Big week as the Fall TV Season is well underway.
Starting off last Sunday night, I saw the premiere episode of Star Trek: Discovery on CBS. I was watching it as well as trying to watch the WWE No Mercy PPV at the same time, so there was some lack of focus. I thought Discovery’s first episode was okay. It was certainly a beautifully shot show and some of the characters were interesting. I am not sure it was quite a Star Trek series, as the whole Vulcan strategy of shooting first against the Klingons did not seem very Star Trekkie to me. I did not watch episode two since you had to go online ot watch it. This is one of those shows that I will most likely not watch, especially since it is on CBS All Access. Had it been on CBS itself, then I might have given it a chance, but I will not be paying for another streaming service just to see it, even if I did like the show.
As I mentioned, I was also watching No Mercy on the WWE Network. There were two big time matches that felt like Wrestlemania matches: John Cena vs. Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman. Unfortunately, I found both to be underwhelming. Cena-Reigns was a good match but I did not like the ending. Lesnar vs. Strowman was just disappointing. The best match of the night was Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins defeating Cesaro and Sheamus. Cesar had his teeth driving into his gums and blood was everywhere. The Swiss Superman still finished the match. He is quite the stud.
And as I was waiting for Star Trek to start, I ran across Oprah Winfrey on CBS’s 60 Minutes. I did not know that Oprah was joining the news show and her piece this first week was bringing together a group of people who both supported and opposed Donald Trump and see what connections that could be made. Honestly, this was a fascinating story as it made you look at these people (from Michigan, if I remember correctly) who had differing opinions on Trump and how they believed what they believed. Oprah did a good job of keeping things cordial despite a couple of blow ups. This being 60 Minute’s 50th season, Oprah will help bring the goods to the show.
I watched the Big Bang Theory on Monday night. I had not watched the show much the last season or so, but I always liked it. I know there is a lot of hate for the Big Bang Theory online but I have never understood that. It was nice to see Sheldon propose to Amy and then to be immediately interrupted by a phone call. This was a very in-character bit for Sheldon. Thing is, very few characters have had the development over a series as Sheldon has. Having said that, BBT did feel its age for the rest of the episode. This is the 11th season and many of the jokes of the show felt tired. It is perhaps nearing time for the show to move off into the night.
The Big Bang Theory was followed by Young Sheldon, the new show about the childhood of Sheldon Cooper in high school as a young boy. This show was enjoyable but I did not find it as laugh out loud funny as some of the early seasons of the Big Bang Theory. I think there may be some problems with the concept (such as how do you show any character development for Sheldon if he is to turn out like he did for the first season of BBT?) Still, the young actor playing Sheldon (Iain Armitage) does a great job and the actress doing her best Laurie Metcalf (the BBT’s Mary Cooper) impersonation, Zoe Perry, is actually Metcalf’s daughter. The mother-son relationship here is no doubt going to be fascinating.
That’s the most CBS shows I have ever commented about.
ABC had a new show called The Good Doctor starring Freddie Highmore as an Autistic savant doctor. Highmore was really good in the role, but the show itself was kind of weak. This is another show that I might have to give a couple of episode to get the flow going, but, since it is on Monday nights opposite RAW, it might get pushed aside. Highmore was brilliant for five seasons on Bates Motel and I feel like I want to give him another chance.
I came across another new series on Netflix this weekend and I am about halfway through the binge. It was called Big Mouth and it is an animated show from Nick Kroll. It is a coming of age story, but extremely dirty and sexually based. There are a lot of dick jokes and a lot of jokes about jerking off and every other hormone-induced action teens do. It is quite funny, but if you offend easily, it is probably not for you. Think Family Guy without the network censors. So far I have not grown tired of the jokes (I am not a huge fan of this kind of humor) and the characters are actually quite good. The last episode featured a voice-over cameo from Nathan Fillion, which is always fun. I think that I will be finishing the binge on this show so we can see how far they might push it.
Whose Lien is it Anyway had its season finale for the time being, with an episode featuring fourth chair specialist, Brad Sherwood. The first game featured was “Hollywood Director” and it found the crew bringing up 20-25 members of the audience to participate in a Les Miz style song. It is consistently amazing what the show is able to convince its audience to do. One of the newest games included Brad and Wayne using cell phones form the audience and they could only use lines that were in the phone text already and Colin had to play the straight man. Whose Line is a classic and hopefully it will be back soon.
Designated Survivor returned on Wednesday with a new problem for President Kirkman. A plane full of hostages, including some Americans, finds itself in-between troubles with Russia and Ukraine. As it turned out, one of Kirkman’s old friends happened to be on the plane. Was he able to get the opposite sides to free the hostages without a major international incident? Yes and no, I guess as his friend wound up dead. Kiefer Sutherland looked very presidential here, unlike some…
Speechless returned with a wonderful episode featuring the return form camp for JJ. However, JJ missed out on his first kiss because he did not see the note. The family went out of their way in a touching way to get JJ back in contact with the girl. This episode featured a brilliant musical parody of “Brandy” by Looking Glass with Kenneth singing the song as a diss to the DiMeos clan. It brought a huge smile to my face for the entire run of the song.
In fact… here it is…
Gotham continues its push toward Batman as Bruce Wayne received a more impactful suit from Lucius Fox. Meanwhile, Jim Gordon continues to fight to prevent Penguin from licensing criminals making crime legal. The GCPD did not have Gordon’s back, since they liked not being killed constantly by the crazy criminal element in Gotham. With as many cops as have died in seasons 1-3, who can blame them. However, it meant that Jim had to face off against Scarecrow all by himself inside Arkham. We also got some development of Poison Ivy and the other ladies teamed up (including the not dead Barbara).
Annalise Keating returned in ABC’s How to Get Away With Murder, starting up a new mystery for season four, as well as continuing the story from season 3. The tag at the end where we wonder what happened to Laurel’s baby. Annalise had called the group together to tell them that she was not being disbarred, but they were all dismissed. She provided letters of recommendation to each of the crew, who were anything but enthused with her dismissal. Before this in the episode, there were some truly powerhouse scenes with Viola Davis and Cicely Tyson as Annalise’s mother. We also met Jimmy Smits, who has a role this season- exactly what is yet to be determined.
Saturday Night Live returned as well with a new season where they left off… with Emmy Award winner Alec Baldwin skewering President Trump. Seeing Kate McKinnon as Jeff Sessions sitting on Baldwin’s Trump’s lap is just so surreal that it can’t help but be funny. Plus, fresh off their own show during the summer, Weekend Update with Colin Jost and Michael Che is great satire on the world as a whole. Weekend Update hasn’t been this topical in years.
Major League Baseball will begin its playoffs this week. In the National League, the wild card teams playing a one game play in are the Arizona Diamondback and the Colorado Rockies with the winner of that game to play the Los Angeles Dodgers. In the American League, the wild card teams are the New York Yankees and the Minnesota Twins. The winner of that game will play the Cleveland Indians. The other two series include the Washington Nationals vs. the defending World Series Champions the Chicago Cubs and then Boston Red Sox vs. the Houston Astros. MLB action!
Later tonight is the season finale of Rick and Morty and the debut of the new ABC series Ten Days in the Valley.
Happy viewing
American Vandal dropped last weekend and I binged it this week. It was an easy binge of eight half-hour (generally) episodes and it was simply brilliant. It was laugh out loud funny and, before it was over, it was as compelling as any of those documentary series that it is spoofing. American Vandal is a mockumentary dealing with an investigation by high school student Peter Maldonado into a true crime style case involving local bad boy Dylan Maxwell, who had been suspended for spray painting dicks on 27 faculty cars at the school parking lot. However, Dylan claimed to be innocent, despite being a known dick drawer. The show is a brilliant send up on the true crime genre, but it is more than that. It is a true compelling mystery as well as Peter and 
his friend Sam dive full force into the mystery searching for the truth of what happened. The fact that this was the spray painting of penises on car was played completely straight and each character was taken seriously within this ridiculous situation. When a key piece of evidence is that there has been no ball hair drawn, you know you have something special. I loved this show.
Gotham made its return to the FOX schedule on a new night this past Thursday, and the show continued from its high level of last season. No show was more improved from one season to another as Gotham was from season 2 to season 3. We are getting closer to a Batman character as young Bruce Wayne has started wearing a dark outfit and has begun thinking about the life of a vigilante. Meanwhile, Penguin has bribed the new mayor into allowing criminals to carry a license to commit crimes. Legalized crime? How creative. This certainly places Jim Gordon in an awkward position. Plus, we return to the Scarecrow. Gotham started off season four HOT.
Tonight is the WWE Network’s next special, No Way Out, which features two huge matches that are being dubbed as “Wrestlemania” quality matches. John Cena vs. Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman. While Cena vs. Reigns may be a passing the torch match between the “guy” of yesterday to the “guy” of today, the real match that I am looking forward to is Lesnar and Strowman. Braun Strowman is legitimately a beast of a man, a monster that seems that he can do everything. Though I still expect Lesnar to retain the title, if I were the WWE, I would be jumping on the Strowman band wagon with both feet. He is a legitimately impressive individual who can do unbelievable feats of strength as well as talk on the microphone. He is big time money and he should be the one to finish off Brock Lesnar. My guess is he won’t, but you never know.
The Emmys were presented last Sunday night. The Handmaid’s Tale won Best Drama, Veep was the Best Comedy and Big Little Lies won Best Limited Series. Julia Louis Dreyfus won her 7th consecutive Emmy as Best Actress in a Comedy. Big Little Lies was a huge winner as well with multiple acting awards presented. Sterling K. Brown was Best Actor in Drama for This is Us. Stephen Colbert hosted with his typical amount of political humor as well as a good musical opening number. Saturday Night Live cashed in on the air of political satire as both Kate McKinnon and Alec Baldwin won supporting actor/actress awards for a Comedy. Of course, McKinnon and Baldwin were heavily featured this year as Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump respectfully. And Last Week with John Oliver won the Best Variety Talk Series and writing. Congratulations to all the winners.
I watched last week and this week’s episode of Rick and Morty, and they were tremendous as usual. Morty has been having Rick wipe his mind of certain memories that he believes that he cannot handle. Unfortunately, there have been times where Rick erased Morty’s mind without the permission of his grandson. Morty started to get those memories back via the special helmet and the mind blowers. This show consistently takes the line and completely destroys it. It never fails to be brutally funny.
Tonight is the Emmy Awards on CBS. Stephen Colbert from the Late Show is the host this year, and that should be fun to see. There are some very difficult categories to pick this year, but I will be cheering for Feud in the Mini-Series categories. Will Julia Louis-Dreyfus win once again for Veep or will the Academy find another female comedic performance worthy? Will Alec Baldwin earn an Emmy for his Donald Trump imitation from SNL? How will newcomer series such as Atlanta, The Handmaid’s Tale, This is It, Westworld, The Crown do against some of the old Academy favorites such as Modern Family, House of Cards or Veep? How much will Colbert roast Donald Trump? Many questions to answer tonight.
Manhunt: Unabomber ended its run by doing something that you would never think it was possible to do… it humanized and made me feel sorry for Ted Kaczynski. Part of that was the situation he found himself in and part of that was a tremendous performance from Paul Bettany. It was important that, near the end of the show, the Unabomber’s victims reminded us of the horrors that he had unleashed upon them, or else there might have been an outrage with the way he was seemingly railroaded into a confession. The show was a great hit for Discovery and I hope we get more Manhunt shows with other real life cases.
The Schmoedown team tournament has a final match, scheduled for this upcoming week. It is Team Action, who knocked off the number one seed in Top 10, vs. Above the Line, who defeated the Wolves of Steel. Team Action vs. Above the Line will vie for the tourney championship and for the title match with the Patriots in December this coming week. But the biggest news coming from the world of movie trivia is they have a new Movie Trivia Schmoedown Champion. “The Commish” Kristian Harloff defeated “Dangerous” Dan Murrell in a low scoring but very competitive championship match. Murrell, who comes over from Screen Junkies, announced his retirement from the Schmoedown after the match completed.
Last Sunday night, I watched the pilot for the new Seth MacFarlane series on FOX, The Orville. The Orville is a Star Trek spoof and debuted on Sunday before eventually heading to anchor FOX Thursday nights. I must say that I was surprised that I did not hate this. The pilot has created a great deal of divisiveness in the online community, but I found the show smarter than I thought it would be. I went in expecting humor like was found (and I use the word humor loosely here) in A Million Ways to Die in the West. I am also not a fan of much of the Family Guy type humor so I anticipated not liking this. However, though some of that humor was in effect, it was more subtle than I thought and felt more of an homage to Star Trek than a spoof. It was enough for me to look into the second episode and see if it continues to interest me.
American Horror Story: Cult had its second episode and it seems to be finding its footing pretty well. The use of the killer clowns is extremely topical these days as It is completely crushing at the box office. Plus, with the inclusion of the political world we face these days, the feeling of horror is truly in place. The show has yet two more great performances from Evan Peters and Sarah Paulson, long term cast members from the anthology series.
Last week saw the end of Twin Peaks which I already discussed in its own post. After some time to reflect, I believe that two part finale was even better than I had thought. It certainly created buzz. There are countless theories online about what was going on in episode 18 and many of them really work out slickly. The thing is… we will never know for sure because Showtime has not renewed the series and it is unknown if they are planning on it. The third season of Twin Peaks is one of David Lynch’s greatest creations and will be examined and debated for years to come.
Manhunt: Unabomber had its penultimate episode this past week where the FBI was able to get the search warrant from the judge and get Ted Kaczynski out from his cabin in the woods in Montana. The final episode looks to have a face off with Fitz and the Unabomber in court over the legitimacy of the warrant. I have been really enjoying this series, even with having to watch it on the Discovery Go app.
The Gong Show returned this week with a new episode that included former Friends star Courteney Cox. The acts this week were really good as the show ended in a four-way tie, the most of the year so far. The winner this week was the very entertaining FlashPants. There was also a 16 year old rapper who rapped on broken glass.
The NFL season kicked off with a shoot out in Foxboro. The Kansas City Chiefs defeated the World Champion New England Patriots on Thursday night 42-27. It was an unexpected start to the season. Today has a full slate of games in the NFL.
the world of pro wrestling have been slamming each other verbally for the past few weeks on Raw and on social media, Twitter in particular. The match, being dubbed a Wrestlemania quality match, between Cena and Reigns is scheduled to take place at No Mercy.
Tuesday saw the first episode of the new season of American Horror Story: Cult. The Ryan Murphy series started off with the most infamous night of the last year… The 2016 Presidental election. The series also included the return of Twisty from AHS: Freak Show along with other killer clowns. Riding on the coat tails of the new movie, It, AHS is off to an okay start. The first episode was fine, but I have seen better starts to the anthology series. Rumors indicate that the second episode picks up really well.
The team tournament of the Movie Trivia Schmoedown continued this week. We are down to the final four: Team Action vs. Top 10 and Wolves of Steel vs. Above the Line. The tournament has been entertaining so far despite having a few blow out matches this past week. Next week’s match with Team Action and Top 10 should be a heavyweight battle for sure. They added a celebrity edition of the Movie Trivia Schmoedown this past Monday as well featuring the young actors from It. Finn Wolfhard won the Free-for-All format of the Schmoedown.
series. However, I would be remiss if I did not mention last week’s episode, the 16th of the return. It was such a brilliant episode, giving us everything we wanted. The sequence leading to the return of Dale Cooper was such a perfect piece of story telling that I can’t imagine it possibly being better. Plus, the Audrey stuff at the end, the Richard Horne resolution, the gunfight at Rancho Rosa, the Diane revelation… it was possibly the best episode of TV of the year, and certainly of the series. Tonight cannot get here soon enough.
I made my way to the IMAX theater Friday night for the debut of the first two episodes of Marvel’s The Inhumans. The special showing in IMAX was meant to be a big deal. Unfortunately, much of the bad word of mouth must have done some damage as there were not very many people at my showing. I could see why. The show was extremely disappointing. The acting was wooden and dull. The dialogue was trash. The look of the show, with a few exceptions, was amateurish. It was not good television and certainly does not kick off the Inhumans on the right foot. Now, it wasn’t the worst thing I ever saw either, but with Marvel, the expectations were considerably higher. I did not enjoy Black Bolt. I thought his facial expressions did not fit the character and felt too jokey. Medusa’s hair? Ugh. Triton? Terrible. Crystal? Weak acting. What did I like? I enjoyed Karnak (possibly because he was played by Ken Leung of LOST fame) and I thought he was portrayed decently. Lockjaw was pretty good. I think this could be good if there are some serious overhauling done. Scott Buck is the showrunner and he also was in charge of Iron Fist. Iron Fist was the least loved Marvel anything … until this came along. I plan on watching Inhumans (Friday?) when it starts on ABC, but I certainly hope the quality picks up. At this point, it feels like a low quality sci-fi movie on SyFy Network.
There was also the best episode of the season for the Manhunt: Unabomber. This episode was a Ted Kaczynski stand alone episode, showing his back story and how he came to be a near hermit in the wilderness sending bombs through the mail. There were remarkable scenes that really caused you to feel a connection to this serial killer that we had never had before. The brainwashing attempts by the professor at the college were heartbreaking and were nearly predatory. “Ted” brought a deeper understanding of the controversial figure, and it makes the series as a whole more interesting.
Rick and Morty were back with their new episode, “Rest and Ricklaxation” last week. Rick and Morty were feeling as if they needed a break from their constant adventuring and so they headed off to a galactic spa of some sort and had their “toxins” removed, but their toxins turned out to be sentient and ready to take over their lives. Meanwhile, Morty was enjoying his new life without the toxins polluting him. It fell to Rick to try and make everything, and every one, united again.
Of course, Labor Day used to be synonymous with the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon. I would watch many acts of the show and enjoy the call of “timpani” by Ed McMahon. The last few years without the telethon has just not felt right. We lost Jerry Lewis just recently, as the 91 year old comedian died. After so many years of raising money for those who needed his help, Lewis deserves to be considered a great humanitarian.
Yes, The Tick is back. This time it is on Amazon Prime and it dropped the first six episodes of season one this past Friday… and it was AWESOME! I was unbelievably thrilled by the series. Being a big fan of the animated series from FOX Kids and the short lived live action series, I was very happy to see The Tick become one of the pilots that Amazon put up last year as a potential series. Fans would vote to see if they wanted to see the pilot move to full series. I knew the Tick fans would come through despite the pilot itself being a little less than expected. However, from episode two on, the Tick series was gold! So many great moments. It was laugh out loud funny. Peter Serafinowicz is perfectly cast as the Tick. His voice and innocent presence captures the character to a tee. Serafinowicz takes the best from Townsend Coleman and Patrick Warburton, the previous Ticks, and adds to the character. It is a singularly wonderful performance. Yet, the top performance of the show might just go to Arthur, played by Griffin Newman. Arthur is the driving force 
behind the plot, trying to prove that ancient villain, The Terror (the constant scene-chewer Jackie Earle Haley) is still alive and Newman fills the twitchy and neurotic Arthur with so much humanity that you can’t help but love him. And the episode six ends with the Terror yelling “Cliffhanger” after capturing Arthur. I can’t wait for more of this show. There are several of the meta jokes here. When the Tick design changed from the pilot to make him bluer and more flexible, Arthur said to the character of the Tick in episode two , “You look different” and the Tick responded, “Thank you.” Nothing further. I loved that joke. This show has become one of my favorites of the year.
Twin Peaks is soon to be reaching its ending as last week we got episode 15, and we got what looked like a happy ending for Big Ed and Norma. I know, right. Who saw that coming? After all of these years, the chance to see these two original character with a chance to be happy really was a highlight form last week’s episode. We also saw Dougie watching TV when Sunset Boulevard came on the screen. When Dougie heard the name “Gordon Cole” mentioned in the film, something triggered in his subconscious and he stuck his fork into the wall socket. Could this electric shock be the final jolt to bring back Dale Cooper? I don’t know, but I sure hope so. There was also some tremendous scenes with the wonderful Log Lady. 
Margaret called Hawk and told him, “Hawk, I’m dying . . . You know about death—that it’s just a change, not an end. Hawk, it’s time. There’s some fear—some fear in letting go. Remember what I told you. I can’t say more over the phone, but you know what I mean. From our talks, when we were able to speak face to face. Watch for that one. The one I told you about. The one under the moon on Blue Pine Mountain. Hawk, my log is turning gold. The wind is moaning. I’m dying. Good night, Hawk.”. It was such a surreal and beautiful scene because the actress who played the Log Lady, the brilliant Catherine E. Coulson, who was a close personal friend of Twin Peaks director/writer David Lynch, was actually dying at the time of the shot. She was in bad shape with cancer, but she did come back to shoot these episodes for Lynch. RIP Margaret.
Chip Esten made a return of his own, this time to Whose Line is it Anyway. Chip, who currently stars on Nashville, spent several years as one of the rotating fourth seats on the improvisation show, really showing his worth in musical numbers. He had not been seen with the crew since the last days of Drew Carey’s Improviganza. Chip seemed to step right in beautifully, performing with Wayne Brady and Jeff Davis in a version of Greatest Hits. Unlike most “special guests” on Whose Line, Chip was a welcome return and I hope we don’t have to wait for another 5 years before we see him again.
SummerSlam was last Sunday night and it was a long and reasonably enjoyable show. However, the biggest match was the huge hoss fight that closed the show with Broick Lesnar retaining his Universal Championship against Braun Strowman, Roman Reigns and Samoa Joe. Braun Strowman looked like a star in this match and the crowd was firmly behind him despite him not being the face. At one point, Brock and Joe were on the floor and, from out of the frame, flew one of the announcer’s chairs. It had been thrown by Strowman and it was really funny. Strowman was a massive beast, but Lesnar was able to survive by giving an F5 to Reigns. On RAW the next night, they announced a one-on-one match between Strowman and Lesnar for the next PPV, Hell in a Cell.
On the SNL Weekend Update Summer Edition, we got another performance of Donald Trump from Emmy nominated Alec Baldwin. This skit was the cold open for the show and it made fun of the Arizona rally that was held this past Tuesday by President Trump. Baldwin came out with sunglasses on joking about how he had looked at the eclipse earlier this week (which the real Trump is photographed doing without any eye protection despite all the warnings.) It was great to see Baldwin again with his attempts to skewer the President of the US.
The Movie Trivia Schmoedown Ultimate Schmoedown Team Tournament has begun on Collider Video. The 16 team tournament will culminate with a new #1 contender for the Patriots, the team of “Little Evil” JTE and “The Insneider” Jeff Sneider in December. With round one starting, the first week saw a major upset as the team of fans known as Late to the Party knocked off tournament favorite Critically Acclaimed in a close and tense match. Other winners included Team Action over Deep Cuts, DC Movie News over Six Degrees and Team Trek defeating Cinema Blend. The remaining matches of round one will be completed and shown on YouTube next week.
How about with Twin Peaks? Last week was episode 14, leaving just 4 more hours of the Return left, and there were some huge things happening. The Twin Peaks Sheriff Department’s crew headed out to the forest where Andy wound up being brought to the giant’s White Lodge (the giant said his name was the Fireman). Andy got some vital info there and seemed to be more confident in his return. We also found out that Diane is actually the half sister of Janey E, who is married to Dougie (aka Agent Cooper). Whoa, small world. It feels like it is just a matter of time before Agent Cole and the others with the Blue Rose finally find our wayward Dougie Cooper. But the creepiest thing of the week was when Sarah Palmer removed her face, revealing the hand of the Mother of All Evil and a big smiling smile, and then proceeded to rip out a man’s throat. Now, the man was being very abusive toward her so no one shed a tear, but it certainly was more than what I expected. Sarah Palmer has been really weirder than usually lately and this could be the reason why. Things are heading quickly toward the finale.
The Defenders debuted on Netflix this week and saw Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones and Iron Fist team up to take on the Hand, in what really served as an ending to the previous story lines from their individual shows. The 8-episode season of The Defenders was an easy watch and went extremely quickly. By episode three, there was a tremendous fight in a high rise with all the Defenders and the show was underway. Sigourney Weaver was the main villain as one of the main “fingers” of the Hand and she was great. Elektra returned and was a bad ass in all of her scenes. The end of the series seemed to be setting up Daredevil season three for the classic “Born Again” story line. Jessica Jones was a series standout receiving most of the best lines of dialogue. Iron Fist, who was universally disliked after his own series was panned critically, was much improved here. Luke Cage is the moral center of the Defenders. The show was very strong and did a great job of tying stories up.
On Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Oliver did a whole segment on the potential dangers with North Korea. When President Trump claimed that North Korea would see “fire and fury”, the world became a more tense place. However, John Oliver knew what to do. He discovered that North Koreans loved accordion music and who better to play some music to soothe the nuclear beasts than EYG Hall of Famer Weird Al Yankovic, who then played The North Korea Polka, a song also known as “Please Don’t Nuke Us, North Korea.” And of course, the tensions have since gone down. Thanks for saving the world, Weird Al.
Last week we have Pickle Rick. This week we had Blackout Drunk Rick. Little did we know that when Rick goes blackout drunk, he sets up death traps that could destroy the galaxy. In the episode, the Vindicators returned to the show to call for assistance from Rick and Morty and Morty convinces Rick to go along on the adventure. However, the super team known as the Vindicators only called Rick and Morty because they had to and it was revealed that they had had another adventure and did not call them. The episode was thus entitled Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender. In the end, several members of the Vindicators fall to Rick’s death traps. Rick seems to be becoming more of the villain here and it is interesting to see how Morty reacts to his grandpa’s misbehavior.
This week saw two episodes of The Gong Show, one on Monday and one at its regular time on Thursday. I am finding it amazing how much I am enjoying this show. I did not expect to be downright giddy watching the Gong Show. However, there was controversy this week. On Monday’s episode, Tommy Maitland called for the proper sing-a-long and asked for Albert to come out and sing Shaving Cream like he does every week. However, the person he called Albert was NOT Albert! It was some imposter. I immediately took to Twitter calling this #AlbertGate. The real Albert was back on Thursday without any explanation for why some other chap was singing our proper sing-a-long. (Yes, the episode on Monday felt like the first one they had taped, so they had obviously replaced this guy with the new Albert, but that is not near as fun as wondering about a deep seeded conspiracy).
Manhunt: Unabomber continues to be tremendous. The show this week gave us a massive FBI plot to try and draw out the Unabomber by printing the serial bomber’s manifesto in the Washington Post and staking out and interviewing everyone who bought a newspaper at a certain newsstand in San Francisco. The idea is that the Unabomber would want a copy and it was believed that he made his base in SF. Imagine how much manpower this would have taken? Good news and bad news. The stakeout was a failure, but the Unabomber’s brother’s wife saw the published manifesto and recognized the writing style.
NXT Takeover Brooklyn III was on the WWE Network on Saturday and it delivered once again. I have never seen a Takeover special that has not been just tremendous in action and wrestling drama. Drew McIntyre defeated “Glorious” Bobby Roode to become the new NXT Champion. Adam Cole made his NXT 
debut by attacking McIntyre after the victory. NXT Women’s Champion Asuka continued her dominance by defeating and retaining her title against Ember Moon in the match of the night. The team of Sanity defeated the Authors of Pain to become the new NXT Tag Team Champions. Alistair Black defeated Hideo Itami one on one. Tonight is the WWE’s big SummerSlam, but it will have a challenge to stack up against NXT Takeover.
Whose Line is it Anyway continues wits run on Thursday nights on the CW. This past week the show had a game of Hollywood Director where Wayne, Colin and Ryan had to act out a scene and Heather Anne Campbell would be the director and give them notes on how to improve the scene. The final time, Heather Anne came on and said they should do the scene like Cabaret. And what followed was musical genius between the three of these amazing improv performers. Seriously, search this up if you have not seen it. It is comedy gold. And next week, Chip Esten returns!
Since it is on my mind, let’s start with last week’s Twin Peaks. I really enjoyed episode 13 as we got to see the two Coopers really stand out. First, Dougie seems to be making everyone’s lives better when he comes in contact with them. He is like a beacon of light while Mr. C (or Doppelcooper or Bob or whatever you want to call him) is the dark opposite. The arm wrestling scene with Mr. C against the leader of that gang was one of the best arm wrestling scenes I have ever seen. Plus, Mr. C gives One Punch Man a run for his money. I am seeing an eventual face off between Dougie and Mr. C in the future of this series, which has only 5 more episodes to go.
The one thing that EVERYONE was talking about last week… Pickle Rick! Yes, it was the episode of Rick and Morty where Rick turns himself into a pickle to avoid going to family therapy and winds up on a Pickle Rick adventure. This was hilarious, but, honestly, the internet might have taken this too far. Yeah, I know… what are the odds of that?
Then, this week, on Amazon Prime I discovered a real gem of a series. A six episode series called Comrade Detective. This was a series that was brought to Amazon by Channing Tatum. It was supposedly a recently discovered buddy cop series from during the Cold War era Romania dubbed into English. In truth, the series was shot in Romanian recently and then dubbed into English. The series is a wonderfully funny satire on Communism and Capitalism and the Cold War era mindset of the countries. Tatum voiced our main character Gregor and Joseph Gordon-Levitt did the dubbed over voice of Iosef as the pair investigated the murder of former police officer Nikita. Florin Piersic Jr and Corneliu Ulici played the detective pair in the Romania version and who we see acting as Tatum and Gordon-Levitt voice the characters. It is very funny and well worth your time for a six episode binge.
Manhunt: Unabomber was tremendous this week as well as we had a tense and dramatic one-on-one confrontation between Fitz and Ted Kaczynski. Kaczynski told Fitz that he planned on challenging the legality of the search warrants that were used to find all the evidence against him from the cabin in the woods. If he could get that search warrant thrown out, all of the evidence would be “fruits of a poison tree” and would be inadmissible. The confrontation is beautifully played by Sam Worthington and Paul Bettany. This series has been constantly good so far, and does not lose momentum when flashing between time frames. Watching Fitz figure out information about the Unabomber by the linguistics language that he used was gripping as can be.
Meanwhile, the more episodes in, the less interested I am in the American Ripper documentary that is trying to make a case for H.H. Holmes as Jack the Ripper. Each week, they bring up info that does not fit their case and they dismiss it as if it were nothing, only to grab hold of inconclusive evidence or rampant speculation. They looked at handwriting samples this week, comparing some of Holmes writing to the Dear Boss letter. The expert showed them several examples that did not match at all, but they seemed to focus only on the few examples that were called inconclusive. They are preparing to look for potential victims at the bottom of a river that might have been encased in concrete, so this is interesting at least. But it does not make the case for Holmes as the Ripper.
I was so disappointed this week because there was no Gong Show. ABC showed a Princess Diana special this week instead of the Gong Show (or Battle of the Network Stars, btw) and I could not believe how much I missed the proper sing-a-long. Good news though, the episode of the Gong Show is to be shown tomorrow night. Jack Black and Jennifer Aniston are scheduled as judges.
On the Movie Trivia Schmoedown this week, the team titles were on the line as the champions, The Patriots, defended against Team MODOK (formerly known as Rotten Tomatoes.) This was an extremely entertaining match with the Patriots pulling out a victory in sudden death. This was the fourth time the Patriots have successfully defended the titles since they won them and they are beginning to look as if they are one of, if not the, most dominant teams ever. They were also very lucky as Matt Atchity was playing Boris Badenov and, while staying in character, this cost him a point in the speed round and looked to have rattled Atchity. The rule that the person must answer in two seconds during that speed round is unfair to anyone who hasn’t done it before or who is trying to be entertaining as Atchity was. Five seconds seems like a fast enough time. But, it’s not my game. I just love watching it. The Patriots next title match will be at the Schmoedown Spectacular in December.
Last night was also the finale episode of Orphan Black. I have not been watching Orphan Black for the last season and a half, and I have not yet seen the finale, but I do want to see it. Tatiana Maslany is truly a genius when it comes to this show. She can play countless characters and you, as the audience, consistently forget that it is her playing them. Truly Maslany gave one of the best performances on any television show in history.
The best response this week about President Trump’s threats of “fire and fury” toward North Korea came from Stephen Colbert. After showing the clip, the camera came back to an empty stage. Colbert slowly peaked up at the camera and told Trump to “shut up” and that Kim Jong-Un was crazy. Colbert showed the fear many Americans felt perfectly and helped to balance that out with humor.
Good evening everyone. I only have about an hour and half to get this done before Twin Peaks starts. This week, the 13th episode of the Showtime series will be shown at 7 PM Central time. I assume this will be the same going forward fro the remaining six episodes of the event series. It should be plenty of time to finish up this column, but I do have to stay focused. By the way, I am ready to make my random prediction that Twin Peaks: The Return is going to end with Amanda Seyfried’s character in the last scene, wrapped in plastic. I believe that they will be ending this series with the same image that they began the original series, except with it being Laura Palmer wrapped in plastic. I have no knowledge of anything but if that happens, remember where you heard it first.
I caught up on Preacher this week, seeing the previous two week’s episodes. We got the introduction to a new villain last week in Herr Starr. Herr Starr is involved in the white suited people intending to protect the lineage of Jesus. We see how much of a horrible man Herr Starr is despite being an agent for Christianity. The way he became the final combatant for the job was to shoot the other applicant instead of the target (for target practice). I do like the introduction of this character and I am looking forward to seeing him interact with our main cast. However, I was not a fan of the sub plot of this episode where Tulip was having some kind of PTSD from her interaction with the Saint of Killers. That felt pretty forced considering what we have seen of Tulip of the first season and half of the show.
Tuesday we got a great match on Smackdown, with major implications for SummerSlam. John Cena and Shinsuke Nakamura faced each other with the winner being declared the #1 contender for Jinder Mahal’s WWE Championship. In what would have to be considered a bit of an upset, Nakamura defeated Cena cleanly after delivering a devastating back suplex and the 
I saw the debut of the new Discovery true crime series, Manhunt: Unabomber. The series is an eight episode show presented in a scripted format, much like the People vs. OJ from last year. The show included double time lines, following the pre-investigation by the FBI and the attempt to then get a confession from Unabomber Ted Kaczynski. Paul Bettany played the bomber in the show. It does a good job of showing how profiling helped catch him, despite the initial belief that the Unabomber was an uneducated airport employee. I enjoyed the first two part night and look forward to fining out more about the series as it progresses.
And we also continued to find out more about how H.H. Holmes is Jack the Ripper. American Ripper has yet to show me much of anything outside of some weird coincidences between the two serial killers. There did appear to be some close ties with the way Holmes killed to the final death of the Ripper. Still, much of the show feels like a stretch to me. True crime seems to be everywhere these days, and as long as they continue to be interesting, I think that is as good as any other genre to see.
USA Network debuted its new summer event series called The Sinner, starring Jessica Biel. The show introduces us to Cora Tannetti, a young mother whose marriage seems to be strong. Cora, however, has something going on. At the beach, she sees a young couple kissing passionately and she takes a knife and brutally stabs the man multiple times in the neck and face, killing him. The show gives us no reason or motive for the attack and it devastates her family. However, Detective Harry Ambrose, played by Bill Pullman, wants to know what the motive was. The show really grabs you with that brutal, violent attack and makes you engaged with the mystery at the center of the show.
I just love the Gong Show. It has become one of my favorite hours of television of the week. This week we had four different acts receive a perfect 30 from the judges, which makes up for the lack of any good acts from the week before. I look forward to the proper sing-a-long all week long, something I never expected when I first realized that they would be singing Shaving Cream each week. I would miss it terribly if they didn’t sing it one week (thanks Albert!). We also had Megan Fox this week! Plus Andy Samburg. Not sure how many more weeks The Gong Show will be around, but I will be enjoying each and every one ABC gives me.
Whose Line is it Anyway moved to Thursday, so I had to flip back and forth between it and the Battle of the Network Stars. I prefer that to Mondays though since there are way too many shows on Mondays to watch. This week we had Ralph Macchio of Karate Kid fame make a guest star appearance on the improv show. Interestingly enough, this week also saw the announcement of a new Karate Kid series, starring Macchio, on YouTube Red.
One of those shows was Twin Peaks. With last week’s show and this week’s show, there was some really great TV. Just a short while ago, we saw Audrey Horne! After 12 episodes, the Twin Peaks Freaks have been getting anxious about the appearance of the Queen. There has been a ton of speculation that Audrey was Richard’s mother and that she may have had Richard after being sexually assaulted by Evil Coop… but none of that fit with tonight. Tonight, Audrey was yelling at her husband, some guy we find out is named Charlie, whom she has some kind of contract with. And she wanted this Charlie to help her find Billy. Billy is someone she loves. And he was to call Tina. It’s kind of funny that we have waited so long for Audrey to arrive only for her to be involved with a whole bunch of people that we have no idea who they are. David Lynch messing with us again?
But there is more than Audrey. Last week we had advancement with the Dougie situation, where he looks to be out of trouble with the gangsters at the casino (including Jim Belushi). Something weird is going on with Sarah Palmer as she seemed to have been triggered by turkey jerky. Ben Horne presented Sheriff Frank Truman with the key that had arrived in the mail that once was the key to Agent Cooper’s room. We saw some progress on the Blue Rose case. Dr. Jacoby continues to hock golden shovels and Nadine is still listening. We found some Bobby Briggs family drama with Shelly and their daughter Becky.
Another event I missed last week was the latest PPV from the WWE, Battleground. This was a Smackdown Live event and I have to congratulate one of my favorite teams, The New Day, in winning the Smackdown Tag Team Championship in a very enjoyable match verses the Usos. In the match, Xavier Woods was fantastic. Many times, Woods has been made to look like the weakest link of the New Day, but he brought his “A Game” in this match. The other surprise on the PPV was that the Punjabi Prison Match between WWE Champion Jinder Mahal and Randy Orton, which has never been very good, turned out to be a very good championship match. The Great Khali made an appearance to help Jinder with the win.
Returning tonight on Cartoon Network is Rick and Morty. First they will broadcast the season three premiere which was originally shown earlier this year, and then we will get season three, episode two. The third season has been highly anticipated by the fans of the series for a couple of years. It has been pushed back to make sure it is done properly. Rick and Morty is one of the funniest animated shows on television and it is good to have it back.
Lots of fun on ABC this week. We had a $150,000 winner on Pyramid. The Gong Show continued to be silly fun, and we kept singing “Shaving Cream” as a proper sign-a-long. Celebrity Family Feud brought us Louie Anderson, a former Family Feud host back to the show with his mother, who said it was her lifelong dream to be on the Feud. The Battle of the Network Stars found us concerned over Erik Estrada getting his hair wet. The summer fun on ABC has been wonderful.
Last week’s Battle of the Network Stars had some interesting moments– especially when dealing with Josh Henderson from Dallas, who had to be taken away in an ambulance after the running relay. It was Team Prime a Time Soaps vs. Team ABC stars and Henderson was the anchor, but he was just able to hold off the challenge of Roseanne’s Michael Fishman. After the race, Henderson went down and was having trouble catching his breath. He wound up going to get an IV. However, he was able to return later an win the relay race in the show’s biggest “thrill of victory” moment so far. However, ABC Stars wound up winning the tug of war and upset the younger and favored Soap stars.
Last week was San Diego Comic Con and they dropped a lot of news about upcoming television shows. At the Marvel TV panel, they not only dropped a new Defenders trailer, but they showed lucky attendees of their panel the first episode. They also showed footage from the upcoming Punisher show on Netflix. There was a new Inhumans trailer, a trailer for Gifted, and confirmation of a season two for Iron Fist. As well as the Marvel news, we got a brand new trailer for season two of Stranger Things which looked to focus a great deal on Will and his odd connection to the Upside-Down. The eighth season of the Walking Dead gave us a trailer that ended with a sleeping, older, grey-bearded Rick with a cane beside his bed. Mysterious!
Twin Peaks episode ten continued its slow progress toward a plot that you may understand. Dougie (Agent Cooper) went to the doctor, who commented on how much weight Dougie had lost. Janey noticed it too and got herself turned on. This led to a night of sex with the couple. How will that affect the still confused Agent Cooper? We saw the Log Lady return once again, this time with a cryptic message…. “Laura Palmer is the one.”
The Gong Show brought out David Arquette as a surprise performer, though he would not be judged. This also prevented the former WCW World Champion from being ganged. The Gong a Show has become a personal favorite of mine and I look forward to the weekly proper sing-a-long, Shaving Cream. I doubted this, thinking the repetitive nature of the song would get dull, but I sing along ever week.
Major going ons over at Screen Junkies this week. They have officially announced that their streaming service would be no more, and that they were moving their content over to YouTube, allowing more people to see their programming. And with this week’s Movie Fights, they gave us a massive event. Movie Fights Champion Dan Murrell took on #1 contender #Botanicus, Mike Carlson. Mike was known for his oddball choices and comedic timing, playing quite the opposite to the more business like Murrell. Dan was able to retain the title against Carlson in a fun match-up, but the night was just starting. Spencer Gilbert, the winner of the Showstopper, cashed in for his chance to win the title. And, after a controversial speed round, we have a new Movie Fights Champion! Gilbert defeated Murrell on the fifth question of the speed round. Controversy came in during the 4th round when the question, “Name the best movie with only six words in the title” came up and Spencer said Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. Whether “Episode V” should have been included in the title was a point of contention, but was eventually overruled by judge and host Andy Signore. I am sure that we have not heard the last of Dan Murrell as the chase to reclaim the title has begun.
Last Sunday, the WWE presented its ridiculously named PPV, Great Balls of Fire. Strangely though, the PPV was one of the best of the year, overcoming the silly name. Brock Lesnar vs. Samoa Joe was a brutal fight, Cesaro and Sheamus defeating the Hardy Boyz in an Iron Man match was a great match up, and Roman Reigns lost to Braun Strowman in an ambulance match and proceeded to try to murder Strowman by tossing him into the ambulance and backing it into a semi. In what felt like a double turn 
(though seeing RAW the next night, I don’t think it was), Braun was extracted from the ambulance with the jaws of life, but refused any medical attention and staggered away, leaving a trail of blood behind him. Braun was no where to be seen the next night on RAW, selling his injuries, but Roman was there ready to challenge Brock. However, Samoa Joe came out and insisted he was not done with this whole thing yet. Kurt Angle made a #1 contenders match for next week between Roman and Joe (and if you don’t think Braun is showing up there, then you haven’t been watching wrestling). The rest of RAW was pretty insignificant in comparison to this opening segment, which is a shame.
However, on WWE Network, they did debut the WWE 24 documentary on Kurt Angle. This was extremely well done, chronicling Kurt’s life, his Olympic victory with a broken freakin’ neck, his arrival in WWE, and his eventual departure. The doc went into Kurt’s substance abuse issues with alcohol and painkillers that stemmed from his multiple broken necks. The show ended with Kurt’s return to the WWE and his induction into the WWE Hall of Fame. There was a very nice moment shown between Angle and Vince McMahon, whom Angle described like a father figure. The WWE video was very powerful and they show themselves to be extremely solid with these kind of documentaries dealing with their talent.
However, all was not rosy this week in the WWE Universe as the well-liked program Talking Smack, an interview program the would air on Tuesday nights to discuss about things that happened on Smackdown Live, was cancelled. Fans seemed to enjoy the Talking Smack show, hosted by Renee Young and Daniel Bryan, because it was not scripted as closely as the main show, allowing wrestlers to come on and get themselves over with their speaking skills. We would see the performers noticeably more relaxed without the script, which brought about some excellent promos from some who we did not think had it in them. The Miz really started his resurgence when he verbally went after Bryan. Talking Smack will remain after Smackdown PPV’s so hopefully there will be a change in this decision. Or maybe we should have some more animated Camp WWE crap to fill up the hours on the network instead.
Twin Peaks last week brought us a great episode a week after the big WTF episode of #8. We started piecing some details together, as a plot might have actually been seen. *Big smiley face*. There were some really solid scenes involving Bobby Briggs and the discovery of a note left for him by his father, Major Briggs. We also had Agent Cole finding the headless body of Briggs. Bob/Evil Cooper also texted a message to Diane, making us all wonder about the wonderful Diane’s actual loyalties. Then we got the long awaited return of the missing Horne child…Johnny. Johnny? With no sign of Audrey yet, Johnny looked to have killed himself by ramming his head into a glass picture frame. As we move into the second half of the season, things seem to be picking up, which means, of course, David Lynch will throw us into some kind of alternate dimension tonight that will seem like it has nothing to do with the story. Ah, Twin Peaks!
This week on Preacher, Jesse finally realized that Tulip was not around and was more than just mad at him over their argument. She was in trouble. So he went ballistic with the voice of God to find her. There was a great fight with Jesse and Pat with the tune of Uptown Girl by Billy Joel playing away. This fight scene led to the discovery that Viktor, Tulip’s capture, was also her husband. BOOM. This week’s preacher also did what you never thought it would do … it made you feel bad for Hitler. Seriously, as the other members of Hell were kick the crap out of the Fuhrer, including Eugene by the way, I actually had some feels for him. Yes, I know what Hitler has done, but… I don’t know, it was just really well done. Oh, and the Killer of Saints is on his way. Preacher is delivering big time this year.
The Emmy nominations came out this week and there were several solid picks. 
At Collider Video on YouTube this week, we had not only the Movie Trivia Schmoedown, massive event, The Collider Collison, headlined by the triple threat match betwen Mark Reilly, Dan Murrell and John Rocha, but also the team trivia matchup between old rivals Top Ten and team champions the Patriots. The Patriots defeated Top Ten rather soundly to successfully defend the team titles after an uncommonly poor performance by John Rocha. Rocha would return to the Collider Collision and, as the leader of the 4 Horsemen, would compete int he triple threat match. Unfortunately for the Outlaw, though he competed at a much higher level, he still fell to the hands of new Movie Trivia 
Champion, Dan Murrell. Murrell’s night was not yet over, however, as he was then challenged by Free-4-All winner Samm Levine, who was, by winning the Free-4-All allowed to challenge the champion any time he wanted. Murrell aggressively accepted the challenge and stepped up to the plate, defeating Levine as well, ending the night not only winning the title, but also successfully defending it. Murrell was not the only trivia competitor competing at the Collider Collision, though. The opening bout was a match between Rotten Tomatoes (Grae Drake and Matt Atchity) and The Nerd’s Watch (Ken Napzok and Rachel Cushings) for the #1 contendership for the team titles. It was a close encounter that was won by Rotten Tomatoes. Then, after trailing the whole match, 
Hector Navarro barely defeated Jeremy Johns to retain the Innergeekdom Championship when Johns could not come up with AC/DC’s Back in Black. Then, in the most contentious match of the night, Kristian “The Commissioner” Harloff defeated “The Insneider” Jeff Sneider of the Lion’s Den, despite that heelish faction’s constant complaints and criticisms. We also saw William “The Beast” Bibbiani betray John Rocha and his former stablemates in the 4 Horsemen, leaving the group for his own. The PPV-like event was hugely successful for the Movie Trivia Schmoedown, which consistently is one of the most entertaining programs on YouTube. Congratulations to Schmoedown head honcho Kristina Harloff on the exciting program.
Also online this week, I watched the four episodes of the new Netflix animated series, Castlevania, based on 
Preacher took the road trip to New Orleans this week in their continued search for God, who apparently loves jazz. Preacher also looked at the true origin of Arseface, through flashbacks, allowing us to see Eugene in his tragic moment. We also see Eugene in Hell, and that seemingly, his roommate, is Adolf Hitler. Season two of Preacher continues to be off the chart in awesomeness.
There was a lot of ringing this week as the gong was being smashed repeatedly on the Gong Show. Guest judges 
It was TV Sex Symbols vs. TV Variety on Battle of the Network Stars this week. The competition show is hosted by 
Okay, last week I talked about how episode seven of Twin Peaks started to look more like the Twin Peaks that I remembered and I had hoped that the narrative structure might get going after that. Then………….WTF? Twin Peaks: The Return episode 8 was the most trippy, surreal, confusing episode of television I think I have ever seen. It was the weirdest thing ever on TV, and the show is obviously unapologetic for it. It was a 
beautifully shot episode with EPIC visual imagery. From the point of Nine Inch Nails and their song to the end of the show, there has never been anything like it. Now, what exactly happened? Well, I do believe that we saw the origin of Killer Bob and a response to Bob from the Giant… and that response was Laura Palmer. It seems that Bob was created or unleashed or born in a nuclear test in New Mexico in 1945. Something like “fire walk with me” perhaps? Then, the 
frog/mosquito/bug that crawled into the woman’s mouth (Sarah Palmer, maybe?) was right out of a nightmare. The entire episode felt like someone’s recurring nightmare and shown in the most stylish way possible. Twin Peaks is off this week, so there will be no episode to confuse and confound us. I don’t know if that is a good thing. Twin Peaks has been one of the most bizarre returns you are ever going to see.
The next big return was one of my favorite shows from my childhood. ABC has brought back The Battle of the Network Stars as a part of their Summer Fun and Games series. I remember loving the Battle of the Network Stars as a youth, watching Howard Cosell call the athletic competition between stars from ABC, CBS and NBS. I always cheered for ABC. Now, however, there are actually way too many networks out there so the show has adjusted. It has put together the celebrities into categories. Episode one featured the TV Sitcoms vs. TV Kids. Admittedly, you did not get the A-list celebrities participating, but it was cool to see Tootie and Blair from Facts of Life reunite on the sitcom team. We also had a slightly off Tom Arnold, and Bronson Pinchot was here from Perfect Strangers. It was a lot of fun and nostalgic watching the dunk tank and the relay race and the obstacle course. The show ended with the classic tug of war as well. I loved it and I look forward to seeing more.
After the Battle of the Network Stars, I switched over to the Mist on Spike, but I have to say, I had a hard time getting into it and ABC was calling to me again. So I left The Mist and came back to The Gong Show. I enjoyed this again this week, but I have to wonder… will we have a Shaving Cream sing along each week as we had the bit this week as well? I might be okay with that as that was one of my favorite childhood song (thanks Dr. Demento). I still want to see the Unknown Comic make his triumphant return to the show. “Not Mike Myers” Tommy Maitland continued to host the show and we had a cool act win this week… Zombie ballet. The Gong Show and Battle of the Network Stars join the 100,000 Pyramid and Celebrity Family Feud as the Summer Fun and Games promotion for ABC. This is a clever way to reach people’s nostalgia and create programming on the down low for the summer months. Keep it up, ABC.
This upcoming week will see two big matches in the Movie Trivia Schmoedown. On July 4th, the team champions The Patriots will defend their titles against Top 10. Then, on Friday, they have their big Collider Collision event, featuring the Triple Threat championship match between champ Mark Reilly, and challengers Dan Murrell and “The Outlaw” John Rocha. There is also an Innergeekdom championship match with champ Hector Navarro defending against Jeremy Jahns. The Movie Trivia Schmoedown is always fun and when they present these WWE-like events, they are even more so. This past week, they had a big match with “Classy” Clarke Wolfe defeating “Baby Carrots” Mark Ellis in a battle of big-time competitors.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 