Popular - not your average television show

I love the television show Popular. One of the networks used to play episodes during the day on school holidays, but they haven’t for ages. It was on pay tv for a while – mum used to tape it for me and post the videos so that She-ra and I could get our fix (much like what she did with Dead Like Me and still does with This Old House. But I digress.)

The show itself revolves around a bunch of kids at a high school. But these kids – well, they’re not your 90210 type kids.

As always happens in these shows, you have the popular kids, and the not-so-popular kids. The popular kids have their unofficial leader in Brook McQueen (Leslie Bibb), and her hangers on: (my second favourite character) Nicole Julian aka Satan (Tammy Lynn Michaels), Poppy Fresh (Anel Lopez Gorham) and my favourite character Mary Cherry (Leslie Grossman).

The not-so-popular kids include of Sam McPherson (Carly Pope), Carmen Ferrara (Sara Rue) and Harrison John (Christopher Gorham).

Sam and Brooke are bitter enemies who discover, to their horror that their parents are dating. Eventually, they move in together and the two girls are forced to attempt to put their differences between them. With spectacularly explosive results.

You always get some crossover between the two groups of kids as they go through their lives. Also, as with all shows aimed at teenagers, some messages are written into the stories, but the stories themselves can be so twisted, that it isn’t so obvious at first glance.

To add to the brilliance that is Mary Cherry, her mother’s name is Cherry Cherry and that marvellous creature is played by the fabulous Delta Burke.

The show went for only two seasons and they never tied up the loose ends. But no matter. I adore the show, but have to make do with my tapes of it – it’s available on Region 1 DVD but not yet available on Region 4. So I either have to wait, or get a multi region DVD player so I can enjoy the entire run.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, 4 clips demonstrating the complete insanity that is Mary Cherry.

#1 - Mary Cherry: A callow, greedy, retarded person



#2 - Mary Cherry: Cruel, internal, silent laughter



#3 - Mary Cherry: Imminent celebrity explosion



#4 - Mary Cherry: It's time to rumble



If you’ve not recognised the names, you’ll probably recognise some of the faces. Christopher Gorham (Harrison, or “Joe” as Mary Cherry likes to call him) is now in Ugly Betty; Tammy Lynn Michaels is Melissa Etheridge’s wife; Sara Rue played a young Rosanne on Roseanne and was recently in Less Than Perfect.

So you think she deserved to win?

Wasn't home last night when the SYTYCD finale was on - hence the delay in getting this to you. Bit bummed I missed it 'cause I would have liked to have seen the opening number to Mein Herr. Oh well. It's just TV (shock! horror!)

Anyway, piecing together the performances from YouTube (excluding the Danny/Neil contemporary dance 'cause I hate Mia Michaels), this is the one I liked the most:



But that's not really saying much. The beginning was pretty bland and it didn't pick up until the end. Still wasn't overly fond of it though (even though there were some very nice moves in it.)

Didn't even bother with the solos 'cause they bore me.

So, do I think Sabra should have won? Well, she didn't start impressing me until these last few weeks. If I take my unbiased hat off then yes, out of the final four, she was by far the best.

But I still wish Pasha had won.

Celebrity wedding madness

Apparently, "everyone" loves a wedding. Well, I love it when people I care about are happy, so if by extension that means I love a wedding, then so be it.

What I do find to be an interesting phenomenon is the love of celebrity weddings. Yes, you get some cool ideas, yes you get to see some beautiful gowns etc, but what else does it provide? A chance to mock and jeer those who have the hide to have waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more money than us, of course. Because, money does not necessarily buy good taste and celebrities can prove this better than anyone we know. This explains the success of trashy magazines such as NW, OK!, NoIdea and so on. Even those of us who hate such tripe have succumbed now and then - even if we are not proud of the fact.

Last weekend I had the (mis)fortune to view a television show called Most Expensive Celebrity Weddings (I have since discovered that it was based on the list compiled by Forbes.) Normally I wouldn't watch it. I wouldn't even have the tele on at that time of day. But I was talking to TAMS on the phone. She is a lover of trashy tv from way back. And, since she lives in a reality where daylight saving is the norm, she had already seen it. So with (admittedly very little) encouragement from her, I switched it on and was watching it while we were talking. (This tends to be a normal state of affairs with the two of us. I refuse to watch The Logies but a few years ago was coerced into watching it while talking to her on the phone. I ended up watching the red carpet walk. So, so wrong.)

Aaaaaanyway, the higher up the expense ladder we got, the more likely that hideousness was on display. Granted, not all of the weddings were in poor taste, some of them appeared to be quite nice. The expense was stupefying with all of them though.

The number one spot was taken by Liza Minnelli and David Gest. $3.5 million (est). Insane. Particularly since they got divorced the following year. Actually according to the Forbes article, 40% of the people on the list have since divorced. Minnelli and Gest deserve special mention though - for their wedding cake. A 12-tiered affair, it was 7 feet tall and from the pics they showed, not at all attractive. Try as I might, I've not been able to find a picture on the web.

I did, however, find a picture of Christina Aguilera's dress ($2 million, #6). Designed by Christian LaCroix, apparently. Doesn't change the fact that it is impressive, and not in a good way:


I found the pic on this blog devoted to celebrity weddings. I've only looked at the first page of it, but have found the link to the InStyle Weddings site (including 10 Tips from a Celebrity Planner; 25 Great Cakes), and the homepage of Forbes, which is how I found out the original list was compiled by them.

Finally, in my quest to find the pic of the Minnelli-Gest cake, I found this:

But even the Minelli-Gest (sic) affair pales in comparison to the most expensive wedding in recent years. In 2004, the Indian billionaire and steel king Lakshmi Mittal hosted a 5-day mother-of-all-weddings at chateaus and hotspots across Europe for his 23-year old daughter and 1,200 guests. The invitation, encased in silver, ran 20-pages, and the final bill came to around 70 million dollars.

source.

Pasha is given the arse

Yep, last night was the episode I knew was coming. The second-last episode was the one where he was going to be told to bugger off.

Still, the first dance was very good. Hip hop with Lacey.



Less than impressed with the second - a waltz. I like me a good waltz but this one just didn't, as that screeching banshee Mary would say, "pop". Then again, it could be because I was pissed that he was about to be given the boot.



Damn you, America!

TV: The Upside Down Show

most Aussie adults would recognise Shane Dundas and David Collins as comedians, The Umbilical Brothers.

But they also do a kids TV show, The Upside Down Show. It's on the ABC weekdays at 8am.

From a parents point of view who has had to put up with the likes of The Wiggles, Hi-5, Barney and Dora on a highly repetitive basis, it is a refreshing change to watch guys like these do kid friendly comedy that adults can get a kick out of as well.

My little one has taken a particular liking to the "Action Fingers; Knuckles and Pointy" but I am rather partial to The Schmuzzies.

Worth taking a look even if you don't have kids (click here for video footage)

By popular demand*

Last night Pasha was partnered up with Sabra. The first dance, a Quickstep was decidedly underwhelming:



But, they more than made up for it with their Broadway style dance:



I must admit, until that last dance, I had found Sabra less than entirely impressive. I liked her last night.

* and by popular demand I mean She-ra commented about my lack of stalking posting of last night's SYTYCD Pasha-fest.

SYTYCD

Pasha. Lauren. Hip-hop.

You know you want it

Pasha and Sarah do jazz



Found his MySpaz.

I appear to be a Pasha obsessive

This week Pasha was paired up with Sara, where they did West Coast Swing to Rockafeller Skank.



Loved it.

Evidently, so did everyone else.

The show hasn't finished as I post this, but I just have to make special mention of Dominic. Dominic apparently has a massive crush on Cat Deeley. Be nice if he realised that her accent was BRITISH not FRENCH. Moron.

And thank christ there is no Mia Michaels this week.

Guilty TV pleasures

So You Think You Can Dance is a guilty pleasure. Mostly because while I really don’t like “reality” or talent shows all that much, (I do watch the occasional one here and there) I always make an exception for SYTYCD.

I loooooooooove it.

Except for Mary. Would someone please rip out her voicebox? Or at the very least could she come down with laryngitis? Christ she’s annoying. That screaming – just kill me now.

(Debbie Allen was a judge tonight. Most excellent.)

After the night of the first episode with the top 20, I couldn’t help it, I had to find out who wins this series. But I’m not going to tell you – you’ll have to either find out for yourself or watch right to the very end. I can’t say anything else about this, or comment on their performances ‘cause then that may clue you in.

Besides, what has actually prompted me to do this post is tonight’s dance by Pasha and Jessi. I love these guys. Certainly not the best dancers in the show, but definitely the ones for whom I will stop whatever I am doing in order to watch.

So, finding out that Jessi wasn’t going to dance with Pasha bothered me. What happened to bring this about was that she was hospitalised due to breathing problems. Pasha ended up dancing the Cha Cha with Melanie LaPatin, choreographer Tony Meredith’s assistant. Pasha was on fire!

After the performance Nigel announced that Jessi would have to dance for her life in the elimination show, since she wasn’t able to perform on the night. If she was still unable to perform – she would be automatically eliminated! Boo! Hiss!

Thankfully, Jessi was able to perform. She and Pasha did their Cha Cha as it was intended:

Unfortunately, Jessi got the boot. Bastards.