnt Toast," recently. In it she talks about having cried for hours because she'd found out some TV executive thought she had an attitude. And she mentions bursting into tears once when a stranger was rude to her in a store. So reading about her sensitivity to criticism and the like flashed me back to the IRC memory, and again I felt a guilty twinge. Oh, well.
The weird thing is, I kind of like the outfits now. They still don't "look like Lois" to me, but the "Lois in love" theory seems reasonable. I guess Teri thought they looked like Lois, or else she was tired of wearing brown! What's your take? Do you guys think the outfits look like Lois, or possibly a Lois-in-love?
-- Lauren (who doubts that we have to worry about her keeping tabs on us now
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