There's nothing more shocking than real reality. Death is real. Steve Irwin dying on the job, for instance, was a huge shock. Here's another dose of harsh reality. The star of Discovery Channel's 'Deadliest Catch,' Phil Harris, has died from a stroke. He had been at work on January 29, loading a catch like usual, when he suffered the stroke. After being flown to Anchorage for treatment, he succumbed despite having shown some improvement.
In a statement on the Discovery Channel web site, his grown children, Jake and Josh, explained, "It is with great sadness that we say goodbye to our dad -- Captain Phil Harris. Dad has always been a fighter and continued to be until the end. For us and the crew, he was someone who never backed down."
For more than 40 years, Frances was the matriarch of the Horton family, Grandma Alice, one the wisest, wittiest and most charming oldster on daytime. She was 'Days of Our Lives' Rock of Gibralter, her character was the center of her family, the heart that kept it all together even when bizarre circumstances threatened to tear the Hortons apart.
Depending on your age, Pernell Roberts was either western hero Adam Cartwright or grumpy surgeon Trapper John to you. Pernell Roberts starred in two long-running television series, Bonanza and Trapper John, M.D. But despite his success as a TV star and personality, he was never happy being a celebrity and had a reputation for being difficult and demanding. Pernell Roberts passed away on Sunday, January 24, succumbing to pancreatic cancer. He was 81.
Roberts was probably most famous as Adam, the eldest son of Ben Cartwright, brother of Hoss and Little Joe on NBC's mega-hit Bonanza. For six years, beginning in 1959, Roberts was Ben's smartest and most accomplished son. Roberts got the most serious story lines and carried a lot of the show. But Roberts chaffed under the formulaic structure of the western hit. He was frustrated that the quality of the writing wasn't better. He questioned why three grown men continued asking their father's permission to do anything.
(S06E11) "No one knows who survived that terrible plane crash. Or more importantly, who didn't." - Mary
The plane crash that happened in episode "Boom Crunch" left us wondering if some of the Wisteria Lane citizens would make it alive or not. My predictions were that Karl, Celia and Mona would die. Some TV Squad readers predicted that Lynette would lose one of her yet-to-be-born twins because she threw herself in harm's way to protect one of the Solises kids.
As a fan of music from the 80's and the early 90's, I didn't believe it at first when one of my friends told me that Michael Jackson died. Since TVs were rare where I was at the time, my first instinct was to check CNN.com. As soon as I got confirmation, I found a TV and was glued to one of the news-only channels to get all the latest updates on the death of one of my music idols.
TV coverage of Michael Jackson's death was worldwide and every source of media. The news of his death, the coroner's investigation, the rumors that his death may have been faked (see the video after the jump), the news of where he would be buried, the details of the various tributes, as well as coverage of the special funeral ceremony, etc., made Michael Jackson's death one of the 2009 events that got the most air time around the world. Even as huge an MJ fan I am -- I do have about 30 of his hits on my MP3 -- I can admit that this event got too much air time.
(S06E10) "Your mom needs help, and so does Mike." - Susan to Dylan
There we go, dear TV Squad readers, a few of our wishes and theories concerning Desperate Housewives have come true this week in the Christmas-themed installment of the show. I mentioned a few weeks back that I wanted Dylan, Katherine's daughter, to come back to Wisteria Lane and help her mother, and it came true. And two weeks ago, a few of you predicted the accurate turn of events concerning Katherine's stabbing.
But Katherine's crazy storyline wasn't the important event of the last episode of 2009. As teased for weeks, the lives of the Wisteria Lane citizens were rocked by a boom and a crunch.
The other night, USA Network broadcast part one of the Monk finale. In that next to last episode, many storylines were presented for the possible big finish this upcoming week. And it could be a potentially whopper of an ending. In my review, I speculated a little about what may be coming, and the comments have been flying in to TV Squad with viewers sharing their thoughts. That's got me thinking... what else might be at play?
Tony Shalhoub was interviewed about the end of Monk and it was interesting that as an actor, he waited till he filmed the end before learning Monk's fate. He said, "I think it's a good send-off. At the beginning of the season, the writers asked me if I wanted to know how everything [ended] and I said, if it was okay with them, I'd rather wait."
The James Franco experiment has begun on General Hospital. Actually, we have now learned that the movie actor, best known for Spider-Man and Milk and The Pineapple Express, has decided to do a two-month guest role on the ABC soap opera as part of a project he's doing with a filmmaker named Carter.
One thing I do know for certain is that ABC is taking Franco's appearance on GH very seriously. They're working around his schedule, giving him a strangely interesting character to play, and promoting it like mad.
When watching any nature special from PBS or the BBC featuring dangerous wild animals photographed at reasonably close range, how often do you stop and consider the very real danger men and women are in while getting that footage?
The kids were in Africa serving as TV hosts for the CBBC (BBC's children's channel) show, Serious Explorers. Seven children were planning to follow the steps of Victorian explorer Dr. David Livingston.
Reports say, when the elephant charged a group of the CBBC kids, Turner challenged the elephant and attempted to shoot his rifle at the animal. But, he was unable to open fire in time and was trampled. Turner leaves behind a pregnant wife.
When I was a kid, I remember watching Soupy Sales. He had a children's show, The Soupy Sales Show, on channel five in the New York area and he was a wacky, funny guy. He had bizarre creatures around him, puppets named Pookie and White Fang and Black Tooth. Soupy did outrageous things and often ended up with a pie in the face. In a lot of ways, there might have been no PeeWee Herman if there hadn't been a Soupy Sales. In my memory, I always liked Soup and liked his show. On Thursday, Soupy Sales died at the age of 83.
In addition to The Soupy Sales Show, Soupy was a comedian. He played clubs and did shtick, and all through the 1960s and 1970s he was a regular on game shows, including What's My Line, To Tell the Truth, Match Game and Hollywood Squares.
If you've been watching the current season of The Real Housewives of Atlanta, you've seen an uptick in the nastiness. Wig-pulling, sniping, one wife referring to another as a monster, bad singing ... It's been a wallow in bad behavior. As shocking as what's been on the air, this news yesterday was shockingly real: A.J. Jewell, the fiance of Real Housewives of Atlanta's Kandi Burruss, died after a parking lot brawl Friday night.
On the show, Kandi is the newest wife (although she was not presently married), and the successful singer/songwriter in the course of this season, she's been struggling with her engagement to A.J. He had six children from a previous relationship, and Kandi's mother has been against her daughter marrying him. Mama even refused to have a picture taken with A.J.
The news that this man has died is truly surprising and sad.
American Idol fans might remember Alexis Cohen, who auditioned for the show twice. She was hit and killed by a car a few days ago and the police have arrested the driver for reckless driving and leaving the scene of an accident. Here's video of one of her auditions and her blow up after being rejected by Simon, Paula, and Randy. I thought she had a pretty good voice. Maybe not for Idol but for a rock band.
With all the press coverage given to Michael Jackson, you'd think a special about his life would trample the ratings of all the other networks. Apparently, that isn't the case as an ABC special about the life of Farrah Fawcett won in the ratings against a similar Michael Jackson retrospective on CBS.
I think it likely helped that Barbara Walters hosted the ABC special (which was a 20/20 special and therefore had more name value than a generic special), whereas the special on Jacko was simply a CBS documentary. I'm still amazed at the rapid turnaround time that the networks can produce specials like these. They have turned it into an art.
It is debatable over who was the bigger name, although both were icons on their time. Jackson seems to be getting more coverage because his death was more of a surprise than Farrah's. Either way, Thursday was a hell of a day.
During some of the television obits I've been hearing about the late, great Ed McMahon, one of the most common misunderstandings about the Tonight Show sidekick's career has been perpetuated: that he worked for Publishers Clearing House, handing out big checks to unsuspecting sweepstakes winners.
Well, Ed did work for one of those sweepstakes-and-subscriptions houses, but it was PCH's main rival, American Family Publishers. He often appeared in the AFP's ads and mailings with his Bloopers and Practical Jokes buddy Dick Clark.
Not once did McMahon work for PCH, but as Bob pointed out in his obituary, jokes about his sweepstakes work often kept the mistake alive.
When I heard that David Carradine was found hanging from a closet in his hotel room yesterday, one of the first things I thought was, "Huh. He doesn't seem like the kind of guy who would commit suicide." He just seemed like one of those full-of-life guys that wanted to experience all he could before he checked out. I even wondered aloud to my fiancee if he died doing something... else, using the rumored cause of death of INXS' Michael Hutchence as a reference.
I guess I wasn't far off. Now Thai police are speculating that Carradine may have accidentally died during a "sex game gone wrong," according to The Washington Post. This is after his manager, who was on Larry King Live last night, his friends and family, and his colleagues all agreed that there was no way Carradine was suicidal.
There's nothing more shocking than real reality. Death is real. Steve Irwin dying on the job, for instance, was a huge shock. Here's another dose of harsh reality. The star of Discovery Channel's 'Deadliest Catch,' Phil Harris, has died from a stroke. He had been at work on January 29, loading a catch like usual, when he suffered the stroke. After being flown to Anchorage for treatment, he succumbed despite having shown some improvement. 
If you've been a soap watcher, you've probably seen the work of 
Depending on your age, Pernell Roberts was either western hero Adam Cartwright or grumpy surgeon Trapper John to you. Pernell Roberts starred in two long-running television series, Bonanza and Trapper John, M.D. But despite his success as a TV star and personality, he was never happy being a celebrity and had a reputation for being difficult and demanding. 
As a fan of music from the 80's and the early 90's, I didn't believe it at first when one of my friends told me that 
The other night, 
The 
When watching any nature special from PBS or the BBC featuring dangerous wild animals photographed at reasonably close range, how often do you stop and consider the very real danger men and women are in while getting that footage?
When I was a kid, I remember watching Soupy Sales. He had a children's show, The Soupy Sales Show, on channel five in the New York area and he was a wacky, funny guy. He had bizarre creatures around him, puppets named Pookie and White Fang and Black Tooth. Soupy did outrageous things and often ended up with a pie in the face. In a lot of ways, there might have been no PeeWee Herman if there hadn't been a Soupy Sales. In my memory, I always liked Soup and liked his show. On Thursday, 
If you've been watching the current season of 
During some of the television obits I've been hearing about the 
When I heard that 
Ed O'Neill on Being the 'Modern Family' Patriarch
TV 101: Goofus And Gallant, TV-Style
Vince Gilligan on 'Breaking Bad' Season Three
