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June 03 Hi Def TV: Crisp, Bright, But Sometimes Scary
"'My goal has always been to give our viewers the very best in show content, and now we are able to offer the very best broadcast quality,' said Dr. Phil McGraw, host and Executive Producer. 'This puts us on the cutting edge of technology.'" Well, if this move finally inspires him to shave off that stupid mustache then I'm all for it. - Posted by Kate April 25 Tom Cruise Is Returning to 'Oprah'
"Winfrey will interview Cruise from his home in Telluride, Colo., for the first show on May 2, which will cover his 'family, his life and the future,' Harpo said. Then on May 5, Cruise will appear in Winfrey's Chicago studio." Supposedly Cruise is looking to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Risky Business with his dear, dear friend Oprah...but I have to wonder if his appearance on the show has more to do with silencing the rumors that he and Katie Holmes are dunzo. - Posted by Kate April 14 Dr. Phil Bails Out Florida Teen
Oh, Dr. Phil, didn't you learn your lesson after you tried to counsel poor Britney Spears when no one was looking? I really think he's gone too far this time. - Posted by Kate February 25 Want To See A Guy Win $1 Million On 'The Price Is Right'?
Of course you do! The video is here. I loved the look of utter shock on his face. It was more like "I just shot somebody" than "I just won big." - Posted by Kate January 31 'Cashmere Mafia' vs. 'Lipstick Jungle'Buzz Sugar has made a handy little chart on all the, um, differences between duelling "Sex and the City" ripoffs "Cashmere Mafia" and "Lipstick Jungle." I've been really up and down about "Cashmere Mafia" - sometimes it's fun, sometimes it's not. It's not quite the guilty pleasure I hoped for, though, so I'm glad it's got a little competition coming its way. "Lipstick Jungle" premieres next Thursday after "Lost." - Posted by Kate January 29 How Well Do You Remember Season 3 of 'Lost'?
ABC is reairing last season's finale tomorrow night, and Thursday is the big day. Are we excited? We're excited. Have we been dying for something smart on TV? Yup. If you don't do well on the quiz keep in mind that ABC is streaming every single episode of "Lost" ever - for free. If you did well then check out this magical, hilarious site: Lost Body Count. They have fake obituaries for everyone who dies on the show! "Nick a vessel in his back, Jack. / Beat 'em with a Jesus stick, Dick. / Rig the tents with decoys, Roy. / Just listen to me. / Hit 'em with a Dharma bus, Gus. / Don't need to discuss, Russ! / Turn the failsafe key, Lee. / And set Smokey free. Why, there must be 50 ways to kill the Others!" - Posted by Kate January 15 Tyra Feels Hillary's PainHillary Clinton taped an appearance on "The Tyra Banks Show" yesterday. The show will air Friday, and it sounds like it gets awfully personal. She talked about Bill's affair and how it made her feel. People has the story: "I really had to dig down deep and think hard about what was right for me, what was right for my family...I never doubted Bill’s love for me ever, and I never doubted my faith and my commitment to our daughter and our extended family...The momentary feelings — you know, you are mad, you are really upset, you are disappointed — all of that goes through your mind. I have found you really shouldn’t make decisions in the heat of those moments." Well, at least we can move on from tears in New Hampshire once this airs. - Posted by Kate Ellen Over Oprah?
According to a recent poll, Ellen Degeneres has beat out Oprah Winfrey as America's favorite television personality. Hollywood Reporter has the story: "The popular entertainer catapulted from the No. 8 spot last year to push Winfrey into second place. Winfrey had reigned the Harris Poll's favorite television stars list for five consecutive years. DeGeneres stirred an outpouring of public support last year when she sobbed on TV over a puppy she adopted that was taken back by an animal rescue group after she gave it to her hairstylist's family without the agency's permission." They're giving all the credit to the puppy. What do you guys think? - Posted by Kate January 08 Dr. Phil Decides to Leave Britney AloneDr. Phil has decided to hold his tongue for once. McGraw was set to air a special episode of his show devoted to Britney Spears's recent meltdown. Dr. Phil claims that Britney's family asked him to visit her at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, but he was still being criticized in the press for what can obviously be seen as ambulance chasing. Dr. Phil has now pulled the Britney special...but replaced it with a segment on cyber-bullying centered around the death of Megan Meier. That's hardly an improvement. Hey, Dr. Phil, what are you thinking? - Posted by Kate December 06 There's No Such Thing as a Free Donut
"She never warmed up to the crowd, and barely made eye contact. I couldn’t help feel disappointed. Almost like that time when I was 7 and I accidentally walked into the dressing room at Chuck E. Cheese’s and saw Mr. Munch (my favorite character) with his head off scratching his balls." Hee. I think I'm one of the few cooking show devotees out there who has no strong feelings one way or the other about Rachael Ray. I guess that's because I've saved up all of my bitterness for Sandra Lee. - Posted by Kate October 15 Drew Carey Makes His Debut
There's been a lot of skepticism in the blogosphere about Drew Carey's ability to fill Bob Barker's shoes. Carey himself had his doubts, and turned down the job at first: 'If you think I’m going to sit at ‘The Price Is Right’ so everybody can take potshots at me, forget it,' he remembers thinking." Apparently his friends talked him into it. What do you guys think? Will you watch "The Price Is Right" with Drew as host? - Posted by Kate September 17 More Daytime TVSo I've now caught up with a couple new (relatively speaking) pieces of daytime fare.
Today was the premiere of the syndicated show "Jury Duty," which mystifies me a little. I mean, when you think of "Jury Duty" is the first thing that comes to mind, "a show I want to watch"? Or is it "a burdensome experience that anybody in their right mind hopes to get out of"?
The concept is "Hollywood Squares" meets "People's Court": D-list celebrities sit as juries and decide cases. So really, the show should be called "Celebrity Jury" or something.
As it turns out, "Jury Duty" is about as unpleasant as it sounds, if its first episode is any indication. The jurors were Phyllis Diller, Sheryl Lee Ralph and Alonzo Boden, former winner of "Last Comic Standing." You'd think there'd be more humor to it with that kind of lineup. But it was just painful.
I also finally got to watch an episode of "The Steve Wilkos Show." It was definitely different from what I expected. I'm not necessarily sure that's a good thing or not.
Steve rose to fame as the bullet-headed bodyguard on "Jerry Springer," and I imagined that his show would be a campy, skanky spinoff of it.
But while "Jerry" seems all too fake, "Steve" has guests who seem to be who they say they are. Where Springer runs his show with mild-mannered sarcasm, Wilkos gets in his guests' face and seems just a wrong word from giving them the butt-whuppin' they richly deserve. And while "Jerry" guests routinely fight over the same issues of one of them stealing someone else's baby daddy, "Steve" guests have more serious things going on.
In the episode I sampled, one guest claimed she was being stalked by her ex and another repoed her mom's ring from her stepfather who she alleged (and lie-detectors indicated) had molested her. It's much harder to take that sort of stuff lightly.
As his film said, Jerry sees himself as a ringmaster. Steve seems to see himself as both judge and prosecutor. "That's what this show is about, baby," he told one guest. "[Standing] up to the bad guy and I'm right in your face."
But does that make entertaining TV? Not so much, in my book. - posted by Raoul September 10 Daytime Gets a Bunch of NewbiesThis week, a whole bunch of new syndicated shows are getting added to daytime TV.
Here's a rundown, with my quick takes on the ones I've gotten to watch. Basically, none of them seem to be things to go out of my way to watch, but none of them are things I would turn the channel from automatically if they were on either.
"Judge David Young": When I first saw the press release for the show touting that David Young is the first ever openly gay judge, I was like, "What does that matter?" I mean, is he going to wear a rainbow colored robe instead of the standard black one? Or say things like, "My judgment is...you look FAB-U-LOUS!"? Well, he did decide to accessorize his robe with a silver penguin pin, of all things. And in clips, he does say stuff like, "Denial isn't just a river in Egypt" and do the two-snaps thing. Does he stand out from the half-dozen or so court show judges who are out there beyond that? A little. In the episode in Monday he talked about checking out people's butts. Try that, Judge Judy! On the plus side, after the case was over, he took a few minutes to explain to his audience why he reached the decision he did.
"TMZ": The TV version of the celebrity gossip website is a guilty pleasure, with more of the emphasis on the "guilty" part. I have to admit I laughed a bunch of times. In the first installment, the powers that be packed in a whole bunch of segments in 30 minutes about such subjects as the Britney appearance at the VMAs (where they pronounced her career dead; the Kid Rock-Tommy Lee fight; Joe Jackson, father of Michael and the rest of the crew, not getting to be the old guy in some club; a bunch of random drunk girls flashing the camera, flaunting or fighting; a bunch of celebrity fashion faux-pas and more. But my boss may want to get his hate on for the show: they dared call Henry Winkler "the Fonzasaurus" and make fun of him for signing autographs. The question also remains: Why spend a half-hour or so watching on TV what you can get from four minutes of scrolling through the website, which seems to have most of those stories and some that weren't included?
"Temptation": I like the idea of this game show better than the execution, I think. Three contestants answer a number of pretty easy trivia questions to earn Temptation dollars. Periodically, the host will offer the person in the lead special offers to get them to give up or at least reduce their lead. The person who has the most Temptation dollars at the end wins the chance to win fabulous prizes. I can't really point to anything in particular that was a problem. It was just kind of blah.
"Merv Griffin's Crosswords": I actually think this was better than your typical game show because a) you had to actually know something and b) it has the potential to be fast-changing. It starts off with two main contestants solving crossword clues like "Screened correspondence?" (answer: email). There's an equivalent of "Double Jeopardy." But then three more players enter the game. If both the main players can't get an answer right, these "spoilers" have a chance to answer correctly and reduce one of the main players to a spoiler. The person with the most points by the end of the game, obviously, wins.
"The Steve Wilkos Show": The bouncer from "The Jerry Springer Show" gets to step out on his own. I didn't get to catch this yet.
- posted by Raoul September 06 Whoopi Clarifies Her Vick StanceIn fairness, I should point out that Whoopi Goldberg has now updated her view about Michael Vick and dogfighting. She says when she described it as a Southern thing she wasn't trying to excuse it. She was merely trying to explain it.
I'll take her at her word. But as Eric Deggans from the St. Pete Times says, there's the factor of someone black appearing to defend someone black.
Would Whoopi have described dogfighting as a Southern thing if it was, say, Brett Favre who was guilty of it? Maybe.
- posted by Raoul September 04 Whoopi Debuts on 'The View'Today marks the start of Whoopi Goldberg's era on "The View," and if it's going to be any less tumultuous than the reign of Rosie, her first show wasn't a very good indication of that.
Whoopi took it upon herself to use her platform to defend Michael Vick for his little dogfighting habit.
She basically said it's a Southern thang, and we wouldn't understand.
You know what? I bet a lot of Southerners feel pretty offended to be associated with someone who drowns and electrocutes dogs for fun.
But hey, saying something controversial's probably a good way to get some publicity.
Any of you check out Whoopi's first show? If so, what'd you think?
- posted by Raoul August 13 The Price Is Not Quite RightDrew Carey's already had a brush with injury on "The Price Is Right."
Here's hoping for a speedy recovery.
But I have to say I'm surprised the Grocery Game could cause someone to have to file for workman's comp.
Maybe Bob Barker should have passed on some safety tips before passing on the torch.
- posted by Raoul June 07 Bob Barker Comes on Down for the Last TimeSet your TiVos for June 15. That's the day the final episode of "The Price Is Right" with Bob Barker as host will air, twice.
It filmed yesterday, and I wish the guy all the best.
"TPIR" is one of the shows I grew up watching when I was at my grandmother's house, so I remember fondly guessing what needed to be done to win a new car, wondering at why people were jerks who bid one dollar over the next-highest bidder and so on. For a while, I even told people while in kindergarten or so that I'd gone on the show and won a bunch of money.
Bob Barker made the show what it is.
Whoever gets chosen to replace him will have his work cut out for him.
Till next time, get your pets spayed or neutered.
- posted by Raoul May 01 VOTE: Who Should Replace Rosie on 'The View'?As Rosie O'Donnell begins dropping hints that she may end up at CBS, speculation about who will, and who should, replace her on "The View" is heating up.
- Roseanne Barr - Whoopi Goldberg - Megan Mullally - Connie Chung - Sherri Shepherd - Ann Coulter - Joan Rivers - Kathie Lee Gifford I would love to see Sherri Shepherd join the show, as she's the most down to earth guest host the show's ever had, she's personable, funny and always seems interested and able to contribute to the Hot Topics sessions, which many of the guest hosts have not been able or willing to do. But, as it's undeniable that the show has benefited, ratings-wise and entertainment-wise, from having hosts with dissenting viewpoints, I'd also love to see Roseanne sit in with the other women, even if just on a part-time basis. As for the rest, Joan Rivers is too jokey (and that's Joy Behar's purpose on the show), Connie Chung is too staid (that wacky video of her signing off her MSNBC show last year aside), Megan Mullally is too bland (as her own, quickly-canceled talk show proved), Whoopi Goldberg is too hippy-dippy, Ann Coulter is too vile, and Kathie Lee is, well, too Kathie Lee. Plus, dear God, didn't we hear enough Cody stories when she was with Reeg? - posted by Kim April 30 Another Departure on 'The View'?Without Rosie and Elizabeth, really, is there ANY reason to watch the show?
- posted by Kim April 26 Rosie: The Day After
- The New York Post reports that Rosie wanted ABC to fire Barbara Walters and let her take over the show. That's a pretty bold, backstabbing move if it's true, though it should be taken with a grain of salt seeing as how the story is coming from the Rupert Murdoch-owned Post, and Murdoch has been on O'Donnell's hit list. - Fox News reports that Rosie wanted $10 million--for one season!--to stick around. That's a lot of dough, though considering how much she keeps the show in the news, maybe it would have been a wise investment for the network. - Of course, The Donald has been getting his slice of the publicity run-off, claiming Rosie was fired, and that it was because of something she said about him. In other news, The Donald has become a cartoon, officially now. - Meanwhile, in news that probably won't come as a big surprise, buzz is that Rosie will begin shopping her own show, thought to be more discussion show than celebrity gabfest, for fall 2008. I'm sure she'll be able to make a deal for a new show, but I think the powers that be--and maybe Rosie herself--may be overestimating her solo appeal. Like her or not, the reason "The View's" ratings jumped the season wasn't just because of what she was saying, but also because of the way she interacted with the other hosts. If she's given a show where she can basically sit around and rant, unchecked, I think even the people who like her are going to find her uber-annoying. - posted by Kim |
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