No, this isn't really a review, but it's so rare that I like a modern TV show that actually lasts beyond one season, that I thought I'd feature this great interview and video from TV Guide on the cast of "The Middle":
The Middle's Heck of a Family - Today's News: Our Take | TVGuide.com
It's on Wednesday nights at 8:00 p.m. EST if you want to check it out.
And if you wanna' follow some of the cast on twitter:
Frankie Heck
Axl Heck
Sue Heck
Hi all:
I've been under the weather for the past 2 weeks with a cold that won't quit, but I think it's finally quitting now! Speaking of weather, we're in the midst of a 24-hour Nor'Easter here and the snow is lovely! Especially blowing around in the blustery winds. It's a good thing I like snow since it may be falling through tomorrow morning ...
Anyhoo, I did manage to turn in a graphic novel review, but I don't think it's been published yet. I'll let ya' know when, 'cause it's a fun one.
In the meantime, here's a space science quiz to see if you're smarter than a 5th grader! BTW, does anyone watch that show? Of all the reality shows, that's the only one that peaks my interest, though I suppose, technically, it's a game show.
On to the quiz from Space.com:
The following 10 statements straddle the line between fact and fiction in space science. If you haven't been paying very close attention, the truthfulness of some might be hard to gauge. Jot down which side of the fact-fiction line you think each falls.
1. We have strong evidence that our solar system is not the only one; we know there are many other Suns with planets orbiting them.
2. Some organisms can survive in space for years -- without any kind of protective enclosure.
3. Organisms have been found thriving in scalding water with temperatures as high as 235 degrees Fahrenheit.
4. We now have evidence that some form of life exists beyond Earth, at least in primitive form.
5. We currently have the technology necessary to send astronauts to another star system within a reasonable time span. The only problem is that such a mission would be overwhelmingly expensive.
6. All of the gas giant planets in our solar system (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune) have rings.
7. In the "Star Wars" films, the Imperial TIE Fighters are propelled by ion engines (TIE stands for Twin Ion Engine). While these spacecraft are fictional, real ion engines power some of today's spacecraft.
8. There is no gravity in deep space.
9. The basic premise of teleportation -- made famous in TV's "Star Trek" -- is theoretically sound. In fact, scientists have already "teleported" the quantum state of individual atoms from one location to another.
10. Tatooine, Luke Skywalker's home planet in the "Star Wars" films, has two Suns -- what astronomers would call a binary star system. Scientists have discovered recently that planets really can form within such systems.
I'll post the answers tomorrow ...
Enjoy!
hrh
Hi all:
The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer recently ran an in-depth story about the South Korean Christian Church called "Evangelical Movement Spreads Throughout South Korea. "
Here's how it begins:
"It's a classic landscape you see in former European colonies in Africa or Asia, but this missionary outpost rises amid rubber trees and sugarcane fields in the ancient kingdom of Thailand.
The church and the children's home that it runs is headed by a missionary from Korea.
REV. JUNG WOONG KIM (through translator): As we look back, we realize that we owe a lot to Christianity, and we would like to share it with the rest of the world.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Reverend Jung Woong Kim's native South Korea is better known as an exporter of cars and TVs, but Korea is second only to the U.S. in the number of Christian missionaries it sends to the rest of the world ..."
You can read the rest of this informative and inspiring report here.
Here are my comments about the story:
Here are some tidbits from the report:
Amazing! The center of the Christian Church is surely moving south and east away from the United States and Europe into Asia and Africa.
Enjoy!
(Thanks for the tip about this story, Dad!)
hrh
Hi all:
You may remember my post from a few weeks ago about the mini-reunion of Blair and Tootie from "The Facts of Life." Lisa Whelchel wrote about it on her blog this week, so I thought I'd do a follow-up link here for any of you FOL (or Paul Harvey) fans who want "the rest of the story."
Here's how Lisa's journal starts:
Surprising Kim
A couple of weeks ago I was running on the treadmill at our local fitness center. I was listening to my iPod but I look up at the television to catch a picture of Kim Fields. “Good Morning, Texas” was advertising that she would be a guest on the show the next morning. When I got back home I called my manager and asked him to call the producer of the show to get a message to Kim for me since she recently moved from L.A. to NYC and I didn’t have any of her new information ...
Read the rest here along with a couple pix, including this one:
Enjoy!
hrh
Hi all:
Since I list "Facts of Life" (FOL) as one of my favorite oldie but goodie TV shows over in the right side of my blog, I thought I'd share this cute snippet of a reunion between Tootie (Kim Fields) and Blair (Lisa Whelchel).
This happened last Thursday, February 1, on a Dallas morning TV show where Kim was appearing to promote a play she's in down there. The TV host surprised her by bringing out Lisa (who lives in the Dallas area).
Watch it directly from the TV station here.
And watch it on YouTube where a kind fan posted it here.
I'm not sure which video will disappear first so I put them both up.
If you're an FOL fan, try to watch it without grinning! And for you diehard fans, Kim even mentions Julie Pie, who I think is Julie Piekarski.
So here's a trivia question for you:
Which character did Julie Piekarski play during the first season of FOL when there were about 90 girls in the cast before they trimmed it to the 4 girls who would carry the show through 8 more seasons?
Enjoy!
hrh
Hi all:
I kid you not.
Here's the scoop and some snippets from today's story on Space.com:
Martha Stewart Makes Orbital Call to Space Crew
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) sought a few pointers from domestic diva Martha Stewart Monday on how best to make their orbital laboratory a bit more like home.
“It’s really an honor and a privilege to be up here,” NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, an Expedition 14 flight engineer aboard the ISS, told Stewart during a Monday chat via video link broadcast on NASA TV [image]. “But if you’ve got any tips on how we could fix up the place of make some better meals, we’re welcome to that.” ...
Stewart, who experienced a brief taste of weightlessness during a Zero G flight last year, discussed everything from food to science to laundry with Williams and Lopez-Alegria to get a sense of life in Earth orbit [image].
“Who washes your clothes?” Stewart asked.
"Nobody," Lopez Alegria replied ...
Read on to find out the REAL TRUTH ABOUT LAUNDRY IN SPACE!!
And to think I wanted to make the trek to the ISS.
Zounds!
hrh
Hi all:
I just added links to two of my television "spec" scripts in the sidebar under "My Scripts:"
You can read mine and other scripts at WriteSafe's online directory. Works are listed by Author's last name. Scroll down to "Hunt" for my scripts!
[FYI: WriteSafe is a registration and display site, so all works are legally protected by the authors.]
Enjoy!
hrh
(Season 2 is due on DVD 11/28/06!)
SOURCE:
HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
8/16/06
CBS commits to Roth TV's exorcism pilot
By Kimberly Nordyke and Nellie Andreeva
CBS has given a put pilot commitment to an exorcism-themed drama from Joan of Arcadia creator Barbara Hall and producer Joe Roth. Details of the project, from CBS Paramount Network Television and studio-based Joe Roth Television, are still sketchy, but it is understood to revolve around exorcists and others who investigate supernatural phenomena.
Hall, who is under an overall deal at CBS Paramount TV, is writing the script and is executive producing the project with Roth.
Bob Larson, an expert on cults, the occult and supernatural phenomena, is consulting on the project. Joe Roth TV president Nina Lederman is serving as co-executive producer. This is the first major commitment for Joe Roth TV, which launched in late 2004 with a three-year deal at CBS Par TV and an initial focus on comedy development.
Roth is not a stranger to the subject of exorcism, having executive produced the 1990 feature film The Exorcist III. The Revolution Studios founder most recently executive produced the summer comedy Little Man and directed the drama Freedomland.
Former Judging Amy executive producer/showrunner Hall most recently created and executive produced the CBS drama pilot "Ultra" this past development season. The project, from CBS Par TV, centered on a city-girl superhero.
Larson has written 30 books, including Larson's Book of Spiritual Warfare, an encyclopedia reference of demons, the devil and deliverance, and Larson's Book of Cults. He hosts a radio and a TV show both titled "Bob Larson Presents: Spiritual Freedom" that air on selected stations and on the Internet.
I like Barbara's shows and she's involved with Act One for Hollywood, too.
Both good reasons to check out any shows she writes/produces.
hrh
Hi all:
Today I'm glad (despite the flood warnings all across Connecticut!) because the Red Sox took 2 out of 3 in their series with the Yankees in the Bronx and are now in sole possession of First Place in the American League East Division! Go Red Sox!
But I'm also sad (or ticked, more like it) of ABC's treatment of the great "Commander in Chief." First, they yank the creator off the show as producer. Bring in Steven Bochko, who lives up to his name, and 'botches" a hit show. Take it off the air for months, and oh yes, in that unexplainable hiatus, leading lady Geena Davis wins a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Television Drama. Finally bring it back, but move it from Tuesdays at 9:00 p.m. to Thursdays at 10:00 p.m., show one episode, and then yank it back off again during May sweeps.
If this is not idiotic behavior by a network, I don't know what is! Can you be any more obvious about not wanting a show to succeed? You're doing everything you can to kill a show THAT WAS SUCCEEDING.
But then ABC is not alone:
CBS cancelled critical success and award-winning show "Joan of Arcadia" without so much as a whimper, and that after the Season 2 finale set up a great premise for Season 3. Double-huh?
WB threw creators Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino off next year's probable final season of critical success and fan favorite "Gilmore Girls." Say what?
Would I be too cynical if I said out loud that "CiC's" shoddy treatment could be all about politics? As in the show wasn't liberal enough with its independent President. 'Course, I don't see the problem 'cause Hollywood still gets its crooked, evil Republican in Speaker of the House Templeton (wonderfully played and given suprising depth by Donald Sutherland).
But then again, there was that episode in which the Dems set up an intern to frame the First Gentleman, and the leader of the DNC actually made a public apology about the incident. Perhaps that didn't set too well. 'Cause wasn't it the very next episode that got bumped?
ABC, if you're listening, please put this show back on the air! It's not about the politics. It's about the spotlight of living in the White House and how that affects a family. It's a story that needs to be told 'cause the way the system is now, I don't know why any family would ever want to live in the White House.
hrh
Hi all:
Just a quick entry to celebrate the return of Sarah Jane Smith to the cover of Doctor Who Magazine! Click on the photo for a snippet of Elisabeth Sladen's interview.
Can't wait 'til she returns to the show!
hrh
Hi all:
My formal review of "Rose" and "The End of the World" is now posted over at Infuze Mag. Ignore the credit for Karri Compton - I've notified the editor, and I'm sure he'll give me proper credit soon enough ...
On the bright side, "The Unquiet Dead" follows on "The End of the World" rather than "Rose" so I quite enjoyed it. My fav Doctor Whos are the historicals and the outer space episodes. In other words, the stories that couldn't happen without the TARDIS. So eps 2 and 3 are right up my alley.
Still too much Rose though. The scene where she yells at the old man while the Doctor watches admiringly from the corner made me cringe. Sorry, but it should be the other way around, I mean, who's the alien time lord, who can travel in time and space here? Rose should be looking in admiration at the doctor, don'tcha think? Enough of the Rose worship and let's make the doctor the hero he is. The other cringeworthy scene is at the end when the doctor apologizes to Rose. Say, huh?
hrh
Hi all:
First impressions of the new "Doctor Who." It was better than I dreaded, but than low expectations have a way of helping the cause. :) Plus, they prepare one for what to expect. There was way too much Rose in "Rose," but then I knew that would be the case so, okay.
What bothered me most about "Rose" was the obvious writer's trick of manipulating the audience into liking the character the writer wants us to like by writing everyone around the character poorly.
Rose's mum, for example. Rose is clearly the more mature one here, which we get by the immature writing of her mum. And just in case we don't get that, RTD has Rose call her mum 2 or 3 times and act all calm as her mother freaks out. Cringe.
And Mickey, goodness gracious, Mickey! He's written as a schoolboy of 18 in the romantic montages, constantly jumping around, only kissing Rose with an innocent schoolboy peck. But then he actually gets younger, he looks about 12 years old, when oh my goodness, he actually grabs Rose around the waist from his knees to beg her to stay. He is inexcusably made to look like an idiot IMO just to make the audience like Rose and see her as the mature, compassionate character with the crap life, so hey, of course, she wants to go with the doctor!! Get it!! Slam dunk. . .
My knee jerk reaction to this kind of writing is to dislike on principle the character I'm being manipulated to like. Truly great characters, like truly great leaders or truly great athletes or truly great actors, for that matter, make the people around them look better, not worse. And then the manipulative slo-mo of Rose running to escape the idiotic Mickey and run into the Doctor's Tardis!! Way too OTP for me!
Thank goodness, "The End of the World" was eons better for me. I'm one of the "get the doctor out in space or travelling in time since that's what's so unique about him" fans, so right away the concept of this ep is right up my alley. And the execution was pretty good, too.
Of course, much better special effects than classic "Who." And the gathered aliens were fun and inventive. Cassandra is a well-executed high concept idea of taking plastic surgery, etc., to the nth degree. Neat.
But Rose wandering around on her own was quite unmotivated. Again, it seemed a writer's gimmick to get her to encounter some aliens and have a chat. I guess I'm used to classic SJS, who often wandered off, but it was always to investigate something or other and gather information, and then she encountered the baddie and got caught. But at least it was motivated.
Rose was obviously upset and left out and lonely and out of place when she left the meeting room. If it was made clear that she was searching for the TARDIS, for example, to go back to something that was familiar, that would have made it work for me. Maybe it's the acting, but she just looked like she was wandering for no reason, which left me not with her.
OTOH, two minor characters were drawn well enough in a short space of time that I cared about what happened to them, i.e. the plumber and the tree. I was upset when they each were in danger. When Rose wandered back to the observation room and ended up in danger, I didn't feel much at all.
This makes it sound like I don't like Rose, which isn't true. I don't dislike her. Right now, I just don't feel anything for her, no empathy, I don't want to be her. So far I think it's mostly the manipulative and/or unmotivated writing I'm responding to. Maybe a bit of the acting, too. If Piper "rose" above the writing to make me care about her. But so far she's read lines AFAIC.
I am liking Christoper Eccleston so far in the role. Again, the writing has him begging Rose too much, because I don't see what she's done at the point when he begs her that would make him want to take her so much. But still, his doctor has layers of depth that the tree started to bring out in him. Rose hasn't IMO, but I loved the scene with him and the tree.
In my completely arbitrary ratings, then, I give:
"Rose" 4 out of 10
"The End of the World" 7 out of 10
hrh
Hi all:
A quick note to say that Kathleen Edgecomb, an Arts writer at my local paper, blogged yesterday about a "Doctor Who" scarf pattern she had found on the Internet.
She didn't know much about the Doctor and called him "a famous television detective in England." I s'pose that's not necessarily wrong, but it's surely the most understated description of the year!
She also doesn't seem to realize that there are 10 versions of him, only one of whom wore the 12-foot scarf! But "who" knows? Maybe she'll tune in next week to the Sci-Fi Channel looking for the scarf, get hooked on the character, and go searching for 4th doctor stories. People become fans in all kinds of crazy ways.
Anyhoo, I responded with a few comments of my own ...
TTFN,
hrh
Hi all:
Mark your calendars: The new version of "Doctor Who" hits U.S. airwaves on the SciFi Channel in two weeks:
Friday March 17, 9:00 p.m. EST.
I must admit I have mixed feelings about this. From what I've heard, this modern version focuses on the companion to the point of making her the co-star on an equal level with the doctor.
This is uncool in my book 'cause the show is not called "The Doctor's Companion," "Doctor Who and His Companion," or "Doctor Who and Company." While it's true the companion often (but not always - consider the Romanas and K-9) served as the human reference point for the audience, she (usually) or he were never on the same level - as characters or actors - as the star of the show, the Doctor himself.
In addition to robbing the doctor of his coolness, his supremacy, and his alienness, this emphasis on a specific companion leads to huge problems when said companion decides to leave the show. Which has always been the way of Who; doctors and companions come and go with revolving door regularity and yet the show survived in its first incarnation for 27 years!
The other point that gives me pause is that not only does the show focus on the companion, but it makes clear that she is in love with the doctor and, from what I've heard, he reciprocates the feeling in quite human ways. This is very iffy in the doctor who world AFAIC.
So these are my reservations about the show from the feedback that I've heard from our British friends, who received the first season of "Who" last year. As I said, I have not seen it yet myself, so these views may change.
Still, I am looking forward to seeing "Doctor Who" again ... Even if it's only to wait through the episodes until my fav character from the original, Sarah Jane Smith, makes her appearance in Season Two!!
hrh
Hi all:
Are you a "Lost" watcher?
No, really, do you watch the TV program called "Lost?"
Do you tune in to ABC on Wednesday nights at 9:00 to find out what's happening on the mysterious island (if there's a new episode!!) and then move on to your next program, the news, or bed with nary a thought of the lost islanders until next Wednesday at 9:00 (if there's a new episode!!)?
If so, then I predict you are in the minority.
For many viewers, "Lost" the TV show is merely a jumping-off point (whether they're jumping off the deep end, I'll leave for you to judge.). Each week's 45-minute episode is treated as the scene of a crime, so to speak, which is then taken apart frame by frame (thank you, Tivo!) and dusted for clues, connections, and conclusions.
Consider just two websites:
[WARNING: Sites contain massive spoilers. Read at your own risk!]
The Society for the Study of Lost for the academic (and exhaustive!) approach.
The Ultimate Theory for, well, one fan's ultimate theory (14 pages of theory and discussion ... and counting!) about what's going on.
If you visit either of these sites, be prepared to spend some time.
There now.
Are you still only a "Lost" watcher?
hrh
Hi all:
I saw an episode of the American "The Office" last night with Steve Carrell. I thought it was pretty good. A bit less risque than the British version, which is now showing on my local PBS at 10:00 p.m. Saturdays.
Other than that though, the American version keeps pretty much the whole format, including clueless office workers, an omnipresent camera, and periodic breaks in which characters act like they're talking to an interviewer. The company is even still a paper distributor. I may stick with it for a while ...
In more important news, it's 87 days until:
Click the poster for more info!
hrh
Hi all:
Both of my Tuesday night shows were preempted this week:
Gilmore Girls by UCONN men's basketball (they won) and Commander in Chief by the President (how ironic is that?)
And GG was s'posed to be a terrific knock-down, drag-out fight among the Gilmore women, too!! Whine!
To top it off, Wednesday night's Lost was another repeat. I will NEVER get used to the new TV schedules.
Back in my golden childhood (humor me), new TV seasons began in late September and ran through to May, with the best eps in November and February sweeps, and perhaps a few weeks off to run holiday specials.
Now we're lucky to get new episodes in November and February with long gaps in between. This is no way to groom an audience IMHO. But it's a great way to frustrate them!!
Anyhoo, new shows on tonight's SciFi line-up, so I'm looking forward to those ...
TTFN,
hrh
Thanks for finding me. :)
I've been reviewing music, movies, theater, and books for more than 15 years, first for college papers and underground newsletters and lately for the Web. I've decided it's time to collect my thoughts together in one place, and a free blog seems just the way to go!
I intend to, at a minimum, include links to my published reviews as they appear. But I also want to include reviews that appear only here, including television episodes, which I've never tried formally reviewing before.
Currently I watch "Gilmore Girls," "Commander in Chief," "Lost," the Stargates, and "Battlestar Galactica." I'm also fond of the Britcoms PBS shows and "Doctor Who" (the ones with Sarah Jane Smith).
That's all for now. I just wanted to get the ball rolling. I hope to post some links later today ...
TTFN!
hrh
