They almost blew it. The show almost wrecked any ounce of credibility it might have had. I really did think for a few moments there that Jerry Rice might win the whole thing. And I was thinking that before Stacy was kicked off in third. He had been saved from the brink before, based solely on fan votes. Stacy and Drew were clearly at the head of the class all season long, and it was only fitting that it came down to the two of them in the end. Well, it almost did. . . Stacy’s partner pretty much destroyed that chance with their freestyle dance last Thursday.

I’m still trying to figure out why Samantha Harris’ dance on Thursday went completely unnoticed and quickly forgotten. When Tom Bergeron did his in the previous week, she was there to congratulate him. They had a nice standing ovation for him. For his co-host, though, they couldn’t cut to commercial quickly enough and no more mention was ever made of it. Odd.

I hope that they bring Kenny Mayne back as a color commentator for next season. His comments, cut short though they might have been, were the funniest thing the show has ever seen. And if you need to stretch the elimination show out to an hour or two, you might as well add something new with him. I think I fast forwarded through half the show on Sunday night, just because it was clips package after clips package. Nothing could happen on the show without a three minute prepackaged video montage of the “journey.” They kept repeating the same clips. It was ridiculous!

But the show was still fun, over all, and I’m likely going to watch it when it returns, which I bet will be in the summer.

Full release list.

My highlights:

The Avengers: Complete Emma Peel Mega-Set (17-disc set)

The world needs more 17- disc sets. Though it’s only going to be 14 discs, just wait for the Superman megaset this fall. . .

C.O.P.S.: The Animated Series (4-disc set)

I barely remember this one anymore. I seem to only ever recall watching the last two minutes of episodes because something I wanted to watch was always on right after it. DC did a comics series based on the show at the time, didn’t they? Hey, if Marvel was running with the animated POLICE ACADEMY comic, then surely DC should have had C.O.P.S.

Dog Day Afternoon: Special Edition (2-disc set) (1975) Network: Special Edition (2-disc set) (1976)

Those two go together nicely. NETWORK is a great movie. George Clooney is set to remake it as a live TV movie, complete with Les Moonves returning to his acting roots. I’m sure Clooney will be sure to take pot shots at Fox News along the way, too, being the creative dynamo that he is.

The Drew Carey Show: TV Favorites

If I can’t get the season sets, I’ll settle for this for now.

The Ice Harvest (widescreen) (2005)

A little dud of a Christmas movie starring everyone’s favorite, John Cusack.

Lady and the Tramp: 50th Anniversary Edition (2-disc set) (1955)

Best-selling release of the week, I’d bet.

Night Court: TV Favorites

The first season came out a year ago already, with no second season released yet. Is this a bad sign?

Pride & Prejudice (2005)

This one features Oscar nominee, Keira Knightley, the sexiest tomboy beanpole on the planet. I’m beginning to think that that description of her is suffering from the law of diminishing returns. Do people still remember its origins? I’m probably one of the last few in an internet age where memory isn’t an issue; we have Google.

Walk the Line: Collector’s Edition (2-disc set) (widescreen) (2005) Walk the Line (widescreen) (2005) Walk the Line (pan-and-scan) (2005)

Great movie, horribly overlooked by the Oscars people. Sure, it’s got all the usual cliches of this kind of bio-pic, but it was still entertaining as all get out.

Next week: FREE ENTERPRISE gets a special edition so you can see William Shatner rapping in all his glory. The latest HARRY POTTER movie is released. The “Borg” pack of STAR TREK episodes shows up. And a couple of other quaint DVDs will round it all out.

• The American Idol writeup will be up later this morning. . .

• The difference between HD-DVD and regular DVD using LORD OF THE RINGS. If this is legit and not some misuse of data-colection methodology, then it’s amazing. Mouse over the image to see the HD-DVD version of it.

• Life without Jeeves. It’s the end of an internet era. (How long is an “internet era,” anyone? About five minutes?)

• Where do collections go when you die? It’s a particularly thorny problem for people who collect old crap nobody cares about anymore. Pencils?!?

• Some very very old UNIX humor.

• The Digital Bits is reporting that there’s a 2-disc RONIN: COLLECTOR’S EDITION coming in May. It’s one of my favorite 90s movies, that’s too easily overlooked. Great looking film, great car chases, nice plot.

Things exploded tonight, and next week’s two-parter should be magnificent.

I think. Or, I could just be a gushing fanboy for this show. Tonight’s CTU showdown was very cool.

Discuss all the spoilers for the series thus far — but NOTHING about previews — below.

One other thing: Did the Buffy fans catch the behind-the-scenes reference in the episode tonight? Hint.

Is Microsoft set to announce this bad boy tomorrow night, or sometime this week? As much as I hate Microsoft, I have to admit that the thing looks pretty cool. It’s a tablet PC type thing with all sorts of Wi-Fi or Blue Tooth inside of it

Check out the video.

And is this the product’s home page?

Tonight:

DEAL OR NO DEAL returns for five nights before beginning its life as a weekly series. That’s NBC at 8:00 p.m., Eastern Time.

That’s followed by the new season of THE APPRENTICE. Since it’s on opposite 24, I don’t know if I’ll bother with it this season. . .

The finale of THE BACHELOR is also tonight, in case you’ve been following it.

As much as I love Apple and think Disney most likely needs a radical shift at the highest levels, I’m somehow reminded of headlines about AOL buying Time/Warner here. . .

Central Florida News 13

Report in “Barron’s” suggested the Disney could be purchased by Apple Computer.

A weekend business report fueled heavy trading of Walt Disney stock in early trading on Wall Street today.

I’m finally all caught up on THE SHIELD now.

They should take last week’s episode, slap a label on it saying, “For Your Consideration,” and send it to the Emmy people now. Michael Chiklis and CCH Pounder both deserve nominations for that episode. Chiklis, in particular, gave a devastating performance as a man conflicted between his “good” and “bad” sides, trying to be all things to all people, and starting perhaps to crack a bit under the strain. Pounder gave a startling performance as a woman on the brink, being pulled at from all sides, trying to justify and prove herself while starting to fail. . .

Post all your spoilers for the season thus far comments below. The spoiler flags are a’flying. Just please don’t talk about previews for the rest of the season. Thanks.

Duh.

And don’t forget his turn in PHONE BOOTH.

And now, a word from Kiefer Sutherland…

Kiefer Sutherland isn’t happy just saving the world. He also wants to sell it to you. Sutherland has fought his way to international fame as Jack Bauer, the terrorist-foiling, order-barking agent on 24. In the minutes in between, he’s also the seductive growl of Ford of Canada, Verizon Business phone and data service in the U.S. and, just joining the rotation, Apple’s Intel-powered computer. Sometimes you don’t even have to change channels during the show to catch the sales pitch. It’s enough to blur Sutherland and Bauer into one ass-kicking salesman.

I think I’ve mentioned it before here, but there’s been a noticeable absence on the Billy Joel tour and supporting appearances on TV: drummer Liberty DeVitto. While he was left out of the recording sessions on RIVER OF DREAMS, he’s been part of Joel’s band forever. So what happened?

It looks ugly.

New York Daily News – Home – Rush & Molloy

“I told him I was getting divorced, my ex-wife was getting everything, could he help me out? I helped him create hits, but I wasn’t getting any royalties. The next day, he had the tour manager tell me, ‘No way.’” When Joel didn’t invite him to his 2004 wedding to third wife, Kate Lee, DeVitto says, “I wrote him a letter, confronting him about his drinking and certain management issues. People said I discredited him. But then he went into rehab and proved me right.”

Sci Fi Wire — The News Service of the Sci Fi Channel

ABC has given a green light to the SF anthology TV series Masters of Science Fiction, which will present works of well-known authors such as Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov, Variety reported. [...] Writer Michael Tolkin (The Rapture) is already on board to adapt and direct an episode, while the producers are also in talks to produce works such as Harlan Ellison’s “The Discarded” and Asimov’s “The Last Question.” IDT and Industry also hope to sign Bradbury to adapt his “Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed.”

That is Asimov’s professed favorite story, and it’s been reprinted multiple times. Why, it’s even available to read on-line. It is a great one.

Revolution Report – news – Nintendo Revolution SDK Near Finalized, Costs $2000

Developers preparing playable Revolution software for E3 2006 will soon be receiving the fourth SDK which should provide 90-95% of the final system’s achievable performance. According to IGN’s development sources, final developments kits are expected to be made widely available around June of this year. A number of software houses admitted that studios familiar with GameCube achitecture would find little difficulty in getting their Revolution projects up and running with due speed. In regards to Revolution’s horsepower, many developers were finding it to be quite sufficient, also saying that the uniqueness of the controller made up for any lower amount of raw power. On a final note, most studios working on Revolution titles think the console could retail under $200 US, possibly as low as $150.

In other words, Nintendo is moving down the train tracks with a full head of steam. Sony is still trying to figure out if it has a track to put the PS3 on. . .

Also, the development kit costs the developers about one tenth the price of the PS2 dev kits.

Just to be safe, I’ll hide the names of the contestants who are out of the competition now under the break.

I sometimes forget from year to year how the voting patterns go. At this point in the season, it’s fairly predictable. I got so caught up in overthinking things and believing in upsets and wondering where the backwards votes would be, that it never occured to me that the more obvious choices were also the most realistic.

I don’t have much to say about the show. It’s a fairly standard tug at the heart strings, plus a group singalong that went all right.

In the end, two girls and two boys had to go. I’m going to miss two of them. . .

Den ganzen Beitrag lesen…

I, of course, post this out of journalistic integrity and honesty. I’ve vowed to bring you all the important AI news here on this site. So until I can find confirmation on the Ace-Is-Gay rumor (what about Bobby?), all I can bring you is this one:

‘Idol’ Singer Strikes Sexy Pose With Twin – Yahoo! News

“American Idol” contestant Becky O’Donohue just doubled her exposure. The aspiring singer is featured alongside her twin sister, Jessie, in a series of sexy photos on the Maxim magazine Web site. The 25-year-old twins pose in bikinis, unbuttoned baseball jerseys, and glistening with sweat in a sauna-like setting, wearing only towels. The photos were taken two years ago for the magazine’s online fantasy baseball game, said Jordan Burchette, executive editor of Maxim Online. The images “found new life” when O’Donohue became an “Idol” contestant, Burchette said.

You can find pics on the Maxim website.

(Links found on TVTattle.com)

Google announced a new thing today called Page Creator, which will allow you to easily create web pages in a WYSIWYG kind of way. Not surprisingly, it proved so popular that Google had to limit new accounts on it for awhile.

No problem. I can deal with that. Here’s what I find funny, though:

• When you click on the link above, it asks you for your GMail user name and password to log in.

• This message appears on the next screen:

Thank you for your interest in Google Page Creator! Google Page Creator has experienced extremely strong demand, and, as a result, we have temporarily limited the number of new signups as we increase capacity. In the meantime, please submit your email address and we will notify you as soon as we are ready to add new accounts. Thank you for your patience.

I just gave them my e-mail address to log on. Isn’t that good enough?

( I know that people use other e-mail accounts, but it just seems funny to ask me for my e-mail address after asking me for my e-mail address. )