TV Feeds My Family: Numbers Not There for MVP

TV Feeds My Family: Numbers Not There for MVP:
"Thursday, February 28, 2008


No amount of monkey business seems to be able to save MVP. The steamy CBC drama scored 258,000 viewers Tuesday night, down 20,000 from the week before. This the same night CBC 8 p.m. lead-in The Rick Mercer Report soared to 1,025,000.

Across the ice, the last half of MVP faced off against another Canadian production--the season premiere of CTV's Robson Arms. Despite the most erratic scheduling in television (comet sightings are more predictable), Robson Arms attracted 686,000 viewers in the estimated overnight ratings.

Now, following American Idol (2,326,000) didn't hurt Robson's return. MVP should be so lucky. But even Big Brother on Global managed to scare up 766,000 viewers opposite MVP and Idol. The rookie CBC series, which premiered last month on Friday nights before being moved, is the low point on an otherwise strong Tuesday night for the public network.

Other Tuesday numbers: Global's The Guard slipped to 431,000 viewers at 10 p.m. opposite CTV's Law & Order (1,045,000) and the CBC National News (749,000). CBC's This Hour Has 22 Minutes, which has three new episodes left this season, clocked in at 639,000.

Posted by Bill Brioux at 3:04 PM"

TV, eh? » Upcoming episode: The Guard season finale, Global, March 4

TV, eh? » Upcoming episode: The Guard season finale, Global, March 4:
Posted by: Diane in The Guard
From Global:
THE GUARD SEASON FINALE
Tuesday, March 4 at 10pm ET/PT
“THE BEACON”
When a retired lighthouse keeper with Alzheimer’s goes missing, it stirs up Carly’s guilt for abandoning her father. Ursula finds Tina in a compromising position in Miro’s hotel room and gives Miro the boot, landing him in Laura’s guest house. Carly finds Wendell camping out, about to revert back to drugs."

The show will start filming again in either March or April, depending on the weather. The rest of the shows will be shown starting in September, last I read somewhere. LOL! I hadn't been posting upcoming episodes, but since this is the season finale, I thought I would.

The Rainbow Tribe update

Thanks to my friend, NancyE, I've found that the release date on IMBD was wrong. It is NOT being released today. The production company is still looking into distributing. Hopefully we will hear something soon.

The Rainbow Tribe

According to the IMBD website, this will be released tomorrow. By the pictures on the page, I'd speculate that it is being released as a DVD. Thanks to IMBD for the photos, they are small but can still see David James Elliott.

TV Feeds My Family: MVP DOA; Viewers Went With Women

TV Feeds My Family: MVP DOA; Viewers Went With Women:
"Wednesday, February 20, 2008
MVP DOA; Viewers Went With Women

Ever notice how Canadian TV overnights take several overnights? Should they call them 'Over a couple of nights?' Monday's BBM/NMR estimates show The Border drew 548,000, up a bit from last week. The Week The Women Went went way up, to 929,000. Degrassi: 426,000. Corner Gas: 1,286,000.

Tuesday, MVP continues to skate into the boards for CBC, with just 278,000 tuning in. The Guard managed 504,000 on Global. CBC's back-to-back comedies Rick Mercer and This Hour Has 22 Minutes clocked 856,000 and 748,000 respectively. Tuesdays big draw, of course, was CTV's simulcast of American Idol, with 2,193,000 viewers--huge but not as crazy huge as in season's past.


Before you ask, the show I keep forgetting--Heartland--drew 509,000 CBC viewers Sunday.

Posted by Bill Brioux at 5:25 PM"

Update on 'Secrets of a Sex Addict'

Thanks to my niece who wrote to Lifetime, we found out that the movie has been rescheduled for April 19th. Although I was looking forward to seeing David James Elliott next weekend, at least I don't have to wait too long!

Also on that note, had a Google alert on a blog with a very interesting article on Sue Silverman's book and the movie. Here is the link:

http://blog.mlive.com/chronicle/2008/02/using_childhood_nightmares_to.html

Delay of 'Secrets of a Sex Addict'

I was on Sue Silverman's website to read the excerpt from her book again and saw the news that the movie has been delayed. I'm not sure why at this time though.



So I checked the message board for fordjefans and saw that yes, the movie has been delayed for unknown reasons. Bummer. I was really looking forward to seeing DJE in something new.



Once I find out anything new about a date, I'll post it then.



Maybe a collage would cheer us all up!

Doing a little catching up here

Well, was doing some checking around the websites... been too busy to do that for a while. Found on TV, eh?.com a mention of the ratings for 'The Guard' last week. It's been holding steady, which is good news for all the actors and for David James Elliott. I'm really looking forward to seeing him on March 1st in 'Secrets of a Sex Addict' on Lifetime. Anyway, here is the section mentioning 'The Guard':

At 10 on Monday, the season debut of Jericho, which did not do that well in the States, drew 847,000 on CTV. Global's The Guard held steady at 538,000 Tuesday. Degrassi The Lost Generation was down to 407,000. More people live in Brampton, Ont.

And a link to the whole article by Bill Brioux:
http://tvfeedsmyfamily.blogspot.com/2008/02/mvp-needs-performance-enhancement.html

Happy DJE Valentine's Day!!!!

Since it's only a day away...

TV Review: So Far, The Guard Treads Water

Got this in my TV, eh? newsletter:

Written by Diane Kristine
Published February 12, 2008

The rescue specialists in Global's The Guard continue to flounder personally and professionally in the series' fourth episode, "When I'm Sixty-Four," airing Tuesday. With these people as Coast Guards, I'm glad I'm on dry land.

There's some welcome levity to this episode, which centres around the efforts of First Mate Laura (Claudette Mink) to bond with her coworkers – or at least make the appearance of bonding – after being passed over for promotion to irresponsible Duty Captain Miro (Steve Bacic).

The gang, including pretty, alcoholic Carly (Zoie Palmer) and her new-age nutbar of a boyfriend Wendell (Ryan Robbins), and pretty, post-traumatic-stressed Andrew (Jeremy Guilbaut) and his put-upon wife Amy (Julie Patzwald), react with varying mixtures of horror and dread to the social invitation. The event turns out about as well as you might expect from that kind of enthusiastic start.

When Miro's inappropriately young and vapid date exclaims "I hope there's going to be dancing later!" Carly answers, "Why, did she bring her pole?" Laughter is a welcome relief from the relentless misery of most of these lives we're following.

Besides the laughs and angst, the episode has an obligatory rescue at sea as well as the introduction of a new rivalry between our heroes and the SAR Techs from the Department of Defense, who seem to be to the Coast Guard what the FBI are to local police in every cop drama ever made for TV – that is, the arrogant bullies who encroach on their territory.

Though The Guard started with the strongest ratings among the slew of new Canadian-made offerings, it hasn't managed to capitalize on the gift of having top-rated House as a lead-in. This fourth episode – which the producers sent out for review in a wise and rare-in-Canadian-TV bid to keep the show from sinking further – is fortunately stronger than the last couple of outings, though it continues to suffer from storytelling torpor.

Before it launched, I was eager to embrace this show about pretty people doing adventurous and amorous things in pretty scenery — the kind of scenery that led me to move to Vancouver. However, my eagerness faded with the realization that not enough happens to justify the soap genre or the action genre.

My major disappointment in The Guard so far is the lack of drama in plot and character development oddly combined with too much backstory drama spelled out in the dialogue. None of these characters have developed into people I would care about, and yet they demand at every turn that I do.

You know how sometimes you meet someone, and you ask them how they are, and they tell you? They spill about their recent depression, and how their cat just died, and their father never loved them, and they're sure their headaches are a sign of a brain tumour. You know that guy? The Guard is that guy.

Four episodes in, and there's not much more to each character than their one overriding issue that the show can't stop telling us about. What passes for characterization is a catalogue of woes.

So far, there's not much more to Andrew than post-traumatic stress. The pilot episode dealt with the aftermath of a failed rescue attempt, so he was too soon, for too long, sucked into angry, sulky mode before we even got a chance to know him as anything else.

Traumatized by the failed rescue, he can't move past that one event. Unfortunately, that means neither can we. His story doesn't move forward in "When I'm Sixty-Four," either, despite the fact that he half-heartedly attempts therapy. While I hope I'd be more sympathetic in real life, in TV life I think his wife should drop-kick him into the ocean the next time he's sullen or cruel.

There are an awful lot of scenes in The Guard of Carly sitting on the couch whining to her ex-soldier, ex-addict, current annoying boyfriend about her trailer-trash childhood and the scenes from episode four are virtually identical to the scenes in episode one.

Laura is bitter at being passed over for the promotion given to Miro, but that conflict isn't as dramatic as the show thinks it is — not enough to sustain the drama over four (and counting) episodes. She's also coping with boyfriend David's deteriorating multiple sclerosis and his terribly teenaged daughter, which thankfully makes her more sympathetic than the focus on her jealousy would otherwise allow.

David James Elliot as that boyfriend is criminally underused, even considering he's a recurring supporting character rather than a regular member of the ensemble. So far, there's not much more to him than the MS, though in this episode David finally shows flashes of charm and chemistry with Laura.

Barry (Gordon Woolvett) seems like the only character who has any spark of fun in him. Of course that means he has barely any screen time except to answer the radio at the base or be a sounding board to others. So far, then, there's not much more to him than the wheelchair.

I'm not ready to give up on the escapism of The Guard, since it still has those pretty people in pretty scenery proving their bravery at work and their vulnerability at home. But so far, I'm only sticking with it in the hopes that it won't keep relying on the pretty, and will move on from circling the same waters of these early episodes and get into soapy, action-filled stories we can sink our teeth into.

Link to original article:
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/02/12/130639.php

At least she agrees with most of DJE's fans... he's being 'criminally underused'.

'The Guard' site on TV.com

Was looking for any news on David James Elliott and came across the website for 'The Guard' on TV.com... a very good site. Here's the link:

http://www.tv.com/the-guard/show/74931/summary.html

'Secrets of a Sex Addict' was 'Love Sick'

Thanks to my niece, I found the below on the Lifetime website. As usual, Lifetime changed the name of 'Love Sick' to 'Secrets of a Sex Addict'.

Secrets of a Sex Addict
Made: 2008
Genre: Drama
Stars: David James Elliott, Sally Pressman

Inspired by the true story of Sue Silverman's (Sally Pressman) personal journey, this is the story of a married woman with a seemingly normal life who has lived with a shameful secret -- she is a sex addict, a condition that has plagued her through her adolescent and adult life. Her secret Friday rendezvous at a seedy motel sustains her. This is the story of her road to understanding and recovery. A provocative tale (a la "Obsessed") but also a moving exploration of an addiction that for many women is their dirty little secret.

Here is the link for Sue Silverman's website:
http://www.suewilliamsilverman.com/index.htm

DJE on the cover of the Toronto Sun Television Guide

Found this on Ebay. The magazine is from Jan. 20-26, 2008.

Ryan Robbin's blog on 'The Guard' site on GlobalTV

Ryan, who plays Wendell on the show, writes a blog every week after the episode airs with his views about the show and the actors. It's a wonderful blog and this week he mentions David James Elliott. Here's what he has to say:

"This was an episode of discovery, I think. Each character discovered something about themselves. Some stood up for themselves, while others stood down. Laura is caught in a crazy situation. How can someone possibly make such decisions? And David, well, he’s caught too. And feeling somewhat helpless at the moment. That’s got to be tough for him. David James Elliot was awesome in this episode. I wish I was able to spend more time with David. He’s a great guy. Very easy to get along with and wonderfully supportive. He loves acting and it shows. He brings wonderful levels to that character and to the show.
I know I’m gushing over actors in this blog but dammit, I’m not wrong! This show has some talent! Those scenes with David, Laura and Tina were played wonderfully by David, Claudette and Eve. "

And a link to the site:
http://communities.canada.com/globaltv/blogs/theguard/archive/2008/02/06/the-pathway-to-enlightenment-or-love-isn-t-pretty.aspx

You can also subscribe to this in an RSS feed which is what I have.

JAG Season Six

Thanks to my friend, Mary, here is the cover art for 'JAG' season 6. As it was told to me... lol... it will be sailing into port in time for Memorial Day! Scheduled release is May 20th. With a JAG marathon on the USA channel for Memorial Day weekend. Whoo hoooo!!!!

Hey Maria... this one's for you! LOL!

Photo from Ebay from 'The Shrink is In'.

Endurance Sports Award

Had this in a Google blog alert... David James Elliott got a special award.

http://clancymultisport.blogspot.com/2008/02/endurance-sports-awards.html

Here's the part mentioning DJE, from the Endurance Sports Award website:

"Plus special awards to Sports Illustrated, Dateline and MTV for showcasing our sports to the world and to celebrities like Will Ferrell and David James Elliott for embracing the endurance sports lifestyle.There is a bond between the runner, the triathlete and the cyclist. While their equipment might be different, the dedication and effort it takes to succeed are exactly the same.The Competitor Magazine Endurance Sports Awards Gala was created to celebrate the accomplishments of these amazing athletes. It is an evening that is guaranteed to motivate and inspire. It is an evening you do not want to miss. "

A link to the Endurance Sports Award website:
http://www.endurancesportsawards.com/updates.php

Bullet-proof vetted

Robert Cushman, National Post Published: Monday, February 04, 2008


Five weeks ago, Pearson International Airport joined the big leagues. It became the site of an exciting chase, culminating in the take-down of a terrorist and the arrest of a possible accomplice. It was fictitious, of course, but it got the new drama series The Border off to a pounding start.

The Border, apart from contributing to CBC's new drama push, is part of a movement to shine a glamorous light on government departments with less than glamorous titles. In The Border it's Immigration and Customs Security; in Global's The Guard, it's the Canadian Coastguard's Search and Rescue Team. The latter sounds as if it should be more thrilling, but so far it's The Border that's hit the ground running.

Not that it hasn't done some stumbling. The remainder of the premiere dealt with the disputed fate of the putative accomplice, a Canadian citizen whose crimes seemed to be: a) being of Syrian origin; b) occupying the next seat on the incoming flight; c) letting the terrorist slip him the name of a good orthodontist -- an excuse regarded by the hardliners at CSIS as so much dental floss.

The CSIS boss wanted to send the man back to Syria, with all that that would entail. The decent chaps at ICS would have none of this. And so the battle of the acronyms was joined, and won by the good guys with disappointingly little effort. I had imagined that we were just at the start of an intricate intrigue, in the manner of 24 in its great days, but The Border, like The Guard, has turned out to be not a serial but a series --i.e. a show in which the same characters face similar problems every week. (Both try to kid you that they have continuity by starting each week with one of those "previously on ..." announcements that only sound good when delivered by Kiefer Sutherland.)

Well, at least The Border seems committed to exploring every region in which the country belonging to us abuts the country belonging to them. "Them" is of course the United States, and they have been behaving very themmishly, indeed. The hawkish CSIS man (as portrayed by Nigel Bennett) just about counts as a crypto-American, but he has turned out to be the merest curtain-raiser. In the second episode, the Yanks sent in the cavalry, in the shape of a young lady from Homeland Security, an immigrant herself, with an an attitude like Ann Coulter with security clearance. Robert Fulford has already complained in these pages about the show's unwavering anti-Americanism; in the given context, I can't see that that's so bad -- it's not as if the Maher Arar case didn't happen -- but I do agree that the execution is formulaic. (My esteemed colleague is also right about the show's comic-relief computer geek being an unsuccessful attempt to emulate 24' s Chloe; his winsomeness has nothing to do with his skills whereas Chloe's unsociability was the essence of hers.) Agent Bianca seems to have taken one look at Canada and decided that on behalf of her employers this land is their land, and she can never quite understand why ICS head Major Mike Kessler should see things differently. He's played, very well, by James McGowan.

Every episode of The Border contains innumerable scenes of Mike and Bianca going eye-ball-to-eyeball, Bianca saying "You Canadians! Unbelievable!" when the major complains about a little thing like having his country's air space violated. Last week's episode, however, ended with the two of them sloping off to buy one another a drink, so this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship. But this was an episode that never established the suspense it was striving for.

The previous week was much sharper: a four-cornered struggle between our guys, Bianca's guys, escaped Islamist terrorists and the Quebec police that involved two former Stratford Festival luminaries, Graham Abbey and Nazneen Contractor, trekking through the province's wider regions and nearly succumbing to both friendly and unfriendly fire in the process. Abbey isn't quite Jack Bauer, but he is shaping up nicely in the cat-with-nine-lives category. When The Border's narrative is firing properly, it doesn't matter too much that its characters are from stock.

It matters more in The Guard, which announces itself as being "character-driven." This turns out to mean that its principals have issues. This means they spend a lot of time moping at home instead of getting out and interacting on the job. Miro, the Duty Captain, has an online relationship with a sex worker who has misappropriated his credit card. Of Miro's team of Rescue Specialists, Laura is pouting about being passed over for Miro's job. And Andrew, having failed to rescue a child in the first sequence of the first episode, keeps having flashbacks about it, which are damaging his relationship with his own family. People say anonymously angsty things such as "we can't live like this." It's like daytime TV with an adventure gimmick. And maybe there's been a basic miscalculation about how exciting the setup is. Every week, the team goes out, and either it saves lives or it doesn't. Lost or saved, we don't know the people whose lives are at stake, so we can't much care; and there are no ramifications in the wider world.

- The Border airs Mondays at 9p.m. onCBC andThe Guard airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. onGlobal.

Link to original post on 'National Post':
http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/story.html?id=5c038521-c2ee-4a0e-bede-0c30b8377cb3&k=99732&p=1

Have to love getting alerts and newsletters from all over. LOL! This was in a newsletter from TV, eh?. com.

DJE for Valentine's Day

The photo is from the Hunk of the Month website.

Maybe a major US network will pick up 'The Guard'?

This was just posted on the ForDJEFans message board... thank you judy52sa for posting the information! I've been hoping that one of the US networks would see what a great show 'The Guard' could be... even though I've only been able to watch the last part of the first episode on the Global TV website for 'The Guard'. And seen some of the reviews. Here's the link to the article:

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/tv/story/2008/02/01/tv-buys.html#skip300x250

And the link to the GlobalTV website for 'The Guard':

http://www.canada.com/globaltv/globalshows/theguard/index.html

David James Elliott's filmography

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004895/

That man has done so many projects! I noticed, though I asked for a correction, that DJE is not listed for the first episode of 'The Guard'. Maybe if someone else does the correction too, they will finally fix that! LOL! And they also don't have him listed as appearing as himself on 'Arctic Expedition with Nigel Marvin: Return of the Ice'. Now, that I know, thanks to the ForDJEFans message board, I was able to see the episode and get a couple of screencaps. Which I will post here... the funny story to go with this is: the person that read the message board emailed me that this show was on (without telling me how she knew)... silly me had missed it in the newsletter I get from the Discovery group! So I didn't see it till it repeated after midnight... we had a raging thunderstorm right over the house, the camera batteries were dying... and here I was perched on a little bitty stool trying to take some photos before the camera died completely or the storm knocked the power out! LOL! So the photos aren't the best quality, but here they are:

Harmon Rabb Jr. on Wikipedia

I was going through my favorites folder of DJE and found this link. A great source of information for any JAG fanfic writer! Just click on the title and it'll take you right to the page... if I did this right! LOL! If not, here's the link to copy and paste:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmon_Rabb

Which reminds me... LOL! I need to repost the link for DJE's filmography on IMBD... and I can repost the couple of screencaps I got from when he was on with Nigel Marvin. I'll post the funny story when I post the couple of screencaps!

With a lot of support

I had deleted this blog because of conflict with photos and some articles. But with some support from the people who's information had been used without permission from a 'supposed' friend who was sending them to me, I've reopened the blog. This time I'll make sure just exactly where any information is coming from and give credit correctly. To those that gave support, and permission to share their website to give credit if I use something from there... thank you.

Since everything is gone, let me start this blog with the fact that DJE was in an article in the Vancouver TV week magazine for Feb. 2-8, 2008. Here is a link to anyone interested in reading it and seeing the photos:

http://www.voy.com/206212/