TV commentary from '07

June 2007 I wrote:
I've spent the last year with no cable TV. It sucked but you'd be surprised how satisfied you can become with 6 channels (not including the Spanish, shopping, and religious channels). Anyway, for the last two weeks, I've been watching CABLE! (And yes, I do mean two weeks straight--practically.) So here's what's been fun to watch...
Flavor Of Love Girls' Charm School with Mo'nique I didn't really watch Flavor Of Love, but this show is great.
Simple Life Goes To Camp As if Paris Hilton isn't on every channel all day long! But I love this show. The new season is great. I don't care if it's scripted or whatever, Paris and Nicole are too much!
Tori & Dean: Inn Love Cute....
Breaking Up with Shannen Doherty I caught a couple episodes of this on Oxygen. It was not what I thought it would be. It was better! I thought it would be Shannen going around, being a b*tch, breaking up with people. But she's not really b*tchy (on the show), she just helps people. She talks to the "breaker" and then tries to help the "breakee" see that maybe the time has come.... And it's not always a simple break up. One segment was about two guys--just friends--who had grown apart and one wanted to "break up." Another segment ended up with the boyfriend seeing how he was being a jerk and the girlfriend giving him another chance.
The Real Housewives of Orange County Can I be one?!
Untold Stories Of The E.R. I used to watch this all the time. I love it.
It's Me Or The Dog It's a cross between Supernanny and Dog Whisperer. This one British family had spent over $100,000 on their two dogs. Dog Nanny to the rescue!
I could sit all day watching VH1 and E! specials like I Love the 80s, I Love The 70s, True Hollywood Story, etc. I hate to admit it, but I just can't change the channel when Hal Sparks or Michael Ian Black are on...even if I've seen it five times already!
And on my old-timer 6 channels, I've been watching So You Think You Can Dance, Hidden Palms, Traveler, and reruns....
And I'm still trying to tune in to The View and The Tonight Show every day. And when I can The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson and The Ellen Degeneres Show. My friends at the local news (channels 3, 8 & 13) have been badly neglected. I miss you guys, but there's just so much else on.....

April 2008 I wrote:
My recent TV habits…
There's a new show on A&E called Parking Wars. It's a reality show that follows the workers of the Philadelphia Parking Authority. There are the meter maids/men, the boot guys, the towing guys, and the people at the impound lot office all dealing with angry people. It's a good show. At first, I was like "interesting idea for a show, but sounds kinda boring" but it is really fun to watch. I admire those employees, they stay pretty calm no matter how irate the "customers" get. I have been one of the angry people at the impound lot several times, so it's interesting to watch from a different perspective.
There are 2 series on The Travel Channel that I enjoy. The first is True and Amazing Vacation Homes, which tours some fabulous vacation homes (duh). Second is the Adventures of Mark and Olly, which follows the daily life of two white guys living in the Kombai and Mek tribes of West Papua. They really embrace the tribal culture and the tribe members really embrace Mark and Olly.
On Animal Planet, I like It's Me Or The Dog (I don't get the Dog Whisperer channel!) and Showdog Moms and Dads.
I like Real Housewives of Orange County, and now there is Real Housewives of New York City. They are fun shows!
I've been watching I Know My Kid's A Star on VH1. Step It Up and Dance on Bravo. Can You Duet on CMT. And of course American Idol and Dancing With The Stars.
I watched some of Millionaire Matchmaker. Seems pretty funny/interesting.
Pop Fiction is great (celebs play tricks on paparazzi).
New(ish) network shows I like: Big Bang Theory (combined with How I Met Your Mother makes an hour of nonstop one-liners, which is a nice change of pace from all the dramas and reality shows I watch otherwise); Chuck; Jericho; Terminator The Sarah Connor Chronicles; Aliens In America. I liked Life, but couldn't really get into it. I try to catch Beauty and the Geek. And I enjoyed the short run of Miss Guided.
Finally, as for talk shows….I schedule my day by The View (10am), Ellen (3pm), and Jay Leno and Craig Ferguson (11:35pm).

Multiracial Idol

As the new season of American Idol gets into the top 24, I want to take a minute to share a trend I've observed. In the past seasons of American Idol, as well as in other talent shows, as well as Kid Nation, I've noticed something about many of the contestants. When they show the contestants parents/family/friends, so often the parents appear to be one black and one white or some other racial mix. Just a few examples: Diana DeGarmo, American Idol season 3 finalist, Italian and Mexican Justin Guarini, American Idol season 1 finalist, African, Irish, and Italian. Camile Velasco, American Idol season 3 finalist, Filipina, Irish, and Spanish. Corey Clark, AI season 2 finalist, Hungarian/Irish/Native American/etc. mother, black and Native American father Jordin Sparks, AI season 7 winner, white mother, black father Sanjaya Malakar, AI season 7 finalist, Italian American mother, Indian father Alex from Kid Nation, appears to have white father, Asian mother Gianna from Kid Nation, appears to have white mother, black father Zach from Kid Nation, appears to have mixed parents Morgan from Kid Nation, appears to have mixed parents I can imagine a lot of reasons this might be the case…. 1) The country in general is becoming more mixed. I just read an article on this. No longer can people fit into 3 or 4 boxes (white, black, Hispanic, other). More children are being born to parents of different races, so naturally we're going to see more of that on TV. 2) I heard a comedian joke that, when people of different races or ethnicities have children, the children are always beautiful. According to UrbanDictionary.com "Usually a multiracial person is either really good-looking, or really not." Beautiful people tend to get on TV more than uglies. 3) Black and white parents that are upper-middle class are probably well-educated (ignorance breeds racism) and value education and diversity. Having parents that are supportive (emotionally and financially) of dancing/singing lessons, private school, driving you around to auditions, etc. is a big plus toward making it on one of these shows. What do you think?


After I posted that on my MySpace blog, Veronika made a comment. Here it is:

You have some interesting thoughts here, I'd love to see if there have been any studies done on the prevalence of multi-ethnic relationships and class/income/education levels. It is very interesting just how mixed our society has become.

On the other hand sometimes I'm really surprised at how little we integrate ourselves. I've seen many people who have an ethnically diverse crowd of friends follow their family lines of marrying within their race/color. Not that they intentionally chose someone of the same ethnicity, that's just who they tend to date. Do you have any thoughts on this?

Then I responded:

Hmm. Well, I've been meaning to post something about this link, and now seems the right time.

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/

It's the site for a study on "Implicit Association" and they have several tests you can take online. The idea is that everyone has certain biases and attitudes about skin color, sex, and other attributes, that may or may not be conscious. Oprah talked about this test on one of her shows. I consider myself an open-minded, non-racist, non-prejudiced person. For the most part at least. But I scored a "moderate automatic preference for White people compared to Black people." It's pretty scary--take it, you'll see. We don't realize how much we are influenced by the media and the people around us.

Discovery Health...the Mommie Channel

There's a new show called Mother May I on Discovery Health with an irresistible premise. Each half hour follows a subject (young adult female struggling with various facets of her life) as she spends a few days working with a life coach. The life coach sends her tips and assignments via text message. At the end of the few days, the woman meets face-to-face with the source of the guidance, who is none other than her MOTHER! It seems mothers who love to nag--I mean give advice--all the time may actually know what they're talking about!
So it's kind of a mean-spirited show. I feel bad for the duped daughters. Although, after they bring out the mom they do bring out a REAL life coach to offer some professional insight and suggestions (for mother and daughter). And in the end everyone's learned something (hopefully). The daughters will listen to mom with an open mind, and the moms will present their advice in a more detached way. That's what I think the key is to moms coaching daughters.

Ready for Fall '08

I checked out the networks' upcoming fall schedules, and I'm pretty excited. This past season has felt like a bit of a rip off, because of the writers' strike. I don't know if there were actually less episodes, or if it just felt like it because of the strike break. So I'm looking forward to a new, full season of my faves. Unfortunately there are a couple shows I really liked that won't be coming back.
MissGuided (they only made a few episodes but I was digging it)
Jericho (I got into it late, but I would love to see it go on)
Kid Nation (fun, dramatic, inspiring!)
Beauty and the Geek (watched one season and it was fun)
Bionic Woman (saw a couple episodes, looked interesting)
Aliens In America (this show was so funny and cute, I'm most sad about this one being cancelled)
What I will be watching...
ABC: Boston Legal, Dancing With The Stars
Fox: Terminator The Sarah Connor Chronicles, House, Fringe, Madtv
CW: 90210
NBC: Chuck, Life, Medium (in January)
CBS: Big Bang Theory, HIMYM, Two and a Half Men, Without A Trace, Criminal Minds, Ghost Whisperer, Numbers, Cold Case
What will YOU be watching?