Almost Famous

It’s time for another Pop Pedestal, and today I’ve got one for all the parents out there. I don’t know about you, but when I’m in a parenting jam—and granted, my kid’s only two, but even two-year-olds can be total assholes—I like to channel my favorite pop-culture parents for psychic assistance. Clair and Cliff Huxtable, Florida Evans, Red and Kitty Foreman, Peggy Hill: All have the right stuff in place for raising their kids—heart, humor, smarts, respect, and the occasional needfully deployed "dumbass." But in portraying how simultaneously selfish and selfless are the realities of raising a person, Almost Famous’s single mom, Elaine Miller, deserves a place in the pantheon.

I close the "Tuning In" series with my thoughts about Zooey Deschanel's attempt to adapt Pamela Des Barres's I'm with the Band: Confessions of a Groupie for HBO.