Cast members returning for 30th `Dallas’ reunion - Yahoo News.

DALLAS - J.R., Bobby, Sue Ellen and other members of the Ewing clan are getting back together for a “Dallas” reunion party.

Cast members of the popular prime-time soap opera that ran from 1978-91 will return to the Southfork Ranch north of Dallas on Nov. 8 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the show. Several key actors, including Larry Hagman, Linda Gray and Patrick Duffy, have confirmed they will attend.

Hagman, who played central character J.R. Ewing, a scheming oil baron and cattle rancher, said he is looking forward to the event.

“I may not be able to do the 40th,” said Hagman, 76, in an interview with The Dallas Morning News. “Thirty years is pretty good, and the show is still very popular.”

The reunion at the ranch in suburban Parker, north of Dallas, is open to the public. Tickets go on sale Aug. 22 and will cost between $100 and $1,000. The event will include fireworks, a country music concert, a question-and-answer session with the cast and tours of the mansion.

The show is perhaps best known for the “who shot J.R.?” cliffhanger that concluded the 1979-1980 season in which Hagman’s character was blasted within an inch of his life. (The shooter turned out to be J.R. Ewing’s sister-in-law, Kristin.)

“Dallas” featured the antics of a wealthy Texas clan that punched, slapped, drank, cavorted and schemed to gain control of the family fortune. The reunion promises to be tamer.

“Larry and I will have a bowl of Mueslix and a small shot of prune juice and be in bed by 9 o’clock,” Duffy, who played Bobby Ewing, told the newspaper. “We’ll let people file by the bed and watch us go to sleep. I think we can hang with the best of them until midnight.”

So I was watching Big Brother: After Dark last night on Showtime with closed captioning turned on because of the nature of the show volume being low then high and not wanting to mess with the volume. The problem is, however, that the captioning was WAY off and WAY inaccurate. I wonder if that’s because it’s a live show and it’s live captioning. I know that a lot of shows that are pre-recorded have fabulous captioning. I just wonder why live is so bad, do the captioners just not care?

Everyone is talking about Paula Abdul after Idol Tuesday night. She flubbed up and critiqued both songs for David Cook after he had done only one song. Well, here’s the thing, Simon told in an interview that they watch the final rehearsal to listen to the songs and how they sing the songs. The reasoning stated was that with the crowd during the live show, it’s nearly impossible to hear whether they know their song, their tone while singing the song, whether it hits the marks where it should, vocally. They write down notes during that, then during the live show, they judge the actual performance, how they connect with the audience, how they are on stage, etc.

All of this makes sense to me, really. Plus, it also explains why sometimes we wonder if they’re hearing a different song. For instance, they seem to love David Archuletta’s songs, but to me, he’s not that good. They hear the crowd-less performance that he can really shine on, then when he hits the live stage, he chokes a bit, but they don’t hear it with the crowd noise. I don’t see the big deal, honestly.

I do think they need to stop making excuses and tell the truth, however. Trying to cover the flub up doesn’t help them any. Anyway. That’s my thoughts on Tuesday night’s controversy. My thoughts on the final 4…

Jason Castro - I really like his voice, I like his style. BUT he needs to step outside his comfort zone more, quit sitting on the stool, show some energy, do something upbeat, do something FUN. Show some versatility. Period.

David Archuletta - I liked him in the beginning, he was better early on, but now? I’m not so much of a fan. He also doesn’t step outside of his box either. He really pissed me off when he (imo) destroyed Think Of Me. While I appreciate his trying to make the song his own, it’s not a pop song, it is not a song that you do that to. He’s really lucky he has a following that kept him safe.

Syesha Mercado - I am not surprised she is still there, she fits the mold for AI winners. She’s the diva of the season, so she managed to get far. I don’t like her, she tries too hard to be Whitney, Mariah, Aretha, etc. That’s my thoughts on her.

David Cook - Now, this is someone who should win. He is strong week after week. He has a strong voice, a strong style, he will have a great career in the end. If he doesn’t win, perhaps it’s better for him. Male winners haven’t had the best track record. So yeah.

So that’s my thoughts.. what about you?

The finale for Biggest Loser is tomorrow. YAY. I’m ready for that to end. I hope one of the women ends up winning. It’d be a nice change, since it’s always been men that win.

Hell’s Kitchen has started again. I love me some Gordon Ramsay. This season is interesting so far. I don’t really like anyone yet. So, yeah. We’ll see if anyone starts to stand out.

American Idol is going strong. I was pretty pissed with this week. I don’t care that they did an elimination this week, they didn’t have any sort of reason not to like they did last year. However, I didn’t like Ryan’s comments. The way he did the announcement was quite rude and unprofessional, imho. I wasn’t happy that Michael left, either, since he was one of my top 6 picks. I still prefer the men this season. We’ll see how that goes.

Big Brother is almost over too. I don’t really care much. I watch it on eviction night and Sunday if nothing else is on. They’re having BB10 this summer still, not sure I care. They’re gonna hafta spice it up a lot for me to care. The drama from this season turned me off.

Tila Tequila is doing A Shot At Love 2. Yet more proof that these ‘dating’ shows are a setup from the beginning. I don’t think the guys/girls that are vying for someone celebrity realize it until it’s too late. I mean, Flava Flav has had 3 “Flavor of Love” seasons now, right? I know of at least 2. I think it’s on the 3rd. Tila is on her second, Brett Michaels “Rock of Love” is on it’s second incarnation. “I Love New York” had at least 2 go ’rounds. So yeah, I call them a big set up. Will I watch Tila? Sure, she’s hot. I like seeing her in next to nothing.

Dancing With The Stars hasn’t really made me care about it yet. Kristy Yamagucchi is doing well, so is Marlee Matlin. I watch the performances, don’t really watch elimination much, just long enough to see who leaves.

Celebrity Fit Club amuses me. Same shit, different season since they brought back 4 from previous. Dustin Diamond is th biggest prick in the history of that show. He makes threats against Harvey, threatens to get the show shut down. He’s just a real piece of work. I guess, watching some of the old episodes of Saved By The Bell, that it’s not really surprising that he’s such a jerkoff. Seems like he took his role as the beat up geek to heart.

The Apprentice: Celebrity is over. I didn’t like the ending. I didn’t think it was overly fair. But eh, it’s over with. We’ll see what Trump can come up with next. Bring back the best of the non-hires for an All-Star show? That’d be fun.

Top Chef has also started. No favorites there either. A few stand out, but it’s still quite early there. We’ll see what the future holds with them as well.

And that, is the TV update. Peace.

I can’t sleep and it’s 3am. I had a free preview of Showtime this weekend, so I watched Big Brother: After Dark and holy shit, if I lived in that house, I’d lose my mind from boredom! Seriously.

I think Joshua did!



Seriously. No spoilers that I can tell.

So last night was the finale of Gone Country. I’ve been trying to make this post all day, but our power has been flaky and cutting in and out. I enjoyed the series immensely. If you don’t know anything about it, let me give you a bit of information.

Maureen McCormick (Marsha Brady from The Brady Bunch, Bobby Brown (Rapper, bad boy), Diana DeGarmo (American Idol 2004 Contestant), Julio Iglesias Jr (Son of Julio Iglesias and brother of Enrique), Sisqo (The Thong Song), Dee Snider (Of Twisted Sister fame), and Carnie Wilson (Brian Wilson’s daughter and singer in Wilson Phillips) were all invited by John Rich (Big & Rich) to Nashville.

They learned about what country living is. They learned to ride 4-Wheelers, they learned how to work the stables and such. They learned what it takes to write a good country song and learned what the country audiences are like. The also had to write their own song and perform it in front of a crowd of country music fans. Whomever John Rich liked best would win a contract.

Now, you wouldn’t expect a rapper or rocker to do very well, right? They didn’t do all that great throughout, but in the end, all of them really pulled their act and their songs together. I thought, though, going into the finale that Maureen or Carnie would end up winning. Failing that, Diana. I was shocked, to a degree by the eventual winner being Julio Iglesias Jr. John picked him because when he sang, he really turned it up and he got the biggest screams of all of them. And really, his song was good. He will never be his father, though. Close, but not quite.

Anyway, that’s Gone Country. I kind of hope they do another one, since this was so short. It was fun.

Project Runway is over. I’m disappointed by the winner. I didn’t care for the winning collection and feel that Christian has some sort of in with them in order to have won. The point of the collection is for it to be ready to wear. I don’t see where his collection is. What kind of rock is Victoria Beckham smoking if she would wear one of those outfits? I so don’t get it. Jillian and Rami were definitely more Ready To Wear than Christian. Jillian was a bit out there, but Rami was really well done and it wasn’t all draped.

If you want to see the collections from Fashion week, including Chris March and Sweet P, they are on Elle’s website under Fall Ready to Wear.. Project Runway: Chris March or Project Runway: Sweet P.

With that show being over, Top Chef starts it’s new season. This time, I believe they are in Chicago but I don’t know for sure. I haven’t really looked into it much yet.

Big Brother and Biggest Loser are still the tops of my Reality watching list. And now that Celebrity Rehab only has the reunion show left, Celebrity Fit Club is coming back. This time it’s a boot camp style with 4 new people against 4 returnees, including the biggest asshole they’ve had. Dustin “Screech” Diamond is returning after having threatened everyone last season, cheated, lied and caused as much trouble as possible. Not sure I care enough to watch. One season of his threats and BS was enough. Ironically, I’ve been watching old episodes of Saved By The Bell on The-N and still find it hard to fathom that he went from being geeky, fun, weird Screech to sex tape selling asshole Dustin.

What else? Dog the Bounty Hunter is coming back on the air sometime, but I don’t think the date has been announced yet. I’m looking forward to that. It’s nice to know that he was also freed of all charges over the Andrew Luster case. So, that’s something for Dog fans to watch out for.

Hmm.. I think that’s it for tonight.

Tonight, AI eliminated 4 more, so they are officially down to the top 12.

Males:
Chikezie
David Archuleta
David Cook
David Hernandez
Jason Castro
Michael Johns

Females:
Amanda Overmyer
Brooke White
Carly Smithson
Kristie Lee Cook
Ramiele Malubay
Syesha Mercado

Gone This Week:
Asia’h Epperson
Danny Noriega
Kady Malloy
Luke Menard


I’m pretty happy with the top 12. I predict that it’s going to be a male idol season because the males have been stronger so far. We need a male idol. There have been too many females. I think that it’s going to be females going home first. Predictions under Cut #2


Top 6 predictions
David Cook
David Archuleta
Michael Johns
Jason Castro
Carly Smithson
Syesha Mercado


So those are my idol thoughts for the season. I will likely not be blogging it like I did last season because I just really don’t feel that into it.

TV Review: Big Brother Season 9