The Weekly Pulse: TV's Second Wife

Archive

This will probably be the last “slow” week for awhile. Some shows are already back, but it will take another week to get everyone back into the swing of things. Don’t worry..’American Idol’ and ’24’ return next week and I am sure everyone will talk about that until exhaustion. And they should..as everyone has been a little quiet lately.

I still have an active show to recap and now I am back to two shows this week. I won’t blame anyone..it’s just how it works. Oh well..I still found time to finish off Season Five of ‘Seinfeld’..so you can look forward to that as well.

Hmm..not much else to say. It’s been a slow week, but not as slow as the last few weeks. Things are picking up. Lets take a look at what happened at Pulse TV this past week!

Seinfeld Quote of the Week

“…Astroturf? You know who’s responsible for that, don’t you?! The Jews! Ah, the Jews hate grass. They always have, they always will.”George in “The Limo”

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming…

Columns a.k.a. The Mild Edition

Mathan Erhardt took this week off in a way. He does give you a special report. It’s breaking news as Woody Woodpecker gets charged with a hate crime! Sure!

Mike Sage returns to get you ready for Season Five of ’24’. Yeah..I have watched the show occasionally, but not religiously like everyone else around here. But if you like this show, you NEED to read this before the new season starts!

Craig Russell tells you which networks are winning and which ones are losing with his mid-season report for television!

Matt Basilo still has little to talk about this week. The only new episodes came from the animated shows from FOX and their Sunday lineup. He talks about them and that is all!

Kevin Wong mixes things up a bit this week. He talks about DC comics and a little TV talk. Not much as nothing is going on. But he does have a few things here and there to discuss. What may that be? You will have to find out for yourself!

Murtz talks with a celebrity again! This time he chats with Randal Pinkett from ‘The Apprentice 4’! See what he had to say about the competition!

Recaps a.k.a. The Medium Edition

Joey Hart joins me this week as she has the first “special edition” episode of ‘The Biggest Loser’!

As always, I have the newest episode of the ‘Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Gauntlet II’! And ‘The O.C.’ is back! Double-duty for me! Check out the return of ‘The O.C.’!

John Duran is back for some more ‘Desperate Housewives’ action!

Craig Russell returns for a new episode of the ‘Gilmore Girls’!

This week we had 1 DVD review and it was by me! Go me!

I have Season Five of Seinfeld for you! #6 is coming up in a week or so!

Celebrities a.k.a. Just Katie Again!!

MTV star, Katie, gives her thoughts on episode 6 of the ‘Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Gauntlet II’!

The Weekly Pulse Weekly Poll

A week and half ago..I asked the question…”what day of the week is your favorite for TV watching?” So here are the results:

Emily’s Reasons Why Not! – 0
Four Kings! – 0
In Justice! – 0
Love Monkey! – 4
The Book of Daniel! – 0
Other (Name It)! – 0
None! – 2

Not that many votes, but it is pretty clear. If there is one show that everyone is interested in..it would be ‘Love Monkey’. It’s either that or no new show at all.

Now onto this week’s question. It has to do with what I will be talking about later. The question is..“will TV stars always be considered the original characters they played on earlier, popular shows or can they change shows without a second thought to it?” That sounds a little complicated. So you may want to read the end of this column and then go vote. When you are ready, click on the link and VOTE NOW! Remember..VOTE OR DIE!

What Did My TiVo Record This Week?

Friday

– ’30-Minute Meals’

– ‘Unwrapped’

– ‘$40-a-Day’

– ‘Late Show With David Letterman’

Saturday

– ’30-Minute Meals’

Sunday

– ’30-Minute Meals’

– ‘Desperate Housewives’

– ‘Grey’s Anatomy’

Monday

– ‘Made’

– ‘Unwrapped’

– ‘How I Met Your Mother’

– ‘Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Gauntlet II

– ‘Late Show With David Letterman’

Tuesday

– ‘Unwrapped’

– ‘Secret Life Of…’ (Southern Foods!)

– ’30-Minute Meals’

– ‘Fear Factor’

– ‘Scrubs’

– ‘$40-a-Day’

– ‘Late Show with David Letterman’

Wednesday

– ‘ComicView’

– ’30-Minute Meals’

– ‘Lost’

– ‘Beauty and the Geek’ (Lucky it replays on Wednesdays away from ‘The O.C.’)

– ‘Ham on the Street’ (NEW Food Network Show!)

– ‘Late Show with David Letterman’

Thursday

– ’30-Minute Meals’

– ‘Everybody Hates Chris’

– ‘Four Kings’

– ‘The O.C.’ (It’s Back!)

– ‘E.R.’

– ‘Late Show with David Letterman’

Time to Talk a.k.a. Time to Change

Okay..so here is something to talk about. Have you noticed that recently many TV “stars” from past shows are coming back to new shows in new roles? Lets see..we have Fred Savage from ‘The Wonder Years’ in ‘Crumbs’. There is Neil Patrick Harris from ‘Doogie Howser M.D.’ in ‘How I Met Your Mother’. You have John Stamos from ‘Full House’ in ‘Jake in Progress’. Jason Priestley from ‘Beverly Hills 90210’ will soon co-star in ‘Love Monkey. Jenna Elfman from ‘Dharma & Greg’ in in ‘Courting Alex’. And Teri Hatcher from ‘Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman’ is now in ‘Desperate Housewives’.

The question is whether this is a good idea or not. And whether these stars can overcome their past roles in their new roles. Actors in movies can easily go from one movie to the next and people don’t think anything of it. Sure..if a movie becomes REALLY popular..that actor may always be considered that character. But the actor can easily move on to different movies and sometimes be remembered in more than one movie.

However, TV “stars” are different. If someone is on a show early in their career and it becomes popular, it’s hard for them to move on to a new show. They can do it, but people will ALWAYS remember them as their original characters in their first shows. For example, Neil Patrick Harris will always be Doogie Howser. Fred Savage will always be Kevin Arnold. John Stamos will always be Uncle Jesse. Jason Priestley will ALWAYS be Brandon Walsh. That simple.

Now does that hurt or help their new shows? Does it affect the success of the new show? It all depends. On one hand, it may actually attract viewers to the new shows. They liked the characters from their first shows and see that they will be in a new show. That may draw some fans to the new shows. It hasn’t hurt Neil Patrick Harris. He found a new role on ‘How I Met Your Mother’ and that show is doing quite well. I haven’t seen ‘Jake in Progress’, so I can’t tell you how John Stamos is doing. And ‘Love Monkey’ and ‘Crumbs’ has yet to air yet, so we will have wait on Savage and Priestly. I have no desire to see Jenna Elfman in ‘Courting Alex’ as I HATE her. But I can see fans of hers watching that show because they LOVE Dharma! And Teri Hatcher..well she has moved on quite well. I think that has more to do with the show, though. Her character on ‘DH’ is nothing like Lois Lane. In addition, she has other people around her to help her out. She is not THE “star” of the show. It’s an ensemble cast. That helps a lot.

The key to switching shows in television is to play completely different characters in each show. Since Lois Lane is NOTHING like Susan Mayer, Teri Hatcher has easily moved on. She may actually be remembered more as Susan Mayer than Lois Lane now. That may be the fact that ‘Desperate Housewives’ is a popular show, eventhough it is starting to SUCK! Now if Teri actually moved on to a new show after ‘DH’..she may have a hard time doing it. As far as Fred Savage and Neil Patrick Harris..they were on popular shows as kids. They played kids. They have grown up and got “adult” roles. These are nothing like the roles they played before. That helps a lot. That will help their new shows. However, people will always remember them by their “kid” roles, because kids are so darn cute. That’s life. That is how they still get jobs to this day. They will ALWAYS be Kevin Arnold and Doogie Howser. Same can be said for Jason Priestly and John Stamos. Their original shows were so popular..they can’t get away from their original characters. It will take time to see if their new shows become a hit or not, but I doubt their new characters will become more popular than their first ones. Jenna Elfman? Who cares. I don’t think she will do well at all as she is playing pretty much the same type of character. I could be wrong, though.

The bottom line is that switching shows in TV land is harder to do than switching movies in movie land. If someone was in a extremely popular TV show early in their career, it is VERY hard to get away from the popular characters they played. However, earlier success can propel them to success on other shows. Fans will be fans and they will follow “stars” they like. The shows may suck, but they will stick around to see their favorites. At least for a little bit. It’s up to the actors to make their new characters memorable. That doesn’t mean that people will remember them by these new characters, because more than likely..they won’t. People don’t like change and it’s hard for people to forget about the past. That’s the world we live in. Deal with it Doogie!

Well that does it for me again this week. Any comments, questions, or suggestions are always welcome.

“Life Ain’t Always Beautiful, but It’s a Beautiful Ride!”

And as always remember…“You Can’t Fight Fate!”. See you next week!

I'm not embarrassed to say that my favorite television show of all-time is The O.C. I live by the motto "you can't fight fate!" More importantly, I watch WAY too much television, but I do so for the benefit of everyone reading this now. So to my mom and my wife, I say thanks for reading! To everyone else that might stumble across this, remember TiVo should be your best friend!