Friday, October 30, 2009

Movie Notes, Survivor, Storm Chasers, & More - October 30, 2009

Michael Jackson’s “This Is It” is already doing well at the box office just after one day of release. $7.4 million was made on its first day and appears to be on its way to being the number one ranked musical documentary movie ever. It did $12.7 million overseas. $2.2 million was made just on midnight showings.

Movie box office numbers for last weekend. 1. Paranormal Activity - $21.1 million. 2. Saw VI - $14.1 million. 3. Where The Wild Things Are - $14 million. 4. Law Abiding Citizen - $12.4 million. 5. Couples Retreat - $10.6 million. 6. Astro Boy - $6.7 million. 7. Cirque Du Freak - $6.29 million. 8. The Stepfather - $6.23 million. 9. Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs - $5.2 million. 10. Zombieland - $4.2 million.

How about the story of Paranormal Activity? I just love stories like this. The movie was produced for around the amount of $15,000 at the director’s house in the time period of seven days. It has already made at least $62 million!!!! This movie got a wide release after a major campaign from people wanting to see the movie. Keep in mind that this movie started climbing the box office chart on limited release. It finally got the wide release and look at what it is doing. The actors were paid $500 a piece for their acting. LOL. I just love stories like this.

This past weekend’s episode of Storm Chasers saw some clashing going on between teams. I noticed last week how Reed’s vehicle was very TIV looking. Well, this week we saw Sean’s reaction to this and he isn’t happy about it. Sean’s frustration is definitely showing as he tries to get to a tornado while Reed and the TVN crew were one short going out chasing. It looks like that will come to a head this week on the next episode.

NBC has decided to not pick up Trauma for anymore episodes. The show will end at its 13 episode order. This is already a good thing for Chuck fans as now NBC has picked up six more episodes of Chuck bringing the order total to 19. There is talk that maybe Chuck might premiere earlier than planned as well. That would be great!!

Don’t forget that we have a major tease of a big moment for Clark and Lois on tonight’s Smallville.

This week's Survivor saw the rain settle down. Then, we find out that we’re going to be seeing the merge next week. Not much tonight as far as happenings tonight. Galu won the reward challenge. Shambo was voted as leader with the guys looking to reel her in for numbers. So, they pushed for that to happen. With the win for Galu, Shambo had to send someone from her tribe over to Foa Foa who would miss the reward and Laura was picked. Galu went on to win the immunity challenge. Liz ended up being voted out on a 4-1 vote even though Russell thought about targeting Jaison for his performance in the immunity challenge which involved a puzzle.

I checked out some of the U2 concert on You Tube over the weekend. It looked really good and it was an amazing size crowd in attendance. The live streaming looked really good.

TV on DVD releases for Tuesday, November 3. The Clone Wars (Season One), G.I. Joe (Season 1.2), Here’s Lucy (Season Two), Mission: Impossible (Season Seven), Spin City (Season Three), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Season Seven).

Twitter Updates Of The Week:
@RyanSeacrest: " Mj movie is powerful the singing.. the dancing!! He was a perfectionist...and very funny. Let me know when u check it out"

@darthvader: "I tried to get them to play the Imperial March during my Yanks' introduction, but it didn't fly with MLB."

You Tube Video Of The Week: Well, for a You Tube video for this week. How about just going with You Tube’s major deal that they had this past weekend. The streaming of a U2 concert live from the Rose Bowl. Here is the link to the full concert.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Michael Jackson's This Is It Movie Review - October 29, 2009

I went to the movies to see the new Michael Jackson documentary, “This Is It”. Wow is really all that can be said after seeing this. When the rehearsal footage was released back in June, I hoped that the producers would do something with it and release it. I said that whatever it was, I was in to watch it. So, I was thrilled to hear about this movie. “This Is It” features the rehearsal footage of Michael Jackson’s upcoming tour that was recorded in Los Angeles just before he passed away. This was going to be one incredible concert. Just seeing the rehearsal footage showed that and how great it was going to be. Several classic songs were getting some updated look to them. Footage was shot to be included on the video screen for Thriller and Smooth Criminal. Smooth Criminal went to a black and white style gangster looking type movie which was mixed in with the performance. It looked incredible and brought back many memories of the original video stuff for the song. I’ll tell you that Earth Song blew me away. They shot some incredible footage to tie in with that performance. I applauded after that song concluded. That was always one of my favorite songs of his that doesn’t get talked about as much as some of his other hits. The movie does a great job of mixing the performance footage with the behind the scenes stuff. The dancers and musicians are featured as well quite a bit with us hearing interviews with them of how excited that they are with working with Michael. You’ll see many times with how they are having fun just watching him perform on stage as they watch from the floor. One of these was when he performed Billie Jean. WOW!! Incredible is all that can be said. He looks so strong on stage and just has that incredible stage presence that he has always had. We also see him interacting with Kenny Ortega and giving input on things. Lots of funny moments in it as well including him going up on the lift with Kenny putting out a plea to Michael to hold on to the rail for safety reasons. Michael is very playful at times throughout this movie and just seems to really be enjoying the preparation for the tour. You also see him making changes to things along with the way and giving input on what he wants to have happen at various points. Just observing him doing that is amazing. I wondered what the movie would conclude with music wise and the last performance shown was of Man In The Mirror. Fittingly enough was what I think and that was also the song that concluded his memorial service back several months ago at the Staples Center. The new single, This Is It, is played and does a great job of piecing together the tribute. I tend to think that we’re going to see some new stuff on the DVD when it gets released. Heal The World was played during the credits in what sounded like a live version so I wonder if it may be an extra. I’m just speculating of course and don’t know anything. What I loved watching was how the people in the theatre with me were staying and watching the credits with MJ’s music along with it. It really was this feeling of that we were staying until the very end. I know that was what I was thinking. This was my last stuff of Michael that I was going to see and I was not getting up until the lights came up and it was over. I did some crowd watching too just to see what everyone was reacting to whether it was being able to tell what the favorite songs were of people watching and also just the range of ages. I noticed people of all ages there to watch the movie. It just goes to show how Michael ranged to all ages. If you are a Michael fan, I can’t recommend this movie enough. You need to see it and need to see it in the theater. It sounded incredible along with looking incredible. Get yourself to the theater and see it on the big screen. The movie is only out for a limited two week release and you can get more info at: http://www.thisisit-movie.com/

Friday, October 23, 2009

Storm Chasers, Transformers, Hulu Charging?, & More - October 23, 2009

First episode of Storm Chasers for the new season. One word….awesome!!! What an adrenaline rush that show is every episode!! Some changes this season with Reed Timmer and the TVN crew having a more armored vehicle to chase in which looks very TIV like as far as style. They had a very successful first day out. Speaking of the TIV, Sean Casey has now paired up with another team of meteorologists which I’m interested to see how that turns out. I often got frustrated for Sean at times cause it just seemed like Sean would not get put in the right places at times with Josh. It was almost this feeling of that he needed a fresh start with someone else so maybe he’ll get his shot from inside of a tornado soon. The first episode saw the return of the original TIV for now. There is a new person to the mix this season and that is Tim Samaras. He is actually the first one to get a camera in the path of a tornado. When that footage was aired of when that happened, I remember that I had seen it so it was nice to put a face to the person who got that footage. How great was “Blaze Of Glory” for a song to open up the episode??!! Great theme song for it and it goes great with the opening!! Love it!! If you missed the two hour best of show that aired before the premiere, you missed a great presentation as well. It reflected back on moments of the previous seasons including new interviews with the chasers looking back on those moments. Excellently produced!!

I watched Transformers Revenge Of The Fallen again this week following the DVD release. It was interesting to watch it again knowing how things were going to play out and watching the story as it grew. Some definite things worth checking out on the extras. If you’re an old school fan from the 80’s like myself, you’ll be interested in the 25 year anniversary featurette which shows how the characters and toys have changed over the years. It is very impressive to watch. I still say that one complaint that I have of the current Transformers is that it is too hard at times to determine who is who cause so many of them look alike. We need some more color on some of these characters where they are easy to figure out who is who. Too many just are completely silver.

A couple of Melrose Place stories this week. The first was that the show has gotten picked up for 18 total episodes which is good news. Well, the second was from Michael Ausiello who has the scoop on some changes in store for the show including casting. http://ausiellofiles.ew.com/2009/10/22/simpson-and-egglesfield-fired-on-melrose-place/ Wow, I’m with him in thinking that the show isn’t broken and doesn’t need fixing. Yeah, the ratings haven’t been that good but I don’t think it needs changes especially turning it into a happy show. That was the thing with 90210 and Melrose Place back in the day. Melrose was always a darker kind of show while 90210 was more of a happier show. You knew what you were getting. I think Melrose Place has been solid so far and this is coming from someone who watched the original. I just don’t think it needs changes. The casting changes are an odd one and I’m really not happy about Ashlee cause that is a major tie to the original series. Kristin at E Online got an interview with Colin about his leaving the show which you can read here: http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/watch_with_kristin/b150330_colin_egglesfield_explains_his_shocking.html Very interesting with what he has to say. Oh, it is not good a lot of times when a network starts trying to mess with a show’s creative direction. Like I said, I don’t think Melrose Place needs fixing.

Not any big recap of 90210 and Melrose Place this week. Just going to hit on some random quick thoughts. First, 90210. Well, I didn’t see the Sasha is pregnant thing coming. Nice twist especially when Dixon had just broken up with him finally seeing that they come from different worlds. Not sure if I like the whole Harry/Debbie/Kelly triangle that appears to be starting. As far as Melrose, well, we saw another former cast member return as Daphne Zuniga returned as Jo Reynolds. Her character was the photographer for Riley’s first photo shoot and made it rough on Riley. She definitely played a part in what appears to be starting which is problems between Jonah and Riley. It was fun to see her back in the apartment complex with the great line of her saying that there were so many memories there but most of which that she’d like to forget. This won’t be the last that we see of her.

Hilarious episode of The Big Bang Theory this week. I loved the stuff with Sheldon meeting his match in Will Wheaton. How hilarious was that? Then, Wheaton makes an even bigger enemy of Sheldon. The other story of the episode was the promise made between Leonard and Wolowitz that whoever got a girlfriend first would have to set the other one up with one of the girlfriend’s friends. Leonard forgot about it but Wolowitz didn’t. So, Penny set it up reluctantly and the double date was a lot of fun to watch. I loved just watching the reaction of Leonard and Penny as they watched it all unfold. How did the two bond? They bonded over how bad their mothers were. Best episode of the season so far. I laughed out loud a lot during this one.

The Whedonverse is a little concerned this week with the news that Fox has pulled Dollhouse off of the schedule for the entire sweeps month of November but it does appear that the show is set to return in December. Joss Whedon has commented on the schedule posting this: "Howzabout that schedule? Well, I'm not as depressed as everyone else...We get November to try to spread the word...and then December is pure gluttony." http://whedonesque.com/comments/22111#345804 However, we’re all going to be happy with the news that Summer Glau’s first appearance on Dollhouse will be next Friday, October 30.

Wild episode of Smallville tonight with Oliver getting the wakeup call that he much needed which was courtesy of Chloe. Green Arrow is back. If you’re a fan of Clark and Lois, the previews show that you will likely want to tune in next week. Well, you always need to tune in of course but next week will be a big moment. Either that or they’re teasing us big time.

NBC has picked up Community, Mercy, and also Parks and Recreation for full seasons.

I just have to comment about Miranda Lambert’s video “White Liar” which has recently premiered. Great video. How hilarious is the little boy’s reaction after everything is revealed where he just turns around with a look of “what in the world is going on here?”. I laughed for a while after that during the first time that I saw it.

Hulu made waves this week when News Corp’s Chase Carey suggested that they may start charging for content beginning next year. He teased that there would maybe be a subscription service with there still being some free content on the website. I can’t imagine that being a lot of big things that would be offered for free. Wow, I just don’t know if this will work for Hulu. They are really going to have to offer something big for the money to make this work. However, if they charged a flat fee of say something under $5 a month, would people be willing to shell that money out to have easy access to several of their favorite shows? I don’t know. The reaction that I have seen online has mostly been negative to the news. Nobody wants to pay for something when it is already free but I just don’t know if this will work for them or not if they do indeed go this route. It really depends on how they go about it and what they offer. It is going to be a tough sell to people who can just as easily set their DVR’s to record programs for free instead of paying.

I ended up staying up and watching a movie last night. I have one of those nights every so often where I'll end up on a scary movie of all things and then can't turn it off. The last time this happened was with Cabin Fever and I wanted to get all the sleep that I had lost back after seeing that movie cause I thought it was bad. Last night, I ended up watching Prom Night. Yeah, not my kind of movie at all as I'm just not into horror movies. This one wasn't really gory or anything like that so that was a nice change. This was more of a thriller than anything I thought where it was more of a mentally scary movie. The movie stars Brittany Snow of American Dreams fame. It's funny cause a friend of mine asked me at the time of release if I was going to watch the movie or not since I was a fan of that show knowing that I'm not into those kind of movies. I said no way. Yet here I am years later talking about watching it. LOL. Speaking of shows I like, there was Jessica Stroup from 90210 starring in it as well. Anyway, Brittany's character, Donna, is taking part in her prom night living with her aunt and uncle which takes place three years after her parents were murdered and she was there when it happened. The guy that did it was a teacher of hers named Richard who became obsessed with her and writing letters to her. Well, he was arrested for the murder and she ID’d him as the murderer. The guy escapes from prison and one clue on where he goes after getting out. Yep, he goes looking for her. So, the prom night turns into a battle of the police trying to catch the killer and while trying to protect her. I find it funny with these kind of movies where you'll say try to predict things. I bet this happens, bet he's in the closet, and things like that trying to predict stuff. Overall, I thought the movie was good and a simple kind of story. This is coming from someone that really has no interest in scary movies as I just kind of grew out of watching those sort of movies many years ago.

Movie box office numbers for last weekend. 1. Where The Wild Things Are - $32.6 million. 2. Law Abiding Citizen - $21 million. 3. Paranormal Activity - $19.6 million. 4. Couples Retreat - $17.2 million. 5. The Stepfather - $11.5 million. 6. Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs - $8 million. 7. Zombieland - $7.6 million. 8. Toy Story - $3 million. 9. Surrogates - $1.91 million. 10. The Invention Of Lying - $1.90 million.

Big moment for You Tube this weekend. They will be streaming the U2 concert live from The Rose Bowl on the website. The time to tune in is Sunday, October 25 at 8:30pm pacific time.
http://www.youtube.com/U2?feature=mkt-ha-ugc#p/uj

TV on DVD releases for Tuesday, October 27. The Fugitive (Season Three - Volume One), The Guardian (Season One).

TV Line Of The Week: From 90210
“I am not getting caught climbing into the window, Katie Holmes style.”
Sasha to Dixon talking about their sneaking around kind of relationship.

Twitter Update Of The Week: Felicia Day
@feliciaday "My Halloween costume strategy: Wait until 4pm on Oct 31, go to costume kids section and wear whatever's left (How I went as Zack Efron 1yr)"

You Tube Video Of The Week: Incredible costume of Bumblebee that does indeed transform. Incredible work on that costume.


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

ABC Premieres The First 9 Minutes Of V - October 23, 2009

If you can’t wait for the premiere of V on November 3. ABC has released a tease for it. Here is the link to check out the first nine minutes of the premiere.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Survivor Samoa Thoughts - October 22, 2009

What a miserable time for the cast of Survivor. Wow, they just can’t get the rain to stop!! It is unreal with how miserable that it looks out there. The conditions took someone from the game during the reward challenge. Jeff Probst announced that the tribes would battle for a reward of pizza but that both tribes would have to go to tribal council regardless. The winner would eat pizza while watching the other’s tribal council. That gets us to Russell S who had been working himself hard even while the rain was going on. He could have sat out of the challenge but decided that he would do it. Exhaustion kicked in during the challenge which was had the cast members blindfolded. Russell blacked out and Jeff stopped the challenge calling for medical. Russell was checked on and Jeff called off the challenge knowing that Russell was in bad shape. Since the challenge wasn’t completed, Jeff sent the tribes back without a winner and neither getting to take part in reward. Jeff stayed with Russell and the medical team. His heart rate dropped dramatically in a few minutes. When they sat him up again, he again blacked out. It was scary!! He was alert again after they had laid him back down. Russell was pulled from the game with Jeff explaining to him that he had blacked out twice and his heart rate and blood pressure was an issue. Russell, of course, took it hard. There was a lot more rain during the time between the challenge and tribal council. That could not look more miserable!! Both tribes showed up to tribal council where it was announced that Russell was out of the game. Jeff spoke saying that it was the scariest moment that he had had since being on Survivor. Wouldn’t you know that it rained once again during tribal council. Jeff announced that nobody would be voted out but Galu was already hurting having lost their leader. They were told that they would have to name a new leader after returning to camp. Really tough to see Russell have to leave the game like that. He has been such a strong competitor. Just goes to show that the conditions can wear down even the ones that appear the strongest. This season provided yet another Survivor first. The first time that a challenge would not be completed. This is a tough season. This is one of those moments where TV can’t do something justice with showing the conditions. That is scary cause the rain looks miserable just how they are capturing it on TV. I can’t even imagine how bad it must be to experience first hand. I was like them tonight with smiling when I saw the sun and rainbow show up when they got a break from the rain. Unfortunately, it didn’t last.

New Gloriana Video Premieres On CMT - October 22, 2009

Gloriana’s new video has premiered on CMT. “How Far Do You Wanna Go?” is the third music video from their debut album. It is definitely one of my favorite songs on the album. Really upbeat and fast song which leads off the album. I had gotten a message that their video was going to be premiering earlier this week. I woke up the morning of the premiere and was wondering when I would catch it airing. Well, I turned over to CMT after being awake for about 30 seconds and there it was starting. I was thinking, well, how about that for timing? LOL. Fun video. If you haven't seen the video, here it is:

Pre-order Carrie Underwood's New CD "Play On"

Carrie Underwood's new CD "PLAY ON" is in stores and iTunes on Nov 3rd, but you (and your friends and family) can Pre-Order an exclusive CD bundle that includes Carrie's latest CD and a limited edition 11" x 17" print featuring brand new art from her 'PLAY ON' photo shoot. This exclusive, collectible print is hand-numbered and limited to a run of 5,000. As an added bonus, Carrie has personally signed 500 of these prints at random so if you wanna get a signed copy, you better order ASAP!! You can click on the link below for more information.




If you haven't seen the amazing video for her first single off of the album, Cowboy Casanova, here it is.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Storm Chasers Set To Return On Discovery Channel This Sunday Night

One of my TV addictions returns for its new season this Sunday night on Discovery Channel. Storm Chasers!!! This is a TV show obsession of mine!! I’ll even watch the episodes over again if I see the show on. I’ve always been very intrigued with storm chasing and have been hooked on this show since it first premiered. Lots of fun to watch the crews in action and the different styles that they have in storm chasing. Reed already gave a tease of some BIG things to come for them this season back in the spring when they were filming the episodes. Major happening for Reed and his crew this season so tune in!! The season premiere is this Sunday, October 18 at 9pm central time on Discovery Channel. Tune in at 7pm central time for a two hour Storm Chasers Greatest Storms show. Here is the link for more info on Storm Chasers followed by a preview for this season:
http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/storm-chasers/storm-chasers.html?campaign=dsc-int-hp-drl-sc-main

90210/Melrose, Real World Flashbacks, Transformers, & More - October 15, 2009

Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen hits DVD shelves this Tuesday, October 20. Ok, there are several different store exclusives being released for it so you will want to check all of the store sale ads to see where you want to pick up the DVD. If you aren’t familiar with what I’m saying, the stores will have exclusives to the movie only for them to entice you to buy the DVD from their store. Check the ads and make sure which one appeals more to you and find where you want to buy it. I loved this movie when I saw it back in the summer so I’m looking forward to seeing it again.

Hey, Little People Big World is back!! I had no clue that it was set to return!! Great to have it back. How did I find out? My mom called and said hey, did you know Little People Big World was back? No clue. Did TLC promote this at all???!!! Did I miss the promotion for it? I didn’t know anything else aired on TLC anymore besides Jon and Kate Plus 8. It was similar to Trademark Properties returning back a couple of months ago with no promotion except for Trademark doing the promotion themselves.

ABC has picked up FlashForward for the full season.

Movie box office numbers for the last couple of weeks.
Box office numbers for October 2-4. 1. Zombieland - $24.7 million. 2. Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs - $15.8 million. 3. Toy Story - $12.4 million. 4. Surrogates - $7.2 million. 5. The Invention Of Lying - $7 million. 6. Whip It - $4.65 million. 7. Fame - $4.62 million. 8. Capitalism - $4.4 million. 9. The Informant! - $3.6 million. 10. Love Happens - $2.7 million.
Box office numbers for last weekend. 1. Couples Retreat - $34.2 million. 2. Zombieland - $14.8 milliion. 3. Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs - $11.5 million. 4. Paranormal Activity - $7.9 million. 5. Toy Story - $7.7 million. 6. Surrogates - $4.2 million. 7. The Invention Of Lying - $3.3 million. 8. Whip It - $2.8 million. 9. Capitalism - $2.6 million. 10. Fame - $2.5 million.

Well, that was a creepy little episode of Smallville last week. The zombie episode was a wild one. I liked the stuff involving the triangle of Clark, Lois, and Oliver. Oliver continues his spiral downhill and played a crucial role in Lois almost being killed.

Just wanted to also add how great that How I Met Your Mother has been this season as well. The Robin 101 class last week was a very funny idea with Ted teaching Barney what all there is to know about Robin to help him out with the relationship. Then, we had Marshall and Lilly showing how bad that they are at hosting couple nights this week. That was funny too. The show is really on a great pace this season and we’re early into it.

I have to say that 90210 has a much nicer pace story wise this year. Last year just felt so completely rushed at times with flying through storylines. This year, things have settled down and I’m enjoying this season quite a bit. The stuff with Annie has been good and I liked the back and forth between guys this week. She went from being told the stories about Jasper’s troubles by Mark and ending up with Mark at the beach. When Mark tried to take advantage of her, Jasper jumped in for the save. So, now Annie is back hanging out with Jasper. Remember that he is the guy that is the nephew of the guy she hit with the car. He still does not know that or hasn’t let on anyway. Kelly’s return to 90210 on this episode was with big purpose. Jackie was brought back last week and the storyline with her is that she has cut all the bad out of her life with drinking and all including her attending AA meetings. However, we also learned that Jackie has cancer. So, Jackie is trying to make things right with the time that she has left and reconnected with Silver. Silver and Kelly clashed over that with Kelly being mad at Jackie for asking Silver to move back in with her. Kelly explained Silver’s bipolar disorder but Silver did eventually decide to move back in. Adrianna ended things with Navid and was ready to go back to Teddy. However, Teddy didn’t want a relationship out of him and Adrianna. So, she realized that she had messed up. Navid did find out the truth about the kiss between Teddy and Adrianna from Teddy himself.

Like mother, like daughter. Moving on to Melrose Place. Well, Violet has turned into quite the character, hasn’t she? She is following right behind Sydney’s footsteps including hooking up with Michael and now framing him for revenge for her mom. Wow. I liked that whole storyline and it really did seem like, yeah, that would be Sydney’s daughter. LOL. Classic Sydney move. It’s really the feeling of how things would be with Sydney cause you were wondering what her agenda was. That has how things have become with Violet.

Flashback moment this week when I saw that Rachel Campos-Duffy was a guest host on The View. If the name doesn't ring a bell, Rachel was one of the cast of the third season of The Real World which took place in San Francisco. So, if you wonder what she is up to now, she is now a mother of five and about to be the mother of six. Seeing Rachel on TV really brought back Real World memories. Wow, do you remember when that show used to be so good? The first three seasons were incredible TV. I'm not saying that seasons that followed weren't good cause they were and some of the other seasons were favorites of mine. However, those first three seasons was such great TV to watch. The show started as a social experiment to see what would happen when you put different personalities of a people in a house together. The results of it were all across the board. I thought New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco were all amazing seasons to watch. I even liked London too which is not a favorite among most Real World fans. I think it is because they got along too much. Hey, what is wrong with that? The show provided many good seasons after the original seasons with some being favorites of mine and others that were just kind of ehhh to me. I haven't watched The Real World in many years after I saw what the show had become but seeing Rachel on TV again really did make me remember the fun times of this show and how it used to be TV watching that you planned around.

Michael Jackson's new single "This Is It" has premiered on his website. I’m not sure when the song was actually recorded. I read that it was recorded in 1991 and then read an article that it was recorded in the early 80’s. It does seem like the mid 80’s is the answer based on recent articles. It really is amazing to think of just how many songs that he has recorded that have just never been released. Reports have said that there could be albums to be released for a long time to come just based off the amount of material that he recorded. The song will be the theme to the new movie, This Is It, with the movie being released on October 28. A special two disc album for the movie will be released on October 27 with a vinyl version being released on November 10. The first disc will be a greatest hits compilation including two versions of “This Is It”. Disc two will feature unreleased versions of some of his songs. If you want to hear “This Is It”, here is the link: http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid43635036001?bclid=43205433001&bctid=44135350001

Here are a couple of weeks worth of TV on DVD releases.
Released this past Tuesday: Girlfriends (Season Seven), Married…With Children (Season Eleven).
TV on DVD releases for Tuesday, October 20. Charlie Brown/Peanuts (1970’s Collection Volume One), Hawaii Five-O (Season Seven), It’s Garry Shandling’s Show (Full Series), Numb3rs (Season Five), Route 66 (Season Three – Volume Two), Saturday Night Live (Best Of Amy Poehler), Transformers (25th Anniversary Matrix of Leadership Edition: Collector’s Set), Vega$ (Season One – Volume One).

TV Line Of The Week: From the Celebrity Ghosts Stories segment on Saturday Night Live.
Keenan Thompson playing the role of Ray Parker Jr. who sang the 80’s hit single Ghostbusters:
“I bought a haunted mansion. Do you know what ghosts don’t like? A hit song boasting that you aren’t afraid of them. And to prove me wrong, they decided to haunt me. Finally I had to say it. I am afraid of a ghost. I issued an apology with my 1996 single “On Second Thought (Ghosts Scare Me Very Much)”.

Video of the Week: Conan O’Brien races Jimmie Johnson with Christian Slater along for the ride on The Tonight Show. Skip ahead 6 minutes into the clip to see the actual race.



Twitter Update Of The Week: @RyanSeacrest
“Alarm just went off in the E! building telling everyone to evacuate the building...its raining giuliana's hair in the rain!! Yikes”

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

Survivor/Amazing Race Recap & Thoughts - October 15, 2009

This week’s Survivor had the cast members getting absolutely pounded with rain. 48 hours straight of rain and by the looks of next week, it isn’t going to let up. Recapping last week, Yasmin was sent home from Galu after they lost their first immunity challenge. Russell S did not want to send Yamin home as he felt that she was strong in challenges but the consensus won over and Yasmin was sent packing. Tonight, the tribes battled in a reward challenge which was a food challenge. The horrible food was mixed up blender style and everyone had drank their glass coming down to a tie going into the last round between Ashley for Foa Foa and Dave for Galu. Dave got his down but the noises that he was making messed with Ashley. As he got done, he continued to taunt her from the sidelines and Ashley was not able to drink it all. That gave the win to Galu. The winning tribe had to send someone to the other tribe to spy once again. Russell S sent Shambo once again meaning that she would not get to take part in the reward which was the Survivor BBQ. Shambo spoke up saying that it was unfair to send her again saying that she had done her time. Russell basically punished her for losing the chicken on last week’s episode. Shambo once again bonded with the Foa Foa tribe and shared the hidden immunity idol clue with everyone. She figured out that it was in the certain tree and realized that someone had to have it already. Liz called out Russell H on it saying that she thought he had it. That put a target on her from Russell and he is already saying that he has to get rid of her cause of her similar style of gameplay. Over at Galu, Russell S was unable to get the fire started to get the BBQ rolling. Dave spoke up frustrated about the fire and not being asked for help. He eventually apologized realizing that he didn’t need to put a target on his back and got the fire going. The rains moved in big time and the immunity challenge took place in the rain. Ashley did not perform well in the immunity challenge either. Galu won their second straight immunity challenge despite a great effort from Liz. The rain then messed up even strategizing as no one could even get out and roam to make plays on who to vote out. Everyone was stuck together and just decided that they would vote for whoever. Well, that turned out to be Ashley. She was voted out on a five to one vote with her being the only one against and she voted for Liz. Bad too that the people that she said that she trusted the most voted against her too. Not so much in Russell H but that Natalie voted her out too. All I can say is that rain looks absolutely miserable!!!!!

Moving on to this week's Amazing Race. Wow, talk about an all over the place set of emotions for one team. Zev and Justin's race could not have been more dramatic. The leg of the race started with them being stuck on standby for a flight that every team was on except for them and Lance and Keri. Both teams were able to make the flight with all of the other teams and avoid the disaster of being two hours behind that quickly. Zev and Justin were able to overcome and get into first place midway through the leg. They were passed by Sam and Dan at the last task. However, Zev and Justin made it to the mat first and went from last to first. This is when things went badly wrong for them. After checking in, they realized that Justin's passport was missing. You can't compete without it. So, they went to Phil and he told them that they would have to find the passport or be eliminated from the race. The last team to arrive was Maria and Tiffany. However, Zev and Justin had left to go and try the impossible task of finding the missing passport when they called their taxi driver back. Maria and Tiffany were informed that they were last but that a team had lost a passport. They are in the race while Zev and Justin were out. They eventually returned with no such luck on finding the passport and were eliminated from the race. Standings at this point: 1. Sam and Dan. 2. Flight Time and Big Easy. 3. Brian and Ericka. 4. Gary and Matt. 5. Meghan and Cheyne. 6. Lance and Keri. 7. Mika and Canaan. 8. Maria and Tiffany.

DVR Numbers For Premiere Week See Smallville & Dollhouse Jump Big - October 15, 2009

Here comes some great news for fans of Smallville and Dollhouse. The ratings have not been good for Dollhouse so far this season and Smallville has been down too overall. Wait for it, that is obviously not the good news. Both shows air on Friday nights. What does that mean? A lot of people don’t watch TV on Friday nights cause they aren’t home. That means that they are setting their DVR’s and watching shows later. To back that up, here comes the first set of DVR numbers for the season. Premiere week had Smallville and Dollhouse both jump 50% in viewers when the DVR numbers were added. Those two had the highest . Comparing Dollhouse to last season, the show jumped 30% after DVR numbers which means that it grew in DVR numbers with this season’s premiere. I get so sick and tired of networks looking at live ratings numbers with shows. They are going to have to realize that the day and age of watching shows live are over. People are going to their DVR’s or going to streaming shows online to watch at their own convenience. Sure, you’re going to have shows that will do well playing live. However, let’s look at these numbers. The networks are targeting the 18-49 demographic. If you want to go even younger and hit the 18-34 demographic, The CW is a good example to look at what the younger audience is doing. DVR viewing!! Below those two shows, 90210 was next in DVR viewer gain with 40%. Melrose Place jumped up 38% while Gossip Girl jumped 36%. Other shows that saw big gains were Fringe on Fox which was up 38%. Law & Order was also up 33% on NBC which also airs….on Friday night. Heroes saw a 32% gain with its DVR viewership. Getting numbers like this just makes me laugh. I just get so tired of hearing about networks complaining about shows doing low numbers on Friday nights. Smallville was the biggest one that made me laugh when people said, hey, its ratings are down. Well, no duh. You moved it from Thursday to Friday. Did you expect it to go up? DVR numbers and online streaming are going to have to be paid attention to more cause you may have a hit on your hands and your audience is finding other ways to watch it. That target younger demographic is doing so and it shows with those CW numbers.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

HIMYM, Survivor, Amazing Race Premiere, Seinfeld Reunion, & More - October 4, 2009

Monday night’s episode of How I Met Your Mother had such a fun and simple storyline that I loved. What happens when you go on a blind date and then end up on a blind date again years later with the same person? The twist is that you don’t remember going on a date before and how it went wrong. That was the scenario for Ted as he and his date for the night, played by Lindsay Sloane who was awesome by the way in this episode, finally realized during their meal that they knew each other. So, they just confided in each other to figure out what went wrong for the other during their original date to give each other clues on what they need to work on about themselves. The episode featured a lot of cool effects flashing back on their date seven years earlier. Anyway, just wanted to comment on how much that I loved the episode.

Reports this week from several media outlets that Rachel Bilson will be guest starring on How I Met Your Mother later this season. Could we be getting closer to finding out who the mother is going to be? TV Guide speculated on it getting a quote from the show’s creator about Bilson’s guest starring role on the 100th episode. http://www.tvguide.com/News/Rachel-Bilson-Met-1010443.aspx I’m excited to see Rachel appearing on the show. I enjoy her acting roles and I thought she was a nice addition to Chuck when she had a guest starring role on there for a few episodes.

This week’s Smallville saw Metallo brought out full force and ready to take on Clark. Solid episode. At first, I was thinking how lame that it was how he went down without a fight. The fight wasn’t over though but Clark was still able to save the day. I like the interaction of Clark and Chloe where she is really all over him upset wanting for him to decide what he wanted to do with either being Clark or going to his Kryptonian side. Later, you could see that she appeared to be hurt that he was confiding in Lois but not in her. Clark Kent is back after he realized that he can’t not let his human side be a part of him. Solid episode.

Moving on to Survivor. Ben’s clashing with the tribe was a major focus of the episode. Russell told Ben that Ashley was the one that had been gunning for him. This led to a confrontation with Ben going after Ashley. Of course, Russell is just stirring things up again. The immunity challenge was once again won by Galu. Isn’t it funny how members of Foa Foa was talking so much trash on that first episode but yet they now are in a major losing streak and complete disarray? With the win, Russell (Galu leader Russell) was able to choose one of his own to go over to Foa Foa. He chose Shambo and she hit it off with mostly everyone big time at Foa Foa. I think she is in excellent position if the tribes get shaken up soon. Russell also chose the reward of comfort over function to please the women. I can’t remember who made the point but the truth was that with the tarp, they could have stayed dry. When it rains, all the comfort stuff is going to be soaked and miserable. Jaison was targeting Ben for being voted out especially upset over the comments that Ben made last week to Yasmin. Jaison did some major bargaining to assure that Ben would go home including him saying that he would go home if Ben didn’t. Russell wanted Ben to stay but chose to pick his battles and went with the group this time. We did have a back and forth exchange between Ben and Jaison at tribal council and Ben was voted out getting six out of seven votes.

90210 and Melrose Place. Starting with 90210. The most interesting thing for me in this episode, to no surprise, was the stuff with Annie meeting the nephew of the victim of the hit and run. It turned out that the victim was a former student at the school and had donated $100,000 to the school. He is giving off vibes of that he doesn’t understand why Annie is showing so many emotions over it. I’m thinking that he is beginning to get a clue that she knows something. Yeah, Jane’s debut on the new Melrose Place was a LOT of fun this week. It sure didn’t take her long to start negotiating with scare tactics. She became the new landlord taking over for her sister, Sydney. She already knew about everyone based on what Sydney had told her. So, she was looking to make some lives miserable for some payback. She had a lot on Ella so she used Ella to have one of her clients wear a Jane Andrews dress. However, that gets a Mancini involved as it always does. David found out from Ella about what Jane’s threats were and then found himself battling against Jane to see who could dig up more dirt on the other. Yeah, Jane has a lot of baggage and I’m sure David knows a LOT of that from his dad. Jane did make a threat at Ella to end the episode hoping that it was all worth it with what Ella had done. I liked the stuff with Violet in this episode. She got a visit from the cops to begin the episode and then took off out of the window. She ended up on the run and found Jane. Jane looked to be on her side including Violet introducing herself as Sydney’s daughter. Jane called and turned her in. Riley was the one to post the bond to get her out of jail and Violet stayed with her and Jonah. Jonah wasn’t for this at all as he is completely convinced that something is going on with Violet. This provided for some funny scenes and interaction between the three. I thought the funniest was him not wanting to touch the food that Violet had made for everyone later. News is getting around that she is Sydney’s daughter but she is telling a much different story on the mood of Sydney’s upon finding out about her.

The new Amazing Race is off and running. Just thought I’d give some random comments on the two hour premiere. Wow, that twist of having the teams competing to even get to start the race was a nice twist. One team was eliminated before it even began. That team was Eric and Lisa who were out of the race just like that. It should be pointed out that teams were freaking out in that task to make sure they’d get to compete. I was just kind of “ehh” to the Japanese game show task. Meghan and Cheyne were the first at the pit stop while Maria and Tiffany arrived last. Non elimination leg of the race so they got to continue into hour two of the episode. Maria and Tiffany are an interesting pair to follow so far. They are poker players but decided not to tell anyone because they feel that people wouldn’t want to team with them if they knew that they were money makers. So, they told everyone the lie that they worked for a homeless shelter. The problem with that is that the secret is already out. They were recognized at the airport and teams are already getting word around to one another. Maria and Tiffany did have a speed bump to complete in the second leg of the race. They were able to come back and stay right in the middle of the race. The duck task was fun to watch as I can imagine that being incredibly frustrating. Eliminated were Garrett and Jessica. It came down to a battle between them and Brian and Ericka to remain in the race.

I liked this week’s episode of FlashForward more than the premiere. The investigation continues to find out who the person was that was walking around the ballpark while everyone else was blacked out. It led to an explosive confrontation with what appeared to be D Gibbons, who has involvement in this blackout. The worse part on that was for Demitri was when he ran into another woman who also did not have a vision. He goes from having something in common with someone to then seeing her shot and killed. Then, he gets the call that he will be murdered on March 15, 2010 from a woman that got a vision that included him. I’ve been saying all along that I want to know more of what the little girl saw. Well, she had no vision of the father in the hospital that ends up with Olivia. However, she had a vision of the little boy. This is an interesting show.

The Seinfeld cast is reuniting on Curb Your Enthusiasm. I read a really good cover story article on the reunion in a recent Entertainment Weekly. Basically they will be appearing in multiple episodes with the story being them shooting a reunion of the Seinfeld show. The set has even been reconstructed. I’m a huge Seinfeld fan so this is very exciting. The idea of the story sounds fun. For a preview, head over to the Curb Your Enthusiasm site: http://www.hbo.com/larrydavid/

Conan O’Brien had an accident on his show last week and a rerun was put in its place for Friday night. He and Teri Hatcher were doing a triathlon for the show and then Conan fell and hit his head. He was taken to the hospital afterwards. Glad to see that he is ok!! Here is the video clip if you haven’t seen it.


Movie box office numbers for last weekend. 1. Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs - $25 million. 2. Surrogates - $14.9 million. 3. Fame - $10 million. 4. The Informant - $6.6 million. 5. Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All By Myself - $4.7 million. 6. Pandorum - $4.4 million. 7. Love Happens - $4.3 million. 8. Jennifer’s Body - $3.6 million. 9. 9 - $2.9 million. 10. Inglourious Ba****** - $2.6 million.

So, Rio de Janeiro got the Summer Olympic games for 2016? What a bummer!! I was hoping that Chicago would get it obviously. I was already thinking that I might have to plan a trip to Chicago and get to experience an Olympic games in person. That would have been a dream come true. I was surprised, like everyone else, that it wasn’t even a close vote either.

Well, what do you know? Sawyer was in a music video. I’m talking about Lost’s Josh Holloway. I was watching some old music videos over the weekend and there he was in Aerosmith’s music video for “Cryin”. The video has always been famous for Alicia Silverstone’s appearance in it. If you wonder where he is in the video, he is the guy that runs out of a diner after he stole her purse. He then ends up taking a knockout kick from her. I just thought that was hilarious that I noticed him in it and he doesn’t look a lot different either from season one of Lost especially with this music video being made in 1993. That is a classic video by the way!! Loved it immediately.

TV on DVD releases for Tuesday, October 6. Ally McBeal (Season One), Bones (Season Four), Get Smart (Season Four), The Hills (Season Five – Part One), The Mary Tyler Moore Show (Season Five), Medium (Season Five), Mister Ed (Season One), Nip/Tuck (Season Five – Part Two).

TV Lines Of The Week:
From How I Met Your Mother. Ted and Jen talking about coming to the realization that they had been on a date before seven years earlier.
Ted: “Oh my gosh. Do you realize what this means? Since our last date, we’ve done a complete lap of all the single people in New York only to end up back here with each other.”
Jen: “We’re going to die alone, aren’t we?”

From The Big Bang Theory:
“Interesting. You’re afraid of insects and women. Ladybugs must leave you catatonic.” - Sheldon to Raj

Twitter Update Of The Week: Julie Benz. Sounds like Julie Benz is an early fan of FlashForward as well.
@juliebenz “What I meant by Flashforward being scary- In a creepy good intense way...Like Lost! Soooo intense!!!! Makes my heart pound! Love it!!

You Tube Video Of The Week: Needing a catchup on The Big Bang Theory? Here is an excellent recap of some of the happenings of season two.


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

Big Brother Over The Top - Week One Thoughts

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