The middle of my three younger brothers told me yesterday that he’d heard Knight Rider had been canceled. I had to check out the story for myself and I am happy to say I have found no evidence that it’s true yet. what I did find out is that the show is “retooling”. Basically it’ll be getting rid of the weekly terrorist storyline and going back to the types of storylines that the original Knight Rider had, Michael and KITT helping people. It looks like the cast list has been heavily dosed with Leptorexin, with a minimum of three regulars being cut. The three being cut are Bruce Davison (portrays Charles Graiman, KITT’s creator), Sydney Tamiia Poitier (portrays FBI agent Carrie Rivai) and Yancey Arias (portrays FBI’s Alex Torres). The retooled Knight Rider should start showing in January.

I did some catching up on recorded shows over the last couple of days. I couldn’t understand why my Tivo hadn’t recorded any Law And Order Criminal Intent episodes. I thought I must have done something wrong and somehow changed the season pass for the show. My other shows all recorded as planned. There were commercials for the new season of Law And Order CI including ones that showed Jeff Goldblum, and the new season was supposed to start in early November. I visited the USA site and discovered that new episodes of Law And Order CI won’t be on until 2009, no specific date (not even a specific month) were given.

Apparently the list of primetime shows that I like is going to look like it’s been given diet pills in the near future. I found out today that ABC is not ordering new episodes of two of the shows I really like, Dirty Sexy Money and Pushing Daisies, as well as a third show Eli Stone. ABC is not saying the shows are cancelled at this time, just that they’re not making new ones. I am so disappointed because I like both and some interesting storylines were building on both. I hope ABC reconsiders its decision.

I read on MSNBC that the Screen Actors Guild is planning on launching a campaign to educate its 120,000 plus members that they should vote to authorize a strike. 75 percent of the membership would need to vote to approve the strike for it to happen. Their contract expired on June 30. I don’t know all of the details but I do know this. The economy is bad right now. Not just for people but for businesses and investors. The more that actors demand to get paid the more a film or show will cost to be made. The more that movies and tv shows cost to be made the less likely they are to be made because there won’t be anyone to pay for them. I hope the actors consider everything carefully. Sometimes you lose, even when you win. Besides, I really hate the thought of even more reality television, and you know that’s what we poor folk would end up with in the event of a strike.

As the season comes to a close less than 30 Cup cars have full time sponsorship in place. Auto manufacturers are posting losses and are expected to offer less direct support to teams in an effort to hold on to their money a little tighter. Budgets for advertising, marketing and promotions will look like they’ve been on a strict regimen of weight loss pills. Silly season isn’t looking very funny to me this year.

I loved Jimmy Smits in NYPD Blue. I also loved him in West Wing. I didn’t care for the show LA Law. I was excited to hear that Jimmy is returning to television, although it is to a show I am unfamiliar with. Smits has joined the cast of Dexter, a series on the premium channel Showtime. He’ll be portraying a criminal prosecutor. Apparently this will be Dexter’s third season. I hope that Showtime does some better advertising going forward. If I hadn’t read about this online I never would have known because I’ve never heard of the show. Have any of you seen Dexter? How is it?

Criss Angel’s Cirque du Soleil show Believe opened recently. If I found myself in the neighborhood of the Las Vegas strip, I’d be very tempted to check out Criss’ new show. We loved him on Mindfreak. I’m curious about this show though, because to me it looks like it’s not so much a magic or illusion show but more like a Broadway play of sorts. Criss portrays a character in the show, and the show has a storyline. Tickets are about $100, which seems awfully high to me. I’ve read a number of reviews that were extremely unfavorable, but I’m still curious. I’m hoping that at some point it becomes available on DVD or pay per view so I can take a gander. If any of you are going to Vegas and see it, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

I used to love watching the Partridge Family. I thought David Cassidy was the cutest. I didn’t hear about any of the Partridge Family stars much until the past year or so. For some reason I seem to remember hearing some time back that Danny Bonaduce was broke and having all of these problems. I know he did the tv show Breaking Bonaduce and that he had a radio show at some point but I had the impression money was an issue. Not so much apparently. The actor’s divorce has now been finalized and he’ll pay his now ex Gretchen $16,000 a month in support for her and their two children. Apparently he’s not too broken up over the divorce, since he’s already planning his next television show “The Next Mrs. Bonaduce.”