Ted Danson’s Personas Integrated in One Fantastic, Funny, Fun New Show—Help Me Help You
Ted Danson’s Personas Integrated in One Fantastic, Funny, Fun New Show—Help Me Help You by Roxanne McDonald
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Snarky egotist Sam Malone meets crabby curmudgeon John Becker, MD—to bring us another hilarious character, Dr. Bill Hoffman. |
It’s no wonder that when Jerry Seinfeld and George Costanza collaborate on a pilot for NBC that George relentlessly alludes to Ted Danson—to how Ted Danson is treated, to how much per episode Ted Danson makes ($800,000/episode on Cheers)….
Whether the writers had a thing for Danson or a grudge ( which I doubt) or whatever,
he is also mentioned (as wikipedia contributors note) numerous times throughout the Seinfeld series and brought in once more in the second to last episode, with George again grousing how Ted Danson gets a better plane than they who are being flown to LA to air the pilot do.
And while Costanza is (in the postmodern sense) just as valuable/marketable, Ted Danson is one enduring performer who has come full circle with two TV characters who share commonalities to offer us a third who is a composite of the two and more.
Sam Malone (Cheers, 1982-1993; now in re-run) A former Red Sox pitcher with a continuing following, Sam was the hottie who knew it. He womanized and seduced his way through almost every episode, save those wherein he was in a committed relationship—and then was a frustrated playboy toy boy struggling to abstain from adventures that aggrandized his already bloated ego. Charmer, lover, and foil and fumbler when the comedy called for it, Ted Danson made himself a household name—swoon—early on through this cocky alter ego.
Dr. John Becker (Becker, 1998-2004, in re-run) The character was such a stretch in so many ways from the Sam character, that it is a wonder the pilot of Becker took. But it not only took but flew—with the versatility Danson showed in a character that was perpetually disgruntled, purposely antisocial (save his daily visits to the local coffee shop where the only ones who would tolerate him longer than his medical assistant hung out for hours on end), and predictably obsessive…about the crime, the degeneration, and the decadence of his home and work environs.
The Bachelor: Rome—What Do You Expect?
The Bachelor: Rome—What Do You Expect? by Roxanne McDonald
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Despite how idiot Erica and her ridiculously inept metaphors (a champagne milkshake?) predict otherwise, the criteria for the ideal mate is made clear by everyone on episode 5 of The Bachelor: Rome. |
On October 31, as the prince was making his way to the four family homes of the four remaining Bachelorettes, a question comes up (quite early on) that sets the tone for the whole episode: At the first home, that of twenty-three year old teacher Sadie, mother Colleen asks Lorenzo what his criteria is for choosing his mate. Not only does Lorenzo respond (speaking to the importance of 1. honesty, 2. best friendship, and 3. trusting anything he says), but the women and moms and dads apparently have some direct or indirect answers to this all-important question, as well.
Sadie, in Carlsbad, California, indicates (by describing Lorenzo) her expectations include the man be smart, humble, and remind her of “Daddy” in that he
“puts others before himself and makes [her] feel safe….” Sadie’s dad expects that he have the best intentions; and from what Mom says to camera, she expects the “down-to-earth” personality. Oh, and there might, just might, be an expectation that he get prayerful and passionate about God.
For twenty-five year old marketing manager Lisa in Portland, Oregon the criteria is firmly established: that he fit her plan to be married by 26 (better hurry, sister) and have kids by 30. We might also add for this darling Bachelorette that her potential mate not be “freaked out” as Lorenzo understandably was when Lisa steps into the living room stocked with baskets of bridal magazines with a bridal gown on….
Also seemingly mandatory is that any suitor to Lisa do command-performance Pilates in the foyer in front of the camera so Lisa’s mom can advertise her training skills?
In Pembroke Pines, Florida, however, the rules get stepped up somewhat: twenty-four year old teacher Jennifer (Jen) appears to determine that the ideal husband will fish right along side her off the back of the yacht, will not be emasculated when it is she who lands the big one, and will in turn not be deterred from giving her a smooch after she kisses the baby shark she has hooked and released.
Wife Swap, Lesson Swap
Wife Swap, Lesson Swap by Roxanne McDonald
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If it isn’t just posturing for television, Wife Swap participants come away with a lesson or two. |
“There’s always room for a little bit of magic,” says the traditional husband, Kyle Thompson as he works with his new/temporary pagan wife, Bella Thompson.
“[I smashed the coven’s plate] because it was only profiting the coven…,” says the seemingly reformed Wiccan husband, Kenny Thompson, to his new/temporary traditional wife, Alison Askam.
Kyle learns to treat his wife more like the high priestess Bella believes she is (and less like the slave she was); while Kenny learns to be more of a “man” for his family, coming home for dinner, taking a leadership (rather than lackey) role.And the parents usually learn to treat their kids the way they wish to be treated: little Ramsey spent a lot of time on the computer, for lack of closeness and quality time with Dad. But once Dad changes and starts doing father-son things, Ramsey confides in him that he would trade playing on the computer alone for playing with Dad…anytime.
The Biggest Loser: A More Holistic Experiment?
The Biggest Loser: A More Holistic Experiment? by Roxanne McDonald
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The latest rage is to define some of the reality TV game shows as social experiments. But some, like The Biggest Loser, are more than that. |
Survivor: Cook Islands, America’s Next Top Model…calling their shows this season social experiments because they are multicultural… because they pit black against white or challenge the interpersonal relationships of clans or types…because they feature contestants who are there to win but also to “represent”
But The Biggest Loser (this season featuring weight loss candidates from the fifty states—Alaska, California, Florida, Indiana, Missouri, New York, and Utah still in contention) is
tapping into more than the social or sociological elements. The interpersonal relationships the losers develop for the duration of the show are often superficial, but this season (2006), the bonds seem to go deeper than usual. When, for instance, the red team lost a player to the blue team’s choice of who to get rid of, the remaining players were quite saddened. They expressed a preference of grieving over working out the anger (which was trainer Kim Lyons’ immediate response and solution for her men and women.
This brings up another psychological element to the show: the inevitability of loss on a number of levels: the physical loss and necessity of saying goodbye to weight put on over the years, weight that has been an insulator, a comforter, a safety barrier of sorts; the temporary loss of loved ones, while the participants are away learning a new way of eating and exercising life; and the loss of fellows who have become friends but who are those the surviving players have to get rid of.
Celeb Photos - Jerry Springer and Kym Johnson
Jerry Springer and Kym Johnson of Dancing With the Stars - celeb photo spotlight.
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Links to photos of Jerry Springer and Kym Johnson of Dancing With the Stars (USA). |
Flickr is a great place to find celeb photos like this one of Jerry Springer and Kym Johnson of Dancing With The Stars.
Did you know that Kym Johnson (not Kim Johnson) was the champion of the Australian Dancing With The Stars??? Jerry got a boost for sure from that sexy champ!
More Celeb Photos featuring Kym Johnson and Jerry Springer
Jerry the Opera
Kym Johnson article with picture
Speaking of Dancing with the Stars - check out this great site that has auction items from the show!
You’ll find all kinds of great stuff to buy like potos and posters and such!
Full Episode Free TV Show Downloads are Abundant
Are you looking for current free tv show downloads? You are in luck my friend!
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Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, 30 Rock, LOST, Ugly Betty, Six Degrees, the Nine, Kidnapped, Twenty Good Years, Friday Night Lights, Heroes, CSI, Shark, Jericho and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip are among the current TV Shows that are available to download for free! |
Not simply clips from the tv shows but full episodes as downloads for free!
CBS, NBC and ABC and others are getting hip to the demand for downloads!
Also, cable and PBS shows are now showing up as well for free!
It seems like the TV Networks are finally getting it! The internet can help publicize their shows and get loyalty for them when they offer episodes as free tv downloads online!
It makes sense really… fans develop as they get familiar with shows and characters… what better way to increase veiwership than to get someone hooked on a new tv show?
That’s why we created a list of sources for full episodes of tv shows that you can download >>> (read more…)
Good Locations in this Amazing Race
Where will Amazing Race 10 take us next???
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This season’s episodes of Amazing Race 10 are much more enjoyable than last season. Maybe it is the locations that make it better??? Maybe it is the contestants? |
Viet Nam, Kuwait, India have been very interesting…
Amazing Race did a great job with casting this go round!
Whatever the reason I am enjoying Amazing Race 10 far more than ever.
I do wish sometimes they’d back off a notch on the frenetic pace, but I guess that is what makes the show tick.
Amazing Race 10 is definitely at the top of my Tivo list and it looks like it will be staying there!
Dexter: Another Brilliant Premium Show
Dexter: Another Brilliant Premium Show by Roxanne McDonald
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Creative generosity, acute acting skills, and more exacting performances by the great Michael C. Hall make Dexter the next addictive Showtime feature. |
The opening offers us Dexter’s neck, close up and in warm shadow. What light there is focuses on the razor (which one can hear in replete scraping splendor) as it travels down along the throat, cuts, and sends drops of vibrant red blood to the next shot—in the sink, where the credits too begin to roll and roil. The close-up tissue soaks the blood at Dexter’s neck. To make a slick and sensitive shot of human soup of sorts. An odd knife (a grapefruit knife? A filet knife?) cuts through tender raw meat cum packaging. Dexter’s wide grin cuts teeth through cooked pork or veal (likely pork, as he mentions it enough, later); and an egg bleeds into the hot and greasy depths of the fry pan Dexter wields with the precision he extends to his work: as a blood spatter analyst for Homicide.
Dexter is a sick boy, a mental maniac,
with a reverence for serial killing that is only thwarted or kept at the fringes of his consciousness by his upbringing
by an adoptive father (also in police work) who knew and who groomed Dex away from the “wrong side of the law.
The dialogue is sharp and tight, and laced with mocking, sardonic humor (Another fine day in Miami. Murder, dead bodies, and a chance of late rain…. ). The character interaction sees Dexter against the so-depicted “normies” in his stoic internal struggle to tolerate such attitudes as that of a colleague, a fat bastard (Detective Angel Batista, played by the unsung celebrity status performer, David Zayas) who boasts that the way to get off best is to do her doggie style and just as you near climax yell out another woman’s name so she bucks like a bronco trying to pull away.
The awareness of his penchant for the artfulness of serial murder not only makes him perfect as homicide analyst (the dick gets into the criminal’s head to catch him theory) but pristine as one who covets the habits and lifestyle of the most aberrant of sociopaths.
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip Needs Your Help!
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip Needs Your Help by Mike Liebner
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We’re going into the 7th week of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and I’ve been dying to write up how I feel about this incredible new tv show. For one reason or another I get sidetracked and have yet to have written about Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. |
Not because I have little to say about it, but because this show is so special and monumental that I wanted to express exactly the right things… and that takes more than a fleeting 5 minute review of the show or what happened on it…
So here I am in awe of this wildly inovative new show and as I watched Ellen last night on Tivo with guest Amanda Peet, I heard Ellen say Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip was in trouble” and has “difficulty finding an audience.
What??? With 6 episodes under it’s belt we’re already being subjected to gloom and doom scenarios about Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip???
Ohhhh nooo! I’m shocked!
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip is one of those rare shows that inspired me to go WOW as I watched the first episode. I remember instantly connecting to it and being amazed at how sharp and witty the writing was. It was far more than entertaining, it was satirical and right on the money spoofing the NBS Network.
While I must say I have always been a fan of the West Wing (Aaron Sorkin created that as well), the one thing that sometimes bothered me about it was the fast paced yet predictable dialogue that often employed long run on sentences that mere mortal actors must have been challenged with. (read more…)
Don’t Do the Gourmet or Designer Food Thing at Home? What Do You Eat While Watching Top Chef?
Don’t Do the Gourmet or Designer Food Thing at Home? What Do You Eat While Watching Top Chef? by Roxanne McDonald
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We might not have sushi and frog’s legs ala peanut sauce, but we got fair and affordable and easy-to-make simulations. |
I don’t know about you, but when I watch cooking shows (or even dieting shows or shows about competing to lose weight), I get hella cravings. But I don’t have the energy, time, money, or desire (though I must boast I do have some of the skills) to prepare a similar dish I see or crave. So I come up with something relatively close, according to the imagined smells I smell, the crunch I wish to crunch, or the consistency I wish to please my palate with, while watching, say, the delicious preparations on Top Chef.
For example, the week the cheftestants worked with frogs’ legs, what do you think I would obviously substitute? Yep. Fried chicken. Right out of the box.
Course, I don’t go so far as to accompany the replacement frog legs with boxed wine, but a nice chilled chocolate milk, compliments of a dollar-store bottle of Hersey’s or Nestle’s chocolate syrup. And if one is too out and out lazy to microwave some frozen fried chicken, there’s always good and greasy KFC.
For the sweet and creamy mousse, I go with a box of instant chocolate pudding. I can whip it up during a commercial and have it along with the judges who are assessing continuity and clarity and all that for the dreaded lychee panacotta, for example. Or, if you are more diet (ugh) conscious, or want a snappier taste than plain old comfort food pudding, you can mix a large box of instant chocolate pudding with a pint of plain (unflavored) yogurt, which makes a mousse that is substantive and tangy and delightful for any dieter or foodie alike.
America’s Next Top Model—Only Coat Hangers Need Apply
America’s Next Top Model—Only Coat Hangers Need Apply by Roxanne McDonald
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As if one of the most beautiful, Anchal, doesn’t have low enough self-esteem, she has to worry (unnecessarily) about weight, too? |
It’s a well known given that fashion designers typically need/prefer coat hangers instead of humans for showing off their creations. You can read about it in sociological studies of the fashion and modeling world and you can occasionally hear a top designer admit it.
You can also tap into the numerous studies that emphasize a connection between cut-throat competitiveness and eating disorders, weight issues, and [distorted] body image disorders.
Tyra even has at least one session each season with the girls regarding eating habits, self-esteem, and how to reconcile the lot of issues associated with being a top model.
Ah, but there’s the contradiction. The industry mandates a body that can usually only be had by beating the hell out of healthy, curvaceous frames, but the most gorgeous of women—looking like real women with real tummy protuberances, full breasts, and thicker rumps and thighs—must undergo the lectures, criticisms, and continuous scrutiny that deems them unfit for the modeling world.
I love Tyra. She is of course gorgeous, and she has shape and heft that defies the Kate Mosses and Twiggys of yore. She is sharp, industrious, creative, friendly, and fun. I also love the show, America’s Next Top Model (for reasons I amplified last week), despite how the only round members on the show are the token contestants who last only a couple of weeks and a rational guest judge or two who gets that a weight the body wants to be is the weight to stay at.
But I get so blasted by the hypocrisy—the mixed messages that are about to deprogram and reprogram yet another lovely young woman.
Anchal is absolutely stunning. Breath-taking. In the October 25th episode of America’s Next Top Model, titled “Tyra’s Bringing Sexy or Sleazy Back,” Anchal gets the praise: In the photos taken by Tyra, wherein the girls wear psycho Halloween contact lenses and are done in kind of tintype/daguerreotype meets Max Factor shots, Anchal’s best shot elicits responses that speak to the absolutely perfect symmetry, etc.. And in the first award challenge, when Anchal steps into the room and up on the table at a private dinner hosted by Elite Model Management director Cathy Gould, guests are heard to comment on what a spectacularly stunning face she has.
But what Anchal hears is a guest saying she does not have a “model’s figure”.
Bravo (Sort of) to Top Chef Contestant, Fall Guy Otto Borsich
Bravo (Sort of) to Top Chef Contestant, Fall Guy Otto Borsich by Roxanne McDonald
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First caught up in the excitement, then denying total culpability, then taking responsibility for the lychee-stealing fiasco, Otto Borsich is the one with the heart. |
First caught up in the excitement, then denying total culpability, then taking responsibility for the lychee-stealing fiasco, Otto Borsich is the one with the heart.
The opinions are split 30/70, but I have to hand it to Otto for having the blades to take full responsibility for a ridiculous lapse in judgment and for taking the fall (when maybe it should have been the worst chef going home—Marisa Churchill).
The cheftestants were divided into two teams for the Elimination Challenge:
one team would be preparing Vietnamese cuisine and the other would be doing Korean cuisine…for a food and drink show at a charity event of about a 1,000 people. The criteria for judging will be 1) how well they prepare, showcase, and meet the countries’ cuisine standards; and 2) how well they work together as a team.
The problems start for team Korea, however, as soon as the men and women start drinking sangria and yukking it up instead of cooperating to plan the menu (which must consist of at least one cold and one hot dish). Once the hung-over idiots get a menu planned, they hit the specialty store with their 500 bucks budget, go off in too many directions inside the store, have to take something out of the cart lest they go over, and make their way to the vehicle.
There in the parking lot a giddy Otto tells Marisa that it looks like they got away with a free case of lychees which had not been rung up. This unnerves the already rattled Marisa, who reports the issue to Ilan, bitching that it is “cheating” and that she wants none of it. (Ilan says in interview that likely she just wants to be completely exempt from culpability of any sort.)
When Tom Colicchio comes in not as mentor but as judge checking up on the teams’ progress, it is then that Marisa tells the tale, which gets Otto grilled and sent to return the lychees.
So far, none of this is all that big a deal, maybe. Except it gets more dramatic once the dessert which Marisa makes is what guest judge Chef Mig Tsai calls a hockey puck (Marisa made Jasmine Tea Custard with Pink Tapioca and Lychee Gelee of a sort, which the judges identify as panacotta, which is supposed to be gelatinous, not dense).
As well, team Korea’s rice is sticky (a major faux pas for any basic chef, evidently), and the members do not get along well at all. All tolled, these problems and issues contribute to their being the losers. But the focus continues on Otto. In fact, judge Colicchio says at deliberation that if Otto does not own up, then they will send Marisa home.
Here’s where Top Chef reveals the real integrity, the real guts and the much deserved props:
First, if Marisa’s was the worst, she should go. Boom. Done. However, when called on to speak to the problems in the team effort, Marisa emphasizes the lychee-lifting as the grossest of all problems. Yuh. When someone on the team has confided in you that your team has a bunch of free fruit, you surely would screw up an easy jello dessert recipe.
(read more…)
CSI: Miami More Color Intensive
CSI: Miami More Color Intensive by Roxanne McDonald
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With the “Curse of the Coffin” episode, CSI: Miami is even more visually intense –and therefore even better (if that’s possible). |
In the most recent episode of CSI: Miami, “Curse of the Coffin,” which aired on October 23rd, the colors are more vibrant, the lines are sharper, and the imagery even more outstanding.
The opening scenes have always been dynamic, with high energy, fast and loud action and sound effects, and scenic views, But this new episode showed more decadent rays of light and/or muted yellow hues in the buildings and sharper, almost surreal blues in the waters and at the shorelines.
In one cemetery scene, the place is flooded with light,
bringing out a vibrancy of the green of the lawns which is taken to the edge of an almost nuclear yellow-green.
The haunting greens extend to the interrogation rooms, where fuzzy backgrounds meet sharp, to meld and create an eery yellow-green-cast environment of a futuristic sort.
The CSI labs have yellow backgrounds and angles, juxtaposed with almost neon blue/white/violet overhead lights and rays emanating from the pc stations.
Time for a Top Chef Personality Check
Time for a Top Chef Personality Check by Roxanne McDonald
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The new Top Chef promises some very interesting personality clashes and crashes this season. |
As one producer of another reality show series (the fated to go the way of one hit wonder history, For Love or Money) revealed, the best reality TV contestants are those who are extroverted, more than extraverted, egotistical, and beyond egotistical.
Those who love being the center of attention, those who think they know more than they do, and those who think they are greater than they are make for very good anti-heroes on shows where we viewers look forward to watching them flounder and flop.
So it is with the new season of Top Chef (Top Chef 2, first episode, “Into the Fire”, airing on Bravo on October 18th). The cheftestants are an entertaining
collective of every personality this side of psychosis, with a few stable, serene, and sure-winning ones in the background:
The egomaniac: Marcel Vigneron, the twenty-six year old has revealed himself right off the knife as a know-it-all. For example, defining his style, he calls what he does “avant garde molecular gastronomy….” If that isn’t a mouthful, a bellyful, he has also announced his winning skills, denounced the abilities of half the other chefs (who have many more years and experiences than he), and has been—as the anti-hero inevitably has—to the bottom four already. Hmph.
The bully: Frank Terzoli established his persona within the first few minutes of the new season, keeping with his nickname, “Frankie the Bull.” Though this chef is named for what he says is his ability to “bang out 100 amazing dishes per night, while others are still fiddling around with their presentations,” he has already defined his ferociousness by analogizing their living quarters to “cell block H;” figured out a way to alienate the unwanted roommate; and threatened Marcel by saying that if he (Marcel) ever touches his stuff he will beat him until his own mother doesn’t recognize him. Hmmm. Methinks Frank and Chef Ramsay would get along just fine. Riiight.
The closet prima donna: While this title typically implies spoiled brat tendencies, for Elia Aboumrad it suggests class, skill, and experience that out-challenges the challenges. Note, however, that while she presents a face that could at any moment turn a snooty nose up, she also keeps her deeper reactions to herself: while the others pontificate, for example, over the amount of garlic in Marcel’s frog leg dish as overpowering, she likes the dish and merely—instead of refuting—gives herself a frustrated rub. Hence the closeted part of her persona, though it is likely that as the “Latin firecracker” hailing from years of work and schooling in numerous prestigious culinary institutes, she will not always keep quiet or calm.
The cheery but tough chef: She smiles. A lot. And she is open and assertive and supportive of others. But Josie Smith-Malave has also indicated she will be pushed or cheated or bugged only so much before her tough side comes a roarin’. I see Josie, the established sous chef from Marlow and Sons, as a powerful lioness on the Serengeti: she is doing her thing, minding her own business, and then some pest will come along…and…snarl!
What was with that Reward Challenge on Survivor: Cook Islands?
What was with that Reward Challenge on Survivor: Cook Islands? by Roxanne McDonald
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I’m no expert, but was that two on one reward challenge, in and of itself, fair? |
Survivor has held the idol for reality TV show challenges, most of which have been original, physically and/or mentally challenging, and oft-imitated. But how was October 19th’s Reward Challenge equitable? What chance did the individual on the pole have against the two aggressors wrestling to yank him or her from the pole?
Let me back up: the challenge was set up, as Probst explains, so that there are three poles on Aitu’s side and three poles on Raro’s side.
To each pole clings a member. (Some sat and held on with all their might; others stood and held on for dear reward.) Opposing team pairs rushed each pole and pried and yanked and throttled (supposedly not allowed)—to remove the opponent from the pole, drag said individual across the marked out sand plot and pull at least one body part over the finish line.
Whichever team successfully displaced and dragged their three victims to home line first was the winner. In this one, the winner was Aitu.
Okay, okay, I get the plan: to stimulate and excite men (and gay or bi women) as they watch the writhing and sweating, as they witness the slip of clothing parts or odd body positionings wherein a crotch opens to the cam or a set of teeth go to a boob or what have you. And I get that the contest was in the speed. I even appreciate how physically grueling a challenge this was, making the reward at the end that much more appreciated by the winners and that much more begrudged and coveted by the losers. (The winners got roasted lamb shanks they got to scarf down in front of the hungry losers at the double tribal council—where both teams had to vote off someone.)
(read more…)
Jeffrey Sibelia Rightfully WINS Project Runway
Jeffrey Sibelia Rightfully WINS Project Runway by Roxanne McDonald
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Contrary to the comments that Jeffrey was no “fan favorite,” this utterly brilliant designer deserved to win…for many reasons. |
If you read the recap of the unnamed BuddyTV staff columnist, you will note how he or she says of Jeffrey Sibelia that “Well, he’s no fan favorite, that’s for sure, but his vision is certainly individual and unique.” The writer is spot on about Sibelia’s skills, but is actually not one hundred percent accurate in his/her point regarding the designer’s following.
Check out, for example, the wonderfully comprehensive blog for Project Runway, which features/featured weekly polls, and you will see how Jeffrey’s designs were often preferred as those that “should have won” the individual competitions. Or consider the poll that asks whose designs fans of Project Runway were most looking forward to see in full collection on the Project Runway finale. Jeffrey’s.
Granted, Michael won the “Fan Favorite” check for ten grand, a poll sponsored by Bravo, but other stats indicate Jeffrey was a winner long before he got the title in the final episode of Project Runway. Likewise, his often stoic countenance (mistaken for gristly uncaring) and his creative genius, along with his brittle wit, make Jeffrey Sibelia the star of the show.
He had to put up with the self-indulgent and distorted egos that were part of the “Everyday Woman” challenge.
He had to listen to the blather of lesser designers sniping at his technique.
And he had to do a fire walk for a fellow competitor’s oddly timed and falsely put accusations that he outsourced beyond what was allowed in the competition regulations.
(This still bugs me, especially after learning that Laura didn’t even have the intuition or observational skills of her own to fuel the allegations, but, rather, she heard from her mother who heard from etc etc etc. And the very phenomenon of L’s mother befriending J’s mother seems terribly odd and questionable to begin with, so hmmm.)
New York Talks Herself Right out of Flava’s Favor
New York Talks Herself Right out of Flava’s Favor by Roxanne McDonald
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We saw it coming, the mouth from the south (or north) made one too many blunders in front of “her man”. |
New York’s (Tiffany’s) presence on The Flavor of Love was unnerving to the other girls vying for Flava Flav’s love. Her comments and cocky, hoity toity attitude drove everyone nuts, despite how they made for great TV. And as many of us suspected (or hoped), her coo-coo manner was revealed to Flav, making him decide that her time was up.
As one betting on Delishis, I still was delighted by the progression of New York’s mania, misanthropy, and mealy mouthing.
She was creative in her slams, was tendentious in her duplicity, and gave us all a few thrills when she would do her commentary to the interview cams, announcing her superiority, denouncing the rights of other women to be in da house, and posturing as the ultimate Flava babe.
New York gave us some most incriminating dialogue. My favorites include, for example, how when she was preparing for her final night with Flav (in the final episode, “Flav Belize in Love”) and was gathering her purse and smokes and whathaveyou to walk out the door, she zinged [to Delishis], “I left my razor on the sink so you can shave your mustache….”
Whether these nasty comments were for the camera and audience’s benefit or not, many of us found ourselves first laughing (out of shock, I imagine) then hoping that the gentle and dignified Delishis would “win”. Not that Delishis couldn’t hold her own: at a breakfast or lunch in the shared housing quarters the day before, New York started in with her holier-than-all other girls shtick, trying her psyching out strategies, saying how she took such great pleasures in abusing Delishis, in taking out her aggressions and anger on her. New York also pointedly remarks how she is there because she authentically loves Flav while Delishis is there because, New York insists, she is a “money-grubber”.
Delishis very calmly responds that New York must not know about her baby’s father…who has “money on top of money on top of money.” This of course does not work to shut New York up, maybe because she doesn’t get what Delishis is implying, and so she continues to harass and harangue. So Delishis just calls her Whitney Houston—which does seem to at least slow the mouth down for a bit.
Spotlighting the Creative Minds behind America’s Next Top Model
Spotlighting the Creative Minds behind America’s Next Top Model by Roxanne McDonald
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Their strike and certain criticism aside, the writers and their fantastic ideas for modeling challenges should be highlighted. |
It has been said that America’s Next Top Model ‘aint no Project Runway, but it isn’t trying to be. It has been sniffed that America’s Next Top Model is “trash”—when illustrious fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld implied it in his comment that “Trash that is funny for five minutes if you’re with other people. If you’re alone, it’s not funny.”
That America’s Next Top Model will never produce a Gemma Ward-caliber supermodel is the basis for criticism by Lagerfeld and others, including an Allure mag writer who bemoans how America’s Next Top Model “hasn’t exactly produced any supermodels.”
Well, the last we fans checked, we found the show is not purporting to be America’s Next Top Supermodel…and most of us don’t watch just for laughs. (We have Seinfeld and Boston Legal for that.)
At least, I know I watch for another reason—
the design of the competitions. So it’s time to highlight the creativity of the writers (nodding, of course, to those many make-up artists, wardrobe and prop peeps and others who execute the competitions in all their unique panache).
Consider the most recent (“The Girl Who Punk’d Ashton,” airing Wednesday, October 18th) challenge: the girls were each dressed and made up to look like a celebrity couple, each model first taking on the persona of one celeb, then the celeb’s mate. The best of each shot was then merged into one couple shot.
The challenge required acting while embodying the likes of Beyonce and JayZ (Eugena), JLo and Marc Anthony (AJ), Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston (Jaeda), Ellen Degeneres and Portia de Rossi (Michelle), Oprah and Stedman (Anchal), Angelina and Brad (Caridee), Demi and Ashton (Amanda), Britney and K-Fed (Brooke), and Melania and the Trump (Melrose). The outcome was striking (Caridee looked exactly like Angelina), fun (Amanda nailed the Ashton and Demi to the point where the judges found her double shot most convincing), and even, yes, Karl, funny (Ashal’s Stedman was bizarre what with the oversized old man wig, etc.).
The writers have done the doubling thing in other episodes as well, creating beautiful dualities, or even empowering the modeling contestants to be less introverted, have more confidence, or trump up their game-play with some new facial expressions. There was the hot car and hot versus a more puritanical (? well, more demure?) shoot where the girls were 1940’s pinups, for example, posing the models in two different outfits and attitudes and melding the photos as if the Janus (not Janice, ahem) entities were in communication.
Survivor Cook Islands and Other Reality TV Blurring Away Fiction and Nonfiction Lines
Survivor Cook Islands and Other Reality TV Blurring Away Fiction and Nonfiction Lines by Roxanne McDonald
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It has come to our attention that now actors are appearing on reality TV shows. |
How pitiful is this?
We get wannabe stars on reality TV game shows all the time. This season on The Flavor of Love, for example, wannabe singing star Krazy was finally booted ‘cause she wasn’t there for her man but for a record deal. (Ironically, sort of, another reality TV player who didn’t necessarily show inclinations toward becoming famous, BuckWild, as soon as she took a stand against the return of New York and walked off the show, is now a co-announcer on Vh1 between shows, including The Flavor of Love.)
On multiple seasons of The Bachelor,
women were let go because it appeared that they (Jenna, Susan, and others) were there for their close-ups and not for the closeness of the spotlighted man. And even Jack Benza (not his real name) created a performing monster by doing everything the producers wanted and therefore getting asked back on some thirty-plus reality TV shows, has “acted” his way into reality TV history.
And those with such a wish most often do go on to do cameos, to join established shows, even host their own shows. Elisabeth Hasselbeck (with a most musical name, for starters), who strained and struggled and strategized on Survivor: Australian Outback (when she was Elisabeth Filarski), now co-hosts The View with Barbara Walters, Joy Behar, and Star Jones. Ant, the marginal comic on the second (or third?) season of Last Comic Standing does a lot of high profile “acting”, including bringing us “Ant’s Rant”; hosting and narrating (sounding a lot like Amazing Race’s narrator, Al Trautwig) Celebrity Fit Club; and commandeering the U.S. of ANT.
We know, too, that the “reality” of such engaging shows as Survivor is “edited”, shaped to be alluring, addictive, and controversial. Take anything out of its main context and turn it into juicy subtext, and you have all you need for good TV these days.
And we get the lion’s share of MGM and other big names appearing on what will now be forever known as celebreality shows, segments and vignettes and competitions feature everyone from Ted Lange of the original Love Boat series competing to get fit to Danny Bonaduce (need it be said he was the adorable drumming redhead on The Partridge Family—the only kid to have more wisecracks than the legendary comics of the time) starring in his own boxing match with himself.
Dancing with the Stars’ Sara Evans Leaves Due to Major Insult: Her Husband
Dancing with the Stars’ Sara Evans Leaves Due to Major Insult: Her Husband by Roxanne McDonald
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What a creepy resume this guy Craig Schelske has: verbally abusive, excessive drinker, adulterer, inappropriately sexual, unacceptable parent, spouse, and politician wrecks Evans’ opportunities for growth on one of America’s greatest shows. |
Methinks it’s about time to go Network on these disgusting, scummy guys.
First, a philandering, cheating, cuckolding freak deserves little more than a punishment that involves enforced submission to a dominatrix who will set him straight about respecting women, about prioritizing his selfish sexuality.
Next, to be obsessed with po/rn to the point where you have to have it at the risk of your children (ages 2, 5, and 7) walking into the room
where you are gruntingly autoerotically satisfying your selfish, greedy, lying self, you might…just might consider an SA meeting or two.
This relapse of activity and lapse of sense become obvious insults to the family values you fake upholding, but worse, your actions are testaments to how self-indulgent and disrespectful of family and humanity you are—to say nothing of how limited is your capacity for creativity. (For God’s sake, can you not go into the bathroom, lock the door, and fantasize in the shower if you have to have your way with your greedy self during the children’s waking hours?)
Granted, pornography is a given, a natural and acceptable element in many adult relationships. The material, when used appropriately (duh—with no kids around, for starters), is actually some hot supplemental stuff for many of us in our extended and evolving lives and lifestyles. But to have to do it by sacrificing your children’s innocence…. You aint no Abraham sacrificing Issac here.
And going online to solicit sex is not all that shocking or wrong, either. Except…you are married, you dolt. If you had and have the biological imperative to do the male thing and do as many sex partners as you can, fine, but be single, sane, and std-free, for chrissake.
And…if you are such a big politico, if you are so savvy, so smart and knowing, ya think you could even have figured out how to purge the history and records of your computer excursions? Hell, your seven year old could have taught you how to do that.
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