We have to go baaaak!

Ok so the week is finally here! LOST season 4 premiers this THURSDAY at 8PM. Now, I know it's running opposite Survivor, but I'm telling you that NOW is the time to jump in if you're not a fan or were a fan.

What's that? You're afraid you'll be lost on Lost? Well, it's good that the creators put together a little catch up video for ya. You can watch it on iTunes for free. It runs 8:15 (sic) minutes and comes complete with snarky comments.

Now that we finally have an end date for the show, I'm sure that it's going to be nothing but heart stopping excitement from now on. No more tailies and random storylines we don't care about.

Stay tuned for my review on Friday!

"There's a rumor going around in the circus..."

PBS has always been know for their amazing documentaries and for airing many awesome tv shows from England, but I think they outdid themselves with the Pioneers of Television. The four part series presents the history of the kinds of shows that make television what it is today: sitcoms, variety, late night, and game shows. The series complements actual footage from the shows it showcases with interviews with the people who lived and worked through it all.

It's been making me think about all the great "old" shows I used to love and their impact on today's hits. Would we have Deal or No Deal without You Bet Your Life? Or How I Met Your Mother without I Love Lucy? And it's obvious that all of our late night programs would be snow filled channels without the contributions of Ed Sullivan, Jack Parr, and Steve Allen. And I never knew about the cultural impact of the Smothers Brothers! Did you?

So with this writer's strike still on, I think I'll use this opportunity not to watch more prime time game shows and reality, but to check out some of my favorite tv shows, courtesy of my local library. I'm in the middle of the third season of Quantum Leap, which I used to watch all the time. And there are more I'd like to see again. What would be great is if PBS could get the rights to show all those great tv shows again. The Carol Burnett Show would be awesome! Remember this clip:


Clip taken from YouTube,posted by EarlSinclair.

I was going to write about the amazing new series on PBS, The Pioneers of Television, but it doesn't seem right.

Another great actor left us wondering what else he would have accomplished had he lived to see 30. Heath Ledger, admired by many for his turn as a cowboy in Brokeback Mountain, was one of the best young actors around. Though his role as Ennis is the aforementioned film was easily his most famous, many of us loved him as Patrick in 10 Things I Hate About You, a smart and surprisingly loyal adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew. And as William in A Knight's Tale, a movie so formulaic it should have bombed, but thanks to its brilliant casting, made for a very entertaining movie.

Heath was also in the cult series Roar which lasted less than one season ABC, but did very well on DVD. Even in bad movies, Heath shined. Take The Order...terribly boring movie, but watchable for his performance. Even those dreaded romcoms were made better with Heath--Casanova could have been absolute crap (and kinda was if not for Heath's performance). And when I found out he would be playing the Joker in The Dark Knight, I knew people would learn what my friend Kathy and I saw way back on the big screen at 10 Things....this guy is a star! As we learned as his career grew, he was also an actor. Too many of the Hollywood types today are stars, not actors. Even fewer are both. Heath was one of the few.

So not to dwell on the life of someone I haven't met (the tabloids will do that for us), tomorrow we will go back to our regularly scheduled postings.

Grrr.....

I am very put out by all this. For about 4 years, I have been dreaming about decorating a house in the amazingly simple and modern designs that Todd Oldham created for La-Z-Boy. Well, I finally have a place of my own and, trying to undo the "dorm room chic" that adorns it now, I stopped at my local La-Z-Boy store only to find out that they no longer carry Todd Oldham designs! Well, now what do I do?

I went to other stores in the area and all I found was over priced, over stuffy furniture. I mean, my parents wouldn't even want this stuff ( though my boyfriend was especially excited over at Cabot House.) Blech. And the limited modern pieces I DID find, were so durn expensive.

Anyhoo, do any of my generous readers have a secret furniture shop they'd be willing to share?

Christopher Plummer is freaking me out!

Welcome to the first post of 2008!

What better way to start the year than my looking back at an old favorite of mine: The Sound of Mucus, er, I mean the Sound of Music.

The 40th anniversary DVD includes some awesome extras, the best being commentary by Julie Andrews, Charmian Carr, and Christopher Plummer.

We learn all sorts of wonderful and not so wonderful tidbits that will surely leave you looking at the film in a whole new light:

1. Charmian, who played Liesl, was eight years younger than Julie, so she found it hard to play her daughter. Also, Charmian was 21 when she played Liesl and the guy who played Rolfe was 20, so she had a hard time with the Sixteen Going on Seventeen bit.

2. Julie kept getting knocked over by the wind the helicopter was making during the filming of the opening scene. Also, the brook she jumps over was built for the production.

3. Charmian admits she not only had a crush on Christopher during filming, but that she shared a lot of firsts with him...first glass of champagne, first red wine, first whiskey...One can only imagine what else they shared. Wait....don't.

4. Christopher tells the story that about 15 years after the film, he was doing a play and he had a guest come visit after the show. "In walks this hot blond woman!" The visitor? Kym Karath, who played Gretl.

5. All the kids were American actors! Well, they just threw credibility right out the window!

My recommendation to all is to listen to the commentary to learn more fascinating and creepy facts about the making of this fantastic film. Sure, you may come out a bit jaded, but for me, it made the movie even better! I no longer feel that my crush on Christopher is inappropriate.