Greetings DVD Fans!

I spent the last two weeks working as a lowly PA on an independent movie with one of my favorite TV stars. You'll find a clue here within. (Big secret though, I'll reveal details later)

Gidget 2006

Have you checked out Falcon Beach on ABC Family? Gotta give kudos to the network for moving away from endless reruns of Under the Tuscan Sun and Home Alone and on to something original (one of several new series they have in the works). Falcon Beach has a WB-light vibe. It's a teen soap opera set in a small lakefront community. Lots of beach volleyball, bikinis and wakeboarding – which is the show's signature sport. Not quite hip enough to be One Tree Hill or The OC but a play nice version for younger teens or teens with stricter parents. There's still sex, drugs and rock and roll but it's understated and there are lessons learned. Falcon Beach has a really great website at http://www.falconbeach.ca/ (yes, it's filmed in Canada). Lots of videos, music, photos and places for fans to interact. A great official website always pushes a show up a notch in my book.

Breathless Anticipation

I'll wrap up with a list of the three most anticipated TV DVD on my list.

Blue Collar TV: The Complete Second Season on August 1st - this may seem like an odd choice for me, but I'm dying to see it for one simple reason. I'm IN it!! Three episodes actually. I had a fairly big part in several sketches including Fuglies and Cindy Crawford Gym and I've never seen them. Filmed it ages ago but the show was canceled before the eps aired. The WB claims to be showing these "missing" episodes this summer so it's a race to see what gets here first me on TV or me on DVD.

Supernatural: The Complete First Season on DVD on September 5th - this one should be a real hoot, as it has bloopers and A Day in the Life of Jared and Jensen. Talk about guys who really love their job! And here's a hint CW network – if you want the fangirls to stop slashing Sam and Dean, you gotta tell Jared and Jensen to keep their hands off each other in public! These two are just a bit too comfortable with each other and we love it.

Grey's Anatomy: The Complete Second Season on September 12th – this is the season of the Denny storyline (Jeffrey Dean Morgan, be still my "still beating" heart). I missed a few eps in this storyline so I'm anxious to see it from start to finish. And with five hours of extras including extended footage (some of Denny, I'm hoping), I may need a tranquillizer while I wait.

So that's it for this week. Come back next week and come wearing your favorite fannish t-shirt. Time to come out of the closet my friend and join the rest of us fangirls (even if you're a guy) because it's a whole lot more fun over here than over there.

This question was so great, I had to share it and the answer because it comes up a lot!

Q: Hi Cynthia,

I hope you can help me. I was doing a google for a 70's made for TV movie, I thought the name was, "Ugly, Uglier, and Ugliest". I am mostly trying to find the name of a movie I remember. It stared Karen Black. In the movie, a friend went to Africa, (I think) and as a souvinier for Karen's character, brought back this super ugly doll that was so evil it had a charm belt to keep it from becoming live. Of course..the belt comes off, the doll comes to live and then proceedes to chase Karen's character around the house trying to stab her. Ok..please help me. If this story rings any bells..could you please tell me the name of this movie? I'd greatly appreciat it. Thank you!

A:

Aw, give me a hard one next time. That's Trilogy of Terror and it's the greatest. When the movie was new, TV Guide ran a photo story about how they made the Zuni fetish doll. They had three heads for the thing which were dubbed, Ugly, Uglier and Ugliest. The name stuck and it seems to be what people remember best about the movie.

In reality, it was three movies - one with Dark Shadow's John Karlen and Karen as a dual personality. But the Fetish doll story was the best and still ranks as one of the creepiest things ever shown on TV.

Keep 'em coming!

(At the risk of sounding like a teenager) Supernatural rules! It's my new favorite show and I'm "bow down and pay homage" devoted to the two young stars Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki. So, as I am apt to do – I video stalk. Not familiar with the term? It's when you get it so bad for an actor you search, find and watch everything he's been in no matter how bad. And to that end, I give you:

Before They Were Winchester Boys

First up, big brother Dean Winchester, aka Jensen Ackles. He started out in soaps a few years ago and has had a pretty consistent presence on the TV screen ever since.

From Days of Our Lives he went to the mini-series Blonde which I haven't seen yet but next month on Lifetime TV my wish will be granted! From there we go to:

Dark Angel

Jensen joined the show in the second season as the transgenic, smart alec sociopath Alec. Alec starts out as a "which ever side is winning is my side" kind of guy who's not above butchering a friend if it means saving his own neck. He's a genetically enhanced wunderkind and man is he cute (sorry, but he's adorable and charming and I can't help it). Alec's original function was as comedy relief and he fills this function quite well. He's sassy and snarky but never so much that you don't like him. And just when you think you've got him pegged he gets all serious and broody and oh I like that so much.

Unfortunately, I find Dark Angel slow and difficult to plod through in spots. It was a potentially brilliant show with some really great themes about government censorship and genetic tinkering and religion vs. government vs. science – but James Cameron who helmed the show was a bit too artsy at times and that left the audience confused. And also, well, yes, Jessica Alba is a lovely girl but she's not much of an actress (send your complaints and letters to. . . .). The show can be very Johnny One Note and I often found myself hitting the fast forward button to by pass her scenes and get to the others. Yeah, I was primarily watching for Jensen, but I found the rest of the supporting extras to be much more interesting than the two leads.

Bottom line: one of Ackles best roles but keep the remote control handy.

From here, Ackles made a stop at Dawson's Creek but I've yet to see those so. . .

We move on to the town of Smallville

Jensen Ackles was second runner up to play Clark Kent in this WB series but lost out to Tom Welling. He joins the show in it's fourth season as a regular (in the credits an everything) playing a rather erratic character called Jason Teague. Jason starts out as a love interest for Lana Lang (interesting, sexy, works), follows her to Smallville where he becomes a high school football coach (even though he's younger than the people he's coaching. . . okay. . ), reveals his scary side and his creepy (and clearly wrong) relationship with his mother (the lovely Jane Seymour) – digging that and in the end goes quite mad. Okay, that was cool. . . I guess.

I like Smallville as a series so I had less trouble keeping my finger off the fast forward button. There are some truly neat episodes in his season that deals with the quest for ancient puzzle pieces. And as much as I enjoyed seeing Jensen in the role, it clearly wasn't much of a stretch for him, acting wise. Mostly he plays love sick and broody with no real depth (not his fault cause he does that so well in other shows) but his switch from lover to bad boy to psycho just doesn't flow. I suspect much of his characters transformation came from the fact that he was being groomed for his own show and thus needed to be written out of Smallville

Bottom line: It's a great show but if you've never watched it, you'll be lost coming in at the fourth season. Still, Jensen fans have no choice but to buy it and watch it!

Jensen makes it off the small screen and into the movies – oops, okay, not really because the flick went straight to DVD in Devour. This strange movie is part of the same WB teen horror angst as his current show with a lot less depth. It's a convoluted tale of a college boy with a dark past and mostly he looks confused. And you'll be confused too when you get to the end of the movie.

Bottom line: if you're a fan, another must have because he's on screen 85% of the movie and he has a couple of sexy and sweet scenes (that's us fan girls, we like sexy and sweet). But if you're looking for a good teen horror flick – keep looking.

And so that brings us to Supernatural which is currently on The WB (soon to be the CW Network) Tuesdays at 9:00 (soon to be Thursday at 9:00) and you gotta check it out. It's scary, it's funny, it's sexy and it's a rising star. Critics love it, fans love it and The WB hasn't had a hit like this since Buffy took hold.

Give it a shot and I'll be back with my video stalking of co-star Jared Padalecki in a bit. I know, you can't wait! LOL.

I love Christmas! Actually, I love TV Christmas – it's always so colorful and jolly and everyone's troubles are always settled by the time the clock strikes midnight on Christmas Eve. If I could have just one wish this year, I'd ask Santa to fill TVLand with nothing but Christmas episodes from my favorite shows.

Here are just a few:

The Partridge Family– stranded in an old ghost town on Christmas the family becomes part of a candy-colored fantasy about a Christmas bell and a Grinch-like gunslinger determined to steal it. I love this episode because it's not your traditional holiday fare. It's set in the old west and Keith is a narcissistic sheriff dressed in peacock blue who carries a guitar instead of a six-gun. The story is funny and charming and in the end the family sings a Christmas carol and breaks the fourth wall to send greetings to the fans.

Here Come the Brides – most of you probably have never heard of this series but it's been on my mind since I was a kid. Bobby Sherman and David Soul both got their start playing lumberjack brothers who bring a hundred brides from New England to the mostly male town of Seattle. Their Christmas story is very religious (can they still do that on television) and revolves around a baby who is going to be born on Christmas. Two little girls promptly kidnap the baby because they're afraid that the child will be killed as Jesus was. A poignant tale that is topped off by the lovely voices of Sherman and Soul singing a Christmas duet played on guitar. Still makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.

Dragnet – This episode is another example of pointing up the religious reasons for the season. Friday and Gannon are called to a church on Christmas Eve because the statue of the baby Jesus has been stolen from the manger scene. The church is in a poor neighborhood and the detectives set about grilling everyone from the alter boys to the homeless man who comes in for a safe place to rest. Just when they've given up hope of recovery (and hope for mankind – I mean, what kind of person steals a religious statue?) a young boy comes into the church pulling a wagon behind him. In the wagon is the missing statue. When questioned the boy explains that for years he has prayed for a wagon and he made a promise that if he got one he would give Jesus the first ride. And so he did. Mystery solved. And tears are shed – well, from my eyes anyway. This one really hits me hard.

And on that note, I'll take a break and ponder on some of my other favorites from holiday TV seasons past.

It's been a lousy week, so last night I went trolling through my DVD's looking for those movies that just make me smile no matter what. Here's what I came up with:

That Thing You Do: It's a simpler time, happy music, and a dreams can come true plot. You can't help but smile (but don't watch all the way to the end, just up to the performance on the Hollywood Showcase)

Sister Act II: Many of the same reasons as above. How can you not smile when they do that wonderfully joyous song at the competition at the end of the film.

Miss Congeniality: Great stuff here. Funny, warm, ugly duckling makes good - sort of. . story. Tell me the answer to, "What is your idea of the perfect date." doesn't crack you up every time!

Marx Brothers: Anything, Horse Feathers, Night at the Opera - it's all so wonderfully written and a lot smarter than it looks. (And you have to catch Groucho in You Bet Your Life

A Mighty Wind: Like the Marx Brothers this is intelligent, yet silly and I laugh over, it's like we share one brain between us, and I cry when they sing Kiss at the End of the Rainbow. A great film and it makes all the bad in life go away.

Hey, I noticed a theme - most of my happy movies have music in them but aren't strictly musicals, which I also love!

What are your feel better movies?

Cyn

Since we were talking about video stalking over on the discussion board, I thought I use this space to outline some of the good and bad of my favorite video stalkees starting with the macho, gravely voiced, Christopher George!

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0313387/

Chris was a wonderfully talented and underused actor. He was often seen working with his lovely wife Lynda and the two of them used to appear on the game show Tattletales. Chris died quite young - victim of his chain smoking, I believe. Such a shame as he has always had a true magnetic charm on the small screen. Here are the best and worst of his appearances.

Worst of:

Mortuary & Pieces - two slasher films made at the very end of his career (I often thought that these are the films that killed him)

Graduation Day - more slashing and hacking

Dixie Dynamite - sort of Daisy Duke goes on a revenge spree

Midway in between good and bad is
The Exterminator - this Vietnam vet goes on a killing spree (in a good way - yes really) movie is one of the most gruesome flicks I've ever seen in the movies, but it's a great part for Chris - so I'm torn.

Best of:

Rat Patrol - so it's not Law & Order, but it's Chris' signature role. He is just too perfect as Sgt. Sam Troy.

Mission Impossible - Nerves playing against wife Lynda

The Immortal starring in this TV series about a man who's blood makes him immune to sickness and aging.

The House on Greenapple Road Pilot film with Chris as the original Dan August (the role went to Burt Reynolds when it became a series)

Chris also starred in Westerns with John Wayne such as Chisum and El Dorado and he was a frequent guest star in the 70's and 80's on shows such as S.W.A.T., Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Charlie's Angels and more.

So keep an eye out for Christopher George and when you see him - give him a wink for me!

My local Good Guys is going out of business, so we picked up Lost in Space the complete first season for half price. My husband and I are HUGE Irwin Allen fans. We used to be one of the largest Irwin Allen memorabilia collectors (before children came along. . .funny how that changes things!)

Lost in Space is a much maligned series, but the first season is truly a great work. If you keep in mind the era in which it was made - the effects are amazing for TV (look at the Chariot and the Robot!), it's a well-rounded series for the whole family (wholesome, adventure, a bit of romance) and the early scripts are truly well-written.

The Sky is Falling is one of my favorites - a story which goes against the traditional 60's style of aliens are all bad. Here, a family of aliens are sick with worry over their missing little boy, while the Robinson's feel the same about their own son. Each family thinks the other is responsible for kidnapping the other child and it is the children in the end who bring a resolution to the hostilities.

And there's a really great bonus on this DVD set – a presentation film that was used to attract advertisers to the series. It's a wonderful promotional piece reminding advertisers that today's TV viewers are ready to accept space travel as a fact! It's a wonderful reminder of a time when computers were refrigerator-sized units with spinning reels and punch cards. A time when people only dreamed of cooking a meal in under a half hour and talking to your friends on a phone without a cord was unheard of. In 1965, the United States was sitting on the razor's edge of a technological explosion and metaphorically, that's what Lost in Space seems to be about. Man ventures into the unknown, technology that appears to be his friend, fails him and he's lost in a world he cannot understand. But if you recall, it wasn't the technology that failed the Robinson's, it was Dr. Smith's overwhelming greed and therein lies the moral.

If you get a chance, give Lost in Space: The Complete First Season a try. Just remember to watch it through 1960's colored glasses and you'll get along just fine.

Still Looking for that Bigger Boat
Cynthia