The Benefactor
What a fall ABC is having, huh? Thanks to Lost, Desperate Housewives and Wife Swap, the network finally appears to be back on the ratings map. Of course they're still stuck with According to Jim. And Rodney. And Complete Savages. Oh yeah, and this Apprentice knockoff that no one bothered to watch. Realizing that their bid to make Mark Cuban the next Donald Trump was failing miserably, ABC actually skipped a couple of episodes and aired the season finale last night. So now that it's over, let's analyze the reasons The Benefactor didn't work:
Reason No. 1: Mark Cuban has zero personality.
I don't care if he does own a basketball team, this Tony Robbins look-alike earns the Mischa Barton award for Most Wooden Screen Presence. I never thought I'd say this, but I missed Donald Trump's bottomless ego — and his nonstop parade of kooky ties.
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Major League Baseball: Red Sox vs. Yankees
The biggest loser is... not the Boston Red Sox — can you believe it!? The Sox get to tease their fans one more time, raising their hopes for just an instant before dashing them to pieces yet again, because like it or not, we all know what Game 7 means to the Red Sox — Choke Time. Then again, who knows, this could be the year, right? Either way, I'm sure the bars will be open late tomorrow in Beantown.
The Biggest Loser
22 lbs. in one week! How did they do it? No, really. I thought I knew a thing or two about weight loss and reasonable expectations vs. infomercial sales pitches — but they did it, or at least a lot of them did.
I like Maurice. As the biggest of the big, he has a lot of courage, but did you see the look on his face when his teammate took the platter of sausages away from the breakfast table? Like a 5-year old who dropped his ice cream on the sidewalk. And what
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Question: Regarding your Feb. 15 column: When you adopt a child they become yours. There is no reason to refer to someone's child as adopted. Hugh was Carroll's son. That's all you should have said in your answer. — Dawn, Brattleboro, Vt.
Televisionary: I absolutely agree on your first point, but I respectfully disagree on your second. This is a column about information, after all. I received a few pieces of mail saying the same thing you did, but if I'd stated only that he was O'Connor's son, I would've gotten a lot more telling me I'd missed that detail. In providing it, I didn't make any kind of value judgment; nor did I mean to imply one. However, I'm sorry if anyone read it as such.
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Question: Are The Surreal Life's Chris Knight and Adrianne Curry still dating, and is it getting serious? Thanks! — Cathy, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Televisionary: They were as of last month. As for how serious it is, see for yourself.
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The Benefactor
What a fall ABC is having, huh? Thanks to Lost, Desperate Housewives and Wife Swap, the network finally appears to be back on the ratings map. Of course they're still stuck with According to Jim. And Rodney. And Complete Savages. Oh yeah, and this Apprentice knockoff that no one bothered to watch. Realizing that their bid to make Mark Cuban the next Donald Trump was failing miserably, ABC actually skipped a couple of episodes and aired the season finale last night. So now that it's over, let's analyze the reasons The Benefactor didn't work:
Reason No. 1: Mark Cuban has zero personality.
I don't care if he does own a basketball team, this Tony Robbins look-alike earns the Mischa Barton award for Most Wooden Screen Presence. I never thought I'd say this, but I missed Donald Trump's bottomless ego — and his nonstop parade of kooky ties.
read more
The Benefactor
What a fall ABC is having, huh? Thanks to Lost, Desperate Housewives and Wife Swap, the network finally appears to be back on the ratings map. Of course they're still stuck with According to Jim. And Rodney. And Complete Savages. Oh yeah, and this Apprentice knockoff that no one bothered to watch. Realizing that their bid to make Mark Cuban the next Donald Trump was failing miserably, ABC actually skipped a couple of episodes and aired the season finale last night. So now that it's over, let's analyze the reasons The Benefactor didn't work:
Reason No. 1: Mark Cuban has zero personality.
I don't care if he does own a basketball team, this Tony Robbins look-alike earns the Mischa Barton award for Most Wooden Screen Presence. I never thought I'd say this, but I missed Donald Trump's bottomless ego — and his nonstop parade of kooky ties.
read more
Question: Could you end this fight? I seem to remember a show, which wasn't on too long, that starred Doug Barr (Howie) from The Fall Guy. I think it was When the Whistle Blows. My brother and dad think I'm crazy. Am I? — Jason G., Flat Rock, Ohio
Televisionary: You guys keep asking me that, and I keep telling you I'm not licensed to make that call. However, I can tell you Barr did indeed appear on ABC's When the Whistle Blows, which debuted on ABC in March 1980.
Barr played Buzz Dillard, a construction worker whose colleagues and cohorts included Randy (Philip Brown), Hunk (Tim Rossovich), Norm (Dolph Sweet), Bulldog (Noble Willingham), Hanrahan (Gary Allen) and Lucy (Susan Buckner), the crew's only woman.
Your brother and dad doubt your sanity because the show wasn't on long enough for them to notice it. The whistle blew just five months af
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Question: What was MacGyver's first name, and how long was the show on? Thanks. — Wilfred K., Drew, Ga.
Televisionary: Y'know, Wilfred, I've said for years that rather than having my senility strike all at once in my later years, I prefer to take it in small doses distributed over my entire life. So thanks for the opportunity to suffer another episode and admit that though I'm certain I've answered this before, I cannot for the life of me find any reference to it in my own archives or past columns on the site.
All of which is a long way of saying: MacGyver's first name was Angus. (You'll see references to Stace out there on the wild Web, but that was only his first name in press kits and promotional materials sent out before the series debuted on ABC in September 1985; it was never actually used on the show.)
As for how long MacGyver ran, it enjoyed a seven-year run because its star, Richard Dean Anderson
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