TVSquad

As we are in the midst of a long July 4th weekend, I thought it would be a good time to talk about a cartoon that combined an animated singing group with a bit of American history. I speak about The U.S. of Archie. Premiering during the 1974-75 season, this Saturday morning cartoon not only continued the long-running Archie franchise on television, but it also grabbed onto the coattails of the upcoming American Bicentennial.

U.S. of Archie featured Archie Andrews, Reggie, Jughead, Betty Veronica, and the rest of the kids from Riverdale High as they re-enacted many famous events from American history. Some of the topics covered during the series were the Underground Railroad, the Gold Rush, the writing of the Star-Spangled Banner, and the invention of the telephone, Plenty of historical figures were featured, including Benjamin Franklin, George Washington Carver, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, and Teddy Roosevelt.

Gold Rush is live. It's an interactive online game, styled like reality TV, brought to you by AOL and Survivor/Amazing Race producer Mark Burnett. Anyone can play. $2 million in gold bars has been hidden throughout the United States in 13 caches. To win, players should keep their eyes peeled for clues at AOL.com, in magazines, and on television. Quintessential D-lister, Kathy Griffin is on board in various capacities, and the main site has a blog, (or glog as they're calling it) where she and others are posting entries about the game. Her first post is pretty funny.

The introductory video on the site has some of the same elements that make up the opening segments of any of Burnett's trademark shows. There are spinning graphics, a fleet of thirteen black SUV's in a secret underground location ready to carry the gold to its secret destinations, a reality-TV hosty-type guy, and -- just to get you in the mood -- a spectacular musical theme reminiscent of The Amazing Race. There's lots poke around the site and see. I barely scratched the surface.

If any of you here happens to win a chunk of the gold, don't forget your friends at TV Squad. At least post a comment here to gloat.

(S05E15) Well, all right! I admit it, I was partial to Sean winning this season's The Apprentice. Although he was quiet during the early weeks he really stepped up to the plate after the herd had thinned out a bit. In fact, during the last two tasks before the final project, when he was teamed with Lee on Gold Rush, Sean really was a shining star.

Granted, Lee Bienstock was no slouch, either. For someone who I thought would be a 'hanger-on' to anyone who seemed to be a winner in Gold Rush (and, believe me, they were few and far between) he really came into his own when all of the chafe was sorted out. By the end of the series you could really see some newfound maturity in the young man. Pretty impressive for someone who had recently graduated college.

Well, now that we know who the winner is, let's go back in time and find out how our Tammy-loving Sean became Donald Trump's newest employee on The Apprentice.

(S05E11) Ah, Rutgers; my old alma mater. The parties, the drinking, the pretty cheerleaders, nights of debauchery, days of hanging out with your fraternity brothers or sorority sisters, throwing up in the alley behind the student center.

Well, at least that's what I've heard: I spent most of my time working at the university's radio station. Still, they were some of the best years of my young life and I don't regret going to one of the largest (if not the largest) public university's in the state of New Jersey. So, I headed into this episode of The Apprentice with a bit more excitement than usual as I looked forward to seeing the New Brunswick campus obtain a bit of national glory, and to watch the Synergies and the Goldy Rushies try to sell as much food as possible during the Homecoming game.

And now, the crappy college food that is known as The Apprentice.

(S05E10) In Monday's fun-filled episode of The Apprentice, the Scooby gangs oversee the grand openings of two different hair salons. The title of the episode is 'Blow Out'. The Bravo cable network has a reality show named Blow Out, which focuses on the antics of a Hollywood hair salon and its owner. Bravo is owned by Universal, which also runs NBC.

Hmm. I smell network synergy.

Oh, before we begin the bloodletting I wanted to mention a few things that we learned this episode:

• Everyone thinks that Lee is a born politician;
• Trump thinks Tarek is a schmuck (but we all knew that already);
• For the millionth time, that's Donald Trump's real friggin' hair!

And now, the jello mold we call The Apprentice.

(S05E07/S05E08) Well, we're about half-way through this cycle of The Apprentice, and there is one thing I can say with 100% truthfulness: team Gold Rush sucks! I mean, these are the worst group of corporate potentials that I have ever seen on this show. The three remaining male members of the team (Tyrek, Lee and Lenny) couldn't decide if they wanted cheese or not on their Whopper without an argument breaking out. Tyrek is just vapid, Lenny uses his Russian heritage as a crutch, and Lee kind of just sits there.

Actually, Lee reminds me of two people. If you put a pair of glasses and a bow tie on him he looks a bit like Mr. Smithers from The Simpsons. I can actually hear him saying, "Why, that's Tyrek, Mr. Trump. One of your cancerous tumors from Sector 7G." The other person he reminds me of is Michael from The Office; he seems like one of those guys who would do anything to get others to like him. Needless to say, if Gold Rush continues in their current format they are going to continue to lose.

I smell a team change on the horizon. With that foreshadowing let's move on to the chicken casserole we call The Apprentice.

And now for the review of The Apprentice, Episode 3. . . Donald Trump did not say anything about dating his daughter.

Now, on to your comments. Hm? I'm sorry, what did you say? That's not a review? You want me to critique the episode and comment on the good and bad? You want me to talk about Donald Trump's hair resembling a child of Cousin It from The Addams Family? Oh, okay, if you really want me to!

I came into this late. In fact, the episode I'm reviewing right now is the first I've watched.  However, from what I see, there is a clear difference between teams Synergy and Gold Rush. Synergy has a diverse group of people who seem to have their heads on straight and are effective at completing a task. On the other hand, Gold Rush is full of neophytes who only care about themselves.