Blog Archives
Tampa Bay’s Not So Hot for America’s Got Talent
Big Barry posing with Howard Stern
America’s Got Talent has gotten a lot of coverage lately after the Tim Poe controversy, but I was just hoping to see some quality or at least memorable acts on Tuesday’s show. After all, it’s what the show should be known for. Whether it’s showcasing the true idiots of the world or actually finding unique undiscovered talent, the show has failed to do either many times this season. Tuesday was another disappointment.
The second Tampa Bay Episode opened with a Latin dance crew called The Untouchables, which is made up of kids ranging from ages 8-13. It was obvious that the group would make it through, for the simple fact that they’re kids with high energy that can be endearing. It’s also horribly boring. There is almost never a large dance act that isn’t reasonably coordinated and refined. It is not good for the viewer to know who goes through in advance. It would have been a little better if the performance was great, but it wasn’t. It was average. The show is at its best when it showcases the superior and the atrocious. This was neither.
The montages, both successful and unsuccessful, also were not anything exciting. Granted, these are the acts deemed unworthy of a viewer’s full attention, but that shouldn’t lend itself to inadequacy and boredom. A singer with an okay voice, a dancing duo, an illusionist get sent to Las Vegas. A singer with a slightly worse voice and some variety acts whose talents are unclear do not move to the next round. They’re all basically the same. The people voted through will probably not be seen again. The people who were rejected won’t get talked about again. It just seems like an elaborate time filler.
Another act featured was a squirrel that water skis. Some animal novelty acts can be fun and entertaining. This one certainly wasn’t. As Sharon and Howard agreed, it is nowhere near big enough for a Vegas show. Howie disagreed only out of curiosity to see the act do better in Vegas. It honestly would have been more entertaining to watch the squirrel go too fast around the pool and fall multiple times. That would have been worth a proper and unequivocal rejection. Instead, the squirrel technically succeeded with the act. It just wasn’t good. This act was not good enough to be considered a worthy talent. It was not horrible enough to be considered a hopeless excuse for entertainment. If it does not fit either of those, it isn’t worthy of being aired at all.
Weekly TV Update: June 11
Each week we bring you stories from around the Internet that you might have missed.
J.R. Ewing and family returns to television this Wednesday at 9 pm on TNT.
ABC Family’s Bunheads debuts tonight. This drama that centers around ballet dancers comes from Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherma-Paladino.
Cinema Blend’s Kelly West has a treat for Suits fans. She has posted photos from her behind-the-scenes tour.
CBS asks a court to block the premiere of ABC’s The Glass House, which is a Big Brother-esque reality show. The ABC show has somewhere between 15-30 former Big Brother staffers, some who had access that show’s “bible”.
In its quest to remain relevant, Ion Television announces five new original Christmas movies for December.
America’s Got Talent Goes Goth
Andrew De Leon
Last night America’s Got Talent was a little light on the entertainment again. NBC is killing the show. Each week, viewers only get two hours of new acts followed by several repeats throughout the week. In the past, we saw three to four hours of new acts and they were repeated once. It doesn’t help that each hour only has 5 full performances and four short ones mixed in with a bunch of boring montages consisting of people kissing or people with pets or some other boring activity the producers think will make the audience go “awwwww.”
On Tuesday, AGT was still in Austin. I think this is the first week NBC has aired both parts of a city’s auditions back to back, which helped with understanding Howie Mandel, Sharon Osbourne, and Howard Stern in the Snapple Chat.
The first act was the Aurora Light Painters. They painted with light. I really don’t know how to describe what they did without being captain obvious. The Aurora Light Painters somehow manipulated light and took advantage of a cameras light sensitivity to put on an interesting show. It wasn’t one of my favorites, but the judges loved it. (If anyone knows how the Aurora Light Painters performance works, please leave a comment. My head hurts just trying to figure it out.)
TV Shows Get Meta on Facebook
Some really loyal fans of classic shows like Hogan’s Heroes, Mash, Bonanza, and Highway to Heaven made Facebook accounts that are written as though the fictional characters are real people. It gets bizarre, but is also really funny at times.
On Colonel Robert E. Hogan, the following message was posted today.
“Newkirk just told me that the actor who portrayed him on the show about our missions, Richard Dawson, passed away yesterday at the age of 79. R.I.P Mr. Richard Dawson. A truly great actor.”
Don’t think about how meta that is because your brain will hurt. However, I will miss Richard Dawson. He was in a lot of things I grew up watching in reruns, but I digress.
So far Corporal Peter Newkirk is the only other Hogan’s Heroes character that has a page. Other characters that have pages are: (Those with asterisks are regularly updated as are Hogan’s page and Newkirk’s page.)
From M*A*S*H:
*Capt. Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce
From Bonanza:
Joe Cartwright
Carmen Sierra Cartwright
From Highway to Heaven:
*Jonathan Smith
Anglophiles Get Out Your Costco Cards
The Costco Connection has an article about some of the British television shows that are now available at Costco’s across the country. As Costco likes to say, not all of the titles are available in every warehouse. Also, this may not be a complete list.
Previewing CBS’s Fall Season- Part 2
If any network is good at finding hits, it’s CBS. It renewed 19 shows for the Fall season and only has four new shows on its schedule. CBS has a way of defying the unpredictability and inconsistency of television. When it finds a hit drama, such as CSI, it can spin the show off into multiple shows and make those last as well. When CBS finds a hit sitcom like Two and a Half Men, they can make it last even after the disgraced star is forced to leave and the title makes no sense. CBS has managed to keep multiple shows on the air for a decade or longer all in the same time frame. Even though the new options for this season are limited, I’m always excited when a classic is found. CBS seems to have the best chance given their history.
Vegas
Vegas is a drama taking place in the 1960s. It stars Dennis Quaid as Sheriff Ralph Lamb. In the 60s, Las Vegas was evolving from a “rough and tumble town” to the city it is now. According to Quaid in the preview, Lamb became sheriff somewhat reluctantly. His straightforward personality and no-nonsense methodology may lend itself to exciting conflict. Michael Chiklis also stars as Vincent Savino, a man in the Chicago crime family. Lamb and Savino fight over who gets to develop Las Vegas into a large city.
Whose Line is it Anyway? UK
This week I’m going to introduce my fellow American’s to a new British panel or comedy show everyday.
There’s not much to say about Whose Line is it Anyway?. Most of you are probably familiar with the American version, which ran on ABC for 8 seasons and was hosted by Drew Carey. The British version ran on Channel 4 series from 1988 to 1998. It was hosted by Clive Anderson. There is quite a bit of overlap between panelists on both shows and if you’re a fan of one you’ve definitely heard of the other.
The majority of clips on YouTube do not have an all British cast, so here is a sketch that features Colin Mochrie and Ryan Stiles.
If you want to see every episode ever created of both Whose Line is it Anyway? versions, Whose Line Online has you covered.
Previewing CBS’s Fall Season- Part 1
As much as I love new television, it’s such a gamble. Frankly, I’m not sure what CBS is trying to prove. They are one of the most storied network in the history of television, and as it boasts, it is “America’s Most Watched Network.” Now, it seems to be as strong as ever. Two And A Half Men is its most sustainable show and since it could survive the Charlie Sheen controversy, I don’t think it’s going to end on any terms other than its own. The American public is incredibly hard to please when it comes to entertainment but over the past decade CBS has had several hits. In an age where both copious amounts of television and the ability to publicly complain is readily available, this is impressive. Given their history, CBS may be equipped to find another hit.
Partners
The show is not going to work at all. Partners is a sitcom from the creators of Will & Grace. It revolves around two men, one straight, one gay, who work together as architects. They’ve known each other for years and act like a married couple. Things supposedly get complicated when their “bromance” is tested after Joe, the straight guy, gets engaged to Ali.What happens when your friend tries too hard to be supportive of you? Will your relationship ever be the same? How will your “bro” affect your relationship with your fiancee? Apparently these things are supposed to be funny.
8 out of 10 Cats Prefer 8 out of 10 Cats
This week I’m going to introduce my fellow American’s to a new British panel or comedy show everyday.
Jimmy Carr hosts 8 out of 10 Cats, which features some of his offensive shock-based humor that you either like or find appalling. The show’s name comes from the Whiskas cat food slogan “8 out of 10 Cats prefer Whiskas” and its premise revolves around opinion polls.
8 out of 10 Cats has two teams of six. Each team features a permanent panelist and two celebrity guests, who have to guess various statistics. Sean Lock, who you may recognize as the host of TV Heaven, Telly Hell, is the only permanent panelist who has been with the show from the beginning.
The following episode is the last one from series (season) 11. It is a “Best of” clip show, so ignore the random people and clothing changes. Just enjoy the show.
90s Talk Show Hosts Attack
Okay, not really, but it’s starting to look that way.
Yesterday, we reported that Arsenio Hall wants to return to television with a talk show. Today, Reuter’s reports that Ricki Lake will officially rejoin the daytime talk show circuit on September 10. A start date that she will share with Katie Couric, Survivor host Jeff Probst, and comedian and current Family Feud host Steve Harvey. Those four new talk shows will have to compete with, Ellen DeGeneres, Anderson Cooper, Wendy Williams, Dr. Phil, “The View”, and “The Talk” as well as the “trashy” talk shows like Maury and Jerry Springer.
There are already enough daytime talk shows. We don’t really need more of them. I guess it’s better than forty-two more court shows, but it seems like the networks aren’t even bothering coming up with something other than talk shows and court shows. Whatever happened to game shows? I’m not asking for the glory days of the 70s with classics like Match Game. I just want more variety than The Price is Right, Let’s Make a Deal, and Family Feud.
What do you predict for this new batch of talk shows?
Wait! What's A Dial? 