They say that Labor Day usually marks the end of Summer. Which could only mean one thing.
THE NEW TV SEASON IS HERE! THE NEW TV SEASON IS HERE!!!!
Okay, now that I've got that out of my system.....
It started off with the season premiere of Prison Break last night and will continue all the way through October.
Supernatural Premieres September 18th
Just for my own curiosity, I recently made a list of how many shows are on my schedule for this Fall. I counted 30+ shows, and that does not include any new ones that I plan to check out. If that wasn't enough, I mapped out all the shows by day and time and I realized that I need to do some editing and catch a few shows online or catch them during the Summer reruns.
Due to the writers strike some shows have been off the air for 8 to 9 very long months (Heroes, Life) with no repeats aired since the finale and I'm more than ready to see those new episodes.
The TV calendar that I keep is packed. Mondays and Thursdays are the busiest days of the week in terms of several shows being on at the same time.
Supernatural Premieres September 18th
Life premieres on a Monday (September 29th) and then moves to Friday. My Own Worst Enemy is also on a Monday, but that doesn't premiere until October 13th. I'm also curious about Fringe which premieres next Tuesday. I'm not really sure what this one is about just yet, I'll have to do some reading up on it.
Supernatural Premieres September 18th
Of course, not all of the Summer shows are over yet. There are two(?) more episodes left of The Closer. Two or three more episodes of Burn Notice, and I'm not sure about Monk and Psych but I suspect there are only a few more of those to go as well.
I really wish The Closer was a regular Fall show and not just a Summer show, that way we'd get more episodes every year.
BTW:
•For those that missed the final two episodes of House last season, they are airing both episodes tonight. Get out your tissues!! The new season premieres on the 16th.
•A reminder that the SciFi Channel will begin airing Lost on September 15th.
•The WB.Com is up and running. Among the shows you can watch are Veronica Mars, Everwood, Smallville, Firefly, Angel, Gilmore Girls and Friends. The fact that you can watch Smallville on The WB.com and One Tree Hill on Hulu.com, gives me some hope that one day we'll be able to watch Supernatural on another website, other than The CW's website, in the future.
• TVShowsonDVD.com has preview video clips of the Eli Stone DVD set which comes out today. The DVD set for Supernatural season three is also out today. Pushing Daisies will be out next Tuesday on Sept. 16th.
Oh, and by the way Supernatural Premieres September 18th
Happy Fall TV viewing everyone!
Little League Baseball - Way To Go Waipio!
What a week in sports it has been for the 50th State.
From local athletes winning medals at the Olympics to the Waipio Little League Baseball team clinching the World Championship.
On Saturday the team wins the US Championship in dramatic fashion. It was the top of the 6th inning. The last inning of the game. Waipio was down 1 to 5 playing against Lake Charles, Louisiana. The boys had some catching up to do. And catch up they did, scoring 6 runs in that last inning, turning the score around to become 7 to 5 Hawaii, and that's how the game ended. They didn't give up even when things weren't going their way. Next up was Mexico for the World Championship title on Sunday. They had just defeated Japan 5 to 4.
Sunday morning, 9:30 am. I think practically the entire state of Hawaii was gathered around their television sets rooting on the team from Waipahu on.
The last team to make it this far was the team from Ewa Beach in 2005. They defeated Curacao and won the World Championship by a score of 7 to 6. Can this team do it this year?
You bet they can! Waipio scored at least one run in each inning and won the game by a score of 12-3.
Way to go Waipio!! Everyone is very proud of you all. I'm pretty sure there's going to be a big celebration welcoming them and their families home at the airport tonight. Welcome home and Congratulations!!!
It was time to say sayonara to "I Survived A Japanese Game Show" last night.
I enjoyed this show. It was entertaining and the challenges were wacky.
It was time to say goodbye to the Green Monkeys and the Yellow Penguins. Out of the 10 players that arrived in Japan, only 4 were left. Bilenda, Meaghan, Justin and Donnell. Only Justin had never been through an elimination challenge. But that was about to change because every challenge was an elimination challenge from now on.
The first one to be carried away by the sayonara boys was Belinda who came in last from the "Making New Friends in Japan Challenge" where the players had to get the people of Japan to do five things on the street. Get someone to draw a magic marker moustache on them, get someone to give them a kiss on the cheek and take a picture, get someone to dress up like the Statue of Liberty, give them a business card, and get 3 people to do the wave.
The remaining players were surprised by a loved one.
Meaghan was eliminated from the "Squishy Squishy" challenge, where the players had to put on giant sponge sumo suits, lay in a pool of water soaking up as much water as they could. Then they had to run through a skinny obstacle course, and wring themselves out at the end. I think Meaghan soaked up the most water but lost a lot of it going through the course.
That left Justin and Donnell as the final two. Before the final show, they were greeted by many "fans" of Majide and were given plaques to commemorate their time in Japan, and were also given tickets to return one day. That was nice.
I think one of the best things about this show was watching these Americans get engulfed in the Japanese culture. Talk about culture shock. They truly embraced it and didn't want to leave in the end. I'm glad they had Mama San there.
The final challenge was made up of elements from the previous six challenges. This was all new to Justin, he had seen the others go through all of these. Donnell had been through two of these already.
First they had to take a spin in the dizzy chair, then ride a tricycle across a tiny bridge (both of them fell in the water), then pop the balloon chicken eggs, dive into the flour bed, head up the sticky wall, each 3 mochi balls and swing on the rope to find the breakaway door.
Justin was ahead until he hit that darn sticky wall. Donnell caught up and they were both struggling. Both were soaking wet, covered in flour and fake egg yolk, trying to make their way up a Velcro wall using Velcro paddles. Justin finally stormed up the wall and started eating. Donnell caught up again but Justin finished first and he luckily hit the breakaway door on his first swing.
Justin is the winner of $250,000.00, and huge trophy.
Should they bring this show back next Summer? I hope so. While they can't really make it a surprise like they did this time around, I'm sure there are many crazy people who will willingly sign up to play Majide.
Someone forwarded this to me and I just had to share.
Ken Lee is not a person, it's a song.
This is Valentina Hassan's attempt at Mariah Carey's song "Without You" or "Can't Live" on a Music Idol show in Bulgaria.
First came the auditon:
The she made an appreance on the show. Even the audience and the judges are singing along with her this time.
As you can see from this interview she made quite an impact.
I'm sure that if I tried to learn how to sing a song in Bulgarian, phonetically, I wouldn't do too well with my words either.
Wanna Bet? / The Mole
I was going to title this blog "Wanna Bet I Know Who The Mole Is?" But you'd lose that bet because my Mole suspect was executed last night!!! Craig's girlfriend said that if Craig isn't the Mole then he'll be the winner, and I was thinking that same thing before she said it.
I would hate for Craig to be the Mole. Since Alex was executed my attentions have turned to either Mark or Nicole. To tell you the truth, I honestly don't know anymore.
The show that was on before "The Mole" was "Wanna Bet?" I rather enjoyed this show.
Celebs start off with $25,000 and various people come on with different challenges. The celebs have to bet if they are going to succeed or fail. The celeb with the most money left at the end of the show wins that money for their charity.
The two hosts are Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly aka Ant & Dec. They host Britians Got Talent and various other TV programs in Britain. Welcome to American TV guys.
Last night there were 4 challenges:
A man tried to hula hoop with a 50 pound tractor tire for 45 seconds - he failed.
An all female pit crew challenged an all male pit crew that they could change all four tired and gas the car up faster than they could - they succeeded.
The next one was rather gross; A man said he could identify the artist and title of a CD by licking the printed side of it with his tongue while blindfolded. - he succeeded.
A team of movers needed to move a bunch of sofas into a moving van and get the van door to close within 2 minutes and 30 seconds. I think they were about 15 sofas - they succeeded.
The big winner was George Takei who had $106,150 in the end.
Have you guys seen this yet? What did you think? I first read about it via Matt Roush's article, and yesterday Act I was released. I think it's great!
I'm not familiar at all with the whole world of Dr. Horrible but this is a very nice introduction to this wanna be supervillan. One of the good things to come out of the recent writers strike.
Act II debuts tomorrow and Act III on Saturday. The whole thing will go away on Sunday - at least the free viewings will anyway.
Catch it if you can. I think you'll be glad you did.
The Next FN Star - Final Three
I've officially named Adam Gertler the comeback kid of The Next Food Network Star.
After serving several uncooked dishes to the judges, and being "on thin ice" with them, he bounced back big time in the Rachael Ray challenge and did great in the Throwdown challenge against Lisa.
Lisa said she didn't want to sacrifice her Cassoulet to do her best on Adam's Mac-n-Cheese. Adam on the other hand really tried and wanted to beat Lisa at her own dish. In fact I almost wish he had. Isn't the the point of the whole Throwdown challenge? Try and out do the other person at their own signature dish? It's great that she got such high marks on her Cassoulet but in my opinion she didn't really try to do what the challenge asked.
Kelsey tried to be different and do what she thought the judges wanted to see from her. It failed and she was sent home. I thought she should have been sent home last week after not really cooking anything on the Rachael Ray show. In fact if you read Bob Tuschman's blog on the Food Network site, he thought so to at first.
Last week they sent Shane home because of his lack of experience, this week they sent Kelsey home for kind of the same thing (I think). She does great in front of the camera and she would make a nice TV host someday. She just needs to get more experience cooking and I think she'll be fine. Everything comes in time. It just isn't her time yet. I'm sure someone out there in TV land will hire her.
Aaron needs to get it together and concentrate on the task at hand. He keeps on doing all the side dishes and garnishes of a dish. If you remember that one time when they had to do a technique video for Tyler Florence, Aaron had to cut a Pineapple. He spent 95% of his time showing how you can use the pineapple top as a garnish instead of actually cutting the pineapple. If it wasn't for Lisa giving him that look last night, he would not have even started the chicken. He was very lucky that it cooked in time and turned out well.
So it's down to the final three - Aaron, Adam and Lisa. It's going to be a tough choice for the judges this year. For me it's between Aaron and Adam. Lisa definitely knows her stuff and is very good at what she does but I'm not sure if I'd watch her show.
Since it doesn't seem like we the public are going to get a chance to vote for the winner, I've got a little poll going on in my blog just out of curiosity. Who do you think will be Food Networks next big star? Click here to vote. You can also hop on over to the Food Network Fans group to discuss all your favorite FN shows.
Quick Thoughts - My Summertime TV viewing
I haven't been around here much lately. Too busy at work. Yes, unfortunately some of us have to work during the Summer. Summertime TV has been pretty good to me so far. Friday nights have become TV on DVD nights. I'm currently into Season 2 of The 4400 and will be moving on to Season 3 soon. I think next I'll go back to Supernatural's first season next, or maybe Friday Night Lights.
I've reconnected with one of my all time favorite Sci-Fi shows, The X-Files, via the SciFi Channel. For those Supernatural fans out there, Dean really is Mulder and Sam really is Scully. ABC is airing repeats of Eli Stone every Saturday night. If you missed this wonderful show the first time around, now is your chance to catch it again. The Season One DVD set is set be released on September 2nd.
For the moment my suspects to be The Mole are either Clay or Alex. Nicole is trying to hard to make people think she is the Mole. Paul talks too much. Mark is being way too paranoid, and I don't think Craig is the Mole. Of course, I could be wrong about everything I've just said. I've been following the clues that come up on The Mole widget that is on my blog but I can't make heads or tails of any of it. I think I need a Mole decoder ring.
I've been overdosing on Jon & Kate + 8 on TLC, Dirty Jobs w/Mike Rowe, Deadliest Catch and the Mythbusters on the Discovery Channel. There is a What Not To Wear has a marathon on the 4th.
Over in Hell's Kitchen it's almost time for Chef Ramsey to choose a winner. I was very happy Petroza won the last challenge, he could use all the help he can get. I wasn't very happy seeing bitter sour grapes Jen come back though. I know that she didn't come back to help anybody win but herself, she even said that to camera. Petrozza had a tough decision picking between her and Matt. I'm not sure who I would pick either. From the previews they showed of next week, I think he picked Jen. Good luck to the both of them. I think Christina might take it, but I always root for the underdog. I like both of them and I think they'll make great chefs wherever then end up after this is over.
Now on to the other reality competition shows:
This is my first time around for Design Star on HGTV. It's interesting how the judges judge the rooms via the television instead of seeing it in person. Since the winner gets their own TV show that only makes sense to me.
The Singing Office was alright. It's great to see regular folk come out of their comfort zone and perform on stage. Actually learning choreography to boot. The only judges on this show is the audience. But, if the audience is filled with fellow employees and family members of the ones on stage, then the winner is most likely determined by how many people each office has in the audience right?
The Next Food Network Star is going nicely. The potential stars will be on the Rachael Ray show tomorrow (Thursday, July 3rd) to show their stuff. My favorites are Shane and Aaron. Kelsey is starting to grow me. Lisa is very knowledgeable about food and how to market products. They are both strong contenders as well. I vote for Chef Michael Symon being the host of the show next time around. He's very personable and did a great job as guest judge.
Wipeout and I Survived A Japanese Game Show I like Japanese game show a little better than I do Wipeout.
America's Got Talent is one of the best talent shows out there. Jerry Springer makes a great host. David, Sharon and Piers are good judges too. I'm looking forward to the Las Vegas shows since there are so many more great acts that we, the viewing public, have not seen yet. The judges have a tough job on their hands choosing the finalists.
Returning shows on cable this month:
Burn Notice begins next week Thursday July 10th, followed by The Closer and Saving Grace on Monday July 14th, Project Runway on Wednesday the 16th, and Monk and Psych on the 18th. After hearing so many good things about it from fellow bloggers, I'm also giving Mad Men a try this season, it starts on Sunday July 27th.
The Olympics begin on 8/8/08. America has lots of athletic talent as well.
It's shaping up to be a pretty good next couple of months until the new Fall TV season begins again. I'm crossing my fingers that the actors don't go on strike next.
Wow, this blog is really long isn't it? Considering my last blog was about a month ago, I guess I'm playing catch up.
Have a great Summer doing whatever you do. Have fun and be safe.
Aloha!
Fear Itself
Before I started watching shows like Supernatural, I never really gravitated towards these kinds of "horror" shows. But I did check out "Fear Itself" on NBC and it was pretty okay.
I didn't know what to expect in the first episode. According to the episodes description "four criminals find themselves stranded in an abandoned fort with a trio of seductive sirens" made me think the episode was about witches or something along that line.
But instead we got the good old story of vampires, and not the Supernatural and or Moonlight type of vampire mind you (if you know what I mean). Turns out those "seductive sirens" were basically prisoners who had to keep providing this vamp with fresh blood.
The whole thing was shot in a sort of slasher movie kind of way. It had a little bit of a lull somewhere in the middle but reved up towards the end. The whole episode had those look away from the screen / watch through your fingers type of moments for me.
There are 12 episodes in this series. The one I'm hearing the most about is next weeks episode called "Spooked", starring Eric Roberts.
It only makes sense to me who was really in the coffin because this was the only person that cared enough about the island to save it and they would do anything to protect it.
The shortened 2007 Fall TV season is almost over. The big finale will be tomorrow night with Lost.
With American Idol and Dancing With The Stars crowning their respective champions, and taking up most of my TV viewing time last week. I had a lot of season finales lined up on tape for me to view this past weekend. They were all great finales. Every one had a jaw dropping ending. I loved them all.
Since the writers strike cut the season short, I can only wonder what we could have seen in those missing episodes. We may have to brace ourselves for an actors strike next but I hope it doesn't come to that.
As the saying goes, one door closes and another one opens.
I've started watching So You Think You Can Dance this season. I usually skip this one only because it starts right after AI and DWTS ends. After those shows, I need a break from the competition.
This Sunday is the premiere of two new shows. "In Plain Sight" on USA and "Million Dollar Password" on CBS. Password used to be my favorite game show growing up, I'm really looking forward to this one. On Monday it's the return of "The Mole".
"Burn Notice" and "The Closer" start in July.
Happy Summer everyone and Happy TV viewing.
House - What happened to Amber?!
That's the question I've been asking myself for two days.
I usually record House on Mondays and with the shows that I record, I stay away from reading any blogs or reviews about them until I watch it on the weekend. But while watching American Idol on Tuesday and Wednesday night they kept showing the promos for the finale next week, showing how Dr. House might have to give his life to save Amber. Save Amber? What happened to Amber?? I couldn't hold out any longer.
If you haven't seen it yet, possible spoiler ahead
After watching AI, and giving Syesha a great big round of applause, I watched the episode, and boy, what an episode that was.
The thing that makes me nuts on that show is how Dr. House always has his team running around, doing each and every kind of test under the sun to find out what the mystery illness is. Sometimes making the patient suffer even more along the way. This time the patient was Dr. House himself, and he was determined to find out what it was he saw when the bus crashed and who he had to save. Thank goodness he did.
When Amber showed up in his hypnotic vision in the bar, I had a feeling she must have been on the bus with him or he had seen her at the bar. Why else would she be showing up. Then when the mystery woman wearing the necklace showed up, it was confirmed who he had to help. I was practically yelling at the TV when she kept asking House what her necklace was made of. AMBER!
The last 10 or so minutes of that episode was sooo good, I was glued to my seat.
I'll still be recording the finale on Monday since it's on at the same time as DWTS, but since Medium is done, I'll be able to watch it the same night. Glued to my seat.
American Idols and Dancing Stars- The finals are here!
I know what you're thinking, another AI & DWTS Blog? Yep. But since the others seem to have everything covered, just some quick thoughts from me. Idol - It was a tough call on who to vote for last night because all three of them have been on my favorites list since the beginning. I thought they all did great and I put a vote in for all three of them.
The odds have been against Syesha since last week's results show ended, but she sure gave those boys a run for their money.
DWTS - I think everyone already knew it would be Kristi, Cristián and Jason in the final three but dog goneit, DWTS sure knows how to do that dramatic pause and scary music results stuff don't they? As you are waiting your mind wonders did Marissa make it? Speaking of Marissa, she has always been the happiest person, after Steve Guttenberg, on the show, and she gave the best final words. "Shake What Your Mama Gave You!"
The junior dancers were terrific. Adam & Rachelle and Jaryd & Cara have a lot of energy and were very, very good. But Brandon & Brittany? Two words. Holey Cow!! That was awesome. I had to rewind the tape and watch that a second time. Just like on AI, I put a vote in for each of them.
Maybe that's what AI should do, showcase the younger talent. Don't make it a competition but just let them perform a song.
What an honor and a great opportunity for these kids, and they get to go to Disneyland! Lucky.
I realized that I hadn't done my annual yearly anniversary blog yet this year so here it is.
'Elua is the Hawaiian word for the number two. It's been two years since I've joined this here TV Guide Community. I signed up in April but I didn't write my first actual blog until May 6, 2006.
Since sometime late last year I started my own TV blog on Blogger which was probably a bad idea because now I think blogging has seeped into brain and I'm constantly writing things down to blog about. I try to do a blog at least once or twice a week here at TVG. The one problem there is finding the time to sit down and do it.
I don't want blogging to become like a second job to me. Sometimes I need to stop, step back, and take a breath. So if you don't see a blog or a comment from me for a while, it's not that I'm not around. I still come to read what everyone wrote about the television shows we all watched the night before. TV Guide.com is one of the first sites I visit when I turn my computer on every weekday morning.
Recently the folks at TV Guide Online won an award for Community and Social Networking from the Media Industry Newsletter. And I think it's well deserved.
Finally, I'd just like to quickly thank everyone here for all of their hard work and very creative blogs. You all keep me entertained and informed every day. Plus I'd like to thank the folks at the Supernatural fan group and the American Idol fan group for all of their input and comments. A fan group is not exactly a "group" without member participation.
