Jump the Shark

A couple days ago I asked the Boss if he watched House this week. He said that after it ended his wife asked him if he thought House had 'jumped the shark.' My response was "Huh?" The Boss was very surprised that I had never heard the phrase before. As am I now that I see how prevalent it is in entertainment and television culture. Jumping the shark is a term used when a show has hit its peak and begins to go down hill. The term originates from Happy Days when The Fonz jumps over a shark while water skiiing. Check out this website where viewers vote on what moment 'jumped the shark' in many tv shows, if it ever did at all. JumptheShark.com

I looked over the shows that I am currently watching and have found four cases of jumping the shark that stick out to me.

Desperate Housewives- After the first season this show has gone downhill and stayed there. The mysterious storyline of season one was a bit of a let down at the end and it continued to be unsatisfying as they brought in new uninteresting characters.

24- After the fourth season, which was the absolute best season of 24, it jumped the shark. The President became involved in the terrorism and it just was not nearly as good.

Heroes- At the beginning of season 2, with the introduction of the South American siblings and Micah's distant family, Heroes took a step back. But I wonder if there is a term such as 'Going under the Shark' because Season 3 is back in action and so far has been much better than season 2.

House- As Mrs. Boss presumed, I feel House is potentially jumping the shark this season. The House/Wilson/Private Investigator storyline has been much less than stellar so far this season. We'll see if it continues throughout the year.

What's New at Disney

There have been many updates and changes at Walt Disney World since my last visit in April of 2007, but by the time the Park Guys make their way back to Orlando in July of 2009 there will be four major additions to Walt's World that excite me.


14 out of the 18 times I've visited Disney, we've stayed at the Caribbean Beach Resort. It really can't be touched in terms of atmosphere, and if I were only allowed to be one place the rest of my life it would be CBR. There had been talk about making a change the next time the Park Guys went down to Florida, but now that is out of the question. For the past six months the Caribbean has been doing a complete renovation of their pool area. It was already a fantastic pool with a great hot tub and unbelievable at. The new pictures of the finally finished pool look even better. The pool itself is much bigger, the deck is much bigger with many more loungers (although Big Tom and Karebear will still head down early to save chairs with towels and shoes), and there is a beuatiful walk in area. This upgrade should put the Caribbean's pool into second place, behind Yacht & Beach Club, in flat pool rankings. If you take into account that Y&B Pool closes at 10 and they actual stick to those rules, then it's obviously a landslide. Because the great thing about CBR nightlife is that the pool doesn't technically close until midnight, but it never closes.


It was either JJ or T-time that said MGM (or now Hollywood Studios) is the worst of the four parks at WDW now that Millionaire-Play It! has left the building. Although I never agreed, because Tower of Terror and Rock 'n Roller Coaster will always keep it above water, two major additions hopefully will change their minds. Toy Story Midway Mania opened at the Studios on May 31st. It is a ride on the same level as Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, in that you load a two person cart and shoot at targets throughout your dark ride. What I'm assuming will make a step up is that you wear 3-D glasses, you actually shoot things out of your gun (not just a laser) and supposedly the levels change depending on how good you are. I've always been a huge fan of Buzz Lightyear, even though I always get beat by JJ. It doesn't hurt him that he went to college in Orlando and found out where all of the high point targets are.


The next major addition to Hollywood Studios, coming in early 2009, is the American Idol Experience. Now although I don't see this as being up to par with Millionaire, it definitely has potential. I'm a big Idol fan in general and this show/attraction could be a great place to cause a raucus. So apparently Disney guests appear on each show during the day, but you have to pass two auditions before getting to go on stage before the live audience. The guests perform and the audience votes on who was the best, and then the winner from each show face off in the finale each night. The winner of the finale show each day gets a ticket to an audition for the real American Idol show with judges that may or may not be Simon, Paula and Randy. Speaking of these judges, this attraction could be made or broken by the judges that have at each show. P.S. this attraction being invented shot David Gearey to the top of the list for next year's trip.


So on all three of the Park Guys' trips we've engaged in two 'class it up' restaurant dinners. The first two years we went to Margaritaville and ESPN Club and the third year we got tired of ESPN Club so it was Margarita-
ville and Rain Forest Cafe. There is a new restaurant being built as we speak in Downtown Disney that will definitely replace Rain Forest Cafe and it is called T-Rex Cafe. It is a prehistoric family adventure. I'm not saying it's going to be amazing, but I'm gonna vote to give it a shot come July 2009.

Jim Carrey Top 10

The great Jim Carrey has been performing on television and in the movies since he was 18 years old. His acting has spanned almost three decades now...three distinct decades. In the 80s he was still young, doing either small movies or small parts including a vampire movie. It's basically a forgotten or never realized time in his career for most of us. Then comes the 90s, or the golden years, for Mr. Carrey. Four years on In Living Color in addition to all of his best movies, in my opinion. He did both Ace Venturas, The Mask, Dumb and Dumber, Cable Guy, Liar Liar, Truman Show and Me, Myself and Irene (released in 2000, but made in 1999). Then came the 2000s where he put out such hits as Bruce Almighty, Lemony Snicket, Number 23, The Grinch and Fun With Dick and Jane. I am hoping that 2009 releases of Yes Man, I Love You Phillip Morris and Ripley's turn things around at the tail end of this decade.



Anyway here are my top 10 Jim Carrey movies...(note: I have not seen Eternal Sunshine)



1. Dumb and Dumber
2. The Cable Guy
3. Ace Ventura:
When Nature Calls
4. The Truman Show
5. Liar Liar
6. The Mask
7. The Majestic
8. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
9. Me, Myself and Irene
10. Bruce Almighty

Fantasy Survivor Weeks 1 & 2

The season premier of Survivor was two hours so there were two eliminations and therefore two weeks of play in our Bro Out Fantasy Survivor League. Here's how things stack up...



Freecell Makes Me Wanna
Marcus: 41 (Challenges)
+ 3 (Eliminations) = 44
Matty: 3 (Eliminations) = 3
Charlie: 25 (Challenges)
+ 3 (Eliminations) = 28
Sugar: 25 (Challenges)
+ 3 (Eliminations) = 28
Total = 103






The Renegades
GC: 16 (Challenges)
+ 3 (Eliminations) = 19
Bob: 25 (Challenges)
+ 3 (Eliminations)
+ 10 (Man Shit) = 38
Kelly: 25 (Challenges)
+ 3 (Eliminations) = 28
Crystal: 3 (Eliminations) = 3
Total = 88




Renaissance O & F Surgery
Ace: 25 (Challenges)
+ 3 (Eliminations) = 28
Corrine: 25 (Challenges)
+ 3 (Eliminations) = 28
Jacquie: 25 (Challenges)
+ 3 (Eliminations) = 28
Michelle (W1): -20 (Eliminations) = -20
Susie (W2): 2 (Eliminations) = 2
Total = 66







Rangers Stars Cowboys Mavericks
Dan: 3 (Eliminations) = 3
Ken: -1 (Eliminations) = -1
Randy: 3 (Eliminations)
+ 10 (Man Shit) = 13
Paloma: 25 (Challenges)
+ 3 (Eliminations) = 28
Total = 43

South Park

So I've never been a South Park guy, but have enjoyed the bits and pieces that I've seen. Lochness told me he could never watch family guy after seeing the South Park ep when they destroyed Fam Guy. I finally got around to watching the two Cartoon Wars episodes and here's what I think. The point they were trying to make is that Family Guy is all about random jokes that don't have to do with the running plot of the ep. Who cares? Do I need to have every joke relate to the overall plot of an episode of a cartoon comedy? The answer is definitely no! Each ep of Fam Guy has a story line and the fact that they are completely random doesn't take away from the ep for me. Sure there are a lot of flashes to 'times Peter did something in the past,' but I feel that is part of its charm. After finishing with these eps I watched a bunch more and came to terms with the fact that South Park is definitely not close to Family Guy in comedy. It sure does have all of their jokes involved with the plot of the ep, so they got that goin' for them.

On a side note, I watched one of Lar's favorite South Park eps. The South Park kids are playing Little League baseball but want to lose in the playoffs because they are tired of playing baseball because it's boring. They try as hard as they can to lose and finally end up losing by disqualification in the state championship, and boy are they happy. This episode always came up at the end of our basketball seasons when we were tired of playing ball and wanted to have more time to watch tv and bro out.

TV Tops 9/27

Week of 9/21-9/27

Top Shows

1. Heroes
2. The Office
3. Entourage
4. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
5. Fringe
6. Survivor
7. Gossip Girl
8. Grey's Anatomy
9. 90210
10. Greek

Top Characters

1. Michael Scott- The Office
2. Gabriel Sylar- Heroes
3. Major Hunt- Grey's Anatomy
4. Randy Hickey- My Name Is Earl
5. Cappie- Greek
6. Peter Bishop- Fringe
7. Dwight Schrute- The Office
8. Megan Smith- Privileged
9. Sam Briggs- Worst Week
10. Cameron Phillips- Terminator

Top Quotes

Gossip Girl
Serena- "Dan's not a big sports guy."

Greek
Beav- "They just mooned us!"
Cappie- "Yeah everyone except for Rusty, he just showed his underpants."

Casey- "I need to borrow your phone so I can deal with this hot frannie mess."

Fringe
Agent Dunham- "I pretty much knew this was what I wanted to do by the time I was nine."
Peter Bishop- "When I was nine years old, I think I wanted to be a brontosaurus."

The Office
Michael- "I want us all to live forever. How are we gonna do that?"
Jim- "Cryogenics, beer me five."

My Name Is Earl
Joy- "I only do tounge kisses if it's Brad Pitt or Eric Roberts."

Buddy- "Have you seen a movie without Burt Reynolds in it?"
Earl- "Not all the way through, no."

America's Got Talent

America's Got Talent has been going on all summer long and next Wednesday is the finale where the winner will be crowned. The champion of AGT receives $1 million and one performance at the MGM Grande in Las Vegas. There is absolutely no one on this year's show that comes close to how good Terry Fator was last season. But of the five people left, I'd say that I would pay $50 to go watch Nuttin' But Stringz perform in the Vegas. Eli Mattson (Mike Downing of Gorham track fame) has a great sound and I would definitely download his tracks, but would not spend money on going to one of his concerts at this point. Donald Braswell and Neil E. Boyd both have terrific voices and should get jobs on Broadway and in the Oprah, respectively. Queen Emily is God awful at singing, but very good at yelling and screaming. Since their first audition I said Nuttin' But Stringz, two black kids from inner city New York, would be my favorite and have a great chance of winning. They attend Juliard and compose all of their own material that they perform on the show with their violins.

Here is my favorite performance by Nuttin' But Stringz...


And here is my favorite from Mike Downing...

Fantasy Survivor Rules and Teams

This idea basically developed from the kid Lenny Holt, who's family drafts players in Big Brother and the winner gets something. I decided to take things a step further and make Survivor into a full on fantasy league. Although I came up with the points for each round, Larry, Mags and Jaydon came up with the other rules of the league since they are more familiar with the show than me. Larry wrote up the rules of the game below...

The Inaugural Bro Out Survivor Fantasy League

Rosters: 4 survivors per team. That leaves 2 out. Since its a waste to not use these two, it will go as follows.

- Whoever has the survivor eliminated in week one will get the chance to pick up one of the unused players. However, the other three teams have the opportunity to pick up one of the unused first according to waiver priority. Same goes for week two and then there will be no extra players.

Surviving an elimination each week gets you points (obv each week you last is more points): 1,2,3,4,6,8,10,13,16,19,23,27,31,36,41,46,52,58
Team Challenges: Reward = 5pts, Immunity = 10pts
Individual Challenges: Reward = 8pts, Immunity = 16 points
Backstabbing: 20 pts. One of the most fundamental parts of a reality competition is forming alliances, making deals etc. In this regard, it is also just as important to go back on your word and stab a (paraphrasing) "dude in the back". That requires strategy and good gameplay, and that should be rewarded.
Man Shit: 10 points. Survivor is all about man shit. Killing pigs, spear fishing, all that shit should be worth something. If there is something that is not clearly recognizable man shit, we could talk about it, majority rules.
Votes at Tribal Council: -4pts/vote. If your dude gets a vote cast against him, he is sucking at the game, and your team sucks because he/she sucks. Negative points for each one your sucky player gets.
Leader: 10pts. According to mangus, there is sometimes an unofficial leader of the tribe. If it is made known that one of your dudes wears the crown, kudos to you and also 10 pts.
Bonus: 8pts. Make it to the merger (where there is one tribe and all challenges turn individual)

Teams




The Renegades (Owned by Danny)
1. GC
2. Bob
3. Kelly
4. Crystal










Renaissance O & F Surgery
(Owned by Jaydon)
1. Ace
2. Corrine
3. Jacquie
4. Michelle









Ranger's Star Cowboy Mavericks (Owned by Larry)
1. Dan
2. Ken
3. Randy
4. Paloma









Freecell Makes Me Wanna
(Owned by Mags)
1. Marcus
2. Matty
3. Charlie
4. Jessica





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