Monthly Archives: August 2013
Perez Hilton Visits “America’s Next Top Model”
The competition on America’s Next Top Model is heating up. This week, contestants were given the chance to talk to their loved ones. All 12 of the contestants had to split one hour among themselves with the winner of last week’s best photo, Jourdan, receiving 10 minutes. Jourdan abuses the privilege by talking to her boyfriend for over ten minutes and other members of the house understandably get annoyed.
Everyone feels that Jourdan is top dog on America’s Next Top Model because she has been getting high praise lately from the judges and abuses her privileges. Of course, contestants get annoyed at Jeremy as well. He likes Jourdan, will defend her, and everyone knows it.
Celebrating Letterman’s 20 Years on CBS
Yesterday, August 29, marked David Letterman’s 20th year hosting the Late Show on CBS. While fans are probably a little disappointed that Dave didn’t give in and do a retrospective episode or primetime special (Neither one was ever going to happen. This is Letterman we’re talking about.), there’s no reason we can’t, with the help of YouTube, take a look back at Dave’s time on CBS.
First Episode
Dave may not have gotten The Tonight Show and NBC may have tried to sue him for using their intellectual property, but that didn’t stop Dave from bringing Larry “Bud” Melman, now using his real name, Calvert DeForest, to CBS. In fact, DeForest was the first person seen on the Late Show. Unfortunately, the clip below doesn’t have DeForest’s appearance on the first show, but it does have Ed Sullivan introducing Dave.
Salvador Dali Confuses The Panelists On ‘What’s My Line?’
Whenever Salvador Dali is around, things take a turn toward the strange. While What’s My Line?‘s master of ceremonies, John Charles Daly, often finds himself tied by the limitedness of the “yes and no” question format, Dali’s appearance makes matters worse because Dali wants to say “yes” to everything. Then again, you wouldn’t expect anything less from a man who considered himself to be drugs.
Madonna’s “Like A Virgin” at the VMAs
Everyone is still talking about Miley’s performance at the MTV Music Video Awards. It’s been two days and we’re all still processing it. Did she appropriate a segment of black culture? Did Miley’s mom really approve of the things her daughter was doing with that foam finger? Yes and yes.
Instead of beating the dead horse that is Miley’s performance, Wait! What’s a Dial? has decided to take a look back at the performance that began the VMA’s reputation for crossing the line. While it was raunchy and shocking in 1984, Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” performance looks quaint in comparison to some of the acts today.
‘Breaking Bad’: These Are My ‘Confessions’
With every new episode of Breaking Bad comes seriously heightened anxiety levels. We’ve all endured some pretty panicky moments over the course of the show, but no episode has ever come close to the tension “Confessions” created. Let’s start from the beginning.
The opening scene brought us to a diner with Todd, his uncle, and a cohort, all of whom were just returning from laying a smackdown on Declan and his subpar meth lab. Todd let Walt know what went down via a voicemail and then, after sitting down at the table, gloats about his involvement with the train heist in what felt like an attempt to convince the older, hardened criminals that he was ready to head up his own lab. We don’t hear about Todd again or the rest of the episode, so it’s unclear whether or not Walt actually heard the message.
In the next scene, Walt seems to be focusing on more important things than his cell phone. He’s trying to cover up his black eyes with concealer while also talking to Walt Jr. He’s not totally engrossed in the conversation until Jr. mentions that Marie invited him over for dinner. Walt perks up mid-makeup application and, just as his son is walking out the door, he pulls him back in. He has to think fast, so he does the one thing he knows will keep Walt Jr. in the house: he drops the “C” bomb. He was clearly not ready for the news and decides to stay home, just like Walt, the expert manipulator who chose to go after his own son, knew he would. When Hank gets home sans his nephew, Marie panics. She becomes more on-edge once she realizes Hank hasn’t revealed his secret to anyone at work. The scene cuts to the White residence, and Walt recites and records the beginning of what sounds a confession, which starts out almost identically to the one in the pilot.
‘Doctor Who’: Where To Start
So, you’ve finally given into your curiosity and want to start watching Doctor Who. Who can blame you? All your nerdtastic friends are doing it. Not to mention, Doctor Who is arguably one of the most successful TV shows of all time and is nearing it’s 50th Anniversary! That’s nothing to turn your nose up at. But with all that success, and all those episodes, it can be quite daunting to figure out where to start. After all, there have been 11 doctors, 7 seasons since the 2005 reboot, and 26 seasons of Classic Doctor Who, which we won’t even touch in this. Overwhelmed yet? Don’t be. Lucky for you, you have options.
Blink (Season 3 Episode 10)
Fan favorite, “Blink,” writt
en by the current show runner, Steven Moffat, is an excellent stand-alone episode if you want to sample the series before committing. It does not spoil any of the plot points for later viewing pleasure. The episode actually features hardly any of the Doctor at all, but manages to give an incredibly accurate depiction of who the Doctor is, how he is viewed by others including his companion, and the tone that the series eventually takes on. This fast pace and suspenseful episode features Carey Mulligan as Sally Sparrow in her whirlwind adventure to defeat the Weeping Angels.
If you end up liking this episode, I recommend then going back to Season 1, Episode 1, “Rose,” and watching all the way through. The earlier episodes are great in all their campy glory, but it is definitely nice to know that the show gets better as time goes on, which makes the bad lighting more forgiving.
Who Can ‘Beat Bobby Flay?’
Food Network loves having chefs who aren’t famous compete against Bobby Flay. The Iron Chef America and former Throwdown! with Bobby Flay star now has a new show, Beat Bobby Flay, which is a combination of the former two shows. While Beat Bobby Flay feels derivative, so does everything that Food Network airs nowadays. Only, this time it doesn’t get boring because they took the some ideas from both Iron Chef and Throwdown! and left the unnecessary exposition on the cutting room floor.
Of course, every show begins with a segment that introduces the chefs to viewers. Since Beat Bobby Flay is only a half hour, each chef of the two chefs competing in the first round gets about a minute to describe themselves, which means no long, dramatic life stories. Life stories are limited to “this is my cooking style, this is how and why I chose it, and this is how I developed it.” It’s a cooking show. No less would be kind of odd. Any more would border on tedious and risk veering into uninteresting.
The “America’s Next Top Model” Men Get Catty
Oh boy! If you thought last week was entertaining, this week certainly turned up a couple of notches. Within the first few minutes, tension in the house already started to form between Chris H. and Mike.
Chris has a tendency of being overly dramatic and Mike told him to shut the f**k up. This was all over having a 5 minute conversation with a loved one back at home. Chris mentions that he remembers his mom as being abusive physically and verbally. An example would be, she chucked a cell phone at his head. Being disrespected by another fellow contestant, Chris sees Mike in a whole different light. Ouch, can you say catfight? And there was certainly no catwalk there to be seen. Mike is certainly no fan of Chris’s if Mike would call Chris “a dramatic little bitch.” Since when do guys get so caddy all of a sudden on the show?
Doctor, Who is the Craziest Fan?
Urban Dictionary defines a fandom as “a kingdom of fans.” Fandom usually describes a group of people who are so obsessed with a TV show/Movie/book/etc. that they create various works of art to show their love. Most fandoms just write fan fiction and photoshop flower crowns on to characters, but one fandom seems to take this a bit further. Fans of Doctor Who, or Whovians, are some of the most devoted fans in the fandom universe.
Most YouTube videos made by a certain fandom have the same formula. Take a somewhat popular song and edit some clips from the show together. With Doctor Who, you can search pretty much any song and find a Doctor Who tribute video. This video takes Imagine Dragon’s “Radioactive” and focuses on Amy Pond. This video contains clips from series 5, 6 and 7.
Streaming is the New Cable: Why TV Networks Should Be Afraid of Netflix
Nine nominations is not a fluke, it’s something to brag about. The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences honored House of Cards with nine nominations including Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series (Kevin Spacey) and Outstanding Drama Series. Not too bad for a series that a majority of television viewers have never heard of.
How could this be? How could a show with such amazing talent, near perfect writing, and incredible pacing be overlooked? Surely this show is on a major network during a competing time slot; going against programs like Breaking Bad. The truth is, this show has no competition and doesn’t need a time slot. All one needs is a Netflix account and a device to stream it through. This allows them to have access to every episode of the first season of House of Cards and another fantastic show called Orange is the New Black.
The dangerous part of having access to full seasons of a program is a new addiction that comes with owning an account to Netflix or Hulu, most commonly known as “binge-watching”. Binge-watching occurs when you have total access to a program and you sit around all day and night until suddenly you realize hours have passed and you’ve watched 13 episodes of a show. Here in lies a problem that major networks like Fox and NBC are facing. There is no doubt the instant streaming has infiltrated every house hold and has changed they way people catch up on programming. There is no doubt that networks are using DVR and on-demand to their advantage, but what programs are left to record?
Wait! What's A Dial? 