Another show I finally checked out this weekend was MVP, which is an original SOAPnet series that SOAPnet is airing. MVP is a nighttime drama about hockey players, their families and their personal lives. The beginning of the show has background music that says “who taught you to live like that” over a montage of men dressing for hockey and women dressing in “sexy” clothing. (No, not French maid costumes but not far from either).

Storyline all begins in the first episode when the hockey team captain Adam dies. (The team had an insurance policy on him just large enough to cover the salary of the new player they were bringing on.) Other characters we’re introduced to include Adam’s widow Evelyn and daughter Molly, new captain Gabe, Connie the local teacher/virgin that Gabe’s got a thing for, the new player Trevor Lemonde (played by Dillon Casey, this guy is hot), and Damon Trebuchet the hockey player who records his many sexual encounters and whose dead wife appears to him regularly.

While MVP doesn’t have the best writing I’ve ever seen I’m going to stick with it for now and see where it goes/

I’ve spent some time in the last day or so catching up on some shows that were sitting on the Tivo hard drive. We watched the first three epiosdes of the new USA Network show I  Plain Sight. The lead character (portrayed by Mary McCormack) is Mary Shannon, a US Marshal that works in the Federal Witness Protection Program. Within the first minute of the first episode I heard a word misused by the character Mary in a way that I find really offensive. Seconds later, I heard it again. I was ready to change the channel, but realized the actress most likely didn’t put the ignorant remark there, a writer probably did. I hope that writer find him or herself jobless.

The characters in each of the three episodes include Mary, her partner Marshall, her boyfriend Raphael, her sister Brandy, her mother and Stan her boss. Each of the episodes featured different witness stories. The show has a bit of comedy, a bit of drama, a bit of detective work and a bit of action. I like her partner Marshall. Both hubby and I thought the show wasn’t bad. I’ll probably keep watching it unless that remark rears its head again. Have you seen In Plain Sight? Did you like it?

I was watching tv today. As I was changing the channel I realized that with all of the diy shows on now there aren’t really any for computer use. We can find plenty of shows to help teach us how to do things around the house and to help us learn how to cook. But there really aren’t any that teach how to do things on a computer. There could be shows for people just starting to blog, teaching viewers everything from step one, how to install. People wanting to learn how to build a static website could watch shows on coding, design, even shopping cart options (paypal or authorize.net). I bet the channel would do well. What do you think of the idea? What kind of shows would you want to see on such a channel?

Me and hubby watch all three of the Law and Order shows. It’s not always easy to say which is our favorite because we like different aspects about all three. It was announced today that Chris Noth will be leaving Law and Order CI at the end of this season. I would never have guessed in a hundred years the actor that they’ve signed on to fill the spot that will be open with Noth gone. It’s Jeff Goldblum! Yes, the Jeff Goldblum that was in Independence Day and Jarassic Park Jeff Goldblum. He’ll share the lead actor spotlight with Vincent Donofrio just like Chris Noth did. I’m so curious to see how they write his character.

Recently my family spent a weekend in Wildwood, NJ. We watched a little television while we were there and I was surprised to see some real estate commercials. I don’t think we see those at home, and I live less than two hours away. I saw two spots for a realtor, a number of spots for residential properties and even two for a commercial property. No condo hotel spots that I saw but I wouldn’t be surprised if there were some on since Wildwood is really developing and condo buildings are popping up everywhere. Are any real estate commercials on in your area?

This Saturday NBC will be rebroadcasting the first episode of Saturday Night Live this Saturday in tribute to George Carlin. The episode will be shown on Saturday 06/28/08 and will be shown in its entirety. George Carlin, who died this past weekend, hosted the first episode of SNL back in 1975. The episode includes 3 monologues from Carlin. This is the episode of SNL that introduced the viewers to the Not Ready for Primetime Players, which included Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, Laraine Newman and Gilda Radner. A special performance from Andy Kaufman was also part of the show.

Do you remember the show the Love Boat? I used to love to watch that show ever week. I was so bummed when it was canceled. I was with a group of people recently and we were all talking about cruises and the Love Boat came up. All of us in the group have been on real cruises and we got to talking about the differences between a real cruise and a Love Boat cruise. We all thought of three immediately. The first was that cruise ships now have several different restaurants whereas the Love Boat only mentioned one or two. The second was that the Love Boat did show children from time to time but never children’s clubs like the ships of today have, today cruises now try to attract families. The third was weather. Love Boat travel was not interrupted by travel or sickness, there was never any discussion of travel insurance. Can you think of any other differences?

Comedian George Carlin passed away yesterday in Los Angeles from heart failure at the age of 71. George was well known for speaking his mind. Many comedians considered him to be revolutionary, blazing a trail for other comics after him. He had 23 comedy albums and wrote three books, and also appeared in several movies. It was just recently announced that the comedian was to be awarded the annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, which will now be given posthumously. George Carlin is one of the first comedians I remember hearing. I loved his old material, such as A Place For My Stuff.  Goodbye George. We’ll miss you.

You’ve probably seen the use of medical diagnostics on tv shows like Law and Order and House, as well as on other shows including soap operas. In this case I’m referring to a diagnostic imaging test called a cat scan. They never show a character having any type of reaction to the contrast that is sometimes injected for that test. Some normal reactions to this contrast include experiencing a funny taste, a warm flush of the face or body, sensation in the bladder and nausea. Can you imagine the character of Nikolas Cassadine on General Hospital thinking that he peed on the table when he recently went through all of that testing?  Maybe they don’t mention it because they’re afraid viewers will be distracted from the storyline or something.

Over the past two weeks we’ve discovered that our youngest son CJ likes to watch golf. Yes, that’s golf. I couldn’t even believe it when I saw it. He sits nicely and watches the players take their turn. When they swing to hit the ball he squeals in delight. Sometimes if it doesn’t get too close to the hole he says “uh-oh”. He’s eight and he actually sat through thirty minutes of a tournament on tv last weekend without moving. We drove past a golf club today on the way home from a doctor’s appointment and he started yelling “look, look”. I don’t dare go near golf clubs in the nearby sporting goods store now, I’m afraid he’ll see some Callaway golf clubs and go bananas. Does anyone in your family like to watch golf? How old were they when they started watching?