Thursday 3/19/15

It's mid-March, which means networks are going to be interrupting a lot of shows for basketball, and then deciding which shows are coming back, and which aren't. It's a tense, rough time in the TV biz!

A couple of weeks ago, ABC changed its press site, and it was not exactly "smooth sailing." I liked their old site; I don't know why they had to change it! They don't have a schedule page any more, which I used every week.  Oh, well, at least it's not as bad as when NBC changed theirs.  Their new press site is really bad. ABC says they'll be putting a new schedule page up. I hope it's soon.

I watched this week's "Supernatural", which was great as always. I don't like creepy crawly worm things, though. It made me want to retch when the worm things came out of the one guy's mouth and went into the others'!

While I was getting last week's blog ready, I had some re-runs of "That 70's Show" on in the background. That was such a good show, for many years. This episode had Donna dressing up as Princess Leia. It was very cute and had many "Star Wars" jokes.

I'm still catching up on shows from last year that I have on DVD. Mostly I'm trying to catch up on the shows that are still running, but I'm also watching a few I really like that ended last year, like "The Tomorrow People", "Revolution" and "Psych". I miss all three! Right now I'm watching an episode of "Revolution."  The guy that played Sebastian's son is now on "The Returned."  He's really cute. I miss Billie Burke and all the rest.

I was supposed to interview Tracy Spiridakos earlier this week (she played Charlie on that show, and now she's on "Bates Motel"), but they canceled it. That's too bad. I'm glad she got another job, though. I wouldn't have asked her about Stephen Collins, but I wonder what her opinion is of him? Wouldn't these things be great to know? Ah, well.

Speaking of TV star scandals, Jon Cryer has a new book out and he talks about what happened with Charlie Sheen and their show.  It's an interesting read, but he never says, at least in this excerpt, why they should have fired Charlie when he never missed a day's work? Cryer did seem to be saying that he was late a lot and didn't know his lines, etc. but if that was the case, why didn't they just force him to go to rehab? If he was showing up to work and all, he was there... sounds like they could have reasoned with him. Sounds like there's still more to it that we don't know. The article also doesn't say what happened later. Did Cryer speak with Sheen again? How did that work out? Maybe you have to buy the book to read that part.  It just always seemed unfair to me that they were punishing him for stuff he did away from work. Sure, it's not good that he was doing lots of drugs, getting in trouble with the law, and all that, but if it didn't affect his work, then they didn't have any right to fire him. I must be missing something! Cryer did say that Sheen was affected at work and sometimes didn't show up, but I think at the time, Sheen claimed that he only showed up for work sober, and he never missed any days. Who knows where the truth lies? Somewhere in-between, maybe?

I must confess that I loved his FX show "Anger Management" at first, but the writing got worse, when it should have gotten better. It's a shame. I really loved some of those actors. Bruce Helford wrote it, and he did such a good job with "The Drew Cary Show." I wonder why this one wasn't as good as that.

Next week I get to interview Clea DuVall, who's in the new Lizzie Borden series on Lifetime. That should be good!

Wow, "The Bold & The Beautiful" is good at coming up with really shocking storylines.... a lot of times, they're stupid ideas, or laughable, but the end of last week's episode, when Maya's sister Nicole reminded her that she's really her brother, Myron? That was pretty amazing. Especially for a show that's taken a lot of criticism for not having many gay characters (even though they deal with the fashion industry)!

I was very happy to read that FOX renewed "Sleepy Hollow!" Yay!!

I'm still trying to catch up on watching the rest of the TV show "Bosch" on Amazon Prime. It's really good, and I've read the book they're based on (long ago). It's very authentic. The author/producer, Michael Connelly, used to be a crime reporter in L.A.  For instance, when someone is being held for murder, his lawyer tells him that if he did make bail, he'd have $1 million dollars bail and would have to pay for 10% of that (on other cop shows they never say that, even though it's true). It just has an amazingly good cast, too.

There are 10 episodes, so I guess I'll be finishing it up tomorrow. I'm not a big fan of binge-watching, generally, but this has been very enjoyable. After that, I have a small stack of DVD's to watch and review for the upcoming shows "Lizzie Borden" (Lifetime), "Bitten" and "Lost Girl" (Syfy), "Louie" (FX) and "The Comedians" (FX) as well as the first season DVD of "Mahattan." I still have some other new shows to write reviews for, too. It never ends! :)

Every Monday through Friday we watch "The Daily Show" and "The Nightly Show" on Comedy Central. They both are hit-or-miss.  They need to be funnier, especially the latter. Sometimes it's just boring. Stephen Colbert was way funnier, and so is John Oliver.

Friday 3/20/15

I had to transcribe Monday's "Days of Our Lives" episode because my DVR didn't record it, for some reason. I'm watching part of Wednesday's episode now as I run the transcript. It's just so boring now. I don't know why they don't pick up the pace.  Judi Evans sure does a good job, though. She should get an Emmy.

It was great to see this week's "Once Upon a Time" and it had one of my favorite actors, Sebastian Roché, as a guest star. Woo hoo! Love him. It was an awesome episode. My only gripe about this season is that they haven't given Merrin Dungey (Ursula) much to do. She was fabulous on "Alias". They should give her more to do.  Wow, August is back!!

I was listening to some Joan Jett songs and watching her videos on Youtube. I don't know why I didn't hear more of her back in the 70's and 80's. I guess because she only had a few hits, and I didn't really watch MTV much. She's got some great songs and videos. I'd forgotten she was in a Michael J. Fox movie and that they made a movie about her life, too.  Turns out she's done some acting on TV, too!

Saturday 3/21/15

I don't watch sports at all, but my husband is a big fan, so on the weekends we find a local sports bar and he watches whatever games are on. Right now it's college basketball.

We caught up on the Thursday episode of "The Daily Show" and Friday's "Real Time with Bill Maher," both of which were pretty good. I accidentally deleted "The Nightly Show" and it's not yet on the On Demand list.  Will Farrell was so hilarious on "The Daily Show." OMG I was laughing so hard. I don't know why, but he's always funnier in things like that, than in any movie I've ever seen him in. Okay, he was pretty good in "ELF", I have to say, but otherwise...I don't like his movies.

I watched the new episode of "Hot in Cleveland" on TVLAND.  It's not that great of a show, but it's okay. They always have good guest stars, like Stephen Baldwin and Gladys Knight! It was fun to see them. I loved the old photo of Valerie Bertinelli that they put up on the wall.

Then I watched the latest episode of "Justified" on FX. Such a great show. I really will miss all of these characters, and the great writing.  Loretta was awesome, too.

I'm trying to clear some stuff off my DVR, so I'm watching some episodes of "General Hospital" from November. These are the episodes right after Michael learned the truth about Sonny killing A.J., and Nina and Franco are holed up with Ava's baby.

That's how far behind I am! But I've got some DVD's to watch for review, too. I enjoyed the new DVD "The Whole Bean". I love Rowan Atkinson! Now I'm watching this four-part British series "Jamaican Inn." Very interesting.

Our new volunteer, Angela, did the ABC press releases for this week's Primetime News and Schedule page. She's going to work on them for one more week, to make sure she's got it down, and then she'll add another network's press releases. Hopefully she'll keep doing great until she's doing the whole page for me, every week! Then I can have more time to spend on other parts of the site.

Sunday 3/22/15

We watched "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver". It's always good! His segment about people who keep having to pay huge fines (and late fees) for minor traffic violations and other petty crimes was really appalling. It reminded me a bit of Michael Moore's movie "Sicko". Also, it seems to me that the government passed great laws to prevent the banks from doing this same thing to people, so maybe they need to make sure state and local law enforcement doesn't do it, too.

This week's "The Good Wife" was very enjoyable. I'm glad Alicia won. It could have gone either way. I wonder how they'll handle her changing jobs, with the law firm and all. It's weird that they're acting like she won. Isn't it a primary? Doesn't she now have to face the Republican in the general election? Or did I miss something? Maybe, since it's Chicago, Republicans don't bother running. Hmm. I also wonder how Alicia can really be State's Attorney because she's mostly been a corporate lawyer, and State's Attorney is like District of Attorney (criminal law). Not to mention, I would think she's more of a defense attorney. I can't really see her putting criminals in jail.

Here's a really good review I found for last week's jaw-dropping episode of "The Flash."

I'm watching last year's "Lizzie Borden Took an Ax" from Lifetime because I have two episodes of the new series (a spin-off, I guess) "The Lizzie Borden Chronicles" to watch, so I figured I'd better watch the original movie first! It's on Netflix. Also, as I said previously, I'm interviewing Clea DuVall on Tuesday.  Christina Ricci does a great job as the wicked and crazy Lizzie. You may recognize Stephen McHattie as her father. He played the whacko Reverend Ed on "Haven."

I hope it doesn't give me nightmares! Last night I had weird dreams about "The Bold & The Beautiful." I dreamed that three girls from the show were keeping some secret, and I kept trying to follow them and find out what it was. The three of them normally didn't even like each other, so that's what was making me wonder. One was Maya, the other was Caroline (I think) and the third, I believe, was actually Mariah from "The Young & The Restless."  It was a kind of creepy dream. I think I also did dream about Thorsten Kaye (Ridge), but that was a much better dream! Not long enough, though. I guess that's what I get for reading Soap Opera Digest before I go to bed.

Monday 3/23/15

Today I didn't watch much TV...I just worked on the site and did other stuff. Busy busy busy!

Very late in the evening I did watch 3 upcoming episodes of "Weird Loners," a new sitcom on FOX starting 3/31. It's pretty funny and very enjoyable. Don't miss it!

Tuesday 3/24/15

I watched last night's "Castle," which was pretty good. I always love seeing David Conrad! He was the best part of "Ghost Whisperer."

I was reading through a lot of press releases. I was very happy to read that  Norm McDonald will be joining "Last Comic Standing" and it'll be hosted now by Anthony Jeselnik. These are two of my favorite comedians. I don't normally watch reality or game shows, but I might have to watch this one.

My brother has temporarily moved to Turkey, where he's teaching English. He doesn't keep up much on pop culture or TV. He's still in a motel but found "Doctor Who" and "Forever" on the local TV channel! He's never seen "Forever" before and only saw some of the older "Doctor Who." It's just funny how American TV shows are everywhere.

This morning I had two interviews. The first one was with the actors who star in the new FOX sitcom "Weird Loners," Becki Newton and Zachary Knighton.  They were just great. So funny! I enjoyed it. Then the second call was with Clea DuVall, as I mentioned... she was very nice.

Speaking of "Forever," I watched that tonight. Always a good, solid show. I just love the actors, too.

I had started this site about fame...it seemed like a good idea, but I just never had any time to work on it, so I'm giving it up. Thane, one of our former volunteers, may continue it without me. I hope he does!

I made a new Vlog so check it out!

Wednesday 3/25/15

Sometimes it just seems like the world is conspiring to make my life harder! LOL!  At the beginning of February, ABC changed the way they did the closed-captioning on "General Hospital" so that the names are left off. Also, the way it comes out when we run our transcripts is that all of the text is clumped together, than than line-by-line, which makes it hard to read, and we have to do a lot of editing. After weeks of emailing ABC and local ABC affiliate I finally found out that there was some new federal law passed, so they had to change it. It doesn't really explain why they left the names off, but they're not willing to change or fix it. So poor Gisele, who helps me run the site, has to waste her time every day editing and proofreading the GH transcripts.

Well, it turns out that now NBC is doing the same with with "Days of Our Lives," too.  It's very frustrating. So now I have to hope I can find some new volunteers to help us with editing these because we just don't have the time to do it all.

In the meantime, if you have the time, please write a letter to this address on this page to let them know to put the names of the characters back on DOOL! Thanks for your help! Please keep it brief and polite, and don't mention our site or the transcripts.

Margaret Tobey
Vice President, Regulatory Affairs
NBCUniversal
300 New Jersey Avenue, NW
Suite 700
Washington, DC 20001

I had a great time as always watching "Supernatural" earlier tonight. I so love that show. It will be interesting to see what happens with Crowley and his mother.

I also watched "Hot in Cleveland", which had a great guest star, Timothy Omundson! He's just everywhere nowadays, and I'm so glad. He's awesome. I hope we see more of him as that show winds down. I like him better without the beard and long hair, though.

I've been seeing some of "General Hospital"... I know that a lot of people are bored with how long the Luke storyline has been going on. At this point, does anyone really care why he's psycho? I mean, I'm always the first one to say, your childhood has a major effect on your life, especially if you were abused. However, since he was a fairly normal guy for most of these years (aside from the time he raped Laura), how are we supposed to buy that he's suddenly a psychopath? It doesn't make sense. Not to mention, from all accounts, he's been a drug dealer and gangster for years, and has a fortune that he's been using to control Julian. I think it's pretty clear that we're supposed to believe that he has some sort of DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder AKA multiple personalities) based on the conversations he's had with himself, similar to what Connie had. I really never liked the DID stuff. I mean, it gives the actor a lot to do, but I'm not sure I believe it even exists (or if it does, not nearly as much as it does on the soaps), and at this point, it's just so overdone. It was already overdone for years on "One Life to Live," and now it's been done way too much on GH as well. Enough, already.

I know that the soaps are not that realistic, especially, GH, but it sure doesn't stop me from wishing they were more so!

Thursday 3/26/15

This morning I have a conference call interview with Michael Ealy, who's going to be guest-starring on "The Following" on FOX starting March 30. He was so wonderful on "Almost Human" and I still miss that show. I also watched him on USA Network's "Common Law" before that. He was very good in that, too. I think he's going to have a regular role on the show, not just a one-time guest-starring role, so it should be interesting.

I'm slowly catching up on things on the site! It's a nice feeling to cross things off the to-do list. Yay!

I've been catching up on some of my shows, too. I loved this week's "Backstrom." I really enjoy this show. I hope it gets renewed!

"Justified" was fabulous as always. I sure hate to see it end, but it's been great. What a shock when Ava shot Boyd! But of course he's not dead.

"The Flash" was also very good. I'm glad Cisco didn't die, but I wasn't really surprised about that. Too bad that Roger Howarth's character Bridge had to die, though. They didn't do too much with him, and he's such a fantastic actor. Let's hope The CW finds another great role for him.

Friday 3/27/15

I guess I spoke too soon about "Once Upon a Time" since last week's episode focused on Ursula! That was good. I always love Merrin Dungey.  It was great to see Ernie Hudson as her dad, Poseidon! Very cool.

This week's Primetime News and Schedule page is up now. Make sure to check it out to see all the shows airing this week.

On Monday I get to speak with FX's "Archer" star H. Jon Benjamin, so that should be great. He's always fun! He also stars in "Bob's Burgers" on FOX.

Have a great week!

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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