tv – Page 82 – procrastinationchronicles.com

sports, tv

next week 2/16

February 14, 2009 No Comments

New and notable in the week ahead… procrastinator picks are underlined.

Monday

Tour of California (Vs) – Check the week for stages 3-9, usually showing about three times a day, and get a look at some of the top cycling teams.
Little People, Big World (TLC, 8pm) Season Premiere – They’re heading to Iraq with a surgeon to help some kids.

Tuesday

American Idol (Fox, 8pm) – Time to get the speed dial ready, and remember it’s a singing competition, let’s get this down to a good top 12.
Dogg After Dark (MTV, 9pm) Series Premiere – Snoop Dogg gets a variety show.
Real Housewives of NYC (Brav, 11pm) Season Premiere – New housewife, old tension.

Wednesday

Little Miss Perfect (WEtv, 10pm) Series Premiere – Junior beauty pageants and their parents compete.
High School Reunion (TVL, 10pm) Season Premiere – After my high school was in consideration for a season of this I have almost been tempted to tune in, almost.

Thursday

Being Erica (Soap, 10pm) Series Premiere – Can you relive old moments in your life, this new series shows a gal do just that?

Friday

Mistresses (BBCA, 8pm) Series Debut – Four ladies have some drama on this new drama.
Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO, 10pm) Season Premiere -Bill has a real time.
Late Night with Conan O’Brien (NBC, 12:35am) – Say goodbye to Late Night with Conan O’Brien and hello to The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, but not until June 1.

Saturday

Taking Chance (HBO, 8pm) – Do people still do the six degrees of Kevin Bacon, check out this flick if you want fodder.
2009 Film Independent’s Spirit Awards (IFC, 9pm) – These awards go indie style.
Aisha Tyler Is Lit: Live at the Fillmore (Com, 11pm) – I worked with Aisha forever ago at a regular office job and don’t know whether her success inspires or depresses me.

Sunday

Barbara Walters Special (ABC, 8:30pm) – Anne Hathaway, Mickey Rourke, Hugh Jackman, and the Jonas Brothers.
The 100 Most Outrageous Moments 2 (NBC, 9pm) – Outrageous home videos, that must be much better than the funniest home videos.
The 81st Annual Academy Awards (ABC, 3:30/5/5:30pm) – Silly preshow interviews, awkward host moments with Jackman, boring speeches, and noteworthy fashions, oh and a chance to win my Oscar pool.

* Please note all times are PST.

After a couple weeks of Hollywood we’re finally narrowing things down. There are just still too many people at this point to really have heard enough of them singing to really get behind a favorite. And although I enjoy the train wreck of group night, I think it’s a ridiculous waste of energy for the kids and I don’t know how relevant it is to the solo singing they have to do on the show. Though I guess I try to block out the horrendous group numbers they do on results nights that I fast forward through.

I guess I also blocked out that the last show is just the annoying one-by-one bringing the kids into the ‘mansion’ to tell them yea or nay. I mean in theory if they’re not performing again then they could have just picked the last 36 (previous seasons only 24) when they narrowed it down by eliminating one of the four rooms. Though hopefully they at least took some time to re-review the performances, plus this time they did a couple sing offs for folks on the edge. Totally uncomfortable for them but actually seems fair enough, though how tough was it to pick the pairs.

The other thing I wonder is how much the choice of which folks they feature impacts at least the early rounds of the people voting. I know I won’t be voting for Tatiana, the featured most annoying girl in the world. The jury is still out on the dude who plays the character Norman Gentle, not sure this is the right competition for that sort of thing. But from now on let the people vote.

more stars

February 9, 2009 No Comments

I don’t even watch this show so I don’t know why I am always intrigued by the latest crop of competitors on Dancing with the Stars. Maybe because of the show’s popularity the has-beens actually get some notoriety or maybe because this show seems like one of the few that actually require the celebs to put some effort into something and be judged on that skill.

Noteworthy items: Shawn Johnson at 17 is the youngest competitor ever, husband and wife Ty Murray and Jewel will each be competing with partners, professional dance partner Julianne Hough is back and will be dancing with her boyfriend Chuck Wicks (who?), but the ‘who?’ award goes out to famed actor Gilles Marini. Though the real question is who will be eliminated first? The eldest techie Steve at 58, the big old football guy Lawrence Taylor, or reality comedian Steve-O? Tune in to see the new crop March 9 on ABC, here’s the full list:

Belinda Carlisle – The GoGos!
Stephen “Steve-O” Glover – Reality tv star
David Alan Grier – Comedian
Shawn Johnson – Olympic Gymnast
Jewel – Singer
Lil’ Kim – Rapper
Gilles Marini – Actor
Ty Murray – Rodeo Guy and Jewel’s Hubby
Nancy O’Dell – Entertainment Anchor
Denise Richards – Actress
Lawrence Taylor – NFL Player
Chuck Wicks – Singer
Steve Wozniak – Billionaire

In case you like your celebrities off the dance floor check out this season’s Celebrity Apprentice kicking off March 1 on NBC with: Clint Black, Andrew Dice Clay, Tom Green, Scott Hamilton, Jesse James, Brian McNight, Dennis Rodman, Herschel Walker, Khloe Kardashian, Joan and Melissa Rivers, Annie Duke, Natalie Gulbis, Claudia Jordan, Brande Roderick, and Tionne Watkins.

sports, tv

next week 2/9

February 6, 2009 No Comments

New and notable in the week ahead… procrastinator picks are underlined.

Monday

Presidential News Conference (various, 5pm*) – Obama talks the talk.
Top Gear (BBCA, 8pm) Season Premiere – Looks like there is some truck and porsche driving.
Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show (USA & others mon & tues, check your local listings) – Doggies!
BET Honors (BET, 6pm) – Gabrielle Union hosts the latest honors.
The Girls of Hedsor Hall (MTV, 9pm) Series Premiere – Another chance for crass girls to turn sophisticated, but this time they ship them to England.

Tuesday

TI’s Road to Redemption (MTV, 9pm) Series Premiere – Awaiting his own sentencing on weapons charges TI is clearly the model citizen to try to help some at-risk teens.
From G’s to Gents (MTV, 10pm) Season Premiere – I think they keep these bad boys away from the Girls of Hedsor Hall as they try to make them more gentlemanly.

Wednesday

Important Things with Demetri Martin (Com, 10:30pm) Series Premiere – Sketch comedy and more.

Thursday

NAACP Image Awards (Fox, 8pm) – Halle Berry and Tyler Perry host this one.
Survivor (CBS, 8pm) Season Premiere – The eliminations start early when they hit the Brazilian highlands.
Millionaire Matchmaker (Brav, 10pm) Season Premiere – I only caught one ep of this last season but it looked like an annoying owner of an ill equipped dating service helping socially inept men meat their trophy wives.

Friday

Dollhouse (Fox, 9pm) Series Premiere – I do love Joss Whedon (Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Dr Horrible) and I’m willing to give any new series of his more than a few eps of devotion, this latest brings us Buffy’s Faith/Eliza Dushku as one of a set of operatives who get new identities implanted and then wiped clean for weekly missions.

Saturday

Tour of California (Vs, 2pm, various times through next week) – They start out in Sacramento…
My Valentine Charlie Brown/A Charlie Brown Valentine (ABC, 8pm, also on previous Tues) – Romantic problems start in your youth…

Sunday

The Amazing Race (CBS, 8pm) Season Premiere – This year we’re going to see among others… the show’s first hearing-impaired contestant, along with some oldsters, some youngsters…
Eastbound & Down (HBO, 10:30pm) Series Premiere – Washed up big league baseball guy returns to his hometown to do the PE thing.

* Times noted are PST, check your local listings.

digital conspiracy delay

February 4, 2009 2 Comments

Well you may have heard rumor that television is going digital. The folks are saying it’s better technology and frees up airwaves for emergency transmissions among other things. The scheduled transition date was February 17 (which was set in 2005), after which the current analog signal was to be shut down and viewers who wanted to watch television (and isn’t that everyone!) need to be on board.

Everyone who currently has cable or satellite is already good to go, but if you’re still fighting the man on throwing down $ for your tv signal you might need to throw down a little $ for your tv equipment. New televisions come digital good to go (anything after March 2007 had to be digital), but if you have an old tv and aren’t ready to upgrade (though isn’t this is a good excuse to finally get a nice big flat screen?) you can get a digital converter box. These boxes hook into your tv and cost around $40-70. They do admit that the digital signal isn’t as strong and some users who were getting the analog (or getting it fuzzy) don’t get it or may need to upgrade their antenna to be in the clear.

Looks like apparently 6.5 million households have still yet to take the necessary steps to receive the digital signal once the plug is pulled on the analog one. These households are mostly low income, rural, and elderly folks and there is a program that offers coupons for $40 off certain models in certain locations. Unfortunately they’re out of coupons, sort of. The coupons each have an expiration date and they can’t issue new coupons until the already issued coupons expire if unused so they know they’re not going over budget. Currently there are over 3.5 million households on the wait list.

So the Obama administration encouraged congress to extend the date ’til June 12 and they somewhat reluctantly did so. Around 200 million has already been spent to make folks aware of the change so moving the date would have some implications on additional public service announcements as well as the costs to continue to output two signals. Some of the stations are dropping the analog early because of the dual signal costs, PBS estimates their costs at about 22 million alone. Fortunately it looks like the latest stimulus package includes a chunk of change to help out with the coupons at least, though that may not be approved for weeks.

Other helpful sites:
http://www.dtvtransition.org/
http://www.dtv.gov/
https://www.dtv2009.gov/
http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx

next week 2/2

January 31, 2009 1 Comment

New and notable in the week ahead… procrastinator picks are underlined.

Monday

Chuck (NBC, 8pm) – Chuck goes 3d and I’m sure gets into some trouble.
I Love Money (VH1, 9pm) Season Premiere – This is the show where reality contestants compete in a reality contest.
Medium (NBC, 10pm) Season Premiere – Allison’s got a case of the visions, or something.
For the Love of Ray J (VH1, 10:30pm) Series Premiere – By now you’re probably familiar with the ‘rock star’ dating shows even if you’re not familiar with Ray J.

Tuesday

The IT Crowd (IFC, 8pm) Season Premiere – There’s a crowd and they’re in IT.

Wednesday

Katie Couric “All Access” Grammy Special (CBS, 9pm) – Katie interviews the kids with the Grammys.
Monsterquest (Hist, 10pm) Season Premiere – This ep is titled ‘Death of Loch Ness’ but let me tell you if there was a Loch Ness, and I’m not saying there was, he’s gonna be pissed if people start saying he’s dead.
The Exterminators (A&E, 10:30pm) Series Premiere – Let’s head to Louisiana to get rid of some bees and some coons.

Thursday

Gangland (Hist, 9pm) Season Premiere – We see the land of gangs.
Street Customs (TLC, 9pm) Season Premiere – We customize a ’67 barracuda.
Heli-Loggers (TLC, 10pm) Series Premiere – It’s what it sounds like, logging with helicopters.

Friday

Most Haunted (Trav, 7pm) Season Premiere – Not just haunted, but the most haunted places.
Jockeys (AnPl, 9pm) Series Premiere – We check in on the jockeys and their horses down at Santa Anita during a 30 day meet.

Saturday

Tour of California (Vs, 2pm) – This preview show will take a look at the tour and I’m sure mention Lance.

Sunday

Grammy Awards (CBS, 8pm) – Lil Wayne has the most noms and you can tune in to see him perform along with other hot hitmakers.
HGTV Showdown (HGTV, 9pm) Season Premiere – It’s a family room makeover!
Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factor/The College Humor Show/Nitro Circus/How’s Your News? (MTV, 9/9:30/10/10:30pm) Series Premieres – Pro skateboarder, the guys from collegehumor.com, FMX, and reporters with disabilities…
XIII (NBC, 9pm) – Can Stephen Dorff recall whether he was involved in the assassination of the first chick prez, if not tonight check back next sunday for part two of the miniseries.
Mark & Olly: Living With the Machigenga (Trav, 10pm) Series Premiere – They start by searching for the Machigenga tribe.

sports, tv

australian open

January 28, 2009 1 Comment

Well my vow not to watch the first week of this tennis tournament was thwarted by a cold, so here I am in week two totally engrossed. Three important things to note: 1) it’s all on ESPN2 so if you’re looking for network coverage you’re out of luck 2) it is in Australia so live tv is totally out of time zone whack 3) it’s been 100-120 degrees and they’ve only shut the roof (and turn the AC on to get it down to a balmy mid 70s) for a couple of the day matches, the night matches might still be in the 100s, let’s just say there’ve been some fried folks.

So what are we looking at:

Men’s Semifinals – Thurs 1/29, 12:30am, Roddick vs. Federer (replays at noon); Fri 1/30, 12:30am, Nadal vs. Verdasco (replays at noon)
Women’s Final – Saturday 1/31, 12:30am, S. Williams vs. Safina (replays at 6am and 5pm)
Men’s Final – Sunday 2/1, 12:30am, tbd (replays at noon)

* All times are PST, check your local listings

spin off

January 27, 2009 3 Comments

I am delighted with the news that they are making a Gossip Girl spinoff, particularly because we’re not losing any of the cast and that it will focus on Serena’s mom Lily van der Woodsen in her early years. She’s in the Valley (that’s LA) with her older bohemian sister in the 80s. Could I miss a show about flashy troubled teens in the 80s? We’ll get a taste of what’s to come during a May ep of the existing GG. Casting is apparently all the buzz right now.

In other spin off news NCIS, a spinoff itself of JAG (surprisingly maybe the only two network shows I’ve never seen an episode of). A new NCIS (whatever that stands for) unit working in a different location will be introduced later this season. Think CSI, hopefully they’ll do better than David Caruso.

And then there is The L Word which wraps its season this year and viewers will get a taste of what’s to come in the new series. Current character Alice played by Leisha Haley goes to prison!

And of course there’s The Office spinoff that turns out its not going to be a spinoff. Particularly since in addition to Amy Poehler the cast includes Rashida Jones in a different role than she played on The Office. Though rumor has it we’ll see her again as Karen on the after Super Bowl episode.

And if you’re not getting the spinoff that you’re looking for perhaps you should check the theaters. Deals are being finalized for an Arrested Developed flick, a Veronica Mars script is being penned as we speak, and the Sex and the City gals are signing on for another run. I won’t even count the movies based on original tv shows currently in development…

next week 1/26

January 24, 2009 No Comments

New and notable in the week ahead… procrastinator picks are underlined.

Monday

The Closer (TNT, 9pm) Season Premiere – Brenda returns with the gang to solve more crimes and maybe get married at some point.
One Way Out (Disc, 9/9:30pm) Series Premiere – Some dude deals with bees and then freezing.
Trust Me (TNT, 10pm) Series Premiere – Eric McCormack and Tom Cavanaugh star as two friends who may or may not be able to work together in their hip ad jobs.
Saving Grace (TNT, 11pm) – If you missed Grace the first time around here’s another chance to catch the pilot.

Tuesday

Last Restaurant Standing (BBCA, 8/9pm) Season Premiere – Couples compete to open a restaurant.
17 Kids & Counting (TLC, 9/9:30pm) Season Premiere – Lots of kids.
Baldwin Hills (BET, 10pm) Season Premiere – Some dude throws a party in this reality series opener.
Toddlers & Tiaras (TLC, 10pm) Series Premiere – The missing behind the scenes look at children’s beauty pageants.
The Whitest Kids U’Know (IFC, 10pm) Season Premiere – A fifteen minute skit show.

Wednesday

The Detonators (Disc, 8pm) Series Premiere – The latest documentary series starts with the demolition of two steel structures, this could probably top the tree trimmers.
Life on Mars (ABC, 10pm) – New time slot for this enjoyable but odd show where a detective finds himself in the 70s and running into aspects of his past.

Thursday

American Idol (Fox, 8pm) – In case you didn’t get enough Idol try it again in this extra time tonight for the final early audition round.
Hell’s Kitchen (Fox, 9pm) Season Premiere – Gordon Ramsay berates wannabe chefs again.
Toughest Cowboys (Spike, 11pm) Series Premiere – Cowboys compete.

Friday

Adrenaline Rush Hour (Disc, 9pm) Series Premiere – Some random crap happens with cars and craziness among other things.

Saturday

Australian Open (ESPN2, 5pm, and Sun 12:30am*) – Darn that time zone… after the second week of tennis we’ll see the women’s and men’s finals which repeat Sunday midday.
AKC/Eukanuba National Championship (AnPl, 8pm) – Lots of doggies.
Super Bowl’s Greatest Commercials (CBS, 8pm) – A show all about commercials… interrupted by commercials.
Real Estate Road Test/Deals on the Bus (TLC, 10/10:30) Series Premieres – These are both about houses but on one they take a bus.

Sunday

Super Bowl (NBC, 10/3pm*) – The pregame show kicks off early and then the game itself, go… go football team!
Nitro Circus (MTV, 10pm) Series Premiere – Freestyle Motocross anyone?
The Office (NBC, 7:30/8pm*) – In the coveted after super bowl time slot, whatever time that really is.

* Times noted are PST, check your local listings.

and the nominations are…

January 22, 2009 4 Comments

Well it’s that time of year. The time to see how many of the Academy Award nominated films you’ve seen. I just have The Reader to go on best pic, I expected The Dark Knight or Doubt to take that slot. I guess I can make time for one more movie…

BEST PICTURE
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
“Frost/Nixon”
“Milk
“The Reader”
“Slumdog Millionaire”

BEST ACTRESS
Anne Hathaway, “Rachel Getting Married”
Angelina Jolie, “Changeling”
Melissa Leo, “Frozen River”
Meryl Streep, “Doubt”
Kate Winslet, “The Reader”

BEST ACTOR
Frank Langella, “Frost/Nixon”
Sean Penn, “Milk”
Brad Pitt, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Mickey Rourke, “The Wrestler”
Richard Jenkins, “The Visitor”

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams, “Doubt”
Penelope Cruz, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”
Viola Davis, “Doubt”
Taraji P. Henson, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Marisa Tomei, “The Wrestler”

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Josh Brolin, “Milk”
Robert Downey Jr., “Tropic Thunder”
Philip Seymour Hoffman, “Doubt”
Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight”
Michael Shannon, “Revolutionary Road”

BEST DIRECTOR
Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire”
Stephen Daldry, “The Reader”
David Fincher, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Ron Howard, “Frost/Nixon”
Gus Van Sant, “Milk”

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Dustin Lance Black, “Milk”
Courtney Hunt, “Frozen River”
Mike Leigh, “Happy-Go-Lucky”
Marttin McDonagh, “In Bruges”
Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, “WALL-E”

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Simon Beaufoy, “Slumdog Millionaire”
David Hare, “The Reader”
Peter Morgan, “Frost/Nixon”
John Patrick Shanley, “Doubt”
Eric Roth, Robin Swicord, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”

Check out the official Oscar site for a full list of nominations.

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