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!!