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.”

When the tornado stuck Pine Valley more than a week ago all sorts of storylines began, ended and changed. In one way or another the tornado affected almost every character on the show. (Hopefully the survivors had all gotten life insurance quotes.)In a week Bianca had returned and had a baby. Zach is the father. Kendall is in a coma. Babe is dead. David her father is back and will surely be plotting something. Emma’s been kidnapped. Annie’s really going off the deep end now, with Greenlee contributing $8 million to Ryan’s $2 million to meet the ransom demand. Annie got shot and the ransom money taken. Things are happening in Pine Valley. I thought sweeps didn’t start until November! If this isn’t the good stuff sweeps live for then bring on the sweeps!

Bianca returned pregnant and delivered her baby in the midst of the wreckage of Kendall’s house. Zack is the baby’s father.Kendall hasn’t recovered yet and I’ve read a couple of reports she’s leaving the show.

The CW network confirmed they are working on putting together a spinoff of the popular 90s series Melrose Place. The show would be called Melrose 2.0. No details have been released yet except that they’re targeting next fall, the 2009-10 season, for the show’s debut. The cast of the show, was a bit older (no mentions of the need for acne treatment) then the cast of 90210, the show it spun off of. Some of them are busy on other successful shows now, like Marcia Cross and Kelly Rutherford. It’ll be interesting to see who comes back and how. I’ll stay tuned.

Does anyone else find it strange that Family Guy is on during the early evening? It is definitely not appropriate for children. It’s got lots of sexual references. It has some bad language. They show drinking and smoking regularly.  I find it very offensive because they use the word retarded inappropriately. Do you let your child watch Family Guy?

I was trying to think of what documents I’ve heard mentioned on tv. We hear about driver’s licenses and the lack of them, also visas and birth certificates from time to time. When we travel we have to have a passport but I don’t think I’ve ever heard a tv character say they need or have one. What documents have you heard mentioned on television?

I didn’t understand why Til Death didn’t record this week. Today I found out that the network pulled Til Death from the schedule for at least two weeks. Ratings have been bad and I attribute that to the missing chemistry between the Woodcocks and the Starks. They got rid of the Woodcocks and brought in an annoying character Kenny, but I’ve already covered that topic. Let’s fix the show or let it die Fox.

Viewers don’t seem to mind infomercials being scattered all over the dial at odd hours. They must not mind because if they did mind they wouldn’t buy the stuff and the infomercials would disappear. So that got me to wondering how another type of programming would do - programming containing nothing but small business opportunities. They could be segmented by area or distributed nationwide in hour segments. There could be time to broadcast opportunities and feedback containing success and/or failure stories. What do you think, would that type of programming be successful?

I was watching All My Children and had a thought. Greenlee is married to Aidan but her ex Ryan is still a part of her life. Greenlee had been married once before to the character Leo, played by Josh Duhamel. Since his series was cancelled earlier this year, he could take one of those quick Vegas vacations and then do a stint on All My Children as Leo. Wouldn’t that throw a wrench into the works!