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Archive 2005
 In
my last column I discussed what a great family show 7th heaven
was and that The WB would be foolish to cancel it even if they were in their
tenth season. The series is still their number one show and there are still many
stories to be told. The Camden grew up with their audience and still growing.
Guess what, The WB did cancel the show, or I should say that the President of
Entertainment for The WB, David Jangler didn’t like the show and had it pushed
to be canceled because it was a thorn in his side. He wants to put his efforts
into promoting their new series Related. I’m not putting down Related
because it’s not a bad show but it’s no where close to being the excellent
family entertainment that 7th Heaven has brought to Monday
night television. The fight for network family programming is getting harder and
harder and forcing viewers to find what they want on cable or their DVD players.
(Click here for the Full Story)
December
19, 2005
 All
the years I’ve been flying it has been pretty enjoyable; I could never really
complain about the service. So I guess it was time to catch up with me. When we
left for our trip to Los Angeles for the Viewers Voice Conference on a great
clear October morning everything thing seemed to be going great. I was traveling
with my husband Jim, my daughter Debbie, her husband Gary Saugstad, my 18 month
old grandson Matt and two Viewers Voice Board Members, Joe Strzyzewski and
Roland Krieger. We all managed to arrive at the airport on time and after going
through security for the first time with my artificial knee and not knowing what
to expect, everything seemed to be going smoothly. We even had time to catch
breakfast at the airport cafeteria, and then we boarded the plane. We were on
Midwest Express so the only thing we were unhappy about was that our flight was
too early to get some of those nice warm chocolate chip cookies.
(Click here for the Full Story)
November 7, 2005
 If
you have cable, and there’s not many viewers this day and age that don’t, you
may have watched a show called “WANTED” on TNT on Monday nights. It’s a cop
series that is very gritty, yet funny and sometimes a little weird and excellent
television entertainment. I’m usually not a big fan of cop shows but this one
really held my interest and was fun to watch. The language is a little rough and
is definitely not a show for kids, but is great adult viewing. If you were a
Miami Vice fan “WANTED” may just be what you’re looking for. Unfortunately the
show is waiting to hear if it will be picked up for future episodes. In my mind
there shouldn’t be any doubt, the ratings were picking up as people started to
become aware it was on the air. Right now it’s a waiting game to see if TNT is
smart enough to pick it up.
(Click here for the Full Story)
October 31, 2005
 By
the time you read this most of the new shows on television will have had their
premiere; somehow the new season came a little too fast. I’d still like to voice
my opinion on what shows I feel are worth your time to watch just incase you
passed them by. NBC was one of the networks I was most impressed with as far as
introducing new shows. They have three new dramas and one new comedy that I
found to be very entertaining.
(Click here for the Full Story)
September 26, 2005
 I
have a TV show that is on ABC Family that I think you may really enjoy. It’s an
excellent family show although I don’t recommend it to children under thirteen.
“Beautiful People” (Mondays, 8:00-9:00 PM, CST) is a drama about a mother and
her two teenage daughters that move from a small town in New Mexico to New York
City and follows their struggles of moving to a big city. The show stars Daphne
Zuniga from “Melrose Place” and two newcomers Sarah Foret and Torrey DeVitto.
(Click here for the Full Story)
September 5, 2005
 I
recently received the tapes of the new fall television season from most of the
networks and found a few to have real potential to be hits. I’m no TV critic but
I know what I enjoy and will pass my opinion on to you and then it’s up to you
to judge for yourself. Last season I picked ABC’s “Lost” and “Desperate
Housewives” to be winners and the viewers agreed with me. Of course I also
picked a few that didn’t make it past a few episodes.
The first network to send
me their new shows was ABC and again I was impressed with two out of three of
their new dramas and think they could find themselves with two new hits.
(Click here the Full Story)
August 28, 2005
 I
could never under stand the fascination for the sport of car racing, but then
I’m sure there are people who don’t like or understand baseball and football.
It’s all in the eye of the beholder. I have to admit I did follow a little the
career of Alan Kulwicki, mostly because he was a local boy and he worked hard
and wouldn’t take “no” for an answer to accomplish his goals as a race driver. I
never watched any of his races, but would follow what he was doing in the paper.
Alan Kulwicki died on Aril
1, 1993 in a fatal plane crash just five months after he was crowned Winston Cup
Champion. On the 12th anniversary of his death the movie “Dare to Dream” tells
the inspirational story of his determination to be a successful race car driver.
The movie premiered at select theaters in Milwaukee and Bristol, Tennessee. A
second premiere will take place in May in Charlotte, N.C., to coincide with the
Nextel All-Star Challenge and Coca-Cola 600.
Click here for the Full Story)
June 13, 2005
 I’ve
never been a big fan of bands, especially hard rock bands and polka bands. At
sixty- three I know I’m supposed to enjoy polka bands but after ten minutes of
polka music I’m ready for the aspirin. That doesn’t mean I don’t respect what
others might enjoy, after all we all have different tastes of what we consider
good entertainment. Personally Glenn Miller is more my type of music.
(Click here for the Full Story)
July 25, 2005
 On
my local access television show I recently interviewed an actor, Mark Metcalf,
who is most famous for his role as Douglas C. Neidermeyer in “National Lampoon’s
Animal House.” He also had a reoccurring role on Seinfeld as “The Maestro.” Mark
was born in Findlay; Ohio in 1946 and didn’t seriously pursue acting as a career
until he was 27 years old. Since then he has appeared in many movies, television
shows and theater. He finds theater more emotionally rewarding because of the
direct involvement with the audience, but television and movies pays more money.
In 2000 Mark moved from Los
Angeles to Milwaukee with his wife, Libby Wick, and their son Julius. He
originally wanted to move to Montana where they already owned a house, but his
wife wanted to raise their son in her home town. They wanted to find a place
that was more like America and less like L.A.
(Click here for the Full Story)
June 18, 2005
 I’d
like to take a break from television in this column and instead tell you about
something that has become very dear to me. By now anyone who reads my column
knows I’m an animal lover. I have three dogs, one cat and two pet rabbits; and
they are my babies.
Years ago when my kids were
little we visited Jim Pecks Wildlife in Minocqua, Wisconsin. They had the cutest
little blue wolf pups for sale and I almost adopted one. Thank God common sense
took over; because even though they looked all cuddly and cute they are animals
of the wild and could be dangerous.
(Click here for the Full Story)
April 28, 2005
 The
2004-2005 television season I found very few new shows that I was impressed
with. I’m not saying the season was a total loss because there were some shows
that I felt had the potential to do extremely well in the ratings, but many more
were lucky to make it pass the first few weeks.
The ABC network did really
well and came out a big winner with a couple big hits. One of those shows is
“Lost” (Wednesday, 7:00-8:00 p.m., CST), a one hour drama about forty-eight
plane crash survivors that are stranded on a mysterious island. The plane
enroute from Sidney, Australia, to Los Angeles tears apart in mid-air and
crashes on a deserted island in the Pacific.
(Click here for the Full Story)
April 12, 2005
 It’s
that time a year again; some our favorite TV shows will be canceled to make room
for the new fall television season. One of those shows in great danger of
getting the axe is “American Dreams.” When the NBC Network moved this excellent
series from Sunday night (7:00-8:00 p.m., CST) to Wednesday night (7:00-8:00
p.m., CST) you knew they were trying to kill the show off. I received tons of
e-mails from viewers asking why the show was moved from Sundays when it seemed
to be such a perfect place for it. The networks say they are trying to save
shows by doing this, that they are trying to find a place for them to find more
viewers, but in reality this is their way of kissing a show off. They do very
little to promote the new time slot so many viewers have no idea what happened
to their show. In the case of “American Dreams” they have been moved opposite
one of the top shows on TV, ABC’s “Lost,” so how does NBC think they will pick
up more viewers? They haven’t officially said the show will be canceled but the
producers and stars of “American Dreams” know the end is near. Will Estes who
plays J.J Pryor the oldest son and Rachel Boston who plays Beth, J.J.’s wife;
have already made commitments to do another series.
(Click here for the Full Story)
March 28, 2005
 “Summerland”
a new hit series that made its debut last summer has returned with new episodes
on Mondays, at 8:00 – 9:00 p.m., CST following “7th Heaven” on The
WB. A series about a young career woman and her three friends raising the three
children of her late sister and brother-in-law is an excellent family show. Lori
Loughlin from “Full House” plays Ava Gregory the aunt facing the biggest
challenge of her life.
(Click here for the Full Story)
March 13, 2005
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