Quit your whining you wussy American

I have little patience with "reality" TV. Back when it first started, it wasn't so bad because the contestants weren't all hard bodied fame whores.  Now, that's pretty much all you see.   I liked the first season of Survivor. Who doesn't remember naked Richard Hatch?  Truck driver Sue or "Aw, hell, I don't know" Rudy? I loved Rudy. I was really pulling for him to win, but alas, it was not to be. Now reality shows are populated with people who would make me run screaming the other direction if I had to engage in a conversation with most of them for more than 2 minutes.  Plus, I really hate the people who have been away from their families for like 2 days and boohoo about how hard it is and how they don't think they can take it.  Seriously?  Talk to a military family and see what you have to boohoo about.  Gah!
One show I generally don't mind though is The Amazing Race. Indy is a HUGE fan, so even though many of the contestants annoy me, we watch it. Plus, I loves me some Phil Keoghan.  That's him at the top in case you didn't know.  Maybe it's the Kiwi accent or how he occasionally (but subtly) tells contestants they're morons.
We get the episodes 2 days after they air in the States, so the most recent one was where the contestants had to go from China to Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta), India. Before they left China they had to drink a cup of tea and then once in Kolkata they had to find that same type of tea from about 300-400 of cups set out before them. Indy and James Bond both said I would own that challenge. I love hot tea and am very particular. I often drink tea like I drink wine (picking out different flavors in the tea). Anyhoodle, I got very, very, very annoyed at many of the people in said tea challenge. The whining and moaning! OMG! I can't tell you how many times I yelled "IT'S JUST TEA!" at the TV. Several of the contestants went on and on about how this was the "hardest thing" they'd ever done. REALLY? THE HARDEST THING YOU'VE EVER DONE?  Are you freaking kidding me?  I wondered what the Indian attendants working the challenge thought of this.  If it were me, I'd have had a really hard time not rolling my eyes.  I know one of them had to be thinking: THIS is the hardest thing you've ever done?  I live in INDIA.  Did you SEE Slumdog Millionaire, you spoiled American?  Did you see the swell of humanity just outside this building?  Drink your damn tea and get out of my country.  I'm really sympathetic like that though.
Are you a reality TV fan?  Do you think it makes Americans look like complete idiots?  FTR, I would LOVE to go on The Amazing Race, but James Bond and I would probably kill each other. 

Random Thoughts Tuesday: Movie and TV edition

Randomness! Please turn off your cell phones, no talking and remove all screaming babies. Let's all go to the lobby, let's all go to the lobby, let's all go to the lo-o-obyyyyy, and get ourselves a snack.




*Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs was funny, but NOTHING like the book. I was terribly disappointed because of this. Other than the name of the town, nothing was the same! Why did they even call it Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs? They could have called it The Food Machine and it would have been more accurate. I've loved that book since I was a child. I hate when they bastardize an amazing book.

*I wish all movies came with cartoons in front of them.

*G Force was weirdly funny. I'm kind of sick of all the fart jokes in kids movies though. Come on!

*Half a million feet of film was shot for Gone With the Wind. It was cut down to 20,000 feet. I'd love to see some of the stuff they cut.

*Mr. HH and I just saw the new Star Trek movie and while I liked it, I didn't like the whole time travel bit. Also, where was William Shatner?

*During the haunted forest scene in The Wizard of Oz, several actors playing the Winged Monkeys were injured when the piano wires suspending them snapped, dropping them several feet to the floor of the sound stage.

*I'm so excited that the new fall TV season has started. New Bones! New Office! New Everything! Except Chuck. March 2010? What up NBC????

*In the Brady Bunch, they only ever fired up the BBQ grill that is seen in nearly every episode, once.

*I so wanted to be Marcia Brady when I was little.

*Werner Klemperer and John Banner who played the German soldiers Klink and Schultz on Hogan's Heroes, were, in fact, both Jewish. Werner Klemperer fled Nazi Germany and served in the U.S. military during World War II. John Banner spent time in a concentration camp, but was released and fled the country. Robert Clary (LeBeau) also spent years in a concentration camp as a child.

*Hogan's Heroes was my favorite show when I was a kid. Isn't that an odd show for a little girl to love? I never missed it though.

*Nick Nolte, Steve Martin, Chevy Chase and Jack Nicholson all turned down the role of Indiana Jones. Tom Selleck was originally cast, but had to drop out due to conflicts with Magnum, PI. It wouldn't be the same without Harrison Ford.

*We own more than 500 DVD's. Some have never been opened. Mr. HH has a problem.

*Before Indy was born Mr. HH and I used to go to the movies 2-3 times a week.

*"Vader" as in "Darth Vader" is Dutch for "father". "Darth" is not a Dutch word though. Talk about a spoiler!

*When Mr. HH was stationed at Ft. Stewart, GA (shudder), we would go to Savannah on a Saturday morning and watch 3-5 movies back to back. There were 2 multi-plexes right next to each other and we always had plenty of choices. Between movies, we'd run over to the mall across the street and get something to eat at the food court.

*Star Wars was the first film to make over $300,000,000.

*The TV show M*A*S*H lasted 8 years longer than the Korean war.

*My dad never missed an episode of M*A*S*H. He was devastated when the show ended in 1983.

*I had an aunt (by marriage, thank goodness) who thought the people eaten in the movie JAWS were actually eaten. By a real shark. Just for the movie. She and my uncle divorced after just a few years of marriage.