Results tagged “television” from The Daily Nugget

After his racist rant and his lame ass excuses, like "I actually thought I was black," you would think that A&E would never let Dog the Bounty Hunter back on the air right!? Wrong! Apparently A&E has started production on Dog the Bounty Hunter without announcing an air date. It just goes to show that if you are a racist bastard and you say you are sorry, even if you don't mean it, you get a second chance. Like I said before I am done with Dog and if I could cancel A&E from my cable subscription I would.

When I was a kid, I loved to watch the old American Gladiators show because it was all about the underdog trying to beat the big professional gladiators. The pros were these huge body builders, stunt men, and the like. The competitors were regular athletic people that just wanted to compete. Totally fun to watch and one of the first reality competition shows that was not about dancing (see Dance Fever). Well, the new American Gladiators is airing on January 6th.

In this episode, teams made their way from Los Angeles to a small island off the coast of Ireland which was definitely the perfect Irish countryside. At the end of the day, it was a couple of stubborn donkeys that determined the outcome of this leg. Ari & Staella and Nathan & Jennifer got two donkeys that refused to move, but I am sure it had something to do with the teams personalities and how they treated the donkeys too. The moral of the story: treat donkeys right and they’ll treat you right.

Ari & Staella completely alienated their donkey and ended up paying the price. Who knows if they ever led their donkey across the finish line. Maybe the producers let them off the hook when they realized all of the other teams had finished. We’ll never know. As much as I don’t like Kynt & Vyxsin, they were scrappy enough to get a second place finish in this leg. Ultimately, it was Azaria & Hendekea which came in first place.

Dog Chapman was caught on tape being a racist in a conversation with his son and the tape was posted on the National Enquirer. CNN is calling the tape a racist rant, but his demeanor was quite calm and the N-word was used way too freely on the audio tape to be a one-time occurrence. In the tape itself, he admittedly says he uses the word all the time! Here's an excerpt:

"…It's not because she's black, it's because we use the word 'n——' sometimes here. I'm not going to take a chance ever in life of losing everything I've worked for for 30 years because some fucking n—— heard us say 'n——' and turned us into the Enquirer magazine. Our career is over. … If Lisa was dating a n——, we would all say 'fuck you,' and you know that. … It's not that they're black, it's none of that, it's that we use the word 'n——'…"

Oh the poetic irony, it was the Enquirer that posted the audio tape! What he's saying is 'it's not that she's black, it's that I am a racist and will never stop using the N-word in this household.' He clearly admits being a racist and that he's worried about losing his Bounty Hunter empire more than anything else. I can't believe that this guy is being held up as a role model for kids, it's downright shameful!

Dog released his own statement in which he apologized, but insisted that his son's girlfriend "character," not his, is the problem, and that his comments were "taken out of context." Right! As if there were any context in which his remarks would have been acceptable. Dog could be in the middle of a rap video and not have enough context to utter the N-word. Here's his statement:

"My sincerest, heartfelt apologies go out to every person I have offended for my regrettable use of very inappropriate language. … It was completely taken out of context. I was disappointed in his choice of a friend, not due to her race, but her character. However, I should have never used that term. I have the utmost respect and aloha for black people — who have already suffered so much due to racial discrimination and acts of hatred. I did not mean to add yet another slap in the face to an entire race of people who have brought so many gifts to this world. I am ashamed of myself and I pledge to do whatever I can to repair this damage I have caused."

Yeah, you've been caught bitch and you may lose your show--that's what you're sorry for! I for one will be canceling my TiVo Season Pass for the Bounty Hunter and I am done with you, loser. It turns you are a bigger scumbag than the icehead druggies you chase down and throw in jail. No amount of praying in front of the cameras will get you out of this one. Adios Dog.

I am not sure how I missed this, but since CBS's Viva Laughlin was cancelled after just two episodes, the Amazing Race 12 will debut on Sunday, 11/4! Fans of the show were not expecting the show to return until early 2008. Damn, it seems like forever since the last race!

Late night television presenter Eva Nazemson was hosting a game show when she blew chunks on live television and blamed it on painful menstrual cramps. Amazingly, she stayed on the air for about two hours after the incident. That's some serious work ethic! If this had happened to Regis Philbin, he would have been in an ambulance on the way to the hospital before the chunks had hit the floor. Awesome.

The Amazing Race won a 5th consecutive Emmy for Outstanding Reality-Competition program! Big ups to the team that makes the show possible.

Jeff Probst highlights the Survivor staffers that test the challenges: The Dram Team.

So, everybody that knows me knows that I love TV, mostly reality TV. However, there are a few new non-reality shows that I am going to be checking out this Fall season. One of the shows is Bionic Woman. I used to be in love with Lindsay Wagner (the original Bionic Woman) and Lynda Carter (she played Wonder Woman), when I was a kid. I can't wait to see Bionic Woman get a face lift, it may turn out as good as the new and improved Battlestar Galactica.

The other show that I am willing to watch because the Geico commercials always make laugh is Cavemen. Believe it or not, they made a sitcom about the cavemen from the commercials. Hopefully, they did not dumb down to get a larger audience and it will do well. More than likely though it will be cancelled. Remember, only one third of shows ever get to have a second season. Stay tuned, or should I say, tune in.

HBO just announced the cancellation of John From Cincinnati. Melissa and I called it.

One phrase: what the fuck!? Again, Deadwood was cancelled for this!?

It was reported in the UK's Sunday Times that Bear Grylls, the star of the Discovery Channel's Man vs. Wild television show (aka Born Survivor in the UK), stayed in hotels and at times slept in a camp with the crew without disclosing this to the audience. The story prompted the Discovery Channel to issue a statement in the Hollywood Reporter that read:

Discovery Communications has learned that isolated elements of the ‘Man vs. Wild’ show in some episodes were not natural to the environment, and that for health and safety concerns the crew and host received some survival assistance while in the field. ...Moving forward, the program will be 100% transparent and all elements of the filming will be explained upfront to our viewers. In addition, shows that are to be repeated will be edited appropriately. Bear Grylls is a world-class adventurer and a terrific talent.

I now have to disclose that my man-crush on Bear is *sigh* officially over.

The Amazing Race 12 will drop the non-elimination legs that have stripped teams of clothing and money, and most recently "marked them for elimination." Phil will finally get to say that the last team to arrive *will* be eliminated. None of this "may" crap.

Okay, am I the only one that thought John From Cincinnati was hella lame? Anyone? I know that David Milch threw in a few "cocksuckers" into the script, but is that enough for him to live down the fact that he threw in the towel on Deadwood for this!? There are nine more episodes left, let's hope that they are better than the first one.

The last few minutes of The Sopranos were filled with tension and impending certain doom. A couple of shady characters walked into the restaurant, Meadow was almost hit by a car crossing the street, and then nothing. Cut to black with no audio! Much to everyone's surprise, Tony survives the end of the series even if his future is uncertain.

David Chase mindfucked us all again by not killing Tony or any member of his family. Surely some will say it was genius and others will simply be annoyed that there were so many loose ends. Many wanted closure. But that is exactly how life is: untidy, unpredictable, and uncertain. Cut to black.

"John From Cincinnati" airs tonight after "The Sopranos" and it's gotten very few good reviews. The consensus is "HBO and David Milch gave up on 'Deadwood' for this?" Exactly. Apparently the show is confusing and filled with vague references; not very grounded in reality like, a western; and John, the title character, is simply annoying and not very engaging or charismatic.

The series is so bad that critics expect HBO subscriber defections after the series finale of "The Sopranos" tonight, since only "Big Love" and "John" are the only dramas supposed to keep people watching. Of course, there's also "Entourage," it's entertaining but may not be enough to save the network from attrition. Stay tuned.

The rumors and speculation are over. A few days ago, it was announced that Sci-Fi Channel's Battlestar Galactica will end after next season. Ending the show after next season was a decision made by the show's executive producers Ronald Moore and David Eick and not by the network. The fourth season will begin with a two-hour episode airing in November and the rest of the episodes airing in early 2008. Here's hoping that they make the last season count.

I normally don't comment on American Idol and can really care less about who wins it, but I typically watch the finale to see which stars they get to perform. Prince's performance during the last American Idol finale was awesome, although it paled in comparison to his incredible Super Bowl performance.

There was no Prince this year and nobody who could even come close to hold a candle to him. Gwen Stefani performed from another stage on her tour, so that doesn't even count! Smokey Robinson's performance was a bit muted, you can tell he doesn't have the range he used to have. The same thing could be said of Gladys Knight and Bette Midler who gave performances that were well past their prime. Their voices are gone.

Tony Bennett doesn't have the range he used to but makes up for it with pure charisma--I give him a pass for the night. The two best performances were ones that you wouldn't expect. First, I'd say that Doug E. Fresh and Blake Lewis did a good rendition of Doug E. Fresh's classic, The Show. Maybe it resonated more with me because that reminds me of my freshman year of high school.

Okay, I am old. I am also biased, but this is the Nug not CNN. This blog is like Fox News without Republicans. Or reporters for that matter. But I digress.

The second best was Green Day's performance of Lennon's Working Class Hero, which they did to protest conditions in Darfur. It was dark, edgy and included the original lyrics which include the word "fucking" and was bleeped out successfully on live feed delay. The American Idol franchise won't have to worry about going down on the count of an expletive.

All in all, it was pretty boring show apart from those two performances which I really enjoyed. Oh, and I did laugh out loud when Sanjaya sang You Really Got Me accompanied by Aerosmith's Joe Perry. WTF!? The show ran late and I didn't get to see the results live because the Tivo stopped recording. I later found that Jordin won.

CBS has renewed The Amazing Race for at least one more season. The Amazing Race 12 was listed in their 2007-2008 schedule as a mid-season returning show, which means that it will likely air in early 2008. An exact air date has not been announced. This is a change from the two seasons per year pace that The Amazing Race has been on in the last few years. Perhaps CBS has decided to air The Race only in the mid-season and will not schedule it in the fall any more.

Wikipedia has an incredible page of Amazing Race stats and trivia. Check it.

In this final episode, teams made their way from Guam to Hawaii. The last three teams left the final Pit Stop with only one hour and forty minutes separating the first place team (the Beauty Queens) and the third place team (Team Schmirna).

All three teams were supposed to be on the same connecting flight to Honolulu, but Charla & Mirna hustled to get on another connecting flight that was scheduled to land 40 minutes ahead of the other teams. It was a pretty ballsy move, considering that had they failed to board that flight, they would have almost certainly missed the second flight as well since it was at a different terminal.

In this episode, teams made their way from Macau to Guam. Team Prada was marked for elimination but missed the earlier flight to Tokyo. They got on a later flight to Tokyo hoping to make the connection. Of course, they totally made the flight to Guam despite the drama created by the producers of the show through editing. It would have been lame if they were eliminated by missing a flight!

Teams bunched up leading into the first task, but they felt safe knowing that they would have a half hour cushion as long as Team Prada did not come in first place. Team Schmirna was in last place leaving the Detour, but passed Team Prada on the way to the Roadblock because they got lost, yet again. It would have been nearly impossible for them to gain thirty minutes on Team Schmirna anyway.

In this episode, teams made their way from Hong Kong to Macau and did several tasks, including an amazing Roadblock at the Macau Tower. There were no long plane trips or airports on this leg of the race, just good old fashioned hustle to get from one place to another. Teams were at the mercy of navigational skills for this entire leg, whether their own or their taxi drivers’.

Eric & Danielle who were marked for elimination and yielded on this leg managed to miraculously make up the time. Danny & Oswald were completely screwed by their incompetent taxi driver. The taxi driver drove them to the wrong location on the Detour and the wrong park for the Pit Stop. Danny & Oswald were to blame as well. They wasted a lot of time unable to find the Dragon Detour destination on foot.

Danny & Oswald were lucky to find the last non-elimination leg. Instead they are now marked for elimination, but somehow I doubt that they will be able to run a flawless leg to get to first place. They also will not run a leg like the one Eric & Danielle just ran. Team Prada is likely to go next, but I hope it’s Team Schmirna that goes.

In this episode, teams made their way from Malaysia to Hong Kong. Kuala Lumpur to Hong Kong must be the New York to Boston connection in Southeast Asia, because most flights there were booked. Danny & Oswald hustled to get on the first flight, the Beauty Queens and the Schminas got on the second flight, and Eric & Danielle trailed three hours behind on the third flight. At this point, I thought for sure that they were gone.

Luckily for them, this was a non-elimination leg and they were able to stay in the race. The producers edited the leg to build up tension, but everybody knew that even with all of Charla & Mirna’s mistaked that Eric & Danielle were really far behind them. Still, through the magic of editing they almost made it look close. We’ll have to wait for next week to see who’ll be in the final three.

In this episode, teams made their way from Poland to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. All teams chose sensible connections through Paris except for Uchenna & Joyce which chose a connection with only a one-hour layover in Frankfurt. You would think that after hearing the horror story from the last episode that they would have shied away from the tight connection. Instead they went for it, and it cost them dearly.

Uchenna & Joyce were so far back after missing their connection that the entire episode was about the remaining four teams. I totally forgot about Uchenna & Joyce stuck in Frankfurt until the very end of the episode. At least the race organizers sent them straight to the Pit Stop after landing in Malaysia to put them out of their misery. Surely it was because Phil needed to start heading to the next Pit Stop.

As announced back in July 21, 2005, James Doohan's ashes will finally be blasted into space later this month. Apparently he'll be going up in a rocket whose sole purpose is to blast some folks into space.

I don't normally comment on American Idol, but I know feel that Sanjaya must die. Even Gwen Stefani had to make fun of him prior to his performance, exclaiming "I feel for him...it's a hard song and he chose it so good luck for him tonight!" He proceeded to sing the song so terribly that the judges were speechless at the end. He even forgot some of the words during the performance!

Omagah, he sucked soooo hard in tonight's performance. I mean, he normally sucks, but he sucked especially hard tonight. He was wearing a weird faux hawk hairdo, but that wasn't the worst of it--the singing was fucking atrocious. American Idol is still a singing competition isn't it!? America, please vote this embarrassment off the show or I will have to boycott watching it.

The crew of a television show in St. Louis, filmed a segment on eagles but had technical difficulties with their wireless microphone set. Most of the filmed footage was unusable, as the questions posed to Aileesha Breedlove, the African-American woman wiping a tear in the segment, were inaudible. This hilarious video with a South Park style song is what they came up with to try and salvage the segment. It took them about four hours to do it from concept to finish. Oh, and it actually aired. Rock on. Via BoingBoing.

I am very happy to say that my new TV arrived earlier today. However, the delivery wasn't without a bit of drama. Upon the TV's arrival, the driver informed me that "inside delivery" means inside the building structure not inside our home. This was a bit of a problem since there was no way that I could carry it up four flights of stairs on my own with the cast on my wrist.

I stood downstairs with the TV until I could call some reinforcements. I had called my friend Chris to help me but before he could arrive my neighbor helped me get the TV up the the stairs and my housekeeper's husband helped me by taking the old TV off the TV stand and placing the new one in its place.

Thanks to the help and generosity of these people I am watching TV as we speak (or type). Or, as I like to call it, "establishing an emotional bond my new friend."

Guess what I still don't have--wait for it--that's right, a TV. And adding insult to injury I just found out that this Tuesday will be a special two-hour Amazing Race 7 episode. Okay, so I got a chance to catch up on posting photos and shit, but c'mon! Two weeks is way to long to be without. Yes, I admit it, I am addicted to TV. There, I said it.

No television isn't dead as a medium, but mine is. My trusty 1993 27" Sony Trinitron Flat Panel CRT died last night as Melissa watched Oprah and Dr. Phil off the TiVo. According to the eyewitness account, in its final moments the TV snapped, crackled, and popped for a second or two and that was it, it was dead. Today I ordered a new TV, but it won't be here for about a week or so. These things are so heavy that they only ship ground apparently. I also got a good deal for it too, much cheaper than the price at the Sony store at the Metreon. Still, waiting a week or more with no TV sucks for me.

Fred Berry, the actor that played Rerun in the 1970's sitcom What's Happenning, died in Alabama at the age of 52. One of my favorite TV skits always happened on this show. Raj, Rerun, and Dwayne would always try to garner sympathy from people by lying about Raj's mom being sick. They would tap each other as a prompt to say "Poor Mrs. Thomas," eventually even tapping their intended victim. My best friend and I decided years ago that if we ever started a band it would be called "Poor Mrs. Thomas" as a tribute to this show. Homie will be missed.

It seems that after years of denial, the producers of Friends will finally admit that black people do live in Manhattan. A black actress named Aisha Tyler will become a regular character on the show this season. Great, that only took what, nine years. Could the wheels of progress move any slower!? Screw 'em, I was done with this unrealistic show three years ago. Besides, the best NBC comedy is Scrubs.

President Bush is obsessed with Saddam Hussein while the rest of America is enthralled with Reality TV, including me. The evening news and local newspapers are runnning stories about The Bachelorette and Joe Millionaire. Water cooler conversations at most places are centered more around Trista and Joe than the pending war with Iraq. Just today we figured out that among the staff at my office we have almost every reality show covered--except for the Star Search remake--that just sucks.

You want reality TV!? Dan Rather's interview with Saddam Hussein was very real, albeit subdued. Hussein did not appear to be a raving lunatic and never tripped on Rather. In fact, he was very articulate and calm. He mentioned he wanted a peaceful resolution to this whole crisis! Bush, are you listening!? I think the President is watching Reality TV too.

So as a nation we wait for the start of the war with Iraq with as much anticipation as The Amazing Race 4 premier. We have no control as to when either one will start, so until then, we'll just hope Star Search is cancelled.b

I was raised as a typical 80s latch key kid in Southern California. Needless to say, I watched a lot of television as advertisers were discovering television as a medium to promote commercialism during an era of rampant inflation and Reaganomics.

As I watched Voltron and Scooby Doo, the most memorable commercial jingle of the time was "Pete Ellis Dodge, Long Beach Freeway, Firestone Exit, Southgate." It haunts me to this very day, "and that's the truth." Pete Ellis did really well from these commercials--he eventually founded Autobytel.com.

Cal Worthington also had great commercials in which he came out with a circus animal and was introduced by the announcer as "Cal Worthington and his dog, spot. If you need a car or truck go see Cal." The commercials also would say "pussy cow" instead of "go see Cal" sometimes to make the commercials more memmorable--it worked. I would hear the jingle and laugh like Beavis and Butthead uncontrollably, "Huh, huh, huh, he said pussy." Those were the days.

Does anyone else remember these commercials at random as they go about their their daily lives--or is it just me?

"But, I have the Internet for daily news. I don't need a TV."

Maybe if you keep saying it over and over again you'll believe it yourself. The truth is the Internet will not replace the TV anytime soon. After 9/11 for example, people flocked to TV to get the information about the event in graphic and shocking detail. It's funny how the people that don't have TV's think that they don't need it. But the truth is that deep down inside, when they are alone, and there is no one else around--they yearn for TV. This becomes painfully obvious when they visit their friends' homes and feel the warmth of the remote on their frail and longing hands. They are so thrilled with the channels, the images, the sound that they sometimes drool and, inevitably, drop the remote.

Our society uses images and sound to communicate, and until there is another alternative, the TV is where it's at.