June 2010 Archives

On Wednesday, June 30, the newest edition of the "Clean House: Search for the Messiest Home in the Country" comes to its conclusion on Style Network, with a reportedly apocalyptic mess in a home in Lynwood, Ill.

Below find a Q&A with the show's "Go-To Guy" Matt Iseman ("Sports Soup") -- who's also a doctor, by the way -- discussing  the home, the challenges, the family and letting Mark Brunetz into his home (plenty of "Messiest" background info in the embedded links -- and click here for Mark Brunetz's preview of "Messiest" over on Zap2it.com).

Q: Does this family compare at all to last year's?

 

A: Well, compare is a tricky word.  In terms of clutter, our family this year can go toe-to-toe with any of our three previous "Messiest Homes." When I found my head brushing the ceiling in their bedroom because the entire floor was covered in over three feet of clothes, visions of Sharon Baglien's basement danced in my head. But, I think the self described "frigid Viking B%*^h" ensured her spot of infamy in the pantheon of "Clean House" families because of her stubborn refusal to admit she had a problem with clutter. Viewers really seem to respond to emotional train wrecks and, last year, we went off the rails.

 

But this year's family, the Hayes, stands in stark contrast to all three previous "Messiest Home" families in that they readily admitted they had a problem and that they wanted help (it was quite refreshing, actually). When I look back at the Lorias, the Wheelers and the Bagliens, I recall moments of genuine hopelessness dealing with them during their makeover (I could feel the back of my hand tingling... wanting to lash out and knock some sense into them). But the Hayes family met us every step of the way, so, in that sense, no comparison.

Q: What was the biggest challenge for you in this project?

 

A: Without giving too much away, I will say that dealing with the basement was a huge challenge and not just as a Go-to Guy, but as a doctor. We had serious medical issues raised and had to make a hard decision (I proposed a flame thrower as a solution but was shot down for fear of torching Niecy's weave).

Other than that, the volume presented the biggest challenge. We normally do three spaces on a "Clean House" makeover, but, for the "Messiest Home," we do the whole house, which means we have to completely empty the entire house. Given the incredible volume of clutter they had stuffed in their house, it was a massive project. Normally, we allot seven days for a makeover. We were in Lynwood for closer to four weeks - four very long weeks.

 

Q: Were these folks really worse off than the people along the way on the "Search"?

 

A: Yes and no. Yes, in the sense that their clutter dwarfed all the other families in our Search this year. They really had a staggering amount of stuff in their house (notice I am running out of synonyms for clutter before I simply resort to four-letter words that I really want to use). But, the encouraging aspect was that, as a family, they were still incredibly caring and supportive of one and another and still, relatively speaking, very highly functioning.  That's not to say that the clutter wasn't impacting them, it certainly was and far more than they knew. But they still were close as a family and that made helping them much easier.

 

Q: In your mind, what distinguishes these people in your show, and especially on the "Search," from the folks on A&E's "Hoarders"?

 

A: I think the biggest difference is their level of function. Every family we've ever dealt with on "Clean House" has had issues with clutter but have still been, at least on some level, functioning members of society. I think in "Hoarders" you see people who have totally given in to their space.  In other words, "Hoarders" is "Clean House" without the happy ending. And, yes, I want a happy ending.

 

Q: Will you ever let "Clean House" designer (and author) Mark Brunetz design your space?

A: He has already been to my house and his first words were, "Do you want me to tell you that I like it or do you want to hear what I really think?"  I chose the latter, and any illusions I had of ever being a designer are now shattered on the floor hidden beneath a gorgeous area rug with a subtle color palette that invokes the calming nature of the ocean. His suggestion.

(BTW, "Clean House" won a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Special Class Special for the "Messiest Home in the Country." Click here for a video.)

Tonight's cuppa: decaf chocolate mint coffee (Mint, get it? Mint, like, Fort Knox, money ... oh, never mind)

Last week, Eric Bolling, former co-host of Fox Business Network's (FBN) now-axed "Happy Hour" -- which also featured Cody Willard, who's appeared here on Hot Cuppa TV -- launched a new venture called "Money Rocks."

The weeknight series occupies the same timeslot -- 8 p.m. ET -- as the top-rated cable-news hour "The O'Reilly Factor," on FBN's elder-sibling cablenet, Fox News Channel (FNC), which stars Bill O'Reilly.

So, of course, in his first episode, Bolling had to hustle from his studio over to O'Reilly's at Fox HQ in New York City to get some advice on how to have a successful cable-news show (click here for that and other "Money Rocks" videos).

"He was so accommodating and nice and fun," says Bolling, "made a little bit of fun of me, which is good."

(For the record, O'Reilly instructed Bolling to wear a tie because "women love the neckwear," but as of today's -- June 28 -- show, Bolling was still sporting an open collar.)

FNC anchor Glenn Beck (right) -- whose FNC series "The Glenn Beck Show" used to air directly across from "Happy Hour" at 5 p.m. ET, and has featured Bolling as a guest host -- makes regular appearances on O'Reilly's show, under the title, "At Your Beck and Call."

Asked what such a segment for him should be called if it ever comes to be, Bolling suggested, "Bolling for Dollars?"

As Bolling sees it, his new show has elements of places he's showed up before.

"I think 'Money Rocks,'" he says, "is a little bit of 'Happy Hour,' a little bit of 'RedEye W/Greg Gutfeld' and a little bit of maybe 'Beck' and 'O'Reilly' mooshed together. I think we have the best of all worlds.

'It was really (created on) the spur of the moment. I was called in, and they said, 'Hey, Bolling, if you had a show, what would it be all about?' I had no preparation at all. I thought I was getting in trouble for something I said on 'Happy Hour.'

"The first thing that came to my mind was a show about the money angle of everything -- sports, music, entertainment, business. It'd be great. We'd go after really high-profile guests, let them tell us what makes them tick.

"Really, that's what we've done. It's a celebration of the American spirit and the American dream."

But not everyone gets the idea right up front.

Says Bolling, "A lot of people are like, '"Money Rocks"? Are you an elitist, and you think money is all that?' it's really more than that. We're in America. Anyone has access to becoming successful. That's the really cool thing about where we live, and that's what we highlight.

"I come from a lower-middle-class family. My mom worked two retail jobs to make a living. My father was a traveling salesman. Here I am, I'm on TV. I played professional baseball for a little while, and now I'm on TV. How cool is that?"

A native Chicagoan, Bolling wastes no time answering the "Cubs or White Sox?" question.

"I used to ride my bike to Wrigley Field," he says, "hang out, wait for the balls to come over the left-field fence. I'm a Cubs fan, big time."

Among the folks who've been on "Money Rocks" so far are supermodel Janice Dickinson, rocker Ted Nugent, "RedEye" sidekick Bill Schulz, actress Lisa Kudrow, actor Joe Piscopo and NFL star Tony Gonzalez.

This week's guests include: (Tuesday) former White House Communications Director Dana Perino, City Sun Tanning owner Jan Meshon (perhaps discussing the new tanning tax that so dismayed Snooki from "Jersey Shore"), former New York Mets general manager Jim Duquette and model/actress Yaya DaCosta; (Wednesday) Ringo Starr, U.S. soccer star Landon Donovan, Sacramento Kings owner George Maloof and basketball agent David Falk.

Bolling is also working on having "Celebrity Apprentice" winner  Bret Michaels (above) on the show sometime in July.

Speaking of "Celebrity Apprentice," Bolling is friends with its host, real-estate mogul Donald Trump, but he stays close to home when it comes to naming his personal money guru.

"My mom," says Bolling. "'Never quit!' Mom was my inspiration to succeed."

Tonight's cuppa: Rooibos (Redbush) tea

Despite being 40-plus or even 50-plus, the women of "Sex and the City 2" continue to be glamorous fashion icons.  But most women can't afford the designers, stylists, nutritionists and personal trainers (along with perhaps more than one medical professional of some sort) that are necessary to maintain that level of post-dewy-youth fabulousness for more than a decade.

And those are exactly the women former "The Drew Carey Show" star Kathy Kinney (below) and her best friend, former publishing executive Cindy Ratzlaff, were targeting when they wrote their book, "Queen of Your Own Life: The Grown-Up Woman's Guide to Claiming Happiness and Getting the Life You Deserve," which came out in March from Harlequin.

But it turns out that their message of self-acceptance and empowerment had a broader appeal than they expected.

"We were thinking that we were just aiming at women between 40 and death," says Kinney, calling in from BookExpo America in New York City. "The message that we're putting out -- that it's OK to admire yourself no matter who you are, where you are in your life, that it's really a choice you get to make -- seems to be resounding all the way down to age 14.

"Who wants to live a life full of low self-esteem? The media that's out there makes it so hard for women to feel good about themselves, but what it really comes down to, it's a choice.  You get what you give, and you make a choice. We call it 'poop or get off the pot.' It's all about how you feel about yourself."

In the wake of several photo-altering scandals in the modeling world -- including one in which curves were added to an extremely thin model to make her look healthier -- and especially with the advent of HDTV, many fans are realizing that the flawless faces and figures they've been admiring on the page and the screen are, well, not so much.

It's something that British TV has accepted forever. You're lucky to get straight teeth on very many British performers, let alone wrinkle-free skin or glossy, gray-free hair, but American TV and movies have always chased elusive images of perfection.

But, according to Kinney, some fault does lie in the lens, something she knows from her days of playing the fashion-challenged Mimi Bobek on "The Drew Carey Show."

"Having been on TV," says Kinney, "I go out, and people always say about me, 'Oh, my God, you've lost so much weight.' I say, 'No, I really haven't. The camera makes me look so big. I'm almost the same as I was then.' They're like, 'No, no, no.'

"Women on TV and models have to be a certain size, because it's the light reflected off the angles that make you look even normal. Sometimes, I'll work with women who are just so very thin, that, out in the real world, would be thought of as ill.

"But in order to look completely normal-sized on camera, they have to be rail-thin. Women need to understand that."

(Click here to see Kinney's recent appearance on KTTV's "Good Day LA")

Kinney and Ratzlaff want women to take control of how they feel about themselves and their lives, no matter their age or circumstances. Kinney recognizes that won't be easy.

"It has to do with redefining those words: beauty, success and courage," she says. "Courage is not just about facing down the barrel of a gun every day. Certainly it takes a lot of courage to be a policeman. But, for women, just getting out of bed and saying, 'I'm going to be the happiest I can be today. I'm going to find something to be happy about, and I'm going to pass that on to my employer, my husband, my children, my mother, my sister. Just putting one foot in front of the other and saying, 'I'm going to live an ordinary life, but I'm going to do it in an extraordinary way.'

"That, to me, takes so much courage. Everybody can have their 15 minutes and be on a reality program or be an actress or live a wild life in the spotlight, but you can live a really spectacular life and just be who you are. Why can't that be enough? Why can't we honor that? We used to.

"It has to be enough to be a mom or a wife or a daughter. It has to be OK to be 50 and be single. That judgment thing, it's crazy. I know it's a visual world, but let's try to just really admire women for who they've become and the journey that they're on."

"Queen of Your Own Life" may be the first step in this journey for Kinney and Ratzlaff, but they are determined that it's not going to be the only one.

"We've got world domination in mind here," says Kinney. "I believe it is this slow and steady thing, and that we have to change it. You know how the Dalai Lama said that Western women are going to change the world?

"This is how, in this quiet way, passing on to each other that we're special, and that we're important, and that we're valuable. Where it ends up, I don't know.

"We're working on a reality program. We're working on a sitcom. We even have a movie in mind, and the book. The world is ours. We really have no limits, and we're putting no limits on ourselves with it.'

Tonight's cuppa: Barry's Gold Blend tea

With the unfortunate passing of Capt. Phil Harris of the F/V Cornelia Marie, a lot of attention in the sixth season of Discovery Channel's "Deadliest Catch" has been focused on him and his volatile relationships with his deckhand sons, Josh and Jake Harris.

(Click here for a Zap2it story of mine from last week with "Deadliest" executive producer Thom Beers discussing that very topic. Click here for another that posted on Tuesday, June 22.)

But there's another Jake in the "Deadliest" family, and that's deckhand Jake Anderson (above) of the F/V Northwestern. That crab-fishing boat is the subject of Tuesday's (June 22) episode of "After the Catch," the roundtable companion show to "Deadliest," with host Mike Rowe ("Dirty Jobs"). It airs at 10 p.m. ET, right after "Deadliest" at 9 p.m.

Capt. Sig Hansen and his brother, deck boss Edgar, and the rest of the crew discuss battling the weather, the crab and, occasionally, each other. Also, Anderson recalls a deckhand-swapping incident from earlier this season that saw him to go the Cornelia, and Jake Harris come to the Northwestern.

(Click here for my Zap2it story with Sig Hansen discussing the "Two Jakes" swap.)

Unfortunately, in swapping the deckhands back -- by putting them in survival suits and dropping them in the sea to be picked up like a crab pot -- Anderson was nearly drowned when he was caught in an undertow.

That's only the latest trouble for the beleaguered Anderson. In Feb. 2009, he received word aboard the Northwestern of the death of his beloved sister, Chelsea Dawn Anderson, from complications of pneumonia. This season, along with the usual ribbing from the Northwestern crew, Anderson was injured when a cod knife slipped and cut his wrist.

Last week, Anderson's injury appeared to be about to torpedo his season aboard the Northwestern, but then Hansen (right) answered a call from Anderson's mother and learned about the family tragedy that the deckhand had been keeping from the rest of the crew

Anderson's father, 63-year-old retired school counselor Keith Anderson, was reported missing, with his truck found along a remote logging road in Washington State. As of this writing, the elder Anderson has yet to be found.

(Click here for an extensive AOL News report; click here for a video of Jake getting the news from his mother aboard ship; click here and here for local news reports; click here for a reward flier.).

Yet, all of this doesn't seem to derail Anderson's work ethic or desire to please his bosses aboard the Northwestern, although he gets scant praise in return.

Says Beers, "You know what the fascinating thing is about him, he passed his First Mate's license. He's been quietly going on about his business. Somebody said that the he'd put him in as a captain for a lot of these guys. That kid's worked his butt off.

"He just gets his a-- kicked by the Norwegians. Sig and these guys just beat him up, but you know what, the kid really mans up. To me, he's going to be the surprise hitter on this whole series.

"Do you remember the last season, when his sister passed away? That was just the most amazing thing. He was talking to his mom ...oh, my God, there wasn't a dry eye in the house."

Click here for an earlier blog post I did with Mike Rowe about "After the Catch."

Click here for my Zap2it story in which Rowe discusses the Harris saga on "Deadliest Catch."
 

Today's cuppa: English breakfast tea (of course)

First up, let's be clear that I'm talking about Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, but not the real guy, who seems equally interesting but, unfortunately, was not scripted by Michael Hirst nor played by Henry Cavill.

'Tis a pity, Your Grace.

Ostensibly, Showtime's lavish historical drama "The Tudors," which wraps up its run on Sunday, was about King Henry VIII, played with great verve and awesome abs by Jonathan Rhys Meyers (click here then search for "codpiece" to find my 2008 interview with Mr. Meyers), but for me, it became all about Charles Brandon.

(OK, It was also all about the embroidery, the furs, the jewels, the set design and the horses, but all of those looked better when draped in or around Henry Cavill.)

I have no complaints about Meyers' Henry, who didn't look much like the real thing but captured the king's passion, eccentricity, narcissism, intelligence, capriciousness, bluster, grandiloquence, desperation and pathos.

But in terms of a man, the Henry of "The Tudors" doesn't hold a candle to Brandon, his lifelong friend, general, confidante and occasional whipping boy.

Wild in youth, brave and true in maturity, kind and dignified at the end, Brandon was, to me, the soul and conscience of the show. He may not have been born to the purple (but truly, many in England didn't consider Henry's blood very blue), but he excelled his royal master in wisdom, compassion and physical courage.

Much of the credit for this goes to Hirst, who turned Brandon into a shadow King, an echo of what Henry might have become had he not been thrust into a role which, as a second son, he didn't anticipate, if he hadn't been so insecure about not producing a son, and had he not become consumed by his unfortunate attractions and lust for adulation and control.

Brandon learned to love well for a day when married to Margaret Tudor, then truly learned to love when he married his young ward, only to lose her love when his loyalty to the King forced him to commit terrible acts in putting down a rebellion. After years alone, he found love again with a French girl he met during a battle, but as you will see in the finale, his love for his King always comes first.

Ultimately, as happened so often during the show, Henry proved unable to be worthy of that love.

Kings are but men favored by fortune, but still subject to all the weaknesses, errors and failings of men. Henry cut a wide swath through his nation, leaving human and social wreckage in his wake in his quest to produce an heir. Brandon held his tongue and tried to obey his king's wishes, suffering great losses -- many not of his own doing -- but never losing his soul.

As the finale airs, and Henry faces a final reckoning, there's some doubt that he can say the same.

The rest of the credit for Brandon goes to Cavill, an intriguing actor blessed with classic good looks and charm, but who also brought weight and gravitas to the character. It's not easy to be dashing and soulful at the same time, but he pulled it off.

I'll be very interested to see where Cavill turns up next -- and I'm sorry it probably won't be in chain mail or a velvet doublet, aboard a horse, but a tuxedo and a martini -- shaken, not stirred -- would do just as well.

And while I'm at it, I'd like to throw props at actress Sarah Bolger, who has been luminous and arresting in her portrayal of Henry's eldest daughter, Mary, whose mother was the discarded Queen Katherine of Aragon (or Catherine, depending on the source).

Like Katherine, Mary was a Roman Catholic, and since winners write the history, Anglican England was not kind to either woman -- and screenwriters have often followed suit. Katherine is usually dismissed quickly at the beginning of stories about Henry VIII, in order to get on to the sexier and more controversial wives.

Mary fares even worse, portrayed merely as "Bloody Mary," a single-minded, vindictive religious fanatic, a figure of ridicule and scorn but never pity and understanding. In the hands of Hirst and Bolger, Mary comes to life for the first time as an abandoned yet loving daughter of a viciously broken marriage, tossed hither and thither at the whim of her powerful father, who maintained her heart, her faith and her composure in the face of grief, rejection and loss.

Bravo to both, and I'm a little sad that we will not see the Tudor saga continue to Mary's reign, which, if "The Tudors" is any indication, would do much to humanize history's cruel caricature. Hirst even indulged in a bit of that in his portrayal of the adult Queen Mary in the 1998 feature film "Elizabeth," so perhaps the Princess/Lady Mary of "The Tudors" was partly a counterbalance.

Whether Henry VIII or Elizabeth I, the Tudors loom large over world history, but if I was throwing an afternoon tea, I'd rather have Suffolk at one end and Mary at the other any day.  

Today's cuppa: French vanilla coffee

This fall, FX premieres a new show from "The Shield" executive producer Shawn Ryan, called (at least for the moment) "Terriers." No, it's not about dogs. There is a dog in it, but it's a bulldog, not a terrier. The best I can discern, the reference is to the personalities of the two main characters -- played by Donal Logue and Michael Raymond James -- scrappy, downmarket guys doggedly pursuing new careers as private investigators in a beachside town.

There'll be lots more to say later on, but for the moment, here are a few shots of my day on the set for the season finale in the seaside hamlet of Ocean Beach, not far from San Diego. O.B. (as it's called on set) is the setting for the show, with shooting having taken place there and in San Diego.

Here's the location (everything but the sand, the sea and the sky is a set) ...

Here are the views to the south and the north ...

Bulldog Buster, who plays Bulldog Winston ...

Buster's stand-in ...

What Buster thinks of his stand-in (no stuffed animals were harmed in the taking of this photograph) ...

Under the tent in Video Village as the director watches a scene being shot between Michael Raymond James and Laura Allen (don't tell Buster, but in several takes, his stand-in was a sandbag with a leash on it) ...

Today's cuppa: strong black coffee

In May, Greg Gutfeld, host of Fox News Channel's "RedEye W/Greg Gutfeld," released a book called "The Bible of Unspeakable Truths."

Fans of his 3 a.m. ET weeknight show (which airs repeats on the weekend), sort of a bizarro-universe version of a political and pop-culture roundtable, will find many of the book's elements - Gutfeld's opinions and musings wrapped in a quilt made of the skins of dead houseboys, unicorn hide and leftover bits of shorty robes - familiar, but those new to Gutfeld, his blog, The Daily Gut, and his band of merry TV pranksters may need a cupcake, a Valium or a stiff drink.

 

Gutfeld was kind enough to answer a few questions about himself, "RedEye" and his book. Enjoy.

 

Q: Since you surround your unspeakable truths with self-deprecating comments, jokes and asides, do you reach an audience who might not otherwise hear views like yours?

 

A: I don't know. I've been writing this way since my days at Men's Health. Back then, I had to make prostates funny. Granted, of the glands, that one is the most hysterical. But I always figured wrapping a coating of funny around a message might make the message easier to take. Especially when that message involves six sets of reverse donkey calf raises. I also don't like screeds, or moralizing in general - so the silliness is a reflex against that... as are the reverse donkey calf raises.

 

Q: I've heard you described as a "South Park conservative." If that's true, what does it mean? If not, how would you describe yourself?

 

A: I think I am too old for that description. And I find that title cloying - it's like you're trying to say, "I'm a dork, but I'm cool!" Stuff like that is always created and overused by hacky reporters who need a hook for a story. Like "cougars."  Cougars are just unmarried older women. But now they're "cougars." Or "sexting." "Sexting" is now a phenomenon, when it's just people sending dirty texts to each other. I don't mind the phrases, but I hate it when they are pitched as "stories." Like, "Hey this sexting thing is a big trend among cougars, according to an expert on sexting cougars!"  

 

Q: What's the most surprising reaction you've gotten to the book - pro or con?

 

A: The strangest reaction is the surprise that I've written a book. People don't realize that this is my fourth book, that I've written most of my life. They just see the bizarre man on late night TV, and think that's what I've been all my life. They are unaware that I've edited a number of magazines, and served time for homicide in 1973.

 

Q: What was your mother's reaction?

 

A: I think she was pleased.  She keeps expecting something more substantive to come from me, but she's 85 now - so she's about given up. But she popped me out, so it's all her fault - when you think about it. And you should. I smell bananas. Do you smell bananas?

 

(HCTV: For the record, we do not smell bananas, but we are getting a whiff of peach.)

 

Q: How did we get to place where plain common sense and views drawn from practical experience have become unspeakable truths?

 

A: I blame the generation that gave their lives for us. Realize that our country, since WW2, has had a phenomenal ride - tremendous growth in leisure time and products of convenience that make our lives super-awesome. We are so very comfortable, which gave us time to stop thinking sensibly and start questioning the whole idea of sense. In academia, deconstructionism was born, and mistaken for intelligence: saying "who's to say," as a response to an objective, truthful remark actually started winning the debates. As classrooms gave up on truth for this horrible, fake imposter of truth - you saw the common sense that created our enormous success slowly evaporate. So now you get transgendered men fighting for the right to be topless on Rehoboth beach ... which I salute, by the way.

 

But, this sequence of events created me. My writing is conservative truth strained through a prism of deviance. I maintain absolute morality while conveying the worst kind of debauchery, for we live in a world where all behavior must be tolerated. So why not push it to the limit, and see how much the so-called tolerant, can tolerate? You find out, when you're not a liberal expressing such behavior -- it isn't much.

 

Q: I read your book on a Kindle (meaning, yes, I paid for it). As an author and a former magazine journalist, do you have thoughts on the future of publishing?

 

A: I think it's becoming more about the brain than the book. For so long we've trained ourselves to enjoy long-form reading - when in fact, what we really want is what we are getting now: bite-sized bits of information fed to us like lab rats sucking on a cocaine drip. It's rewiring our brains, and in effect information has legitimate, druggy effects.

 

We feel this immense comfort when we sit down and stare at an unread block of emails. That fills the hole in our afternoon and or/life. The real dread for most of us is what do we do with ourselves. Modern digestion of information is telling us that we love (more than anything) to simply sit, absorb and engage. This is what we are meant to do. Forever. We probably read the equivalent of a book every day now - we don't even know it.

 

I structured my book this way - one chunk here, three chunks there.  Also, information absorption, mixed with communication, creates the sense of regular achievement - which is a good feeling when you're actually just sitting there, drinking beer in a thong made of chiffon. And yes, I've lost thirty pounds. Thanks for asking.

 

Q: You stand a lot on "RedEye." Footwear recommendations?

 

A: Loose-fitting Christian Dior. Leather.

 

Q: If you watch TV, what do you watch?

 

A: The last season of "Big Brother UK" just started, which excites me. But I'm also a massive fan of "Peep Show," and watched it religiously when I lived in London. It's now available on BBC on Demand. It's the best, most morally-driven show on television. It's about two young men who live together. One works hard at a bank (until recently), while the other freeloads off him. The novelty of the show is that you can hear all their thoughts - which undermines their behavior. The things they think are EXACTLY what you and I think, and these thoughts are often callous to the point of horrible. The relationship between the two male friends is a microcosm of society: It's the sponge who hates the hard worker, for all of his hard work. He lives off him, but hates the traits that made his friend able to support him. It's a sickly hilarious and relentlessly mean show. There is no truer show on TV, period.

"Modern Family" is also fun. "Work of Art" is addictive too. "Justified" had a loping gait, but the finale kicked butt. Lots of corpses. And Timothy Olyphant is the next Clint Eastwood, whether he knows it or not.

 

Q: I've often thought that many cable channels could do well to hand over the wee hours to experimental programming like "RedEye." What's the near future for the show and you, and what other channels should try a similar project?

 

A: I honestly have no idea. It pleases me that a very ballsy FNC took a chance with us, and I am eternally grateful for the opportunity. I do think "RedEye" delivers something uniquely special to FNC, something they didn't have before. Once I figure out what that is, I'll let you know. We are truly experimental, but more important - we're honest and good-natured about what we do. We are also very polite to everyone in the elevators, whereas John Gibson is all hands.

 

Q: You're doing pretty well on guests - who's on the favorites list, and who's still on the wish list (does that list include ombudsman Andy Levy's doppelganger, "Nurse Jackie" star Edie Falco)?

 

A: Why ask for Edie when we have Andy? He'll just throw a tantrum, anyway. We've had an awesome stretch of guests lately - and most important we snag folks who are rarely seen talking, ever, on TV. Slayer's Kerry King, Danzig, Gwar's Oderus Urangus - the list goes on. A lot of great musicians performing "RedEye" themes songs, from Larry Gatlin to Train.

We just had Jeff "Skunk" Baxter - the most fascinating man on the planet. He started Steely Dan then joined the Doobie Brothers. Now he's a defense consultant - a self-taught expert on high-tech weaponry. It's incredible.

Mike Patton is due in July, which I'm looking forward to. His new CD, "Mondo Cane," is fantastic - a collection of Italian pop songs three decades old but reanimated with Patton's unmatchable voice. He's the greatest living singer on the planet right now. And I include the guy from the Goo Goo Dolls.

 

As for others on the wish list - I'm patiently waiting for Tobacco, the man from the awesome band Black Moth Super Rainbow. His new CD, "Maniac Meat," is a garish, irresistible onslaught of psychedelic electronic sci-fi pop. A combination of burbling organs, gorgeous melodies, sinister vocals and propulsive beats - he's effectively created the sound of ice water boiling. I write this now, hoping he will read it, and do the show. I won't hold my breath.

UPDATE: Big Hollywood.com makes the case for a better "RedEye" time slot.

Today's cuppa: peppermint tea

Tonight at 10 p.m. ET on Discovery Channel, "After the Catch," the companion roundtable show to "Deadliest Catch," returns for its sixth season, again featuring the salty sea captains and deckhands of the Bering Sea crab fleet talking about what did and didn't wind up on camera during filming for the documentary series.

(In photo, l to r: Jake, Phil and Josh Harris)

But this season, the captain's table will be short one member, since Cornelia Marie Capt. Phil Harris passed away in February after suffering a stroke. Click here and here for details. Click here for a story posted yesterday with "Deadliest" producer Thom Beers about tonight's episode.

After a few seasons away for scheduling reasons, "Dirty Jobs" host Mike Rowe, who also narrates "Deadliest Catch," returns to the moderator chair for "After the Catch," which has filmed in many different famous fishing ports. This season, it's New Orleans, which, along with the rest of southern Louisiana, has suffered from multiple hurricanes and, now, from the massive Gulf oil spill.

(The President speaks tonight briefly at 8 p.m. Eastern -- live in all time zones -- about the spill and the cleanup.)

"That was planned," says Rowe, "probably six or seven months ago, before the hurricane, before Phil, before everything. It was just very, very surreal, sitting there with four of the famous fishermen in the world, in maybe one of the most famous port cities in the world, in the midst of maybe the biggest eco-calamity in the world, with an empty chair, a duck fart and a picture where Phil would have been, looking back, in five hours, over the whole season.

"There was endless stuff to talk about,and it was really instructive. The guys are way more forthcoming than they used to be, and more comfortable than they used to be -- or as comfortable as you can be when it's 105 degrees, your buddy's gone, and you're trying to make sense of it."

(In photo, l to r), Capt. Andy Hillstrand, Capt. Phil Harris, Josh Harris, Capt. Sig Hansen)

For a show whose very name emphasizes the dangers of crab fishing in the icy Bering Sea, it is an irony that Harris was struck on dry land, that he didn't perish at sea.

"Which is exactly what we've trained everybody to expect," Rowe says. "When's the wave coming? When's the fire coming? When is the sinking? When is the calamity? These guys are prepared for it, and the viewers are prepared for it.

"Then all of a sudden, he has a stroke -- off-loading on the dock? It's so mundane; it's so relatable."

Along with the other captains, Harris' deckhand sons Jake and Josh also appear on "After the Catch," and it's understandably emotional.

"There are times when we have to stop shooting," Rowe says.

Since Rowe (at left) has been involved with the show since the beginning, he feels it helped for him to be there at this time.

"I've worked on every one of their boats," Rowe says. "I've been to six funerals in Dutch Harbor (Alaska), in the course of shooting the show. I've gotten drunk with these guys. I've bailed one out of jail. They know me.

"It just means you can have a conversation instead of a performance. That's basically what we wanted."

(Click here for footage of a jazz funeral held for Harris in New Orleans; click here for a "Larry King Live" segment featuring the captains and Rowe talking about the Gulf oil spill.)

Today's cuppa: caffe latte (it's brown)

If you're looking for somebody to tell you that you're a special little snowflake, that you should follow your bliss, that there's no "I" in team, and that innovation is more important than imitation, you could call your mom or your therapist or your business guru.

Just don't call Mike Rowe.

He's done well over 250 "Dirty Jobs," and he's learned that it's frequently just not so.

Tonight, at 9 p.m. ET, as part of the Discovery Channel 25th anniversary celebration, Rowe presents "Dirty Jobs: The Dirty Truth," a special Rowe expects -- perhaps even hopes -- will ruffle a few feathers.

"I looked at the preference for innovation, because imitation is the great unloved of work," says Rowe. "It's only mass assembly, the thing that keeps us civilized. That raised all kinds of eyebrows and pissed people off, so I kept looking for other contrarian positions.

"So there's a whole act on effectiveness vs. efficiency, the dangers of teamwork, the perils of following your passion instead of bringing it with you, and the danger of experts. It's going to drive Discovery nuts, but it's really going to be fun. It should be a hoot."

Asked where the idea for "The Dirty Truth" originated, Rowe says, "The idea first came a couple of years ago, when I did a special called 'Brown Before Green.' I realized that I'd done enough of these jobs that I was able to look back and really extract some sort of the lesson for the aggregate. The more jobs we did, the more I was realizing, I could do this on any number of topics. So we did 'Brown Before Green,' and I got most of my environmental take out there.

"Then I did 'Safety Third.' I got a letter from Malcolm Gladwell's office, and got my hands on a book called 'Target Risk,' which talks about something called risk homeostasis, which is another version of 'Safety Third' and validated the whole thing in a really interesting way.

"That's when I thought, 'If I can look at topics like risk management and environmental responsibility and run them through the "Dirty Jobs" lens, I ought to be able to do it with Steven Covey's stuff and Tony Robbins or all of these (workplace) platitudes.'

"I think it started with "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People." I just started basically poking fun at conventional wisdom. Then I got a list. Then I realized, I've got a ton of evidence to back up my spin on it.

"As I was organizing all these thoughts, Discovery said, 'We need a special for the 25th anniversary,' and I said, 'OK, I'll use 25 jobs to debunk a platitude in every act."

Among the topics are: "Beware of Experts," "Teamwork is Overrated," "Pathetic Poster Platitudes," "The Passion of Mike," "Imitation Is Hot" and "Efficiency is for Robots."

Explains Rowe, "This is basically me saying, 'Look, I don't want to pooh-pooh a college education, but all you precious little snowflakes have to understand that it doesn't guarantee you anything at all. You really are just not being prepared for what the world is going to give you. Here's some advice, not from me to you, but some areas where I got it wrong and have been gently corrected over the years by my friends in the dirt.'

"That's how it plays, so you'll dig it."

On Tuesday night, Rowe also returns as the host of "After the Catch," talking to the crab-boat captains of "Deadliest Catch" about the season, the loss of Capt. Phil Harris (at left) and, since the show coincidentally is taping in New Orleans, the Gulf oil spill and its effect on the fisheries.

Stay tuned to this space -- and the From Inside the Box blog on Zap2it.com -- for more on this and new episodes of "Deadliest Catch."

(BTW, "Dirty Jobs: The Dirty Truth" repeats June 20th at 9 p.m. and midnight ET. Click here for other scheduled airings.)

Today's cuppa: Barry's Gold Blend Irish tea

On Tuesday, Fox's "Glee" has its season finale, and that pretty much does it for the official TV season (although we're well into the very busy summer season).

As always, it's been a wild year. Below find a poll that hit some of the highlights that popped into my mind.

I hope you'll make use of the user-generated poll option, the poll comments and the blog comments to discuss what meant the most to you during this past season.

Click here for a listing of the shows to help jog your memory.

In the end, TV is all about what YOU watch and what YOU like ... or not. Let your voice be heard ...

Last December, NBC aired the first season of the a cappella singing competition "The Sing-Off," ultimately crowning the six-man Puerto Rican group Nota as champions.

The second season doesn't air until late this year, but auditions have been underway to find the new competitors, concluding with a day-long audition session this Saturday (June 5) in Burbank, Calif.

Former 98 Degrees member Nick Lachey returns as host for the show, as do judges Ben Folds (of the band Ben Folds Five), R&B singer and Boyz II Men member Shawn Stockman, and Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger (below), herself a reality-competition star following her win on the most recent season of ABC's "Dancing With the Stars."

Nota signed a contract with Sony Music US Latin and is currently recording its first album. Although singing paired with musical instruments is the norm, Lachey sees a continuing presence for a cappella singing (voices without musical accompaniment).

"When I was in 98 Degrees, we did a lot of a cappella," Lachey says. "Back then, you also had Boyz II Men. I thought we were the few groups out there that still did it.

"But as we saw on the show, there are quite a few groups out there doing it, and doing it in unconventional ways. You've seen a cappella evolve so much over the years, with the barbershop sound and the more structured sound. Now you've got full percussion and a lot of creativity happening, which is great for the art form.

"We take styles from barbershop to the more glee-club style to the more R&B harmony style. The groups are anywhere from 4 to 12 people, and the ethnicity, the background, of the groups is always different."

Lachey believes the success of FOX's show-choir comedy-drama "Glee" will do a lot to boost interest.

"It's a huge plus," Lachey says. "to see the way that music is celebrated on that show. The success of that show clearly shows that there's an appetite out there across the country for singing and for performing.

"Oftentimes, people go up through high school, and it's not necessarily the cool thing to do. But over the last few years, we've seen that really change. We've seen singing and performing, and even show-choir-type performing, become a lot more celebrated and a lot cooler.

"The success of 'Glee' and any other show like that is real positive for performing and for singing."

While the kids in "Glee" go to a regular public high school in Lima, Ohio, Lachey was lucky enough to go to the School for Creative and Performing Arts in Cincinnati, that also boasts Sarah Jessica Parker as a former student and was featured on the Lachey-produced MTV series "Taking the Stage."

Asked if he would have wound up in a boy band had he been a school like "Glee's" fictional McKinley High, Lachey says, "It's interesting. I have thought about that. I can't imagine that I'd be singing. I can't imagine that I would have been in this business, frankly, if I'd been in a regular high school.

"My experience in a performing arts school was a real boost for me in terms of wanting to get into this business. For me, it was really the most important factor in me being an entertainer."

Regarding what else he might have become, Lachey says, "I'm a huge sports fan, so if I hadn't gone into entertainment, I would have gone into the sports world in some capacity, whether to be a sports broadcaster or sports medicine, something along those lines."

One of the big stories in sports right now is the 2010 NBA finals pitting basketball's Los Angeles Lakers against the Boston Celtics.

Although Lachey has lived in Southern California, he says, "I'm not an especially huge Lakers fan, so I'd have to take the Celtics. This is the time of year when everyone jumps on the Laker bandwagon. I'm not one of those people. I'm going to go with the Celtics."

Today's cuppa: French Vanilla coffee

It's a Friday afternoon in Los Angeles, and Patrick Warburton is facing one of a parent's greatest fears -- allowing his eldest son, Talon, to drive his father's car. To make it more challenging, they're on the busy and congested 101 Freeway, at one of its most busy and congested times.

"He's having a little trouble getting over," Warburton says. "You can actually turn right from this lane when we get over there. So, stay in this lane. I'm sorry. I'm also giving a little driving instruction.

"He's driving my car for the first time ever, and he's doing a fine job."

Warburton's CBS comedy "Rules of Engagement" -- airing tonight, Wednesday, but also, according to the online schedule, on Thursday, and on Monday and Wednesday of next week -- has been picked up for fall, when it will keep airing on Mondays at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT, after "How I Met Your Mother."

Warburton plays Jeff, half (with Megyn Price) of a long-married but childless (at least so far, but there is surrogate talk) couple that is friends with a cohabiting couple (Oliver Hudson, Bianca Kajlich) and a free-living single guy (David Spade).

The comedy didn't even make it on the air this year until March for its 13-episode fourth season.

"We've never had a full season." says Warburton. "But the show's doing well, and we've definitely had momentum this season. The network looks at that. Our numbers were going up, and the show definitely got sharper."

As a father of four in real life, Warburton is in no hurry to play one on "Rules."

"I'd like to postpone the baby thing, to be perfectly honest," he says.

Asked if he really wants to work with either a fake infant or a real one that can only work for a few minutes at a time, he says, "No, I don't."

Warburton is also a voice actor, and one of his regular gigs is as Joe Swanson (armed in the photo below) a macho paraplegic police officer in the police department of Quahog, hometown of main character Peter Griffin (voiced by show creator Seth MacFarlane) in the Sunday-night Fox animated comedy, "Family Guy."

"Family Guy" is frequently taken to task for political jabs, aimed mainly at right-wing figures, and for various other kinds of edgy or outrageous humor. Most recently, actor Robert Davi objected strongly to a joke centered on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, while speaking at the Los Angeles National Cemetery on Memorial Day.

"It's satire," Warburton says. "It's ridicule, and it's sarcasm. It's not nice by nature. When you sign on, there are different rules to that than say, a live-action show. You have to accept the fact that it's going to be offensive at times.

"I turn the show off if I find it to be what I consider sacrilegious or unnecessary. It's offensive on so many levels every single time. I think that's why, if you're truly offended by it, and it's something that bothers you, then don't watch it.

"My mother really does believe my soul's in peril for being on that show. I'm not sure I feel that way, although there are times that I've watched the show, and I feel like, maybe she's right. I do wrestle with it a little bit at times, but if I felt I was doing something that really, truly hurt people or hurt individuals, then I wouldn't want to be a part of it.

"The reaction to the show that I've always gotten is from people who love the show. I've never had anybody come up to me and say, 'How could you be a part of that? How could you do that?'

"Except for my mother."

As for his own beliefs, Warburton says, "I tend to be a  bit more conservative. I'm a father of four. I view things more conservatively than, I would say, perhaps a lot of people in the industry. I grew up in a conservative environment. I think we strive to have something of an open perspective but conservative values. That's where we come from."

He starts explaining that one doesn't always get to play characters and be on shows that reflect one's personal values, then, "Tal, Tal, Tal ... don't say you're sorry. Don't crash the car. Don't make somebody have to stop for you."

Warburton averts yet another traffic mishap, and then ponders a question about whether he'd like to one day produce a show that reflects his own values.

"Sure," he says. "Absolutely. I'm taking some meetings right now. It's really premature, so I can't really talk about it, but I'm actually in the midst of that right now. Hopefully it'll be for a network like the Discovery Channel, and it'll be something that's much more family-friendly."