- One Tree Hill is like the villain in a bad horror movie: no matter what you do, you just cannot kill it. While other, far superior shows on the same network (Everwood, Gilmore Girls, Veronica Mars) have been killed off by the idiots at the CW, OTH has persisted, survived and now it’s all but assured of seeing a seventh season. Series creator Mark Schawahn has signed a total of three production deals, one of which more or less guarantees a seventh season of OTH. Schawahn recently inked a one-year contract with Warner Bros. TV, which produces One Tree Hill, to keep wearing his executive producer and show big cheese hats. The other two deals Schwahn signed are a two-year pact with CBS Paramount Network TV and an agreement with CBS Records to launch his own imprint under the label. Not surprising on the music front when you consider that he did name his show after a U2 song and music has been an integral part of OTH throughout, including performances by Jimmy Eat World, Fall Out Boy, Michelle Branch and others. The CBS Par TV deal takes effect in June and it will have Schawahn developing new series, including one on the music industry. He describes the CBS Records contract is a dream come true, being a one-time band member and avid music junkie. “A frustrated musician who wasn't good but wanted to be great,” as he explains it. “I'm a fan of music, I feel I have a good ear for it and I would love to be able to help shine a light on new artists and new music even more than what I can do via One Tree Hill.” Ironically, One Tree Hill has been better of late and if it warranted a renewal at any point in its stint on air, this might be that time…..
- Some people just don't learn their lesson. Take Erin McLean, a teacher from Tennessee who disappeared after her then-husband killed her 18-year-old lover, as an example. Now most of us, if we experience something like that, we're steering clear of any future teen romances or affairs. Even if you make that mistake once, there's no way you make it a second time, right? Wrong, at least when it comes to McLean. She is reportedly now living in Texas with her sons and another teenage man, according to testimony at a custody hearing with last week to decide who gets the boys. Hard to argue that Erin McLean is the more fit parent when she was having an affair with Sean Powell when her then-husband shot him in the head in 2007. Good parents do not date a teenager they met while student teaching at the teen's high school. However, in this case, she's at least a better option than ex-husband Eric McLean, who was tried on a first-degree murder charge last month. He's not the best parent or liar, as evidenced by the fact that testified that he accidentally shot Powell while trying to get him to leave the couple's home. Sure, because who hasn't accidentally shot their wife's teenage lover while trying to get him to leave? In the end, jurors convicted him of reckless homicide. The McLeans divorced in February, and Eric McLean, who is not in prison, was granted visitation with the boys. His sentencing is set for next month, but he's not likely to serve time, for some odd reason. I guess shooting someone in the head doesn't mean you have to go to jail anymore. All told, I think we can all agree that the true losers in this case are the kids, ages 12 and 9, who might actually be better raising themselves than living with either of their parents....
- Ah, the pageantry and splendor of the WNBA title series. What? You didn’t know the WNBA was even in the midst of its season or that the league still existed? Okay, so neither did I, but as I found out, the irrelevant, subpar and pointless charity case that is the WNBA, which remains alive only because the NBA continues to subsidize it in some misguided attempt at philanthropy, had its championship decided over the weekend by…..by……I’m being told it was teams from Detroit and San Antonio. However, the deciding game of the series was played in neither city. No, it was played in the thriving metropolis of Ypsilanti, Michigan at the Eastern Michigan University Convocation Center. Why? Because a scheduling conflict had occurred wherein the Detroit Shock’s normal home venue, the Palace at Auburn Hills, was already booked. Nice. You know your sport is a total sham when you get booted from your own building for the deciding game of your championship series. Call me forgetful, but I don’t recall the Detroit Pistons being booted from the Palace during any of their championship runs, nor do I recall the Detroit Tigers ever having had a World Series game move because of a scheduling conflict at their normal venue. In other words, the WNBA doesn’t matter. If it did, it wouldn’t be playing its championship game at a gym half the size of the host team’s normal venue. Was the game on television? I don’t know, but I highly doubt it because I never saw a single commercial for the championship series on any network I watch. So keep on subsidizing this charity case, David Stern and NBA front office sycophants, just be aware that none of us are paying attention to it…..
- Tonight’s episode of Prison Break featured three distinct, exciting storylines. First, there was half of Michael Scofield’s convict crew taking off for Las Vegas in an attempt to copy the Scylla card of card holder Howard Scederi. Linc, Sarah, Sucre and Roland took the assignment and road tripped to Sin City, where they found Scederi gambling and tried to position Linc next to him at the table to copy the card with Roland’s wireless hard drive device. However, all of the electronic noise in the casino made the transfer fail, so it was on to Plan B. That meant sending in Sarah to flirt with him at the hotel pool and try to get invited up to his room under the pretense of taking a photograph for a bachelorette party scavenger hunt. She was turned down and after a comment from the bartender to Sarah about Scederi, it seemed like he turned he down because he was gay. That led to Sucre being recruited to do the flirting, a role he was desperate to avoid. In the end, he gave in and got himself invited back to Scederi’s hotel room, where he was able to copy the card but also received an unexpected proposition. It turns out Scederi wasn’t interested in Sucre for himself, but rather for his hot, young trophy wife. Because of a war injury, Scederi no longer has all his functioning man parts, so he recruited Sucre to give his wife the bedroom satisfaction she craves and to make $1,000 in the process. With the card copied, it’s time to bail and head back to L.A., but Roland can't resist the pull of the casino, where his wireless device can lead him to any machine that is about to pay out and thus allow him to make a fortune. Security spots him and recognizes him from previous incidents of cheating in Vegas, which leads to a guard nabbing the wireless device. Scederi’s card has already been copied and transferred, but with one card left to copy, not having the device could cripple the operation - especially since Roland says it takes months to build a new one. Back in L.A., agent Don Self is fighting his own war, panicking because of the visit he received in last week’s episode from company hit man Wyatt. Self turns to Alex Mahone for advice and Mahone tells him to attack the problem the same way Scofield battled Mahone, by going on the offensive and taking the fight to him. Putting that advice into play, Self cleans out his house, goes off the grid and shows up in the office of The General, Company head cheese Jonathan Krantz. He tells Krantz that he will investigate him and bring him down. Furthermore, Self claims to have mailed copies of evidence he holds against Krantz to five lawyers around the country so that, in the event of his death, that information will be released and a lot of eyes and scrutiny will be put on the General and the Company. Wyatt arrives at Self’s house too late to catch him after having come with the intention of killing Self and making it look like and accident. There was nothing accidental about the plan set in motion by T-Bag to turn the tables on Michael, Mahone and Brad Bellick as they tried to come after him. T-Bag, working with Gretchen (not by choice, but rather because she put a knife to his throat) coerced his secretary at GATE Industries to call Bellick at the number he gave her when he came by GATE looking for T-Bag. When Bellick showed up, T-Bag was waiting and captured him. He then baited Scofield and Mahone into the same trap and attempted to herd all of them into the back of a van at gunpoint. Mahone escaped, but Michael and Bellick were taken to T-Bag’s apartment (where he has been living as Cole Pfeiffer) and Michael is instructed to make sense of the clues T-Bag has found in the bird watching book formerly owned by the late James Whistler. Michael discovers that the pages, once properly cleaned off of their print, form a blueprint of the one floor of the GATE building. He asks to be taken there, leaving behind Bellick, the secretary and Gretchen, whom Michael didn’t know was at the apartment. She knew he wouldn’t help if she was involved, so she stayed out of sight. That hadn’t been the case earlier, when she kidnapped the GATE employee who had threatened to expose T-Bag’s fraudulent sales record last week and murdered him at the apartment, but she steered clear of Michael. At GATE, Michael went into the same storage closet T-Bag had searched last week and after some digging, found a metal door in the floor, under the carpeting. He and T-Bag went down into the hole, which led to a series of dark hallways and rooms. While there, Michael told T-Bag he was going to lock him in a room, call the cops and send T-Bag back to Fox River. Just that quick, Mahone came out of the darkness with a gun, having been led to GATE by a page from the bird watching book that Michael had left behind at the apartment as a clue. T-Bag ends up locked up in a boiler room, unable to escape. Back in the office where T-Bag had been posing as Cole Pfeiffer, Michael, Maone and Self go over the blueprint and begin to formulate a plan to break into the building where they can decode Scylla. However, as the exit the building, a cell phone taped in an envelope under a trash can rings and on the other end is Gretchen, who is watching from across the street. When Michael takes the phone from Self, Gretchen demands to see T-Bag immediately or else, putting the ball in Michael and Co.’s court. Like I said, three distinct storylines in this episode, all very interesting and all weaving another layer of difficulty and intrigue into this season, which has been very good so far. Until next week….well, two weeks, that is, since for some dumb reason PB is taking a one-week hiatus…….that’s all for now….
- Pre-fight press conferences in boxing are hilarious. The fake hostility, the posing, the smack talking, the nose-to-nose showdown as flashbulbs pop......it's hilarious. But kudos to Nigerian boxer Samuel Peter for taking things to a comical new extreme when he ripped the WBC belt from Vitali Klitschko's hands and stormed off the stage Monday at a news conference in Berlin to promote their heavyweight title fight. The two fighters -- both called champions by the WBC - had been locked in the typical, tired press conference staredown with both holding the belt when Peter seized it and stomped off the stage. Klitschko didn’t seem fazed, saying, “What happens here is a show. The real fight is in the ring.” Peter’s reason for acting like a petulant five-year-old? He was reportedly angry that the conference was conducted mostly in German -- which Klitschko, a Ukrainian, speaks fluently. Peter’s response - other than taking the belt and walking away, was responding to the few English questions posed to him in his native Nigerian tongue. There may also have been some lingering hostility because after a recent victory, Peter called for -- but didn't receive -- a rematch with Wladimir Klitschko, Vitali's younger brother and the holder of the IBF and WBO heavyweight belts. But hey, Peter is such a professional and so very mature, why not give him a title shot? My bet is that he ends up on the canvas, face up and staring at the ceiling after Klitschko knocks him out, rendering this whole shenanigan of seizing the belt a moot point……
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