Random: There was a 'Dr. Richard Webber' on General Hospital back in the day. He was the brother of Dr. Jeff Webber, the character played by Richard Dean Anderson, the actor who eventually found immortality as "MacGyver".

You may now resume your regularly scheduled programming.

BTW, is it just me or was "They call me DOCTOR Webber" (in "Name of the Game") an echo of "They call me MISTER Tibbs" (in "In the Heat of the Night")?

Definitely think that's what he was going for. And I lurved it.

Yup. Me too. He was so channeling Mr Poitier. Loved it. I don't like the dude, but every so often he does or says something that make me think its a shame he is a dick in so many other areas, coz sometimes he is kinda cool.

Is it possible that Adele (Odelle?) had cheated on the Chief at some point, and somehow the couple managed to work through both infidelities?

Anything is possible on GA. Anything. Adele screwing around is a possibility, but Webber's affair with Ellis is the only one that has been confirmed though.

I do think though, that Adele is gonna play some important role, somewhere down the line, either in Mer and Derek getting back together, or in providing some vital clue as to why her hubby 'picked' her even after he cheated on her with Ellis, the love of his life. Adele having the perception ( in the Super Bowl ep ) to see that Derek is no longer in love with his wife, matters some how to me. I'm not sure why or how though.

Hail to the actor, James Pickens, Jr.!! I just found out that he is helping Mother's Against Drunk Driving promote their autoshow fundraiser: www.maddroadrally.org

I think it's great that Pickens is helping them raise awareness.

Loved, loved, loved The Chief in the last ep. Loved seeing him in an actual surgery as opposed to some sort of silly comic relief role. Loved seeing him as the Chief, directing the surgery as if he was some battlefield general directing his troops. He displayed a a wonderful, but nonarrogant, very natural, air of authority, that really showed to me, for the first time ever, why is the Chief in the first place. He really came across to me, not only as someone who was supremely capabable at what they were doing, but who was 100% qualified to tell other people who were equally capable at what they were doing, what to do.

But my fav moment from him this week by far, was when he came over and stood by Dr Bailey side as they looked down at Melly's dead body, that despite their best efforts, they just couldn't save. He knew that as a new momma, Bailey was hurting maybe more than any other doctor who scrubbed in on the surgery. But he didin't say anything. He just stood there and was' there' for her but in very professional, non verbal, non over the top way. I loved it, I just freaking loved it. Hopefully, the mommy tracking will stop now.

I'm glad we got to see more about the chief during the finale.

But by far the best was the smackdown that Adele gave him when she told him that she knew about the affair all along. Adele should have her own thread and be on the show more often. I know she's only been in three episodes but she's been excellent.

Also liked the scene with the chief and Derek where at the ends the chief says: "you don't know how much I wish this was bourbon." He'd helped Derek solve his problems about whether or not to operate on Burke but he couldn't figure out his own life.

I don't think Adele ever cheated. It would cheapen her revealing speech to Richard. I think she has too much integrity to lecture him about his affair and how she knew all along and stood by him, if she has her own extramarital affairs to her credit.

I thought what was so remarkable about Adele in the Super Bowl episode is that Richard works with these people EVERYDAY. Adele doesn't, yet she picked it up right away. That should have been our first clue - if Adele is so perceptive about other people's marriages, it's ridiculous to assume she's not blind to her own.

I'd love to see a conversation with Adele and Addison. Adele said in her speech to Richard that everyone told her that she was better off without him, but she stuck by him. Maybe she'll tell Addison that she wishes she gave herself the chance to see if she truly was better off without him, and Addison shouldn't be devastated when/if Derek leaves her for Meredith.

I think the Webber/Ellis/Adele non-trianlge is fascinating mainly b/c it has the type of ending that never exists. The protagonists (Webber/Ellis in this case) are always the people who are in love and who end up together for happily ever after. And yet, it didn't happen this way, and now it never can b.c of Ellis's sickness. It's awesome how it's totally away from the norm, but also awesome how Mere as Ellis's daughter, and Shepherd as Webber's protoge, get to redo it all. Like going back in time to fixing the mistakes.

Word. I adore Adele. I just freaking adore her and the weird thing is that I feel I know her and love her and understand her as much as I do Derek and Meredith, but the woman has only been in 3 or 4 episodes. I am not quite sure if that's a testement to great writing or great acting or the simple fact that she is always in very, very important scenes and not the boring, blah day to day ones.

I loved her perception in the Super Bowl ep, of seeing that Derek was no longer in love with his wife. It blew me away at the time. Then again, maybe she is able to see Derek's indifference to Addison as she hugged him, because it came out of the blue after her seeing them and witnessing their interactions together for so many years, as this Happily Married Couple. The Chief sees them around each other every day. Derek's indifference to Addison probably goes right over his head coz he is seeing it every day. So he takes it for granted. But Adele doesn't. She is used to seeing Derek and Addison be happy and loving towards each other over the years. So then when all of a sudden, she sees the look of blank disinterest on Derek's face, its only natural she would have a wtf reaction. It's kinda like me and the 30 lbs I have lost over the past 4 months. People who see me every day have no idea I have lost weight coz they see me every day and it was a gradual thing,so they don't even notice it. But to friends and ex colleagues who have not seen me for a few months, the change is very noticable and the first thing they do when they see me is scream at me for how skinny I now am, coz how I am now, just jars with the picture they have in their heads of how I am supposed to look and how I have always looked thru the years. Maybe that is how it was for Adele in the SB ep.

I don't think it's a mistake that Weber ended up with Adele. i think it's probably the best thing that ever happened to him. Ellis doesn't seem to have many admirable qualities at all. And I sure the love of a good man wouldn't have fixed her.

We don't really know anything about Ellis . . . of all of the characters, she is the most opaque and her illness means that we can never really know her. She can only be seen through others' eyes.

The little we do know suggests that she was intensely ambitious and driven to succeed. . . those qualities were essential for her to crack what was then the old boys' surgical club. In a way, women like Ellis are why women like Addison, Bailey, Cristina and Mer exist . . . without her, they might be doctors but they would most likely not be surgeons. And, like many intensely ambitious and driven people, her personal life appears to have been something of a mess . . . she certainly wasn't mother of the year and her relationships with her husband and Webber were damaging to both of them (although I don't entirely buy into the idea that she "broke" Thatcher . . . that came from his second wife who is not exactly a reliable source).

We also don't know exactly how Webber feels about what happened all those years ago . . . it's been strongly suggested that he still has strong feelings for Ellis - there's a real sense of connection in the scenes he has shared with her despite how profoundly damaged she is - but we don't know what those feelings are, but he doesn't seem to be all that sure that he made the right choice all those years ago . . . and Adele's life hasn't been all that wonderful either. We know that he's been a mostly absentee husband and I'm pretty sure they have no children; maybe if he or Adele has chosen differently, their lives would have been happier . . . or maybe not. There's no road map for these things.

One thing we do know is that, whatever her failings, Ellis stuck around for her daughter. She may not have been the perfect mother, but she wasn't the one who checked completely out of her daughter's life. I can see why Shondra chose to create Ellis the way she did - it made a great hook - but, in a way, it's too bad because it means we can't ever really know her. And that makes it all too easy to make her the villain of the piece . . . the cause of Meredith's damage and Webber's alcoholism . . . when the real story could be so much more complex than that.

I am very surprised that Adele stayed with him after finding out about his affair with Ellis. She seemed like a strong woman who would never put up with that shit. I'm not saying that only weak women would have stayed. I'm just saying that she just didn't seem like the type that would.

I don't think Webber feels this way. He still feels very strong attachment/love for Ellis. And I think he definitely feels its a mistake that he didn't stay w/ the woman that he truly loved and instead did the honorable thing. It's evident from the way he reacted to the niece's speech: how everyone should be loved and it was clear that he was thinking about Adele and how staying w/ her prevented her from really knowing love. And also from the way he reacted to Mere's speech during the questioning of the interns. She was telling him about how he shouldn't have stayed w/ safe, but rather gone for the woman he truly loved and he never told her that his wife was the woman he loved.

ETA:

No way would Shonda make Adele/Webber being together not a mistake when it completely contradicts w/ her beloved McDreamy/Mere relationship. She is definitely going for the whole redoing the past, learning from mistakes, taking the harder road, and all that. No way is she essentially saying that Shep staying w/ Addie is the best/healthiest choice for him, like it was Webber. Instead, Webber's fears made all three miserable- Adele for never being truly loved and adored, Ellis for losing the only man she's ever loved, and Webber for losing the woman he loves and having to feign interest in one he's indifferent to. Exactly mimics the Mere/Addie/Shepherd triangle.

Since there is no special thread for James Pickens Jr., I will post here..

Today October 26, it's James Pickens Jr's birthday. He turns 52, so happy birthday!

I am not thrilled with the character (Chief), but I respect and like JP! He plays the character very well.

Oh my god. JPj is younger than my dad. That creeps me out a little. But otherwise, happy birthday to him!

Much too young to retire from being chief.

Do Richard and Adele have any children? I don't think that's ever been mentioned.

I'm thinking no. There is no direct evidence for that, but there sure is a lot of circumstancial evidence pointing in that direction. I think that it is weird that his and Adele's niece has come up twice in S2 ( her school play in the Thanksgiving ep and her cancer story in LMR ) but their kids, if they have any, never, ever do. I think that if they DID have kids, they'd come in for a mention every now and then, either when Webber was recuperating from his brain surgery in 2.01-2.05, or while we were being given the back story on why he left Ellis and went back to Adele... 'my kids need their daddy' and all that jazz..., or during one of Adele's 'me versus the hospital' rants that she goes off on once in a while. The fact that we never do see them or hear about them, leads me to believe that they don't exhist.

Maybe Adele can't have kids and that explains why she and Ads are so close coz maybe Ads can't have kids either, or maybe Ads cut her professional teeth figuring out why Adele couldn't have kids and that only served to bring them closer over the years. Something must account for their very close friendship, other than Adele's hubby being her boss back when she and Derek were interns, seeing as there is a big age diff between them and they have lived in opposite coasts for years and years. Maybe the fertility thing is part of it. It sure would be an interesting road to go down and explore in S3, once all of the Mer-Der-Mark-Ads relationship bullshit has played itself out.

Either way, I just adore Adele. I really, really hope that we get to see more of her in S3 even if she and the Chief are splitting up.

If I had my way, we'd always see more of Adele than the Chief. I can't stand him. He's more self-righteous than Tom Cruise, with even less reason. The guy doesn't follow the code of ethics he preaches, the quite reasonable wishes of his wife, or the frickin' law! Way to cover up the Izzie LVAD affair, dude. It's not like you have an entire staff that's going to follow your example when they try to determine medical ethics later in their careers.

Total word. Make Adele the Chief STAT !

The speed with which Webber is willing to forgive and forget Izzie's mistakes, no I am sorry, fuck the word 'mistakes' and replace it with 'criminal acts of wilful malpractice and negligance' is just beyond ridiculous. Ok, so KH the actress and Izzie Stevens her character, are very important parts of the shows overall makeup, she can't be Denny related AWOL for ever, I get that.

BUT to have her welcomed back into the fold by her fellow interns AND by the likes of senior doctors like Addison and Burke and Bailey and Webber, so soon after making such a huge, huge error of judgement seems to me to be way, way, way, way off, not to mention incredibly, incredibly stupid.

About the Chief/Adele having kids-- it could be possible that their kids are old, like in their twenties, so there haven't been too many actual events for them to be mentioned at; if they live in another part of the country, they might not come back to Seattle for Thanksgiving/Christmas. OTOH, I do think it's a bit weird that a girl Camille's age would have a Christmas pageant at school. Perhaps they were talking about a different (younger) neice?

They must have been Enigma13. Cancer niece was around 17 I think, which is way too old for a Christmas pageant. That's for the elementary school set.
I don't think that they have kids. Chief hung out at the hospital all day on Thanksgiving-I know that kids don't always come home for the holidays but if they existed at all, you'd think that he'd have mentioned it then, as in 'the kids aren't going to be there, so it's just Adele and I'.