Fun Friday: 30 Years of Fraggle Rock

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

It's hard to convince me that there has ever been a children's show better than Fraggle Rock. Before, after, and maybe even in the future, this show can't be beat. So, I was absolutely giddy to look at the fun designs that came out of a recent call for designs to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the start of the iconic puppetry series. Voting is over and the winner has not yet been announced, but I wanted to share my favorite entry:

"You Cannot Leave the Magic - 30 Years of Fraggles"
By Rhett Pennell

You can go through all of the submissions if you'd like, and let us know which is your favorite!

Melissa & Joey: Joe Meets a Russian Girl...

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

A smart fan knew that Mel and Joe weren't actually going to get married, despite the hype and comments and teasers that ABCFamily tried to plant. Still, the mid-season finale being titled, "Mel Marries Joe" is a bit confusing until you realize that she has the power to officiate a wedding ceremony. It actually isn't that great of an episode, with Joe's bride, Elena, leaving him mere hours after being at the altar. Luckily, the two episodes leading up to this one were much better, giving Lennox some decent (albeit too innocent) storylines and allowing Ryder just enough screentime to make a fool of himself. Repeatedly. Truth be told, I'm not thrilled with the direction that this show is taking, and I'm a little sad to say that I might have to cut my ties if the next batch of episodes continues to be disappointing. What say you - do you think that the show is still comic gold or do you agree that it has been faltering lately?

Melissa & Joey "Wherefore Art Lennox" (S02E13): Lennox has an internship at City Hall for three weeks. [useless exchange between Joe and Ryder about the kid wanting to skip school for an internship as well. and WHAT?? she's missing three weeks of school for this mess??] A councilwoman comes to see Mel about canceling a street party, claiming it brings sewage, trash, and debris (STDs). [stupid, STUPID STD jab.] The councilwoman has brought her own intern (who has three days of experience) and he hits it off with Lennox. Mel gets jealous that Lennox is spending time with the intern, Cameron, but when the teen suggests some compromises that help out "the other side," Mel gets defensive and Lennox quits. [Mel's excitement over having a "mini-me" was odd.]

Ryder has a hickey but Mel doesn't freak, instead offering him makeup to cover it. On the flip side, Joe tells him that hickeys are a "badge of honor" and that he should wear it proudly. Well, that provokes Ryder to admit that it isn't from Holly -  and later he comes clean that the vacuum did it. [remember when I said that Ryder sits around making a fool of himself? well, here's exhibit A...]

Joe is aloof during the day, claiming insomnia before admitting that he's actually moonlighting for a Russian company online from 1-3am. [I don't understand why he came clean so soon. if that's the case, why even lie in the first place?] Joe is struggling, burning lasagna and packing sponges for lunch. Of course, it's not just business meetings... he's cyber-dating a woman from those meetings as well, and a few "dates" later, Elena arrives in Toledo! [awkward!]

Melissa & Joey "From Russia with Love" (S02E14): Elena has been there for three days and the housework is beginning to be ignored. When Joe heads off to a poker networking event (yeah, I don't get it, either), he leaves Elena with Mel, and they drink and are nice to one another. When Joe gets home, Mel even helps them make up. Of course, our favorite protagonist also comes to the realization that she has real feelings for Joe, though she disguises them by continuing to feed him lines to tell Elena. [I feel like this would be a romance out of convenience and wouldn't last anyway, but we'll save that for another day.] The next day, the Russian company has been disbanded because of a Ponzi scheme, and Elena is afraid to go back to St. Petersburg because she'll get arrested. Joe can't find a good defense attorney for her, so he decides that marrying her would help things. [hahahahahaha!]

Lennox is on a quest to prove how unhealthy the food is in the school vending machines, so she vows to subsist off of it for three days. She doesn't like the selection, though, and Ryder begs to be the guinea pig. Some researcher he is, however, as Lennox catches him munching on a carrot a couple of days later. [again, he sucks.] It doesn't matter too much, though, because the blog posts go viral, the parents get enraged, and the school decides to stock the vending machines with healthy food. [that's a fancy machine! it all happened a bit too quickly to be realistic, though!] Lennox becomes a target at school because of it all, while Ryder decides to take advantage of the situation by selling sugar-loaded food for three bucks an item. [this part was actually funny. well, not the Lennox part, but the Ryder part!]

Melissa & Joey "Mel Marries Joe" (S02E15) [mid-season finale]: Ryder helps put together the wedding, but when the feds show up, it's Mel who has to try legitimizing things by saying that she'll be officiating the wedding. [that whole scene where Lennox claims that she can lie all day was garbage! we know she sucks at lying!] Mel also offers Elena her wedding gown from three years ago, which the Russian happily accepts.

http://abcfamily.go.com/shows/melissa-joey

The ceremony is at Mel's office, and while she's officiating, she also objects, holding a sidebar with Joe where he admits to actually falling in love with Elena. [eep! too fast, Joe!] Later, Joe calls Mel, saying that Elena hasn't returned after taking a call in Russian. [eep indeed!] Mel goes looking for her, but Elena returns on her own, saying that she must go to Russia after all to help a colleague. She thanks Joe for rescuing her, but they need to "just be friends." [ouch!] The episode ends with Tiffany (Joe's first wife) calling collect, asking him to help her change a tire. [where was she that she called collect?? if her tire was busted, wouldn't she just phone from her cell? I thought this was set-up poorly...] 

The Newsroom: End of Season One

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

This whole Maggie-Jim thing kills me. So does the Will-Mac thing, of course, but not nearly as much. They should know better. Maggie is just wasting away her life with Don and doesn't seem to care. You could argue that I'm wasting away hours of my life on this blog, of course, but I'd disagree. Anyway, looking at the non-relationship aspects of these final two episodes in the first season, I think that they power-packed a lot of stuff in there, but it wasn't really interesting enough, in my opinion. Yeah, there's no getting around Casey Anthony (though I was surprised that was so recent... feels like a few years ago, doesn't it?), but at least the show was able to forge a little bit in the way of discussing the voter fraud issues and the craze that the Tea Partiers have caused! On the whole, however, too much drama for anything of substance to actually shine. And it's not even the semi-interesting drama, like Neal's trolling... it's ridiculous relationship madness. Boo. Hiss. #EPICFAIL

The Newsroom "The Blackout: Part II Mock Debate" (S01E09): The studio is without power and they're worried that it won't be back by the time they need to go on, so Mac gives a peptalk about doing the show in the street. Everyone gets on board with inspiration, only for the power to return and kill the mood. Still, the show goes well, though Will smokes when the pre-tape rolls.

Neal is still trying to get the troll thing going, and the others keep working on mock debates. Neal comes up with a website and an angle and talks to Sloan about how he took it to the point that the thread was frozen by a moderator. [not gonna lie... I'm kinda furious that Neal felt the need to troll at all, regardless of the cause. maybe I've spent too many thousands of hours on the internet, but I loathe trolls.] He does, however, figure out the online alias of the person who initially threatened Will. [theoretically, this could be juicy. However, it's not. Probably because there's not enough time to flesh this out right now.]

Maggie's roommate, Lisa, went to high school with Casey Anthony, so everyone wants her on the show, with Jim and Maggie even invading Lisa's place of employment to harass her until she agrees. [again, I was appalled that they would do that. The girl is WORKING!] Jim also keeps trying to get a second first-date with her, but she keeps fighting it. [which is a waste of time, because we all know that the girl is going to give in... as women are weak on this show and all.] Maggie tries to help out Lisa by getting her some notes, even though they shouldn't tell guests what to say. [ETHICS BREACH, Y'ALL!] Lisa takes the discussion down an abortion route, but Will does his best to steer it back to what Casey was like as a teenager. That night, someone spray-paints "Baby Killer" on the window of the apartment and throws a brick through their window. [no comment.] Later, Don pours out his heart to Maggie. [and I get mad.] 

facebook.com/Newsroom

The debate folks arrive to see if News Night is a worthy host, and the gang stages their innovative, witness-stand-type debate. One guy accepts the format but another isn't a fan, thinking it'll make the candidates look like idiots. [which is precisely why I am in favor of it, actually.] Plus, they don't want Mac to produce (claiming that she's changed Will), so Will declares game over. Before they leave, however, they offer a partial to Don and a full to Sloan, both turn him down, and that's the end of that. [I didn't understand why they'd throw Don a bone at all... and Sloan doesn't even need to audition what she'd do??]

Mac realizes that everything has changed and that they shouldn't have covered Casey Anthony and Anthony Wiener. Plus, she's angry that Will gave up on the debate when the guy insulted her. [whine, whine, whine.] Will says that they will throw out the run-down and cover the debt ceiling and do a good show again, which they do. [who stands around quoting random poems at work? I mean, when I was a Teaching Assistant we'd quote plays, but that's different. LoL.] 

The Newsroom "The Greater Fool" (S01E10): [talk about a time warp! this episode killed me with its back-and-forth jumping!] The main date to know is Monday, August 8th, 2011, when the credit rating of the US treasury was lowered for the first time ever.

Eight days earlier, Mac and the bodyguard find Will passed out in the bathroom of his apartment. At the hospital, they learn he probably took too many anti-depressants. [I felt bad for Mac in that she wasn't aware of what was going on with Will.]

Seven days earlier, as the DOW was falling, Mac is very angry at Will for taking the medication and being upset over some bad press. In a nutshell, Brian's article, two weeks earlier, sucked. Will doesn't even want to return to the show, but Mac has a bigger problem - Nina is considering doing a story on the fact that Will did a show high once. Mac tells her it's not true, but Nina says that once a second source comes out, she'll have to write the story. Everyone wonders who the first source is, and Charlie thinks it's high time he get the proof that TMI is hacking. After threatening Hancock for not being reliable and refusing to run a story on the NSA until he sees the TMI info, he's left in the dark anyway.

Five days earlier, Sloan went to lunch and received a job offer, which she's inclined to accept, and only Don knows. [why Don?] Sloan says that she'll leave in three days, and Don asks her for advice on how to get Maggie to move in with him. [...and my blood begins to boil in fear that Maggie would actually do such a thing! oh, and don't worry, Sloan decides to stay.] She tells him not to commit to someone he doesn't love... then admits that she has a thing for him. [ewwwww!] Over at the hospital, Mac is angry at Jim for not making a move on Maggie two months ago. [Camelot reference! weird about how Mac was threatening Jim that he shouldn't end up like she and Will.] Back at the office, Jim tells Charlie that Hancock's body was found in the river. [too bad. I didn't mind him as a character.]

Four days earlier, Neal wants to keep trying to smoke out Will's threatener, and Charlie reluctantly decides to allow him to do so. Charlie then receives a package from "The East River," tears it open, and heads to the hospital with Mac. Will's nurse is the great-niece of Dorothy Cooper, a 96-year-old Tennessee native who will be denied the right to vote for the first time in her life. Will's nurse wants the problem of voter IDs on the news. Then, the topic changes, as Will talks about having left a message for Mac when he was high - but she never heard it... it seems that TMI hacked Mac's phone and deleted it before she could hear it. [o.m.g. could you believe if that happened to YOU??] Will is invigorated after they realize this and leaves the hospital, returning to work early, excited to bring a lot of light to the voting problem. See, without a driver's license or a passport, 11% of the country, or 20 million people, won't be able to vote because they have no government-issues identification. The reasoning behind it is "voter fraud," but, in reality, that isn't a big deal. Out of 196,000,000 votes, 86 were found to be fraudulent. [now, by the way, we're back to the "present day."] Will then moves into the controversy over whether the country was founded as a Christian nation. The next thing you know, he's attacking the Tea Party, or the American Taliban, as he calls it.

Leona asks Will if he was high on the air, he admits it, and Charlie asks how she knows. Without answering, she fires Will... and when Charlie mentions the hacking, Reese fires Mac. Leona asks Reese about the hacking order, and he denies it until Charlie bluffs that he has copies of orders to hack the phones of Mac, Casey Anthony's lawyers, Howard Stern, and others. [we don't actually find out that Charlie was bluffing until later, though... the package from the East River contained a Beef Stew recipe Hancock wanted to share with Charlie.] Charlie tells Leona to stand up for what's right, and she un-fires everyone.

[and now it's time for major office drama. get ready.] Mac wants to know what the rest of Will's message was, but he won't say... she, on the other hand, admits that she was in the audience at Northwestern. Speaking of that time in history, the girl who asked him, "What makes America the best country in the world?" is now an intern! [don't even get me started!] After Maggie and Lisa get into a small argument over whom Jim wants to date, Maggie winds up airing her grievances to the tourists on a Sex and the City tour bus, not knowing that Jim, trying to impress Lisa, is aboard. Jim winds up running after her, kissing her, and the two ponder their future. [which ain't gonna work out any time soon, guys!] Maggie goes to break up with Don, but he has lit candles all over his apartment and asks her to move in with him. [um, perfect timing much?] He says that he wants to make the relationship work, and she seems to buy it. Lisa and Jim make up, though he has to lie to her and say he wasn't going after Maggie. [grrrr! anger!!!]

And, fun facts about Will: he's pro-life and a RINO - Republican in Name Only. He has also received 100 new death threats. His bodyguard makes $1700/week. [that's IT??] 

What's Going On?

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

You may be wondering why we haven't posted our regular Recaps & Remarks in the past two weeks. Instead, you've been receiving looks at pilots, among other things. Well, two of the writers have been in Europe, and a third has been taking some personal time. Don't worry, things are about to return to normal, and we'll start by bringing you the endings of the seasons of The Newsroom and Falling Skies, but hope to have everything caught up within a week, so stay tuned for extra-long posts and an overload of recaps with little else until we're back on track!

How I'm Like: Leonard from The Big Bang Theory

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Here we are with installment two of looking at various television character with whom I have a lot in common. Today I chose Leonard Leakey Hofstadter because when I went to the panel for The Big Bang Theory at Comic-Con, Johnny Galecki wasn't there due to a delayed flight. Sitting in a room with thousands of other fans got me to thinking about Leonard, who was missing from the event, and I began to realize that many of the reasons that I like him are because we are a like in many ways. So, I'm going to take a crack at focusing on some of them now, and feel free to add your own similarities with him below!

cbs.com/shows/big_bang_theory/photos/
62583/behind-the-scenes/79470

First off, some basics... Leonard is from New Jersey, is near-sighted, and has divorced parents. So do I. He doesn't like his middle name, and I disliked mine so much I legally changed it. Leonard shares an apartment with a university colleague who becomes his best friend. When I was in graduate school, my roommate and I both worked at our university and she became one of my best friends. Leonard plays the cello and I play the violin, instruments in the same string family. Leonard owns several collectibles that were probably designed for children, and I'd be remiss if I didn't admit to having Rainbow Brite curtains, a My Little Pony watch, and at least five Disney-themed board games. Perhaps Leonard's biggest role amongst his friends is the mediator, a duty in which I have found myself very often throughout life. Though some people easily move on from issues within a group, I struggle to allow people to hate and avoid one another, and, much like Leonard, wind up patching things up, sometimes playing a wild card in the process. A big commonality between Leonard and I is that we both hang out with groups who have a lot of fun working out wacky experiments... he may be bouncing lasers off the moon and allowing people in other countries to control his stereo, but we've definitely tried figuring out whether or not a few crazy ideas would work. [not details on this one, sorry!]

Now, let's look at more of the nitty-gritty... Leonard knows that he's a geek, and while he sometimes wears that fact proudly, sometimes he tries to keep his hobbies quiet. I belong to a weekly board game group, people. I never thought of it as that dorky until about a year ago when someone actually mentioned that I shouldn't lead with that when I talk about my interests. Leonard's mother is not thrilled with his work, and I can't say that my own mother takes a great interest in mine. In one episode, Sheldon describes Leonard's uncles as resembling "a half-carton of eggs," and I also have my fare share of balding family members. This one is a little weak, but when Leonard thinks that Penny has no interest in him, he considers getting a cat... I've thought about having a cat for extra companionship. In the episode where the guys take the train, Leonard has the chance to talk to Summer Glau and doesn't take it. I've also chickened out of meeting celebrities... Oprah and Jay Leno being notable ones.

One time, Howard has to keep Leonard out of the apartment so that the others can prepare a surprise party, and Howard winds up having to ingest peanuts, causing an allergic reaction. There have been a couple of times when my friends went to crazy lengths to keep me from doing something, including pretending to have a broken leg and distracting me by dancing to a semi-choreographed song. Another time, Leonard drops everything he's doing to help Penny and the guys make barrettes all night. I've had similar things happen a few times, notably giving up on packing my own place to go help a friend be out of hers by midnight, and leaving a thesis work-day to drive an hour to help a friend set-up for someone's bridal shower. Similarly, Leonard does everything that Sheldon requests, more or less at the drop of a hat. Though I live on the other side of the country from one friend in particular, there were a good four years or so where I'd do the same. If she called and said she needed me to help her pick out a jacket, I met her. If she asked me to dye her hair for her, I did. If her car broke down while we were in it and she asked me to go back a block to find the piece that fell out of her car, I crept back amongst snickers of passersby to do so. Similarly, Leonard's friends are all about seeing midnight movies, and I've done that dozens of times.

Moving on to relationships... Leonard has a crush on a girl who lives in his building, and I've been guilty of the same in the past (though I never got as far as actually dating the person). For a short time, Leonard has a crush on two of his friends' sisters, and I had a pretty big crush on one of my friend's brothers back in middle school. Though Leonard and I both try long-distance relationships, mine lasted ages longer than his. Howard believes that Leonard is stealing Bernadette from him just because they are both interested in physics, and I had a friend think I was stealing her man because we had other similar interests. My favorite similarity, though, is that when Penny and Leonard break up, Sheldon feels that he has to sneak around to hang out with Penny. When I was in tenth grade, I had broken up with a boy (for the second time, no less) and several of my friends were chilling with him for a few months before they decided I could know.

I think that just about wraps things up, though this show is still running, so who knows what other examples might pop up in the future!

First Look: The Following

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Because I didn't attend very many panels on the Saturday of Comic-Con, I've already shared the good stuff from the Q&A portion of the panel for The Following, but I didn't address the actual pilot. Now, I'll reiterate that I wasn't a big fan of the premise (a crime-solving procedural with an FBI agent "in the middle of a network of serial killers"), and, although seeing the pilot for Beauty and the Beast warmed me up to that show a little, the same cannot be said for The Following. In fact, it almost made it worse... when the panel ended I was a little astonished at just how much I disliked this first episode. Again, some changes may be made before the show actually debuts (which won't be until mid-season, according to FOX), but here is a recap with remarks for the series starter. If some things seem a little strange, it's because they are. It was a very odd show, and I'm under the impression that some things are meant to be better understood later on.

The Following "Pilot" (S01E01):
Here's a scary statistic: according to this episode, the FBI estimates that 300 serial killers are active on any given day! Now, we start in Waverly, VA and someone is pregnant. [Tell Tale Heart, anyone?] Joe Carroll, an inmate with the internet, managed to arrange a very elaborate scheme, so, of course, we need to see a number of flashbacks to get some background on him. Back in 2003, he was married to Claire and they had a little boy named Joey. He was a professor and snuck into the home of two young women one night. He killed one and was about to slit the throat of another when Hardy (Kevin Bacon's character) arrived and shot the guy before he could slit the girl's neck. [yeah... I'm serious. This is a very intense show!] Joe believes that eyes are the essence of identity, so he has a hobby of gouging them. [yeah, this guy is pretty messed up!]

Now, present day... a woman in public has Poe's The Raven written all over her body, and she kills herself. [only the creepiest of people would practice killing on German Shepherds!] As soon as it's revealed that Joe is on the loose with a mission, Hardy checks on Claire, with whom he once had an affair. [because you can't survive on being a thriller alone - you have to have that drama!] She's a bit troubled, but has a babysitter to watch her son while they all try to stay safe. Hardy figures that Joe wants to finish what he started, so he goes to see Sarah, the roommate. Well, Joe is a super-creep and planted two men to be her neighbors for years, acting as a gay couple. [I don't know how this guy just gets everyone to do whatever he pleases, but I guess that's the hook...] So, when Hardy gets there, he finds that Sarah has been taken through a secret crawl space in the closet and into the neighbor's home... where they find a dead officer in that garage. [it's a bloodbath on this show, by the way. so if you have a weak stomach, you might just want to give up now.] Because Joe has an unfinished book about a lighthouse, Hardy heads to the local lighthouse, where he immediately hears screams. He's too late - the cries were recorded from when Joe removed Sarah's eyes before killing her. [well, now. they just want to paint this guy in the very worst light ever, huh?] Hardy takes a bat to the face but manages to take down Joe. After being brought in, Joe will only talk to Hardy, and it looks like it's going to be a long relationship, as Claire's son has gone missing... and the viewers see that the kidnapper was none other than Babysitter Denise. [and cue the millions to develop a huge hatred for Joe Carroll!] 

CR: FOX

Going to The Tonight Show with Jay Leno

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

We started off the day attending a taping of The Price is Right. It was my husband's first time in LA and boy, was he getting a taste of the traffic! Well, we were supposed to be at the studio for The Tonight Show no later than 2:45pm, but The Price is Right tapes about a half hour away and we didn't get out of there until about 2:15pm, so it was going to be close. After we got our bearings and were headed in the right direction, I called the NBC box office, as that was the only number I had on-hand. The girl who answered the phone advised me to come anyway, and if we see the gate closed, it's too late. Otherwise, go on in and give it a try. As she also mentioned I wasn't the only one who called, we decided that there was definitely a chance we'd still make it. I asked her for a last-minute parking suggestion (in case she had something better than my plan of under the Clear Channel building) and she told us about a $5 lot on Bob Hope Drive. We went for that, but couldn't find it. Luckily, we found a non-metered parallel spot just off Bob Hope.

The gate was still open and we walked up at 3:05pm. A woman in a suit was not thrilled to greet us, stating that we were late and marking our tardiness on our tickets. She said we might not get in, but could wait in line. Next up was the metal detector and security, who gave me a lecture about having a magazine in my purse and had to get a manager's permission to let my husband bring in his key chain - there was a bottle-opener on there. After being detained for a few minutes, we grabbed a Dixie cup of lemonade and joined the end of the line. It wasn't too hot out, but there were fans with mist on, keeping it nice. The 8-10 people in front of us were also missing numbers, and the couple right in front of us shared that they also received a punctuality lecture. A group of four joined the line behind us, but that was it. We weren't waiting all that long before people started to be let inside, and they constantly moved the lines so that we were in the shaded bench area in no time. One thing that was interesting to note - you were allowed to keep your cell phone in this line! We had left ours in the car because I was under the impression they'd be confiscated again, but nope! And, speaking of cars, one did pull up to the gate about 3:30pm to see if they could still come in, but they were told to go home, and the gate was closed shortly after that, with the check-in person leaving.

Anyway, when there were about 20 of us left outside, we began to wonder if we'd actually get in for the taping, as things slowed down quite a bit. Plus, there had been a young woman writing down how many people were in various groups, and she had disappeared. It was a slow process as only 2-4 people were being called in at a time. When we were next, we probably sat there wondering for a full minute or two before being called inside. We were led immediately to our seats - on the floor near the house band, third row, third and fourth seat in from the edge. (It's a HUGE band, by the way!)

nbc.com/the-tonight-show

The crowd was already being warmed up with some jokes and improv. We realized that the only seats left in the place were the two next to us, and the four people behind us were let in, then forced to decide who would sit and watch the show and who would go back outside for the hour. That's gotta be a rough call to make, yet at the same time I was incredibly thankful that we arrived when we did - JUST in the nick of time that day!

The "briefing" for The Tonight Show was much simpler than that for The Price is Right, with a guy telling us to watch for the "applause" sign, not to heckle, and that those of us on the floor can go up to shake Jay's hand when he first comes out. After that, we were rolling! Now, I should mention that I don't watch the late night shows and had probably only seen Jay Leno's show once before, perhaps not even in its entirety. So, I'm not going to be a great judge on how this taping went compared to how things normally go down on this show. But, the guests were Zachary Levi and Bubba Watson, with B.o.B as the musical guest, so I was expecting a good time.

nbc.com/the-tonight-show

The taping opened with Jay coming out and telling jokes for a few minutes, joking about Justin Bieber and traffic and such. We decided not to go out and greet him because the people next to us weren't planning on doing so and we didn't want to climb over them. I enjoyed the comedy and was sad that there wasn't more throughout the hour. Zachary Levi talked mainly about Comic-Con, which started the following evening. Bubba Watson talked a lot about his new adopted child, though I had a difficult time understanding that he was a golfer - the initial pictures alongside his name suggested baseball. I'm not going to lie, guys... I was totally yawning halfway through the taping! I didn't think that anything neat was really being said, though I did get a few laughs out of the Pumpcasting segment, which features pre-taped scenarios at a local Costco gas station! Apparently it's not a one-time occurrence, so perhaps I'll try to tune-in to more of those in the future. Another thing that kept me awake was the house band! While we were taking commercial breaks, they just jammed away... SO LOUD! I was enjoying it in the beginning but it got more and more annoying as the hour went on. As things began to wind down, B.o.B was invited to play a song. I'm told it was one of their famous numbers, but I can't say that I recognized it. We were very far from that area of the stage, so we couldn't see much of the dancing, though fortunately they put it on a screen for us to watch.

Unfortunately, however, there was a problem with taping that part and they had to perform AGAIN after everything was over. We were tired and ready to be out of there, and while the dancers seemed to be able to put on an identical performance, the lead singer looked a little out-of-place when he finished the second time... as did Jay's other guests. After they made sure that the new version was good, we were released, and we exited almost immediately because of our proximity to the entrance/exit. We saw the two people waiting for the friends outside as we went to use the restrooms (in a trailer) before taking a quick look at the souvenir shop (a whole lot of nothing, in my opinion) and heading off of the grounds. Because of where we parked we were able to get onto the highway pretty easily (we stayed in San Marcos that night), though it wasn't exactly smooth sailing at 5pm on a Tuesday.

All in all, it was a pretty fun time! I think one of the downers was that we had to reserve tickets before the guests were announced, but it wasn't the end of the world. I think I'd probably try to go to a different show taping if I was looking to fill part of my day again, but the experience being so much easier than it was for The Price is Right definitely works in its favor, especially for those who aren't the most patient people. Have you been to a taping of The Tonight Show? Did you get in trouble for being late? Who were the guests? Did you catch Pumpcasting? Let us know!

Fun Friday: The Homes of Cake Boss

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

You might have already come across these short videos, as they've been available for a couple of weeks, but I thought that they were pretty fascinating and I wanted to make sure you had seen them. Buddy's wife and three of his sisters all show off parts of their homes and talk about their styles, favorite parts, and even compare their houses to pastries! Mary didn't participate, and I couldn't find anything as to why not... though my guess is that her husband didn't want her to reveal the inside of her home like that - he seems like a bit of an outsider compared to the rest of the family. Now, I'm partial, having grown up in New Jersey and having been to a dozen enormous homes with similar features, but they really are something special. I was a little taken aback when most of the women allude to the fact that their homes are rather new, but then I realized that the popularity of the show has probably brought so much more business to the bakery that the families upgraded or something. Anyway, below you can find the videos as well as a few thoughts from me on each. Let me know which you liked best!

Grace's House:

I like how relaxed Grace is about her home, even though she has the oldest children. I'm not the biggest fan of the exterior, but it's just not my style. I was surprised at how many framed pictures she had! A few too many pillows on the bed for me, but I thought that her advice regarding keeping the kitchen clean was interesting: just don't use it! LoL. 

Sister Lisa's House:

She says that she's the "fun aunt" and all of the kids go to her place. That was like mine growing up, but probably because we had tons of games and no dogs, ha! Her kitchen was SO BIG but there was a ton of pictures of/by the kids. I liked the candle centerpiece in her formal dining room, and the symmetry outside is lovely.

Maddalena/Madeline's House:

She's a bit obsessed with being clean, but I'm in love with the artwork she's chosen. The master bedroom is HUMUNGOUS, and the zebra-themed room for her daughter was pretty neat.

Buddy & Lisa's House:

She points out her wrought-iron-and-glass dining room table, which is interesting, but not for me. Her comment about people throwing food underneath was odd... did people in her family do that growing up? I thought it was weird how obsessed she was with the stools. I liked how she felt that the double-oven burns things, and laughed when she took a half-point off of her house's rating because some things "didn't go her way."

First Look: Beauty and the Beast

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Back at Comic-Con, the Beauty and the Beast panel showed the pilot in its entirety as well as gave the attendees a chance to talk to the stars and producers. I was actually impressed... as I wasn't expecting to enjoy the series at all. Well, they managed to lure me in just a little bit, though I was sick and tired of the cheesy Manhattan shots by the time the pilot was over! Viewing that first episode so early can be a bad thing, as sometimes (significant) changes are made before it airs on broadcast television. But, we're going to go ahead and give a recap and remark upon that first episode, as it was screened at Comic-Con 2012 in July. We'll be doing the same for three other shows, so stay tuned if you're one who likes to find out the good stuff a little early! Let's take a look at some discussion from the panel (executive producers Jennifer Levin and Sherri Cooper joined stars Jay Ryan and Kristin Kreuk), then get into the pilot itself.

- Kristin was wooed into joining through the use of cupcakes. Jennifer Levin joked that Kristin is "so easy!"
- The pilot is quite dark compared to the rest of the series. This kinda left me speechless... I didn't consider it that dark... at all. [after you see it or read the below, let me know what you thought!]
- There might be others like Beast out there.
- Kristin is not drawing inspiration from the original series, but she's only seen a little of that series anyway.

Photo: Jonathan Bredemeyer

My final thought as the talent exited the stage was along the lines of "why are all of the questions for Kristin when everyone was swooning over Ryan?" but I guess Kristin is just more well-known (Smallville and all!).

Beauty and the Beast "Pilot" (S01E01) Back in 2003, Catherine (Cat) was leaving a bar when her car wouldn't start (she left the vanity mirror open). [of all the reasons to have a dead battery...] Her mother comes to her rescue, but an unknown car pulls up, and they run into the nearby forest. The guys (who had been tracking her mother for a while) follow them, pull out a gun, and fatally wound Cat's mother. [death in the first few minutes of a series... not uncommon anymore, but gives a very different mood...] The beast then comes out of nowhere to fight off the men, and nobody believes Catherine when she tells the story, as she had a concussion as well as suspected PTSD. [not a huge fan of this being the opening scene... I don't think that a flashback would have been better, but I wonder how the general public will enjoy this as the introduction...]

Nine years later, Cat has become a detective who has never stopped trying to solve her mother's case. Her father is engaged and she's unlucky in love. [not sure how I felt about seeing her tattle on a guy who dumps her.] That's the bulk of our background before we dive into the case. [which we're told later won't be "of the week" style... I'll believe that when I see it!] The body of Ashley Webster, a magazine editor, was found in the bathroom of a 5-star hotel where she wasn't a guest. Fingerprints point to military man Dr. Vincent Keller, who has been dead for ten years. [okay, cue to spooky. you know that this is designed to make you intrigued as to how this is possible!] He has no living family members (brother died in 9/11), so Cat and her partner, Tess, go to his former colleagues and then to his old roommate, JT, a chemistry researcher/biochemistry instructor. Well, as you probably guessed, Vincent/Beast is actually alive and lives there secretly, though Cat and Tess don't know this yet. See, he was reported as dead because the military tried to kill him... and everyone else who participated in an experiment-gone-wrong. [well, since everyone loves X-Men, you might as well bring in something similar, sure...]

Cat and Tess interview the husband of the victim, who was at a fundraiser during the crime. He points them toward Ashley's assistant, Emily, but Cat has picked up on the fact that the same car at JT's place is also near the hotel, so she returns to the warehouse with a warrant. [the beast goes out and about in a car?? what if gets pulled over?] When nobody answers, she goes inside and finds Vincent. Turns out, he saw the victim was hurt and wanted to resuscitate her - she had been poisoned with lethal doses of nicotine (which, apparently, takes 2-4 hours to absorb through the skin). When she notices the article about her mother's death, she is caught off-guard, but doesn't have time to deal with that because NYPD shows up, and she claims the place is empty. [the decision to have so much revelation take place in the first episode of the series surprises me... I guess they figure that the audience doesn't like it when they know more than the characters?]

At Ashley's autopsy, a hair with cross-species DNA is found and reported to Cat, who takes an extreme interest in the object but not the guy performing the autopsy (who asks her out). [okay, setting up the triangle, got it.] She meets up with Agent McCleary to find out more, but he doesn't want her to know anything, and he and some sidekicks attempt to kill her at a subway station. Luckily, Vincent shows up and kills two of the three attackers, then saves Cat from being run over by an oncoming train. She loses her phone in the shuffle, but it's returned to her the next day. [I'm guessing that this will become a bigger deal later, because it sure seemed useless here!] In the meantime, however, Vincent brings her back to his place to talk. [JT was NOT thrilled to find out!] He explains how his DNA was changed to make him stronger, faster, and possess heightened reflexes and senses. But, whenever his adrenaline kicks in, he becomes a monster, which is why everyone in this project was supposed to be "eradicated." [holy crow. ANOTHER shot of Manhattan??!?] In the morning, Vincent tells Cat that she can't come back - it's too dangerous for both of them for her to pursue this. [you and I both know that this is a useless plea.] When Cat gets to work, there are some military higher-ups there to pick up the bodies which were recovered from the subway.

Photo Credit: Ben Mark Holzberg/The CW

But, let's get back to the case... Cat and Tess talk to the beauty editor at the magazine and check out the "beauty closet" from which the employees could borrow items. Later, they look through Ashley's old office and find a box of pregnancy tests with two missing. There's also a missing "color wand," which may have been what was poisoned. They're still looking for the culprit, though. A test of bed bugs shows that Ashley's husband has been with multiple women, and after talking to all of them, the detectives believe that there was a severe pre-nup in place between Ashley and Alex. [when someone manages to cheat on another person with SEVERAL other people, I'm always kinda surprised... just how much free time do you HAVE??] BUT, it turns out that he made that up... and things start to unravel. Emily checked-out the color wand as if she were Ashley (she's used to forging her boss's name), and poisoned the bottle. See, she was pregnant with Alex's baby and wanted to be with him, but it's now all a useless effort, as she miscarried. [people are crazy, you guys. I wonder if this will be a typical style of crime for this show...] She's arrested.

A couple of other random bits: In looking through old cases, six other samples have had corrupted DNA, and a new spectrometer should be able to reveal more. [well, you have to leave something to get an audience to tune in again!] Also, Cat journals "to her mother" about Vincent. [and we end with the cheesiest of shots - Beast on the roof, looking at Cat.]

Look for Beauty and the Beast premiering October 11th on the CW.

First Look: Revolution

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Seeing the pilot for Beauty and the Beast really improved my outlook on the show, and I must say that something similar happened with the pilot for Revolution as well. However, I only went from "why are they even making this show?" to "I don't think this will sell but I'll give it a try." I mean, it's a post-apocalyptic-type show where the hook is that the only person with any idea how the planet can get electricity again is immediately hauled off, leaving his teenage daughter to find her long-lost uncle and follow his lead. The drama was pushed pretty heavily during those Quadrennial Hot-Weather Events, but I haven't actually heard anybody say that "oh yeah, I really want to check out THAT show!" because of those promotions. I think that the only thing this show can bank on is that there is quite the contingent who still believe that the Mayan calendar means that the end of the world is in a few months. I'm still not pulling for this show, but we'll probably cover a couple more episodes after the pilot (which, by the way, is subject to change before it actually airs, so this recap may not be 100% accurate).

Revolution "Pilot" (S01E01): In Chicago, Ben comes home from work and tells his family that the power will go out in just a few minutes... forever. [we don't yet know why or how he knew that.] He downloads something to a USB drive just seconds before everything goes dark. [problematically, the planes that fell from the sky still had lights on them...] It's immediately fifteen years later, and siblings Charlie and Danny are out hunting, but Danny has an asthma attack. The only thing they can administer is herbal medicine - luckily, after their mother died, Ben hooked up with a doctor, Maggie. [building animosity already...] No time to focus on that, however, as a soldier shows up, sent by Monroe to retrieve Ben and his brother, Miles, whom nobody has seen in years. Though Ben isn't necessarily against surrendering, Danny won't put down his bow, and Ben winds up getting shot, which starts a violent frenzy, with Danny being taken away. [you know, the old attitude that if you can't capture the enemy, you take his family.] Before Ben dies, he tells Charlie to go to Chicago and find Miles, because he will know how to get back Danny. Maggie insists on coming, and so does Ben's best friend, Aaron (a former Google millionaire), with whom he entrusted the USB drive. [$80M reduced to nothing... I can't imagine how much that must suck!]

They set out and stop at a river where Charlie meets Nate, whom we later learn is in the militia. The trio crash in a plane for the night, but rogue criminals come upon them and plan to rape Charlie when Nate saves her. Of course, it doesn't hurt that Maggie had poisoned the whiskey she carries, so they won't run into those bad guys again! [I guess this is the kind of primitive junk that we're going to be subjected to over and over, eh?] They arrive in Chicago in no time and find Miles bartending at the Grant Hotel. [were they really that close to Chicago or did days go by and we didn't know?] But, he wants to maintain his low profile, so he isn't interested in helping the family. [probably not the worst idea.]

(Photo by: Bob Mahoney/NBC)

Well, some soldiers show up to get Miles, but Charlie wouldn't leave him so he has some help fighting them off. PLUS, Nate saves Charlie again when it comes down to it. [oh, "the power of family." apparently that's going to be a thing on this show...] We also learn that Monroe used to be military buds with Miles before the power went out. [I'm dying for some flashbacks...] 

Anyway, while Charlie & Co. are in Chicago, Danny manages to escape, but soon has an asthma attack and falls to the ground. [so he's the "sick kid" who is always going to make the group move too slowly for their own good, huh?"] A woman, Grace, brings him to her home and introduces him to the inhaler, which her son used years ago. It's not long until he's hunted down, though, and he's captured once again.

Some random fun facts from the episode: Charlie is always collecting treasures to keep in her metal Return of the Jedi lunchbox; owning a firearm is a hanging offense; Grace has some type of internet access. [that last one is particularly intriguing...]

Going to The Price is Right

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

On our way to Comic-Con, my husband and I wanted to take a little mini-vacation. Nothing fancy, but something to perhaps give us a driving break or something from hauling all the way to San Diego in a single swoop. After some discussion about our various options, we decided that we really wanted to attend some tapings in LA. Well, it's not the season to go see the cool sitcoms being taped, but game shows and the late-night talk shows are still cranking away, so we arranged for tickets to both The Price is Right and The Tonight Show. I wouldn't generally recommend trying to do both of these, but you can make your own call after reading about the experiences. Today I'm going to cover the excitement of The Price is Right, and next week I'll do a post about The Tonight Show.

Our tickets said that we needed to be in line no later than 8:30am. I found out later that the taping would actually begin at noon and go about 90 minutes, longer if they needed re-takes and stuff. I also read online that The Price is Right oversells their audience by quite a few, and some people get in line at 5am to make sure that they get on the show! We weren't that hardcore about it, as our back-up plan would be to see the sights (it was my husband's first time to LA) and then just make sure we got to The Tonight Show in plenty of time. So, while we planned to get in line about 7:30am, we wound up waltzing up close to 7:50am, thanks to some slow check-out at the hotel, a semi-truck blocking the road, and navigating which way to go after we left the parking structure at The Grove.

We almost joined the wrong line at first, not thinking that people would be in line for the 4:30pm taping so early. I did some counting as we neared the end of our line, and by my math, combined with the numbered cards we had already seen people walking away with, I figured we were perfectly safe and would get in. Of course, that was based on another internet nugget - that 300 definitely get in. Two guys continued giving out numbers to all of the "priority" ticket holders, then they talked with some groups before telling us to "wait" and going to the 4:30pm line. I wasn't concerned until I saw some of the people from that line receive numbers and walk through the gates that those in OUR LINE were entering! The guy behind me wasn't sure we were going to get in, but I remained positive. Sure enough, the two guys soon returned and continued giving out numbers - we were #229 and #230. We turned in our tickets, took our numbers, and headed inside the gates.

The first step was paperwork. Just in case you win, they need to have your information. And, to make sure you're even eligible to compete, you have to answer some questions (do you have family members working at CBS? have you won before? etc.) and provide your SSN. Luckily, we were in the shade, though we were far enough back in the winding line that we were standing against a wall rather than on benches. We could see all of the steps that we'd be getting to, and my excitement began to build. (Though, let's not lie... I barely slept the night before! I was running high on adrenaline!) There was a small coffeeshop area but we didn't get anything. Instead, we waited until we turned in our paperwork, then received The Price is Right nametags, then got a chance to go through the giftshop. I was obsessed with making sure the font on mine was the traditional one - they fell behind and a second person did some of them, but they didn't look right at all! I was also a little disappointed in the giftshop... I was expecting to see more The Price is Right-specific stuff, when they were really promoting a lot of CBS shows. We didn't buy anything. The next stop was in front of a green screen, where you (and your group) pose like normal, then like you've won big!

After that, you finally turn the corner and see the next couple of steps. this was a real waiting game, and I read through a magazine while Jonathan spent some time on his Kindle. See, we didn't have our phones because we knew we wouldn't be allowed to have them inside the studio, and we needed to jet out of there as quick as possible to go to The Tonight Show, so we didn't want to have to worry about dealing with claim tags. The order we were in was repeatedly checked as we kept scooting up. Our picture was shown to us and we decided to buy it - $20 for an 8x10 isn't something we do often, but we both took a good picture (rare), the background was cool (the wheel!), and it would be the only photo we had of this occasion. We actually paid and got a receipt, which we'd use to pick-up the photo after the taping. Then, we put in our lunch order, even though it was only about 10:45am. Many people around us declined, but we knew we wouldn't have time to eat otherwise until after The Tonight Show wrapped up. We paid $11 for the Angus half-pound cheeseburger (the only other option was to save a buck and go without cheese, by the way) and fries, and our # was put on a list. We kept scooting down until, eventually, it was time to interview!

The interviews are done in groups, and you stand along a rail while you talk to the actual guy who picks the contestants. I had read online what some common questions were, so we were prepped. I was the first one in our group of twelve, and I think the guy initially liked me. He spent more time chatting with me than the next few people, anyway. He even joked with me later down the line when another interviewee said he was writing a screenplay. But, he definitely liked the life story of another girl in our group better, as she actually got called down and wound up winning a trip! She probably needed it more than I did, plus she was from a group of people, so no hard feelings. ;) 

Then we rounded another corner to go through security, which was just a metal detector and someone rifling through your bag. Jonathan's Kindle actually became an issue, and although the model can't take photos or transmit information, they still took it and issued a claim check, despite my stating what the rules posted were. After that we were pretty upset, as there were HUNDREDS of items in the bins that would need to be claimed and we would be in a hurry later. But, we were led to another area of benches where a television was rolling the very end of an episode. We had hoped that they'd start another, but all we got was a gag reel of contestants who acted inappropriately in the past. No big deal, as our lunch was soon delivered and we greatly enjoyed that. The fries were fantastic, though I would have loved some honey mustard for them. It worked out great, honestly, and filled us up for the next few hours! We also learned that there were actually not enough people in line for the second taping of the day, so anyone who didn't become a contestant could go to a certain area after ours let out to get a new number and re-enter the queue.

Finally, about 11:50am, it was time to be let into the studio. By this point we had seen many of our fellow audience members a dozen times and we were starting to guess who might get chosen. The process to get inside the studio was slow, partly because there were a couple of staircases and partly because they weren't filling the studio front-to-back or anything. We did pass a sign that said our episode would air January 11th, 2013, and we were definitely shocked to see such a far-off date! [Update: our episode has been pushed back twice and is now set to air June 15, 2013. I really feel bad for the winners, as they have to wait until the episode airs to receive their actual prizes!] We ended up with great seats, third or fourth row, behind where "contestant #4" would eventually stand in Contestant Row. As we sat there and they finished filing everyone in, we looked around - the place is much smaller than I would have expected! The colors are also much more garish in real life than they are on television. You can kinda see both the color and the size of the studio in the below pic.

cbs.com

It was only minutes later that everything got rolling and we were being instructed on when to cheer and, should we make it on-stage, to stay with Drew Carey unless directed otherwise. Drew came on out and made a few jokes and the next thing I knew, we were taping! I actually found it stressful to be an audience member, but maybe I was trying too hard. It was difficult to hear the names being called and the descriptions of what everyone was bidding on, but it was actually trickier to figure out when to stand, when to stay seated, and when to be louder. Of course, all the while, I'm trying to help the contestants by screaming out my own suggestions, LoL. I found it interesting that we did pause for commercial breaks (and the people at Contestants Row get to sit) so that the sets could be changed and different prizes brought out. I loved how funny Drew Carey was! He talked to us during every break, sometimes just telling jokes and other times selecting people in the audience to chat with.

Photo: Monty Brinton/CBS ©2011
CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.

I won't give away what happens on the actual show, but I will say that it's one worth watching... quite a few things take place that aren't seen every episode! Plus, one of my favorite games was played (which you might be able to guess if you read another one of my The Price is Right posts!). While I wasn't keen on many of the Contestants Row prizes (or the Showcase Showdown ones for that matter), there were a few for the games that I would have LOVED to win! When everything was finished we sat for a few minutes while someone looked over the taping, and we ended up re-doing a couple of parts, which was a lot of fun. I can't wait to watch the episode and see if I can pick them out! Then, the people who "got called down" but didn't win anything were awarded their consolation prizes, and George Gray (pictured below if you can't think of any announcers other than Rod Roddy!) called out one more audience member to win a special prize. This was completely unexpected, but we still didn't win.

Photo: Monty Brinton/CBS ©2011
CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Then, it was time to head out of there, and it was fairly organized as we exited the way we came in. My husband went to claim his Kindle while I went to the photo pick-up area, passing the next round of audience members as I went. I did see the woman who mentioned there would be extra spots, but they had been given out by the time I saw her. Not that we were going to stay when we had other plans, but I asked anyway, LoL. My husband got lucky and didn't have to wait long in the claim line, so he met me just after I got our photo (which took a surprisingly long time... I guess they didn't put them in any kind of order?) and we trotted off to the car.

Here, I'll let you in on a small secret. The parking at The Grove is $24 because of how long you'll be there to tape the show. You can make it $18 by getting a two-hour validation at a participating store. I suggest Barnes & Noble, where we picked up a RedBull for a couple of bucks. We were in and out pretty quickly, and while I wasn't crashing from the excitement quite yet, it was coming. Now, if you're in a hurry, this won't work. In fact, I almost decided that it wouldn't be worth the five minutes to save the $3-4, as we were on our way to another taping across town. For that story, you'll have to hang in there... it's coming! [Update: it's here.]

How I'm Like: Monica from Friends

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

We're starting a new series of Monday posts, guys! It's been a while since we wrapped up our highlights of Game Shows, and we wanted to go in a completely different direction. The idea is that I'll write about how I'm similar to a different television character every week, plain and simple. This stemmed from people telling me that I'm "just like x" every once in a while, but was cemented in a few recent things that have happened, including my latest viewing of the Friends episode, "The One with the Butt." So, we're starting with how I'm like Monica Gellar (Bing), but you can look forward to such future features as "How I'm Like Leonard Hofstadter" and "How I'm Like DJ Tanner," to give a few more examples. You're encouraged to weigh in on your own similarities with these characters in the comments. Enjoy!

In "The One with the Butt," after Rachel cleaned the apartment, Monica notices that the ottoman has been moved. Phoebe, Ross, and Chandler all know what's in store... Monica moves it back and the others begin talking about how fierce Monica can be about cleanliness and organization. She claims she's just responsible, but the others don't see it as such a cut-and-dried issue. Well, though I am not obsessed with cleaning, things being out-of-order tend to drive me a little crazy! Plus, I can handle having a chair moved until after the guests leave, haha!

Also in the episode, Monica can't imagine why someone wouldn't pay their phone bill immediately. Well, when I first had my own bills when I went to college, I paid them as soon as possible... I don't know if I was paranoid that I'd forget or something, but I still tend to pay most things as soon as they post. It just makes sense to me.

Monica actually realizes that she's a bit out of control about being in control. Well, it might not be the best thing to admit, but I have a tendency to be a bit of a control freak in things. You have no idea how many extra hours I have worked on projects to make sure that things were flowing smoothly. I can handle someone else being in charge, but if they're consistently not performing their duties, I'm going to step in and do them. Sure, this has been challenged, but it's one of those areas where I'm not budging... I think that, once you take responsibility for something, you really should see it through to the end, even if it is more work than you anticipated.

Later in the episode, Monica does try to change, pointing out advice that "the old Monica" would give but she would not, and trying to leave her shoes out overnight when she normally puts them away... then stays up half the night deciding if she should go move them, and trying to guess what the others would think of she did so. I can't remember a time where I verbalized "old Amy would do xyz," but I'm sure that I've thought it, particularly when it comes to anything time-related. I have issues with the non-punctual, especially if no contact has been made in advance to notify others of your absence or tardiness. I time things to the second. Sometimes, when I take notes, I pay attention to which topic was brought up in which minute. In the first three months that my husband and I were dating, he challenged me to go a day without wearing a watch. I did it but struggled. I still struggle. It's the day and age of people using the cellular phones as their primary time source, but I still wear a digital watch most of the time, so that I can see what second it is. I've tried to change this numerous times over the years, and my biggest improvement is that, sometimes, I can go with an analog watch instead. To look at that second point, however, I love that Monica considered moving the shoes to their appropriate place but also getting up early to move them back so nobody would know! That completely sounds like something I would do, only not with shoes. Well, let's confess... I'm pretty sure that I have done something like this before...

Moving to the larger sense of Monica, outside of this one episode, her apartment is generally the gathering place of the gang (if they're not at Central Perk). I've had this going on ever since I was a kid (though that was more because my house had board games and I wouldn't go in somebody else's house if they didn't lock-up their dogs), and it continues to this day... rarely do the people we hang out with ever suggest we go to their place. Another big Monica-ism is her competitive personality... ever since the eighth grade, I have been a "go big or go home" person... even in chemistry class, I'd be willing to "bet it all" in study Jeopardy! for the final round. Theoretically, I owe my husband several million dollars, should he wish to cash-in on all of the bets I have made and lost... because I always go "double or nothing." ;)  Monica can't stand to lose... while I can handle losing, I can't handle if the other team is cheating - like in the episode with Emma's first birthday party when the stuffed dog never crosses the finish line, so technically the race hasn't ended. Though I'm not a chef, I like to cook, so we also have that in common... as well as a habit of having lunch with someone and keeping a secret from someone else (Monica does this at least twice that I can think of!). Oh, and I'm loud. Someone tells me at least once a month that I need to quiet down, LoL.

Looking at other specific instances, there's an episode where Monica makes a lot of Rachel's decisions for her... and I've definitely been the one a couple of friends call when they're not sure what to do! In another episode, she bakes cookies to give as tips around the holidays... which I do for my mail carrier and garbage boy. While she's dating Richard, she's upset that he isn't quirky... and I definitely put my husband through the same because I'm very particular about so many random things! We don't see Monica actively taking photos much in the series (if at all), but she is the one who keeps track of them all... and I have all of the photos I have taken since I was eleven years old. Monica and Chandler return from their honeymoon with a fake number from another couple... well, it wasn't our honeymoon, but my husband and I definitely thought we made friends with another couple and exchanged email addresses, only for them to never respond. Close enough! Oh, and for a chunk of season nine, Monica and Chandler have a long-distance relationship... well, not only did my husband and I spend two and a half years of dating and two years of engagement long distance, we actually didn't even live together until shortly before our first anniversary!

Monica and I differ in many ways, but one way in which I'd love to be like her and I'm not is that she had a crazy dance with Ross planned in case they ever appears on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve... which sounds like a great idea!

First Look: Elementary

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Another television pilot I caught at Comic-Con was CBS' Elementary, for which I had high hopes. I came away from the panel thinking that I could actually get into a female Dr. Watson, though I admit that the relationship that has been established in the pilot is a bit odd. Now, I can't guarantee that no changes will be made from the version I saw and what will air when the show debuts, so we're calling this a "first look" as opposed to our regular "recap and remarks." Before we dive in, though, here are a couple of tidbits from the very short Q&A with series stars Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu, plus executive producers Robert Doherty and Carl Beverly:

- Robert is fascinated with the original Sherlock Holmes books and the Sherlock/Watson relationship, and has seen research that psychological assessments of the characters shows that Holmes struggles with people, especially women, so having Holmes live with a woman makes the situation even more trying.
- we may be treated to other characters in the Sherlock universe, because, really, it would be a shame not to see Moriarty.
- the show is being very upfront with Holmes' drug addiction, something that is generally ignored in contemporary adaptations.

Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu
photo: Jonathan Bredemeyer

better view of Liu's gorgeous dress
photo: Jonathan Bredemeyer

My final thought as the panel ended was sheer befuddlement... how can the producers think that having Watson be a woman won't make a big difference in the end?? I disagree rather wholeheartedly with that...

Elementary "Pilot" (S01E01):Watson, who was hired by Holmes' father to help Holmes adjust to life outside of a rehab center, shows up at Holmes' apartment. [let's note that we're already subjected to creepy camera angles juxtaposed with present-day music.] Holmes figures out that she's a former doctor, and that the arrangement is for her to live with him for six weeks... though he believes he doesn't need help and suggests she take a vacation instead. [that love confession straight from a film was very odd.] And, the guy may very well need her help... after all, he's having issues with sobriety and even broke out of the rehab facility (or "junkie jail" as he likes to call it) the day he was supposed to be released, just because he was bored! [I'm trying really hard here, but I truly hope that the similarities between Holmes and Dr. House end... even if the latter was an alleged take on the former from the beginning.] He also may be a big supporter of Maslow, as sex repels him but he continues to have it in order to "function optimally," hence the woman leaving as Watson arrived.

We learn that Holmes is an observant guy (by finding a parking ticket, he figures out that Watson must have had a patient die because the location on the ticket was near a cemetery) who was a pro-bono consultant for Scotland Yard and now wants to do something similar in New York. [can we pause for a moment and thank the writing Gods that this show is set in New York but isn't making a huge deal about that fact yet?] Watson is game to play along with however he wants to refer to her, and he chooses "personal valet" for now. [in Manhattan. Also, I'm already seeing some parallels between this relationship and that of Adrian Monk and Sharona/Natalie...]

The duo head to a crime scene where a woman is missing (Holmes doesn't tell Watson that's where they're going, of course), and while the police just see signs of struggle, Holmes picks up on a lot more - he suspects the victim lost a lot of weight two years ago because there are no photos of her older than that on her phone or in her house, plus, some asymmetry leads him to realize that there's something missing in the bedroom. The clincher, however, is that he notices a slight one-to-five-degree slope that leads to the saferoom... that the husband didn't even know was in the home! [that's a very insignificant incline... but a marble would find it!] That's where the body is! [the crime scene wasn't too bloody, but I hope this isn't a taste of the typical type of case.]

From there, Holmes talks to the husband, notably saying "tall men in your life. I'd like a list." Six names, two with histories, and Watson and Holmes are off to interview one of the guys. Watson asks questions, though her primary purpose is more along the lines of taking saliva samples from Holmes and making sure that he's clean. [I really didn't understand why Watson was doing the interrogation...] Holmes looks at similar cases and they head to talk to a victim of a similar attack, and after some hesitance, they learn that the woman's brother's best friend was the attacker. They head to talk to him, but he's dead when they arrive, and NYPD are already there. [don't you just hate it when the officials beat you to it? LoL.] The weird thing is that the guy's phone hasn't been recovered, and a day or two later, Watson is actually the one who remembers seeing rice in the kitchen but reading in some records that he had an allergy to rice - he used the sack to dry out his phone, which went through the wash! [what, you haven't tried that trick? you should! that washing machine sure took a beating, though!]

Back to figuring out the victim's deal... Holmes realizes that rage was involved, so he sneaks into an opera to retrieve Watson and determine that the wrong pills were in a Xanax bottle belonging to the dead killer. They go to confront the victim's husband, who was also the therapist of the killer. Holmes suggests that the the therapist changed his wife's appearance to fit the killer's preference, loaded the killer like a weapon with rage pills, then killed the guy after his wife was dead. [that's a lot of trouble and a long process to off your wife!] To drive the point home, Holmes rams the guy's car (with Watson's)... winding up in jail for the night. [and who's the one with the rage?? LoL.] The next day, after the therapist repeatedly denies knowing dead killer, Holmes plays part of a recording on the rice-trapped cell phone - the patient had recorded their sessions! [maybe I don't get it because I'm not in therapy, but would you really want to hear those things over and over?]

The case figured out and done, there are a few other things that give us some background on our two main character... we learn that Holmes uses his own deductive reasoning as well as the internet, because "not everything is deducible," and that he can hack the NYPD database in seven tries at guessing their password. [eep! how many people do you think are now going to try that? :-/] We find out that Watson's father had an affair and that she finds work a chore (she uses two alarm clocks to get up in the morning). Plus, Holmes keeps bees on the roof and honey sometimes leaks into the house, while Watson likes baseball (Red Sox & Mets, yo!), despite its "heavily reliance on statistics." [okay, so look for the bees to be an ongoing thing, I'm guessing. Not sure how the baseball thing will play in, but perhaps the idea is that a case will stem from Watson being at a game and seeing something suspicious?] 

Look for Elementary to debut on CBS on Thursday, September 27th at 10pm ET/PT.

The Newsroom Factroom - Bullies

by Jonathan Bredemeyer

No matter how mean they get, we're still going to check the facts... a recap and a reminder:
Facts are chosen because they were/are critical to Sorkin's storyline.  These are taken and determined to be accurate, potentially accurate, or inaccurate.  This is based on internet research from primary sources (and even Wikipedia when they do it best).  Luckily, with the scene set in modern day, these things are available via the web.

Photo: HBO

In the spirit of this episode: Read, you wimp!

• "The reason basset hounds have such long ears is so they can 'whoof' up the scent when they're hunting."
• Accurate.
• Actually, yep this is 100% true... woohoo...
• The Fukushima Nuclear Reactor accident was downplayed by the TEPCO representative who delayed saying that the accident reached a level 7.
• Yes and no.
• On April 11th (as the show states), no one was claiming the deadly level 7 status equaled by Cherynobl, but the next day is when everything broke loose.  It seems, by April 12th, the TEPCO spokesperson was the ONLY one claiming the extreme level of the radiation accident.  With the announcements very close together and our dependency on English-speaking sources, this registers as a maybe...
• Sutton Hall is a black, gay member of Rick Santorum's staff who goes on the air and gets 'beaten' up for supporting Santorum's views on gay rights.
• Basically.
• This is pretty much right on par, except for the name, of course. The aide who was really grilled on national TV in this exact situation is Robert Traynham, and this is the actual exchange on Hardball. The lines McAvoy uses are pulled from Sorkin's favorite bag of idioms & arguments illustrating the fallacies in the logic that homosexuals' right to marry destroys the ideal of heterosexual marriage. The real life exchange is better, without the up and down to put both parties on a 'losing' side.

On a side note, if Sloan sleeps with anyone, hopefully it's Will. It'll be ironic for the two smartest people to make the obviously dumbest move, but it'll be a great distraction, and keep Don away...

Fun Friday: Firefly in Legos

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Now, if you follow along on Twitter, you probably know that I had not seen the cult-acclaimed Firefly when it ran originally, or in the succeeding ten years. In fact, I just whipped through the 14-episode series a couple of weeks ago, after being lulled in by a combination of my husband's insistence and wanting to know what all of the fuss was about after witnessing the crazy Browncoats fans at Comic-Con. An upcoming post will feature my thoughts on the series, but today let me draw your attention to the fact that someone took 475 hours to use 70,000 Legos to build their own Serenity, which is the Firefly spaceship. There are a ton of great photos there and the attention to detail is amazing, so it's definitely worth a few minutes of your time! And, even if you're not a Firefly fan, I encourage you to just take a peek... it's some magnificent craftsmanship. And, to help you out, here's a look at what the ship and its crew looks like.

http://www.imdb.com/media/rm580359168/tt0303461

Also, I should note that tis isn't the first attempt to re-create the iconic spacecraft in Legos - in fact, I found this one dating to 1995 - but I would be utterly shocked if there's a better depiction out there than the one 21 months in the making!

NEW SHOW: Animal Practice

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

The biggest news about NBC's new show, Animal Practice, is that they brought the star monkey to TCA a couple of weeks ago. The second-biggest news is that NBC decided to go ahead and air the pilot early for the loyal watchers of their daily Quadrennial Hot-Weather Events coverage. The official premiere isn't until September 26th, so we've got a big jump on this one! Now, you may recall that my initial reaction was that the comedy was absurd, but the more I thought about a veterinarian hating pet owners, the more I was reminded of shows like House and Becker, and both are also medicine-based. However, after actually watching the pilot, I found George Coleman to be quite different from them... cranky like Becker and conniving like House, but he has a clear heart that has been scarred. I thought that the most interesting thing about the episode was just how many random facts were thrown in... and I also liked the plethora of animals. I must say, however, that I didn't like much else... not the characters, not really the actors, not where we picked up, and not even JoAnna Garcia's wardrobe. I suspected it would be crazy, and it was. Do you disagree? Think it will make it past three episodes? What about 13? Weigh in with your thoughts!

Animal Practice "Pilot" (S01E01): We're brought to the animal hospital through a divorced woman whose cat jumped off her patio. In fact, an ambulance even delivered the cat, Giggles, which Dr. George Coleman promptly pronounces as in heat, and it wanted to be free. [yeah, okay, he said it was suicide first. but I'm trying not to hate the show in the opening minutes here...] Then, we see a group of doctors watching a horse race while another (Doug, played by Tyler Labine, whom we last loved in Sons of Tucson), struggles with a dog. This is also where we're introduced to Dr. Rizzo, a monkey who pals around alongside George. [you know, because NBC is banking on a monkey selling this mess.]

Enter Dorothy, played by JoAnna Garcia, who broke up with George two years ago because she told him that she loved him and he said, "awesome." [cue eye roll!] Dorothy's grandmother left her the hospital, and though she doesn't know how to run it, she will pour her soul into it. [awww, sweet. and definitely sets up that she'll need his help. of course.] The next day, things are already running more smoothly, and Dorothy accompanies George on rounds... a Yorkshire Terrier ate something and requires a $2,000 surgery, but its owner would rather put down the dog. [maybe another reason I can't get into this show is because I'm not a pet-person... I can't imagine paying that for an animal!] George decides to run off with the dog, hiding it. [the scene where Dr. Rizzo runs interference on the Yorkie's owner was so stupid!]

The next day, a tiger arrives with delivery complications, and Yamamoto and Doug handle it. [yeah, okay... just how much money does this show have to afford the animals and the constant ASPCA personnel this will require? are we just showing off in the pilot?? because that's what I took from the later scene with the boa constrictor and Yamamoto... though that might have been completely fake.] Outside the hospital, George claims to be able to tell everything about a woman by her dog, so he takes Doug to the park and proves it... but things go poorly when Doug can't find the right things to say. [and the worst part is that Doug isn't even the most aloof character... and neither is Yamamoto! I give that to Angela, the druggie with a parole officer!] Back at the hospital, the Yorkie's owner wants an apology, so George quits. [what?!? I don't get this man.] As he's packing his office, Angela shows Dorothy where the dog is, and Dorothy's plan is to take it someplace else to have the operation. [why? I didn't quite get that.] Well, she runs into George in the elevator, and winds up assisting in the surgery he performs. [... and we see the first sign of him having a heart.]

(Photo by: Neil Jacobs/NBC)

Afterwards, the owner still wants to sue, so George mentions that what he removed is a coaster from a strip club... so the owner backs down because he doesn't want his daughter to become a stripper in ten years. [again, I didn't get the train of thought there, but whatever.] George still isn't actually back working at the hospital, though, and while he sits around in the break room, we learn that he sent a woman to be with Doug the previous night. [to boost his confidence? was that supposed to be the point? Cue House reference again...] Well, Dorothy tells George that he's awesome with animals so he should stay, and we get the impression that he will. He says that he should have reciprocated her "I love you" back then, and asks her for a drink, though she declines. [good! I'd be very upset if they started dating right off the bat! I don't understand why he thought that the apology fit there, though...]

NEW SHOW: Go On

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Although we will be looking at several pilot episodes before they technically premiere, Go On has actually already aired. Although the "official" debut of the Matthew Perry comedy isn't until September 11th, NBC went ahead and showed it in its entirety after their daily coverage of the Quadrennial Hot-Weather Events one night last week. You may remember that the show was near the top of my original picks for the fall, and, after seeing the first episode, I'm going to stick with it. I thought that the comedy was weak in areas and that I might have written a few things differently, but I thought that it was a good episode for drawing in viewers. I thought that there was a good balance of sports references, but I imagine going for three or so every episode will start to alienate some people... Also, I must disagree with the choice to name the main character, "Ryan." Not only does it seem to be a second choice (Terrell Owens calls Matthew Perry "Brad" in his radio interview), but, I've personally found that the vast majority of boys named Ryan are incredibly good-looking... an attribute which I would not give to Perry. Shallowness aside, I poked around the internet for ten or fifteen minutes to see if the character was originally "Brad" and they just didn't fix Owens' line, but I can't find anything to that effect. Can anyone explain what was going on there? 

Go On "Pilot" (S01E0): Ryan King is unexpectedly back at work as a radio personality, though his boss suspects that he has not yet had enough time to grieve his wife's death (just a month ago). Corporate recommends group therapy and won't let him return until he's had ten hours of it, so Ryan heads to a community center to attend a "life change" group. [I thought it was funny that he walked in on some medieval cosplay first!] Because the group leader is late, Ryan takes charge and encourages everyone to share their stories in five seconds, building a bracket to see who wins "March Sadness." [I thought this was a shining scene in the pilot.] There's a blind guy who has suffered from many health scares in his life, a woman who can't get over her cat's passing, and the winner ends up being a Hispanic woman who talks of her husband and her son passing. [I loved that the pet death surpassed a human death because of a technicality in breaking the five-second rule!] When Lauren, the group leader, arrives, we start learning about how it's unfair to rank one another. [she seriously carries around a gong??] When everyone starts hugging themselves, Ryan is a bit uncomfortable and switches to listening to his earphones. [and somehow the leader didn't notice??] Later, he goes for a jog and we see what everyone else does at night. [I felt that was a very moving sequence, and I imagine that it'll happen again.]

The next session has everyone paired up and talking, and Ryan is matched with Owen, a guy who hasn't talked in the two months he's been attending. They chat about cool videos and pictures on their phones, and Owen shares what his favorite is two guys in Europe who followed around the Google car, so they got into a bunch of pictures on Google Maps Street View. The next day, Owen's brother had a skiing accident and has been in a coma. [awww!] When it comes to talking about the "three words" that they used in their conversation, Ryan breaks the rules and starts suggesting that everyone do less talking and more doing. [I understand why Ryan did that, but I still didn't think it was a great moment.] But, the therapist won't sign Ryan's paperwork if he doesn't actually show grief, so he follows her until he finds out that she's not a licensed therapist - she's just a Weight Watchers success story! [getting into the car with her was a bit much, don't you think?] Ryan gives up, but when he mentions that Owen actually opened up, Lauren goes after him, and asks him to share, too. He makes up a story about his wife dying from a sudden onset blood disease, but as soon as she signs off on all ten sessions, he admits it was a lie. [I don't understand why he came clean! Unless we were just supposed to take that as a sign that he really does want to talk about it?] 

Now that Ryan can work again, he interviews Terrell Owens. [who calls him Brad. but I've already talked about that.] When Ryan goes to leave for the day, he starts throwing fruit from a gift basket at a car whose driver was texting. Because of this explosion, he realizes that he needs therapy and returns to the group. You see, Ryan's wife, Jeannie, was driving and texting when she ran a stop sign and was hit by another car. She died on the scene. [well, while this dates the show to present day (as opposed to fifteen years ago when it would have been a drunk driver), it's a sad story and almost a political statement, in my opinion.] Ryan stops his story to announce that he sees the Google car outside, so he grabs Owen and they grab some stuff from the cosplayers to go get in some shots.  [how cute! rather unlikely unless the show is supposed to be set in the Silicon Valley area, but cute.]

(Photo by: Jordin Althaus/NBC)