Family Fortunes Getting Old Much?

I've just turned over to ITV1, where a new series of "All Star" Family Fortunes, which is a sort of show I would have liked when I was younger, but know I can see how absolutely rubbish it is. They aren't even families, this episode includes the cast of Heartbeat, when was that last on, half the people in that I reconised from Coronation Street, which I don't watch, even if it is the "Nation's favorite Street", anyway and the "ladies" of Loose Women, when did anyone with a job ever watch them? I'm already pissed off with this and it's not 10 minutes into the show.

Wait, that Coleen, that's the lady off the Iceland ad, ever since Kerry bottled and needed a side kick until Kerry totally let go, in more than one way.

Yeah, it might look nice and clean and modern every time there's a new series and there are the same sound effects that are recognizable throughout the nation, it's just old, old, old. I haven't watched the new Saturday night game show The Cube yet, but it looks good and fresh, that's what ITV need to be doing. Come on guys, it's older than anything else on TV, bring it back when we want some nostalgia not having it on month after month after month and it's never real people anymore (no matter if it's a real family or not), it's always celebrities, why? Yeah, they might be playing for charity, but what happens to those extra prizes that you can't really give to charities, those prizes were made for all the family to win, not random celebrities that no-one has heard of to win. And when they won the top prize, they couldn't afford real pyrotechnics, they just had pictures of fireworks going off. And now that ITV have copied the BBC iPlayer (even though no-one can get it as perfect, as BBC did, mostly because it doesn't have any ads), I can not watch the show again. That I didn't really want to watch first time; I just felt blog post coming on.

An answer, from one of Loose Women,"One thing that you might leave on when you leave the house?", answer gievn, "If your a man, your wives' shoes". What! All these women are massive air-heads and old, how is that possible? No, sorry that's ITV in a nut-shell. I prefer the old Family Fortunes, sorry Vernon you'll never do it for me.

Saturday Night Magic is Back

The second series of Merlin hit our screens yesterday, and for me, along with Strictly Come Dancing kicking off this weekend, this marks the countdown to Christmas and some very good Saturday Night TV and not just on the BBC. Merlin, like Robin Hood before him has been "modernised" for the 21st century viewer (without the greatest details), which of course has had some criticism but great viewing figures to back it up. Both of those shows have gained from being in the family friendly Doctor Who slot of the BBC One Saturday Night line up.

What most people won't know, is that the first series of Merlin has just finished being broadcast in the states on NBC, one of the biggest networks in America. It did well, it wasn't totally on prime time, 7pm on Sunday but still it held its own on NBC. The fact that a non-BBC network bought up the first series in the states, probably single-handedly funded production for the second series. And would have been great exposure of all the actors that aren't known that much outside of the show otherwise.

The Trio of Doctor Who, Robin Hood and Merlin are perfect for American ad-driven TV, for one reason, they are the perfect length to put in adverts being at 40-45 minutes long, without having to be shortened. As there is another side to this, weeks after Torchwood: Children of Earth was broadcast in the UK it was broadcast in the USA on BBC America, at the same time I was in Philadelphia visiting my sister. They did the same week long series, all hour long episodes, but thanks to the money-grabbing advertising nature of TV outside the BBC (UK), the episodes where all cut down to size. But how? That was a great series and every bit of every episode was as important as the next, that's silly.

Magic is back, as is Christmas themed chocolate in Sainsburys, as I found out yesterday (already!). This 13 part series is going to be good and as the nights draw in and as summer turns to autumn and winter, this series will keep me and millions of Brits happy this (as they would say in America) fall.

BBC Sport's Great North Broadcast

As always BBC Sport have given a good account of themselves in the broadcasting of the 29th Great North Run, with the familiar sights, familiar presenters and familiar celebrities running for their chosen cause/charity. And its always something to watch, if not just in the background. But the point that I want to turn off or over is when they start showing the text messages with support for people on the race course (that they can't see) and when they start to get lazy and put some random music on just to fill some time whilst the thousands pass the cameras.

I'm not saying that it's not a good thing to do, I'd love to do a couple of them in my lifetime. But I think it's more tiring for the people near the end of the course cheering everyone on, especially when the main pack come through the 13 miles and down the sea front at South Shields.

Sometimes I'm glad when the Great North Run or the London Marathon's on because TV on a Sunday morning is rubbish now that I don't watch Something for the Weekend or normally don't go near T4. But when you watch the Run, you work out that 13 miles, isn't that long and how I feel like lazy bastard sitting here watching it, but cause I'm 16 I can't actually run the race, I think the cut off is 17. Maybe when I'm 19 I'll do the London Marathon, don't hold me to that.

Oh, And don't forget the red arrows.

Jamie is in the Eye of the Beholder

Watching a recent Sainsburys ad for their Basics range, with as ever, Jamie Oliver at the helm of the campaign, Jamie said, whilst staring into a spoon said "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder". I didn't know what this meant, so after doing some research I found out that it was a phrase embedded in history, and believe me the beauty wasn't anything to do with that carrot.

The person who is widely credited with coining the saying in its current form is Margaret Wolfe Hungerford (née Hamilton), who wrote many books, often under the pseudonym of 'The Duchess'. In Molly Bawn, 1878, there's the line "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder", which is the earliest citation of it that it can found in print. Even though its been found in the play Love's Labours Lost by William Shakespeare, it wasn't in as many words and the phrase has apparently seen in literature as far back as the 3rd Century BC in Greek literature.

I say this because Jamie has been doing television for nearly as long as that phrase has been in circulation. So why am I not bored of him yet? Well he's an honest guy and there isn't a lot of fault with him. Yeah, he might have been a bit annoying in the early years, "the naked chef", but he's matured, and also he hasn't run off to America, like most people in British TV are always trying to. Here's the ad if you haven't seen it yet:

Jamie Says Basics is..
Watch the ad...

Welcome to Television?

Sometimes you have to go through life enduring television, yes, Big Brother and all, before you find some truly fantastic TV and hopefully in our lifetimes. Television can provoke, excite and anger but we still watch it. It can be used as a tool for good and bad, and don't get me started on politics on TV (no more so than in America).

This Blog will illustrate television in all its glory and shame, nothing is off limits, considering I live in front of the TV (and on facebook), I think that I'll try and do my best. And by the way this blog will be mainly about British TV, but america is some Television I will love getting stuck into, mainly the media and "News"-casting in the States, this'll be fun.