Fans of the ABC Soap Operas “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” have been thrown a lifeline. A company looking for keystone content for its new online network has purchased the online rights to the shows and plans to continue them keeping the… Read More »Disney Soaps “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” to Survive as Online Shows
The good news is that Disney shows will continue to be available on Hulu for your viewing pleasure. The bad news is that you’ll have to endure more commercials with them. The details of the deal are murky, but expect your usual 6 to 8… Read More »Hulu updates deal with Disney Co.
Nola.com has a poignant wrap up of the production for Disney’s Imagination Movers show on the Disney Channel. It was not renewed for the 4th season; ending after 75 episodes and a concert special. There are apparently a few un-aired episodes in the can, plus… Read More »Imagination Movers not renewed for 4th season
The season finale of Modern Family aired last night. “The One that Got Away” ended the second season nicely, and prepared the audience for a few things that the writers have planned for season three. The episode focuses on Jay’s birthday, and this year all… Read More »Modern Family: Season 2, Episode 24 – The One That Got Away
I really enjoyed watching the first three seasons of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Those seasons often combined some personal growth with the award of a new home. What many people forget is that the Extreme Makeover series started as a body sculpture show where scalpels were used instead of hammers and the award was a new body from plastic surgery. Now the series is returning to that theme with a new show Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition (EM:WLE).
This time instead of relying on the scalpel, there is a personal trainer, and a lifestyle transformation instead of a home transformation. The May 30th premiere of the new ABC show will feature Rachel, a young woman, taking on a challenge to lose over 200 pounds. Each show of the 8 episode season is a self-contained, non-competitive year long journey.
Her guide for the journey is transformation specialist Chris Powell. He breaks the transformation process down into four 90 day segments. The first quarter features a crash course on healthy eating, exercise, and inspiration to lose all that weight. After that the subject is on their own except for the occasional check-in. This format may change in future episodes.
If you’re a fan of biggest loser, but not of the sometimes cut-throat competition on the show, then EM:WLE is for you. It’s definitely different from what I’ve seen from other reality shows. But if you’re looking to be inspired about how anyone can overcome obstacles in their lives, this show is for you.
“Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition” premieres MONDAY, MAY 30 (10:01-11:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network.
Read more about the show below the jump:
Read More »Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition – Premieres May 30th on ABC
Last night’s episode of “Modern Family” may be slightly misleading. The title “See You Next Fall” is not referring to the fact that it is the season finale, which many of my friends thought it meant, but instead was alluding to the fact that Cam is going to produce several laugh-worthy moments as he slips and stumbles his way through the episode. (He falls into Lily’s kiddy pool and gets upset when Mitch laughs at him.) Aside from some hilarious physical comedy, the episode provided many great lines and carefully threaded stories, hopefully pointing to the fact that next week’s season finale will be one you won’t want to miss.
Starting with the Dunphy’s, Alex is graduating from Middle School and gets to deliver the address, since she is valedictorian. We see her rehearsing a brutally honest speech where she will bash her classmates for ignoring her, and Haley takes it upon herself to try to stop this from happening. Meanwhile, Phil can see that Claire is going to have an emotional meltdown. He tries to make it happen immediately instead of the next day, so that he can go to Las Vegas with his cheerleading buddies.
Jay arrives home and the left side of his face is drooping. He tries to avoid any attention, but it’s obvious that he got a bad Botox job. Gloria and Manny both think that something bigger is wrong, though, so eventually Jay must admit what he has done. (By the way, they still have the cute dog from last week; glad to see the writers didn’t just get rid of her, like most other sitcoms would have.) This story ends up being another case of Jay feeling old, and Gloria is there to once again remind Jay that his age is all in his head.
There wasn’t much to the Mitch/Cam story, but it was still funny. At Jay’s house, Cam runs into the glass door, and then the screen door. Mitchell laughs again, and this time Jay and Claire join in, allowing Cameron to realize that “cruelty is genetic.” Upon trying to leave Jay’s house for Alex’s ceremony, everyone is stuck because the fence won’t open. Gloria finds a two-seater bike, so they throw the bike, Claire, and Phil over the fence so that they can make it on time.
At the ceremony, Haley tries to show Alex that “everyone has their stuff.” She admits to her sister that she’s flunking biology and might not get into college. She gives some harsh advice, while calling Alex “smart, pretty, and funny.” Alex is clearly touched, as the speech she gives is not the slap in the face to her class that she had prepared. Instead, she takes the words right out of Haley’s mouth. “Don’t stop believing, get this party started!” She gets a standing ovation as her entire family looks at her from the audience with pride.
Overall, I thought this episode was fairly strong. The best Modern Family episodes are the ones that center around one family moment, weaving together independent stories from each of the families. I’m also impressed with how the writers are handling Alex & Haley’s relationship, and I would just like to say that Sarah Hyland is hilarious. (This is evidenced by the fact that half of the lines I picked below come from Haley.)
As usual join us below the jump for Memorable quotes from the show:
Read More »Modern Family: Season 2, Episode 23 – See You Next Fall
According to Deadline Hollywood, ABC is making some big changes in its lineup. We already know about the soaps that have been canceled. Now the fall schedule begins to shape up. There will be a growing focus on comedies and a few favorite dramas won’t… Read More »ABC Lineup beginning to take shape
With just a few episodes left in the season, Modern Family was new again this week with Good Cop Bad Dog. This episode dealt with role reversals in each of the families, and for the most part it was fairly successful.
Let’s look at the Dunphys first, as they were the strongest story of the evening. Claire is sick of being the “bad cop” so she insists that Phil and her trade styles. Claire takes Luke and Manny go-karting and tells Phil to stay home and make sure that the girls clean their bathroom. Both of them take it way too far, in classic Dunphy fashion. Claire is so dead set on the boys having fun that she can’t even realize that they are miserable.
Meanwhile, Phil makes the mistake of trusting Haley and Alex, and they sneak off without actually cleaning their bathroom. Upon realizing this, he chases them out of the house and jumps on Haley’s car! This throws Phil over the edge, and he makes them clean the bathroom until its spotless, and then assigns them other household projects while refusing to feed them.
Mitch and Cam have tickets to see Lady GaGa, but Cam has fallen ill. Mitch wants to go to the concert anyway, but feels guilty because Cam always takes care of him. (We get to see a funny flashback of Cam carrying Mitch into the kitchen.) Once Cam chugs some Nyquil, Mitch decides to sneak off without him. Not much meat to this storyline, but it provided some chuckle-worthy moments.
That brings me to what I think is the weakest storyline of the evening. Gloria has invited a man over to the house so that he can get business advice from Jay. The man (played by Lin-Manuel Miranda) has a lot of enthusiasm, but a strange idea for a “good doggie, bad doggie training system.” Jay in his crippling honesty tells the man that his idea is terrible. Jay convinces Gloria that she has to learn to say no, to which Gloria responds by taking the man’s dog so that he can move. Jay holds firm and decides to take the dog away. I have two problems with this whole story-arch.
First, the premise is centered around the fact that Gloria collects needy people and tries to help them. Haven’t we seen that exact same story play out with Cameron? Second, I was hoping for a great guest appearance from Lin-Manuel Miranda (who wrote and originally stared in the Tony award winning Broadway musical “In the Heights,” one of my personal favorites.) However, he didn’t have much to work with, as his character was written with zero depth. The best part of this story was Gloria confusing sugar coating for “putting on a sugar jacket.”
In the end, the writers tried to tie all of the story lines together under monologue delivered by Gloria about why people end up with the people they love. Jay ends up being the one who can’t say no, and he takes the dog back home. Mitch tries to pretend that he’s been by Cam’s side the entire time, but he has a neon necklace on, which he forget to stop from blinking. When Claire brings the boys home, she and Phil decide that they fit best in the roles they already have. (Good, we need Phil to be the fun one.) All in all, this episode was not as good as last week, but I’ve come to expect a lot from Modern Family. I enjoyed two of the three stories, which is a fairly decent score.
Memorable quotes below the jump:
Read More »Modern Family: Season 2, Episode 22 – Good Cop Bad Dog