Grim Reaper Strikes Again For Real: Celebrity Deaths Up, TV Shows To Follow

This week saw the passing of many a famous person. Starting the death toll was Robert Shimmel, 60, who died a few weeks back in a car accident. A truly funny comic, he survived divorce, testicular cancer and the cancellation of his TV show before it ever aired. OUCH. I will always remember him for dissing J-Lo who he had worked with for years on the set of In Living Color where he was a writer and she a fly girl (I liked the hot Asian dancer best go figure). He approached her years later to say hi and she shooed him off like he was nobody. He fired back that she should get an MRI because she must be developing a tumor or Alzahemier's as they ate together every day for years. He went on to skewer her as an untalented hack diva. It was priceless. He will be missed. Joining him is Greg Geraldo, 44, who died a few days ago in New Brunswick New Jersey of an accident prescription overdose. He was one of the best comics working today, best known for his acid tongue lashes at the Comedy Central Roasts over the last few years. Remember the good ole days when famous people would die of drug overdoses involving cocaine or heroin. Now its all legal drugs. That should tell you something. Also dead as of today are film legends Tony Curtis and Gloria Stuart (Titanic Oscar Nominee), Tarintino's editor Sally Menke and director Arthur Penn. God speed to all.
On the ratings front, Wednesday brought another blood bath to new shows like The Whole Truth which will probably join Lone Star and soon to be cancelled Outlaw. The new awful Law and Order debuted last night to okay numbers staring show killer Skeet Ulrich, now on his fourth series in the past five years and primma donna Terrance Howard who assholed himself out of the Iron Man franchise. Great casting guys. I doubt this will last much longer than the equally awful Law and Order: Trial by Jury which lasted all of eight weeks. Fox's Hell's Kitchen continues to slide but still place second for the night, CW did well with ANTM and Hellcats, while CBS and ABC shows continue to shine, especially the funny Modern Family. NBC's Undercovers seems destined for the scrap heap.

Grim Reaper Strikes: Lone Star Axed

As predicted in an earlier post, the first show to hit the television graveyard is the critically loved but rating starved Lone Star axed after only two episodes. Fox is well known for killing many a show quickly that doesn't stand up to the ratings. Picked by many a critic as one of the year's best, it suffered from Burn Notice like ads (See SNL sketch to understand) that told you nothing about what the show was about. Added that the main character was an anti-hero con man and the writing was on the wall. Most of Monday continued to improve with only the low rated Chuck now on the bubble for its low ratings, although most of NBC's Monday lineup finished poorly including the interesting The Event. Sandwiched between the likable Chuck and the unwatchable Chase, I feel NBC will do some shuffling sooner than later, with Chase getting the axe soon. Newcomers Mike and Molly and Hawaii 5-0 are still pulling in good numbers and proving to be solid hits for CBS.
Tuesday saw ABC's critically panned No Ordinary Family with Michael Chiklis and Julie Benz staring as a dysfunctional family that gains super powers, did very well in it's slot of Tuesday's brutal eight o'clock hour, followed by two hours of nothing on every network. The show pulled in a respectable 3.7 opposite the Glee monster, stalwart NCIS and the dying The Biggest Loser. DWTS and Detroit 187 both pulled in modest numbers in a weak time slot. NBC, while getting big gains over last years fall debacle (Jay Leno Show anyone?), still put out a host of shows that are questionable at best and are suffering from it in some slots like Monday, Tuesday and Friday. ABC and FOX have fared much worse with most of their new programming tanking across the board. ABC's one bright spot was No Ordinary Family but struggle everywhere else with The Whole Truth on the bubble as well Detroit 187. Fox's new shows are proving to be wholly unwatchable with only Raising Hope doing average at best and its follow up sitcom Hope Running Wilde soon to be cancelled.
CBS continues to dominate with several of their new shows doing well and the CW gains more ground as their shows are suddenly competitive which does happen when you air utter wank versus them.

Visions of Things To Come

It is becoming increasingly apparent that our way of life is coming to an end. Whether it be by economic turmoil or war or environmental or all three is almost inevitable at this point. Why so pessimistic you ask? Because factors are starting to form that become dominoes. Once these dominoes start to fall, they cannot be stopped. For example, if one suicide bomber blows up a gas station in Philly what do you think the outcome would be? It certainly wouldn't be pretty as the world is set on explode right now. Muslims in this country would need to be set aside as their safety would be in dire straights. Please don't see this as racist as I personally have nothing wrong with individual people of any religion, its the religion itself I dislike, but I can separate that from the person as noted that I have several close friends who are Ultra Orthodox Jewish, Born Agains, Mormon and yes, even Muslim. And trust me I never throw their religion in their face. They know my views and we respectably agree to disagree. Which is what I wish the rest of world would do but no there are all sorts of radicalized religious nutbugs of which Muslims seem to hold the majority of. But much like the hindsight we now have over Japanese internment, we fail to see one of the major reasons why they were separated: safety. Japanese individuals would have been targets for retribution and, unlike Germans who were similarly prosecuted during the war, easier to spot. There may come a time soon when separation may have to be done for the good of the innocent as not every Muslim is a terrorist. Idiot America will probably see it another way. With the Republicans somehow surging in the polls (set up for another stolen election?) we can safely say that this country is going to be toast as NOTHING will get done for the next few years. And does any reasonable person out there think that now is a good idea to do nothing? With the Republican ideas, or lack there of, plus a gridlocked Congress, Paul Craig Roberts' vision of the future seems more and more likely. A former assistant secretary to the Treasury under Ronald Regan, Roberts has been writing about our failing system for the past decade and his views have been rather on the mark. I respect him for calling out BOTH parties, including the Republicans which he says has been hijacked by corporate America. So go ahead America and vote Republican if you don't like things like Clean water, clean air, a livable workplace, vacation, sick days, good wages, a safe neighborhood and any kind of freedom because that is almost certainly the first to go. Let's take a look at what Roberts say the coming decade may look like.

2017- Our financial crisis devastates the country. Police clans form to restore order. Republicans driven under Bush and even Obama have given the police unprecedented powers that now make them unaccountable and militarized. When society goes, these thugs will be the new rulers in town. Feel safe yet? As society breaks down, the police became the new warlords ala Somalia and control everything, giving the best they can to friends and family. The rest of us will be forced to do whatever we can to survive which will certainly deal with lots of forced prostitution as the new Law will demand it. Think it won't here? Think again because EVERY society that goes through this does just that. In Rwanda they still use rape squads today. Think about that same amount of power and know that it will happen here. How will the fall happen? That's easy because it's happening right now. In a bid of ultimate greed, corporations are downgrading their workforce by nickle and dimeing us to death. However that is exactly how society collapses because eventually, people cannot afford to buy your products and then your company loses more and more money. It's a never ending cycle that leads to bankruptcy. When this occurs, like Circuit City or Linens and Things as examples, taxes are not collected from these failing industries. With everyone out of work and corporations dying, the inevitable happens. The government is forced to print more money to offset the balance until hyperinflation occurs. The government responds by ending Social Security, Medicare and looting all pension funds nationwide. This helped for one year, but with nothing left to loot, hyperinflation returns, bankrupting the nation. Other papers such as one written by the Rockefeller Foundation paint a similar picture of 2010 to 2020 being dubbed the doom generation. With climate change destroying our ecosystem with monstrous natural disasters. terrorism running rampant and economic turmoil brought on by these fits of nature plus a declining economic model worldwide, the next decade will be do or die for most of us. The die part more likely than not. Sorry to be the Master Of Doom and Gloom again but things are getting dicey and we are trusting a bunch of idiots to help solve our problems. God help us all.

Tv Ratings Thursday and Friday: Ouch Again to The Newcomers

This weeks bloodbath brought about the highs of returning shows and the absolute death spiral of several others. The big winner on Thursday was the Big Bang Theory in its new Thursday time slot, crushing the competition such as Bones, Community, 30 Rock, and My Generation which was annihilated at 8. Reviews for the show were terrible and apparently everyone else thought so too. Newcomer $%^& My Dad Says did very well after Big Bang but having watched the first episode I can say I won't be coming back. It was a typical sitcom filled with a mindless laugh track and horrible writing. I kept thinking about the Supernatural episode Changing Channels where Sam and Dean are trapped in TV land. The sitcom they are on is horrible but even as a spoof still better than this nonsense. Badly acted and written, I was stunned to see James Barrows directing this crap. This show needs to die. 9 PM saw The Office and, somehow, Outsourced, do every well, easy beating the dying CSI whose ratings are plummeting (I stopped watching years ago), Fringe, and tied with Grey Anatomy which is still on somehow. 10 PM saw the death spiral of the Apprentice which I think will soon be pushed to Saturday's if these anemic ratings continue. ABC did all right with Private Practice, the Grey's spinoff. Both Vampire Diaries and Nikita did okay in their time slots, with Diaries actually up and Nikita flat (not a pun I swear. Yes she may not be ample bosomed but she's still really hot.) Even with CSI falling fast CBS still won 10 PM with the Psyche ripoff the Mentalist.
Friday saw more bad news for newcomers with NBC's Outlaw physically dying in front of our eyes. I tried to put it in Friday night but my TV threatened suicide if I did. Apparently so did everyone's else because it scored the lowest rating of the weak with 1.1. This may not see episode three. ABC went with reruns of their most popular shows, NBC ran Dateline and CW kicked butt with the last season of Smallville and the latest season of Supernatural. CW got their highest ratings in two years, which is good news because I love Supernatural. These anemic NBC ratings are certainly what helped get NBC chief Jeff Zucker fired. Just okaying the awful show Outlaw should have done that. CBS did okay with Medium at 8, CSI:NY at 9 and rocked the ratings with one of the only newcomers to do well this week, Tom Selleck's Blue Bloods which won at 10. The cancellation of the Ghost Whisperer at 8 seems to have been a mistake as Medium didn't hold the same audience which was too bad because it was a very good episode. Fox flatlined with an idiotic repeat of Human Target (I love this show but who shows repeats right now) and a new episode on the average The Good Guys which will be cancelled at any time now if these awful rating continue of a .6 and a .9. Seems that most of my picks for worst and best were dead on. First show to be cancelled will be a close tie between Outlaw and Lone Star. Lone Star has one more episode to show something before it gets yanked, Outlaw may not make it to next week. Let the carnage begin. On a side note SNL was up quite a bit from last year and this week's episode was a strong start with Amy Pohler hosting and Katy Perry the music act. Very funny and Perry looked amazing in the Bronx Beat sketch. Every red blooded male should find this clip on line. You won't be disappointed.

DOUCHEBAG OF THE WEEK: THE ALCOHOL LOBBY

We have yet another week where it was actually kind of hard to nail down who was the worst offender for screwing things up. Republicans and the tea party are almost always in the running every week, this week being no exception, and the Muslims of the world are also just shy of winning again for the continued effort to end the world. But a new contender just today came about easily winning douchebag of the week. Let's recap the runner ups. Again.

1) Republicans and the Tea Party- proving without a shadow of a doubt that the Republicans party is the party of no ideas, these losers paraded their dog and pony show out in front of the American people to talk about their Pledge to America, otherwise known as 1994's Contract With America. It's the same freaking thing. As a matter a fact, if you take tape from 94 and intercut it with this week's speech its a word for word revision. And none of what they stated in that happened. We didn't become fiscally responsible. We didn't help the economy. We lost more jobs than gained with it. It was in every sense of the word, a disaster. So what do Republicans want to do? The exact same crap. And I do mean exact. With the moronic tea party running the show, this country is headed down a rabbit hole that we are not going to come back from.

2)Muslims- Yes my distrust of religion, any religion, is well documented. But this week took another weird turn as Iran was attacked in cyberspace and the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians reached their inevitable conclusion. A new cybervirus has crippled Iran's nuclear program with a highly sophisticated Malware virus called Stuxnet, one that only could have come from a well funded source such as a government like Israel or the US. This would not be unexpected as this is exactly the kind of attack we should be doing. Peace talks have also basically ended between Abbas and Netanyahu after secret discussions between Abbas and Hamas (hey they rhyme) have been discovered, angering all outside parties. This will be the last peace talks, perhaps forever. Abbas wanted Netanyahu to recognize the same deal that Olmert offered a few years back. That deal was considered dead before arrival. If they wanted that deal, Abbas should have taken it when he had the chance. The deal will be significantly less, just because peace between the two have diminished since the building of the wall that has kept out all suicide bombers for the past three years. Containment has worked. Rockets fired are treated different as an act of war. Sooner or later this area is going to explode.

3) And the winner this week is the alcohol lobby who are giving large sums money to help defeat the proposition in California to legalize weed. Worse they are siding with the police union who don't want to lose the amount of power they are gong to. Subscribing to worthless fear tactics that aren't true, these two unholy bastards are trying to deceive the public before the vote. Legalization won't lead to stoned bus drivers, pilots or any other profession. And even if it does, statistics show pot doesn;t impair judgement like alcohol and in some cases makes safer drivers. It also won't lead to the loss of billions in dollars in federal funding. The loss of money is pure invention. Here's the weird part. Alcohol causes a huge statistical problem when it comes to drunk driving, aggression, crime, domestic and sexual assault and properly damage. On the other hand, weed is associated with less aggression, less chance of injury or health problems and a tiny fraction of car accidents, so nominal in fact that the feds don't even compile it. In California alone, alcohol costs taxpayers up to 38$ billion per year in social costs, 109,000 related injuries and 70,000 emergency room visits. In contrast, fewer than 200 users sought treatment for the more than 400,000 smokers in that state. Which statistic seems more dangerous to you? Yet the cops are all up arms about this. The right wing Heritage foundation has realised an idiotic paper on the legalization of pot which basically paints all pot users as terrorists and alcohol as a safe substance that will never ever cause any harm no matter how much you drink. It really said that. It is identical to the crap that came out of Portugal when they decriminalized all drugs. And what happened there? Nothing. What will happen here? The same. The end of war of drugs in a necessary especially considering how broke we are. Let's hope this proposition is not shot down come November.

Wednesday Ratings: Old Shows Soar/ New Shows Plummet

In a big I told you so moment, every show I listed in my Why God Why article of bad programming has missed the mark completely while old favorites like Survivor on a new night roared to life. CBS was the big winner with Survivor dominating the 8 PM slot, Modern Family running wild at 9, with CBS's Criminal Minds a solid second and SVU winning the ten o'clock slot. All the shows I like and watch did well. What didn't? Anything new. Shocker. JJ Abrams new show Undercover tanked at 8, and from the reviews I hear it's pretty much Alias lite. The Defenders did better than I thought with a 2.9 but let's see how it stacks up against the Law And Order spin off that debuts next week. ABC's new comedy Better Than You did okay with a 2.5 share and Cougar Town dropped hard with a 3.3, losing 2/3rds of the Modern Family audience. The fact the Jennifer Aniston was guest starring may mean that America has had it with her. It's too bad because she is very hot and talented but her star is fading fast with a rash of really horrible movies. Maybe you should be looking into either a new TV show or a movie you get naked in. Trust me nudity can save a career. But is it too little too late like Meg Ryan? She took off her clothes in a crap movie and the world went yawn so what. But then again Halle Berry got naked and won an Oscar. Pick better movies Jen. You can afford to be picky. The biggest loser however was not Cougar Town but a new ABC show The Whole Truth which debuted at an anemic 1.5. Two lawyer show competing against one another in the same time slot is suicide. In this case people would rather watch Defenders, another horrible show than The Whole Truth which does somehow looks worse despite the fact I like Maura Tierney and Ron Morrow more than Belushi and O'Connell. This show is on life support. It'll be gone in the next few weeks. Fox scored big with Hell's Kitchen which gained viewers as the night went on, finishing second for the coveted 18-49 viewership. CW was flat but steady with ANTM and Hellcats.
What show will be the first to be cancelled? It's a tight race between the Whole Truth and Lone Star. I;m putting my money on Lone Star just because Fox will cancel anything quickly with that kind of rating.

The Recesion is Over?

In yet another slap in the face to the American people, the government has come out and said the recession we are in actually ended in July of 09. That's great news to us. Prosperity has returned along with well paying jobs, free health care, lower taxes and money literally falling out of my ass. Oh wait a minute. None of that actually happened. As a matter of fact, we seem to be worse off than a year ago. Unemployment is still sky high, 22% at last look, no one is hiring except at the lowest levels of the food chain and more and more people are hating their jobs. For example, the job I was laid from twice has undergone another round of layoffs, getting rid of the managing editor who worked his butt off, several reporters (because who needs reporters when you run a newspaper) and several other "nonessential" personnel. My boss, before I left, was kicked out of her office and actually demoted to secretary as well as her usual duties to save money. This is the story of today. Companies will force you to do multiple jobs for no extra pay so that they can save money to cram into their pockets. Or, as in my case and several other people, we are laid off and younger, less experienced (ie cheaper) are hired instead. And what happens whenever this occurs? Quality goes down. Way down. Just ask Circuit City how that business strategy worked. Oh wait you can't. They went out of business, the same direction many a company is doing.
And with the idiot public screaming about big government they fail to see the big business is far far worse. Unless of course you don't like things like vacation time, sick days or adequate pay. These are things that unions got us. Unions that are spit on by most Republicans as Anti-American. Now big business is killing us and soon we'll all be slaves to minimal wage and horrid working conditions. Forget the middle class. It's gone. Now it's survival of the fittest. Some wall street wank the other day had the gaul to ask Obama why they were picking on him and his friends. BECAUSE YOU'RE DOUCHEBAGS WHO HAVE DESTROYED THIS COUNTRY THAT'S WHY YOU HACK. Coupled with the idiocy of the American people I have come to the conclusion that democracy is dead and we have killed it with our stupidity. Maybe some sort of democratic/dictatorship is what is necessary at this point because the method we have now is crap. How about you have to pass some sort of civics test to vote. Anyone who fails can then send their vote to a previously elected person whose sole job is to represent the people of a certain district who did not pass said test. His job is to vote in the best interest of the people he represents, not big business or big government. He cannot be a religious figure or political hack. He can own no stock in any company. No contributions from any source over 1000$ will be allowed. In this way maybe we can sort out the morons who are being manipulated by the dems or repubs. These people are too stupid to vote and should be disallowed less the future of our country is at risk. I know its a huge step but that's what is needed nodays. Don't believe me . Read any message board about any political topic and 2/3s of what is written in factual nonsense. It's amazing that in this day and age of information that somehow we are becoming a dumber people. Pick up a friggin' book people. Both parties need to go and a true overhaul of our system is needed. But that won't happen easily or possibly at all. If we fail, we all fail. I think that's exactly where we are headed. The Hindenburg Omen still has a few weeks left before we are in the clear. But with the stock market behaving oddly right now, I still fear for the worst.