Thursday, November 27, 2008

The Entertainment Wrap Up - November 27, 2008 - Back To The Future DVD's, DVR's, Chuck, & More

Happy Thanksgiving. Hope you’re having a great one!!

Movie box office numbers for last weekend. 1. Twilight - $69.6 million. 2. Quantum Of Solace - $26.7 million. 3. Bolt - $26.2 million. 4. Madagascar Escape 2 Africa - $15.6 million. 5. Role Models - $7.3 million. 6. Changeling - $2.6 million. 7. High School Musical 3 - $2 million. 8. The Boy In The Striped Pajamas - $1.64 million. 9. Zack and Miri - $1.6 million. 10. The Secret Life Of Bees - $1.2 million.

BTTF.com is reporting that Universal Studios Home Entertainment is set to re-release the Back To The Future trilogy on DVD. This will be a different release from the previous one as there will be some new things featured along with what was included on the previous release as well. New features include: Back To The Future – The Ride (self explanatory there), Looking Back To The Future (9 part retrospective documentary made by fans on the BTTF.com site), Back To The Future Night (NBC special that aired before the release of Back To The Future 2), and Michael J. Fox Q&A (this was in the original release but formatted different in the new release). Yeah, I’m going to be double dipping on this DVD. I also never traded in my discs on the previous release. If you aren’t familiar with it, Part 2 and 3 were sized up wrong in the widescreen format. Universal made good on it by letting fans send in their discs for replacements which were sized right. I never did send mine in so getting this re-release will solve that problem. I’ve also been wanting to check out that Looking Back To The Future documentary so that is a great addition to the set. The bummer with that is that it is apparently only the documentary on the first film and doesn’t include the other two movies. I should point out that they are releasing them individually which is different from the previous release where you could only buy the movies as a set. To the disappointment of many, there is nothing on this being a Blu-ray release as well. Fans will have to wait on that for later down the line. The release date for the new Back To The Future DVD set will be on February 10, 2009.
http://www.bttf.com/forums/blogs/timetraveller/19-bttf-2-disc-special-edition-dvd-coming-february.html

Continuing with Back To The Future, the movie will have a tie to the December 8th episode of Chuck entitled Chuck vs. The Delorean. Seeing a picture already released of Chuck standing next to a Delorean is all that I need to see to get me excited for this episode.

I loved the multi-episode story on Chuck involving his ex-girlfriend, Jill. Lots of good twists on this story. Jill broke Chuck’s heart in college and ended up with Bryce. She came back into Chuck’s life and we had the very fun triangle story of Chuck, Jill, and Sarah. Chuck and Jill were seemingly on their way back together and she found out that he was a spy. However, then he learned that she was a spy. This week’s episode had Chuck trying to protect both of the women that he loved with Sarah and Jill being in danger. Chuck was going to help Jill escape until Jill was set to try and take Sarah out. That was the ending point for Chuck and she was taken into custody. Chuck has been REALLY good this season.

If you didn’t know, Survivor was a recap episode tonight so I haven’t actually watched it yet. Still laughing at the tribal council from last week. Sugar rocks!! Ha ha.

Another eclipse on Heroes resulted in opposite effects. Everyone’s powers were gone leaving them vulnerable. We had the fight between the duos of Elle and Sylar against Claire and Noah. Claire took the bullet for her dad when the gunshot rang out but they didn’t realize till later that her ability to heal was gone. Now, Claire is in bad shape while Sylar and Elle are reeling from the fight. Parkman went with Hiro and Ando to Kansas to catch up with Daphne who had taken off to go home. We learned why she didn’t want to see Parkman upon arriving home. Losing her ability sent her back to having to walk with crutches and leg braces. Wow, what a story twist there!! Nathan and Peter’s flight stopped immediately upon the eclipse and they ended up meeting with the Haitian. Things weren’t looking so good for them by the end with plenty of mistrust between the two.

Nick and Starr were able to overcome their troubles with cab drivers to avoid last place on this week’s Amazing Race. They started the leg in first place followed by Toni and Dallas. The teams were all evened up at the airport. Dan and Andrew were still in trouble over leaving their shoes on the last task. They spent money at the airport to get new shoes but the bill was strong enough to hurt them later in this leg of the race. Dan and Andrew also had a tough time with the task in deciding whether to march or deal with the food. After a brutal road block that required carrying 50 sacks of flour, Toni and Dallas finished in first place on this leg. Nick and Starr eventually switched cab drivers which put them way behind when they couldn’t find another cab. Ken and Tina had a relatively quiet leg of the race finishing in second place. Dan and Andrew ran into trouble when they expectedly ran out of money and were unable to pay their cab driver when they got to the pit stop. The driver finally accepted all of the money that they were able to give. However, Nick and Starr were able to overcome their cab troubles and finish in third place. In fourth and last was Dan and Andrew. Good news for them as this was non elimination but now they face a speed bump in the next leg. Here are the results again going into the next episode: 1st – Toni and Dallas. 2nd – Ken and Tina. 3rd – Nick and Starr. 4th – Dan and Andrew.

As expected, DVR ratings are having a major effect on primetime TV this season. I read an article this week that talked about how shows in the 9pm central time slot in primetime are now getting hurt. The reason? People are coming home and watching their shows recorded on their DVR from earlier in the night instead of watching live TV. Some of the shows that are still getting higher viewers due to DVR’s include The Office, Fringe, Heroes, 90210, and Grey’s Anatomy. The CW is said to have 17% of their primetime viewing coming from DVR viewers. 90210 was said to have had a week where the viewers increased 79% with women 18-34 by DVR over the live broadcast. It is really getting hard to figure out the size of an audience for TV shows because people are watching in so many different ways. You have to account for live viewing, DVR’s, and streaming video. People are very much taking advantage of streaming video as well including Hulu and network streaming sites. Speaking for me, I do a lot of delayed viewing giving me stuff to watch later in the week. There are several shows that I do watch live though. The current way of doing ratings is very outdated and there needs to be a new way implemented.

Even with having one of the worst wing men ever, Leonard was able to move his Facebook status to “in a relationship” on this week’s Big Bang Theory. Well, actually he didn’t change the status as Sheldon was the one that did it. That led to the other side changing her relationship status as well pointing out that she was in a relationship with Leonard. Leonard having to work around Sheldon’s involvement was very funny. I love the interaction between Sheldon and Penny. The facial expressions that she gives Sheldon are priceless!!

I’ve watched a few episodes of tonight’s Friends Thanksgiving marathon on TBS. It has been a while since I’ve seen some of these so it was fun to have this on in the background while I type up this Wrap Up.

The Rick Roll on the The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade this morning was very funny!! This has brought Rick Astley back into pop culture for sure.

Brea Grant, who plays Daphne on Heroes, is now doing her own UStream show. I always love when people take the time to do stuff like this for fans. Brea has been a great addition to Heroes this season. I checked out the show and it was fun to watch. I obviously love that she is a Joss Whedon fan too. I would love to see her involved with a Whedon project down the line!! Check it out at this link where she answers fan questions.
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/brea-grant

Candace Cameron Bure is back on TV starring in a new Christmas movie with Tom Arnold called Moonlight and Mistletoe. The story of the movie has Tom Arnold playing the role of Nick Crosby. Crosby owns the town’s Christmas attraction, Santaville, and is also the head Santa. Money troubles begin to take over threatening to put him out of business. Candace plays the role of Crosby’s daughter, Holly. She works on coming up with a solution to help her day keep his business open. The movie premieres on Saturday, November 29th at 8pm central time on The Hallmark Channel. It will air again after that of course so check your listings for other movie times. It sounds like a fun Christmas movie to check out. Here is a link to check out more info on the movie:
http://www.hallmarkchannel.com/publish/consumer/home/shows/moonlight_and_mistletoe.html

The winner of this season’s American Idol, David Cook, debuted at number three on the Billboard charts. The total sold was 279,578 which has him topping Jordin Sparks debut by quite a bit. In front of Cook on the week’s CD charts was Beyonce’s new CD in the number one spot followed by Nickelback’s new CD.

Classic 80’s TV alert. My Two Dads is on its way to DVD as the first season will be released on March 3rd. I used to love that show. It’s been so long since I’ve seen it that it would be interesting to see if I still liked it.

Kevin McKidd answered questions on AOL recently. He was asked about what would have happened on Journeyman if the show had not been canceled. This was his response: “[The creator] Kevin Falls told me ... that each episode was a procedural story where [my character, Dan Vassar] would help that person and get them back on track. All those people that he helps ... have to be in that position that Dan gets them into for his son. It's not about Dan. This is about Zack, Dan's son, who has some kind of special power. Whatever it is that's controlling this needs all of these people to be in a certain position or alignment for Zack, [so that] when he comes of age, his power erupts ... It was all about getting his son to the place that these people could help him achieve this power and help the world.”
http://television.aol.com/insidetv/2008/11/20/kevin-mckidd-interview-for-greys-anatomy/

TV on DVD releases for Tuesday, December 2nd. Jake and the Fatman (Season One – Volume Two), Law & Order (Sixth Year), Perry Mason (Season Three – Volume Two), Saturday Night Live (Season Four).

TV Line Of The Week: From How I Met Your Mother.
“Naked Man”. This is the line used over and over on this week’s episode. Very funny!!

You Tube Video Of The Week: Incredible meteor landing from Canada last week. Someone go check and see if there is a baby Kal-El somewhere nearby.


Wishing all of you a safe weekend. If you’re getting out and doing the big shopping thing tomorrow, be careful and I hope you get a TON of great bargains. Take care and God bless!!

Thursday, November 20, 2008

The Entertainment Wrap Up - November 20, 2008 - Sugar vs. Randy, TRL Says Goodbye, Amazing Race, 90210, Trademark Wins, Storm Chasers, & More

Not sure what I’m going to do with the Wrap Up next week with it falling on Thanksgiving. I’ll see what happens.

The wedding of Jimmy and Chloe on Smallville was an episode that looked big based on the previews. Plus, it's a big event in Smallville and something bad usually happens such as homecoming, graduation, political wins, etc. This was a great episode!! I loved it from beginning to end. The wedding saw familiar faces return. The wedding itself was overshadowed by the emergence of Doomsday. Davis had been calling Chloe all day but due to him previously telling her of his feelings, she had ignored the calls. He was out of control and Doomsday emerged at the wedding. Clark had one face off with him which resulted in Clark being sent out of there in a hurry putting him next to some kryptonite. The returning Lana made the save for Clark but there was no saving Jimmy or Chloe. Jimmy took a nasty shot from Doomsday and Chloe was carried away to the fortress. Jimmy was in bad condition and being transferred to another hospital for a special surgeon. Lois left to go be with him waiting to hear back from Chloe as well. Lana and Oliver came face to face in Cuba when they both were on the trail of Lex, who we found out is alive. Lana is definitely working an agenda that we aren't seeing really yet. Lana always has an agenda when it comes to Lex. Oliver is looking for revenge for the most part. Lana did arrive at the wedding and they played the Lois and Clark story perfect. They are set to kiss and......enter Lana into the reception. Then, Lois walks away destroyed thinking that she might as well exit stage left cause Clark's love of his life just walked back into the door. Clark and Lana decided to leave things alone between them. I did find it funny how there wasn't really any major reaction to Chloe not knowing Clark's secret anymore. I thought that would be more of a hot topic among everyone. We did see Lex at the end of the episode and he was seeing all of the happenings of the wedding. Well, it wasn't Rosenbaum obviously. Chloe giving the smile to Doomsday in the fortress was really wild for sure. That ties into the great song that fit the last scene. For those wondering what the song is, it is "Don't Take Your Love Away From Me" by VAST. I liked how the episode had the videographer footage of the wedding tied into everything especially with how we just saw his footage to open the episode. Like I said, I loved the Lois and Clark stuff. The tease of them being together has been a LOT of fun to watch this season. The worst part of the episode? The graphic that said new episodes return on January 15th. Great episode!! Great!!

Tonight’s episode of Survivor was all about Sugar vs. Randy. Sugar is so much fun to watch this season!! She is definitely my favorite cast member. The two of them have been going at it for a while now. The Survivor auction which is always one of my favorite moments of the season took place and had their battle continue into the auction. Sugar was looking to take Randy out in the auction throughout it. It all came to a head when the last item was a surprise. First $20 bid got the item for the whole tribe. Randy bid the $20 and it was a plate full of chocolate chip cookies. Randy made the comment about how he was going to keep all of them but Jeff insisted that they were for the tribe. Sugar did not get a cookie. She asked if she could give hers to someone else and Randy said that he was in charge of them. Her cookie goes elsewhere. The tray comes back to her and he offers a cookie. She takes it and gives it to Matty. It turns out that it was the last one and it was Randy’s cookie. It was now gone. Randy went off and was furious about it. Bob was sent to exile island which was part of the auction. Ken got that surprise in what he bought where he got to send someone to exile but got to take their money as well. Bob was sent and got nowhere with the idol clue. Bob and Sugar did talk about how he had a fake idol made and he showed the idol to Sugar too. This led to a lot of craziness. Randy’s plan was for himself to get a lot of heat on him. He would get Bob to give him the idol so he could use it. He and his group would all vote for Susie and she’d be gone due to having the second highest number of votes. Ken won immunity but that wasn’t the story. Sugar talks to Bob about giving the fake idol to Randy to use. Bob gives Randy the fake idol. Tribal council takes place and most of them were very vocal on their votes and why. Sugar’s finish to her speech was really funny cause she is such a fun personality. Crystal’s had me cracking up laughing cause I don’t know if I’ve ever seen someone get up there and scream venting while they hold up their vote. The rest of the tribe could hear the whole thing and it was hilarious!! Even Randy had a look of “what in the world??!!” Randy plays the fake idol and it is revealed to be fake. Randy gets the most votes and is voted out. Corinne and Randy are blindsided. WOW. That was amazing that they pulled that off. It continued on into the previews where Bob is going to spin the story to Corinne to protect himself. Really clever on what he was telling her.

I watched the finale of TRL on Sunday night. TRL wrapped up its ten year run with a three hour finale featuring Carson Daly returning to co-host along with interviews and appearances by Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Backstreet Boys, Kid Rock, Diddy, Beyonce, Hilary Duff, and many, many more. I used to watch this show years ago and, yes, I was one of those fans that voted. Watching the finale felt like going to a high school reunion. It was just like a reunion cause it’s awkward at first, you see old friends, and the atmosphere brings you back in, and then you’re having fun like old times. A high school reunion seemed to be the same kind of feeling for many others as well. I have often said that TRL is this generation’s American Bandstand. This show was such a pop culture phenomenon but has fallen from grace in recent years. TRL was a huge part of the music industry for many years. Celebrities would use TRL as major launches for albums, singles, movies, TV shows, etc. Many music artists should thank that show for all they have because it launched MANY of their careers. Not only did the show launch artists but also themselves. Carson Daly’s career took off with TRL and he’s now hosting his own show on NBC. Hilarie Burton went on to One Tree Hill. There are several others too that have done well. One thing that I noticed about Carson through the years was just how easy he made the hosting duties look. Even after all the years of being away from the show, he made this finale hosting look easy as well. Carson was always the heart of that show and I actually started fazing out from the show around the time that he started to faze out. Fans were able to battle it out and vote for their favorite videos and support their favorite singers. We also had the normal moment of a girl popping up in a bubble on the screen as she tells why her favorite is great and then….wait for it….cue the screaming to end it. I always found it funny when they’d start screaming before they were even done talking where you had no clue what they had just said. LOL. TRL had a huge local impact there in New York. The show would draw huge crowds in Times Square. The NYPD often had to shut down the streets cause of the size of the crowds. There was one day where the crowd got so wild for The Backstreet Boys that they had to shut the shades on the windows to calm them down. It turned into a “can you top this?” kind of deal to see who could draw the biggest crowds and there were a lot of artists that could draw HUGE crowds. I still remember TRL being one of the first shows to return to live TV after 9/11. TRL coming back was this feeling of normalcy after a week that was horribly against but normal. The three hour finale had a top ten countdown of favorites from over the years which felt like a major blast from the past. It was fun to see the retro moments with Carson hosting, the familiar guests returning, and the huge crowd outside taking over Times Square one more time. Where did they find Jesse Camp and Dave Holmes??!! Great to see them. I had completely forgotten that Dave was the runner up in that Be a VJ contest. Fun to see the clips of Hilarie’s first TRL appearance as I still remember watching that thinking how fun of a personality that she was for the show. Very fitting for Diddy to make an appearance on the finale as he was a big part of the show’s run which also had him getting choked up discussing the show ending. Putting it into perspective on how long this show had been going on and how the artists have changed was the Christina Aguilera interview. I just thought of how she was a new artist breaking on to the scene as a teenager around the beginning of the TRL run. Now, here she is being very successful while balancing being a wife and mom. Justin Timberlake and JC Chazez’s appearance was a lot of fun and you can tell that they’re really going to miss the show. There are so many artists to mention that had huge impacts on that show over the years and also appeared on the finale. The finale definitely had a feeling of closing a big chapter in music history. TRL changed the landscape of music. That is for sure.

Some things never change in 90210 land. Kelly and Brenda’s relationship is back on ice. Brenda was looking to distance herself from Kelly and the reason was learned at the end of the episode. Brenda had an accident falling off the stage ending up in the hospital. Despite their bad ending to their lunch earlier on, Kelly was called by the hospital because she was in Brenda’s emergency contact list. It was then that Brenda admitted to sleeping with Ryan. Kelly just turned and left. Just like old times having a guy being a problem between the two of them. The other major story was the arrival of the long lost son, Sean. He is put between the two families and it definitely caused problems. One major problem was Dixon who felt ignored by all the attention that Sean was getting. He finally got Harry’s attention though by his conduct in the game. Annie struggled with how Beverly Hills has changed her including her going off on Naomi. Yeah, things haven’t improved between them. Naomi worked on trying to fit in with a new crowd. A cheerleader is paying extra attention to Dixon which is definitely going to have to be setting up a storyline of issues between Dixon and Silver. What is up with the phone call that Sean made at the end of the episode? Not sure what to make of that!! No new episodes until January 6th???!!!! Wow. Brutal.

Anyone see the new Lost season five preview tonight on ABC? I did not see it and I’m kind of afraid to watch it cause I don’t want to know too much. I did see the little teaser last weekend on ABC but I really debated on whether to watch it. Yeah, I caved in and watched it but it gave away nothing. Not sure about this new one. I just don’t want to know any kind of major spoilers for the show.

What happens when you mix storm chasing and roads in terrible condition, an absolute mess is what you get. This week’s Storm Chasers had the chasers barely even able to stay on the road with the scout actually leaving the road in a scary landing. The TIV had the biggest reaction when they passed the scout later on and they mentioned how it looked like that the scout had been in a tornado with how beat up the vehicle looked. Reed and the TVN crew battled road conditions that had them driving side ways at one point and running into a road closed area. Just a wild episode and the last few episodes have definitely shown how dangerous that chasing can be. This weekend’s episode looks like it will be wild.

Trademark Properties has won their lawsuit against A&E winning $4 million. Richard Davis filed suit against A&E saying that there was an agreement between the two to split the profits. Trademark was featured in the first season of Flip This House but then the network went a different direction away from Trademark for the following seasons. Fans were furious after the promotion for the new season said nothing about a new crew on the show. People including me tuned in for new episodes of Trademark only to see brand new people and not the Trademark crew that we had loved to watch. A&E took a ton of heat from fans online about the switch. I’ve refused to watch the show after feeling that I got big time bait and switched by the network. Trademark Properties went on to move on to doing a show on TLC called The Real Estate Pros. I’m a big fan of the Trademark Properties TV shows. So much fun. I still anxiously await word on when we’re going to get some new TV out of them.

Twilight has yet to hit theatres but the soundtrack has already hit number one on the charts. Remember when movie soundtrack albums used to be so huge? There was always some big song that went with the movie and would make the soundtrack sell a TON of copies. I miss that.

Another week, another first place finish for Nick and Starr on The Amazing Race. After a battle to try and get the best flights, all the teams ended up even at the road block. There was a twist to the road block and that was a fast forward. Nick & Starr and Terence & Sarah went for it. The fast forward consisted of having to eat meat at a local delicacy. The problem for Terence and Sarah? Terence is a vegetarian and hadn’t eaten meat in fifteen years. Terence tried hard but was unable to do it. They gave up especially after seeing how far ahead Nick and Starr were with their eating. Terence and Sarah go back to the regular race while Nick and Starr win the fast forward and go on to win that leg of the race. The rest of the teams battled it out having to walk the streets while in a cow costume. Ken and Tina struggled when Tina didn’t catch the clue on the bottom of the milk bottle. Toni and Dallas, who finished the task first, did give Ken and Tina the information about needing to continue wearing the costume throughout the task. Andrew and Dan had a rough time throughout and ended up frustrated with one another at the end. Terence and Sarah did their best to catch up but were unable to do it. They were eliminated from the race. The current standings as we have a final four: 1st – Nick and Starr.
2nd – Toni and Dallas. 3rd – Ken and Tina. 4th – Dan and Andrew.

Movie box office numbers for last weekend. 1. Quantum Of Solace - $67.5 million. 2. Madagascar Escape 2 Africa - $35 million. 3. Role Models - $11.1 million. 4. High School Musical 3 - $5.6 million. 5. Changeling - $4.2 million. 6. Zack and Miri - $3.1 million. 7. Soul Men - $2.3 million. 8. The Secret Life Of Bees - $2.3 million. 9. Saw V - $1.7 million. 10. Beverly Hills Chihuahua - $1.5 million.

This week’s Heroes had us seeing who was on what side at the end of the episode. The lines are drawn between the Petrelli’s. Claire is the catalyst that is going to make the plan happen. Sylar had mixed results with being locked in a room with a very furious Elle. Gabriel was definitely coming out of him by the end as the two found peace. Hiro was zapped back into being a kid. It was funny stuff with him doing what any kid would do with those kind of powers. I’m very curious to see how this all ties up.

There are reports out that ABC is not picking up any new episodes of three shows. One of these is going to make a friend of mine very unhappy. ABC has canceled Eli Stone, Pushing Daisies, and Dirty Sexy Money.

Carrie Underwood has some Christmas music coming your way this year. Her version of “Do You Hear What I Hear” is on radio now but is also part of an exclusive CD at Walmart. There is now a two disc version of Carnival Ride that is exclusive to the store with the second disc having five different Christmas songs. Not sure if there is anyway to just get the bonus disc if you already own the original CD. That would be my question. I would guess probably not.

I don’t watch any daytime soaps but I know good and well that this is huge news. It’s also a sign of the economic times. Deidre Hall and Drake Hogestyn are gone from Days Of Our Lives. They appear to be the victim of budget cuts.

TV on DVD releases for Tuesday, November 25th. 24 (Redemption), Beverly Hills 90210 (Season Six), The Big Easy (Season Two), The Colbert Report (Colbert Christmas), Freaks and Geeks (Full Series), Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C. (Season Five), The Mod Squad (Season Two - Volume One).

TV Line Of The Week: From Survivor.
“Uh, loser” (complete with “L” symbol on the forehead). – Sugar commenting on her vote for Randy.

You Tube Video Of The Week: Infectious laugh tops the comedian.


That’s it for this week. I’ll see what is going on with the Wrap Up and Thanksgiving next week. Take care and God bless!!

Thursday, November 13, 2008

The Entertainment Wrap Up - November 13, 2008 - My Favorite Friends Episodes, Lost Premiere News, Smallville, Survivor, Storm Chasers, CMA's, & More

Lost fans!! We finally know of a premiere date for season five!! So excited. Season five will premiere on Wednesday, January 21st on ABC with three hours of viewing. A clip show will take up the first hour followed by two episodes taking up the last two hours. No word yet on whether the 17 episodes will air straight through with no weeks off like last season. I am loving that they picked Wednesdays to air it on cause I have nothing to watch on Wednesdays.

Not a father’s day was a funny idea on this week’s How I Met Your Mother. The idea was Barney’s to create a holiday for guys who don’t want to be fathers and enjoy being single. That tied to the rest of the episode though with Lily and Marshall trying to decide whether they were ready to have a baby. Lily decided to let Ted and Robin be the ones to debate it since they had differing opinions on kids. Robin was against kids while Ted was for it. Even with her fear of kids, Robin started to soften on the concept of kids at the end of the episode. Marshall and Lily’s decision was made up when a very intoxicated Lily showed up at Marshall’s job during a presentation leaving him to have to balance the job and having to treat Lily like a kid cause she was so out of it. The answer to the kid question for now is no. I could see that changing in the future though.

I’ve converted several friends into Big Bang Theory fans and I’m thrilled about it. It is such a funny show!! I’ve said this over and over but I laugh at it more than any other show on TV right now. The war between Sheldon and Penny on this week’s Big Bang Theory was a great one. She was able to overcome Sheldon’s three strike rule against her and able to use a higher power to her advantage, Sheldon’s mother. Funny stuff.

Moving on to tonight’s Smallville. I really liked tonight’s episode but found it to be sad as well. Chloe continued to lose her mental war with Brainiac as her memories continued to be erased. She eventually forgot who everyone was except for Davis. Clark had the fortress return talking to Jor-El to help Chloe. What was Clark’s request to Jor-El? He asked Jor-El to return all of her memories except for the memories of her knowing Clark’s secret. He saw the responsibility and pressure that it put on her to protect his secret and he wanted her to live a normal life. Chloe returned to her normal self but without the memories of Clark and his secret. All I could think was how sad. I always liked that they had that bond and that it made them closer. It’s just sad to me that she won’t know it anymore. I do wonder if Chloe may get the memories of Clark back in the future. I’m trying to figure out where they might go with that story. However, Davis declared his feelings to Chloe including laying a kiss on her as he was convinced it was right after the fact that Chloe could only remember him at the end and didn’t even remember Jimmy. Add into this that it looks like Brainiac took over the fortress and the symbol of Doom appeared on the floor. The scenes from next week have the wedding taking place and, from what I could tell, a very real appearance of Doomsday. I’m really looking forward to seeing what the show has in store for us with the Chloe/Jimmy wedding. It also marks the return of Kristin Kreuk to Smallville as Lana will be in the episode as well.

Don’t mess with Naomi. That was the theme of this week’s 90210. She was looking to get even for catching Annie kissing Ethan. So, here is her checklist. Set up Annie’s birthday party. Check. Call, invite, and fly Annie’s ex-boyfriend out to Beverly Hills for the party. Check. Invite them out to dinner with the rest of the group to make them extremely uncomfortable. Check. Get Annie and Ethan to argue about it to separate them. Check. Make out with Annie’s ex after Ethan and Annie work things out. Check. Ruin Annie’s 16th birthday party. Check. Nice twist at the end with their brother arriving on the scene. Also in the episode, Ryan’s name was cleared when Kimberly was able to catch the drug dealer and had him arrested. Even with his name cleared, he still left town for the time being due to how much his reputation got destroyed over not actually doing anything wrong. Ryan is going to be a hot topic on next week’s show based on the previews showing Kelly and Brenda discussing him.

Tonight’s Survivor saw the merge finally happen. The reward challenge had the tribes brought together for the first time since Marcus was voted out which brought a wide range of big reactions. Fang was able to win the very cool slingshot golf challenge despite arguing between Randy and Matty over how to approach the last easy shot. They sent Bob to exile island and he was able to easily find all the clues but struggled on the last one. That was because the hidden immunity idol wasn’t there. Interesting strategy by Bob in deciding to make himself his own idol to try and fool the others. The immunity challenge had the announcement of the tribes merging into one. The challenge was a fire making one with the winner building one high enough to break the string. Susie was the first to get fire followed by Sugar. The battle was between them as no one else even got a fire started. Susie was able to win and take immunity. This set up a battle between the groups on who could get power. Randy was targeting Crystal as he has not held back in his feelings about her which carried over into tribal council later on. There were two groups of four trying to accomplish what they wanted with Sugar being the vote in between them. Both sides worked her and she wasn’t trusting anyone. Ken decided to try and get Charlie voted out due to him being mad about last week when Charlie stopped him from keeping the other hidden immunity idol a secret. Charlie was floored as was his group when his name started popping up on votes at tribal council. It came down to a 4-4 split with Crystal and Charlie while Sugar was the deciding vote. She voted Charlie and he was voted out of the game. Good episode overall tonight.

Nick and Starr continue to lead the way on The Amazing Race. I have been pulling for them as they are a very strong team. Plus, I’m probably pulled in for cheering for them cause I think Starr is cute. Ha ha. Confusion, paint wars, and major traffic jams were the issues on this week’s episode. The Holi Festival was the site of the first task for the teams to go through. Nick and Starr were the first to arrive and Starr got through it pretty easily. Very little paint on her but I can’t say the same for Nick who got blasted with it by the locals even though he wasn’t participating in it. The other teams made up for what Starr didn’t get including the other team members that didn’t actually take part in it. Kelly had a horrible time with it basically because of her going back and forth. You were able to look for the right envelope to bring back while Kelly was just grabbing a random one to bring back and see if it was right. She was covered in paint with how many times that she went back and forth. They arrived there in second place but left in last place especially after the fact that they couldn’t get a taxi due to how bad that they looked because of the paint. Yeah, Christy got the paint too. Most of the other team members got paint thrown at them as well. Nick and Starr reluctantly worked together with Toni and Dallas in the number finding task. Both of them were able to complete the task fairly easy. They battled to the pit stop fighting a major traffic jam. Nick and Starr finish first while Toni and Dallas finish second. Ken and Tina face their speed bump task and are able to get right back in the mix of it as Kelly & Christy and Dan & Andrew struggle to find the numbers. The problem? They were looking at the wrong ones. Dan and Andrew ask Kelly and Christy if they wanted to work together since both of them were having trouble. Kelly and Christy turned them down. Ken and Tina were able to finish and point out to Dan and Andrew that they are looking at the wrong numbers. Kelly and Christy finally figure it out on their own. Terence and Sarah are on a different task and were the only ones to choose the other task. They end up finishing third. Ken and Tina finish up in fourth. Andrew and Dan finish the task with Kelly and Christy not far behind. Andrew and Dan make it to the pit stop in fifth place with Kelly and Christy in last while also being eliminated from the race. Fun episode. Once again, here are the results at this pit stop. 1st – Nick and Starr. 2nd – Toni and Dallas. 3rd – Terence and Sarah. 4th – Ken and Tina. 5th – Andrew and Dan. 6th and eliminated – Kelly and Christy.

Reports today are saying that NBC has canceled two shows, Lipstick Jungle and My Own Worst Enemy. Lipstick Jungle was in its second season and has struggled in ratings this year. The show was recently moved to Friday nights which is never good. Friday is a bad night to try and draw viewers. My Own Worst Enemy is the new Christian Slater show that aired Monday nights at 9pm central time. Interesting to note that this is the second year in a row that the show airing Monday nights at 9pm has been canceled. Journeyman aired in that time slot last year and was canceled. Anybody for saying that it might not be the shows but the time slot? I'm still annoyed that a show with as much potential as Journeyman got canceled.

It appears that Fox has canceled Mad TV. I'm surprised to see that it was in its 14th season. I knew it had been on for a long time but had no clue that it was 14 seasons.

The CMA Awards were on Wednesday night. I watched very little of it but changed over every so often to see what was going on. I was trying to get caught up on my other TV viewing from the week. Here is a list of some of the big winners:
Entertainer of the Year - Kenny Chesney
Male Vocalist of the Year - Brad Paisley
Female Vocalist of the Year - Carrie Underwood
Album of the Year - George Strait - Troubadour
Single of the Year - George Strait – “I Saw God Today”
New Artist - Lady Antebellum
Vocal Group - Rascal Flatts
Music Video - "Waitin' On A Woman” - Brad Paisley with Andy Griffith
Song - "Stay" - Jennifer Nettles
Vocal Duo - Sugarland

This week's Storm Chasers showed how dangerous storm chasing can be at times. Basically, it showed what can happen if the storm starts chasing the chasers. The chasers headed over to Arkansas which is not normal terrain for the DOW crew cause of how hard it is to chase due to all the hills and trees. It limits them on their visibility. Reed and the TVN crew were familiar with Arkansas having chased there many times so it was mostly a normal day for them. Add in all those land factors and add in chasing at night and it posed for a very dangerous night. The DOW crew were in the middle of the storm and ended up having to run from a F3 tornado moving at around 55 mph that was on the ground right behind them. They could not completely get away from this fast moving storm with some of the crew getting caught in the middle of it including the medic and also the TIV. The TIV crew provided some incredible footage of them being stuck in this tornado as they set the clamps down on the side of the road to give them protection. It should be noted that this was the original TIV as TIV 2 had more mechanical problems putting it out of action for a while. The original TIV can only handle around 140 mph winds unlike TIV 2 which is built to withstand stronger winds. Reed and the TVN crew were doing the opposite of the DOW crew. While the DOW crew was getting away as fast as they could, the TVN crew was on the opposite side of it trying to chase it down. The combination of the speed of the storm and the lack of easier road access to chase it had it getting away from them. The DOW did get some computer data out of the storm but the most important thing was that the crew was ok. The tornado did a lot of damage to the area which is always incredibly sad to see. The footage of the baseball size hail was just amazing to see as the DOW team was getting pounded by it. Wow. If you want to see an intense episode, watch the replay of this episode when it airs. Incredible. The previews for this Sunday's episode show some intense storm chasing as well. I am so completely hooked on this show.

So, Sylar was basically created to be this monster. That was what this week’s Heroes basically showed. The episode took us back in time to find out what led up to the current events. Elle worked with HRG to learn more about Sylar or Gabriel at that time of course. The events surrounding Arthur were bizarre as well. I’m also thinking that Arthur meeting up with Hiro
isn’t going to be good for any of them.

Movie box office numbers for last weekend. 1. Madagascar Escape 2 Africa - $63.1 million. 2. Role Models - $19.1 million. 3. High School Musical 3 - $9.1 million. 4. Changeling - $7.2 million. 5. Zack and Miri - $6.2 million. 6. Soul Men - $5.4 million. 7. Saw V - $4 million. 8. The Haunting of Molly Hartley - $3.3 million. 9. The Secret Life Of Bees - $3 million. 10. Eagle Eye - $2.5 million.

I was wandering around on Hulu over the weekend and decided to watch the Treehouse Of Horrors episode of The Simpsons. First time that I’ve watched The Simpsons in a long time. I love the show but just never take the time to watch it for some reason. I laughed quite a bit at this episode. The spoofs were great stuff. Of course, I loved the Transformers stuff that opened the episode. My other favorite thing was the spoof on It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. If you didn’t see the episode, definitely head over to Hulu and watch it while it is still available.

30 Rock has been doing well upon its return this season. I have to think that Tina Fey on SNL as Sarah Palin has a lot to do with it. People are checking out 30 Rock as it did its highest ratings ever for its season premiere. Surely, tonight’s show will do good ratings as well with Jennifer Aniston’s return to TV in her guest starring role in the episode.

Something that I was hoping to do every so often was ranking my favorite episodes of some of my favorite shows. I thought it would be fun to do and look back on various shows. I figured that I would start with Friends but I also have Seinfeld in the works for the future. There are so many episodes that I love that it is hard to pick out ten. So, here we go.
My top ten favorite episodes of Friends.
1. The One With The Embryos. Yeah, I think this will have to go at the top of my list. I have actually watched this episode again lately. There are so many great quotes that come out of this episode. The episode is named after the story with Phoebe in this episode but, for me, this episode is all about the bet. Ross hosts a trivia contest between Joey/Chander and Rachel/Monica seeing who knows who better with the girls’ apartment on the line against the guys’ birds. I still laugh hard at this episode.

2. The One With The Football. The football game that took place all while waiting for Thanksgiving dinner. The gang ends up playing football when Ross and Monica’s competitive football spirit returns. The results end up with Ross and Monica getting ugly, Rachel going long, the boys trying to impress a woman, and Phoebe just having fun.

3. The One With The Prom Video. This episode provided one of the most famous scenes in the history of the show. I’m a big hopeless romantic so I loved the prom video stuff. Monica and Rachel find their prom video which consists of Rachel getting stood up while Ross comes to the rescue to take her to the prom. As Ross is ready to swoop in to the rescue, Rachel’s date shows up. Through watching the video, Rachel sees what Ross was going to do for her and it results in the kiss. Classic Friends moment. This episode is also famous for the “how many cameras are on you?” line from Chandler. Ha ha.

4. The One With The Blackout. I love this episode!! A city wide blackout results in different happenings. Rachel falls for an Italian guy after finding his cat roaming around in the dark. The two hit it off just in time for the lights to come back on to the shock of Ross. The other great stuff of the episode is Chandler being stuck in the automated bank vestibule with a well known model. His muttering of what is going on to Monica who can’t understand and then Joey who can understand is great stuff!! Hearing Chandler’s thoughts in his head on how he is messing this up provides for great comedy.

5. The One With Ross’s Wedding. I Ross take thee Rachel, I mean Emily. Ross and Emily’s wedding is set to take place in London. Rachel stays home to take care of the pregnant Phoebe after realizing that it would be awkward for her to be at the wedding. The result has fans all happy seeing Rachel leaving the apartment on her way to the airport. Rachel’s appearance at the wedding makes it go in a very different direction when Ross says the words “take thee Rachel” instead of Emily. This sends shockwaves including even back to New York where Phoebe is listening via phone. Plenty of funny stuff in this episode including Chandler and Joey sight seeing.

6. The One Where No One Is Ready. Ross is giving a speech at a fundraiser and the whole episode revolves around the rest of the gang getting ready for it. Chandler and Joey battle it out through the whole episode which revolves around fighting over a chair and wearing a ton of clothes. Rachel finally reaches her breaking point and decides not to go after being yelled at by Ross. Loved that moment with her just walking out of the room in everyday clothes making her statement.

7. The One Where Rachel Has A Baby. Rachel’s water breaks and it is off to the hospital for the delivery. However, things don’t happen fast as Rachel watches multiple moms go into labor while she waits, waits, and waits. The funniest part is the one woman who wanders into the room for about five seconds only to go right into labor. Chandler and Monica continue to try and sneak off hoping to try for their own baby. The episode left with the cliffhanger of Joey holding the ring up to Rachel.

8. The One With All The Poker. This is a fun episode. The guys and girls play poker. The girls are learning and get tips from a poker pro to try to get better. The game comes down to a showdown between Ross and Rachel. Rachel who is down on her luck ends up with the win after Ross lets her win wanting to see her have some happiness.

9. The One With The Halloween Party. Halloween consists of a party at Chandler and Monica’s. Phoebe meets the guy dating her twin sister. Rachel ends up being a pushover while handling the trick or treaters at the door. The episode highlight is a showdown between Ross and Chandler in arm wrestling. Neither of them can move the other one. Funniest line of the episode is Monica giving her explanation on Chandler getting the bunny costume saying it was either this “or no bunny at all”. Chandler responds with “no bunny at all. Always no bunny at all”.

10. The One Where They All Turn 30. This was a funny episode that saw Rachel turn 30 while the rest of the gang flashes back to their 30th birthday. Rachel is of course depressed while everyone tries to tip toe around her. One of the funnier parts is Chandler giving a very sensitive Rachel a joke card and Monica yelling at him saying that was why she does the greeting card stuff.

TV on DVD releases for Tuesday, November 18th. Bones (Season Three), Burke’s Law (Season One – Volume Two), Charmed (Full Series), Doctor Who (Season Four), Hannah Montana (Season One), Hawaii Five-O (Season Five), McHale’s Navy (Season Four), The Odd Couple (Season Five), SpongeBob SquarePants (Season Five – Volume Two), Star Trek (Season Three).

TV Lines Of The Week:
From The Big Bang Theory:
The guys watching America’s Next Top Model with Penny.
Wolowitz: “Oh look, there is the future Mrs. Wolowitz. Wait, that’s the future Mrs. Wolowitz with her head in the lap of, well what a coincidence, it’s the future Mrs. Wolowitz.”
Leonard: “Yeah and they can all move in with you and your mother. The current Mrs. Wolowitz.”

From Storm Chasers:
“We basically just drove eight hours to take a thirty second beatdown and run away with our tail between our legs.”
– Danny from the Scout team after the DOW team had to retreat from a storm due to baseball size hail.

You Tube Video Of The Week: What if you could say that you beat Michael Jordan one on one at his own camp? This guy can say it. Funny cameo by Damon Wayans at the end as well. This is a fun clip.

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

Thursday, November 6, 2008

The Entertainment Wrap Up - November 6, 2008 - Survivor, Smallville, Election Night Ratings, Dollhouse, HIMYM, Big Bang Theory, & More

Busy week for the Wrap Up with all the concert and Q&A stuff. Back to business as usual tonight with the normal Wrap Up.

Merge? What merge? That was the story of tonight’s Survivor. The tribes were brought to the beach for a feast together but with a twist. There was a box to be opened but when the box was opened, the feast would be over. Another twist was made when Ken found a hidden immunity idol clue. As Ken read, Charlie did the same thing. Marcus decided to try and work something where the hidden idol would be found and thrown away. Randy jumped on the idea as well along with finding the idol. The idol was offered to anyone who wanted it but no one jumped on it instead sending the immunity idol into the water. Next was the news that the tribes would not be merging but instead be switching up. After a drawing, Fang consisted of Randy, Charlie, Corinne, Matty, and Sugar. Kota consisted of Bob, Marcus, Susie, Ken, and Crystal. The original Kota members had the numbers on both tribes. It should be pointed out that Fang talked of making sure they (Matty, Crystal, Ken, Sugar) went to the final four. The Kota tribe had the same plan though planning on their Kota Six getting to the final six. Sugar was told by Matty that Ken stirred up a lot of the mistrust in Ace saying that Ken was the one that didn’t trust Ace. Matty told Sugar that Ace had never talked of turning on her. Sugar felt really bad after the conversation while Matty and Sugar talked of having each other’s backs. A balancing immunity challenge would come down to Matty and Bob. The winner would win immunity for the tribe. Despite laughing and all, Matty was able to pull out the win for Fang. Marcus and Crystal found out that they knew the same person at home as Marcus is best friends with one of Crystal’s cousins. Marcus tried to align with her but wanted Ken to be the target. Crystal wasn’t for having her main alliance member getting voted out. Susie turned into the swing vote as she had wanted a final three agreement with Marcus. He did promise it to her but Crystal worked on her saying that there was no way he could promise that due to the others not liking her. Tribal council saw Marcus being voted out on a 3-2 vote with Susie switching up and joining up with Ken and Crystal.

Tonight’s Smallville had a lot of wild happenings. The crystal sent Clark and Lois into the Phantom Zone where they found Kara. Lois was sent back at the request of Clark despite pleas from Kara to not open the portal due to the phantoms getting through as well. Lois did make it through but so did the wife of Zod. She took over Lois’s body and went to find Davis letting him in on what was going on with him. Chloe and Oliver worked on plans to get Clark back which had Chloe being the one to get the job done complete with white eyes as it happened. She kind of feels like a computer version of Willow from Buffy when she started to go the wrong way. Tess also continues to try to get clues on what happened with Lex. She got a lot of strange happenings right in her face in this episode including her first encounter (well sort of) with Green Arrow.

Heroes had a week off from new episodes but it sure wasn’t out of the news. Major news from the show as two co-executive producers were fired. Jeph Loeb and Jesse Alexander are out. The ratings for Heroes have been falling all season and the show has been taking a lot of criticism from people over the last two seasons. The firings appear to be “creative differences”. It really feels like maybe NBC is just panicking. It isn’t like the ratings are terrible. The show is still drawing 10 million viewers a week!! Personally, I am not seeing the problem with Heroes. I love the show and have loved the storylines. I have a ton of friends that are hooked on Heroes and I have not heard ONE of them complain about the show. Instead, we’re all talking about how great it is. I get that a lot of people are critical about it but I still love the show. Everyone is going to have their opinion on what they like and don’t like.

How great was this week’s How I Met Your Mother? The show is really hitting stride again this season. The episode focused on Ted being afraid to run into Stella after their breakup. The gang was all at a restaurant together and Ted had everyone dive under the table when Stella walked in so they wouldn’t be seen. A lot of the episode took place from underneath the table with the group discussing the happenings and how Ted needed to face her. It also brought up memories of everyone’s past on who they would not want to face again. I loved the stuff with “angry” Ted as they followed Stella home. I was cracking up at them egging Ted on to give Stella a piece of his mind. I couldn’t have been the only one disappointed that Ted’s fantasy speech of “you made a mistake” didn’t actually get said. Great episode!!

This week’s Big Bang Theory centered around a woman that was interested in Sheldon’s smarts. I loved Walowitz’s explanation of the only way that he thought Sheldon would reproduce was if he had too much thai food and then just multiplied. The episode had a lot of good humor with the friends all in shock over how crazy this woman was for Sheldon while Penny got accused by the woman of wanting Sheldon for herself. Funny stuff.

Which network did the best viewer wise with the election coverage on Tuesday night? That would go to ABC with 13.1 million edging out CNN’s 12.3 million. The rest of the most watched in order was NBC, Fox News, CBS, MSNBC, and Fox Network. CNN saw a dramatic viewer increase from its 2004 coverage also making it the biggest viewership in CNN’s history. CBS and NBC both saw viewer decreases from 2004. MSNBC and Fox News had increases in viewers from 2004. The CW decided to air its regularly scheduled programming and took a hit in viewers.

A party thrown by Silver, which was the last hurrah for her being alone as Kelly is on her way back home, was the backdrop for many moments on this week’s episode of 90210. Annie and Dixon were told by their parents about the secret of their dad having another kid earlier in his life with Naomi’s mom. Dixon’s way of dealing with it was having doubts but also talking to Silver about it. Annie had a rough time though as she ended up big time drunk eventually being rescued by her dad that turned into a nice moment. Annie and Ethan continued to try to sneak around Naomi but that sneaking around was over by the end of the episode as they were caught kissing. Kimberly and Ryan were caught leaving the party by another student which turned into black mail. Ryan was given a paid leave of absence due to a teacher not being able to be seen with a student off campus. Yeah, Kimberly isn’t a student really but they’re having to uphold this to keep her undercover as an officer. Did I say that Kelly was on her way back? Yep, this coming week will see the return of Jennie Garth as Kelly and hopefully we’ll find out some good story on what happened when she went to see Dylan with her son.

Movie box office numbers for last weekend. 1. High School Musical 3 - $15.3 million. 2. Zack and Miri - $10 million. 3. Saw V - $9.7 million. 4. Changeling - $9.3 million. 5. The Haunting of Molly Hartley - $5.4 million. 6. Beverly Hills Chihuahua - $4.8 million. 7. The Secret Life Of Bees - $4 million. 8. Max Payne - $3.6 million. 9. Eagle Eye - $3.4 million. 10. Pride and Glory - $3.3 million.

Here we go Joss Whedon fans. Is it time to worry? Well, Fox has decided to air Dollhouse on Friday nights beginning on February 13th at 8pm central time. I don’t have to tell you that Friday nights are not good for getting viewers. Terrible time slot!! Grrr Argh Fox!! Fox does have a preview up of the show which you can check out here.


Fox has announced that season seven of 24 will begin on Sunday, January 11th with two hours worth of episodes. Two more hours of 24 will air the following night on Monday, January 12th. Fans of 24 are no doubt waiting impatiently for the new season to start.

Fox has decided to not pick up King Of The Hill. The good news for fans is that there is talk that other networks are interested in picking it up which is said to include ABC.

Nick and Starr continue to lead the way on The Amazing Race. We’ve got a romance that is trying to bloom between two teams with Starr and then Dallas. Funny how they talked about how awkward that it was trying to talk to each other with one having a brother while the other has a mom around. Andrew and Dan struggled with the ironing part and I was feeling bad for them with how frustrated they were getting. Funny line from Dallas when he said “frat guys never iron shirts, at least the ones that I know anyway”. They were able to battle back and not finish last. Ken and Tina were the last team to arrive but this was non elimination so they will continue on. However, they will have to take on the speed bump on the next leg of the race which will slow them down. Results for this leg of the race: 1st – Nick and Starr, 2nd – Kelly and Christy, 3rd – Toni and Dallas, 4th – Terence and Sarah, 5th – Dan and Andrew, 6th – Ken and Tina.

It was fun to see the meeting of Sean and Reed on Storm Chasers I do wonder how a teaming of Reed and the TIV crew would work out. I’ve been watching some of the videos that Reed and the crew have up on Tornadovideos.net and they just leave you in awe. I’ve never seen footage as incredible as what they are able to capture.

The Regis and Kelly Halloween show was a lot of fun as usual. The Olympic segment was fun with Kelly as Shawn Johnson, Regis as Bela Karolyi, and Mario Lopez as Michael Phelps. Great job on the editing tying Kelly and Shawn together on the beam routine. Kelly did a really good Sarah Palin as well while Regis got to impersonate Joe Biden. Speaking of Regis, he really looked the part of Billy Ray Cyrus in that costume. The music video was a lot of fun too that had them dressed as Hannah Montana and The Jonas Brothers. The cooking segment was funny with playing the parts of various TV cooking personalities. This Halloween special delivers every year and it definitely did this year too.

TV on DVD releases for Tuesday, November 11th. 7th Heaven (Season Seven), Chuck (Season One On Blu-ray), The Cosby Show (25th Anniversary Commemorative Edition Set), Father Knows Best (Season Two), Firefly (Full Series on Blu-ray), I Dream Of Jeannie (Full Series), Little House On The Prairie (Full Series), Scrubs (Season Seven), The Sopranos (Full Series), Supernatural (Season Three on Blu-ray).

TV Line Of The Week: Kelly Ripa in costume as Miley Cyrus on the Halloween show of Live With Regis and Kelly. I cracked up at this line.
“I’m Miley Cyrus. If you don’t know who I am, that must mean that you’re really, really old”.

You Tube Video Of The Week: Mad TV spoofs Lost


Wishing each and every one of you a great weekend!! Take care and God bless!!

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Wrap Up Q&A With Whitney Duncan - November 5, 2008


I got the opportunity to talk to Whitney Duncan on Saturday night and she was so nice to answer questions for me for the Wrap Up Q&A.

Wrap Up Q&A:
First off, great show tonight.

Whitney: "Thank you. I appreciate that."

I’ll just start from the beginning. What made you know that singing was what you wanted to do?

"I started when I was super young, like three or four years old. I was obsessed with Elvis Presley. I was watching him on TV and it was like his 68th comeback special where he was in the all leather and I knew that was what I wanted to do and what I wanted to be. So, I was singing every weekend at church, fairs, festivals, really anything around home that I could. I just knew that was always what I wanted to do. I just knew from that early and, I mean, granted that I never knew if I’d have the opportunity but once I got a little older, I started pursuing it heavily when I was 15 and started going to Nashville, writing songs, got my first publishing deal at 17. So, it was just crazy. I never doubted it though."

You say that Elvis is your musical influence but do you have any others besides Elvis?

"I do. I loved Elvis and he is really who made me want to sing but my dad really liked to listen to rock and roll. I loved Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, John Cougar Mellencamp. Then, my mom would listen to nothing but country from Tanya Tucker to Travis Tritt to Patty Lovelace to Tammy Wynette. So, I was really heavily influenced with all of those people. Then, once Shania came out, I really liked her and was very influenced with her as well. Also, Bonnie Raitt and people like that, I always listened to."

Can you talk about the story with the song, My World Is Over, which involved Kenny Rogers?

"I co-wrote the duet with Kenny Rogers. This was years ago and I was on Capitol at the time cause I got a record deal at 17. I was really, really young and didn’t really know what kind of musical direction that I wanted to take and at that time, he had heard the song and wanted to do a duet on it so of course I was thrilled with that. We did that, shot a video, and actually went on the road with him that summer opening shows. He’s a great, great guy and singer. That was really cool that he liked that song."

I have to mention this cause I’ve been watching the Power Picks on CMT. You’re doing very well.

"Yeah. I can’t believe it."


You’ve beaten Kenny Chesney and also Sara Evans with something like 80% of the vote.

"It’s insane."

What are your thoughts on that?

"I can’t believe it. I don’t know who is voting. (laughs) I’m just super excited because the show just came out and the video just came out and CMT hasn’t been playing it a TON but just enough to where I’ve been getting a lot of comments on My Space and sending me messages saying that I saw the video and that it was really good. That is really exciting and then when I saw the Power Picks, it just blows me away that people are responding as much as they are. It’s really great."

How did you get involved in Nashville Star? Were you interested in the show before you got on it?

"Yeah, I always watch all of those shows just because of being in the music business. I love it. Once you watch that first episode, you want to see who wins. I’d watch Nashville Star every year. The year that it came up for me to do it, I had the opportunity to go and audition for it. At that time, I was just song writing so I just thought about it and was thinking that I had nothing to lose. I’m not even looking for a record deal at this time so I’ll give it a shot. I didn’t think for the life of me that I’d actually make it. So, when I made it, it was really cool and a good experience. I said that it’s like boot camp into the music industry. It’s interesting. I don’t feel like it shows true artistry in the way that you get 45 seconds to sing on the show and it’s not your song. It’s someone else’s song except for original song week. So, it’s really tough to get who you are as an artist across on the camera when you’re having to do other people’s songs because I’m such a songwriter. It was tough but it was fun and a good experience."

What kind of style would you describe your album to be?

"I would say that it’s definitely country. I’m country but it’s also heavily influenced with rock as well. It’s very country/rock. People have told me that you can definitely hear those influences like Shania and Tanya Tucker in the music as well. I think the album is good because it’s a variety of songs and I think there is something on there that everyone can identify with. There is some song on there. I cowrote the whole thing so I’m really proud of it. I can’t wait for this record to come out. It’s really so exciting."

Where were you the first time that you heard your song on the radio?

"I had just left a radio station in Chattanooga, Tennessee. They knew that I was going to be in the car when I left the station so they played it after I left. I was like, oh my gosh, that’s the first time that I’ve gotten to hear it. That was really cool and very exciting. It really is and it’s still exciting every time that I get to hear it because it’s by accident. They don’t know that I’m listening. You know what I mean? So, they’re playing it because they like it. So, that’s cool."

I have some rapid fire questions on favorites and such.
Favorite Elvis song?

"Are you lonesome tonight"

Favorite TV show?
"Hmm, right now. Forensic Files."

Something that the fans would be surprised to know about you?

"(Laughs) I like to shoot guns."

Person you’d most like to meet?

"Obviously Elvis if that was a possibility. Since I have to move on, I would say John Cougar Mellencamp. I would like to meet him so much cause he was such a big influence on me as well. There are so many more. (laughs)"

When can we expect the album?

"The album will come out early 2009. I think around February. We should know in the next couple of months. It should be up on the website and I’ll do a big blog and publicity for it. It should be February or March."

We’ll all know.

"Yes, you will know for sure. Definitely."

Thanks again to Whitney for taking the time to answer the Wrap Up Q&A questions!! She was incredibly nice to talk to and I will definitely post the information on her album release date when it is announced. Check out more on Whitney Duncan at her website at http://www.whitneyduncan.com and http://www.myspace.com/whitneyduncanmusic

Take care and God bless!!

Whitney Duncan/Gloriana at WKCTC in Paducah, KY - November 4, 2008

I checked out the Whitney Duncan and Gloriana concert at West Kentucky Community and Technical College in Paducah. The Clemens Fine Arts Center was the host of this very fun concert. I had a great time. It is a great facility to take in a show at and is just extremely comfortable. The staff did an incredible job with the show. If you missed this show, shame on you cause it was a great show!! Everything looked great and the sound was great as well. A very fun concert atmosphere. Let’s get into the show itself.

The show opened up with Gloriana. Gloriana consists of Tom Gossin, Mike Gossin, Rachel Reinert, and Cheyenne Kimball out of Nashville, TN. The group was formed earlier this year and they are not far from releasing their first CD. The idea of the group was to do something unique with having all four members of the group being previous lead vocal singers together. I had listened to some of their music on their My Space page earlier in the week and knew that I was going to like this group a lot. Halfway through their performance, I just kept saying “love them”. I am familiar with Cheyenne from her MTV show years ago and I always thought she didn’t get enough credit for her singing. The rest of the group are new to me but they all easily won me over immediately. They were incredible!! They took the time to tell some stories and talk in between songs which was a lot of fun. Definitely fun personalities. They got a nice standing ovation at the conclusion of their show. They just have a great sound to them. The group will switch up who handles the lead vocals on different songs. The harmony between the four is amazing. They performed their original music but also did some covers including Tom Petty’s “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” which sounded great. They said during the show that they hoped to have their CD released by January. I’m very much looking forward to getting it and they are easily on my favorite band list now. For more info on Gloriana, head over to their My Space page at: http://www.myspace.com/gloriana

Whitney Duncan took the stage next. Whitney’s new single “When I Said I Would” is all over radio and TV. Her song has been performing very well on CMT Power Picks defeating major competition. She is also preparing for her album to be released early next year. Whitney co-wrote all the songs on the CD. She is a mix of country and rock which shows with her musical influences in her life. Very good and fun show from Whitney!! She definitely already has this star power to her with her performances. She of course performed her hit song, When I Said I Would. It sounded incredible live!! She performed plenty of original stuff from her upcoming album but also did some covers as well. Whitney did an awesome cover of Fine Young Cannibal’s song, “She Drives Me Crazy”. When I was listening to her version, my first thought was, wow, I like this better than the original. You can really tell just how much fun that Whitney and her band have performing together. Whitney has the voice and stage presence that is no doubt going to make her a star. I really look forward to watching her climb the charts and doing great things in her career. For more info on Whitney Duncan, head over to her website at: http://www.whitneyduncan.com or over at her My Space page at: http://www.myspace.com/whitneyduncanmusic

Whitney Duncan and Gloriana also took the time to meet with their fans after their performances. Lots of picture taking and meeting time. A good time was had by all as everyone got to meet them.

Overall, a very fun night. For more offerings from the Clemens Fine Arts Center at West Kentucky Community and Technical College, head over to: http://focus.westkentucky.kctcs.edu/

Take care and God bless!!

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