At least Cake Boss is Back!

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Friday:

Miami Medical (SxxExx): technically speaking, this is off-season, but since it's only for a week, I'm not moving it down to the bottom, LoL.

Sunday:
Minute to Win It (S01Exx): off-week

Monday:

Little People, Big World (S05Exx): off-week
[season final June 14th]

Cake Boss (S03E01): Season 3 opener has the regular opening, nothing special there. Buddy's mom is retiring. Nobody looked thrilled to hear the news, but there was a lot of shock around the room. I laughed at the "now we can sell erotic cakes" moment, haha. That's a big order... a cake for 2,000 people. But the idea was cool, like all the NJ stuff. I never knew that NJ was the "blueberry capital of the world" and I'm from there, haha. "NJ Fist-Pumper" haha. trees. tomatoes. corn. goldfinch. turnpike signs. casinos for Atlantic City. Prudential Center. Carlo's Bakery. Lighthouse for the Jersey Shore. Geez.... three kids before you're thirty? I'm SO not there, LoL. Who would want a life-size replica cake?? That just sounds creepy to me. Buddy immediately labeling Ralph as a "freak" was disheartening. Speed and creativity count, and after he builds a dinosaur he's in? That's pretty cool. Buddy seemed a little cocky when he was sculpting the cake of his wife. It's kinda sad that the cream puff cake isn't the same anymore since the factory in Italy where they imported the liquor in the cake from has gone out of business. Kinda gross that they're drinking out of the bottles, LoL. I giggled when I realized that they kept it secret what liquor (combination?) they're using now instead. Is this whole "employee of the month" thing new?? I love how all of the sisters are trying to suck up to get "employee of the month" instead of working harder like the guys. I don't know that I would have given the "head carving" task to the new boy, LoL. Too easy to screw up, I'd think. Did they really get a party that big thrown together in a week?? I loved the look on Buddy's face when he gets the call that Lisa is driving by, since he panics about what he's going to do with the 5-foot cake!! I thought the chest of the cake was a little large, but I was really impressed with the hair! The governor's cake is ridiculously large, too. This does mark the episode as being from the middle of last January. There's way more employees in the room when he goes over "employee of the month" than I remember. I grinned but still thought it was hilarious that Buddy chose himself as the first "employee of the month" hahaha.

I also caught the Ultimate Cake-off episode where the Cake Boss guys are the subject. Joey, Mauro, and Remy are the teams, and they have a decorator from the show as well as two other assistants from the other show, I guess. Buddy is going to be one of the four judges, and they have nine hours. Joey wants to do the cream puff cake with a building growing out of it with the bakery's history stuff. Remy wants to do two buildings, attached by a bridge, and the bridge has a five-tier wedding cake on it. Mauro wants to use 100 pounds of fondant, and he's going to have a family tree on top of some blocks. Not as creative in design, but let's see how they all get pulled off. I didn't realize Remy had such an accent (he's Mexican, apparently). Mauro is at a disadvantage because Anthony is his assistant. Joey's into all-cake, no props. I've never really seen this show before, so I don't know what that stopping point was for at one point. But I was disappointed that Mauro's tower fell over. It's not like Joey would give Anthony bad directions, so why was Mauro so ticked that he was trying to help? Remy had the "best tasting" cake so he gets Buddy's help for half an hour? That's an interesting. The judging wasn't that exciting, since they kinda said the same things a couple of times. I kinda wanted Joey to win, I liked his the best. But Remy won, and that was good, it was cute.

Other things I learned: Joey is the "head mixer," technically. Remy is the #1 decorator at the shop. Mauro is Buddy's right-hand man.

Tuesday:

Wipeout (special episode): okay, so it's a gimmicky "blind date" episode to kick off the season, pre-season. We have three weeks until the next episode, but right here we have 12 strange pairs of people, which must have been matched very strangely. That first girl looked way older than a HS senior. The suckerpunch now also has small streams of blue liquid shooting out?? They now have swimvests that have the Wipeout logo on them. Actually, apparently the streams can also be pink and yellow, LoL. One pair made it through the big balls! Which actually looks easier now, since the balls aren't all the same height. I don't really think the girl model is pretty enough to be a model. Some interesting updates to the first course as well, like the way "the enforcer" pushes you out onto the big balls, LoL. The second course looks a lot more complicated than the ones they've had previously. Katelyn was so close at one point! Paul, too! I thought it was funny that the first four people across weren't on the same teams at all. I wasn't expecting Katelyn and Jayson to be the first couple to make it! I'm curious as to whether they will have to edit out more of this obstacle in future episodes this season, or if they're going to re-allocate the time of the show so we can see more of this particular round. I thought it was a little strange that there were three couples that went on to the next round, and two were going on to the one after... it seemed like kinda a dumb step in between to me. Oh, it's just for cash. I get it, now. The obstacles in this one seemed ridiculous, but at least they get to return to the base they left off at instead of going all the way back to the beginning. The balls are really aimed at hitting the contestants, LoL. The guys are really struggling with the obstacles between first and second. I thought it was amusing that both of the "power" people won this round, it kinda made me think they'd take home the big money later. Oh, wait. Here we are again, trying to rule out just one couple with this round. Each person goes one at a time, and has to do the entire course. I was impressed that the first score was 2:13, since I thought it would've taken much longer than that. I liked the "business partner, I mean date" joke. Total of 5:01 for them. The whole paint thing seems to be really overdone this season. 3:39 for Mr. Beard. I thought the Little Mermaid jokes were funny. Arielle fell a LOT, LoL. 10:00 for that team. Interesting about how they have to go OVER the swinging bars this episode, instead of allowing an under-them thing. 5:50 for the last girl. The last guy was close, but c'mon now. I thought it was amusing that the "power couple" dominated this event as well. The outside lip idea that Katelyn tried on her second attempt in the drum was cool. I noticed Jayson doesn't have much to say in encouraging his partner. 9:31 for Katelyn. Jayson didn't do so well on the catapult, LoL. 19:52 for the power team... not too bad, but I kinda bet Scott can't do it in ten minutes, so they're probably fine. I wonder how they decided which partner would go first in each group. Scott didn't do badly on the catapult, and also rocked out on the drum. I was pretty impressed with his ability to stay on the sweeper tables. Scott's a little heavier than the power team, so it makes sense that he didn't make the rib run. I'm wondering if it's even possible to make the spiky gauntlet on the first try... Scott gets 11:25... better than I was expecting. Arielle does okay on the catapult, and not bad on the drum. I thought it was amusing the four times seems to be the most common about of attempts it takes to do the final obstacle, LoL. But, as one could have guessed from even the very first obstacles, the "power team" of Jayson and Katelyn win it.

Lastly, we're now under the impression there will be 18 new episodes, since they mentioned 432 contestants, and at 24 per episode, that's 18!!

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Off season:
Jon and Kate Plus Eight: (missing the finale, "It's a Crazy Life, But it's Our Life")
The Secret Life of the American Teenager (June 7, 8pm)
The Goode Family (Mondays at 10pm on Comedy Central)
Futurama (June 24th, 10pm)
16 and Pregnant / Teen Mom (Teen Mom back this summer, not sure on 16 and Pregnant) Sons of Tucson (will air the other 9 episodes this summer)
South Park (have not yet heard, but I assume October or so)
House, M.D. (season 7 starts in September)
Hot in Cleveland (new show, starts June 16th on TVLand)
Mr. Sunshine (new show, starts in the Fall on ABC)
Kate Plus Eight (new show, starts in a couple weeks on TLC)
The Simpsons (season 22 starts in the fall)
Table for 12: (missing "summer," "busy day," "jumping in," "brace yourself," "back to school")
Family Guy (season 9 starts in the fall)
How I Met Your Mother (season 6 starts in the fall)
19 Kids and Counting (Season 5 starts in August)