Fish TV Reviews

Couple of TV reviews-For the 2011 season, a "Dancing With the Stars" update as well as what will turn out to be the best season ever for "Celebrity Apprentice". Also, a former Desperate Housewife turns Medical Examiner in "Body of Proof".

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”Dancing With the Stars” 2011-Will It Be the Karate Kid of the Pittsburgh Steeler?
Link to ABC site for this show

It’s a great year so far for this ABC favorite. While the dances are the main focus, of course, it’s the celebrities, such as they are, that are the stuff of intrigue.

This year the season began with the question of whether Christine O’Donnell, the Mike Castle spoiler of the past mid-term November 2010 elections, should dance. She chose not to because, well I don’t know why. She will be putting out a book soon and she swears she has two left feet.

With that intrigue settled, some of the other contenders were interesting.

Kirstie Alley is a dancer. Kirstie’s a big woman, we all know that. It was quite embarrassing when the effort to hold onto her bulk during a dance dip early in the season caused her partner to fall for the load was too much. His partner gamely took the blame but let’s get real; Kirstie was a bit much to hold while dipping and bowing.

Still Kirstie’s doing a pretty good job and she’s hanging in there.

Wendy Williams, a talk show host with boobs out to here and then some, now long gone, was quite the interest. She was hardly a shrinking violet but she was hardly a dancer of any greatness either.

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For the obligatory “senior citizen” type we had Sugar Ray Leonard, who was quite good, personable and enjoyable to watch. A 70 year old type will never win this thing but you need one dancer like this for us older viewers.

The ones to watch seem to be Ralph Macchio, yeah, the former “wax on, wax off” Karate Kid. Macchio’s young enough to move without bother of cracking knees, he’s thin enough to move swiftly and fluidly, and he seems to have a knack for moving his feet.

Himes Ward is the obligatory sports guy this season and he’s another one to watch. Football players always astonish me in that they are often amongst the best dancers. There must be something about football requiring smooth movement and fancy footwork, much like the dance, in fact.

The obligatory youthful Chelsea Kane is also doing very well and she’s the female contender to beat. Goodness, the girl is a child, a Disney star, natch, as ABC is owned by Disney.

Finally a dark horse to watch would be Romeo…yeah, that’s his name. His father had evidently been on DWS oncit although I don’t know who his father was. Romeo got some bad reviews by the judges but he’s one who’s making a great comeback. There’s one on every DWS season.

My guess for the winner? Chelsea Kane…first. Macchio-second….Himes…third.

I am almost always wrong when I do such predictions.
Below, a video snippet from the ABC show’s web site.

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”Body of Proof”-a Former Desperate Housewife Becomes a Medical Examiner
ABC web site for this series.

Dana Delany once lived on Wisteria Lane. Now she lives in Philadelphia where she cuts, probes and examines dead bodies that they reveal how they died and how the details of their deaths will lead to their killers.

So okay, “Body of Proof” is a typical cop type of show, whereby in 40 minutes or so the protagonist must figure out who the victim is, how the hell he or she ended up dead, investigate all the possible perps to end at about that 39th minute with the identity of the perp which will surprise the viewer all to hell.

It’s pro forma but some do it better than others, some characters have a more interesting background story, some storylines are more believable.

As for “Body of Proof”, well first, Delany is a very good actress. She was quite good on “Desperate Housewives” so her move to her own show did not surprise me.

Delany’s character, Megan Hunt, was once a well-respected, vaunted surgeon before an auto accident took away her hands’ ability to perform the delicate movements required of serious surgery. Somewhere along the way Dr. Hunt became estranged from her pre-teen daughter, so much so that Hunt’s ex-husband has custody of the girl.

I do like the show as the time seems right for a Medical Examiner type of show. Last ME show I recall was Quincy the ME .

There’s been and continues to be endless “Law and Order” type shows. An investigative show from the viewpoint of a Medical Examiner is different enough in this day and age to capture an audience.

Dr. Hunt’s relationship with her young daughter should attract female viewers. Sure, all the cop shows have insights into the lives of the investigators but on “Body of Proof” we have a story of a woman who lost custody of her daughter and her struggle to regain her daughter’s love and trust. It’s a great idea, really.

The story lines have been, so far, believable. Hunt’s quite the character. She runs up against her co-workers –fellow medicos and sleuths. In the end, everyone kisses and makes up.

I think this series will be successful. It doesn’t have that kind of long-term success appeal like, say, a “Law and Order”, but it should last for a season or two. It entertains, informs and captures the audience attention.

What more could one want from a TV series?

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”Celebrity Apprentice”-Best Season Ever for More Reasons Than the Content
NBC Site for this Series

Normally I’d insert the obligatory smirk about Donald Trump’s hair. This year, however, things are mighty different.

First, the teams used for both the women’s team-A.S.A.P. and the men’s team-Backbone- are quite an interesting group. The female team has two very strong members-Star Jones and NeNe Leakes. Jones has a reputation as a bossy, take-charge kind of candidate and NeNe is no shrinking violet.

Then there’s La Toya Jackson, Dionne Warwick, and Marlee Matlin, amongst others, who provide tension and entertainment.

The men’s team, as of this writing down to only three, was also quite the group. Gary Busey could have been a show unto himself. John Rich provides the voice of sanity and reason while singer Meatloaf provides a little bit of screaming and a little bit of intrigue. Lil John is a bit of an oddball, an amusing one, while survivor star Richard Hatch provided plenty of story lines.

In short, it’s been quite an enjoyable Celebrity Apprentice season as of this writing on 4.26.11. It’s easy to predict the winner as it’s plain as the writing on the wall, more on this later.

For now, hey, how about The Donald and his upcoming presidential campaign? Even more amusing, how about how he got Obamer to produce that birth certificate thing?

I don’t think for one minute that Trump’s going to run for President. If he does, I’ll have to really give it some deep thought. Trump doesn’t strike me as the brightest bulb in the lamp. Further, I think he’s very liberal, hardly anybody’s idea of a Conservative.

But I do like the way The Donald’s refused to allow the sycophant media and the ill-mannered Obamer set his agenda. He says things I’d love to hear come from, say, a John Boehner.

I do think Trump’s amusing actions are to promote this very show of which I write. And, indeed, “The Celebrity Apprentice” is quite the successful show, especially this year.

The contenders make this series and this season we have Gary Busey, Meatloaf, Star Jones and NeNe Leakes. Busey is a basket case, Meatloaf has a temper, Star Jones is known far and wide for her bossiness and NeNe Leakes, perhaps not as well known as Jones but quite obvious upon watching the first episode, is one to fight should the need arise.

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Like Joan Rivers before her, it’s very obvious that Star Jones is going to win this thing. I don’t know how The Donald has this show scripted, but his formula is very obvious. He gets a very strong personality, one who tends to alienate and dominate his or her team mates. Like all reality shows, you need some tension and conflict to keep the viewers intrigued. It takes a rather loud and bossy contender to achieve this. I think, in return for playing the part of the “bad guy”, Trump agrees to let this chosen one win the grand prize.

Evidence of my theory above was very obvious in the most recent episode as of this writing-4/28/11. Star Jones was Project Manager for the task of creating a brochure to promote the Trump hotel group. While both teams did badly, the women’s team performed the poorest.

Star was in charge of everything on that task. At the board meeting her team crowed about how organized and diligent Star was. The ladies of A.S.A.P. were convinced that under the leadership of almighty Star Jones they were going to walk away with the victory.

It was just the weirdest thing. Any manager with a brain to rattle around in his or her skull would have given Star the boot. There was not a single team member who committed any major error that caused the loss. The disapproval of the females’ presentation stemmed from the very concept, the very unoriginal idea, the snooty butler with white cloth draped over arm, the fancy flowers. The judges thought is was a snooze of a presentation.

In fact, the men’s team, dear Lord, they forgot to put the phone contact or the web site to contact the Trump organization AND STILL THE MEN WON!

Goes to show how awful bad the women’s presentation was.

It was the sort of error caused by poor management, the sort of bad work that should be laid squarely at the feet of the Project Manager.

And it looked like this was going to happen. Except suddenly, in a complete twist, LATOYA JACKSON ended up getting fired. Gentle talking LaToya, who is no ball of brain fire, true, but she’s the last person on the team to have caused that colossal failure.

Something to do with future tasks, as Trump mumbled. I saw it as part of the scripting. The viewer by now probably knows that Star Jones is a serious contender for this thing. This episode teased the viewer by having him or her think that Jones’ victory might not be so certain. “How can she possibly get out of this?” the viewer would ostensibly consider, while sitting on the edge of the seat.

As for the men…John Rich consistently provides the voice of quiet reasonableness. He’d be a likely winner but again, Trump likes the Joan Rivers types.

And he’s got it with a Star Jones.

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Bachelorette Spring 2011

2011-05-01T15:25:00.000-07:00

TV Reviews: "American Idol 2011"; "The Bachelor 2011" Grand Finale

2011-03-24T14:28:00.000-07:00

In TV we’ve got a lookover of the 2011 American Idol contenders, a prediction on the top five, and some critiques of the judges even.

Couldn’t resist a final visit to “The Bachelor” because it looks like Brad Womack struck out again.

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American Idol 2011-Solidly Underway-Winner Predicted Here!

I did, once, have an entire Blog devoted solely to American Idol, HERE.

I stopped right before I went in for my open heart surgery the year David Archuletta did not win, as I had wrongly predicted.

In fact, in the interest of fair and balanced, I’ve never successfully predicted an American Idol winner. Thus I shall now introduce the top 11 as of this writing-3/21/11, in the order as I prefer.

#11-Jacob Lusk-has a deep impressive voice. No stage presence, no particular genre

#10-Naima Adedapo-I’m reluctant to put her in the top ten and she might not make it. Horrible fashion sense, dresses in bolts of fabric, screams, does not sing

#9-Paul McDonald-Rod Stewart wannabe. Does a good job of it though. Still, not likely to do well with any other songs but Rod Stewart types.

#8-Stefano Langone-just not top five material

#7-Haley Reinhart-Haley’s should count her lucky stars she’s made it this far. She’d been eliminated twice before the final. If she makes the top ten then good on her.

#6-This Megia-good voice, pretty, just not enough oomph to beat out her competition.

#5-Casey Abrams-big guy, big voice. Health issues might fell him. He’s a rocker type, top five material

#4-Pia Toscano-has it all, looks, presence, great voice. Can’t beat the winners as I predict but top five all around material

#3-James Durbin-good rocker, would win if American Idol was the sort to nominate rocker types

#2-Lauren Alaina-toss up between her and Scotty to win this thing. Lauren’s a youngster, only 16, but she’s got it all, magnificent voice, stage presence…entertainer to her core.

#1-Scotty McCreery-Scotty has the best natural voice by far of all the contenders this year. But he’s strictly country-western and nothing else. American Idol tolerates CW singers but they’ve got hurdles.

Now a word about those judges. I really can’t stand Jennifer Lopez. For the most part she’s nice enough but she, well she just doesn’t seem up to the task. Further, by me Lopez isn’t all that talented to be judging the talents of others. That last video of hers, hyped mercilessly on AI, is simply awful, her voice is electronically enhanced. Frankly the worst of this year’s contenders for American Idol sings better than Lopez.

Stephen Tyler? Dear Lord, this man needs to be somewhere where’s he kept safe. He’s downright disgusting in his interaction with the female contenders. And not a word of his critiques makes any sense.

I’m glad Randy Jackson’s still around. He’s the best of the judges, most personable, and encouraging where deserved.

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The Bachelor 2011-Brad Womack Strikes Out Again

My Bachelor Blog

ABC Web Site for this show

I just don’t know how many times this guy is going to get a chance to be the handsome hunk offered up to a bevy of beautiful women to be their one and only. The first time Womack was “star” of the series he shocked everyone by choosing NOBODY to be his bride.

This time the viewing audience is assured that Brad’s a changed man, that he has a therapist, that he’s really, REALLY, looking for the love his life.

Well yeah I know it’s highly unlikely to find the love of your life on a show such as this ABC offering. Nobody sane thinks it’s even remotely real, at least in terms of the scripted scenes to add viewing drama. The Bachelor or Bachelorette often does meet someone that they “like” and there’ve been a couple of marriages from this series. The vast majority of the match-ups on this show go nowhere. There’s logistical distance to deal with in addition to a return to a mundane life when the show ends.

I just don’t know what the producer’s of this series were thinking when they brought Womack back. Although I suppose there was a new angle as Womack so shocked the viewing audience the last time he starred.

I only go over this series again as I’d just covered it in my Blog post in early February, here HERE

It’s just that now that the series is over, BRAD FAILS AGAIN!

For Womack picked Emily, a beautiful young woman who once loved a race car driver who died tragically in an airplane crash.

Though I know The Bachelor interactions are scripted, it was obvious, to me at least, that Brad was very much smitten with Emily.

In the finale to this year’s show, “After the Final Rose”, Emily and Brad appeared together for the first time after Brad proposed to Emily.

“Brad has a bit of a temper” is how Emily phrased it.

This romance looks like it’s going nowhere quick.

Dental student Ashley is scheduled to be the next Bachelorette.

Let’s hope that’s the end of Brad Womack. He’s vapid, boring, vain and he’s had his fifteen minutes, TWICE.

Brad, go back to therapy and go find yourself a wife. It doesn’t look like it’s going to be Emily.

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TLC's "What Not to Wear"; Jeopardy's Watson

2011-03-01T15:21:00.000-08:00

For TV, we review a silly, but somewhat truthful, fashion show-TLC's "What Not to Wear". Also, some commentary on Jeopardy's Watson.

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TLC’s “What Not to Wear”

TLC web site for this show.

So Stacey and Clinton barge into an unsuspecting person’s life every week, give her a prepaid credit card with $5,000 on it, go through the “victim’s” wardrobe, critiquing and finally throwing all ugly/unfashionable items within into the trash.

Hey, makeover fashion shows are like that. For it only takes about fifteen minutes for the Big Reveal. The rest of an hour’s got to be filled with something.

But of course one must like fashion type shows to even get to a point of finding this show on the upper cable channels and I am one such person. These sorts of shows are the absolute best for multi-tasking cause almost half the time is taken up with silly commercials, another twenty minutes is filled with activity not requiring the sort of concentration that, say, and episode of “24” might require.

Sometimes I sit and read a book while watching these sort of fluff shows, raising my eyes to a passing concentration during those times when Clinton is earnestly explaining to a fashion disaster why a nice form-fitting cropped jacket with a loose flowing blouse would look much better than the garish thing with big pink polka dots the fashion victim might be currently sporting.

It’s not the stuff of serious but as I figure, I watch plenty of grave TV, including all Sunday political talk shows and Fox news most of the other time. At times I gotta give the ole brain a rest and these sorts of shows are just the ticket.

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Although, I must state here, “What Not to Wear” can be a learning experience, I suggest softly.

Because name me someone who doesn’t care how they look, who wears ugly and un-matching without a proper thought applied, who declares that “comfortable is more important than fashion”…and I’ll show you a big slob bucket.

If what you wear had no affect on anything, why ever have a dress code? Why dress up for a job interview? Why ever comb your damn hair?

Like most everything else in life, it’s all a matter of degree.

For I’ll never be convinced that extremely pointed toed shoes as Stacey London prefers is a requirement for proper fashion and Clinton? Well right there you gotta wonder what’s with a guy getting all involved with how women dress. I’m just sayin’.

In the end of the show, as with most of these shows, be they fashion or home décor, comes the Big Reveal. The fashion victim, along with buying an entirely new wardrobe of appropriately fitting and classier clothes, the target is given a complete hair transformation as well as a makeup application that changes her appearance entirely.

Stacey and Clinton stand proudly as their fashion student enters the room three different times, each time wearing a different stylish outfit. The made over fashion victim then stands before a full length mirror as Stacey and Clinton point out the wisdom of this blouse and the punch of that accessory.

The fashion victim then returns home to her friends and family who nominated her, wearing a smashing new outfit, sparkling and sophisticated accessories, sporting a new hairstyle with artfully applied makeup. She enters the room to a dramatic gasp of the people in her world.

There’s always a bit of pathos in these fashion victim’s lives, added because a)there are true stories that affect how we dress and b)it makes the show have a bit more gravitas. Often the fashion victim has successfully recovered from a cancer bout. Often they are busy Moms with almost no time to take care of themselves in terms of dress and fashion care. You’ve never seen so many females sob on a fashion show, insert smile here.

“What Not to Wear” is the crown jewel of fashion shows. Indeed both Stacey and Clinton have had spin-off types of shows and Stacey is shown in many commercials featuring fashion and/or fashion comfort.

It’s a good show, I quite enjoy it, and someday I have every intention of nominating my daughter for just such a fashion makeover.

Jeopardy’s Watson

Jeopardy Web site HERE
I am a devoted Jeopardy aficionado, not that I’m proud of this and not that I am all that good at it. I do track my running score and I average around 20 correct answers on the entire board. Remembering please that as a TV viewer I’m not subject to the quickness of the buzzer and I don’t deduct for incorrect answers I may give.

I’ve also, twice now, taken the online Jeopardy quiz and never heard a word from them.

Heh.

Still, husband and I have quite enjoyed the new competitor, Monsieur Watson.

It’s absolutely amazing how well Watson has done. Those IBM programmers had to put their hearts and soul into programming that thing.

Still, Watson’s made a couple of boo-boos that aptly illustrate his…eh…”non-humanness”.

First, what Watson DOES and for which he can’t be beat, is buzz that buzzer faster than human thumbs are able. Saw Ken Jennings on Fox one morning and he said that the human hand simply can’t buzz that thing as fast as Watson, even though, get this, Watson IS hooked up to some kind of thumb mechanism and uses the Jeopardy buzzer just like the human players.

My biggest Watson laugh came with the question “What are members of the same graduating group in school called?” Myself shouted out “alumnae” but that was wrong. Watson answers, get this…CHIC! The correct answer was CLASS. Get it? CLASSy people are often considered quite CHIC. Come on, smile here. A human being would never even consider guessing that the noun for all graduating members of a senior level in school as a CHIC. What the hell is a CHIC? The programmers need to teach Watson the difference between a noun and an adjective I’m thinking here.

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Watson also got a bit confused and thought that Toronto was an American city. Also, when Watson got a Daily Double. Heh. Watson bet some kind of el strango amount like $1,239.58. Which is perfectly legal but humans tend to make things easier and bet rounder sorts of amounts.

Finally, the question was about a famous Olympic athlete and a major distinguishing physical feature. Ken Jennings managed to beat Watson to the buzzer and said “What is a missing leg?” This was a wrong answer. Watson buzzed in, heh, and its answer was “What is leg?”

I don’t know what Watson was thinking but Trebak chastised Watson as this was, one supposes, already guessed by Jennings.

I doubt we’ll ever have to worry about a phalanx of Watsons taking over the world. If they do, be prepared to have your children graduate in a CHIC and all money amounts from tips to lotteries will be calculated to 1/100th of a penny.

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Revs: "Worst Cook in America","The Bachelor","Harry's Law".

2011-02-13T14:42:00.000-08:00

TV-Reviews-"Worst Cook in America"-worst cooking show in America, "The Bachelor"-loser Brad Womack returns,"Harry's Law"-what happens when liberals write TV shows.

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"Worst Cook In America"-Possibly the Dumbest Cooking Show...EVER!

Food Network Link for this Show

First of all, Anne Burrell and Robert Irvine are the worst cooks on Food Network. Which is my opinion, of course, and let's remember that personality is part of the equation when rating TV cooks we invite into our homes. Anne Burrell strikes me as someone who would snap off your head should she be having a bad day.

Robert Irvine comes off as a big galoot of a fellow and I'm not convinced he's any great cook worthy of my TV concentration.

Neither is an Emeril Lagasse is what I'm saying here.

But hey, this sort of thing is purely a subjective type of thing so it's hardly any reason for me to be prejudiced against Food Network's silly offering of "The Worst Cook in America".

First, I don't believe it.

Seriously...you think the genuinely WORST cooks in America would even apply for such a title? The truly WORST cooks are those who have never lifted a spatula and who likely never heard of Food Network and even if they had, not likely to tune in to learn that which they don't much care to learn.

It seems to me to be a faulty premise, disingenuous if yon reader would allow. The concept of a poor or untrained cook striving somehow to rise to a more experienced, even semi-professional level, strikes me as more believable. In short, I think the candidates who apply for a slot on this show are much like me, a mostly average, sometimes above-average, type of home cook, who would like to become a bit more upscale in terms of food preparation, who might enjoy some training by a professional.

And I'd hardly count myself among that pitiful cadre considered the worst cooks in America.

Still and so, the title does draw attention and that's the intent I suspect.

Second, I really can't stand Chef Anne's hair. Heh. By me, she wants to look a much more personable former Food Network Star, Guy Fieri.

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As of this writing I've watched four or five episodes of this show. The format is the sort usually followed by these cooking contest type of shows. There's often a quick, down and dirty cooking chore, something as simple as frying an egg perhaps. The winner of that challenge might get some special advantage at a later, bigger and grander challenge. At the end of the episode, the worst contender is sent home.

I chuckle as just who do you send home in a series known as the WORST cook in America, and who, exactly is the winner? Is the WORST contender the winner of the challenge in keeping with the name? Or is the BEST of the WORST the episode's winner?

The ultimate result in this contest is that one of the alleged worst cooks will be presenting a meal to a panel of famed Chefs. The meal will be presented under the name of the "winning" worst cook's tutor, ie either Anne Burrell or Robert Irvine.

It gets complicated.

There hasn't been a single episode of this show to hold my attention in any fashion. One would think that the lessons these bad cooks are learning would be right at my learning level. However, Anne and Robert have these poor apprentices learning how to stuff squid and prepare home made sausage. I daresay bad cooks probably never stuffed a squid or a sausage and will probably never again in the future.

It's hardly the sort of food preparation given to really bad cooks, another reason this show is so boring.

I'm a fan of cooking show contests, watching Bravo's "Top Chef" with intrigue. And, in fact, the Food Network has the best of the best cooking shows, it's "The Next Food Network Star".

Link to my Blog on "Next Food Network Star"

The contenders on this reality show are scripted to show their "woe is me" side as best as possible to the viewing audience but it simply does not ring true.

Sorry Anne and Robert….give it another try. This show is just so fake as to bore me silly.

Brad Womack Returns to the Bachelor

ABC's Link for this show

Link to Clicker's Bachelor series to watch online.

Let's get this out of the way. ABC's "The Bachelor/Bachelorette" series is probably one of the shallowest, most vapid reality shows on TV.

For reasons that defy my logic, I do quite like to watch this show and even had, once upon a time, an entire Blog devoted to this series.

My bachelor blog below
My "The Bachelor" Blog

While I might not be as devoted as I once was, I still tune in whenever there is a new series.

My enjoyment of the show has several levels. First, shows like this, along the lines of, say, "Big Brother", are reality shows, true, but they are very scripted. Perhaps it's the fiction writer in me, but I am amused by the dialogue of the script, by the lengths the producers must go to keep the show somehow believable, to somehow work in some advertising, to fool us viewers into thinking that this fellow about to pick his dream woman from over 25 beauties never looks at a breast and he loves them all, considers them all "amazing" women.

We are also to be fooled into thinking that these women all living together in the same house all are dear friends and have no problems with sharing the dream guy on group dates.

Finally, we are to believe that the humiliation of being publicly rejected is worth this chance to be on TV, this chance to be a star.

Well hey, maybe it is worth it. IT's part of why I watch it. I want to see how they script the lines to have us somehow believe that this very abnormal dating relationship is somehow, eh, normal...somehow it's okay.

Wait, some might say. Those girls all vying for the Bachelor-du-jour's attention are NOT friends. In fact, there are often many cat fights.

Well, yes. But whatever REAL feud's there may be behind the scenes, the ones that become part of the weekly drama are very scripted affairs. The viewers MUST have a contender villain to root against. It's usually someone all the other contenders are on to while the Bachelor/Bachelorette does not have a clue. One year it was some country-western fellow who revealed to his house mates that he didn't care about the Bachelorette, that he only wanted exposure for his own career.

The viewers then become entranced by the ongoing story, as week after week the naïve Bachelorette keeps giving the bad guy a rose, to our collective exasperation.

It's a little reality soap opera is what I'm saying here.

Further, this is a show I can watch while reading a book, crocheting, even talking on the phone! It doesn't require a lot of concentration is what I'm saying here. As a multi-tasking type of person, I prefer TV shows that don't require that I hurt my brain concentrating on the action. Besides, with the miracle of DVR, if I miss something during my multi-task, I can always rewind, God Bless America.

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So this year ABC brings back the notorious Brad Womack.

I must suppose there are not enough good-looking, buff-bodied eligible Bachelors in America that ABC had to bring back a Bachelor who went through the entire process of finding his dream lady, only to walk off in the end, rejecting ALL of the proffered ladies, none of them, evidently, good enough for Brad.

Hey, it was a unique story line. Half of America was furious with Brad Womack the morning after he turned down both Deanna and Jennie, slinking off, alone and unengaged. The other half of America lead normal lives and don't watch such tripe.

This Winter 2011 season of "The Bachelor", we have Brad Womack back. THIS time, he swears, he's "cured", he got psychological help, he really means it this time. After this season's "The Bachelor", he will have found his wife.

Well damn, I'm game. It's as good a story line as any.

Coincidentally, in my own Bachelor Blog, I covered the first Brad Womack season extensively. I'll reveal now that Brad has an identical twin brother, who helped him narrow down his female choices during the last Brad season. In addition, I think had Brad's REAL problem figured out after the last Brad season.

The links are below.

Hint, I think Brad Womack's psychotherapist, featured prominently as part of this season's script (what legitimate psychotherapist would endorse, much less participate, in such a bastardization of the love evolution as is depicted on "The Bachelor/Bachelorette" series?)….I think this "psychotherapist fellow might be a co-member of that organization that has members calling on each other when the urgent need for help requires.

Below, Brad's identical twin brother
From my Bachelor Blog, Brad Womack's identical twin brother.

Below-Brad's drinking problem
My guess as to Brad Womack's REAL problem based on his last Bachelor appearance.

“Harry’s Law”-What Happens When a Liberal Writes a TV Series!

NBC Site for this Series

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The very first casualty of NBC’s new offering starring Kathy Bates is, as is in all cases liberal, THE TRUTH!

Don’t believe me? Below, NBC’s own web site got the storyline all wrong.

At the top of her game and bored to tears, lawyer Harry Korn quits her cushy job to find a whole new way of life.

Below, a synopsis of the series from the same site:.

Harriet "Harry" Korn (Kathy Bates, "Misery," "About Schmidt") doesn't believe things happen for a reason, but she discovers that they sometimes do. A curmudgeonly ex-patent lawyer, Harry is abruptly fired from her blue chip law firm, forcing her to search for a fresh start. She finds it when her world unexpectedly collides, literally, with Malcolm Davies (Aml Ameen, "Kidulthood"), a kind-hearted college student who desperately needs Harry's help with his pending court case, and he subsequently goes to work for her.

So which is it? Was she fired or did she quit?

Now normally this sort of thing would not be worth my time except at a little past the half way mark I finally had to turn this show OFF because it got to be nuts. Yes even before Bates’ character, Harry, launched into her lies about Rush Limbaugh I was giving the whole thing the shrugging hand because it was so damn unbelievable.

Harry is a former patent lawyer who, according to the show, was FIRED from her former job but see above, the NBC web site seems confused. Get this. She’s walking down the street and all of a sudden a body falls out of the sky on top of her. It was a young man trying to commit suicide but Harry happened to be, heh, at the right place at the right time, so that the young man’s jump from six stories above was for naught.

Later, Harry is walking down the street, steps off of a curb, and is hit head on by another fellow. Harry lives through this, with a little help from a nurse in the hospital ER who can’t believe Harry’s good luck.

All three of these characters somehow get together to form a business, the guy driving the car took a leave of absence from his job to help out the woman he injured (Harry), the nurse at the hospital is so impressed by Harry’s longevity she comes along as an Assistant, and the guy who fell from the skies on top of Harry, after the court course, too becomes part of the legal team.

At sometime during the show, as these oddly congregated types set up desks and the office, a nasty fellow shows up in the ghetto where Harry is setting up her law office. This guy demands “protection” money from Harry. Harry shows him a gun (odd, for a liberal) but agrees to legally represent him in the future in return for some of his proffered “protection”.

Ok, so far it’s kind of an innocent, if not far-fetched, TV series. I quite enjoy law shows and hospital shows and so do lots of other Americans, witness the plethora of them on the TV screens.

But the stories of Harry’s protector and the would-be suicide victim are so stupid as to boggle even the dumbest of us out here in TV land.

The suicide guy, as it would turn out, was trying to end his life as he was facing jail time for his third….read that again…THIRD possession of cocaine. Not the first, not the second, the THIRD. He knew he would get jail time and he wanted to end it all.

Since he’s already fallen on Harry, he begged her to be his lawyer, unbelievable plot line one. With what was this guy going to pay Harry, not that the fee was ever mentioned because liberals don’t worry about stuff like money.? Of course the fee was never mentioned. The young man pleaded with Harry that he was really a good guy, pay no attention to those three cocaine possession, and if he could only get another chance he’d go straight.

The NEXT DAY Harry’s in court representing this guy, not that court cases take time or anything, but Harry’s got a big job and she’s got to do some serious legal trickery to get her guy off.

Meanwhile, the guy driving the car who hit Harry now works for her. He gets a call from the “protector” to come quick, he needs some of that legal help. Harry’s co-lawyer runs down the street and the protector is standing over a body, a guy bleeding all over a Chinese restaurant. The car character runs in to help stem the bleeding of this guy as the protector frantically calls 911 for help.

Later we find out that this ghetto guy with the protection racket was really only saving lots of lives cause the guy he shot was trying to rob the Chinese restaurant. The protector gets all soft for a gun-toting and shooting ghetto thug and tells Harry’s young legal assistant that he’s really a good guy, God knows how many lives he saved cause that robber might have killed lots of people.

I had to rub my eyeballs for from time to time I write fiction and I’d laugh myself off my chair if I ever penned something so damn dumb.

So Harry and her assistant have to save the suicide guy and the ghetto protector who would save the world and this is when Harry launched into her spiel about Rush Limbaugh that finally had me turn the channel because how many lies and ridiculous assertions do these writers think us boobs are going to buy?

I’m not sure why Harry decided to use Rush Limbaugh in a soliloquy in defense of the suicide guy, but it went something like “We all know Rush Limbaugh was addicted to oxycotin but he got help for his addiction. He also managed to stay out of jail, unlike (insert suicide guy’s name) here”.

Say what?

Now Rush Limbaugh was once addicted to Oxytocin but he put himself into a rehab clinic. And there was NEVER any attempt to put Rush in jail, not that the truth matters to a liberal or anything.

There was just NO connection of this fictional suicide guy and his third conviction for cocaine possession to Rush Limbaugh and his brief addiction to Oxytocin…none whatsoever.

But liberal Harry, played by Kathy Bates, somehow got her suicide guy off because hey, why should Rush Limbaugh go free when her fine, fine young man here, who’s already had TWO chances let’s us remind, will be punished for his crime?

I flipped the channel because this week I’m a bit sick of these liberals and their silly finger-pointing at everyone else for crimes they and theirs commit. I don’t know what happened to that saint ghetto protector guy who saved so many lives by shooting someone and I don’t care.

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Review-ABC's "Private Practice", "Grey's Anatomy"

2011-01-20T15:29:00.000-08:00

TV Review-"Grey's Anatomy", "Private Practice". One's a bit captivating, one is a story about basically nothing. Both are medial and might keep a viewer's interest.

Pic of the Day

TV-Review-Grey's Anatomy/Private Practice

We review TWO TV shows in this review. First, they are both on the same night, and second, they are both medical type of shows.

"Grey's Anatomy", ABC Site for this show HERE, is a series based on a bunch of medical types working in a hospital known as Mercy-Grace or some such. This show is very much about the many characters on this show, and make no mistake, "Grey's Anatomy" has more characters than most any other show on TV today.

Below, just a FEW of the characters and the actor playing the part.
Alex Karev Justin Chambers
Cristina Yang Sandra Oh
Miranda Bailey Chandra Wilson
Derek Shepherd Patrick Dempsey
Meredith Grey Ellen Pompeo
Richard Webber James Pickens Jr
Callie Torres Sara Ramirez
Marc Sloan Eric Dane

I have mixed emotions about medical type shows. Although they are very popular shows, combining high drama with medical intrigue. "Grey's Anatomy" takes the medical show one level higher in that the actual medicos are very much part of the story.

The doctors and nurses are always, of course, part of the story but never on any level as in this show. The likes of "Ben Casey" and "Dr. Kildaire" might have centered around the doctors but usually as to how they interacted with the patients. "Grey's Anatomy" has all these medical types and we've got all kinds of drama, sleeping together, sleeping with others, married, divorcing, Alzenheimers and last season, one dramatic episode that had a disgruntled husband of a former patient come into the hospital and methodically shoot at a whole bunch of people, killing some, severely wounding others, traumatizing all.

THAT was quite a show and this year the psychological ramifications of this episode continue on.

Miranda Bailey is probably the most colorful character in this series, the part is very well acted. Bailey is a surgeon at GA's hospital and she's a no-nonsense, tough-as-nails, tender-as-clouds kind of person. Dr. Shepherd, played by Patrick Dempsey, is the dreamy doctor we'd all love to administer to our wounds. Dempsey won a best looking person of the year type of award recently.

Of course there is, as there always has to be in any ongoing series, a homosexual angle. In GA we have Calle Torres who is in lesbian love with another GA doctor type who left to go minister to little African children but returned in the last episode I watched before this writing. Torres, played by Sarah Ramirez, is a big nothing burger of a character, not attractive in any sense of the word, not colorful, not much of nothing except she who will sleep with most anyone, male or female, doesn't matter, all for a bit part of the storyline that adds nothing to the story.

Cristina Yang, played by Sandra Oh, is a good character in the series and Oh plays it well. Yang was very traumatized by the assault on GA's hospital and so far this year there's been endless storylines involving Yang and her inability to function medically for her horrid memories of that incident.

Seriously, it's a good story, but to the writers of Grey's Anatomy, time to move on.

I do quite like Grey's Anatomy, love the many characters on the series, like the storylines if they'd get rid of all the lesbian nonsense, love how the stories of the patients are artfully interwoven with the stories of the medicos.

It's a great, well-written, well-acted series and I urge yon readers to sit down and watch an episode or two if you haven't already.

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”Private Practice”-A Medical Show With No Discernible Story Line

ABC’s link for this show.

So okay, the show is about a bunch of physician types who opened up a private practice. But beyond this, well hey, the characters are interesting, there’s the underlying medical stories, everyone at some point has slept with everyone. So far there’s no homosexual storyline but give it time.

The character stories are interesting; it keeps my attention. There’s even a carry-over from this story to “Grey’s Anatomy” in that Addison, the practice’s OB/GYN, was once married to Dr. Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey). The stories aren’t all that unique or riveting. A new viewer would need to watch a couple of times before getting into it is what I’m saying here.

Currently there’s an ongoing story of a doctor who was raped on the show. Writers tend to wear down these sorts of stories to death but we, finally, have resolution to this female’s distress.

I enjoy this series but am not convinced that it’s any great piece of medical drama.

The bigger bulk of this show’s appeal is it’s schedule placement right after “Grey’s Anatomy”.

And, so far, no homosexual story line. “Grey’s Anatomy” has enough of that.

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Reviews-Sarah Palin's Alaska,The Good Wife,The Apprentice 2010

2010-12-01T14:25:00.000-08:00

Reviews of this year’s “The Apprentice” and “The Good Wife” along with a Dance/Stars update. Plus “Sarah Palin’s Alaska”.

Pic of the Day

”Sarah Palin’s Alaska”

Link to Web Site for this series.

Seriously folks, let’s begin with Hank Steuver, a Washington Post TV reviewer who, I’ll not mince words here, really needs to get laid.

Perhaps as he smokes his cigarette and is mellow he could then tune in to TLC’s “Sarah Palin’s Alaska” and not be so full of spite and hate. Not to mention describing events in the show that never happened.

First the title of his review on 11/10/10 “So many reasons to watch show, so few insights”…really Hank, no insights, no insights at all? A closeup of a fissure in an actual glacier and this isn’t an insight? Hank, you call Palin a “fruit bat”…dear Lord, Hank, go at it again with the wife. You need to calm down.

Hank then describes, well I don’t know what he’s describing but the words written: “The hapless camper whom taxpayers have to rescue at great expense after she loses her Verizon signal and gets hopelessly disoriented”. Help me out here Hank, just WHERE on the first show you are reviewing did this happen?

In further description of the show, you describe Sarah as “a woman who fancies herself as something of a nature enthusiast who wants to take advantage of the short-but-sweet Alaskan summer.” Why, Hank, does Sarah Palin only “fancy” herself as a nature enthusiast? By this viewer, who must have watched a different show than you, Sarah Palin is definitely a nature enthusiast and does go to great lengths to enjoy the short lived Alaskan summer. I so assert this because, well, first, she said she is a nature enthusiast and spent a lot of time out in, well, nature….go with me Hank. She also mentioned the short Alaskan summers and how the family seeks to spend many of their waking hours outdoors and during much of the show she, and her family, are, indeed, outdoors, stay with me here Hank.

Palin Derangement Syndrome is already cresting to a mighty wave and dear Lord by 2012, when Palin runs against Obama and beats him like a drum, one must assume that folks like Hank will be safely institutionalized lest they kill their loved ones and cut off all their hair.

I’m not normally a big fan of nature shows but “Sarah Palin’s Alaska” managed to keep my attention for the hour it was on. This was because, well I do like Sarah Palin and I was curious. I am also interested in Alaska, again this is mainly due to Sarah Palin and how she praises the state she so obviously loves, a fact I learned as I read her book ”Going Rogue”-review here.

In fact the days as of this writing here in the swamps of Delaware are getting increasingly short. While our winters are somewhat mild here along the coast, winter does bring darker days and I tend to get…dark. I can’t imagine living many months in total darkness, cannot imagine.

As I pointed out to Hank of the Palin Derangement Syndrome, there is much of intrigue to even my own self, an admitted nature show NON-afficiando. The fissures in the glacier, for example, fascinated me. I’d never seen such a thing. It was interesting, too, how the glacier climbers had to rope themselves together lest one fall haplessly down a glacier fissure, never to get out for lack of tethering to another human. Gee, you think if I learned something new at age 60 that there might be insights on this show.

There is a bit of a reality type of air about the show but it isn’t overdone. Palin shows us her home-made studio where she communicates with Fox. We see her working at her desk, argue with her children, deal with familial matters, wrestle with nosy neighbors. But it’s no “At Home With the Kardashians”, don’t let the nuts like Hank tell you this.

The look into the home life of the Palins is brief, non-intrusive, yet informative, somewhat fascinating. For here is a woman who, by a mere Facebook entry, can scare Obamer to death, who managed to hypnotize half the country into voting for her daughter on Dancing With the Stars, who has once normal folks like Hank frothing at the mouth and writing silly lies upon command. Yet her house looks fairly normal, hardly a mansion. I think perhaps this is Sarah’s intent but please don’t tell Hank I said this. Any notion that Sarah Palin might be considering a run for President scares PDS sufferers to an awful state.

In “Sarah Palin’s Alaska”, the viewers is treated to aerial views of that intriguing state, to close-up fights of grizzlies, to a variety of little known but fascinating facts about this state most of us mainlanders know so little about.

I think it’s a timely and very informative bit of television, offered, of course, by The Learning Channel. Again, don’t tell Hank, but the show is attracting viewers in the millions, man this upsets the PDS sufferers all to hell.

Spend some time watching this show, folks, DVR it. It’s worth the time and you’ll learn a thing or two.

And don’t forget to vote for Sarah Palin in 2012!

”The Good Wife”

Web site link for this show.

Julianna Margulies was once the star of the popular series “ER”. She now plays the part of Alicia Florrick on CBS’ “The Good Wife”.

I decided to do a review of this show because hey, I thought it was a new offering. Further research has me discovering this series has been on since 2009.

Below, a truncated description of the series’ basis from the linked site above.

¬THE GOOD WIFE is a drama starring Emmy Award winner Julianna Margulies as a wife and mother who boldly assumes full responsibility for her family and re-enters the workforce after her husband's very public sex and political corruption scandal lands him in jail. Pushing aside the betrayal and public humiliation caused by her husband, Peter, Alicia Florrick starts over by pursuing her original career as a defense attorney.

Below, the show’s actors/charlacters:

Julianna Margulies ... Alicia Florrick (41 episodes, 2009-2011)
Matt Czuchry ... Cary Agos (41 episodes, 2009-2011)
Archie Panjabi ... Kalinda Sharma (41 episodes, 2009-2011)
Josh Charles ... Will Gardner (41 episodes, 2009-2011)
Christine Baranski ... Diane Lockhart (41 episodes, 2009-2011)
Chris Noth ... Peter Florrick (25 episodes, 2009-2010)
Makenzie Vega ... Grace Florrick (23 episodes, 2009-2010)
Graham Phillips ... Zach Florrick (19 episodes, 2009-2010)

My first comment on this series is that I didn’t think Marguilies was a very good actress on ER and I don’t think she’s a very good actress on this series either.

Mostly what Marguilies does is…well she just “looks”. Maybe you hadda be there, but it’s like when anything dramatic, surprising or sudden happens in the plot line, the camera pans to Marguillies and just focus’ on her face. Her face, meanwhile, doesn’t break into a smile, a grimace, a scowl, nothing.

The woman does have striking blue eyes. I’m thinking maybe the producers think it’s enough to focus on her face, which of course includes those eyes, and the viewer will be mesmerized in a fashion. I’m sitting in the chair wanting to pelt the woman, tell her to move her lips, raise her eyebrows, ANYTHING.

As memory serves, she had the same sort of non-acting technique in ER.

That being said, there are some really good characters on this series that manage, along with Marguiles’ blue eyes, to make this a very entertaining series.

The night I tuned in for a review the guest star was Michael Fox. Fox is suffering from Parkinson’s disease and it’s a shame. In the plot line of the story in which he starred, he played an opposing attorney who used his disease as part of his defense. Marguillies was leading her firm’s lawsuit against a drug manufacturer who produced a drug that allegedly made the plaintiff’s mother commit suicide.

It appears that Fox, who played a wonderful and entertaining part on this show but is really a liberal dolt, is on medicine that really goes a long way in controlling his symptoms. For sure he had major tics and twitches, as that terrible disease does bring about, but he seems to function very well, much better than victims of Parkingson’s disease of times past could function for the glory of American medicine.

There is a bevy of various characters working in Marguiles law firm. I’d also suggest that this show must have a bang up group of writers. The plot lines are always interesting, make good use of the characters and always managed to end the show with an amusing twist.

At times, as required, the show will glom on the relationship of the main character and her daughter. Again, close ups of Marguiles’ icey blue eyes are the main emotion she displays but it must be.

I would strongly recommend this series for its good writing. I put it in my DVR for repeat taping such was my surprise enjoyment.

As for Michael Fox, damn, they ought to find a permanent spot for him on this series. He was very good.

The Apprentice 2010

NBC Web Site for this series

I think Clint and Liza are the finalists for this series and by the time of this posting a winner will likely already have been determined. I say I “think” because the NBC web site for this series, hey, you’d think they’d have big pictures of the two finalists, grand banners promoting the finale, perhaps a game or two to guess who wins.

I have watched every single episode in this contest, which I was glad to have come back. My DVR, a Comcast thing, tends to cut off the end of shows, I’m not at all sure way. This is the time, however, when those who are to be fired are, in fact, fired. I note that the ending time of many shows is , example, 9:01 pm”. If I am taping two shows at once, something I am rightfully allowed to do and pay for the privelage, if a program doesn’t finish until the minute “01” and another one begins on the minute-“00”, well it messes things up. Someday I shall call Comcast and find out why this is so.

I know Stephanie got fired from the team of Liza and Stephanie. The NBC site did have a video featuring Steuart getting fired, so the text goes, and I was quite surprised. Steuart got fired during my DVR’s “01” moment. Goodness, Clint and Steuart won that last task handily and I was assuming Trump would have these two be the finalists. Lord knows Trump disliked Liza enough, as I did for the child showed pretty much zero talent as any kind of upstanding entrepreneur. All along I thought Clint would be in the final and as of this writing, two days before the finale, I predict he will win.

Evidently Trump wanted a final matchup between a male and a female or he thought Steuart, a handsome, personable fellow, to be a bit too young.

Trump used the desultory economy as reason to bring back this formerly popular reality show. There’ve been several variations of this show, including a disasterous one with Martha Stewart taking Trump’s place as She Who Must Be Pleased. The Donald did what he’s most famous for, he got out in public and blamed Martha for the failure, very loudly, traitorously, no class at all.

I kind of like the series with Stewart at the helm but it’s no matter. Fact is The Apprentice as a reality series had grown tired and that’s life. Trump did do another thing he often does, which is to blatantly copy another show, in this case “The Celebrity Apprentice”, a reality show still running and quite successful.

It remains to be seen if The Apprentice come again will catch on with the public. The basis of this version of the show is that all contenders were once happening, smart and hip entrepreneurs who now suffer either outright failure or greatly ailing businesses, all due to the economy and through no fault of their own.

The candidates on this version of the show are all good choices, ranging in age from early 20’s to early 40’s. They do seem bright, eager, smart. In this series, Trump arranges interviews with those candidates who he deems worth a look-see. The interviews are with CEO’s of other large companies. Whether or not that individual eventually gets a job at the company for which they interviewed is not clear. It’s like everything else on The Apprentice…subliminal advertising for a company or product.

Not that there’s anything wrong with this.

Candidate Clint seems an ideal winner for this series. He’s a family man, he’s ran economically profitable businesses, he’s friendly, personable, has good leadership qualities.

As to the question of whether The Apprentice will survive this effort to make a mighty comeback, well my daughter watches it. She’s a former Apprentice afficiando. I watched it and liked it. I’d watch it again.

But it’s a tottering economy, unpredictable. We shall see.

Gilles Marin-A Dancing Boob

I did write a review of this year’s “Dancing With the Stars”, HERE. This reality series is one of my faves. I was so wrong on my choice of winner and yes, I’d never have given Bristol Palin a chance to be in the final three. I did praise her efforts, however, and by me the way it ended was probably fair.

With all the kerfluffle over Bristol Palin, somebody contacted a former second place winner, Gilles Marini, now on ABC’s “Brothers and Sisters”, for his opinion.

Now Mr. Marini is a handsome dude and he was, of course, a very good dancer. His acting’s not half bad although his stardom is based more on his looks than his ability to carry a feature film.

Please, Gilles, stick to acting and dancing. NOBODY wants to see two guys dancing on this series. OR two girls either, frankly. Perhaps a spin-off from the show although I really doubt it. Part of the beauty of the dance is having male and female, each with distinctive parts. Get two of the same sex dancing and what you have is PORN, not an intriguing reality show.

"I would love to see same-sex dancing," our pal Gilles Marini said last night at the premiere of Disney's new animated Rapunzel musical movie, Tangled. "I've seen it. It's pretty intense."
He added, "For guys, two girls dancing? Hello! And two guys dancing" I'm sure a lot of people would like to see that, too."
Marini, who came in second place when he competed in DWTS' eighth season, also thinks it may be time for a change in the voting process because of Bristol Palin. "I'm sure the Republicans are out there saying vote for her because that is good publicity for us," he said. "They don't care if she can dance.
"They should do 75 percent of the vote from the judges and 25 percent from the viewers. Right now, it could become a farce. I don't want the show to be a farce."

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Reviews-The 2010 "Hell's Kitchen" Saga; the NEW "Hawaii 5-0"

2010-11-14T15:08:00.000-08:00

A review of this year’s “Hell’s Kitchen” competition. It will the last time I shall review or watch the show. Read the review to find out why.

Also, a review of the 2010 version of “Hawaii 5-0”. There are some changes as the passage time would require. Still it’s got the flavor and vibe of the old Steve McGarrett and his partner Danny.

Pic of the Day

Hell’s Kitchen-A Quick Look

Fox’s web site for this show

Search of all THIS Blog’s entries for this show, prior seasons.

I won’t bother to say much about this cooking series because, frankly folks, if you’ve seen one episode of Chef Ramsey cussing out a bunch of scared chefs then you’ve pretty much seen them all.

Oh there’s some variation. At times Ramsey might take a plate of food and throw it in the trash. The most recent episode, leading up to the final Six Chefs in contention, had Ramsey rather cruelly demanding errant chefs to leave the kitchen. I was mortified for those young people and not at all impressed by Ramsey and his silly melodrama to show what a mean but loving taskmaster he can be.

James Lukanik
Scott Leibfried
Andi Van Willigan
Vinny Accardi, Jr
Antonia Boregman
Raj Brandston
Sabrina Brimhall
Lewis Curtis
Melissa Doney
Jillian Flathers
Russell Kook
Emily Kutchins
Lisa LaFranca
Rob McCue
Trev McGrath
Gail Novenario
Boris Poleschuk
Louis Repucci
Nona Sivley

I do think that Russell Kook will win this year’s award as he’s the only one so far not to be excoriated to the point of tears.

Beyond this, unless Ramsey and those producers come up with something better than what they’re currently offering, I’ll only NOT review the show again, I’ll not watch it.

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Hawaii 5-0

IMDB site for this show

Below, a synopsis of the show I watched for this review.

11/1/10-When a Navy SEAL, who's on the run for a murder he swears he didn't commit, takes hostages and safe haven aboard the U.S.S. Missouri memorial battleship, McGarrett must use every SEAL skill in his arsenal to diffuse the situation.

Cast

Episode credited cast:

Alex O'Loughlin ... Steve McGarrett

Scott Caan ... Danny 'Danno' Williams

Daniel Dae Kim ... Chin Ho Kelly

Grace Park ... Kono Kalakaua -governor of Hawaii

I must suppose that somebody thought it was time to bring back that famous series of my childhood, Hawaii 5-0, which is a story of police action in Hawaii. I’m not at all sure why police type stuff in Hawaii would be more interesting in that sort of stuff in Miami….NO WAIT!

Criminal activity at various locales in America does become all the rage. For us mainlanders, Hawaii was once an exotic type of place which few of us had visited. And the cast of the original Hawaii 5-0 was very good. Steve McGarrett was a great character and Jack Lord played him well. And who could forget those famous words “Book ‘em Dano”? This phrase became part of the pop culture lexicon in my younger days.

In this more modern version of this series, Steve McGarrett is a former Navy Seal. I do not remember this being case in the Hawaii 5-0 of the 60’s but at that time I just watched to see Wo Fat and hear Steve tell Danny to book ‘em. It was always a great ending, a chance to shout HURRAY, the comfort of knowing the good guys won again.

The Seal line will have the current day McGarrett needing story lines requiring lots of underwater stuff, as did this show of my viewing.

For we had a former Navy Seal accused of killing his wife and the evidence was pretty damn damning. He was caught running off with a bloody knife right before his wife’s dead body was found.

The story was okay, if one likes that sort of thing. The real killer turned out to be somebody once involved in his wife’s life before she came to America. Her child was kidnapped by these nefarious dudes and finding her was an action-packed video of cop cars and helicoptors, nick of time type of stuff.

I don’t think it’s time for me to become anew a fan of Hawaii 5-0 in this 21st century. My tastes have changed and within ten minutes of this sort of byzantine plot I’d be lost. But I do think this series has possibilities as it was filled with action, had a pretty good story line, should intrigue those who like this sort of thing. In the end the good guys won, Steve McGarrett got justice for an innocent man and saved a passel of hostages.

Watch it if you once enjoyed this series. Young people should watch as it still has its original allure.

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TV-“Dance With Stars”; “No Ordinary Family”;”The Defenders”,…REVIEWS

2010-10-27T13:39:00.000-07:00

“Dancing With the Stars”, “Not Your Ordinary Family”, and “The Defenders” get a look-see and a review. The dancers are into it and we have some thoughts on who’s great, who’s hot, who’s not; two guys defend the bad guys in Vegas and they are, of course, always innocent; and a family with all members having super powers and they’re not on Oprah? What’s wrong with this picture?

Pic of the Day

ABC’s “No Ordinary Family”-One Big Issue Totally Overlooked

ABC’s web site for this show

Below, how this show’s executive producer describes this series.

"To me, it's a show about a family that is repaired in the unlikeliest of ways, whose new abilities allow each family member to feel special in ways each of them always wanted to, yet perhaps never thought possible. It's a show about the blessings and burdens of
being extraordinary."
- Jon Harmon Feldman, co-creator/executive producer

I’ve watched this show a couple of times now. It does enjoy a great time slot, at first following ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” and now right before that hit show. ABC does like to introduce new shows by giving them this advantage, so okay, nothing wrong with this.

I do not enjoy this show at all, finding every plot line so far totally implausible. Plus there’s one very important element that is the elephant in the room that the show does not address at all.

The Powell family was an ordinary American family, dealing with daily life, puberty, busy working Moms and unfulfilled underemployed Dads. Lots of angst in other words, with Jim the Dad passively angry with his wife, Stephanie, for her wonderful career and employment success along with two normal adolescents complete with the problems this age group brings to the table. The Powell Mom is a scientist but she works so many hours that there’s not much left of her days to enjoy with the family.

So the Powells all decide to join Stephanie on a business trip to South America. Their plane crashes and dumps all passengers into the Amazon River.

That’s when the excrement hit the fan.

Dad became a super strong dude able to catch shooting bullets in mid-air with his hands. He also can jump real high and stop locomotives with his body.

Mom can now shoot her entire body in the wink of an eye from place to place, able to accomplish a day’s work in a single second.

Daphne, female adolescent, has the ability to hear the thoughts of others. JJ, male adolescent, suddenly becomes a math genius, able to guage at what angle to throw the football to hit the receiver downfield at precisely the right moment. He can also easily ace all school tests whereas he used to be a bit of a dim bulb.

All this from that amazing dip in the Amazon River.

The show’s story lines deal with this family, how they use their powers rightly to make the world a better place, or wrongly to improve their own lot in life.

The Powell adults have a few favored persons with whom they have shared the secrets of their powers, each co-workers, each using the powers of Stephanie and Jim to further their careers. Jim is a police sketch artists who moonlights as a superhero, capturing the bad guys with the help of a fellow employee. Stephanie has a female co-worker who is aware of her speedy powers and this duo wants desperately to figure out how these super powers came to be to…well make the world a better place I guess.

So far the Powell adolescents seem to be using their powers to find out where the happening school parties are or as a wedge to get on the football team toward fame, fortune and cheerleading babes we must assume.

The most unbelievable part of all this is….WHY DOESN’T THE ENQUIRER KNOW ABOUT THESE PEOPLE?

The Powells should be the stuff of world wonderment. They should be welcomed with open arms on The View and Oprah would have a show a day featuring a different Powell on each.

Yet we are to believe that Stephanie’s timid co-worker and Jim’s noble crime-stopper chum have not nor will NOT mention this wonder to anyone to avoid the publicity?

I read a blurb on the ABC site for this show that the show is meant to capture a younger viewing audience, perhaps comic-reading adolescents who dream of being able to read minds, or an even younger group that still believes in the wonder of Harry Potter.

Old ladies like me are entirely too jaded to be entertained by such implausibility.

And the show could very well attract such an audience. One can rest assured I’ll not watch it again because try as I did, I was tempted to scream out loud at these nutty Powell people that they could be freaking millionaires with all this talent, that they could have their own road show, that science businesses and entire health industries would have them name their price for the chance to investigate what’s going on inside of them.

Problem here is, not to state the obvious, the most likely audience for “No Ordinary Family” probably isn’t sitting around watching “Dancing With the Stars” and once again, we have a total disconnect.

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CBS’ “The Defenders”-Formulaic But Entertaining

CBS’ web site for this series.

This show takes place in Las Vegas and that locale alone provides story lines aplenty. One recent show was about a mega-bucks lottery winner who somehow ran through his millions in winnings to owe a casino ten million bucks. And the guy ended up prison as this viewer was jarred in the shock of knowing that the all powerful Vegas casinos somehow eliminated the silliness and absurdity of the notion of a debtor’s prison.

For if one is in jail than one can hardly pay off their debts which will leave one in jail….forever in a vicious legal circle that pretty much benefits no one.

The legal team of Morelli and Kaczmarek managed to pull off the salvation of this poor fellow by finding fallacies in the casino story of their innocence in getting the man to sign markers after getting him in a drunken state. The ending had the new but now poor millionaire going home with the casino saving face as needed in the gambling land of Las Vegas.

A more recent show has a senator accused of murdering his mistress. There is always another sub-plot going on which I prefer to the more boring straight line story. So the debonair Pete gets entangled with a female con artist while a senator admits to a crime he did not commit, doubtfully defended by Nick, with a very surprising ending I found most delightful.

Jim Belushi plays the part of Nick Morelli with Jerry O’Connell coming as the other half of the legal team of Morelli and Karczmarek. Both of these guys are veteran actors with the sort of faces that a viewers knows he or she has seen before but forgets just where.

Belushi is perfect in the part of the devoted defender of the downtrodden criminal while dealing with the emotional crush of his broken marriage and struggling to keep the relationship with his young son alive and vibrant.

Karczmarek is the man about town, handsome, debonair, magnet for the ladies.

It’s a good fictional team, dreamed up by a script writer and a formula that works well for an hour of fairly mindless entertainment, best when DVR’d for viewing on a nothing burger Saturday afternoon.

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”Dancing With the Stars Fall 2010”

I love this show, have loved it right from its first show. In fact, I have an entire Blog, HERE ,devoted to the show. Life and some medical maladies leave me watching and enjoying the series but without the slavish to devotion to scores and videos.

Here was a show that, initially, I would think was met with great skepticism. Like its main competitor for reality show greatness-“American Idol”- I suppose that someday its allure will begin to fade away. As of this year of our Lord, 2010, this most unlikely of shows is going strong, still with its same group of judges, and its audience grows across America’s fruited plains.

It has a lot of elements that appeal to Americans of the short attention spans, especially the females amongst us. Sitting and watching folks dancing on TV would seem, at first, a non-starter. Once upon a time a fellow named Lawrence Welk had dancers waltzing across the screen but “Dancing With the Stars” adds so much more.

First, it is a reality show and I’m a bit of a reality show junkee. Reality shows, indeed, do quite well here in America. Second, the selection of the dancing competitors adds so much intrigue to the formula. The formula is fairly steady by now. Must have someone “older”…this year Florence Henderson of “The Brady Bunch” filled that niche. Last year we had Cloris Leachman serving as representative for the Medicare bunch who wanted a dog in the race.

Must have a couple of athletes, at least one football player, always, and maybe another. This year we have Rick Fox the basketball star and Kurt Warner, the football guy. Football stars almost always make great dancers, something I find intriguing. Football is hardly the sport of namby-pamby metrosexuals but there is an art to footwork required to achieve first downs that translates very well to a Viennese Waltz.

There must always be at least one politician in the bunch. This year we have Bristol Palin, adolescent daughter of Sarah Palin, filling that slot. One year we had Tom Delay, former Speaker of the House and others of this sort of fame included an astronaut and political pundit.

It’s always good to include a star from a somewhat distant past. This year we had David Hasselhoff of “Baywatch” fame. In prior shows we’ve had both Donny and Marie Osmond in that role.

Since there’s always one older dancer on the list, there is required to have a very young type to balance the age factor. This year we have a Disney series star, Kyle Massey. Other years we had Apollo Ono and other Olympic athletes.

There’s always a few current but modestly known stars to flesh out the roster, and these are the sorts who will often win this thing. This year there’s Audrina Patridge and Brandy competing for the prize.

Getting a dancing slot on “Dancing With the Stars” is a ticket to a revived career. Marie Osmond now touts weight loss for Nutra-system, Luc Laurent was a hottie at the time most well known for his naked part on the show “Sex in the City” now has a plumb roll on “Brothers and Sisters” after his stint on this series.

A couple of intriguing inclusions in this years roster also includes one of the worst dancers EVER, on this show-Michael Bolton, who really needs to stick to singing, Jennifer Grey, star of “Dirty Dancing” and riding on the recent death of her famous dancing co-star, Patrick Swayze, and a really weird fellow from some reality show from New Jersey known as “The Situation”.

ABC’s web site for this series.

Dancers left as of 10/22/10:

Audrina Patridge/Tony Dovalani, actress, famous for a steamy Carl Jr’s commercial
Brandy/Maksim Chmerkovskiy, Star of “Cinderella”, award-winning singer”
Bristol Palin/Mark Ballas-daughter of former Vice President candidate-Sarah Palin
Jennifer Grey/Derek Hough-star of “Dirty Dancing”/daughter of singer Joel Grey
Kurt Warner/Anna Trebunskaya-Quarterback/St. Louis Rams
Kyle Massey/Lacey Schwimmer- star of Disney channel’s “Cory in the House”
Rick Fox/ Cheryl Burke –NBC champion/Los Angeles Lakers

Of the dancers left as of this writing, some thoughts:

Rick Fox is probably one of the handsomest dudes to ever dance on this show, bar none. He’s tall, well-muscled and real easy on the eyes. Don’t think he will win but he’s great to watch.

Kurt Warner seems to worry himself to death over his wife. He’s obviously a Christian man based on some his references. After he dances he’ll often run out to the audience and kiss his wife. He’d be a much better dancer I think if he weren’t so fretful.

Audrina Patridge is one to watch to win this thing. She’s pretty and dances well.

(NOTE….I bravely did NOT delete the above although Audrina was sent home on 10/26/10. Just to show what I know.

Brandy is a pretty young lady and another contender to keep an eye on. Her partner, Maksim, seems to have a reputation as being very disagreeable. Poor little Brandy, it looks the child struggles every week dealing with this tyrant.

Jennifer Grey dances very well. She’s no youngster and, in fact, to everyone’s surprise, ended up on the endangered list in mid-October. Her partner, Derek Hough, always seems to get one of the better/more famous dancers.

Bristol Palin is fun to watch but she’ll not likely win this thing. I consider her a mediocre dancer. Bristol doesn’t present as enjoying herself when she dances.

Kyle Massey is an interesting, engaging guy. He’s a bit on the chubby side and not the most graceful fellow to ever cross that famous floor. But he’s funny, personable and genuinely seems to enjoy himself during the dance. He’ll not win but he’s a joy to watch.

I’d put Rick Fox up as a dark horse to win this contest but by me, it’s going to be either Audrina or Brandy.

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"Desperate Housewives", "Brothers & Sisters", "Parenthood"

2010-10-16T08:37:00.000-07:00

Three TV reviews: “Desperate Housewives”; “Parenthood”; “Brothers and Sisters”. All are stories of families and with a little imagination, our own families could be major TV shows. One is getting old, one is still new and fresh, one would be nowhere without another of the three.

Pic of the Day

NBC’s “PARENTHOOD”

Cast:

Bonnie Bedelia-Camille Braverman
Tyree Brown-Jabbar Trussell
Joy Bryant-Jasmine Trussell
Max Burkholder-Max Braverman
Erika Christensen-Julia Braverman-Graham
Lauren Graham-Sarah Braverman
Miles Heizer-Drew Holt
Sam Jaeger-Joel Graham
Peter Krause-Adam Braverman
Craig T. Nelson-Zeek Braverman
Monica Potter-Kristina Braverman
Savannah Paige Rae-Sydney Graham
Sarah Ramos-Haddie Braverman
Dax Shepard-Crosby Braverman
Mae Whitman-Amber Holt

NBC Web site for this series

I’m not sure just how this series would be classfieid. I consider it in the same league as “Desperate Housewives” and “Brothers and Sisters”-both also reviewed further down.

Seems if I’m not watching reality shows I’m into shows like this, melodramatic, “chick flick” sorts of things. Some might consider them night time soap operas. That description is not lost on me.

Of course to get involved in these sorts of television shows, one must watch a few times, gain some sympathy/compatico with the characters and their situations.

PARENTHOOD is a story about a family…the Braverman family. The elder icons of this family, Zeek and Camille Braverman, are not, as many family dramas would depict, happy citizens living out content retirements while enjoying their children and grandchildren. Instead this couple, more than their own younger and wilder children even, are struggling to avoid a divorce. This struggle is part of the show’s weekly drama.

The other Braverman children include a female attorney with a discontented and irritable house husband, a son who is an executive at a shoe factory, a daughter who now works at the same shoe factory as her brother and who is, via various workplace attractions, seriously showing up her brother, and a son who produces music and lives on a houseboat.

Each of these children have spouses/significant others, children and issues. One daughter returned home to live with her parents with her two children. One son has a son with Asperger’s syndrome and many shows revolve around this odd malady. Another son discovered he had a son from a prior relationship which he knew nothing about.

That’s it.

A family, dealing with life, pretty much as us viewers live our lives.

If I were to announce that a new series will be coming out about a family that includes a daughter who recently suffered a horrific stroke and now must deal with the nasty results, another daughter who struggles with an ailing husband and that stroke-ridden sister from whom she is estranged, a brother who ran from the law for the death of a baby that seemed illogical/strange and another half brother who once lived a prosperous life and now lives on the streets.

Well it could be a series about my own life in fact and given some artful writing, some good dramatic interaction, actors with some talent….it too would be watched with dedicated interest across the fruited plains.

Try it with your own life. Just change the characters, their names and stories to match your own family and you too can have a hit drama series.

”Brothers and Sisters”

A summary from ABC’s web site regarding the premiere of this year’s “Brothers and Sisters” series.

It's been a year since the Walker family was torn apart by a tragic car accident, and in a very un-Walker like fashion, everyone has been avoiding everyone else. Truths and reality only start to set in when the family is forced to come together for Justin's homecoming party: Nora tries to prepare for the party, but is not acting like the mother she used to be; Sarah is consumed with the Narrow Lake deal; Kevin has a new career as public defense attorney; Saul and Scotty are running their restaurant; and Kitty's life has become a taboo subject for everyone. Time has changed the Walkers, on the fifth-season premiere of "Brothers & Sisters," SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 26 (10:01-11:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/RICHARD CARTWRIGHT) DAVE ANNABLE, SALLY FIELD, RACHEL GRIFFITHS, MATTHEW RHYS, CALISTA FLOCKHART

ABC’s web site for this series

One of the “problems” of a dramatic series continuing on from year to year is the need for additional drama once the initial public fascination with the characters and storylines is jaded. There is then required an introduction of new characters and to keep the viewers coming back, storylines must get more dramatic, thrilling, intriguing and/or compelling.

So far “Parenthood” has not had to introduce such as tornados, earthquakes and awful car crashes to the storyline. “Brothers and Sisters” did have to write in a horrific car crash that left one major character in a year long coma until his wife finally pulled the plug. Another character got such bad brain damage that she does not recognize her own daughter. As indicated in the introductory blurb above, many characters have had their lives changed on “Brothers and Sisters” last year .

I do enjoy this show though I have some major issues with some of the storylines in terms of unbelievableness and the show’s extreme liberal bent. It does enjoy a wonderful time slot right after “Desperate Housewives” on Sunday nights. Without that time slot I doubt this show would ever have gotten off the ground.

First, Sally Field is a terrible actress, I’m sorry, the woman should have stuck with being a flying nun. She plays the part of the Walker family matriarch in the show and does okay as a busybody in all of her children’s lives. But her character is such an absurd liberal, as is Fields herself I suspect.

One year she had an unreasonable hatred for the American military and what it had allegedly done to her son. Said son who VOLUNTARILY joined the army, might I add? Last season this son signed up for the army again. He left his pretty wife and went to Afghanistan, a story line that made no sense and a scenario as unlikely as anything that might happen in the real world. The storyline allows dopey liberal Mrs. Walker to gripe about the awful military and its damage to her son.

This show has a whole bunch of homosexual storylines and it gets old. Almost every show nowadays has a homosexual somewhere in the story, be it comedy or drama. These homosexuals show up more on television shows than exist in real life but hey, it’s Hollywood, a haven for our homosexual brethren.

Sally Field’s character’s brother is a homosexual and had been in the closet his whole life. One of her sons is also a homosexual and the story of this “brother” and his “wife” is a staple of this series.

It would seem that the father of this clan, now dead but who turned out to be quite the man-about-town, having illegitimate children all over the place, purchased a piece of land before his death. Many of last year’s storylines revolved around just where this land is and what is the allure of it.

It would turn out that the land is situated over an aquifer and for some reason that I don’t quite get, is worth lots and lots of money.

I’ve had two wells dug directly into an aquifer and I don’t pay anybody any kind of royalties or anything. It’s water under the earth and it belongs to whoever digs down to get it. But hey,it’s California, maybe things are different there.

Despite this land, or the water underneath, being worth many millions as the business “sister” has determined, still Walker matriarch Nora had to get a job in a flower shop and the money has been put somewhere where nobody can get to it, it’s not clear why.

I suspect it wouldn’t do to have the Walkers suddenly become ridiculously wealthy so they had to get the big money, which did make for a bang-up ending last year, out of the way for storylines that would appeal to us great unwashed out here who might not identify with wealthy people and their travails.

In spite of my issues with this show, I must note that the episode aired this past Sunday, on 10/10/10, was very well written and extremely…well yeah, it was funny.

Kitty, Calista Flockhart’s character, was the wife of the guy who had been in a coma and she recently had to pull the plug to send him to his peace. For reasons that baffle me, she’s decided to go to some kind of farmhouse and live for a while, to “find” herself.

She meets a male neighbor who attracts her. He is disdainful of big city folk so Kitty pretends to be the humble home’s owner and offers to prepare the fellow a simple meal. Seems Kitty has little experience making soufflés and the thing falls and her lies are discovered and yes, it was a smile.

Her older sister, Sarah, has a birthday, her 40th, or so her very, very handsome boyfriend believes. Sarah is older than 40, however, and her attempts to keep this a secret from her younger stud fellow is a funny tale when added to the stories of her mother, and other brothers and sisters who too must keep the secret.

Matriarch Nora is considering some plastic surgery and before the hour ended the entire Walker clan was a big mess, what with lies about age, fallen soufles and boobs that no longer stay up and perky.

It was very good writing, much improved this year.

Hang around after “Desperate Housewives” and enjoy this show with its greatly improved scripting.

”Desperate Housewives”

ABC’s web site for this series.

What has NOT happened on “Desperate Housewives”?

Wisteria Lane has been hit by a tornado. Cancer attacked one of the show’s main characters. There’s been murders and car accidents, divorces, marriages, and divorces of divorces. Characters have come and gone.

This show has been around for many years now. I only became an afficiando in the past three years. Much of what has happened before was before my viewing time.

I recall Tom having a daughter by a prior relationship. Her mother was a nasty one who was killed by gunshot as my memory serves.

Well you gotta kill these characters off from time to time, it’s the nature of the beast.

In this year of our Lord, 2010, we have two more characters entering the Wisteria Lane ring. One is Vanessa Williams in the character of Renee Perry. The other new character is named Paul Young. As I understand it, Young is a former denizen of Wisteria Lane who was charged, erroneously as this year’s storyline would so far suggest, with the murder of a Martha Huber, another former denizen of Wisteria Lane.

So far the stalwart Desperate Housewives still living on Wisteria Lane include Lynette and Tom, a couple that once owned a pizza parlor but now make big bucks in the corporate world. Lynette is very fertile and recently gave birth despite that horrific bout with cancer.

There’s Gabby, a former fashion model, now this year allegedly mother of a daughter who isn’t hers, who was switched on her at birth. Gabby and her husband have two daughters although once upon a time this couple actually hired a surrogate to have a child for them. Plus you never see the youngest daughter, only the fat child. Now there’s a child actress who is heavy and plays a fat child on the show, how awful this must be.

There’s the plumber and the Internet striptease artist, the older woman who manages to insinuate herself in all story lines, the pair of homosexuals who share a home on Wisteria Land cause you always gotta have one homo couple on the show now don’t you?

I love “Desperate Housewives”. I have loved this show since the first time I watched it sometime in 2007. The storylines are great, the characters constantly change, there’s sub-plots in every show and there’s a dark humor underlying it all.

At this point though, you do have to smile. So much has come and gone and characters have changed and interacted and storylines have intermingled and murders happened and, well hey, you really have to take each year on its own.

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"The Whole Truth" and "Chase"-One is Great, the Other-Not so Much

2010-09-30T14:19:00.000-07:00

Here’s a review of two new shows: “The Whole Truth”-a stellar series about a prosecutor and some spellbinding tales. “Chase” is a series about U.S. marshalls and some, eh, “chase and capture” scenes. One we look forward to, the other we’ll not watch again.

Pic of the Day

ABC’s “The Whole Truth”

ABC’s Web Page for this show.

Maura Tierney is most well known for her role in the long running series “ER”. As I recall, there were some problems with her and ER, something involving other cast mates.

Wonder of wonders, Maura Tierney shows back up with a series of her own. I must suppose there’s a dearth of actresses in Hollywood that an actress with a Diva-like reputation gets an entire show for want of such actresses.

But I jest.

Folks, this is a really good show. Maura Tierney plays Kathryn Peale, an Assistant DA who prosecutes interesting cases along with a street savvy sidekick and a wet-behind-the-ears newbie she is expected to mentor.

Rob Morrow, who I’ve never heard of, plays a veteran defense attoryney, Jimmy Brogran. Character Brogan has a relationship with character Peale that is not quite clear to the audience.

But that’s part of the show’s charm.

First, I’m not majorly in love with Tierney as an actress but she does okay. I never much liked her character on ER, which I once watched with a devotion. However, I must allow that maybe it was the character I didn’t much like as opposed to Tierney’s acting.

Frankly I’m not overly in love with Kathryn Peale the character and at some point I begin to ponder if this all isn’t because, well Tierney’s smile doesn’t exactly light up the world. She has a huge overbite with that top lip and it comes off as a kind of pout but maybe it’s just me.

Kathryn Peale is a tough as nails prosecutor who staples her blouse sleeves for lack of buttons. She can, if need be, apologize for her errors or admit to going down a wrong prosecutorial path. She can, but she doesn’t like it.

It’s the show’s story line which has enough of an appeal to actually make me look forward to it, now going on two weeks in a row.

What’s the big appeal?

It’s a story with a beginning, middle and end.

And ah, folks, you got to stick around to the very end to find out who did it.

Which doesn’t mean the beginning of middle build up of the story line doesn’t keep one’s attention. Indeed for the premiere of the show we had a very nice teacher fellow prosecuted by Peale, and found guilty by the jury, that had me guessing if he really murdered the adolescent girl as accused. This past week we had a young woman who, maybe, maybe not, really pushed her father off of the ferry, the poor man in a wheelchair and unable to save his self.

There’s enough rocks and nooks and crannies in the storylines to keep this viewer guessing. We might have devout nuns, dedicated wives, confused children, helpful neighbors, and witnesses with questionable pasts. All become part of the story and all lead up to this show’s unique in terms of this sort of televised genre.

For the viewer will not know, until the very end, no matter how the trial outcome, no matter the jury’s verdict, who really did the deed.

And it is a surprise, even to short story mystery writers such as myself.

Tune in to this show. It’s different and a most surprising and positive way.

”Chase”

NBC Web Site for this Show

Just to clear things up from the get-go, blurb from the NBC web site for this show below:

Chase" is a fast-paced drama from Emmy Award-winning executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer ("CSI" franchise, "The Amazing Race", "Pirates of the Caribbean" films) and executive producer Jennifer Johnson ("Cold Case") that drops viewers smack into the middle of a game of cat-and-mouse as a team of U.S. marshals hunts down America's most dangerous fugitives. Kelli Giddish ("Past Life") stars as U.S. Marshal Annie Frost, a cowboy boot-wearing deputy whose sharp mind and unique Texas upbringing help her track down the violent criminals on the run. Cole Hauser ("K-Ville"), Amaury Nolasco ("Prison Break"), Rose Rollins ("The L Word") and Jesse Metcalfe ("Desperate Housewives") also star as members of Frost's elite team.

A series about U.S. Marshals whose job it is to locate and bring criminals to justice would involve, we must imagine, some action capture scenes.

This is not to say that this is not an entertaining sort of show. Common sense would dictate that such a show would feature, duh, some serious, er, CHASE and capture scenes.

On the series’ premiere we had two such scenes, one to begin the show and one to end. At the beginning we had, I’m not making this up, U.S. Marshall deputy Annie Frost actually running through an ongoing rodeo to catch the bad guy. The final “capture” scene had her jumping off of a bridge in pursuit of the bad guy who had just jumped to hoped-for freedom in the river below.

And that’s pretty much it in terms of this show. We have a bad guy committing all sorts of crime, a somewhat predictable story line, and some chase and capture scenes to end it all.

I’m not going to watch it again because….well I’ve seen enough.

Yon readers’ mileage may vary. I’m just telling my opinion.

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5.1.10

2010-05-01T17:02:00.000-07:00

Project Runway-the Women Will Win; "Cougar Town"-Trying to Save Courteney Cox-It Won't Work; Top Chef-Cooking Relay Team

2009-10-25T15:03:00.000-07:00

We begin with a review of "Cougar Town", a confused mess to rescue "Friends'" star Courteney Cox's waning career. Why it won't work.

On to Project Runway and the Hollywood and Greek outfit could be purchased at Walmart. The women are running away with this thing.

Top Chef Vegas has a cooking relay challenge and this was a hoot. On to a restaurant challenge and the one sent packing didn't even work the kitchen!

All with pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

Pic of the Day

Cougar Town-A Bigger Zero Than Obama

ABC Web Site for This Series.
CHARACTER BIO
After being out of the dating game for so long, Jules Cobb is finally putting herself back on the market. But starting over isn’t easy when your running your own real estate business, your two best friends are each other’s best frenemies, your son is embarrassed by everything you say and do and your ex-husband still drinks his morning coffee in your kitchen. Yes, Jules is a mother to the world, but now she’s finally putting herself first. Well, at least she’s trying. And with a little help from her friends she’s discovering it’s never too late to live like a twenty-something, even if you’re forty-something. Welcome to the world of crazy parties, hot boyfriends, and free limo rides. But be careful, side effects include: embarrassing photos, late night food comas, and all day hangovers.

Courteney Cox. I can imagine the scenario now.

The ABC exec gives a skeptical look to Courteney Cox’s agent.

“I don’t know, Bob. Courteney was great on “Friends” but what’s she done since? “

“That’s just the point, Sam. She’s done not much of anything since. Which is why this show will pull all the old “Friends” fans in, just to see her again.”

Bob hoped his plea would work. If he doesn’t push through this project for Courteney she will likely fade from sight. He’s got to get her this series.

“Yeah, but she’s like…middle-aged, right? You don’t think this will backfire?”

“She’s a beautiful middle-age in the series, Bob. A lot of the former “Friends” fans are right about Courteney’s age now. They’ll tune in for the memory and they’ll stay for the modern, upbeat story line.”

Bob continued to scratch his head, reading the story line. Sam felt a cold sweat wash over him.

“Cougars, Sam. It’s perfect. Middle-age women going after younger men…it’s part of that modern day …,” Bob looked to the ceiling for the proper words. “…that modern women’s lib thing. Why can’t women have younger guys? Older men go after younger women all the time. This is a perfect role for Courteney. And we have a cool storyline including the guys as well.”

“I don’t know, Bob. Her ex-husband hangs around? The husbands of her friends are all involved in Courteney’s character’s life? You think this will attract male viewers?”

Bob jumped from his chair, now very exasperated. “It’s got everything, Sam. It’s got women bonding, it’s got men bonding, it’s got a modern-day mother-son relationship, adolescent angst. It’s got a pretty middle-aged divorcee struggling to build a new life for herself. She gets into a relationship with a handsome young dude, she becomes a mentor for her young assistant, she provides a good female role model for her teenage son, she cares enough for the man she was married to for so many years to help him move on with his life. She’s pretty and still sexy enough to be easy on the eyes. We even have a love interest built in with her recently divorced male neighbor that we’ll be able to build up to a huge finale as they eventually fall in love. Courteney’s a known commodity from her many years on “Friends”. I’m telling you, Sam, this series is a winner.”

And so we have ABC’s “Cougar Town” and it’s everything to everyone and ends up being a confused mess, not funny, hokey, silly, not believable, stereotypical, dumb and won’t last much past six weeks, if that long.

It’s exactly as I described in my little fictional scene above. For Courteney Cox needs- quick- some exposure before she’s forgotten in the Hollywood scene. Courteney’s former sidekick, Jennifer Aniston, does get an acting role once in a while, as she also seems to constantly get caught topless and there’s also that Brad Pitt thing.

Courteney has not much of nothing going on.

And so we have Cougar Town. As if this mangled attempt to create a comedy series by waving a finger in the air will bring Courteney Cox back from an actresses’ living dead.

It won’t work.

Top Chef Vegas-the Restaurant Wars

There were some weird challenges on the Top Chef Vegas episode aired 10/21/09. The quickfire challenge had something called tag team cooking.

Two teams were formed of four contenders per team. Each team would have a member spend ten minutes in the process of preparing a dish. The first member would get the ingredients, the second would prep the food, the third would continue the cooking and the fourth would finish the dish and plate the dish.

The blue team included Jennifer, the unbeatable Kevin, Lauren and Mike. The red team included the Volt brothers, Robin and Eli. The blue team won ten thousand dollars for winning the quickfire challenge and they let the money ride in hopes of doubling it for the elimination challenge.

The elimination challenge consisted of having the same teams each plan a menu and run a restaurant, serve a dinner service, provide décor and get it all done with $1,500 for food and restaurant supplies.

There was some drama what with the senior Chef of the contenders, Robin, on the team with Eli and the Chef brothers and the usual fussiness the chefs seems to have with Robin.

The red team won the elimination challenge. The blue team winner of the quickfire lost their ten thousand dollars. The red team’s Michael won the prize for the best meal and it was time for somebody to be eliminated.

It must be said now that Robin is not long for this series. She does, for now, provide some interesting and very scripted drama in her “role” as the oldest chef-contender who gets on the last nerve of the younger Top Chef contenders.

But it was Laurean who got sent home this week and it was mostly because Laurean did a lousy job in her charge of running the front of the restaurant of the red team.

Robin does make a few great dishes and these mostly dessert entrees have carried her through.

Look for Robin to go home soon and look, again and as predicted before, for Kevin to win this thing.

”Project Runway” 2009 Winner Will Likely Be Female’

The female designers left include Gordana, Irina, Carol Hannah and Althea. The male designers left include Logan and Christopher.

Logan and Christopher constantly seem to end up in the bottom three and Gordana flirts with elimination as well. But maybe it’s the woman’s totally unkempt hair that makes her seem like a loser to me.

The fashion challenge this week had each designer assigned a locale somewhere on this planet. They then were to design and create an outfit that would best represent a female living, visiting or hanging around this assigned locale.

Rest assured that Georgetown, Delaware was not one of the locales assigned. The happening, hip locales included Santa Fe, Aspen, Palm Beach, New York, Saint Tropez, Hollywood and Greece.

Christopher designed the ugliest look for a hip Santa Fe female I’ve ever seen and Nicholas came up with something supposed to represent Greece but looked like a frock I could buy at a Target drug store.

Logan came up with a Hollywood design that looked a little more upscale, maybe a J.C. Penny’s outfit. All of the remaining fellows came in the bottom three with Nicholas finally getting the boot off the show he so deserved.

Carol Hannah, Gordana and Irinia came in the top three while Althea scored enough to be held over to the next competition.

With further verbiage, pics below with more snarky commentary on each pic.

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TV Revs-"Top Chef Vegas";"Hank";"Project Runway"; "Hell's Kitchen"

2009-10-18T14:36:00.000-07:00

It’s a new comedy yet it’s an old one. For Frazier will make the new comedy “Hank” a success or not. A review.

Has “Hell’s Kitchen” jumped the shark? The series had its finale and a winner was announced. But everything has changed from when this cooking competition was in its glory.

Speaking of cooking competition, “Top Chef Vegas” continues on and only a fool hasn’t yet figured out who will win this thing.

And “Project Runway” continues on and it doesn’t look like any of the male designer contenders is going to win this thing. A look into the making of this popular Lifetime series, complete with pics you’ll see nowhere else on the Internet.

Pic of the Day

Has “Hell’s Kitchen” Jumped the Shark?

We have a winner, let us begin this essay with the ending of this cooking reality series. Contender Dave is the new Chef to be blessed by Gordon Ramsey and is now the Head Chef position at Araxi Restaurant in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada.

Established in 1981, Araxi continues to raise the culinary bar in Whistler. The winning contestant will have the added privilege of joining executive chef James Walt in welcoming the world during the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

As my ageing memory recalls, the reward for the winner of this show USED to be a genuine restaurant of his or her own, NOT a Head Chef position.

Although I must imagine a Head Chef position is quite an honor, it’s not the same as winning a restaurant of one’s own.

The finale this year was also very lackluster. Fox has hung onto this reality series but there’s signs of wear and tear. The show’s format is a bit boring for its repetetiveness. Ramsey opens Hell’s Kitchen for the night. The wannabe Chefs cook the appetizers and main courses. A few of the contenders, on an almost rigid, rotating basis, mess up, generally under cooking the scallops or over cooking the lamb chops. Ramsey cusses and rants, humiliates the offenders, throws the nasty food in the trash and in general makes himself the center of the show.

The humiliated Chef describes the scene in a video-taped vignette that has them either defending their actions or expressing remorse and fear for the rubbery scallops.

I’m very skeptical that a cook could get to a point worthy of contender for Hell’s Kitchen who can’t cook scallops without turning them into rubber.

On the episode aired on 10/6/09, Tenille wins the mini-challenge usually given early in the show. Tenille is a black female chef who’s been featured prominently in many of this season’s dramas. Tenille has a bit of ghetto-tough in her although never mind her corn-rows, she has an impressive culinary background. Her bio indicates that she has a culinary degree and ten years executive chef experience. In that same episode, Tenille was eliminated. It’s almost scripted, it is.

Tenille’s prize for preparing an eggplant vegetarian voted on by a passel of kids as the best of the lot for a food element kids generally do not like was a complete make-over. Yes indeed, a new “do”, new duds. As an aside, noted on Tenille’s bio is the fact that Tenille lost 100 pounds as a result of a gastric bypass operation.

It seems almost fitting that Tenille should win this prize before her elimination that same night, doesn’t it? She had made it to the top four after all. Any viewer could have predicted that Tenille wasn’t going to win this thing.

Dave, the fellow who finally won this thing, re-hurt his already injured hand to a scene of great drama.

On the Hell’s Kitchen episode aired 10/13/09, the three remaining contenders, Ariel, Dave and Kevin, were assigned a mini-task that would have them preparing a dish from three different international cuisines. The catch was that their creations would be judged by chefs with an expertise in each cuisine. Kevin prepared a Mexican dish but he forgot his Mole sauce. I’ve seen this concept on Top Chef as well and I know that the notion of putting chocolate in some form in dishes that would seem very unlikely for this ingredient is something done in Mexican cooking. By me, chocolate is a treat and should be served as such. So hey, I’m glad Kevin forgot the Mole sauce.

Dave prepared an Indian dish and while he said he had no idea how to cook Indian food, the judge for Indian food was quite happy with Dave’s concotion. Ariel prepared a Chinese dish and the Chinese Chef declared it watery and a bit tasteless.

Ariel didn’t survive this show and on the same night, in the hour following this, Hell’s Kitchen had its finale.

This is another reason I think Hell’s Kitchen jumped the shark. A finale is a big deal, something that is hyped for the week prior to draw in viewers. To air the grand finale when the winner is announced on the same night when the top two are announced and immediately following, is odd .

Further, as I recall on earlier finales, the two finalists were assigned a restaurant of their own, even if just half of Hell’s Kitchen itself. The Chefs were even charged with decorating their restaurants!

This year’s grand finale was the same ole, same old.

Whatever the status of Hell’s Kitchen, Dave with the lame arm won the competition.

I thought for sure Kevin would walk away the winner.

On To the REAL Cooking Competition-Top Chef

Not that BravoTV’s Top Chef doesn’t have its quirks. Indeed.

In this season’s competition, located in Las Vegas, there seems little doubt that red-headed Kevin’s going to win this thing. Goodness the fellow has won or was partner in the winning entrees for several shows now. And he did win the elimination round on the episode aired on 10/7/09 as well as the episode aired on 10/14/09. On the former episode, Kevin shared the win with his partner, contender Jennifer. On the latter episode, Kevin won the elimination challenge all by himself.

On the 10/7/09 episode the contenders were given a bag of supplies from famous chefs. Out of this they had to prepare an entrée to please the judges. That show’s Quickfire challenge had some silly challenge that plugged the web site cookster.com, involving three assigned words requiring the contenders to quickly prepare dishes to match their words. Goodness, Kevin even won this Quickfire challenge.

Notable in the cooking challenge was something called, get this, “egg yolk ravioli”. Folks I’m just a humble cook but the notion of eating egg yolk ravioli makes me a bit nauseous. This dish, prepared by Eli, was not received well by the judges either. Eli, Michael and Ashley ended up in the bottom three. Ashley and her undercooked “neoki” were deemed worthy of a trip out the door. Take your knives, Ashley.

Kevin and Jennifer both prepared the winning dish for this challenge, with Jennifer winning the top prize even though she wasn’t feeling well during that show.

On the episode aired 10/14/09, it was Pig and Pinot night.

The episode began by blatantly promoting Alexia snacks. The quickfire challenge had the contenders preparing a quick dish that would properly accompany a seasoned bag of these new sorts of snacks, which are, I will attest, quite good.

The elimination challenge had the contenders preparing a dish that would match their assigned Pinot wine and right there I’m out in left field.

I’m not a wine person but I must suppose that someone aspiring to a Top Chef status should not only know a bit about wine but also about properly pairing wines with appropriate food. The food item was pork of most any kind and it was all to promote something called the “Pig and Pinot” festival.

So we had pork belly, ribs, pork leg, pork chops…yeah, pork.

One of the more interesting dishes was prepared by Laureen and was called “pork riette”.

Wikipedia defines a rillette as:

Rillettes is a preparation of meat similar to pâté. Originally made with pork, the meat is cubed or chopped, salted heavily and cooked slowly in fat until it is tender enough to be easily shredded, and then cooled with enough of the fat to form a paste. They are normally used as spread on bread or toast and served at room temperature.

One of the judges called Laureen’s rillette as “cat food”. And you know, it did look a bit like cat food and, in fact, Laureen landed in the bottom three because of her unappetizing entrée, both in terms of look and appearance.

It was contender Ash’s time to go home. He’s been in the bottom three for several times now.

And guess what! KEVIN WON!

Now there’s a surprise.

Robin is the oldest of the contenders this Las Vegas based competition. Look for her to be sent packing real soon. There was some drama in this most recent episode involving Robin and the other much younger contenders. Robin was, also, in the bottom three with Brian and Jennifer completing the top three along with winner Kevin.

Finally, hey, we hear Padma, who is really full of herself, is preginated. Just a rumor.

”Hank”-Frazier Redux

There’s always room for a situation comedy in a proper TV lineup. “Hank” is just such a show featured on ABC, Wednesday, during the benign children’s hour of 8 pm in the evening.

ABC’s HANK web site here.

There’s only one problem with this HANK show and it’s not that big of a problem.

The show is about Frazier only this time Frazier’s name is Hank.

Not that there’s anything wrong with this.

Hank once owned his own business. He was a big important CEO and suddenly he got fired. Now Hank and his family, a wife, a daughter and a son, have to re-locate and start all over again.

Well maybe not all over again because Hank does have some money what with having saved for a rainy day.

The plotlines are typical situation comedy plotlines. Hank’s wife gets a job and Hank must deal with being a house husband. In the most recent episode aired on 10/14/09 Hank got a job in an ice cream parlor along with his rather spoiled daughter. Hank had to sing silly songs and, in general, work like we assumed he hasn’t done for many a year.

Hank’s character is Frazier, pure and simple. But hey, Frazier was a good character, both on Cheers and on the series of this namesake.

Kelsey Grammer is a good actor with excellent comedic timing. If this new endeavor called “Hank” is to succeed, it will succeed, it will be due to the talent of Kelsey Grammer.

Project Runway-Getting Down To a Few

It’s unbelievable what one can do with an old wedding dress.

Indeed on Lifetime’s “Project Runway” episode aired on 10/8/09 the designers were charged with taking the old wedding dress of their assigned divorcee/model and with a budget of $25.00 and a maximum of two additional yards of purchased fabric, create a whole new outfit.

Epperson, who was eliminated for his creation on this episode, created what the judges alternately described as a dress appropriate for Octoberfest or perfect for a pirate’s wench. Epperson was a weird dude at any rate, prone to strange designs often involving strips of fabric affixed to an outfit in strange manners that often brought him praise from the fashion judges oddly enough.

Sharin created a charming dress using some very creative stitching to add a new and intriguing dimension to a tired design. Irena came up with a dress covered with a pretty lace covering.

Epperson, Logan and Christopher landed in the bottom three while Gordana, Sharin and Irena had the top-rated old wedding dress redux designs.

Gordana won this contest and it’s about time. Gordana is not exactly a young woman and she’s hardly anybody’s idea of a top fashion designer. I think Gordana is headed home soon.

On the Project Runway episode aired this past week, 10/15/09, Bob Mackie, famous Cher designer, was the guest judge.

The fashion challenge was for the contenders to create an on-stage outfit for Christina Aguilara, who also showed up to help judge the results.

The inclusion of Bob Mackie was no accident. The designers were told to create sparkly show-off outfits befitting Aguilara that would shine on stage but would allow her the movement required of her craft.

I watched the show from the frantic search for fabric at the infamous MOOD store through to the cutting room tables, back to the sewing machines. I listened to the various video vignettes of the contenders as they lamented, cheered or cried about their designs and the complaints and catty comments about the other contenders.

Project Runway is a show, like all reality competitions of this type, which by its nature has lots of air time to fill until the final reveal of the fashion runway.

It’s done well and the trick is to give glimpses to the designs in progress while saving the entire outfit reveal until the walk on the fashion runway.

Anyway Gordana had immunity from her win from the week prior. It’s a good thing, or said the judges, as Gordana’s design was not all that great.

Sharin got sent home for her design, described as a Halloween costume suitable for a witch. Christopher’s design was also a dud.

Carol Hannah, who consistently comes out on top in this competition, won the top prize for her black on black creation that so impressed the judges.

I don’t see any of the remaining fellows winning this thing. In fact, I put my bet on Carol Hannah.

Finally, how about those contenders maybe wash their hair, maybe get a decent haircut?

I’m just sayin’.

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TV-Fashion & Food Review, Project Runway, Hell's Kit,Top Chef, Next Food Network Star

2009-10-04T08:31:00.000-07:00

We’ve got fashion and cooking in this TV review post. Project Runway is a hit fashion design reality contest now running full speed on Lifetime TV. There’s pics of winning, losing and mediocre fashions plus some critiques, comments on the contenders.

Running now we’ve got Hell’s Kitchen as well as BravoTV’s Top Chef Vegas. We’ve got reviews on the shows, the food and the contenders.

Finally, we follow up on Melissa D’Arabian, winner of this past year’s Next Food Network Star. Her food is cheap to make but read what the real cost is.

All with pics and video you’ll find nowhere else on the Internet.

Pic of the Day

Lifetime’s “Project Runway” A Fashion Hit

I have quite enjoyed “Project Runway” now featured on Lifetime. As I understand it, this series of a reality show for fashion designers was featured on another cable network and just changed over to Lifetime this week. I daresay this is an indicator that the show has been very successful as Lifetime is a network for women and women are probably the base audience for this series. Alongside our fine homosexual brethren I add with a smile.

So far I’ve been busy compiling pic montages of the series and have little verbiage to add. I think this is a great series but it is definitely for fashion afficiandos let’s not kid ourselves.

Site for the series HERE

I have a few comments on the remaining nine contenders as it’s a bit dizzying to keep up with all the fashion designs, who did what, as well as observe personality quirks of the contenders.

Epperson, now here’s an odd fellow. He has about thirty pounds of hair on his head and once he had to wrap all the dreadlocks up in a scarf and he looked like one of those fellows who ride around on flying carpets. Epperson does do rather unusual designs and one thing to note about this show, the ordinary is not where you want to go. The show doesn’t cotton to out-of-this-world fashion designs either, be cautioned. But it is a show designed to capture the designer with a fashion flair that would still be acceptable to your ordinary female.

A couple of very young females are very much in contention this season, to include Shirin, Althea and Carol Hannah. I’m talking young women in their early to mid-20’s here. Quite impressive to be in the top ten on this American Idol of fashion design.

Finally, somebody tell Gordana to please find some shampoo and wash her damn hair. Gordana is NOT, ahem, one of the younger females in this contest. She’s not such a bangup fashion designer either.

On to the pic montages and join in for additional opinions, caveats, brickbats and unrequested opinions.

2009 Contenders for Project Runway
Christopher
Johnny-sent home
Louise-sent home
Irina
Ari-sent home
Nicolas
Mitchell-sent home
Shirin
Gordana
Carol Hannah
Ramon-Lawrence-sent home
Logan
Malvin-sent home
Qristyl-sent home
Epperson
Althea

Hell’s Kitchen Fall 09 Down to Four

Fox’s Web Site for the Series HERE.

I tune in to this series but it holds little allure for me. It is almost a icon in the field of cooking show contests but folks an hour of bleeped out cussing gets old real fast.

Which is not to say I’m not intrigued by the series and now that it’s down to the final four I am keenly interested. I even, by now, have a favorite I think will walk away with the top prize.

I cover all shows from 9/8/09 through 9/29 with this post, including the pics.

One of the major laughs that stands out recently is the week two of the contenders could not tell lamb from venison. Now folks these are both food items I never cook but I’m sure I’d be able to tell them apart.

We also had a couple of shows in a row that had two contenders, both now eliminated, that couldn’t seem to cook a halibut thoroughly.

Kevin, I think, is going to win this thing.

Below some pics from the shows being reviewed.

suzanne, tenille, dave, ariel, kevin-left on hell's kitchen
suzanne sent home, kevin, ariel won…prettiest dish, cleaned streets

Top 4 left in Hell’s Kitchen as of 10/4/09:
Tenille
Kevin
David
Ariel

Top Chef Vegas-The Cadillac of Cooking Shows

The Next Food Network Star is the cooking show contest for us home cooks. But for the really talented cooks out there, Top Chef is the way to go.

I’ve been watching this cooking series regularly and have compiled some pics from the September shows on thru the most recent NEW show on 9/23/09.

On one recent show the contenders cooked snails. On another they cooked proteins with appropriate French sauces.

In the most recent NEW show, aired on 9/23/09, guest judges were Penn and Teller of magic fame. Which was really a smile in that Teller doesn’t talk. And just how is he going to give a critique on the food without uttering a word?

Well he made gestures and all and somehow it worked.

Contender Robin won the Quickfire challenge which was to create two dishes that reflected the “yin and yang” of something, like good and evil or angel’s and devil’s in our lives. Robin is a contender that looked headed for elimination but this win should put her back in contention.

The elimination challenge on that night was to “deconstruct” a meal. Folks this is a food fad only a chef would dream up.

The idea is for the chef to create a dish on the plate that, after presentation to the client would require a client to eat the various parts as prepared on the plate to achieve the totality of the dish deconstructed.

An example would be the losing meal of this elimination challenge, a popular dish known as Seafood Paella. This dish usually has various types of seafood combined with a rice and some sort of flavorful sauce. Deconstructing this dish would have the Chef presenting the sauce over here, the rice over here, the different seafoods here and here and here. The client could then pick and choose just how to eat the meal instead of having the whole thing put in front of him or her with no choice.

Well hey, like I said, it’s a Chef’s dream.

Contender Ron was sent home for failing to properly cook his seafood while managing to OVERCOOK his rice. Well damn, a chef what can’t cook rice deserves to be sent packing.

A redheaded southern type chef, Kevin, seems to be running away with this thing. Keep an eye out on him.

Below some pic montages from recent episodes.

Following Up on Melissa D’Arabian’s New Food Network Show

Melissa D’Arabian was proclaimed the next food network star this year and it took me a while but on 9/6/09 I managed to find her show, featured on a boring Sunday afternoon entitled “$10 Dinners with Melissa D’Arabian”. I thought it would be cool to see how Melissa did with her new show and I watched it with thoughtful eyes.

First, Melissa looks pregnant to me. Just throwing that out there.

On the show I watched as she prepared something called “braised pork” along with Cuban black beans and drop biscuits containing green onions.

The meal cost only ten bucks as advertised and would feed four people. But I thought the meal was very complicated to prepare, requiring all sorts of pans. The meat needed braising in a fry pan than roasting in an oven…many hours so.

Of course I suppose there must be some trade-off of money and time but I’m just not that poor to be dirtying a house full of pans and spending hours on my feet for one meal.

Melissa did a very good job but will she be the next Rachel Ray?

Below a short clip from Melissa’s show as described above.

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TV-Amerca's Got Talent First Go at Top Ten, Bravo's Top Chef Vegas, Hell's Kitchen, Project Runway

2009-09-07T17:25:00.000-07:00

Update on a few ongoing reality TV shows.

Hell's Kitchen keeps on cussing and smoking. A new reality cooking show, Bravo's "Top Chef Vegas" premieres.

Lifetime's "Project Runway" has maternity wear and beach attire and narrowing down to a grand finale, "America's Got Talent" going down to a top 10 although Obamer will pre-empt it this coming week.

All with pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

Pic of the Day

Top Chef Vegas

Web site for this series.

Bravo’s Top Chef Vegas slipped by with two full shows before I even knew it was running!

This is BravoTv’s most successful series and they run several a year, each in different cities. I watched the two earlier shows and the one aired on 9/2/09. The same as always, there is a Quickfire challenge which often provides the winning contender a prize of some sort and always immunity from elimination for the elimination challenge.

The Top Chef Vegas competition began with 16 contenders, goodness this is just too much for yon average Blogger read by two to three people every day to track, especially with yon Blogger three episodes in arrears.

What stands out in my memory is the one contender from the Isle of Lesbos who got all in a snit over the elimination challenge. Said challenge being for all the contenders to prepare food for a bachelor AND bachelorette party.

This snippy little witch griped that it seemed unfair to require the contenders to participate in this elimination challenge what with THREE of the contenders unable, by law, to participate in the ceremony that normally follows such bachelor celebrations.

She was talking about gays getting married. Something most Americans think, silly, silly them, that should not be allowed because we have definitions of things for a reason. We don’t let humans and dogs marry and we don’t let two females marry and two males marry because we define a marriage as between a man and a woman.

Boo freaking who.

Anyway this nasty snit got sent packing on the episode aired on 9/2/09 so goodbye and moving on. We’ll be following Top Chef Vegas on a bi-weekly basis until the competition narrows down a bit.

Hell’s Kitchen

On the HK episode aired on 9/1/09, it was a typical cussing, screaming and smoking bonanza. The production and serving of sorbet in Hell’s Kitchen seemed to be a big deal on this episode but I don’t know why.

The girls won the initial blind taste test challenge but for the HK service on that episode the boys pulled in the win.

Tenille seems to be a focal point contender during this competition. These sorts of shows always have a controversial and colorful contender always popping up in various manners and situations.

Tenille is one such colorful character, always expressing an opinion on other contenders with no bother of tact and often duking it out with Chef Ramsey. This sort of thing is scripted. It keeps viewers interested in the drama.

This episode had Tenille, always an object of Ramsey’s wrath, as being the heroine of the losing girl team. This fact had the tough-talking Tenille swelled up with great pride. Tenille was charged with nominating two females for elimination.

Suzanne and Sabrina were offered up for elimination by Tenille. Chef Ramsey nominated Amanda, something he does when whoever he has charged with nominating potential losers doesn’t choose who HE would have chosen.

Sure enough Amanda got sent packing.

Lifetime’s Project Runway

Site for the series HERE

I love fashion shows. I did review Bravo’s Fashion Show a few times but once Project Runway got picked up by Lifetime TV I was on it.

Which is not to say that I am any sort of fashion icon, not having the body or youth for such a thing, but I like any show which features fashion makeovers or design.

So I review them although few folks read it.

2009 Contenders for Project Runway
Christopher
Johnny
Louise
Irina
Ari
Nicolas
Mitchell
Shirin
Gordana
Carol Hannah
Ramon-Lawrence
Logan
Malvin
Qristyl
Epperson
Althea

Super model Heidi Klum and classy guy (insert an A for the U if desired in that word) Tim Gunn are hosts of the show and the show protocol pretty much follows fashion show protocol. A bunch of wannabe designers are selected to contend for the winning slot. The winner receives bunches of money and a chance to have an exclusive show of some sort. The first part of the hour has the contenders being given their challenge for the week.

For the show’s first half hour we witness the contenders making their designs. While a viewer might get a glimpse of the fabric or design feature a contender is going to enter for the challenge, the complete frock is not aired until time for the parade on the runway.

Giving the viewer a peek into the various designs tends to keep the interest up; the viewer often wants to know what that thing’s going to end up looking like as Tom Gunn asks questions about the design in progress while the camera only gives quick, secretive glances to the design in progress.

For the Project Runway episode aired on 8/27/09 the challenge was to design a maternity outfit for a modern pregnant woman.

A pregnant female in this early twenty first century does pretty much everything non-pregnant women do as might be expected. Mammals’ bodies were designed to bear children as life goes on so outfits designed to clothe a pregnant female human need mostly to accommodate a big belly with no effort to disguise what it is. Looking pretty is definitely as important to the pregnant as to the non-pregnant but comfort and ease of movement is very needed.

The wannabe designers came up with some clever and attractive maternity wear. One designer came up with ugly shorts for his pregnant model and he got sent home for that ill-conceived effort. It wasn’t that shorts were verboten for the pregnant but this contender’s shorts were flappy, too short and of bad construction.

Two of the female contenders designed truly beautiful outfits. Shirin Askari won the design challenge for her handsomely smocked maternity dress with a matching coat. Louise Black came through with an almost negligee-looking maternity dress that was very feminine and pretty.

America’s Got Talent-Five Go Through Out of Ten

And so when all is said and done it is the singers or singing groups that have the edge with this show. Of course this is not always the case but it is enjoyable watching the magic acts, interesting dance and exercise routines, pianists and other novelty acts until a singer or singing group eventually wins America’s Got Talent.

This past week, on the episode aired 9/1/09 the following acts performed:

Kevin Skinner-bluesy type singer
Acrodunk-acrobat team
Grandma Lee-senior comedian
Arcadia Broad-classical pianist
Drew Thomas-Magic Act
The Texas Tenors-barbershop type group
Pardizo Dance-unusual novelty act
The Fab Five-dancing sisters from Utah
Voices of Glory-siblings sing in harmony
Tony Hoard-dog act

The following five made it through:

Kevin Skinner-bluesy type singer
Grandma Lee-senior comedian
The Texas Tenors-barbershop type group
The Fab Five-dancing sisters from Utah
Voices of Glory-siblings sing in harmony

Of the five that made it through on this episode, I’m not at all sure about Grandma Lee. She’s 75 years old, has good comedic timing but how many jokes can you make about being old and having sex? And at age 75, how long can you keep on doing it?

The Fab Five is the clogging type dancing sisters from Utah. They’re good, yes they are, and they practice hard any viewer can see this. But a winner in this thing? I just don’t see it.

Below, still performing in the 2009 America’s Got Talent Competition:

Kevin Skinner-bluesy type singer
Grandma Lee-senior comedian
The Texas Tenors-barbershop type group
The Fab Five-dancing sisters from Utah
Voices of Glory-siblings sing in harmony
FootworkZ-an "urban" dance team
Jeffrey Ou-pianist
Hairo Torres-single dance act
Lawrence Beamn-bass singer beautiful and unique voice
Mario and Jenny-novelty fire act
Barbara Padillo-opera soprano singer, cancer survivor
Eric and Rickie-preteam dance team
Drew Stevyns-singer
Recycled Percussion-novelty act plays drums on trach
EriAm Sisters-sister song and dance team

Below a remix of the winning acts from this episode along with mine own fine commentary spliced directly onto the video for reader rumination.

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Lewes Delaware's Bethany Blues restaurant gets lots of pluses like its Bethany Beach parent. But the eatery loses because…why no baked potatoes?

And what's so weird about its smell?

HERE
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In THOUGHTS this week we have an update on the monarch butterflies for a chrysalis has been found!

We've got lots on Van Jones, Obamercare and a new sinsister item found in the proposed health care bill.

Plus a Georgetown Delaware cop killed in action, a tragic local story with national implications.

Much more.

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Update on a few ongoing reality TV shows.

Hell's Kitchen keeps on cussing and smoking. A new reality cooking show, Bravo's "Top Chef Vegas" premieres.

Lifetime's "Project Runway" has maternity wear and beach attire and narrowing down to a grand finale, "America's Got Talent" going down to a top 10 although Obamer will pre-empt it this coming week.

All with pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.
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America's Got Talent To Top 20; Hell's Kitchen; HGTV "Design Star"

2009-08-30T14:38:00.000-07:00

TV Reviews of Hell's Kitchen where Chef Ramsey keeps cussing the wannabe chefs keep smoking.

Also a dark horse HGTV reality contest for interior designers…."Design Star".

And as "America's Got Talent" rapidly gains as a challenge to "American Idol" it now has a final top 20.

First guess at the top five here with pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

Pic of the Day

”America’s Got Talent” 2009 Down to Top 20

This reality competition show is growing in popularity, thanks in no small part to Susan Boyle.

The show began in Great Britain and the American version is produced by Simon Cowell of “American Idol” fame.

Actually I enjoy this show way more than American Idol for the diversity of the talent, the outrageousness of some of the acts and I quite like that you never know just what kind of talent act is going to win the thing.

On the show aired on 8/19/09, the acts were indeed diverse and the ones voted through were quite surprising.

Two dance acts were featured, one a group called FootworksZ, a so-called “urban dance team” and the other a single dancer, a fellow named Hairo Torres. Both of these acts were voted through into the top 20.

I’m really not of a mind that a dance act will win this thing but that might be my own prejudice. Now Hairo Torres, featured as part of the remixed video below, is enough of an intriguing dancer what with dancing on the wall and everything, that he might win this thing. If nothing else, both of these acts make fine introductory type of vehicles for a more major performance.

Jeffrey Ou is a young pianist and we’ve got a couple of pianists in this year finals. Jeffrey will be competing against a younger Arcadia Broad if a pianist were to win this thing, which I think not.

Mario and Jenny are one of the most unique novelty acts in the top 20 this year. They like to dabble with fire and while there’s always a bevy of fire and other “dangerous” type of acts in the initial and zany phases of this competition, this particular act is quite good and could, as a dark horse, sneak through to win this thing.

Lawrence Beam is a singer. Singers are a dime a dozen on this reality contest show, most of them coming in at very young or over the age limit allowed on American Idol you should note. Lawrence Beam, however, has quite a unique voice, a very deep baritone that is so unusual that once heard will stop many in their tracks.

Lawrence Beam could possibly win this thing but in the realm of solo singers he’s got one mighty competitor, a cancer survivor, who I think will edge him out, more on this later.

Below a remix of the acts described above, with mine own fine commentary written upon, of course.

On the America’s Got Talent aired on 8/26/09, the final five of the top 20 for this year were chosen by America (with a little help from the judges).

We begin with a cancer survivor, a pretty woman with a young adopted child, all played up that Americans will weep and phone in a vote for Barbara Padilla. Barbara is a singer but she too is unique in a most intriguing way. For Barbara is an opera singer and she does, indeed, have a beautiful voice.

I think she’s got a real chance at winning this thing. She’s definitely the most talented of all the individual singers put through, at least as I see it, and her story’s as interesting as Susan Boyle so I argue.

Erik and Rickie are a little pre-teen dancing couple and they do feature these things on “Dancing With the Stars” but the notion of such an act winning on “America’s Got Talent” surprises me. I do not for one minute think these children will win this thing but they are interesting to watch and keep viewers tuned in. This team has a right bright future on Dancing With the Stars, at least as I argue.

Drew Stevyns is a solo singer and he’s not all that talented. Look for him to be booted off soon as Lawrence Beam and Barbara Padilla head to the finals. Even Kevin Skinner, the goofy guy who wears his baseball hat so stupidly backwards, will go on beyond Stevyns.

I did predict that the novelty act team of Recycle Percussion would likely go through out of the twelve or so acts featured on the episode aired 8/26/09, yes I did. Again, I’m not a big novelty act fan but the ones that do a good job of it do a REALLY REALLY good job of it. This group plays drums and other rhythm type stuff by using old trash barrels, electric drills and all sorts of weird things that, hey they do entertain. They had a stage that turned 90 degrees, the electric drills put out sparks and a weirdly strange but pleasant type of music. I don’t think this group will win but they’ll not go home forlorn. This group will definitely have a future in the Las Vegas or other gambling type arena.

The EriAm Sisters are very good but they sibling group Voices of Glory are better. However, these sisters, three of them, are very good and every one of them sings well, an unusual thing. I think this group could make the top five, definitely the top ten. For sure they have a future as they are very talented.

Below a remixed video of all the acts featured on the America’s Got Talent on the evening of 8/26/09, again with my commentary spliced into the remix.

Top 20 2009 “America’s Got Talent”
Kevin Skinner-bluesy type singer
Acrodunk-acrobat team
Grandma Lee-senior comedian
Arcadia Broad-classical pianist
Drew Thomas-Magic Act
The Texas Tenors-barbershop type group
Pardizo Dance-unusual novelty act
The Fab Five-dancing sisters from Utah
Voices of Glory-siblings sing in harmony
Tony Hoard-dog act
FootworkZ-an "urban" dance team
Jeffrey Ou-pianist
Hairo Torres-single dance act
Lawrence Beam-bass singer beautiful and unique voice
Mario and Jenny-novelty fire act
Barbara Padillo-opera soprano singer, cancer survivor
Eric and Rickie-preteam dance team
Drew Stevyns-singer
Recycled Percussion-novelty act plays drums on trach
EriAm Sisters-sister song and dance team

For now, and with the complete right to change my mind, I will predict the top five for this series, not necessarily in their order of finish:

Barbara Padillo
Voices of Glory
Drew Thomas Magic Act
Recycled Percussion
Hairo Torres

HGTV’s “Design Star” Contest-2009

I really do enjoy both fashion and home decorating shows and such as reality contest shows featuring same capture my fancy.

This year we’ve got Project Runway on Lifetime, to be covered on a future Blog post, and HGTV’s Design Star’s annual contest.

So far the 2009 episodes of Design Star have been very entertaining but I’ll allow as such as home decorating shows are not everyone’s cup of tea. My husband would rather hang by his tongue in a vat of red-ant filled honey than watch such a thing is what I’m saying here.

What I find very intriguing about Design Star is the final reveal be damned, if a designer screws up, the final reveal will show such as bad paint jobs, unfinished tile jobs, cleaning rags left laying about.

It’s more real is what I’m saying here.

The show began with ten contenders and after the episode aired on 8/23/09, there are four left. They are Lonni Paul, Dan Vickery, Antonio Ballatore, Torie Halbert.

Lonni is quite good at what she does, she’s more mature and not out there with the crazies or the gay. Dan is, well not so much. He’s quite gay, not that there’s anything wrong with that, but he giggles like a gay guy and his hosting abilities are suspect.

Speaking of gay, Jason Campion was sent home this past week and he so deserved it. After watching his presentation and his final reveal Jason’s only comment was “I’m so gay.” Well damn, yah think?

Not that using placemats as a headboard helped keep him and a chandelier in an adolescent’s room, even if female? And that stupid thing he painted around his client’s window was dumb as all get out.

Torie Halbert is definitely a contender but of the two final females, Lonni is better, as I see it anyway.

Antonio Ballatore is, for now, the most likely to win this thing. Again, as I see it. Although he’s a guy, Antonio presents no obvious and silly gayness. To me that sort of thing tends to detract from the presentation and the drama of the final reveal. Don’t go calling me a homophobe. I don’t care a whit about the sexuality of the decorator but it isn’t about the decorator, it’s about what he or she decorated.

At any rate, Antonio is very talented and throughout this series he has consistently won every challenge and by me his rooms have always been both practical and attractive.

The most recent challenge on the episode aired 8/23/09 had the final five re-doing a child’s or adolescent’s room. They had a budget of $5,000, a handsome amount thus no need to use placemats for a headboard, damn.

”Hell’s Kitchen” 2009 Summer-The Cussing & Smoking Go On

Fox’s Web Site for the Series HERE.

Gordon Ramsey continues to cuss and the chefs continue to smoke and life goes on in Hell’s Kitchen in late summer 2009. So okay, as this show narrows down to fewer contenders it begins to get more interesting. My eyes tend to glaze at the beginning of this contest with so many chef contenders, all of them looking pretty much the same.

After a while I begin to know them and take an interest in their individual progress.

On the episode aired on 8/18/09, we had each team, the guys and the girls, whip up a menu of under 800 calories. Chef Ramsey was the judge and the girls won handily.

On the HK Episode aired on 8/25/09, Robert was finally sent home. This makes two times over a span of two contests that Robert had to be sent to the hospital and yes, it was time for him to drop out. If he’s not healthy enough to compete, clear the way for a healthier contender.

Robert, I am sure, knows he’s extremely overweight and obviously he’s got health issues. By me he looks as heavy as he was last year when he got sent home and he doesn’t seem to care an awful lot.

In this episode Ramsey had something called “Chef’s Tables”. Well damn, is this cool or what? They have actual tables set up in the kitchen and chefs sit and dine at the tables.

The guys lost this challenge of the Hell’s Kitchen service. Van and Andy were chosen for possible elimination. Robert had not been chosen but Ramsey called him out and sent him packing.

It was time.

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TV Reviews of Hell's Kitchen where Chef Ramsey keeps cussing the wannabe chefs keep smoking.

Also a dark horse HGTV reality contest for interior designers…."Design Star".

And as "America's Got Talent" rapidly gains as a challenge to "American Idol" it now has a final top 20.

First guess at the top five here with pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

HERE
============
Ed and Lois Smart tell the harrowing tale of the search for their abducted daughter Elizabeth.

She'd been taken from her bed in her own home one night and as the Smart family suffered the insults of a community the Salt Lake Police blew this case so bad that Elizabeth suffered many more months for their dereliction of investigative duty.

HERE
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For one can never get enough Ted Kennedy.

But more importantly, on Thoughts this week we have a tender story about butterfly babies and backyard habitats. Plus a story about a new computer malware that is particularly nasty.

And of course, as we all need more of the wonderful Ted Kennedy in our lives, my tale of just how I shall explain the story of Ted Kennedy to my granddaughter.

Much more.

HERE
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Reviews and Updates-America's Got Talent, Shark Tank, Hell's Kitchen

2009-08-16T06:46:00.000-07:00

The chefs keep smoking on Hell's Kitchen 2009 and Gordon keeps cussing. We've got an update.

America's Got Talent begins the rundown to the big finale and we've got pics, videos, reviews and predictions of the first twenty in the semi-finals.

Here's a new show from ABC, "Shark Tank" and we take a look at it.

All with pics and videos you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

Pic of the Day

Hell’s Kitchen 2009

Fox’s Web Site for the Series HERE.

I tune in weekly to watch Hell’s Kitchen and it’s pretty much the same week after week. Hell’s Kitchen opens for the night, the guests arrive in fine limousines, the red and blue kitchens, now all girls and all guys in each, begin to cook, and Gordon Ramsey begins cussing, yelling, screaming and humiliating.

I’ve compiled some pic montages from the series thus far but beyond that I’ve not honed in on a winner and frankly this reality cooking show doesn’t become interesting until much later in the contest.

I will launch into my weekly complaint that these wannabe chefs are always shown smoking and I got to wonder why the producers insist on this.

It wasn’t that long ago that myself was a smoker and I always feel guilty complaining about this. But the scenes of these chefs smoking bring nothing to the table in terms of intrigue or viewer clarity.

I definitely do not want the gubmint getting involved in the issue by issuing some sort of law making it illegal to show people smoking on television when a little production common sense would avoid such an awful thing.

My bigger concern is that right now, with my granddaughter’s generation, we have for the first time a generation of Americans who will, from their moment of birth, been part of a society that knows about the dangers of smoking. Until Kaitlyn’s generation, it could be argued that all the dangers of smoking were not known and many got hooked on tobacco before knowing the problems with inhaling smoke into healthy lungs, not to mention second hand smoke. And while I consider myself somewhat of a libertarian on the matter in that the freedom to smoke is a personal choice and folks that want to do it should be allowed to do so, I will suggest softly that one can go an entire life and not smoke one cigarette and not miss it a whit. Just throwing it out there.

I’d like for Kaitlyn Mae not to be exposed to cool and happening chefs smoking and have her think that this looks like a really fun thing to do. If these smart cooks were smoking, so Kaitlyn might think, maybe it’s an okay thing to do. Maybe I’m over-reacting but again I ask, what do these smoking scenes bring to the show? If they provided some kind of insight than I’d be fine with it. As I see it, it’s gratuitous and unnecessary.

But I must shut up now because next thing you know some liberal with nothing better to do with his or her life will get it into their head that they need to tell us how to live and make such as showing smoking, a perfectly legal activity mind you, on television.

So I write of my concern and hope that maybe the producers of this show will get a clue.

America’s Got Talent

America’s Got Talent 2009 is heading toward its September finals and it begins to get interesting.

I quite enjoy this show in that there is offered a plethora and variety of talent in the acts and the things people do continues to amaze me. Further, offbeat and quirky acts often win this reality contest and go on to smashing success. One such act, a ventriliquist, has been quite successful and had two shows at my own Delaware state fair, both sold out.

So far we’ve got, as of this writing on 8/15/09-ten acts going into the semi-finals:

Acroduck-a group of fellows who dunk the basketball and perform on exercise equipment at the same time. The action is choreographed in such a way that there’s always a fellow bouncing up and down on a trampoline of flipping on the ground, one “walking” up a wall, another with a basketball going through the hoop from somewhere else on the stage. I think it’s quite an intriguing act although I’m not convinced this act will win. Whatever, this group will go on to bigger and better things as what entertainment they bring is unique, interesting and requires no small about of talent and practice.

Kevin Skinner is a bluesy type of country singer and he’s good. The only thing is that it’s tough for an individual singer to win this contest unless they are older, like Britain’s Susan Boyle, or very young like the young girls that almost got through early in the series.

A young boy name Arcadian Broad plays classical piano and dances over the stage quite handily. He began this contest just dancing but this past week he began his act by playing the piano then launched into a rollicking dance to the tune of “Footloose”. The judges admonished him to concentrate on just the dancing but I think this was bad advice.

First, he is a good dancer for one so young but I’m not convinced his dancing will the sort of thing folks will pay to sit and watch. Second, the combination of a classical piano player and great young dancer is the sort of thing folks might pay to sit and watch. Just my opinion, of course.

Grandma Lee is an older woman, in her 70’s I think, who is a comedian and she’s okay. From what I’ve seen of her comedic show she wouldn’t have a chance save for her age. She uses her age to get yucks about sex via poking fun at the elderly, their forgetfulness, their dearth of sexual opportunity. Which is fine, it is funny but I don’t know if it’s enough to make Grandma Lee a winner. Maybe if she expanded that comic repetoire to include a senior citizen’s look at current events, some a bit more zippy.

Finally we have the Drew Thomas magician and hey, there always has to be one magic act in every year’s America’s Got Talent competition. This is a good magic act and I think Thomas has a better than even chance of winning, definitely to be in the top five.

The Fab Five are a group of sisters who dance in rhythm, a tapdancing sort of thing. I just don’t think this act will make the finals, much less win. First, the fact that they are sisters really isn’t part of the show. It’s the sort of thing viewers learn before the act and cluck in admiration but whether or not they are related brings nothing to the performance. Doesn’t hurt the act, mind you, but doesn’t help.

The Texas Tenors are a trio of male singers who do a good job with the harmony. But nope, I don’t think this act will win and I think this mostly because, well there’s another harmonious group that will beat them handily.

This year there is a couple who perform an acrobatic act called Paradizo Dance. This duo gives a very amazing act although at first one might think that two folks lifting each other up and such isn’t the stuff of spectacular wins on America’s Got Talent. The thing with this husband and wife team is that he is quite a big guy and she lifts him up often during the performance. Further, when he lifts her, it is quite amazing to watch, not your normal acrobatics. I’ve never seen such gracefulness in an act like this.

I don’t think Paradizo Dance will win this thing but they’ve got a future as performers in front of them, I’m sure of it.

Tony Hoard and Rory his dog have an act that squeaked through to the semi-finals. Sure, Rory’s a cute dog and very good at retrieving Frisbees as they shoot across the stage from all angles. The dog jumps on Tony’s back before catching a Frisbee or works his magic from many angles, all the while as loud music plays and the crowd screams and cheers.

The problem with this act is it’s too disjointed. Obviously Rory is the star of the performance even if Tony works endlessly to train the dog. But a show with a dog catching Frisbees over and over, even if done cleverly with cool music….this is just not the stuff that people are going to pay to see. It’s confusing and only holds attention for a short while until the eyes start to glaze over. It is, however, an entertaining performance and hey, Tony and Rory might make a great introductory act.

Finally I now name the act that so far I think will win this thing in 2009. Their name is Voices of Glory and they have a good story. They are three siblings, two brothers and a sister. Their mother had been in a coma after being hit in a car by a drunk driver. The three kids began to sing together as a way to somehow get through to their comatose mother.

Their mother did come to consciousness and the Voices of Glory act was born.

I love their harmony. It’s the little girl who has the powerhouse of a voice but their harmony is pretty. This act has what it takes to win this thing and so far I’m hoping they win the big prize.

Below are remix videos of the acts listed above, with my fine commentary super-imposed on the scenes.

Shark Tank

Here’s a new show thrown into the middle of the doldrums of summer lineup that has possibility. From ABC, it’s called “Shark Tank” and there are no underwater creatures in this movie.

The “sharks” are five investors. The “shark food”, as it were, are ordinary folks who have what they consider a fabulous idea that they want to market.

Some of the folk seeking money from the sharks are already in a business that needs a fresh cash infusion to keep on going. One such fellow featured on the episode aired 8/9/09 was a pie maker with a specialty in sweet potato pies. This guy had suffered some severe setbacks in the continuing pursuit of his dream but he battled his way back to business and he did seem to have a happening and ongoing pie business.

He needed some new baking equipment, however, so he asked for $460,000 in return for 10% of his business.

This is how the “deal” works. In return for some amount of money, estimated and justified by the requestor, a percentage of the business is offered to whatever shark takes the deal.

The sharks, being sharks we must assume, will often counter-offer for an even larger percentage of the business being offered by the entrepreneur for the money requested. One shark accepted the pie man’s offer for funds but wanted not 10% of the business for the money asked, but 50% of his pie business. The pie man accepted the counter-offer and we are left to assume, at least at this point, that everyone lives happily ever after.

Of course there must be crazies in this show, just for viewer interest if nothing else. One entrepreneur had some way-out idea for implanting blue-tooth deviceds directly into peoples’ heads. He was perfectly serious and the subject of much shark mirth.

Another interesting entrepreneur featured on this premiere show was a youngish woman who was the nanny of a little boy who had to take much medicine for some illness or another. It was such a task to get the child to take the medicine that she designed a little elephant shaped medicine dropped. According to the nanny entrepreneur, the child’s medicine tantrums stopped once the medicine was administered via her little prototype of the elephant eye dropped type of thing.

The female shark accepted the offer but she too wanted 50% of what we assume will be a new product soon to be on the market, that of an elephant shaped medicine dropper.

I kind of like this show and would recommend. We’ll keep following it and see where it goes. If nothing else, it’s a lesson in how business works and an insight into the mind of a venture capitalist.

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Hell's Kitchen Begins; HGTV Design Star Surprises; America's Got Talent Shows Little Talent; and Fat People Find Love

2009-08-01T13:31:00.000-07:00

Some 2009 summer reality shows plow on, others start up, some are brand new, some old and stale.

Reviews here of 2009 "Hell's Kitchen", HGTV's 2009" Design Star"; "America's Got Talent" finally over the auditions and a new one that fat people across the fruited plains will adore:"More to Love". Or maybe not.

All with pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

Pic of the Day

HGTV’s “Design Star” a Refreshing Reality Show

HOME SITE HERE

My guess is that reality shows on designing rooms in a house aren’t very popular and, indeed, I might well be the only one writing about it across the Internet.

HGTV’s “Design Star” does, like its sister network “Food Network”, give the winner his or her own TV show. In fact, “Myles of Style” is a show awarded to one year’s “Design Star” winner and I find it one of the better home decorating shows.

Not that I am any avid home decorator. One would only have to look at my home and one would wonder why I even like such shows. I just enjoy the concept of taking something so raw, ugly, unproven, and using our good imaginations, putting our stamp and personalities on spaces to an end of an often amazing transformation.

First, this reality series, so far, shows some really awful decorating work and this is nice. Well it’s not “nice” in that crooked granite countertops look awful and, in one case, a paint job showing terrible tape lines, aren’t pretty things. But it is more “real” in that, well who said that a so-called “decorator” knows how to install complicated granite kitchen countertops?

I also question just why HGTV started with 11 contenders for this contest, one being picked by the original ten chosen contenders. Why do this? I understand that most of these types of shows need one quick “throwaway” contender to be sent packing the first week before viewers have any time to learn of the quirks and personalities of the “real” contenders. But why do this in this manner?

In the first week of this series, the contenders were charged with forming two or three person teams and each re-decorating a room in the house where they all were staying at the time. I suppose some rich guy allowed HGTV to use the house with the proviso that the thing be completely re-decorated.

One team, Natalie and Tashica, were a real goof of a pair. They got everything so messed up, their tape put on to allow painting of “diamonds” on the floor plus their hanging of curtains turned out laughable. I’m sure this was set up in some manner because it was a real chuckle…in fact the final result looked like some of my own home projects. Natalie got sent home.

To show how far removed I am from decorating fashion sense, one team made over the home’s dining room. A painting was done on the wall that resembled a giant jigsaw puzzle and it went on down and across the floor. I hated it but the three judges loved the thing.

In the second week, two teams were formed and each team was charged with re-designing a volunteer homeowner’s kitchen.

I don’t get why decorators are supposed to know how to tear out a kitchen and put a new one in. At any rate, one team did an awful job of creating a “Morrocan” atmostphere. Why anyone would want a Morrocan type of kitchen is beyond me but the designers assigned to that task just hung some colorful things from the ceiling and painted the walls a streaky red and thought it looked like some fine bazaar nestled in the foothills of Morroco.

Heh.

The other team got the kitchen counters so misaligned that HGTV, according to the show’s host, had to send out a team of contractors to fix the mess. Again, who the hell said building stuff like this is the job of a designer?

The leader of the team that so misaligned the granite countertops, first name Amy, cried so much during the show that I wanted to slap her. What is it about scripters of reality shows that think a heaping dose of crying contenders is just the ticket?

I thought Amy just looked like a dope and, indeed, she got sent home on the episode aired 7/26/09.

I will keep Blogging about this series and hey, maybe one or two people will read it.

Hell’s Kitchen 2009 Begins

Fox’s Web Site for the Series HERE.

I have a love/hate relationship with Gordon Ramsey’s “Hell’s Kitchen” reality show, a quite successful show I might add even though half of the thing has to be bleeped for the cussing. Not to mention that every chef is a chain smoker and oncit I was a chain smoker. Now I really dislike seeing folks on TV smoking, not so much for myself, but for my granddaughter. Darn we need to get one generation raised in this country that has not been exposed to smoking as a cool, happening activity. Human beings live just fine without ever taking a puff one from a cigarette. But so long as movies and TV shows depict happening chefs or other appealing characters smoking, well it’s just one more temptation to make the youngsters want to try it out.

Smoking screed aside, this is definitely NOT any sort of cooking show and anyone who should think so will be disappointed.

The Next Food Network Star, Top Chef…these are reality cooking contests. Hell’s Kitchen will seldom show a cook of any kind demonstrating how to artfully core and peel apples for a fine Apple Pan Dowdy or anything else along these lines.

For sure the series has “challenges” that are food related but this reality show is all about Chef Gordon Ramsey, his nasty disposition and the humiliation his contenders must suffer at his hands.

Not that there’s anything wrong with this.

This year we have an interesting allure in that a contender from last year, Robert, a portly contender who had to drop out for sickness, is now back. Robert was a sort of beloved contender because he was rather nice and the poor guy would cry at the drop of a hat. Again we have those obligatory reality show tears.

In the first episode, 7/21/09, all contenders were to whip up their signature dish and present it to Chef Ramsey. Louie, a diner owner, presented a plate with a big biscuit covered with sausage gravy.

Well damn, this is, indeed, a dish served in every diner in America but Ramsey’s Scottish or some such, eh? The sausage gravy is a thick, gooey, cholesterol hardening affair but I personally resented Ramsey’s disdain for this Americana dish. Alas Louie the diner owner got sent home the very first week. A setup, I am sure.

The second episode, aired 7/28/09, had the group whipping up an Italian meal for a bunch of firefighters. Making garlic bread seemed to be the problem of the day in that a contender from both the male and the female team couldn’t seem to get the stuff made. And the bread wasn’t made from scratch folks. It was merely a braid of bread that needed to be split and buttered with garlic infused butter than broiled a bit in the oven.

The women won this challenge but the women lost the service challenge big time. Two female chefs, one “Lovely” and one “Tennille” were nominated for elimination but in what had to be a scripted element of drama, one of the contenders issued a non-food challenge to Ramsey himself. A guy named Michael offered to take Ramsey outside and, well I dunno I guess he wanted to engage Ramsey in a fist fight. Ramsey rightfully sent the guy packing.

Because of this elimination Ramsey did not send home either Lovely or Tennille.

We’ll be keeping an eye on the series because Hell’s Kitchen has been a very successful show and, at times, it entertains.

Other year’s Hell’s Kitchen reviews on this Blog HERE

Fox’s ”More to Love”-The Bachelor for Fat People

All right, I get it already. Large people deserve love too.

To illustrate this sentiment, we still have fat people being rejected and sent home in droves on Fox’s “More to Love” but well, we know it’s not because they’re fat.

A Review of this show that sums it up well HERE.

I tuned in to More to Love for the premiere episode aired on 7/28/09 on Fox. The show was touted as the brainchild of the producer of “The Bachelor” series, and, indeed, the general flow of the show is very similar to The Bachelor/Bachelorette.

Only instead of roses the goal is to get a ring in order to hang around for another week. A ring. Heh. Round. Get it?

The “bachelor” fellow looking for love is Luke, a nice guy it seems, weighing in at over 300 lbs but he looks relatively healthy for that weight.

A phalanx of “women with curves” were brought in to win Luke’s affection as Luke has no problem with a big woman in his life.

Beyond this the show is just like The Bachelor and I suspect there will be lots of scripting.

The larger problem, forgive the adjective, for this series is that there’s only so much a play on the weight issue that will fly before it gets old, real old.

I’m intrigued enough to tune in again for this series but I’m going to go bonkers if every episode, scene and drama is about being overweight.

If the series adheres to the original Bachelor concept of finding love, with maybe an occasional reference to the weight issue, it might fly during the desultory summer months.

If the producers choose to hang on to the weight thing like white on rice, viewers will sign off, eyes glazed with the boredom.

”America’s Got Talent” Finally Gets Serious

It’s been a summer of ho-hum although for the most part, as background noise, I have enjoyed the 2009 “America’s Got Talent” auditions. Sure they are so formulaic as to be laughable. The show begins with some contender getting a big buildup. The gal or fellow will lament in a solo on-camera vignette how he or she’s been working towards this chance all their life, that he or she knows he or she can win, that he, she or even they, are ready to show their stuff.

The viewer is left thinking, goodness, he, she or they must be terrific.

Insert big sound of rejection here.

For with this big build-up, almost always the contender is so bad the viewer is left wondering what on earth he, she or they were thinking.

And on it goes, sometimes with questionable acts and the judges state their reservations, on camera, with acts that might be okay but can the guy do anything else but run a drill bit up his nose?

There are, of course, the acts to look out for and these acts are presented with much fanfare, much like the failures as narrated above. EXCEPT the acts to watch for are most often featured in the middle of a show episode. Some acts to watch include a fellow who wore his hat the wrong way on his head which I think made him look dumb. He can sing and will likely wind up in the top ten. There’s a group of siblings who sang their mother back from a coma and a big deal was made about them. Another guy has a baritone that won’t quit and this could fly. There’s a comedian lady who’s over 70 years old and, oddly, I think she might have a chance. First, she IS funny and then there’s the novelty of it.

There’s “ ‘break’ skaters”, your more ordinary break dancers, a pre-teen ballroom dance team, lots of gymnastic and magic entrees.

The show is now down to, last I checked, 40 finalists in Las Vegas. They had been up to a hundred but culled it down with the highlights of the mass rejection being the gist of the episodes aired this past week.

Things should get interesting and, of course, Youtube “Britain’s Got Talent” sensation, Susan Boyle, was interviewed on the show so stay here as we’ll be watching, smirking and assessing.

As is our wont.

Below a very short remix of some acts that intrigue, including “break skaters” and an 8 year old with a wow voice.

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The intriguing reality is that neither of these two finalists of the Next Food Network Star, Melissa or Jeffrey, have any extensive food background.

Which some would say makes it all the sweeter.

The contenders were good but the Korean, the Creole or the Healthy could beat the cooking of the 2009 Next Food Network Star finalists and their charming on screen presence.

My choice for the winner. All with pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

HERE
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It could have been the stimulus that didn't stimulate, the health care package Americans hate; bowing to the Saudi King…well President Obama has given us enough actions that will likely bring down his presidency as his ratings tank like our 401-k's.

But folks, the Gates incident illustrates more than anything where this very naive man is coming from. It will be the incident that caused his downfall.

Plus some detailed information on the Health "reform" that will have you killing Grandma; some Clinton kitchen utensils; and some thoughts on just why you have to be crazy to ask for a birth certificate?

Does this make every MVA in America conspiracy theorists?

HERE
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Even though Father Beachem was his twin brother, the protagonist in this fiction short story helped arrange his twin's surprise birthday party which turned out to be a bigger surprise to the caterer and priest's brother than to the party's man of honor.

HERE
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Some 2009 summer reality shows plow on, others start up, some are brand new, some old and stale.

Reviews here of 2009 "Hell's Kitchen", HGTV's 2009" Design Star"; "America's Got Talent" finally over the auditions and a new one that fat people across the fruited plains will adore:"More to Love". Or maybe not.

All with pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

HERE
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2009 Bachelorette Jillian has chosen her man.

We have a review of the Men Telling All, The Final Rose and After the Final Rose.

With some analysis of the series, some smirks, a few laughs and, of course, pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

HERE
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TV-Review-"Philanthropist"-A Liberal's Dream Show; HGTV "Showdown"; America's Got Talent-Or Does It?

2009-07-05T15:10:00.000-07:00

Heh. Surely the producers of The Philanthropist meant this show to be a comedy. Surely?

It's a liberal's dream show, as far removed from truth and reality as…well most liberal ideas.

We've got a tongue-in-cheek, pokey-fun review.

Also, America's Got Talent continues on and the acts being sent through just boggle the mind. 75 dancing little girls donned in little orphan annie wigs? The judges think they can win this thing?

HGTV's "Showdown" quickly review and dismissed.

All with pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.
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Pic of the Day

The Philanthropist

Well I watched this offering from NBC HERE, and I have to smile.

First, the summer is, indeed, that time of year when the networks throw anything on the screen hoping something might stick.

Whoever wrote this show was evidently given carte blanche to write any plot desired, to pay no attention to believability, to just write away, add adventure, let the mind go on a grand trip that would have a rich man suddenly “finding” his meaning in life while running around in the jungle, avoiding gunfire and delivering vaccine to distant villages in Nigeria.

Heh.

Nigeria? Seriously? Aren’t these the people always offering me, via email, millions if I would only send them a few thousand bucks for security? Already the show’s a laughing stock as, well Nigeria’s a bit of a laughing stock, eh?

Seems the country suffered a serious hurricane and distant villages were left without vaccine to administer to the sick. James Purfoy, who I never heard of, plays the lead in this series. He somehow got involved with obtaining the vaccine from the states and delivering it to that distant village.

Dear Lord. This man was running through a jungle that he’d never been in before, mind you. Somehow he got a hold of a motor bike and he’s roaring across the open field when suddenly he’s dodging bullets being shot at by bad guys, evidently. Folks trying to deliver vaccines are obviously a great danger in Nigeria, and must be mowed down with a hale of bullets.

Our hero plows on, however, running on bare feet through the jungle, suffering a snake bite but going on, going on. Yes, I laughed. I laughed my head off.

Problem is, this show’s not a comedy. I think perhaps my 5-year-old granddaughter, she might believe it.

Of course the show had to have a happy ending. Our hero did find that village, without the help of a Tom-Tom, not even a damn handwritten map but hey, he kept on going, he just kept on going.

Throughout this thing, the hero had been telling his story to some waitress or another who, wisely, too didn’t believe a word of it. Except the hero’s employees showed up out of the blue and verified the entire tale, up to the dramatic ending which had our hero delivering the vaccine, making love to the nurse administering the vaccine, being saved from death by snake bite by this nurse, and meeting up with a young Nigerian boy who the hero had helped save at the beginning when the hurricane began its rage.

As a comedy, this series might survive. If we are expected to believe this hackney liberal’s dream nonsense, it will likely die soon, real soon.

HGTV’s “Showdown”

I have a slight interest in decorating shows in that I am a female and I like to spread the paint and hang the pictures as much as the next woman.

HGTV’s mid-summer offering called “Showdown” is a decorating show that has the obligatory “Before”, “After” and the big “Reveal”.

Homeowners, chosen I don’t know how, are on the set to witness the offerings of two sets of HGTV design stars as they tackle a nasty decorating problem of the homeowners.

On the Showdown episode aired 6/28/09, we had two homeowners with a very plain and boring backyard that they wanted updated to include a place to barbecue, a place to relax and a plan to replace their lackluster back lawn.

One decorating team consisted of Lisa Laporta of “Designed to Sell” and Camen de la Paz of “Hammerheads”. The other decorating team consisted of Steve Watson, a loud-mouth carpenter type I’ve seen on some HGTV show or another, and Taneya Nyak of “Designed to Sell”.

I’ve never watched either “Hammerheads” or “Designed to Sell”. I do rather like that decorating show “Design on a Dime” and the one featuring decorator Candice Olsen. I watch a couple of other decorating shows on HGTV but I’m not all that knowledgeable about most of them.

It was a typical HGTV design show. I suspect Showdown is a lead in to HGTV’s big summer reality contest series, which I DO watch, enjoy and will be reviewing, their vaunted “Design Star” series.

For the first 45 minutes we watched the decorating teams struggle with their tasks. There’s always problems, something goes awry, bad choices are made, speculation about how the homeowners will like this or that. Steve designed some sort of outdoor fountain that he made himself. The other team just used a ready-made thing as the teams had an on-set Home Depot type of supply area from which to choose their building and decorating needs. That hand-made fountain didn’t even pump water at the end of the show or, I don’t know, maybe I’m the only viewer out here in la-la land to notice this.

The homeowners then chose the best design after the final Reveal and their concurrent OOHS and AAHS.

It was kind of fun but formulaic. The homeowners don’t really have their REAL home re-done as obviously there can’t be TWO concurrent makeovers of one space. This is all done on a stage set. The homeowners do win all the materials they will need to copy the design they choose and a little bit of money maybe to hire some labor.

It’s the notion of having the same space re-designed in a competition that is unique to this series and it’s a bit of a novelty.

I’ll likely watch it again, but only as a DVR and on some occasion when I’m bored and want something froufrou to watch.

America’s Got Talent-Those Judges Let Most Anybody Through

There were elder ladies dancing with absolutely no choreographical sense, large groups of young females wearing Orphan Annie wigs, a quite good male singer who, inexplicably, wore his capped hat backwards to look very dumb and one excellent singer, a child of 14.

The award for winning this thing is a million dollars and a chance to perform on a Las Vegas stage. I cannot imagine anybody standing in line to watch 75 curly-haired wigged youngsters jumping around. Or a singer with a nice voice but too stupid to either take off his hat or wear it correctly. Or even five sisters who all dance and isn’t that special?

In the end only one truly talented person will win this thing. America’s Got Talent has discovered some very talented folks and it was never any of the cute but useless acts being put through this early in that series’ summer season.

Below, a Remix of America’s Got Talent’s best offerings from 6/30/09 and 7/1/09. They all got through to Vegas but I wonder why.

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The toaster-pocketbook was Drew Parker's fashion idea. She also came up with the living crucifixion of a town smoker as example of what happens to those who dare light up.

Here's a funny fictional(?) story of the discovery of the genius of Drew Parker and how she'll go far from the outrageousness and satire she brings to cherished political ideals.

It's "The Empress Wore Weird Clothes".

HERE
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It's time for yon readers to put their money where their mouth is. We have genuine odds on the remaining contenders for 2009's The Next Food Network Star" along with my own sure bet recommendation.

Teddy the liar finally went home and we narrow down to a field of six in this summer foodie contest that has us all rooting for....who?

With pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

HERE
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The Bachelorette Jillian's down to four finalists that might be her husband in the near future.

One of them is a snake but fear not, I've got the reason why this guy remains even though he readily admits, on camera, to his snakiness.

Also, he left and now he's back and again, my inside scoop on why Ed bailed out precisely during Home Town visit week.

All with pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

HERE
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In THOUGHTS this week we follow a couple of local Delaware yet very national political players.

Mike Castle, Mr. Republican Cap and Trade, is our Bad Guy of the Week. Our President-to-Be sometime in our future, Beau Biden, gets in his first pot of hot water and we're following this young man as he prepares for the Oval Office.

A couple of Quips of the Week that'll leave you in stitches and we know that young women in bikinis sell stuff handily. But fireworks?

HERE
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TV-Review America's Got Talent, Top Chef Masters-The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

2009-06-28T15:31:00.000-07:00

It's coming upon the TV doldrums of summer and America's Got Talent steps up to fill the void.

Can a guy whose claim to fame is his ability to put a drill of his nose really win this thing?

Also, the new BravoTV cooking contest doesn't quite meet the standards of its cousin "Top Chef". For the "Top Chef Masters" cook up stuff way too heady for the humble home cook.

All with pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

Pic of the Day

”America’s Got Talent”-2009-Looking for the Next Susan Boyle

I tuned in to the premiere episode of America’s Got Talent, the 2009 edition, with a lackluster enthusiasm. First, we are entering the dog days of summer when most TV shows are afterthoughts at any rate. Second, early on in these types of reality contest shows, even the vaunted American Idol, the shows are mostly contrived affairs, filled with ridiculous froufrou to attract the curious who might not tune into this show during its more serious moments. The guy running an electric drill into this nose won’t make it to the final rounds more than likely so the early shows feature this “act” to attract viewers more interested in serious contenders.

To my surprise, a local yokel radio talk show host, Don Geronimo in fact, part of the famous radio “Mike and Don” pair who just got an afternoon gig here in the swamps of Delaware-WGMD, started talking about America’s Got Talent. He wanted the opinions of us minions out here in the swamps so I called him up. Don specifically mentioned Susan Boyle, that famed middle-aged singer from “Britain’s Got Talent” who rocketed to fame via a Youtube clip of her pretty voice.

At any rate I had a polite on-air discussion with Don Geronimo but more than anything, this incident picqued my interest and stoked my enthusiasm for this series.

Like I told radio guy Don, who had been too complaining about America’s Got Talent, how it’s pale compared to its British cousin, you got to approach AGT with a sense of humor, with a bit of whimsical curiousity.

My husband asked who on earth would want to watch a man run an electric drill in his nose? I told husband I have more respect for a man who has spent yay many hours (who knows how many hours you have to practice to drill in your nose without jamming into your brain?) practicing such a weird task than half of those jokes in congress who have nothing going for them, not even a brain to damage.

Consider that Mark Sanford guy, and yeah he’s a Republican. I’d rather watch a man run a drill into his nose than listen to that crazy Sanford going on and on about the love of his life and his need to leave his job behind, as well as his wife and sons, to run off to Argentina. Today this fool compared himself to King David.

An honest man spending endless hours perfecting the trick of drilling up his nose has my respect way more than this goofball Governor who is evidently controlled by his dangling male parts than any sort of brain matter.

America’s Got Talent is amusing to watch, way more amusing than American Idol in so many ways. Like all of these shows, there’s always jokers applying to win that have not a chance. The audience is left wondering if these people really think they can win a million dollars by dressing up like a robot and making fart noises.

It’s a hoot. And in the midst of a long, hot summer, what else could so capture our fancy?

Below a remix of the good, the bad and the ugly of the America’s Got Talent Contenders from the premier show of 2009. With my wise commentary inserted, of course.

BravoTV’s “Top Chef Masters”

So I really like BravoTV’s “Top Chef” series and of course I tune into this new offering titled “Top Chef Masters”. These are the vaunted Chefs who judge the culinary offerings of the Top Chef contenders and this contest brings the cream of the cream in this reality show competition to compete for a prize of their own.

The stakes, as should be obvious, are very high. For the winner of the “Top Chef Masters” might be considered the best culinary artist of them all.

I’ve by now watched two episodes of this series and nothing these culinary gurus make appeals to my appetite. In fact, even the dishes presented by Top Chef contenders is not normally a meal the likes of me normally eats. BUT I do see plenty of dishes I’d give a try. These Top Chef Masters, hey, I guess I’m too much of a culinary Rube to be eating such as wild boar and banana mustard.

What’s even more surprising is how the judges wax rhapsodic about these Godforesaken foods hatched up by these masters of the meal. Every judge raved over wild boar and hey, if wild boar was so damn good, first, why don’t these chefs serve it up in their own eateries? Second, why isn’t wild boar more widely available in this country if such experts as these judges consider it such a treat? I obviously didn’t taste the stuff but I thought the meat looked perfectly awful.

I will likely continue to watch this show for the intrigue but frankly the art is a bit too advanced for my humble tastes and appreciation.

I’m not at all convinced this series will be watched by most of your average America save die-hard foodies.
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TV-Reviews-NBC's "The Listener"; HGTV's-"The $250,000 Challenge; BravoTV's "The Fashion Show-MORE

2009-06-14T14:12:00.000-07:00

In this TV post we take a look at NBC's newest summer offering-"The Listener". The main character's cute and has ESP. But does this make a hit show?

Also, HGTV's $250,000 challenge where families win even if they lose. It's fun and on a subject ALL females are concerned about.

BravoTV's The Fashion Show reality contest continues on and it intrigues. But a "jock" look with fringes on stockings?

Finally, Dancing With Stars sexy Marini has new role and how did Kris Allen really win American Idol 2009?

Pic of the Day

HGTV’s $250,000 Challenge

I rather enjoy this show although I am quite sure those Kate people plus eight aren’t worrying about this HGTV reality show contest knocking it off the air.

The contest involves a group beginning with five couples, all from the same neighborhood. Each week the couples are charged with doing an overhaul on one room of their house. They are given a set amount of time and dollars. The “BEFORE” is shown to the audience and the judges. Each week there is a guest judge, usually a star from another HGTV decorator show. The namesake from HGTV’s “Myles of Style”, herself a former interior design contest winner on HGTV, was one such guest judge.

Each challenge also has some additional unique mini-challenge within. This past week the mini-challenge involved each team adding a creation of some sort designed and built by their own selves.

I think it’s a fun show, probably little known and likely to disappear next year.

Pity if so. For there’s lots of women out here that consider re-decorating rooms in their house to be a major part of their life. Well men too, but mostly females, let’s get real. The most humblest of abodes has pictures and knick-knacks at the least in the surround.

The couple who survives the weekly elimination rounds down to the last team standing wins the $250,000. It’s win-win in a way. The couples DO get to decorate rooms in their home with expert advice and money provided. Thus even if they do get eliminated for as long as they remain in the contest they will continue to get money to decorate.

New shows air on Thursday nights at 10 pm on HGTV.

NBC’s “The Listener”

NBC’s Home Site The Listener HERE

So the series star is cute as a puppy. His name is CRAIG OLEJNIK and he plays Toby Logan. I never heard of him and he’s young enough to be my son.

Further, I am not at all sure how Toby Logan got his ESP powers, such as they are, except for some vague connection to his mother.

I only watched one show and will likely not watch another. The Listener is one of those lame shows put on in the summer doldrums to see if there might be some audience palpatation of joy.

A drama series will succeed due to many and diverse factors. A really adorable main character is one such factor. But the young teeny-boppers need to be tuned in because that’s the female demographic that will fall in love with Olejnik’s character.

The show I watched involved a complicated plot involving a woman, her young son, a cop gone bad and his partner then dead. The woman was in a car crash. Cute Toby Logan happened to be on the scene, saved the mother, learned via his ESP that she had a son, went looking for her son, discovered the bad guy’s dead cop partner, again via his mysterious VIP gift, in the trunk of a car.

Toby, a paramedic all busy solving crimes and saving lives in his spare time, manages to discover the bad guy cop who was by this time ready to kill the mom and the son.

There’s some weird love interest going on in this show. This in that Toby’s FORMER girlfriend is a nurse at a hospital and his potential love interest of the future is a detective. I suspect these characters are part of the cast because if Toby’s to continue his quest to save lives and bring everlasting happiness to strangers with his ESP gift he will need contacts in a hospital and on the police force.

If I sound slightly mocking well it’s because I am.

Get all the young girls who voted for this year’s American Idol winner and have them watch this show. If their attention span can last an hour then this show will be a hit.

It’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

BravoTV’s-The Fashion Show

BravoTV’s Web Site for This Show.

I first did a review on this reality contest series In May of this year.

I continue to watch this unique show and it has become one of my favorites.

First, I can’t sew a lick. This show involves sewing, designing, creating patterns and most important, creating a fashion “look” upon command.

Isaac Mizrahi is the show’s MC and Mizrahi is one of the few of our homosexual brethren fashion designers who does not try to make women look like little boys.

Every week the designer contenders are given a fashion challenge and they are quite unique. This past week a young woman running for a class presidency job was the guest. For a “mini-challenge” the designers were charged with designing a Tshirt featuring various cliques and groups found in a normal high school. I have never heard of a “Bgirl” but I do know such as “jocks” and “nerds”. There were a few others, also foreign to me but then it’s been a while since I’ve been to high school.

After the mini-fashion challenge of the Tshirt, the elimination challenge then involved designing an entire outfit based on the same high school group as assigned for the Tshirt challenge.

I thought the different designs to be quite interesting and creative.

The judges will choose, based on fashion show attendees’ comments, two of the best designs and two of the worst.

The fashion design that wins the contest, with the judges choosing the final winner, is then featured on the BravoTV web site as an outfit that can be purchased by the public. This is an interesting twist.

The two bottom of the group’s fashion submissions this past week included a “jock” ensemble and one for something considered a “B” girl. The designer who came up with the B girl look was sent home as what she had designed included nothing that would be considered proper “B” girl attire.

A “B” girl, by the way, is considered a Be-bop girl, a female who dances to rapper-like be-bop music. Well hey, I wouldn’t know either. But then I’m not a contender in a Fashion Show struggling to win one hundred grand.

The “jock” outfit, designed by outrageous deisnger Jonny D, was a really stupid thing involving boxing trunks with fringes on the stockings. It was more like a horse outfit than one fit for a female jock, if there is such a thing.

So far it looks like contender Reco is going to be a top guy in this thing. I’ve included the BravoTv’s web site ‘s biography on the talented Reco, just so yon reader has a clue what sorts of folks enter this kind of competition.

Reco's creative outlook on fashion goes hand-in-hand with his larger-than-life personality. Originally from Chattanooga, Tennessee, one wonders how this country boy developed such a creative outlook on fashion. Reco is proud of his modest beginnings. He realized his interest in fashion at a young age, while watching a Valentino fashion show on Oprah.

Reco obtained his B.S from Tennessee State University and has a strong background in architecture and performing arts. He describes his style as ultra glamorous and oozing with high voltage sex appeal. Reco has moved up in the industry from designing costumes for campus queens to dressing celebrities, and is now approaching his tenth year in the fashion industry as a freelance designer. Reco currently owns the studio 423 Clothing Boutique of Chattanooga and is the Creative Director of his own line, “The House of Chapple,” which he describes as a lifestyle line focusing on everything from luxurious gowns to sexy swimsuits and most he is delving into fragrances, jewelry, and even books aimed at helping young entrepenuers.

When it comes to fashion tips, Reco declares, "Do it!" And then, pause of reflection, states "…but don’t overdo it."

Updates-Dancing With the Stars and American Idol-2009

American Idol’s Kris Allen Cheated?

I’d been right along asserting that Adam Lambert was a shoo-in to win the 2009 American Idol contest on my AI Blog HERE.

From Popeater.com:

New evidence pin-points AT&T as the culprit behind Kris Allen's 'American Idol' victory, N.Y. Times reports. During the final performances, the mobile company provided phones for Kris Allen fans to cast blocks of votes. There appear to have been no similar efforts to provide this service to supporters of runner-up Adam Lambert.

I hasten to add that perhaps the extra votes Allen got due to these large blocks of votes might not have mattered. American Idol typically generates many millions of votes. Block votes in the thousands would likely not change the outcome. And as I heard it Lambert beat Allen handily.

Still, it makes one wonder.

”Dancing With the Stars” 2009 Hunk Gilles Marini Gets Role on
“Brothers and Sisters”.

I often remark on these sorts of shows bringing fame and fortune to the entrants.
Else why would they do it?

Now I understand sexy Gilles Marini is going to be the love interest of “sister” Rachel on “Brothers and Sisters”.

I kind of like this series as it follows my fave “Desperate Housewives”. It’ll be cool to have Marini on the series. Rachel’s one lucky character.

He might have already bared it all for the "Sex and the City" movie, but fans of Gilles Marini will see even more of him this summer.

The sexy runner-up of "Dancing With the Stars" will appear in several episodes of the ABC series "Brothers & Sisters," opposite actress Rachel Griffiths, reports Usmagazine.com.

"We just sealed the deal," Marini said. "I got a call that producers wanted to write a part for me. I'm thrilled it worked out and that I get to prove myself. The writers and I had a long conversation, and they wanted to know who I am, inside and out."

After enduring the pressure on "Dancing With the Stars," Marini insists he's not nervous about working alongside the likes of Sally Field and Rob Lowe.

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In this TV post we take a look at NBC's newest summer offering-"The Listener". The main character's cute and has ESP. But does this make a hit show?

Also, HGTV's $250,000 challenge where families win even if they lose. It's fun and on a subject ALL females are concerned about.

BravoTV's The Fashion Show reality contest continues on and it intrigues. But a "jock" look with fringes on stockings?

Finally, Dancing With Stars sexy Marini has new role and how did Kris Allen really win American Idol 2009?

HERE
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"The Pursuit of Something Better" is a story of a small cellular service company that rockets from the bottom of the pile when a new and visionary CEO joins the team.

Read this story by David Esler and Myra Kruger about how paying attention to ALL employees and good leadership brings results in both employee morale and the bottom line.

Plus, how could my local Walmart benefit by a lesson from Rooney's "Dynamic Organization"?

HERE
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The protagonist of this story "Can of Peas" grew up believing that a humble can of peas saved her parents from certain death on the rocky immigrant boat of their passage from Italy to America.

But was it a can of peas or something that sounds like a can of peas that saved the lives on that vote and changed the fortunes of the believers soon to be born of the survivors?

HERE
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Food Network begins its annual foodie contest "The Next Food Network Star" and it began with a bang and intrigue.

Plus some boring dishes, some lying contenders, some awful desserts and questionable personalities introduced to an eager public looking for the next Guy Fieri.

HERE
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So okay Michelle Obama wears an outfit obviously created by a bedazzler and a handy glue gun. What the hell was she thinking? We've got pics, natch.

Also, Bad Guy of the Week, David Letterman, and his hilarious liberal talkinig points and Republican Good Guy of the Week, Sen. Grassley, who didn't let President Obama get away with protecting his child pervert California political patron.

We've got it all in Thoughts of the past week.

HERE
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Jillian Begins a Quest to Find a Husband on The Bachelorette

2009-05-24T16:39:00.000-07:00

Melissa Rycroft got rejected soundly by last year's Bachelor Jason Mesnick. But it's Jillian who moved on to The Bachelorette to find her soulmate from a pool of 30 at the start.

Did Jillian have some surgery since last season's The Bachelor?

Pic of the Day

The Bachelorette Jillian Begins Her Quest for Love

Ah but ABC’s rather ridiculous series, The Bachelor, begins in the form of The Bachelorette, with the star being Jillian, a reject by Jason Mesnick from last season’s The Bachelor.

Though I term the show ridiculous, I do like to watch it because if ever a reality show was a lesson in effective scripting, it is the Bachelor. Personally I think the would-be Bachelor/..ette probably chooses a contender that they’d like to get to know better fairly early on. Note I don’t assert that the would-be Bachelor/…ette chooses a contender that they’d like to MARRY early on because I don’t think that’s how it all comes down.

The show does, due to the drama and attempts to pull in an audience, have its would-be Bachelor/…ette assert early, often and loudly, that he or she is definitely looking for a spouse. Which is probably true, in a manner, in that most single folk are looking for a spouse as most of us do, boom, get married at some point in our life.

I also suppose that there’s probably some hope that a future spouse will arise from the mob of 25-30 who begin a Bachelor/…ette series. But let’s be honest here. Our nightclub, singles clubs, online hookup experiences don’t have us choosing someone to marry as we peruse the offerings. Initially we look for someone we might enjoy spending some time with and maybe someone we could have a future with, ideally all in the same person.

The Bachelor series have only had one wedding and that was from way long ago. What happened to the Navy doctor fellow? How about the English guy who chose the dingbat hot blonde? There’s been others and yet, only a Tristan wedding out of yay many. Remember the once ubiquitous Deanna and her goofy snowboarder.

Not that there’s anything wrong with this. If the Bachelor…ette in contention for the title spends time away from the camera with his or her chosen and it doesn’t work out, I suspect there’s nothing in the contract that says they HAVE to get married. All that talk about marriage as each season begins is just to get the audience hyped.

Below I found a couple of pictures of Jillian from last year’s The Bachelor just for giggles and grins.

Below, the pic of Jillian on the season’s premiere show.

First thing, I think Jillian had her upper lip Botoxed. I obviously have no proof of this but that lip looked thicker and it seemed that Jill acted like, well someone who had their upper lip Botoxed.

Beyond that, Jillian looked lovely and she sure had a bevy of fellows interested in her.

Normally the season starts out with a stable of 25 for the Bachelor…ette contender. According to show host Gregory Harrison, the applicants for contenders for the hand of Jillian were so many that an additional five more, up to 30 now, were added to the lineup.

Having these additional contenders would make the season last longer as I see it. Of course if things start to get boring or viewership straggles, more than one can be eliminated to get the time under control.

Adding these extra contenders makes me thing the Bachelor producers consider that this show has been very successful and might be more successful in the future.

So we’ve got breakdance instructors, pilots, a British guy, a winemaker and a contractor who works with his mother.

We’ll meet more of the contenders for Jillian’s hand on this Blog in the future but for now we introduce Jillian and promise to keep up on her progress at finding a “husband”…wink, wink.
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Heh. Bill Clinton caught with his hand where they shouldn't oughta be. The story here…AND the incriminating pic.

Cat Stevens…remember him? Listen to his new beautiful song. Such talent from he who is now considered a terrorist against our country.

Waterboarding, torture and why Obama will never win this battle.

HERE
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Many argue that the Frenchman was the best dancer of the lot but the young Olympic Gold Medalist won the 2009 Dancing With the Stars crown.

A summary of the 2009 season and an excellent idea for the new season that came from my own fine mind.

All with pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

HERE
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It's murmurered and screamed across the fruited plains that Adam Lambert was denied his Idol crown by the zealous Christians who did not like his sexuality.

Here we have the REAL reason Kris Allen won and while it is about marriage, it's not about Steve marrying Joe.

All with pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

HERE
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TV-A Celeb Apprentice & Hell's Kitchen Rant; the New Reality Show That Will Make You Giggle

2009-05-17T16:59:00.000-07:00

Celebrity Apprentice and Hell's Kitchen 2009 are over now. We've got some memories with pics and video from throughout the contest.

Along with my own fine rants about why the winner of each is not believable and how this will adversely affect future contests.

Plus a review of BravoTV's newest reality show that leaves me giggling through the night. Not at the basis of the contest but at the contenders!

Pic of the Day

The Donald Pushes Our Suspension of Disbelief Too Far in Celebrity Apprentice 2009

The Celebrity Apprentice 2009 is a done deal as of this writing. Joan Rivers won but she certainly did not deserve it. And I know Donald Trump knows it because in the real world The Donald would never have chosen Joan over Annie Duke, I am sure of this.

First, some old pic montages and a video for nostalgia below.

Below a video of Joan doing her stuff.

If ever a show was staged it is Celebrity Apprentice but there’s nothing wrong with this. Donald Trump took his old reality show formula of having folks do business types of challenges and combined it with the Dancing With the Stars Concept by having celebrities do the challenges with monies won going to the celebs’ favorite charities.

Frankly I like the original The Apprentice series but that concept sputtered and turned belly up once Martha Stewart somehow got involved with it all.

So okay, it’s an idea that kind of works. Ordinary Americans tune in by the millions to witness “stars” looking for a career boost try to dance their way into America’s heart and on to better jobs in the public eye. Thus why couldn’t the concept be transferred to the old Celebrity concept, or so I ask?

Celebrity Apprentice has the same sort of “celebrities” on its show as on “Dancing With the Stars” ie, entertainers that have faded or haven’t had a gig in a while, sports stars looking for a way to make a living post playing field, oddball famous business types.

On the 2009 Celebrity Apprentice, Joan Rivers was about the most famous of the contenders.

A complete list of this year’s celebrities included:

-Jesse James-founder of West Coast Choppers
-Dennis Rodman-5 time NBA champion
-Andrew "Dice" Clay-once dirty mouthed comedian
-Joan Rivers-talk show host
-Herschel Walker-Retired NFL player
-Khloe Kardashian-the Kardashian without the nice ass
-Tionne "T-Box" Watkins-R&B singer
-Natalie Gulbis-Professional golfer
-Tom Green-Actor, comedian
-Claudia Jordan-Actress, model
-Clint black-country music star
-Brande Roderick-Actress and Playboy model
-Brian McKnight mutli platinum R&B singer
-Melissa Rivers-daughter of Joan Rivers
-Scott Hamilton-gold medal olympic figure skater
-Annie Duke-professional poker player, motivational speaker

We understand that reality shows need a conflict. We even understand that the conflict between Joan and Clint Black died quickly as Black was the most harmless guy on the planet and wore the winsome smile of Jesus himself. Thus the new conflict between Joan and Annie Duke was a little more believable than the Rivers/Black conflict but not much.

Annie Duke came off as a very nice lady. The scripted conflict between Rivers had Joan calling her Hitler and calling poker players the scum of the earth. To spice things up, we had Joan’s daughter Melissa as part of the conflict but it only made Melissa look like a bratty and totally unlikeable person.

Still we suffered the difficult to believe conflict but the real damage came when Joan Rivers won the entire thing.

First, Annie Duke raised almost half a million on the last task while Joan raised a little over a hundred grand.

But oh there were other factors involved besides amount of money raised, or so The Donald tells us with a straight face.

Go with me here, folks, in the real world, The Donald would have how much money earned as being the ONLY criteria that mattered as niceness and sincerity and glibness matter not when the bucks are rolling in.

Donald Trump WANTED to have Joan Rivers win this year’s contest is all and he didn’t fool me at all.

Annie Duke consistently presented herself well, she showed fine leadership, she was personable, she regularly won tasks, she was liked by her colleagues except Melissa and Joan and that was a manufactured hatred.

I say to Donald Trump, hey, it’s okay. We don’t believe that Joan Rivers won that thing but she’s waaaaay more famous than Annie Duke and everyone knows that celebrity is what it’s all about with The Donald.

The conundrum is, Trump better not pull the same stunt again. For as Martha Stewart just wasn’t believable in her version of The Apprentice, neither is awarded “championships” based on how famous the contender is.

Donald Trump needs to know that the American public can only suspend their disbelief so much.
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Danny Takes the Prize in Hell’s Kitchen 2009

Danny is 23 years old and his final challenger, Paula, is 28.

Right there would be reason enough for me to pick Paula over Danny.

So calm down. I know that age shouldn’t be the only factor in who’s the better cook between two people but I’d argue in the tender years of our maturing 20’s, a five year age difference is equivalent to a fifteen year maturity gap in terms of life’s experiences.

There’s also the little factoid that Paula could cook better than Danny. First, Danny’s quasi-restaurant on the final night had a seafood theme, complete with little resin fish festooned on the walls. Yet Danny’s most famous menu item was a great big old filet with a baked potato.

Now there’s nothing wrong with a big ole piece of meat but it was Paula who featured a halibut dish on her menu, this without the colorful fake fish on the wall.

Danny was also roundy criticized on an earlier challenge for his “signature” dish, this critique by food critics no less.

Finally, Danny did tend to display an arrogance often throughout the competition. While I’m all for plentiful self-confidence, Danny overdid it so far as I am concerned.

Paula was more a shade of grey compared to Danny’s bright red. Through every challenge Paula was steady, quiet, hard-working and rarely a victim of Gordon’s wrath.

But Gordon Ramsey chose Danny and now Danny will be the head Chef at Bogata restaurant in Atlantic City.

23 years old. I shake my head ruefully at the notion.
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Bravo TV’s “The Fashion Show”

Heh.

First things first. The link for this new Bravo entry is HERE.

Isaac Mizrahi is the host of this new reality show on BravoTV. Kelly Rowland is Isaac’s co-host. Kelly is a singer from Destiny Child as I understand it. I don’t get her connection to a fashion contest.

So I chanced upon this series one night and I do tend to like fashion and reality shows. A show featuring a contest for fashion designers? I figured …right up my alley.

First, this has got to be the oddest compilation of contenders for a reality show contest in the history of such things.

I understand, speaking softly here, that in such a contest, most, if not all, male contenders would likely be a homosexual brother.

Not that there’s anything wrong with this.

But we’ve got a fellow named Merlin who insists on wearing crazy head gear that makes me giggle. We’ve got another guy named Jonny who wears his hair on his head so that it looks like he’s wearing a huge Chinese dumpling on his scalp. The fellow sent home on the first night of the competition, a Jonny D…well here he is…below.

The premiere show had all of the contenders charged with designing a “must-have” clothing item. All of the contenders were divvied up into three teams. Each team member was then charged with taking the team’s “must-have” clothing object and incorporating it into a specific “look”. The look might include a “night out”, a day at the museum, a work outfit…like that.

Actually this part was quite interesting. Although the alleged “must-haves” the teams chose puzzled me all to hell. They included a pencil skirt, a bolero jacket and harem pants. My own wardrobe does not currently include any of these items, not that I wouldn’t look stupid in any one of them.

Every week an outfit as designed will be chosen and offered online at BravoTV’s web site for this series.

The bolero jacket was kind of cute and the looks designed for the item were mostly quite good. The harem pants, surprisingly, also worked well when included in some happening looks.

The pencil skirt, sheesh, that design team had to be nuts in the way they designed this clothing item. For a pencil skirt could be considered a “must-have” fashion item for a young, happening and hip career woman.

However the team designed that pencil skirt so that it was double-sided, a good idea, but it was also skin-tight, a really, really bad idea. The skinny model had to be cut out of it the thing was so tight.

I watched this show the second week and realized that the show was kind of patterned after BravoTV’s “Top Chef”.

The second week there was a mini-challenge for the would-be designers, along with the elimination challenge.

All I know is I find myself giggling while watching this show. At times I marvel at the clothes designed. There is a talent to designing clothes and if the designers themselves could stop being full of themselves, could keep THEMSELVES out of the arena, this could be an interesting contest to observe.
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The INDOOR plants are now in their glory in the gardens of Serendipity Shore.

The brown thrashers have another nest in the hedge roses. But what's with these "doors" the bird fellows keep creating in the shrubbery? And does the robin really know when the dog is leashed?

HERE
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It's down to two on American Idol 2009. One is the beloved of the teenyboppers and one has talent and more talent.

Can the force of the 12-14 year olds really create a talent injustice that will forever cast a pall upon the very soul of American Idol?

All with pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

HERE
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There's little doubt who's going to win this year's Dancing With the Stars, 2009, competition.

For Gilles Marini is sexy, handsome and a damn good dancer.

So who will be second, Melissa or Shawn?

Some wry observations on this year's contest including a sarcastic little jibe at Melissa and her cute tiny lie.

All with pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

HERE
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The sorry saga of Miss California should have taught us all about our future and those of us who dare to express our true hearts that would offend the very mean.

If only the Republicans would take the torture bull by the horns that entire joke would soon be past tense and the Dems would fall like dominos against the weight of a wrecking ball.

The Nice Guy of this Past Week, the Bad Guy of the Past Week in this week's Thoughts.

It all ends with a smile.

HERE
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It's Joan on Celeb App 09 and Paula on Hell's Kitchen 09-Says I

2009-05-10T15:11:00.000-07:00

She doesn't have a glorious head of hair and blue eyes to die for. But she's sober and serious and mature.

So why choose the pretty guy to run the restaurant in Hell's Kitchen 09?

It's all Joan Rivers, all the time. Now she's one of the finalists on Celeb App. 09, but of course.

When I heard some woman had a face transplant, I thought it might be Joan.

Since we've suffered Ms. Rivers 24/7 this past Celeb App. season, do you think maybe she could lose the thing?

Pic of the Day

Paul and Danny Left to Win the Hell’s Kitchen Cursing Contest

Once again I must complain about all the needless cursing that goes on and on in the Hell’s Kitchen reality series.

I understand that the cursing is part of the show’s “persona” as it were, but having so many curse words requires a constant bleeping that I find so annoying. If they want to continue the cursing lest we think that Gordon Ramsey has gone soft on us, why can’t they have like a whole minute somewhere in the show where he does nothing but curse? Bleep out this entire minute, get it over with, the viewer will understand that Gordon cusses and admire or despise him as is their wont. With the bleeping then complete, the viewer can settle in and watch the cooking go on.

We’re down to two finalists and they’re both quite good. Danny has a gorgeous head of hair and very pretty blue eyes. Two things, I understand, that do not necessarily make a good cook. But to win a contest on a TV show, I argue that it helps.

Danny’s lament is that during most of the challenges throughout the duration of the contest, he always seemed to come in second, missing the win by a hair.

Paula is the second finalist and in keeping with Danny’s lament, I think Paula’s going to win this thing.

Paula doesn’t have pretty blue eyes and a head full of thick, wavy hair, but she’s a pleasant enough looking young woman. She has a quiet, serious but sturdy nature about her. I think she’s just more mature than Danny is all and if I were Chef Ramsey I’d choose Paula in a minute over Danny.

The final show is scheduled for Thursday 5/14/09. On a note of serendipity, former contenders who had been eliminated will be working with the two finalists on their final challenge, which is operating part of Hell’s Kitchen which has been decorated per each finalist’s taste with a menu created by each finalist.

Some of these former contenders are NOT liked at all. It’s a scripted kind of thing but it should add interest to the finale.

Below, the humorous introduction of those former contenders back into the contest.

It’s All About Joan Rivers on Celebrity Apprentice 2009

Of course Joan Rivers is one of the two finalists in this most scripted of reality shows ever to appear on a TV screen in the land. Annie Duke is the other finalist and goodness knows the scripts over the past few weeks have had Joan making enemies with Annie for absolutely nothing, even comparing her to Hitler once. Heh.

The most recent challenge, on Sunday 5/3/09, had the two remaining teams charged with creating a new jingle for “Chicken of the Sea” tuna fish.

Annie Duke and Brande Roderick on one team, with Clint Black, Joan Rivers and Jesse James on the other. Annie’s team won. Her partner, blond and pretty Brande was fired. Clint Black and Jesse James were fired from the other team. I don’t know why. Well I DO know why.

But the reality is that Joan had very little to do with the Chicken of the Sea task so why she remained when her other team-mates were fired kind of defies common sense.

Except that it’s in the script. Heh.

Joan Rivers is the most well known of all the contenders in this year’s Celebrity Apprentice, I’ll allow. But the viewing audience has had Joan’s fake face (when the news came out that some woman had a face transplant, I thought it might be Joan) shoved front and center for damn near every episode.

She gets a prime spot in every challenge. She’s the big blabbermouth in the board room. It’s All Joan, All Day, All Joan.

Of course in order to add drama and suspense, Joan needed an enemy. For a while it looked like it was going to be Clint Black. Except Clint Black is a harmless fellow who always wears an ethereal smile on his face.

Then the camera honed in on poor Annie Duke. Annie’s fame comes from being a poker player. Joan, naturally, asserts that poker players are the scum of the earth and at some point she declares that the very affable Duke is the female equivalent of Adolf Hitler.

SNORT.

Still and so, I shall watch the final episode on Sunday 5/11/09 with a curiousity.

It sure would be nice if Joan Rivers would LOSE this thing, just so I can believe there’s a little justice in this world of celebrities with not much going for them except their famousness.

Below a short montage of the two Chicken of the Sea jingles by each team.

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It's pretty much a given that the 2009 American Idol will be a guy.

But a female judge comes out with a new song and dance. What's the real story about her sudden change of story re an addiction? And can this person sing and dance back to the stardom she once knew?

All with pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

HERE
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She had a booty and boobs to die for. It wasn't enough.

On Dancing With the Stars 09 the shy one remain and the shaking booty got sent packing.

Bachelor Star Melissa comes back from a fractured rib and it's a real contest now.

With pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

HERE
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\It's an all Drew Peterson week in this week's THOUGHTS post.

I'd been following this case of the Illinois cop who can't seem to keep wives from disappearing or meeting sudden deaths in dry bathtubs since November of 2007.

I went back and picked a post from November 07 through April 08 about this guy.

If you need a comprehensive update on this guy's story, now that he's FINALLY been arrested for the murder of ONE of his wives.

Also, beloved granddaughter pic time.

HERE
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Hell's Kitchen/Celebrity Apprentice 09 Update

2009-04-26T14:28:00.001-07:00

We've been watching "Hell's Kitchen" 09, or what I call the Cooking and Cussing Show.

It's down to three and I think I've got the winner picked.

The Donald's "Celebrity Apprentice" 09 continues on and this should be called the Joan River reality show.

The cooking challenge will never make Hell's Kitchen but the bickering and cussing might.

All with pics and vid you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

Pic of the Day

Joan Rivers About the Only Celebrity on Celebrity Apprentice

We watch Celebrity Apprentice 2009 every Sunday night with a devoted regularity. It’s a reality show and I kind of like them. I sorta kinda like this reality show but this year I am getting so tired of Joan Rivers.

FOR IT’S ALL ABOUT HER!

Now I understand these things are scripted. I know there has to be tension, there has to be a hero, there has to be a good guy. And I know that out of all the contenders this season, Joan is the most well known.

There have been so many shows scripted around Joan this year. Joan was the master of ceremonies for the picture phone challenge. Joan was the project manager for the cupcake challenge. Joan got into a tiff with Clint Black during the dishwashing liquid viral commercial challenge. Joan got disgusted with colleague Natalie Gulbis’ choice of jewelry during the jewelry auction challenge. Finally, this past week, Joan’s all in a tither over Annie Duke, the poker player who Joan says is deceitful, two-faced and poor white trash.

Of course we end up getting all involved with Melissa Rivers, spawn of Joan. Melissa Rivers’ has no discernible talent save being the daughter of Joan Rivers. Her presence on the Celebrity Apprentice 2009 does enhance the scripting in that we have mother/daughter conflicts that add to the drama.

Actually most of these contenders, including Joan, are very nice folk. It’s got to be hard to be a script-writer for this reality show. Truth be told, Melissa Rivers is probably the nastiest of the lot but any tension involving her necessarily must involve her mother.

They tried to make Clint Black a bad guy but come on. This guy walks around with a little Jesus-type of smile on his face. Herschel Walker is such a nice fellow that even The Donald professed his love for the fellow. Dennis Rodman was close to being a villain but truth is he was just a drunk who forgot yesterday’s enemies.

Now Annie Duke, who is being scripted to be an avowed enemy of Joan Rivers, is too a nice lady and who’s going to buy that Rivers’ assertion that being a poker player automatically makes you poor white trash?

-Jesse James-founder of West Coast Choppers
-Dennis Rodman-5 time NBA champion-sent home 3/29/09
-Andrew "Dice" Clay-once dirty mouthed comedian-sent home 3/1/09
-Joan Rivers-talk show host
-Herschel Walker-Retired NFL player-sent home 4/19/09
-Khloe Kardashian-the Kardashian without the nice ass-sent home 4/5/09
-Tionne "T-Box" Watkins-R&B singer-sent home 4/5/09
-Natalie Gulbis-Professional golfer-sent home 4/19/09
-Tom Green-Actor, comedian-sent home 3/15/09
-Claudia Jordan-Actress, model-sent home 3/22/09
-Clint black-country music star
-Brande Roderick-Actress and Playboy model
-Brian McKnight mutli platinum R&B singer-sent home 4/12/09
-Melissa Rivers-daughter of Joan Rivers
-Scott Hamilton-gold medal olympic figure skater-sent home 3/8/09
-Annie Duke-professional poker player, motivational speaker

On the 4/12/09 episode, the challenge was to create an in-store display for Lifelock, that company that protects your identify from theft. Brian McKnight, another very nice fellow, was sent home for failing that task as a project manager. Brian made it very obvious in the boardroom that he was tired, bored and ready to go.

Joan began her slow simmer with Annie during this Lifelock challenge. Seems Annie had allegedly vowed that she would trash Brande for her failures during that competition but Joan felt Annie trashed daughter Melissa.

Nothing of the sort happened but hey, it was in the script.

On 4/19/09 two contenders were sent home. The first challenge, began the week prior right after the Lifelock challenge, was to have the contenders auction of some jewelry from the Ivanka jewelry line. Natalie Gulbis was assigned the task of choosing the jewelry for auction. The prevailing sentiment was that the choices made by Natalie were poor ones, that the jewelry was pretty but too small to be scene from the auction podium. Oh, I forgot. Joan Rivers again came to save the day as Clint Black floundered on his assigned task as auctioneer. They really ought to call this the Joan Rivers Celebrity Apprentice.

Natalie got fired for her failure and soon the next challenge was upon.

In fact I use Schwann’s home delivery from time to time. They are quite expensive and by me their food brings mixed results.

For two people, Schwann’s can be a godsend. I love their pot roast. It comes already “slow-cooked” and it’s very tender and flavorful. It costs nineteen bucks but I cut up portions to make husband hot roast beef sandwiches, which he loves. Husband has bad teeth, a fact that will soon change, and this tender meat is perfect. So out of that nineteen bucks I can get maybe ten nice hot roast beef sandwiches for husband.

Schwann’s has some other good food but given their expense, you almost have to be involved in some sort of apportionment like mine above.

The quality of their food is also mixed. By me, you NEVER want to buy a vegetable that ever had a mother or a father from Schwann’s home delivery. My experience is that their vegetables are awful. Best buy the big bag of frozen things from Walmart then season and cook to your own preference.

At any rate, the challenge was for each team to design a new food item for Schwann’s. I thought both teams came up with perfectly awful recipes, stuff I would never, ever buy. Clint Black came up with a recipe for a chicken breast cooked in a teryaki sauce, a recipe he says is used in his own home.

Well I rarely buy anything with a chicken breast in it as chicken breasts are cheap. It’s simple matter to fry up a chicken breast and cover it with some bottled teryaki sauce, throw on some salt and pepper. The KOTU team added some broccoli to their meal and a frozen yogurt dessert along with that the Schwann’s people said was too complicated for the home consumer.

The Athina team did design a better dish but the noodles had no gluten. Right there I’d never order it.

Well sure there’s folks that can’t tolerate gluten and this dish might be a godsend for them. But the vast majority of people in this country can tolerate gluten and I’m not convinced they’d buy some kind of gluten free dish just on principle. For all we know removing gluten might remove the taste.

The Schwann’s people chose the gluten-free dish as the winner but as I understand it the Schwann’s folks were not terribly impressed by either entry.

Herschel Walker was the Project Manager for KOTU and he got fired.

Below, The Donald fires the two most recent ejected celebrity apprentices.

It’s Down to Three on the Gordon Ramsey Cussing Contest 2009

The winner of the “Hell’s Kitchen” contest their year will be given a head Chef-ship in a new restaurant. The contest is now down to three.

Finalist Andrea will soon be gone and it will be down to Chef Paula and Chef Danny.

This show has the same old, same old, same old, events from week to week. The show begins with perhaps some sort of cooking challenge by Gordon Ramsey. The prize for winning this challenge is unpredictable. Ramsey might take the winner out for an airplane ride or he might award safety from elimination as the prize.

It’s the meat of the episode that is the same.

Hell’s Kitchen opens up. Patrons are seated. The chefs are at their stations in the kitchen of “Hell’s Kitchen”.

The viewer is then treated to about a half an hour of Gordon Ramsey cussing and berating one or another chef contender. Said chef contender did, as is illustrated on the show, do something wrong. On the episode aired on Thursday 4/23/09, Andrea lost track of the Beef Wellingtons and as a result a diner’s meal got delayed and the dinner service did not achieve perfection.

Contender Ben, who was sent home after this episode, forgot to throw in a pile of spaghetti and he made some bland risotto. You’d think he murdered somebody on live TV.

Of course the point of the show is to have drama and conflict in the kitchen. The cussing has been part of the show ever since its inception, some years ago. I hate the cussing, not that I’m a prude so much as the constant blips to keep the curse words off the air are annoying and keep the viewer from watching a logical dialogue flow.

To add to Ramsey’s cussing and abuse, the chefs themselves, who all smoke…do all chef’s smoke? But the chefs themselves tend to cuss a lot. The viewer is left watching a contest filled with annoying bleeps.

I like to watch Hell’s Kitchen on DVR just so I can fast forward past the blips.

Over the years I’ve noticed that Hell’s Kitchen serves up some oddball food. Beef Wellington, for example, is a rare thing to have offered as an entrée on a restaurant menu.

I’ve had Beef Wellington before. It’s a filet mignon type of beef cut. The beef is wrapped with a pie crust and is baked until the middle is a medium rare, or that is the ideal result.

Risotto is another constant offering in Hell’s Kitchen. Risotto is a happening food item of late as we do get Food and Wine magazine at our house. I’ve made risotto a time or two. There are a gazillion ways to make this dish but almost always it involves cooking rice to a creamy state and adding other seasonings to a result that varies.

The risotto in Hell’s Kitchen looks like rice and peas to me. Further, I think it’s served as an appetizer. I can’t imagine risotto as an appetizer.

Hell’s Kitchen also serves scallops which in and of itself is not unusual. But what the hell are those little fried eggs put on top of the scallops?

They are certainly not ordinary hen’s eggs that fit on a scallop that way. I’m not at all sure I’d eat such a thing and I’m game for most anything.

At any rate I think Chef Danny will win this thing. Danny always seemed to be the bridesmaid on so many of the challenges on Hell’s Kitchen 2009. But he was rarely the subject of Ramsey’s horrific wrath and I don’t recall ever seeing him on the block for possible elimination.

Paula’s a good chef as well but my money’s on Danny.
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It was Disco night on American Idol 09.

Two contenders got sent home. A personal favorite disappointed and the boring one bored again.

And who the hell said Freda Payne was a disco singer?

All with pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

HERE
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The big guy got the boot on "Dancing With the Stars" week ending 4/26/09.

The contest tightens and one who seemed likely to win slips a big. Another who started rough gets better every week.

All with pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

HERE
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"Saving Mom From Uncle Guido" is a fiction story from "Mystery and Mirth, excerpted for yon enjoyment.

For the Micky Mouse head helped her overhear the murder plot and the door disguise helped her stop it in its tracks.

It's short and a smile.

HERE
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In Thoughts, we've got Obama shirtless and right there you must tune in.

Plus, heh, the Good Guy of the Week with a sarcastic reasons why Dick Cheney made Obama look like a fool this past week.

Also, Quip of the Week and You Can't Make This Stuff Up…much more.

HERE
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TV-Reviews-"A Really Weird "Celebrity Apprentice", "The Unusuals"; "Surviving Suburbia"

2009-04-11T13:43:00.000-07:00

Couple of TV reviews this week. First-“The Unusuals”, a cop show that should appeal to both men and women with its, eh, unusual cops, humorous storylines, and very believable scripting.

Second-“Surviving Suburbia” with he who looks like the guy most likely to live in this suburbia we are to believe he despises, his hip and happening self, Bob Saget.

I go into a rant about this dumb show and my rants are not to be missed.

Finally an update on “The Celebrity Apprentice” of 4/5/09, viral videos, over-exposure of those Rivers people, and scripting too dumb to believe.

All with pics and video you’ll find nowhere else on the Internet.

Pic of the Day

”Surviving Suburbia”

ABC Home page for this show HERE.

Oh please.

Another situation comedy about a disgruntled fellow living in the hell of suburbia and struggling to get through it? With Bob Saget as the Star?

First, here’s a true story. I once lived in a little community known as, I’m not making this up, “SUBURBIA”. One week some liberal weenie for the local liberal rag, “The Baltimore Sun”, wrote an article mocking the community of “Suburbia”, mostly because its name lent itself so well to liberal mockery but truth be told, this community was the very picture of suburban sprawl and all the angst this sort of living brings upon, insert sarcasm here.

I owned a little house in this community of Suburbia. I bought it, with my husband at the time, for, tada, $19,000. My husband up and left me even before we moved in and after the heartbreak, I kept that little rancher and it became the beginning of my own American Dream.

Suburbia had a school within the community and it had a community swimming pool. My daughter attended that school until we moved and I managed that community pool until it went the way of community pools across the fruited plains what with backyard pools so relatively cheap and such.

In fact I met and married another fellow and we bought yet another home in this community of Suburbia, this a big ole split-level with an eat-in kitchen and split-foyer. We bought that house for $50,000 after selling that other little house for $32,000.

After that snobby Baltimore Sun writer wrote that article I sat down and wrote a huge response. I ranted and raved about how Suburbia was an American dream for this young lady who grew up poor but managed, as a single woman mind you, to own her own home before I was even 21 years old. Well I went on and on. The week following, the Baltimore Sun printed my lengthy response as it has always, evidently, been in me to write. In fact the Baltimore Sun put it on the front page of the local section, above the fold!

The interesting thing here is I had no idea my response had been printed in the paper but that night there was a meeting of the Suburbia Community Association and right after I entered the meeting room , everyone already present stood up and gave me a rousing standing ovation.

I had absolutely no idea why this was happening. Someone brought a copy of the Baltimore Sun over to me and you could have knocked me over with a feather.

This is a true story. I checked the web site of the Baltimore Sun and they only have the paper archived back to 1990. My story would have been around 1972/1974 or thereabouts. Maybe someday I’ll do more research but it really did happen.

Some might say my response was kind of hackneyed as I did go into a boo-hoo about my poor abused child self and how wonderful it was to own a home in a pretty community that HAD TREES for God’s sake. The writer of the article said there were no trees in the community of Suburbia, trying to create bleak and barren picture of ticky-tacky homes surrounded by brown, brown, brown.

Anyway, back to this very stupid series about Suburbia and note please that once again there seems to be some idea that folks living in suburban communities are somehow deprived, denied and miserable.

At least Bob Saget is but ah, yon reader, Bob Saget’s picture should be under the Wikipedia definition of “boring, ordinary, white male” so his angst at being “forced” to live in Suburbia is a bit unbelievable.

I suppose I am the worst person to review this series as to my prejudice against those who think it’s not possible to take a generic kind of house, in a quiet and ordinary type of community, and make it your very own through artful decoration, paint and landscaping. In fact, heh, after that split-level yet ANOTHER husband and myself purchased my father’s house, a run-down affair that would rival the Adams’ family home for curb appeal. It was located on a small creek off of the Magothy River in Merryland, the lot was sloped and triangle shaped and defied constant care.

Husband and I lived in that house for fifteen years when we finally sold it for a real nice profit and guess where we live now? IN A LITTLE SUBURBAN COMMUNITY TICKY TACKY HOUSE IN DELAWARE FAR AWAY FROM THE LIBERALS IN MERRYLAND!

We’ve had quite enough of originality and non-conformity, thank you. Our current house is very ordinary but we love it, we love our nice flat lot, we love the tiny community where we live where we’re not especially close to the neighbors but we know they are there. Once a year we have a community yard sale but beyond that there’s no major interaction and most of us, transplants all, like it that way.

Thus we have established that I think the premise of “Surviving Suburbia” is a dumb one, have we not? Especially when characterized by Bob Saget his very ordinary white-bread self.

The show airs on Mondays, now at 9:30 pm after ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” which lead-in is required as no one would bother hanging around. The premiere show had, tada, Steve Patterson, Bob Saget’s character, dealing with such as handling keys for neighbors, dialing up prostitutes, precocious children and one funny scene featuring Jere Burns as Dr. Jim who ends the episode naked on the Patterson couch.

Maybe you hadda be there.

My advice? Don’t bother.

Below, the funniest scene from the premiere episode…which is not about the star or his precocious children.

ABC’s “The Unusuals”

On Wednesdays at 10 pm EST, ABC, this is a show hyped as a cop sort of MASH.

Well I don’t know about that but I’m kind of thinking that this show just might have a future. For one thing, it definitely should appeal to men, a criteria very many of the shows I tend to like do not have. It should also appeal to women in that it’s quirky, funny, offbeat and not filled with violence. Judging by the storyline of the premiere episode, the stories as told seem to be the stuff of reality, the kind of thing I suspect police departments across the fruited plains must deal with.

I recall the lady who called 911 because McDonald’s wouldn’t serve her McNuggets so it’s not a stretch to imagine a fellow bitter at cats that inadvertently killed his wife through toxoplasmosis. In his tortured mind, the cats that cross his path needed to die for the torment they caused him. Of course there’s humorous scenes leading up to the capture of the cat killer, including “lie detectors” that are really copiers, famed citizens convinced the murder of their cat was personal and finally trapping the cat killer in a car filled with…yes …cats. He confessed just so they would let him out of his cat-filled car hell.

“The Unusuals” has a bunch of rather odd detective types and this adds to its quirkiness. One fellow desperately wants to die in the line of duty, another is terrified of death so much that he never removes his bullet-proof vest and does, to the dismay of those with whom he works, often vacate the crime scene at the most inopportune time for his fears.

All the while the sergeant of this precinct is looking to rid his ranks of the weirdos and in one move to this end he recruits a vice squad cop who has secrets of her own.

Detective Casey Shraeger is played by Amber Tamblyn, best remembered for “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants”. Adam Goldberg plays Detective Eric Delahoy. Delahoy is looking to die on duty but if for nothing else but preserving his place on the show, we suspect Delahoy will remain alive. We also suspect his exploits towards that death on duty will make for interesting storylines.

I’m not sure I predict a runaway success for this series but I think it has some things that might make it happen. Begin with a script that has a few ongoing storylines, add some good acting with great characters, keep it real, human, believable…this one could be a winner.

”Celebrity Apprentice” –Bizarre Viral Videos and Eliminations

First, let me say right now that I am sick of Joan Rivers and her spawn, Melissa.

Which is not to say that they are not fine members of the celebrity assemblage gathered to carry this reality show but seriously folks, Joan and Melissa are given way more air time than their own brand of celebrity deserves.

The challenge for this show the night of 4/5/09 was to create something called a “viral video” for ALL, the laundry detergent.

I didn’t know that night as I watched, and which could have been explained to the viewers a bit better, but a viral video is a commercial that because of its weird and unusual content is posted on Blogs, Youtube and such, or delivered by email. In other words, it’s a video created to advertise a product, yes, but it is spread by the USERS across the vast Internet with the original goal of product exposure gained instead of going through more normal and socially correct advertising agencies.

Thus the videos so produced would be also expected to have outlandish content, perhaps a bit x-rated, zany…all to prompt those who view it to laugh enough to send the video on to other viewers.

It wasn’t your ordinary soap commercial is what I’m saying here.

The teams were mixed up a bit in that the male team, KOTU, had far fewer members for their many losses than the formerly all female team, Athena. So Joan Rivers was separated from her daughter, thank God, for the first time, and ended up on a team with country music singer Clint Black. Jesse James ended up on the team with Tionne Watkins.

Clint was Project Manager for his team and KOTU’s viral video involved a silly joke Clint told while the team was ruminating over their task. It involved a husband/wife team who used the euphemism “doing the laundry” for having sex. The product being touted was ALL laundry detergent. The joke involved an invitation extended by husband to wife to do the laundry, a rejection by the too-busy wife, a later acceptance by the wife only to be turned down by the husband who already did the laundry “by hand”. Ha,ha,ha.

The Athena team had Jesse James wearing a dirty shirt in a Laundromat and he ended up being scrubbed clean by three midgets. Said midgets then got into a brouhaha that had them throwing scrub brushes at each other.

Well I have a montage of both the viral videos at the end of this post but warning, they are both dumb as all get out and frankly I wouldn’t ever send on either of them via email to anyone I valued as a friend or acquaintance.

-Jesse James-founder of West Coast Choppers
-Dennis Rodman-5 time NBA champion-sent home 3/29/09
-Andrew "Dice" Clay-once dirty mouthed comedian-sent home 3/1/09
-Joan Rivers-talk show host
-Herschel Walker-Retired NFL player
-Khloe Kardashian-the Kardashian without the nice ass-sent home 4/5/09
-Tionne "T-Box" Watkins-R&B singer-sent home 4/5/09
-Natalie Gulbis-Professional golfer
-Tom Green-Actor, comedian-sent home 3/15/09
-Claudia Jordan-Actress, model-sent home 3/22/09
-Clint black-country music star
-Brande Roderick-Actress and Playboy model
-Brian McKnight mutli platinum R&B singer
-Melissa Rivers-daughter of Joan Rivers
-Scott Hamilton-gold medal olympic figure skater-sent home 3/8/09
-Annie Duke-professional poker player, motivational speaker

Two things about this episode were very fake. First, Trump ended up firing Tionne AND Khloe for really stupid reasons.

Second, Joan Rivers launched into a diatribe against Clint Black that was so obviously scripted and fake that I wanted to punch her. In fact, this past week Joan’s been on various commercials lambasting Clint Black and expressing her hatred for him and come on folks, Clint Black is one of the most gentle members of this series. Just because he had a dumb idea for that video doesn’t make him Atilla the Hun. But Joan Rivers is likely one of the more well-known celebrities on this year’s Celebrity Apprentice so her trumped up fake tirades probably bring attention to the series which should be ramping up more viewers with an eye towards a winner and grand finale.

Two people were fired last week because the ALL people didn’t like either of the viral videos produced, as well they shouldn’t have.

Tionne was the winning PM last week, covered on this Blog HERE. So, please note, Tionne’s charity already received a monetary reward. Trump fired Tionne because as her team’s project manager pointed out, Tionne volunteered to go into the board room for elimination, all part of being part of a big, merry and loyal team.

“Never volunteer for an execution,” The Donald said as he fired Tionne, ostensibly for doing such a thing. I think it’s just as likely Tionne had to move on to other professional obligations and since her charity had already won, perhaps also part of the plan, well her innocent, even notable, act of volunteering to stand by her team leader became a reason to send her home.

Khloe Kardashian turned out to have gotten a ticket for a DUI and goodness The Donald’s sure taking on the vice of drinking this year, isn’t he? Khloe had to miss the prior week’s challenge for having to attend a class for drinking and driving and, I suspect although The Donald acted like his firing of Khloe was because of her crime of drinking and driving, that Khloe was unable to get out of those mandatory classes.

I don’t think an obligation to appear on the “Celebrity Apprentice” is a legal excuse to get out of repaying society for such a wanton disregard of the law. The Donald did give Khloe’s charity its financial reward and made a big deal out of firing Khloe for drinking and driving when again, I think she couldn’t get out of those classes.

There’s nothing wrong with how last week’s challenge came down. The viral videos were amusing if not hopelessly dumb. But it was a story, a task, a surprise ending.

It’s just that scripting for this episode was really a stretch for the viewer to suspend his or her disbelief.

Below an abridged version of the two hopelessly dumb viral videos.

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There were a few surprises in the bottom three on American's Idol Birthday night-4/7/09.

In fact, the contender sent packing was only following the advice of vaunted Judge Abdul.

A review of AI 09's birthday night, a prediction of the top 5, the video your DVR failed to record, the top three and worst performance of the night.

All with pics and videos you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

HERE

He staples his scrotum to his leg for giggles and grins and now he dances horrifically. And yet he stays around while others must dance off to stay in the contest.

A football player and singer fall to the bottom two, one goes home, yet Steve-O hangs in there on Paso Doble/Viennese Waltz night on 2009 “Dancing With the Stars”

All with pics and videos you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

HERE

Tina Fey is an angry woman and it shows, unfortunately, in her acting in the film “Baby Mama”, reviewed in this Blog post.

The movie has its funny moments but it’s no great paean to thought and morals, make no mistake. It’s definitely a chick flick, let us not mislead.

The biggest surprise is the role played by Steve Martin!

HERE
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Revs-"In the Motherhood";"Samantha Who";"Celebrity Apprentice"

2009-04-05T08:20:00.000-07:00

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Couple of reviews here. Beginning with a "Celebrity Apprentice" update and it's about time Dennis Rodman is gone.

Reviews of comedies "In the Motherhood" and "Samantha Who?" I'll do my best to be kind.

With pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.
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Pic of the Day

”Celebrity Apprentice” 2009 Update

On the episode aired on 3/22/09-the challenge was for the two teams to create a rousing and inspiring presentation for the sales personnel of ANC. I don’t know what ANC stands for but the product was a video phone. A concept whose time has come, I shrug, and hey, I didn’t even know they had such things.

Of course one can easily make a video and send it over the Internet in many forms and fashions. The phone featured on this episode allowed the two talkers to see each other WHILE they talked, something that I think is possible on the Internet but I have no idea how.

Also, cell phones often have a video recorder type of thing and it seems to me that via this method a caller can see another caller.

As for two callers seeing each other as they talk, I see this ANC phone as the pioneer in what will someday be a very ordinary and common thing.

The ladies’ team lost this challenge and their team leader, Claudia Jordan, was sent home.

The guys’ team, those Kings of the Universe, won this, their first victory.

The ladies’ team put on some sort of disjointed, hard to follow, type of thing. Joan Rivers served as a mistress of ceremonies of a sort and while Rivers was well-received, it was the fellows’ presentation that got the most votes from the attendees the presentations were meant to impress and inspire.

Brian McKnight performed as part of the KOTU’s presentation and hey, McKnight is a singer after all. The ANC attendees quite enjoyed McKnight’s performance and hurray for the guys for finally pulling in a victory.

The following week, 3/29/09, Dennis Rodman finally got the boot and yes, Rodman’s intrigue has run its course.

The task this week was really weird. In a Loew’s hotel, each team was put in charge of
Five rooms each.

I’ve never stayed in a Loew’s hotel but damn the patrons of the hotel serviced by the two Celebrity Apprentice teams sure had fancy accommodations. Members of each team served as a concierge and this was interesting.

Rodman provided the angst, intrigue and conflict for this task. Indeed Denis was the Project Manager for the men’s team while Tionne was the leader for the women.

Various vignettes showed Dennis doing odd things, for example in one case he got into a car with some customers and went to the hotel with them!

Dennis’ teammates commented on Dennis’ oddness and his penchant for the drink.

What’s interesting is that it was a no-brainer that Rodman had to go. He got drunk after all and didn’t lead his team.

I wonder how humiliating it’s got to be for a famous person like Rodman to go through such a public slap. I also wonder if Rodman won’t now enter a rehab clinic and come back as a reborn star, full of sober life and laughter and ready to make money hosting shows, making movies or working on whatever offers will come his way as a result of all the attention.

It’s how they script these things folk.

Below, a short vid of Brian McKnight’s beloved performance that won the task for KOTU.

-3/22/09 remix

-Jesse James-founder of West Coast Choppers
-Dennis Rodman-5 time NBA champion-sent home 3/29/09
-Andrew "Dice" Clay-once dirty mouthed comedian-sent home 3/1/09
-Joan Rivers-talk show host
-Herschel Walker-Retired NFL player
-Khloe Kardashian-the Kardashian without the nice ass
-Tionne "T-Box" Watkins-R&B singer
-Natalie Gulbis-Professional golfer
-Tom Green-Actor, comedian-sent home 3/15/09
-Claudia Jordan-Actress, model-sent home 3/22/09
-Clint black-country music star
-Brande Roderick-Actress and Playboy model
-Brian McKnight mutli platinum R&B singer
-Melissa Rivers-daughter of Joan Rivers
-Scott Hamilton-gold medal olympic figure skater-sent home 3/8/09
-Annie Duke-professional poker player, motivational speaker

”In the Motherhood”

According to this show’s ABC site this show is written by the viewers.

As of this writing, the show airs at the family hour, 8 pm, on Thursdays nights. The stars are:

Cheryl Hines as Jane-Emily’s sister
Megan Mullally-as Rosemary
Jessica St. Clair-Emily-Jane’s sister
Ron ReacoLee-Jason
Horatio Sanchez-Manny

Megan Mullally is a fine actress, best known for her role as a gum-chewing, wise-cracking woman of the world on “Will and Grace”. So while I didn’t much like that series, I could see Megan’s acting was top notch.

In fact it was Rosemary’s story that was the main theme of the show on the premiere night, 3/26/09. Rosemary, who is 50 years old as she stated repeatedly on the show, pretended to be pregnant because she liked the attention pregnant women got. I won’t go into the storylines a pretend pregnancy would bring. Use your imagination, including up until the fake pregnancy is discovered.

The premiere episode also featured Jane, the recently divorced Mom, dealing with sexual harassment in the work place as well as a workplace romance. It had its chuckles.

Emily has two little black children and at first sight I’d argue the viewer is startled. Emily is very Caucasian. Being such a woman of the world that I am, I assumed Emily had to be married to a black man, which she is.

Beyond that I don’t see a single reason to have a mixed-marriage in the storyline but then again I don’t see any reason not to have one. I suppose the fact could someday give bored script writers a story line.

Finally we have the “Manny”, a male “nanny”. Of course this “manny” is blessed with child-rearing wisdom way beyond that of any mere mortal female. I think that concept is a real yawn.

At any rate, this series is alleged to be based on true stories submitted by real mothers. Which is a fine idea as there almost as many motherhood stories as there are dollars in Obama’s budget.

Check out the web site to see how to submit a story. Whether or not there’s financial remuneration in same I do not know.

Would I watch it again? No. The show, as premiered, did not have any kind of hook to pull me back. Then again I am intrigued by the story lines coming from real mothers. For that I’d recommend the show to see how this concept pans out.

Samantha, Who?

ABC’s web site for this series HERE.

It’s not as if ABC hasn’t done everything possible to shove this alleged comedy down our throats, including having it follow last year’s “Dancing With the Stars”, with promo from that same popular ABC show included.

This year they’ve got this series, featuring the following characters/stars, coming on right after “In the Motherhood”, on Thursday nights at 8:30:

Jennifer Esposito-Andrea Belladonna
Melissa McCarthy-Dena
Christina Applegate-Samantha Newly
Barry Watson-Todd
Jean Smart-Regina Newly

Below is ABC’s synopsis of the premise of “Samantha Who?”

After a hit-and-run accident left Samantha Newly (Christina Applegate) in an eight-day coma, she awoke with retrograde amnesia, which allowed her to fully function in the world but leaves her with no personal memories of her past. As she began her quest to rediscover herself, she learned that she had been a horrible person. Vain, selfish and potentially surrounded by far more enemies than friends, she made a conscious decision to improve herself moving forward with the help of her eclectic friends and family.

I don’t know what makes a successful comedy series. “Cheers” was a successful comedy series. “Friends” was another. “I Love Lucy” is a winner from the past.

I’d suggest that most successful comedy series have charming, lovable, but flawed characters and story lines that add a human dimension that we can identify with and maybe chuckle to as well. The scripts are generally believable, not too complicated, and filled with the humor of human frailty.

Unlikable characters don’t do well on a comedy series save for their contribution to the storyline as unlikable, this understood by the viewer right along.

The characters on Samantha Who? Are, in most cases, not likeable. The lead character, of course, is Christina Applegate, who is very pretty, but of course. And, in fact, Christina’s character is very likeable. Indeed when a vignette comes on featuring Christina as her “old” self, it startles. The viewer does not see Christina as the nasty person she once was, as the premise suggests.

Christina’s character spends much of the show making amends for folks around her who behave very disgracefully. Should her character inadvertently be the cause of confusion or grief, Applegate’s character will go to great lengths to apologize and make things right.

I find it difficult to believe that her character was once so nasty.

Christina’s parents are portrayed as vapid and shallow, offering an obvious reason why Christina became such a despicable human being. So while Christina changed as a result of her coma, the nasty folks around her keep right on being nasty.

On the night of 3/26/09, we have Samantha’s former boyfriend, Todd, who is still totally in love with Samantha, hell Todd was in love with the nasty Samantha. He’s really in over his head with the new and improved Samantha. Unbelievably, Todd and Samantha live together, but only as “roommates” while Samantha searches for her true self.

Samantha’s friend, Andrea, was once Samantha’s nasty friend in arms. Now Samantha constantly has to duel with Andrea, who is still a nasty somebody while Samantha is now new and improved. Another friend of Samantha’s, Dena, was once scorned and mistreated by the nasty Samantha. One would think that Dena’s character would be likeable but I find her characterization to be totally unbelievable. In fact, I think Samantha’s boyfriend, Todd, should be leaving Samantha to have the apartment they once shared all to herself so any likeability Todd has is over-ridden by his new castrati manner of handling Samantha, improved or not.

Andrea found herself smitten with a famous athlete who turns out to be a homosexual. The story line evolved around Samantha and Todd’s efforts to inform Andrea about the gayness of the man she so adored.

Lookit, a woman of this Andrea’s worldliness doesn’t know that a guy is a homosexual? I don’t believe it for a minute. Sure it was thrown in the story line for yuk-yuk’s but I was merely insulted that the writers thought I was so dumb as to believe it.

Meanwhile, Dena and Samantha’s parents get all involved with some soldier overseas that Dena has somehow caused to fall in love with her. When Dena fails to properly deliver that Dear John letter, Samantha’s mother, and most improbably then Samantha’s father, try to do the deed and still this love-struck soldier sends expensive gifts and eventually his own fine self to Dena’s doorstep.

Like I said, almost insulting to the viewer that we should believe such storylines.

Samantha Who? Didn’t fare well even when it was aided by all the power of ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars”.

Left on its own it won’t go far either.
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In thoughts this week we've got info on the upcoming tea parties…time for us to take to the streets folks.

The shamwow guy, what a shame.

We've got an actual cardinal singing of spring to us, the quip of the week, and a rant about Obama hiring and firing folks. Will you be next?

Finally, the WORST inventions...ever. A cat wig?

HERE
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It was not planned that a 1989 old-fashioned film about parenting and the travails of same would air the seem weekend that I dutifully taped the very hip and modern "Sex in the City" but so it was.

So The Wise I gives a review of both movies, the similarities (few), the differences (many...how times change) and attempts to draw a moral from it all.

With pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

HERE
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Her bouncy boobs didn't save her and his cadre of geeks with their robo-phones didn't save him.

Two contenders booted off of "Dancing With the Stars" 09 and we're almost, not quite but almost, down to a legion of serious dancers.

With pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

HERE
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It was seriously time for Megan Joy to go although she was sure a fresh-faced beauty and, eh, a bit different.

Another top eight contender is also very different and we've got lots on this plus the top three performances of Itune night and the very worst of the lot.

With pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

HERE
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TV-Catch Up on Celebrity Apprentice 09-BRIDES, and Review-NBC's "Chopping Block"

2009-03-21T14:08:00.000-07:00

We catch up on Trump's rather lackluster 2009 Celebrity Apprentice. Tom Green goes home but we learn things about his testicles we'd didn't need to hear.

Also, a review of the very odd copycat of every cooking show on TV, NBC's "Chopping Block".

Pic of the Day

Review-“Hell’s Kitchen” Without the Cussing and “Celebrity Apprentice” 09 Boringly Plows On

Celebrity Apprentice contenders below
Duke Annie
clay andrew dice-sent home 3/1/09
mcknight brian
roderick brande
black clint
jordan claudia
rodman dennis
walker herschel
james jesse
rivers joan
kardashian khloe
rivers melissa
gulbis natalie
hamilton scott-sent hom 3/8/09
green tom-sent home 3/15/09
watkins tionne

Been a couple of weeks since mentioning The Donald’s boring “Celebrity Apprentice” on this Blog.

Oncit upon a time, Donald Trump had a great idea. He would bring promising executive type people on his series and via a number of “tests” he would cull down the field until the greatest amongst them would be the winner and would be given a well-paying job in the Trump empire.

National attention became riveted on the show and soon the name Omarosa was household stuff. Like “American Idol”, “The Apprentice” became the talk of the beauty salons and relatives argued around the family tables.

Then The Donald got Martha Stewart involved in the thing and that was a disaster. For the last few seasons, The Donald has gathered celebrities in need of exposure, much like “Dancing with the Stars” and using contributions to charity as the “reward”, we have “Celebrity Apprentice” and folks, it ain’t quite the same thing.

First, all reality shows are scripted to some degree. Some more than others, of course. ABC’s “The Bachelor” is practically total fiction with real life characters thrown in for a touch of reality. “American Idol” is mostly real because beyond the clothes, song choices and backdrops, you just can’t fake singing well.

So too is “Celebrity Apprentice” scripted but The Donald has struck a one-note chord and it’s really off-pitch.

As I’ve often wisely, and correctly, pointed out, The Donald is a bit obsessed with celebrity. He loves to hobnob with the hoi polloi and that does not include you and me. Well maybe you, yon reader, but definitely not me.

So most of the tasks assigned to these ersatz “celebrities” involve the ability for each of them to bring in monies from other famous peoples they know. For example, one recent episode had a playboy bunny “celebrity” getting many thousands of bucks out of Hugh Hefner.

The average American, God love us as we carry this country on our backs whilst raising the soldiers and citizens of tomorrow, knows few people able to hand over thousands of dollars to purchase a moldy cupcake that we may win the task of the week.

But it is, yon ladies and gems, “CELEBRITY” Apprentice so we get this.

Except it’s kind of boring. The tasks must, because of the brazen commercial aspect of the show, revolve around the business getting a big mention of the week. As in Joe Blow’s Bakery being involved in one task this year involving the making of cupcakes.

On 3/8/09, the task involved creating a cartoon hero type of character for the web site
“ZAPPOS” . A web site I never heard of but hey, they got lots of mention on The Donald’s “Celebrity Apprentice” and they had to make a big donation to charity for the honor. I wonder how much they “paid” to The Donald for “production costs” and such but hey, I’m just sayin’… Nothing wrong with making a profit.

Anyhow, Scott Hamilton, the required Olympic Gold Medal winner contender, was Project leader for the men’s team-KOTU. For whatever stupid reason, he did not have his character’s name begin with the letter “Z”, and given the web site it was to represent, a Z was definitely called for. Instead Hamilton called the character, get this, “EEE”, for, allegedly, “everything, everywhere, everytime”. Yeah, I thought it was dumb too. Hamilton got fired for it, which was well deserved.

The scripting had Hamilton and Green fighting in the board room and at one point we had Green talking about his and Hamilton’s testicles, I am not making this up.

This task, of course, set up Tom Green for the following week’s task, as I do think these celebrities’ order of elimination is thoroughly scripted. On 3/15/09, the assigned task was to sell wedding gowns and I think it was some designer or another that got the hour long commercial for the contribution to charity.

Dennis Rodman, that bad boy of basketball, is a contender on this series and most of the shows up until this point have featured Rodman prominently. Rodman is more well known than most of the contenders this year and hey, he is colorful. For the bridal sale, Rodman did not show up to help sell bridal gowns at the shop set up by the men. Rodman did, however, get somebody to bring in a bunch of money. Which is kind of the problem with this series as The Donald has it. The celebrities don’t really have to do much work so long as they know someone willing to donate lots of bucks and this concept seems to be very contrary to the premise of the original “The Apprentice”, in its heyday.

Tom Green is a bit of a doofus, not to mention having only one testicle. He was the project manager of the male team of KOTU and even HE showed up late to sell wedding gowns and Green didn’t have any rich benefactors sending in lotsa money.

Tom Green got fired this week and now the men’s team is down THREE contenders and have yet to win a task!

My First Celebrity Apprentice Review

The Chopping Block

Folks, frankly, the review of this show HERE, does as fine a job of reviewing this new rather weird entry to the world of cooking reality shows as most anything I could add.

The author of the piece linked above says right off the bat that this show is a combination of many shows and that was my first thought when I watched this NBC offering for the first time.

I suppose it most resembles “Hell’s Kitchen” but Marco Pierre White has waaaaay more class than Gordon Ramsey. And White doesn’t cuss and yell either.

In fact, White is often featured sitting alone at a table, musing on the meals, tasks and challenges he has, or will, give to his contenders and you’d think the man was talking world peace, the horrible effects of global warming, and the tragedy of the current American banking system.

Mentioning the author from my link again, Jeremy Medina, a fine writer may I add, he says the show compares to Top Chef. On this I must disagree. “Top Chef” is way better than this show could ever hope to be.

The contenders on this show are, oddly, COUPLES. Some are husband and wife, some mother and daughter. It doesn’t seem to work somehow.

Again, like Jeremy, I will likely watch the show again but won’t write about it. I love cooking reality shows but this one needs some real overhaul.

And Marco White could really use a toke or two it seems to me.

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In thoughts this week, the Bad Guy of the Week is actually a chubby female. The Good Guy is, surprise, a Republican who showed some gonads.

Also, time for some serious cute, with a visit to a pet store caught on video.

Much more.

HERE
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ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" 09 had the first dancer eliminated this past week.

Find out the dancer every contender wants to get hurt, the dancer that surprised everyone with an amazing comeback and finally, Melissa Rycroft's parents decide to show up!

All with pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

HERE
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It was Grand Ole Opry night and a good time was had by all in American Idol 2009.

Carrie Underwood returned, and not a single contender sang anything that sounded like a genuine country/western tune.

With pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

HERE
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Here's a book Review for Aphrodite Jones' true crime book-"Red Zone".

For Marjorie Knoller is an idiot, married to an idiot, and when idiots raise killer dogs, innocent people like Diane Whipple die horrific deaths.

The amazing behind the scenes story of the San Francisco dog mauling case.

HERE
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