New TV Season In High Gear
Did anyone watch anything?
Any opinions?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The new show debuting tonight is:
'Citizen Baines' on CBS.
Returning series, with new episodes include:
'Touched By An Angel' and 'The District' on CBS;
and
'Saturday Night Live' on NBC;
Still looking for opinions on any (or all) of them!
(Hint, Hint!)
E-Mail Marty
And, Thanks! to all who have responded.
Reader Observation
'Friends'
John M.
Two sure signs that a show has run out of creative gas: have characters a) get
married, b) get pregnant. Friends had both.
Was this show EVER good?
In my opinion, no.
~~ John M.
Ambassador Angelina At Work
$1 Millon Donation
Angelina Jolie has donated $1 million to the U.N. refugee agency to help Afghan refugees.
Jolie, who is a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. High Commissioner for
Refugees, has given the money as part of the agency's appeal for $268 million
to meet the humanitarian needs in and around Afghanistan.
Jolie, 26, went to Pakistan in August to visit some of the more than
3.5 million Afghans living in camps there and in Iran.
With the threat of U.S. retaliation attacks following the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks in New York and Washington, refugee officials are preparing for the
arrival of up to 1.5 million more people.
Angelina Jolie Thornton
Update
Emmys Go Bicoastal
The Emmy Awards will go bicoastal, adding a broadcast from an NBC studio in New
York for nominees who want to avoid traveling to California for the Oct. 7 ceremony.
Once an Emmy staple, the East Coast-West Coast simulcast was discontinued by
the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences more than two decades ago.
About four to five of the 27 total prime-time awards will be presented in New
York, with any winners there able to accept their award on camera, Mischer
said. CBS is airing the ceremony.
There are more than 100 nominees on the East Coast, he said. That includes most
of the cast and production team for HBO's drama series ``The Sopranos,'' a
leading Emmy contender.
In changes aimed at creating a subdued and respectful ceremony, attendees are
being encouraged to wear business attire instead of tuxedoes and gowns, and
there will be no bleachers filled with cheering fans.
Veteran newsman Walter Cronkite will make opening remarks, and tributes to
those caught up in the terrorist attacks are planned.
Emmy Awards
2 More Fund Raisers
'Concert For New York'
and
'Volunteers For America'
First there was the all-star America: A Tribute to Heroes, now comes the
equally celeb-packed The Concert for New York and the classic rock-fueled
Volunteers for America.
Paul McCartney will get a little help from friends like the Who, Bon Jovi,
James Taylor, John Mellencamp, Macy Gray, Goo Goo Dolls, Melissa Etheridge
and India for the October 20 Concert for New York. Britain's New Musical
Express reports McCartney also asked the surviving members of Led Zeppelin to
reunite for the show, but Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones
haven't RSVP'd yet.
Non-singing A-listers like Jim Carrey, Jerry Seinfeld, Gwyneth Paltrow and John
Cusack are also participating in an unspecified capacity. More performers are
expected to be added in coming days. Members of New York sports teams will also
be in attendance.
McCartney, who last week announced he was going to give a benefit concert of
his own in New York next month, agreed to join with the others because he
though it would make a bigger impact, organizers said.
The Madison Square Garden concert, which will be telecast live and
commerical-free on VH1 and simulcast on radio stations worldwide and online at
AOL, will benefit victims of the terror strikes and pay tribute to the rescue
workers, organizers said Thursday.
All artists are donating their time, and the bill is being footed by VH1,
Miramax and New York's Cablevision Systems, which owns the Garden.
No word on ticket prices, but seats will go on sale Sunday at noon through
Ticketmaster.
If that wasn't enough, a collection of dino-rockers also announced Thursday
that they were banding together for two charity concerts benefiting victims of
the terror attacks. The Volunteers for America shows will take place October 20
at HiFiBuys Lakewood Amphitheater in Atlanta and October 21 at Smirnoff Music
Center in Dallas. Among those slated to perform: Styx, REO Speedwagon, Bad
Company, Journey, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Kansas, Eddie Money, Survivor, John Waite,
Edgar Winter and Grand Funk Railroad's Mark Farner.
All ticket sales will benefit the American Red Cross, New York Fire and Police
Departments and victim's families. Tickets go on sale Saturday through
Ticketmaster.
Concert For New York
Slide Show
'The West Wing'
West Wing Slide Show
Big $ Maker For CBS
"Big Brother 2" Webcast
The successful subscription-only ``Big Brother 2'' Webcast has CBS execs
actively pursuing new ways to exploit the network's on-air content via the Web.
Final figures from the Real Networks/CBS Webcast -- which began July 5 and
ended last week -- show 56,026 consumers paid up to $19.95 to access four
24-hour streaming video feeds from inside the ``Big Brother'' house in Studio
City. Surfers could choose between a monthly $9.95 subscription or a
$19.95 Gold Pass membership that allowed access to the video for the length of
the series.
In addition, CBS said 41,814 additional consumers who already had Gold Pass
memberships from Real also accessed the ``Big Brother'' feeds on a regular basis.
It's hard to compare the ``Big Brother'' numbers to other Webcasts since the
Real/CBS partnership marked the first time a TV network offered a subscription
service tied to an entertainment series.
Nonetheless, ``These numbers far exceeded our expectations,''said David Katz,
CBS' VP for strategic planning and interactive ventures, noting that even with
bandwidth and other associated costs, CBS and Real still made money.
``This thing was highly profitable,'' he said.
Katz is already working to figure out what other CBS properties may lend
themselves to Web subscriptions.
Katz wouldn't discuss which series may translate into compelling subscription
services, but one CBS series seems an obvious candidate: ``Survivor.'' The show
has a huge Web fan base, as witnessed by the nearly 1 million page views
generated last week at the show's official Web site following the announcement
of the show's new cast.
Big Brother Webcast
New!
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Don't worry about the HTML, just send text, or rich text, or a Word document, photos, video, whatever you have, and Michele will take care of the rest. Don't hesitate to write with any questions you may have and bring on the recipes!
To check out 'Train Station Chicken', and more (like 'Dump Cake' & Peach Cobbler),
In The Kitchen With BartCop
'Enterprise'
Scott Bakula
Scott Bakula says he's thrilled to be ``the first captain on the first starship
to go out'' on UPN's new ``Enterprise,'' the fifth TV series in the ``Star
Trek'' franchise.
Set in the 22nd century, ``Enterprise'' reaches back some 100 years before
Capt. James T. Kirk and his crew first traveled the galaxies.
Bakula, who plays Capt. Jonathan Archer, says he's also attracted to the
challenge of balancing the series' peaceful message with action-adventure fun.
``That's where the effort to make it as truthful and honest as we can is so
important,'' he told The Associated Press. ``You want to give the audience as
much as they are giving you.''
Scott Bakula
New! Updated!
BartCop Astrology
Check it out at BC Astrology.
"Guitar Greats" has been set aside for now, and replaced with an astrological look at the
WTC Tragedy using various, relevant horoscopes, including charts for Manhattan and the US.
Very interesting reading!
International Newspapers Online
Internet Public Library
Internet Public Library
TV News
Penn & Teller
It's official. There is no magic. That comes from the usually mute mouth of one
of the experts in the trade, Teller of the maverick magician duo of
Penn & Teller. "No, no, no," he says from the team's Las Vegas base, sounding
as though he is confirming to a child that there is no Santa Claus.
"And we should be very happy about there being no magic. There are many
unexplained things in the world, but that's not because they are unexplainable,
it's because they are not explained yet."
Teller, who goes by only one name, is promoting Penn & Teller's Magic and
Mystery Tour, a three-part special created by Toronto's Associated Producers in
collaboration with the CBC, Britain's Channel 4 and the U.S. Learning Channel.
The trilogy airs first on CBC-TV beginning Tuesdays and continuing Oct. 9 and 16.
The twist for the comic duo's TV special involves shipping them off to three
countries renowned as origins of traditional magic - China, Egypt and India.
In China, for example, they travelled by train to a remote spot in the
country's interior to visit a huge magic and acrobatic theme park - one of the
strangest sights ever.
One Chinese magician produced 15 or more huge fish bowls of water from under
his robes, while another would simply flick his head and his face mask would
change in an instant.
"I just gave up!" Teller said. "There's some technology at work there that I'm
just not acquainted with despite the fact that I've been in magic nearly 50 years."
Although he talks now, both onstage and off, Teller says the silent routine was
something he did even before he paired with Penn, who usually does all the
talking. Why?
"I'm lazy," he says with a chuckle.
Penn & Teller
BartCop TV Is Here!
Visit the site at BC TV
The 'Vidiot', keeps updating!
There is more to check on nearly a daily basis!
The Vidiot.
Read all the latest.
50th Anniversary
'American Bandstand'
It's been nearly a half-century since the TV show ``American Bandstand'' got
audiences dancing in their living rooms. Now, host Dick Clark, the man known as
America's oldest teen-ager, will relive those memorable years.
In the spring, ABC will mark the 50th anniversary of ``American Bandstand''
with a two-hour prime-time special. Clark, 71, will show classic moments from
the shows as well as new performances by music superstars spanning five decades.
WFIL-TV in Philadelphia, Pa., began broadcasting ``American Bandstand'' in
1952. Clark came aboard as regular host in 1956, and brought it to a national
audience in 1957.
The show, which eventually moved to Los Angeles, ended its long run in 1989.
Dick Clark
More Lawsuits
Bob Barker
The legal troubles for ``The Price is Right'' host Bob Barker continue, as two
former female employees filed wrongful termination lawsuits.
Sherrell Paris and Sharon Friem filed the lawsuits Thursday against the show's
production company, Mark Goodson Productions, and the show's 77-year-old host,
claiming they were fired in retaliation for their testimony against Barker in
a lawsuit that another former employee filed.
The lawsuit alleges both women were fired on Oct. 19 in retaliation for
``having testified truthfully, and against (Barker's) interests, in an action
brought by Barker against model Holly Hallstrom,'' who was a former model on
the show.
Another model on the show, Dian Parkinson, sued Barker in 1994, alleging he
forced her to have sex. Barker called the sex consensual. Parkinson eventually
dropped the lawsuit, saying the case was aggravating her health.
Bob Barker/TPIR
Radio News
Liberal Talk Radio
Yes, it does exist!
Join Erin Hart on www.710kiro.com and
710-KIRO in Seattle, Saturday & Sunday from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m.(pdt).
Today's Weird Story
'The Soap Lady'
Sometime in the 19th century, a fat woman died and her body changed almost
entirely into soap.
It may sound like an urban legend, but researchers are serious. On Thursday,
they performed a CT scan on the woman's mummified body hoping to learn more
about the process that turns some corpses into a waxy, soap-like substance
called adipocere.
The body, dubbed ``Soap Lady,'' has been on display for more than a century at
the Mutter Museum, a former haven for medical students but now a Philadelphia
tourist attraction featuring thousands of medical oddities.
``There's tons of stuff in there,'' said Gerald Conlogue, a Quinnipiac
University professor of diagnostic imaging. Conlogue said the results will
give researchers greater understanding of saponification, the chemical
conversion of fat into adipocere.
Saponification is an unusual occurrence, dependent on factors such as humidity,
temperature, the presence of clothing and bacterial activity. The fatter the
person, the greater the chance saponification will occur.
Thursday's scan was the first time the Soap Lady had left her wooden display
table since 1874, when a prominent University of Pennsylvania anatomist named
Dr. Joseph Leidy donated the body to the museum.
A 1987 X-ray of the mummy showed eight straight pins and two four-hole buttons
manufactured in the 19th century.
The CT scan, a computer-enhanced image of areas that cannot be seen by X-ray,
was taped for a new television series called ``The Mummy Road Show,''
premiering Oct. 5 on the National Geographic Channel.
The Mutter was founded in 1849 by the Philadelphia College of Physicians, which
still operates it. Its exhibits include malformed skeletons, a 27-foot-long
human colon and a plaster cast of the famous Siamese twins, Chang and Eng Bunker.
Soap Lady CT Scan
Philadelphia College of Physicians (Mutter Museum)
More 'Soap Lady'
roadsideamerica.com
" Perhaps the oddest attraction is the body of the "Soap Woman." This is the body
of a woman who died of Yellow Fever sometime in the 19th century and was buried
in soil with certain chemical properties . . . that turned her into soap! An
accompanying display shows an x-ray cross-section and tells her story. A "Soap
Man," buried alongside the Soap Woman, used to be displayed at the Smithsonian
Institute, but sources tell us that he is now "off exhibit" — probably permanently. "
www.roadsideamerica.com
First Person Diary
Ray Berry
Ray has temporarily (I hope), suspended 'Bush-Toons'. In its place, he has put
his daily diary of life in Manhattan since Tuesday.
Ray has great observational abilities, a way with words, and has still been able
to keep his sense of humor.
To visit & read, www.bush-toons.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Still MISSING
Marc Chagall's "Study for 'Over Vitebsk'"
