Made Me Giggle

I found this at, uh, this site, and since it doesn't directly impugn blogs, it's technically OK for me to post it here. :o)

TV Tidbits 78 - Amazing Race Follow-Up

I am a fan of entertainment writer Andy Denhart and after reading his article on why Glee isn't as good as it could be (thank you!) I moseyed over to his site, reality blurred. There I found a wealth of info and links that illuminated Zev and Justin's passport plight and where they finally wound up finding Zev's passport. So! If you are at all curious as to who really is to blame for the passport kerfuffle, read on!

First, the original blurb that caught my eye:

Some interesting information surfaced in two post-Amazing Race 15 interviews with the tragically eliminated Zev and Justin: they only had 26 minutes to find their lost passports; Phil told them they won motorcycles for coming in first, motorcycles Sam and Dan will presumably receive; and the two went to therapy pre-season to learn how to be more effective.

When they went to search for their passport, they never even made it back to the monkey Roadblock. Justin told Reality TV World that “There wasn’t that much time difference between the first-place team and last-place team,” and Zev said “It was only like 26 minutes.” Justin added, “We were on our way back [to the Roadblock] and [Marian and Tiffany] checked-in so they called our [production] team that was with us and said at that point it was too late.” (The passport actually was at the Roadblock.)

As to the time difference, Zev said something curious in the same interview: “I didn’t think there would be as much downtime as we had. We only raced like one to three hours a day and then the rest is interviews and downtime.” Even if he’s counting waiting in airports and at equalizers as “downtime,” that’s still pretty amazing.

(fast forward to the 2:45 mark for the Zev & Justin bit)

Next, the Reality TV World Q&A:

Zev Glassenberg and Justin Kanew knew that when they lost Zev's passport there The Amazing Race journey was finished.

Zev, a 26-year-old from Sherman Oaks, CA who is currently unemployed, and Justin a 30-year-old VP of development for National Lampoon from Los Angeles, CA, became the fourth team eliminated from The Amazing Race's fifteenth season during Sunday night's broadcast of the CBS reality series.

On Tuesday, Zev and Justin talked to Reality TV World about how they've come to peace with losing the passport and being disqualified for it; how, in retrospect, they might have gotten around the rule; how Zev surprised himself during the competition; and how it felt to watch their mistake play out during the episode.

Reality TV World: Are you guys still upset over the way your The Amazing Race experience ended or have you been able to come to peace with it?

Zev: Yeah, we were very upset and devastated but time heels all wounds.

Justin: That's a great answer Zev.

Zev: Well thanks, Justin.

Justin: I think we've come to terms with it by this point. But the week after that happened it was pretty tough. As we were at Elimination Station and more teams start showing up, you come to realize that only one team can win it.

Reality TV World: You guys actually brought up the idea that you were going to be "DQ'd" because of the missing passport before you actually went and met with host Phil Keoghan and told him about it. What made you guys think that -- was needing your passports for a check-in to be valid a Race rule you guys were already aware of, or had you been talking to some of the producers, or what was it that gave you that idea?

Zev: That's one of the rules.

Justin: That's one of the rules, and also I've seen it happen to [thirteenth-season "Mother and Son" team of Dallas and Toni Imbimbo]. So I knew that probably that hadn't changed.

Reality TV World: I thought the Toni and Dallas situation was a little different from you guys since they were actually the last team to check-in, while you guys were the first team to check-in but couldn't because you didn't have your travel documents. So there was a rule that -- regardless of when you got to the Pit Stop -- you needed to have those travel documents or be disqualified?

Zev: Yeah.

Justin: Yeah, but we just figured that was the case. It just seems like a pretty obvious thing that we weren't going to be able to move on. But in retrospect there was probably a couple things we could have done differently, it's just we made such a scene about looking for it that everybody was so aware of what was going on.

Reality TV World: What were some of those other things you just mentioned?

Justin: Well I guess we could have waited until the next leg started and then gone and tried to find it.

Reality TV World: Okay, so you couldn't have gone during the mandatory rest period at the Pit Stop, but you thought of going once the next leg had officially started?

Justin: Yes.

Reality TV World: Is that a scenario that the producers would have allowed? Did you ever ask them about it?

Justin: No, they probably wouldn't have preferred that. (laughing) I think playing it out on the up-and-up, this is the way it had to go down. But you can't help but brainstorm about what else you could of done, and that was one of the things we came up with, was we could have waited. We had an inkling that that's where it might have been. But, I don't know. Who knows. If the person who found it had found it by then, we would have been stuck there and that would have been that.

Reality TV World: Based on the audio quality difference, it seemed like the clip where Phil was shown telling you guys that you'd be eliminated if you didn't find the passport and return to the mat before the last team checked-in was added in during the editing process. What did Phil actually tell you before you left to go look for the passport?

Zev: That you need your travel documents to continue the race.

Reality TV World: So it was really that cut and dry?

Zev: Yeah.

Justin: Yeah, but we had a little bit of dialogue. I think there's a separate clip that's up there somewhere called "A Somber Farewell" on YouTube. You can see that we had like a two-minute dialogue.

Reality TV World: I know you talked a bit about it during your Elimination Station interview, but I was wondering if you could talk a little bit more about what you think happened to the passport.

Justin: I had it in this fanny pack that I was carrying. It had our stuff. We accidentally went into a monastery because the way the clue read made us fell like we had to go in there, because it said "to be quiet around the monks." When we went in there it was really dark, so I reached into the fanny pack to pull out the headlight that we had, and when I pulled it out I must have pulled the passport out with it.

I just couldn't see anything. It's pretty much that's what happened because that's where they found it. So we kind of know what went down. I don't know what I could have done to avoid that because that fanny pack was the safest place we had.

Reality TV World: After you left the mat when Phil told you that you needed to find it, we saw you guys get in the cab with Thierry. Did you ever really think there was a chance you'd be able to find it somewhere on the course?

Zev: We thought we were going to go and get it.

Justin: But by the time we... There wasn't that much time difference between the first-place team and last-place team.

Zev: It was only like 26 minutes.

Justin: We really knew -- because of the way that the challenges were set up -- we didn't have much time to come back before whoever was last. So we were kind of resigned to it at that point.

Reality TV World: Okay, so it took about 25 minutes between when you checked in first and when "Professional Poker Players" Maria Ho and Tiffany Michelle checked-in last?

Justin: Something like that. It wasn't much.

Reality TV World: So did you even make it back to the temple?

Justin: We were on our way back and [Marian and Tiffany] checked-in so they called our [production] team that was with us and said at that point it was too late.

Reality TV World: What was the reaction of your friends and family members when they found out how you were eliminated?

Zev: They were shocked and sad.

Justin: Yeah, they were definitely devastated. But I think they had some inkling of what was coming because there was a promo out there that week. Neither of us bought a Roles Royce since we got home...

Reality TV World: Although you said you've come to peace with it, was it difficult to watch Sunday night's episode knowing how it would end?

Justin: It was harder in the lead-up I'd say. Zev?

Zev: Yeah, it wasn't that tough for me.

Justin: Actually watching it was not that bad. But the morning we aired we both woke-up and were just wanted to crawl in holes and not look at anybody.

Zev: Well I want to do that most mornings. (Justin laughs)

Reality TV World: I'm guessing there's not much animosity and you guys are still really good friends?

Zev: Yup.

Justin: I hate that bastard!

Reality TV World: A lot of the time the team that finishes the leg in first place receives a prize, however there was no mention of you guys getting a prize during Sunday night's episode. Was there a prize that they initially gave you but then had to take it back since you didn't officially finish first?

Zev: Motorcycles...

Reality TV World: Did that eventually go to "Brothers" Daniel and Samuel McMillen, who originally finished in second?

Zev: Probably. We think so.

Reality TV World: It looked like Thierry played a big role in helping you guys go from last to first during Sunday night's episode. Would you agree with that? How important do you think securing a good cab driver is?

Zev: It's very, very, very important.

Justin: It's such a big part of the race I can't even tell you. It's a luck of the draw thing so it's a level playing field. But we had bad luck with cabs most of the race, and that time we got really lucky and had the best possible guy we could have had.

Reality TV World: You guys actually already previously just barely avoided another disaster earlier in the race when Justin dropped the clue on the dock. Had that incident had any impact on how careful you guys were with your clues and other important stuff?

Justin: That was just kind of a different thing itself because I had the clue in my hand and I fell in the river. (laughing) It wasn't like a matter of forgetfulness in that situation, it was... I don't know, maybe there's a theme. I don't feel like the two are all that related. Then again, Zev might differ with me.

Reality TV World: What was your reaction when Phil revealed that somebody would be eliminated at the Race's starting line?

Zev: Oh man. It was scary. I was scared.

Justin: It was pretty terrifying.

Zev: I did not like that. It was not nice of Phil.

Justin: Nobody wanted to go home and face their family and friends having not left the starting line, so I feel for ["Married Yoga Teachers" Eric and Lisa Paskel]. But we were happy it wasn't us.

Reality TV World: When we talked to Eric and Lisa they thought it was an unfair twist. Do you agree or do you think they were just bitter since they were the ones who were eliminated?

Zev: It was probably a little bit of both, but I think it was more bitter.

Justin: Yeah, I don't see how it could be called unfair. I mean fairness...

Zev: Yeah, everybody had a one in 12 chance to find that license plate.

Justin: We all had the same problem. So fairness I don't think was an issue there.

Reality TV World: Zev were you surprised at how well you did on the race? Did you think it would be more difficult due to your Asperger's?

Zev: A little surprised. I thought I was going to be the one freaking out, but it was my friend Justin over there. (Justin laughs) I think my Asperger's maybe helped me along the way just to keep me calm and doing what I do.

Justin: I'd agree with that.

Reality TV World: After you were eliminated, was there anybody you really began rooting to win the $1 million? Was there anybody you didn't want to see win?

Zev: I think we maybe wanted ["Teammates" Herbert "Flight Time" Lang and Nathaniel "The Big Easy"] to win because they're doing it for their fallen friend. We were happy with any outcome.

Reality TV World: What teams did you get along with the best? The worst?

Zev: We got along best with [Garrett Paul and Jessica Stout], but they decided to leave early. (Justin laughs) I don't know, everybody was just really good people.

Justin: It was surprising how well everyone got along. I mean when the race was happening everybody was in their own world and it was every team for themselves, but when there was downtime there was a lot of love on the race, for sure.

Reality TV World: What was your favorite overall experience on the show?

Zev: Just the whole experience. The whole experience was just wonderful. My favorite challenge was taking the people around Japan. That was fun, being a tour guide.

Justin: For me the most memorable moment was definitely Zev with those ducks.

Reality TV World: What aspect of The Amazing Race surprised you the most?

Zev: I didn't think there would be as much downtime as we had. We only raced like one to three hours a day and then the rest is interviews and downtime.

Reality TV World: Was there anything that you wanted to make it onto the show that was edited out?

Zev: We had a shuttle ride in Japan that didn't make it on the show.

Justin: That was pretty fun but didn't get on there. Anything else? I feel like they captured most of it.

Zev: Yeah.

Justin: Oh! There was that thing in Cai Be...

Zev: There was this night in Cai Be when this woman sang to me and I was talking to her.

Reality TV World: How were you cast for The Amazing Race? Was it your first time applying for the show?

Zev: It was our first time applying and it was a dream of mine to go on the show and I guess we caught their eye and they wanted a good team for the race, so they picked us.

And, finally, the TVGuide.com Q&A:

For the second time in three seasons, a lost passport did in a team on The Amazing Race. Friends Zev Glassenberg, 26, and Justin Kanew, 30, went from leg winners to disqualified racers after Zev's passport went MIA. "We saw [the season] when Toni and Dallas lost theirs. I guess misery loves company," Justin tells TVGuide.com. "I'm glad we weren't the only idiots!" So where and how did they lose the passport? Find out below, and see if Zev really is a duck whisperer.

TVGuide.com: In the Elimination Station clip, you retrieved the passport at the U.S. Embassy and figured out the passport fell out in a temple. What happened?
Justin: Yeah, the clue that took us to the monkey Roadblock said you had to be quiet when you're around the monks, so we assumed we had to go inside the monastery. It was really dark in there and I reached into my fanny pack to pull out a headlight and it must've slipped out then. When they told us where they found it, we realized what happened. It was so dark [the camera guys] couldn't even get what happened. It was probably 15 minutes after we checked in that we realized it was missing. But I take the blame!

TVGuide.com: You guys were so calm then and throughout the whole show. How did you keep your cool after that went down?
Zev: We were just doing our own thing and having fun with it. That's the way we ran our race. We didn't want to get angry or anything. Sometimes things just happen.
Justin: Zev was more calm than I was — and it was his passport. We wanted to avoid the pratfalls of having animosity toward each other, so we went to therapy with Zev's shrink before the race and talked about how we were going to cooperate and I think it really worked. One of the things we said was that no matter what happened, we would be good to each other and keep calm. That was the only thing we could control. I think also you could tell when we got back out there we knew it was over for us. There wasn't a lot that could hold you up for too long on the leg.

TVGuide.com: Other than the end, you ran an awesome leg, going from second-to-last to first. What contributed to that?
Justin: Our strategy, which we didn't really plan, but it was to get a local to stay with us the entire leg. We did it pretty much every leg except for the duck whisperer one. It paid off on this one because we got this great cab driver who knew where we were going and was fast. That's just the luck of the draw the whole race — getting a good cab driver or a slow cab driver. Most of the time we got slow ones, but we were blessed with a good dude that day.

TVGuide.com: They didn't announce a prize for you guys. Was that edited out because you eventually got eliminated?
Justin: It was probably the line of the episode, but it got edited out. We won motorcycles and after Phil told us, Zev goes, "Motorcycle?! I can barely drive a car!"
Zev: What am I going to do with a motorcycle? My mom's not going to let me drive a motorcycle.
Justin: I don't think anyone's ever rejected a prize before, but that's what he did. But I don't think we'll be getting those motorcycles. I don't think you'll be seeing us riding on [Highway] 1 with wind blowing in our hair.

TVGuide.com: You can go on All-Stars and win more prizes.
Zev: Yes! Start the campaign now!

TVGuide.com: Why did only a few teams recognize Jackie Kennedy in the photo?
Zev: I did! Not Justin though. Just Zev! [Laughs]
Justin: Yeah, I didn't. Zev's good like that. I don't know why, but since I didn't, I can't really talk down to anybody. ... I didn't think it was Queen Elizabeth, so that's good!

TVGuide.com: You guys came into this as the "feel-good story" because Zev has Asperger's. Were you OK with that label?
Zev: I just went along with it and did my thing. I've had Asperger's since I was 11 and it's who I am. It didn't weigh on me at all.
Justin: One of the amazing things that's come out of this that has been totally overwhelming has been this outpour[ing] of love and support from people with Asperger's, parents of people with Asperger's about how inspired they are and how they love seeing our relationship and all that. For us, that just made the whole thing more than we thought it could be.

TVGuide.com: Zev, are you really a duck whisperer?
Zev: The tape does not lie!
Justin: People have been asking if he's really that good with ducks and the answer is a capital "yes." I could not believe what I was seeing, especially since there were all these people struggling with this. I thought we were in trouble and then it was like he was whispering to these ducks. He could've told them what to do without the flags and they would've done it. He was just calm and cool. He's great with kids too. He just relates to other living things on this level that some people can't.
Zev: I love to eat duck, so they were probably afraid I was going to eat them.

Movie Morsels 55 - Toy Story 3

I do love the first two Toy Story movies greatly ("You are a sad, strange little man" is a regular favorite quote of mine) so I hope Disney*Pixar doesn't Matrix-ize the series with this one!

And just because it tickles me so much, one of my favorite scenes from Toy Story (fast-forward to the 3:25 mark). Mrs. Nesbitt makes my day.

Garfunkel Update

Nothing Earth-shattering but as I sit at my desk watching the rain, I am reminded that Garfunkel will be stir-crazy tonight for lack of getting to play at the dog park. So, before he drives me bonkers I thought I'd take a moment to share a couple of photos that make the Funk seem a little less... frustrating. :o)

First up is his new Bristle Bone. Well, it's not really "new" - he's had it for a couple weeks now and has already disassembled it three times. Here's what it should look like:


And here's how it looks after Garfunkel gets ahold of it:


Garfunkel is quite capable of getting the rawhide discs out of the bone without unscrewing the entire thing - I've seen him do it - but he just loves to take the whole thing apart and gnaw on each component. It wouldn't necessarily bother me (it does keep him quite occupied, which is good) except that he might, y'know, choke on one of the pieces! We have to watch him. Constantly. He's definitely a smart dog, though, I'll give him that. Not every puppy can unscrew and disassemble his/her toys!

The Funk got a much-needed bath on Sunday and smelled and felt oh-so-nice. Unfortunately, he'll smell like a big ol' wet dog today so I had to get my cuddles in last night. Garfunkel is a very, very patient dog when it comes to unsolicited human hugging. :o) Look how big he is! He's a moose! But an awfully cute one. I just need to keep that in mind this evening... (sigh)

The Amazing Race 15: Week 3

I gotta say... this week's recap disappointed me a little. I only chuckled once and expected a bit more to be said about the Jackie Kennedy identification fiasco. As I watched the show last night, I was gobsmacked at how stupid the teams are!!! I couldn't believe how few people could correctly identify Jackie Kennedy in the photo. Queen Elizabeth?! A random princess that was important to the Cambodians?!! A princess with an unmistakable "Cambodian face"?!!!!!! WTF people?!!!!! Holy bejesus. Is it not just a little sad that every Cambodian cab driver could identify the widow of our own 35th president but 70% of the teams on the Race could not? Let me tell you - it is. It really and truly is. Gah!

Anyhoo, here's the recap. Oh, and Josh (a.k.a. The Recapper)? you let me down this week. Try to pick it up next time, okay?

---

From Vietnam to Cambodia, the ''thank goodness they don't hold a grudge'' leg of The Amazing Race continues! Mind you, this show is under no obligation to acknowledge any past horrors that any visited country has dealt with in the past; this is an entertainment show, not a guided tour of atrocities. But it did feel odd to hear Phil announce that the next destination would be Phnom Penh and not note any of the country's ugliness from the past 40 years, from American bombing to the Khmer Rouge. I could see the producers awkwardly planning this leg: ''So, what's interesting about Cambodia that we can use? Well, they make one hell of a scarf! Anything else? No…nothing comes to mind. Bombing? Does not ring a bell. And wait, Pol who? Now you're just making things up! Nope, just scarves!'' And was it my imagination, or during the montage intro to the country, was there a shot of a furiously masturbating monkey? Talk about your decoys! If I wanted to distract someone from pondering history, I'd consider trotting out a masturbating monkey, too. Pretty hard to concentrate on the Killing Fields when there's a monkey pleasuring himself on your TV screen.

Sorry, what was I talking about? All I can think of is monkey porn. Oh yes, episode 3 of The Amazing Race! The teams were all giddy to go as it began, doling out fun facts like:

1) Flight Time just cleaned Big Easy's underwear. If there's one thing you learn as a Harlem Globetrotter, it's that at any moment, someone can pull down your pants, so you'd better be ready with clean underwear.

2) Under the guise of a haphazard metaphor about how many animals they'd seen on the Race, Brian and Ericka called themselves ''Team Jungle Fever.'' Yeesh, I haven't heard a group of people call this much attention to their color since Blue Man Group.

Everyone arrived at the Ho Chi Minh City airport in the early evening, and the first flight to Cambodia left at 12:25pm the next day, so there was going to be a lot of sitting around. Everyone got on the first flight except for Lance and Keri and Justin and Zev, who got seats at the last minute on standby. Justin was so happy he asked the ticket agent for a hug, even though she was wearing a surgical mask. Quick hint, Justin: If someone's wearing a mask and they're not in the O.R., odds are they're not that fond of human contact. Save your hugs for the masturbating monkeys.

Zev and Justin got in a cab with driver Terry, who became their new best friend. He stuck with them through every route marker; Zev had joked with him, ''Don’t leave us, or I'm gonna call your mother.'' While on the way to the Vietnam airport, Zev made a similar ''I'll tell your mother'' joke to another cabbie. Zev has said that he has trouble veering from a routine: I had no idea that also applied to his comedy routines. I'd hate to be around when he gets his hands on a knock-knock joke he really likes.

The first stop in Cambodia was the Foreign Correspondents Club, where they had to meet two ''assignment editors'' who would give them their next clues. These ''journalists'' looked like a casting agent had dressed a couple of actors up by copying a drawing of Roland Hedley. The teams were given two rules for approaching these men: you must whisper, and you must ask for ''your assignment.'' Canaan didn't fulfill the second rule; he kept asking for his ''next task,'' and the journalist blanched and ignored him until he got it right. And yet many of the other teams didn't even approach a whisper and they were handed the envelopes right away. If you want justice in Cambodia, don't go to an actor pretending to be a journalist.

For their assignment, teams were handed a photo of Jackie Kennedy Onassis on her only official visit to Cambodia, and told to find the hotel suite named after her. It was alarming how few people recognized her. I wonder if The Amazing Race has a side business going surveying American historical knowledge for the U.S. Department of Education. Having discovered last season that most Americans draw a blank on Anton Chekhov, this year they decided to check on a more recent public figure, with Jackie O. Fail again. Maybe next season they'll move it up yet another notch by going even more current, maybe showing Racers a shot of Jimmy Carter. Or even Janet Reno. But I have a feeling that we will keep seeing blank stares until we finally get to a picture of the Baja Men.

The Detour was ''Cover'' or ''Wrap.'' For ''Wrap'' (which everybody but Lance and Keri picked), teams had to run to a crowded Russian market, find two stalls where they sold ornate scarves, pick one, and then wander the market until they found a woman wearing an identical scarf. ''Cover'' involved convincing a family of four to buy motorcycle helmets for $10. When it began, I thought Cover was the obvious choice, because Wrap seemed like the kind of needle-in-a-haystack challenge that can randomly go very, very wrong. But it seemed like everyone finished Wrap with relative ease. Cover, from our sample size of one team, also seemed relatively painless. It also seemed far odder the longer you considered it: It was such a specific task, based on the premise that Cambodian markets are flooded with families of four who all travel on the same motorcycle. What do families of three do, all pile onto a unicycle?

(Incidentally, I have a rule check: Doing ''Wrap,'' Zev and Justin got their faithful cabbie Terry to help them find their matching woman. Is that sort of aid illegal? (And others got outsider help, too.) I thought that teams could get directions or be led by others, but not get actual help in a challenge. Can anyone shed light on this?)

From the Detour it was on to the Roadblock: learning how to act like the revered monkeys of Cambodia. Considering how we saw one of those revered monkeys act at the beginning of the show, I was concerned that this was going to get ugly. I didn't want to see the overexcitable Lance sprain his wrist. (<-- this was my one chuckle. Oh, how I hate Lance!) Luckily, that wasn't on the monkey menu. There were only three moves to learn, none of which seemed very extreme. Don’t monkeys scurry up and/or swing from trees? I'd imagine if you were a monkey and saw this, you'd be insulted that your skill set had been reduced to only your horizontal—and least impressive – maneuvers. But on the flip side, I guess I'd be thrilled to see myself represented on TV without a single mention of hurled feces.

And before I continue, I must chastise Phil for enacting one of my biggest pet peeves: misusing the word ''literally.'' As in his Roadblock instructions, ''One person must learn to be a monkey, and quite literally go bananas.'' Quite literally? So they have a yellow skin and are filled with potassium? Damn it, Phil, just because you're abroad doesn’t give you license to break the laws of the English language!

Okay, back to the challenge: Zev and Maria seemed to be the only two people who really struggled with the task, although at least Maria didn't collapse under the stress. Zev remained stuck on the last monkey trial, a crawling move. ''He kind of has the body of an 80-year-old man,'' said Justin. ''And bending over on his hands is really not in his bag of tricks.'' I can't really mock Zev, as I am incredibly inflexible and might well have struggled with it, too. I just think I would have refrained from falling down in despair. I don't care how hard it is, it's still humiliating to crumple into a heap from exhaustion because you weren't able to, quite literally, go bananas.

Still , after being overtaken by Sam and Dan, they were able to finish the Roadblock, pull back ahead, and land first…with an asterisk. Zev had lost his passport. They had teased last week that this would happen to someone in this episode, but I thought it would be Brian. When he and Ericka jumped into a motorcycle cab this week, the footage dragged down to slo-mo when he put his small bag on the dash. I was convinced that this was the producers' way of making sure we noticed; I thought later he would dash out of the cab, forgetting that very bag. But no, Zev and Justin turned out to be the unhappy losers, and they were told they had to find their passports before the last team arrived, or they'd be eliminated. Personally, I think when this happens, teams should have the chance to look for their passports right up until the next leg begins; the last team would stick around until then, and if Zev hadn't found his passport before their time to leave, then that last team would be brought back in and allowed to run.

Alas, Zev and Justin weren't able to find their passports, and Maria and Tiffany, arriving last, dodged a bullet…but not literally. But we got one last glimpse of the never-ending friendship of Zev and Justin, as they both said that neither blamed the other. I always wondered about this: of course teams are compelled to say this about one another for the cameras, but if you woke them out of a deep sleep yelling, ''Do you blame your partner?'' would you get a different answer? If Zev gave one, we'd have to call his mother.

What did you think about this week's episode? Do you think Zev and Justin could have won it all had they not been disqualified, or was it only a matter of time before they got the boot? Which Detour option would you have picked: Cover or Wrap? And did you enjoy this episode more or less, with its minimal footage of Lance? Or was his spastic roundhouse kick at the mat the equivalent of a full hour spent with him?

TV Tidbits 77 - Chuck

I am in TV despair! Shows that I used to like - and probably still do somewhere down deep inside (helloooooo, NCIS) - I can't bring myself to get enthused about. I'm already several episodes behind on the shows I busted my butt to catch up on (helloooooooooo, NCIS! and SVU!) and the more I fall behind, the less I want to invest the large chunk of time it will take to catch up again. Shows like Top Chef and The Amazing Race and HIMYM are so easy to watch... why must you be so long and have such involved carryover plots, dramatic serials? Bah! (Though I can't blame it all on dramas - I've even begun to check out on Glee. The whole baby plot line is really irritating to me for some reason and I'm having trouble getting past it. Moving on...) The point in my rant? That when I read that Chuck may be returning later this month - as opposed to in March as originally planned - I was first excited and then slightly annoyed. Another show to watch? Oy. Then I watched this clip and reminded myself that Chuck is quality stuff. My love of Awesome and Jeffster will just have to carry me through!

(My favorite? @ 1:40: "Why are you letting Sam Kinison and an Indian lesbian wreck your wedding?" Love it!!!)

TV Tidbits 76 - Ruby & the Rockits

Bah!!!! I really AM out of the loop these days! I am bummed. Ashamed. Disappointed. I don't know what's happened to me! (sigh) :o( I am hanging my head as I type.

This probably won't affect anyone but me, anyway, but since I posted about Ruby & the Rockits earlier this year, I thought I should at least follow-up. Apparently, ABC Family has decided not to extend Ruby past its original 10 episode order. Which means the episode that aired on September 22nd was the last one... ever. Dang! I mean, I guess my mom and I were the only ones watching but c'mon - it's David Cassidy! Granted, the show itself was beyond schmaltzy... but David and Patrick Cassidy were actually pretty funny. To me, at least. If they'd cut Ruby and the blond kid out of the show entirely it would've been awesome! ;o) I honestly did enjoy watching the show over my Lucky Charms in the morning and am bummed it died so quickly.

Published: September 12, 2009

ABC Family has decided to pass on ordering a second season of its freshman sitcom, Ruby & the Rockits.

In Ruby & the Rockits, former teen icon Patrick Gallagher (Patrick Cassidy) has been living quietly with his wife (Katie A. Keane) and their two sons, teenage Jordan (Austin Butler) and sarcastic preteen Ben (Kurt Doss).

Things change when Patrick’s former band-mate brother, David (David Cassidy), shows up with David’s previously unknown teenage daughter, Ruby (Alexa Vega). David doesn’t want to give up his show-biz life and leans on his brother to help raise his daughter, who’s a rising star on her own.

The show debuted on July 21st to 1.6 million viewers and 654,000 in the 18-49 demographic, making Ruby the second best sitcom launch in the network’s history. It even built out of the audience of fellow freshman comedy 10 Things I Hate About You.

Unfortunately, those numbers didn’t hold up and the sitcom lost steam in the following weeks. While the network has renewed 10 Things for another 10 episodes, ABC Family has decided to dump Ruby after one short season.

The final episode is scheduled to air on Tuesday, September 22nd. In the episode, titled “Smells like Teen Drama,” Jordan and Ruby compete for the attention of the same girl. Privileged’s Lucy Hale guest stars as Ruby’s best friend and Jordan’s new girlfriend. Meanwhile, Ben is being bullied at school. David and Patrick want him to fight back while his mother has a very different point of view.

TV Tidbits 75 - The Office

As I'm sure everyone (who cares) knows, Jim and Pam are finally getting married this Thursday. Unfortunately for me, Robert and I are (surprise!) still 8 episodes behind in the last season so I just totally blew off The Office season pass on the ol' TiVo. :o( Boo. BUT I will definitely have to tune in for the wedding because it's a huge pop culture event and I must stay as current as possible! ;o) I loathe feeling left out or left behind, people.

Anyhoo, here are a couple of sneak peeks/promos for the big event and if you want to read more about the wedding, check out [last week's] Entertainment Weekly cover story here.

The special hour-long episode of NBC’s The Office is a happy occasion, but one that in TV terms is also fraught with risky finality, since marrying off The Office’s resident Ross and Rachel could damage the couple’s plot-generating will-they-won’t-they energy. “It’s about keeping this relationship as real as we can instead of making it a television romance,” explains Krasinski. “When you have two characters who are so perfect for each other, it’s a little weird for them to not get married. So you have to put that step in, whether it’s been done on television successfully before or not.”

A Robert Post! Ish.

Robert came across Your Logo Makes Me Barf yesterday and passed it along to me as potential blog material. So nice! I'm not sure Robert has ever sent me anything for the blog before! Sure, his regular behavior is often fabulous fodder for the blog... but that's not the same thing. ;o)

This logo in particular struck Robert's fancy. I can tell I'm tired because I know this would ordinarily make me giggle, too... but today it only elicited a smile. See what you think:

This is a personal logo for a show horse photographer named Bradley Dick. As unlikely as it might seem, the guy is apparently completely unaware of the not-so-subtle imagery that the combination of his name and logo evokes. The phrase ‘natural action’ isn’t a proposition, as it may seem when coupled with his phone number, but refers to the fact that he hasn’t retouched the horse’s gait.

He tweaks his logo often and has gone through several revisions. Every time the thing seems to get more and more… upright.

The Amazing Race 15: Week 2

Hello, all! Most of you know why I've been so busy and haven't updated the blog in the past week so I won't dwell on any of that. I'm still pretty busy and sort of just generally scattered and frazzled so posts may still not be up to their usual numbers for a bit. But I know someone, somewhere is depending on me for the EW.com recap of the Race (though I know it's not Robert... we just got around to watching the first episode last night!) so here it is:

For those who look at the current Iraq and Afghanistan wars and can't imagine that these countries will ever turn a corner and become lands of peace, tonight should have given you a hint of optimism. Back in 1975, when the Vietnam war ignominiously ended, I would venture that most Americans never wanted to think of the country again and wished it would vanish from a map along with all of its tortured memories. Fast forward to 2009: it's the site of an American game show in which contestants compete to push giant animals around. Who would have seen that coming in the '70s? In 2043, will Amazing Race 83 feature a Roadblock in which one teammate has to dance with a camel in Sadr City? We can all dare to dream.

The second night of this season had the teams sweatily dashing all over Vietnam, but dramatically it was less Hamburger Hill than Veggie Burger Valley: a lot of spitting and crackling, but not all that much flavor. Ultimately, the only team we really got a good revealing glimpse at was Lance and Keri, or as I call them, ''The bastard son of Jon Favreau and Richard Kind, and his wife, the voice of Fran Drescher.'' It wasn't a favorable glimpse, but at least it was interesting.

Gary and Matt (who are trying but failing to fulfill their obligation to be the ''father and son who never connected but just might on the Race'') started off with a little bickering, but after Matt admitted that his dad was right in one situation, that strand pretty much faded out. Frankly, I remain less interested in that than in getting a glimpse of the rest of the tattoo on Matt's chest: through his V-neck tee we got a glimpse of the number ''400'' written in the kind of colorful colors you usually see on a discount birthday card. After the first episode, I never thought I'd ever say, ''I hope there's a swimming challenge so I can see Matt with his shirt off,'' but now I'm dying for one so I can see what other ninth-grade-girl's-notebook-doodle body ink he's got under there.

We never found out what the tattoo meant, but we did hear personal stories from two other players. Marcy's dad, an air force general, was shot down over Vietnam but escaped, which made her emotional. Meanwhile, Big Easy's dad passed away just two days before the Race began, which is very sad, though I wish the producers didn't seem so gleefully eager to play it up, making him repeat and restate his loss over and over again. (Although maybe they overdid it this week to make up for not mentioning it last week: ''Oops, did your dad die? I didn't hear you say that, I was too busy trying to get Zev to act all Aspergers-y. We'll cover it next time, I promise!'') Later in the show, when the Globetrotters were closing in on the pit stop, and getting psyched for their foot race, there was a really poorly stitched together quote, with Big Time randomly saying, ''My dad just passed away...'' and then (in a different volume) saying that this was the reason he would run hard. Are they now going to stuff in the phrase ''My dad just passed away...'' before everything he says, to make it sound like it's his motivation for everything? That will be really awkward the next time he has to go to the bathroom.

Oh, sorry, I forgot one other personal fact about the players: Turns out that Lance is a lion! Yep, it's true! Or at least metaphorically. And, he said, the rest of the teams are ''running like a pack of gazelles, or zebras. We're gonna take 'em down.'' Yes, Lance is king of the jungle...just as soon as he can find the jungle. Wait, is this it, it looks kind jungly...Whoops, it's just a Rainforest Café. Damn it, Keri, you've screwed up again!

Lance is really excelling in the role of hypercompetive jerk who panics so much at every challenge that he can't see the obvious. Take the first challenge, for instance, in which everyone had to try to snatch a clue out of a water puppet's mouth. (I was relieved that one of the water puppets wasn't Willie Tyler and Lester. I know, work is work, but it still would have been painful to see how far he'd fallen.) The clue was just a single bullet; when you unscrewed the top, inside you found a stamp with a picture of the next destination on it. While everyone else quickly figured it out, he stared dumbfounded at the bullet, convinced the real clue had fallen off. He ran around in circles, showing it to everyone around him. Frankly, the way he was walking around showing everyone that bullet, I was a little concerned that he was inadvertently going to start another war, albeit a really unthreatening one.

But what makes him truly irksome is the way that, when anything goes wrong, his default reaction is to blame Keri. Boy, life with him must be an endless parade of warm fuzzies. I'd be curious to do an experiment to determine Keri's precise range of blame: bad things would be done to Lester, and after every one, Keri would take another step backward, just to see at what point he stops yelling at her. I'm guessing that she's in the clear once she's moved out to 28 feet away.

(Just one other note on the water puppet challenge: Why were Canaan and Mika taking turns dancing instead of grabbing at the clue? Did they think the puppets would be so enthralled by their moves that they would just let the clue drop out of their mouths? It's a water puppet, people. Madame, Lamb Chop, and Peanut might fall for that arts crap, but these are water puppets: they're professionals.)

At the following Detour, the choices were between Child's Play or Word Play. For Child's Play, teams had to drag a heavy animal statue on a dolly through a park, picking up balloons on the way. Ron and Marcy were the only ones to go for Word Play, for which they had to go up to a roof and look for six motorcycle drivers below with letters on their cap. Once they'd collected them all, they had to use them as a word jumble to find a Vietnamese word. This ended up being a very time-consuming choice, but I was distracted by empathetic thoughts toward the moped drivers below, undoubtedly carsick from constantly circling that rotary. I couldn't tell if it was Amazing Race or European Vacation.

I was befuddled by Marcy and Ron's approach, once they'd collected all their letters. Instead of just grabbing a passerby to help solve the Jumble, they decided that the quickest way to figure this out was to first teach themselves the Vietnamese language. Marcy loves to embrace a challenge, and she also loves to submerge herself in a culture, but perhaps the middle of the Amazing Race is not the time or place to teach yourself how to conjugate verbs simply using the storefront signs around you.

This challenge was their downfall, as everyone else finished the far sweatier Child's Play task far quicker. I was a little surprised: the ''lug an object through crowded streets'' challenges often end in tears, one member threatening to quit, and other variations on someone losing his or her s---. So I would have thought the Jumble challenge quicker. The only stumbling blocks with Child's Play seemed to be A) picking an unwieldy animal, and B) being Lance.

Really, Justin and Zev: a giraffe? Ever heard about a low center of gravity? What happened, you couldn’t get your first choice: a house of cards erected in the shape of an ostrich? Meanwhile, Lance was again panicking, to the point where he let go of a balloon. Damn you, Keri, for mentally unclenching his hammy fist from the balloon string! After finishing that task, he was laying into Keri so much that she demanded an apology, to which he said, ''All right, well, if that's the case, I'm sorry.'' It was the least convincing apology since the Nuremberg trials.

But for all the sweating and swearing, there were no great upsets in this challenge; and except for the giraffe's broken neck, all the animals arrived unscathed. No such luck for the VCRs in the following Roadblock, which one teammate had to smash to bits while separating those bits for recycling, which is apparently big in Vietnam. Phil made it sound like Vietnam's chief export was smashed electronics, which probably frustrated the Vietnam bureau of tourism. ''Oh, great, we just spent all that money on brochures of all of the great bicycling you can do here, and now everyone's just gonna think we're Home of the Smashy Smashy.''

It was tough to see who was good at the task and who wasn't; everyone just burned through it, except for Justin, who took it as slowly as if he was defusing a bomb. Tiffany got this season's inaugural group mocking by local spectators, but quickly got the hang of it. And Lance was finally able to use those muscles he's been teasing as he physically tore the VCR apart with his bare hands like Frankenstein going through villagers. (''It was the man thing to do,'' he said. Wait, is he a man or a lion? So confused.) Keri, forgetting their differences, cheered her fiancee on in a voice that was only slightly less aggravating than having an electric screwdriver drilled into my ear.

The Globetrotters finished first in this leg (it goes out to Big Easy's dad!), but on the other end, it looked like a three-way dash not to be eliminated between Lance and Keri, Zev and Justin, and Ron and Marcy. However, since it had been established that Ron and Marcy arrived at the Roadblock after everyone else was done, it was obvious that they were nowhere near the other teams, and were destined for elimination. But before that happened, we got a rare jab from Phil (who, I should have mentioned last week, is unfortunately unable to blog for us this season; I tried to hire Browsie, but he has trouble with deadlines). When Lance arrived in second to last place, having just been outrun by Zev and Justin, Phil asked him, ''The lion is still alive…but right now the zebras and gazelles are beating you to the mat.'' Responded Lance (before challenging Phil to a wrestling match), ''They can run fast, but they're gonna wear out soon.'' Wait, so is this lion versus gazelle, or turtle versus hare? Until he gets this worked out, I'll stick with my own wild kingdom analogy: giant ape versus wife. And I don't think this one will end in his favor.

Anyway, poor Marcy and Dan. They seemed nice enough, but she was too into treating this like an educational vacation. There's no time for taking it all in if you want to win. I hope she got closure about her dad, and yet I feel bad: She's now the second person in her family to get shot down in Vietnam.

So what did you think of the second episode? Where does Lance rank amongst the other MVP yellers in Race history? And were you sorry to see Marcy and Ron go??