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Season three of White Collar recently debuted on the USA network, and once again I have been sucked in to the tales and tribulations of one former white collar crook and his unlikely partnership with an FBI agent. Below are three reasons why you should give this show a shot if you aren't already.
Neal Caffrey is deliciously charming... and easy on the eyes.
One glance at those piercing baby blues and that perfectly tailored suit, and I was a fan. And he's incredibly attractive when he spouts off details about early Egyptian art or when he spontaneously goes undercover as an English teacher who can recite any work from William Shakespeare. He's intelligent, good looking and loves to annoy his handler Agent Burke. So he has to wear an ankle monitor and can't go beyond a two-mile radius of his home. Nobody's perfect, right?
Stanford and the City
For those of you missing Carrie Bradshaw's favorite sidekick, have no fear! Stanford is moonlighting as Neal's ex-crook buddy Mozzie. All the same characteristics we've come to know and love are still there. He's a fierce friend, full of snarky one-liners and a comedic breath of fresh air -- minus the flamboyant tendencies or fabulous clothes. Switch cosmos for vintage bottles of expensive wine and you're ready for a night on the town.
GO BAYSIDE!
Tiffani-Amber Thiessen plays Agent Burke's wife Elizabeth. Let the record show that I fully support the career advancement of Kelly Kapowski. Once a child of the 80s, always a child of the '80s.
Like any of my Dislikes or vis versa? Let me know in the comments along with what made it onto your list or contact me on twitter @krislopresto

Like: Super Bowl XLVI
The first score of the game was a safety! The game ended on a hail mary pass being batted down in the end zone! This game had it all. I still can't believe the Giants are the Super Bowl champions. What a season! It feels like a dream. I've pretty much given up on dating. I just can't imagine sharing my time and figuring out where to have brunch each weekend and other couple-y crap. But it dawned on me this morning that my Sundays are WIDE open now that the NFL is over. I honestly have no idea what to do with myself. Although, I think my cat will freak out if I'm not there on the couch for hours at a time like I was during the season. Sure, she ignores me the entire time but I know she appreciates me being there. I dunno, maybe I'll go see all these Oscar movies I've been putting off seeing. Hugo in 3-D? Warhorse? Ugh, this feels like a chore. Maybe I'll just clean up my apartment and watch Netflix.
Dislike: Star Wars: Phantom Menace in 3-D
Speaking of 3-D movies! This pile of shit is invading movie theaters this week and no amount of Mike Ryan posts can get me excited for it. Somehow George Lucas has taken the Star Wars name and made it the most "meh" franchise since Die Hard. Well done, sir! While some franchises have taken the reboot route and been given a much needed breath of fresh air (Batman, Star Trek, Spiderman) Star Wars went the other way with re-releasing the same movies over and over again with new technology. This is going to sound harsh but this franchise won't be relevant again until after Lucas passes away and someone else can re-imagine these stories differently. Until then, Star Wars is just not interesting.
Dislike: The Bourne Legacy Trailer
I don't really get it. Am I missing something? This character Jeremy Renner is playing is not Jason Bourne yet Bourne is in the title. What is Renner's name in this movie? What's the point of this movie? Why do they talk about Jason Bourne? Is there a cameo by Matt Damon? How does Hollywood not have any original ideas? Renner is pulling a Dwayne Johnson by taking starring roles in already proven franchises. The Rock has inserted himself in the Fast and the Furious franchise, GI Joe and something called The Journey 2. Renner on the other hand is jumping in on the Mission Impossible franchise and now the Bourne series. It would be great to see The Rock and Renner costar in Transformers or some other wildly successful franchise together. I think they would make a great duo actually. They'd be up there with Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. Hmm, maybe they can all team up to do Bad Boys 3!
Like: The New York Football Giants Ticker Tape Parade and Highlight Video
Yeah, the Giants make it onto the list twice this week. It's not every week or even every year the team you root for wins the freaking Super Bowl!! This is so very awesome. I've had a stupid shit-eating grin on my face all week. Besides the speeches at City Hall and the sea of humanity who came out to cheer the champs, the most memorable (and coolest moment) was when the team made it back to Giants, err, Metlife Stadium and a highlight reel of the season played on the monitors. I wasn't there but I heard it on the radio. Nothing says 'Giants football' like Bob Papa and Carl Banks, by the way. My buddy Brendan forwarded me the video and I dare you not to get pumped after watching it. There were even some angles from games I've never seen before! I'm pumped after watching it over and over but then I'm sad. I realize there will be no football until September 6th. 7 months! At least we know that game will be in New Jersey with the world champs.
Like: House Ending This Season
I used to watch House when I had cable. I miss cable. Or more specifically: I miss my DVR. I had drinks last night with an old friend from back home and we were reminiscing and catching up and I started to get nervous I'd miss my Thursday night shows. I actually told him I was gonna head out; that was at 7:15. He had a surprised look on his face like we were on a date and it was going great and I just blurted out that I wasn't feeling it and I wanted to leave. I ended up having another beer and I'm happy I did. Besides, I told myself I could watch the shows online. I need to get a DVR again. Somehow I've gone backwards and have appointment television again. So yeah, House is ending. I used to love this show but how many times can you watch a show that has the same beats week after week? Patient gets sick, goes to hospital, House makes fun of people, they treat the patient, patient gets worse, everyone is confused and then House figures it out. Fin.
Dislike: Jersey Shore Spin-offs
Let me just say that I used to love Jersey Shore. So very much! My buddy Aysha and I would watch it and enjoy every stupid moment with glee. We couldn't get enough! Part of the reason we watched was because we grew up with people like this (we're from Staten Island) and enjoy seeing them make asses of themselves. However, as the seasons pile up and the same cast keeps coming back year after year, it's just played out. One can only watch the Jersey Shore gang go to Karma so many times. The best thing for this cast would be to go away for a while and then make a big comeback and maybe we will appreciate them. But no! They are never going away. EVER! Pauly D gets a spin-off and so do Snooki and J-Woww. Sigh, this used to be a wonderful guilty pleasure, but no more. Maybe I'm better off without cable after all.
Love is in the air on "Glee" next week, thanks to the Valentine's Day episode, "Heart." Sadly, it's a bit of bummer for Klaine fans, since Blaine is still in the hospital, recovering from his eye surgery, but maybe that's not such a bad thing. Everyone in New Directions gets a chance to shine in "Heart," especially "Glee Project" winners Damian McGinty and Samuel Larsen, who makes his McKinley High debut in the episode.
Larsen will play Joe Hart, a recent transfer to McKinley, and in "Heart," he'll join Sam and Mercedes in a version of Gym Class Heroes' "Stereo Hearts." Meanwhile, McGinty, who plays Irish foreign exchange student Rory, finally gets his "Glee" wish fulfilled by singing Michael Buble's "Home." In October McGinty told HuffPost TV that he "would love to bring Michael Buble to 'Glee.'"
"It's never been done before," he said. "I think the song 'Home' would be a perfect fit for Rory." Well, it looks like McGinty finally got his wish.
Mike and Tina also get their chance to shine, singing "L-O-V-E", and it's so much more than just a lovely duet between the McKinley High sweethearts. It's the best Tina -- and Mike -- have ever sounded. We're happy Ryan Murphy finally decided to give Tina a little extra screen time this week because when it comes to Valentine's Day, who better to sing this song than Mike and Tina? After all, they're the only couple that really hasn't had any drama.
And who could forget that Rachel's gay dads, played by Jeff Goldblum and Brian Stokes Mitchell, finally make their first appearance after three seasons? The super cute duo sing "You're the Top," and it's pretty much the cutest thing you'll listen to all day. Not to mention that we totally see where Rachel got her talent from!
Take a listen to the music from "Heart" below and tell us what you think below. "Glee" airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. EST on Fox.
"My Strange Addiction" is back (Sun., Feb. 12, 10 p.m. EST on TLC) with more bizarre stories of people are their very real obsessions.
We've got an exclusive sneak peek at the new episode featuring Nathaniel, a 28-year-old customer service technician who has found the love of his life: his car, a cherry red 1998 Monte Carlo that he has named Chase. Nathaniel admits he can't go longer than 24 hours without seeing Chase, and that it sometimes brings him to tears to be away from the car. He even has a picture of Chase as his screensaver at work to get him through the day.
But this isn't just a car owner really loving his car -- Nathaniel goes on dates with his car, goes outside to kiss it first thing in the morning and is even intimate with it. He strokes Chase lovingly, gives Chase long bubble baths and even buys Chase birthday gifts. If Nathaniel could sleep with Chase he would, but that honor belongs to his first love, a model car he received as a child named Dylan. His feelings for Dylan have evolved over the years, and he sleeps with it every night (though he doesn't think Chase minds at all).
Though Nathaniel has come out to his friends and parents about his objectophilia (when a person develops a strong emotional and often sexual relationship with an inanimate object) and his relationship with Chase, he's hoping no one at work will find out. It's not exactly the easiest thing to discuss ...
I've never written about 2 Broke Girls before, but with one of my usual shows, Once Upon A Time in repeats and with some particular bees in my bonnet, I have decided today's the day.
I was a little late getting into 2 Broke Girls; my serious love for Kat Dennings finally drew me in. The show has a lot of good things going for it -- the chemistry between Max and Caroline is good and getting better, Oleg, Earl and Han are particularly clever and funny members of the diner. Despite the recent controversy, I think the cast has a good chemistry and the dialogue is particularly clever. I also liked that eventually they found a proper home for the horse, Chestnut -- although it was really cute to have him pop his head in from outside in the backyard all the time.
But I have a few growing concerns about where the show itself is headed. One of which is the money totaled we see at the end of each episode; is it accurate? I realize the diner money may not always be attributed to the total for their cupcake business, but is any of it? What about Max's babysitting job? Where does the money from that go? And how can they be selling Max's "homemade cupcakes" when she has confessed to using two kinds of name brand cake mix? Couldn't they get sued or something?
Also, what's going on with that babysitting job? I didn't particularly like the character of Peach or Max's interactions with her. But that said, it's supposed to be Max's much-needed full-time day job -- where's the consistency? Perhaps this situation is getting a much needed rejigging if others feel the way about Peach, but just this week Max and Caroline auditioned for jobs as cleaners in Sophie (Jennifer Coolidge's) cleaning business. How could Max do that and babysit at the same time? All of this could be simply rectified by saying she'd quit or been fired, some sort of resolution. Why haven't we gotten it yet?
I have to admit I was intrigued when I heard Jennifer Coolidge would be guest starring on the show, but I'm not loving it. When her character, Sophie, first appeared two weeks ago, she came with a strained attempt at a Polish accent, which made me cringe. Why couldn't they have just let her speak in her usual way? Then she went on about all of the "horrible horrible" this and that, I was so sick of listening to her. This week, I liked Sophie's character slightly better. Her interaction with Oleg was very well done, but I'm still not warming to her as a character nor her attempts to thwart Max away from Caroline. She only just met them; where does she come off? And what was with the bizarre Caroline punching the overdosed model in the stomach? As much as I wanted to believe she actually poured peroxide down his throat and gave him a few heaves back to life, the whole thing came off as extremely unrealistic and fake to me.
But I criticize because I love, and I really do love things about this show. What have I loved the most so far? One word: Johnny. Recently I re-watched the Johnny/Max episodes and I just loved them. Nick Zano and Kat Dennings have crazy chemistry! Their potential romance had me hooked and things were left open ended so I really hope we see Nick Zano back as Johnny. We also need a man for Caroline, we only had a brief glimpse of her ex-boyfriend, who she didn't end up even speaking to -- I think the girl, and the fans, need more than that. These girls are in serious need of love interests!
So how long will we be stuck with Sophie? Do you guys want to see more of Peach? Or are we done with her? Would you like to see Johnny back? A boyfriend for Caroline? Leave your comments below!
"Parks and Recreation" has told a season-long story about Leslie Knope's campaign for public office, so it's only fitting that the show will be paying homage to "The West Wing" in a few weeks.
The Huffington Post can exclusively reveal that in an upcoming episode of the NBC comedy, Bradley Whitford, who played Josh Lyman on "The West Wing," will play the departing Pawnee city councilman whose seat Leslie and Bobby Newport (Paul Rudd) are running for.
According to "Parks and Recreation" co-creator and executive producer Michael Schur, the name of the March episode ("Live Ammo") came from a "West Wing" episode, in which the character Ainsley Hayes wrote a position paper that got the president to quickly change his mind on an issue. She's shocked at the speed of the switch and the pace of the White House, and as Schur recalled, Sam Seaborn said to her, "Look, this is the White House, we play with live ammo around here."
The "Parks and Recreation" episode doesn't have the same story line as 'The West Wing' episode, "but we kept referring to that line and that idea that if Leslie were to win⦠when she's on City Council, her decisions have a much wider impact," Schur said in an interview on the set of the show. "So we actually have Bradley Whitford say to [Leslie] at a point in the episode, 'Look, this is City Council, we play with live ammo.'"
Though Schur hadn't seen the finished episode yet, he said there were several small "West Wing" homages in it, and he told the director if there was room for a "West Wing"-style walk-and-talk with Amy Poehler and Bradley Whitford, he "wouldn't complain." But don't look for a mini-"West Wing" reunion in Pawnee: Rob Lowe, who played Seaborn, did not share a scene with his "West Wing" castmate Whitford.
Schur said that viewers will learn who wins the race for that city council seat in the Season 4 finale of the show and it might surprise "Parks and Rec" fans to find out that Schur and the writers only decided who the victor would be a few weeks ago. They certainly didn't start out the season with a pre-determined winner in mind.
"Since we came up with the idea to have [Leslie] run, weâve spent a part of every single week discussing the pros and cons of having her winning and her losing," Schur said. "And there are many to both situations. And so weâve chosen a path that I think maximizes the pros and minimizes the cons." One important point to keep in mind is that working for the Pawnee city council is only a part-time job.
"If youâre really high up in the government, you canât hold two jobs. But you can if youâre in Leslieâs position," said Schur, who'd spoken to a high-ranking Indiana state official for research. "So that option is open to us. Iâm not saying thatâs what weâre going to take, but it was good to know."
When I expressed reservations about Leslie losing -- wouldn't a loss go against the can-do, optimistic spirit of the show? -- Schur explained that the writers spent a long time thinking about how they could depict that situation without it seeming "like a sad bummer at the end of the year."
"Winning the election isnât the only way for her to be happy in her career," he noted. "There could be other possibilities -- people offering her different things that would be better than being a city councillor. That's where losing the election might actually be a good thing or a blessing in disguise or something. Obviously, if she wins, that would be very much in keeping with the tone of the show and with a character who is so driven and passionate about what she does, and is very successful in what she does."
One big plus of having Leslie win would be that she had even more reason to interact with the many other city departments and employees we've previously seen on the show, Schur noted. But the win would change Leslie's life, and the challenge was to alter her circumstances without changing the DNA of the show too much.
As Schur put it, the writers thought a lot about how they would "make sure if she won that we didnât feel like we were watching a new show in Season 5⦠Thereâs a certain amount of familiarity thatâs necessary, and weâre doing certain things to kind of reassure people at the end of the year that itâs not all going to be different" in a potential fifth season, if Leslie wins.
In a few weeks, I'll post another piece with thoughts from Schur and other members of the cast on Leslie's run for public office, but I thought I'd offer a quick rundown of what will transpire the rest of the season. But before we get to that, I asked Schur if Tom (Aziz Ansari) and Ann (Rashida Jones) will be dating for a while.
They will be, but Schur described their relationship as comedically driven and "roller-coaster-y."
"We have two very serious, heartfelt, soulmate relationships on our show in Leslie and Ben and Andy and April, and we wanted to do one that was just a comedy relationship," Schur said. "There's no staring deep into each otherâs eyes and mooning over each other."
Ann has already dated a lot of the Pawnee guys in her age range, as Schur pointed out, and Tom is "a ridiculous person, but heâs got some very good qualities. Heâs funny and heâs stylish and heâs interesting. Heâs ambitious and he knows a lot about music. The reality is at some point, you would try it. ⦠Obviously, Tom is way more into Ann than Ann is into Tom at the beginning, but itâs very casual and played almost entirely for comedy through the end of the year."
Also this season:
Episode 15, "Dave Returns" (Feb. 16)
Leslie's old flame, former Pawnee cop Dave (Louis C.K.), returns and she and Dave end up going out to dinner with her current boyfriend, Ben. It turns out to be one of the most awkward meals in the history of dining.
As Adam Scott pointed out, Ben has an unfortunate history with police officers, who make him very nervous. And neither Ben nor Dave is socially adept. "Dave is an incredibly awkward guy," Scott noted. "What a nightmare for Leslie to have to sit between those two guys."
Scott said that after that dinner, the trio heads to a retirement party for the Pawnee chief of police, whose endorsement Leslie wants. "His retirement party is just a bar full of cops," Scott said. "So after all of the awkwardness that happens at the dinner between Ben and [Dave], then they have to go to a bar thatâs full of cops in uniform and it just doesnât go well."
Episode 16, "Jerry's Sweet Sixteen" (Feb. 23)
Leslie throws Jerry a party after she realizes everyone forgot his birthday. "As much as there's a lot of putting [Jerry] down, there's a lot of rallying to be there for him," according to Jim O'Heir, who plays Jerry. But what does the "Sixteen" refer to? He couldn't say.
Episode 17, "Campaign Shake-up" (March 1)
Kathryn Hahn starts a multi-episode arc as the campaign advisor to Bobby Newport (Paul Rudd). Comedy legend Carl Reiner also guests as a power broker in Pawnee's senior community, an important voting bloc. "He's the Godfather of the old folks," Schur said.
"We have to kind of woo [the seniors] to try to get their votes," said Scott. He was especially excited about working with Reiner, who signed his poster from the movie "The Jerk." "An original 'Jerk' poster from 1981. For me, that is huge to have that."
Episode 18, "Lucky"
Sean Hayes guest stars as Buddy Wood, a journalist who is the "Barbara Walters of Indianapolis," according to Schur. Wood selects Leslie as one of the local candidates who he profiles in an annual special.
"He's very popular, and we find out all five people that he profiled last year won their elections, in no small part because of the bump they got from him," Schur said. "So the episode is about her having this huge interview with this guy and he's just incredibly cocky. Even though he's a human interest, local news guy from Indianapolis, he acts as if he is Charlie Rose or Barbara Walters or someone of that level of importance."
The episode was written by Nick Offerman, who said it was "incredibly fun and really hard ... It's a very collaborative process, writing for any TV show, because we have a whole staff of writers. But you ultimately you have to go off and write a script on your own. Mostly it was really fun, because Mike and the writers have created such well-defined characters and we know their voices so well that it was mostly just really fun coming up with things for everyone to say. As far as writing for myself, I just really tried hard not to be too self-indulgent. When I suddenly had a page-and-a-half monologue, I was like, 'This is not going to look good.' But it was really fun writing for Ron."
Episode 19, "Live Ammo"
Bradley Whitford guest stars as the city council member whose seat Leslie is running for. "I know everyone here is a big 'West Wing' fan, so we got to work out our 'West Wing' fantasies," Scott said.
As for Whitford and Lowe not working together on the episode, Schur seemed to think it was for the best. "There's nothing worse than that moment in the show where [actors who worked together on a different show meet]. 'Don't I know you from somewhere?'"
Episode 20, "The Debate"
This episode was written and directed by Amy Poehler, and Paul Rudd is among the guest stars (Rudd will also appear in Episode 21, and they're hoping to have him in the season finale as well). Rudd was always the first choice for the character because, among other things, "he plays blank so well," as Schur put it.
"To put a good comedic spin on Leslie's situation, the guy has to kind of be a doofus," Schur noted. "If he's really sharp and competent, well, who wants to watch two sharp, competent people debate? What you want to watch is one sharp, competent person debate a total moron who's very likable, who people love and who has every advantage in the world. He's the richest person in town, he's good-looking, he's charming."
Episode 21 of the season is called "Bus Tour," and the season finale is set on Election Day, which is when fans will find out whether Leslie defeated the doofus.
The second season of "Game of Thrones" is still a few months away, but the first bits of footage recently came out and now, new images have emerged!
In the new individual cast photos below, take a peek at Daenerys, the Starks and all your favorite "GOT" characters in action during Season 2, which will be 10 episodes.
"Game Of Thrones" Season 2 kicks off on Sun., April 1 at 9 p.m. EST.
British starlets Sophia Grace and Rosie have made yet another triumphant return to "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," this time rapping to Keri Hilson and doing some freestyling of their own.
In the video above, the girls sing to Hilson's "Turn My Swag On" right before Sophia Grace erupts into a clever freestyle describing the duo's recent rise to fame.
"We're going to the top of Hollywood, and it's official, but dad's in the crowd crying, here's a tissue," the British starlet belts out. "And it don't stop, we're flying to the U.S. from the U.K. non-stop."
It didn't take long for the audience to fall in love with them all over again.
Sophia Grace and Rosie received a standing ovation, and Ellen surprised the girls with news that they will be interviewing celebrities on the red carpet at the Grammy's -- with new puffy, pink dresses nonetheless.
Sophia Grace Brownlee, 8, and cousin Rosie, 5, became Internet sensations after a video of the pair singing Nicki Minaj's "Super Bass" went viral on YouTube in September.
Today, the clip has been viewed more than 30 million times.
Since then, the girls have regularly appeared on "Ellen" and even interviewed stars at the American Music Awards as correspondents for the show.
Oprah announced on Thursday that she will be moving her Oscar special to her television network, OWN. The special, which will air over a week before the Academy Awards ceremony, is expected to become a yearly franchise for the cable network.
Oprah's special will differ from her notable "After-Oscar Party," which she did yearly live from the Kodak Theatre on the Monday after the Academy Awards ceremony. Her Oscar specials were some of "The Oprah Winfrey Show's" highest-rated programs. Oprah sat down with the night's biggest winners, including the recipients of the Best Actor and Best Actress awards.
On OWN, Winfrey will interview nominees prior to the ceremony, including Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer from The Help. Moneyball's Jonah Hill will also appear in the special, which will air February 15. Hill tweeted his excitement about the interview on Tuesday (when the interview was presumably taped).
Last week, ABC announced that "Live! With Kelly" will host an after-Oscars show the Monday following the Academy Awards ceremony live from the Kodak Theatre.
There's been a flurry of news in the past few days about the progress on two separate "Jersey Shore" spinoffs, one that will follow Pauly D and another focused on Snooki and JWoww. Meanwhile, the future of "Jersey Shore" itself remains unsettled. As Sammi and Deena told "Live! With Kelly" (weekdays on ABC), MTV has yet to make any decision about whether the show will return for Season 6.
"We haven't heard anything," Sammi told Kelly Ripa and guest-host Jerry O'Connell. "I'm down, I pray we film again, I would love to film, I love filming," Deena chimed in. "We would love to," Sammi said again, sounding a bit worried they might be getting left behind.
In an interview with The Huffington Post in January, Ronnie Ortiz-Magro said that "Jersey Shore" producers had been investigating alternate locations for the show's possible sixth next season, including Las Vegas and Australia. They briefly looked at Brazil, he said, but deemed it too dangerous.
Another location change might be necessary to breathe life into the boozy reality show, which viewers may be growing tired of. The show's Season 5 premiere ratings were down significantly from its Season 4 premiere, which featured the gang on a living in Florence. Producers have also reportedly considered re-casting the show entirely.
So while the future of "Jersey Shore" remains unclear, it appears certain that some type of change is inevitable.
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Sandra Lee has made a name for herself with her signature cocktail and tablescapes, but originally the Food Network said no when she told them that alcohol was going to play a big part in her show.
"They told me I needed to be different and I wanted to make a cocktail -- I'm from Wisconsin -- and the Food Network told me I couldn't do that and we can't put alcohol on TV -- 'you can't wake up at 10 AM saying here's a cocktail,'" Sandra told me when we sat down together for a drink.
Fifteen seasons later the network must be happy they listened to Sandra, who believes in creating her own path.
"I don't think there are any footsteps to be walked in. No one else has taken things that you can buy at the grocery store and put them together. I hope that I have a career as long as Julia Child," Sandra said before making me a margarita.
"Did you know that margaritas are the #1 cocktail in America?" Sandra asked. When I responded by asking if that was because of the success of former Real Housewife of New York Bethenny Frankel's cocktail line, Sandra looked blank. "Who? I don't know who that is."
My entire interview with Sandra can be seen Thursday nights at 8pm on HDNet's talk show Naughty But Nice with Rob.
After visiting Hasidic communities in Brooklyn, N.Y., for a two-part episode on "Oprah's Next Chapter," Oprah Winfrey sat down for an exclusive interview with Rabbi Motti Seligson for Chabad.org's video site, Jewish.TV, to talk about her reflections on the visit and the community.
âOprahâs Next Chapterâ will air the two-part episode on the Hasidic Jews on Sunday, Feb. 12 (9-10 p.m. ET/PT) and Monday, Feb. 13 (10-11 p.m. ET/PT) on OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network.
Oprah visited to the Hasidic Jewish communities of Borough Park and Crown Heights for unprecedented access inside one of America's most tight-knit and mysterious cultures, where she learns about the daily life and their intense spiritual devotion, including raising their children with no TV, movies, Internet or video games. She sat down with a family of 12 as part of her visit, enjoyed a traditional meal and met one of the few black Hasidic Jewish families in the country. Then, Oprah conducted a first-ever, no-holds-barred interview with four Hasidic mothers and wives, and got a rare tour of a ritual, spiritual bath known as a mikveh.
For more of this interview see "Jewish Family Life Inspires Oprah Winfrey." Visit Jewish.TV for more Jewish videos.
Desperate contestants are fairly common on ABC's "The Bachelor," but after this week's episode, some of the women competing for Ben Flajnik's affection took it to a whole new level.
Just as the dating competition prepared to narrow to a field of just six lucky ladies, audiences had to brace themselves for the cringe-worthy displays from women terrified of rejection -- but their desperate acts may be backed by scientific reasoning.
Note: The following contains spoilers if you have not seen Season 16, Episode 6 of ABC's "The Bachelor."
A quick recap of this week's episode: Blakeley presented Ben with a scrapbook of the several hours they've spent together. Courtney, once again, took off all her clothes and then stayed up all night waiting for her Prince Charming to arrive for an illicit visit to her room, though he never showed up. Kacie B. brought a stuffed monkey on a date and revealed she once had an eating disorder.
But the cherry on top of the pathological pudding was when the admittedly prude Jamie got up and literally straddled Ben in the garden -- in a skirt, no less -- before conducting a class called "Kissing for Dummies." To sum it up: Things got weird.
In the end, Jamie and Blakeley were sent home without a rose Monday evening.
For 16 seasons, we've seen women compete to win the "Bachelor's" heart, but many of the ladies on this season seem to be a bit more unhinged than before. However, it might not be their fault. Biological anthropologist Helen Fisher, Ph.D., Chief Scientific advisor for the dating website Chemistry.com, explained that there is science behind some these ladies' actions.
"The brain circuitry for romantic love can be triggered in two dates or two hours," Fisher said. "When a person feels rejected, the brain regions linked with obsession become active. It's a powerful human experience, no matter when it happens."
So why do they act this way -- especially on national television?
"When those feelings are triggered, you can't stop thinking about a person," she said. "You become obsessed. Someone is camping in your head and you can't get them out."
The pain of rejection is the very core of the "Bachelor" franchise. In the course of two months, the season's bachelor (or bachelorette) will reject more than 20 potential suitors. It is a marathon of pre-coital carnage, and that very premise drives these men and women to giant lengths that may seem to border on insanity for viewers -- and it's all because of their brain chemistry.
"You feel elation when things are going well and despair when things are going poorly," Fisher said. "You have intense energy and deep craving, the same kind of craving like when you crave cocaine or cigarettes, but it lasts much longer. ... Anytime there is a real barrier in the relationship and you are not sure if you can win the relationship, it heightens the craving. The less you think you can win the person, the hotter the craving."
The crazy train does not stop there. Things will likely get worse due to the fact that the women who choose to seek love on reality dating programs aren't just riding an obsessive fear of rejection. More often than not, they are also looking to become stars themselves. That means at least some of this madness may be less love science and more cold calculation.
"I've often wondered whether these outrageous women on 'The Bachelor' are motivated by desperation for love or by desperation for fame and attention," dating and relationship coach Tracey Steinberg told The Huffington Post. "It's naive to think they don't know what all reality show viewers know -- that it's the outrageous, crazy, and memorable characters who graduate to TV fame and fortune. ... The more memorable women on 'The Bachelor' have ended up as the lead on a future season of 'The Bachelorette,' or have become staples in celebrity magazines."
We're looking at you Vienna Girardi, not to mention your ex-fiance and former "Bachelor" Jake Pavelka, who reportedly just landed a deal at Chippendales in Las Vegas. Because, after all, it's all about fame, and not so much love for many of the contestants on dating shows.
Steinberg summed it up saying, "I think that for a lot of women on 'The Bachelor,' getting a fiance would be nice -- but getting their own reality show would be even better."
With a little help from my friends, I found the best TV show I didn't even know existed. It's called Pulling, the equivalent of the American slang term "hooking up" and it aired on BBC from 2006 to 2008. It lasted two seasons, before it went the way of too many ahead-of-its-time shows into the world of cult fandom. It's the type of series that you can place on your list of things to cheer you up. You know you will fall in love with all the characters, and you know it will engender happiness, and yes, that is weird, but also true, and why should TV deserve such different treatment than literature, in which we positively love Elizabeth Bennett and her brand of feminism? The same applies here, just this show displays considerably more courage than most other cultural outputs I've experienced in a while.
The show, a simple concept, relies less on the novelty of the plot as much as the daring writing in the reactions to the plot. The story, well-tread in numerous forms, serves as fodder for the outstanding performances of the actors. Their deep humanity, their display of serious flaws is honest, and real, and true, and just brutally gorgeous. It's also a sheer joy to write out the plot; you get to partake in its simple genius.
Donna wakes up one day and realizes the man she agreed to marry, and the marriage institution itself, is just not for her, at least for now. She realizes the selfishness of the act, the pain it will cause her fiance, the financial loss and familial embarrassment caused to his parents, but she believes in something as genuine and perhaps cliched, almost embarrassing to say out loud, as living with integrity and principles i.e. that we should never feel forced into something less than ideal simply because of ease, or comfort, or not to hurt other people (and yet, despite this initial glimpse of courage on Donna's part, she turns out to be a narcissist. Brilliant.)
Karl, her fiance, reacts with horror. In a sequence lasting 30 seconds, before our eyes, we watch a mediocre man, who seconds before dripped corn flakes down his shirt, crumble, beg, and just react in complete despair. (The scene ends with him running into a door.) It's raw and painful, but oddly hilarious. From there, Karl pleads with Donna to act, at least for the pre-wedding party, taking place in a chain restaurant by the way, which Donna simply described as "shit" to Karl's mom, as if nothing changed, which she does. Hilarity and discomfort, obviously, ensue.
The whole thing is simply comic/tragedy brilliance. It's over the top, but not cartoonish. It's too sad for that Arrested Development flavor because the consequences always matter. It's unparalleled in American TV, though it does entail an interesting mix of different American shows, with some clear British spice. Think of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and with that model, and that sense of insanity, think of all these awful new TV shows of two women doing stuff. Love the idea, hate the execution, but here, they get it right. It's raunchy as hell, but never just relies on the raunchiness. In fact the vulgarity fits so perfectly with the humanity that the show never feels grotesque, just spot on, exactly what these normal people will do. (In a sense, it's most like the sadly cancelled Party Down, but even more daring, and considerably less absurd in the situations encountered.)
The show evinces a refreshing lack of irony and an embrace of genuineness, both in the vulgarity and the parts of immense loneliness and sadness of modern life. It will make you uncomfortable, but in the way that challenging art, yes art, makes us uncomfortable. The show loves reveling in the characters' flaws, bad life choices, again and again, and then turns its stare at us to beg the question, what do you think, why are you laughing so much, do you really think you are so different from these people? It's an interrogation of sorts, but a gorgeous, ferocious interrogation, one you want to lose.
As an American, I don't fully understand how something so funny can also be as sad, because in general, we separate these two categories. Tragedy demands tears, and humor elicits laughs. In America, the genres have begun to bleed together, but it remains easy to see which genre stands as the foundational genre of a piece. But here's a show so full of intense pathos, such an influx of mediocrity, idiocy, narcissism, pain, the suffering of life that it's funny in the way that something extreme strikes us as funny. But it doesn't hide the sadness, it's ultimately one of the saddest shows on TV, but it's not sentimental with its sadness, it doesn't feel the need to pat itself on the back with its insight of arbitrariness of life; it just is. The show lacks cynicism, or a jadedness of any sort, it displays clear and consistent vision of the general shittiness of life, but how despite that fact, all we can do after we clear some of the debris of life away, after that good cry, then the endless cry, is to laugh, to laugh at the absurdity of it all.
It really does one of the best jobs I've ever seen of painting what it's like to live life, day in and day out, with the boredom, the small joys, the disappointment, the mediocrity, the grossness we live with, the apathy, the narcissism, our desperate need for love and status, our addictions, but all with a view to the humor in the absurd, in the freedom of choice, in the joy of failing on your own terms. It's strangely life affirming, despite its coat of ostensible grime. It just bares our souls for all to see and inevitably, because life entails such humor, or because you can choose to see it that way, it falls upon humor. That's the amazing aspect of this show. It doesn't need to intend its humor; the humor happens as a by product of pitch perfect storytelling, and in that sense, I can think of nothing else in the world of TV that accomplishes this feat so effortlessly. This is a real punch to the gut, a show that dispenses with any semblance of a veil, straight from the beginning. None of this mentions the uniqueness of a show made mostly by women about women, or how the lack of beautiful actors actually enhances the show. Either way, check it out on Netflix, or the interweb.
I was flipping channels last night while I was waiting for Top Chef to come on when I stumbled on the last five minutes of ABC's comedy Happy Endings. I'd seen the show before and thought it was funny, but it had never really gripped me. It appeared to be a Valentine's Day themed episode, and I knew enough to know that Max (Adam Pally) was gay, and apparently he was trying to win over his romantic interest, played by none other than James Wolk, the charismatic star of Lone Star (which you may remember as the critically acclaimed drama that was canceled after two episodes in 2010). Okay, now I was officially hooked. Lone Star's premature cancellation left me with a James Wolk-shaped void, which I am perpetually trying to fill. But what struck me even more than James Wolk's charming smile, was the fact that he was kissing another man. On network TV. In prime time. Don't get me wrong -- I was elated, it's just that this is not as common an occurrence as I would like it to be.
Any show that has the chutzpah to show two men making out in prime time has my respect and support. In case you hadn't noticed, America is still a little homophobic, and its homophobia is much more pronounced when it comes to PDA between gay men on TV than when it's between women. Pretty much any Fox show has thrown in a bisexual female character at some point, probably just so they can air lady-on-lady kisses in their promos (which appears to be a very successful marketing technique). Just look at Bones and House: Angela (played by the beautiful Michaela Conlin) had a brief lesbian relationship on Bones (which involved plenty of kissing), while Olivia Wilde's character on House was a bisexual who had a steamy sex scene with another woman in the opening of one episode. Frankly, I'm surprised they haven't found an excuse for the two Olivias on Fringe to make out with each other. (Maybe that would help Fringe's ratings.)
You could argue that any portrayal of lesbian or bisexual characters on TV is better than none at all, but in these two cases, I can't help but feel like they were more for the sake of sensationalism than for good, multidimensional storytelling. (This could also be because I'm predisposed to criticize everything Fox does, due to my history of heartbreak with the network.) Despite their occasional misuse of lesbian relationships, I can't rag on Fox too much, since they also air Glee, a show that, while it has struggled creatively over the past two seasons, has also made tremendous progress for gay characters on network TV. This season's episode "First Time" included parallel storylines of a gay couple and straight couple each having sex for the first time. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Ryan Murphy said, "Everybody has seen a straight couple losing their virginity, but has anyone dovetailed the gay and straight stories together and given them equal weight? That seemed like an exciting choice and a new thing."
America has made great strides in portraying gay characters on TV, but they're still too often relegated to the gay best friend or gay younger brother stereotypes. The number of shows with central characters who are gay or bisexual is still not proportional to the number of gay or bisexual people represented in the country. (Of course, the same can be said for racial diversity on TV.) I know what you're thinking -- what about Modern Family? Yes, that's one other show with a pair of gay central characters (who even share a kiss on occasion). Throw in Glee and Happy Endings, and network TV is starting to look like Bravo! (If only.) I'm not saying that tremendous progress hasn't been made, or that Fox should stop adding bisexual female characters to their procedural dramas, or that every show should be more like Glee (God forbid). I'm just saying that it wouldn't kill anyone to occasionally throw in a multidimensional gay or bisexual male character for a change (preferably one played by James Wolk). And Happy Endings has earned my viewership by doing just that.
JERSEY CITY, N.J. -- New Jersey's second largest city is rolling out the welcome mat for the women of the "Jersey Shore."
Jersey City has issued producers a permit to film a spinoff of the reality series featuring Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi and Jenni "JWoww" Farley. Filming is expected to begin later this month in the city's Grove Street Path neighborhood.
Nearby Hoboken last week denied the permit, citing safety and quality of life concerns for residents of the city along the Hudson River.
Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy says he believes the show is an opportunity to promote the city.
City spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill (MOR'-ihl) says the cast and crew must obey all laws and the production company will be required to hire police to reduce any impact on the public.
Donald Trump is in the market for a motorcycle and just where should he turn? To Paul Teutul Sr., a contestant on the upcoming season of "Celebrity Apprentice."
Trump will appear on the Mon., Feb. 13 episode of "American Chopper" (9 p.m. EST on Discovery Channel) and he tasks Paul Sr. of the Orange County Choppers with creating the bike.
"There are a lot of bike-builders out there, but I really like OCC," Trump says in the exclusive sneak peek above. "I like Paul, I like what he's done."
The mogul said he and Paul Sr. met years ago on a talk show and discussed building a chopper, but the plans didn't come together until now. But, of course, this isn't just any kind of Trump chopper: It's for charity.
Check out the video for Paul's thoughts on working for Trump.
"American Chopper" airs Mondays at 9 p.m. EST on Discovery Channel.
Vampires have become synonymous with sex, proof-in-point are these magazine covers where the stars of Vampire Diaries and True Blood go nearly nude.Â
To say "Xena: Warrior Princess" left a lasting impression on its cultish following would be an understatement. Fans -- this Xenite included -- have followed series star Lucy Lawless, who eventually found her way back in the time of ancient gods, warlords and kings in Starz's "Spartacus: Vengeance."
Lawless has put down the body armor and weapons in favor of flowing gowns and hair accessories as Lucretia, but it's not exactly a stress-free life for the former first lady of the House of Batiatus. Lucretia has had her world turned upside down and suffered tragedies (including the death of her unborn child) that have all taken a toll on her psyche.
"She has every right to be out of her mind given that she's gone through such complete loss," Lawless told HuffPost TV in a phone interview from her home in New Zealand. "It was the destruction of her entire world, so is it so far-fetched for people to believe that she has actually lost her mind for real?"
Read the rest of the interview to find out why "Spartacus" is her biggest challenge yet, if there could ever be a "Xena" movie and Lawless' feelings on "The Real Housewives."
I just have to warn you: I may be gushing a lot, I'm a pretty big fan. "Xena" was the first show I truly got into.
Oh, awesome. [Laughs.]
My colleague interviewed your "Spartacus" co-star Liam McIntyre and he said you gave him a chakram, so I'm completely jealous because when I was like 10 years old I got a plastic chakram for Christmas.
Aw. That's probably a collector's item now! [Laughs.] Who did I give a chakram to? Liam?
Yeah, Liam said you sent him one. Anyway, I apologize for the gushing in advance.
Oh, I love it. But please, get a tissue.
Jumping right in, will we see Lucretia deal with the emotional fallout of losing her baby?
She seems to have forgotten that she even had a baby, right? She's sort of supplemented all of her interest in babies ... She does kind of get religion through this. It's a little bit that somebody [who] has lost all memory of their past sees themselves through other people's eyes, so when all the people start worshiping her, she assumes that role. I don't think it's cynical; I don't think she's putting it on; I think it's a natural human inclination to go with the crowd. They're suggesting to her that she's special, so she's like, "Oh, OK I'll just go ahead and be special then," and instinctively knows how to play to that, "I am the oracle." She does get a bit of religion and there is a prophecy afoot and that drives her. There's a prophecy.
How would you describe her path this season?
There are vipers sitting at her feet. She has to tread very carefully. At any moment she could be struck down. There's just no easy road for Lucretia, she's just had to sort of scratch for survival ... it's not been easy for her and things only get worse this season. In the end ... Lucretia ends up a winner.
What are the challenges for you as an actor in striking the balance between tormented and going off the rails?
The challenge is always to make these things real and to try to put myself in the person's shoes because very often, you've never been there, so you have to allow yourself to go to some pretty dark places. I've never been so challenged as this season. All credit to the writers ... That team of writers that Steven [DeKnight] has with him are so talented, so deep, the bench is really deep. They've just given me some real career highs. It's like the lower my character goes, it's like the higher the attainment is for me, if I do it right. Only the audience can judge that really.
Do you have a ritual for getting into character?
The whole hair and makeup is a ritual. Whether you're doing stage and putting your makeup on yourself or with film and television when somebody else is waving over you, every minute that goes by is sort of ebbing away at your real life and the entry into this virtual reality. I really feel like Lucretia is like an avatar of mine. I wouldn't have had the words to say that once upon a time, but because this character is so kind of real, I try to keep it really real. It is like me walking through an alternate life and it's kind of awesome because I feel like I'm living really richly. [Laughs.] It's like they say roller coasters are the chance to experience death ... the threat of death in a way where there is no real danger. That's kind of what being Lucretia is. I get to experience all those things that we're so voyeuristic about and all our prurient interests in very dark human matters. All the wish fulfillment of blood and guts and revenge and all that stuff that we cannot indulge in in this world, my character can kind of go there and I get a little taste of what that can be like in a way that has no consequences in my real life. [Laughs.]
Are you coming back for Season 3?
It's too spoiler-y to say what happens to her. It could be for three quarters of it, it could be for all or it could be two episodes. I'm not going to say. You're going to know Lucretia's next big plan by the end of this season and where she's heading. Lucretia's future will be revealed! She has a new status.
Do you have a favorite part about playing Lucretia?
Oh, oh yeah. It's the challenge of it: Can I make her wickedness completely real and relatable that you can see where she's coming from? If she seems like a logical person, then I can make her wickedness your problem and I relish that. I aim to make the audience complicit in my crimes by making her as fully real as possible. She's not all bad and she's not all good; she's a complete mixture because I believe we all are. It makes me cringe when people call her a villainess because she's not; she's anyone.
Wow. That's a great quote, I might use that in my headline.
Is that right? Oh, good. [Laughs.] What would the quote be?
"Lucy Lawless: Don't Call Lucretia a Villainess." I don't know. Still thinking about it.
"Lucy Lawless Contends She is You." [Laughs.]
Anything you want to add about "Spartacus"?
I think they write the best roles for women on television. The treachery upstairs in the parlor is every bit as base and rich as that down in the arena.
Is there any chance we'll see some kind of "Xena" reunion or movie?
That would have been really fun ... The whole trouble with it was there was some sort of glitch in the paperwork in ownership. The movie company doesn't own all the rights to it and they don't want to share, so -- it's just kind of gone sour for all these years. I shouldn't say they don't want to share, but there's not enough in it for them if they have to share the rights with somebody else. By the time somebody realizes it's a completely wasted franchise and they should reinvigorate it, I'm too old to play her.
You recently said that you hated the fighting on "Xena." You really don't miss that at all?
Not a bit. Not a bit. Never, never liked it. I just sucked it up and went on with it all those years on "Xena," but I was so happy to let that go and just eat figs and wear frocks. [Laughs.]
I'm sure you've had a lot of fan experiences. Do you have one that really sticks out?
I had a really great experience the other day. They had the last ever "Xena" con and I was like, "I have to go. If I'm in LA, I should stay on a few extra days and just go and thank the fans from all those years ago for being so loyal." They're such an interesting bunch of people. They've raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for charity. They're amazing. So ... I went along and Bill Shatner was there and he was doing a documentary on the "Xena" fans and what a phenomenon they are ... It was very cool to have Captain Kirk kind of interviewing me about the fans because they are the focus ... And, for the first time in years -- maybe the first time ever -- I did photo-ops and ... there was so much love coming back at me from these people. It wasn't that I felt good about myself, it was that they had filled me with their kindness. It was a very odd experience. It was a real gift and I'm glad I did it.
Completely random question: Would you ever do "Dancing With the Stars."
No. I've been asked. I supported my friend Marissa Jaret Winokur when she was doing it. It's not for me. I did the singing one.
Right, I remember.
"Celebrity Duets." The problem with us [is] we were not bitchy and competitive enough. We were all people who actually have careers and real lives, so we were not manipulatable and that didn't make for very good television. But I got to sing for some cool people. It made me very happy! I sang with Smokey Robinson three times, Dionne Warwick, Kenny Loggins -- it was so awesome. And Richard Marx was the big surprise. That guy is fantastic. Anyway, I loved it.
Not all reality TV is bad!
No, I don't think it's bad. I feel too manipulated by it. I feel like it's the producers' trick. You're not really having something revealed to you about human nature. The producers are sort of rocking everybody up and making them behave in a hyper-natural way.
Very true.
And I think all those "Housewives" should eat some pies or something. They're too skinny. "Go and eat a pie!" [Laughs.]
"Spartacus: Vengeance" airs Fridays at 10 p.m. EST on Starz.
On the Series Premiere of "My 600-Lb Life" (Wed., 10 p.m. EST on TLC) viewers were introduced to Melissa Morris. She credited her amazing transformation to a lot of hard work and determination.
On the second episode it was the turn of Donald Shelton to share his story.
At the age of 34 Donald weighed 675 lbs, and he knew that he had to lose the weight or he would die. So in 2004 he underwent gastric bypass surgery, a procedure that was itself extremely dangerous for someone of his size.
At the beginning of his seven-year battle Donald showed just how difficult daily life was for him. He could barely stand because his weight was just too much for his legs, and he acknowledged that he would be lost without the support of his parents.
Following the surgery Donald managed to lose an incredible 300 lbs in weight but then he had a massive setback. Having problems walking after a fall he checked himself into the hospital.
There, after starting to ramble incoherently, he slipped into a coma.
Waiting at his bedside, Donald's distraught dad said, "I'm scared. Put me in that bed. Get him out. He's got a full life to live yet." Because Donald wasn't strong enough to breathe on his own the doctors had to put him on a respirator, and his brother Brian said the family had no idea what was going on except that he had pneumonia and some kind of viral infection.
Then the family got shocking news: Donald's friend told them Donald had been using crystal meth and cocaine, and that his girlfriend was a heavy user. Had Donald jeopardized his chances of leading a normal life through taking drugs?
Eventually, the cause of Donald's collapse was discovered. He was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome, a disorder that affects the central nervous system and can lead to serious complications including paralysis and death.
After he came out of his coma Donald recuperated at home and with intense physical therapy and more weight loss he regained mobility. However, his weight has fluctuated wildly over the last seven years. At one stage he was down to around 200 lbs -- a staggering loss of over 400 lbs -- but then, sabotaged by his mother feeding him junk food and his own depression, he gained back over 100 lbs in one year alone.
At the end of the show Donald was getting his inspiration back. He was attending hydro-therapy sessions and was down to 390 lbs, but he still has a long way to go.
Follow more weight-loss journeys on "My 600-lb Life," Wednesdays at 9 p.m. EST on TLC.
TV Replay scours the vast television landscape to find the most interesting, amusing, and, on a good day, amazing moments, and delivers them right to your browser.
Models Melissa and Tabby joined the "HillBilly Handfishin''' (Weds.,10 p.m. EST on Animal Planet) gang in Oklahoma as they tried to learn the ancient art of catching massive catfish with your hands and/or feet.
Keen to learn Handfishing, otherwise known as "Noodling," Melissa and Tabby were sitting in the water with the others when a huge catfish just leapt out of the water and hit Tabby in the face.
Although she wasn't badly hurt, Tabby was very shaken and for a while could only scream "Oh my god!"
As a concerned Skipper Bivins tried to see if she was okay, Tabby quipped, "It doesn't hurt. It's just going to be ugly when I try to put my eyeshadow on."
Later, she said she never even saw the fish coming. "It felt like somebody just threw a brick right at my face."
"HillBilly Handfishin'" airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. EST on Animal Planet.
TV Replay scours the vast television landscape to find the most interesting, amusing, and, on a good day, amazing moments, and delivers them right to your browser.
Note: Do not read on if you have not seen Season 1, Episode 14 of ABC's "Revenge," entitled, "Perception."
From the minute "Revenge" premiered, the entire season has been leading up to one simple question: Who shot Daniel Grayson?
"Perception," this week's episode, may not have given us any answers, but it did start to put things into focus, leaving us with more that a few clues.
At this point, Jack is the most obvious suspect. Not only did he get himself caught up in the Grayson family drama, but he also pushed a lot of buttons -- my own included.
Look, I get it, Jack. You're really, really bummed that Amanda left you, but ultimately, she's the one that left! For the entirety of the episode, Jack went from lovesick puppy to psychotic ex-boyfriend faster than Victoria Grayson could flip her hair.
He'll do anything to get Amanda back, even go head-to-head with the Graysons, which makes me think that maybe he gets into a scuffle with Daniel at the engagement party. After all, during his meltdown, Jack did threaten Emily, which didn't necessarily amuse her hubby-to-be Daniel.
Back in the Hampton's, Ashley is preparing for Emily and Daniel's engagement party, the ill-fated Fire & Ice Ball. It's definitely going to be the hottest ticket in the Hamptons.
Amidst her planning, she almost catches Victoria watching one of Mason Treadwell's tapes: the one where he professes his love for the icy Mrs. Grayson.
The way Victoria longingly ran her fingers across the computer screen was a nice touch. It looks like she really misses David Clarke, kind of like the way Jack misses Amanda Clarke. If he had a videotape of her, he'd probably be stroking her face too.
We then discover that Victoria requested white for the engagement photos. I mean, obviously. How else is Victoria going to one-up Diddy and his annual White Party?
Meanwhile, Emily is waiting for the perfect moment to reveal Victoria's dirty little secret. In typical Nolan fashion, he's worried about how baby sis Charlotte will take the news. Emily Thorne doesn't really care.
I mean, do we really care about Charlotte at this point? She's about as boring as Declan. Maybe that's why those two deserve each other!
At the Porter residence, Jack is determined to find Amanda, tell her that his assault wasn't her fault and somehow, beg her to take him back.
That must have been some trip to Atlantic City because Jack is officially obsessed with Amanda. Sure, he's been obsessed with her since they were little, but does Jack really have no clue that stripper Amanda isn't his Amanda?
In his desperate attempt to find a clue to her whereabouts, Jack finds one of Treadwell's tapes under Amanda's bed. Hoping that she'll return to pick up her forgotten tape, Jack leaves a message on her phone. Emily just so happens to be on the other end, listening to Jack's every word.
This just threw a wrench into Emily's plan. But she can't worry about that now because she has a few engagement photos to pose for.
During the photo shoot, Daniel and Emily look as happy together as Victoria and Conrad. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that Emily's front is starting to show, but does Victoria notice?
Ashley, who's on a mission to make everything perfect, tells the two to think back to the first time that they met. Emily remembers the first time she met Daniel, in a seedy bar. Although, back then, her name was Amanda Clarke, and between her frizzy hair and glasses, there's no way Daniel would ever remember her.
Was it just me or did Emily's former self remind you of a dorky Taylor Swift in "You Belong With Me"?
Let's just tawk about Emily's accent for a second. Was that supposed to be her "native" Long Island tongue?
Meanwhile, we're finally introduced to Grandpa Grayson! However, Pops isn't too happy with Conrad's decision to divorce Vicky. Divorces are much too public for grandpa's liking, and with the image of the company at stake, he's not willing to risk it.
When Conrad confronts Vicky about her little talk with his father, she throws a few of her own demands into the mix. After all, did he really think that she was just going to let him boss her around like that?
Victoria will do anything to make sure Conrad doesn't spill the beans about Charlotte's real father. Welcome back, Victoria Grayson: Ball Buster.
Emily sends Nolan on a mission to get the tape away from Jack, but Jack just won't let it out of his sight. Unfortunately for Emily, it's the tape from her first interview with Treadwell, when she was 10 and revealed her father's affair with Victoria.
So in order to get the tape back, she must resort to desperate measures. She finds Amanda and has her call Jack. Poor Jack. It's kind of like sprinkling salt on an open wound.
Was it just me or was Amanda supposed to be in Paris, i.e. far, far away from the Hamptons? Or maybe that was just the lie I told myself because I'd rather not see Amanda ever again.
It turns out that Amanda was "going crazy" not being able to talk to Jack. Gag. I still would like to know what happened in Atlantic City.
Back at the Grayson's, someone (Conrad) is finally detecting the sinister vibes coming from Ashley. I think that Ashley knows a lot more that she lets off. I mean, she is the eyes and ears of the Grayson household. I wouldn't be surprised is she knew Emily's little secret.
Meanwhile, Charlotte -- and a very normal-looking Victoria (sporting a Sporty Spice ponytail!) -- walk into the Stowaway. Who knew mommy-and-me bonding time could be so casual with the Graysons?
When Jack arrives to meet Amanda with the tape, in a moment of weakness, Amanda vaguely tells Jack the truth about her real identity. In a burst of anger, Jack walks out the door ... with the tape. He wants to know what Amanda's hiding.
Emily's not happy with Amanda's subpar performance, and she urges Amanda to go after Jack. Unfortunately for Emily, she's done playing her game. It looks like it's up to Emily to get the tape back from Jack.
Maybe it was out of pity -- or stupidity -- but Nolan slips and shows Jack the tape. Then cut to Jack with a really, super serious look on his face. Does Jack know the secret?
He runs to Amanda, pleading with her to open the door. He's like that needy ex-boyfriend that couldn't quite let you go. Pretty soon he'll start tweeting her poetry and showing up with a boom box over his shoulder. I mean, it worked for John Cusack.
In all serious, Jack is getting so emotionally unstable that I wouldn't be surprised if he was the one who shot Daniel at the engagement party.
But back at the engagement dinner, Daniel is gloating about his bride-to-be, and Grandpa Grayson makes a startling -- yet scarily accurate -- comparison between Emily and Victoria. They are kind of similar, aren't they?
Before Emily could "graciously" accept the "compliment," Jack shows up and causes a Montauk ruckus. Oh snap! Jack just outed Victoria's secret at the Grayson family dinner table and oh boy, do things get nasty.
Conrad confirms Jack's accusation, revealing Victoria's affair to everyone at the table, including Daniel, who can't believe that mommy dearest lied to him.
Meanwhile, Charlotte is crushed. It looked like someone had just run over her puppy. "No... he's not." [Cries and runs away.] Obviously, this is the worst day of her life, much worse than her Sweet 16. So what does she do? She runs straight to the booze. Good girl. You're starting to get a bit more interesting.
Grandpa Grayson is also not pleased with Conrad's poor performance, and it might just lead to Conrad's resignation from the company.
Could Conrad get so desperate to reclaim his company that he would kill his own son for it? There's no way that I think Conrad would stoop that low, but this is "Revenge" and anything can happen.
After the super awkward engagement dinner, Emily arrives home only to find out that someone knows her secret, and that someone not only took her box, but they also left a RSVP for "Miss Emily Thorne."
While psycho Amanda would be the obvious culprit, I happen to believe that there's more to Ashley than just Victoria's lapdog. Could Ashley be the one who uncovered Emily's secret? And could she be the one who shot Daniel at the engagement party?
Looks like we'll have to wait until next week to find out.
Notable Quotables:
"My perception is blinded by only one thing: revenge."
Emily
"Was fire and brimstone not available?"
Nolan
"It's astonishing how your mother decided to model the theme of your party after both sides of her personality."
Conrad
"I think you're so busy looking down the road, that you lost sight of us mere mortals long ago."
Nolan
"It's like the beginning of a joke! Two Graysons walk into a bar."
Declan
"Ah, it's Victoria's pet bird."
Declan, to Ashley
--
"Revenge" airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. EST on ABC.
Greg Kinnear stopped by the Dunphy household on "Modern Family" (Wed., 9 p.m. EST on ABC), playing Tad, a business associate of Phil's. But while Phil was more than enthusiastic about the opportunities Tad was presenting to him, while Claire was a lot more concerned with the fact that Tad kept kissing her on the lips.
She was convinced that Tad was trying to make a pass at her, but Phil just wasn't seeing it. When Tad invited them to his house, Claire learned that Tad wasn't making a pass at her -- he kisses everyone (except Phil apparently) on the lips -- and that she was more concerned that Phil wasn't getting jealous. Only he did get jealous once Claire started laughing at Tad's jokes. Nobody makes Claire laugh except for Phil!
Jealousy ran rampant through the family, with both Cam and Gloria getting jealous of one another. Their feud created plenty of hilarious moments in Gloria's house, culminating in a smooth choreographed cooking session in the kitchen once they'd made up. It was the first time we'd seen this pair bicker, but there was as always love behind every disagreement.
Even Luke stepped in to help his sisters out when they started fighting uncontrollably. Of course, he paid the ultimate price for his helpful meddling when they brought back something that must have horrified him as a child: Betty Luke. To make it even better, when Phil and Claire came back, they were excited to see "her," as they'd failed to get a good picture the last time Betty made an appearance.
Watch "Modern Family" every Wednesday at 9 p.m. EST on ABC.
TV Replay scours the vast television landscape to find the most interesting, amusing, and, on a good day, amazing moments, and delivers them right to your browser.
We're all familiar with the age-old adage, "Less is more;" but find me a TV fan who wouldn't eagerly take an extra 12 (or 24, or 48, or non-stop until Jim Parsons passes out from exhaustion) episodes of their favorite series, instead of a long and laborious summer hiatus.
With infinite options for instant televisual gratification -- whether it's Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime or less ... legal methods -- modern audiences are growing more impatient for entertainment every day.
Strange, then, that even as viewers grow hungrier for access to their favorite shows and stars -- devouring webisodes, attending conventions like Comic-Con and investing in myriad promotional tie-ins -- the broadcast networks seem to be moving away from the standard 22-episode format for their seasons, instead embracing the more moderate approach demonstrated by cable.
Many new series for the 2011-12 season have been commissioned with episode orders ranging from 6 to 15 -- a great majority of them on ABC, which has yet to debut "Missing" and "GCB" (10 episodes), "Scandal" (7), and comedy "Don't Trust the B---- Apartment 23" (13). Likewise, NBC still has the high-concept drama "Awake" (13), and comedies "Bent" and "Best Friends Forever" (6) waiting in the wings, while Fox's "Touch" will also air 13 when it makes its proper debut in March.
It appears that executives are counting on the idea that an uninterrupted run can build narrative momentum the way that 22 episodes, spread out over 35 weeks from September to May, cannot. At least until the Screen Actors Guild relaxes its labor laws, anyway.
Two of the most buzzworthy dramas adopting this strategy premiered this week, with NBC's "Smash" scheduled to run 15 episodes in its first season, and last night's ABC spookfest, "The River," producing eight installments. Though the casual viewer might assume that networks want to bury their lesser products at mid-season (to be used only if the fall fails to provide a hit), there's actually a much more canny strategy at work -- one that has certainly served ABC well thus far.
"You're in an incredibly competitive environment in the fall," said Paul Lee, ABC's Entertainment President, at the Television Critics Association press tour in January, via a transcript sent from the TCA. "You've got millions of dollars of investment launching maybe within a week. You'd better make sure that those shows stand out from the crowd, and if you've got a perfectly formed show that you really want to have its place in the sun, then you have a better chance either staggering it from the fall -- we did that for "Once Upon a Time" -- or giving yourself a chance during the year ... My job isn't to launch a week's television. I think my job is to bring great television and spend the year launching it."
Lee took the latter approach with "The River," a unique, found footage-style series from "Paranormal Activity" creator Oren Peli and Steven Spielberg (who also serves as an executive producer on "Smash"). According to Lee, it was Spielberg who pushed for such a modest episode order. He recalled at the TCAs: "When we were about to pick it up, I had a brief conversation with Spielberg who said, 'We would love to have eight because that's just about the amount that we can really figure out the rhythms of this show,' and a part of me thinks, because we just did eight ... if you look at it, it's so different from anything else you've seen. They really had the time to figure through." At the time, the executive seemed confident that if the audience embraced the show, "There's a lot of life in this beyond that [eight]."
In the case of "Awake" -- a gut-wrenching psychological drama that sees Jason Isaacs' character struggling to determine whether he's living in a dream or in reality -- the shorter order afforded the writers a welcome opportunity to pause and take stock of where they wanted to take the show narratively, without feeling beholden to the network to rush production without a clear plan in place. "We were very lucky that we didn't have an airdate in a sense, because good things take time," executive producer Howard Gordon pointed out at the TCAs. "And this is a challenging show for us to figure out. And, frankly, we had the opportunity. We could've kept going. We only took a three-week hiatus, and it was just to get our heads together and to sort of learn from the distance we traveled and move ahead in a way that we felt good about."
There are many other reasons to explain the sudden scheduling shift, beyond the opportunity to keep the hits coming for the networks year-round.
It certainly doesn't hurt that three of the Big Four network heads graduated from positions in cable: Lee was promoted from his post as President of Entertainment at ABC Family; NBC's Bob Greenblatt held the same spot at Showtime; and Kevin Reilly defined the voice of FX before heading to Fox, with a three-year stint at the top of NBC in between. It makes sense that all three are attracted to the business models that helped shape their careers, even if ratings expectations are much higher on the broadcast stage than on cable.
Budget-wise, shorter seasons are a double-edged sword; one only needs to look at the gargantuan cost of the decidedly mediocre "Terra Nova" for proof that fewer episodes don't necessarily insulate you against spending more. Still, being flexible with scheduling allows networks to take creative risks that they might otherwise be loath to make, if they were confined to a standard episode order.
Having fewer hours to fill is also attractive creatively, at least for fans of serialized storytelling. Any genre addict can tell you that 22- to 24-episode seasons are subject to a fair amount of filler material. Many mythology-based shows find themselves forced to spin their wheels with "standalone" episodes that pad out the season and prevent the writers from burning through material too quickly. (Comedies and procedurals are generally exempt from this rule.) Hell, even in a season containing only 12 episodes, "True Blood" still manages to stuff in a whole heap of extraneous material. Any good writer knows that the goal is always to leave the audience wanting more, which is why so many fans were left rabid at the end of "The Walking Dead's" svelte, six-episode freshman season.
Shorter runs have also proved enticing for a greater number of film actors this season. When HBO scores thespians like Dustin Hoffman or Steve Buscemi to head up their 9- or 12-episode dramas, no one bats an eye; yet it still seems jarring to see stars like Anjelica Huston, Ashley Judd or Jason Isaacs "slumming it" on network TV. Fox and Kevin Williamson even managed to lure Kevin Bacon into committing to a broadcast pilot for next season's slate, under the caveat that Bacon would only commit to a maximum of 15 episodes per season.
Everyone wants to have their cake and eat it, too in Hollywood. Stars are trying to keep their options open for feature film work; but as "Missing" star Ashley Judd pointed out during the TCA press tour panel for her show: "I was aware that this is a golden age in television; that incredible film producers are making special TV; that [the] once rather impermeable membrane between film actors and TV actors has completely vanished." With so much creativity -- and the allure of a steady, multi-year income standing in stark contrast the ephemeral nature of film work -- TV no longer has such a second-class stigma attached.
Then there's the worst-case scenario: When viewers are given an abridged season as a consolation prize when the networks want to avoid canceling an ailing show without closure. Die-hard "Chuck" fans earned the resilient show that right for its fifth and final season (although NBC was far from respectful in the way they burned off episodes during the winter break) and "One Tree Hill" fans will see their show draw to a close in a similar fashion this spring. With series living on borrowed time, it's an attractive prospect to both the audience and execs who don't want to raise the ire of a loyal fanbase; but would more networks be prepared to make that concession if all of their shows were 12 or 13 episodes long and they had more hours of programming to schedule in a year?
For British audiences -- and US Anglophiles -- who live for series like "Downton Abbey" and "Doctor Who," condensed seasons are the norm. UK shows are often presented like miniseries, with shows like "Sherlock" and "Luther" utilizing the fact that they air on the BBC (a commercial-free broadcast network) to present episodes that are more like movies, often clocking in at 60 or 90 minutes in length. I'm not sure that the lengthier episodes quite make up for the fact that their seasons are only three or four episodes long and often take a year-long break in between, but it must be a liberating experience for the actors and writers, allowing them to tackle other projects without exhausting themselves creatively.
It's a concept that US networks seem to be embracing, since we've witnessed a surge in two-hour drama premieres this season (recent examples include "Alcatraz," "Terra Nova" and "The River") that seem reminiscent of the meatier running times employed by miniseries. In this way, the debut night can be marketed as an "event," often resulting in a marketing blitz in the weeks leading up to a premiere.
Networks and studios are clearly beginning to reevaluate the way they schedule their programming, but even more encouragingly, they finally seem to be embracing alternative methods of presenting it, too. Broadcasters used to be terrified by the prospect of making their products available online, but the recent success of previewing "New Girl" and "Smash" before their network bows may indicate that the tide is beginning to turn.
Can a push towards studio-backed webseries be far behind? The producers and stars of truncated shows have often hinted that there could be life for fan-favorite characters beyond the confines of a traditional network model, but such promises rarely bear fruit. (See the "One Life to Live" and "All My Children" ordeal.)
Still, the biggest question facing proponents of a scheduling evolution remains: Would die-hard fans be willing to sacrifice quality time with their favorite characters for the possibility of uninterrupted seasons and tighter plotting? Perhaps. As agonizing as it is to wait for the better part of a year for new episodes of "Game of Thrones" or "Homeland," it's almost worth it to know that the narrative will be razor sharp and the visuals will be cinematic in quality. Almost.
We TV lovers are greedy, and for some of my favorite shows, like "Supernatural," "Fringe" and "The Good Wife," the thought of giving up almost 10 hours of enthralling adventure or heartbreaking character dynamics for the sake of better pacing or more impressive visual effects seems like a hefty price to pay. We all profess to love quality over quantity, but when it comes to that precious hour of escapism at the end of a busy work day, is less really more? And are the networks truly brave enough to find out?
Would you rather see shortened seasons if it meant higher quality shows, or are you satisfied with 22-episode orders for your favorite series? Does 8 episodes seem like enough to wrap up "The River's" first season? Weigh in below.
The Miami-centric edition of Bravo's "Real Housewives" series -- the lowest-rated iteration of the reality TV monolith, estimated to be worth about half a billion dollars -- has been renewed for Season 2, but not without a makeover.
Get ready "Jersey Shore" fans because Pauly D's highly-anticipated spinoff, "The Pauly D Project" is set to premiere Thurs., March 29, after the premiere of the all-new âPunkâd.â
âThe Pauly D Project,â one of two scheduled "Jersey Shore" spinoffs, will give viewers an inside look at Pauly Dâs life away from Seaside Heights, as cameras document his transition from fist-pumping housemate to world-class DJ, with his best friends from his home state of Rhode Island along for the ride.
The 12-episode reality series will even document Pauly D as he accompanies pop icon Britney Spears on her international âFemme Fataleâ tour, and the super tan DJ will learn that life outside of Seaside is a lot more complicated than G.T.L.
âThe Pauly D Project" will premiere at 10:30 p.m. EST on MTV, after the premiere of "Punk'd" at 10 p.m. EST.
Sheryl Underwood, co-host on "The Talk," is a "Young and The Restless" super-fan. Last month, she received the offer of a lifetime from "Y&R" actor Christian LeBlanc, who offered her a guest role on the soap. Wednesday on "The Talk," Sheryl shared some behind-the-scenes footage of her big debut, and Eric Braeden, who plays the dashing Victor Newman on "Y&R," stopped by to provide the panel with a report on Sheryl's on-set behavior.
"She was very sedate, very quiet, very calm, very collected," he said, before adding with a wry smile, "but rather excited."
Julie Chen had Underwood's "Y&R" dressing room star framed, and presented it to her with a caveat. "You're going to need it again," Chen explained, "because you've been invited back for an encore performance." Chen warned Braeden that although Underwood would try to stay on at "Y&R," she was needed back at "The Talk." Braeden, ever the ladies man, made no promises, and quipped, "I'm in between wives, soâ¦"
TV Replay scours the vast television landscape to find the most interesting, amusing, and, on a good day, amazing moments, and delivers them right to your browser.
Okay women, a bit of fun for Valentine Day. Admit it, we all love romance and we love watching a romantic couple. The second season premiere of Ice Loves Coco is set for February 19, 2012 on the E! Entertainment Network at 10:30 pm EST and if the new season is anything like last year's it will be a pleasure to watch. They give their audience a good show and it is worth watching every minute of it. The respect and love they have in their marriage defies Hollywood stereotypes and makes it a success in every way.
Unlike the reality shows featuring amateurs and the kind of people you would avoid in real life let alone watch on TV, Ice T and Nicole "Coco" Austin bring a professional charm and savvy to their show. What you see is what you get and what you get is fun and quality.
On Super-Bowl Sunday I was privileged to interview Ice T and Coco about the new season of their hit show Ice Loves Coco and I can't remember when I had this much fun in an interview. Unlike some celebrity couples who seem to talk over each other or hog the interviewer's time, Ice T and Coco were respectful of one another. Their genuine love and caring for each other shines through. Like a comfortable married couple they shared stories about how they met and what attracted them to each other.
The pair met on the set of a music video in 2001 where Ice T was visiting some friends. To keep him occupied while they worked they introduced him to Coco. Both he and Coco saw something in each other that made them want to be a couple because they've been together for over 11 years.
Always interested in fashion, Coco was intrigued by what Ice T was wearing and adds, "I like hard core men. Ice was just that, he was an aggressive character, but he had a little flavor. At the same time he made me laugh. That's a good package right there."
In response to my question about how she knew they'd get together again after she had returned to her life in Arizona, Coco told me, "I had to come back. I left a bunch of my clothes on my side of the bed so both of us knew I'd be returning."
Ice T then invited her to go on an 11 day non-stop this-is-what-my-professional-life-is adventure of sorts. No holds-barred, this is me.
Ice T says, "She ended up coming to New York to visit. When it was time for her to go home -- I never forget -- she looked at me and she had like puppy eyes and I was like 'you don't wanna go huh?' And she's like shaking her head no. I was like 'advance to the next level of the game, because I had a great time with you and I don't want you to go.'"
They're also business partners and, in this as in other aspects of their relationship, they work well together. Though both are creative and artistic, Ice T says that Coco is more detailed-oriented than he is and that's fine. This is a man who likes a strong woman and Coco is certainly that. For the record, Coco took personal care of her mom during her life-threatening illness and endured her parents' divorce. As an adult she also helped take care of a former boyfriend who was ill.
"
You can both be strong in a marriage and support each other's goals. We're teammates, Kristen, we're not opponents and that makes a difference in a relationship,"
When I mentioned that I had written an article called "Run Your Marriage Like You Run a Business", Ice T said that a marriage should be run like a business because the business is in making sure it works and is successful. It's a commitment.
This season will cover many areas of their life together both professional and personal. On the personal side will be the issue of pregnancy and a health scare for Coco that puts the idea of getting pregnant and giving birth on the back-burner. We'll also see the couple packs their bags and get away for some much-needed rest in Hawaii and Miami and their unpredictable adventures there.
There's also the ongoing search for a "baby mama" for their beloved English bulldog Spartacus. Their affection for him touches a chord with every pet lover.
Some of Coco's professional life spills over into their personal one when she guest stars on Ice T's Law and Order: SVU series as a character called Venus. When she has to have a romantic moment with another actor, she's a bit concerned about what her husband's reaction will be.
Season two of Ice Loves Coco, beginning February 19 at 10:30 pm on E! is a show that I'll be watching with a definite recommendation that you watch too. It's fun, it's good television, and you'll enjoy every minute.
© 2012 Copyright Kristen Houghton
Kristen Houghton is the author of the hilarious new book, No Woman Diets Alone - There's Always a Man Behind Her Eating a Doughnut in the top 10 hot new releases at Amazon available now on Kindle, Nook, and all e-book venues.
To read more from Kristen Houghton, peruse her articles at You may email her at kch@kristenhoughton.com.
She is also the author of "And Then I'll Be Happy! Stop Sabotaging Your Happiness and Put Your Own Life First" ranked in the top 100 books by Tower Books.com
"House" is coming to an end. Fox and executive producers David Shore, Katie Jacobs and Hugh Laurie announced that after much deliberation it was decided that Season 8 will be the last.
"While it's with much regret, and a lump in our throats, we respect the decision Hugh, David and Katie have made," Kevin Reilly, president of entertainment at Fox, said in a statement. "A true original, on the page and amazingly brought to life by Hugh Laurie, there is only one Dr. House. For eight seasons, the entire 'House' team has given us -- and fans around the world -- some of the most compelling characters and affecting stories ever seen on television. They have been creatively tenacious and collaborative throughout this incredible run, and they are amongst the most superior talents in the business. For all the above, we wholeheartedly thank them, and the fans who have supported the show."
There were hints Season 8 would be the last for the medical drama. Series star Laurie was only contracted through Season 8, which was renewed amidst budget cuts. Additionally, Lisa Edelstein left the show between Season 7 and Season 8.
Laurie has said he'll retire from TV when "House" ends.
"I think I have been rather spoiled here [in America]," he told UK's Daily Record. "I can't imagine there will be another one quite like this. And I think I am extremely lucky to have had the one shot that I have had at it, and I wouldn't go looking for lightning to strike twice."
Read the full statement from the executive producers below.
After much deliberation, the producers of "House M.D." have decided that this season of the show, the 8th, should be the last. By April this year they will have completed 177 episodes, which is about 175 more than anyone expected back in 2004.The decision to end the show now, or ever, is a painful one, as it risks putting asunder hundreds of close friendships that have developed over the last eight years -- but also because the show itself has been a source of great pride to everyone involved.
Since it began, "House" has aspired to offer a coherent and satisfying world in which everlasting human questions of ethics and emotion, logic and truth, could be examined, played out, and occasionally answered. This sounds like fancy talk, but it really isn't. "House" has, in its time, intrigued audiences around the world in vast numbers, and has shown that there is a strong appetite for television drama that relies on more than prettiness or gun play.
But now that time is drawing to a close. The producers have always imagined House as an enigmatic creature; he should never be the last one to leave the party. How much better to disappear before the music stops, while there is still some promise and mystique in the air.
The producers can never sufficiently express their gratitude to the hundreds of dedicated artists and technicians who have given so generously of their energy and talent to make House the show it has been -- and perhaps will continue to be for some time, on one cable network or another.
The makers of "House" would also like to thank Fox Broadcasting and Universal Television for supporting the show with patience, imagination and large quantities of good taste. The Studio-As-Evil-Adversary is one of the many cliches that "House" has managed to avoid, and for that the cast and crew are deeply grateful.
Lastly, the audience: some have come and some have gone, obviously. This is to be expected in the life of any show. But over the course of the last eight years, the producers of House have felt immensely honored to be the subject of such close attention by an intelligent, discriminating, humane and thoughtful -- not to mention numerous -- audience. Even the show's detractors have been flattering in their way. Making the show has felt like a lively and passionate discussion about as many different subjects as could possibly be raised in 177 hours. The devotion and generosity of our viewers has been marvelous to behold.
So, finally, everyone at House will bid farewell to the audience and to each other with more than a few tears, but also with a deep feeling of gratitude for the grand adventure they have been privileged to enjoy for the last eight years. If the show lives on somewhere, with somebody, as a fond memory, then that is a precious feat, of which we will always be proud.
Everybody Lies.
Want more "Being Human"? Syfy has renewed the drama series for a third season of 13 episodes. Syfy made the announcement four episodes into the second season.
The show is Syfy's biggest hit with women and its most recent episode was watched by about 1.5 million viewers.
"With the success of season two, 'Being Human' has become a premier destination for Syfy viewers," Mark Stern, president of original content at Syfy, said in a statement. "Jeremy Carver and Anna Fricke have taken this series to new heights this year and we're excited to see where the third season will go."
The show follows three roommates in Boston -- vampire Aidan (Sam Witwer), ghost Sally (Meaghan Rath) and werewolf Josh (Sam Huntington) -- as they struggle to keep their secrets and live life as normal as possible. "Supernatural" veteran Jeremy Carver serves as the co-showrunner along with "Everwood's" Anna Fricke on "Being Human," which is based on the UK hit of the same name.
Syfy also recently announced the renewal of its make-up competition series "Face Off."
"Being Human" airs Mondays at 9 p.m. EST on Syfy.
This pilot casting season has been full of celebration-worthy announcements. Chi McBride! Judy Greer! Kyle Bornheimer! Joanna Garcia! Sarah Chalke! There are so many fabulous actors trying their hand at TV again, we just hope some of their shows actually make it to air.
Many stars seem to be hopping on the train led by "New Girl" and Zooey Deschanel, but there are plenty more stars HuffPost TV would love to see make small-screen comebacks. From alums of dearly departed shows like "Lost," "Chuck" and "Terriers," to multi-tasking actors who need a new regular gig, we've rounded up 13 names that we'd like to see land new TV pilots.
Casting directors, take note!
It's been nearly two decades since Jeremy Sisto starred as Elton, the ultimate '90s douchebag in teen classic "Clueless." Now, he's the one dealing with the overly cocky teenagers as single dad George on "Suburgatory."
The ABC sitcom, which gets funnier by the episode, returns from a brief break (Wed., Feb. 8, 8:30 p.m. EST) with an episode titled "Sex in the Suburbs," in which George becomes overwhelmed after finding a box of XXL condoms in his daughter Tessa's (Jane Levy) room. Considering condoms were the reason he moved her out to the 'burbs in the first place, you can imagine how troubling it'll be for him to realize that the problems with raising a teenager will find you wherever you go.
Sisto gave HuffPost TV the scoop on George's impending birds-and-bees debacle, his will-they-or-won't-they relationship with Dallas (Cheryl Hines) and the highly-anticipated guest appearance from none other than "Clueless" leading lady Cher Horowitz herself, Alicia Silverstone.
How is George going to confront her about having sex?
He flails around basically. He's not willing to react like an adult. He becomes a child himself and is just unable to accept the idea that his daughter's growing up. Fortunately, she's not having sex, so when that comes out, he's able to be stable again, but in no way does he progress with his emotional ability to deal with the future. When his manhood is questioned by his friends, he winds up having a fling with someone who was very surprising to me. It plays out in a way that's just hilarious.
Speaking of George's romanic life, how's it going with Alicia Silverstone playing George's love interest?
We're still filming it. She's in the last four episodes of this season and we're on our second to last one. We just did the table read for the last episode and it's been great! We were good friends back in the day so it's been really nice to personally reconnect and meet her baby and to hear stories about her life over the last 10 years.
What can you tell us about her character's relationship with George?
The relationship is pretty interesting. More than anything else, it's just going to be a real trip for people to see Elton and Cher together from back in the day. They're completely different characters of course, but in reality, you would be a completely different person -- or I am from when I was 19 to what I am now -- so it's a trip!
I am hoping they're somehow going to fit Coolio's "Rollin' With the Homies" in there.
They haven't, but that's post-proudction. They might very well get some "Rollin' With the Homies" action going on. That's a good idea. But [Silverstone's guest stint] is going to make people feel a little old and I think it's a great moment to see these two actors back together.
In addition to Alicia, The Situation from "Jersey Shore" stopped by. Is there anyone else you'd like to guest star?
We have a lot of interesting guest stars. They have a really good time in our casting room ... I just have so much fun with Cheryl [Hines] and Alan [Turdyk] and Jane [Levy] and everyone on the show. I really trust the cast and it's great to meet new people and discover new talent, like Jane. She's such a talented young actress and also, for people to rediscover Cheryl in this way.
She is so fantastic as Dallas.
It's just a character she was born to play. She's so so good at it. And it's actually a very sophisticated character. I mean, she's superficial and just crazy, but at the same time, Cheryl gives her the ability to feel like she's a little more self-aware than what she says. And so you're able to really fall for this character in a way you shouldn't, looking at her on the page. But Cheryl brings it to life in such a unique way.
What do you hope for George and Dallas?
I hope that they get together. Like everyone else, I hope they get together. But they're just both in denial of their affection for each other really and it's frustrating because as viewers, you want them to get together; but it's one of the things about the show that keeps you tuning it. The writers have developed it so slowly and so purely -- it's really a relationship that has surprised us as actors, and I think it's surprised the audience and I hope that the writers continue to be patient with the storyline. But I hope they get together.
There are so many hilarious "Saturday Night Live" alums -- Ana Gasteyer, Chris Parnell and recurring guest star Jay Mohr -- on the show. Have you guys been able to improv?
There's not a lot of ad-libbing. In the beginning, we were considering going down that road a little more, but ultimately, it leaves things up to chance a bit too much. There are lines that some of the actors pitch and sometimes, they end up in the show. But it's great to work with people who are so funny. It makes it such a joy to come to the set and hang out with them. It's so much fun to watch them be really good actors and just be very entertaining.
"Suburgatory" airs on Wednesdays at 8:30 p.m. on ABC.
Check out our weekly guide of what to watch on TV below:
FAIRFIELD, Conn. -- A judge on the Food Network reality television show "Cupcake Wars" has resolved her lawsuit with a Connecticut cupcake store over its name.
Candace Nelson's company, Sprinkles Cupcakes, settled its federal trademark infringement lawsuit against a store named Pink Sprinkles last week. The lawsuit claimed the similarity in names was likely to cause confusion in the marketplace.
An attorney and a spokesman for Pink Sprinkles say the store in Fairfield will now be called Pink Cupcake Shack.
The lawsuit said Sprinkles Cupcakes opened its first store in Beverly Hills, Calif., in 2005 and became a national phenomenon as the cupcakes were featured on shows hosted by Oprah Winfrey and Martha Stewart. Pink Sprinkles opened in 2009.
An attorney for Sprinkles Cupcakes hasn't returned a message left Tuesday seeking comment.
Food Informants is a week-in-the-life series profiling fascinating people in the food world. We hope it will give you a first-hand look at the many different corners of the food industry. Know someone who would make a great Food Informant? Tell us why.
Bob Tuschman is the general manager/SVP of the Food Network. He previously served as senior vice president, programming and production for Food Network, heading up all programming aspects for the network. He was instrumental in discovering, developing and producing many of the networkâs biggest stars including Rachael Ray, Giada De Laurentiis and Guy Fieri, and led the network to record viewership levels. Prior to joining the Food Network, Tuschman worked at ABC News as a producer for Good Morning America, as well as on specials and numerous pilots. He also produced pilot, series and documentary projects for HBO, ABC, American Movie Classics and CNBC. Tuschman is a graduate of Princeton University and currently lives in New York City.
Read Bob Tuschman's diary to learn what it's like shooting the "Next Food Network Star." Read closely -- Bob has a great sense of humor!
Monday, January 23
5:45am: As a food media type gearing up for weeks of on-set eating, breakfast and lunch are on autopilot and include: a bowl of whole grain, fiber-y, flakey cereal, soy milk and frozen blueberries -- turning the milk an icy-crunchy blue.
7:00am: Chelsea Piers for a little workout -- swim a mile, plus a half hour of weights. Feeling good! 54 is the new 53.
7:45am: A trainer friend of mine is in the locker room and comments, "wow, your abs are cut!" I think he's actually noticing deep set wrinkles.
9:30am: Arrive at Chelsea Market -- this place isn't so bad to stroll through when making my way to my desk and meetings upstairs. I had planned to give up coffee. That is until Ninth Street Espresso opened downstairs. Damn them. One cup of hi-test acquired.
12:00pm: Lunch is strictly Byron Junior High, circa 1972. I brown bag a PB & J (or almond butter) on whole wheat bread, two pieces of fruit (typically an apple and orange) and chips (now, pita). Food is a balance of comfort and adventure for me.
1-3pm: Programming and development meetings with the staff -- discussions range from what's been working (January was our best month EVER!) to future talent and show concepts...
3-4pm: Staff reviews -- other department heads get weeks to do this, but with FOOD NETWORK STAR's shooting schedule, I have to share feedback now -- before I see them sporadically over the next few months!
7:00pm: Starting tomorrow, FOOD NETWORK STAR production (in addition to of my regular office job) begins, which means 14-hour shoot days, very little sleep and endless high fat, low veggie food to eat, critique and judge. Tonight is my very last chance to cook/eat healthy for a while: whole wheat pasta with roasted butternut squash, shallots, goat cheese, parmesan and vegetable stock. Steamed broccoli and steamed spinach, both drizzled with extra virgin olive oil. Generally, I cook Sundays and eat leftovers any night I'm home. I may be a type A exec, but I'm strictly a type B-minus cook. Not so much lazy as just simple.

Tuesday, January 24
5:45am: See above.
12:00pm: On set for FOOD NETWORK STAR. Six hours trapped on a moving tour bus with 20 tourists and my fellow STAR stars, Bobby Flay, Giada DeLaurentiis, Alton Brown and Susie Fogelson. Good thing we like hanging out together. Lunch is 14 mismatched dishes I have to judge: pastrami in puff pastry, meatloaf cupcake (don't ask), catfish sliders, ricotta/cannoli cheesecake, ceviche, eggplant parmesan soup, beef short ribs, cheese turnovers with espresso caramel sauce (I eat three), BBQ shrimp, bialy chips with caviar, pickle juice cabbage slaw. All consumed while lurching along NYC Streets in the airless, fumy bus. Fun!

4pm: Time on-set, not as productive as when working off an office schedule; it feels like hours between camera set-ups, lighting, sound checks and of course contestants preparing their edible gems (or not-so-gem-like items)... all the while back at the office trusted staff holds down the fort -- IF ONLY I could assign one of them to start responding to the hundreds of emails filling my in-box, our Wi-Fi here seems to be slow or down whenever I have a break!
7:00pm: Shooting wraps at 6, and I'm whisked to Newark Airport, as I have an 8:00am presentation in Miami. Dinner is Vivo Volo winebar located in terminal C: a glass of Seghesio Zinfandel (yum!), a chicken sandwich on focaccia with red pepper aioli. I try to eat mostly veggies, but it's the only appealing item I can fixate on. I'm aspiring to becoming a better vegetarian.
12:15am: Arrive at Doral Hotel, just 15 minutes from the airport. Sleep is officially reclassified as a nap, as my day wraps around 4:00am.
Wednesday, January 25
5:30am: 90 minutes sleep. Ugh.
6:00am: My standard hotel breakfast arrives: oatmeal, banana, coffee, orange juice. Presentation rehearsal is scheduled for 7:00 am. Though I'm just giving a PowerPoint in a hotel ballroom to 400 ad sales executives, in my mind I'm headlining at the Legends Ballroom.
8:00am: Speech goes well. That is, I get many laughs, which is all I really care about. I realize I have spent exactly four minutes outside of a car or room during my entire 11 hour Miami trip.
11:00am: Back in the sky, middle-seat (mental note to have discussion with travel department). Lunch is an $8 turkey/swiss/industrial bread deal. Remember when flying was glamorous? Me neither.
3:00pm: Back on the soundstage in Brooklyn, getting ready to eliminate a contestant.
6:00pm: Dinner while shooting is takeout consumed in a wood paneled trailer just outside the soundstage. Remember when TV production was glamorous? Me neither. Dinner: grilled salmon on top of stir-fried vegetables and broad, thick rice noodles in a ginger soy sauce, and a glass of perfectly balanced Entwine Cabernet (full disclosure: I just subtly plugged Food Network's own brand of wine.)
12:00am: Shooting wraps. Sleep at 2:00am, wake at 5:00am. Thank god for TV makeup.
Thursday, January 26
10:00am: Late call time to be on set today. So, after the gym I stop by Joe on 23rd Street for a macchiato. Though I'm going to spend the entire afternoon judging desserts, I can't resist when I spot a hubcap-sized, jelly filled, glazed doughnut from The Doughnut Plant.
1pm - 6pm: FOOD NETWORK STAR shoot. Lunch today becomes endless plates of desserts. Thirteen to be exact: puddings, cakes, custards, napoleons, mousse. I eat them all.

6pm: With the last of my lunchtime rush trickling through my veins, I ask our PA (production assistant for anyone not in the industry) for a vegetable packed dinner. Some stir fry arrives. Of course, Entwine wine goes well with anything (plug #2).
11:45am: Production wraps. Car heads home. I'm beat, but diving into my daily emails. Sleep comes earlier than last night, 1:30 am.
Friday, January 27
10:00am: Car to Brooklyn for FOOD NETWORK STAR. Hair. Makeup.
11:30am: Lunch was evidently not part of today's shooting schedule. I ask our PA to raid the craft services table for anything healthy. What returns? A small plastic cup of garlicky hummus and some broken shards of multi-grain crackers. Beyond glamorous, I am a superstar (heavy on the sarcasm).
4:00pm: Susie and I have a four hour break until our next scene, so I decide to wander the foodie hipster streets of Williamsburg. Half the GDP of wool caps and plaid shirts must be shipped here. I buy some amazing reblochon at Bedford Cheese Shop to tide me over until dinner.
6:00pm: Another takeout, trailer dinner. Stir-fried veggies, brown rice, plus, of course, Entwine Merlot.
Saturday, January 28
1:30pm: Finally, free from the confines of a shoot day. Solo lunch at one of my favorite village spots: Buvette on Grove Street. A croque madame, blood orange juice and leeks vinaigrette. A real treat.

2:00pm: Haven't been in the office all week, so I swing by -- the only fool in the office on a Saturday -- to work on a speech I need to give to our advertisers, write up a few staff reviews, and return emails I've ignored all week while shooting.
7:00pm: Meet four friends to see the film "A Dangerous Method."
9:30pm: Dinner at Jo's on Elizabeth Street. Too late for a full dinner, so I decide on a beet and kale salad with a rich-tasting buttermilk, goat cheese dressing and two glasses of Malbec. Not Entwine. Darn it.
Sunday, January 29
12:00pm: Back at the office, lunch at my desk: Chobani vanilla yogurt, bananas, almonds, dried cranberries, a macchiato from downstairs, plus a chewy molasses cookie from Eleni's.
5:30pm: Meet friends visiting from L.A. for drinks at Sardi's. A Maker's Mark Manhattan (though Entwine would have been good, too). I'm a Broadway baby (show queen is such an ugly word, no?) and I love the classic Times Square theater hangouts.

7:00pm: A final weekend treat -- dinner at the bar at Joe Allen on 46th Street, one of my all-time favorite restaurants: Thai Vegetarian Stew, glass of house Primitivo.
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A lot of people are terrified that, unlike Harold Camping, the ancient Mayans got it right and that the apocalypse (zombie or otherwise) will unfold in 2012.
Many of those people are also determined to be ready to survive it, or any other doomsday scenario.
Hence, the arrival of new show "Doomsday Preppers" (Tues., 9 p.m. EST on Nat Geo). Ordinary Americans who are readying themselves for disaster get to have their apocalypse survival plans evaluated by survival experts.
On the series premiere, Kellene Bishop taught self-defese techniques to a group of women so that they could overcome their worst-case scenario, whether it be doomsday or attempted rape.
Under Bishop's tutelage, the women learned shooting skills like the quick draw (followed by the quick draw happy dance) and unarmed techniques to disable or fend off an attacker, such as the throat pinch and the eye gouge.
Bishop also dispensed solid advice to the women, telling them, for example, that they were "allowed to hurt, maim or kill someone who wants to rape you."
Get your apocalypse survival kit in shape with the "Doomsday Preppers" Tuesdays at 9 p.m. EST on National Geographic.
TV Replay scours the vast television landscape to find the most interesting, amusing, and, on a good day, amazing moments, and delivers them right to your browser.
Jimmy Kimmel has had his fair share of fun with Mitt Romney during the campaign, but on Tuesday night's "Jimmy Kimmel Live" he really dug into one of the GOP candidate's more outrageous remarks.
You might remember last week when Romney said Americans are "the only people on earth" who put our hands over our hearts during the national anthem. But that's just not true.
After pointing out that Italy, Japan, Venezuela and many other countries also follow this tradition, Kimmel presented a new campaign ad for Romney that touts even more erroneous "facts" about America. For instance, did you know that only in this great nation do men pee standing up? God bless America.
Click here to watch on YouTube
ABC is sweet on a former pop princess. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the network has ordered a comedy pilot starring Mandy Moore.
Moore, who most recently appeared in several episodes of ABC's "Grey's Anatomy," will headline an untitled comedy about the conflict between your real family and the one people make as adults with their close friends. Moore will play Annie, one part of a newlywed couple who run a new restaurant in Annie's hometown. The show was given a production commitment in October.
Besides "Grey's," Moore has appeared on "Scrubs" and "How I Met Your Mother." Her ABC sitcom joins a bevy of other comedy projects that the network has underway. Judy Greer and Reba McEntire, among others, all have pilots in the works at the network.
Over at NBC, according to TVLine, indie movie queen and former star of "The West Wing" Allison Janney and "Monk's" Tony Shalhoub will star in NBC's "Friday Night Dinner." The new show is based on a UK series about a quirky family who eat together every Friday. "The Office" producer Greg Daniels is on board for the pilot.
In other TV castings news ...
Jonathan Groff is joining the cast of Starz's "Boss." Groff will be a series regular when "Boss" returns for a Season 2. The recurring "Glee" guest star will also appear on "The Good Wife" this season.[EW]
"Terra Nova" star Stephen Lang has booked a new TV gig. Lang will appear in three episodes of USA Network's "In Plain Sight." He'll play the father of Mary McCormack's character. [TV Guide]
Thirsty Girl Leslie Sbrocco, author of "The Simple & Savvy Wine Guide," shared fun ways to spice up some classic cocktails and some wine recommendations on "TODAY." You'll never guess what she is pairing with bacon for a Valentine's Day treat. Watch the above video to find out.
On Tuesday, February 7, a federal appeals court ruled California's same-sex marriage ban -- Prop 8 -- unconstitutional. This tremendous victory for gay marriage has been celebrated nationwide, and we here at HuffPost TV wanted to mark the occasion by celebrating our favorite gay TV couples.
From "Modern Family's" odd couple Cameron and Mitchell -- who happened to celebrate the ruling in their own special way -- to Willow and Tara, the tragic lovers from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," and "Grey's Anatomy's" Callie and Arizona, we've highlighted 11 of our favorite gay couples on TV.
Note: While one of TV's most iconic gay couples, "Queer as Folk's" Brian Kinney and Justin Taylor, did not make our list (there's a reason why!), we do hope you'll enjoy a video montage of Jack and Doug's cutest moments from "Dawson's Creek."
Take a look at our picks below, and share your own favorite same-sex TV couples in the comments.
Did you catch the Toyota Camry Super Bowl commercial?
The narrator begins the ad with a voiceover: "After reinventing the Toyota Camry, we decided to keep reinventing." Then, a dorky guy carrying a bag of groceries opens the door of his apartment and is stunned at the sight before him: a group of seven bikini-clad female models forming the shape of a couch. "This is the reinvented couch." The dorky guy smiles. Then the couch reappears as a group of seven shirtless male models. "It also comes in male." What is the dorky guy's reaction?
He shrugs his shoulders, raises his eyebrows, and nods his head with the approval of a customer who understands the options. A basic oh, cool, OK reaction: no demarcating comment regarding masculinity, no insult-as-joke, and no homophobic disinterest.
Within 13 seconds, Toyota defies the heteronormative relationships that make up this coveted commercial landscape. Rising from the company of Chevy's "Happy Grad" and his straight parents, Kia's "A Dream Car, For Real Life" woman dreaming of a fantasy horse ride with a dashing hero, and Fiat's "Seduction" between a dude and his car-as-fantasy-chick, Toyota's "It's Reinvented" introduces a homosexual -- if not bisexual -- encounter with sex.
Just for a moment, let's alter the heteronormativity of another commercial from the evening's lineup. Let's take Dannon's "The Tease," starring America's favorite uncle, John Stamos. A beautiful heterosexual couple sits at a kitchen table enjoying a cup of Oikos Greek Yogurt. Stamos, holding a spoon of yogurt, sensually teases the woman by not giving her the satisfaction of consuming the product. They smile and giggle until she can't take it anymore, and she is compelled to headbutt him and take the spoon herself.
Now let's imagine that the woman was cast as a man instead. If everything were scripted and acted the same way, would sex still sell? My predictions for the aftermath of such a commercial include: YouTube comments expressing foul language, Twitter hashtag explosion of #JohnStamosGay, and OneMillionMoms.com boycotting Dannon. They would write on their website something like, "The homosexual behavior exhibited during Dannon's Super Bowl commercial was lewd and inappropriate." By the start of summer, Dannon releases five new products thanks to the ridiculous amount of sales generated from a commercial advertising sex -- gay or straight (and with Uncle Jesse).
Taking into account the context of the Super Bowl as an arena of mediated masculinity, commercials for products like GoDaddy.com and Bud Light have established themselves as expected moments of overused gender-specific imagery and action. While these brand names of generic products -- an Internet domain registrar and alcohol, respectively -- have no gender, the deployment of sex within the advertisements has targeted an audience and formed a reputation for finite entertainment value.
Whatever the super objective of each company's commercial is (to entertain an audience? to sell a product? to win an award?), I'll never know. But for me as a guy who watches too much non-recorded television (yes, I love commercials), it's amazing to see Toyota's "It's Reinvented," not because it showed gay sex, but because it showed a reaction to gay sex as oh, cool, OK.






