Dave on Demand | Mellow and yellow

Actress Polly Bergen has had a long and distinguished career.

Bet she never thought that at 77, she'd be playing a pot pusher. But that's her lot as Stella on Desperate Housewives. This week, she tricked her daughter, Lynette (Felicity Huffman), into eating pot-laced brownies to help relieve side effects of chemo.

When Lynette figured out why she had been laughing so hard at SpongeBob cartoons and scarfing all those snacks, she lectured Stella on what an irresponsible parent she had always been.

"Do you remember what I wore to junior prom?" she asks, "Or what part I had in the play that year?"

"Now, who remembers stuff like that?" Stella scoffs.

"Parents who weren't stoned," Lynette says. "My whole childhood passed in a blur because you were medicating yourself." "Well, I'd say I'm sorry, but I'm not," Stella huffs. Then, as her daughter starts up the stairs, she says, almost under her breath, "Yenta."

"What?" asks a surprised Lynette.

"Junior year, you were Yenta in Fiddler on the Roof," her mom says.

"You remembered," says an astonished Lynette.

It was a touching moment, and with those two talented actresses, one rife with potential. Too bad Housewives immediately harpooned it with a cynical joke. "Yeah," drawls Stella, "there were some performances so bad even alcohol can't block them out."

Why does Housewives always bury its emotional moments under cheap cynicism? It's like the show is afraid of being seen as sappy. It could take lessons from Ugly Betty, which knows how to squeeze its sentimentality before moving on to the punch line.

The whole shouting match. On last week's Real Time With Bill Maher, Tucker Carlson didn't allow fellow panelist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman to get a word in edgewise. Every time Krugman started to speak, Carlson would shout over him. Typical. We don't have political debate anymore; we have rock fights.

Unsportsmanlike behavior. How do you earn a lifetime ban from ESPN's Monday Night Football? Make fun of the insufferable Tony Kornheiser, as Jimmy Kimmel did this week.

Invited into the booth in the third quarter, Kimmel started riffing on former MNF analyst Joe Theismann, joking that Kornheiser had gotten Theismann fired in favor of his replacement, longtime Eagles' QB Ron Jaworski. Afterward, Kimmel was informed he could not return - ever! Harsh.

Sales hooks. Heard numerous times this week on NBC: "Coming up, NBC presents Bee Movie scenes brought to you by Ford." Wow, a promo for a coming attraction with its own sponsor. Genius!