A TV addicts paradise – The NBC Experience Store

After appearing in the audience on The Today Show, we wandered over to the NBC Experience Store soon after it opened at 8 AM. The store is located to the north of West 49th Street on Rockefeller Plaza. Rockefeller Center is also a stop on the Subway where it exits into an underground mall. The Center also offers tours, ice skating (in winter), a restaurant, and art gallery.

All I can say is, “WOW!”

The store is huge at 20,000 square feet and is lit up with lights and neon. Greeting us were two extremely helpful sales people who knew the entire inventory by heart. Lauren and Bobby both gave us the tour of everything we can buy that’s “NBC TV," from past shows such as Friends, to current shows such as Psych, House, Law and Order, Friday Night Lights and The Biggest Loser. It even carries soon to be cancelled show collectibles from The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (soon to be with Conan O'brien), Late Night with Conan O'brien (now with Jimmy Fallon), and Monk, which is sadly ending this summer.

I was on a hunt for spoons for a friend who collects them. Sadly, no spoons…

However, we were able to walk out with tons of other booty. A huge fan of The Office, my friend bought a Dunder Mifflin “World's Best Boss” mug for his boss and a Michael mug for himself. I bought a Dwight t-shirt (Drop Beats, not Bombs), Dunder Mifflin bag, and shot glass for a friend who was turning 21. I got a pretty NBC peacock pin for my mom, who collects pins. A few shirts and magnets made my shopping trip complete.

Only $130 dollars later, we were happy TV addicts! There was so much to buy, we could have easily spent much more.

The store also carries a huge assortment of candy.

Sylar's Inside Joke -- An Homage to Star Trek

Quinto as Spock at left. Quinto as Sylar at right.

If you happened to catch last night's episode of NBC's hit TV show, Heroes, "Into Asylum," you would have seen an homage to the upcoming Star Trek movie where the actor who plays Sylar, Zachary Quinto, will play Spock.

How do you give Quinto some time off to film the new Star Trek movie while continuing the incremental Sylar story line? You give him the ability to shape shift. This allows Sylar to be played by a whole slew of different actors. So, last night, Sylar learned a new trick -- shape shifting -- by stealing the ability in a very un-Sylar-istic manner: cutting out the microscopic power-giving brain tissue with a knife. (I still wonder, does he just touch the brain, eat it, absorb it, or what?) Since the shape shifter was impersonating Sylar at the time of his death, everyone now thinks that Sylar himself is dead.

At the end of the episode, we find federal officer Danko and Sylar leaving in a car together with plans to team up to eradicate more Heroes.

Danko asks, "So, how did that feel, zipping up that body bag?"

"Cathartic," says Sylar, "Poetic."

The camera closes in on Sylar's face as he looks in the passenger mirror. His eyes darken, his skin takes on an alien pallor, and with his fingers, he pushes up his eyebrow.

"And tactically fortunate."

Um...Spock!

The new Star Trek movie is set to hit theaters on May 8, 2009. I, for one, cannot wait.

How Cool Is It to See Heroes 3 Times a Week?

When I first began to watch NBC’s Heroes, I thought, “Oh, great! Now, I have another ‘soap opera’ to schedule my life around.”  I began to watch the show because I love science fiction and fantasy. I was not disappointed by the story line, where ordinary, everyday people across the globe discover by accident that they have superpowers. The first season featured their moments of discovery, but added in the thrill and danger of a superpower hunter, Sylar, who seeks out these people to kill them and steal their powers. Each season brings a new dynamic of mystery to the show.  With all the problems we are currently suffering in the real world, TV shows like Heroes are a wonderful retreat from reality. 

Although I love the show, I am still finding myself rearranging my schedule in real life to accommodate my TV watching life. What ever happened to the good ol’ days when TV shows were ‘self-contained?’ You know, when you could watch an episode one week, skip three weeks, and watch another episode a month later and not feel you’ve missed anything.

Fortunately, with Heroes, I have three time slot choices where I can watch each week’s show on TV. First, I can watch it at it’s regularly scheduled time on Monday night at 9:00 PM on NBC. If I miss it, I can watch it on G4 at 10 PM on Tuesday or 5:30 PM on Wednesday. The schedule is on G4’s Web site.

If I miss it on TV, I can still catch the latest episode on NBC’s official Heroes website, possible through the magic of the Internet and a high speed DSL cable hookup. In addition, I can also watch animated episodes, learn more about different aspects of the show on Heroes Evolutions, and even join in on the conspiracy theory discussions.

(By the way, speaking of theories: I think Tracey Strauss will reassemble herself with the help of another Hero. She blinked, so she’s not dead, after all. Perhaps Danko will put her in a jar on his desk, proudly on display, and a Hero will add a drop of Claire’s blood to the jar to help her reassemble herself. We also have yet to meet Barbara, Tracey's twin.

I also think Danko may actually have superpowers of some sort which he’s hiding and will reveal only when he feels all the other heroes have safely been put away. Doesn’t he remind you of someone, Adam (Kansai), perhaps? Of course, if he was Adam, he would have to have somehow lost his powers of time travel over the many hundreds of years which have passed since he first appeared in feudal Japan.)