The TV MegaSite's Blog Post #141

This week is the start of the new Fall season, for the most part... lots of new shows.   Don't forget to check out our What's New Page to see all of the great new stuff we put up, and our Site Map for all of the pages we have. We have thousands! The Site Map just lists the major pages.

Next Monday I've been invited to a conference call (telephone interview) with David Tennant (formerly of "Doctor Who"--my favorite doctor!). I sure hope I get to speak with him! Sometimes when it's someone really big, I don't get a chance, so we'll see. Now I just have to come up with something interesting to ask him and hope I'm not tongue-tied! LOL!! I can't say "I love you!" because he'll be creeped out and then FOX won't invite me back for any more interviews...  He's promoting his new FOX mini-series, "Gracepoint". It's funny because he did "Broadchurch", the UK version, and now he's starring in this US version, which is very similar, but with an American accent.  I put all of these interviews up on our Articles Page. We have lots of new ones all of the time!

I gave up the soaps, for the most part, and I'm not missing them. I still have to run the transcripts for the site, so they'll be on in front of me, but I won't be paying that close attention or worrying about catching up or things like that. Having said that, most of this week's "General Hospital" was pretty good. They do action and adventure well. It was great to see the Cassadines back, especially Helena. I can't imagine who Nathan's dad could be...who's worse than Victor Cassadine? The mind boggles. Maybe it's Fluke. Then the show went back to being boring, although Friday's was okay, especially at the end.

Our site has a monthly giveaway of DVD's and other TV-related stuff. Make sure to enter every month before the 25th. This Thursday is the last day to enter for the September drawing!

My DVR has been dying, so my wonderful cable company (Oceanic Time Warner Cable) sent me a new one. So over the weekend, I had to delete or watch or record to DVD the shows left on my DVR. I watched some episodes of "Bold & the Beautiful" because I was recording them for someone, anyway. I thought the scenes with Bob Barker were both very silly and stupid, but also funny and entertaining. Watching him literally kick Wyatt's ass was a hoot!! And not unintentionally funny, like when Ridge fell out of the helicopter.  Carole has been helping us out with writing the B&B updates on Thursdays and Fridays when she can. Anthony writes Mondays through Wednesdays on time every day. We used to have another writer, but she left, so Carole has been great to help out filling in! And Wanda, of course, does a great job with the short recaps.  We have so many fabulous volunteers....we are truly blessed.


I had a lot of episodes of "Tyrant" and "The Bridge" on the DVR as well, but FX sent me many of those, anyway, and I got the rest of On Demand. How did we ever watch TV without things like On Demand? It's so cool.

Today I hooked up the new box, and I'll be sending the old box back.  I had to set up my timers, or at least the ones for the next week that they'll allow. I set it up for the soaps, "Intruders", "Doctor Who", "Haven", "The Colbert Report", "The Daily Show", "Masterpiece Mystery", "Real Time with Bill Maher", "Hot in Cleveland", "Madame Secretary" (just the first ep) and my new fave "The Good Wife". It wouldn't let me set up any timers past next Sunday at first.  Later, I was able to add more shows, like "Forever", "Scorpion" (one time only to see what it's like), "Bones", "Black-ish" (one time only) and "How to Get Away with Murder" (one time only). I also got this brilliant idea - set up the timers for shows that are in re-runs, like "The Big Bang Theory" and "Supernatural", and just put it for new episodes, and that way when the new episodes air, the timer is already set up. I also set up the timers on my bedroom DVR, which is where I record some other shows, such as "Sleepy Hollow", "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." and many others.

Some of us with TV sites are pals on Twitter and Facebook. I chat frequently with Lisa and Jamie Steinberg of Starry Constellation Magazine and with Jamie Ruby of SciFi Vision, among others! We trade info all the time and it's fun!

Last Monday I was on a call with "Gotham" creator Bruno Heller. It was a great call, but I didn't get to actually speak to him, unfortunately. The show is great, though, so make sure you tune in! He was also the creator of "The Mentalist" so it makes sense that this new show is great, too. Friday, I got to speak with the star of the show, Ben McKenzie. He's always very nice in interviews. I spoke with him before when he was on "Southland" on TNT, too.


I definitely want to build new sections on our site for "Gotham" and "The Flash", and I still have to build sections for "Sleepy Hollow", "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.", "Teen Wolf" and "White Collar". I'm going to wait to see if "Royal Pains" is renewed before I decide on that one. I had wanted to build sections for "Revolution", "Warehouse 13" and "Wilfred", but they were all canceled before I had the chance. Eventually, maybe I will, anyway, but for right now, I have to give priority to current shows. I have a lot of new sections already that I need to finish building up, at least to a certain extent!

A few years back, there was a Summer show I loved called "Saving Hope" starring Smallville's Erica Durance and Michael Shanks, and Vampire Diaries/Originals' Daniel Gillies. It's essentially a hospital soap, but there are some supernatural elements. Anyway, NBC only showed it for one year and then canceled it, but it's a Canadian show, so they still show it up there. The good news is that Ion Television is going to be show the rest of the episodes! That is so great. Also, season 2 is coming out on DVD finally.

Speaking of "Doctor Who", this week's show was too confusing for me ("Listen"). I felt that they were trying to be deliberately confusing and pretentious, and it was too talky.

I enjoyed the "Hot in Cleveland" season finale. I hope Joy gets one of those guys next season!

I'm still watching "Intruders" on BBC America because it's compelling. Sometimes I don't really know what's going on, but they keep me interested.

I finally got around to watching John Oliver's show "This Week" on HBO. Not bad! I will have to watch some more...

We did watch Bill Maher's return on "Real Time" and his HBO special. His HBO special was hilarious!! Had me in tears.

I watched "Mysteries of Laura" on the NBC Press Site, and "A to Z" on NBC.com, and last night I finally finished watching "The Good Wife" on DVD. Now I have to write reviews of both!  I spent most of the weekend finishing watching the DVD for "NCIS: LA season 5" and then the weekend watching the first 7 episodes of FOX's upcoming miniseries "Gracepoint", which I also enjoyed. I can never get enough of David Tennant!  I started looking for some fun stuff with him on YouTube for a while, too. I had totally forgotten that he was in one of the Harry Potter movies, too!

Thursdays I'm back to watching "Haven", which I always love. I don't like Mara. Poor Nathan! The episode this week was great. I can't wait to see what happens next.

I'm very mad at myself because I missed the opportunity to interview Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz of "Bones!" I've spoken with them before, but still, I'm pissed. The ironic thing is, I spent three days updating our "Bones" section, adding lots of new content, and that was why I didn't read my email as carefully as I should have, and I missed the interview offer. Crazy!

I've been reading this week's "Entertainment Weekly". They talk about the new shows a lot. I hope that "How to Get Away with Murder" is good.  "The Flash" sounds great. I'm always a sucker for any superhero show.




All 4 seasons of the soap "Venice the Series" now airing on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/user/venicetheseries Don't Miss It!


This week's Primetime News and Schedule Page is at http://tvmegasite.net/prime/news/news092114.shtml  Check it out!

Have a great week....

The TV MegaSite's Blog Post #140

This week I've made a momentous decision! I'm going to cut down a lot on my TV watching. I'm going to stop watching a lot of shows I normally watch just out of habit. They're either kind of boring or just not very good. I watch a lot of crap just because I like the actors, and I don't want to do that any more. So I'm cutting out CSI, NCIS, Criminal Minds, Law & Order: SVU, The Simpsons, and all of the daytime soaps. (Don't worry, we'll still be covering them all on our site) There are some new shows I may or may not watch, but only if they're very good.  There's only a few non-scifi shows I plan to keep watching, like Bones and Castle.

Here's the list (the dates are premiere dates):

The ones with question mark I haven't seen yet, so we'll see if I like them enough to keep watching.

Saturdays Doctor Who and Intruders
Thursdays Syfy Haven
9/22 CBS Big Bang Theory
9/22 FOX Sleepy Hollow*
9/23 ABC Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.*
9/23 CBS Person of Interest*
9/24 ABC Black-ish (?)
9/25 FOX Bones
9/25 ABC How to Get Away with Murder (?)
9/28 ABC Once Upon a Time
9/28 FOX Family Guy
9/28 ABC Revenge*
9/29 FOX Gotham (2nd episode because I've already seen the 1st)
9/29 ABC Castle
9/30 ABC Forever (2nd episode because I've already seen the 1st)
10/2 CW Vampire Diaries*
10/2 CW Reign*
10/6 CW The Originals*
10/7 ABC Selfie (2nd episode because I've already seen the 1st)
10/7 CW The Flash
10/7 CW Supernatural
10/8 CW Arrow*
10/22 CW The 100
10/24 NBC Constantine
10/30 CBS Elementary
11/17 NBC State of Affairs- (?)

airing later: Justified, Mad Men, Beauty & The Beast, The Americans, Perception, Heroes Reborn, The Mentalist, Real Time with Bill Maher, Royal Pains, Sherlock, Teen Wolf, White Collar
Suits*, Rizzoli & Isles*, Franklin & Bash*, Falling Skies*, Dallas* and Hot in Cleveland

*These are shows that I'm already very behind on, so who knows if/when I'll catch up

Of course I'll still have plenty of shows and DVD's to watch that the networks send me to review for our site (or that I review just because they're new). 

What new shows are you watching this Fall? Which of your favorites are you looking forward to returning? Don't forget to see our Primetime TV Schedule - it has tons of info about the shows and when they premiere.

This week's news is here  and here's next week's.  See the returning shows trickling in and the debut of Red Band Society and Mysteries of Laura!

What's most difficult for me is giving up the soaps.... not because I enjoy them so much, but because they've been a habit I've had since 1984! I may occasionally tune in. I want to see Billy Miller as Jason on GH, and Shemar Moore's return on Y&R.  But otherwise, the shows are just too boring, repetitive and filled with clichés. They're always at least 20 years behind the times. They don't have enough people that are not lily-white or really boring. I love the actors, but I just can't take the bad writing any more.  If you're not enjoying a show, you shouldn't watch it. Life is too short to watch bad TV. Until the TV networks decide to put some real money into the soaps and get fabulous writers, they're going to be bad and continue to underestimate the viewers. They think we're all stupid and that we'll watch any crap, no matter how unrealistic it is. Well, here's one less stupid viewer of soaps. I just can't take it any more! Maybe if they had more romance, I would keep watching, but they don't. It's all filled with "action" or violence and not enough real romance. They rush the stories (especially with people continually bed-hopping) or drag them out far too long. GH is very good at pandering to fans except in the one way that matters - improving or updating stories. Having gay characters is a good start, but they write them badly and completely unrealistically. Like all of the other characters. Enough is enough. I just don't care enough about any of them to keep watching. They've made all of them into empty, boring shells of their former selves, even Anna. 

Bold & Beautiful is ludicrous. That show will never be good as long as they keep letting the one person in charge write it. He ran out of ideas years ago and keeps just recycling the same stories, punctuated by laughable things like when Ridge fell out of the helicopter.  I lost track of Days and Y&R a long while ago, but I don't miss them because they're just boring. The soaps like to blame the internet or other things on why viewership is declining, but the blame lies solely on the networks and the writing.  You can't expect new people to tune in when you can't even keep your tried-and-true viewers like me. They need to update the writing to the 21st century, and not just in superficial ways. They need to make the shows gripping, compelling, unpredictable, and ground-breaking, like any good drama. Simply put, they have stagnated. Cancellation is not the answer. A complete overhaul is needed. The soap "genre" is not dead, but they're not doing it any favors by writing such dreck.  I'm not saying they have to be as good as primetime TV. I'm saying they have to be the daytime equivalent. They have to write 5 shows a week. Fine, then be at least 1/5 as good as "Elementary" or "Once Upon a Time" or "Sleepy Hollow" or even "Law & Order: SVU", and then I'll watch again.

Why don't you get good primetime writers (especially young ones), tell them not to use any soap clichés, make sure they know who all of the characters and their history are, have them write ONE good episode per week, and then stretch it out to 5 episodes per week, adding in more romance and other character development?  Then let them do anything they want as long as it's within the confines of the characters and their history, and as long as it's realitistic and not laughable, and not too violent.  How hard is that? Oh, yeah, and don't hire any actors just because they're pretty. Hire people who can act. There are lots of people out there who can't get an acting job even though they're very talented. Draw from your pool not only of soap actors but the primetime ones who are out of work. Especially people of color.  Pay them whatever is needed (and the writers, too). And then publicize the heck out of the shows. Encourage the writers to take chances and don't worry about pissing off viewers. If the shows are good, people will watch it. It's that simple. If you do all that, and the ratings don't go up, then cancel the shows. At least then, you can say you tried. These low-budget half-measures are not working.

Sure, the soaps have improved some, especially GH in the past few years. It's just not enough. It's too cosmetic and not substantial enough. It's great that they pander to fans by bringing back our favorite stars from the past and hiring great actors like Michelle Stafford from other shows, but the writing doesn't support the rest. It has to be good enough to make me want to keep tuning in, and it's not. You can tell it's not enough for most people because most of us are always falling behind on watching. If the shows were that good, we would make sure to tune in every single day, no matter how busy we are (like we did back in college).

I was about to give up on GH this week, but then they brought back Robert Kelker Kelly, one of my favorite actors, as Stavros. Unfortunately, they always have him play just a one-dimensional crazy evil guy. It would have been so much better to have him have some humanity. Looks like they're doing the same thing with the return of Peter Harrell. I enjoyed seeing Judson Scott his week, but I doubt he'll be on long. Such a waste of great actors (even if RKK is chewing the scenery a bit - I'm sure they're telling him to do that). You can tell RKK is having fun, at least. It's hard not to smile when he's on screen.

I've been watching season 5 DVD of "The Good Wife" last night and it's RIVETING!! This is fantastic soap opera. I knew it was a good show, but wow! I'm going to have to go back and watch the first 4 seasons, too. It's that good.

I thought my DVR problems were fixed, but it's still been messing up, so I had to phone Oceanic Time Warner Cable to get a new box. I just need to record some more of the shows off my old DVR and then I can install the new one. I finally did get around to watching the Tonys and the Emmys! I always love the Tonys. It's like having a little piece of Broadway on my TV. Hugh Jackman is awesome. I thought the Emmys were pretty good, too, funny...much funnier than I expected!

On Thursday I was shocked and annoyed to find that our local CBS station showed Thursday night football instead of The Young & The Restless! How dare they... I keep emailing, phoning and tweeting them, but so far I've gotten no reply. Looks like they're doing the same thing next week, too. Grrr!  Here in Hawaii, we're 3 hours before California and 6 hours before New York. Y&R usually airs around 1pm.



Last week's "Doctor Who" (the Robin Hood one) was just awful. The worst I've ever seen. I hope they get better because that was embarrassingly bad.

We have a lot of new Interviews and Reviews so check them out!

Have a great weekend!

The TV MegaSite's Blog Post #139

• 8/29/14

I'm slowly catching up on "Bold & The Beautiful"....to clear off my DVR. I'm finally in July! LOL!

We watched two episodes of this weeks' Colbert Report and the Daily Show. So funny! Especially Thursday's Colbert Report. It was hilarious. I had tears flowing down my face.

I'm been trying to catch up on all my emails (most of them are work-related; press releases, videos and other stuff the PR people send me about the shows. There's just too much!)  Every day I get a few hundred. It's hard to keep up. I had a few thousand to go through, but now I'm down to 800+ and most of those are probably past-due so I'll just be archiving or deleting them because it's too late.  Then all of a sudden Gmail just stopped working. I have to reboot...

I worked hard until around midnight and then got up around 4:30 am and worked more! Getting a lot done.

Please check out this week's Primetime News and Schedule page and Next Week's Primetime News and Schedule Page. Check that second one on Saturday or Sunday; it will be updated.

• 8/30/14

I hate when the TV writers are lazy and write stupid or contrived plots. Cases in point.... Now, the episodes July 4-7 on "Bold & Beautiful" were fantastic in many ways. It was great to see Quinn go all cray-cray and threaten Liam's life. Very dramatic. However, since she had already broken into his house and threatened him twice, and he was taking that threat seriously, and he was on crutches and all alone at a beach house...why would he give her a third chance? He has a lot of money. He could have gone to a hotel or hired a bodyguard.  It was just too stupid that she got in that third time. Also, once Wyatt saved him and he yelled at his mom, there was suddenly all of this venting about his childhood and how he had to put up with a crazy mom. Well, that really came out of nowhere because there was none of that before now (or at least, fairly recently). When Quinn first came on the show, she wasn't crazy, and he didn't treat her like she was. So this is very contrived and coming out of nothing.

On "General Hospital"-- on Friday's show, after figuring out where Levi was holding Maxie and Georgie hostage, Dante and the other cops rush to their rescue. What do they do? They surround the place and get on the blowhorn and yell, "You're surrounded, come out with your hands up". Well, that doesn't happen in real life. That would be really stupid. First of all, Levi kidnapped the girls at least a few days ago, so they had no reason to think the girls were in immediate danger (especially since they just talked to them on the phone). Why make it a risky hostage situation by doing this crap with the megaphone? They should have just waited for Levi to come out and then nabbed him.  That was just stupid, contrived TV nonsense.  Not to mention, they have his cell phone number (from when the girls called using it), so at the very least, they could just phoned him instead of using the megaphone.

I have a lot of great dreams about TV, but one I had last night was so detailed, and it really should be turned into a TV show or movie. You have my permission, take it and make money! It was sort of a cross between Cedar Cove or The Killing, and Extant.  There was this sleepy, foggy small town, and some strange aliens (?) had come to town, or perhaps they were suspected of being there (there were signs) and maybe some terrible things had happened. A woman sheriff, who was raising her young daughter, was looking into whether the aliens were real or not. She had doubts. It was a very creepy dream. I wish I could give you more details, but it was like I only got to see the first couple of episodes.  She was communicating with the aliens in one part of the dream (but still doubtful about whether they were real).

• 8/31/14

I'm watching the second "Doctor Who" episode of this season.... it's always enjoyable, but the best writing is behind them, when Russell T. Davies was in charge. Peter Capaldi is a fine Doctor, though.

Now I'm watching "Unforgettable". I enjoy it and hope it comes back for another season. It's a nice Summer show.

I guess watching TV influenced my dreams again because I had a long "Doctor Who" dream! It was odd. There was a woman he was supposed to meet, played by Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher on "Star Trek: The Next Generation"). For some reason, the Doctor, who seemed like he was in a trance, took a gun and shot her. I was sometimes in the dream as his companion, and sometimes watching as myself. I helped him put her on a cart and we tried to get her some help. He still wasn't himself. He had been teaching at a university, for some reason, too, and one of his students that tried to stop him and talk to him said that his parents had also been his student and were thrilled to have worked as his dog-walkers. In an elevator, the Doctor regenerated, several times, and it was amusing to see his different selves. I think he was a woman at the end. It was a very odd dream.

• 9/1/14

I didn't watch too much TV the past few days. I've been sick and sleeping a lot. I did watch the other episode of "Unforgettable". I don't know why they aired two this week, but I'm glad!

I'm still so bummed out that they canceled "Longmire"... this was their highest-rated drama and their second-highest rated show of all time. Apparently it didn't get good demographics - meaning not enough younger people watched it. Why would anyone think that young people would watch a slow-moving western? Duh.  They're too impatient to enjoy such a good show.

For some reason, my living room DVR didn't record either GH or Y&R. So strange! My bedroom DVR did record Y&R, and thankfully I can get GH On Demand in a day or two...

• 9/2/14

I'm back to catching up on "Bold & Beautiful"... I enjoy the show, for the most part, but it's hard to keep pulling for it when the stuff they do makes no sense. I mean, in June, Hope broke up with Wyatt and chose Liam. In July, his mother went crazy and tried to kill Liam, and Wyatt saved him, so Liam and Wyatt mended fences. Hope hired Wyatt back to Forrester, and Liam asked Wyatt to be his best man. In August, Wyatt marries Hope. What??? No one acts like that. It's completely unbelievable.  They would have all dumped each other by now (as fast as Carter dumped Maya!).

I do always love Charlie and Pam, and all the stuff with the jousting was great. More of that!! I never got to Medieval Times when I lived in SoCal but always wanted to.

Another stupid thing that happened. Now, Wyatt had to know a little bit about Deacon's criminal past.  So why is it that when he has his super-expensive diamond, and Deacon shows up, does he say, "Look at my diamond!"??? Serves him right if Deacon steals it.  And how does Wyatt even afford the security on that thing?  Ridiculous. I'm only a month behind now! Woo hoo!

Danielle and I have been hard at work, posting lots of news, info and spoilers on our Primetime TV Forum, so check it out!  That's primarily what I've been doing this week. I still have a few CW shows to post and then I'm done. Yay!

If you watch B&B or Y&R, we could use your help! We need someone write updates (detailed recaps) for Thursdays and Fridays on each of those shows. Please email me if you can volunteer to do even one day per week of either.

• 9/4/14

I enjoyed "Hot in Cleveland" as usual....it's a silly show but always fun.

I finally finished watching "Criminal Minds" season 9 DVD today. It was good as always. I have to write up the review. I was surprised that the last episode wasn't more of a cliff-hanger.

This morning I had an interview with Oscar winner Octavia Spencer, who's starring in the new series "Red Band Society" on FOX (I also watched that show's pilot).  It was a real treat to speak with her, and she was very nice and funny. I have to write my review of that one, too.

• 9/5/14

Last night I watched Monday's "Teen Wolf". I always love that show. Sometimes I find it confusing, with so many characters and the intricate mythology, but it's still fun, always. Although it is a really cool show with exciting action sequences, my favorite parts are the non-action moments where they have character development. Such as Scott with his girlfriend, or with his mom, or Stiles with his dad -- things like that.  These writers do such an amazing job. I don't know how they keep coming up with these new stories and make it all so fresh and exciting every week.  And then every week's episode ends with something shocking!

I had noticed that Shawn on GH used the phrase "Me and my boys" at the beginning of a sentence, which made me cringe because that's very bad grammar and he used to be a teacher. This has happened a lot on TV; especially the soaps. Characters who are supposed to be educated (it's particularly bad if it's a doctor or lawyer IMHO) speaking like they never went to college. I'm not saying going to college makes you perfect, but in speaking, most educated people don't say things like that because it would be embarrassing.  It's fine if Sonny or Carly speak like that because neither one is educated.  So I complained to GH headwriter Ron Carlivati on Twitter. He actually replied! I was so shocked. He said that it wasn't written that way (so apparently the actors change his lines, which is not a big shock). I apologized to him. I sure didn't mean to be callous in my comments! Actors, by the way, often haven't gone to college... it depends, some do and some don't.  Writers generally have, or at least they're very good with grammar and all that. What I guess I was thinking, though, was that on GH, the writing can be very bad (even stupid) and full of clichés, so if he can write that kind of thing, then having a character speak poorly is not out of the realm of possibility.  We'll give him this round, though.





B&B and Y&R are not airing this week on Monday and Friday due to tennis....



I watched "Selfie"'s first episode on ABC.com   Not a bad show! I love the actors on it, and it's pretty cute. It could be funnier, but let's hope it does get better. It had its moments. It's loosely based on "Pygmalion" (which is also what "My Fair Lady" was based on). You can also watch the first episode of "Forever" on there for free, and "A to Z" on Hulu. You can watch them right now instead of waiting until they air on TV!

Are you looking forward to all of the new shows coming up, and your favorites returning this Fall? I know I am! I'm going to have to sit down and figure out my DVR recording schedule for this season...



Don't forget to enter our monthly drawing! Two people win a prize every month.

Back to my stack of DVD's....hope you have a great weekend!

The TV MegaSite's Blog Post #138

• Monday 8/25/14

"Teen Wolf" was on Sunday instead of Monday this week...I guess because they didn't want to air opposite the Emmys. The VMA's were right after. It's kind of funny that MTV has these awards, since they stopped showing videos a long time ago! Being over 50, I don't listen to too much "new" music any more, and half the time I don't know the artists people are talking about.  I love awards shows but was never really into the music ones, anyway. I used to sometimes watch the Grammys in the 70's or early 80's, but I was never that into them, like the acting awards.

Anyway, I always love "Teen Wolf"! Such a great twist at the end of this episode with Peter and Kate.

Make sure to check out our site's "What's New" page to see all of the new stuff we've put up! New content every single day.

• Tuesday 8/26/14

I'm still keeping up on "General Hospital" every day. My husband watched part of it with me this week. He doesn't know the more recent characters (he used to watch with me sometimes in the 80's). When he saw Roger Howarth (Franco) in his scruffy beard, he said that he looks a bit like Maynard G. Krebbs. He's right! LOL!

It's so great that they're mentioning Frisco, although I'd rather see him!  I love how they're bringing back Peter Harrell and all of that history.  I wonder if Peter Harrell is fake Luke?  It was great how Anna said today that Robert was investigating the WSB in Wisconsin (Genoa City, where "Young & The Restless" takes place! Because the actor who played Robert, Tristan Rogers, is now back on Y&R as Colin). Ha ha.  They're very good at using history and pandering to fans. They just need to have more original stories and get rid of the clichés.

I mostly watched DVD's so far this week...

If you've got an hour or so free each week, why not volunteer to help out on our site? We can always use more help! You don't have to have any special skills or knowledge...

• Wednesday 8/27/14

I'm watching "Royal Pains" now. I always love this show. It's always fun and entertaining. I plan to build a section for the show on our site. So many primetime shows to cover! It takes a long time for me to build one section for one show.  Making the pages and then adding content takes a while. I also plan to make pages for the aforementioned "Teen Wolf", among others.

That was weird with Boris buying the hospital. I guess they don't need HankLab any more. I wasn't too surprised that Emma disappeared.... kind of figured. Can't wait for next week's season finale! Looks exciting. But I hate when they have the season finale. I sure hope they renew it for next year.

I spent the past 3 days making the new 2014 Primetime TV Schedule!  There are just way too many shows now! LOL!! I hope you can check it out.

I was reading a Q&A on either TVGuide.com or TVLine and the person answering questions, the TV expert, replied to a question about some of the shows that he doesn't watch that particular show. It made me feel better because being another TV critic, I always feel guilty if I can't watch all of the shows... I don't watch "Game of Thrones", for instance. I'm sure I would enjoy it....like lots of other shows I don't watch or have no time for.

I haven't yet watched the Emmys, so I've been avoiding social media all week, for the most part. I did happen to see that Colbert and Julia Louis-Dreyfuss won, but otherwise I'm still in the dark.  Yay, Stephen Colbert! I love his show.

I'm worried that my DVR is dying again. Lately it's not responding well. Hopefully it's just the remote. I'm going to have to hurry and clear off as much as I can, just in case.  Time to watch the Emmys, I guess! I think I still have the Tonys on there, too...

I'm looking forward to tomorrow's conference call interview with Haven's Emily Rose and Lucas Bryant! Yay! They're so great. I have to watch the Haven DVD that Syfy sent me tonight, so I can have some good questions to ask them.  Then next Tuesday I get to speak with Sean Astin of "The Strain"! Of course he's been awesome his whole career, especially in Lord of the Rings. He had a lot of fun movies in the 80's, too. And of course he's also the son of Patty Duke and John Astin! Wow!!  He's the 4th actor that I've interviewed from the "Lord of the Rings" and "Hobbit" movie franchise. I previously interviewed John Noble, Martin Freeman, and Elijah Wood! Woo hoo!

Right now I'm recording the latest episode of "Mistresses" to DVD. I still haven't finished watching last season yet! So I'm very behind.

I did watch "Hot In Cleveland". That was cute. It's always fun and silly. Funnier than most sitcoms on today, that's for sure.

• Thursday 8/28/14

My conference call interview with Emily and Lucas of "Haven" went great this morning! They were very fun and nice. I was happy to learn that this isn't necessarily the last season (I thought they had said it was definitely the final season - glad I was wrong!).  Make sure to watch the new season starting 9/11! If the ratings are good, they'll keep it around another year.

I got very bad news today that "Longmire" was canceled. I love that show, so it really upset me. I had no idea it was even in danger of that. I thought it was a very highly rated show. Stupid A&E. I hope another network will pick it up. Otherwise we'll never know if Branch died or not, and whether Walt and Vic get together.

Today I'm trying to catch up on episodes of "The Bold & The Beautiful".  I have them going back to June. Some of them I have to put on DVD because we still need updates for them. We need to find a new person to do Thursdays and Fridays regularly.  Deborah was doing them, but I guess she stopped.

After I clear off the DVR, I can go back to watching my DVD of "Criminal Minds" 9th season to review it. Woo hoo!  I've got a long list of new shows coming up for Fall, but between Sundi, Eva, and me, we'll hopefully be able to get most of them.

The History Channel is airing "Houdini", a 2-part miniseries, starting Monday. Will you watch it? It sounds good.

This week's News and schedule page is at http://tvmegasite.net/prime/news/news082414.shtml and next week's is at http://tvmegasite.net/prime/news/news083114.shtml I should have the latter page done by Sunday morning at the latest. I'm very happy that I've been able to keep up a little better lately, get some stuff done, and even clear out a lot of my email and catch up on that. Yay!

Have a great Labor Day and 3 day weekend!

The TV MegaSite's Blog Post #137

Last week was incredibly busy for me! Besides running the TV MegaSite, which is a full time job, I'm in a band, and lately that's been like a second job.  Also, we moved a couple of weeks ago, so I've been unpacking and dealing with house stuff (like having to repair appliances).  Crazy and hectic!

I tried really hard this week to catch up on some of the DVD's that they've been sending me lately for review. I really fell behind. You can read my reviews. Sundi also has written some new ones.

I was supposed to interview Piper Perabo of "Covert Affairs" last week, but I had to miss that one. So disappointed about that! Couldn't be helped, unfortunately. I really had wanted to speak with her because I met her husband years ago when he was playing Reginald on "General Hospital". They just got married, too.

Sometimes these DVD's take a long time to watch. I've been watching "Elementary" all week. One disk left! Then I can start on the "Criminal Minds" DVD from this past season.

I spent a lot of time making tons of new primetime pages for our site. Lots of hard work. I also fixed a lot of buttons that were having problems or needed new ones added, and Gisele helped me with that, too, on the daytime section.

I binge-watched this PBS show "Vicious", which I'd been recording. What a hilarious British show! It's one part "Married with Children", one part "The Golden Girls" and one part "Are You Being Served?"  I just laughed and laughed, and I had tears streaming down my face during the last few episodes. It's been a long while since I laughed so much!

I'm so glad to have "Doctor Who" back! Yay!!! I guess I'll put up with Peter Capaldi. Like Clara, I do prefer the younger, sexier Doctors that we've had for the past 9 years.... this guy is too old. Ah, well, as long as the writing's at a certain level, I'll still be entertained.

I was watching new BBC series "Intruders" starring John Simm. It's good and very creepy. However, I hate when they take these great British actors and then make them play Americans, stripping away their sexy accents.  This is made by the BBC, so why the hell does it take place in the U.S. and why does everyone have American accents? It makes no sense whatsoever.

I did notice one mistake, though. When Simm's character, Jack, is looking at his cell phone after trying to call his wife, it says "Amy's Mobile" rather than "Amy's cell". Um, we don't call them mobile's here in the states, you silly Brits! And even if we did, they would be called MObulls, not moBILES like you call them.  Oops!  Otherwise, it does look like the US and the accents are convincing.  Good cast. I'm always glad to see Robert Forster, and his partner is played by James Frain, who's in "Grimm" and so many other shows and movies. I remember him on "The Cape"!  That little girl is great, too.

This week's news page is at http://tvmegasite.net/prime/news/news082414.shtml and next week's will be at http://tvmegasite.net/prime/news/news083114.shtml !

I also binge-watched "The Killing" on Netflix (4th season). It's always awesome. I'll write up my review tomorrow.

I'm in an oldies rock band now, and when I'm not singing lead, I sing background and play the tambourine. I feel like Laurie Partridge! Only I actually sing and don't lip-synch (much)....

I'm posting this on August 25th. This is the last day to enter our August drawing! Don't forget to enter.

Have a great week!

The TV MegaSite's Blog Post #136

What shows are you watching in these hot, sultry Summer days? I hope you have good A/C. It sure helps out this time of year. I hope you're enjoying all of the Summer shows.

I've been catching up on "General Hospital". Yay!  I like the actors a lot--what a great cast!  I just wish they gave some of the characters more story, like Duke and Anna, and Kevin and Lucy.  This week I did catch up for a change. I thought the story with Maxie was really good. It was very unexpected that Levi was not really an Aussie and that the ICE agent was really his associate. I hope Mac doesn't die... but the other stories this week were awful. I don't like Sonny and Carly back together again. Been there, done that, many times over. Seems like Sonny and Olivia got over each other way too fast. I hate to see yet another one of Carly's relationships blow up (her and Franco).  The threesome episodes were silly but enjoyable. However, they wimped out in the end. It's 2014, do they really think we'll care if some guys have a threesome? I mean, it's daytime, so it's not like they're going to show that much, anyway.  If they show 2 guys kissing and taking their clothes off and then waking up in bed together the next day, so what if they show 3 guys doing the same? Anyone who would object to gay guys or threesomes would already not want to watch a show that has so many gay guys.  The rest of us who watch TV have already seen it happen on "Queer As Folk" or some other show or movie. They need to stop pandering to the elderly and the conservatives on soaps, especially if they want young people to start watching.  I thought it was especially dumb how they teased on Thursday that Milo might be interested in Felix and then on Friday we find out that it's Epiphany that he's into! It would have been stupid either way. Milo has never shown himself to be interested either in guys or old fat ladies.  He's had crushes on Lulu and Sabrina, so either he's bisexual or straight.  To have him suddenly be gay would be stupid and against the character's history.  And then, of course, there's no way he would be interested in Epiphany. Come on. That doesn't happen in real life. Young, hot guys don't suddenly decide they're in love with old fat ladies. Give me a break. I know that soaps are fantasy and target women, but that is completely stupid and unrealistic.  I love Epiphany, but come on!  Set her up with someone more realistic. Even Milo's brother, Max, would have made more sense, since he's older and, shall we say, heftier. The whole thing is stupid and contrived.  Set her up with Kevin - he could use somebody right now.

I'm way behind on "Bold & Beautiful" but I think I saw that Wyatt and Hope got married?? That's so stupid. The writing is so bad. No one would ping-pong between two men like that. It makes them all look bad. It's Brooke and Ridge all over again. Wasn't it bad enough the first time? Yuk.

I've been watching the first season of "Cedar Cove" on DVD this week. Good show. If you like old-fashioned dramas (soaps) with very little sex or action, this is for you. It's very real and reminds me of some shows like "Men in Trees" or "Picket Fences" but less over-the-top or silly than both of those shows.  It airs on the Hallmark Channel and it's like one of their movies. I love Dylan Neal, who stars in it. He's been on lots of soaps and other shows I like, such as "Smallville" and "Arrow". I'm glad to see him get a good role. The other actors on there are pretty good looking, too, and I enjoy seeing Bruce Boxleitner again!

I had two great interviews this week, one with Keenan Ivory Wayans and Russell Peters of NBC's "Last Comic Standing" and one with Eric McCormack of "Perception" on TNT.  It was great to speak with all of them. I've interviewed McCormack before, but it's still a thrill, and I love his show.  I updated our Interviews page and added tons of them that we've done in the past few months. Sorry for falling so behind on those!  Sometimes there are just more than I can handle. I suddenly realized there are about 4 others I don't have the transcripts for, so I'm waiting for the networks to send them to me.  Also, we have about 3 others that need transcribing (one-on-one interviews I've done; although the recordings are up already).

This coming week's News page is at http://tvmegasite.net/prime/news/news081714.shtml   I'm ahead on it for a change and it's all ready for the week. See what's on TV this week and plan your watching or DVRing.  Lots of re-runs, that's for sure! Thank goodness for the cable shows.

I'm very glad to see the return of "Dallas" and "Franklin & Bash"! Yay!!

I was surprised that there were no new episodes of "The Daily Show" or "The Colbert Report" this week or next, just re-runs and pre-emptions. Bummer!  Where will I get my political laughs without those shows and no "Real Time", either? Tsk tsk.

There were a lot of sad TV deaths this past week, and I know lots of people who are depressed about it. Charles Keating, Robin Williams, Lauren Bacall and others... Well, you know what, most of them had great long lives, with lots of money and fame, and they led their lives pretty much the way they wanted to. Also, you don't really know any of them, so don't let it get you down. Yes, it's sad, but you have your own lives. Look at what's good in it and what you have, and what we all have.   Focus on the positive things!  Watch some good, uplifting TV shows to get you in a better place.

Have a great week!

The TV MegaSite's Blog Post #135

• Thursday 7/31 I had a lot of weird dreams last night, mostly about soap operas. What shows do you dream about? I don't remember all of the dreams last night, but I know I dreamed about some older guy on "General Hospital" and then they showed a flashback to an old clip with Joyce Van Patten.  Then later, I dreamed about "Days of Our Lives"' John Black.

We were sitting in the coffee shop at an airport (on our way back from vacationing in Cincinnati) and heard some guy mention "General Hospital", and the women he was chatting with replied that she didn't watch it. That was all I heard about their conversation. I wonder if he's going to the GH Weekend, since this flight is headed to L.A.? Seems unlikely, but who knows? I wish we were going there, but alas, we're just changing planes..

On our flight, I watched the first two episodes of the show "Partners" on FX starring Kelsey Grammer and Martin Lawrence. It wasn't that funny at first but got slightly better. I started to watch the "Cedar Cove" DVD, but then my battery ran out.

We had a stopover at the L.A. airport, where I saw one of my very favorite actors, Mark Sheppard. He's been in lots of my favorite scifi shows like "Medium", "Battlestar Galactica", "Doctor Who", "Leverage", "Warehouse 13", and of course, "Supernatural", where he still plays Crowley, King of Hell.  He usually plays a bad guy, but he's great at it. He's got a wonderful velvety voice and British accent as well as just being a fantastic actor.  I was just beside myself in geekiness seeing him. I went over and told him how much I like his work and asked if he minded taking a photo, so he was very nice and gracious about it.  I was so ecstatic!! How often does that happen? Almost never. I should have given him my card or asked for his autograph, but I was just too giddy.

When I got home, I watched "Longmire", "Major Crimes", and "Hot in Cleveland" from this past week. I still have a lot to catch up on. "Longmire" is fantastic - always!!!  I really enjoyed the "Major Crimes" episode with Luke Perry. It was hilarious and also touching at the end.

I don't know why they thought doing an animated episode would be good for "Hot in Cleveland". The many great guest stars are enough gimmicks for one show. This was just too weird and not all that great. Not very funny at all. It was like one of those bad old cartoons like "The New Adventures of Gilligan" or something.

• Friday 8/1 Today I've been mostly running the soap transcripts to catch up on those from this past week...

I'm very annoyed at my cable company, Oceanic Time Warner Cable. We're moving in about a week, and they said I can't get my cable/internet/phone turned on in the new place until 8/21.  We're moving in the same exact building, only 9 floors down!!  That's just ridiculous. I guess I'll have to catch up on some of my shows On Demand after I finally get the cable back. That really sucks.  Good thing I have lots of DVD's to watch!  But it really messes up the site's transcripts. We're still missing some from last Summer when I moved.

I watched "Unforgettable" while eating lunch today. I always enjoy "Unforgettable", and this one was very good. I loved seeing Colin Egglesfield as a CGIS officer. They should definitely do a spin-off with him, possibly also with Diane Neal, who plays a CGIS officer on "NCIS" sometimes!

A friend of mine runs another TV site and he was very upset last night that someone he hired to write for his site had just copied stuff from another site! Unfortunately, he's not alone. This has happened quite a few times to me as well in the 20 years since I've been running this site. I don't know why anyone would do this; it's unfathomable. Extreme laziness and/or stupidity? Who knows. It definitely takes someone who has no morals.  It hurts the site you steal from as well as the site you lie to.  I'm very glad I was able to help my friend and make him feel better about it. He was very upset. Those of us who run these type of sites do it because we love TV and we want to share that love with others in the world.  We're not rich and this is not our main income....

• The whole rest of the week I didn't update the blogs - so sorry! I have good excuses because I've been incredibly busy. First we were on vacation, then we moved, and then there was threat of a hurricane.  Whew!

First, the good news, Oceanic Time Warner Cable read on my Facebook page that I was annoyed, so they told me right away that they could fix it, and someone phoned me to assure me that I should be able to get internet and cable right away when I move into my new place. I didn't even have to call them - it was working already when I hooked it all up! It just takes a few days for the phone to start working. Isn't it great when a company exceeds your expectations?  Love it!

Also, the hurricane turned out to be nothing.  It mostly hit the island of Hawaii, what they call The Big Island. We're on Oahu. We just had lots of wind and rain.  We have a lot of that, anyway.

So as soon as we moved into our new place, the first thing I did was hook up the TV, DVR, DVD recorders et al. and it worked great. Yay!  Unfortunately (this is the bad news), I had trouble hooking up the computer that I use for making the transcripts. The plug that goes into the computer from the TV is not working. I think some of the pins may be bent, but I'm not sure. I hope the computer repair place can help me. I phoned them today, but they're probably closed due to the storms.  I can't run any more transcripts until that's fixed. Hopefully next week!

Otherwise, just been watching a little bit of TV... my regular summer shows that I always talk about. The "Longmire" finale was awesome! But sorry to see Branch go.

"Major Crimes" had another excellent episode and the ending of this week's episode was spectacular! I hope Fritz will be okay. They'd better not kill him off!

I've also been catching up on "General Hospital" still, here and there... you really have to be a devout soap opera fan now to be watching this crap. Sorry, but the writing on these shows is just awful. They think we're all idiots, apparently, and just like lots of violence and crime, and heroes with no brains.  I love the actors and have been watching since 1984 - that's really the only reason I still watch.  On GH, they make interesting characters but then write terrible stories for them. Have you ever noticed that when it comes to humor, it's mostly the bad guys that have it. There are some exceptions, like Felix, Lucy, Alexis and Luke... but mostly it's people like Obrecht, Franco, and Britt.  In real life, a lot of the actors are really funny.  Take Steve Burton. For years he was a humorless thug on GH, and now he's a humorless ex-vet on Y&R. This guy is so funny and full of energy in real life! You sure wouldn't know it by the way they write for him.

This week's "Entertainment Weekly" has a cover story on "Doctor Who". I'm so looking forward to its return!

This week's Primetime News (and schedule) is at http://tvmegasite.net/prime/news/news080314.shtml   Next week's will be at http://tvmegasite.net/prime/news/news081014.shtml  I should start on that one tomorrow...

Monday's Colbert Report (August 6) was so hilarious!! They should get an Emmy for that one.

I watched the last two episodes of "Crossbones" last night. It was so good. I'm very bummed that they canceled it. Not sure what they could have done for a 2nd season, but they definitely left it open at the end, so they could... they didn't kill off any major characters. I think my only complaint is that, given the time period, people seem to survive some pretty dangerous wounds from knives, guns etc. It veered dangerously into General-Hospital-like unbelievability in that regard.



We have a fairly active Facebook group Talkin' TV so please join us if you can! Lots of posting news and chatter. Sometimes it's hard to run because some people like to post spoilers, but I delete them if I see them and keep reminding people not to post spoilers and not to post too much news at once. They're a good group, though.

This is a cute commercial that the guys from "Dukes of Hazzard" star in... not my favorite show, but I always love John Stewart (especially when he was on "Smallville", but sometimes I like seeing the old Dukes shows because he was just so drop dead gorgeous).  Tom Wopat was on "All My Children" for a time!

Have a great week...

The TV MegaSite's Blog Post #134

• Thursday 7/24

Today I watched this week's "Teen Wolf", "Major Crimes", two episodes of "The Colbert Show" and some episodes of "General Hospital" from early July.

I'm so behind on email and other work...

This week's news and schedule is at http://tvmegasite.net/prime/news/news072714.shtml  Next week's is at http://tvmegasite.net/prime/news/news080314.shtml  I hope to have it ready by next Sunday.

• Friday 7/25

I've been trying to watch as much as possible off my DVR because I'm going out of town for a week. I always worry about it filling up.  Thankfully, being summer, it's not as difficult. Still, I've been watching General Hospital like crazy to catch up as much as I can. I'm in early July still on that one.

I watched the last two fabulous episodes of "Crossbones". I'll be sorry when that show finishes its summer run. I sure hope it comes back. They sure like to rough up that poor Tom, don't they? LOL!

I still haven't finished watching last season's "Mistresses", which is somewhere on an older DISH DVR, so I decided to just copy this season's onto DVD. Who knows when I'll catch up?

This week, a lot of people I know are either at the San Diego Comic-Con or are headed to L.A. for the General Hospital Fan Weekend. I wish I could go to either! However, the schedule seldom works out that I can go because it's the same time as my wedding anniversary, and we always take a trip to a different state (it's our tradition). We've been to California and all of the nearby states already...  There are other reasons I haven't gone in past years, but I'm hopeful that it will change someday. In the meantime, we do have volunteers on our site at those events, taking lots of great photos!  Stay tuned!!

• Saturday 7/26

I was on an airplane for most of the day, so I didn't watch any TV. I did have a nice discussion with a woman from Holland on one leg of the flight. She lives a very exciting life. It would make a great TV show! She jets all around, visiting different countries, as nanny for kids. She speaks several languages, so she's in pretty good demand. She's also a ski instructor and very pretty. Only 19. but she seems older because she's very confident, mature, and independent! You never see characters like that on TV... that would be a fascinating show. She doesn't watch a lot of TV, of course. She's too busy living her life. The sad fact of life is that most really successful people in this world don't watch much TV because they're too busy.  Only those of us who love TV and make time for it do watch TV.

I've interviewed many actors over the phone, and when I ask them what TV shows they watch, it definitely sounds like they don't have too much time to watch TV, or much else, for that matter. It makes sense because if they're working on a TV show or movie, they spend most of their spare time sleeping, or working out, or with friends and family.

Speaking of actors, I always wonder if they're all hungry since they're all so skinny. Obviously when you're young, your metabolism is different. You can eat a lot and still be skinny. But they have to be a lot skinnier and in shape than the average person, so it's tough.

I was reading in "Entertainment Weekly" on the plane, about Chris Pratt. You may know him from "Everwood" or "Parks and Recreation". He stars this summer in "Guardians of the Galaxy". His weight has fluctuated a lot over the years because he's one of these chameleon kind of actors. If he's playing in a comedy, he often gains weight for that.  He got in real shape for GotG. I can't wait to see that movie!  Before this article, I was getting him mixed up with Chris Klein. Whoops! I don't watch "Park & Rec" so that's part of the reason. Once I read that he was Bright in "Everwood", the lightbulb went on.

Comic-con is over now... so glad I won't be hearing about that any more. But now the rest of the people I know are at the General Hospital Weekend.  More jealousy!

Anyway, we have lots of great photos from Comic-Con from Karl and Zina.  We'll have great pics from Nikky after the GH Weekend.

• Sunday 7/27

We're on vacation and not watching much TV. In my downtime, when I'm not sleeping, I've been working on the site.... I was late getting stuff done on this week's news and schedule pages.

Danielle was on vacation, so I did my best to do her job, too, but it's a lot of work. So glad she's back!  She posts tons of news every day on our Primetime Forum.

• Monday 7/28

We have a nice TV in our hotel room. I haven't watched it too much yet. My husband was watching re-runs of "Emergency" and "Adam 12" on METV. That's a great station for watching old shows. It's kind of like TVLAND used to be, back in the 90's, when it showed a lot of old rare shows. We used to watch some shows that most of you have probably never heard of, like "I Married Joan". (It was kind of like "I Love Lucy") and "Car 54, Where Are You?"

I'm on Facebook a lot. If you're there, please go to our site's page at https://www.facebook.com/tvmeg and click on "Like", okay?

Also, if you like to talk about TV or hear about it, please join our Talkin' TV group on Facebook.  It's a nice, small group of TV fans.  The only rules are: no insulting anyone (either actors or each other) and no posting of spoilers. Spoilers are what will happen on the show, but they're also what just happened. Try to wait 1-3 days after you watch any show to talk about storyline info. 

• Tuesday 7/29

I was sad to hear that "Crossbones" was canceled and ending soon. Not surprised, though. For one thing, most TV shows get canceled in their first year. It's just a sad truth of the TV biz now. Secondly, when a network puts a show on in the summer, it usually means they don't have a lot of confidence in it and don't expect it to do well (otherwise they'd put it on in the fall). This is less true of cable, of course.  Anyway, most summer shows on network TV get canceled. I applaud NBC for even trying something so daring as this show. I really enjoyed it. I loved the cast, and it was a kind of historical/adventure/soap opera.  I think a lot of people watched the premiere, decided it wasn't worth watching, and didn't give it a second look. That's too bad, but it happens a lot. We all do that sometimes. This is why the TV industry is the way it is now. People like to blame the networks, but if a show gets enough viewers, they keep it around usually! It's our fault for not being patient and not giving shows a chance, and being too picky.  Friday is a tough day for shows now, so they very seldom put anything on during that day that sticks around. There are some rare exceptions, such as Blue Bloods.

Apparently, a popular blogger among soap fans, Ravenbeauty, died. She wrote a blog and was on Facebook. She'd had cancer and it finally killed her. I didn't know her, but R.I.P. Ravenbeauty! She was one of our little media stars.  So sad when someone with so much drive and talent dies. You really have to have a passion for what you write or talk about, and spend many hours on it, in order to get that successful. Of course there's a lot of smarts and luck involved, too. Many of us have all that and still don't get that successful or famous ;)

• Wednesday 7/30

Today was our wedding anniversary, and we were traveling. I did flip around the channels here in our hotel in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. They have a nice big screen TV. It's one of the few hotels I've seen where they have both HBO and movies you can buy (usually it's one or the other).

Syfy did send me Sharknado 2, but I've been so busy, I didn't get around to watching it before it aired. Oh, well. Now I guess I'll watch the first one and review them both together! I hear they're supposed to be comedies to a certain extent.  I know people like to make fun of them as cheap and trashy, but if they're funny, who cares?

I brought a bunch of DVD's to watch, but we were having way too much fun traveling, so I didn't watch one of them! When we weren't out, I was sleeping...

Have a great week!

The TV MegaSite's Blog Post #133

This week's Primetime News and Schedule is at http://tvmegasite.net/prime/news/news072014.shtml

Next week's is at  at http://tvmegasite.net/prime/news/news072714.shtml starting Sunday. Hopefully!

Last week I caught up with my site's daytime transcripts! Yay! About time. They should be up more regularly now that my company has left. 

I'm also catching up on TV shows on my DVR because it's filling up fast. So far tonight I watched this past week's "Longmire", Monday's "The Colbert Show" and "The Daily Show", and "Unforgettable".

I had company for the past 10 days, so I fell a bit behind on my TV watching. Also, I had many DVD's to watch (I still do have quite a few left). I review the DVD's on our site. Sundi also reviews many shows.

My friend that was visiting, Barb, is more of a sports fan than anything else. She does love scifi, but unlike me, she watches shows sporadically or casually. I could never do that. If I watch a show, I have to keep watching it (it has to get really awful before I'll stop watching). I can't just watch an episode here and there. I have to know what's going on.  We all have our own preferences and priorities, I guess. Barb and I like a lot of the same movies, so I don't know why she doesn't like all of the same shows, too.  :) It's silly!!

At least she doesn't mind watching what I like, and she likes a lot of the same actors I do. We both enjoyed watching "Extant" and a few other shows. We tried to watch "The Invisible Man", a 70's scifi show starring David McCallum. She had brought me the DVD. Well, I loved it back in the 70's, when I was around 12, but now it's kind of boring. Shows were just very slow back then and can't measure up to today's shows, for the most part. Also, this show did get canceled pretty quickly so wasn't as good back then, either, as many shows that were popular.

We tried to watch "The Strain" but it was just too gross. It has great writing and the acting is fabulous, but it's just too disgusting. I don't like "The Walking Dead", either.  This show is kind of like Zombie Vampires. Blecch.

Barb did convince me to start watching Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert again. I got out of the habit last year, but now I'm recording them again on my DVR. They're pretty funny, especially Colbert. I like Bill Maher a whole lot more than she does, though.

I spent a lot of time this week watching the 6th season of "Star Trek: The Next Generation", which is just out on Blu-Ray. Love it!!! It's fun to geek out.  Which reminds me - Comic-Con is starting this week. I wish I could go! At least we do have our regular photographers who go each year and take many photos for us. Check out the past ones.

I was very excited to learn that Shemar Moore is returning to "The Young & The Restless" in September! I wish it were for more than two episodes. The show can really use him.

It was a sad week because James Garner died. He was one of my favorites. I grew up watching "Maverick" and "Rockford Files" as well as his movies. He was so gorgeous, and what a great actor, too.

Have a great week and if you're at the General Hospital Fan Club Weekend or Comic-Con, have extra fun for me!!

The TV MegaSite's Blog Post #132

I've been late running the daytime soap transcripts these past 2 weeks...busy busy! Mostly with company visiting.

Earlier this week, my visiting friend and I took a helicopter tour of Oahu (where I live). We took some other tours this week, too. They told us about many spots where they shoot "Hawaii Five-0" and where many other shows and movies from the past were filmed, such as "Lost", "Gilligan's Island", and "Jurassic Park".  When our helicopter took off, the pilot played the "Hawaii Five-0" theme! That really made me chuckle.  I really suggest that you take a helicopter tour if at all possible. Put it on your bucket list!

Catching up right now on some episodes of "General Hospital." I'm only a few weeks behind. I also have about 3 episodes of "Crossbones" to catch up on.

My DVR got quite filled up while I had visitors! I didn't watch too many programs and I'm trying to catch up now.

It's so hard to keep up nowadays with so many shows coming out year round.  What's your favorite summer show?  I always love "Longmire" and "Teen Wolf". I watched some of "The Strain" on FX but it's not my kind of show. It's too gross, like a zombie show or a gross horror show like "American Horror Story". It's very well written and acting but...too much for me.

San Diego Comic-Con is coming up soon. I wish I could go! I have a few reporters covering it for me, though, and they'll take lots of great photos. Our Comic-Con section needs a little updating. Make sure to read it because my family has a long history with it! I find it so funny that I get sent press releases and other info, and invitations to press events.

Wednesday my episode of "The Bold & Beautiful" was interrupted by a news break. I'm not sure if that's true country-wide.  On Thursday, "General Hospital" was pre-empted by news, so they're showing it tomorrow (Friday) instead. I don't know about the other episodes, but they aired here.

Are there any new shows in the Fall that you're looking forward to? Let me know!

The TV MegaSite's Blog Post #131

I hope everyone had a nice Fourth of July! Are you the type of person who likes to watch fireworks on TV, or only in person? Or do you not like them at all? I'm the second...

I haven't been watching too much TV because we're been super busy going out with friends and having company.  I did watch some of my usual summer shows like Longmire, Beauty & The Beast, Hot in Cleveland, Teen Wolf, Royal Pains, Major Crimes et. al.

I apologize - I even got behind on running the soap opera transcripts for the site (and everything else). I'm slowly catching up.

I still don't like that they made Gabe on "Beauty & The Beast" a bad guy...but now they've killed him. Even worse. Boo!! Glad that everyone else seems to have survived, though.

We could really use another writer for Y&R updates. Please email me if you can help out even one day per week! Thanks!

We went to see "X-Men: Days of Future Past" and loved it. It has many actors in it that are also on TV shows recently, such as Anna Paquin (from "True Blood"), Patrick Stewart (from "Star Trek: The Next Generation"), Halle Barry (the new CBS show "Extant"), Peter Dinklage ("Game of Thrones"), Evan Peters ("American Horror Story"), Shawn Ashmore ("The Following"), Ian McKellen ("Vicious"), Kelsey Grammar ("Boss") and James Marsden ("30 Rock").  Great movie!!

With my good friend Barbara visiting, I find that she's very different from me in how she watches TV and movies, even though we like a lot of the same stuff. She can watch occasional episodes of TV shows, or some movies in a series, whereas I can't do that. I have to watch all of the episodes or all of the movies. I can't bear to miss some. That would drive me crazy.

Having been so busy lately, out doing stuff with friends, I can see why some people might feel that if you watch a lot of TV that you don't have a life. It's hard to find time for both, and if you spend a lot of time watching TV, then you're not doing other things that might be more healthy, productive, or social. But I do love watching TV and movies, so it's a hard choice to make. I also do enjoy going out, singing at karaoke and with my band, hanging out with friends, etc. Nowadays everyone seems so busy. It's no wonder that TV doesn't seem as popular as it used to be.

Watch lots of TV! Ignore your friends! Or watch WITH your friends!

The TV MegaSite's Blog Post #130

I've been so busy with family stuff lately, that I haven't had time to watch much TV. I just watched my summer Must-See shows like Major Crimes, Teen Wolf, Beauty & The Beast, Hot in Cleveland, and Longmire. Woo hoo!

Behind again on "Bold & Beautiful", but I thought it was really dumb the way that Aly went from being kind of psycho and about to hit Taylor with an ax, and then five minutes later, Aly had forgiven her.  What???  Come on, that's not even trying.  I hope that after Aly finds out that Oliver is not really into her, she goes off again.  It's not very realistic that someone so disturbed would just suddenly be normal because she has a hunky boyfriend (let alone forgiving someone she's hated most of her life). I was shocked when Soap Opera Digest praised the episode in one part of their magazine, but then their great columnist Carolyn Hinsley pointed out how stupid it was, so that was a relief to read.

Beauty & The Beast is always entertaining, and they had a great episode recently where Kat and Vincent had to go live in the witness protection program as a suburban couple. It was fun and interesting. However, it was marred by the fact that it all happened in just one episode. They should have either made it an episode arc of at least 3 episodes, or said during the episode something like "3 months later" because it was too quick.  They moved in, met the victim, met his killer, the man was killed, they found his killer, moved out.  Stupid.  And again, I'm not happy that they're making Gabe a bad guy (and now a beast again!).

You've probably already read this by now, but "Teen Wolf" is even better this season than before. I'm glad they didn't leave Derek as a teenager too long! The kid they got to play him was really good, though. I like all of the characters, and Stiles is my favorite, but I love the actor who plays Derek (he's so gorgeous!), so it's good to keep him around.  I still really miss Allison, though, but Malia is growing on me.

Movies are fun, too, and my favorites, just like TV, are the scifi/fantasy/comic book movies. I don't go very often because I don't have many friends here yet to go with, and my husband is not a movie fan. I usually end up buying them on DVD. A good friend is coming to visit on Monday, so hopefully we'll see some good ones. I'm annoyed that I missed Captain America, though. We'll probably get to see X-Men but it's not in 3D. Bummer!

Why the soaps make the decisions they do about which shows get pre-empted on which holiday? I have no clue. All of the soaps had new episodes on 4th of July, except for "General Hospital", which had a re-run from April.  This should be the last planned pre-emption until Labor Day in September.

If you get On Demand, by the way, they have all of the episodes of Lifetime's Witches of East End, which returns July 6. I wish they did that with all shows. For that matter, I wish you could watch past seasons On Demand, not just the past one.

I hope you all had a great holiday 3 day weekend and got to watch lots of sports and/or soaps, and catch up on your favorite shows, etc. Do you have a favorite holiday TV show or movie you like to watch? There are some great marathons usually... they had a ton of them this weekend for "Walking Dead", "Batman", "NCIS", "Star Trek: Next Generation" and of course "The Twilight Zone"!  Here's a link that lists them all.

The TV MegaSite's Blog Post #129

I didn't watch too much TV this week... I guess in summer, I fall behind because there are so many other things to do besides watch TV, and there are fewer regular programs that I watch.  My DVR is filling up, though. I need to start watching more, especially the soaps.


Speaking of the soaps, I was thrilled to see that James Read is now on "Days of Our Lives". He starred in one of my favorite miniseries, "North and South", back in the 80's with Patrick Swayze. He was also in "Remington Steele", and then most recently was the dad on "Charmed".  Love him! He's still very handsome.

I was already regularly watching Longmire, Beauty & The Beast, Major Crimes, Hot in Cleveland, Perception, Rizzoli & Isles and Murder in the First. Now I'm also watching Dominion, Defiance and Teen Wolf. Plus the soaps, of course.

I've got a bunch of interview transcripts to put up still (hopefully tomorrow) and then I have one more I need to transcribe. On Monday, I have two more interviews. One is with Diane Kruger, who stars as Sonya in "The Bridge". She's so great. Then I have a one-on-one interview with Cynthia Stevenson, who's starring in the Lifetime movie "Killing Daddy", along with Elizabeth Gillies and Billy R. Moses. I've enjoyed Cynthia's work for many years, especially in "Dead Like Me" and "Men in Trees", but also earlier in "Hope & Gloria" and "Oh Baby".

We really need someone to write Y&R updates for our site 2 or 3 days per week so please email me at suzanne@tvmegasite.net if you can help out! You must be a regular Young & The Restless watcher and be able to write passably well with detail and be understandable, and be able to proofread it before you send it to us.  And no stealing from other sites!

We have a volunteer on our site named Thane who is become famous as we speak. Thane has done quite a bit of coding for our site and helped me out on many occasions. He has started doing a stand-up act, and I think he'll be really successful (he's already headed that way).  His "gimmick" is that he's in a wheelchair and can't speak, so he uses an automated voice. He's also gay, from New Zealand and very outrageous. Honestly, he's hilarious. He's also got a very funny blog. Here's a video of his act if you want to check him out.  Be warned, it has some 4 letter words.

I can't believe it's almost July already. Where does the time go? Before you know it, it'll be the new Fall TV season again!





I'm trying not to feel overwhelmed lately... I've just been so busy and there's always too much to do!  We have a lot of volunteer jobs available if you want to help out!

Have a great week and watch lots of TV....

The TV MegaSite's Blog Post #128

As soon as I got home from my trip last Saturday, I started catching up on shows on my DVR. I watched "Longmire" first because it's one of my favorites. Another one aired tonight, so I got to see two this week. Yay! Same with "Beauty and the Beast", I got to see two very quickly together.  I enjoy the show, but I don't like them making Gabe a bad guy again.

I now have another new stack of DVD's to watch and review! It never ends...

This week's Primetime News and Schedule Page is at http://tvmegasite.net/prime/news/news062214.shtml

I wish I had time to watch all of the shows I like. I watched the first episode of "Game of Thrones" today on Vimeo.  I know it's one that everyone watches and loves, but I've never seen it before. Looks like a good show, but a little hard to watch.

This week's "Hot in Cleveland" where they go to New York was hilarious!!! Great seeing Mark Valley and Kirstie Alley as guest-stars!

We also caught up on two weeks' worth of "Real Time with Bill Maher". It's always funny, but I thought the June 6th episode was particularly hilarious, especially "New Rules" where he talks about gun nuts.

What shows are you watching this summer? Let me know.... if you're on Facebook, come to our Talkin' TV Forum. We have lots of great TV fans there!

I feel like there are so many shows I miss, that I never watch or have time to even check out. I hear about so many good ones that I've never seen, like the aforementioned "Game of Thrones" as well as "The Wire", "Homeland", "Girls", "Awkward", "Orange is the New Black" and so many more.

Have to go watch some more shows to review now.... I'm enjoying the new show "Murder in the First", especially the great cast. It's a good murder mystery and police story, too. Of course, it's by Steve Bochco! Now I'm catching up on "Perception" and then "Rizzoli & Isles". TNT sent me a bunch of shows to watch. Yay!

This morning I got to speak with British actor Richard Coyle, who stars in "Crossbones" with John Malkovich, on the phone. He seemed like a really nice, ordinary guy, and he was very nice and friendly to everyone. I just watched the second episode last night, and it was pretty good fun. I look forward to seeing more of the show.

Friday I get to speak with Jason Gann, writer and star of "Wilfred" on FX.  Then next Monday, Rex Lee from the new ABC Family show "Young & Hungry" (you may know him from "Entourage" or "Suburgatory").  Then on Tuesday, I get to speak to Julie Benz, star of "Defiance" on Syfy. This will be the third or fourth time I've gotten to speak with her, but it's always thrilling. I've always enjoyed her work, going all the way back to "Hi Honey I'm Home" in the 90's, but also and especially in the shows "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel" as Darla.  So busy!!!

It's amazing how, in such a short time, TV has changed. A decade ago you couldn't watch TV on your phone. There were no iPads or Kindles. Most people didn't have broadband or wireless.  I have a Kindle that I got as a gift, and it's ok, but I think I'd rather get an iPad. They're just SO expensive, though. They're great for watching movies and TV shows, though. I don't know why Kindle screens are still so small. Most people still watch TV on their TV's, but quite a few watch on these other devices as well.

The PR people for the various TV networks send me some DVD's of the shows to watch ahead of time. They often package it in very cool, elaborate holders, with glossy booklets. Sometimes they send some fun stuff along with the DVD's. Syfy is really the best for that kind of thing.  Over the years, I've been amazed at some of the things they come up with. Years ago they sent out chocolate bars for "Being Human" (that's my favorite). Another time they sent out these cool gloves, that allowed you to also text while you had gloves on, when it was cold. Those were great gloves, too, very warm.  Someone, don't remember who, also sent out cake pops one time.  This year, USA Network sent some cookies from a bakery in the Hamptons, to promote "Royal Pains".  Unfortunately, I'm allergic to cake and cookies, but my husband enjoyed them.  I guess Syfy and USA, both being part of NBC and Universal Studios, has a lot of money to spend on these things.  Same with FX, which has very elaborate packaging for their screeners. They're part of 20th Century FOX.  They don't usually send out "fun stuff", but their screeners usually come in really cool packaging with glossy booklets and nice covers.  The other cable nets, like TNT and Lifetime, don't have nearly as much money, so they usually just send the DVD.  I'm very happy to receive whatever they want to send! I love getting the shows ahead of time to review.

I do remember some great "Swag" from past years, though. One year SONY sent me a whole bunch of stuff, a whole box of goodies from their soaps, from their old soap opera site soapcity.com.  USA sent me a box of cool stuff one time, near the holidays - lots of Burn Notice DVD's and other stuff. They also sent me a full set of "Psych" and "Monk" DVD's. I love getting free stuff, especially when it's cool or useful. I get many DVD's from Lionsgate and CBS, and some from Warner Brothers, BBC and Universal. The latter three used to send me lots and lots of DVD's, but they don't send as many now, which is too bad. I mostly only review the DVD's sent to me, or else I would review a lot more.

I have a lot of TV-related dreams. This week I had a weird dream involving two soap opera characters, some friends of mine, realitys hows, and werewolves. So weird! I also had a great dream involving "Longmire"'s Walt.  I love those type of romantic dreams.  Having a good, vivid dream is like having your own personal Holodeck.

This past week, I've been really busy, and trying to catch up on email and other stuff, as well as watch DVD's. Hopefully next week will be better in that regard!

We need a new Y&R Update writer for our site, so please email me if you can help out. Don't email me if you plan to just steal the recaps from some other site, though, like someone last week did! Yikes!

Check out our What's New page to see all of the new stuff we put up every day...

Have a great week...

The TV MegaSite's Blog Post #127

• June 6

I watched last week's "The 100". It was very good! I can't wait to see the second part of the finale.  My only complaint about the show is that it seems like there isn't much sex going on, which seems unrealistic with all of these very attractive young people, with no adult supervision, in life and death situations. Not to mention the very attractive adults on the Ark!

• June 7

We went on vacation this week to San Diego. Since it's such a long flight from Honolulu, the airplane was a big one and had these screens on the back of the seats where you could watch TV shows, movies, listen to music, play games etc. I was very happy to watch the "Veronica Mars" movie. I loved that show. I need to see the movie again... wish I had time to re-watch the TV show, too.  I hope they make another movie. Nikky, one of our volunteers, tells me that there are two sequels books as well. I need to look for those.

I would have watched some TV, too, but the selection was not very good.  I did play the trivia game. It has different categories and mostly it lets you pick your own category (I think if you miss the question, it then picks a random question). I just kept picking Movies/TV and Music, so I did well. I would have done better, though, if the touch screen worked a little better.   Anyone, all airlines should have these cool screens. Not everyone has a tablet or a way to watch movies on the airplane.  I could have read on my Kindle or watched a movie or TV show on my laptop, but this was far less trouble...literally right there at the push of a button. So cool!

• June 10

Las Vegas has many TV-themed slot machines. They have for a long while, but we haven't visited there for a few years, so they're mostly all new ones now. We saw slot machines for "The Walking Dead", "CSI", "The Twilight Zone", "Sex and the City", and "The Munsters" as well as many movies like "The Hangover", "Iron Man", "Star Wars Trilogy", "Lord of the Rings", "Superman" and "Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory". Those are so much fun!

• June 11

We stayed for a few days at my sister-in-law's place. She and her husband have done something that I think quite a few people do now- they canceled their cable.  They do watch TV, but now they just watch it on Hulu, Netflix, Amazon or the Web.  For them, it wasn't even a matter of the cost but just that they used it so rarely, they figured, why bother wasting the money? I think, though, that they're  already finding that some TV sites are not allowing you to watch their shows unless you are already a cable or satellite customer, and the sites like Hulu don't have nearly as many choices.

I usually do watch some TV while I visit at their place, but we were very busy, so I only watched some DVD's and that was it.  I do have plenty of shows waiting for me on my DVR when I get home!

• June 12

We still didn't watch any more TV this week, although of course with my site I do talk about it plenty. Just about everyone I know agrees that "Longmire" is awesome!

I read that Billy Miller is joining "General Hospital" and may play Jason. I love seeing him, but it will be interesting to see how he does as Jason. It's a shame he doesn't have a regular primetime or movie gig because he's a fabulous actor.

Every time I travel, I take a bunch of work and other things to do, and then I'm so busy that I do very little...back to work now!

Have a great week!

The TV MegaSite's Blog Post #126

Ah, Summer... lots of reality shows and re-runs, but also plenty of original fictional programming as well.

Last Fall or Winter, I didn't realize that "Major Crimes" had returned, and by the time I figured it out, I had missed most of the episodes.  TNT just sent me the next premiere episode, though, so I went bought last season on Amazon Prime and watched it. I had a binge-watching session of half the season. It was great! I love that show.

This week's "Bold & Beautiful" made me laugh. I don't know if it's supposed to, or if it was unintentional humor. When Bill had the helicopter pilot dump Ridge into the ocean, it was hysterical! That's the kind of crazy, over-the-top stuff that B&B is famous for. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. This time it worked. I don't usually like that type of stuff, though. I prefer to have dramas that are more realistic.

I was overjoyed to watch the premiere episode of this season's "Longmire". I really love that show!! It's so great. They have awfully short seasons, though. It's the kind of show you just want to go on and on, forever.

I'm also happy to have "Beauty & The Beast" back.  It's always fun and has a lot of action, drama and romance. Exciting ending this week!

I've been sick a lot the past 2 weeks, so I'm very behind on my work. I have tons of interview transcripts to put up, one to transcribe, reviews to write and lots of stuff from emails that I want to put up.  And now I'm going out of town so who knows when it will be done!

I haven't watched all of this week's "General Hospital" yet, but I see that they killed off Patrick and Sabrina's baby. Not hard to see that coming, but I always hate when they do that. Do they say to themselves, "Hmm, I see it's been X months since we killed off a child - it's time to do another one!"???  Yuck.

I enjoyed "Hot in Cleveland" this week. It's not the funniest show around, but the characters are very likable, and they have great guest-stars.  It's fun just to see Betty White and how she throws out the best lines!

I'm glad that "Mistresses" is back, too, but I still have to catch up on some of last year's episodes. They're here, somewhere, on one of my DVR's...

They're live-streaming the Daytime Emmys online, which is great for fans, but it's not as good as having them on TV. Many people don't have the internet, or don't have a good connection. I mean, how stupid is this - it's an awards show for TV SHOWS and they can't even show them on TV??? So stupid. The networks should be ashamed of themselves for ignoring this opportunity to praise and promote their shows. Especially CBS, which has two soaps and both are #1 and #2 in the ratings.  Not even to mention all of the non-soap daytime shows that they honor.  Really, they can't take a measly two hours somewhere out of their schedule to show it? In the Summertime when it's mostly re-runs anyway?? How about Saturday night - there's nothing on then, anyway.   And I'm particularly peeved because I like to record the Daytime Emmys and keep them.  Not as easy to do when it's streaming.  The 41st Annual Daytime Emmy Awards ceremony will be streamed live from the Beverly Hilton Hotel at www.daytimeemmys.net beginning at 5:00 p.m. PT on Sunday, June 22, 2014.

This coming week's news will be here. I hope to have it done by Sunday morning.

I guess I'm too busy because I can't believe tomorrow is Friday already!  Have a great weekend, everyone.