Saturday November 29
I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and 4-day weekend!
(Sorry if you had to work) I did work some, but it's
okay...I don't mind!
Last night's "Haven" sure had a jaw-dropper at the end. It
was a very disturbing episode even before the big bomb they
dropped. I can't wait for next week! Poor Duke and Dwight -
they both got their love lives cut short. At least they both
"got some" before the end of the episode.
"Constantine" was awesome. It grows on me more each week.
It's so spooky, and I love the characters. They're very
quirky, yet not in an annoying way.
Now I'm watching "Two and a Half Men". I keep waiting for
it to be funny. This whole "My Two Dads" story is not that
funny. Actually, I enjoyed the original "My Two Dads"
better. The part with Berta was cute, but otherwise it was
not so great. Maybe it shouldn't have gotten renewed for one
more season...
"Hot in Cleveland" was really funny. Yay! That one I'm a
bit sad about it being canceled. Sometimes it's very funny
and other times, it's just kind of cute and has good guest
stars. I guess the ratings went down too much.
I always enjoy "Elementary", but it was weird
last week
without Joan. I'm glad they have her writing up Sherlock's
adventures, though, and I can't wait until the next episode
to find out what's going on with that!
Today I was working on the holiday cards that I send to
our site's volunteers. Each volunteer gets a card, and an
Amazon gift card; and this year I'm also sending these pens
I bought that have the site's name on them. The pens also
have cool little flashlight at the top. And then I also
ordered new holiday business cards, and on the back is a
2015 calendar! So much fun. I wish I could afford to pay
myself a salary and hire full time employees, but alas, the
site doesn't make enough for that. It just makes enough to
pay for the site's hosting and a few other things, like
domain names, and a little bit of these cards...
At one time, our site had over 100 volunteers...now it's
about 25, but it's roughly the same 25 that we've had for
years. I just wish we could get a few more people to help
out with the site. There's just so much more I'd like to get
done on it.
Sunday November 30
"The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" were all
re-runs last week, so that's too bad. Looking forward to
this week!
I caught up on last season's "Sleepy Hollow"! Yay! Great
show. I love it.
This week's
Primetime
News and Schedule is here! And
here's next week's. Check on the
weekend for that second one. I usually start on it Friday.
Every time we add something on our site, we put a link to
it on our What's New
page. We add something every day!
I forgot to add "The Mentalist" to my DVR. Thank goodness
for On Demand! I love that show... it's
back!!! Woo hoo!! Great return, too.
Today I was just watching DVD's of last season shows I
need to catch up with, like "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."
and "The Tomorrow People".
Every day I use my ATI device to grab the
closed-captioning from the
Daytime soaps, and I make it into
a transcript for our site. I've been doing this since about
2001! Anyway, here where I live, 3 of them come on at the
same time, so I have to record "Days of Our Lives" on the
bedroom DVR, then record it to a DVD, then I run the
transcript here in the living room. I don't want to just
record one show per DVD (that would be wasteful and
expensive), so I usually fill it up with 5 other shows that
I've recorded on the DVR, or that I record off On Demand.
Some of them are shows I watch regularly and some are just
filler (shows that I may or may not watch). After I watch
the DVD's, I send them to an old friend, Amanda.
So those are the DVD's I've been watching lately. I have
over 100. I watch them whenever I have nothing to watch for
review for our site or nothing pending on my living room DVR
that I'd rather watch.
Monday 12/1/14
Happy December! Wow!
I got to chat this morning with Tim Meadows and Dan
Bucatinsky of "Marry Me". Fun call and I got to come
up with a very interesting question. I'll be putting this
call and others up on our
Primetime Articles
and Interviews Page in the next week.
Tonight's "Castle" was fun as ever.
They did a sort of take-off on "The Expendables". I didn't
even recognize Ted McGinley as the guest star. He really
bulked up! He was familiar, but then it took a long time for
me to figure out who it was.
I always love seeing "Once Upon a Time". I hate seeing
Gold slip back into this evil ways, though. Two more new
episodes until Spring! Wow. That would have made a good
cliff-hanger, but I guess they have more. Can't wait!
I've been recording "The 100" because I went to watch the
season premiere, and it seemed like stuff had happened that
I forgot. I thought that maybe I missed the season finale.
So I went to watch the season finale, but I've seen it,
after all. Oh, well. Guess it didn't make that much of an
impression...
ABC Family sent me a big box of promotional stuff for
their shows. That's so cool. I get these things
periodically, but I don't expect them, so I'm always very
grateful when I do get them.
This month is our 15th year as
The TV MegaSite! Woo hoo!
I had started my personal website around 95/96, but I didn't
officially start the TV website as a separate entity and
call it The TV MegaSite until 1999. Originally I just
covered "General
Hospital" and then "All
My Children", but when I started the TV site, I
partnered at that time with my friend Amanda, who had many
excellent ideas, such as getting volunteers and expanding
the site to cover all of the existing soaps and covering
other TV shows. Happy Anniversary!
Tuesday 12/2/14
Tuesday is "Supernatural" night - always such a fun show!
I love seeing Sheriff Jody Mills back. I remember when she
used to be on "Another World"
playing a very different character!
Good news: we got all of our soap operas covered again in
terms of daily updates
(detailed summaries) as well as the
short recaps and
transcripts, so that's great. We have been having
problems covering the two CBS soaps regularly, but now we
have them covered. Yay!
I don't watch the soaps regularly myself any more,
although I do see bits and pieces of them and read about
them. I happened to see some new guy on "Days
of Our Lives" kissing Sonny and then hiding in the
closet. That's so silly. I remember a few years ago when
Will and Sonny were hiding in the closet, eavesdropping on
Gabi. Okay, in real life gay people don't physically hide in
the closet, so that's pretty dumb (and a really lame joke).
I read an article in "Soap Opera Digest" that really
pissed me off, so I sent them a letter about it. I'll let
you know if they publish it. The article was about how
the shows are repetitive and how they try to make them keep
things fresh despite that. The problem was, this article,
and all of the actors quoted in it, were saying that the
repetition was just a normal part of soaps, like they HAVE
to be repetitive. I'm sorry, but I don't buy that. There are
only two things that a soap opera MUST have: romance and
continuing storylines. Repetition is a by-product of the
poor writing, not a necessity. Sure, maybe they have to
recap occasionally to clue in the occasional viewer, but not
nearly as much as they do. Many primetime shows,
especially on cable, have proven that if you make a great
show with wonderful dialogue and stories, viewers will tune
in and you don't have to treat the viewers like idiots.
That's why we're in the "Second Golden Age of Television" as
many press have called it. Soap operas are woefully back in
the dark ages on that concept.
I still maintain that if they hired better writers and
put more money into the productions for writing and
promotion, then they would have a better quality product and
people would tune in. Look at "General
Hospital" as a good case in point. The show was almost
canceled. They brought in better writers (not great ones,
just better) and it turned it around. The writers pander to
fans by bringing in many past characters and pulling
"stunts" (outrageous storylines, some of them very unique),
and this has brought up the ratings. The fixes they
employed were largely superficial and low budget. Imagine if
they actually hired better writers with new ideas and
challenged the viewers more, and put money into more
publicity and better production? They'd probably have much
better ratings. We may never know because TV executives are
too short-sighted.
Once you start saying things like, "it's just a soap
opera" then you're admitting that you're using cliches and
tired tropes, and churning out lower-quality shows. This is
why people like me, and many others, have stopped watching
them. There are a lot of great shows on TV, and we can now
watch them any time of the day or night, thanks to DVR's,
the Net, and On Demand, so why would we want to watch crummy
soaps just because they happen to be on in the daytime?
There are tons of great primetime shows (soaps and
otherwise) for us to watch instead.
I'm convinced that the only people left watching soaps
now fall into 5 categories: 1) idiots with low standards; 2)
people who watch for nostalgia reasons or out of habit; 3)
people who love the actors (or one particular actor) and
keep hoping the show will improve; 4) new viewers
who've never watched soaps before (so the stories are new to
them), and 5) people who watch because the shows are so bad
that they find them funny. I'm not saying this to insult the
fans because up until recently I fell into several of these
categories. It's very sad because the shows used to be
pretty good last century. They used to get great ratings and
make lots of money for the TV networks, but the networks
never really valued soaps despite this (and still don't),
probably for sexist reasons (they're "women's shows").
The movie industry has that same attitude towards women's
movies, although that seems to be changing.
Wednesday 12/3
Today was my birthday, so I didn't watch much TV. I
treated myself to a nice dinner and watched some DVD's of
movies I'd been putting off.
Want to give me a fabulous birthday or Christmas present?
Please visit as much of our site as you can, as often as you
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that we get from advertising. If you plan to buy
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our stores to buy DVD's,
books, calendars, and more.
I did happen to see part of "The
Bold & The Beautiful" today. I was shocked that Hope
would have a baby shower without Brooke. I don't know what
excuse they gave, but when you're super-rich like they are,
it's hard to believe that any excuse would be good enough.
In real life, the actress who plays Brooke is in Europe
competing on the Italian "Dancing with the Stars", and the
actress who plays Hope is leaving the show, so I guess they
had to rush things. Unless Brooke is missing or on the
moon, though, it's hard to imagine she would miss such an
important occasion in her daughter's life. Even if Brooke
were sick, I would think that Hope would just postpone it.
She's not that far along in her pregnancy, anyway, so it
would make more sense.
That's one of the things that annoys me about soaps...
they have these really rich people and yet once people leave
the show, we rarely see them come back for important
occasions or holidays, and often they don't even mention
them. In real life, people go home for Christmas (even
middle class people do that, let alone rich ones). They also
go home for weddings and other events. They should either
bring back the actors occasionally or write more plausible
reasons why they won't return. This is what having a
low budget does. They can't afford to bring back people even
for a couple of episodes. They have a hard enough time
getting the whole cast together for weddings any more! It
costs them more money. Like I said, very sad.
Here are some plausible reasons: very sick or dying;
pregnant and advised not to fly; can't afford to travel
(only those characters who are not rich); traveling
somewhere else or to see other family elsewhere; can't get
days off from the job; saving their vacation days for
summer; caring for an elderly person; missing; fighting with
another relative; missed their flight; airplane crash; flat
tire; another friend or relative in the hospital; funeral;
trying to avoid family drama or exes, etc. These are just
off the top of my head. Yet when they DO mention a relative,
they rarely give a reason why they're not there, or they
give a lame reason like "they're too busy" or they "have to
work". This is more of the same lazy writing. They should do
whatever they can to make the stories and dialogue
realistic.
At least when GH's Robert Scorpio doesn't visit Anna or
Emma for Christmas, we know it's because he's a Super Spy
who's on WSB business! And Robin has lame excuses,
too, but we know that it's because Helena has threatened to
kill her family if she comes home. Why don't we ever see
Jack's son Keemo on "The
Young & The Restless"? Y&R is pretty good at bringing
home the Abbotts when they can, though. What about Paul's
daughter, Heather? Or Lauren's other son? Why wasn't Phillip
at Katherine's funeral? Why don't we see Nina much? DOOL
sometimes brings back relatives, like when we recently got
to see Melanie. Every single family on a soap whose members
have left town should mention them at the holidays and other
big events.
More realism is always good. How about having them watch
TV and listen to music, and not just when it's part of the
contrived plot? Or spend time on the internet? Even rich
people with exciting lives do these things. It doesn't have
to be boring; they can just fit it in here and there. Maybe
if they spent more air time on making the shows more
realistic, then they wouldn't have to be so repetitive with
the story and dialogue.
Which reminds me, Carolyn Hinsley in "Soap Opera Digest"
recently made a joke about how GH's Robin didn't have a
bathroom in her lab when she was held captive. I disagree
with that idea. There are 3 walls in TV, so we can
assume that the 4th wall probably had a door to the
bathroom. I'm guessing that they had a place for her to
sleep as well. Either a guard took her there every night, or
they had an adjoining sleeping area and bathroom for her.
Just because we don't see it, doesn't mean it's not there.
No one wants to see Robin going to the bathroom! LOL!
As for them keeping her captive but not letting her have
facilities, I can just hear Jerry Jax or Victor Cassadine
saying, "I may be a murdering psychopath, but I'm not
inhospitable".
Oh, and I know TV people are all beautiful, healthy and
fit (unless they get some deadly or weird disease), but how
come they almost never have diabetes, asthma, allergies, bad
backs, bad knees, flu, colds, or other minor health problems
that we all get in our lifetimes? Unless it's a lame plot
device that comes out of nowhere, of course. When they
do have them, they get rid of them later. For instance, GH's
Lucas has diabetes, yet here he was talking about eating
candy and popcorn on Halloween. Or as they often complain
about in SOD, Maxie had a heart transplant but has no scar
and it hasn't seemed to affect her health often.
I guess I expect too much from TV, but I would rather
expect them to be great and be disappointed than watch them
with low expectations; especially since I used to enjoy them
so much back when they were more innovative.
I don't just blame the writers, either. I know there are
others involved, above them, like the executive producer and
the other network people who try to micro-manage the shows
and keep them low quality and low budget. If so, then the
former writers and the TV press should be writing about that
and putting pressure on them to do better.
Thursday 12/4/14
This is the time of year when all of the Christmas movies
and programs come out. The best places to watch holiday
movies are probably ABC Family, Hallmark, Lifetime and Up
TV.
This morning I got to be on a conference call interview
with Jimmy Smits about his role on "Sons of Anarchy", which
is ending next week. He was very very nice on the call. I'd
spoke with him a few years ago when he joined the show, but
it was nice to chat with him again.
I haven't yet watched the Peter Pan special, but I'm sure
I'll get around to it at some point. I love musicals, but I
don't always have time to watch them. I still haven't
watched last year's "Sound of Music"! I know people like to
make fun of these specials, but I love them.
Lots of people have TV theme ringtones. What about you? I
have "The Simpsons" theme. The other day I heard someone
with the Peanuts TV theme.
Friday 12/5/15
This morning I had a one-on-one phone call with Victoria
Rowell. Many know her from her days on "The Young & The
Restless" and "Diagnosis Murder". Since then, she's done
many guest-starring roles and movies. Last year she did this
Christmas movie "Marry Me for Christmas", and this Sunday is
the sequel, "Marry Us for Christmas". It airs on the fairly
new cable channel UpTV. You should definitely check out the
movie if you get a chance. It's a pretty good holiday movie
and romantic comedy. Rowell is an excellent actress and also
an outspoken activist for black and women's rights.
Here's where you can
find the interview!
After that, I was in another conference call interview
with Kathy Bates, to speak about her role in "American
Horror Story". Apparently her character was killed off last
week (I don't watch it regularly--too gross and scary for
me). It was certainly an honor to speak with my fourth Oscar
winner! She was very normal and down-to-earth.
It was a great morning, speaking to both ladies! Monday
I'm interviewing FOX "Bones"
writers/creators/producers Stephen Nathan and Hart Hanson,
and then Bree Turner from NBC's "Grimm". Sundi is
interviewing the guys who created and run the new Syfy
miniseries "Ascension". Then on Wednesday, she's
interviewing Keith Urban from FOX's "American
Idol", which returns soon. (I did not know he was
Australian until just now!)
I feel very stressed out, I have to admit. The holidays
are doing this to me this year. I feel behind on everything,
from working on the site, to putting up Christmas
decorations and sending out cards. UGH.
There was no new "Big
Bang Theory or "Family
Guy" this week, and both "Gotham"
and "How to Get Away with Murder" are finished until the
Spring. Boo!
As I said earlier, "Two and a Half Men" continues to be
disappointing and not very funny. How did this show go from
being a show about horny guys with a kid to being about two
undersexed guys with a kid (and pretending to be gay)? It
doesn't work. I thought it was still pretty funny after
Charlie Sheen left, once they figured out what they wanted
to do with Ashton Kutcher's character, but then this year
they went in a completely different direction, and not for
the better. I like it better when it's a tad raunchy.
The "Haven"
season finale was just awesome. I mean, wow!! They sure know
how to do great story on that show, as well as tug on the
heartstrings and give a fantastic cliff-hanger.
I did see "The
Flash" half of the cross-over episodes with "Arrow"
but haven't watched the latter yet because I'm still far
behind on that show, but I enjoy both shows.
Have a great week! Like I said, I'm behind, so I have to
go build this week's
Primetime
News and Schedule page. Next week's will be
here.
You can find my older blog posts at
http://www.tvmegs.com
Chronicles
- My personal blog, which is not about TV.
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