T.H.A.T.
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- - - T.H.A.T., Edition No. 48 - - -
"For the record," I note that, over the last three months or so, a lot of people have watched their television sets to get information, usually presented in local news programs, about the the mayor of Detroit (Michigan)--Kwame Kilpatrick--who on Monday, March 24, 2008, was charged with several felonies by the government of Wayne County (Michigan). but, "for the record," I report that other things have been presented on television screens for people in the Detroit area over the period. I have paid more attention to the other things, and this edition of T.H.A.T. brings other things to you that you could have seen. You might get to see the things in the near future, if you have not already, but, then again, the other things might not be on television long or as long as the story about the mayor will probably be.
Much of this edtion of T.H.A.T. has information about what can be called new broadcast-television programs, but since the overall topic of each T.H.A.T. is always television, I must inject a little "sex" in to the document to increase ratings, but, then again, what I now talk about might make me lose viewers ("viewers"?). On March 17, 2008 another edition of The Bachelor series began to make a run on ABC-TV--the series is officially called The Bachelor: London Calling. I have not seen an entire episode of the series yet, because I am not interested in watching the program (however, I do get credit information about each of the The Bachelor franchise series and about the gals who are the finalists presented in the first episode of each edition). Okay, it might be argued well by people that all the gals who are finalists in each edition of The Bachelor franchise are pretty (or whatever), but when I see the finalists presented, very few project an image that they would be worthwhile choices for wives. (I will not talk about whether or not the bachelor of this edition of The Bachelor looks like husband material, since I am not interested in guys.) To me, too many of the gals have that shallow "California" style that shows, as I will define it, "difficult to be with over the long run and in hard times" (of the 25 gals who were presented as finalists in the current edition of The Bachelor franchise, nine were noted has being from California and many others had that "California" persona). I get the feeling that gals are picking or chosing the female prospects for the "bachelors" of each edition of The Bachelor, and that is why only one marriage has every come about from the series (Trista and Ryan make up the couple). Incidentally, for the prevous edition of The Bachelor franchise, the bachelor chose no one, and it seems my choices of the best (noted in a previous edition of T.H.A.T.) were never in top contention. Of the 25 gals presented to the bachelor in the current edition of The Bachelor, the gals who stood out to me were Kristine (32 years of age, a personal trainer, and from Charlotte, North Carolina) and Alyssa (24 years of age, a biology student, and from Boise, Idaho). I have no idea what gals remained by the second episode or third episode, et cetera, but I will say--"Guys, if your looking for a gal, look and listen to Kristine or Alyssa, and see what you think." I think--What The Bachelor franchise needs is guys who, for example, have that regular American-good- guy nature to put together the groups of female finalists for The Bachelor (for instance, some real cowboys would probably put together a better group of choices than the producer of the series would).
This next three paragraphs provide information about television programs produced in and shown on broadcast television in the Detroit area that I learned about only recently, though two of the programs have histories that go back for some time.
In the Detroit area, Channel 38 is WADL-TV, and it ccan be considered an independent station (which is a station not affilifated with any of the broadcast networks, such as CBS-TV), but the station does carry programming of theWord Netwwork. On February 23, 2008, WADL-TV began carrying a sketch-comedy show that is produced in the Detroit area, as it has been for about seven years (for cable distribution), and that program is entitled Switch Play TV. The program is shown every Saturday at 10:30 p.m., and it runs for a half hour. Currently, the cast is made up of these regulars: Angela Roberts, Miles Dixon, India Johnson, Tony Tale, Natalie Filipek, Lamar Martin, Kalyse Edmonds (or K Edmonds), Hanifah Cannon, Falah Cannon, and DuJuan Johnson. The program has history that goes back to December 2000, when it began to run on a local-cable-television service called Comcast, and it was in March 2004 that the program began to be shown on Colours TV (a cable channel or direct-to-home-by-satellite channel). In March 2008, I first discovered the program on WADL-TV (I had been away from the Detroit area for a few weeks), and I provide credit information based on one of the programs: the executive producers were Kevin Adell, Lewis Gibbs, Denise 'Dody" Johnson, and Nathan Talbot; the creators were Miles Dixon and Nathan Talbot; the producer and director was Melissa Talbot; and the writers were Jennifer Rowland, India Johnon, Matt Canty, Reginal Alexande, and Karl King. It was shown on the end credits of that program that it was a product of Okane Media Group, Inc.
Another program that I stumbled upon recently is Nightmare Sinema. In essence, this is a program that shows (over 90 minutes each week) oldtime "B" horror movies and science-fiction movies, and the program is hosted by a character called "Wolfman Mac" (who is portrayed by Mac Kelly). This locally produced program first shown up as a product to some local cable subsribers in July 2007, and it was on Saturday, March 15, 2008, that the program began to be carried weekly on WMYD-TV (Channel 20) at 1:00 a.m. It was on Wednesday, March 26, 2008, that I learned, starting April 26, 2008, the program was scheduled to begin airing on Channel 20 on Sunday morning at 12:00 (or 12:00 a.m.) on a weekly basis. Wolfman Mac is accompanied by other characters, one of which is a puppet-like skeleton character called Boney Bob, and, usually, the crew is based in the projection room of drive-in movie theater called "Nightmare Sinema." The show has more than only movies. It has television clips, such advertisements or promotions for television programs of the past, such as Bewitched (a series that people began to see on prime-time network television in the 1960s), and it has simple comedy sketch bits. On a program seen on March 22, 2008, I saw the end credits, and it was noted that the program comes from Mac Kelly Productions in association with stage 3 productions (whose studios are used to produce the program), Creative Energy Alliance, and Darkhouse Sound & Film, Inc. And from the edition of the show seen on March 29, 2008, I have these credits about performers: Mac Kelly as Wolfman Mac; Wally Wojciechowski as Zombie 1; Gail Wojciechowski as Zombie 2; Denise McDowell as Zombie 3; Bryan Larsen as Zombie 4; and Greenwell as Zombie 5. My file cards for the show also have such credits as: Mac Kelly and Steve Climer (as the writers); Joe Senac (as the cameraman and director); Becky Junczyszyn (as the makeup artist); G.C. Kirkland (as the editor); and Severin Faustus (the writer and performer of the theme song).
The last new show that is produced in the Detroit area that I give notes about in this edition of T.H.A.T. is entiled High Octane TV (or H2OTV). I first discovered it airing on Channel 33, WHPR-TV, which is a low-power television station, on Thursday, March 20, 2008, and it ran for 30 minutes starting at about 10:00 p.m. The host that I saw for the show was a gal called Ms. Pride. I turned on the channel on the following Thursday, but the show was shown, because of what I will call a "special." At 10:00 p.m., on Thursday, March 27, 2008, WHPR-TV had a program identified at the open as The New Dance Show, which was the name of a locally produced television series shown some years ago. The hosts of the the special show were R.J. Watkins and Henry Tyler, and, at the opening of the special, the two hosts noted that they really did not have a title for the show (which seemed to me to be a last-moment throw-together), but Henry Tyler did invent a title at the opening of the show: Back in the Day Dance Show. In essence, the special was a talk show that showed clips from The New Dance Show and that had four guests, who were four gals who had been dancers on The New Dance Show, one of whom was LaWanda Grace (I may have the spelling incorrect). I know The New Dance Show special was made recently, but I do not know whether or not the showing that I caught was the first, and during the show, R.J. Watkins hinted that there may or may not be another episode. Let me return to the topic of High Octane TV. On Tuesday, April 8, 2008, I saw another episode of High Octane TV on Channel 33, and, generally speaking, the show was a video show, but the host (Ms. Pride) did talk with a guest for one segment. The names shown on the end credits for the show that I caught on April 8, 2008, were: Richard Jennings, R.J. Watkins Jr., Khaliph Young, Richard Nunn, Sharee Green, and Sharae Golden (the executive producers); Martin Leflore, Dayna Dane, Egg Head Johnson, and Khaliph Young (the co-producers); R.J. Watkins Jr. (the director); Richard T. Jennings and James Jennings (the cameramen); Dorian Price (the composer); Madeline Jennnings (the lawyer); and Terrel Bradford (the graphic artist). The show came from a company called: Who Wants to Be a Star, Inc.
Let me make an aside to and for myself. On Thursday, March 27, 2008, WXYZ-TV, Channel 7, aired a locally produced special called From the Heart: Just Friends. I saw the end credits, and the credits noted that one of the editors was "Jim Meredith." I do believe Mr. Meredith was once a staffer with me at WAYN-AM, a radio station at Wayne State University in the 1970s (to see a document about WAYN-AM, you may hit this link now: WAYN). Remember: On a program shown by WXYZ-TV around January 1, 2008, I saw that "Steve Lawrence" (a former WAYN-AM staffer) was still working for the station in a production role. Incidentally, From the Heart: Just Friends was one of those "ho-hum" shows, a type during which, for the most part, on-air staffers of the station get to hobknob with other celebrities, such as a radio talk-show host and a automobile executive, and during which viewers get a bunch of pandering-type fluff.
It is time again to look at TV Guide magazine, and I do it to present a complaint or at least show a decision made by the publishers of the magazine that makes TV Guide harder to use. Starting with the edition of TV Guide for March 17-23, 2008, the "highlights" presentations are now grouped together on several pages before the daily grid pages (previously, the "highlights" material for each day was presented either after or before the programming grid for each day). Now, when a person is looking at the grid for a particular day in an edition of TV Guide, the person has to take more time to search for the "highlights" material associated with the day, which is somewhere earlier in the editon (instead of on the previous page or previous pages or on the following page or following pages). I say that it was a bad decision to move the "highlights" material to a new location in each edition of TV Guide.
Okay, I now have an answer for you. In the previous edition of T.H.A.T., I noted that Popeye appeared in a prime-time cartoon on the Fox TV network on December 17, 2004, and I wondered if you knew the name of the program, and I wanted you to answer for yourself what the name of the program was. Here, I report that the program was Popeye's Voyage: The Quest for Pappy. Incidentally, it was Billy West who provided the voice of Popeye for this half-hour cartoon or animated feature.
In my files are a number of cards related to shows that have "sex" or "marriage" in the titles, and to close this edition of T.H.A.T., I have a question for you to answer that is about a show that is related to "sex" and "marriage." What was the program that featured such performers as Jack Albertson, Nicholas Pryor, Mel Stewart, Joe Namath, Susan Sullivan, Jack Riley, Swoosie Kurtz, Judd Hirsch, Melinda Dillion, David Clennon, Deborah Blatzell, Fred McCarren, and Joanna Kerns? I give no more clues about the show.
Stay well!
Vic
P.S.: Remember: I could be wrong in my assessment of Kristine or Alyssa, since the only information that I have about them is that which I got when they were introduced, which includes the sound of their voices, their speech patterns, their sentence patterns, their demeanor, their posture, and their appearance.
P.S.: Here is an extra-credit question that I will answer in the next edition of T.H.A.T.--"What locally produced television program of April 2008 (or what program produced in the Detroit area and shown in April 2008) featured two short clips from the past with the well-known soap-opera characters known as Holly and Robert?"
copyright c. 2008
Date published: April 10, 2008The Hologlobe Press
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