Good News World UPDATE

So its been a few weeks since GNWorld appeared on our screens. Initially, I felt it might have been a flop because it was only the first episode but now, I don't think it'll get any better.

With its new format of skits and host talks, the content all seems to be prepared and are mostly not as funny. The GNWeek format had games and guest appearances which made everything feel more spontaneous and even the awkward silences were sometimes funny.

Most notably is there is now a stable main cast, which now includes Julia Morris. In GNWeek, they would instead invite 4 guests each week to be members of two teams and verse each other in games. Sometimes there were also musical guests to assist in these games by singing songs and giving clues. Past guests included international celebrities and even Kevin Rudd. I remember my favourites were Jensen Ackles from Supernatural and the Irish Comedian Ross Noble.

Without these elements of the show, comedian guests lose a way to promote their own comedic shows and the GNW franchise itself has lost a way to attract viewers. Personally, I really enjoyed the old format and wish it had never changed.

Read my old post about GNWorld's premier here.

Beauty and the Geek Australia

Honestly I rarely watch reality TV but I was prompted to which this season opening tonight by the addition of a female geek and a male beauty for the first time in the show's history.
However that wasn't the show stopper for me (they didn't appear until right at the end of the program anyway). Instead, my interest was fairly piqued by one of the male geeks, Bendeguz.

For me, he was rather unique with his manner and fashion sense. At one point, he reminded me of Sherlock Holmes and the Victorian era with his clothes. Not to mention he has a mustache! He also proves to be quite the old-fashioned gentleman type when the Beauty contestants appear in nothing but their underwear and he shies away. How adorably quirky! Bendeguz is a different sort of geek from what this show usually portrays so I may continue to watch just to see what happens to him.

Some bad points about tonight's episode may be that I felt that the games the contestants played in the show had a bit of a soft porn feel to it. Girls stripped to their underwear, and the Geeks got to paint on them. Next, the Beauties wore a sexualised version of a chef's uniform and got wet and slippery on a huge game mat. I guess I'm also a bit old-fashioned...

To end: rather than the show being entertaining, I enjoyed watching my sister cry in anguish as one of the Beauty's mistook South Africa for America.

EDIT: The BGA website shows Bendeguz to be Hungarian and 21 years old. WHAT?

Question: Did you happen to watch BGA too? What is your opinion of reality shows such as this?

The Emmys

Each year Hollywood stops; not for premieres or press conferences, but for something much more important: Award Ceremonies. While the Oscar's celebrates the best and greatest movies of the year, the Emmys are exclusively for the TV industry. The best actors, directors, writers and shows are honoured and awarded for their outstanding performances.

Possibly the most difficult job of the night falls to the host and this year Jane Lynch (of Glee fame) pulled it off wonderfully, with the perfect balance of humour and entertainment. In true award show fashion, she opened with a musical number, which gave viewers not only a taste of each show, but also the talent that she has. Click here for the full skit.

The big winners of the night were Modern Family, winning each award they were nominated for, including Supporting Actor, Actress and Outstanding Comedy Series. Mad Men and Downton Abbey also won for Outstanding Drama and Miniseries/Movie, while The Daily Show with Jon Stewart won Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series for the 8th consectutive year.

Other winners were Melissa McCarthy and Jim Parsons for Lead Actress and Actor in a Comedy Series, while Julianna Margulies and Kyle Chandler won for Lead Actress and Actor in a Drama Series. Kate Winslet and Barry Pepper also won for Lead Actress and Actor in a Miniseries/Movie. Click here for the list of winners.

Tell us: Did your favourite win?

TV addiction

You come home from work at 6pm on a friday night, the wife is out, your friends are all busy, and you decide to stay in and watch TV. You sit on the couch, order-in some takeout and eat your meal while sitting in a relaxed position and watching TV. Little do you realise that its 2am, and the wife comes home from her night out. She starts screaming at you, asking why you aren't asleep in bed at this late hour. You said you didn't realise the time.

Addiction.

Like with all other addictions, television addiction is a serious issue. The main problem is that TV never ends, it just keeps running on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There are many different channels as well, and some that you pay for (in my country, it is PayTV and cable TV). So if you don't like one show, you change the channel, you don't like that show, change the channel again and so on.


The side effects (on the body)

Bad eyesight - sitting too closely, room not properly lighted, and even sitting further back with a long period of time exposed to the television is not good for your eyes. Worse case scenario: getting permanent glasses and/or surgery for the eyes.

Sore muscles - sitting in one position for too long could cause some sores to certain parts of the body. It is a good idea to have a bit of a walk, even to the fridge, after every hour or so before you sit back down.

Social side effects

Friendships & relationships - Unless your watching the game with a bunch of friends, sitting at home by yourself watching hours and hours of TV may affect your relationships. I mean sure, you see your co-workers at work and have a good chat, or your mates at university, but what about outside work and study hours?

Depression - This one is a tough one, it may have occurred before and led towards TV addiction. In either case, you may be watching television because the real world is giving you the shits, and TV helps you to relax a bit. Thats fine, but again, hours on end is not good for you.

Methods to deal with TV addiction

Have a to-do list, and follow it. Simple.
Example:
- Wake up at 7am, brush your teeth, eat a bowl of cereal & slice of bread
- Catch the train at 8am, get to work at 9am
- Coffee break at 11am, lunch break 1pm, coffee break 3pm
- Catch the train home at 5am, get home at 6pm, have dinner, watch the news at 6:30pm, watch favourite show at 7:30pm.
- Have a shower and get to bed by 12pm.

Limit your hours on the television. This one should be pretty simple as well. Look at the television guide, watch your favourite TV show/s. Turn off the tele, do something else. But yeah, 3 hours max, even if its an extremely long movie.

Let us know of any other side effects of watching too much television, and your methods to deal with it. Thanks for reading!

The Joy of Sets

Has anyone seen The Gruen Transfer, where advertising is discussed and analysed in a humourous and entertaining way? Well, if you have then The Joy of Sets will seem all too familiar and unoriginal.

Hosted by Ed Kavalee and Tony Martin, The Joy of Sets picks up on different elements of shows and as claimed in the advertisement, tries to discuss what does and does not make good TV. Tonight was all about the opening title, as Kavalee and Martin poked fun at the different tactics used to create the opening sequence. Unfortunately, rather than discuss what makes various techniques work, they decided to show brief clips and make fun of them instead. Rather unsuccessfully I might add. Think Gruen Transfer without the discussion or humour. Or a skit, without the laughs.

Through in a brief "game" and a special guest, (Peter Phelps, most recently on Rescue Special Ops) and The Joy of Sets (ironically enough) quickly became a re-hash of other already successful shows.

But hey, watch it for yourselves and tell us what you think!

How I Met your mother

This show first appeared on television in September, 2005, and it began with introducing the 5 main characters of the show, Ted, Barney, Robin, Lily and Marshall. This show mainly talks about Ted's journey to finding his wife, and how he has had many ups and downs.

There has been 6 seasons so far, with the 7th about to air in mid-late september, in less than 2 days actually! For those who have been keeping up with the series, the last episode of the season 6 showed Ted and Marshall outside a wedding chapel/church, there are many rumours that it is Barney getting married.

Good News World

Good News Week (GNWeek) returned this week under a new title, Good News World (GNWorld), and while Paul, Mikey and Claire still appear in the show, Australian comedians Ackmal Saleh, Cal Wilson, Sammy J and Randy, and Tom Gleeson have become regulars as well.

While GNWeek had indeed been changing over the years, GNWorld has finally been refurnished with a new set, and all familiar segments gone. Since this is only the first episode, it is hard to judge how successful this new season will be. They still comment on politics and other news items, but the skits seem more flashier and complicated than from before. Like the song about Tony Abbot and his budgie smugglers; it turned out to be Paul's overactive imagination and they did a fade out which made the skit feel somewhat cliche.

Personally, there were certain segments I enjoyed in the old series, like What's the Story (where we get to see Mikey in silly costumes), miming, and the Buzzer of Death. Though I do love the duo Sammy J and Randy; the songs they sing are well composed and always make me laugh. I guess GNWeek can't stay forever, so we'll just have to keep watching and see this goes!

Did you watch the first episode of GNWorld? What did you think of it?

Pilot

The pilot of any TV show is always the most crucial. Partially for the story line and partially for the characters. But most definitely for the viewer response. Without a strong and consistent viewer response TV executives axe the show and there are numerous examples of these failed shows.
But once in a while there are shows which do make it past the original pilot and go on to numerous successful seasons; with entertaining story lines and exciting characters. And all this makes for happy viewers and happier TV executives. 

So, this is out pilot. One of the most crucial posts for this blog. Not necessarily for its substance or groundbreaking viewer response but to mark the beginning of many successful seasons.


So a question: have you ever watched a pilot? Which did you like more, the pilot or the actual broadcast?

Storyboard

This is the story board that we planned for our blog. The picture itself is self-explanatory, showing the positions of our posts, title and other features. OFRB stands for Our favourite rainbow box. Title has not been decided yet, it is just an example of an idea we came up with