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From the monthly archives:

April 2006

ABC Makes Rosie Official

April 28, 2006

Here's the official word. Walters's announcement probably would have been more dramatic if the news hadn't been spread already …

Barbara Walters, creator/executive producer and co-host of ABC Daytime’s "The View," announced tonight during ABC’s live, three-hour broadcast of "The 33rd Annual Daytime Emmy Awards" that Rosie O’Donnell has been officially named a co-host of [...]

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"Idol": Advice For the Top 5

April 28, 2006

With "Idol" beginning its stretch run — and with five capable singers still in the competition — I've been thinking about ways to make the show, and the singers, better. The show has had some good performances lately, but it's been short on goosebump-making. How to get that back? Here are a few comments.
Paris: Drop [...]

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NBC Puts More Pieces Together

April 28, 2006

The networks officially announce their fall schedules in May, but there are always announcements before the announcements. Yesterday, NBC renewed all three shows bearing the "Law & Order" name. Today it added "Medium," "Crossing Jordan" and "Las Vegas" to the pickup list.
Although I like "Medium," the other two renewals won't have any impact on my [...]

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"Survivor": Super Play

April 27, 2006

We don't always get to see all the elaborate maneuvers leading into Tribal Council, with schemes edited out so that we might be surprised by the outcome. But tonight we got to see Cirie lay out a scheme that involved telling two different lies to three different players — and came off the way it [...]

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Thursday Morning: "Idol" Theme, "Amazing Race," "Veronica Mars

April 27, 2006

Fox has announced the musical themes for next week's "American Idol." " Next week, the remaining contestants will each perform two songs," says the network, "one from the year when they were born, and any Top-10 Billboard charts from this week."
In other words, we're back to making it easy on the remaining performers. After all, [...]

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"American Idol": American Justice (With Podcast)

April 26, 2006

Tonight's podcast is available through:
www.ohiomm.com/podcasts/tv/idol_results_042606.mp3
My written notes from tonight's telecast follow below.
Kellie's gone! Kellie's gone!
No more dumb-bunny jokes. No more challenged vocabulary. And, aside from Taylor, who's been swimming in mediocrity for a bit, no really stinky singers left.
I was prepared for Paris to go. There had been a lot of buzz that she was [...]

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Tony Snow's Head

April 26, 2006

(Those of you looking for last night's "American Idol" post, see below.)
I have been thinking about Tony Snow's head. I will chalk some of that up to mental fuzziness. Didn't get enough sleep last night. Then, just as I thought I had a plan worked out for this morning, my bride looked at our main [...]

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"American Idol" With Podcast Info

April 25, 2006

Here's the link to tonight's podcast:
http://www.ohiomm.com/podcasts/tv/idol_show_042506.mp3
There may be some technical difficulties, including a small clicking sound.
And here are some written notes about the show:
Tonight was one of those where I had to zip through my DVR'ing of "Idol" because I was at a church meeting when the thing actually aired. Didn't hear the judges' comments, [...]

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Funny/Not Funny

April 25, 2006

After watching television most of my life, I like to think that it's hard to shock me. But every now and then that kid who was watching TV in the '50s gets an eyeful or an earful of something that shocks. The "anal" joke on "How I Met Your Mother" on Monday night was one [...]

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The Shadow of Las Vegas

April 24, 2006

I've been going through a period where Las Vegas keeps popping up on my video screen. Not just commercials for the place, or for the TV show "Las Vegas." I sat down Friday with a review disc of a new Kathy Griffin special, and there she was, talking about Celine Dion in Vegas. Channel hopping [...]

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"Sopranos" and Other Tidbits (With Some More "Veronica")

April 24, 2006

I laughed — very hard — at "The Sopranos" on Sunday night. Wasn't alone, either, since this was a night in our regular "Sopranos" gatherings with co-workers, so the laughter was not mine alone. The Ben Kingsley stuff was funny enough. Mugging Lauren Bacall — one of those things where you think, oh, no, they [...]

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"Survivor"

April 20, 2006

Well, Bruce's stomach pain took him out of the game (although Probst's mention of whether Bruce could return for the jury was a nifty little tease. If he didn't return, you'd have a even-numbered jury. What would the show come up with to settle a tie vote?) And I was puzzled about why Cirie was [...]

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'"Amazing Race," "American Idol"

April 19, 2006

Here's the link to the latest podcast:
http://www.ohiomm.com/podcasts/tv/idol_results_041906.mp3
And here are last night's notes:
First, a brief shocker on "American Idol," where the bottom three included Chris, Paris and Ace. I wonder if Chris's rocker fans thought his mellow side Tuesday was a bit of a sell-out. But it's more likely that the top 6 were all very [...]

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"Idol" Standard Time

April 18, 2006

Here's the latest podcast:http://www.ohiomm.com/podcasts/tv/idol_show_041806.mp3
And here are my scribbles on the performance show:
After weeks devoted to Queen and country, "American Idol" went back to showing that it had good singers with a night of standards. And not just any standards: Every song had been recorded by Rod Stewart on one of his four American songbook albums. [...]

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"Less Than Perfect," "Celebrity Cooking Showdown"

April 18, 2006

Big night for viewing and recording — "Idol," "Gilmore," "Veronica," "House," "The Unit," VH1's telecast of "Love Monkey" … but not "Less Than Perfect," which returns to the ABC lineup.
I have seen tonight's "Less Than Perfect" and more beyond that, and it makes me sad. This used to be a reliable if unremarkable comedy, good [...]

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After the Bunny Hopped…

April 17, 2006

I did not expect to go this long between posts, but the days filled themselves up — chasing down a cat to take to the vet, putting a fence back up around a flower bed, Easter morning at church, grocery shopping, giving the grill its spring inaugural. Today at work I was hip-deep in a [...]

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"Survivor"

April 13, 2006

Not much of an episode. Sally's gone, leaving Terry on his own. But, because of his bad strategy in previous weeks, he already was on his own. He has put himself in the position of having no allies and needing to win out on immunity. The one benefit, touted in the trailers, is that the [...]

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The Greatest "Lost" of All

April 13, 2006

I won't pretend that last night's "Lost" — called "S.O.S." — was great in terms of advancing the overall narrative of the show, although there was some of that. Liked Jack and Kate in the net. Remain curious about the way the captive Other has played with Locke's head. And Michael's back, apparently setting up [...]

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'"Amazing Race"

April 13, 2006

The show is really mowing people down this season, with yet another week that did not include a non-elimination leg.
The latest victims: Lake and Michelle. When I wrote last week that I liked all the remaining contestants on the show, several people in the "Amazing Race" cult in my office were quick to argue that [...]

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Notes on TV (and Life)

April 13, 2006

Caught up on some viewing this morning and will be posting later about, IMHO, the greatest "Lost" episode ever, as well as "The Amazing Race."
I've had my say about "Commander in Chief" in a column you can find here. I know some of you have posted comments on the blog about how much you like [...]

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