Saturday, July 16, 2011

101st Birthday Cake; Adoption Special; Repeat Contenders

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Recaps & [Commentaries] for "unscripted" shows this week include: 19 Kids and Counting, 16 and Pregnant, Teen Mom, and Wipeout. Spoilers abound, so don't jump down if you don't want to know what happens!

Monday:
C
ake Boss  "Moving Cake, Marbles & Mess-Ups" and "Bugs, Break-Ups and Burned Out" (S04E19 & S04E20):  Buddy is making a go-kart cake, so a bunch of the employees go to an indoor track. They get a basic go-kart to the alley behind the bakery to figure out how they can make the cake drive. [ambitious!] Joey's father and uncle come to ask Buddy to make a cake for a friend of theirs, who is turning 101 years old. He was a marble champion as a kid. [cool.] He also plays poker and pool. [busy schedule...] Buddy takes Lisa (his wife, not his sister) to see the Lackawanna factory. Buddy is concerned about the size of some of the equipment - it's smaller than what they have now at the bakery. [I can understand his concern.] The steam kettle is the major problem. Lisa calms him down. Buddy doesn't even know how to play marbles, he says he's too young to know. [what? I played marbles when I was a kid... in the 90s. LoL.] The filling will be chocolate pudding with bananas. [yum!] They're also making poker chips and cards. When they started building the go-kart cake on the frame, something happened and now it won't start anymore. Buddy also rips out the cord trying to get it going, so now it won't drive after all. [too bad. :(] When they take it out of the truck, it starts rolling away. [hahaha!] They catch it before anything happens, luckily. Buddy feels bad that the go-kart couldn't drive so he promises he'll do one when they're in Lackawanna.

Buddy, Mauro, and Joey are at the new factory to watch some deliveries come in. Joey's tired from being at the firehouse. A guy from the American Museum of Natural History
visits the bakery to ask Buddy to make a cake with insects inside. Buddy doesn't want to bring in bugs, so he says he'll do a big tarantula cake there but will have to make the bugs-inside cake at another location. [I think that this is a fair compromise.] One of the decorators asks Buddy to do a cake for her friend, who had a bad break-up recently. Joey is having issues with Mary, and says that she needs to take things to him, not Buddy or Frankie. Ralph doesn't mind bugs, so he goes to help Buddy bake the bug-filled cake, which includes ground-up crickets in the flour! [I thought that the tarantula cake came out really nice, and I enjoyed seeing the techniques like the raking to make it look hairy. The kick-him-to-the-curb cake was a bit brutal in my opinion...] Buddy and Joey go back to the Lackawanna factory, as Buddy has to ask him to either be a baker or a fireman... he doesn't have time to do both anymore. [that's got to be a tough decision... both professions are so interesting.] Joey doesn't know what to do. Buddy took Anthony and another one of the young employees to deliver the kick-him cake, since maybe romance would spark. [this makes me giggle. I love how matchmaker-y this family is sometimes.] Buddy avoids eating a bug until the very end, when he tries a cricket. [gross. though I think I tried a chocolate-covered ant or grasshopper or something at a party once.]

Kate Plus Eight  (S02Exx): Episode 11 coming up.  

Tuesday:
 
19 Kids and Counting "Duggars, Doctors, Discipline" (S07E08): [Josie was so cute in the beginning!] Josie is small in height but caught up in weight. She's the size of a 9-month-old, though she's 14 months old. Michelle isn't feeling well, but she says she's not pregnant. Michelle is taking Josie to a special check-up in Little Rock (3.5 hour drive each way), so she's over-packing in case something happens and they have to spend the night away from home or something. Jana, Jedidiah, and James go with her. The other older girls try to get the little ones to nap. When Johannah turns six she can stop taking naps, apparently it becomes a "sometimes" situation at that point in the Duggar family. [why do they nap on the floor?] Josie has a gagging problem, so she struggles to put things into her mouth. [overall, not a lot happened this episode...]    

Teen Mom "To Be With You" (S03E02): For Catelynn and Tyler, it's summer, since they have to go back and finish school soon. It's summer for Maci too, as she's getting ready to register for fall classes. There are pumpkins on the side of the road in Amber's story, so it's probably fall there.  
Maci:
She needs more money. She struggles to discipline Bentley when he hits a friend. Maci mentions that she might have to move back in with her parents. She tells Kyle over the phone, who is less than thrilled. He offers to move in with her so she could afford to live there, but she worries that they'd wear him out. Maci tells her mom that Kyle's moving in, and her mother doesn't think it's a good idea. Her mom also points out that she used to trust Maci... then Bentley came along. [that was two years ago. her mom needs to get over that.] Maci tells Ryan that she's not moving back to Chattanooga after all. Ryan gets upset that Kyle is moving in with Maci and Bentley. He says that they need to be married if they want to live together. Maci tells Kyle that she told her mom and Ryan. Kyle thinks Ryan is in love with Maci. [I'd believe that.]
Farrah: She's working on her portfolio. She has a surgery check-up. She's trying to potty-train Sophia. She gets a modeling gig in Denver for a weekend. Her mom will watch Sophia. She rides in a limo to the hair show. She's 5'7". She's struggling to connect with the other models, and misses Sophia. [how friendly do they really get? this gig is only a weekend long...] She goes to bed when it's still light out. [And, as someone who was in Denver when this aired, I can say that it gets dark before 9:30pm, so she definitely peaced out early.] Her mom asks her if she's going to do more modeling weekends, and she says that she missed Sophia a lot. Sophia likes the Rockies jacket that Farrah brought back for her. 
Amber:  Amber and Gary have been back together for a week and are already looking at a house to move into. [these two drive me crazy!] They've decided to just stop talking about the past to eliminate their fights. [um. okay. doesn't sound like it'll work...] Gary breaks a stair going down the flight. [haha.] They're going to spend the weekend with Amber's brother and family at a resort. Amber curses at Gary in front of Leah, and he gets upset that she can't control her mouth in front of her daughter. Amber tells Gary she's done with him, since he'll never change. When they arrive, Amber immediately looks into flying back to Indiana (I think they're near Knoxville?), and Gary tries to make up with her. She gives him one week. Amber tells her brother that Gary is "retarded," and her brother tells her that they're both "retarded" and need anger management. [Amber needs all kinds of help. anger management is a start!] She tells her brother that she's only with Gary because of Leah. Amber demonstrates that she does curse when Gary's not around.    
Catelynn: Catelynn and Tyler are trying to find an apartment to rent before summer vacation is over. They see a place for $400, then another at the same rate that will allow a dog. $925 to move-in. Catelynn liked the first one, but Tyler wants to keep looking - he wants a bigger place. [$400 is so cheap!! my townhouse in graduate school was twice that!] They talk about how they need jobs, but they also have some savings apparently. [must be from the show, haha!] Her mom is helping them get some stuff together, like dishes and towels. His mom thinks it's a bad idea and asks Tyler's sister to talk to him. They both confront him in front of Catelynn, and bring up the fact that they'd have to work and go to school. Catelynn tells them that she told him he doesn't have to. They go to look at another apartment, this one is $450 a month, and Tyler still thinks it's too small, but they write a check. Tyler's mom tells him that if she finds out he's not going to school, she's going to be on him. They borrow his mom's van to move stuff. [Why are they moving in the dark?] They're happy. [good for them. this should get interesting...]

16 and Pregnant "Adoption Special": Out of the 35 teen mothers on this show, only three have chosen adoption. Catelynn and Ashley (2 out of the 3) are here today. 730,000 teen pregnancies in America each year. 400,000 give birth, and 1% choose adoption. First, Catelynn and Ashley review what happened in their respective stories. Catelynn doesn't regret her decision, but Ashley still feels like it's difficult sometimes. Ashley thinks she's been selfish, Catelynn reassures her that she isn't. Open Adoption: complete exchange of information at all times. Semi-Open Adoption: there's a set structure that everyone follows. Closed Adoption: No contact. Catelynn is Semi and Ashley is Open. Ashley still wants her daughter back. Ashley feels like she could handle it. Now there's also Paige, who chose adoption for her son. Paige will be featured on a future Teen Mom episode with Catelynn, at a retreat. Paige's son is now 18 months old, and she adores her son's adoptive parents. Catelynn and Paige met through Paige's adoption counselor. Paige's adoption is Semi-Open as well. Paige avoids boys now as her method of birth control [LoL, that's a different way to go.] They leave the stage and Ashley comes back out, and is joined by her aunt and uncle, aka her baby's adoptive parents. Ashley can't seem to stay in therapy... the pain bothers her and she starts and stops attending. [no update as to if she's in school, etc.] Ashley just can't let go, and is ambivalent - she both wants her aunt/uncle to be the baby's parents, and she wants the baby to herself. We see Catelynn talk to other teenagers about her adoption experience. [it really makes me happy to see how well Catelynn and Tyler get along with their daughter's adoptive parents.] They visit 1-2 times a year and send pictures every 3 months. The hardest thing for Tyler was accepting that Carly deserved better than him. [hard to say, but very true.] Catelynn and Tyler are given a video of a bit of Carly's life. They see part of what a day of her life is life. Ashley has a book coming out in the fall called Bittersweet Blessings
 
Thursday:
Wipeout "All Stars" (S04E21):  All 24 contestants are repeats - they're memorable losers from the past! Wipeout Qualifier includes double sweeper dive (use a diving board to get over sweeper arms. twice.), treadmill to big balls, mood swing (spinning platform to go past to jump onto a swinging platform that is slippery, then jump again off of it.), school cafeteria (get through some ascending and descending holes, landing in food, having food bounce up at you, then get up and over two moving "hot dogs"). CrazyCuban is here. And TinaTurner. So is SuperBeast. And the Gipe sisters - Lauren, Gianna, and Gillian. BroadwayBabe is also there. [haha on the musicals jokes. "tarnations to 2nd place" is a weird motto.] Next round is the Scare-ousel. Everyone starts on a platform and gets across a few pedestals to another platform, then grabs a red dangler and ride over a few hurdles, landing in a specific spot. They go up to another pedestal and get on a yellow double dangler past some sweeper arms to the finish spot. [three people grabbing onto a single dangler was ridiculous.] None of the sisters made it to even round 3. Next: Jump the Shark: a shark is on a sweeper arm. Each contestant is on a pedestal ten feet above the water. Jump over the shark when it comes by you. Last person standing wins, same thing two more times. TinaTurner wins the first round. Then Fruitcake, then NeverGiveUpNeverSurrender (NGUNS). WipeoutZone: Chairborne, Over-and-Out, Pointbreak (get up the stairs to a rotating slide, ride down to land on a platform), CoinToss (get across 8 spinning-end-to-end cylinders). TinaTurner is first. He totally messes up the first half of Over-and-Out. He slides too early the first time. He fumbles on the CoinToss but makes it! 11:31 finish. Fruitcake is next... he breezes through, finishing at 6:46. NGUNS is last... and it's raining. [cool clip of her getting across the big balls.] She makes the first half of the Over-and-Out easily, the second half works out fine too. She slides too early the first time. She fumbles and tries to crawl across the CoinToss, but falls. She falls the second time, too, and that forces her to be out of time. "Everybody gets a fruitcake" was Fruitcake's line when he found out he won... [funny.] [I prefer it when the water dumps on the contestants rather than stuff squirting on them... the dumps seems more objective.]  
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Off season/Coming Up:
Teen Mom 2  (no idea when season 2 starts)
Pregnant in Heels
(Season 2?)
The Unpoppables  (we saw six episodes of the first season, now the show is MIA)
Outrageous Kid Parties  (we saw four episodes of the first season, now the show is MIA)
16 
and Pregnant
(season 4?
)
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