ABC Family has a new series and we’ll be seeing it for the first time tonight at 7/8. Their new series, “10 Things I Hate About You”, is based on the 1999 hit movie comedy of the same title, which in turn is based on Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew”.
I am pretty excited about this series simply because it takes me back in time. My girlfriends and I used to watch the movie again and again and again. It’ where I first fell in love with Heath Ledger. Enough of the movie though and back to the present.
If you’ve read the “Taming of the Shrew” or saw the decade old movie (Time sure does fly!) then you already know the tv series premise. It’s about sisters who are complete opposites. The non-conformist older sister, Kat Stratford (Lindsey Shaw), is being pressured by her popular younger sister Bianca (Meaghan Martin) to start dating because their over-protective dad, who equates dating to getting pregnant, won’t let her unless Kat dates. The show is said to be not too different from the movie although the teens now go online and have nicer phones, in short they’re living in this century.
We’ll still have to see if the show disappoints or it will trigger the same enthusiasm among teens that the movie did. As for Shakespeare, your guess is as good as mine as to how he’ll react to the tv series version of his “Taming of the Shrew” were he alive.
Confession time. One of my guilty pleasures is watching Gossip Girl. I know it isn’t the most cerebral TV show but it sure does get you once you start watching. If you don’t know what I mean then don’t start watching even a single episode unless you want to get hooked. If you’re already hooked, then you obviously know what I mean.
So what brought about my confession? Hillary Duff.
I have never been a Hillary Duff fan and was even turned off with her mouthing off against Faye Dunaway, even if Faye Dunaway kind of deserved it. From where I come from there’s something called respecting your elders.
Anyway Hillary Duff is going to be on Gossip Girl. According to EW, “The actress-designer-pop chanteuse will play Olivia Burke, a movie star who enrolls at NYU in search of a traditional college experience. She ends up rooming with Vanessa (Jessica Szohr) so it’s safe to say she’ll be majoring in Drama!” As for the confession it seems that Duff is a fan of the show and her favorite character is Chuck Bass. I guess we do have something in common. There’s just something about Chuck Bass that makes me watch Gossip Girl. Maybe it’s as Hillary Duff said, “I don’t know why, because he’s so bad and terrible. He is so sad that I feel bad for him.” So come fall we’ll be seeing Hillary Duff aka Olivia Burke but we’ll have to wait and see if her character will be into Chuck Bass as she is or some other guy.
It was Jay Leno’s last night at the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and for the first time he nearly brought me to tears. His last night wasn’t really spent trying to put together tear jerking moments but despite the jokes Jay trying to keep his composure made me sentimental. Unfortunately I got to the tv to late to watch the start of the show and only saw the last half of his interview with Conan, who will be taking over the Tonight Show come Monday.
Jay Leno was gracious through out the interview and even told Conan that he was glad that Conan would be taking the reigns and that Conan was his only choice. Jay Leno has mentioned in the past months that he wants the transition to be as smooth as possible for Conan and he was obviously letting Conan do the talking during the interview, giving the audience a preview of what’s to come. They even showed a short clip of Conan going undercover doing a focus group to help him determine what best to do for the Tonight Show’s audience. Conan is expected to tone down his act a little bit to fit the more conservative Tonight Show audience but he is determined to do it without losing his own flair by making small changes. According to Conan,”Television’s changing drastically, and I want to make sure that my show isn’t too buttoned up, that I don’t have this feeling of, well, it’s the Tonight Show and so I’m going to completely change everything about myself. I’ll make small changes day-in and day-out, tiny little adjustments that I feel are appropriate.”
As for Jay Leno his final goodbye ended with him showing the real legacy of the Tonight Show – the children of all the Tonight Show staff that were born during the 17 years. His legacy is 68 in all. All I can say is good job to the Jay Leno and the Tonight Show staff. Thanks for all the laughs and we’re looking forward to September.
Who watched yesterday’s episode of Ellen? I sure did!
I’ve been waiting for Portia de Rossi to come on the show all week last week more than I was waiting for the end of Hawaiian week. Understandable since I wasn’t going to Ellen and win the trip to Hawaii anyway.
So what did I learn about Portia?
1. She’s shorter than Ellen but wears really high heels, which is why I am one of the people who always though it was the other way around. Good work Ellen you did accomplish one of your goals – setting the record straight on who is taller.
2. She’s a little sloppy, at least compared to Ellen who is apparently very neat.
3. She’s and Ellen are not pregnant.
4. She’s going to be the scary boss on the office comedy show “Better Off Ted” which premieres tomorrow at 8:30PM E.T on ABC.
5. She likes roles like Veronica (her role on Better Off Ted) because in person she’s a people-pleaser and gets to be bad through her roles.
6. She does a good duet with Ellen, but then again we all sound good in the bathroom.
All in all the episode with Portia was fun but it wasn’t as fun as I expected.
Aside from Portia’s first appearance of Ellen they have also been in the news recently for the possible invalidation of their marriage. The reason as we all know is the Proposition 8 rule that outlaws gay unions. Ellen and Portia’s marriage is not the only one in question because California judges are given only about 3 months to decide whether to nullify the 18,000 same-sex marriages that took place before the Proposition 8 rule was voted in place last November.
Jay Leno is giving Detroit something to smile about. He’s showed that he’s a concerned citizen and that he has compassion for his fellowmen by announcing “Jay’s Comedy Stimulus Plan.” His stimulus package by the way will not cost anyone their tax dollars but will certainly have more immediate effects than the government’s stimulus plan. The stimulus plan will allow people in the Detroit area who are currently out of work to attend his free performance in Michigan on April 7.
Leno chose to perform there not only because the state has the highest unemployment rate at 11.6% but also because as an auto buff he loves Detroit. As Leno said, “when you’re an auto guy like me, that city is Jerusalem.”
Jay Leno credits President Obama for inspiring him to do his part to help during these rough times and since Leno says that all he can do is make jokes then he might as well make other people laugh. It might not be the biggest plan but it sure does make people everywhere, not just in Detroit smile.
Pepsi will be sponsoring the event. FREE tickets will be available at The Palace Arena in Auburn Hills starting March 16. Softdrinks and parking will also be free on that day.
I know Conan is not the best late night show talk host but I do enjoy watching him sometimes so when I heard that Jimmy Fallon was going to take over his “Late Night” show I was one of those who made sure I saw the first episode to see how well he did, and like most people who saw the show I can say he was passable but utterly unremarkable.
During the course of the first episode I found myself cringing for Fallon because it was just so obvious that he was trying so hard to seem funny and at ease though he wasn’t. For the most part I do blame the writers because lots of the jokes just weren’t funny. I especially hated the game “Lick it for Ten” where studio audiences were asked to lick some stuff (fishbowl, etc) so they’ll get $10. The game was not only pointless but it wasn’t funny, it wasn’t even gross enough to be interesting! Props to the audience though for trying their hardest to help Fallon out.
As for the future of Jimmy Fallon and the show who know? But I share Matthew Gilbert’s sentiments when he wrote the following in the Boston Globe, “Will Fallon improve? I hope so. Perhaps if the writers step up their game and Fallon relaxes, “Late Night” will find a groove. Maybe the producers should give Fallon a sidekick, someone with whom he can josh and tease. As it is, he seems like a lone deer in the spotlights.” I too hope for the best but so far after the couple of episodes I’ve seen I don’t even feel like staying up just to see how well he does.
When you think of the South, what comes to mind? Thick southern accents perhaps? Mullets? Beer? Country music? Perhaps all that and more. While some of these stereotypes may hold true, real people from the real South know that there is so much more about them and their way of life than what the rest of the (perhaps uninformed) world knows. You have to admit, what Hollywood brings to the screen – TV or movie – is not always the real deal.
With Eastbound & Down, however, we just might get a taste of what southern living is really all about. Danny McBride, the writer behind the series and the main actor as well, wants the world to know that the show is not all about the “Hollywood south.” Instead, he wants to shout that this is the real thing – the real south with real people living real lives.
So what is this six-episode series all about? Amy Hotz of Star News Online wrote:
McBride plays Kenny Powers and “Eastbound” is about his down and out life. Kenny used to have a very successful career as a pro baseball pitcher. He had the money, he had the girls, he had the drugs. Progressively, though, he just seemed to have lost his power on the mound. And then he lost his job.
Forced to find something else to do, Kenny had no option but to put his head down in shame and return to his hometown, Shelby, N.C. To add insult to injury, the only job he can find in this un-glamorous town is with his old middle school, which needs a substitute P.E. teacher. Oh, and he’s so poor he has to live with his brother’s perfect family.
The unique thing about the show is that they found actors who are really from the south. To quote McBride, “When people that aren’t from the south pretend like they’re from the south it just brings out all the cliches and, you know, just all the stuff that you’ve seen a million times. It’s not even that accurate and not even that entertaining anymore at this point.” As such, do not expect any of the usual portrayals we see. Looks interesting to me.
Who is your favorite spy? James Bond? I guess he used to be mine but when I discovered Chuck Bartowski, there was no going back. This CIA agent is nothing like the spies that we used to know. Chuck is a Stanford kick out who never really got his due. Now he works for the Buy More, a huge electronic chain, as part of the Nerd Herd. Somewhere along the way, Chuck finds himself the bearer of all the government’s secrets when ex-college friend Bryce Larkin sends him an e-mail. Turns out that Bryce Larkin is a special CIA agent, who they thought had turned rogue. In his e-mail, he encoded the Intersect, the collection of all the government’s secrets. Thus Chuck was introduced to his life as a CIA agent.
There is more to the story than that, naturally, but I would not go into the details here. Anyhow, this TV series is more than your normal run-of-the-mill espionage action. More than the spy action, it factors in romance, family relationships, and of course, general geekiness.
In keeping with the show’s proclivity towards technology, they just released a 3D episode – something that is not all that common as of yet. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t have any 3D glasses handy when I watched it. As a result, my view was a bit weird – I suppose that happens when you don’t have the glasses? It didn’t really take away from my viewing experience as the quips and Chuck’s gaffes were still there.
Anyone able to watch in 3D? How was it?
Pamela Anderson will be returning to TV as she guest stars in the new comedy series Kath & Kim.
Anderson will have a small cameo as she plays herself in a scene with Kath & Kim, played respectively by Molly Shannon and Selma Blair.
With the departure of Amy Poehler from Saturday Night Live, the show has decided to get two females to beef up its troupe.
Abby Elliott, daughter of comedian Chris Elliott, and Michaela Watkins have been announced as new additions to the cast. Elliott, like Poehler, used to perform with The Upright Citizens Brigade. Watkins has appeared on The New Adventures of Old Christine and Californication.
