Friday, May 30, 2008

The Entertainment Wrap Up - May 29, 2008 - My 150th Issue and Three Year Anniversary Flashback Issue

This week's Wrap Up is mostly a flashback issue as this is the 150th issue of the Wrap Up and also the three year anniversary of the first edition of it. It's cool how that worked out. Things are kind of slow this week in the entertainment world since the TV season is over and I thought I would just do a big flashback issue for the anniversary. I've picked out some random old movie reviews, TV reviews, or whatever over the previous 149 issues. Just skimmed over some old issues and picked some things out. I want to take a second to thank everyone who takes the time to read this thing every week and I hope that you enjoy it!! I'll first start with the stuff that can't wait for next week including DVD releases and box office numbers. Then, I'll go retro.

Movie box office numbers for last weekend. Indiana Jones opened up and opened big as expected. 1. Indiana Jones - $126.9 million. 2. The Chronicles Of Narnia - $29.8 million. 3. Iron Man - $26.1 million. 4. What Happens In Vegas - $11.3 million. 5. Speed Racer - $5.2 million. 6. Made Of Honor - $4.24 million. 7. Baby Mama - $4.20 million. 8. Forgetting Sarah Marshall - $2.2 million. 9. Harold and Kumar - $1.1 million. 10. The Visitor - $0.9 million.

TV on DVD releases for Tuesday, June 3rd. CHiPs (Season Two), Dante's Cove (Season Three), The Dead Zone (Season Six), Rescue Me (Season Four), Weeds (Season Three).

My Wrap Up interviews. I thought I would put up some links to some of the interviews that I've gotten to do over the years for the Wrap Up. I am very thankful to get some of the cast of Big Brother 8 to give me their thoughts on the show. Here are the links if you've missed them.
Jessica - http://entertainmentwrapup.blogspot.com/2007/10/entertainment-wrap-up-october-11-2007.html
Kail - http://entertainmentwrapup.blogspot.com/2007/10/wrap-up-q-with-big-brother-8s-kail.html
Carol - http://entertainmentwrapup.blogspot.com/2007/10/this-weeks-wrap-up-q-comes-from-big.html
Mike & also Jessica's mom (who commented on the show as Jessica was still in the house) - http://entertainmentwrapup.blogspot.com/2007/10/this-weeks-wrap-up-q-comes-from-big.html


June 2, 2005 - Star Wars Episode 3 thoughts.
I guess I will start with Star Wars. I have now seen Star Wars Episode 3 twice. It was great both times. I wouldn't mind actually going and watching it again. It is that good. Seeing it in the theatre with the big Star Wars fans is definitely part of the appeal. You just can't get that feel from watching it at home. Part of the fun of watching Star Wars is seeing it with the crowd. I thought the movie did a great job of setting up episodes 4-6. We knew episode 3 wouldn't end happy and it didn't but it made me pumped to watch the rest of the series again. I have got to get that new box set with 4, 5, and 6 on it!! One thing I found really funny was leaving the theatre on Sunday night and seeing this couple in front of me. The guy had this really solemn look on his face. The woman looked over and saw this and kind of laughed asking him if he was all right. Just kind of one those moments that you remember. I did get to see the movie on opening day also and it was great to see it with a packed theatre. Where else do you get the experience of a movie starting and the whole theatre erupting into applause? I'll never forget the roar in the theatre during episode 2 when Yoda's fight scene began. The place was going nuts. This is one of those movies that you have to see in the theatre to get the full experience. I got on board the overall Star Wars bandwagon a lot later than most but am very glad to be aboard.


June 10, 2005 - The cancellation of American Dreams. Fans fought hard to keep this show around. NBC acknowledged the campaigns and said that they were very disappointed to cancel the show cause they love it so much. What in the world is that comment? If you love it, keep it!!! The show did its strongest ratings during its first season but still had respectable ratings for sure on Sunday nights. A lot of people in the media have stepped up to bat for the show in the past several months including TV Guide and many others. This was a show that people loved including me. First, the production on this show just makes me drool with how well they put it together. They incorporate music all through the show that goes along with what songs were big at the time. They show real Bandstand footage from the 60's and combine it with the present day acting. It's amazing with how they do it and frequently have bands and singers of today performing on Bandstand as someone that was on Bandstand in the 60's. The writing is just unbelievable too. The show takes place in the 60's. It goes in real time so the first episode took place in November 1963 and covers how the family and the city of Philadelphia (where they live) handles the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The first season finale had to do with the riots in Philadelphia in 1964. It was a very strong episode. The family is the Priors and the show deals with all the stuff that was going on in the ever changing country in the 60's. Every season covered a one year period. The daughter, Meg, ends up dancing on American Bandstand with her best friend Roxanne. Meg is one to take a stand on stuff that she sees as wrong or unfair such as racism and often protesting the Vietnam war. The son, JJ, is the high school football star and ends up later in the military. He ends up being sent off to the Vietnam war and his time over there is a wild one with him trying to fight his way out of there when his platoon is attacked. The way they handled the war was just amazing and you really got caught up in these people's lives and wanting JJ to somehow get home. We were left with a big cliffhanger that I guess will never get answered. Other disappointing things is that we will never see Meg get to Woodstock cause there is no doubt that her and Roxanne would have made it there and I have read the producer say that they wanted to get Meg there. We'll never get to see if JJ would be involved in helping NASA get a man to the moon. This was a great show.



American Idol Season Four Thoughts - I have had a great time watching the rebroadcasts of last season's American Idol on Fox Reality Channel. I basically watched the whole season in about a week. Yeah, it seems like a lot to watch but honestly it flew by. I think as far as talent goes that this season was the most talented group of all the seasons. So, I am now officially in love with Carrie Underwood. ha ha. She is just amazing. It was very impressive that she did not get into the bottom voting group through the whole season. I thought Bo and Constantine were very good and I became fans of theirs. Bo just came across as a really cool laid back guy. Constantine's performance of "Bohemian Rhapsody" was amazing. When he said he was doing that song, I had the same reaction as everyone else wondering if that might be a hard song to do. He did it great. There is always a shocker moment each season and that was when Constantine was voted off. You could cut the tension with a knife when the announcement was made. I thought the final three was the right final three with Carrie, Bo, and Vonzelle. That would have been my picks. I did think that Scott and Anthony were there longer than they should have been. Both were good but I thought others were better. Others that I thought should have lasted longer were Constantine, Nikko, and Jessica. What was with all the girls going home early except for Carrie and Vonzelle? It took at least 3 weeks for a guy to be voted off. I loved the Billboard #1's night which had Carrie performing an amazing version of Heart's "Alone". Some funny moments of the season always seem to revolve around the results show when they split the groups with the top group and the bottom three. They always then leave one person to decide which group he will be in without them announcing which group is the top or bottom. Bo was the best when he just went out and stood in the middle not picking either. That is what I would have done. The other was when they had Constantine and Scott picking which group they were in. One group had Carrie and Bo. That was obviously the group that you'd likely want to be in cause they were untouchable. Both of them went and stood with Carrie and Bo which was funny. That ended up being Constantine's week being voted off. Mikalah Gordon's Reality Revealed interview was funny where they discussed Constantine getting voted off. She said "when Constantine was voted off, half of America's women..... died. It was ridiculous". The 2 hour finale was a ton of fun with a lot of great group performances and it's always fun to get all the top 12 back together. Carrie's finale performance sent chills through me. Great moment. The Reality Revealed segment during the finale was hosted by season 3 runner up Diana DeGarmo as she was on the red carpet doing a ton of interviews for Fox Reality. I think I have to say that this was the best season of American Idol which knocked off season 2 for me. I know I enjoyed it a ton better than I did season 3.

July 21, 2005 - Music replacement on DVD sets
As you know, I am big into TV on DVD sets that continue to be released. One thing that is a touchy subject with me and many others out there is music on these sets. There are many shows coming out on DVD where the studio has replaced music in the show because they don't want to pay the royalty fees. Think about it. There is some show that you are just crazy about and you remember this great scene from the show and you think of the song that was playing during it. You buy the box set and put in that episode and play the scene and the song is gone replaced with a different song. For me and many others, this kills the scene. Whenever I see a show that I really like that is coming out on DVD that had a lot of music, I start researching around to see what people know about the music remaining in it. If they replace the music, most of the time I won't buy the set. Case and point, Dawson's Creek. Many of you know that is one of my favorite shows of all time. Probably in my top 5 easily. I have the season 1 box set. They have released 5 seasons on to DVD. Why do I have season 1 and not the other 4? They kept the music as it was in the season 1 release. I think there was actually one song that was replaced in the first season set so I can live with that. The rest of the seasons are the opposite. There was very little music left as it was in the other sets. They butchered season 2 for me. You can actually go to the show's website and they tell you what songs are played in each episode. Then, they have a list of the music on the DVD's. They'll list the original song and list the song that they replaced it with. People were furious over the music that was replaced. There are many great episodes in season 2 and great scenes that are helped with a certain song playing in it. Those songs are gone and replaced with a lot of songs I've never heard of. So, I boycotted them and haven't bought the other seasons. Put it this way with Dawson's Creek. In the season 4 & 5 sets of Dawson's Creek, they replaced the theme song!! That's right the theme song!!! Isn't that unbelievable? How can you change the theme song? I will say that they did a really good job on the season 1 set and I am really happy to own that set. There are other sets that I haven't bought due to music changes including Roswell and Felicity. I did buy season 1 of Roswell and some of the music was left as is but a lot of it was changed but they did put a lot of cool extras on the set to make up for it. The studio was up front about it and told all of us Roswell fans that the music had been changed due to cost cutting so they could get the set out. I don't like that they changed it but I can respect that they were so upfront about it to the fans. DVD sets that have all of the original music on them are Friends, Buffy, Angel, American Dreams, One Tree Hill, and Gilmore Girls. American Dreams actually had to raise the price on the set due to the cost of getting all the music on there which is fine. That show would be in trouble with the music off of it. That is part of the personality of the show. I don't mind at all paying the extra money to get a show with all of its music in tact. American Dreams did a great job with their set!! This is a hot topic that is talked and debated about a lot on the internet with the music on DVD sets. I don't know how all of you feel about it but it is something that can make me want to buy a set or not.

September 22, 2005 - Big Brother 6 Finale Thoughts. Let the Big Brother withdrawal begin!! This is the time of the year where after 3 months of Big Brother, it is always hard to go back to normal from the 24/7 feeds news, House Calls, and to 3 episodes of shows a week. The finale was on Tuesday night and I found it to be really interesting. It came down to Maggie and Ivette unfortunately. Janelle lost to Ivette on Friday night in the final HOH with Ivette taking friendship over money and taking Maggie with her to the final 2. I really found the jury talk to be interesting with it sounding like the Friendship were even shocked with some of the things they were learning about Maggie and Ivette. Wow, did James just flat out tell it like it is or what. He always does and I liked all his thoughts on everything. The jury was brutal on Maggie and Ivette with the questioning. I read on the message boards about how the two of them were just really stunned over the tone of the questioning. Maggie won with a 4-3 vote to win Big Brother 6. I think out of the two of them, that is who I would have voted for to win. I thought it was interesting how when the jury was introduced how the Friendship got this laid back polite applause while the level went up for the Sovereign 6 group. Did you hear how loud the crowd was for Janelle coming out? I loved that and kept watching the Friendship to see their reaction. Other Big Brother alumni seen in the crowd were Marvin ,Will, and Drew from BB5, Jack and Erika from BB4, and Josh from BB1. House Calls is going to do some shows next week after some suggestions from fans on how we'd like to have the houseguests interviewed when they've seen some of the shows while seeing the reaction to them outside of the house. Wow, what a run on sentence that was!!! Ivette has already started to see the light as apparently her girlfriend filled her in on a lot of things on the shows and from the feeds. Some of the interviews they have done have been softball questions.

September 22, 2005 - Premiere of How I Met Your Mother.
I watched the series premiere of How I Met Your Mother and I really liked it. I laughed out loud at it quite a few times. The basic idea of the show is that it's a dad telling his kids a story in the future of how he met their mother. He tells how they are going to go back to 2005 to tell the story. The cast is really good. Alyson Hannigan is funny and I really cracked up at Neil Patrick Harris's character He is really funny on there. This show has a unique style to it that not a lot of other sitcoms have and I hope the rest of the episodes are as good as the premiere was. So, it gets a thumbs up from me. The show did a 7.2 rating for it's premiere.



November 3, 2005 - Batman Begins Thoughts
I finally watched Batman Begins this last weekend. Wow, what a movie!! The length of the movie is 2 hours and 20 minutes. For me, this was my favorite of all the Batman movies that have been released over the years. It is definitely my favorite of the ones that have been released in the last 15 years. There was a lot of thought that went into the writing for this movie and you could tell how determined that they were to tell a great story. They delivered for sure on it. I really liked Christian Bale as Batman. I thought he was easily the best Batman since Michael Keaton. I also thought Katie Holmes did a great job in her biggest movie role to date. I don't know if the length of the movie might scare anyone away from watching it but trust me when I say that it flies by cause of how good it is. I loved the new Batmobile and the chase scene in it is really fun. This movie gets a big thumbs up from me.

November 17, 2005 - Fever Pitch - I watched Fever Pitch on Saturday night. I figured that I would really like this movie and I did. It's just a fun movie that has a funny plot to it. Jimmy Fallon's character is a diehard Boston Red Sox fan who became a fan of the team by going to games with his uncle when he was little. When his uncle passes away, he leaves his season tickets to him. Drew Barrymore's character basically has to deal with this passion for Red Sox baseball that he has as they begin dating. I love the relationship that Fallon's character has with the rest of the people around him that also have season tickets. They just come across as a really tight family and I can totally see that kind of thing happening with season ticketholders where you get to know everyone. The DVD includes many good deleted scenes. One particular deleted scene shows more about the story with the boy and his uncle which I thought added a lot more to the backstory especially with the man that sat behind him and how the boy and him got along great right from the first day. In an ironic twist to go along with the movie plot, I watched this movie making sure that I would have plenty of time to watch the movie before the Bulls game started. ha ha.

December 15, 2005 - Amazing Race Family Edition Finale (I think I was one of the only people that loved this season of the show. ha ha) -It was down to the wire in the Amazing Race finale and I am happy to say that the Linz family won this season's Amazing Race. It came down to them and the Bransens in a geography challenge right at the finish line. They were neck and neck but the Linz's finished it first and sprinted for the finish line. It was a fun finale and it was every bit of the showdown between the three families that I thought it would be. The Linz's and Bransen's were a lot of fun to watch all season. That show is such an adrenaline rush especially when you have a team that you are pulling for. All three teams gave it all they had for sure. The challenge inside the stadium was amazing with them having to find three plane tickets on the back of three chairs in the entire stadium. I am happy to see the Bransens finish in second place as they had been strong throughout. It's like I said last week that it came down to the three strongest teams in the finale. I didn't like the Weavers' attitudes through most of the race but they were strong and made a good showing. All three families were on CBS's Early Show on Wednesday and the Linz family said that they are giving half of the money to their parents and splitting the rest with the family. They are four of seven siblings. This season was great and the season in January has a lot to live up to if it is going to compare to this season. My second favorite season of the show ever. I would also like to say that I will happily eat every bit of my words with how I thought before the season started that this family edition was going to be lame and I am happy to say that I couldn't have been more wrong!!



January 12, 2006 - What was Fox thinking canceling Firefly?
Fox really missed the boat on the show Firefly. This show was written by Joss Whedon who also wrote Buffy and Angel. I am 7 episodes into the box set which consists of 14 episodes. The set also includes episodes that never aired. What was Fox thinking? That was what I have constantly thought while watching the episodes. It is Fox so I'm sure they weren't thinking. This show is really good and I was hooked on it during the premiere. So far, the episode Jaynestown had that Joss humor all over it where Jayne has shown back up in this town to find out that he is worshiped. The reason being is that he and another guy stole a ton of money from the rich leaders. They then had to unload the cargo on takeoff cause of problems flying the ship. He dropped it over the citizens of the town who were poor. So, they see him as a hero thinking he did this on purpose when he really was mad that he lost the money and supplies. Very funny storyline and episode especially when they get into hearing a song in a restaurant that is a type of folk hero tribute song to him. I am loving this show so far and am looking forward to seeing the rest of the series and then seeing the movie made from it, Serenity. If anybody wants to discuss Firefly with me, don't mention any spoilers or I will be a real unhappy camper.

January 26, 2006 - WB and UPN combine to form one network
The news of the week in the entertainment world is over this announcement that the WB and UPN networks are shutting down and joining forces to form the CW Network. That was my "where in the world did this come from" moment of the week. WB and UPN have been fighting over the same viewers for years now and are neck and neck at the moment so it makes sense to have them combine into one big network. The obvious question is what shows are sticking around and will make the move? The press release mentions these shows by name so it seems natural that they would be keeping these shows which include Gilmore Girls, Smallville, Reba, Veronica Mars, Everybody Hates Chris, Girlfriends, Top Model, and also mentions WWE's Friday Night Smackdown. I am seeing Gilmore and Veronica Mars on that list so that makes me feel a bit better. They did actually kind of tease putting Gilmore and Veronica Mars in a 2 hour block so I think that could be a cool combination. The wrestling world is also buzzing over this wondering what this means for Smackdown. Variety is reporting that UPN and WWE have already worked out a quiet deal to keep Smackdown around for another 2 seasons and that it will remain on Friday nights. This makes me wonder about a lot of these shows that are kind of just sliding by right now and what it means for them. My obvious question is what does this mean for all the affiliates around the country? Who is going to get this new network of the WB and UPN affiliates? There is already an article in the newspaper today which said that our local affiliates will know the news in the next month.

February 16, 2006 - CD Sales decline poll results.
A poll was done of consumers for the Associated Press and Rolling Stone dealing with the current state of CD's and music. It was really interesting and it spoke a lot of the things that I have been thinking lately. The music industry has taken a hit lately big time. 618 million albums were sold in 2005. To give a comparison, album sales were at 762 million in 2001. However, 352 million tracks were sold digitally in 2005. It is obvious that some people are downloading songs from sites like I Tunes instead of buying full albums. 71% of those polled found that 99 cents to buy a song is either fair or a bargain. 80% of people polled found that downloading music for free is stealing. Here are some interesting things from the poll. 74% found CD's to be too expensive. 58% of people think that music is getting worse. One REALLY interesting find in this poll for me was that 49% of the target 18-34 age group thinks that music is getting worse. When asked why sales were down with albums overall, it was split on reasons. 33% thought it was because of illegal downloads. 29% think it was because of competition from other forms of entertainment. 21% of the people thought it was the quality of the music getting worse. 13% said that CD's were too expensive. Wow. This was really interesting to read. I guess I'll weigh in on this. This is coming from a big music fan. I often have to have some music going in the background when I'm working on something or listen to some audio show. When I'm in the car, I have the radio on or am listening to a CD. This is also from a fan that used to buy quite a few CD's in a year. To compare it to last year, I bought possibly 3 CD's last year. I just don't buy CD's anymore and the days of paying $20 for one song on a CD is long gone. How many times have you bought a CD only to like the one song you wanted while the rest of the CD is bad? Now, you can pay 99 cents for that one song. It sounds like a no brainer to me. One thing that always gets talked about is how your music taste changes as you get older. When people say that music is getting worse, it usually gets blamed on the fact that someone is getting older. This poll really threw that theory for a loop. Now it is the target 18-34 age range that is saying that music is getting worse. I too share that opinion as I'm just not crazy about most of the music out there right now. I just have certain artists that I like and support. As far as buying CD's, I stick with my favorite singers and just buy their albums. I often find myself listening to 90's music shows whether it be on the radio such as Backtrack USA 90's or the 90's channels. I just thought I'd share that poll cause I thought it shared some good opinions on the state of the music industry right now especially when it throws a lot of the music industry excuses out the window.

February 16, 2006 - Elizabethtown movie thoughts.
I got the chance to watch the movie "Elizabethtown" over the weekend. Besides Serenity, this is the best movie that I have seen in a while. The movie stars Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst. One thing you'll notice immediately is how many stars are in this movie such as Susan Sarandon, Alec Baldwin, and Jessica Biel among others. Orlando Bloom plays Drew Baylor who has basically hit rock bottom at the beginning of this movie due to serious problems with his work. He gets a phone call from his sister that their dad, Mitch Baylor, has passed away. The phone call comes at a good time as you'll see when you watch it. Mitch had been in Kentucky visiting his extended family so Drew is sent to Kentucky to handle the arrangements. On the plane ride over, a fight attendant named Claire, played by Kirsten Dunst, offers her help with his trip. That basically sets up the story for you. I was really impressed with Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst as I thought they did a great job with these characters. I found it interesting with the way a lot of this movie was done as far as how they edited the meeting the family scenes. Interesting in a good way though. The movie runs about 2 hours but it flew by as I got hooked into this movie really early. The scenery is fun to look at where it feels like you are on a road trip. It's hard not to notice the big soundtrack to this movie and sure enough, there are three separate soundtrack albums for this movie. I give this movie a big thumbs up and recommend it.



February 23, 2006 - Back To The Future DVD box set review
I thought it might be fun to review the Back To The Future Trilogy DVD box set. I have had this for a long time but thought I'd review it for anyone that hasn't seen this great set. It's no secret that the Back To The Future Trilogy is my favorite set of movies ever. I know this cause when this DVD set came out in December of 2002, I had about 6 of you try to buy me this thing for Christmas that year. ha ha. I kid you not either when I say that many people. 2 of you had the right idea though when one was going to buy it and the other said that they guaranteed that I had it already and had gotten it the morning it was released. He was right!! Luckily, no one bought it for me though. I had been following 5 years of rumors and promises of this set coming to life before it finally happened. As far as the movies themselves, I saw all 3 of them at the theatres so I think that is a cool thing. If I was to count up how many times I've seen these movies, I'm sure it would be some sick number considering these movies are around 20 years old. Usually if I see them on TV, I'll end up watching it. Anyway, there is a little background and now to the DVD's. You can only buy the movies in the set and not as separate movies. The price though is very good on them. You can either buy them in widescreen or full screen formats. The movies look amazing on DVD and they did a great job with them. It is loaded with extras including deleted scenes from all 3 movies. Part 3 only has 1 deleted scene but Parts 1 & 2 are loaded with extra scenes. There are featurettes on all 3 movies including commentary on all 3 movies. There is also an audio Q&A that you can watch with the film where Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale taped this at a college. It is very good and goes for around an hour and they just field questions from the audience about the movies and it wasn't long ago that this was taped. There are outtakes on all 3 movies which are very funny. All the movie trailers are on there and are really fun to watch. The Power Of Love and Double Back music videos are on the set. Other cool things on it are a visual effects extra where they show how they did a few of the scenes. There are also features on how they designed the Delorean, came up with the idea of how time travel would work in the movie, and other interesting things. I thought I would throw in some notes from the movie that you might not know about it. Back To The Future was never supposed to be more than one movie and sequels were never on the agenda until the success of the first movie. Zemeckis says that this is obvious cause if he knew there would be more movies that he never would have put Jennifer in the car at the end of Part 1 as it really messed with their possibilities on what to do with the rest of the story. Crispin Glover who played George McFly in Part 1 did not appear in the sequels as he was asking for way too much money to do the films and the producers were not about to give it to him. The original plan for Part 2 was for old Biff to give the almanac to his younger self in 1967 but they ended up going back with 1955 again. There is a scene in Part 2 when Biff gets back to 2015 after giving his younger self the almanac that he is seen slumping to the ground. There is a deleted scene on the DVD where he disappears like Marty was doing in Part 1 in 1955 as he faded from existence. It was played when they screened the movie the first time and it seemed to confuse the audience so they cut it. As far as what happened to Biff, there are many options that they say could have happened. When he got back and altered his past, something may have happened to where Biff didn't exist in 2015 in this new reality. The producers joke that they think Lorraine may have shot him around 1990. So, needless to say that if you are a fan of this series of movies, you need to get this DVD set. You won't be disappointed!! I know I wasn't disappointed!! I would love to see the movies get re-released in theatres for the 20 year anniversary as are many fans but I doubt that would happen. I would be in line at the theatres quickly if that were to happen!!

May 11, 2006 - Chris Daughtry is voted off of American Idol in a shocker.
America, we have a problem!! If you heard a sound that sounded like a thud around 8:28pm last night, it was the sound of the jaws of Idol watchers around the country hitting the floor. Chris Daughtry was voted off American Idol last night. He was the favorite to win the whole thing. I had also been picking him in the last couple of weeks to win it. It was a shocking moment and was met with this shock of silence from most of the audience. It wasn't the Constantine near riot reaction from last season but this was such a shocker that everyone was just left stunned not able to react. My reaction was the same where I just couldn't believe it and my jaw dropped Later in the night, I had this flashback moment thinking did that just happen tonight??!! To top it off, the bottom two last night were Chris and Katharine McPhee. The final three are Katharine, Taylor Hicks, and Elliott Yamin. Unreal. The rest of this season just lost a lot of punch with Chris being gone now. Chris has been the frontrunner to win for several weeks and now people seem to think that Taylor is the one to win now. Kimberly Caldwell was on MSNBC last night talking about Chris being voted off and Chris was her pick to win too. She said she had done interviews all day and not once did she say Chris would be voted off tonight when giving predictions. No one saw it coming and this competition is weaker because of him being gone. His reaction was pure shock too as was Katharine's. Katharine had a rough week and you could tell on the look on her face that she thought she was gone when the final two was revealed. I have been voting for Chris and Katharine so it looks like I am throwing all my support behind Katharine now. No offense to either but I'm just not really into Elliott or Taylor. The contestants sang Elvis Presley songs this week. Taylor and Elliott did step up this week. I thought Elliott did have his best performance ever on the show. I wasn't crazy about his first performance but liked his second one. Chris was obviously having a solid week singing "Suspicious Minds" and "Little Less Conversation". Katharine was up and down but struggled for the most part with Elvis songs. I thought the second song was a good pick for her. Hopefully, she can step it up next week and ride into the finale. Ok, so Paula Abdul has got to settle down. Every time someone doesn't agree with her, she snaps. Simon told her to "shut up" this week. The crowd got a laugh out of it. Just a shocking, shocking week on American Idol this week!!

May 24, 2006 - Taylor Hicks wins American Idol 5.
American Idol season 5 has come to an end and the new American Idol champion has been crowned, Taylor Hicks. It was a very fun finale tonight and it is amazing how the finale of this show has become one of the biggest TV nights of the year. I was very excited for it and just kept counting the minutes to how long it was till the finale started. If you watched Idol Tonight, you saw how many big names were there attending the finale and walking the red carpet. They did not announce the percentage of votes that Taylor got which I would like to hear but I've got to believe that it was close. 63.4 million votes were received. I put my votes in for Katharine last night hoping to see her win but I knew both had a great chance of winning. The performance show on Tuesday night was really good. I thought Taylor definitely won round one. Katharine won round two. I think who won round three depended on who you liked and what song that you liked more. Me? I thought Katharine did as I liked her performance better. I did like both singles though. Katharine was just beaming as she sang her single. This was the first time that I can recall that they have done two separate singles for each finalist. Usually, they have them sing the same song. As far as the finale itself, it is always fun to see the finalists all get back together and sing. It was cool to see Chris perform tonight with Live. Live is a group that I've always liked. Every time I heard Chris sing, it just reminded me of how annoying that it was that he wasn't competing in the finale. How funny were the segments with Kellie Pickler and Wolfgang Puck? Kellie's reactions to the lobster were hilarious!! I can't believe that she fell out of the chair. ha ha. It's always fun to see which former Idol contestants show up and again if you watched Idol Tonight, there were a TON!! Carrie Underwood was there and performed with all of this year's finalists to open the show and then later did Don't Forget To Remember Me. What better way to start the show than with Carrie? Clay Aiken also showed up and performed with the guy from the auditions that said that he could sing better than Clay Aiken. That was a fun idea to get those together for a song. One thing I really want them to do in the future is do a surprise where they get all of the Idol winners and bring them out to sing a song. I think that would be a very fun thing if schedules worked out for everyone to appear. Rumors were flying earlier in the season that Prince was going to be on Idol this season and it must have finally worked out as he appeared on the finale. Was anyone else getting nervous looking at the clock and realizing that it was 8:55 and the results hadn't started??!! I thought for sure that local affiliates all over the country weren't going to get the memo and cut the Fox feed at 9:00 no matter what. The show ran about 3 minutes past its scheduled time. American Idol is now over for the season which now leads me to, now what??? I hadn't really thought about next week's TV until Kimberly Caldwell mentioned it on Idol Tonight saying she didn't know what she was going to watch next Tuesday and Wednesday. Now, Idol is over and we have to find something else to do until it all starts again in January. Don't forget if you have Fox Reality Channel to watch American Idol Extra as they will have a post finale show airing for the next several days. This was a very fun season and a congrats out to Taylor on winning American Idol. Taylor also became only the 3rd Idol winner to never be in the bottom group throughout the voting joining Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson.

My Date With Drew Movie Review
I saw this movie over the weekend that I have been wanting to see since I heard of the concept of it. I'm talking about My Date With Drew. I'll set it up. This is not a scripted movie and is a completely real documentary. This average guy who has had a major crush on Drew Barrymore since he was a kid sets a goal to get a date with Drew Barrymore. He won $1100 on a game show and it was a Drew question that helped him win. He takes the money and makes that the budget for this documentary that he shoots with his friends on him trying to get a date with Drew Barrymore. He only has 30 days to get the date. Why? The reason is that he doesn't own a videocamera and can't afford one but uses some of the money to buy one at Circuit City but he doesn't plan on keeping it. Circuit City of course has a return policy of 30 days so he has to get this date in 30 days before they have to return the camera to the store. The movie sees the guy named Brian and his friends figuring out anyway possible to make this date happen. They are out in Hollywood so they have some Hollywood connections but still have a tough time with it. I do have to say that Brian and all his friends are very likable which makes the movie even more fun to where you really start pulling for this to happen for the guy. I loved this documentary as this was such an original concept that I've never heard of being done before. When I heard the idea for this thing, I immediately thought ok I've got to see this thing. I highly recommend this movie. The way it is put together just looks like a bunch of friends taping stuff which is basically what it is. I found myself laughing out loud several times at things that would happen to them. The movie is an hour and a half. If you want to see more about the movie, go to the website: www.mydatewithdrew.com.

Summer 2006: Big Brother All Stars Lines Of The Week:

"I think I'm getting a good night sleep and suddenly 8 Mile breaks out in my bedroom": Will speaking about the night of Boogie's birthday where everyone started rapping in the bedroom.

"Janelle's HOH room is abysmal. It's like a pepto bismol nightmare" - Marcellas talking about Janelle's HOH room

"So, I won a trip for 2 to Aruba and a plasma television set. I don't know if there is a chimney in the Big Brother house or not but I'm pretty sure Santa Claus has been by here". Boogie talking about prizes that he won during the veto competition.

"Look, we're the Beatles. You're John Lennon and I'm Paul McCartney. This week, we're bringing Yoko Ono into the Beatles and we've just got to figure out who Yoko is. We're either bringing in Janelle or Erika. One of them is coming with us this week. James, he's Ringo Starr. George? He's in The Monkees." - Will talking to Boogie about their alliance.

"A trampoline, Neil Patrick Harris!! What's next? I'm going to win the show? " Will on his big week.

"Operation Double Date is turning into Operation Double Mistake" - Will talking about the girls finally getting together and talking.

September 7, 2006 - Laguna Beach Season Two Thoughts:
Ok, I finished the second season of Laguna Beach over the Labor Day weekend. Wow, I loved that season!! I thought season one was good but season two blew it away. Could there have been any more drama??!! Jason & Jessica. Jason & Alex. Jason & Lauren. Catching the trend here? Seriously, what is it that these girls see in Jason to where they keep getting treated horrible and go back for more? It does remind me of high school!! Those guys always got the girls and it never made sense. ha ha. Season two was one of those shows where you watch and think I'll watch one more episode, then just one more episode, and then you can't stop. Loved it.

September 7, 2006 - My Thoughts on the first four episodes of Veronica Mars
My other TV viewing of the Labor Day weekend was that I FINALLY got started watching Veronica Mars. This is a show that I have wanted to watch since it premiered. I am four episodes into the first season and I love it!! The pilot episode was really well done and did a great job of setting up the story. I was hooked on it just after that first episode. Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy and Angel, is crazy about this show and I can see why. He even went as far as to say that Veronica Mars was the best show that he'd ever seen. With him being such a fan, they gave him a guest appearance in an episode. To set it up for you, Veronica Mars is obviously the main character of the show. She is a junior in high school and works with her dad, Keith Mars, who is a private eye at Mars Investigations. Her dad used to be the sheriff until he was forced out of his job. Veronica's best friend, Lilly Kane, was murdered a year or so earlier. Veronica was also dating Lilly's brother, Duncan Kane, and they were all part of the cool clique in high school. The investigation into the murder strained all of Veronica's relationships as Veronica's dad arrested the Kane father for murdering his daughter. The town backlashed over the arrest as the family is very wealthy and powerful. A former Kane business employee was arrested for the murder so the charges against the father were dropped. The town backlashed so bad that it forced Keith Mars from his job. Veronica basically was forced to choose between her friends or her dad. She stuck by her dad and was basically exiled at school. So, Veronica ends up working with her dad as a private eye. Line of the first episode is Veronica narrating to viewers about different people at school and she points out Logan saying "every school has their obligatory psychotic jack*** , that's ours". That line was hilarious!! I won't spoil the rest of the first episode as a lot happens in the story to set things up for the season. I do see why they have pushed this show so much at the Buffy/Angel audience cause the style of the show is very similar with the writing and also the dominant female lead character. I have a feeling that I am going to fly through this DVD set.

September 14, 2006 - Big Brother All Stars Finale Thoughts
Let the Big Brother withdrawal begin again!! The show concluded on Tuesday night with a one hour finale. Mike vs. Erika. The jury did for the most part vote game play instead of personal feelings. Boogie wins Big Brother All Stars on a 6-1 vote. Chilltown baby!!!!!!! The only vote for Erika was from Marcellas. It's obvious that Will should have won but I am satisfied that at least one of Chilltown won this game. The episode saw the jury all get together and do their usual discussion on things that had happened in the house. I was glad to see everyone being very clear about wanting to vote for game play instead of personal feelings. Good for Danielle and Janelle being the ones to lead the push for that. Danielle spoke up immediately saying that she knew how it felt to have personal feelings effect the outcome of the game. That is what cost Danielle the game in season three. Howie said that Erika was the most deserving winner in Big Brother history? What??!! His reasoning was that Erika stuck around and stuck around cause they were too dumb to get rid of her. Ok, so does that mean that Cowboy should have won season five? Um, no. The jury questioning was tame for the most part. Danielle's question of "you were my Jason, so why did you turn on me" to Boogie was really good and I thought Boogie's answer was good too. He said that he would split the money with her if he only saw one "Jason" when he watched the show at home. Danielle gave a reaction of good answer. I couldn't believe that Erika tried to take credit for Danielle's eviction. That wasn't her play as that was a Chilltown move. They talked her into it and she didn't want to do it. Bringing out the other houseguests on the live show was fun as it always is. The non jury members got to tell some secrets to the sequestered jury. Kaysar told Janelle how James hadn't been working with them. Then, they played James' diary room stuff where he said all the bad stuff about Janelle. Ouch. His face was red as could be. Wow, I felt bad for Erika getting told on national TV how bad Boogie had played her. Then, they let Alison be the one that told her. Ouch again. Diane and Jase also confirmed for the first time on TV that they did have a secret Mr. and Mrs. Smith alliance. Several houseguests from previous seasons were there at the finale. The fans voted the extra $25,000 prize to Janelle. As far as looking back at the whole season, this was a lot of fun having the houseguests from previous seasons back in the house. I knew this would be a lot of fun which is why I signed up for the live feeds the night of the season premiere. It was not a letdown at all. I do wonder what would have happened if some of the earlier evictees would have survived. Alison and Nakomis may have turned the house upside down. Like I said, Alison was someone I didn't like in her season but found myself liking her this year. I would have liked to have seen Mr. and Mrs. Smith get to play out more. Chilltown. Highlight of the year. Will might be my favorite reality TV person ever. He is great TV and made it a very entertaining season. There were tense moments but a ton of fun moments. An All Stars edition was talked about for several years and this year we got it. Hopefully, fans will realize that it is all a game as there are some fans that take things way too personally with stuff that is said in the house. It's a game in a stressed environment of being on your own inside of a house with cameras following your every move.

September 28, 2006 - Veronica Mars Season One and Two Thoughts:
44 episodes. 2 seasons. Done in 3 weeks and 2 days. Not bad for me. I'm talking about Veronica Mars. Yep, I am caught up and ready for Tuesday's season three premiere. I love this show!! As far as my thoughts on season two, I thought season one was better overall. On the other hand, I enjoyed the season two finale and wrap up more than the season one finale. Note to self. Don't watch season finales of this show right before I am about to go to sleep cause I was wide awake after how good that finale was. That finale left you running the gauntlet of emotions through that thing. I had theories on how it would end. Wrong again!! I love how this show keeps you guessing and when you think you have it figured out, they rip that theory from you and tear it to pieces. I will be very interested to see how things roll over into the new season. I'm amazed too at all the guest stars that keep popping up on the show. The main cast is great in itself but the guest stars add a ton to it also. If you're a Buffy fan, the fact that we get to see Alyson Hannigan and Charisma Carpenter together in a scene in season two is really cool. Season three premieres Tuesday night at 8pm on the new CW Network following Gilmore Girls. This was the dream pairing from the CW and also from fans and the entertainment industry. Hopefully, both shows can benefit from one another. I highly recommend watching this show!! It is one of the best shows on TV. Can't wait to watch season three!!

November 21, 2006 - PS3 and Wii Launch
Well now. The Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii launches sure were a letdown. Just kidding!! That was insane!! People camped out all over the country trying to get their hands on these video game systems. Some wanting to play the new systems while most were looking to profit and sell them. The lines for Playstation 3 were crazy with violence even breaking out at some of the lines in the country. The Nintendo lines were said to be more tame mostly due to the fact that there were more Wii's available to the public while PS3 was very limited. G4 did a special show on the release of Playstation 3. They came up with a lot of eye widening statistics. They did a lot of looking on Ebay to see what they were selling for. The highest that they saw a PS3 go for as of Saturday? $9,000!! The average? $2,700. There were reportedly 800 PS3's sold on Ebay in the first 12 hours of the launch. The selling prices on Ebay have come down since Saturday but are still selling for quite a bit. The show did a poll question asking whether it was worth getting shot at to try and get a PS3. If you missed it, there was a report of gunfire at one PS3 line in the country. Unreal. The Nintendo Wii's were also selling out in various parts of the country and they are said to be selling very well. Wii prices on Ebay are not as high cause obviously they are easier to get your hands on. 6,600 Wii's were said to have been sold on Ebay in the first 36 hours after launch. Average selling price was $435.

Superman Returns Movie Thoughts:
I REALLY liked this movie a lot. I first need to say that this is actually the first Superman movie that I've ever seen. Yeah, I know. I'm lame. I was more into Batman when I was a kid. The movie runs two and a half hours long but the time flies by. I'm going to go into some spoilers with the movie so if you haven't seen this movie and don't want to know of some things that happen, skip the rest of this paragraph and move on to the rest of the Wrap Up. This movie picks up with Superman returning from his quest to find out if there was any chance that his home planet had survived. It hadn't so he returns five years later. The world has moved on without him including Lois Lane who has been dating a guy for a very long time including having a son. One thing that I really found different was that they made Lois's boyfriend really likable. They didn't make him this unlikable person making you not want them together. People tend to cheer for Lois and Clark/Superman but the boyfriend really likes her and fights for her. I automatically assumed and I'm sure others did too that the father of the son was the guy that Lois was currently dating. Well, we find out otherwise later on. He is indeed the son of Superman. I liked that huge twist. Lex Luthor is back out on the loose again as Superman didn't show up as a witness at his trial cause of him being gone. So, he is freed and back out on the loose causing trouble. The cast really did a good job in this movie. Brandon Routh was a really good Superman. Really impressed with him. It's amazing how much he does favor Christopher Reeve. Kevin Spacey was a good Lex. Great to see Noel Neill get a scene in the movie. She deserved that for sure as she has a cameo is in the beginning of the movie. It was cool cause I've actually met two people in this movie, Noel and also Stephan Bender who played the 15 year old Superman in a scene toward the beginning of the movie. The special effects in the movie are amazing especially with the scene involving the plane early on. I highly recommend this movie as I really liked it.

The Break-Up Movie Thoughts
This movie stars Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn. The story of the movie is all about the title. A couple breaks up but neither wants to move out of their condo. So, they remain living together but go on to try to annoy the other one. Both of them try different tactics to get control of the situation but each one keeps one upping the other's idea. One idea is that Vaughn's character ends up claiming the living room as his bedroom. Aniston's character counters with having her musical friends come over and rehearse in her room which drives him nuts. It's basically can you top this as I said. This is a romantic comedy and was an all right movie. I did enjoy it but I guess that I was wanting a little more out of it. Language was a bit much at times. Funny idea for a movie.

March 29, 2007 - Buffy Season Eight Comic Issue One Thoughts
I FINALLY have gotten the first issue of the new Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 8 comic book. If you are planning on reading this and don't want to know spoilers, you may want to skip this and come back to it after you've read the comic. The first issue was mostly setting things up and letting us know what is going on since the end of season seven. I like what I am reading so far just from the first issue. I'm just thrilled to have something new of Buffy!! The only characters that we see in this issue are Buffy, Xander, and Dawn. Well, of the main cast anyway which is what I'll get to in a minute. When we last left Buffy, the power was unleashed letting potential slayers around the world have the power right at that moment. Sunnydale was destroyed left with a huge hole in the ground from where it used to be. Spike used the amulet to help finish it off and seemingly himself which wasn't the end of him as we saw in season five of Angel. In the beginning of the comic, we learn that there are now 1,800 slayers. We also learn that there are three Buffy's. What does that mean? Basically, the group decided that Buffy was a target so they've made two others of her as a decoy. I liked this little detail cause this ties into something from season five of Angel. She mentions that one decoy is underground while the other is in Rome "partying very publicly and supposedly dating some guy called The Immortal". She says that it was Andrew's idea to have her date The Immortal cause he thought it would be hilarious. This ties into the Angel episode near the end of the run of the series where Angel and Spike go to Rome and see Buffy dancing with The Immortal in a very funny episode. So, it turns out that it wasn't really Buffy, it was one of the decoys. Xander is overseeing things at command central as they have tons of people communicating with their teams of slayers all over. Dawn is going through teenage stuff and won't talk to Buffy about things. She will only talk to Willow about it but Willow wasn't around yet in this issue. Also, Dawn is a giant at the moment after a bad encounter with a "thrisewise". Buffy is also missing home and what life used to be like including missing hanging out with just the gang. She is definitely struggling with that. After a battle, Buffy and her group find a symbol on one of the monsters and begin to investigate it. Back in Sunnydale, we learn that the US government is investigating what happened in Sunnydale and basically see Buffy and the gang as terrorists especially based on "what she did to her own hometown". A guy does encounter something "sixty feet down" in the hole that used to be Sunnydale. The something says "I'm gonna help you kill her". What is it? Well, it's a familiar face. This person is messing with a lot of magic and wanting more magical power. The military wants to work with her cause it can bring them closer to Buffy and the gang. They say "she wants a lot of cheese". Any guesses? Amy the witch is back and she is looking mighty powerful and unstable on the last page. Bring on issue two!!!

April 26, 2007 - Regis Returns
Welcome back Regis!! Regis Philbin returned to Live With Regis and Kelly this morning six weeks and one day after his triple bypass heart surgery. Regis was in usual form this morning telling of his tales of his surgery and recovery. He looked great and it's great to have him back. David Letterman was the first guest on the show today. If you remember, Letterman had his bypass surgery years ago and Regis was his first guest when Letterman returned. Letterman returned the favor to Regis. The two are very close friends and it was great to see Letterman help Regis through this. Letterman added that Regis has done so many things for him and that he was glad to be able to finally return the favor helping him out. Kelly and the whole Live crew did an amazing job while Regis was away. Welcome back Regis!! You've been greatly missed!!

May 17, 2007 - The cancellation of Veronica Mars by The CW
Here we go into the up fronts from the TV networks as they presented their fall and midseason schedules. The show I'm obviously going to start with is Veronica Mars before I get into the other stuff. I'm biased and I'm mad so there you go. LOL. Veronica Mars is apparently done but you wouldn't really know for sure with the way that the CW has stretched this thing out and made us wait. Their talk at their presentation didn't help either and really just made fans more mad and frustrated as it was like they were afraid to announce a decision. The CW has been pressured for months now wondering about renewing Veronica Mars. They said that they would make a decision on the week of the up fronts. Up fronts week gets here and word gets out that the CW is talking about holding off on a decision until later after the up fronts as the show is under contract until June 15th. There was talk of it maybe being a midseason replacement. So, we all waited until today for the presentation to find out the official word on what was going on. Here is what went on at the CW up fronts earlier today. A lot of comments from the entertainment bloggers in attendance at the press conference on the Pussycat Dolls opening the show and performing. I say a lot of comments cause there is a lot of heat on the Dolls from the Veronica fans including the many critics that love Veronica Mars. E's Kristin commented "I'm highly concerned for their safety because there are a good 50 Veronica Mars fans outside this building who are p***** the show hasn't yet been picked up". CW was really looked at harsh by the critics with awaiting news on Veronica and then comparing these new shows to Veronica. When head of CW, Dawn Ostroff, was asked about Veronica Mars, she could not have dodged around the question any more than she did. She completely danced around it. It was really annoying. She said that Veronica Mars is likely gone but they are talking to Rob Thomas and Kristen Bell about doing another show but wouldn't call it a spinoff. She didn't mention that it would even involve the character of Veronica. When asked a followup, Dawn said that they are discussing "an idea" but that she "didn't think it was going to happen". That was it? Veronica was obviously not on the fall schedule that was leaked a couple of days ago so we knew the news couldn't be good. Michael Ausiello over at TV Guide pinned Dawn down after the press conference to continue to push on Veronica Mars as he was as frustrated as the fans were with the lack of answers. She had this to say, "Veronica Mars is over, but we're talking about something else. I don't know if it's going to be anything. I'm being honest with you. It could come back in some form, but I don't know what form that would be." She also pointed out that the network has until June 15th to make a decision. No doubt to let the backlash settle down and then quietly announce the official cancellation. Unbelievable. Ausiello also forwarded the comments made by Dawn to Rob Thomas and these were his comments, "No one has talked to me about a new, non-Veronica project. All my writer's have been offered jobs elsewhere, and I believe they will now all accept these jobs. Very, very, very sad day around the VM offices. I assume that anything Dawn would be talking about in the realm of a Rob-Kristen project would involve a new from-scratch pilot as they don't have me in a deal, and they'll lose Kristen in a couple of weeks." Well, two years after the cancellation of American Dreams on NBC, it looks like I've got a new network to bash every chance that I get. Welcome to the club CW. It's like I've said, the dancing around this subject annoys me more than the cancellation itself. They've done nothing but dodge this question for weeks and months promising to announce it this week. This week gets here and they DANCE around it even MORE. It's unbelievable and really disrespectful to all the fans of the show that just want to know what is going to become of the show. Were they afraid to get hammered at the press conference with an announcement? I know a lot of the reporters were ready to pounce. This is a new and struggling network that already made a LOT of fans and reporters mad last year when Everwood was canceled. So, you already have the Everwood fans turned against you. They now have a lot of the Gilmore fans fired up. Beauty and The Geek will get the spot vacated by the departing Gilmore Girls and Dawn made sure to point out that Beauty and The Geek pulled in more young adult viewers than Gilmore did. Ok, are you taking shots here or what? Instead of paying tribute to Gilmore, you take a little jab at it saying that Beauty and The Geek pulled in more young viewers and then string the Veronica fans along and STILL are. That's a great way to run a network in a day when viewers aren't watching TV as much. Now, why should I as a viewer stick with a network that is going to treat fans this way? Quit with the "well, we might bring it back later or do something else" stuff when you know that you're not. Just be honest and straight up tell us that it isn't coming back. The treatment of Veronica Mars reminds me of another show that was canceled years ago, Angel. Remember how the WB was kicking off the backlash by saying "we're going to do some TV movies". Those were great movies. All zero of them. It was funny how the talk of those movies being made suddenly just went away. So, it looks like one of the best shows on TV is gone but wait till you see the greatness that is replacing it especially the reality shows. Critics were literally wanting to pound their heads against the wall today seeing the shows that CW is launching while they leave no spot open for Veronica Mars. Like I said, I'm more mad at the way that they handled this cause we really had an idea that it wasn't coming back. Just show some guts and tell us that it isn't coming back.

May 17, 2007 - Thoughts On The Gilmore Girls Series Finale
This week saw the end of Gilmore Girls which I consider one of the greatest shows in the last 10 years for sure. It will remain one of my favorite shows of all time. First, comments on the finale before I speak on the series as a whole. I liked the finale and thought it did wrap up the series very well. We got to see so many of the great characters in the town featured in this last episode. The show began with a guest appearance by Christiane Amanpour who has been talked about throughout the series as Rory's goal in life was to be a reporter like her. I thought that was a very cool way to open the show with them getting to meet at the Inn. Rory then got a job offer that would take her out on the trail, the campaign trail. She took the job and she will be a reporter on the Obama election campaign trail. This meant that instead of the trip that her and Lorelai had planned and the demanded graduation reenactment by the town, Rory left in three days. Luke brought up throwing a surprise town bash for Rory. Luke got the whole town involved and it all came together even with the rain. Lorelai was then told that Luke was the one that threw this whole thing together and we saw the kiss between Luke and Lorelai. I really liked that Luke put the Rory celebration together cause all through her life, Luke had done anything that he could to help her out. It was actually one thing that drove Christopher crazy cause Luke had been a sort of father figure to Rory replacing her dad who wasn't there for most of her life. There was no Logan in this episode which is obviously the loose end that didn't get tied up from what was discussed. They broke up last week and there was little mention of him this week. The final scene of the show was very fitting as it took place with Lorelai, Rory, and Luke at Luke's diner. If you remember, the first ever scene of the show also took place in the diner with the three of them so I noticed immediately how cool it was that the show was also going to end the way it started. Only thing missing was that I was hoping for them to start playing the song "There She Goes" which opened the series. Unfortunately, it didn't close it but, ah, it's ok. I thought it was a good, yet sad, finale. Sad to see the characters being separated. It's no secret that the writing team changed going into this season and the change was really apparent in the first half of the season. They did hit stride in the second half though and I feel finished the show off well. The Palladinos' who created the show and wrote the first six seasons of the show left us with one of the most smartly written and clever shows that I've ever seen. They wrote what I consider to be the best mother/daughter TV relationship that I've ever seen. The adventures of Lorelai and Rory have been very entertaining over the years. They invented the town of Stars Hollow that you would watch and think how fun it would be to live there in that fantasy town. I heard in the last little while that on the Warner Brothers tours that you can go on, they take you through the Gilmore set. All I could think was how fun that would be!! They did a great job of making this set come alive and make it feel like a real town. We also have the relationship between Lorelai and her parents. The Emily and Richard scenes are always fun. It gave us the relationships over the years such as Luke & Lorelei, the triangle of Rory/Dean/Jess, and the Logan relationship that made me miss having Jess around (LOL). Sookie and Jackson were also fun characters on the show. They even wrote side characters that, if they weren't to return to the show, would be greatly missed. I'm talking about Paris, Kirk, Lane, Mrs. Kim, Miss Patty, Taylor, and many others. I think that Paris Gellar is one of the best characters on TV today and you can tell that the writers really enjoy writing that character. They took the simplest of scenes and made them funny such as the season one episode where Rory is late for school and a deer hits the jeep. SHE doesn't hit the deer. The deer runs into HER while she is sitting at a stop sign on the phone. I thought that was one of the funniest scenes in the show's run. It will be odd in the fall not checking out what the characters are into. I'm going to miss what Rory and Lorelai are up to. I'm going to miss wondering what Paris is all freaked out about this week. I'm going to miss the constant battles between Luke and Taylor. I'm going to miss what crazy ideas that Taylor has for Stars Hollow. I'm really going to miss this show and was not about to let it go without giving a good write up about it. The show will remain on DVD and in reruns which will be great. If you've never seen the show, give it a look on DVD or on ABC Family. What I like about this show is that with a lot of shows, you just aren't interested in watching the episodes over again. This show is an exception. I would watch reruns anytime of it. Episodes that I would recommend checking out and are some of my favorites:
Season 1: The pilot of course and the second episode which sees Rory's first day at Chilton.
Season 2: The Road Trip To Harvard (features Rory and Lorelai going on a road trip to check out Harvard),
A Tisket, A Tasket (this involves a Stars Hollow tradition of the picnic basket auction)
Season 3: They Shoot Gilmores, Don't They? (24 hour dance marathon)
Season 4: The Lorelais' First Day At Yale (This episode features Rory getting a unexpected hurry rush off to Yale when they get the arrival date wrong when arriving back from a trip. A reunion with Paris. This episode features the best battle over a mattress that had me laughing all through it.)
I think you'll really enjoy it. I know I did for many years!!

My big Smallville marathon viewing from last May:
Three episodes. All I like is three episodes to being caught up to date on Smallville. Last week, I was midway through season four. I got season five watched in two days over the weekend and am just about to finish season six. I am really enjoying this show and I'm still guessing on things that are going to happen. I first want to say that Warner Brothers has done an AMAZING job with the DVD's including putting a lot of extras on them including deleted scenes and commentaries. Thoughts on season four and five. I'll leave out season six for right now cause I want to see how this plays out before I comment. I thought season four was ok but not as good as the others. I wasn't that crazy about the overall storyline involving Jensen Ackles' character. I did look forward to seeing how they would tie up the story with them ending their high school days. The scene with Chloe leaving the Torch behind was a very good symbol to end it considering how much of the show took place there. Speaking of where the show takes place at, I tend to crack up laughing that the Smallville Medical Center is a key essential part of the show. How many episodes have had at least one scene from that place? Pretty funny. It's as big of a part in the show as all the other sets. My opinion of the whole Clark/Lana love story by season four and five is I think he should have moved on from Lana at that point. My opinion, go for Chloe. Of all the women on Smallville, I'm definitely a Chloe guy. LOVING the new opening for the show in season five. It's nice to see them change that up and it looks really good. Speaking of season five, I really enjoyed that season!! I had really looked forward to getting to that season so I could see James Marsters again. Funny thing is that it will take a lot of getting used to seeing him walking around in direct sunlight. I laughed at the first scene of him walking around on campus because of that fact. If you don't get that, he played Spike on Buffy The Vampire Slayer and the only thing we saw of him in sunlight was him running around with a jacket over his head smoking as he entered a room to protect his vampire self. Pretty funny. There was actually one episode of Smallville that involved a sorority that thought they were vampires where one of the members was named Buffy Sanders. Get it? Sanders instead of Summers. Season five also continued the retro stuff from other shows that involved John Schneider and Tom Wopat reuniting. They of course had to get out and drive around in a car. Lots of great lines in that referring to the Dukes Of Hazzard. The big spoiler of season five with the death wasn't a surprise to me as I remember tuning into the last part of that episode when it originally aired cause I wanted to see who they were killing off. So, I knew that was coming but just didn't know how or why it happened. Sad episode. I'll have season six thoughts next week.

I stopped here with the retro stuff cause most of it is available on the website if you're interested.

Thanks again for reading!! Talk to you next week!! Take care and God bless!!

Thursday, May 22, 2008

The Entertainment Wrap Up - May 22, 2008 - David Cook Wins American Idol 7, Thoughts on Season Finales, and More

I really enjoyed last night's American Idol finale. Very entertaining show that went just a little over two hours in length. The result was a surprising one and it definitely left me shocked. I really figured that David Archuleta would win it but David Cook was the spoiler pulling out the victory by 12 million votes. Cook got 56% of the vote compared to Archuleta's 44% of the vote. They also announced that 97.5 million votes were cast in total. David Cook joins the likes of Kelly Clarkson, Ruben Studdard, Fantasia Barrino, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Hicks, and Jordin Sparks to win American Idol. I have liked David Cook better over the season as I think he has taken some very big and good risks with his performances. I have to say that Archuleta did win me over on the finale with his performance with One Republic as they performed "Apologize". I thought it was a great performance. One thing I noticed when watching the finale was just how many of my favorites went home around midseason. I always enjoy all the montage type of performances from the top 12. It's a way to get to see all your favorites return and it was fun to see several of mine back on the Idol stage. We had two previous Idol winners perform on the show as Carrie Underwood and Jordin Sparks each performed on the Idol stage. I want to take a second to recognize Jordin Sparks as I think she has had a strong year as American Idol, especially the last several months. "Tattoo" and "No Air" have climbed the charts big time and helped push her out there into the music world even more. Ruben Studdard was also in attendance at the show and performed on Tuesday's show. One word to describe Carrie's performance of "Last Name", phenomenal. I thought she was incredible. Many others performed on the show including Bryan Adams, Seal, ZZ Top, George Michael, and more. I loved the duet of Seal and Syesha. Carly Smithson and Michael Johns also had a fun performance. I also really liked the montage with the guys and Bryan Adams. Why doesn't Fox schedule American Idol to go longer than the two hours with the finale? This happens every year where the show runs over. As 9:00 was approaching, I kept looking at the clock thinking just how mad the TIVO viewers were going to be when they watch and miss the crowning of the new American Idol.

Is Smallville losing another regular cast member? After debuting this season, Laura Vandervoort is said to not be on the cast list for season eight when it was shown at the CW upfronts. Laura had these comments to TV Guide when she was questioned about it: "As fans noticed in the CW's upfronts announcement earlier this week, they announced the cast.....and I'm not a part of it. We were all surprised when they chose not to bring me back as a regular, but I'm sure I'll be back for one or two (episodes)". That leaves Tom Welling, Allison Mack, Erica Durance, and Aaron Ashmore as the four regulars returning for next season. Kristin Kreuk is still said to likely be coming back for a few episodes but won't be full time. I'll be disappointed if Laura is not back for at least some episodes as I have liked the addition of Kara to the mix.

Season finales for The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother this past Monday night. I loved the finale of The Big Bang Theory which had Penny fed up with dating guys that treat her terrible. She said that she wanted to date nice guys for a change which perked up Leonard. She agreed to go out with them but we didn't see hardly any of the date itself which I'm sure will be saved for next season. We did see Leonard get the guts up to kiss her. I really enjoy watching this romance on the show and have found myself drawn into it all season. How I Met Your Mother was all about people realizing what they're missing when they have a near death situation. The result was Ted realizing that he wanted to stay with Stella. All the friends got a call that Ted was in the hospital after a car accident. After rushing there, they found Ted to be perfectly fine and eating ice cream. Barney got a call and rushed to his former friend's side. Well, he never actually got there but he was in route. He kind of ran out in front of a bus and ended up in the hospital himself. However, Ted and Barney patched things up and we were left with a teaser that Barney had developed real feelings for Robin.

Finally some official news on the season seven DVD release for Smallville. It will be released on September 9th in both standard definition and high definition Blu-Ray. The cover has Clark and Kara on it with the color of the box being blue. Extras announced for the set include a Supergirl featurette on Kara, a Jimmy Olsen featurette, and the Smallville Legends extra which is the mobile phone deal that has been advertised during Smallville. I'm still holding out hope for some commentary as I have LOVED listening to the commentary on the other box sets that have included it.

There has been DVD news this week about other shows that are set to come to DVD later this year. Here are a few of them. The Big Bang Theory (September 2), Chuck (September 16), Gossip Girl (August 19), Supernatural (September 2), and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (August 19).

Movie box office numbers for last weekend. 1. Prince Caspian - $56.6 million. 2. Iron Man - $31.2 million. 3. What Happens In Vegas - $13.8 million. 4. Speed Racer - $7.6 million. 5. Baby Mama - $4.6 million. 6. Made Of Honor - $4.5 million. 7. Forgetting Sarah Marshall - $2.5 million. 8. Harold & Kumar - $1.8 million. 9. Forbidden Kingdom - $1 million. 10. The Visitor - $0.7 million.

I read an interesting article about The CW this week talking about their ratings struggles. They did get good news on Monday night with the Gossip Girl and One Tree Hill season finale ratings. They combined to have the second highest rated Monday night since the launch of the network. Overall, the network is down. The network is averaging 2.6 million viewers while losing viewers in the 18-34 demographic. The first season of The CW had an average of three million viewers. Interesting points brought up including how the WB and UPN combined together to gain viewers but instead lost half the viewers in the change. The WB and UPN were doing a combined number of six million viewers in their last season so they lost half of the combined viewers for both networks between seasons. I really thought that The CW idea would work when I first heard it but I quickly lost my faith in that after one year. I always compare the CW to what The WB was but there really is no comparison. I thought The WB was much slicker with promoting themselves and their shows. The CW has just always looked weak to me in that department. I just rarely have anything on the network that I want to watch besides Smallville of course. I'm still stinging over the cancellation of Veronica Mars one year ago. The network is really going to push next season especially with the launch of Beverly Hills 90210. That show HAS to do well for The CW to get them rolling.

I was looking around on You Tube the other night and found some Buffy musical performances where different people around the country have done their own versions of the musical in front of an audience. What a shame that the studio keeps shutting these performances down cause they're fun. Some of them are very good. I also watched some videos that were recorded of fans watching the musical episode on a big screen at various fan gatherings. The fans were singing along with the songs and all I could think was, yeah, I'd love to get my nerd self to that thing. ha ha.

I've been re-watching season one of Veronica Mars and loving it. It looks like I succeeded in turning another one of my friends into a Veronica Mars fan. Yay!! Who can I hook next? Line up people. ha ha.

I signed up over at TheWB.com for their beta testing so I hope to be approved very soon so I can get to watching. I'm curious to see just what all that they offer from their old shows. I plan on rewatching several shows and watching shows that I didn't have time to watch the first time around.

The new season of Last Comic Standing started tonight on NBC. This will be the sixth season of the show. Guest judges for this season include Angela Kinsey and Oscar Nunez from The Office, George Wendt and John Ratzenberger from Cheers, and Lonny Ross and Keith Powell from 30 Rock. Bill Bellamy will host the show. The show airs on Thursdays at 7:30pm central time on NBC. For more info on the show including video clips, head over to: http://www.nbc.com/Last_Comic_Standing/

Kristi Yamaguchi and Mark Ballas were crowned as this season's winners of Dancing With The Stars.

I cannot believe that the Chicago Bulls got the number one pick in the NBA Draft. They had less than a 2% chance in the lottery of getting the number one pick and got it. The team with the worst record in the league, Miami, got the second pick.

TV on DVD releases for Tuesday, May 27th. Degrassi: The Next Generation (Season Six), Gunsmoke (Season Two - Volume Two), He-Man and the Masters Of The Universe (Volume Two), The Invaders (Season One), Lipstick Jungle (Season One), Rawhide (Season Three - Volume One).

TV Line Of The Week:
From The Big Bang Theory: Leonard trying to talk to Sheldon about second guessing going out with Penny.
Leonard: "I don't think I can go out with her tonight"
Sheldon: "Then don't"
Leonard: "Other people would say why not?"
Sheldon: "Other people might be interested"
Leonard: "I'm going to keep talking anyway"
Sheldon: "I assumed that you would."

You Tube Video Of The Week: Oh, how I miss this show. I found a music video that was made to promote American Dreams which is set to the theme song. I remember my mom telling me about this show and saying how I'd love how they produce the show. She was right and I was hooked after one episode. One of the best shows that I've ever watched. Maybe one of these days, we'll see the alternate ending.


Wishing all of you a very happy and safe Memorial Day weekend!! Take care and God bless!!

Thursday, May 15, 2008

The Entertainment Wrap Up - May 15, 2008 - TV Networks Unveil Their Schedules, Upfronts Discussion, Smallville & Survivor Finales, and More

Some of this stuff has appeared on the website so consider some of this edition of the Wrap Up a digest of sorts for those of you who have seen the Survivor stuff and also some of the network upfront coverage.

Here is the news on the network upfront presentations this week. I've tried to include everything with every show but I'm human so I probably may have left something out. If I did, I apologize. It looks like all of my shows survived the week which is a relief to hear. The last several years have been ugly for me as it seems that I lose a favorite every single year. It became a joke for several years that I was the kiss of cancellation when it came to shows. Every time I would officially declare a show my favorite, word would come out that it was in trouble of being renewed. I kid you not that I had declared American Dreams my favorite show and not even two days later came news that it was in serious trouble of being canceled. Since then, I've been very careful in naming a particular favorite show in worry of what might happen. LOL. I did lose Veronica Mars last year though and that hurt to lose such a great show. I loved the pairing of Veronica Mars and Gilmore Girls so it was disappointing to lose both of those in the same season cause I loved both of those shows. This year? No worries. I'm in good shape with my viewing. How did all of you do? Hope your favorites survived. If they didn't, I know how you feel!!!

NBC:
NBC has previously already rolled out their schedule a while back but here it is again.

Returning shows: Heroes, Chuck, The Biggest Loser, Law & Order: SVU, Deal Or No Deal, Lipstick Jungle, My Name Is Earl, 30 Rock, The Office, ER, Life, Dateline Saturday, The Celebrity Apprentice, Friday Night Lights (the previous discussed deal with DirecTV), Law & Order, Medium, American Gladiators, Nashville Star, Monk.

New shows: Knight Rider (the remake of the hit 80's series which we have seen some of with the recent movie), America's Toughest Jobs (reality show about people taking on various tough jobs), Chopping Block (cooking reality show), Crusoe (drama about a man on an island who is determined to get back to his regular life), Kath & Kim (comedy starring Molly Shannon about a divorced woman moving back home with her mom), Kings (drama about a soldier who saves the king's son), The Listener (drama about a paramedic who reads minds to solves crimes), Merlin (drama about following Merlin and Arthur in Camelot as they were young which stars Anthony Stewart Head of Buffy fame), My Own Worst Enemy (drama which from what I understand is similar to the Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde type story starring Christian Slater), The Office Spinoff (not much information on this other than the obvious that it is a spinoff of The Office), The Philanthropist (drama about a billionaire who helps those in need after the death of his child), Shark Taggers (reality show on marine biologists tracking sharks).

Canceled shows: Journeyman (still so sad over that show not coming back), 1 vs. 100, Amne$ia, The Singing Bee, Scrubs (going to ABC), Clash of the Choirs, Bionic Woman, Las Vegas, My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad, Phenomenon, and quarterlife.

Overall thoughts: Nothing surprising here. NBC sure does have a lot of new shows. I just wonder how the shows will perform initially and in the long term. Case and point? Bionic Woman. It started really big and faded fast. Not sure if there is anything on their new show list that really intrigues me to watch. I'd have to see some clips before I decided on whether to check out any of them. I highly advise them to put the pilots of these new shows up On Demand like last year. I found myself watching shows that I normally wouldn't have went to the trouble of watching but because it was so easy to access, I watched the first episodes and got hooked on several shows including Chuck and Journeyman before they even aired on actual TV. Expect Heroes and Chuck to get a huge relaunch in the fall and I'm glad that they're sticking with that lineup on Monday nights. Heroes is launching with a three hour season premiere which I can't wait to see. Chuck is a fun show that I enjoy watching. It isn't can't miss but I do enjoy it. I am curious to see how both of those shows perform upon their return after a LONG hiatus due to the strike. I liked the Knight Rider movie and how it tied to the original series so we'll see how it does.

ABC:
ABC has announced their fall schedule and the big news is that Scrubs is moving over to ABC from NBC. This has been talked about for a while now. However, it won't return until midseason. The only shows getting new timeslots are Boston Legal which will move to Mondays at 9pm (all times are central time), Eli Stone moves to Tuesdays at 9pm, and a Friday block of Wife Swap, Supernanny, and 20/20.

Returning shows: Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Desperate Housewives, Brothers & Sisters, Dancing With The Stars, Samantha Who?, Eli Stone, Boston Legal, America's Funniest Home Videos, Pushing Daisies, Private Practice, Dirty Sexy Money, Ugly Betty, Grey's Anatomy, Wife Swap, Supernanny, 20/20, According To Jim, The Bachelor, and Lost.

New Shows: Life On Mars (drama about a detective who gets in a car crash and finds himself in 1973 but is still a detective in a different time), Opportunity Knocks (game show where a random family around the country will get to play a game show right there in their neighborhood), The Goode Family, (Mike Judge animated comedy), Scrubs (new show for ABC anyway), and the untitled show from Ashton Kutcher and Tyra Banks which is supposed to be a beauty pageant type show.

Canceled shows: October Road, Men In Trees, Miss Guided, Big Shots, Cashmere Mafia, Dance War, Here Come The Newlyweds, Just For Laughs, Women's Murder Club, Notes From The Underbelly, Carpoolers, and Cavemen.

Overall thoughts: Hmm, I actually don't watch ABC in prime time at all. Just nothing that really grabs me but I'm sure there are shows that I would like if I watched them. Just have other commitments, I guess. LOL. Scrubs is obviously a huge pickup for them. Good mix of drama and comedy on the network. Dancing With The Stars is obviously a ratings blockbuster. I've seen Samantha Who? and thought it was a solid show. According To Jim is the show that has nine lives is what everyone says. How many times has that show been brought back now when it was said to be done? Cavemen was doomed from the start. Carpoolers was a show that I thought was ok but not enough to make me want to watch it. I watched a couple of episodes of it with one being funny while the other was just kind of eh. I know a lot of people are disappointed over the cancellation of October Road. ABC will be in solid shape with their major hit shows that have been huge for them for many years with Lost, Desperate Housewives, and others. Any new shows that I'd check out? Well, there aren't many to pick from so I don't know. I know a lot of people are hyping Life On Mars.

The CW:

Returning shows: Smallville, Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill, America's Next Top Model, Supernatural, Everybody Hates Chris, The Game, and Reaper.

New shows: Beverly Hills 90210 (Yeah, if you follow the entertainment world and you haven't heard about this, you're living under a rock. LOL. This is the new spinoff of the original series), Stylista (reality show with people competing for a job with Elle Magazine), and Surviving The Filthy Rich (Reba alum, JoAnna Garcia, stars in this show about a Yale graduate who ends up having to be a live-in tutor for a rich woman's granddaughters).

Canceled shows: CW Now, Online Nation, Pussycat Dolls, Beauty and The Geek, Life Is Wild, Crowned, Girlfriends, Farmer Wants A Wife, and WWE Friday Night Smackdown (which is going to My Network TV).

Overall thoughts: Oh, The CW. Yeah, it's the one year anniversary since they left me VERY bitter over the cancellation of Veronica Mars. I've yet to watch any new shows on that network in my stubborn boycott. LOL. They have me for Smallville and that is it. I will however give one show a new chance due to the fact that I was such a huge fan of the original. I'm obviously talking about 90210 and that is the huge buzz from The CW. The show will air on Tuesday nights pairing it up with Surviving The Filthy Rich. With wrestling being vacated on Fridays, they are moving the comedies there with Everybody Hates Chris and The Game along with an encore episode of Top Model. It will be interesting to see the ratings on Friday night and see what the comedies do against what Smackdown was doing. Reaper, which has a good cult following of fans, was picked up at the last minute and will return at midseason. One Tree Hill has a dedicated fan base and is a show that I've loved for many years. Gossip Girl has been a hit for The CW and they are trying to build the ratings up for the show by cutting out the online viewing. The CW did pass on the pilot that featured Justin Hartley which is leading many to speculate that he might make a Smallville return next season. We'll have to wait and see.

CBS:

Returning shows: The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, Survivor, Two and a Half Men, CSI, CSI: Miami, NCIS, Without A Trace, The New Adventures of Old Christine, Criminal Minds, CSI: NY, Ghost Whisperer, The Amazing Race, 60 Minutes, Cold Case, The Unit, 48 Hours Mystery, Rules of Engagement.

New shows: Eleventh Hour (Jerry Bruckheimer produced drama about a government science advisor who travels with his female blonde bodyguard checking out crimes involving science), The Ex List (show about a woman in her thirties looking to find a man but is told by a psychic that she has already dated her future husband. She has one year to go back in her dating history to find who the guy is. I have to take note of the fact that Rachel Boston of American Dreams is cast in this show), The Mentalist (drama about a detective who uses his power of observation to solve cases but tends to clash with his unit over his style of solving the cases), Project Gary (comedy starring Jay Mohr about a guy that gets divorced after fifteen years of being married and lives with his new girlfriend while also having his kids, ex-wife, and her boyfriend in his life), Worst Week (comedy about a guy who tends to have bad things happen when he is around his fiance's parents who are very conservative), Harper's Island (show about a group of family and friends who end up on an island for a wedding but the island has a history of being the site of a person's murderous rampage. History starts to repeat itself while they are there).

Canceled shows: Moonlight, Cane, Jericho, Kid Nation, Power of 10, Shark, Secret Talent of the Stars, Viva Laughlin, Welcome to the Captain.

Overall thoughts: I watch several shows on CBS and they all survived. Big Bang Theory has been my favorite new show of this current season. I look forward to watching and laughing at it every week. How I Met Your Mother has been on the bubble for months now and I'm thrilled that it is coming back. CBS decided to bring back The New Adventures of Old Christine and it was a major bubble show. It was likely going to keep going anyway as the talk has been for a while now that ABC had major interest in bringing it over if CBS had canceled it. As far as new shows, The Ex List gets my attention. I kind of like the concept of it as that could be a fun storyline to follow. I'm bummed to see Kid Nation canceled. That was a show that had a lot of controversy to it when it premiered. I watched it just to check it out and see what all the talk was about and found myself hooked on to the show. The success of any season of a show like that is going to depend on a cast of people and that season of Kid Nation had a good blend of kids. I didn't expect to like the show but it became a show that I loved to watch every week and those kids earned every bit of respect that I could give them for what they were able to accomplish out there. Jericho is obviously firing people up with that cancellation. Don't count Jericho out though as there is still talk about saving the show and moving it to a cable network. We'll see. Gotta love such passionate fans.

Fox:

Returning shows: 24, Terminator: The Sara Connor Chronicles, Prison Break, House, Bones, Til Death, The Moment Of Truth, Kitchen Nightmares, American Idol, Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?, Don't Forget The Lyrics, Cops, America's Most Wanted, MADtv, Talk Show With Spike Feresten, The Simpsons, King Of The Hill, Family Guy, American Dad, He**'s Kitchen.

New shows: Dollhouse (the new Joss Whedon show about a group of dolls who carry out jobs and are given personalities and a past. Echo, played by Eliza Dushku, begins to have memories as things start to go wrong with the dollhouse. This gets people to trying to figure out what is going on in the dollhouse), Do Not Disturb (comedy that focuses on the life at a New York hotel), Sit Down, Shut Up (animated comedy about a group of high school teachers that is produced by Mitch Hurwitz of Arrested Development. Strong cast of stars doing voices including Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, Henry Winkler, and more), Fringe (J.J. Abrams drama about a grouping of people including a FBI agent, scientist, and the very smart son trying to solve crimes involving science. The show sees the TV return of Joshua Jackson), The Cleveland Show (animated comedy which is a spinoff of Family Guy), Secret Millionaire (show about a group of people doing well with money and they are put into a neighborhood on the other end of the money scale but lay undercover. At the end, they'll give money to someone).

Canceled shows: Anchorwoman, Canterbury's Law, K-Ville, Nashville, New Amsterdam, The Return of Jezebel James, Next Great American Band

Overall thoughts: Obviously for me as a Joss Whedon fan, my attention is on Dollhouse. I'm disappointed to see it being held off till midseason but am very much looking forward to seeing a new show from him. Interesting that it will be paired up with 24 on Monday nights. As far as new shows, it does seem like Fox has good potential in their lineup. However, I have a rule with Fox and that is to never watch their new shows until they are long established. I've been burned way too many times by Fox canceling shows way early on. However, I will check out Dollhouse of course. Staying with the Whedonverse, David Boreanaz's show, Bones, will move to Fridays in January. Before January though, it will be on Wednesday nights. 24 will return with a two hour movie on November 23rd which will set up the happenings before season seven. Fox also announced that Prison Break, Fringe, and Bones will have their season premieres at the end of August. It does appear that Back To You has also been canceled by Fox especially after Kelsey Grammar said so. There is talk of the producers trying to shop it to another network. I'm surprised that the show didn't last with the star power of Grammar and Patricia Heaton.

On to the other stuff of the week.

WHEW!! That was all that I could think besides letting out a cheer when I read the news that was posted on TV Guide last night. Ausiello is reporting that Allison Mack has signed a new deal for next season on Smallville and will be in for the whole season. Wow, I was getting nervous and wondering just what next season was going to be like without so many of the originals on board. Having Chloe back will be a great thing for season eight. Hopefully, they'll make her more of a major player in the storylines next season with the others gone.
http://community.tvguide.com/blog-entry/TVGuide-Editors-Blog/Ausiello-Report/Ausiello-Scoop-Allison/800039677

Smallville had its season finale tonight. The episode had a little bit of everything in it with controlling devices, proposals, arrests, blackmail, Brainiac, and a showdown in the biggest of places for Clark and Lex. Some of the happenings in the episode had Kara out with a vengeance which we would learn wasn't her at all as it was Brainiac. Chloe volunteered to try and take out Kara but she learned the hard way that it was Brainiac. Cue to Chloe being sent to her second residence which is Smallville Medical. Clark went and destroyed Brainiac which cleared up everything and brought Kara back while healing Chloe and Lana. Lana was gone by the time that Clark got to the room and she left a video message for him. She said goodbye saying that he had bigger things to do with saving the world along with saying a tearful goodbye. We got a proposal from Jimmy to Chloe after her recovery. We didn't get an answer though as Chloe was arrested and Jimmy's bargaining with Lex was a definite big cause of that happening. At about fifteen till, I'm looking at the clock thinking that this stuff with Clark and Lex is going to have to happen quickly. Lex found the fortress and was confronted by Clark. Nice exchange between them as Lex had finally figured out who the traveler was. Lex unleashed it and took down the fortress. So, we're left with cliffhangers as usual. I'm wondering what becomes of Lex with Rosenbaum being out for next season. What happens with Clark? Who will bail out Chloe? Can someone call the Justice League? How about Green Arrow to use some of his money for her bail? LOL. Seriously, I'm just thrilled that we have Chloe involved next season. That wraps up season seven. With the writers strike, we still got twenty episodes out of this season. I really enjoyed this season and liked it quite a bit more than season six. Not much stuff this season that I didn't like. Season eight is definitely going to be an adjustment with cast and crew gone and I'm excited to see what will happen.

Survivor Fans vs. Favorites had its finale on Sunday night and I really enjoyed the show. This has been one of the best seasons of Survivor. There were so many moments that left you speechless over what you had seen especially when it came to immunity and some of them didn't even involve the actual idol. Going into Sunday's show, we had the final four. The women had prevailed with Amanda, Cirie, Natalie, and Parvati making it to the final four. The first immunity challenge of the night was held and Amanda made a come from behind effort to win. That brings us to the first tribal council of the night. Natalie gets voted out which means the last "fan" is out of the game leaving three "favorites". The talk then turns to how the final three thinks that the game is over. For the last few seasons, the show has ended with a final three instead of a final two as it used to be. The editing of the show made me think that they were doing final two cause they were making such a big deal out of it. Sure enough, they get the news that there will be another immunity challenge. The challenge was very similar to the one that Amanda won in her other season. You must balance a ball and not let it fall. My first thought going into the challenge was that if Cirie wanted to be in the final two, she had to win. If Amanda won, she was taking Parvati to the final two. If Parvati won, she was taking Amanda. Cirie had her own fate literally in her hands. Parvati ends up out of the challenge leaving Amanda against Cirie. Cirie drifts off for one second and the ball falls leaving Amanda as the winner and the ultimate decision of who to take to the final two. Tribal council has Amanda deciding to take Parvati with her to the final two. Cirie is voted out. That gets us to my favorite part of the season every year, the jury questioning. I cannot tell you how many years that I have made sure to have all my food and everything ready so I do not have to leave the TV during this segment. There is just something about the great TV of watching these jury members get up there and vent their hurt feelings. LOL. The questioning wasn't as bad as I expected and I thought the jury would be harder on Parvati than on Amanda. I'm not sure that was the case though. Amanda had some people upset at her as well. How about Ozzy blasting Parvati and then telling of his love for Amanda? Pretty fitting that they let him go last too. Wow, Natalie was harsh on Parvati. My goodness. Eliza is always one of my favorites to have up there on the jury cause she is a straight shooter and will tell you what she thinks. Erik voiced his hurt feelings over what happened to him but voiced it at Amanda. She stood up back to him though. The votes did not go at ALL like I thought they would. I thought for sure that Amanda had it wrapped up BUT things did not go that way. Parvati ends up winning on a 5-3 vote and it seemed like the overall reaction was surprise. Even Parvati looked surprised. The last vote was the deciding one and I would really have liked to have seen a tie just to see what the rule is on how to decide a winner. That has never happened. The last vote was for Parvati though. As far as I can tell, the votes for Amanda were Ozzy, James, and Erik while Cirie, Alexis, Natalie, Eliza, and Jason voted for Parvati. I never would have guessed that Parvati would have won. She played a very cutthroat type game but made some big moves in the game that was rewarded by the jury. Poor Amanda. She gets to the final on two seasons in a row and wins the big challenges but can't get the votes to win. I actually thought that her jury questioning cost her the game last season but I thought she did better tonight. The jury just voted how they felt and went with Parvati so congrats to her. The reunion show was a lot of fun as always. I love watching it and finding out what people have to say about the happenings of the season. It was great to hear Jeff Probst mention how many fans were saying how great this season was cause it was a great season. Ozzy and Amanda are still together. Erik was a good sport over talking about his giving up immunity. James' line about giving up your life raft when hanging off the boat was a great analogy!! LOL. I'm always glad when Probst gets around to asking everyone questions cause I feel bad for the ones that got voted out early and don't get asked anything. James won the $100,000 from the fan voting which had him, Ozzy, and Amanda as the top three vote getters. Parvati sure didn't get much attention as far as questioning especially for the winner. As far as the injured players this season, everyone is doing well which is great to hear. Next season's Survivor will be heading back to Africa as they will go to Gabon.

Jennie Garth is indeed onboard for the new 90210 series. She will reprise her role as Kelly Taylor but she won't be a series regular as of yet. I read a report of her appearance at the CW upfronts and she stated that she had yet to meet any of the new 90210 cast but looked forward to it.

Movie box office numbers for last weekend. 1. Iron Man - $50.5 million. 2. Speed Racer - $20.2 million. 3. What Happens In Vegas - $20 million. 4. Made Of Honor - $7.6 million. 5. Baby Mama - $5.8 million. 6. Forgetting Sarah Marshall - $3.8 million. 7. Harold and Kumar - $3.2 million. 8. Forbidden Kingdom - $1.9 million. 9. Nim's Island - $1.3 million. 10. Redbelt - $1.1 million.

I've got a much needed TV on DVD release to pick up next week. Season three of Charles In Charge. Still one of my favorite shows ever.

Carrie Underwood was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry this past Saturday night. I haven't watched a Grand Ole Opry induction before so it was all new to me. A really classy induction and there was no doubt that Carrie appreciated every bit of it. Garth Brooks inducted her into the Opry and did a nice job of the honors. She also performed some songs on the show as well. That place appeared to be packed and I tend to think that tickets were hard to come by for it. The amount of camera flashes going off during the show was incredible to watch.

The final two has been set on American Idol. The Davids and Syesha battled it out this week to see who would make it to the final. Syesha Mercado was voted out this week which means that David Archuleta and David Cook will go at it for the crown of this season's American Idol. Next week is the big finale.

I loved this week's episode of The Big Bang Theory. One of my favorites of the season. The story was that Leonard had never had a birthday party thrown for him so Penny came up with the idea to surprise him with one. Plans go all over the place however when a Halo game keeps Leonard from leaving so the party can be set up. Extremes had to be taken including a severe allergic reaction to keep him away from the party which ended up being too long. Sheldon not leaving the electronics store was pretty funny too as he kept using his advice to help customers and was more effective than the store employees.

Britney Spears made her return to How I Met Your Mother this past Monday night. I thought her first guest appearance was funnier but this was still a good episode. Her character and Barney did their best to get Ted's attention. Barney had to get out of an engagement though due to it. LOL.

Season three of The Hills concluded this past Monday night. Very fun run of new episodes this spring. Wow, I'm amazed that Heidi gave up that very good job opportunity to come back home with Spencer who went to Vegas to find her. Lauren, Lo, and Audrina are in their new place but the three are very separated with Audrina living in her own spot in the back of the place. Lauren and Audrina are starting to grow apart and Audrina felt that Lo was the reason for it. We already have confirmation on a season four and a trailer has already been released on what to expect. It looks like Lauren will have a new guy in her life and problems will continue to build between Audrina and Lo. Here is a look at season four.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iP6fz8cXJYo

I thought I'd give some random NBA Playoff notes. Boston has not been as dominant so far as I expected them to be in the east. All I can say is that they have to win those home games cause they can't afford to have to win on the road. I still expect them to come out of the east but a matchup with Detroit could be tough. How about the fact that it seems no one can win on the road in the second round??!! Well, not everyone but the home teams are winning mostly. New Orleans has given San Antonio all they can handle so far but unless something falls apart in this current game that is on as I type this, they'll be going to game seven. LeBron's mom getting up and having words with the Boston players was funny the other night. The TNT crew at halftime had me laughing pretty hard as they were having fun with it. Detroit pretty well breezed through Orlando even without Billups. The Lakers and Jazz has been a very competitive series as they match up well.

TV on DVD releases for Tuesday, May 20th. The Bill Engvall Show (Season One), Charles In Charge (Season Three), Cheerleader U (Season One), Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C. (Season Four), JAG (Season Six), The Jeff Corwin Experience (Season Two), The Muppet Show (Season Three).

TV Lines Of The Week:
From Smallville:
"I must admit Clark, this is a big step up from the barn". Lex to Clark in the fortress.

From Survivor:
"The girls were in the boat. They were cruising along. He was on the side of the boat with a life vest on. He had it. All he had to do was float along. He took the life vest off and handed it to the ones in the boat. I was like, wow, seriously??!!"
James commenting during the reunion show on Erik giving up immunity to Natalie which led to Erik being voted out.

You Tube Video Of The Week: Simon's Cat - Let Me In


That is all that I have for you this week. Have 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...