I can't believe the news today... ABC cancels Pushing Daisies

Well, my day is just ruined! Might as well crawl back in the bed! Okay, maybe not. The cancellation of Pushing Daisies doesn't comes as a HUGE shock, considering all of the reports here and on other websites about how bad the ratings where. This was my main concern with the show last year. Pushing Daisies is a complete 180 from what is on TV these days. And while we Americans might vote for a canidate who seems to love the word change, we don't like change when it comes to our entertainment. I guess in the end the change that Pushing Daisies offered wasn't what people were looking for or liked.

According to the article Bryan Fuller is trying to negotiate with DC to print comics that would tie up the storylines, becuase apperantely the season ends on a cliffhanger. I don't read comics and it might be leaping into a whole new sphere of geekdom, I would buy those just to see how the Piemaker and Chuck end up.

The article also mentions that ABC has cancelled Eli Stone and Dirty Sexy Money. I was never a fan of Eli Stone. I did watch the pilot, however that was becuase I like George Micaheal's song, "Faith". Dirty Sexy Money was a show I tried to get into last year and this year, but with its huge cast and coming in late, it was hard to understand everyone's history and what they currently where doing.

Today was suppose to be a good day for me. Today should've been the day that I voted in my first presidential election. But instead, due to a collosal jackass telling me (and repeatedly insuring me) that the deadline to register in the state of Tennessee was October 14th(it was actually October 5th), I missed out on the joy of casting my ballot for the highest office in the land. Words can't describe how angry I am. In the end my vote wouldn't have mattered(I know techinacally every vote matters, but I would have voted for McCain and he carried Tennessee anyway), but I have wanted to vote since I turned 18. I am one of those "you should vote becuase people died to give you that right" and "do your civic duty" guys. And the fact that I didn't do mine, just pisses me off. And leaves me feeling like I missed out on something big.

No surprise here, Obama won. I think after the last eight years, the Democrats could've run out a chicken as their nominee with a turtle as his running mate and they would've beaten the Republicans. That said I wasn't very impressed with any of the Republican canidates back during the primaries. I sort of liked Mike Huckabee, becuase he was/is very confident when he speaks. He doesn't stutter and throw in alot of "ummms" and "uhhhs". When McCain won the nomination I knew he was doomed. He is not a very popular guy with the base of the party, and I wouldn't be surprised if there were alot of people who just didn't vote becuase they liked neither.

But, none of the matters now as Barack Obama will be the 44th President of the United States of America, when he is sworn into office in January. I don't agree with alot of his policies, but I hope he proves me wrong. I hope he fixes the economy, and restores our standing in the world. I hope he can be tough on foreign policy and get our country on a path towards energy independence. And I hope he can keep Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid in check.

On a minor note, and I know this is asking for way too much, I hope TV shows will finally start to scale back on all of the political stuff. Being a semi-conservative Republican I know I am going to be made fun and my beliefs are going to be made fun of. And that is fine. I can laugh at myself and my political beliefs, but after 5+ years of it I am tired. I am tired of shows spending two minutes on political "jokes" that don't have a damn thing to do with what is going on in the episode. and, yes, I am talking about you, Family Guy.

below are my top 5 changes I would like to see here at TV.com

1. This annoying white background. It appears That it has been softened some what but it is still real bright. I still get a headache if I am on the site for longer than 20 minutes.

2. Cut down on the clutter. The front page of TV.com is extremely cluttered. You have the 5 rotating new stories or show previews, then you have TV on Tonight, What's New, New Videos, News, New Photos, Community Spotlight, TV.com poll, New DVD Releases, Top 10 shows, Video Preview, as well as 2 ads. Isn't that a bit much? Everytime you visit a forum or open up a thread, you have the Fresh Forums and Top Forums on the side. Why? If i didn't click on them on the Community page i am not going to click on them while reading through a thread.

3. Bring back the Favorite boards. It was so easy to be able to click on one of my favorite boards on the Community page. Now I have to click on a topic and access my favorite boards from a drop down menu. Couldn't you replace either Fresh Forums or Top Forums with our Favorite boards?

4.Allow us to track more than 4 blogs. It is hard to keep up with everyone with only 4 blogs.

5. I am not sure how much can be done about this but, TV.com runs extremely slow for me. I have DSL and the fastest connection speed my ISP offers, yet TV.com lags and takes forever to load. Sometime up to 20 seconds for certain pages. I have no problem with any other site that I visit regualrly or semi regularly.

My blog last week has sort of got me jonesing to post more. Suddenly, I see topics popping up eveywhere. And with the fall season fully underway now I wanted to post my thoughts and views on the shows I am watching. But I am putting all of that on hold for atleast the next 24 hours.

Like most people I hate the new layout. At first I thought there was nothing I could do about it. But then I heard of the blackout day. At first I thought it was a small group that wasn't going to get any traction. Then I read Glenn's blog and saw that he actually had a plan. And it wasn't calling for unreasonable and outrageous changes. He was taking a more realistic view on the layout changes. Something that could actually work. And something that actually had the higher ups at CNet and/or CBS taking notice. So I decided to throw my hat in as well.

So for the next 24 hours I won't be logging on to any CNet OR CBS site. After I post this, I will be logging out of my TV.com account for the first time in a couple of weeks. I hope that our blackout atleast makes CBS consider to listen to some or our concerns and problems with the new layout of TV.com. Hopeflluy, everything will go well.

See you on the other side...

I think we all can agree-TV.com v3.0 sucks. There is no other way to put it. Version 2.0 wasn't perfect, but it looks flawless compared to this. Everything that was bad has been made worse. I thought with the new wide look it would cut down on the small amount of clutter, but the clutter is magnified. Everytime you open a topic in the forums you have the top forums and the fresh forums on the right. Why? You showed me that information on the Community page, I don't need to see it continously. Why do the top news stories show up on every page, too? I understand that CBS has to make money, I do. But do we really need 3 ads on every page? The site runs sooooo slow now, and I have DSL, I can't imagine how slow it runs for people on dial up.

Then there are the redundant features. There is no need for the "My Profile" button on the dashboard. You can access your profile by clicking on your username. Why do we need a "Blog Archive" when you can view all of your old blogs by clicking on "My Blog"?

Worst of all has got to be the white background. I used to get lost on this website. I would come here to look up one thing and that would lead me to spending an hour or two cruising around the guides. I used to come here to post in one or two topics and then spend a while posting all over the site. Now, I can barely spend 20 minutes on here before my head starts pounding. The white background is so bright my monitor looks like a fog light at night.

But that's enough complaining for now...

I said in my last blog, which was about 5 months ago, that I was going to try and blog more over the summer. Mission Failed. To be fair though, this summer was the worst of my 20 years on this planet. At the end of June I came down with what was originally a small summer flu bug. However it quickly turned into something much more serious. I still don't know what it was and I won't give you all the grpahic details, but it almost killed me. Seriously, no joke. It did almost kill me.

When I wasn't busy dying this summer, I was watching the Cubs. This is the best the team has ever played in my life. I remember '98 and '03 and this team blows those out of the water. The talent and depth are just so much better. The lineup is solid from top to bottom. And they may have the best 1 through 4 rotation in baseball. I am trying to cherish every moment of this season. With the Cubs these type of things don't happen too often. I think its too early to be talking World Series, but I don't think the Cubbies will get swept this year.

Football season is laso underway. The Giants are off to a 3-0 start and have their by week this week. Eli Manning continues to improve. He looks alot more confident in the pocket. He has quit forcing the ball and is taking what the defense gives him. It helps that the offensive line has been playing well, and that Brandon Jacobs continues to be a montser rushing the ball. After losing Michael Strahan and Osi Umenyiora it looked like the defense was going to struggle but they've been as good as last year. Justin Tuck and Mathias Kiwanuka have been great at the DE posistion(s). Barry Cofield and Fred Robbins have been great at the DT as well. The one hole in my opinion is the secondary. James Butler and Michael Johnson shouldn't be starting.

Like last year we are doing a pick 'em contset in the Sports forum. Unlike last year we are doing it through Yahoo this year. Almost everybody from last year is back and as well as some new blood. Two of my friends Tommy(Cubtracker) and T_Brennan joined in. I am doing good so far. As of week 2 I am tied for 3rd overall and a game out of first. Last year I struggled out of the gate, but fought my way back and finished 4th. I look forward to the rest of the season and hope I can keep my good fortunes going.

100 days seems like a long time, but it seems just like yesterday I was pinning my thoughts and emotions on the Giants unbeleiveable Super Bowl win(is it sad that three months later I still like to watch the game winning touchdown?). But it was 100 days ago that I posted my last blog. I am not sure why, but I've always had trouble keeping a constant blog or journal. I've started several blogs through Blogspot and abandoned most of them a few months later. I was amazed to find out I've written 69 blogs here. I hope this is the first of many more this year.

So we are in the middle of one of the most dreaded weeks on the TV schedule-Upfront Week. A lot of my favorite were renewed either before the strike,during the strike or right after(Chuck, Life, DSM, Pushing Daisies, The Big Bang Theory) but several of my favorites were still on the bubble. And so far only one has axed and that was Moonlight.

To be honest I am not that sad that Moonlight was axed.I enjoyed Moonlight in the begining, when it was a kick ass vampire show. But when it started to become one of those trashy vampire romance novels for TV, my interest tanked.

The CW came through big time and renewed Reaper as a mid-season replacement. Some people are upset by that,but I think it could work. It moves from Tuesday, where it is one of many shows getting steamrolled by American Idol, to Thursday where it will be paired with a similar show in Supernatural. And with a smaller number of episodes there will less filler action and more plot and character developement,which is where I think Reaper really improved after the strike. It went from being monster of the week to focusing on the characters and their realtionships.

CBS made me happy and picked up another season of How I Met Your Mother. They're starting to head towards the end and they've been dropping little hints all season. I can see this being the last season of HIMYM, and thats okay by me. A full season should give them more than enough time to wrap up the story and end it before drags on like so many sitcoms have in the past.

I think the newspaper the Michael Strahan is holding says it all. The New York Giants played the role ofDavid and knocked out the New England Patriots, who played Goliath.I can't say that I expected them to win.That might have been a good thing. Last time they were in the Super Bowl I ran my mouth for a week, and was sonervous of what people would say if they lost that I couldn't enjoy the game. But last night I just rode the waves. The good ones and the bad ones. The end of the game wasgave me such an adrinalian rush thatI was up for hours.

I thought Tom Brady was going to shredour weak secondary, but our D-Line did such a great job of keeping pressure on him it didn't matter. Justin Tuck showed why the Giants gave him a nice big contract extension after the final regular season game. He is a very talented DE, and if Michael Strahan chooses to retire(Please don't, Mike!) I think the Giants will be in good hands.

Eli Manning silenced most his critics during the Giants playoff run, and last night he silenced the rest. He played great throughout the game, and had two TDs to offset his only INT this postseason, which really wasn't his fault(Steve Smith should have caught that ball). After the Patriots took the lead with 2:45 left I thought we were done. My dad turned to me and said, "This is how legends are made." And sure enough Eli put together a great drive(not quite legendary) and led the team down the feild for the game winning TD. While the drive might not be legendary, one play will be. With just over a minute left the Giants face 3rd and 5 around midfield. The pocket totally collapsed and all three of the Patriots' linemen got a hand on Eli, but somehow he broke free rolled right and tossed a huge pass to David Tyree. Tyree himself did an amazing job of holding on to the ball despite attempts by Rodney Harrison to knock it away. Definately a play that will go down in Super Bowl lore.

In the end it was just great to see one of my favorite teams finally win a championship. I've been a sports fan for 11 years and in that time none of my teams have ever won the big one. They've been several close calls, but never the one. Until last night.

So its the last day of 2007 and that means its my last chance to get out my top shows of the year. Last year I listed my top 10, this year I compiled top 20 in four different genres. The list includes five dramas, comedies, scifi, and cartoon/anime.

20.Bleach (anime)- A pretty generic anime when you really think about. Lots of training, power ups, and boss fights. I find the characters to be like able though, especially Ichigo. I can definitely identify with the big brother-protector characters.

19. The Dresden Files (fantasy/scifi)- This was good show that was cancelled because ...well there really was never an official reason for the show ending. Dresden Files was more fantasy than scifi and we really need more of that on TV.

18. The Boondocks (animated)-The Boondocks is a show I am kind of embarrassed to admit I like. Its a show that really pushes the button and comes off as offensive all the time. But I think that is point. Just like in the comic strip Aaron McGruder wants people to think about we interact and treat each other in everyday life.

17. The King of Hill (animated)- The reason why I love King of the Hill is it shows small town life in the south without resulting to stereotypes. The people of Arlen arewell rounded, there not all overweight, hunting, country music listening, country bumpkins who walk around barefoot. Except for Bill

16. Aliens in America (comedy)

15. American Dad! (animated)

14. How I Met your Mother (comedy)

13. The King of Queens (comedy)

12. Jericho (drama)

11. Saving Grace (drama)- In Saving Grace you met Grace a homicide detective in OklahomaCity. Grace has turned away from her faith after being molested by her priest as a child.After a night of drinking, she runs over a man on the way home.In the aftermath she asks God to help her and meets Earl a last chance angel.Saving Grace presents a problem that every person at one time or another goes through. A question of faith. Whether your an atheist, a Christian, a Jew, or a Muslim at one point or another you questioned yourfaith or lack thereof.

10. Chowder (animated)- Chowder was billed as the cartoon that would determine whether or not Cartoon Network would continue to air cartoons. A huge burden. But it seems to have done it. At a time where most kids networks are now going for live action it was refreshing to see a unique and vibrant cartoon. It reminds me of some of the old Nicktoons and CartoonCartoons from my youth. And like all great animated shows/movies these days there are jokes and visual gags for both young and old.

9. The Bing Bang Theory (comedy)

8. Torchwood (scifi)- Torchwood is the type of show you would never see an American studio/channel take a chance. In the more adult spin off of doctor Who every character has had at least one kiss with someone of the same sex, and some a little more. Not to mention some rather raunchy dialogue and scenes. and unfortunately American TV just doesn't seem ready for stuff like that.

7. Stargate Atlantis (scifi)

6. Dexter (scifi)

5. The Office (comedy)- I just started watching The Office this year, thanks to the reruns on TBS. And it lived up to all the hype I had heard. The interactions between the characters is great and the dialogue doesn't seem to be scripted at all. This is probably the best use of the mockumentry I have ever seen.

4. Battlestar Galactica (scifi)- With its gritty realism and parallels to modern warfare and politics, BSG continues to be above and beyond the rest of the shows in the scifi genre.

3. Desperate Houswives (drama)

2. Reaper (scifi)

1. Pushing Daisies (drama)- Not only the best new show of 2007, but THE best show of the year. Pushing Daisies is a show that you can sit back and just enjoy. No complex storylines or twist and turns, just an hour of great entertainment.

I haven't written a blog in a while, but I've been around. I wanted to write a few blogs before the end of 2007, but it looks like those will have to wait til next year. This year sure did go by fast, it seems just like yesterday it was January.

ButI wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! or a Happy Hanukkah! or a Happy Kwanza! Or anything else you may celebrate!

So, I guess it's time for an update here. I had no intention of going almost 2 months without a blog. I actually started a few but quit in the middle.

Sports

With the Cubs early exit from the playoffs, baseball season is done for me. I'll probably watch a few moreplayoff games. Just please, Dear Lord don't let the Indians win. I don't know if I could take watching another team's World Series drought end before ours.

Plaxico Burress and the Giants seem to finally realize the games count now. After a horrible 0-2 start(due largely in part to the defense) the Jints have won three in a row now, and have looked impressive. Plexico is on pace to not only have the best season for a Giants WR but also to break Jerry Rice's record for most TD catches in a season(22).

Fall TV

The new TV season is in full swing.I have actually liked more shows than I have disliked. Back to You had a decent first episode, but the second was so awful I dropped the show after it. Carpoolers, was pretty bad as well, andI am not even going to mention Cavemen. NBC has a pretty good crop of new shows with Chuck, Journeyman, Life and Bionic Woman.

Probably my favorite new show of the season is Reaper.The first episode was directed by Kevin Smith and was hilarious. But IMO the best line came in episode 2, when the group dressed up in rubber suits to try and capture an escaped soul who killed people with lightning. Right when things get hairy, Ben cries out "Where are going to die dressed like condoms!" AndMissy Peregrymas Andi is pretty darn cute.

Pushing Daisies has got be the most innovative shows to grace the TV in a long time. With setsthat look like they jumped out of a Dr.Suess book or Tim Burton movie, Daisies is impressive. Great stories in a fantastic world with likable characters. Chi McBride turns out a great performance as Emerson Cod.Lee Pace is great as the lead character Ned, and Anna Friel, who plays Ned's love interest Charlie, is once again pretty darn cute.