Tuesday, April 15, 2014

The TV MegaSite's Blog Post #118


  • April 6

There was no "Mentalist" this week -- too bad!

We watched "Family Guy" (one of the few shows my husband will watch any more, besides sports and news) and it was pretty funny... especially the part where they were making fun of the way people treat soldiers, but there were LOTS of great jokes in the episode. I could have done without the gross herpes stuff, though.

"Once Upon a Time" was as enjoyable as usual. Check out the link to the left because we have a new section of our site devoted to that show! Also Perception and Person of Interest.

"Turn" recorded on my DVR, but I haven't watched it yet. Maybe tomorrow.

I spent a lot of time this evening watching General Hospital and The Bold & The Beautiful, to make more room on my DVR. I enjoy both shows, but B&B is still too repetitive and is slow to get around to things. I know a lot of people complain about them making Aly crazy, but they did use good history to do it, like showing the clips from back when her mom died, how she tore up Taylor's wedding dress.  The actress who plays her does a great job, too.  Right now I'm on the early February episodes, slowly catching up!

I really hated seeing Robin leave, and it was stupid the way they did it because they never said why she couldn't keep in touch with her family. In this day and age, with the technology they have, and especially with the wealth of the Cassadines, they could easily have Robin calling and Skyping all the time, and them flying back and forth. I understand the actress is going to be gone, but why not just say that all of that is taking place off-screen? Or they could easily have filmed a few scenes of her ahead of time, Skyping with Emma. It makes no sense that Robin would run off to help them, even if Jason's life is at stake. It is not at all in her character to do that to her family.  Not even to mention that she should have told Anna and they could have come up with a way for her to infiltrate the Cassadine's lair and rescue Jason from them, so she wouldn't have to leave. I mean, apparently it's not even a "lair" but just the same hospital that Silas' wife was being kept in? In New York City? So Robin is in the same state, which makes it even easier for her to go back and forth. Just ridiculous.  The writers really think that we're idiots. I really love the actors and SOME of the writing, otherwise I'd just give up watching GH in protest of how stupid the show is. Even though I've watched since 1984.

  • April 7

I didn't send out my newsletter scoops this morning... so sorry. I have been trying to change my sleep schedule, so it's always veriable, and I didn't get up early enough today to do them like I'd wanted. Definitely will have them next week! Don't forget that you can always read the soap spoilers/scoops by going to our page http://tvmegasite.net/day/news2.shtml  Those are the links I use, anyway...

I'm on Facebook a lot (too much, really!). There's this group I sometimes go on, for the Microsoft program Expression Web.  For our site, we use Microsoft Frontpage, which is an old program that they don't make any more. The last version was in 2003, I believe. A lot of people hate that program (but then again, a lot of people hate Microsoft, too) but I like it because it's very easy to use. It's a lot like Word, but it just has a few more added things to use.  After they stopped making it, they came out with Expression Web.  Unfortunately, in order for me to have volunteers who work directly on our site, they have to use MS Frontpage or Expression Web.  Frontpage uses something called Server Extensions that let it do all these great things I like.  If you tried to use some other program to access our site to edit it, it would really mess up the server extensions. At least that's what my webhost guy tells me! Anyway, Expression Web can be used as well on my site. I tried that program but I don't really like it. I'm not keen on using new software, even if it's somewhat similar to the old one.  I got a new laptop with Windows 8 a few months ago, and let's put it this way, it was tough at first, going from XP to 8.  I'm not one of those people who thinks it's too hard and wants to upgrade to 8.1 so I can have the start button back. Pfft. That's silly. There's a start menu on the Charms Bar so that's fine.  Using programs like MS Paint was hard at first because the menus are very different and it has a lot more features than the old version. But eventually I learn them and like them if I have to. I was worried that by upgrading to Windows 8, my new laptop might not run Frontpage, but it does. Anyway, this is all a rather long-winded way of explaining why I'm on this particular Facebook group.

So anyway, this one guy said something about my site, but I didn't understand what he was saying. He's a bit hard to understand, at least for me. So I asked him what he meant and eventually he answered... and I still didn't really know what he meant. I think now I get that he's making suggestions about how my site could make more money etc.  Thing is, people are always making these suggestions... I don't mind ANY suggestions, and I appreciate them, but a lot of people seem to think that somehow I'm being rude if I don't run with their ideas. I mean, first of all, my site has been around since the 90's, so I've thought of most of the ideas that people come up with, or one of my volunteers has. If I don't use that idea, there's a good reason. Either it's not something I want to do, or it would require more time or money than I have, to do it.  The thing is, although I wouldn't MIND making more money with my site, it's not my main goal. My main goal is to have a site that people come to because they're looking for information about TV. I want it to be a good resource. That's all! It's my legacy. I work on it full-time and many other people have worked on it full- or part-time, for over 20 years. It's a grand collaboration between TV fans, for other TV fans.  It's a smaller-scale version of IMDB or Wikipedia. If I had more money or more volunteers, I would make it as great as those sites. I can't, though, so we just do what we can...  the ad money we do get is pretty good. It pays for the site's hosting and other expenses. That's fine with me! I don't need to draw a salary. Sure, it would be nice if it made more money, if we could all get rich from it. I would love to have the money to travel to all of the fan conventions for the TV shows, like Comic-Con in my hometown of San Diego, or the GH Weekend in L.A. etc. Those are fun, and I could get great photos and videos, and more interviews.  But I'm not going to sacrifice the rest of my site or force my current readers to pay for content (which they probably wouldn't, anyway), in order to do that. I would love to take off the ads all together, but then I'd have to pay for everything myself, which I'd rather not do... So unless some rich guy out there would like to buy the site from me (and it would take quite a lot) or invest in my site...it is what it is.

Of course we're always looking to grow and improve the site! That's why, besides keeping up with most of the things we already do every week - news, spoilers, appearances, transcripts, updates, recaps, Best lines and more - we're also building new pages for newer shows, and putting the newer design on our older pages. These are the things we do, all of the time. And when I saw "we" I mean, myself, Gisele, and all of of our great volunteers! We have a lot of people who work on our site, and we're so grateful for them. If you see a name on the site that's not mine, then it should have one of their names. We always need more people, though, so please email me suzanne@tvmegasite.net if you can help out! Even an hour a week would be a great help. Here's the list of volunteer jobs we have available.

What I would MOST like help with is our primetime news forum and pages because I spend so much time on them and still always have more to do, and I can't say I really enjoy most of that, but it needs to be done... I would rather spend my time putting the newer design on all of our pages, and building pages for new shows etc.

Today I've been working on our monthly giveaway page, so please do make sure to enter every month to win a DVD or other prizes!

Wow, tonight's "Bones" was a fantastic episode about marijuana. I love that they sometimes tackle controversial subjects.

Tonight I was also watching a lot of the "The Bold & The Beautiful" episodes from the past month. It's weird because Ridge is being played by Thorsten Kaye, so he's very different. It helps when he says, "I've changed", that's for sure.

I watched "TURN" and it was really good. I don't have time to watch any more shows regularly! Gack!

  • April 8

This morning, I interviewed the executive producer of "Kitchen Nightmares". I think he kind of thought I implied something that I didn't, but hopefully it was ok :) I've never seen the show before, but I saw the episode this week where they go back to this awful place in Sedona that they went to last year. Crazy people! I don't watch reality shows, but it was fun to hear about them on this call. What struck me as very weird is that people actually go there to see the place, even though they know now that the place has terrible service and lousy food, with long wait times. Why would you go there to eat?? LOL!!!

  • April 9

I interviewed Billy Bob Thornton this morning about his new show "Fargo". It was great to talk to him, and he couldn't have been more nice or normal on the phone with all of us. He's probably the most famous person I've ever interviewed, but I guess fame does depend on things like your age, how much TV you watch, whether you go to movies, etc. He's the 4th Oscar winner I've interviewed, but unlike the others, he won for writing, not acting, even though he starred in "Sling Blade" as well as wrote it. He's really great in "Fargo".

I watched NCIS, and it was mostly a good episode, but I didn't like when Gibbs tortured a suspect (somewhat - he was in the hospital and he poked the guy, who's just had knee surgery, in the knee).  Even worse, it turned out he wasn't the guy they were looking for. Did we see Gibbs apologize to the guy? NO, of course not. I believe one of Gibb's rules is "never apologize".  Still, I hate when TV shows have police abusing their power like that.

I tried to find a website that measures or quantifies fame, or ranks the most famous people, but I couldn't. I think that's very odd!

"Hot in Cleveland" has been great this season! So funny. It was great to see Craig Ferguson on this week's episode. I used to love him on "The Drew Carey Show" years ago.

"CSI" this week was just gross...all about cannibals.  "Law & Order: SVU" wasn't much better. I hope they're done with abusing Liv. I don't like seeing torture and abuse.

  • April 10

This morning I interviewed Martin Freeman, who will also be starring in the new "Fargo" series (which is great, by the way). You may know him from "Sherlock" where he plays Dr. Watson, or from the Hobbit movies, where he plays Bilbo! That was very exciting and he was also very very nice.  He sounded like just your average British bloke.

Later on, I interviewed Costa Ronin, the handsome guy who plays the Russian Oleg in "The Americans", also on FX. He has a Russian accent, so I hope I'm able to transcribe it properly. I had a one-on-one interview with him, so I got to ask him many questions. You can read all of these interviews (except for Ronin's, which I haven't yet transcribed) on our Primetime Articles Page.

Luke is still acting weird on GH, I see. I wonder if he's really Bill Eckert? Luke mentioned "The Outback" as if that was still around on the show, like it was in the early 90's. Bill Eckert, played by the same actor who plays Luke, and supposedly his cousin but looks a lot like him, died, but as we know, most people come back to life on GH. They would have to somehow have messed with his brain, though, because Bill was a nice guy. Also, it makes no sense that he hates Sonny, who was not yet around then... it will be interesting to see who is really masquerading as Luke or if someone has messed with Luke's head.

Wow, pretty surprising that Stephen Colbert is going to be taking over for Letterman. I hope he'll still be funny!

"Big Bang Theory" and "Two and a Half Men" always make me laugh, and this week's episodes were great. It was great seeing Mila Kunis, too! I really don't watch any other live action network comedies. Most of them are not very funny.

  • April 11

I'm very glad that "Unforgettable" is back! CBS has not really given the show much of an audience, constantly pulling it off the air... I really enjoy it.

Bill Maher's Real Time on HBO was great as always.

Today I got the last two episodes of "Warehouse 13" in the mail...boo hoo!! I hate to watch it because then the show will be over.

I had a lot of family stuff to do today...it was fun but put me further behind on this week's work!

  • April 12

I have a bunch of interview transcripts and reviews to put up this weekend..Check out this week's news and schedule!

I don't know when I'll be able to catch up on "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." since I just found out that the latest Captain America movie affects that show! I don't know when I'll see the movie, so...

I updated my "What I Watch" Page so you can see what I watch, what I recommend, etc. 

Have a great week, everyone!