Pleasant Surprises

Made the appointment to register for classes late and they didn't hassle me.

While TiVo recorded The Closer unexpectedly and I liked it.

The Closer: Pilot/An officer investigates crimes.
Stars Kyra Sedgwick as Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson a new person joining an L.A. police team that investigates high profile crimes.
This first episode was great. It was very graphic and smart. Johnson comes in as deputy chief out ranking veteran officers and everyone hates her. She also is a bit quirky and has a sweets fetish.
The first crime involved a computer millionaire's murder with a gender twist. Of course she solves the crime with ease.
The story was secondary to the acting, such great performances from Sedgwick and J.K. Simmons as her boss. The cast is very New York, by that I mean the actors from Oz and Law & Order are there and other New York faces you commonly see.

Great now I have one more show to add to my, way too long, list of things to watch. Thanks TNT.



Also as some may know I leave my TV on when I'm home during the day despite what else I do. It was on ABC during All My Children and I heard this high pitch distinctive voice of Mrs. Foreman. When I look it is Debra Jo Rupp playing a crazy alcoholic lady. I always thought people only did soaps when they have nothing else to do or as a means to revive their career. Why was she there? Is she related to someone there?

That 70's Show has not filmed there final episode as far as I know.

Update: I found some website that claimed this--She[Rupp] actually played Sheila, the topless waitress on AMC 25 years ago.

TV Guide: Dec. 26-Jan.1

Damn the year is about over, my college pushed back registration to January 16 because of the strike and I just finished all my shopping and celebrations with friends yesterday.

Oh well at least I'll have two weeks before school starts calling.

On this TV Guide cover we have TV PREVIEW 25 new show and 14 returning favorites. The 8 page article starts off with 24 which I will not read because it's full of spoilers. Lots of the new shows sound crappy. For example: The Book of Daniel stars Aidan Quinn as a drug addict minister who talks to Jesus Christ...hmmm it's a cross between House and Joan of Arcadia.
There is What About Brian in the vain of Freddie or How I Met Your Mother has Barry Watson being single with hottie Sarah Lancaster.
Scrubs is back on Tuesday January 3rd.
John Stamos and Rebecca Romijn both have shows about being single, rich and beautiful.
Beauty and The Geek 2, 'nuff said.

Good Things To Read Inside:

• Mariah Carey sings at Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' 2006.
• Series Finale of Hot Properties...never saw one episode.
• The top 5 shows are on CBS and I've never seen any of them, CSI, Survivor, etc.
• Huge new behind the scenes pictures of Surface including some spoilers and a new character. January 2nd is the first new episode and there is tons of diving.
• Abby is preggers on ER because Tierney is in real life.
• Justine Bateman on Arrested Development.
• Jeers to the Jeers of the idiot who complained about Monday Night Football schedules, this is not a sitcom you can't pick the best teams and throw them up on any giving Monday.
• Joss Whedon jokes about TV.
• Soaps are getting worse with 24 episode in story commercials and Dancing tie ins.
• Some pretty pictures of the TV stars.
• In Memoriam with so many famous people who died this year.
• Their top ten holiday episodes are wrong, the have the Honeymooners and The O.C. on the same list.

Okay I would add that the best Christmas episode in recent years had to be Popular: "Fall on Your Knees" the episode had mean bitch Nicole Julian(Tammy Lynn Michaels) in her own personal version of The Christmas Carol being visited by the 4 ghost and learning a lesson for a day. It was a great epiosde and soon after the show went to hell.

All My Rowdy Friends Are Gone

Tonight I saw the last Monday Night Football game.

After 35+ years/36 season of Monday night football ABC lost this TV changing show to ESPN.
The 555th broadcast opened with the most best voice in Monday Night Football, Mr. Howard Cosell.
John Madden and Al Michaels showed clips and talked over this lackluster game. Some great stories and of course a few of thousand of the greatest football moments that happened on Mondays.

The first Monday Night Football game featured the Jets losing 21-31 to the Brown.
Today the Jets lost to the Patriots 21-31. Synergy people!!

The crew still has the Superbowl before they disappear forever.

If you know TV you know the impact Monday Night Football had on all the shows. Football at 9:00pm/ET forced every station to put up there lesser shows until 24 came around.

I saw some of the best games on Monday while flipping to the CBS sitcom in the last few years before TiVo came out.

Moving to ESPN is horrible not everyone has cable and I grew up on broadcast TV, it is not fair to put football out of reach to young fans, yes ESPN is basic cable but it still seems wrong.

NYC You Just Been Punk'D

After a three day transit strike the union decided to go back to work even without a contract.

Now my birthday/Christmas celebrations are all messed up and I won't go shopping until after Christmas.
TV is boring, I've been catching up with Everybody Hates Chris and that is a damn funny show but they exaggerate the poverty and under-play the violence here in Brooklyn especailly in the 1980's.
Even though I believe Chris Rock was a kid in the 1970's.

Another thing that bugs me about this show is that the products( soda cans, shoe boxes, money) are all modern, they don't have a good research department.


MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL MY FRIENDLY VISITORS!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS LOREN.
MERRY CHRISTMAS LUISA.
MERRY CHRISTMAS JUNIPER_TREE.
MERRY CHRISTMAS DANI.

I wish you get all the gifts, love and joy you can handle....and then get a little more.

The Poster for the NYC Strike

TV is almost dead and I can't travel more then two blocks so I'm photoshopping some of the crappy strike stuff.
The New York City strike will probably end on Saturday.

I could post my Christmas want list but it only has one thing.
A Samsung DLP TV at least 50" no more than 66".

On With The Shows

Strike Poster
Originally uploaded by David Reeves.

Okay going back a day or two the President made an impromptu speech on Sunday trying to justify the war. Well I like his moxy but he keeps stumble while speaking.

Family Guy: The Father, the Son and the Holy Fonz
Peter is looking for a good church and invents the Church of Fonz. They took some funny shots to Desperate Housewives and Madonna, who now looks like a 70 year old prostitute.

SideNote: The recent South Park episode about the bleeding Mary statue has been condemed by the Catholic Church and called to be smited from existence.
American Dad: Not Particularly Desperate Housewives
Fran tries to join a click and Stan gets a dog. Could be better.

Arrested Development: Making A Stand
Damn funny episode. Having the father filming his sons fighting and then selling the tapes was great, but when the Latino workers recognized the sons that had me rolling. Overall a great show so many small laughs.

How I Met Your Mother: The Limo
A cool episode with Neil Patrick Harris playing Barney stealing every scene.
Thanks to TV Squad here's a list of his "Getting Psyched" mixed tape.
1) I Wanna Rock -- Twisted Sister
2) You Give Love A Bad Name -- BJ (Bon Jovi)
3) Lick It Up -- KISS
4) Paradise City -- GNR (Guns & Roses)
5) Dancing With Myself -- Billy Idol
6) Rock You Like A Hurricane -- Scorpy (Scorpions)
7) Panama -- Van Halen
8) Talk Dirty To Me -- Poison
9) Thunderstruck -- AC/DC
10) Dr. Feelgood -- Crue (Motley Crue)
11) Round and Round -- Ratt

This was a New Years episode and was as funny as it was sweet having Robin kiss Ted after midnight.
God the girl they get to be Ted's future wife better be perfect.

Two and a Half Men: Santas Village of The Damned
Alan has a girlfriend is a nester and she is plying the family with home cooked feast. A truly funny episode while we watch the guys get fatter every scene.
Also having Josie Davis playing the domestic hottie was perfect, many may remember her from Charles In Charge as the nerdy sister.

At the end of the show they have an essay as the closing credit, form Chuck Lorre I assume he did the same at the end of Dharma & Greg. Usually just rambling but his one was a complain about the fact that Weeds got nominated for an award over this show. I said the same. Weeds is horrible and not funny, while this show is crass but hilarious. He said he won before for Cybil because he took the judges out for dinner and this year he gave the judges junk.

NEW YORK CITY ON HOLD

The evil union did it as of 3:00 AM they called a strike. No trains or buses.
I never cared for unions especially those run by immigrants.
The TWU (tranist workers union) wants to keep the retirement age at 55 years old and the as evil MTA (the bosses) want to raise it to 62, I believe they should raise it to 65.
Americans now live to nearly 78 years on average and a 55 year retirement age is dumb. In twenty years the lifespan will go up again.
I wish there was a way to replace both groups, dammit where are my flying cars!!

I'll have time to review TV tomorrow, it's not like I'm going anywhere.

In case you were going to bitch about how much unions did for the country....I agree.
Then they got corrupt beyond excuse.

TV Guide: Dec. 19-25

Well I'll first say the Giants are 10 - 4 and doing great, let's not speak of the Jets.

Second the transit strike has been pushed back to midnight Tuesday. I still haven't shopped mostly because I got a whole bunch of free online coupons and discounts I may use..oh yeah and my overwhelming laziness.

Third I finally got FX on my cable, now let's see what all the hype is about.

Back to the TV Guide on the cover Patrick Dempsey and the title My Big Year. The accompanying article is 24 pages long. It's a look back of the biggest things on TV in 2005. Here's a partial list.

• Patrick Dempsey came from Maine seeking acting work and now has fame.
• Chris Rock reflects on his show and childhood.
• Jennifer Love Hewitt loves her new show and hopes it gets picked up for 3 more years, sorry Love unless the whole scary ghost storyline is good the show won't last.
• Wentworth Miller is so happy about his show.
• Jason Lee his shows best episodes, Stole a car from a one-legged girl, Ruined Joy's Wedding and Faked death to break up with a girl.
• Creatures from Surface and Invasion.
• Law & Order: SVU is grade A.
• Dr. House's bad attitude.
• Lorelai and Rory's long drawn out reunion.
• Neil Patrick Harris of course.
• Chloe and Edgar on 24 are so cool.

Matt Roush's Top ten shows:

1. Lost----Agree.
2. My Name Is Earl--Agree.
3. Battlestar Galactica--Agree.
4. Grey's Anatomy--Agree.
5. FX Dramas--I just got FX so I'll hold off judgement.
6. Veronica Mars-Agree.
7. 24--Agree.
8. HBO Historical Dramas, Rome, Deadwood--Half agree.
9. House--Agree.
10. Everybody Hates Chris--I've missed quite a few but he seems right on.

Good Things To Read Inside:

• A guide to buy a DVR.
• Best soap is As The World Turns.
  

Playing Catch Up On What's Left

That 70's Show: Fun It
Donna is getting over being dumped by Eric and starts acting reckless. The gang steals a fast-food clown and then break it trying to return it. Without Kutcher or Grace this show just isn't as funny.

Alias: The Horizon
I stopped watching this but now during the final season I'm watching again. By the way there was no way they could've hidden Garner's pregnancy.
Vaughn is back in memories and dreams but big bad mama, played by Lena Olin is back for real. Mama abducted the daughter and plans to take the grandbaby.

Joey: Joey and the Tijuana Trip/Joey and the Christmas Party
A hour long episode both halves dedicated to Christmas. The first has Joey and his guy pals going to Mexico and getting drunk and married. Joey and Zach marry but it's not legal but Alex has fun with it for a while.
The second one has Alex whining about Joey until he realizes he loves her and during a classic Friends moment goes to tell her and sees her kisses someone else. Alex is so hot but since she's smart and on occassion wears glasses she is written as a big fat loser. Yeah typical sitcom crap.

Ghost Whisperer: Undead Comic
A dead comic haunts the stage and all ends well when Melinda gets involved. The story was boring and I fell asleep but I TiVoed it and saw the end again which was the best part.
After the happy ending Melinda sees the laughing ghost agian and then next to him was a ghost with no face and all black trench coat that said in a creepy voice, "I have business with you." and then both of them laugh and float away.
They are building to some sort of endgame but with such weak episodes it may not be enough to to keep me watching.
Another neat thing were all the dead comics who are semi-famous including Reginald Vel Johnson from Die Hard and Family Matters.

Masters Of Horror: Cigarette Burns
This one is by John Carpenter and involves a evil movie.
A film that has been lost for years is sought by a collector. The history of this film, Le Fin Absolut du Monde, is mired with death and violence.
The film is about some evil people who have a real angel and film it being dewinged and tortured. The spilled blood of the angel transfers beyond the film and reflects all the sins of the watcher making them act upon them.
Mentally creepy and very violent, lots of upclose death.

TiVo Fights For My Attention

First Mayor Bloomberg interrupted my regularly schedule shows to deal with the transit strike, most professors said if a strike happens finals will be canceled. Now if want to go to the city I must hitchhike or take a ten dollar per mile taxi.

Oh well back to TV.

TiVo updated again and they gave me a whole bunch of new options.
Under Music, Photos and More...
-Yahoo! Photos with a direct link to your Yahoo account.
-Yahoo! Weather with a direct link to your Yahoo account or just a zip code.
-Yahoo! Traffic with a direct link to your Yahoo account or just a zip code.
-Browse & Buy Movie Tickets directly from the TiVo Box with a zip code to local theartes.
-Live365 hundreds of radio stations with commercials or without if you have an account.
-Podcaster lots of Podcasts including TV Guide and Diggnation.
-SameGame a matching colors game.
-Wordsmith a scrabble type game.
-Skulls & Bones a Connect Four type game.
+ The usually links to my photos, music, videos, BestBuy music & Nikon photographer.

But I still watched some TV.

Bones: The Man in the Fallout Shelter
It starts out with Booth dropping off a dead man on December 23 and Bones making everyone work. The dead guy has a killer fungus and everyone is sealed in including the boss.
We see everyone share their family stories and find out Booth has a son. Angela's father is from ZZ Top. Bones does get emotional.
The story surrounded the murder of a white guy who tried to sell his coin collection to go to Paris to marry his pregnant black girlfriend. But a coin buyer decided to kill him instead. When the murder is solved the team tries to get the knowledge to the now old black girlfriend.
They find her and her grandaughter the mother/child died. The old lady is releaved that she wasn't abandoned but the granddaughter wants to go to medical school but can't afford it.
Well what a coincedence the dead man had a 1943 copper penny in his pocket. Bones gives the penny to the granddaughter 'cause it's worth up to $100,000.

As a coin collector it's nice to see a story line about coins. Now is it true. Yes the 1943 copper cent is rare and one sold in New York for $112,500. According to some, there are seventeen 1943 Bronze Cents known (10 from Philadelphia, 6 from San Francisco, and 1 from Denver) not 12 as Bones stated, but that is still debated in real life. But this coin was touched by so many hands that it can't be in good shape, not to mention it laid in the pocket of a corpse for 50 years. It still may be worth close to $100,000 if the auction was right.
Good episode, there was even a Firefly reference.

House: Deception
Well House is not happy and he is pushing the limits. A woman, played by Cynthia Nixon, is admitted to the hospital by House and presents with one disease. Dr. Morrison thinks she's a faker and gets proven right. House thinks the faker has a terminal illness and injects her with rugs to prove himself right.
It turns out she is sick but by a simple grape smelling fungus and almost kills her.
I felt bad for Dr. Foreman because he was doing so good at being in charge but since he didn't stop House he won't keep his position.

New York: Dec. 19

Not the now frozen city but the magazine. I may have said this before but I receive about 15-21 magazines a month, about 4 a week, most for free.
During the dead time between classes I can't study and I don't each much and friends are freaking out over finals so I find a nice quiet space and read magazines. That's when I saw this article New York mag. had about the best of 2005. Most of it was New York centered, but it was your typical year-end list.

Their TV list, by John Leonard, was ridiculously wrong, let me rant.
Best Drama
1) Cold Case--What the hell...Cold Case, I've never watched it because it's bad.
2) House--Great show.
3) Bones--It's just OK, it has potential.

Where's Grey's Anatomy or Surface or Lost or Law & Order: SVU?

Best Comedy
1) The Daily Show--Great Show.
2) Weeds--I saw one episode and since I wasn't high I saw how it sucked.
3) Las Vegas--Not a comedy.

Where's Arrested Developement or Two and a Half Men or My Name Is Earl?

Best Actor
1) Michael Kitchen--Who? PBS? Who?
2) William Petersen--From Csi: Las Vegas...seriously?
3) Hugh Laurie--At least you got one.

Where's any guy from Lost or 24 or Jay R. Ferguson of Surface or Jason Bateman?

Best Actress
1) S. Epatha Merkerson--OK not bad.
2) Mary-Lousie Parker--She not acting she's "naturally" high.
3) Kyra Sedgwick --Always great.

Where's the Sandra Oh or Mariska Hargitay or Kristen Bell?

Best Debut
1) Some bear from an ESPN show no one watches.--???
2) Tyler James Williams--He's a good actor.
3) Rob Schieffer--CBS reporter who has yet done anything dumb.

Best Couple
Comedy: Marshall and Lily, How I met Your Mother.--Their bland and boring.
Drama: Dr. Shepard and Dr. Grey, Grey's Anatomy.--Good choice.

Why not Darnell and Joy, My name Is Earl?

Best Villain
T-Bag of Prison Break-- Good one but the Secret Service guy is just as evil.

Best Incredibly Complicated Plot That Hasn't Unravled Yet
Prison Break--Please it's too predictable and it is working out .

Why not Surface or Invasion or Lost?

Best Drawn-Out Tease
The Lost numbers--They mean little or nothing.

Why not where's Wallace on Veronica Mars?

Best 'Lost' Rip Off
Invasion--Well that maybe true but the explanation he gives is because it stands out among the other spooky one-word title dramas.

Hells no! The only great episode of that show was a copy from every Surface episode.

Best Show You Probably Never Watched
Starved--An FX show about eating disorder that I've never seen because I don't get FX. So he's right.

Best Programming Decision
Moving My Name Is Earl to Thursday and dropping Joey and The Apprentice--I agree.

Best Stunt Casting
Scott Baio replacing Henry Winkler in Arrested Developement--Great with the whole Chachi and Fonz thing and Happy Days connection.

Best Encore
Chris Noth on Law & Order--I'd have to go with Neil Patrick Harris.

Best Rapprochement
Oprah on Letterman--I'd disagree and say Martha Stewart on TV in general.
Best Elegant Ending
Six Feet Under--True.

2 Days, 4 Shows, 1 Strike

A strike is looming for the NYC transit workers. This will happen right before finals and I still haven't gone Christmas shopping and I still haven't got my classes registered for next semester.

So instead of a getting a plan together or calling my guidance counselor I'll just watch some TV.

The Simpsons: The Italian Bob
Homer goes to Italy to pick up a car for Mr. Burns. He gets into trouble and meets Mayor Sideshow Bob and his new family. Lisa proceeds to ruin his new life and the whole Bob family seeks revenge vendetta.
While in Italy a criminal book was shown and had Peter Griffin of Family Guy with the title Plagarismo and then Stan Smith of American Dad with the title Plagarismo et Plagarismo.

Quote of the Show: "You're the best husband and son I ever had." from Cletus' wife to Cletus.

Grey's Anatomy: Grandma got Runover by a Reindeer
Dr. Izzie is still upset from getting cheated on and then losing a newborn patient last week. So she deals by decorating the house like crazy.
Dr. Bailey is uber-pregnant and going throughall kinds of problems yet she is still the go to surgeon.
Dr. Karev needs help and gets it from everyone even Izzie.
Dr. Yang has no seasonal spirit and annouces to her man she's Jewish. She says that because her step-dad is Jewish but she does not celebrate or believe in anything. Dr. Burke tries to give her faith and gets a tree and a menorah, but she is still reluctant.
Great and funny episode, I need Izzie to decorate over here she does a great job.

Arrested Development: Prison Break-In
An obvious shot at Prison Break has a fund raising party at a prison. Tobias wants to be called T-Bag, George Bluth II gets a "tattoo" of the prison on his stomach. James Lipton of Inside the Actors Studio plays the warden. Funny episode.
Quote of the Show: "I want to cry so bad , but I can not afford the moisture." Mrs. Bluth.

Real World/ Road Rules Challenge: The Gauntlet II
Jo calls the cops and gets escorted out with little explanation. The veterans lose and sends the captain home and Derek is the new captain. Less drama today.

BREAKING NEWS
The Night Stalker got picked up the SciFi Channel for next summer.

TV Guide: Dec. 12-18

On the cover Matt & Katie celebrate 10 yearson top with Today. A 4 page article about the daytime show Today which I never watched.

Good Things To Read Inside:

• A Christmas Blessing a CBS movie with some of their stars.
• Bones stars take off their pants.
• A great group of Jennifer Garner pics of her many disguises.
• Malcolm David Kelley of Lost will be on L&O:SVU.
• Max Winkler looks just like his dad Henry.
• Claudia Black is now a permanent cast member of Stargate SG-1.
• Freddie Prinze Jr. is a comic book fan and would like to see a 55 year old superhero on the screen.
• An article on the lovely Jennifer Finnigan who is on The Dead Zone and Close To Home and the canceled show I liked Commited.

This Is Christmas Cheer

The Dead Zone: A Very Dead Zone Christmas
Johnny Smith helps a Santa with amnesia find his stolen bag. The kids who stole the bag are homeless and need help. Johnny's girlfriend is also a psychic and sees ghost who helps the little boys.
It was a cute episode that worked out nicely, the boys find their father and Santa turns out to be an actor best of all the dinner wasn't burned.

Monk: Mr. Monk and the Secret Santa
Monk solves a murder for Christmas, not especially moving. This show lost it's spark.

Ghost Whisperer: Shadow Boxer
A mom protects her family who is breaking apart. Not a Christmas episode I think they're in summer over there. I'm trying but the sweetness of this show is a bit too much.

Masters of Horror: The Deer Woman
After a real bad one two weeks ago and a great political one last week this one by John Landis was just OK.
John Landis the genius behind An American Werewolf In London tells a tale of a half deer half woman killer. There is no reason given for deer woman's murderous ways or resolution at the end.
The cool part was when the officer tried to explain that these things happen, "Remember in 1981 when a new species of wolf killed all those people in London."
Yeah and not Christmas related in any way.

This Is Not Christmas Cheer

I take some time away from my precious-TV and all this shocking news comes down the pipeline.

First after suffering from Multiple Sclerosis Richard Pryor died on December 10^th at the age of 65 nine days after celebrating his birthday.
He was the first real comedian I saw on cable. Also he was the first celeb I knew was on drugs. It cut his life short at the end he was nothing more then a pile of mush.

Second was Lillo Brancato Jr. who was in a A Bronx Tale and The Sopranos went and broke into some house then his accomplice shot and killed a police officer, Daniel Enchautegui, 28. This happened in New York and was the second time a cop got killed in the last two weeks. Brancato Jr. has been battling a drug problem for years I'd say he'll sober up now but that won't happen in prison.

Third while researching these two guys at TV Squad they had this story about former ALF star Max Wright.
Apparently Wright is a crack head years after getting busted for drunk driving .
This is old news from August but it's the first I've heard of it.

The real shocker is that he is doing gay-porn for the crack money. I knew he was gay but I thought he had a stable relationship but I guess this is the third story that I must say drugs messed up another life.

Okay so lessons from these X-mas tales:

1. Stay away from drugs.
2. Your famous everyone is going to know.
3. The actors I grew up with will continue to disappoint.
   

Thursday Shows

Smallville: Lexmas
Lex Luther goes to the big city to meet with a guy who will fix the election against Mr. Kent. While not deciding what to do with Kent Lex gets shot by those crazy-gun-totting-Asian-chicks that plague most major cities.
Lex is on the verge of dying and his mother visits him and shows him the great life he will have with Lana as his wife when he wakes up from surgery and turns his back on his father. At the end of the dream Lana dies and Lex could not save her but he did have many years of love and two kids.
When he wakes up he decides to go to the darkside and give up his happy future so that Lana can live.
Now the big problem I had was if his mom didn't show him the death of Lana or just didn't visit him at all he would've went on to have this great life. So the dead mother was actually a bad influence. Yes I understand that he was supposed to learn that love is greater then pain but still if his mom was good she'd leave him with the nice future and come back after Lana died.
I did like the fact that it's not about the good Lex vs. the bad Lex, just the Lex who wants to control everything.

Joey: Joey and The High School Friend
Joey's old high school friend comes back and although he's Adam Goldberg from the THREE episode arc on Friends about psycho roomie Eddie Menuek no one notices. Instead he is the father of Michael Tribbiani.
They explained Pheobe and her twin from Mad About You so I think they should of explained this also.
ER: All About Christmas Eve
Eve punches a bad Santa and gets fired and also gets dumped, she vows revenge on the other nurses. The rest of the story was just filler until the end when Abby announces to Kovac that she's pregnant.

No Lost /Invasion Wednesday

That 70's Show: Long Away
This show is barely watchable without Eric or Kelso. In this episode we find out that Eric, still in Africa, broke up with Donna three weeks ago. He dumped her because they are growing too far apart. We also learn Leo was a war hero.
Related News: Wilmer Valderrama, who plays Fez on "That '70s Show," will star as motorcycle cop Ponch in a big-screen version of "CHiPs."
Any reason to show this picture again.

Freddie: Dollars and No Sense
Freddie's niece learns a valuable lesson on the value of a dollar. This should be a TGIF show.

Veronica Mars: One Angry Veronica
Veronica is chosen for jury duty and helps convict two rich kids for latina who got beat-up. The Aaron and Lily sex tape are stolen and eventually Logan finds it, watches it, cries over it, and then erases it.
Meg wakes up tells Veronica to save her baby from the religious right and then dies, her baby girl lives.
It's New Year's Eve and a few seconds for the ball to drop when one of those damned Veronica Mars knock on the door moments. At the door it's Wallace he's back with no explanation until the show returns in January.

Southpark
They attack Alcholics Anonymous reveal it's religious views.

Drawn Together
Captain Hero is jealous of the Supernanny and tries to defeat her. She tries to take over the government but Captain Hero defeats her.
Meanwhile Ling-Ling tries to get a drivers licsence but being Asian he can't. After many stereotypes he has a "round-eye" procedure and sees the world normally but is unhappy.
Quote of the show: "Twinkie - Yellow on the outside, white on the inside " by Godzilla to Ling-Ling when protest his eye procedure.
Another cool part of this show was when Captian Hero went to secret lair he has what looks like a giant 1 Agorah similar to the ten pictured to the right. This is just like the giant penny Batman has in the Batcave, it was very funny.

Alternate Tuesday Shows

TV NEWS STORIES
Once again starting out with more of my favorite childhood actors dying, Jack Colvin, best known as tabloid reporter Jack McGee in the The Incredible Hulk, has died. Colvin, 71, died Thursday in North Hollywood of complications following a stroke. He did so many TV shows in the 70's it was impossible to miss him. He never was over the top and in the past decade did not work much, another primetime veteran gone from the time when we only had 7 channels with 3 networks.

Valerie Bertinelli and her husband, Eddie Van Halen, are getting a divorce after 24 years of marriage, Bertinelli's publicist confirmed that they have been separated for 4 years. I feel bad for her kids but hey that means I still have a shot.

Back to tonights shows.

Fear Factor: Heist Fear Factor
Well besides Road Rules/ Real World Challenges the only other reality show I watch on a regular basis is this one. Joe Rogan is back as host. This season will focus less on the gross eating stuff and more on the danger.
Today four couples did stunts to win keys to unlock a million dollars in fake gold at the bottom of a pool. The brother and sister steroid freaks lost to a "friend" couple. The winners took home $275,000 and some crappy trip.
It was funny and I like the stunts at one point a contestant ripped off his toenail in an accident.
At the end they also went to a fans home and had him and his mom get bit by snakes for 5 grand.

My Name Is Earl: White Lie Christmas
After Earl ruined every Christmas for his ex-wife he decides to make it up with some bikes and a car. When arriving at her double-wide her parents played by the once great Brett Butler and
Some guy who always place a redneck. Joy has been lying to protect Darnell, thinking her parents are racists, but the father was lying about having other kids most of them black, while the mother was lying about being a paralized-dialysis patient to cover up her gambling.
Funny episode with a sweet ending.

Law & Order: SVU : Alien
A little boy gets stabbed and a little girl is the main suspect, she confesses but the episode was more about how a community of religious people got together to deny a lesbian mother from claiming her child since the biological mother died. The lesbian mom falsely accused of being a child molester was played by Amy Pietz from Caroline In The City.

Monday Shows

Arrested Development: The Ocean Walker
Michael is getting married to Rita and doesn't realize she is both rich and retarted. His son tells him and everything becomes clear. The wedding is canceled and once again Michael is alone. This was a dang funny episode especially when the show a picture of Rita before her plastic surgery, it was a picture from Monster.

Kitchen Confidential: French Fight
A funny episode where the chefs start a fight with another restaurant that gets way out of hand.

Las Vegas: Down and Dirty
After the most ridiculous death of Lara Flynn Boyle the hotel is under Dean Cain's control. Their is a porn convention and a TV poker match that is being fixed. It's a funny episode which always goes better then their serious episodes.

Realworld/Road Rules Gauntlet II
One of the few "reality" shows I still watch. This season has veterans from the competitions battling rookies with one or less competitions. The best part of this show is all the sleeping around and fighting. Apparently that made Jo from Real World:SF upset and she called the Trinidad & Tobago police for back up. She seems slightly troubled like a kidnapping victim.

Oprahs Weekly Wrong Info

She had a African-American womens luncheon which was fine but she invited Mariah Carey.

Now I like Mariah Carey a lot but she IS NOT African-American, her father was a black Venezuelan.
So she is half HISPANIC, even if Venezuelans consider themselves black they would be African-Venezuelans.

Carey always says how confused she was growing up half black and half white, but she grew up in the most racist part of Long Island . If she only came to New York City they would set her straight and told her she is just a normal hispanic woman who had a great voice.

Okay I'm off rant. Buena Suerte Mariah one day you'll know the truth.

TV Guide: Dec. 5 - 11

On the cover 100 Most Unexpected TV Moments, the accompanying 8 page article gives a list of what TV Land thinks are the best. Starting December 5^th TV Land will show all these moments from 10 to 11pm/ET and again at 1am/ET.
The number one moment is The Newhart Finale when he wakes up as an old character from a past show. Most of the others are easy to remember Tyson-ear, Dallas-Shower, Janet-Nip, Jets-Heidi, The Who nearly dying on the Smothers Brothers, those were the top 6.
Among my favorites were ER and the doomed Dr. Romano, the St. Elsewhere Finale which turned out to be a sick boys dream, Nate dying on Six feet Under, The Price Is Right nip slip, Gimme a Break a kid in Blackface, Buffy the Vampire Slayer "Once More, with Feeling", Sharptons fight on The Morton Downey Jr. Show, Diana Ross+rain+Central Park, Sopranos Adriana dies, Larry Sanders and David Duchovny, Shatner sings Rocket Man, nudity on PBS, there are more and much more to add but that would be in a book.

Good Things To Read Inside:

• Some 24 spoilers I didn't read.
• Dean Cain still wants to do Smallville and Desperate Housewives.
• The little girls from Medium keep using the actors real names while filming.
• Ellen in NYC.
• The ingredients to the wedding cake of My Name Is Earl...Twinkies and Hostess Cup Cakes.

Ensemble Cast Bonding

While I don't like gossip about actors or promoting their off-screen activities this has to be my new favorite picture of the year.
I was a big fan of Titus and liked The Drew Carey Show alot so it was nice to see Cynthia Watros in Lost. Since she did so many sitcoms I wondered if she was right for the role of Libby after Jennifer Jason Leigh didn't get the role. Apparently her and her co-stars are bonding well because in different locations several minutes apart she and Michelle Rodriguez were arrested on DUI charges.

It's kinda sweet in a stupid sort of way.

Desperate Landing

Knots Landing was one of the shows you were forced to watch when growing up. Why because back in the days there was only one television in the house and you did not control it because you were a kid. If you wanted to stay up until 10 pm you had to fake interest in this show.

For those of you who never saw Knots Landing just watch Desperate Housewives because the storylines are ripped exactly from the old soap. Everything from the crazy street to the twins and their kidnapping, the crime related black family to Nicollette Sheridan. I believe even some of the dialogue seems to exactly the same.

A while back CBS had the Dallas reunion and that one was creepy because the actors were blurring the lines between their characters and real life. They did some of that in the Knots Landing Reunion: Together Again but not to the psycho factor of Dallas. One thing that was annoying was the ass kissing between the fake couples. You can tell these people actually liked each other unlike the coldness from the 'Housewives.

Trivia: The street name is Seaview Circle.
Trivia: Halle Berry, Billy Bob Thorton, Gary Sinise, Marica Cross and Doug Savant among others all appeared on the show.
Also Henry Winkler produced this reunion special.

Life and Death and TV

Wendie Jo Sperber, 47, died in her California home yesterday of breast cancer. She was a staple of the 1980's TV and film scene. I will always remember her from her Bosom Buddies role as the gal obsessed with Peter Scolari because Tom Hanks wasn't good enough. She is survived by a son who is 19 and daughter, 15.
I love when I watch a show and see a star from my youth appear but it's awful when they are so young and start dying.

On the flip side one birth and one pregnancy were annouced today.
Jennifer Garner, 34, and Ben Affleck, 33, welcomed Violet, their little girl, no word on the kids last name yet.
Also after publicly announcing that she and her hubby were trying to have kids she finally got one to stick. Mariska Hargitay and Peter Hermann are expecting their first child together. Hargitay annouced it on her personal and cool website http://www.mariska.com/. Congrats to them we need more Emmy caliber actors on TV.

Wednesday Surprises

That 70's Show: Stone Cold Crazy
Fez' old girlfriend is back and still crazy. And finally Mrs. Foreman gets a modern hair do, she gets to get rid of the wig and show her true hair as the show inches toward 1980.
But that wasn't a shocker what was a real shocker was Fez' too tight pants. While I try to avoid looking at guys packages this was beyond ridiculous.

Freddie: The Courtship of Eddie's father
Freddie gets a visit from his estranged dad and realizes he still is a jerk. Esai Morales is a bit young to play Freddie's dad but hell his grandma on the show is only twenty years older then Freddie so I guess anything goes.

Lost: What Kate Did
Surprisingly boring episode, we see Kates past and no big deal she murdered her biological father to save her mom. Michael gets a computer message from someone or something claiming to be his son, this was so obvious I fell asleep. Also a missing film strip explaining that the computer lies was found.
The only interesting part was when Michael found the blast doors.

Invasion: Origin of Species
The biggest surprise of the night was that this was actually a good episode. Taking a page from Surface they show the creature taking a one armed man and then the guy comes out of the water fully armed. The sheriff convinced him to chop off the arm to make things right with god. We also see a band of rebels who survived earlier alien attacks and fight for the human species.
Remember this show is called Invasion for a reason as it is the modern, long-drawn out version of the classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers.