Thursday, December 27, 2007

December 27, 2007 - Looking Back At 2007

2007 is coming to an end and this has been a fast year. Fun year though in the entertainment world. Since there isn't a lot going on in the entertainment world with it being the holidays, I thought I'd do some year in review type stuff in this issue as well as the usual stuff.

I often do a lot of my favorites of the year when it comes to year end issues so I'll add some in this year as well. My favorite TV shows of the year won't be any surprise. Some have made it through 2007 while others only made it halfway due to either being ended or canceled. Veronica Mars was a show that I loved very much and a smart show that left you thinking about what the next story twist would be. The cancellation of the show left me and many Veronica fans with a very bitter taste in our mouths toward The CW and this is coming from someone who was a huge fan of The WB. Yeah, I still haven't given any new shows on The CW a chance. LOL. Thankfully, I haven't been left without Kristen Bell on TV as she moved over to another great show that I found this year, Heroes. Gilmore Girls wrapped up this year as well. The show had a writing bulls eye on it all year long due to the Palladino's no longer being involved in the writing. I thought the show's writing started slow in season seven but they really started to get their footing in the second half of the season. It was probably the right time for the show to end and the show had a great run. Other favorites that have survived the year. Heroes is another show that leaves you trying to figure things out and when you think you've got it right, you're wrong. Such a talented cast and crew on this show. 2008 will hopefully bring us even more great stuff if the strike is ever settled in 2008. Smallville. I absolutely love this show and it has spread like crazy around to my friends as well. We've all pulled some major marathon viewing of Smallville over 2007. My reality shows are the same as they are every year. My summer TV obsession, Big Brother, delivered a very fun season and gave us houseguests that us Big Brother fans won't forget. I've had the privilege of having several of the BB8 cast take the time to do some Wrap Up Q&A's. The show once again had me glued to the live feeds and left me not getting a lot of anything done between July and September. LOL. With the strike, we get to do it all again in February with Big Brother 9. Survivor and Amazing Race were fun this year including an All Stars edition of The Amazing Race. American Idol was pretty much dull for me most of the season. There were a few highlights but overall season six just lacked some pizzazz.

I've found new shows that I've liked as well. Big Bang Theory was a show that I wanted to check out from seeing the promos. I liked the concept of it and checked it out. It has since become a favorite show of mine and can't wait to see new episodes of it. Other new shows that I've added to my every week viewing have been Chuck and Journeyman. Well, Journeyman is gone though unfortunately. Kid Nation was another show that I really begun to love as each episode aired. It was an addicting show and one that I am glad that I found to watch.

I haven't seen all of the movies from 2007 that I am wanting to see. I do know that my favorite movie of the year is Transformers. I don't really see anything else that I might see topping that movie. I was really concerned about this movie when I first heard that they were doing it as I thought it might end up not turning out good. I went into the theatre nervous but excited to see it. I left very happy with only a couple of things that bothered me a little but not enough to make a difference at all on souring me on it. The movie delivered for me and it gets my vote for my favorite movie of 2007.

2007 saw a new option for TV shows in the form of comic books. Buffy made a very triumphant return with season eight in comic form becoming one of the best selling comic book series of 2007. Following right behind was Angel returning for a season five story. With the sales of these comics, Buffy and Angel fans are going to be very happy going into 2008. Also, there is news of a Firefly series of comics coming in 2008 as well. Will the rumors of a Veronica Mars comic come true in 2008? I hope so!!!

The big story in the entertainment world continues to revolve around the writers strike that has shut down much of the industry. With no scheduled talks in the future, there is no telling how long this strike could carry into 2008.

Speaking of movies, here are the box office numbers for last weekend. 1. National Treasure - $45.5 million. 2. I Am Legend - $34.2 million. 3. Alvin & The Chipmunks - $29 million. 4. Charlie Wilson's War - $9.6 million. 5. Sweeney Todd - $9.4 million. 6. P.S. I Love You - $6.5 million. 7. Enchanted - $4.2 million. 8. Walk Hard - $4.1 million. 9. The Golden Compass - $4.0 million. 10. Juno - $3.4 million.

A couple of movies opened up on Christmas day this week. Alien vs. Predator opened at number three for Christmas Day as it opened with $9.5 million on Tuesday. Also, The Great Debaters opened at number six with $3.6 million while Water Horse opened up at number nine with $2.3 million. Remember that all of those numbers are for Tuesday only.

Not sure what channel to watch when the ball drops on New Year's Eve? Maybe this will help you out on deciding as this is the lineup for the New Year's shows as far as the big networks go.
On ABC is Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve which will feature Fergie, Akon, Natasha Bedingfield, Sean Kingston, OneRepublic, Plain White T's, Taylor Swift, and will.i.am. Dick Clark and Ryan Seacrest will host the show.
On NBC will be Carson Daly hosting the festivities. Tiki Barber and Amy Robach will also join him. Performances by Alicia Keys and Lenny Kravitz.

Do you know what I miss about New Year's Eve? I miss watching the top music video countdowns on the various music channels. I used to watch those quite a bit seeing who would rank where. This seems to be a thing of the past especially in its original form when there was....wait for it....full music videos played. Not all of them have went away from it but MTV has stopped doing it and VH-1 has went to its VH-1 format or as I call it the I Love The 80's show format that every show on VH-1 has now. I watched a little of the 2007 countdown on VH-1 and saw a little bit of the music videos covered up by various people discussing the videos and cracking jokes about them. It's a bummer that it is so hard to watch music videos anymore. Oh well. Best bet now is to watch the music videos online at any time that you wish.

Top movies for 2007 at the box office. 1. Spiderman 3 - $336 million. 2. Shrek The Third - $321 million. 3. Transformers - $319 million. 4. Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End - $309 million. 5. Harry Potter and The Order Of The Phoenix - $292 million. 6. The Bourne Ultimatum - $227 million. 7. 300 - $210 million. 8. Ratatouille - $206 million. 9. The Simpons Movie - $183 million. 10. Wild Hogs - $168 million. 11. I Am Legend - $150 million. 12. Knocked Up - $148 million. 13. Rush Hour 3 - $140 million. 14. Live Free Or Die Hard - $134 million. 15. Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer - $131 million. 16. American Gangster - $128 million. 17. Bee Movie - $123 million. 18. Superbad - $121 million. 19. I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry - $119 million. 20. Hairspray - $118 million.

Billboard has put out their list of the top DVD sales of 2007. Here is the top 10: 1. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. 2. Cars. 3. Happy Feet. 4. 300. 5. Transformers. 6. Ice Age: The Meltdown. 7. Night at the Museum. 8. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. 9. The Departed. 10. The Da Vinci Code.

Here is the listing for the top 10 albums of 2007. Number one was Daughtry selling around 3.2 million albums. Here is the full top 10. 1. Daughtry. 2. Akon - "Konvicted". 3. Fergie "The Dutchess". 4. The Hannah Montana Soundtrack. 5. Carrie Underwood - "Some Hearts". 6. Nickelback - "All The Right Reasons". 7. Justin Timberlake - "Futuresex/Lovesounds". 8. High School Musical 2 Soundtrack. 9. Now 23. 10. Linkin Park - "Minutes To Midnight".

Add Back To The Future to the list of movies in the Library Of Congress's National Film Registry. The movies that are added to this every year have to be ''culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant''. The 25 movies added this year, which brings the overall total to 475 movies, were Back To The Future (1985), The Naked City (1948), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), In a Lonely Place (1950), Oklahoma! (1955), 12 Angry Men (1957) The Strong Man (1926), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), Bullitt (1968), Dance, Girl, Dance (1940), Dances With Wolves (1990), Days of Heaven (1978), Glimpse of the Garden (1957), Grand Hotel (1932), The House I Live In (1945), Mighty Like a Moose (1926), Now, Voyager (1942), Our Day (1938), Peege (1972), The Sex Life of the Polyp (1928), Three Little Pigs (1933), Tol'able David (1921), Tom, Tom the Piper's Son (1969-71), The Women (1939), Wuthering Heights (1939).

The new Transformer Animated series has begun airing on Cartoon Network. If you missed it, catch a repeat on Saturday morning when they will air the first three episodes again. I haven't seen it yet but am definitely going to check it out.

This week's Amazing Race was a day of can you top this? Not the good kind of can you top this but can one team top the bad luck that the other was having. TK & Rachel and Kynt & Vyxsin had one of those days where nothing seems to go right. They basically competed against each other to see who could have the least happen to them. LOL. Just when we thought TK & Rachel had a clear way to the finish line, their tire blows out. However, they still finished in 4th place. Kynt & Vyxsin were the last team to arrive but it is a non elimination round. The twist this year is another new concept in the race, the speed bump. The speed bump is a surprise task that they will have to complete in the next leg of the race which no other team will have to do. They will not know when the task will have to be done. Nicolas and Donald finished in first place after completing the only fast forward on the race. The fast forward was that they each had to get a tattoo with the letters "FF". Wow. They really had no choice but to go for it as going back would have probably meant elimination. Then again, I'm not sure if that would have guaranteed elimination with the leg that TK & Rachel and Kynt & Vyxsin were having.

A three network simulcast of football will occur on Saturday night when the Patriots/Giants game will be shown on NBC, CBS, and NFL Network. A lot of talk has been made about how this game was only going to air on NFL Network due to its limited availability. The Patriots are looking to go undefeated in the regular season this weekend and the decision was made to make the game available to more viewers. This will be the first simulcast in the history of the NFL and will be the first simulcast since the first Super Bowl in 1967. This has been a hot topic on both sides of that debate.

If you are a Heroes fan frustrated with no new episodes as I am, here is an option for you. A Heroes novel has just been released called Heroes: Saving Charlie. The book covers the period of time in which Hiro teleported to try and save Charlie's life. We didn't see much of what their lives were like for that six month period of time and this book fills that gap.

I read some comments last week where Juliet Huddy was telling of the worst celebrity guests that she has interviewed. There was one that really waved up a flag to me. She had Jessica Alba on the list. The reason? Jessica didn't want to discuss her personal life. Now, I don't know about you but I find that to be a relief. In a day when we know way too much about celebrities personal lives, it's nice to see someone that wants to keep it private. Good for Jessica.

I've been doing a lot of watching of one of my Christmas presents this year. Season two of Charles In Charge. When you grew up watching a show, a lot of times you don't know how it will hold up when you watch it years later. This show holds up just fine!! I find myself laughing out loud at the same scenes that I did when I watched it originally. It's great to now have these shows on DVD in great quality. My old videos of this show have been long showing their wear and they weren't the best organized recordings anyway. This was one of my favorite shows growing up and I had a long tradition of watching this every day when it aired after school. Actually, I remember that this show was a go to for me many times when I'd be home sick from school and looking for something to watch. I'd throw in the tapes and watch it all day. I've seen these episodes so many times and the reason I know that for sure is that even after not seeing these episodes in forever, I still can recall a line before it's even said. The duo of Charles and Buddy is still one of my TV favorites of all time. One debate among fans of the show is often whether they preferred the Pembroke family (season one) or the Powell family (season two to the end). I always liked both but have loyalty to the Powell's cause that was the show that I started watching. The Pembroke episodes would air in repeats but the Powell episodes were still having new episodes premiering. I also remember just how many guys had a crush on Nicole Eggert at the time and that was myself included. LOL. Season two had so many funny episodes and I'm having a great time watching them again. Not any extras on this DVD set but I'm just thankful to have season two released.

TV on DVD releases for Tuesday, January 1st. SeaQuest DSV (Season Two), Weird Science (Seasons One & Two).
TV on DVD release for Wednesday, January 2nd. The Tudors (Season One).

You Tube Video Of The Week: The troops overseas were recently entertained by the WWE. WWE sent the talent over to Iraq for their annual visit to entertain the troops over the holidays and meet with them. Such a special show and here is a three minute music video of the highlights of the trip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afT4e0Vcr_4

Another year comes to an end. I hope that each and every one of you have had a great 2007 and wish you an even better 2008!! Have a great and very safe New Year's!! Talk to you in 2008. Take care and God bless!!

Thursday, December 20, 2007

December 20, 2007 - Late Night Returns, Journeyman Ends, Survivor China Finale

What's up everybody? Hope that you're all doing great!!

No movement at all on the writers strike. Still no scheduled talks. There was news that the WGA is looking at negotiating one on one with the studios instead of going through the AMPTP. No one seems sure on how that plan will turn out. Worldwide Pants which produces the David Letterman show is said to be very interested in negotiating one on one and trying to work out a separate deal to get their writers back to work. News did come out this week that late night is about to get rolling again on NBC. Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien announced plans about them returning with new shows beginning January 2nd. The statement that was released basically said that they still support the writers but they have to also support their non-writing crew of people that are getting hammered by this strike. This is what Conan had to say in the statement: "I have been and continue to be an ardent supporter of the WGA and their cause. My career in television started as a WGA member and my subsequent career as a performer has only been possible because of the creativity and integrity of my writing staff. ... Unfortunately, now with the New Year upon us, I am left with a difficult decision: Either go back to work and keep my staff employed or stay dark and allow 80 people, many of whom have worked for me for fourteen years, to lose their jobs. I will make clear, on the program, my support for the writers and I'll do the best version of 'Late Night' I can under the circumstances. Of course, my show will not be as good. In fact, in moments it may very well be terrible. My sincerest hope is that all of my writers are back soon, working under a contract that provides them everything they deserve." Jay Leno had similar comments: "Now that the talks have broken down and there are no further negotiations scheduled I feel it's my responsibility to get my 100 non-writing staff, which were laid off, back to work. We fully support our writers and I think they understand my decision." Days later, Jimmy Kimmel announced plans to also return with new shows beginning on the same night. Kimmel had these comments in a statement released: "Though it makes me sick to do so without my writers, there are more than a hundred people whose financial well-being depends on our show. It is time to go back to work. I support my colleagues and friends in the WGA completely and hope this ends both fairly and soon." Today saw news come out that The Daily Show and The Colbert Report will return with new shows on January 7th on Comedy Central. The speculation has always been that if one of these late night people came back that it would start a pattern with others following lead. That appears to be happening. NBC is also going to move some of the programming from USA over to NBC on March 2nd including Monk and Psych. The Golden Globes and Oscars are going to be effected by the writers strike as well. The Globes and Oscars were hoping to get a waiver allowing writers to work on the shows despite the ongoing strike but the WGA rejected it. No idea on whether the writers plan to picket the awards shows or what actors will attend due to the support of the writers.

The Survivor China finale aired this past Sunday night with the normal three hour broadcast. I really enjoyed the show and wasn't surprised with the outcome. Well, I say that but I thought that Amanda would do better. That was until the jury dismantled her chance of winning with their questioning. It didn't help that Amanda had told Denise that she wouldn't vote her out only to vote her out. To make matters worse for Amanda, she had two jurors who she had done the same thing to. Early on in the show, I really was thinking that she was going to win but I think the jury questioning finished her chance of winning. Denise was voted out in the first tribal council of the episode as Amanda won the final immunity. That gave us a final three of Todd, Amanda, and Courtney. The jury questioning is always my favorite part of the season and it didn't disappoint. Funny moment when Todd's response to Jean-Robert's question left him speechless with James and the jury all laughing at how they had never seen him silenced like that. LOL. I've got to say that I wasn't expecting Jaime to be the one to stir the pot up with her question. When Courtney made final three, I knew she had a legitimate shot of winning. One thing that Courtney was in the game was honest. She would tell you what she thought and not cover up anything. That worked in her favor as I think she gained some respect from the jury on that. What a nice cut by the producers from the voting results when they cut from China to live back in the United States. WOW, I didn't even catch when they did it. The votes played out with Todd getting four votes, Courtney getting two votes, and Amanda getting one vote. Todd wins Survivor China and he did play an excellent game. When you watched the reunion show, you really got a feel of how much he had planned his game out with being a huge Survivor fan from the beginning. A $100,000 prize was also given to the winner of the fan voting of most popular Survivor player. The three in contention were James, Denise, and Peih-Gee. James ended up winning the vote. James was a lot of fun this season and it's nice to see that he has a sense of humor on being asked over and over about not using the immunity idols. I was surprised that Jeff didn't ask Jaime about playing the fake immunity idols. I always feel bad for the cast members that get voted out early on and just pretty much sit there with no questions asked to them. They weren't there long so the attention is going to be on the ones that got further. I do like that Jeff makes sure to talk to everyone even if it is only for a moment.

We also learned that the rumors of an Survivor All Stars 2 was somewhat true. The concept for the next Survivor is Fans vs. Favorites. Several survivors will be returning to do another edition and will play against superfans who feel that they can play the game of Survivor. Who are the returning people going to be? Well, there are rumors out there and it was confirmed that at least one person from Survivor China will take part.

It was nice to see that Big Brother 9 promo running during the Survivor finale on Sunday night. The promo is set to All American Rejects song, Dirty Little Secret. Seeing that promo got me pretty pumped up for the new season which begins on February 12th.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dWLCPeHexA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fF_LKQaadVw

Movie box office numbers for last weekend. 1. I Am Legend - $77.2 million. 2. Alvin & The Chipmunks - $44.3 million. 3. The Golden Compass - $8.8 million. 4. Enchanted - $5.5 million. 5. No Country - $2.8 million. 6. Perfect Holiday - $2.2 million. 7. This Christmas - $2.2 million. 8. Fred Clause - $2.2 million. 9. Atonement - $1.8 million. 10. August Rush - $1.7 million.

I Am Legend opened up big at the box office this past weekend. The movie set box office records for being the best opening ever for a movie in December and it is also the biggest box office opening for a Will Smith movie. The previous best opening movie for Will Smith was I Robot in 2004 with $52 million. Incredible numbers for I Am Legend and it is a movie that I plan on watching.

I didn't get to comment last week on Smallville cause I hadn't seen it yet. Good episode and now we are left with more questions. So, Julian isn't still alive after all? He is just a clone led to believe that he is Julian. Oh, that Lex Luthor. The scenes with Chloe and Jimmy in the elevator were very good and I laughed out loud at the elevator opening while they were kissing as they realized that they had an audience. We'll see how Chloe telling Jimmy her meteor secret will turn out. Wow, I didn't see that ending happening with Bizarro being back and Clark being gone!! That was nice!! That also explains how Clark was suddenly able to fly as he was flying through that elevator shaft cause it turns out that it wasn't him. I had to laugh in amazement at Lois cause of her continuing to get herself in trouble with Gemini. He kept telling her to not communicate anything to Chloe that she had a bomb on her. Geez Lois. What part of "don't let Chloe know" didn't you understand??? LOL. Lex now owns The Daily Planet. That story has potential to get nasty before it's over. It's going to be a while before we get a new episode so settle in with your Smallville DVD's or, hey, there is always season seven reruns to watch.

Chloe Sullivan is making her way into territory that she has yet to see. The comic books. That's right. Smallville's Chloe Sullivan has been a character exclusive to the show but that is about to change. The Superman comics are set to introduce Chloe as a character with some of it staying true to the series and some of it not. She will still be an aspiring writer at The Daily Planet as she will be an intern and also be the cousin of Lois Lane. However, she is not going to know Clark's secret and also is going to be younger than Clark. She also won't be infected by meteors. The apparent date for Chloe's arrival in the comics is set for March 12th in issue 674. This is great news and news that is long overdue. Chloe is a great character on Smallville and her arriving in the comics is great as well.

Speaking of comics, Michael Ausiello over at TVGuide.com had a Veronica Mars comic comment in his Q&A this week. He was asked on whether Rob Thomas had gotten any time to work on the comic. Well, the strike could be carrying over to the comic book world too. Nooooo!!! LOL. Thomas said that he had had a second meeting with DC Comics but then discussed how he had heard that the WGA wasn't wanting TV writers working on TV related comics. They are looking into whether Veronica Mars would count since the show is no longer on the air. It does sound optimistic that maybe Veronica Mars might carry over into comic book form. If all my favorite shows continue becoming comic books, there is no telling how many comics I'll have to buy every month. LOL.
http://www.tvguide.com/ask-ausiello

AFI has released their top 10 movies of 2007 list. Among the movies in their list are Michael Clayton, No Country For Old Men, There Will Be Blood, Knocked Up, Ratatouille, The Savages, Before The Devil Knows You're Dead, The Diving Bell and The Butterfly, Into The Wild, and Juno.

Dexter set another record this past week for Showtime. The show set a record earlier in the season for being the most watched broadcast in the history of Showtime. Well, that record has been broken again by the season finale which drew 1.4 million viewers.

With Christmas approaching in the next few days. I thought I'd share some of my favorite Christmas movies to watch every year. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is still my favorite Christmas movie of all time and a tradition of viewing of mine. That movie has made the Griswold name an adjective. If you see a big extravagant display of lights, it is often referred to as a Griswold display. I have memories of watching this movie in high school on our last day before Christmas break during the scene where Clark just finally goes on his cussing tirade. I'll always remember our teacher sitting up there at his desk with his face really red cause he was laughing so hard at it. Others that I really enjoy are Ernest Saves Christmas. It is a really funny movie and one that has a nice story to it as well. Ernest flying the sleigh was funny stuff!! Home Alone is a movie that I'd throw in there as well as I usually end up watching it sometime during the holidays. I still enjoy the original The Santa Clause movie as well. There are a ton of Christmas movies that I like but those are my favorites. I'll probably be annoyed at myself tomorrow when I realize that I left a favorite of mine out of this list.

I recently watched the movie, Man Of The Year. I won't reveal too much about the storyline in case you are wanting to see it. The movie stars Robin Williams who plays a Jon Stewart or Bill Maher type character as he is a political comedian. Robin Williams plays Tom Dobbs and he decides to run for president as an independent candidate. He is pushed by his audience to go for it and he tries to find a way to balance comedy and also serious issues. His team works hard at trying to get his name out there so he can make some noise in the election. One problem with the election centers around a computer problem in the new voting machines that have been unveiled for the first time. Also in the movie is Christopher Walken who plays Tom's manager. I really liked the cast in this movie. I expected the movie to be more of a comedy but it is definitely a comedy/drama. Overall, I'd recommend this movie. I enjoyed the story and the acting. I'd definitely recommend checking it out.

Journeyman has been flat out awesome in the last few episodes. So, you know that means?? It has to end. LOL. It looks like this week's episodes were the last of Journeyman unless there is some sort of TV miracle. I recently watched the Christmas episode and it was great. Monday night's episode saw a lot of things changed including the kid. Dan helped a mother and son out of a RV hanging on a cliff only to accidentally drop his digital camera from 2007 in the past before being zapped out of there as he was in the rolling RV as it crashed down the hill. He did save the people in it and got them out. Dan gets back to 2007 and his family is different. He now has a daughter named Caroline instead of a son named Zach. She has all the memories that Zach had but he is gone. Dan figures out that the camera had to be the reason for it. He talked to Katie about it and the stories of how the kid was conceived didn't match up. The story had changed cause Dan had to go cover a story of a computer crash instead of what originally happened. Dan finds out that the kid who found the camera had disappeared finding out that he was selling it to someone else and then likely killed. Dan and Livia save the kid and destroy the camera. Dan gets back to 2007 and Zach is back. Hey, that even rhymes. What an episode!! Last night's finale was a good way to finish up the series as they answered a lot of questions. Dan and Livia ran into another time traveler who had altered his whole life to give the woman he loved a better life. It was really a nice story and it played into how Dan and Livia are having to deal with random time traveling while having to leave family all the time. Dan talked to Langley who told him that there used to be several time travelers but now the numbers are dwindling. He says that Dan is the last one which isn't true but he wouldn't tell Langley the identity of the other one. I loved the way the show ended with Katie getting to watch as Dan disappeared on to his next mission. Watching how good this show has gotten as the season goes along just makes me really annoyed that NBC is not bringing the show back. This would be a great show for Sci-Fi Channel if it could somehow be moved over there. I wonder what kind of ratings it would do on cable. Head over to this website if you would like info on what you can do to help fight for the show: http://savejourneyman.net If you want to check out episodes of the show, head over to NBC.com. I definitely recommend checking it out. The cast is amazing on this show. I love all the storylines and trying to piece things together on why things are happening. This is going to be a show that I'm going to miss a lot. Can this be released on DVD please??!!

The newest Bring It On movie is now in stores on DVD. For more info on the movie including clips, interviews, contests, downloads including a widget and wallpaper, and more, head over to: http://www.myyearbook.com/bringiton

So, I love that new song by Sara Bareilles called Love Song. How catchy is that song??!!

TV Guide is reporting that USA has cancelled its shows Dead Zone and The 4400.
http://community.tvguide.com/blog-entry/TVGuide-Editors-Blog/Ausiello-Report/Exclusive-Usa-Kills/800029520

I don't have any TV on DVD releases for you next week. With it being Christmas day on Tuesday, nothing of TV on DVD is being released.

TV Line Of The Week: From Journeyman.
"If the stairs are a problem, we have elevators." Dan's boss to Dan after Dan returned from time traveling as he had been tumbling down a cliff in a RV. When he returned back to current day, he finished tumbling down the stairs at work.

You Tube Video Of The Week: I'm using this to plug Journeyman this week. Here is a trailer for the pilot. What are you waiting for? Get over to NBC.com and start watching.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Y-i5-dTYYs

I want to take a moment to say Merry Christmas!! Hope you have a very safe and great holiday!! Take care and God bless!!

Thursday, December 13, 2007

December 13, 2007 - Golden Globes, Kid Nation Wraps Up, & More

Hope everyone is doing great!! Let's get into this week's Wrap Up.

Nothing new on the strike news. They're not even talking at this point. You might as well settle in cause this could be a while before this is settled. I'm getting to the point where I'm thinking that the ones doing the negotiations need to be locked in a room and not come out until a deal is reached. This leaving and going home or breaking off negotiations needs to stop. Seriously, lock them in a room and let them come out when they get a deal so this thing ends.

Movie box office numbers for last weekend. 1. The Golden Compass - $25.7 million. 2. Enchanted - $10.7 million. 3. This Christmas - $4.9 million. 4. Fred Claus - $4.6 million. 5. Beowulf - $4.5 million. 6. No Country - $4.1 million. 7. August Rush - $3.5 million. 8. Hitman - $3.4 million. 9. Awake - $3.3 million. 10. The Mist - $2.6 million.

The new TV season started with a lot of controversy around the new show, Kid Nation. I watched it out of curiosity to see what all the talk was about. It became one of my favorite shows and I was completely hooked on it looking forward to each week's episode. This week saw the show wrap up. 40 days was how long these kids lived in Bonanza City. There were happy moments and sad moments. These kids stepped up to the challenge big time and earned all my respect for what they were able to do. This week's finale saw one more gold star rewarded worth $20,000 which went to Zach. One last town challenge was done and if the three tasks were completed, there would be three more gold stars ready to be given out worth $50,000 a piece. They completed the tasks and the three gold stars were handed out. However, the kids got a reunion with their families first when they all showed up. The families got to attend the final town hall meeting. The council rewarded the $50,000 gold stars to Sophia, Morgan, and Migle. Sophia was the only one to double up on stars as she is taking home a total of $70,000. My favorite kids on the show were Sophia, Laurel, Michael, and Zach. I do hope these kids all get to keep in touch cause this was a special experience that they got to take part in together. Hopefully, they've exchanged phone numbers, emails, or whatever so these friendships that were made will continue on.

The nominations are out for the Golden Globe Awards and the TV end has a definite cable feel to it. Here are the nominations for some of the categories.
Best TV Series, Drama: Big Love, HBO; Damages, FX; Grey's Anatomy, ABC; House, FOX; Mad Men, AMC; The Tudors, Showtime.
Best TV Series, Comedy: 30 Rock, NBC; Californication, Showtime; Entourage, HBO; Extras, HBO; Pushing Daisies, ABC.
Best Actor, Drama Series: Michael C Hall, Dexter; Jon Hamm, Mad Men; Hugh Laurie, House; Jonathan Rhys Meyers, The Tudors; Bill Paxton, Big Love.
Best Actress, Drama Series: Patricia Arquette, Medium; Glenn Close, Damages; Minnie Driver, The Riches; Edie Falco, The Sopranos; Sally Field, Brothers & Sisters; Holly Hunter, Saving Grace; Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer.
Best Actor, Comedy Series: Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock; Steve Carell, The Office; David Duchovny, Californication; Ricky Gervais, Extras; Lee Pace, Pushing Daisies.
Best Actress, Comedy Series: Christina Applegate, Samantha Who?; America Ferrera, Ugly Betty;
Tina Fey, 30 Rock; Anna Friel, Pushing Daisies; Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds.
Best Supporting Actor, Series, Miniseries or Movie: Ted Danson, Damages; Kevin Dillon, Entourage;
Jeremy Piven, Entourage; Andy Serkis, Longford; William Shatner, Boston Legal; Donald Sutherland, Dirty Sexy Money.
Best Supporting Actress, Series, Miniseries or Movie: Rose Byrne, Damages; Katherine Heigl, Grey's Anatomy; Rachel Griffiths, Brothers & Sisters; Samantha Morton, Longford; Anna Paquin, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee; Jaime Pressly, My Name Is Earl.
Best Picture, Drama: American Gangster, Atonement, Eastern Promises, The Great Debaters, Michael Clayton, No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood.
Best Picture, Musical or Comedy: Across the Universe, Charlie Wilson's War, Hairspray, Juno, Sweeney Todd.
Best Actor, Drama: George Clooney, Michael Clayton; Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood; James McAvoy, Atonement; Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises; Denzel Washington, American Gangster.
Best Actress, Drama: Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth: The Golden Age; Julie Christie, Away from Her; Jodie Foster, The Brave One; Angelina Jolie, A Mighty Heart; Keira Knightley, Atonement.
Best Actor, Musical or Comedy: Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd; Ryan Gosling, Lars and the Real Girl;
Tom Hanks, Charlie Wilson's War; Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Savages; John C. Reilly, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.
Best Actress, Musical or Comedy: Amy Adams, Enchanted; Nikki Blonksy, Hairspray; Helena Bonham Carter, Sweeney Todd; Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose; Ellen Page, Juno.
Best Supporting Actor: Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford;
Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men; Philip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Wilson's War; John Travolta, Hairspray; Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton.
Best Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett, I'm Not There; Julia Roberts, Charlie Wilson's War; Saorise Ronan, Atonement; Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone; Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton.
Best Director: Tim Burton, Sweeney Todd; Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men;
Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly; Ridley Scott, American Gangster; Joe Wright, Atonement.
Best Animated Film: Bee Movie, Ratatouille, The Simpsons Movie.

We have a final four set on Survivor with the finale airing on Sunday night on CBS. The finale will see the million dollars be between Todd, Courtney, Amanda, and Denise. This is a tough pick on will win. I do still think that Courtney will get into the final two (or three if they decide to do three again). Denise would be tough to beat if she gets to the end. Todd and Courtney's chances will depend on how the jury is voting whether it is game play or personal. Amanda is in a spot where she can pick who she wants to align with to see how far she can get and has a very good chance at winning.

Regis Philbin is going to be hosting the Academy Awards preshow on ABC.

It looks like Journeyman is indeed coming to an end. Hollywood Reporter is saying that NBC had until a certain time period to pick the show up for a full season and it hasn't happened. It does appear that the final two episodes of the show are going to air. Word is that the episodes will air on Monday, December 17th and then on Wednesday, December 19th. What a bummer as this was a show I was really enjoying watching.

ABC has pulled Big Shots from their schedule. The show still had three more unaired episodes left but it appears that they will not air.

I ended up staying up late watching Independence Day the other night on one of the movie channels. I've seen this countless times so I don't know why I was so glued to watching this again. It is one of my favorite movies ever though. Interesting that the version of the movie that was airing was the version with additional scenes that were cut out of the theatrical version. I figured if you wanted to see that version that you'd have to buy the DVD but I was wrong.

American Idol will once again be doing an Idol Gives Back show which raised a ton of money last season for charity. The special will air April 9th.

The Hills wrapped up for the time being on Monday night but will return in the spring to answer the questions that we were left with. What will happen with Lauren and Whitney in Paris? Are Heidi and Spencer done? How will things go with Lauren and Brody being apart for a little while? Fun finale and I'm glad that Lauren got the second chance of going to Paris. She was not going to mess that up again. My only complaint of the season was that they give too much away of the next episode in their promos. They basically tell you the whole episode in a 30 second preview.

If you're a Carrie Underwood fan, check out this interview that Glamour did with her. Really good interview.
http://www.glamour.com/news/articles/2007/12/underwood

Live Free Or Die Hard. This was a movie that I was looking forward to seeing with the next installment out of the Die Hard series. Bruce Willis returns as detective John McClane. The basic idea of the movie was taking an old school John McClane and bringing him into the modern era of ways to fight bad guys. It is a big time computer hacker storyline. What happens when someone takes all the hacking tips and builds it to shut down the country? John McClane is sent on a seemingly routine mission which is to pick up Matthew, a computer hacker, and bring him in. However, he ends up walking into a warzone when Matthew is bombarded with a full out assault looking to finish him off. Pretty fitting that Justin Long from the "I'm A Mac and I'm a PC" commercials plays the computer guy teamed up with McClane. I liked the combination of McClane and Matthew as each had a completely different style of how to handle situations. Matthew was more of a think this thing out a different way with his technology knowledge while McClane is more of a handle this now in whatever way kind of person. What I've always enjoyed about these movies is that there isn't a lot of downtime with what is going on. One big action scene will end and everything is ok with the characters but you just sit and wait to see what is the next big problem that is going to arise. As far as action goes, this movie delivers big time. There are a LOT of great action scenes that leave you on the edge of your seat. The movie runs just over two hours in time and the time flew by. If you like the Die Hard movies or just action movies in general, I think you'll like this movie. I loved it.

I laughed pretty hard at the scene on this week's How I Met Your Mother when they did the slow motion of Barney knocking the sandwich out of Marshall's hands. Barney was sure that Wendy the waitress was looking to get even with Barney for dumping her and thought the food was contaminated. One of the best episodes of the season. That was also the last new episode that will air until the strike is resolved.

iTunes has released what its best sellers were for 2007. Top albums were (in order): Maroon 5, Amy Winehouse, Kanye West, Daughtry, and Colbie Caillat. Top singles for the year were (in order) Big Girls Don't Cry (Fergie), The Sweet Escape (Gwen Stefani), Hey There Delilah (Plain White T's), Girlfriend (Avril Lavigne), Glamorous (Fergie).

I can't say that I saw this news coming but Paul Reuben is set to return as Pee Wee Herman in two new movies. The first movie is planned to be released in 2009.

TV on DVD releases for Tuesday, December 18th. The Bronx Is Burning (World Championship), The Mod Squad (Season One - Volume One), One Tree Hill (Season Four), Raw Hide (Season Two - Volume Two), The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (Volume Two).

TV Line Of The Week: From How I Met Your Mother
"You're killing the bar dude." Marshall to Barney after every circumstance of Barney telling of his hitting on Wendy the waitress.

You Tube Video Of The Week: A Fake Water Bed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4K6ScFZoMw

Have a great and safe weekend!! Take care and God bless!!

Thursday, December 6, 2007

December 6, 2007 - Big Brother 9 Is Coming Soon, Heroes Finale, and More

Strike update. The WGA was presented a deal late last week which they were going to look over. However, later in the same night, they rejected the deal calling it a "bad deal". Both sides have been meeting all week since Tuesday. No real news coming out of it but the tone of the meetings seem to be better. It doesn't sound like they are close though on a deal but they are still talking. Talks are set to resume tomorrow. They're still meeting and negotiating so that makes me happy. Actually, it makes me content. I'll be happy when a deal is in place.

In other strike news, Jay Leno is going to pay his staff's salary for the time being due to the strike. Late night shows are taking a major ratings hit. Variety is reporting that The Tonight Show is down 40% in the 18-49 demographic from what it was a year ago. Conan is also down in ratings. Letterman is down 21%. The Daily Show is down 29% and Colbert Report is down 33%. Basically, they're down across the board which is expected.

CBS released their schedule for early 2008 and there are definite changes happening due to the ongoing strike. CBS has announced that Big Brother 9 will premiere on Tuesday, February 12th. Just as always, the show will air three times a week but one day is different than normal. Episodes will air Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Sundays. After a huge fan campaign to save it, Jericho returns for its second season on February 12th with a seven episode run. Survivor will return on February 7th. There has been a RUMOR going around for about a month now that this new edition of Survivor may be All Stars 2. We'll have to wait and see if that is indeed true. CBS also has some scripted shows set to return as New Adventures Of Old Christine will start its new season on January 28th. So, Big Brother is a go!! I have mixed feelings on this. I always love a new edition of Big Brother but it has been a successful summer show and this will be the first edition to take place during a different part of the year. I am just concerned about them over saturating Big Brother. My question is will Big Brother 10 be coming in July right behind Big Brother 9? Well, you know I'm in for the new season. Sign me up for the live feeds and suddenly my late winter is looking a lot more busy.

Movie box office numbers for last weekend. 1. Enchanted - $16.4 million. 2. This Christmas - $8.2 million. 3. Beowulf - $7.9 million. 4. Awake - $6 million. 5. Hitman - $5.8 million. 6. Fred Claus - $5.5 million. 7. August Rush - $5 million. 8. The Mist - $4.5 million. 9. Bee Movie - $4.4 million. 10. No Country - $4.3 million.

NBC sure did make some people nervous with the Heroes promo for this week's episode saying it is the "finale". Many people were concerned that the show was ending. I had a friend that called me and she was concerned that the show was ending for good cause of the "finale" promos. The show is not over FOR SURE. NBC just chose to word the promos very badly. The show is over until the strike is over. That is it for all the episodes that are completed. Lots of hype on this episode and it delivered. The promos focused on two heroes being killed off. I had predicted Maya as one and the way it looked early on, I thought I had called one of them. I couldn't come up with a good guess on the other one. Maya appears to have survived despite being shot. That character just doesn't do much for me. She believes some random guy, who admits that he's a murderer, over her brother. Her brother ends up killed and then she finally realizes what is going on with Sylar. Well, sorry that you're so dumb. LOL. The two that ended up in bad shape were Nikki who ended up being blown up in a building and then Nathan who was shot when holding a press conference with Peter and Parkman ready to expose some secrets. Peter was finally woken up on what Adam was trying to accomplish with releasing the virus. Have we seen the last of Adam? I'd say Hiro definitely got the best of him there. Will Adam be saved or can he even be saved? The Bennet's were reunited. Noah worked out a deal to get back to his family. Elle went to make her dad proud deciding to go get Sylar. She chased him off and saved Suresh and Molly. However, Sylar got his powers back at the end of the episode and that can't result in anything good for everyone. I am still calling that Elle is going to switch sides eventually. I was happy that at least we didn't get left on a major cliffhanger as everything was tied up pretty well for the time being despite what happened with Nikki and Nathan. Who knows when we'll get another new episode? Hopefully it will be sooner than later.

If anyone has Heroes withdrawal with the new season being put to a halt cause of the strike, here is an option that I have enjoyed so far. NBC.com has been posting episode commentaries with the cast and crew taking part in it. This is also a video commentary with us being able to watch the episode and the people doing the commentary. Very fun and a fun extra to have on the site. I'd love to somehow see these put on the DVD set in the future but I'm sure doing that would take up a lot of space on the set. Although, they could just take the audio from them and put them on the set. I made a list of all the commentaries that are currently available including who takes part in each one. Head over to the Heroes site on NBC.com to check it out.
Episode 211 Powerless - Commentary by Allan Arkush (executive producer) and music composers, Lisa Coleman and Wendy Melvoin.
Episode 210 Truth & Consequences - Commentary by Adam Kane (episode director) and Stephen Tobolowsky (Bob).
Episode 209 Cautionary Tales - Commentary by Kristen Bell (Elle), Greg Yaitanes (episode director), and Ashley Crow (Sandra Bennet)
Episode 208 Four Months Ago - Commentary by Milo Ventimiglia (Peter Petrelli) and Greg Beeman (executive producer and episode director).
Episode 207 Out Of Time - Commentary by Daniel Attias (episode director) and Masi Oka (Hiro)

Smallville returns with a new episode next week.

Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers are going to be the halftime performers for this year's Super Bowl on February 3rd.

Monday Night Football on ESPN drew 17.5 million viewers which set the record for the most watched cable broadcast ever. The game barely defeated High School Musical 2 which had 17.2 million viewers earlier this year. The game peaked with 23.9 million viewers during the last 15 minutes of the game.

We're getting down the final episodes of this season's Survivor. Tonight, Erik was voted out. Todd has played a good game but the scenes from next week show that sides may be changed. I don't know how far that he'll get to the end but I am thinking that Courtney will make it to the final. Who is against her in the end may come down to whether the Todd/Amanda alliance holds up.

The new miniseries Tin Man that premiered this week on Sci-Fi channel got the best ratings ever for the network drawing in around 6.3 million viewers. The show is a new spin on the Wizard Of Oz story. I watched a little preview clip of it to see what it looked like but was just kind of indifferent to what I saw. I haven't heard a whole lot yet as far as reviews.

When I saw the previews for Knocked Up, it seemed like it could be a funny movie. For some people, it probably was. For me, I just didn't enjoy it at all. It was just too raunchy and strong language filled for me. I'm sure a lot of people enjoyed it but it just didn't do anything for me. Katherine Heigl plays Alison who works at E and just got a promotion of being moved in front of the camera to interview celebs. Her life changes however when her and her sister go out to a club one night and Alison meets Ben (played by Seth Rogan). The two have a one night fling but the two end up being connected forever when she finds out that she is pregnant. The two of them are from two completely different worlds and they have to work on adjusting to each other since they are having a baby together. I thought the acting was fine in it but the movie just isn't my kind of humor at all and I got drowned in not my kind of humor. I think I actually just laughed once and that was at the cussing tirade by Ryan Seacrest in his cameo in the movie. If I hadn't paid money to rent the movie, I probably would have turned it off halfway through. That was how much I wasn't liking the movie.

Saturday Night Live is set to air several "Best of" shows to fill time due to the strike. The Best Of Will Farrell will air this Saturday night. Others set to air in coming weeks are Best Of Chris Farley, Best Of 2006-2007, and a Best Of show that will revolve around the best commercial parodies that the show has done.

The Chicago Tribune did a poll of its readers recently asking them to vote on the worst TV show of all time. They have listed the top 25 voting results. The results are based on almost 5,000 responses.
1. "The Jerry Springer Show" 19.8%
2. "Cavemen" 15.6%
3. "Mama's Family" 7.3%
4. "Cop Rock" 6.9%
5. "Small Wonder" 6.6%
6. "Joanie Loves Chachi" 5.8%
7. "Barney & Friends" 5.3%
8. "Ernest Angley Hour" 4.0%
9. "Homeboys in Outer Space" 3.9%
10."My Mother the Car" 3.6%
11. XFL 3.4%
12. "Pink Lady and Jeff" 3.4%
13. "The Ropers" 2.8%
14."Manimal" 2.5%
15. "The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer" 1.5%
16. "B.J. and the Bear" 1.2%
17. "Mr. T. and Tina" 1.2%
18. "Petticoat Junction" 1.1%
19. "Beauty and the Beast" 1.0%
20. "Mr. Belvedere" 0.9%
21."Life With Lucy" 0.9%
22. "Turn-On" 0.6%
23. "You're in the Picture" 0.4%
24. "When Things Were Rotten" 0.4%
25. "The 100 Lives of Black Jack Savage 0.1%
When I first read about this list, my first thought was there are going to be a lot of shows that I watched on this list. Actually, there are very few. I watched Mama's family quite a bit as a kid but just can't get into it now whenever it is on in reruns. Call me lame but I liked Small Wonder. Not one of my favorite shows obviously but I used to watch it when it was on weekdays around 15 years or so ago.

Sheriff Sophia was in charge on this week's Kid Nation. To say the town was nervous about it was an understatement. The council left for a couple of days leaving her in charge. She ended up keeping the town in line and everyone seemed happy. I thought she did a very good job. She even had a nice bonding session with Taylor. The gold star went to Alex although there were several in the running for it. Zach went in and nominated himself for it. He got a laugh from Greg when Zach was giving his speech on why he should get it. The rest of the council wasn't happy at all about Greg laughing at him and Zach was actually in tears as he explained why he wanted the gold star. I've liked Zach quite a bit on this season but I had a problem with his crying about feeling disrespected by the council. My problem is that he was mad at people laughing at him. I seem to remember Zach laughing at the girls' crying a few episodes ago when they were crying about being homesick. Zach felt disrespected being laughed at when he was crying but he laughed at the girls' crying and made fun of them. I do think that Zach should get a gold star and there is only one left with there being others that deserve one as well. The Kid Nation season finale is this Wednesday on CBS.

NBC announced their lineup for early 2008 and they have a lot of unscripted TV set to air. The Monday lineup will change big time as Heroes, Chuck, and Journeyman will be done with new episodes. The replacement Monday night schedule will begin airing on January 7th which will be American Gladiators, Deal Or No Deal, and the return of Medium. Other shows on the schedule include 1 vs. 100,  Law & Order, and Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

ER just passed the 300 episode mark. That is an amazing accomplishment in this day of TV.

TV on DVD releases for Tuesday, December 11th.
Beverly Hills 90210 (Season Three), Big Love (Season Two), Dirt (Season One), Frasier (Season Ten), Gomer Pyle USMC (Season Three), Lost (Season Three: Unexplored Experience).

You Tube Video Of The Week: Want to see a sports video that makes you gasp to catch your breath? Glad he is ok!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iF6azb6lAl4

Wishing all of you a great weekend!! Take care and God bless!!

Big Brother Over The Top - Week One Thoughts

I hope many of you have floated over to Big Brother Over The Top like I have.  Tonight, we will be one week into this game and this new plat...