Daybreak - streaming free on the ABC Web Site!
Daybreak Is One Day I can See Over and Over Again
by Mike Liebner
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I must admit I am still miffed at why ABC has shut down Lost for a few months and replaced it’s time slot with Daybreak starring Taye Diggs. |
Lost is perhaps my favorite tv show and it seems that it had only just begun and boom – they take it off the air.
Well, since we all watch our tv shows on Tivo now (do you?) the time a series airs should have little if any impact on whether we will watch it or not. The determining factor is if we find out about a show in time to start watching it from the beginning. This is especially important for series that have continue story lines as it is much harder to jump in mid season to a show that already has a history behind it.
Daybreak has been pimped since the beginning of the Fall tv season and I must admit from the moment I had seen the commercials/trailers I knew I wanted to see this show. Since Tivo is generally only 14 days forward with schedules I only made a mental note of the show.
When Lost concluded with it’s Fall Finale (man that is so stupid – a Fall finale – give me a break) and the spot ran for Daybreak I went into Tivo and set it to record the debut episode.
Generally I will watch a show before adding a season pass to record all of it’s episodes. If the show sucks I simply do not watch it again. Sometimes I’ll give a show a second shot and try an additional episode (like Men In Trees which I ended up removing from the Tivo season pass).
Well, I watched the premiere episode of Daybreak and I was blown away! It handled all the possible plot problems and showed me how it was a viable concept that could sustain our interest week after week. (read more…)
Martha Stewart Begrudging Her Mini-Me?
Martha Stewart Begrudging Her Mini-Me? by Roxanne McDonald
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Martha Stewart has reportedly not let up on Rachael Ray since she learned Ray would have a show airing at the same time hers airs. |
Rachael Ray does popular cooking programs on the Food Network which include 30 Minute Meals, $40 a Day, Inside Dish, and Tasty Travels. Martha Stewart does The Martha Stewart Show, Martha Stewart Living (Magazine), and numerous other deals that have made or had made her home décor diva and queen of the country/couture cuisine kitchen. And methinks Martha might just protest a little too much:
She purportedly sent staffers to a Rachel Ray show taping in September of 2006. (The four were reportedly found out and booted.)
She also supposedly ragged on Ray for having the legendary Barry Manilow appear as a guest on a Rachael Ray episode that aired on ABC at the same time a Martha Stewart episode was airing on NBC and featuring…you guessed it…Barry Manilow.
Rather than realize and admit that there is plenty of love, er, money, to go around, Stewart gets enraged by the competition. Evidently, she is right to be concerned: according to TMZ.com and others, Ray’s nationally syndicated show (which started out as little features and short appearances that contributed to Rachael’s regional award-winning, acclaim, and accolades and extended into national fame) runs against Martha’s show, which is today “garner[ing] only so-so ratings….”
It may be time to acknowledge, accept, and admit, Martha, that it is time to pass down the crown. We know, you don’t want to, but, hey, uh, give.her.that.crown, now…. Come on, let go; you can do it.
Ugly Betty Has Competition: Phillip Swann’s HDTV Yearbook Superlatives
Ugly Betty Has Competition: Phillip Swann’s HDTV Yearbook Superlatives by Roxanne McDonald
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According to Phillip Swann of TVPredictions.com, the high-def picture makes some celebs among the “worst-looking” on TV. |
TMZ staff writers report the findings of the HDTV industry website, TVPredictions.com. Among the findings are those clarified by Phillip Swann, expert TV and technology analyst: Rosie O’Donnell wins the “worst looking” label, as the “crystal clear reception of HDTV,” which picks up “every line, wrinkle, and crevice on a stars face” makes her look, says Swann, “like she uses a Brillo pad [to wash her face].”
Howard Stern takes the second worst looking title, with Swann determining he appears as if to have endured the “worst abuse of a surgical scalpel since Jack the Ripper roamed the streets of London,” while the usually stunning Teri Hatcher gets the third anti-accolade for being “so thin [on HDTV] she could pass as a mother of four…,” whatever that means.
And with Britney looking ten years older than she is and Madonna having cheeks that are “more caved in than a West Virginia coal mine,” the stars of Hollywood, when showing up on HDTv may as well sign up for reality TV.
But let’s hope the public is savvy enough to not hope these great minds, comic, and talents give in and sign up for some plastic surgery or other (unless, like Rosie did on Nip/Tuck—and was brilliant at it–their characters do so).
The Biggest Loser Stays Real and Stays on for a 4th Season
The Biggest Loser Stays Real and Stays on for a 4th Season by Roxanne McDonald
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The Biggest Loser will not only stay on with a fourth season, but will continue to use realistic goals and activities to prompt weight-loss success. |
According to Zap2it, NBC has picked up The Biggest Loser four a fourth season (airing in 2007). Despite the shaky Wednesday night television schedule, The Biggest Loser has held up well in the ratings, as have the contestants.
As Zap2it reports NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly saying, “The producing team has come up with unique ways to keep the series fresh, and we anticipate the next cycle will continue to produce life-changing results for the contestants and jaw-dropping reveals for the viewers.”
The ways the contestants have to compete to win challenges and immunity are indeed fresh: tonight’s November 29, 2006th episode, for instance,
extends to the participants the reality of how much weigh they have lost and use that reality to challenge the remaining six: Jaron, Heather, Kai, Wylie, Adrian and Erik have to run a horse track (complete with an announcer yelling out their every moves)…with iron/metal weights the equivalent of what they have lost in fat thus far. This not only makes for good TV and a good, grueling challenge, but also keeps the remaining contestants vitally aware of how much weight they were carrying when they were overweight.
Further, I once read about and practiced the activity myself: at home with no gym equipment, I stuffed a backpack with sacks of flower and sugar and huge cans of veggies and fruits. This was when I had hit a wall in my weight loss regime, and the added junk forced my body to work harder and therefore to burn more calories as I did my usual power-walking workout—which I had been doing for almost a year.
Oprah Winfrey did a similar experiment. She towed lard/suet in a toy wagon out onto the stage. The pile of fat in the wagon represented how much she lost (then on Slim Fast, I think). The reminder is as real as one can get without actually putting the weight back on by overeating. Yay, then, for the reality of The Biggest Loser!
SirLinksAlot The Biggest Loser Links
Will the New Bachelor Break the Break-up Cycle?
Will the New Bachelor Break the Break-up Cycle? by Roxanne McDonald
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Can U.S. Navy Lieutenant Andy Baldwin, M.D. break up the break-up cycle? |
The new bachelor, who will appear on The Bachelor in the spring of 2007, is Andy Baldwin. He is a U.S. Navy lieutenant. He is an undersea medical officer. He is a world-class triathlete. And he, as all the other bachelors have proclaimed, is looking for true and everlasting love.
Will Baldwin have the balds (ahem) to do what the others haven’t been able to do—sustain a loving relationship with a woman found on a reality TV show?
Season 1’s Alex Michel couldn’t (or wouldn’t) do it: the handsome management consultant who played guinea pig for The Bachelor’s first season, really, was evidently not sure of whom he wanted. According to the NY Post, TV Guide, and Reality TV World, for starters, Michel “continued to carry a torch for Trista Rehn, though he gave the final rose to the younger Amanda Marsh. Michel also continued a clandestine relationship with Rehn. When Marsh found out about this, she dumped him. One down.
Season 2’s Aaron Buerge couldn’t (or wouldn’t) do it: the VP of a chain of family-owned banks was a bit callous in his choice of dumping grounds, breaking it off with fiancé Helene Eksterowicz at a Starbucks, an act which with many others was aired in a “tell-all” episode on ABC that same year (2003)—a show which was so hot and alluring it pulled more viewers than Survivor that night.
Season 3’s Andrew Firestone couldn’t do it - sales manager of Firestone Family estates had a decent run with his chosen Bachelorette, Jen Schefft, had an amicable breakup. Two months after they split (in 2004), Firestone was on business in Chicago (where Jen had returned when they parted)…and reportedly looked up Schefft. There was rumor they might reconcile, but…
eunited when Firestone visited Chicago to appear at the city’s Auto Show event. While in the Windy City, Firestone looked up Schefft (who moved back to Chicago from San Francisco after their relationship ended in December)
Season 4’s Bob Guiney couldn’t do it (directly): the entertaining and overweight contender on The Bachelorette (vying for Trish’s now utterly smitten heart) had lost weight, gotten lots of responses to his losing to Ryan White, and became the one who got away in a different sense. In the most controversial of seasons (or with the most controversial of choices), the creator of a mortgage company had given a “promise” ring to his chosen Estella Gardinier, but broke it all off with her—over the phone—after the couple attended Trish and Ryan’s wedding.
But Guiney was also seeking a music career and seeking that true love he had intimated was possible (wink-wink) in someone else: Rebecca Budig. Budig is now an actress starring on the ABC soap opera, All My Children, but earlier was the host of ABC’s The Bachelor: Aaron and Helene Tell All, the wrap-up show after The Bachelor 2, as well as of the ABC Family Channel rebroadcasts of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette – where, Reality TV Magazine reports, Bob met her, in January 2003, prior to committing to The Bachelor 4.
Season 5’s Jesse Palmer couldn’t do it: the then Giants’ quarterback had given his final rose to Jessica Bowlin, but within a few short months (by June of 2004) was saying to Extra, as reported by Reality TV Magazine, how “Jessica and I shared an incredible romantic journey on the show that began with a friendship that remains strong today. We simply realized that, individually, our next steps take us in different directions.” And according to his bride-not-to-be, “With too much distance and too little time these were not ideal circumstances in which to start a relationship.” Palmer went on to focus on his football and Bowlin to finish her law school studies.
American Idol Fans in for Triple Treat!
American Idol Fans in for Triple Treat! by Roxanne McDonald
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Not only do American Idol fans get the next season of showmanship soon, but they will also get to “smell” Simon—sort of—and maybe take a chance at Ruben Studdard’s new modeling gig. |
Like any pet television show that perpetuates its popularity with dolls, mugs, posters, books, and spin-offs (or castings of contestants in established shows and in movies), American Idol is doing its share of spreading the wealth (or enhancing it, for those involved with the show)…in a number of ways.
For instance, according to TMZ staff writers, who picked up on the story from the Brits, Simon Cowell is releasing a fragrance (for men, I am assuming). As TMZ reiterates what Cowell told British reporters,
“There’s this cologne I really like and it’s not very well known, so I’m thinking of partnering up with them and giving it my name.” So maybe Cowell is not releasing a new scent but just piggybacking on the renown of one—or allowing the cologne manufacturers to ride on his name….
Also, according to SirLinksAlot writers, “American Idol winner Ruben Studdard has set up his own modeling agency in his native Alabama in an effort to get more voluptuous girls in music videos.”
Evidently fed up with the gigs he does wherein he poses next to “skinny models in his promos,” the Velvet Teddybear wants not only to find some “real girls,” but wants to give the girls in his hometown opportunities they don’t normally get…”just”, he said, “to put some flavor in these videos.”
And the show that started it all, American Idol will be back in our homes and hearts starting January 16, 2007! Here’s hoping more Beaus, more McPhees, and more good stuff comes of the new season. American Idol 6.
SirLinksAlot American Idol Links
How Many of Us Hate Change—Especially When it Involves Our Hard Work of Cataloguing and Listing Favorite TV Channels?
How Many of Us Hate Change—Especially When it Involves Our Hard Work of Cataloguing and Listing Favorite TV Channels? by Roxanne McDonald
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What in hell has happened to my TV Listings? |
I am completely lost. This morning, as I always do when I first sit down at the computer to complete my rituals, which include writing out the TV show line-up for the day—I clicked on my HOME folder, clicked on the WATCH folder, clicked on the TV folder, and clicked on Y! Listings—Yahoo! TV. But I was taken to an “oops!” page, with some TV Listings Beta header, instead of the schedule of the day.
After re-loading the page and clicking around this newly formatted site, I realized that all of my saved info is gone into the refuse dumps of cyberspace, evidently.
My personally selected and added favorite channels are gone, the month, day, year, and time zone data is gone. The ritual of finding the shows I watch faithfully and/or those I watch to write to you about are also gone.
Besides that, what has taken place of my version of a most functional TV/movie guide is substituted with replications of what a hundred other TV sites are doing: the “News” section, for instance, features one single chat line, which is oddly repeated three times. So one can click on how great Lost is, three times. That’s it. No reports, no news writer interviews of celebs, no updates.
I concede that the Yahoo! TV Guide Listings was free—or at least it was to those who are SBC Yahoo subscribers (which I am). I also concede to the fact that SBC Yahoo! ISP and other constituents merged with or were bought out by AT&T, which I LOOOVE. But I cannot reconcile my coo-coo, ADD, quasi-obsessive-compulsive brain with having to re-search for, re-calibrate, re-categorize, and re-acclimate to another online TV guide.
More Info, Less Griping…about DTV
More Info, Less Griping…about DTV by Roxanne McDonald
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They are doing a DTV countdown, but are we, the consumer public, the ones who really should matter, ready? |
Okay, okay, ignorance is supposedly blissful, but in the case of how we will all be going digital, ignorance is actually miserable. But I found out that not only will we, the television-obsessed, not be forced to buy new TVs or new converters or what-have-you, but we also can learn about the nation-wide conversion from analog to digital broadcasting.
According to the FCC, “On February 18, 2009, full power television stations will stop analog broadcasting and transition to digital broadcasting.” Now, at first consideration, we would agree that since the new technology did not exist when we bought our TVs, which could be as recently as yesterday or a few hours ago, we do not have a DTV TV or any converter technology to go with it.
This means that if we do not also subscribe to cable or satellite service that we will “need either a [new] television set capable of receiving DTV programming, or a digital-to-analog converter box,” the latter of which will enable us to get a DTV signal on our non-DTV (analog) TVs.So we don’t have to buy yet another plasma wall screen but can instead hit the participating retail stores where digital-to-analog converter boxes will be available [in retail stores during the transition].
But before complaining about yet another enforced expense on already bulging budgets, know that according to the FCC, “The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce is developing rules that will allow households to obtain coupons that can be applied toward the purchase of digital-to-analog converter boxes.”
Check out the very clearly detailed (surprisingly easy to understand) info at FCC’s site, http://www.dtv.gov/ — where you can read up on everything from FAQs to definitions; or go directly to the source for information on the Digital-to-Analog Converter Box Assistance Program at NTIA (National Telecommunications and Information Administration), where you can read up on NTIA’s FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions).
Who Do You Lo-ove, Prince Lorenzo?
Who Do You Lo-ove, Prince Lorenzo? by Roxanne McDonald
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After much apparent vacillating, Lorenzo chose his princess. But the question on many minds is will it last? |
Prince Lorenzo was adorable in his indecision on the final episode of The Bachelor: Rome. He told the cameras (and the viewers) that he had no idea what he was going to do, then that he was pretty confident he was choosing the “right” one, then that when he woke up on the morning of the Final Rose Ceremony that he was once again stumped and that he “…decided about two hours before the final Rose Ceremony” between Jen, the twenty-four year old school teacher from Pembroke Pines, Florida and Sadie, the twenty-three year old publicist from Carlsbad, California.
It was, he said to reporters later (according to Steve Rogers of Reality TV World),
a “difficult decision because I had strong feelings for both Jen and Sadie…I felt a little stronger with Jen just because I thought we had more chemistry. I was trying to find faults with both of them and it was almost impossible but I knew I had to make a decision and it was just that I felt a little closer to Jen and that’s why I went with what I was feeling at the time.”
Again, all the bachelors on all seasons are depicted as being mentally and emotionally (and maybe even spiritually) torn—for that makes for “good” TV, but Lorenzo was particularly adorable, having that kind of dumbfounded look and jamming his hands into his pants’ pockets and meandering on the grounds and fretting and all….
But also, Lorenzo did not technically propose to Jen. He started out with the delivery of his professions of love (he loves “everything” about her), then presented the ring with the slow and deliberate words, “This…is…a…ring….” He continued when he got his bearings, of course, explaining how his mother helped design it, etc…but also clarified the meaning of the ring not as an engagement ring but as a “family ring” that evidently Jen still wore on her engagement ring finger….
Also according to Rogers, the prince offered a good, simple explanation for that, saying “I didn’t have a necklace on me or a string but I mean it is a ring so you should put it on a finger and so I decided to put it on Jen’s finger, and obviously before I did I wanted her to understand why I was putting it on her finger and what it meant but she’s got it on her finger right now and I think that’s what you do with a ring.”
He sure does have a tactful way with words. Hmmmm.
Do We Now Have to Buy New TVs? Fork over MORE Money?
Do We Now Have to Buy New TVs? Fork over More Money? by Roxanne McDonald
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Who decided on this new kind of television, when did we vote on it, and what do we do now…with our very expensive, recently-purchased sets? |
I just finished watching Francois Truffaut’s directorial version of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 (mostly for the last ten minutes wherein each person has become a book), and noted how the futuristic TV was quite a prophetic item on Bradbury’s part. Not only is it huge, it is also to some degree interactive—which, thought up by Bradbury in 1950, anticipated the internet, really.
But also eerily similar to what we revere today, the TV was a social imperative: in fact, at one point in the story, Montag’s fire captain says, “Oh, you just have the one wall screen,” shaming Montag.
We now are faced with a similar shame, or obligation:
there’s some buzz on the news, on the net, that we are going to have to cough up more money—again—for yet another corporate creation. Broadcasting is shifting to digital television, and using technology that would require a (mandatory) broadcast digital television (DTV) tuner in every TV…or in every new TV.
Or this is what I thought, what I feared, and what I was prepared to bitch and moan about to anyone who would listen.
Bitches about The Bachelor
Bitches about The Bachelor by Roxanne McDonald
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We have to agree that reality TV is better when the gentle and polite get caught on camera swearing and swatting bugs. |
I would have to agree with Maya Schechter, writing for TV Guide how The Bachelor would be “so much better if we saw the ‘real’ footage we’re supposed to be seeing on a reality show.”
It has long been determined (originally by Desmond Morris, I think) that if a camera is pointed at the person, he or she will act differently. We also know that the “cast” of The Bachelor: Rome are for the most part posturing for the camera,
for the other people on the show, and for us. Hell, even snooty, sooty, thinks- she’s-a-queen Erica is putting on an act. And, of course, Lorenzo, who no doubt is gentile in “real” life, is keeping up appearances with his exquisite manners and all.
But when The Bachelor: Rome Reunion airs and we see the slips, slurps, bloopers, and boo-boos, we are wont to say, “Hey! Why not give us more of the spitting, seething, swearing, and swatting…why not give us the host sticking a broom between his legs and saying how that’s a real woody…more often than once a season as filler until the finale?
The stalling of the reunion show coming before the finale is already an aggravating occurrence. How about listening to Ms. Schechter and other television aficionados and reformat—starting with making reality TV reality TV again?
SirLinksAlot The Bachelor Links
O.J. Simpson: We Don’t Want You on our TVs!
O.J. Simpson: We Don’t Want You on our TVs! by Roxanne McDonald
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O.J. is kidding, right? He really doesn’t think we would sympathize with, let alone watch (or read), a premise that begins IF I DID IT…, does he? |
FOX TV planned a book and a TV show special titled O.J. Simpson: If I Did It, Here’s How It Happened. What the?
Here’s this guy who had over a hundred pieces of circumstantial and other evidence pointing to his killing Nicole. The shoes, the knife, the gloves, the cuts, the sweats, the neighbors, etc., etc..
Here’s this guy fleeing in a Bronco with cops dogging him. Here’s this guy who gets off and then wants to salt the still open wounds by flaunting the—ahem— hypothetical details. Here’s this buffoon who expects to get paid for doing so.
And here we are, still pissed, still disgusted, and still not approving of his marketing strategies. But someone else agrees that whatever your inane motives—money, needling, return to celebrity—you are not to be rewarded in any way for your vile (albeit acquitted) acts: According to TMZ, TV Guide, and others, Chairman and CEO of FOX News Corporation, Rupert Murdoch commented that he and senior management “agree with the American public that this was an ill-considered project;” and he went on to admit that they “are sorry for any pain this has caused the families of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown-Simpson.”
So, yes, there you go murderer, right out the back door of FOX studios—as they have pulled the plug on both projects. Don’t let the blood-stained door hit you yet again in the ass that you are.
Reading between the Lines: Rosie O’Donnell versus Kelly Ripa
Reading between the Lines: Rosie O’Donnell versus Kelly Ripa by Roxanne McDonald
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Which interpretation do we go with? Was Ripa making an anti-gay jab or is Rosie misunderstanding her down-home humor? |
TMZ.com reports how Kelly Ripa and Clay Aiken were co-hosting her show; Aiken at one point put his hand over her mouth in jest; and Ripa sniped, “I don’t know where that hand has been.”
Rosie O’Donnell, queen of clean comedy, was on The View, chastising Ripa for making such a “homophobic” remark. Reportedly, O’Donnell continued by suggesting that if Kelly was co-hosting with a straight guy, a cute guy, or, even, Mario Lopez, the comment would not have been made.
But way before pc and homosexuality,
the peeps down on the farm were using this cutesy little comeback. “I don’t know where that hand has been” was right up there with, for example, “You kiss your mother with that mouth?” and “You don’t know your ass from your elbow.”
Maybe Ripa was implying something more “homophobic”. Then again, the typically ditsy persona she puts on, one who makes typically innocuous comments of less than intellectual substance, may have just been using an old—a very old—pejorative remark that Rosie took to have deeper implications….
Now, if you want to see a real catfight, wait and see what goes down between Erica (the coo-coo contestant booted from the Bachelor who thinks she’s all that) and Ripa (who let it rip about how snotty, snobby, and socially inane Erica is).
“Kramer” Gone Coo-Coo, but How about if the Hecklers Take Some Responsibility? … Uhhhohh, Yeah!
“Kramer” Gone Coo-Coo, but How about if the Hecklers Take Some Responsibility? … Uhhhohh, Yeah!
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What the hell got into Richards to make him lose his nut that way?Was it his doppelganger? And who would that evil twin be, really, Kramer or Richards? |
I’ll tell you what got into or to him to make him start hurling invectives…including the “n” word. Hecklers. The insidious, insipid, intrepid absurd ass—-s whom teachers and comics alike find part of the job but painfully so: the big mouthed buffoon who thinks he is class clown, or competing comic, or bigger authority, that’s who.
According to TMZ, LBN, NBC, ABC, CBS, and probably CNN any minute now, Michael Richards, aka Cosmo Kramer of the best TV show to ever come and go, Seinfeld, was performing onstage at West Hollywood’s Laugh Factory.
“Kyle Doss, an African-American, told TMZ he and some friends were in the cheap seats and he was playfully [my italics] heckling Richards when suddenly, the comedian lost it.”
Hecklers suck.
And what the hell are hecklers good for, anyway? Who in their right minds pays money to see a celebrity comic (one much bigger and better at comedy than the hecklers to begin with), and then spends that time doing all the talking/interrupting?
This isn’t the Shakespearean era, where you go with your flagon of ale and your pile of chestnuts and interact with the performers as you drop your nut shells, swill your beer, and piss right where you are standing.
The hecklers claim they were tossing out some “innocent” remarks. But I can only imagine that for a seasoned and much-adored performer like Richards (for many of us our favorite show is Seinfeld and our favorite character is and always will be Kramer) had to have been more than burdened by the heckling. The heckling must have gone on and on and on–intrusively, invasively, distractingly….
And what about respect for the other patrons? You do realize, you pains in the ass, that they paid to see and hear Richards, not Kyle Doss. Kyle Doss. Who in the hell is that?
Oh, he is the new Rodney King, apparently, for once the news hit that Richards lost it and starting hurling that most controversial of racial epithets—one which many are allowed to use and many others are not, by the way—the Black/African American newscasters, pundits, social scientists, politicians, and others had to start discussing the consequences and contradictions and complications of being black, being a heckler, being called a n—, etc., etc., etc., blah, blah, blah…. (read more…)
Reinventing Doogie–Again
Reinventing Doogie–Again by Roxanne McDonald
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He was a genius at eight, had a job as a doctor, and was keeping his EQ up with his IQ in a then futuristic electronic journal. Then he segued to being a playah business exec. Then he was known as the latest to be outed as gay. And? |
From Doogie Howser (a character ahead of his time in a show ahead of its time) to Barney Stinson on How I Met Your Mother (which has mildly marginal moments of funny), the actor Neil Patrick Harris has been high-profile all along. His sexual orientation has as well.
He has been asked to offer truths about his
choices/ orientation. He has dodged and ducked. And now Harris has offered the answer many have speculated (a bit too nosily) about.
According to television critic Doug Elfman, in an article in the Chicago-Sun Times, the speculation was finally satisfied by a statement to PerezHilton.com: Harris stated that he is, Elfman passes on, “a happy gay man.”
But just as Elfman so smartly asks, so what? His roles are well-played, and he made his post-modern persona work in his favor all these years. In fact, some of his best work is involved in the movie Elfman also cites, wherein he plays a cranked-up, coked-out, oversexed nutcase who gets the final laugh–as Harold (John Cho), in Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, asks, stunned and stopped in his tracks way out in some back woods area, “Did Doogie Howser just steal my f*&^ing car?”
He steals our hearts and ransoms them for laughs. That’s all we need to worry about, k?
Keep TV Funny, Too–PLEASE
Keep TV Funny, Too–PLEASE by Roxanne McDonald
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Guilty pleasures include as many re-runs of Scrubs as your TiVo will hold. But how will other comedy and comedy in general hold up for those preferring TV over Internet castings? |
Guilty pleasures include as many re-runs of Scrubs as your TiVo will hold. But how will other comedy and comedy in general hold up for those preferring TV over Internet castings?
My friends and I always confess our latest or longest-running passions for television nobody really admits to being obsessed with. The other day,
I sheepishly commented on having become re-addicted to Scrubs; much to my delight, my buddy said he TiVos every episode, too.
What we agreed makes Scrubs so amazingly witty are a number of elements, such as the unique characterizations, the screwball bits, and the voiceover narrations that deliver tight storyline complete with moralistic tear-jerking observation at the close of each episode.
But what also makes the show stand out and over other comedies (Like Seinfeld) is the remarkably brilliant writing. How the creator(s) know the medicine, cover technique, and bring realism to the many articulate and bright characters (and dialogue) is right up there with the realistic frat boy (and girl) behavior meets uppity prodegy we don’t get to directly witness in a real hospital but are made privy to in this stunning and still fresh behind the scenes setting/comedy.
Bill Lawrence, the brains behind Scrubs, gave an interview to TV Guide, wherein he reminds us that Scrubs—like the few other addictive comedies—is challenged by the networks to the point where they are not scheduled, are cancelled, or are relegated to re-runs on more obscure channels.
“The young folks,” he concedes, now watch their comedy online—if they are so inclined.
But where does that leave those of us who still enjoy climbing in bed, taking with us the Butter Brickle ice cream, and delighting in the thirty minutes of sardonic, silly, so-what antics and attitudes of characters we will only ever get to know this well on our big screens?
Julia is Gone from Nip/Tuck!
Julia is Gone from Nip/Tuck! by Roxanne McDonald
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Actress Joely Richardson has had to leave Nip/Tuck, so Julia has of course left her family—or what’s left of it. |
If you saw the futuristic episode of Nip/Tuck, with Conor and Annie grown and fussing at a reunion dinner with retiring Sean, polygamous Christian (two wives is legal), and Doctor Matt, you saw that a grown Conor revealed to his therapist that his Mom left his Dad when he was still a baby (about six months old). You then can infer that it was likely over the clawed hands, Sean wanting to operate immediately and Julia wanting to wait, or over Julia having slept with Marlowe and Sean having done the original nanny.
And some of you are griping about the aesthetic options made on the part of the show’s creator, Ryan Murphy.
One writer, for instance, bitches about how the futuristic scenes make for cheesy, hacky drama (see Tim Stack’s article, “Future Schlock”).
But I’m thinking that the future-tripping episode functioned quite well on many levels: we get to see the unique kinds of technology in Murphy’s vision—like the phone chips imbedded in people’s heads that they access with a touch to the temple. We get to see a really great development of Annie (played by the adorable Jennifer Elise Cox), who is agoraphobic, anorexic, and apoplectic over her parents’ neglect and who gets into trouble with the law, smokes, and rags on her aging and appropriately tired-looking parents, saying that this is what they get in a daughter who was psychologically warped, so “deal”. And we get to witness the departure and the reasons for the departure of Julia.
Actually, we understand that with Julia having left Sean twice before, that her taking off a third and final time makes sense, especially after she explains the mess the family has become because of the toxic nature of Sean’s business. Julia is the whiniest, and we might be glad to see her off.
I Really Wanna Know…What Do You Ask Nip/Tuck Actors?
I Really Wanna Know…What Do You Ask Nip/Tuck Actors? by Roxanne McDonald
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As per the interactivity efforts of a number of shows, Nip/Tuck actors take turn answering fan questions. But what do you ask? |
A few weeks back, you could post a question at the FX interactive fancast section to Joely Richardson (Julia), then to Ryan Murphy the absolutely brilliant—we’re not worthy!—creator of Nip/Tuck), Julian McMahon (Christian), and others…. This week you can “talk to” Dylan Walsh (Sean)!
But how do you avoid babbling, blubbering, bungling your rare chance to get close to the wings of the genii? How do you avoid asking whether Annie goes to school or has a tutor, or if Matt takes lessons from mentors on or off the show, or if Dr. Liz is gay in real life, or if Peter Dinkle (Marlowe) feels somehow redeemed in the best-played “little person” role ever?
I am in love with Julian McMahon and have been since he
was Cole on Charmed (the only reason I tuned in to Nip/Tuck to begin with), so what would I ask? I am profoundly taken by his acting technique, which has his character(s) showing passion, love, rage, egotism, solitude, desperation, and disappointment (and many other emotions and states) in a myriad of facial rather than vocal/tonal or bodily gestures.
His performing skills are so subtle, so acutely on point that I could ask a technical question, but have no knowledge of character acting versus Stanislavski versus…well, you get the idea, so I wouldn’t elicit a response I would get anyway.
So do I ask, “Do you miss being the ruler of the underworld?” Does he look like he misses it?
Or, could try to get more intimate than a stalker should be allowed, and ask whether he is as well-endowed as his character purportedly is. (Hey. A girl can dream.)
Or, I could ask any number of obvious, been asked a zillion times questions, such as, “Are you like your character? Well, he is a hottie who makes the show sizzle and pop every time the camera is on his naked backside, but he is also so good an actor that his emotions play almost all in the eyes…so yes, he likely gets the women and might even scare the piss out of them when he gets pissed. Just one look in his angry eyes, for instance, and you would so snap to his every whim and wish, if you aren’t already seduced by his sensuality and self-centered stoicism. Oh, wait…. That’s Christian. See how easy it is to get the characters confused?
Dancing with the Stars Finale Outcome Predicted by AOL Astrologer
Dancing with the Stars Finale Outcome Predicted by AOL Astrologer by Roxanne McDonald
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Who will win Dancing with the Stars—the Taurus, the Libra, or the other Taurus? |
TMZ.com found the answer to the above question by tapping the astrological prowess of one Jeff Jawer, expert for AOL Horoscopes.
Joey Lawrence, Mario Lopez, and Emmitt Smith are left to vie for the prize in what promises to be a tight competition on November 15th—and while we fans have our votes
ready and our money down, astrology points to other possibilities.
According to TMZ’s report, Jawer notes that Joey Lawrence could go the lengths of the ballroom dance floor due to his Taurean consistency, but could also impact the outcome with nerves, which is typical for those with a Mars in Cancer (the moody sign, to say the least).
Jawer discusses how Emmitt Smith is also a Taurus, continues TMZ, but has the “power and grace” that an alignment of Venus and Aries at birth have given him.
Then the odd astrological sign out—though by no means the odd man out—Mario the Libra also has the grace, along with the “style”, the gift of “surprise”, and the knack for “smoothly spectacular moves, says Jawer, according to TMZ, and adding that on Wednesday, November 15th, Venus and Jupiter will be joined leading the astrologer to guesstimate that Emmitt will…”eke out a close victory over Mario.”
I would love to see Emmitt take the cup, for he has consistently and quietly practiced his way into technique and entertaining movement, even though the other two, the pretty boys, the cutey patooteys (as Rosie O might say) are damned stiff competition.
I wonder, do fan prayers count?
SirLinksAlot Dancing with the Stars Links
CSI Miami Still Pulling Viewers from Studio 60
CSI Miami Still Pulling Viewers from Studio 60 by Roxanne McDonald
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TMZ Studio 60 lovers are quite dismayed by CSI:Miami’s higher viewer ratings. |
In a plea for viewers for the new Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, TMZ staffers run a cheeky but impassioned plea to their readers to watch the show that is written by the same guy who did West Wing and boasts the great Matthew Perry, still funny as Matt Albie.
TMZ humorously laments how “a world where CSI: Miami does double the viewership than Studio 60 is not a world worth living in.” But despite the overkill of re-runs showing CSI on A & E, risking the redundancy even watch-to-the- death fans like myself get a little tired of,
CSI:Miami still has the elements of a more than mildly interesting TV show.
CSI: Miami travels the edges of the lines between run-of-the-mill but addictive crime TV and stunning, compelling filmic art: It has the lighting, the shadowing, the special effects. It has the drama and dialogue that work together to deliver more than, say, a merely plot-driven, fairly unidimensional show like Columbo or The Mod Squad. And it features actors who somehow transcend their roles as typical cops and lawyers and bad guys. There’s some thinking involved. There are tough but tender moments in every episode.
The only thing missing (not that the producers/writers didn’t intend to leave it out anyway) is the humor. We leave that to Boston Legal. Oops. Sorry, TMZ. We leave that to Matthew Perry and Studio 60. If the viewer numbers are still low, either people have not found enough redeemable elements, haven’t caught on as you all have,…or they haven’t yet figured out how to work their TiVos.
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