The TV MegaSite's Blog Post #86

I hope everyone had a nice Halloween! I can't believe it's already November, even though it's getting cold outside.

The site is doing fine, just like always. We could make more money, and I could get some more volunteers....but otherwise we're doing fine. I have all of our great volunteers to thank!

It is taking me a long time to put the site's new design on all the pages, and I apologize for that. There are just so many things to do and not enough time to do them all! I try to concentrate more on content than design.

In the new design, which is the one you see on our main page (aqua, yellow and orange), I use these buttons instead of the drop down menu. I was trying to make our pages faster to load and easier to use. I'm not sure if I accomplished that or not. I don't mean to make excuses, but I am not a professional web designer in any way that matters, and I have to get by on my very limited skills.

We have lots of ads, and I hate to have them, but they pay for the site's basic costs, so they are necessary. They pay less and less, unfortunately...we are all hoping that the economy gets better, aren't we!

One of the best advertising networks I use is Kontera. They have text-linked ads, so they are not intrusive and slow-to-load like so many others. They don't even take up any extra room on my page. The technology on my end is so simple. I just have to put in a little coding in the pages, and that's it. I wish they paid me more, but they don't pay too badly compared to the others. I am glad I signed up with them. If you have a good website, you should sign up with them, too. Visit their website. If you are on our site, please make sure you click on all of the ads because they make money for our site! The more money we have, the more I can pay the bills and keep bringing you great TV stuff.

I was thinking the other day about "success". Many people measure success by money, and that's a fair thing to do. Right now I have other types of success on my site, even though money is not something I am successful with, in most ways. For instance, the TV networks and companies send me tons of free stuff, especially DVD's. They do this so I can review them on our site and give them away in our monthly contest. I get a big kick out of this. Heck, who doesn't like getting free stuff? And I am a big DVD collector, big TV and movie watcher, so it is great getting DVD's I would have paid for anyway.

I was very happy this past month to get free copies of the entire Monk set and the entire Nip/Tuck series, among many others. FX and Lifetime have been sending me a lot of DVD's of their upcoming shows and movies to watch. I got hooked on Terriers on FX because of this, in fact! Great show! FOX and USA let me watch shows in advance right on their websites. It's so cool. As a TV geek, it really thrills me.

Another big perk to my site is that I get lots of interviews with TV celebrities. I was so thrilled last week to get to talk to the stars of "Men of a Certain Age", especially Scott Bakula. I have been a big fan of his for many years and watched all of Quantum Leap when it aired, as well as his other shows. I even have some of his singing on my iTunes. This month I also get to talk to Patty Duke, and the stars of "Psych", and Sean Bean, to name just a few! It's just awesome to get to talk to TV celebrities, as well as use their interviews for my site. New content is always awesome to have!

Also, the networks send me tons of emails with information for their shows, so we put it up on our primetime forum and our news page every single day. I get more and more all the time, plus I do go to thefutoncritic.com and also to the networks' press release pages, and our volunteer Danielle scours the web for still more news.

Then again, there is a drawback to all these things because it means I have to spend time watching tons of DVD's, doing interviews, and putting up news. And being a night person, it is not always easy to set my alarm and get up early to have a phone call, even if it is to a famous person! And this means I have less time to spend on writing other things for my site (or putting the new design on the pages).

So it's funny because in some ways it means the site is very successful, but then again I'm getting less money as I used to, since the site relies on ads. And as fewer and fewer people watch TV, that means fewer visitors to my site, too. So you be the judge, am I successful or not? LOL!!!

I have been really trying to prioritize lately and write the daily soap updates as we need them. It just takes so much work, energy, and time to do these. Of course we also have shorter recaps that our volunteers write, and some of them also write the updates, not just me.

Sometimes we are more successful (there's that word again) than others. I will keep trying! I know people love to read our detailed soap updates.

I am still enjoying Outlaw on the weekends...such a shame that NBC canceled it. My favorite show is still "Dexter", loving it!! That one, and Men of a Certain Age, and Smallville....all my favorites. I don't really know how I will live next year without Smallville and Supernatural. Both shows have just been on fire this year.

I haven't had a lot of time to watch the other shows, but I try to keep up...Brothers and Sisters is always good. Not sure if they have jumped the shark yet or not. I don't like all the changes.

South Park has long ago jumped the shark. What were they thinking with this new three part episode with Coon & Friends? It is so bad, not funny at all. I love the Kenny aspect but...it's a comedy, guys, it needs to be funny!

Check out my weekly Daytime Articles about why the soaps need better writing...

Please click "like" on Facebook, on my comment and link on this page and I might win $100! http://tinyurl.com/36jrdju The money goes to the site, not me....thanks!

Later!

The TV MegaSite's Blog Post #85

Things have going about the same with our site...we have a couple of new volunteers that will hopefully help us improve some of our sections. It's so hard to find enough people to help. I have been trying to write some of the daily soap updates, but it's been hard. The Fall allergies have been killing me, making me just want to sleep all the time. Ugh!

As most of you know, I watch a lot of TV. I love TV. I like characters, and good writing, and drama, and laughing, and good acting, and action. With a movie, it is over in two hours, and I don't know if I will love it or hate it. If I love it, it's over, and that's disappointing. With a good TV show, I know it may come back next week. Having a show week after week also means there is a lot of time for them to work on character development and have long stories that are complex.

There is so much good TV out there now, and so many channels, that it's impossible for me to keep up with them all (that's sad). Some shows I know I would probably love if I watched them, like Desperate Housewives. I hope to one day catch up with them on DVD, but the likelihood of doing that is not very good. I already have tons of DVD's that I don't have time to watch!

Every year, they come out with more shows I like. Some I like more than others, of course, so I try to only pick one or two of the best ones. I am a sucker for anything having to do with superheroes or science fiction, especially.

This summer I watched a lot of great shows on cable. There are still some great ones out there, like Terriers on FX. This one I have to watch online because DISH Network no longer shows FX (bummer). It is really good, though, so I will go out of my way to watch it.

I really love this year's Outlaw, but unfortunately, it looks like they are canceling it. This does not make me want to watch more NBC shows, even though I do like Law & Order: LA and The Event. I am still upset about last year's shows that got canceled, like Dollhouse and Heroes and the original Law & Order. I try not to hold a grudge, but it's hard. Blue Bloods on CBS is also good, as is Detroit 1-8-7 on ABC. I also like Nikita and $#*! My Dad Says, among others. I still have my old faves like Medium, Bones, Fringe, Glee, Supernatural, Brothers and Siseters, et al.

I tend to watch shows with actors I like, even though sometimes the shows are not so good. I really like that actor who stars in Hawaii 5-0, but his show didn't wow me. It is a good solid drama, but I watch a lot of those already. Same with Rob Morrow, whom I love-- not loving his new show "Whole Truth". But please judge it on your own. I only saw the first episodes of these shows.

I don't know why I still watch Criminal Minds. I started watching it for Shemar Moore, so I guess that's why I still watch it. I really miss Mandy Patinkin, though. The show really hasn't been as good since he left (well, in truth, it started sucking before that). I don't know, it just seems to revel in the violence and grossness, and it makes me feel like taking a shower sometimes. I think people watch it for voyeurism reasons (same with SVU). I did laugh out loud at the episode a few weeks ago when they had the serial killer whose son took over his murdering to jog his memory since he had Alzheimer's. I think it was supposed to be sad, not funny, but it was hilarious to me, especially when he peed his pants. Some things are so bad they're funny.

Same with NCIS--it is really mediocre. Sometimes it makes me laugh. I like the characters, and the actors. I am a big fan of hunky actors Mark Harmon, Michael Weatherly, and David McCallum. That's why I don't watch the other NCIS. It is ok, but the people on there just don't grab me the same way. I do like all of the CSI shows, and the writing on them is solid. Even though, the original CSI is not the same without Grissom.

I wonder how many of these shows I would still watch if I didn't have a DVR? I remember the old days when I had to actually choose each hour which show to watch or tape. Or even before I could tape. If you went out, you missed your show. Yikes! I'm sure the networks would like to go back to those days because they don't want you to record their shows. They want you to watch them live. I wonder if they don't realize that even before that, we used to go to the bathroom during commercials, or get a snack, or talk, or just plain tuned them out? I know that I sure couldn't sit still during a TV show nowadays and watch the commercials. For the most part, I can't even just sit and watch a TV show, I have to be doing something else, like surfing the web or looking through a catalog, or playing with the dog-- something! Most of them are not so good that they hold me rapt with attention.

Family Guy, American Dad, South Park, The Simpsons - none of these shows are as funny as they used to be. The Simpsons and Family Guy have their moments. House is not as good, either, but still worth watching. I will watch as long as he is still funny. I do think that there some good comedies, like Two and a Half Men and 30 Rock. Humor is something that you can't really define and it's hard to imagine why some people think something is funny and someone else doesn't. I didn't laugh at Community or How I Met Your Mother or The Office or Modern Family, but they all have lots of fans. I guess I am somewhat pickier when it comes to comedies because I wouldn't sit through one that was as mediocre as some of the dramas I watch. I have to laugh, or what's the point?

My favorite show is still Dexter. I am loving that, as always. I wonder why all TV shows can't be as well-written as that one? Smallville is another one of my favorites. I can't help that - anything to do with Superman is my favorite. It's been really great this season. I am thrilled every time I see him fly (or attempt to fly) or bring out the costume, or anything like that. Last week's episode was great, especially at the end when he and Lois were dancing and he flew a little. I have to admit I am not the biggest fan of this Lois, but I am resigned to her now. I tried watching Ordinary Heroes but it does not really grab me. I do really love The Mentalist...that one is great!!

The TV MegaSite's Blog Post #84

In case you're wondering, here is mostly what I do on my site (in my job).

The networks TV send me tons of stuff. They send me news and info every day, and some I get on other websites. I forward a lot of it to my volunteer Danielle, who posts it on our Primetime Forum.

I condense it a little and put it on our Primetime News Page. You'd be surprised how much time this all takes.

We have lots of soap opera daily summaries, and we never have enough people to write them, so if I have time, I write them myself.

We have daily transcripts for all the soaps, so I run a lot of those on my computer (it grabs the closed-captioning from the shows):

I also do emails and stuff dealing with volunteers and other things.

Warner Brothers, Universal, and various networks send me tons of DVD's to review, so when I have time (Ha!) I watch those and write reviews.
I also try to watch all the new shows at least once (not reality shows for the most part) and post the reviews there, too.

On Sunday nights, I usually collect news and spoilers for the soaps and post it in various newsletters on Yahoo groups (that people have signed up for) and on our forums.

Also on the weekend, I go to a page that lists all the talk show appearances for the week and look for actors I recognize so I can post that info on our site. Like for instance if William Shatner were appearing on Jay Leno, I'd post that on our Star Trek Appearances Page. I also look for appearances in other places like press releases, magazines, and Twitter.

Once a month, I choose winners for our DVD giveaway and also add any new DVD's they send me when I have extras.

Sometimes the networks offer me interviews with the actors or producers, and so I have to come up with questions, and write it up. I put those up on our Primetime Articles Page.

I have other stuff I do, too, whenever I can fit it in, but that is the most of it.

Oh, and every time I work on our site, I post it on the What's New Page so people can see what the latest stuff is:

This is why I'm always way too busy :)

Of course, the site has other volunteers who run transcripts, write updates or articles, or write interviews or reviews, too. Most of them do not do it full time like I do, though. Only Gisele, who helps me run the site. She works on all the daytime stuff. I don't know what I'd do without her!

The TV MegaSite's Blog Post #83

I hope you have enjoyed your summer! I can't believe the new fall TV season is already here.

We have all still been working on our site and trying to make it good. Even with a good economy, it's tough to find people willing to donate much time to the site! And we get less and less ad revenue - but I guess that's just the Web in general right now. Well, don't worry because either way, we will continue to work on the site. It started out as a hobby, so even if I never make any money on it again, I will still keep going on it. You have my word on that! Unless I get bored, but I doubt that will happen, ha ha!! The site has been around, in some form or another, since 1996, so if I haven't lost interest by now...

We have some new volunteers writing our episode guides for The OC and some other shows (some new ones to come).

Even though As The World Turns is almost over, we still have volunteers working on that section of our site. I know a lot of people are very sad that it's ending.

Soaps are dying, and it's due in part to the bad writing. The people in charge (or The Idiots in Charge, TIIC for short, as some fans call them) have not done a thing to improve the writing. I guess they think soap fans are stupid and will watch whatever crap they throw up there. It's very sad that an entire genre has to die because of their short-sightedness. They may claim that it's because of low budgets, or housewives working, or whatever their latest excuse is, but the proof that they are wrong is cable TV. People tune in to watch shows like "Mad Men", even though they never watched that network before. People watch that and other shows on iTunes. That's because they are GOOD SHOWS! They have great writing and acting. If soaps were that good, people would go out of their way to watch, too.

Even the worst primetime or cable drama is better than ANY daytime soap right now. It's very sad. Everything on soaps is completely predictable, boring, or stupid. You can't have constant violence, or people acting dumb, or doing things that no normal adult would do, and use the same tried plot devices over and over for 20 years, and expect people to keep tuning in! It's a crime that the people in charge of daytime or these shows even still have jobs. So don't believe what you read - the people killing the soaps are the executives in charge of daytime, and the executive producers of each show, and their writers - not the viewers.

One reason that people like soap operas, besides the romance or whatever, is that they are CONTINUING dramas. Even now, they rarely get canceled. That is why we keep watching, even when the shows get very bad. We are hooked on them. So imagine how horrific it is to watch them slowly wither and die.

On to a lighter note...summer TV is fantastic this year. You know, it used to be, back in the "olden days" (20 years ago and more) that in the summer they would have mostly reruns, and maybe the occasional variety show. I guess they thought people were out doing stuff instead of watching TV. That hasn't been the case for a while, and now the summer brings TONS of new programming, on both regular and cable TV. There is so much of it that it's hard to keep track! They don't have a nice neat "summer season" with a schedule like they do for the fall.

In fact, I tried to find out about the various shows at the start of the summer, and it took a good deal of research! I hope they fix that in the coming years. I know people like to complain that there isn't anything to watch in the summer, but that just isn't true.

This summer I watched Burn Notice, Royal Pains, Memphis Beat, Rizzoli and Isles, Dark Blue, Eureka, Haven, True Blood, Mad Men, Covert Affairs, The Gates, Being Human and White Collar...and there were certainly many other fiction shows you could watch, not to mention non-fiction! And not to mention daytime TV, if you are a fan.

I have to admit that I have also been catching up on some of the shows from the Spring...I tend to fall behind. Right now, as I type this, I'm watching episodes of "Happy Town". I enjoy this show, but I have a feeling that it won't be back (I have the same feeling about "The Gates", but I hope I'm wrong on both counts!).

Nowadays it doesn't pay to get too attached to shows because they don't seem to last long. Even the soaps!

What show's return are you looking forward to this season?

The TV MegaSite's Blog Post #82

Yikes, I can't believe it has been almost 4 months since I posted! So sorry.

In my defense, we are moving soon, so I've had a lot to do!

I have been putting the new design up on our pages. It is tedious work but has to be done. I am starting with current shows. I just finished Bold & Beautiful and have started on Days of Our Lives. Then later I will come back and finish the shows that are no longer on the air, and all the sub-pages.

There is always too much to do! We have about 50 volunteers on our site, so they work hard every day.

Recently I added a lot of pages for current primetime TV shows. So far most of them just have one single page, but I am gradually adding more. I hope you enjoy them!

Lately I have been watching the soaps a little more. I had to take a break from them for a while. I just had too much primetime to watch and not enough time for everything. I'm sure every TV fan feels the same way.

I have seen a few episodes of All My Children, One Life to Live, Bold & Beautiful, and Young & The Restless. They are ok. My favorite is still General Hospital. God knows why! :) I do love Dante, though. Most of them I have watched so I can write updates for our site, General Hospital I have just been watching for fun.

It's sad that the daytime soaps are dying. I mean, all of TV is not doing so well, except maybe cable. If only they would get better and more creative writers, I think they could really save the soaps, or at least some of them. In fact, if one of the networks were smart, they would wait until almost all of the soaps were dead and then come out with a brand new one that totally breaks the mold and is innovative, fun, and great, yet still has the things we like about soaps. All of the soap fans longing for their old soaps would probably love it.

We really need more updates writers for the shows...I have been lazy about posting for more help, too. I need to get on that! I sure can't write them all myself.

Some of my favorite shows had their characters all break up at the end of the season. They are similar shows: Bones, Castle and The Mentalist. Too sad!

I really didn't like the CSI season finale. I hope that Ray survives. It was a very good episode, though. I just don't think he would have turned his back on the guy, that close to the bars...he's not stupid!

CSI Miami has been great this season. I wasn't really surprised, though, that the Stetler guy was the thief (was ANYONE surprised by that??). The most shocking ending, though, came from CSI: NY. I sure hope they don't kill off either Danny or Lindsay.

Criminal Minds also had a shocker of an ending. They created some great characters, which seemed like a good episode for a spin-off, then they killed one of them off! Eric Close is great, so I hated to see that. If they make him survive somehow, it will be kind of unbelievable since he was shot point blank. Tim Curry was awesome as always. I hope Eric Close gets a new show to star in. I miss him!

I am very bummed that they canceled some of my favorite shows, especially Heroes and FlashForward. Heroes was flawed, but I still always enjoyed it. The CW should buy it and pair it with Smallville. That would be awesome. I wish they hadn't canceled Trauma, Cold Case, Numb3rs, and the forgotten, either. Dollhouse they canceled a ways back, but that one was most heart-breaking for me. Great show. Too good for TV, I guess. They should have put it on FX instead of FOX. They could have been a lot more daring on there with it.

I was really shocked that they canceled Ghost Whisperer but kept Medium. Grateful, though. I think some of these cancellations have to do with big salaries, but who knows.

Now they have a Summer TV season, which is great for us TV addicts. USA is showing Burn Notice and Royal Pains again, and they have a bunch of other new shows coming up as well. Drop Dead Diva returned tonight on Lifetime. I didn't use to watch that, but I have been catching up with it online. It's a great show, especially for women. Fun legal comedy/fantasy, a little like Ally McBeal.

Doctor Who is back, with a new doctor. I still watch and enjoy the show, but the writing is not as good as it was, and I don't like the new doctor nearly as much as David Tennant. He was awesomely good.

I can't wait for the return of True Blood and Mad Men!

I am still catching up on many primetime shows from this spring, including Glee, Flashforward, V, Vampire Diaries and much more.

Stargate Universe has been great! A much better show than it started out to be.

Enjoy your summer, but don't forget to check out all the great new shows!

The TV MegaSite's Blog Post #81

Our site really needs more volunteers! Please email me if you are interested in helping out. It used to be much easier to get them...I don't know why! No help is too small...as long as you are polite and reliable :)

We have a lot of great news, interviews, recaps...so much stuff I can't even begin to mention it. You can see the latest on our What's New page. We list the past week or so on there.

I have been putting our new design on our All My Children Pages. Almost finished with that section!

Check us out on Twitter!

Lately has been crazy, I've had like 4-5 TV celebrity interviews every week. That is not normal for me. It's been so great! I was so nervous last week when I got to interview Ben McKenzie, who stars in Southland. He also starred on The OC and is of course so gorgeous! Southland is an awesome show on TNT. It was on NBC last spring and they did renew it...but then when they decided to put on five nights of Jay Leno (what a great idea that was!), they canceled it, even though they had already produced 6 new episodes. Luckily, TNT grabbed it and are showing them. Watch it and you won't be sorry. It's a very realistic and exciting cop show. Ben was very nice, so quiet and not at all conceited.

We have had the interviews through FOX for a while, but now I'm getting them from a lot of the cable nets as well, and a few from CBS, and possible one this week from ABC...cross your fingers for me! This week I get to speak with Simon from American Idol. What should I ask? I have no clue. Also the creators of Burn Notice and White Notice, and possibly two of the contestants from The Bachlor. So exciting!

The nets also send me tons of news in email, plus I get some from their sites. I have been trying to be good about remembering to put them up right away and also sending them to Danielle to put up on our Primetime Forum. She puts up the full story, and I just put a blurb on our news page and then link to the forum. She puts tons and tons of other TV news on there as well.

Juanita has been tireless in putting up screencaps for each of our daytime soaps. It is really easy to do but she needs more help!

Carrie has been really good about writing our 24 recaps for this season!

All of our writers are awesome. We just need more!

I was out of town last week, so when we got home on Sunday, I had to catch up on watching my primetime shows. So many great shows last week. CSI: New York had a bunch of good guest stars, many from soaps like Antonio Sabato Jr. It was racetrack-theme, so Danica Patrick was also a guest-star. She's about as good of an actress as she is a driver. It was fun seeing Stella and Mac in cars at the end!

Of course Supernatural is one of my favorite shows, and it was so good...I love it when Dean was faced with Famine and he said, "So basically you just make people coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs?" LOL. Even when the show is at its darkest, they always make good jokes. I don't like episodes where someone is eating in a gross way, though, and this episode had lots of that!

The Mentalist - awesome as ever. Great to see Cho go all Rambo on everyone.

Smallville is just on fire this year. This week's episode was no different. Nice to see Chloe having a good time, poor, sweet, Chloe. Then she gets her heart crushed again. That kid they cast as the adult version of the superhero was great. He was kind of cute and also creepy, reminded me of that guy Charlie X on Star Trek years ago. So cool that Clark got his costumed designed at the end. Maybe they will use it regularly next year!! Please please please! And flying!

And yes, both Supernatural and Smallville will be back next year, so I am in BLISS!

Family Guy was so hilarious this past Sunday...it still shocks me some of the things they say on there...but of course it also makes me laugh. American Dad is always so-so (but we did laugh at the Canadian/Mexican accent on the Stan Cyborg). We stopped watching the Cleveland Show, it just wasn't funny. Simpsons is okay...

I have so many other shows to catch up on, like Past Life on FOX!

Until next time!

The TV MegaSite's Blog Post #80

Yay, post #80! If you haven't noticed, I've been trying to write here more often. I hope you enjoy it!

The reason I started The TV MegaSite is my life-long love of TV. I do have a college degree, but it is not in media or anything related to TV. However, I have watched quite a lot of TV since the 1960's, and I read a lot about it in magazines, books, and on the web, so in some ways I am kind of an expert. I do not pretend to have any kind of insider's view of the TV industry because I have never worked in it. I am just a fan, but a knowledgeable one. Just to let you know!

I used to subscribe to TV Guide all through the 70's and through the 90's. I now subscribe to Entertainment Weekly, Soap Opera Digest, and Soap Opera Weekly, as well as Time and Newsweek. I do not really do gossip or care about celebrity lives. I only care about TV (and some movies), and to some extent, the actors on the TV.

I have been so lucky with this site because I started it back in the 90's before there was much on the web. I had one of the earliest sites about General Hospital and All My Children. I believe we are still the only site out there that covers both daytime and primetime quite so extensively and has all of the content we have (including transcripts of all of the shows). There are tons of great fan sites and business sites out there, but most either focus only on one or two shows or actors, or only daytime, or on one aspect of TV, or they try to do all shows but don't have what we have. Yes, I'm bragging, not about just me but about all of our wonderful volunteers! Through the years we have had hundreds, and I sure appreciate them all (even the ones who quit). People giving of their own time just to help out other TV fans. That's kind of what the internet is about, at least to me. It's about people helping each other and giving away free stuff. Free time, free information, free music - whatever!

The site was first started because I was into taping a lot of shows, and I traded with other collectors. I used to send around a list of my tapes (this was when I had a 2400 baud modem!), but it got too big to email, so I learned HTML and put the list up on my site. That's how the site was born. It's funny because even though I still have all my tapes, I have no time for trading, and most stuff is available on DVD now. But there are still plenty of people who like to trade tapes and DVD's, so we will always have that aspect of the site available.

This week we lost one of our great volunteers, Boo, who had to quit. Boo used to help me run the site. She worked tirelessly. So much so that I used to call her SuperWoman. I don't know how she did it all. She has been ill and had many other problems, and her priorities changed, so she did less and less in the past two years. We really miss her! Thank goodness that there seems to be many other volunteers always waiting around to take the place of ones who leave. I would be lost if Gisele quit, since she has been running our daytime section for quite a while now.

Here are some more musings on TV.

Saturday used to be a great night for TV, believe it or not. In the 1980's, Saturday was the best night, especially on CBS. You had shows like All in the Family, Mary Tyler Moore Show, Bob Newhart Show, Carol Burnett Show, The Jeffersons, and more. For some reason, Saturday night is now a graveyard. It's not like people just started going out on Saturdays. I think it was a combination of reasons, the foremost being that TV executives put too many bad shows on Saturday and then decided that it must be a bad night. Hey, how about building up Saturday night again? Instead of filling it with reruns and bad movies, how about putting your best shows on there? If even ONE TV network did that, then they would all suddenly have to do it, since they all counter-program against each other. Sure, it might mean losing a little money at first, but then everyone would catch on. How about putting American Race or Survivor or CSI or American Idol on Saturdays? That's what I would do if I were a TV network. I mean, they are all losing money, right? They are all desperate. So why not try Saturdays as an additional night? In the meantime, Fridays are starting to look bad, too. Let's not waste another night of good TV.

It seems like TV networks get these preconceived notions and then are loathe to part with them. i guess we all fall into ruts like that. How about, instead of canceling a low rated soap opera, you make it one day a week? Hey, how about coming with a new idea for a brand new soap and making the writing as good as anything on primetime? Crazy, I know. Find a really good writer and let them do pretty much whatever they want with the show as long as its good and pushes the envelope. Tell them, it can't be anything like what soaps have been before. No stories that have already been done a zillion times. No silly coincidences, no back from the dead, no evil twins, no amnesia, no brother/sister incest hinting, no secrets that keep being ALMOST heard by the person that walks in, no rapid-aging of children. Or, you can do any of those things as long as the use of it is totally original, unexpected and/or funny. Humor and romance are encouraged. Sex is encouraged, but build romances and other new relationships slowly. Be realistic but creative. Then you would see great ratings.

Why is it that primetime can have fantastic shows like Mad Men, Damages, Dexter, Lost, House -- to name just a few! But daytime has nothing nearly as good as these shows? I would even settle for a soap opera as BAD as the worst primetime fiction. There are some shows that I watch regularly, where I love the actors and the writers are great with the characters, but the stories are kind of plodding, or so-so, or even sometimes bad, like Bones, any of the CSI's, the Law & Orders, The Good Wife, the Forgotten, Cold Case, Castle, Criminal Minds....these shows are hit or miss, but I always enjoy the characters and actors even if the stories are utterly predictable or even stupid. Sometimes the stories are fabulous, though, or make me think. I really can't say there are any soaps that even come close to that assessment.

Take As the World Turns, for instance, which just got canceled (it last airs in September 2010). I like the characters okay...most of them I can take or leave. The actors are fine, but the writers don't do enough to make them more likable or charming or whatever it is that they do on those primetime shows. For instance, I liked Paul and Meg at first, but after all the stuff they went through, I didn't care about them after a while. The constant bed-hopping, writers changing, characters turning evil, or crazy..makes you not care after a while. Same with Jack and Carly, Craig and, well, anyone...and Dusty and anyone...and Barbara. I always love Henry, but they ruin all of his best relationships. This is why this show is getting canceled. The stories are bad, or boring, and only occasionally interesting, and this bad and constantly-changing storytelling ruins the characters and makes us not care, and tune out. It's not just ATWT, folks. If they don't start doing something to improve the writing on all the soaps, they are all going out.

The TV MegaSite's Blog Post #79

Don't forget that you can see all of the new stuff put up on our site every day!

Today was cool- I got to speak with Diahann Carroll, a true Hollywood legend, for an interview. Her answers to my questions may shock you! They will probably send me the transcript in a few days, so I can write up the interview.

Next week I get to talk to the guy who runs Leverage on TNT (great show!) and someone from Southland (I'm hoping for Ben McKenzie, but I may not be that lucky). Stay tuned!

I meant to mention in yesterday's post that Wednesday on CBS was amazing because it was two hours of soap opera actor guest stars! First, criminal Minds had Victor Webster, who started on Days of Our Lives as Nicholas. He is always gorgeous, but he really showed in this episode that he can act, too. He should have his own show. I could easily see him in a show like Remington Steele, or Castle, or Human Target, where he plays a suave, charming con man or detective. He was great as Cupid on Charmed and also he was awesome on last summer's "Harper's Island" until they killed him off. He played a con-man-turned murderer on Criminal Minds, and he was brilliant and creepy. Rebecca Staab, who was great on Port Charles as Elizabeth, played one of his victims. The episode had many other great guest stars, too. I thought the ending was a little silly - they shot the bad guy, the blood was on his chect but on the opposite side of his heart. One shot, and he falls down and dies. And then, he's surrounded by experienced FBI officers and no one rushes to check to see if he's alive or calls for an ambulance. But the rest of the episode was very good.

Then CSI New York was filled with great soap actors like Charles Shaughnessy, Finola Hughes, Ivan Shaw (who used to be on AMC) and Michael Graziadei (Daniel, Y&R). It was also a weird episode about people who like to drink blood, like vampires, so it was a good one.

Over on Supernatural, it was another awesome episode. I just love that show, and I'll be so sorry to see it end. They went back in time to the 70s to visit their parents. It was very good. The show always surprises and amazes me, and it doesn't help that both of the stars are so gorgeous as well as being such great actors.

Tonight is Friday, and I am bummed because I miss Dollhouse. Last week was the last episode. So depressing. I loved that show, and it just got better and better. Smallville was a two-hour episode that was just excellent. Maybe the best Smallville ever, or at least it was up there. They had Michael Shanks as Hawkman. The episode featured the Justice Society. If you're not a comic book fan, you won't know who that is. They did a very good job with both the story and all the little details, like costumes and special effects. I wish all Smallville episodes were this good. It is usually an uneven show, at best, especially the past couple of years. Even the ending was a jaw-dropper!

Weird thing is, they had a new episode last week, and somehow I missed it. My DVR did not record it, nor Caprica. And this week, the DVR messed up (probably due to a storm) and did not get most of Bones. I hate when that happens. Thank goodness for the net, though.

Which reminds me, I found a good site online for watching shows casttv.net
I was able to find all of the episodes I missed this year on there, that I couldn't find anywhere else! That was great.

Numb3rs was also very good, with great guest stars. Marilu Henner, who used to be on Taxi with Numb3rs dad Judd Hirsch, was a guest-star. Unfortunately, they did not have one scene together! William Katt, who starred in Greatest American Hero, was the other guest star, as a Steven Seagal-type guy. He was hilarious.

I guess it must be sweeps month now, with all of these great shows!

The TV MegaSite's Blog Post #78

The past two weeks have been a whirlwind on our site! We have a new design that we have been putting up. Well, mostly it has been me putting it up, but Gisele is helping now, and hopefully others will help in the future. Our site is huge, so it will take a long time. I think it looks pretty good, but what do I know? :) I hope you can check it out on our site. So far it's just on our main pages and some of our main daytime pages.

I was tearing my hair out for a few days there because I messed up our navigation buttons and couldn't figure it out. It took a while to fix it, too. What a pain. Hopefully all will be good now.

Carrie is back writing 24 recaps for our episode guide, now that the show is back! She always does a great job. We have so many awesome volunteers that work daily on the site. They are all amazing. You can see all of the stuff that is put up on our What's New page, which we update constantly.

I have been so lucky lately to get many cool interviews with celebrities, and we have more coming up! Our site did not have many of these until the last few years, so it's been awesome. We have tons of new Primetime Interviews as well as some All My Children Q&A's and one with Juliet Mills of Passions.

Our Primetime News page and primetime forum has so much news, that Danielle puts up. We get a lot of stuff sent to us now by the various networks, and she also finds it on other sites as well. NBC/USA/Syfy sends me tons of stuff every day, which I forward to her. I get a lot from MTV, TNT, FOX, TVLAND, et al. I have also been getting info from CBS on their news site. There's always so much!

Please visit our site at http://tvmegasite.net and when you get there, click on the ads! They make us money to keep our site going. Or visit one of our many stores to buy DVD's, CD's, Books, etc.!

We like to give stuff away, too. We have a monthly drawing that you can enter every month between the 5th and 25th. I get sent tons of extra DVD's and other things by Warner Brothers, Universal, HBO, and others, just so we can give it away on our site. We need more people to enter, so please do!

This week I have started watching General Hospital and All My Children again. It's not that I ever made a conscious decision to stop watching the daytime soaps. I just fell behind sometime last year when we were traveling. I hate just picking up again, when I have a backlog. This has happened before. I decided to start watching again because of Sonny shooting Dante on GH. This whole week has been great as everyone finds out who Dante is. I love these big reveals. They are what makes soaps so fun (at least for me). They did a good job with this one. They really took their time, first introducing Olivia, then letting us know that she had Sonny's son, then introducing Dante, then letting him and Sonny get close...it was very good. And I know this even though I have missed most of it just because I have been keeping tabs on the show, reading about it, etc. I always record it on my DVR, so I see scenes here and there. The guy who plays Dante is very good looking, but in a weird way. Frankly, I don't think he looks like Sonny. Maurice Benard has dimples, and this guy has cheekbones like an indian. He looks more like the guy who used to play Jeremy on All My Children, Jean Le Clerc. But whatever, they're both gorgeous, so I guess that's all that matters. :)

GH is the soap I watched the longest, the first one I started watching in 1984, that is still on the air (technically Santa Barbara was the first one I started watching). It has gone through many changes, some not so good, but they have a good cast and characters. I don't always approve of the current writers and how they emphasize the mob stuff, but....it is what it is.

This week on All My Children, the first episodes are airing that they shot in California. They moved out there from New York, in case you missed the news. They have a new head writer, too. It's not as good as GH. They are rebuilding the show, so I'll wait and see how it works out. They're bringing back Brooke, and Dixie, so that should be good. They are supposed to be bringing back the way the characters are supposed to be, using their history, etc. In other words, fixing the damage done by the previous head writer, Chuck Pratt. The remaining fans wonder why it took them so long.

It was sad today to find out that Frances Reid died. She played Alice Horton on Days of Our Lives. She was 95, though, and had not been healthy enough for a while to be on the show, so it wasn't like a huge shock. I used to like Days ok, but I stopped watching when they got rid of my favorite characters - John and Marlena, and Steve and Kayla, and Tony and Anna. They got rid of almost everyone over 40 and kept Bo and Hope, whom I never cared that much about one way or the other. I was glad to hear that Carly and Vivian returned, but it was not enough to get me watching again. There are a lot of young actors on there that I don't really know or care about, and on top of all that, they got rid of Lucas, whom I really like. So forget it, I won't be watching Days until they at least bring back John and Marlena, who were the bedrock of the show. I heard they did bring Anna, but she is not the same without Tony.

I finally watched Monday's House. Usually we watch it right away, but my husband was out of town and just got back. We like to watch it together. It's just so funny and entertaining. I watch many good shows, but my husband only has a few he likes. House is a great show, but sometimes it is uneven and veers into weirdness or boring stuff. Most of the time, though, it's great.

I have two DVR's, each with 350 hours. I spend most of my time watching in the living room. That DVR is where I record the soaps, plus most of my favorite shows. Due to scheduling conflicts, though, I record some shows in the other DVR, which is in the bedroom. I don't like to watch in the bedroom, so I put those shows on DVD and watch them on my computer. I record some shows in there, too, that are not my favorites, they're just ok, and who knows if I will ever get around to watching them all. These include Flashforward, Vampire Diaries, V, The Middle, the forgotten, The Good Wife, Mercy, NCIS Los Angeles, and some of the canceled shows from this past fall.

The shows I like best are House, Brothers & Sisters, the CSI's, the Mentalist, Smallville, Supernatural, Fringe, Heroes, Medium, White Collar, Burn Notice, Mad Men, Damages, Caprica, Warehouse 13, Numb3rs, NCIS, Law & Order, SVU, Bones, Men of a Certain Age, Leverage, Castle, Stargate Universe, Durham County, Glee, Accidentally on Purpose...I think that's basically it. Online I watch Dexter and Being Human.

There are some other really good shows out there, like Chuck, 24, Big Bang Theory, 30 Rock, Grey's Anatomy, Lost, etc. but I only have so many hours in the day to watch TV! I hope to keep buying those other shows and watch them sometime on DVD. Sometime probably never comes, though. As you can see, I don't watch any non-fiction shows whatsoever.

Being a TV fan is kind of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it's very good for my site that I have watched so much and keep up on what's going on, but as someone who just likes TV and seems not to be too picky...it's tough to have shows I never watch that I would actually like! I guess it kind of stresses me out, like having lots of unread books and movies as well. There's never enough time in the day to watch/read the things we like, is there? Even for a TV fanatic like me.

Speaking of which, this new show Past Life looks good...if I can forgive FOX for canceling Dollhouse, one of my favorite shows. I'll get back to you on that.

The TV MegaSite's Blog Post #77

Happy New Year! I know, it's a little late...

Our site is doing great, and I predict a bright future! Things are really moving along.

Since soap operas may be on their way out (they keep canceling them, sadly), we are doing what we can to not only keep the daytime section strong, but we're building up our primetime section as well.

Last week I made about 30 new pages for current or new shows...so far it's just the main pages, but those have info about upcoming episodes, where to watch the shows online, etc. so they are still somewhat useful. In fact, I worked so hard on those, that I injured my left arm! But I'm better now...
Anyway, you can see the list and the links to them on our shows page.

Now I am starting to put our new design on the pages. This will probably take a long time. I'm starting with our main section pages. Stay tuned! You should see them starting tomorrow with any luck.

Now that "24" has started again on FOX, Carrie is back hard at work writing the recaps for our episode guide, so check it out!

We get tons of news now every day from the networks about their shows. I put some of it up on our news page and Danielle puts all of it plus a bunch more on our Primetime Forum. We have tons of photos and video clips as well. Please read and post your comments or questions!

This is just a little bit of our new stuff. Of course we still have our What's New Page that lists everything that is put up every day (and it's a lot!).

It seems like just yesterday I was thinking, there's nothing new on TV. Not now! So much new stuff, it's hard for me to keep up. Last night, "Damages" premiered. It's always a great show. If you like mysteries, complex stores, great acting, check it out. Don't expect nice people, though :)

Friday the new science fiction show "Caprica" debuted on Syfy. I had already bought the DVD last year so I didn't watch the premiere, but I will definitely be watching from now on to see the rest of the shows. It looks very good so far. It is by some of the same people who did Battlestar Galactica. In case you don't know, it's a sort of prequel to BSG. You don't have to be a BSG fan or have watched it to understand Caprica, though. It takes place in the past, in a world somewhat like our own, with lots of virtual reality. It stars some great actors like Eric Stoltz and Esai Morales, plus some great new young faces.

Earlier this week were the premieres of 24, the new show Human Target, and new episodes of White Collar and Burn Notice. Whew! It's a lot to keep a TV fan busy. That's on top of all the other fall shows returning....

Honestly, I haven't had much time in the past year to watch the soaps. It's sad, but there's just so much good TV out there. I still enjoy watching soaps, but it's so hard when it is every day. Maybe soap ratings would do better if they made them once a week instead of daily? Just a thought.

Have a great week!

The TV MegaSite's Blog Post #76

Hi, everyone! Our site has been doing great. Even though I've been very sick for the past few months, everyone carries on..it's awesome. My special thanks to all my volunteers, particularly Gisele, who does all the daytime stuff and is always willing to do extra stuff.

I hope everyone had a nice holiday!

Don't forget, you can see all the new items that have been added to our site every day on our What's New Page.

We always need more volunteers for our site, so please check out our jobs page if you are interested! We don't turn anyone down! No matter what your skill level, we can find something for you to help out with.

I have not been watching much TV over the holidays. I caught up on "Dexter", my favorite show. Sadly, it is over for the year. Love that show!! It is so excellent. I wish they hadn't killed off the characters they did this year, though.

I am still bummed that they canceled "Eastwick" on ABC and "Dollhouse" on FOX. SIGH.

I checked out some of the soap operas over the holidays. I stopped watching them for a while, for no other reason than I just fell behind and never caught up. I was watching Bold & the Beautiful last night from Thursday, and I was a third of the way through before I realized it was a re-run from 2007. Oopes! I was wondering why Brooke's father was at the jail, and then I saw Phoebe and went, uh-oh, this is not a new episode (she died in 2008)! LOL!! So then I watched Wednesday's episode. It was okay...kind of boring.

I watched a General Hospital episode the other day, too. Some shows never change much. It was interesting, but it has been so long since I cared about any of the characters. They ruined most of them, or never show the ones I like, or killed them off. I see One Life to Live is as good as ever and All My Children is just tedious. Y&R seems fine.

I recorded SNL from last week, a show I never watch, just because James Franco was hosting. I thought he might say something about being on GH - only in the opening monologue, where he kind of made fun of it. He is a jerk from what I've been reading. Way too full of himself and thinks he's too good for soaps. The soaps don't need you, Mr. Franco. And SNL sucks as much as it ever did. Good thing I have a DVR and could fast-forward through most of it. Yuk. It was gross and unfunny.

I spend a lot of time on Twitter and Facebook. There are tons of my favorite TV actors and writers on there, posting about their latest projects as well as their home life and travels. There is also a ton of TV news.

Let's hope the new winter/spring TV season brings some good shows, right? Ones they won't cancel.

The TV MegaSite's Blog Post #75

I don't know where the time goes....things just go so quickly and get so hectic, and I forget to update my blogs! Bad girl!

Our site is still doing great. We're probably getting more celebrity interviews now than ever before. Our volunteer Laurie has been doing many, and I have done quite a few. Hers are way more impressive as she works much harder to get them.

We have most of the soap opera stuff covered but still need more writers for the daily updates. We have trouble on certain days, certain soaps. I used to write more of those myself, but I have been very lax lately about it. There is just always so much to do! We do have all the short recaps covered, at least, and of course as always our daily transcripts.

I tried to watch all of the new fiction shows from the networks this fall so I could write reviews of them all for you. Check 'em out. I think I only have one more to go...

We were able to start our new sections for CSI and Law and Order...still working on that, though, with the help of our volunteer Amanda And next is our new Grey's Anatomy section. Stay tuned, lots more to come!

As always, we put all the new stuff listed on our What's New Page to let you know what new things are going up every single day. You can also sign up for our twitter, and I try to post there regularly to let you know about new and exciting content as well.

The economy has us down but not out! Ad revenues are down but still keeping us going. I think we all have a bright future ahead on the net. Things are definitely looking up.

I have really enjoyed watching primetime this year. I love a lot of the new shows, although Glee is the only one I am making sure to watch (I watch the others only if I have time after all my other shows). The best of the new ones, I think, also include Flash Forward, The Middle, Stargate Universe, and White Collar. I also enjoyed Eastwick, Cougar Town, The Good Wife, Trauma, Vampire Diaries, and Mercy. I wish I could find time to watch them all, along with the tried and true shows I already watch.

I still enjoy Dollhouse, Castle, Fringe, Smallville, CSi, all my favorite shows. I wish Dollhouse and Fringe were doing better. Why do they pile all the best shows on Thursdays and Fridays? So stupid.

We still enjoy House, and now I got my husband watching Mad Men, and we are back to watching South Park, which is actually funny again. Dexter is still my favorite show, always love that one, and this season is no different. In fact, even better maybe with John Lithgow and the return of Keith Carradine (Well, sorta). True Blood was awesome and over too quickly. I am still watching Defying Gravity, thanks to the internet. CBS canceled it, but Canadian TV still airs it.

I just don't know how anyone, especially a scifi or fantasy fan, could not like Dollhouse, Dexter, or True Blood. Some people are just too picky. These are great shows.

My second favorite show after Dexter is Medium. That show has not lost a thing moving to CBS. If anything, it's only gotten better. I wish I could watch both shows every day. Yes, I'm that cracked.

Have a good week! Go visit our site at http://tvmegasite.net and don't forget to click around!

The TV MegaSite's Blog Post #74

Our site has been going great. We have all of the soap summaries covered for now, so that is very exciting. We have tons of great volunteers, but we always need more! We have a new volunteer, Kaylee, who has so much energy and has been a great find to help us with the updates.

I have been trying to catch up on so much, been working like crazy. You can see it all on our "What's New" page

I was so excited last week to talk to Eric Braeden (Victor on Y&R). He is a great guy. I might soon get to talk to Eileen Davidson. I also got to talk to Aldiss Hodge of "Leverage", one of my favorite shows. Just so awesome. My first phone interviews, all in one week!

I am still working on our site's new design. This is the one I have right now...I am not a professional designer, so that's the best I can do for right now. I was hoping to get a professional to help us out, but so far it has not worked out. They either say they will do it and then not doing anything, or they are head cases. I spent days arguing with this one guy, who turned out to be a real jerk and then quit. He did nothing but insult me and the site, and he would only do things his way. Sheesh. So much for "the customer is always right". In this case, the customer didn't even get a say. Plus he was pretty much an idiot. Our web host, Marcos, might be able to help me out some more.

We are hoping to add tons more shows in the new few weeks. I made main pages for CSI, Law and Order, and Grey's Anatomy. So far it's just the main page, so I hope to add more shows plus fill out the rest of each section. Our site always has tons of great content, but there are so many great shows, too, and I know people like to see current stuff. Anything to please our visitors/readers! I hope that we can keep our other current pages for Smallville, Lost, House, et al. updated with spoilers, news etc. as well. We always need more help on these show sections! Please email me if you can help out with your favorite show!

I have been getting some great free DVD's from Warner Brothers lately, and reviewing them for our site.

Our volunteer Carrie has finished season two of the 24 episode guide recaps! She will be back writing them for season 8 in the spring, I'm sure. Our volunteer Patti went to the All My Children studios and got some great photos and autographs for us. Our great interviewer Laurie got some more soap star interviews!

Another great volunteer, Keith, has been writing Y&R updates daily...these are our day-ahead detailed summaries. I'm so glad that he is now doing that because it is too much for me to do on top of everything else, and I know people love this show. I do, too, I just fall behind a lot. Just so grateful to all of our wonderful writers and other volunteers! Please don't be offended if I don't mention you...I am so happy to have all volunteers...

Don't forget to enter our monthly DVD drawing!! We have tons of great ones. I just added Supernatural on Blu-Ray. The September contest starts this coming week on the 5th. Don't enter before that or it won't count. You can only enter between the 5th and 25th of each month.

So I watched tons of TV dvd's this week...I don't always have time to watch the whole series, though...I never run out of things to watch, honestly. I have tons of DVD's and many hours of shows on my DVR. Lately I haven't had time to watch most of the soaps. I have only been watching Y&R and B&B. I fell so far behind on all of them, but I do still record them. Maybe one day, time will stop for a few years so I can catch up on everything ;)

It's so sad that Guiding Light is ending. I stopped watching it a while back because they got rid of so many of the characters I liked, and the stories were kind of dull. It sounds like things are better lately, but only because it's ending ! So stupid. Although I have to say, not keen on the idea that Mallet left town and Marina. That sounded really lame. Also, I don't like how they broke up Dinah and Shayne. It sounds like it was all very contrived in order to throw Shayne and Marina together, and rushed because of the show's ending. Why not just make it all a happy ending for fans, anyway? So stupid.

I have been enjoying reading what the GL actors say on Twitter. Poor guys, they are all used to getting up at 4 or 5 am and not they don't have jobs...but they are still up, and posting to their fans on Twitter! LOL!! If you want to know which Guiding Light actors are on Twitter, you can go to our Links page, or add me on twitter and look at the friends I follow. I follow mostly celebrities...no, I'm not shallow at all :)

I'm sorry that "Burn Notice" is gone already, but I am happy to still have "Leverage" to watch and now "Monk" and "Mad Men". I guess "Royal Pains" is over, or soon will be, and I'm sure "Deep Blue" will be soon. I just started watching "PSych" regularly, which also just returned. SO glad to have all these summer shows to watch while the big nets are showing crap. I only had two regular network shows I watched this summer: Harper's Island on CBS, and Defying Gravity on ABC. There are some others I never got around to watching, like Merlin. Maybe I will catch them on DVD.

I am not mentally ready for the new season to start....it puts a lot more pressure on me :) but I will be glad to see my favorites like Smallville, Supernatural, Dollhouse, et al. again. I am still sticking to the vow I made two years ago and only watching one new show per season. I just got so sick of them canceling them all the time. I can't get upset if I don't watch the show, right? I have commitment-phobia when it comes to network television. I don't think I am the only one, either. So, anyway, Glee will be the only new show I will commit to watch this fall. I may watch others casually, or record them, but I will not get emotionally involved. That is my annual fall commitment, and I have done a pretty good job of sticking to it. I do watch other new shows but, they are not top priority. Last year I think I chose Fringe and Dollhouse. However, I did end up watching The Mentalist, Castle, and Southland...

It sounds like there are a lot of good new shows this year, especially scifi-like shows: Fast Forward, V, Eastwick, Past Life, Vampire Diaries....wonder if any of them will make it?

I will probably be forced to watch The Cleveland Show because my husband likes all the Family Guy-type shows. I really liked Alex O'Loughlin in "Moonlight", but not sure if his new show "Three Rivers" will be any good. Plus, what a bad name. And why so many medical shows this year? Is it because of the Grey's Anatomy success, or because everyone is talking about the health care problems? Kinda stupid, I don't think most people will watch all five of them. Why did they bother getting rid of ER just to make more of the same kind of show?

Well, have a good week, I'm off to set up my DVR now for the new shows...

The TV MegaSite's Blog Post #73

If you're bored this summer without nothing to watch, you are just not exploring all of your options.

I have been enjoying "Being Human" on BBC America. It is a really good British scifi/fantasy series.

The premise is that a vampire, a werewolf, and a ghost share an apartment. It sounds silly, like a joke, but it's really good. The acting and writing are fantastic. It's funny, and poignant, and exciting. Make sure you check it out.

If you can get an online peek at the British version, it's even better. They cut it up a bit on BBC America. Also, they had a pilot that has not been shown on the American channel, with different actors, and it is great.

Another great British show was "Life on Mars". You may have seen the recent American version. It was crap. The UK version is great. It only lasted two years, but it was just the best. You can now buy the first season on DVD (I don't know why it took them so long!).

Another great British show, of course, is "Torchwood". I am a big fan of "Doctor Who" but had not yet gotten around to watching Torchwood (which is sort of a spin-off), aside from a few episodes. I have the first two seasons of Torchwood on DVD but hadn't gotten around yet to watching them. I recently watched "Children of Earth", which is this season's Torchwood (they made a miniseries instead of a whole season for some reason). It was great!! Sad but great.

I love Doctor Who, too, and really miss it. They are coming back in 2010, thank goodness!! I can't wait. There have been a couple of good Doctor Who specials this year. I wish they could keep David Tennant around...he is awesome.

I watched a couple of other good TV movies, too, recently. One was "Impact", from Scifi Channel, about asteroids headed toward the earth...it was much better than those previous movies that were about similar subjects. The acting was good (the guy from JAG starred in it) and the writing was fine. It was really enjoyable.

I loved the recent FOX movie "Virtuosity". Well, it was an ok movie, but it was a great TV pilot. I wish they had made it into a TV series. Apparently they decided not to. That is really stupid of them. It was truly great. It was written by Ron Moore of Battlestar Galactica (among many other things) and directed by Peter Berg (who has done so many fabulous things). What were they thinking?

Just go find some good TV to watch! It's everywhere!

The TV MegaSite's Blog Post #72

I want to write this column about "The Cleaner", the drama on A&E.
It tries really hard to be an earnest, realistic drama about addiction and getting clean. The problem is, it's still TV, so it can't be too realistic, and if they could make it that way, it would probably be too depressing to watch.

Maybe it's hard for me to watch the show objectively because of my own background. Maybe all dramas have this problem. You got two types of viewers. 1) people who just want to watch for entertainment, and 2) people who have experienced addiction or been related to someone who has. You can't satisfy both camps, and someone will let both down. Maybe it's the same for doctors who watch ER or cops who watch Law & Order.

The Cleaner probably satisfies the first group more than the second because it is probably more entertaining than it is realistic. Then again, since there are no other shows close to this....it is the best they can do.

The show is really good, gritty, and has a lot in common with reality. But in real life, most addicts don't get clean (or stay that way) and their situations are not neatly tied up in one hour. The people on the shows are actors, so even with lots of makeup etc. they don't look as bad as real alcoholics or addicts. Even though they show them vomiting and stuff, they don't look that bad. They do the best job they can, though, given the restraints of TV.

Benjamin Bratt and the other actors, and their characters' stories, are the best part of the show and what is worth watching. They are all really good. There is a bit of preaching and thinking-out-loud, but it's not annoying. It's pro-religion, but you can ignore that aspect of it pretty easily if you want.

The shows that are hardest for me to watch are the ones involving families and alcoholism. I never knew anyone addicted to drugs, so I can't relate to that. Most of the stories on the show, that I have seen, anyway, are about middle-class or rich people because they hire him... most of the time, the bum lying in the gutter is not his client. Sometimes, though, they do have that.

I just watched a very depressing one that had two alcoholics and a drug addict. One had a little girl and her alcoholic father; her mom had died. That was very hard to watch. My dad was an alcoholic. My mom died when I was 10. I was put into foster care when I was 13. The episode had many similarities to my experience. This father, unlike mine, really cared about his daughter and wanted to get clean so she wouldn't be taken away.

William Banks would not have been able to help my father because he didn't want to get clean. I guess that being in that position, it is hard for me to feel much sympathy for the drunks and addicts. Banks talks about how they are in pain and stuff, when to me they are just whiny and selfish. Anyone who puts their own pain ahead of their family or loves ones is just selfish, and there's no getting around that. It took me a long while to figure that out about my own dad. My mom used to make excuses for him. Once he had to give up the alcohol after he had a stroke, I realized that he was just a selfish person and a jerk. There are lots of jerks in the world, and we all know them...it sucks to be related to them.

Unlike me, this little girl in the show took care of them both and was the more mature one in the relationship. However, when she got upset that her father was going away for a while to rehab, I could identify with that. Even though your father is a bum who treats you bad, you as a child worry about losing your parents, you still love them, and you fear the unknown and what might happen; change. Even though my getting put into a foster home was a great thing, I did not want to leave my dad and go there. That part was very painful to watch.

Unlike real life, though, this father got help and they got through their problems...things looked happy at the end. That doesn't happen so much in real life. I did get a little annoyed, though - they always act like foster care is the worst thing. I know it is a lot worse than it used to be, but still...it is often better than the home you were born into.

Next week, back to your usual happy TV blog!

The TV MegaSite's Blog Post #71

Hi to everyone! Yahoo 360 went under, I guess, so this is our new blog. I am not too disappointed, though...it was not a very good service. This one is way better.

The old blog posts are now at my Yahoo profile. That's what I get for not updating my blog..LOL.

Usually I talk first about our site, and then I talk about TV. Our site continues to do well in terms of visitors and traffic, and adding content. All that is good.

We just got some new guys to join us in writing AMC and Y&R summaries, so that is great!! So now I just have to find someone to write B&B Tues.-Thurs., and Guiding Light...I try to write them whenever I get a chance, but I have so many other things to do...

So I hope to find some time this week to post for more help!

We did have a financial partner, but he has had to bail out for now, so I am back to financing things on my own again. So please, go to our site right now and click on the ads! That helps us out a lot. Or if you have some extra change, please click on the "donate" box and send us some money via Paypal. I don't keep it - it all goes towards the site's bills.

I hope I can always afford to keep the site going with all the tons of information and other fun stuff we put out...knock on wood!!

We still have many great volunteers who help out every day on the site. You can see all the new stuff that's put up on our What's New page.

We had a volunteer, Laurie, who was a big help for a while, running all the abc soap transcripts and making daily screencaps...but she quit, so now we do our own. Juanita has been a god send in doing the screen caps...

Anyway, the plan when I had a financial partner was to pay someone to re-design the site for us, put it in a Content Management System so it would be easier to update, and then we'd try to sell it. I am still hoping to do that, but now I have to do it all for free (or at least cheap).

I have been working on a new design for our site. Let me know what you think of it! It's a work in work in progress, though...the new logo came from Dennis, who was the winner in our Logotournament contest. That was a pretty cool and fun thing, to see all these people make logos for our site. I am not a designer, so this was very helpful.

I know, there are a lot of ads, but they pay the bills! Without them, we couldn't have such a large site.

I am still looking into getting a Content Management System. Our webhost installed Drupal and Webgui on our site so I could test them out. I am not a programmer, either, so they seemed really hard for me. I might have someone to help me get the site set up in Webgui...waiting for something first. Otherwise, we might just stick with Frontpage since it is very useful to us writers who are not coders :)

Got any questions about our site? Any problems with it? Any complaints? Send them my way!

It's summer, so of course our TV options seem limited. Well, they're really not. There are tons of new shows out there. You just have to look a little bit.

First there's the daytime soaps, which are on year round. You might think, "oh, they are stupid" or "they are for women", but you would be wrong. It's true that soaps do tend to be romantic, but they are now targeting young men as much as everyone else (advertising dollars). They are also not slow like they used to be. I will grant you that some of them are not so good, but it just varies depending on the writers. I'm told that Guiding Light is very good right now (now that it's being canceled!). I know that Young & The Restless is very entertaining.

If you like lots of action or adventure, watch General Hospital. It hasn't been about the hospital much in a few decades; it's kind of like The Sopranos Lite. If you like melodrama and romance, try The Bold & Beautiful or One Life to Live. If you like gay storylines, well - As The World Turns has Luke and Noah; One Life to Live has Fish and Kyle; Young & The Restless has Phillip, Rafe and (sorta) Adam; and Guiding Light has Olivia and Natalia (AKA Otalia). One of these shows should have something for you unless you really just hate dramas. The great thing about soaps, too, is you really don't have to watch every day if you don't want to. They do a good job of catching you up.

Now to Primetime...

I really enjoyed watching "Harper's Island", which just concluded on CBS. It was a great horror miniseries. They didn't call it a miniseries, but that's basically what it was. It was like 14 parts spread out over as many weeks, and it ended in mid-July. It was a whodunnit/horror story. They did a great job with it. I was a bit disappointed in the end by who the killer was, but that's because they did such a great job writing the characters and sucking me in. The writing and acting were excellent. You can catch it over on cbs.com if you missed it. It was not canceled- it was never meant to be more than this short miniseries. I say, write more!! And put them on a night like Saturday so they won't have any competition!

"Burn Notice" is back on USA, and soon "Monk" will be returning as well. These are two of my favorite cable shows. I have also been enjoying "Royal Pains" on USA and "The Cleaner" on A&E. I missed "The Cleaner"'s first season, so I have been watching those in reruns. It is, pardon the expression, an addictive show. I got to talk to star Benjamin Bratt, as well as the man whose life the show is based on (by phone), so that was awesome. Syfy has a good new show, "Warehouse 13", so that has been fun to watch. It's kind of like the X-Files but more light-hearted and fun. The guy who is the hero in that reminds me a lot of the actor who plays Jack on ATWT.

Speaking of "Royal Pains", the guy who plays the brother on that show can be really enjoying. I hope the writers keep toning him down. I know several people who are annoyed by him. It's definitely the way they write him because he was never this annoying when he was on the sitcom "Joey".

I am a real TV addict, so I never run out of anything to watch (that is both good and bad!). I have tons of soaps to catch up on, on my DVR. I download "True Blood" online, so I have that to watch (one of my favorite shows). If you like vampire shows, you gotta check it out. The first season is out now on DVD.

Oh, and speaking of DVD's, I have tons of those to watch, too!! Okay, now I feel pressured....LOL.

There are just so many choices now, and on top of the TV, DVR, DVD's etc. you also have so many online places to watch now. It's unreal, isn't it? Sometimes it seems like, the fall season is just too much. I think that may be why people don't watch as much network tv any more. There are just too many choices. I have two DVR's, so my other one is filled up with a whole season of shows I haven't yet watched, like Life, 30 Rock, Reaper, Samantha Who, and more. Who knows if I'll ever get around to watching them?

I know I don't talk much about reality TV. If you like reality TV and want to talk about it, please feel free to leave comments here. Or if you want to really talk about it all the time, let me know and you can become a guest columnist. I just don't watch reality shows. I don't watch anything that's not fiction. There's just not enough hours in my life.

My husband and MIL both watch a lot of news, which I don't watch, either, so I hear a lot of that. She also watches MASH reruns a lot, and he watches a lot of sports as well. Unless I have my earphones in (and sometimes even then), I have to see and hear it all.

I don't get reality shows. To me it's like watching bad actors in a trashy, boring soap opera or game show. I don't like "real people" (not that these are real people, either). I watch TV and movies to escape from reality. I like to watch drama and comedy and good acting and great writing. Reality shows have none of that. They also seem to celebrate the lowest common denominator - trashy people saying mean things or hurting each other. Ugh. It's just dull.

It's not JUST reality TV, I don't watch any non-fiction. When I was younger and had fewer channels (and more time), I used to watch game shows, variety shows, and talk shows sometimes. Now I have to be more selective.

But all TV is good TV, and I have nothing against non-fiction shows, per se. I think the trend is going away, though, from reality tv. Only the best ones are surviving. I think the networks are realizing that people only watch certain ones now. They are not filling out their schedules with them as much as they used to. Thank goodness! I am sure they will still have them as long as they are profitable and don't cost too much.

Have a good week!

Suzanne

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