Before September 11

Signs of Trouble
The calm before the storm of September 11th was not as quiet as it seemed. A flood of reports came into various government agencies warning officials of threats coming over the horizon.

Soon all of the World Trade Center Towers will be laying in burning heap, as well as a side of the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania.

The first attack on the World Trade Center years earlier and the subsequent arrest of Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahmem led to an increasing number of reports that Muslim extremists planned to attack American interests.

The threats targeted areas that were close, Canada and the United States, as well as places as far as Yemen, Italy and Israel.

By May 29, 2001 the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was brought in to prevent these overseas attacks. No formal meetings were planned to deal with the domestic threat.

Two days before the 4th of July, a massive operation involving 20 countries was launched to disrupt any attacks planned for the holiday. Counterterrorism Security Group (CSG) headed by Richard Clarke alleges that several U.S. embassy bombings were prevented.

On July 5th, the CSG and the CIA told Clarke that al Qaeda members spoke of “spectacular” attack that would be far different than any one expected or has seen before.

Throughout the rest of the summer more information kept coming in, some tracing back to Usama Bin Ladin, and other threats lead back to the Sheikh being held in New York.

Specific mentions of using aircrafts in hijackings were passed on to the Federal Aviation Administration but little was done to follow the threat.

At the time a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) witness stated that all that could be done was a simple surveillance of some of the hijackers. This contradicts the FBI’s role, along with Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), in the capture of Zacarias Moussaoui who took 747 flying lessons and was a witness in the USS Cole bombing case.

Mistakes that were made by al Qaeda were noted by each individual agency yet “no one looked at the big picture”, said a CIA supervisor. It was inter-agency cooperation that caught Moussaoui.

Still, when it came down to sharing information, unless ordered by top level officials, the agencies did not even volunteer it when the saw the opportunity to help on-going inquiries.

The Flight That Fought Back----Discovery Channel 9:00pm ET

Sci-Fi Friday

Stargate SG-1: Babylon
Finally a mission where there’s fire fight. Mitchell is taken prisoner and must fight for an honor/revenge death or something. He trains for two weeks and becomes friends with the victim’s brother and they cheat to survive. Everything is fine at the end.

Stargate Atlantis: Conversion
Yet another member of the Atlantis team is transforming into a super-being. Funny how they never turn into a weak little nothing. Two red shirts die and no one seems sad about it, nice military brotherhood. I think there is some chemistry with Caldwell and Weir.


Battlestar Galactica: Final Cut
Lucy Lawless debuts as a reporter trying to release some tabloid stuff about the “massacre of coffee” but she warms to the crew of Galactica and does a nice fluffy propaganda piece.
Also….
She’s a robot, a frecking Cylon spy. Never trust reporters.



Firefly: Jaynestown
Cranky Jayne goes back to his old stealing grounds and finds out he’s an undeserved hero. We see the honor in him for a few moments.

Reunion: 1986(Pilot)

It starts in present day Bedford, NY. Matthew St.Patrick is Detective Marjorino and they are at a funeral of one of the six friends. Carla is being interrogated and we go to the flashback of 1986.
How do we know it's 1986 well all the damn music. I love 80's music but the constant top ten hits in the show loudly reminds us that this is the 80's.
Will the poor guy knocks up his best-friend's girl and then feels guilty and takes the blame for a DUI death. He goes happily to prison for a year while everyone else moves on.
Maybe it's because college today sapped my energy but I fell asleep three times during this show.
I did stay awake for all of the NFL Kickoff party and Ozzy still rocks.
Back to Reunion next week is 1987 and still looks dull.

TV Guide: Sep 11-17

It’s the fall preview issue and the first thing on display inside is that on October 17 TV Guide is going full-size and full color. They will still have a program listing just shorter and “easier-to-use”. So last weeks issue is not collectable.
On the cover we 8 stars and Fall Preview in between them. Starting October 3 you bid on clothing worn by Jennifer Love Hewitt, David Boreanaz or Benjamin Bratt at ebay.com/tvguide for charity.
Their pick for best new comedy: Everybody Hates Chris, I agree.
Their pick for best new drama: Invasion, I disagree.
Edgiest show: Boondocks a cartoon about black kids on Cartoon Network.
New shows for after fall:
The Book of Daniel, Aidan Quinn as a minister who talks to JESUS on NBC. Ha I knew Jesus wouldn’t do a Fox show.
Sons & Daughters, Dee Wallace in a family-comedy show on ABC.
Love Monkey, Tom Cavanagh, Jason Priestly and Larenz Tate as friends in the music biz on this CBS dramedey.
Their reviews for a week new shows:
The War at Home---falls flat---Sundays
Kitchen Confidential---it’s in good taste---Mondays
Surface---a bad seaQuest DSV type, it will drown…
How I Met Your Mother---fresh and funny…
Just Legal---not bad…
Prison Break---no 24 but still watchable…
Out of Practice---needs major improvement.
Close to Home---it’s perfect---Tuesdays
Bones---it’s also perfect…
My Name Is Earl---a feel-good comedy…
Sex, Love & Secrets---bad stay away…
Supernatural---scary but a bit nerdy.
Invasion---it’s great and like Lost time is slower for them---Wednesdays
The Apprentice:Martha Stewart---they’re dying to see it…
Freddie---not Puerto Rican enough so not funny?....
Criminal Minds---it’s bad, avoid…
E-Ring---boring…
Head Cases---bad, real bad…
Related---they look pretty.
Everybody Hates Chris---perfect---Thursdays
Night Stalker---cold and dull…
Reunion---it’s nice….
Love, Inc---bad…
Ghost Whisperer---seen it in many forms.
Twins---low brow comedy---Fridays...
Killer Instinct---creepy but dull, let’s wait…
Three Wishes---a tearjerker…
Threshold---very good…
Hot Properties---crap…
Inconceivable---also crap.


If your still around I’ll post more in the after you click “Read more…” because I’m running out of room.

Now on cable what to look out for I'll skip the crap.
Mick Garris, director of The Stand had the scarriest people in Hollywood over for dinner and the came up with Masters of Horror a scarfest for October.
The Showbiz Show with David Spade look funny.
Daisy does America a TBS show insearch of crazy Americans.
The Adam Carolla Project om TLC has him fixing a house.
Movies & such:
The Poseidon Adventure a remake of the classic on NBC.
Category 7: The End of the World a sequel to Caegory 6 on CBS.
10.5: Apocalypse a sequel to 10.5 on NBC.
The Unauthorized Story of Diff'rent Strokes on NBC, I just realized that the title of the show is racist.
Knots Landing Reunion in November, CBS.
A Cemetery Special, PBS.

Erica Kane gets a talk show and NYC & advertisers are going crazy for a piece, small problem...IT'S FAKE. Susan Lucci laughs about the fact that her character's talk show is garning acclaim.
Her fake-show line-up has Whoopi, Regis, Clay Aiken, Rudy Giuliani and tours of Harlem, Gracie Masion, the current mayor Bloomberg, NASDAQ and pitching with the Yankees.

Don't forget Football:
Jets at Kansas City
Arizona at Giants

Supernatural

The best of the WB's new show Supernatural is already out online. Here's a link..
http://tv.yahoo.com/feature/supernatural.html

I won't watch it online because the quality is not great and the connection freezes. I'll wait for the TV version good attempt though.

Bob Denver Died.

LOS ANGELES, CA--Bob Denver, famous for playing Gilligan on the 1960s sitcom "Gilligan's Island" , has died. He was 70.

He was my first favorite TV character.

Friday at Wake Forest University Baptist Hospital in North Carolina he died of complications from treatment he was receiving for cancer. He is survived by his wife, Dreama, and children Patrick, Megan, Emily and Colin who were by his side.

He was also known by older TV fans as Maynard G. Krebs, the bearded beatnik friend of
Dwayne Hickman's Dobie in the "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis," which aired on CBS from 1959 to 1963.

Denver went on to star in other TV series, "The Good Guys" and "Dusty's Trail," as well as tons of cameos on TV and film.

He was also an eBay addict when checking his own name. He will also be on TV forever.

TV Guide: Sep. 4-10

Sorry a bit late but with college it’s bound to happen.
Tom Brady is on the cover titled NFL 2005 PREVIEW. 18 pages cover the upcoming NFL season. They have a Tom Brady interview, he’s very close to his family. The entire ABC and ESPN Monday and Sunday night football schedule, a list of the NFL’s “Most Watchable”, female fans, a small interview with Holly Robinson Peete and some cool football related stuff to buy.

Good Things To Read Inside:

• Summer shows are ending, I’ve never seen The Closer.
  
• Those letters to TV Guide are especially whiny and wrong.
  
• Carrie Fisher joins Smallville.
  
• Kristen Johnston joins ER.
  
• The Amazing Race full family edition.
  
• Matt Roush likes Rome. A new After School Special is coming.
  
• Jeri Ryan joins The O.C.
  
• The making of the new Night Stalker.
  
• The history of Emmy troubles and the truth behind the Super Emmy,1974.
  
• Survivor host Jeff Probst “I hope the…people aren’t ugly” when describing what he wants from the show.
  
• Soap stars are now making their own movies.
  
• Thursday, Oakland at New England in the season opener of real football on ABC.

Also this may be the last small TV Guide it is growing to standard magazine(8" × 10½") so it maybe a collectors edition. I’ll check to see if the next issue is bigger. Their are also changes to tvguide.com their store is offline and coming back new.

Prison Break: Cell Test

When we last left Scofield his toes were in jeopardy, now Scofield has two less toes and the mafia guy is closer to getting his kids killed. Too make Scofield reveal the mob informant the mafia guy took out one of Scofield's enemy.
Meanwhile Scofield lost his sane cellmate and got an insane one.

Overall the show moves a bit slow and the Robin Tunney scene are so far pointless.

Wonderfalls and Firefly

These are two repeats I've been watching because I didn't watch them when they first on. Know I like them. I like Wonderfalls so much that someone I knew went to a souvenir shop and saw this one defective ceramic lion and gave it to me. It's defect is on the same side as the Jaye's wax lion.
I've been waiting for it to tell me to do stuff but nothing, oh wait....no that was just the other voices in my head.
Wonderfalls: Barrel Bear
Louise Fletcher and Rue McClanahan are the first woman to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel and live.One of which actually made the jump and the other lied about it and became famous.
Jaye's mission is to "give it back to her" and she succeeds in straightening out these two bitty's lives in order, but McClanahan dies and Fletcher takes over her life.
We also see bartender guy moving forward with his sad life.



Firefly: Our Mrs. Reynolds
Mal gets paid with a woman and then gets betrayed by the same chick. All the guys liked her but the women hated her. The widow Reynolds hijacks the shuttle and sabotages the Serenity. Everything is right at the end.

Rome: Episode II

Rome: How Titus Pullo brought down the Republic.

The senate votes to make Caesar an enemy of the state and Mark Antony could not prevent it. Titus Pullo had a fight with some locals and one of them comes for revenge preventing Antony from vetoing the senate.

Lucius Vorenus returns home to find his girls grown up and a new baby. His 13 year old daughter wants to marry and claims the baby is hers. Towards the end we see that the baby is hungry and Niobi, Lucius's wife, breast-feeds the baby calling it her child.

A nice brain surgery scene was mixed in with more sex and violence, no graffiti.

TiVo Fall Preview

For those of you who don’t have TiVo they sent a small fall preview for FOX, UPN and the WB. It shows previews of each show in commercial form. I’ll give my impressions of each show and whether or not I will watch any of them. THIS IS GOING TO BE A LONG POST.

First on FOX:
Reunion: Six relatively unknown actors play six friends whose life unfolds into death for one of them over twenty years. We see one of the rich kids let his friend takes the blame and go to jail. The investigator is Matthew St. Patrick, of Six Feet Under.
Verdict: I may watch but it seems kinda wandering & pointless.

The War at Home: Anita Barone and Michael Rapaport play parents of a sexy girl, weird middle son and a young cool trouble making boy. They seem to be a New York family with the typical white stereotypes. The funny moments were when the middle boy is accused of being gay when he isn’t and when the sexy girl bring homes a black boyfriend like her mother did years ago.
Verdict: Typical sitcom and narratives from dad I’ll watch the first episode.

Bones: David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel play FBI agnets who solve crimes, along with four others.
Verdict: I think this is the first failure, I’ll still watch the first episode.

Killer Instinct: Three detectives including Chi McBride solve San Francisco crimes.
Verdict: Crime show nothing special, may watch if nothing else is on.

Head Cases: A wacky legal show with Chris O’Donnell and Adam Goldberg, Goldberg is the wacky one.
Verdict: Seems funny I may watch if it doesn’t conflict with anything else.

Kitchen Confidential: A comedy in a restaurant with many familiar faces and from Darren Star, of Sex and the City fame.
Verdict: Looks funny and good I’ll watch it.

Next on the WB:
Supernatural: Two brothers witnessed something strange when they were kids and now they are adults and after their father goes missing after a “hunt” the brothers reunite to find him.
Verdict: The show looks great I can’t wait.

Twins: Melanie Griffith, Mark Linn-Baker, Sara Gilbert and Molly Stanton. An all-star cast that center around a plain twin versus a trampy twin. Baker and Gilbert are my favorites and Griffith and Stanton, of Passions, play perfect airheads.
Verdict: I also like it even if the sitcom is unoriginal.

Just Legal: Another lawyer show with Don Johnson and some kid. A comedy with heart from Jerry Bruckheimer.
Verdict: I won't watch it unless nothing else is on.

Related: Four hot chicks and one guy are rich and good looking. Jennifer Esposito and Callum Blue, of Dead Like Me, are the married couple. Oh yeah they live in NYC.
Verdict: A new Sex and the City clone, the youngest one is the most interesting, it looks decent I'll watch it if I remember.

Finally on UPN:
Everybody Hates Chris: 1982 Chris Rock's life growing up in Brooklyn.
Verdict: It's the most anticipated show and hopefully it will last, I will watch it.

Sex, Love & Secrets: Denise Richards in a drama about young horny people.
Verdict: Most likely the second failure, I won't watch it.

Veronica Mars: TiVo recapped last season in about a minute and showed nothing of the next.
Verdict: Great show I will watch it.

Top Model: Reality crap.
Verdict: I won't watch it and I hope no one else will, please don't tell me if you do.