All Entries Tagged With: "ABC Family"

I Have Surprising Praise for the Second Season of The Bill Engvall Show

Given the chance to preview the first two episodes of The Bill Engvall show from TBS, I didn’t have high hopes. I honestly didn’t think I’d like the show. But I was wrong. Read on to see why.

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Ausiello of TVGuide.com recently said that Lost alum Cynthia Watros (Libby!) will be on season two of the TBS program,The Bill Engvall Show. I actually was just allowed to have an advanced view the first two episodes of the second season for the show. This is a TV show I’d never seen before, so going into it I didn’t know too much. Having now watched and read up on it,  I feel prepared for the rest of the season. And it’s a sseason I truly do want to watch - especially since Watros will be in it for three episodes.

I will tell you that The Bill Engvall show is nothing like Lost. It’s not a serious drama. It reminds me a bit of the ABC Family show Greek. I loooove, love Greek! What these shows have in common is that they’re (mostly and usually) light-hearted, cheery shows that leave me feeling happy. Feeling happy can be hard to come by. My go-to method to feel happy these days is to surround myself with good, funny friends, and good, funny shows. (Or both at the same time for a double whammy of happy.)

Why was I surprised to like The Bill Engvall Show? Well, to be honest I don’t always like a lot of comedies, especially if there’s any cheesiness or it seems impossibly happy. (The song Don’t Worry Be Happy also annoys me sometimes. This might be because my Dad once made my family listen to it about 40 times on a ride down to summer camp.)  I really did enjoy watching this show. In fact I ended up watching each episode twice. I can’t say exactly why, but the show is addictive like a serving of sugary double fudge brownies. Luckily, there’s no calories when you watch the show, I can’t say that for the brownies.

Popularity: 37% [?]

“Greek” Reminded Me Why I Want TV Show Prequels

I’m officially in love with ABC Family’s show Greek. The latest episode, Freshmen Daze, further cemented my love of the show. It gave the fans exactly what we didn’t even know we wanted - backstory! In the episode we found out that Cappie and Evan were childhood friends. We found out how and why Casey left Cappie to date Evan. We even found out that Frannie wasn’t always evil to Casey. (When there’s someone like Frannie around, either keep them out of your orbit or have them on your side.) It looks like Cappie has grown up a lot since Freshman year. He may not have been the guy for Casey then, but what about now? (Cue some cheesy song.)

I wonder why it is that the backstory of a show sometimes seems even more alluring than the current story. Maybe to have a good show you just have to have that great foundation. However, I can’t help but notice that there are amazing foursomes of characters featured as backstories in two (or three) of my favorite shows.

Example one: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: Angelus (Angel), Spike, Drusilla, and Darla. Pesky souls get in the way of things. Death also proves to be a problem, but just for a while.

Example two: Veronica Mars: Veronica, Lily, Duncan, Logan. A pesky character death leaves the group with one less. Romantic entanglement causes tension between the remaining three (while the ghost of the other haunts them). And then there’s a baby that takes someone away. Bittersweet! I demand a prequel!

Well, onto happier thoughts. Do you have mega-love for Greek’s Cappie and Casey? Yea, me too. (Watch the fanvid!)

Picture from ABCFamily.com

Popularity: 42% [?]

“The New Normal” for “Greek” Means Repressing Feelings

Episode 11 of season 1 of Greek has now aired! The show is entertaining and seems upbeat even when there’s drama and angst. Greek life is pretty much always interesting, right? (Legally Blonde DVD, National Lampoon’s Animal House DVD) Do I recommend watching it? That’s a big ‘yes’. The next episode airs on Monday the 31st, at 8/7 central on ABC Family. The episode is called The Great Cappie. The episode that aired this week was called The New Normal.

In The New Normal all of the Greek’s had it tough because of an expose that showed they partied way too hard (like that’s hard to guess? c’mon). So there are new rules - like strict curfews. The ZBZ sisters have a new sort of ‘babysitter’ named Lizzi. She is basically your worst nightmare of a teacher or person in charge - a real stickler for rules.

For the kissing booth the girls were doing for the Greek carnival she insisted they not wear ‘red whorish lipstick,’ and that they dress more akin to the Amish than Britney Spears (in her good days). Red lipstick is great (so retro glam). So I know she is trouble.

Although Lizzie claims to want to help Cassie (the interim president of the ZBZ’s) she might not help too much. The kissing booth wasn’t going well because people are mad the house who had the undercover journalist (Jen K.). The fact the girls were dressed how they were didn’t help matters.

Cappie decided to help out with his frat, and they ended up kissing and raising money for charity. Cappie and Casey kissed, which made Rebecca jealous. But come on Rebecca, Cappie is crazy for Casey no matter what he tells you. Stop seeing what you want to see! Cappie is like Pacey and Casey is like Joey (Dawson’s Creek).

Pictured above: A behind the scenes image from Greek “The New Normal”. The image is from ABC Family. The site is great, you can watch episodes online.You can see the Greek page here.

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Popularity: 30% [?]

‘Greek’ is a Gratifying Guilty Pleasure

Given that there isn’t a huge abundance of stuff to watch on TV, I want to tell you about a guilty pleasure show I’ve watched: Greek. Technically it’s: GRΣΣK. It goes by both spellings. This is an ABC Family show that began in July of 2007. It’s been off since this September, but I believe it’s coming back in late March.

It’s an hour-long show that I suppose you’d call a dramedy (drama+comedy). It’s really not too intense, which is why I can watch it while I’m cleaning my room. (And seriously, how does my room get so messy?) The ‘cheese’ factor of some plots gets a little high at times, but it’s fun and entertaining.

The show is about Greek life on a college campus - centering mostly around two frats and one sorority. That’s of interest to me because I was a sorority girl

Popularity: 24% [?]

25 Days of Christmas On ABC Family

I’ve tried to explain to my kids that watching the Christmas specials on TV isn’t what it used to be. There were a few prime specials that we waited for, and it was always something special when they were on. Shows like How the Grinch Stole Christmas, A Charlie Brown Christmas, and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer were only on once a year, and if you missed it, that was it. There were no VCRs, DVDs, or TiVos, let alone cable or satellite. Now we have so many different holiday specials, it’s hard to keep track of them all.

ABC Family runs many of the shows every night from Thanksgiving until Christmas, calling it their 25 Days of Christmas, even though simple counting tells us it’s a few more than that. Tonight they have one of the classic movies on, White Christmas, starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye and Rosemary Clooney. Not only does it feature Crosby’s song White Christmas, but also the best song ever made about sisters, titled simply Sisters. After a few drinks, my sister and I will be glad to do our own rendition of the song for you.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the original cartoon, not the film remake starring Jim Carrey, is on midway through December on the 14th, as well as the 20th and 23rd, so that you, too, can “Welcome Christmas.” Twas the Night Before Christmas is on December 5th, The Little Drummer Boy is on December 13th, and Santa Claus Is Coming to Town and The Year Without a Santa Claus are on December 19th. New favorite, The Polar Express is on December 7th and 12th, as well as Christmas Eve.

ABC Family’s 25 Days of Christmas also includes some movies that I wouldn’t personally include as holiday classics, but they’re notable nonetheless, with The Incredibles and the first three movies in the Harry Potter series. I suppose if you hum a few Christmas tunes and have a glass of egg nog, anything could be included as a holiday classic.

Of course there’s plenty other classics I didn’t even mention. Go ahead and check out the 25 Days of Christmas calendar for yourself.

Popularity: 59% [?]