Poll Results - Who SHOULD win the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor In A Comedy?

They say that a tie is like kissing your sister. Sometimes it is. Last week's results for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy was like kissing your sister the nun. On the other hand sometimes a tie is like kissing your hot (and possibly horny) cousin in that it holds out the promise of things that could possibly be (I never had a sister but I did have a hot and possibly horny cousin - but that's a whole other story). I think the result of this poll leans more towards the latter.

There were twelve votes, a significant improvement over our last poll. Coming in last was Charlie Sheen of Two And A Half Men with no votes. Probably correctly too, I never get a chance to see the show so I can't judge but that seems to be more of an ensemble cast, at least this year. In a tie for third place are Larry David for Curb Your Enthusiasm and Kevin James for King Of Queens. I was honestly surprised to see the vote for Kevin James since a lot of people seem to have the same opinion of this show as Will & Grace, increasingly unfunny. I would have expected Larry David to have received a somewhat higher vote count. Tied for first are Tony Shaloub for Monk and Steve Carrell for The Office. This is the "hot (and possibly horny)" cousin moment. I tend to lean a bit more towards Carrell than Shaloub, mainly because I've seen more episodes of The Office than of Monk but I think that both performances are excellent, giving us multidimensional portraits of their characters rather than the sort of stick figures that are found in so many comedies. The quality of the performances are essential to making their shows work - if they don't deliver then their respective shows are no better than something like According To Jim.

New poll up in the morning - right now my back is killing me.

Short Takes - July 16, 2006

Maybe it's the heat. Maybe it's the fact that in the two Full Tilt Poker Fantasy League tournaments I've managed to qualify for I've been acting behind incorrigible chip bullies on tables where only two players - me and he - were actually present; I do much better when people are actually playing against me. Maybe it's spending a couple of days away from my air conditioner and with a three year old who only wants to watch one episode of one show over and over again, and knows how to use the remote. Did I mention that his father, my brother doesn't believe in air conditioning because it costs money?. No, I think it's the heat. Suffice it to say that I am feeling somewhat irritable of late. Still I shall soldier on.

Too Big: The biggest news in Canadian television at the moment is Bell Globemedia's friendly takeover of the CHUM Media Group. Based out of Toronto the CHUM group includes the CITY group of TV stations in Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver; the smaller market A-Channel group, 33 radio stations and 21 cable specialty channels including MUCHMusic (Canada's MTV) and Space: The Imagination Station (Canada's answer to the Sci-Fi Channel but in the opinion of our friends at TVSquad, better). BellGlobe Media owns the 17 station CTV network and 17 specialty channels including Canada's answer to ESPN, TSN. The deal is expected to pass through the CRTC's regulatory process unhindered as Conservative Industry Minister has "recently instructed the CRTC not to interfere in the media marketplace except when necessary."

Personally I think that this is a case where interference is necessary. Even though Bell Globemedia has announced plans to sell off CHUM's A-Channel stations, this deal would still result in the company owning two stations in five of the largest English language TV markets in the country as well as 38 specialty channels. This would seem to represent unfettered capitalism at its most unfettered, and while Bell Globemedia has generally been good as far as producing new Canadian shows (well better than Canwest Global at any rate) this has to have an impact on the production of original Canadian programming. This doesn't even begin to deal with the impact of the sale on the news media, where CITY-TV (the chain's Toronto station) had a particularly innovative look and feel. According to Toronto Star media analyst Antonia Zerbisias the merger is a bad thing because “mergers and acquisitions always result in job cuts, consolidation of operations and reduced newsgathering resources.”

Speaking of Canadian TV: I would be remiss not to mention Dianne Kristine's one woman effort to gather all the news about Canadian shows in one place. The new site currently called Canadian TV (as generic a name as it is possible to imagine) the blog is full of news about shows, synopses of series and descriptions of upcomng episodes. In my wildest dreams I couldn't hope to pull together the material the Dianne has access to. An excellent job.

Who'da thunk it: The producers of the series Rock Star: Supernova were hit by a lawsuit from an Orange County California punk band called Supernova. It seems that the band, which has been in existence since 1989 and recorded four albums, have taken umbrage at the use of their name. Naturally they have sued. According to an MTV article the Supernova that doesn't want to be associated with Tommy Lee (and really who can blame them) wants "the destruction of all "labels, signs, prints, packages, wrappers, containers, advertisements, electronic media and other materials bearing the Supernova mark" as well as forcing the TV show producers to "publish clarifying statements that [the show is] not associated with [the punk band]." Finally they are seeking punitive and compensatory damages, attorneys fees and the "profits and all damages sustained by [the band] due to [the] misuse of plaintiff's Supernova mark." I suppose there's a certain justice to this, although there is a certain foolhardiness of a punk band going up against a company that hires lawyers like some people hire gardeners. My only surprise is that they've only one band suing over a name so generic and hackneyed as Supernova.

Now that's writing: On occasion I stand in awe of real writers. Take Alessandra Stanley of the New York Times. In an article about America's Got Talent (registration required but I've never had any trouble with The Times) she stated that "the contest is cheerful, vulgar and unembarrassed, a liberating belch in an increasingly proper and sleekly self-conscious television landscape." In other words the show, which is the most popular series of the summer with over 12 million viewers (about 3 million more than So You Think You Can Dance) is pretty much successful for the reasons that most critics hate it. The show's popularity is probably similar to the reasons why Dancing With The Stars was popular last summer. For all that it featured "celebrities" that show worked because it was something that you didn't see much of in the sophisticated world of dramatic TV. It was fun, it was different and on the whole it revelled in its difference. Now I watched last Wednesday's two hour show - one of the semi-final episodes - and I didn't like it as much as I did the qualifying rounds. Not all of the acts that qualified were given a chance to perform (I think they had 15 acts in the back stage area but only 10 performed and the 5 that didn't won't be given a chance to show their stuff). The acts didn't get the snarky commentary from the judges and what the judges said didn't matter anyway. That said it was still a reasonably fun show.

Amazing Race cast list released: Although the names aren't up at the CBS website, the cast list and details for Amazing Race 10 has been released at the summer meeting of the TV Critics Association. In addition to the usual teams - a gay couple, models and/or beauty queens, dating couples trying to define their relationships, a parent and child, and a team of brothers - there's a married Indo-American couple, two Muslim friends, and a woman with an artificial leg. This season's race will start in Seattle and go from west to east. Destinations include at least three places the show has never visited before - Mongolia, Kuwait, and Madagascar - as well as China (which they've visited several times in previous seasons) and Vietnam (which was memorably visited in Season 3 by a group including Vietnam War veteran Ian Pollack). According to series creator Bertram van Munster "This cast is as different as it's ever been," executive producer Bertram van Munster told the Television Critics Association's summer meeting. "It's meltdown city on this trip."

Let us go forward slowly: I heard this on a couple of Leo Laporte's podcasts last week. According to Media Daily News, Mike Shaw, ABC's President of Network Advertising had held preliminary discussions with cable companies (I think - this article is full of acronyms) with the objective of disabling the Fast Forward button on future Digital Video Recorders so that people would have to watch commercials. According to Shaw "I would love it if the MSOs, during the deployment of the new DVRs they're putting out there, would disable the fast-forward [button]." He expanded on this saying that as cable companies are currently beefing up their own local advertising sales "They've got to sell ads too. So if everybody's skipping everybody's ads, that's not a long-term business model for them either." He just keeps digging in deeper too: "It really is a matter of convenience - so you don't miss your favorite show. And quite frankly, we're just training a new generation of viewers to skip commercials because they can. I'm not sure that the driving reason to get a DVR in the first place is just to skip commercials. I don't fundamentally believe that. People can understand in order to have convenience and on-demand (options), that you can't skip commercials." Presumably Mr. Shaw is all for the rewind button not being disabled at the same time since that might force people to watch the commercials over and over again.

Here's an idea - make commercials that people don't want to fast forward through, or integrate advertising into the show itself more effectively. Product placements have been around since TV started - check out I Love Lucy when the show was sponsored by Philip Morris (in one scene where Lucy is trying to entertain Ricky's Spanish speaking mother she offers the woman a cigarette but not knowing the word in Spanish she says "Philipa Morris" - Ricky's mother exentually understands), and old time radio experts like Ivan Shreve and Harry Heuser will recall days when people like Don Wilson or Harlow "Waxy" Wilcox would do commercials that were integrated right into radio shows like The Jack Benny Program and Fibber McGee & Molly. I realise that would be close to impossible in most shows today but it just shows that it is possible to make commercials that sell the product and ar entertaining.

Who does the PTC hate THIS week? Clearly the diligent monitors who seek to keep our eyes from being corrupted have cut back on TV viewing for the summer. The PTC is still outraged over the rape scene on Rescue Me, Circuit City for advertising on shows that the PTC doesn't like, and that same episode of America's Got Talent with stripper Michelle Lamour (who bills herself as "The ass that goes POW!"

Don't forget to vote in the poll!

Big Brother All Stars - Where's the Sturm und Drang?

So when I adopted my normal television watching position on Tuesday evening to see what was going on at the Big Brother House it was with a mixture of anticipation and dread. I've been reading Jackie's reports of what's been going on inside the house via the Internet live feeds that I'm to smart, cheap or disinterested (take your pick, I couldn't care less) to pay for and she's managed to make it sound uninteresting which is not a good sign. And yet it should be good because the very fact that these people wanted to do this again makes it sound as though it should be a colossal clash of egos. After seeing both episodes so far all I can do is quote from a Wayne & Shuster sketch (Shakespearean Baseball): Ministers of grace protect us he hath flip-ped his lid.

Actually there are at least two he's in this case whose lids hath been flip-ped, maybe three. One is the guy who sat at a meeting and said, "Hey let's make the next Big Brother the "All Star" version." Then there's the guy who said, "Great Idea! We can have America vote on who gets in, just like at Baseball's All-Star game." Finally there's the guy whose lid did a two and a half somersault, the one who approved the idea.

As you can tell, I'm not particularly enamored of the whole Big Brother: All Stars concept and the comparison to the Baseball All-Star game is part of it. The All Star Game fan voting procedure has a tendency to produce "anomalies" - in the past they've voted on players who were out for season long injuries and at other times voted in substandard players in preference to better ones. This season they put three New York Mets on the National League team but the name Barry Bonds appears nowhere on the line-up. The usual explanation is that the public tends to vote for players that they remember and like. I suspect that this was what was operating in the Big Brother All Stars vote. Twenty "house guests" from the six previous seasons were available to be voted in with the top six - later changed to eight - vote getters going into the house. The producers would select the remaining six houseguests, in much the same way that the manager of a Baseball All-Star team selects members of his team. There was one Season 1 player, four Season 2 players, three Season 3 players, three Season 4 players, four Season 5 players, and five Season 6 players. And who did America pick? They picked the people they knew - seven of the eight (Howie, Kaysar, James, Janelle, Jase, Nakomis and Dianne) were from Seasons 5 and 6, only one, Erica, from an earlier season and that was Season 4 - and the people they liked - the only Season 6 contestant not picked was the always shrill enemy of the Friendship Alliance Ivette, and the only Season 5 candidate miss was dumb as a post Cowboy (who I swear looked like he was going to cry when he wasn't picked). It was left to the producers to make the final picks. I think they were probably taken aback somewhat by the way the voting had gone, giving them a preponderance of people from the last two seasons and it may have hurt their plans to put people in the house who were "natural enemies" of the people the public selected. Instead they had to put in players to represent previous seasons. They selected "Mike Boogie" and "Evil Dr. Will" from Season 2, Marcellas and Danielle from Season 3, and Allison from Season 4. The final pick came as a surprise to most people, including the CBS camera man. The assumption was that they would balance the house equally between men and women, and since three men had already been picked by the producers. On the other hand there was only one Season 1 representative (and only one "older" guy) "Chicken George". He was picked for the final slot.

I think we can see part of the problem here. Marcellas and Danielle hate each other, so do Erika and Allison, and I don't recall the Season 5 trio of Jase, Nakomis and Danielle being that close. The only "natural" alliances in the house are Will and Mike and three of the four from Season 6 (none of whom really trusts James and probably shouldn't). But there's more to it than that. The players not only know each other and have pre-exisitng relationships within their season but with the exception of George they know how the other players play the clutching and grabbing (for backstabbing and backdooring) game from previous seasons. George is a total cypher; no one knows how he'll adapt to life as a conniver since about the only "underhanded" thing he did in Season 1 was the art project, making "Keep George" signs he used in the diary room. The point is however that players - particularly players from later seasons - know how others play. Players from the later seasons probably have more of an advantage because they were watching the early seasons intently because they hoped to get on the show. Players in earlier seasons probably have less understanding of later players because they never expected to be playing the game again. Collectively this shows. When "Evil Doctor Will" claimed that he was insulted that he hadn't been nominated it showed his lack of understanding of the dynamics of the All-Star version of the show. They know his strategy, how he plays the game and here are other players who are more dangerous at the moment. They can deal with him after Allison, who's good at competitions and manipulates men, or Danielle, who is good at playing the backstage game and getting others to do her dirty work. With Will it's a case of knowing that when he opens his mouth he's lying and the game has grown beyond that.

The show hasn't been without entertaining moments, just not that many. I suppose that one of the funniest things has been the improvised "slip & slide" that the houseguests came up with. Various guests went slipping and sliding on this thing made up of a line of black plastic garbage bags, lubricated not just with water but with dish soap, shaving cream and other material. The longest slide was probably by Kaysar who went off the slide across the grass and into the fence, but probably the funniest moment came when Will offered to go "dual sliding" with one of the guys and George took him up on the offer. Marcellas came out of the house just as George was lying on top of Will. It was almost enough, he later said, to make him turn straight. Another aspect is the opinions that players have about each other - mostly wrong. Will was of the opinion that Kaysar was "arrogant", which under the circumstances was the pot calling a dirty dish black. Meanwhile Allison foolishly dismissed Janelle as being "just a cocktail waitress", an opinion that went beyond the absurd given Janelle's performance in Season 6. Allison was thoroughly outmatched.

I had originally intended to get this out after the Tuesday show, but circumstances have dictated otherwise (one thing being that I was following the World Series of Poker's $50,000 buy in HORSE Tournament - the people who have entered make this one like Baseball's All-Star Game except this one means a lot more to the players). So I caught the live eviction episode on Thursday. It's hard to say much about this show. They presented a profile of Allison as seen by Justin, her ex from Season 4, and her current boyfriend - apparently an extremely naive doctor - and totally ignoring Donnie her boyfriend when she was in the house originally (and with whom she battled during the first two legs of Amazing Race 5). Suffice it to say that editing and music made the good doctor look as though he was a fly in the spider's web. There were the usual, not very deep, interviews with the two Heads of Household and goodbye statement from the potential evictees after which Allison was tossed out with a vote of 8-2. About the only excitement was during the later HoH competition. Based around the players guessing what Allison's answers to questions about the various guests was, it came down to a battle between Kaysar and Nakomis, which Kaysar won. Except that host Julie Chen didn't realise it. She (or more likely the person inputting stuff into her teleprompter) said that Nakomis had won much to Nakomis's astonishment and Kaysar's befuddlement.

Of the four major reality competitions that I watch, Big Brother is probably my least favourite. The show has become cut rate Survivor without the rigours of living on a deserted island. The competitions are a minor concern occupying relatively brief periods in the show so the drama - such as it is - comes from getting to know the players and seeing how they react to each other. It is a sad thing to say but the truth is that observing the conflicts between people who are artificially forced together and have to deal with each other in a situation that forces antagonism is the entertaining part of this show. We want to see arguments and catfights (and okay, the occasional peanut butter bikini would not be unappreciated). It's early in the season but so far there's very little of the sort of conflict and manipulation and the blame can be laid clearly at the feet of the All-Star format. This shouldn't really surprise anyone - Survivor All-Stars was a less than stunning effort, the only real revelation being the emergence of Rob & Amber as a dominating partnership - the two hadn't been successful as individual players but together they clicked (in more ways than one - they came second in The Amazing Race and got married to each other). I have a suspicion that unless the game is a competition that doesn't require alliances but is entirely skill related - like The Amazing Race - the All-Star concept is not one that works in reality competitions for exactly the reasons I've cited. The players know each other, either from being on the show together or from watching the show, and this can both reduce conflict and produce prefabricated alliances, reducing the dramatic tension of the season. This season's Big Brother would have been a better show if they'd stuck with the old format and stocked the house with strangers who had never been on the show before. As it is, so far at least this seems to be shaping up as the most boring season of Big Brother since Season 1. Maybe even ever.

New Poll - Who SHOULD win the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor In A Comedy?

Okay, let's set aside last week's misadventure in polling and move on to the Outstanding Lead Actor In A Comedy category, where at least some of the nominees are worthy of a shot at winning on Emmy. the nonimees are: Larry David (Curb Your Enthusiasm), Kevin James (The King of Queens), Tony Shalhoub (Monk), Steve Carell (The Office), Charlie Sheen (Two and a Half Men).

Please I beg of you VOTE!!!!!

Poll Results - Who SHOULD win the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress In A Comedy?

Well that certainly worked out well. Not.

On the question of who should win the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress In A Comedy, we have a grand total of 4 votes. I want to believe that it's because everyone who came across this poll was of the opinion that none of these actresses should win on general principle. I have to wonder whether, if I'd included "None of the above" as an option I would have received a higher total number of votes? But I felt that, to be true to the traditions of this blog and the Emmys themselves I should force my readers to hold their collective noses (or close their eyes and think of England as the saying goes) and actually vote for one of the women nominated. Four of you did just that.

reversing the normal order of things, I shall tell you that Lisa Kudrow, Jane Kaczmarek, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Stockard Channing each received one stinking lousy vote each (25%, duh) tying them for first place, which means that the big fat loser that no one could bring themselves to vote for was Debra Messing from Will & Grace.

Let us admit that this category was ill-served by voters and blue ribbon committees alike and move on.

Short Takes - July 10, 2006

I should have written a bit earlier about the Big Brother: All Stars selections but to be honest with you when I made my little excursion on the "new look" Saskatoon Transit System I got a little too much sun - which is a euphemism for a lot too much sun. It hit me that night and I was in no shape to do anything for a couple of days really. Not the transit system's fault though but my own for trying to walk a couple of miles that afternoon. I think I'll wait until Tuesday - first Power of Veto day - to give an opinion, which should give me a lot more information. Meanwhile check out Jackie's blog for up to the minute details of that minimum security prison I call the Big Brother house. See Jackie has the live feeds, which is giving me a little preliminary feeling of what's going down in the house. Here's a little taster: Nakomis to someone Jackie doesn't identify: "I was an odd child." Why am I not at all surprised.

I shot an arrow... Speaking of odd reality show winners, let us consider the recent exploits of Survivor: Thailand winner Brian Heidik. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Heidik was arrested last Tuesday for shooting a five month old German Shepherd-cross puppy with a bow and arrow. He claimed that he thought the animal was a fox or a coyote, but his wife and former fellow soft-core porn star Charmaine (who also filed charges against him for domestic violence after he grabbed her face and pushed her down) said that he had shot the dog from a range of about a foot saying that he was "tired of stupid dogs on my back porch." Heidik and his wife are legally separated but still live in the same house. Heidik made bail on Wednesday. The dog, Edgar, was being picked up from the by his owner on Thursday.

And yet another crazy: We all know that the United States is a litigious society, but this one just makes you want to shake your head. According to the Boston Herald, Nicholas Christakis is suing Donald Trump and Mark Burnett because he wasn't selected for the first edition of The Apprentice. The suit for $250 million claims that Burnett and Trump (who Christakis never met) engaged in “improper business practices and ethics” and that Burnett “'defamed, slandered and libeled' him in front of a California casting crew during the August 2003 final interviews conducted to hand-pick 16 contenders to become Trump’s one and only first Apprentice.” Christakis's credentials to become the Apprentice might not have been the best though. In 2001 he filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy while in 2002 his family's breakfast restaurant "The Cove" was shut down by health inspectors - the family has sued. According to Christakis, “Mark Burnett passed judgment on me. He thought I was a lunatic.” Well I know where I stand on that one.

Emmy stuff: Of course the big TV news was the Emmy's and that seems to have pushed all of the other business off to the side once they were released - or escaped in some cases. For example Emmy rules VP John Leverence explained to Variety that says Desperate Housewives might not have nee funny enough and Lost too complex to be nominated. "At the panels, the ha-ha comedies had 'em rolling in the aisles whereas Desperate Housewives does a both a drama dance and a comedy dance. Having the dramatic elements in with the comedic perhaps tended to dilute the force of the comedic." About Lost he said "If Lost in fact chose an episode that was midway into a very complex action and you had people in that room who were seeing it for the first time, there's a distinct possibility they might not have gotten it. It might not have had that kind of resonance that a non-serialized program would have." So if I read this right the "Blue Ribbon Panel" system benefits shows that aren't complex and don't require you to watch more than one episode.

Here's another point of view from Tom O'Neil who does the Gold Derby blog on the LA Times' The Envelope awards show site. In the article Emmy Reax: 3 Experts' Smackdown O'Neil takes a contrarian view from most people including the other two people he's talking to (and me): "I think these are some of the gutsiest and best Emmy nominations ever. I agree that they failed to achieve their goal to boost shows on those alternative networks like the WB, UPN, FX, TNT, USA and Showtime, but there's not a single nominee that doesn't deserve to be on the list. Some of the choices are kooky, sure, but marvelously courageous — like Stockard Channing in Out of Practice, Lisa Kudrow in The Comeback and Geena Davis in Commander in Chief. I just love it when the Emmys totally go their own way and don't care if a show's canceled. Well I'm glad someone liked them but really - "not a single nominee that doesn't deserve to be on the list?" - isn't that going just a little bit far even for someone who likes the nominees? He even lauds the fact that four fo the five "Oustanding Actress In A Comedy" nominees came from cancelled shows. According to him that's "what is so GREAT about the Emmys! Shows what great guts Emmy voters have and how little value they put on Nielsens when they look at shows carefully."

A blow for censorship?: That's one way to interpret a recent court ruling. U.S. District Court Judge Richard P. Matsch ruled against firms which "sanitizes" movies (and presumably TV series as well) that are released to home video by selling versions without nudity, sex and violence - but mostly nudity and sex. The suit, brought by sixteen Hollywood directors including Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorcese, alleged copyright infringement against three companies: CleanFlicks, Play It clean Video and CleanFilms. In a statement after the decision Michael Apted, president of the Directors Guild of America declared that "These films carry our name and reflect our reputations. So we have great passion about protecting our work ... against unauthorized editing. Audiences can now be assured that the films they buy or rent are the vision of the filmmakers who made them and not the arbitrary choices of a third-party editor." In his ruling Judge Matsch stated "Their objective ... is to stop the infringement because of its irreparable injury to the creative artistic expression in the copyrighted movies. There is a public interest in providing such protection." Meanwhile Ray Lines, the president of CleanFlicks one of the firms named in the suit stated, "This is a typical case of David vs. Goliath, but in this case, Hollywood rewrote the ending. We're going to continue to fight." He can believe that all he likes, but the fact remains that by producing unauthorized, edited versions of these films for sale these companies were acting in violation of copyright. Bowdler existed in a time before copyrights and even so he was content to "improve" the works of a man two centuries dead.

What the PTC hates now: In what I think might become a new feature here, I'm going to list a few items that the PTC hates, as found on their website.

1. The rape scene in Rescue Me: they're calling for members to send warning letters to Wendy's, Staples, Visa and Toyota, as well as calling for legislation on cable choice.


2. Circuit City, for advertising on "shows like Nip/Tuck, Las Vegas, C.S.I. and C.S.I.:Miami - all of which contain either brutal violence or explicit sexual content. Other shows sponsored by Circuit City shared storylines that dealt with child pornography, rape, racial slurs and a young child killed by a sniper while on a playground.


3. CBS for not paying the Janet Jackson indecency fine yet - they've even set up a little countdown clock.


4. The "Worst Show of the Week" - America's Got Talent - not because it's a "so good it's bad show" like most of us thing but because "While America’s Got Talent gives every appearance of a being a family-friendly program, on the June 28th episode the highlighted act of the night was a strip tease." Yeah they didn't like Snow White the stripper and forget the fact that the real highlighted act of the night was 11 year old Bianca Ryan. According to the PTC "Should a stripper be competing against an eleven year old for one million dollars?" I'm betting that the eleven year old will be the one who gets closer to the money.

New Poll - Who SHOULD win the Emmy for Oustanding Lead Actress In A Comedy?

With the announcement of the Emmy nominations we also start the first of our Emmy polls. In this case I'm not asking who will win the Emmy but rather who should win the Emmy. There's a difference of course. Admittedly in this category in particular it's not easy to pick a winner and I was tempted to add "None of the above" but I resisted the temptation. As usual, feel free to add comments in the comments section.

2006 Emmy Award Nominations

I should have had this out earlier but I chose today to try out Saskatoon's newly revamped transit system (as commented on several times by Tim Gueguen most recently here). To put it in short terms - DART busses nice, walking 4 or five blocks to actually be able to catch a bus not so nice - and it's worse for my almost 77 year old mother.

On to the Emmys. This is the product of the revamped system?!? Time Magazine critic James Poniewozik describes it Thursday in his blog as "finding new ways to reward mediocrity", while Alan Sepinwall wrote "I'll rant more about this in the comments after I've had some time to process and to think about what I'm going to write for tomorrow's paper, but my initial reaction is that this is even worse than I was expecting." And Boston Globe critic Matthew Gilbert had this to say: "Yet if anything, the new voting system created to make the nominations more relevant has had the opposite effect." Why the upset reaction? Well I'll have further explanations when I comment on each the nominations but to quote the French novelist and journalist Alphonse Karr (I had to look up the originator) "Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose" - "The more things change, the more they remain the same."

Outstanding Drama Series
Grey's Anatomy - ABC
House - FOX
The Sopranos - HBO
24 - FOX
The West Wing - NBC
Comment: Not one show here has not received at least one Emmy nomination in this category before, and yet last year's winner Lost isn't included and not one new show is nominated. The nomination for The West Wing is so clearly a "lifetime achievement" nod, but I wish someone would explain to me why Desperate Housewives is a comedy but Grey's Anatomy is a drama. Notable by omission: Lost, Battlestar Galactica, Veronica Mars and a fair number of other good shows which probably says a lot more about just how good TV drama has become than anything else.

Outstanding Comedy Series
Arrested Development - Fox
Curb Your Enthusiasm - HBO
The Office - NBC
Scrubs - NBC
Two And A Half Men - CBS
Comment: I'm going to antagonize a lot of people here by saying that the Arrested Development nomination was a heart-felt FU to the Fox Network and by extension to the American public for not supporting the show. I'm sorry but the number of episodes that this show aired this season doesn't warrant an Outstanding Comedy Series nomination, one which could have gone to My Name Is Earl or Everybody Hates Chris or even Desperate Housewives. Well at least Will & Grace wasn't nominated

Outstanding Miniseries
Bleak House (Masterpiece Theatre) - PBS
Elizabeth I - HBO
Into The West - TNT
Sleeper Cell - Showtime
Comments: None.

Outstanding Reality-Competition Program
The Amazing Race - CBS
American Idol - FOX
Dancing With The Stars - ABC
Project Runway - Bravo
Survivor - CBS
Comments: The usual suspects were rounded up.

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series
Christopher Meloni - Law & Order: Special Victims Unit - NBC
Denis Leary - Rescue Me - FX Network
Peter Krause - Six Feet Under - HBO
Martin Sheen - The West Wing - NBC
Kiefer Sutherland - 24 - Fox
Comments: I hate to denigrate Martin Sheen but he gets a nomination but Bradley Whitford doesn't? Odd given that Whitford, and Jimmy Smits for that matter, had more screen time on The West Wing than Sheen did this year. Okay, that's that moment out of the way. I honestly don't know that Christopher Meloni or Peter Krause deserve nominations either, when Hugh Laurie, and James Gandolfini don't get them.

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series
Kyra Sedgwick - The Closer - TNT
Geena Davis - Commander in Chief - ABC
Mariska Hargitay - Law & Order: Special Victims Unit - NBC
Frances Conroy - Six Feet Under - HBO
Allison Janney - The West Wing - NBC
Comments: I'm not going to argue about Allison Janney in this one because I think she deserved it. On the other hand I will argue against Geena Davis because even though the collapse of Commander in Chief wasn't her fault but rather the fault of bad scripts, a lack of direction and a determination by ABC to meddle with the show repeatedly, she wasn't the best actor on the show (that would be Donald Sutherland) let alone the best actress in a drama. Where's Kristen Bell's nomination, or Edie Falco's.

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series
Lisa Kudrow - The Comeback - HBO
Jane Kaczmarek - Malcolm In The Middle - FOX
Julia Louis-Dreyfus - The New Adventures of Old Christine - CBS
Stockard Channing - Out Of Practice - CBS
Debra Messing - Will & Grace - NBC
Comments: It says a lot about a lot of things when only one nominee in this category will be returning next season. I'm not going to mention the fact that not one of the Desperate Housewives got a nomination including the won who got the award last year, you know, the one who picked up an Oscar nomination . No let's spend a few minutes remembering that the actresses on Big Love didn't get any recognition nor did Mary-Louise Parker from Weeds, not to mention Lauren Graham from Gilmore Girls. I guess that says a lot more about the nominating process than about the quality of comedy roles for actresses, although it says something about that too.

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series
Larry David - Curb Your Enthusiasm - HBO
Kevin James - The King of Queens - CBS
Tony Shalhoub - Monk - USA
Steve Carell - The Office - NBC
Charlie Sheen - Two and a Half Men - CBS
Comments: More of the usual suspects. Obvious switch is Jason Lee of My Name Is Earl for Kevin James, but what's the point? Most of the nominations in this category are adequate.

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
Sandra Oh - Grey's Anatomy - ABC
Blythe Danner - Huff - Showtime
Candice Bergen - Boston Legal - ABC
Chandra Wilson - Grey's Anatomy - ABC
Jean Smart - 24 - FOX
Comments: Setting aside for the moment the question of whether Grey's Anatomy - or Boston Legal for that matter - is a drama when Desperate Housewives gets to be a comedy, I think this is actually a pretty solid slate of nominees, although I've heard some questioning about Gwyneth Paltrow's mother's nomination for Huff.

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
William Shatner - Boston Legal - ABC
Oliver Platt - Huff - Showtime
Michael Imperioli - The Sopranos - HBO
Gregory Itzin - 24 - FOX
Alan Alda - The West Wing - NBC
Comments: I'm not sure it's a good sign when the the only nomination in the acting categories that The Sopranos gets is for Imperioli. Not to detract from his work of course, I just think it's strange. I guess I could get all sentimental and say that it's a shame that they didn't nominate John Spencer but the fact is that there were other actors that are more deserving.

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series
Will Arnett - Arrested Development - Fox
Jeremy Piven - Entourage - HBO
Bryan Cranston - Malcolm In The Middle - FOX
Jon Cryer - Two And A Half Men - CBS
Sean Hayes - Will & Grace - NBC
Comments: I made my argument about Arrested Development earlier so I won't repeat it here. Instead I have to say something about Neil Patrick Harris not getting a nomination for How I Met Your Mother, and the fact that three of the nominated shows won't be back next year.

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
Cheryl Hines - Curb Your Enthusiasm - HBO
Jaime Pressly - My Name is Earl - NBC
Elizabeth Perkins - Weeds - Showtime
Alfre Woodard - Desperate Housewives - ABC
Megan Mullally - Will & Grace - NBC
Comments: Okay, so let me get this straight now. The only nomination that Desperate Housewives got this year was for the character who locked one of her sons in the basement for most of the season and in essence did not one thing to contribute to the comedy of the show and whose character was one of the reasons why the show rapidly descended to the ordinary? Okay, I thought so. Meanwhile neither Alyson Hannigan nor Cobie Smulders gets nominated for anything for How I Met Your Mother. Of course neither do Alexis Bledel for Gilmore Girls or Tichina Arnold as the mother in Everybody Hates Chris but given the way the Academy - new procedures or old - treats the weblets, it's hardly surprising.

The Emmys will be awarded on August 27, with Conan O'Brien again hosting.

A Correction - Why A Family Sells Ad Space On Their RV

In the final part of my Short Takes piece last Saturday I mentioned the Illinois family that had put advertising rights on their RV up for auction on eBay. The rights were snapped up by CBS who also hired the family to promote The Amazing Race and the show's move to Sunday night come September at various landmarks and events around the United States. In my article I made the statement that the family - who weren't named in the CBS press release - "thought they'd subsidize their summer vacation by selling ad space on their RV." That was entirely my assumption; again the CBS press release didn't mention the family's motivation in putting the advertising rights up for sale. I received a comment on the piece from Mike Aldrich, the man who actually owns the RV.

Mr. Aldrich stated that his intention in putting the advertising space up for auction was not to subsidize the family vacation but rather to "help with our air time cost for a kids sport highlight show we air in our home town." For getting that wrong I apologize but I suppose it's a natural assumption based on the lack of any explanation from CBS. In fact, Mike's C.I.K. TV (Central Illinois Kids Television) will be going national in the fall using the online service Lasoo On-Demand TV for which I definitely wish him and his family the best of luck.

One other thing that I got wrong, but which can be laid entirely at the feet of CBS is the availability of content that Mike and his family will be producing on their trip. It will not be uploaded to InnerTube but is in fact being prepared for "educational segments for our show." In a way I'm sort of unhappy about this since I for one would like to see the progress of the "Amazing Race Promo-mobile" and the people that they meet across the country. I think it would have been great summer content. I suppose that we'll just have to be satisfied with the Aldritch's C.I.K.TV Blog, which is offering extensive coverage of their trip as well as some photos.

Anyway I thought I'd send along my apologies to Mike and his family for getting it wrong - I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one who made assumptions about what they were intending when they put the RV advertising rights up for sale.

Happy July 4th For Those Of You Who Celebrate it

I'm going to celebrate the anniversary of the day that those traitorous scum to the south - sorry, Americans - decided that Good King George wasn't good enough to lead them the way I usually do - by complaining about the CBS coverage of the Boston Pops concert and watching my copy of 1776. The movie is a veritable treasure trove of faces for the discerning TV viewer. Most of the cast came from the original Broadway show and a lot of them did soaps and bits in New York based series during the 1960s. Here are some faces that are a little more familiar.

Here's William Daniels (St. Elsewhere, Knight Rider, Boy Meets World) with Ken Howard (White Shadow, Crossing Jordan) with Howard DaSilva, who did a lot of guest shots after the Black List was lifted



Then there's Major Hochstetter himself Howard Caine (Hogan's Heroes of course).








One of the showiest parts of the film belongs to John Cullum (Northern Exposure and Mark Greene's dad on ER).







Here, dancing with William Daniels, is Blythe Danner most recently of Huff and mother of a girl with the name Gwyneth.







And how could we forget Governor Gene Gatlin from Benson, James Noble.










And this guy? The actor is Daniel Keyes, but more importantly the character is Dr. Josiah Bartlett of New Hampshire whose TV descendant and namesake Dr. Josiah "Jed" Bartlet recently left the office of President of the United States on The West Wing.







All kidding aside, to my American friends and readers, have a safe, happy and relaxed Fourth Of July - Independence Day - and be careful with those fireworks.

Short Takes - July 2, 2006

I've been remiss in getting a lot of stuff posted including a new set of Short Takes. Mostly I've been watching the World Cup (did that referee on Saturday take a bribe from the Portuguese Mafia? - I don't know about some of those calls), doing stuff around the house and trying to stay cool without being forced to use the AC.

An interesting take on the PTC: In his Time Magazine blog, TV critic James Poniewozik makes an interesting point about Brent Bozell and the PTC's current outrage over the rape scene in a recent episode of Rescue Me (which I haven't seen so can't comment on). Poniewozik starts with the fact that the PTC's "righteous outrage" took nine days after the episode actually aired to be expressed. I've noticed the same thing on several occasions, notably when reviewing the time line presented for the CBS appeal of the fines related to the "Teen Orgy" episode of Without A Trace. Poniewozik then suggests that maybe this is because the PTC doesn't actually watch the shows they're complaining about but rather watches what becomes controversial in the press and then express their moral outrage. I think his conclusion on this is rather insightful:

If so, it tends to undercut the PTC's argument - that children and people of delicate morals need to be protected from raunchy content. Because it would seem the system actually works: shockingly, people who don't like risque TV aren't watching Rescue Me in the first place. Why? Because Janet Jackson at the Super Bowl notwithstanding, edgy TV pretty much advertises itself as such; Denis Leary does not promote Rescue Me by playing an acoustic guitar to children and puppets. And because people are not idiots. Not even PTC members.

Watch the Frog...say goodbye: With the coming of The CW, both UPN and The WB will be shutting down. While UPN has yet to announce plans for it's last day on Friday September 15, The WB has announced that their final day on September 17 will feature the pilots of what they consider to be four of their most important older series. The shows and times are Felicity(5-6 p.m.) Angel (6-7 p.m.), Buffy The Vampire Slayer (7-9 p.m.), and Dawson's Creek (9-10 p.m.). They will also air promos from their 11 season existence. Apparently the whole thing took a lot of difficult negotiations with the originating studios and the cable networks airing them. To get the rights the network has to include promos for both the show DVDs and the network(s) currently airing reruns. Sounds okay but it might be fun (or at least interesting) to see at least one show from The WB's first season like The Parent 'Hood. Or maybe not.

Exploding Star: Since I've never actually consciously watched The View I've never really gotten the Star Jones thing. I mean I've seen Barbara Walters of course ("What kind of twee would you be?"), Meredith Vierra both when she was a serious journalist and now that she was hosting Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, Joy Behar's comedy act on occasion, and of course Elizabeth Hasselbeck when she was on Survivor (liked her better than Amber...then) but I didn't know anything about Star Jones or why she was on this show. I understand that she's a lawyer and all but beyond that I have absolutely no understanding of why she engenders such hatred from a variety of people. Apparently this hatred has extended to include the people on her show. It was expected that she would be dropped when Rosie O'Donnell was added to replace Meredith, and that happened. People were expecting an explosion between Star and Rosie (although again, I don't understand why - it would seem that the conservative Hasselbeck would be more likely to be confronted by O'Donnell) and believed that this was why Star was dropped. But Star was not about to go out quietly. After the announcement was made on the show, Jones fired back with some attacks on the producers of the show and Walters in particular, saying that she didn't jump, she was pushed. And she did it on every media outlet that would have her, including Larry King Live and The Today Show. But here's the thing that thoroughly and utterly mystified me - the heated reaction to her appearances by other people. Like this TV Squad post, or this one reacting to a repeat of the interview the next night. I can think of a lot of things that are vile - a network repeating an interview from the previous day is not one of them.

Casting news: David James Elliott will be joining the cast of Close To Home playing a new district attorney who used to be a Captain in the Navy. Sorry I made that last part up since the last series he was in ended with him being promoted to Captain in the Judge Advocate General's department of the US Navy. Elliott will be replacing John Carroll Lynch as Annabeth's boss on the show which will apparently be revamped to get rid of the show's central premise of crime in the suburbs. As part of this they killed off Christian Kane's character (Annabeth's husband) so I wouldn't be totally surprised if Elliott's character eventually develops a possible romantic interest for Jennifer Finigan's Annabeth. That is if he isn't married to a former Marine.

New rules - similar results?: I'm sure that if Bryce Zabel still reads this blog he'll deny this but it seems as though the new Emmy nomination process won't widen the field of nominees for the awards anywhere near as wide as was expected when the new procedure was adopted. In the new procedure the academy in its various branches votes for nominees, and the top ten or fifteen are then presented to a panel to select the five nominees who will be presented to the membership. According to this piece in the LA Times Gold Derby blog the ten drama series to make the second phase of the nomination process are: Big Love (HBO), Boston Legal (ABC), Grey's Anatomy(ABC), House (Fox), Lost (ABC), Rescue Me (FX), Six Feet Under (HBO), The Sopranos (HBO), 24 (Fox), The West Wing (NBC). The ten comedies are: Arrested Development (Fox), Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO), Desperate Housewives (ABC), Entourage (HBO), My Name Is Earl (NBC), The Office (NBC), Scrubs (NBC), Two and a Half Men (CBS), Will & Grace (NBC), Weeds (Showtime). Of the Drama nominees there's only one new show (Big Love), which is the only one that hasn't been nominated for an Emmy in some category - five of the series have been nominated for best drama. There are no nominations for series such as Battlestar Gallactica, The Closer, Everwood, Huff, Prison Break, Rome, or Veronica Mars in the Drama category. In the comedies the only new shows nominated were My Name Is Earl and Weeds while those two shows and those shows and The Office were the only shows on the list not to have previous Emmy nominations. Among the shows missing from the list: Everybody Hates Chris, Extras, Gilmore Girls, Monk, and New Adventures of Old Christine. So has the new procedure really succeeded in widening the nomination process or are people just writing down the names that they've heard before?

Better than advertizing on someone's belly: So there's this family in Peoria that thought they'd subsidize their summer vacation by selling ad space on their RV - those babies suck up a lot of fuel after all - so they put an ad on eBay. They got a response from CBS which thought that the RV would make a great mobile billboard and not only bought the ad space but hired the family of six to travel around the United States from Denver to Nashville and talk to people about The Amazing Race. According to George Schwitzer, president of CBS Marketing "I saw this posting on the web and immediately thought a traveling motor home would be the perfect vehicle to reach 'Amazing Race' viewers this summer. What better way to reach our core audience than by visiting them on the road and on their vacations at tourist sites across the country." As well as disseminating promotional material for the show at various locations and events, the family will interview people they meet in their travels including previous contestants on The Race and upload the interviews onto the CBS broadband channel Innertube.

Happy Canada Say 2006!

What more can I say. Here are the guys responsible for my country existing.
They are First row (from the front, listed left to right): Edward Whalen, Samuel Tilley, George Brown, Charles Tupper
Second row: W.H. Steeves, John Hamilton Gray, Alexander Campbell, Hector Langevin, Oliver Mowat, Thomas D'Arcy McGee
Third row: Charles Fisher, George Coles, J.C. Chapais, Étienne-Paschal Taché, Alexander Galt, J. Cockburn, William McDougall, J. McCully
Fourth row: W.A. Henry, E.B. Chandler, Adams G. Archibald, Georges-Étienne Cartier, Thomas H. Haviland, J.H. Gray, A. Macdonald
Fifth row: Hewitt Bernard, Ambrose Shea, John A. Macdonald, Peter Mitchell, W.H. Pope, J.M. Johnson
Sixth row (back): E. Palmer, F.B.T. Carter, R.B. Dickey

The image of the Quebec City Conference is actually a drawing that was a study for an oil painting that was commissioned in 1883 and is contains attendees from both the Quebec and Charlottetown meetings. The painting, by Robert Harris, was destroyed when the Canadian Houses of Parliament burned in 1916. There have been several modern recreations in colour, including one by Harris himself, commissioned after the fire and which currently hangs in Charlottetown.

Talent Is In The Eye Of The Beholder

So after I managed to post the Superman stuff - and you don't want to know the sort of grief I went through getting that up - I was sort of at loose ends. My poker playing hadn't been going that great over the past few days - still isn't given that I just busted out of a tourney on the first hand with pocket Ks; my two opponents each had one A which picked up a second A on the Turn; the percentages of that happening are something like 8% (one of the guys had a 7 which paired on the River and tripled him up - and there was no World Cup games to distract me. I was, in short, bored and frustrated and even central air and digital cable that finally works in the summer wasn't doing it for me. (By the way, on that Digital Cable thing, I just want to say that I love my cable company. When I finally called them they sent out a repair guy the next day, he diagnosed the problem immediately and installed the amplifier device that I needed immediately. Not what I was expecting given the horror stories you frequently hear about cable companies.) So I did something I hadn't really expected to do - I watched America's Got Talent.

I didn't see this show last week when it debuted. As a matter of fact wild horses couldn't have dragged me to the TV to watch another clone of American Idol. The I started hearing things. Things like how awful this show was. Things like how Simon Cowell should be ashamed of himself for foisting this on the American public. Things like how it resembled the Gong Show. Things like how it won it's time slot against So You Think You Can Dance on Fox and whatever CBS, ABC and "not yet CW" weblets were putting out on the night. That last one was what got me. People were actually watching this thing that professionals and amateurs alike were calling horrible. Either the people writing about this were wrong or the public was wrong and would rectify the situation in this week. Either way I wanted to see what the fuss was all about. And what did I see? In one word Vaudeville.

Yeah, Vaudeville, that grand mishmash of singers, acrobats, instrumentalists, jugglers, dancers, and animal acts, all on one stage performing for you edification and pleasure, with Regis Philbin as Mr. Interlocutor bringing up the acts and the judging panel of Brandy, David Hasselhof, and former London Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan acting as the guy with the hook (or Chuck Barris's panel with the mallets) who have the power to let the act continue or end it prematurely. The result is - or can be - hilarious at least in the audition phase. I'm not sure how well it will work when they have a stable of performers who actually have some talent.

Take last night's episode. There were great acts, awful acts, and then there are the truly bizarre. Since this week's auditions took place in New York the bizarre quotient was elevated but not extreme. Last week's episode was in Los Angeles and took two hours. You figure out the bizarre quotient there. But New York was pretty bizarre. I mean how else do you describe a guy who is 6' something before he put on a pair of the sort of platform shoes that Elton John wore in his heyday, dabbed in silver glitter make-up on his skin and hair, with what could probably be described as a short kilt if you were being kind about it or a micro-miniskirt if you weren't, and completed (of course) with a pair of red and white angel's wings. This is Leonid the Magnificent, and excuse me for saying so but I think he might just possibly be Gay. His act is balancing a sword on a knife and then do things like splits and the sort of thing that Rhythmic Gymnasts do when they are working with ribbons and hoops. Leonid had a problem with his props - he dropped the sword but recovered - and was brokenhearted when David & Piers gave him an X. Piers said that Leonid would look good on his Christmas Tree but on a talent show no way. Only Brandy loved him but it was enough to later persuade the others to give him a chance to beg for a chance which he did, successfully. Then there was Frank Simon, a guy with the heavy Hungarian accent who came out with a motor scooter and an electric range. As soon as Piers saw the guy lift the motor scooter he hit the button. The Hungarian man had a sort of mouthpiece and proceeded to put one side to the scooter's kickstand on the mouthpiece and balance the thing over his head. Then he did the same thing with the range. Brandy Xed him before the range and David after. They didn't think he had talent (but the let Leonid go through). The ripped naval reservist who spent 300 days at sea perfecting a "beat box" act which basically meant making silly noises with less ability than that guy in the Police Academy movies. There was "Sideswipe" a group of three martial artists, with 20 titles between them, who sort of do kickboxing to music which sounds a lot less entertaining than it actually was. There were clog dancers who were clogging to music that was a lot more modern than most cloggers. These two acts got through and deservedly so.

And then there were my two favourite acts. Michelle L'Amour - and I'd be shocked, shocked I tell you, if that's her real name given her act - who came on stage dressed as Snow White, as in the one from Disney's first animated feature. Do you remember that routine on the Oscars years ago when Rob Lowe sang Proud Mary with a woman dressed like Snow White and the folks at Disney were - to say the least - were not amused to the point of threatening to sue? Well Michelle had better have a good lawyer. Snow White stripped all the way down to a spangly bra and a pair of "panties" which offered proof positive that she shaved down there. She stripped quite well actually, much better than those women at the clubs who are actually nude dancers who view clothes as a not always necessary obstacle to getting cash on the runway. What she would have done if Brandy hadn't managed to escape the grasp of spangle and Morgan to push both of their buttons - the ones at the desks not the ones that Michelle was pushing - and stop the act is anyone's guess.

The act of the night however had to be young Bianca Ryan. She's 11 years old and she came out to sing And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going which Brandy rather condescendingly called a big song, presumably meaning a big song for such a little girl. Let me tell you now that she may be a little girl but she has an amazingly big voice. She had the crowd and the judges (except for Piers and only because he wanted to maintain the slightest amount of objectivity) standing half-way through the song. If she were older she would be on Simon Cowell's other show and probably win the damned thing but as it is she stood out in the mass of bad singers acrobats and magicians like a perfect rose in a field of wild flowers and weeds. No wonder they saved her for the last act on the audition show.

Watching the acts on America's Got Talent I couldn't help but think of the old Ed Sullivan Show, the first and last of what writer Tim Brooks called Vaudeo but which I tend to think of a Vaudevideo (it sounds better). While most people today remember the Sullivan Show - if they remember it at all - for the rock and pop acts that debuted on the series in the 1960s. But the show that Ed Sullivan put on the stage every week was so much more. Brooks says that Sullivan offered "a three-ring circus of comedians, acrobats, opera singers, scenes from plays, and dancing bears." He was right but he seems to say it as if it were a bad thing. I, who remember the show before The Beatles appeared on it (but just barely) remember it as great fun entertainment, not despite the acrobats, and the plate spinners, and the little Italian mouse who was and is still immensely popular in Italy (and apparently in Japan oddly enough), but in a way because of them. The show had something for everybody and continued to do so until CBS told us we were really too sophisticated to enjoy this sort of thing. Sullivan would have loved Bianca, but he'd also have had a place for Frank Simon and maybe even Leonid, and certainly for the magician who worked with doves. It wasn't that much later that our "sophistication" gave birth to The Gong Show where the point wasn't to see how good these acts were but to ridicule and laugh at - rather than with - bad acts, and in a way for the judges to take centre stage rather than the contestants. People hated The Gong Show... but they watched it. In an odd sort of way America's Got Talent tries to meld The Gong Show's comedic aspects with the sheer variety of acts that Sullivan presented and maybe just a touch of Major Bowes Amateur Hour or Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts (two shows which I most emphatically do not remember). The sophisticated voices of professional and a lot of amateur critics don't get this show and attack it for being what it is. The evidence however is that the public is watching this show, even though there appears to be a decline in viewership from last week. For myself I found myself being entertained in a way that I'm often not by "professionals" like Freddie Prinz Jr. whose show Freddie I tried to watch - if only out of respect for his wife - and found totally unpalatable. America's Got Talent may appeal to the something lower than the lowest common denominator but in the end the premise lives up to the old song: That's Entertainment!. And really, what more should you want.

A Shameless Attempt To Tie In To Superman Returns

I don't normally post embedded videos but because of the release of the new movie Superman Returns I've decided to make an exception to what, after all, isn't a hard and fast rule.

The Superman character is of course strongly tied to television. In the 1950s there was George Reeves in The Adventures of Superman, the first four seasons of which are available on DVD. In the 1960s Filmation made a number of series featuring Superman including the New Adventures Of Superman, The Superman/Batman Hour, and most bizarrely The Superman/Aquaman Hour Of Adventure, all of which featured the voice of Clayton "Bud" Collyer who was the star of the 1940s Adventures of Superman radio show as well as the Fleischer Animated movies of the early 1940s. This doesn't even mention Superfriends (I try not to). The 1970s saw the original Superman movies starring Christopher Reeve but the 1980s saw the Salkinds (who produced the first three movies) come up with Superboy, a concept that had originally been pitched by DC Comics' man in Hollywood, Whitney Ellsworth back in 1961 after George Reeves's death, and which had been another Filmation series in 1965. The 1990s of course saw Lois & Clark: The New Adventures Of Superman as well Bruce Timm's animated Superman featuring the voices of Tim Daily as Superman and Clancy Brown as Lex Luthor. Finally, today we have Smallville, another version of the life of the young Clark Kent, as well as Justice League and Justice League Unlimited which again featured the Man of Steel.

The video is of course Superman's Song by the Canadian group Crash Test Dummies with the lead vocals by the incredible Brad Roberts who also wrote the song.



And what the heck, why not a visit with the man himself.

Aaron Spelling - 1923-2006

What can you say about Aaron Spelling, who passed away on Friday at the age of 83 following a stroke. Although he had a number of credits as an actor - mostly bit parts but he did do six episodes of Dragnet in the 1950s - and as a writer, it is as a producer and executive producer that he's probably best known. While he's probably best remembered for shows like Dynasty, Beverly Hills 90210 (which starred his daughter Tori Spelling - but we won't hold that against him) and Charlie's Angels, the fact is that an examination of his credits as a producer stretch back all the way into the 1950s and include just about every kind of show that you can imagine. He did anthologies, westerns, detective shows, cop shows, and night time soaps, as well as some shows that simply defy description. He first worked for actor Dick Powell's company Four Star Productions then became a partner with actor-singer Danny Thomas in Thomas-Spelling Productions before creating his own company Aaron Spelling Productions (later Aaron Spelling Entertainment) in 1972. He produced Lucille Ball's unfortunate last series Life With Lucy which is ironic in a way because back in the 1950s one of Spelling's bit parts was as a gas station attendant in Tennesee on an episode of I Love Lucy. He made movies, mainly for TV but he was also the executive producer on a couple of pretty good theatrical film called California Split (directed by Robert Altman) and Mr. Mom. Not everything he did was a hit - far from it - but his batting average was pretty good and when he had a hit it was big. Among the series he provided for The WB (just as an example) were Savannah (an early hit for the network although it didn't last long) Charmed, and 7th Heaven, a series which Spelling described as his personal favourite of all the series he worked on.

I debated whether or not to list all of the TV series that Spelling was credited as Producer or Executive Producer on. I couldn't included everything he produced since he's credited with over 200 separate productions - the most prolific TV producer ever. Instead I decided to only include highlights. It's still a long list.

• Zane Grey Theater,


• Burke's Law


• Honey West


• Daniel Boone


• The Guns of Will Sonnett


• The Mod Squad


• The Rookies


• Starsky and Hutch


• S.W.A.T.


• Vega$


• Fantasy Island


• The Love Boat


• Charlie'sAngels


• Family


• Hart to Hart


• Dynasty


• Hotel


• Melrose Place


• Beverly Hills90210


• 7th Heaven


• Kindred: The Embraced


• Savannah


• Buddy Faro


• Charmed


• Clubhouse

In an industry where the phrase "industry giant" is used as commonly as balloons at political conventions, Aaron Spelling truly deserved that description.

Your All Star Line-up

Now if you've been reading this for a while you'll know that I like reality TV. Not all of it; I'm not into fashion, or talent or shows where you don't compete. Still I generally like reality shows. I'll even admit to liking Big Brother. Well maybe "liking" is a bit too much. Let's put it this way, I wouldn't watch it if it were on during the regular Fall season, and I wouldn't watch it if episodes of Survivor, The Apprentice, or the beloved Amazing Race were on at the same time - in fact I'd probably skip it for reruns of The Amazing Race. Watching Big Brother is sort of a summer thing like buying an ice cream bar from one of those carts on the street (except I don't do that - one of the little crooks tried to overcharge me and then claim he was just joking when I called him on it).

Every year the producers of Big Brother introduce a new gimmick onto the show in an effort to keep it "fresh." You know, bringing in ex-romantic partners, swapping twins in at regular intervals, having "secret" allies (which worked about as well as a one button mouse - everyone knew that everyone else had an ally in the house). In fact the only gimmick they haven't tried lately is going back to the rules that the rest of the world uses, where viewers actually vote for who should have been eliminated. That was so first season. CBS and the new primary producers Arnold Shapiro and Allison Grodner decided that they wanted a show that was more like Survivor and less like what the rest of the world was watching. This year's gimmick is to bring back players from previous seasons as selected by "you the fans."

Well to be absolutely accurate "you the fans" will be voting for half of the new occupants of the house. Of twelve contestants, six will be chosen by viewer vote and six will be picked by the producers. I have a few suspicions and some questions about who the producers will select. Apparently the producers will have to draw their six contestants from the pool of 20. What I suspect is that the producers will try very hard to have at least one player from each season - except maybe the first - and will try to have two players from each season, but that's just a guess on my part.

Anyway here are the people who want to go back to the luxury cell block - where the theme will apparently be "Good versus Evil" - for another summer.

• "Chicken" George Boswell (Season 1) - The only Season 1 contestant selected. He was also the most memorable. Even Eddie the winner wasn't as memorable as Chicken George, and Eddie only had one leg.


• Mike Malin (Season 2) - Also known as "Mike Boogie". He ran an LA Club and was one of the members of the "Chill Town" alliance. I really didn't like him or the "Chill Town" alliance.


• Bunky Miller (Season 2) - The hairy crying gay guy. I liked him even though he suffered a major problem with decisiveness.


• Monica Bailey (Season 2) - She finished third in this season but besides constantly saying "it is on" may be best known because her cousin died in the World Trade Center attacks.


• "Evil" Dr. Will Kirby (Season 2) - The most memorable member of the Season 2 cast. He lied to everyone and told them he was lying to them, plus he had an incredibly huge ego. I hated him and couldn't see how he managed to not only survive week after week but actually win the $500,000.


• Marcellas Reynolds (Season 3) - Perhaps the only player in the history of the game to be physically assaulted by host Julie Chen. She hit him upside of the head with her note cards because he was stupid enough not to use the first "Golden Veto" to save himself. Since then he's been hosting the post episode online talk show for the series.


• Danielle Reyes (Season 3) - In some ways an extremely good player. She maintained a season long alliance with Jason without anyone knowing that they were working together. Only problem was that her only vote to win came from her one and only ally.


• Lisa Donahue (Season 3) - Winner of Season 3, she was one of the experts at flying below the radar until figuring out what was what. She had a short time alliance with Danielle and eventually won the jury vote because she didn't alienate the other players in the way that Danielle did.


• Erika Landin (Season 4) - At 37 she's the oldest woman to be up for vote. During the Season 4 gimmick "The X-Factor" her ex-boyfriend Robert Roman was also in the house. She developed a serious friendship with former FBI agent Jack Owen.


• Dana Varela (Season 4) - Okay, I confess that I don't remember her or the circumstances of her eviction.


• Allison Irwin (Season 4) - Spent her time in the house using her "sex appeal" to appeal to the male members of the cast. This despite the fact that she was supposedly devoted to her boyfriend Donny. The next year she and Donny went on The Amazing Race to "explore" their relationship. She lasted two episodes on the show which was slightly longer than she and Donny lasted.


• Jase Wirey (Season 5) - First out from the infamous "4 Horsemen" alliance which annoyed the crap out of most of the people in the Season 5 house. Not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer, was the victim of a master plan that used the Veto to put him up for nomination without a chance to save himself.


• Jennifer "Nakomis" Dedmon (Season 5) - Part of the surprising part of the Season 5 twist when she discovered a half-brother whom she didn't know existed. She went to the final four before ironically being voted out by her half-brother.


• Dianne Henry (Season 5) - Third place finisher in Season 5 who put here trust in a guy she'd developed an attachment to who decided to stick with his Horseman pal Michael instead of his girlfriend.


• Michael "Cowboy" Ellis (Season 5) - This guy seemed too dumb to live but he somehow managed to survive to the final two and came within one vote of winning; the vote he lost by came from his half-sister Nakomis.


• Kaysar Ridha (Season 6) - Possibly one of the most popular people ever to participate on the show. He consistently polled higher than any other house guest and was seemingly one of the most intelligent players ever. After being eliminated one week he was immediately voted back in...and immediately voted back out by the opposing alliance because "this is our game, not America's game."


• James Rhine (Season 6) - The one thing the two alliances could agree on in Season 6 was that they hated James and finally engineered his eviction for lying to both sides.


• Howie Gordon (Season 6) - One of the leaders of the "Sovereign Six" alliance that came together around Kaysar. He seemed like a happy go lucky guy who was in training to be a Jedi - complete with a light saber. When he had to be he could be rough and the Season 6 house was by all accounts a rough one.


• Janelle Pierzina (Season 6) - A solid player who used he "bimbo" look to mask her tactical abilities. She allied with Howie and Kaysar but numbers weren't on her side.


• Ivette Corredero (Season 6) - A thoroughly annoying little woman with a voice that could calcify your spine and a hair trigger temper. Based on the way that she reacted to the eviction of Eric "Cappy" Littman you would have thought he was her partner and not eventual winner Maggie Aushburn's. In a season when people got very vindictive and angry she was worse than most as hard as that may be to believe.

Just to look at the breakdown of the contestants, there's one from Season 1, three each from Seasons 3 and 4, four each from Seasons 2 and 5, and five from Season 6. The public can vote for their favourites at the Big Brother website until June 28, and there doesn't seem to be any sort of restriction as to the number of times you can vote. No one will know who has been selected until the players enter the house on July 6.

Not Quite An Amazing Treasure Hunt

What makes a show work? Specifically, what makes a reality competition show work? Back in 2001, following the success of Survivor the summer before and Survivor 2 that following summer, CBS, ABC and NBC each introduced reality shows that involved travel to foreign locations. The ABC show was The Mole, the CBS show was The Amazing Race, and the NBC show was Lost. The series almost immediately ran into problems with the public because of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The Mole managed to produce a second series plus two rather lacklustre celebrity editions, but of the three the biggest success was CBS's Amazing Race which continued to this day. As for Lost it was an absolute mess with no sense that the participants were actually racing and no suspense beyond whether the contestants were going to be able to beg for enough money to get where the had to go. Now NBC is reentering the "reality travel competition" field with a new entry called Treasure Hunters. I hate to admit it but while it's nowhere near as good as The Amazing Race it isn't a terrible show. At least not yet.

In the premiere episode a group of five 3 member teams where presented with a clue in Morse Code on board a ship off one of the Hawaiian Islands. Another group of five 3 member teams received a different Morse Code message in a mining camp in Alaska. Each team was equipped with a Visa Card, a Motorola Razr cell phone, and a computer which could apparently only get Ask.com. These items were apparently important if for no other reason than product placement. There's more of that as the show goes on. The Hawaiian teams - a group of "geniuses" from SMU, a Pastor and his wife and daughter, a trio of female Grad Students, three Air Force officers, and the three brothers Brown - had to swim from their ship, identified as the USS Jefferson (except it isn't - the closest the US Navy has is the submarine USS Jefferson City) to small boats. The small boats would then take them to the coordinates they received in the Morse Code message where one team member from each group would have to dive to find their next clue, sealed in metal boxes with the presidential seal on them. This clue led them to a "plane crash site" made up of artfully spread wreckage where they'd find their next clue; a painting in a metal box that could only be opened by putting together a key hidden in canes. The paintings had a map on the back with words in Greek letters. Meanwhile, once the Alaskan teams - a trio of former CIA interns, three friends from South Boston, three former Miss USA contestants, a team of "young professionals", and a trio of Texas rednecks calling themselves the "Wild Hanlons" - deciphered their clue they were off by helicopter to a glacier where they found a map in a block of ice with the words Stillwater Washington carved on it. This sent them to Lake George they went there and had to dig under cairns to find wrapped metal cylinders, etched with standard Latin letters and their Greek counterparts.

That's how the first episode of Treasure Hunters began, with the ten teams not knowing of the other's existence until the clues led them to the State Legislature building in Lincoln Nebraska. It was, I have to admit a very neat twist made even better by the fact that the clues that the Alaskan teams brought were needed to decipher the clues that the Hawaii teams brought. The clues, when used together, would give the teams the location of their destination meaning that competing teams had to work together to find out where to go next, and they had to use their brains to work out the correct place. The words on the map gave them one possible location but whether that was right or the clue more subtle and based on more information than just the words on the map, was something they had to think about.

Professional TV critics have been quite arch about this show. I don't think they're being totally unfair. There are weak points to the show, which I'll get to shortly. Still I don't think it's as bad as they make it seem. Hardcore fans of The Amazing Race have for a long time wanted to see the clues on that show be more puzzling, as they seemed to be in show's first season. The clues in Treasure Hunters have certainly been cryptic, whether it was deciphering the Morse Code message or figuring out that "Stillwater Washington" was the equivalent of Lake George. And there was a great clue that the two teams that went to Mt. Theodore Roosevelt could have used - if they hadn't been such literal thinkers - which involved viewing the front of the Hawaiian painting reflected in the Alaskan cylinder. I was also impressed that success in at least one aspect of the game actually required teams to work together because quite literally without working together they would fail.

There are a number of weak points that detract from the show. The constant product placements, and the reminders of the product placements are galling. They constantly mention the Motorola Razr phone; at least one player on each team was are seen wearing Ask.com T-shirts; there's actually a billboard - real or CGI I don't know - promoting Genworth Financial Services which is a major sponsor of the show. Then there's host Laird MacIntosh who judging by his voice seems to have none of the interest or enthusiasm that a Jeff Probst or a Phil Keoghan bring to their shows. You hear a lot from MacIntosh. Any time there's a clue discovered by a team his unsmiling unenthusiastic face pops up on the Motorola Razr phone to tell them what to do next and exactly how to do it. He also makes sure that the audience at home knows exactly why the clue is right.

Casting, and the utilization of the cast, is another problem the show has. At three people per team the cast is too large and it's hard to really single out individuals some of the teams, including leading teams like the ex-CIA interns and the Air Force officers are essentially faceless, and it's clear who the no hope teams are - the overweight Brown brothers and the dumber than a sack full of rusty hammers Wild Hanlons. Certainly the two all woman teams - the Miss USA contestants and the Grad Students - are virtually interchangeable not only within themselves but between each other. There are only two real individual stand-outs and they stand out for reasons that aren't really good for the dynamics of team play. One is the pastor, Brad Fogal, who in the first episode took the clue out of a box opened by another team, and ignored his daughter after she was hit on the hand by the lid from the crate that box with the map clue was hidden in. The other is Charles from the Genius Team whose arrogant refusal to consider any alternative other than what he himself had come up with nearly caused his team to be the first eliminated.

Perhaps the worst thing of all about the show is the pacing. Amazingly the producers have created a reality competition show where there wasn't little dramatic tension at any point including the final task. Tension, whether it's between the teams, between team members, or the race to complete tasks is why people watch reality-competition shows. The editors of The Amazing Race cut the arrival of the teams in such a way that even though there may be minutes or even hours between the teams in danger of being eliminated, we as the viewer always think that the thing is close. There is an urgency to accomplish tasks. That doesn't exist on this show. The pace is leaden and the end, at least in the premiere, sudden.

And yet for all of the things that are wrong with the show, there is considerable potential for future editions (assuming the show does well enough to come back next summer) if the producers would simply look at it and figure out what they're doing wrong. The product placements could still exist but be more subtly inserted. The number of people on each team could be reduced to two or there could be a clear reason why there needs to be three players. The could treat the audience as if they weren't children who needed their hands held every step of the way. They could get a more enthusiastic host. They could build the tension. The seed of a good show is here but if the show is to go on for a second season the seed needs to be nurtured differently to make it work better. I confess that I'll be watching but this has a lot to do with there not being much else to watch this summer however the show had the potential to be a lot more gripping and the fault for it not working better than it does should be place squarely on the producers. What they've given us right now is watchable but not particularly compelling.

Small Victories

Well I can't say that the Blogger Tournament was an anticlimax, but after my first Royal Flush it was sort of close. As Tim will attest I held my own for a while - longer than him, but I was beaten out for the longest lasting Saskatoon Blogger by some guy called Krablar. I finished 324th and Lambdo finished 322nd. Still (and this brings it back to TV), I did manage to finish ahead of this guy.


Yep, Wil Wheaton - Wesley Crusher himself - who is a member of Team Pokerstars (here's his profile on their site) and is becoming a good semi-pro poker player finished 342nd, and while I didn't actually face him across the felt or beat him myself (if I had there were prizes) I did outlast him, and in my book that makes it another small victory

You Never Forget Your First!

Royal Flush that is!

I'm Sleddog. And admittedly it was only for a small amount of chips, but I really couldn't make a killing with this hand. I wanted it to be seen!


Actually this is my second Royal Flush but only the first that I've actually cashed. A couple of years ago I had the makings of a Royal Flush at Pokerstars.com. I had the KJ of Clubs but folded before the Flop (I was young in the ways of Poker) and the A Q and 10 of Clubs showed up on the board.

Poll Results - Which show's renewal surprised you the most?

Still trying to clear up some of the leftovers and the poll results was the next thing on my list. The last poll I ran was on renewed shows, and which was the most surprising. There are reasons why I chose the shows I did and I'll get to that. There were 12 voters which is down from recent polls.

Tied for sixth with no votes are Ghost Whisperer, Close to Home, American Dad and Veronica Mars. There were a number of rumours that Close To Home might be cancelled if there were a stronger replacement available. American Dad was considered to be the worst of the Fox Sunday animation block. I personally disliked Ghost Whisperer and was expecting its cancellation. As for Veronica Mars, this show suffered badly in the ratings in its second season and it wasn't certain that the show would be renewed until it was heard that the show's star, Kristen Bell, had flown to New York for the CW upfronts.

In a tie for fourth place with one vote (8%) were What About Brian and The Loop. Both were Spring replacement series with The Loop being a workplace comedy and What About Brian a "relationship drama" in the style of Ed. What About Brian didn't have strong ratings but received some critical acclaim and probably benefitted from ABC's need to build a lineup on Monday nights. The Loop is a big puzzle - its ratings were weak and the critics seemed to hate it. On the other hand it was considerably stronger most of the comedies (or alleged comedies) that Fox put forward this past season.

Tied for second place with two votes each (16%) are Fox's The War at Home and The CW's One Tree Hill. One Tree Hill was probably the weakest of The WB's lineup of "teen angst" shows and was expected to be dumped either for a show like Everwood or for a new show like Aquaman when UPN and The WB merged. As for The War at Home it was universally regarded as the single worst show of the 2005-06 season from any broadcast network. As my buddy Ivan Shreve put it "The War at Home. Is there really any other clear winner?"

Well actually there was: 7th Heaven. It picked up a whopping six votes for 50% of the total. The show has been on for ten years, making it one of the longest lasting shows still on TV and it had actually been officially cancelled...by The WB. The WB couldn't financially afford to keep it on the air for another year despite the fact (which continually amazes some people) that it was the highest rated show on either The WB or UPN. The show even had an official series finale. However the merged networks, now styled as The CW was able to afford the show and just as importantly probably couldn't afford not to have the show on the schedule, at least for the network's first year. Whether the show will be on for a twelfth season is an entirely different question, but so long as no other show on the CW draws such strong ratings it may be the one show that the network can't afford to lose.

I'll probably have another poll up in the next day or so although I'm really not sure what it'll be. I'd like to continue with my TV Theme topic but with only two weeks before the Emmy nominations come out I don't have time to handle the topic the way I'd like. I could do a poll on what shows should be nominated, but again I'm not entirely comfortable with that idea unless I can do it in a unique manner. I'll work something out though.