PALEY CENTER, 2010: Farewell to AS THE WORLD TURNS
Written by Scott Katz
Thursday, 19 August 2010 00:35
On Wednesday, August 18 at the Paley Center for Media in midtown Manhattan, cast members and fans of the long-running serial drama, As the World Turns, gathered to say goodbye to this venerable television institution. Created by legendary television pioneer, Irna Phillips, and debuting on CBS-TV on Monday, April 2, 1956, As the World Turns will have aired a staggering 13,858 episodes when it goes off the air for good on Friday, September 17, 2010.
Just as with the Guiding Light farewell event hosted by the Paley Center in 2009 (which was also covered by USTownhall.com), the evening began with a red carpet photo op at approximately 6:00pm. By 6:30, the cast of As the World Turns and their fans had made their way to the downstairs theater at the Paley Center in order to participate in a Q&A session hosted by Paley Center Curator, Ron Simon.
This was not the first As the World Turns event to be held at Paley. In 1996, ATWT's 40th anniversary was celebrated there, and in 2006, Paley commemorated the soap's 50th by staging a recreation of the first script from April 2, 1956. It was performed by Helen Wagner (Nancy Hughes) and Don Hastings (Dr. Bob Hughes), who played mother and son since Hastings took over the role in 1960. Sadly, Ms. Wagner, an original cast member who spoke the very first line of dialogue on the series premiere in 1956, died from cancer at the age of 91 on May 1, 2010, missing the series' final episode taping which took place about 7 weeks later on June 23, 2010.
What follows are our exclusive photos from the night as well as a summary of the Q&A panel.
US Townhall RealStories presents: Kristen of BIG BROTHER 12
Written by Scott Katz
Tuesday, 10 August 2010 19:56
Click on the "play" button on the graphic below to listen to the episode!
Join us for the next episode of the US Townhall RealStories radio show, which will feature an interview with the latest evicted houseguest from the hit CBS-TV series, Big Brother 12. We're talking about none other than Kristen!
Kristen lasted 34 days in the Big Brother house before becoming the 4th evicted houseguest in the wake of being outed by Andrew the week before as being in a showmance with fellow housemate, Hayden. Hayden and Kristen were both immediately put on the nomination block by then-current Head of Household, Rachel, and when the Golden Power of Veto was not used to save either nominee, Kristen was shown the door by a vote of 6 to 1.
So how does Kristen feel about learning of Hayden's secret alliance, The Brigade, and does she still want to pursue a relationship with him now that she's been away from the house for about a week and has had time to think about things?
Also, does she bear any ill will toward Andrew, who spilled the beans on her secret showmance minutes before his own eviction in what was probably the most explosive Big Brother exit in history? And what does she feel now that Rachel, who nominated both her and Hayden for eviction, splitting them up, is on the block herself with Rachel's showmantic partner, Brendon?
We'll talk about all of that on the next episode of US Townhall RealStories Internet radio show – live Wednesday, August 11 at 10am eastern!
If you weren't able to catch the show live, click on the "play" button on the graphic below to listen now!
We're back once again with our exclusive coverage of the summer guilty pleasure series, Big Brother,where 52 cameras and 95 microphones follow and listen in on every move of the contestants who have voluntarily allowed themselves to be locked away from the outside world in a specially-designed house for the summer. Each week one of the houseguests will be "evicted," and the last one remaining in the house will win the half-million dollar grand prize. This twelfth installment is subtitled "The Summer of Sabotage" because, in a Big Brother first, one of the 13 houseguests is not playing to win the grand prize. He or she is in the house for the sole purpose of wreaking as much havoc in the house and on the plans of his or her housemates as possible. If the secret saboteur makes it to week 5 without being evicted, this person will win $50,000. So far, we don't know two things: first, neither the home audience nor the Big Brother contestants have been told who the saboteur is or even been given any clues as to his or her identity. Second, it hasn't been revealed if the houseguest gets to stay in the game after week 5. The way it's been talked about so far, the houseguest will leave after week 5 on his or her own because host Julie Chen said that the saboteur isn't there to win the game. However, this is Big Brother, and they make up rules and twists on the fly, so we can't be 100% certain about anything at this moment.
After watching the first two episodes, we are leaning toward Kristen as being the saboteur. She's received very little screen time so far – to the point where we actually forgot she was in the house until everyone sat down at the round table for the first nomination ceremony on Sunday night's episode. Every other contestant has had a "moment" to be noticed by the other houseguests and the home audience thus far, and the producers are editing the footage in order to convince us that either Andrew or Brendon is the saboteur, which automatically makes us believe it's not them at all.
Who is the secret saboteur? It will be announced to the home audience on the Thursday, July 15 show, and the saboteur will essentially become this season's America's Player as he or she will perform tasks to disrupt the house that are voted on by the home audience.
Below you can meet our 13 incarcerated game show contestants, and keep checking back with us as we begin to post episode-by-episode summaries of this season's shennanigans. If you want to relive the hijinks of last year's game, click on the "Television blog" menu link where our recaps from Season 11 are posted. Want the scoop on all the stuff from the live feeds and past seasons? Check out www.hamsterwatch.com or http://attwx.com/
These are the 13 houseguests for Big Brother season 12:
American Idol begn in earnest this week, as the top 24 contestants took to the live Idol stage to perform for America's votes. Last season's format for the semi-final rounds has been scuttled, and it has returned to the format more familiar to viewers of seasons 4 through 7. Each week, the women and men perform on differnet nights with the bottom two going home each week for the next three rounds. When the semi-finals are done, we'll have our top 12 that will go on to the big stage at the Kodak Theater.
Looking at the way the competition has shaped up so far, we don't think it's going too far out on a limb to predict that the winner of this season will be female. Let's take a look at the performances from this week.
American Idol 9: Semi-Finals Round 1 Ladies' Performances, Tuesday 2/23/10
(1) Paige Milessang "All Right Now" by Free (1970). Good, but not great, performance. Verses were fine, but Paige was swallowed up by the background singers and the band during the chorus (refrain). We'd rate it a B+ and feel that Paige should be safe when the results are revealed.
(2) Ashley Rodriguezsang "Happy" by Leona Lewis (2009). Subpar rendition that compares noticeably quite unfavorably to the original by Simon Cowell discovery Leona Lewis. Simon felt that Ashley could be "in trouble" when the results are revealed, and we agree. Grade: C
(3) Janell Wheelersang "What About Love" by Heart (1985). We liked Janell during Hollywood Week with her great, stripped down performance of Estelle's "American Boy" on acoustic guitar, but a Heart power ballad was way beyond the scope of her talent and her voice simply lacks the power necessary to sell that song. Going off key several times did not help matters. Grade: C
Television
On Wednesday, August 18 at the Paley Center for Media in midtown Manhattan, cast members and fans of the long-running serial drama, As the World Turns, gathered to say goodbye to this venerable television institution. Created by legendary television pioneer, Irna Phillips, and debuting on CBS-TV on Monday, April 2, 1956, As the World Turns will have aired a staggering 13,858 episodes when it goes off the air for good on Friday, September 17, 2010.
