“Strange Days” debuts in Daytona Beach

If you live in Florida, joining a motorcycle club is as ordinary as joining a baseball team in Peoria, IL or a bowling league in Erie, PA. This is one of the things we do here for recreation, given the beautiful, mild, dry sunny weather, endless stretches of open roads, liberal biker laws, and more importantly, the seemingly out-of-place eclectic and adventuresome frontier-like culture. Florida is not just the place to retire. It is the place to let go, ride like the wind, and live your dreams, perhaps on the wheels of a Harley Davidson.

Each October and March, leather clad bikers from the far reaches of the world descend upon Florida to participate in two festivals: Octoberfest and Bike Week. Last year, actor/comedian Bob Saget joined the swarms of bikers in order to film the first episode of his new documentary series, Strange Days. The pilot will air tonight on A&E at 10 PM. (Channel 42 for those of you who subscribe to Brighthouse Cable in Central Florida.)

Rather than operate the vehicle himself, he hitches a ride in a sidecar with several members of the Iron Order Motorcycle Club, making a trip with them from Nashville, TN to Daytona Beach, FL.

I’ve read the reviews of Strange Days and a few of the writers seem to be rather confused, believing that the biker lifestyle must be outrageously humorous, perhaps composed of bug and gravel-eating backwoods rednecks. They are disappointed that Saget has instead discovered that bikers are a rather intellectual and ordinary bunch of civilized human beings, composed of both men and women, who care strongly for each other’s welfare, and are usually quite gainfully employed (it takes a lot of money to own and operate a Harley).

I watched a wonderful interview of Bob Saget on Conan last Wednesday on Nov. 24. Saget explained that the Strange Days series is actually an exploration of different lifestyles, some of which seemed strange on the surface, but turned out to be rather fun. His goal is to educate, rather than confirm stereotypes. The humor in this case is in the irony.

I hope we can all take the time to watch Strange Days premiere tonight. In the second episode, airing at 10:30 PM, Saget will go on the hunt for Sasquatch in Washington State. Now, that is strange!

Project Runway Debuts Tonight!

I almost missed this one. Ever since Project Runway has changed networks from Bravo to Lifetime, the usual self-promoting affiliate network ads have disappeared. Fortunately, an ad showed up on my yahoo email site. Be sure to tune in tonight, Thursday, September 29 at 9 PM on Lifetime. (Channel 40 on Brighthouse Orlando).

This is the 8th season of Project Runway and will once again feature hosts Tim Gunn and Heidi Klum. The first episode is titled, "And Sew It Begins" and lasts 1-1/2 hours from 9 to 10:30 PM.

"White" Hot in Cleveland

Jane Leeves, Betty White, Valerie Bertinelli, and Wendie Malick are "White" Hot in Cleveland!

What do you get when you take four award winning TV stars – most noticeably the currently hip and trendy Betty White – and put them together in a brand new TV sitcom? I suppose we’ll find out tonight at 10 PM (channel 38 on Brighthouse cable here in Orlando) when TV Land network debuts its very first original sitcom, “Hot in Cleveland,” about three lovely ladies who discover that despite their “over 30” age bracket, they are considered attractive to the opposite sex in the working class city of Cleveland, Ohio. Together, they rent an old home which comes complete with caretaker, Betty "White Hot" White.

The show will be filmed in “real time” with multiple cameras and a LIVE studio audience harkening back to sitcoms of yesteryear (and the current live “Saturday Night Live”). Jokes will have to actually be funny, or the audience simply won’t deliver – a recipe for old school reality TV. True, the audience will most likely be given the typical cues – “Applause” and “Laughter” signs, but even the most well-trained audience will not roll on the floor with laughter unless they are truly moved to do so.

So, who’s that girl?

Betty White:

Her more recently well known role was that of ditsy Rose Nylund on “The Golden Girls,” 1985 to 1992. However, I remember her as the spicy Sue Ann Nivens who worked as a TV cook demonstrator (picture, Martha Stewart) from 1973 to 1977 on the “Mary Tyler Moore” show (photo at left). White actually began appearing in movies in 1945 (according to IMDB) and starred in “Life With Elizabeth,” a sitcom which ran from 1952 to 1955. She eventually had her own “Mary Tyler Moore” spin off show, “The Betty White Show”, which ran from 1977 to 1978. She made numerous appearances playing a variety of roles in nearly every popular show, including “The Carol Burnett Show,” “Fame,” “St. Elsewhere,” “Mama’s Family,” “The Love Boat,” “Diagnosis Murder,” “Suddenly Susan,” “Ally McBeal,” “The Ellen Show,” “Providence,” “King of the Hill,” “Everwood,”… and whew! ... the list goes on and on! More recently, Betty White hosted “Saturday Night Live” after a fan campaign on facebook. She did not disappoint and was hilarious. The years have given her a brave new attitude and she will boldy and unabashedly go where few actresses will follow -- making raucous jokes and using foul language no one expects from a sweet little old lady of 88 years of age.

Valerie Bertinelli

Bertinelli began her career as a child actress in 1974 at the tender age of 13 in an episode of “Apple’s Way,” a serious TV drama series created by Earl Hamner Jr. , the creator of “The Waltons” (according to IMDB.com). The next year, she landed the role of the sweet, but not so innocent Barbara Cooper in the hit show, “One Day at a Time,” which ran from 1975 to 1984 and also starred Mackenzie Phillips as her sister, Julie (photo at right). In 1997, she joined the cast of “Touched by an Angel” as angel Gloria until 2003 when the show was eventually cancelled. However, I primarily remember her for her famous marriage to Eddie Van Halen at age 21.

Wendie Malick

If you watch cartoons, you have probably heard Malick’s easily distinguishable bossy voice. Though not always listed, she is credited as the voice of Berdeen in “Bratz” and Principal Folsom in “Fillmore!” Her more famous non-animated acting roles include that of Martin Crane’s girlfriend, Ronee during the last season of “Frasier” from 2003 to 2004; and that of retired model, sex pot Nina Van Horn on “Just Shoot Me” 1997 to 2003 (photo at left). She also had a regular role as Judith Tupper Stone in the USA TV series “Dream On” (1990-1996). Malick made her acting debut in 1978 and played Dr. Brigitte Blaine in the serious short-lived 1983 TV show, “Trauma Center.” Typically cast as strong, bold, bossy, and oversexed, Malick made numerous appearances in over 100 TV shows and movies, including “Mike Hammer,” “Scarecrow and Mrs. King,” “Hunter,” “MacGyver,” “LA Law,” “Empty Nest,” “Baywatch,” “Law and Order,” and “Pushing Daisies.” You can find a complete list on IMDB.com.

Jane Leeves

I first remember seeing Leeves in an episode of “Seinfeld” in 1992 where she played one of Jerry’s numerous girlfriends, Marla Penny, a virgin. However, she actually made her film debut in 1983 as a dancer in “The Meaning of Life” and even appeared in several episodes of “The Benny Hill Show” as one of Hill’s Angels from 1983 to 1985 (according to IMDB). Making her way across the pond to America, she was eventually cast as an extra in “Murder, She Wrote” in 1987. This helped launch her American career, her thick British accent and gorgeous cute looks helped her land a regular part on “Throb,” which ran from 1986 to 1988. Although she is best known for her recent long running role as Daphne Moon Crane on “Frasier,” 1993 to 2004 (photo at right), Leeves had numerous appearances on popular shows such as, “Mr. Belvedere,” “Red Dwarf,” “Murphy Brown,” and “Desperate Housewives.” She also frequently voiced cartoon characters, such as the ladybug in “James and the Giant Peach,” “Garfield,” and “The Simpsons.”

Reminded of “What If’s?” inThere's Something About Mary

Ted and Mary awkwardly date after reuniting as adults after 13 years since high school. In the end, the guy gets the girl, and the girl gets her knight in shining armor.

This week, hidden among the complex menu of the “On Demand” TV shows is the movie, “There’s Something About Mary.”

TV On Demand
Channel: 304 Brighthouse Orlando
Network: FX
Movies: About Mary

Originally released in 1998, the movie speaks of the eternal unrequited love it seems we all carry buried within our hearts. While in high school, a dorky young man, Ted, falls for Mary, a radiantly beautiful girl, and though he manages to win her over through his valiant defense of her disabled brother, a romantic relationship never truly comes to fruition. The two go their separate ways until thirteen years later, when Ted bravely decides to hire a private investigator and get in touch with Mary to see where life has taken her and “what if,” by chance, there’s still some spark – and some chance -- between them. Despite believing that she now has four children with different fathers, weighs 250 lbs, and is on her way to get married in Japan, he is still determined to go with his heart and seek her out in Miami. Now, that’s love, baby! Writers Ed Decter and John Strauss’s plot is one that even William Shakespeare would have been proud to have written.

There’s really nothing to pick apart in this movie.

From a girl’s point of view, it’s a winner on the romantic, teary eyed, “that’s so sweet,” point of view. Face it girls, we all want to be Mary. We all want to be “that girl,” the girl who everyone is in love with, from superstar Brett Favre to the pizza delivery man. We all secretly hope for a knight in shining armor: a wonderful guy out there who’s been harboring an obsession over us for a dozen years who’s willing to fight for us.

From a guy’s point of view, the movie offers over-the-top hilarity in every scene – from the zipper incident, to the jail cell, to the mistaken hair gel – to the subtle comedic details, such as the family portrait featuring Mary’s Dad in a giant afro. Men like the idea that Ted is an “average” guy, that he makes mistakes, takes bad advice, is far too trusting, and really isn’t special in any way shape or form other than simply being “a nice guy.” Despite his average appearance and mid career “haven’t-gotten-there-yet” stage in life, he “gets the girl” in the end, anyway.

The cast is thoughtfully chosen and packed to the brim with comedic talent, with Cameron Diaz as Mary; Ben Stiller as Ted; Matt Dillon as sleezy private detective Pat; Lee Evans as the crippled architect; Lin Shaye as golden girl Magda; W. Earl Brown as Mary’s brother Warren; and Chris Elliott as hive-struck Dom. More familiar faces pop up in each scene. Even Magda's dog Fluffy is adorable!

The music score is well derived, and cleverly complemented by a pair of narrating strumming minstrels, guitarist/singer Jonathan Richman and drummer Tommy Larkins, who change instruments throughout each appearance and become an integral part of the plot at the end of the picture.

Directors Bobby Farrelly and Peter Farrelly (the Farrelly Brothers) have carefully staged each scene to be both entertaining and sweet. The movie is set in picturesquely lush and colorful Miami, FL.

The On Demand movie runs roughly 2 hours and is sprinkled with short commercial breaks, mostly trailers for other comedy movies. On Demand has fewer commercials (knock on polyvinyl chloride plastic) and you have the added advantage of watching it when you want, rewinding, and pausing when needed.

NBC could have learned something from Coca-Cola

Leno’s back at 11:30 PM tonight as NBC attempts to “undo” their expensive decision to move Jay Leno to 10 PM and replace him with Conan O’Brien as host of the Tonight Show at 11:30 PM. After only 120 days with their new line up, the NBC network has decided their experiment in shifting time slots did not work. Conan has behaved as a gentleman and voluntarily given up his seat in NBC’s giant game of musical chairs so that his longtime personal friend, Jimmy Fallon, can remain in his new job hosting his old show, Late Night, at 12:30 AM.

It’s a shame the attempt to get “back to normal” had to be so dramatic. Perhaps NBC should have held a trial run and had Leno host some specials at 10 PM on low ratings nights, in order to test the waters to see if their viewing audience would watch him in an earlier time slot. Rather than cancel all the 10 PM dramas to make room for Leno, perhaps NBC might have tried airing him on a sister-network on cable, such as USA. Likewise, Conan could have guest hosted Leno’s show at 11:30 PM over the five years before his departure, just as Leno guest hosted the Tonight Show for Johnny Carson for five years – baby steps. Instead, the changes in programming were made with reckless abandon.

I am reminded of a similar situation several years ago in 1985 when the Coca-Cola corporation decided to revive interest in their products and boost sales by introducing “New Coke.” Not only was “New Coke” a major flop, the company found themselves attempting to win back old consumers by reintroducing their old formula 79 days later as “Coca-Cola Classic.” “New Coke” is now a distant memory as Coke Classic has rightfully regained its position as the only Coke. Although the actual total cost of the fiasco was not made public, it probably would have been cheaper, and definitely far less embarrassing for Coca-Cola to have simply lowered their prices and held a big sale.

Twenty years later in 2005, Coca-Cola was determined to not make the same mistake twice and introduced Coca-Cola Zero as an alternative to Diet Coke rather than attempt to replace it. Coke Zero, featuring a stronger flavor and more caffeine, has gained popularity, particularly among men, and sales are now 1.7% of the entire soda market compared to Diet Coke, which owns 5.2% of the overall soda market. If Coke Zero had not been a hit, it would have been a simple and painless procedure for the Coca-Cola company to take the product off store shelves. At some point in the distant future, it is possible that Diet Coke will slowly become the lesser favorite to Coke Zero, just as TaB, introduced in 1963 slowly has become the lesser favorite to Diet Coke, introduced about twenty years later in 1984.

Corporations need to consider consumer loyalty, which can be nearly impossible to predict, but easy to measure in small bits and pieces. The slow transition from Leno to Carson as Tonight Show host took place over five years from 1987 to 1992. Although Carson himself was unhappy with the change, the audience was used to Leno and the overall move was a success. Sadly, the transition from Leno to Conan was abrupt and jarring and appeared to come out of nowhere during the Spring of 2009.

The jarring movement of Jay Leno to 10 PM in September 2009 occurred within a few short months and was also not well received. The idea of watching Leno every night at 10 PM was too much for loyal viewing audiences to take and they found themselves switching the channel, and in some cases, finding old friends, such as “Medium,” which moved to CBS. The repercussions of having to cancel the TV dramas previously shown in the 10 PM time slot will no doubt be slow scars to heal. NBC is finding itself scrambling in an effort to replenish those time slots with new and exciting shows, such as “Parenthood” and the “Marriage Ref.” To keep old viewers from changing the channel at 10, NBC is also showing two-hour versions of “Law and Order,” “Law and Order SVU,” and “Dateline” this week.

I am hopeful that after the dust settles at NBC, not only will Jay Leno once again be bringing in high ratings at 11:30 PM, but Conan O’Brien will find a revived career in some other television production which utilizes his unique and brilliant comedic talents.

Other corporations should take this opportunity to learn from NBC’s mistake. When considering radical changes in your products, services, locations, hours, or employees, be sure to build in an “undo” button. It’s cheaper to “hit undo” than it is to try and rebuild.

Don’t blame Leno for low News ratings

The dust has finally settled at NBC and only two weeks ago, I found myself finally settling into a routine where I’d watch about five minutes of Jay Leno’s monologue at 10 o’clock before drifting off to sleep. About a year ago at this time, I’d be watching, you guessed it: News.

Local news stations blame Leno’s new time slot for their viewer ratings drop and want Leno moved – again. Ratings drops mean advertising sales drops. The local NBC affiliate stations imagine that if Leno is moved back to 11:35, viewers will once again choose to watch their local broadcast of the 10 o’clock news and all will once again be right with the world.

However, a lot has changed in only one year and I don’t think things will work out quite as these local affiliates hope.

More viewers now have cable

The first major change which occurred roughly one year ago was the switch from analog broadcast to digital broadcast. We viewers all had to suddenly go out and buy a special antenna or cable! Gasp! Many of the diehard “I’ll never get cable” viewers were suddenly out of gas. It was cable or nothing in some cases.

With cable comes all sorts of wonderful channels, including one of my favorites, 24-hour local news. At any time, day or night, if I want to know what is happening in my neck of the woods, I can turn to Channel 13 Brighthouse news (here in Orlando) and find out the weather forecast, traffic jams, crime, sports, and events. There is no longer any need for me to wait for the local 5 o’clock news, the 6 o’clock news, or even the 10 or 11 o’clock news. It’s covered when I want to see it, even at, say, 9 o’clock.

In addition, along with cable, we former cable-less viewers suddenly have any number of television schedule choices available from ESPN, Lifetime, Oxygen, the History Channel, TCM, MTV, FXM, and one of my favorites HGTV. That 10 o’clock news broadcast is looking less and less appealing. Perhaps a rerun of Three’s Company, the Jefferson’s, Friends or Seinfeld would get more viewers on these local stations.

Nothing I want to watch on the news

What else happened one year ago? The presidential election. Everyone was perched on the edges of their easy chairs to see who would win the election and how President Obama would handle his first few days in office – hence the reason I myself watched news every night at 10 o’clock.

The third reason I believe that no one is watching the news is our bad economy. With about 20 percent of the nation unemployed (including all of us who don’t receive unemployment), who wants to be further depressed by watching the news? Are you going to tell me that a big corporation is hiring down the street? I doubt it. You’re going to tell my more bad news – less jobs, higher unemployment, higher gas and food prices, more crime, car accidents, people fighting over healthcare, terrorist attacks, etc. Yep, this is just what I need to watch at 10 o’clock before I go to sleep – not!

Programming mis-match

Finally, look at the lineup on CW in the 7, 8, and 9 o’clock slots before the 10 o’clock news. One Tree Hill, Gossip Girl, Supernatural, 90210, Smallville and Melrose Place have strong followings among teens and young adults. These are not the type of viewers who want to follow up their evenings watching a local news broadcast.

Let’s pretend Leno is moved back to 11:35. If you think I’m watching him at 11:35, you’re mistaken. First off, on nights when I’m actually up that late, I’ll be watching Letterman, who I used to watch before Conan was moved into that slot. That’s right – I like Conan over Letterman. Leno ranks third with me and most of the kids in my generation.

At 10 o’clock, I’ll be watching South Park on the Comedy Channel, King of the Hill on Cartoon Network, Married with Children on TV Land, or an Orlando Magic game on FSN. If something is happening in the world, I’ll watch Nancy Grace on HLN or Keith Olbermann on MSNBC. What I won’t be watching is local news on CW, my local NBC affiliate here in Orlando.

However, at 7 o’clock in the morning on Saturday, I will be watching cartoons on CW. Why not air Winx and Spectacular Spiderman cartoons at 10 o’clock PM? Now, I would watch that!

Shing!!!

The Beelzebubs (or Bubs) end their rendition of "Sail Away" with a fun, Titanic-like finish.

When I first heard about Sing-off, I thought to myself, this show will never make it. Surprisingly, I love it. Not only am I extremely entertained and delighted by each of the a capella group performances, I'm also learning something in the process about how to improve my own singing technique.

TVgrrrrl (aka Jenny Penny), when she isn't blogging, is also singing in a band, or should I say "shinging," a term coined by Ben Folds when evaluating one of the a cappella group's performances on Tuesday night's show. "Shing" was the actual word the backup singers were singing, but the term picked up new life as the sound the backup singers make behind the lead singer to sound like instruments.

The three judges, Ben Folds, Shawn Stockman of Boyz II Men, and Nicole Scherzinger of the Pussycat Dolls, are incredibly insightful, positive, and intelligent in their evaluations. While I am blissfully entertained, the judges are pinning down specifics of why one group sounds so good and why one group doesn't. Together, they point out the finer details, such as: subtle pitch mismatches, impressive vocal rises, dynamic arrangements, vocal intensity issues, and so on. The lessons a singer can learn from watching this show are good enough to put on a University accredited online education program.

Three groups, BYU Noteworthy, Face, and Solo have been eliminated to date. Remaining in the competition are: Maxx Factor, SoCals, Voices of Lee, and my two favorites, Nota and Beelzebubs.

Nick Lachey of 98 degrees hosts the show.

Sing-Off will air the last of three two-hour, taped competition episodes tonight on NBC from 8PM to 10PM. The live finale will air on Monday, Dec. 21. You can also catch the show online on NBC.com.