I knew almost immediately this show would never come back next season. Some shows you can just tell right from the first episode.

But I watched anyways and really enjoyed the series. Until the end – which wasn’t shown. Thanks, ABC.

Granted, it was a miracle the show wasn’t cancelled after three or four episodes. The ratings were anemic – it would have made sense.

But to stick by a show to the end, then at the last minute pull the final episode is just crazy.

The one-hour finale (episodes 12 & 13) was scheduled for last night. Earlier this week, ABC decided to ditch episode 13 and instead run an episode of “Knights Of Prosperity” – a show that’s also doing disastrous in the ratings and has already been asked to stop production.

Maybe the producers of “Big Day” are planning a DVD release of the series and the major selling point will be that one unaired episode. Or maybe ABC gets a tax write-off if they cancel a series and don’t air all the episodes. Or maybe ABC wants people to visit their website to see the final episode (if they end up streaming it there).

Whatever the reason, it’s annoying. If you were the other person watching this show and want to know what happens in that final episode, click here for a brief description from tv.com…

A Big THANK YOU to all who attended our 2nd Annual WORLD’S
BIGGEST 80’s PARTY last Friday at CLUB INFINITY. I haven’t seen
so much BIG HAIR in a long time.

Did you think AMERICAN IDOL’S popularity is falling? Last Wednesday’s show had more viewers than the next 3 networks COMBINED!

Well it’s Super Bowl week, have you picked a WINNER or do you just
watch for the commercials (because the BILLS aren’t in it)?

I’d love to hear from you.

Roger

You never know where the mic will lead. Check out some pics of recent Star broadcasts and events:

While on vacation a few months back, I heard a new version of Fleetwood Mac’s “Go Your Own Way”. It was by a group I’d never heard of called South Side Crew. That song easily became the greatest song of 2006 (in my world at least).

Now they’ve remade another 70’s classic – this time Foreigner’s “Cold As Ice”. And I actually prefer the new versions to the originals – probably because the 70’s really wasn’t my favorite decade for music.

The 80’s was. And now a 90’s artist has just released a couple remakes from that decade. Remember Collage’s “I’ll Be Loving You”?

He (Adam Marano) is back with two 80’s remakes. Rick Springfield’s “Jessie’s Girl” is given the dance treatment and sounds great. Bad English’s “When I See You Smile” is just bad – stick with the original version for that one.

Click on the artist links to go to the song clips. If you like the previews, you can also purchase them at that site. They’re mostly dance songs, so if you don’t like that type of music, you probably won’t like these.

If you’d prefer to stick with the originals from my favorite decade of music, listen to the 80’s At 8 every weeknight on Star 102.5!

I never bothered watching Top Chef on Bravo. If I was randomly flipping through the channels, I’d stop on it but I wouldn’t actively search it out.

Until last week.

Reports on Reality Blurred and Television Without Pity were saying something crazy had happened on the show. Producers, cover-ups, and scandal were involved. I now needed to see this show.

I previously thought it was more a serious chef competition and less reality show. As I’m not into cooking (about all I can “cook” is toast and macaroni), I wasn’t interested. But the episode that aired last week changed my mind.

One of the contestants (Marcel) was sleeping on the couch. Another contestant (Cliff) woke Marcel up by dragging him off the couch, putting him into a half-nelson hold and pulling him around the room while other contestants contemplated shaving his head. All while on national TV. People are so stupid.

Cliff was punished in as best a way the producers could. And hopefully, his reputation will be destroyed by this incident.

The head judge (Tom Colicchio) wanted to send all the contestants involved in the attack home, leaving Marcel to win the competition by default. The producers stepped in and said no. Read Tom’s blog for more details.

This entire idiotic incident has suddenly made the show interesting. True reality TV (watching a standard & routine life or event) is too boring to watch. Add drama and suddenly it’s watchable. I’ll be watching to hopefully see the outcast win and the others go down in flames.

Top Chef 2 concludes its run Wednesday nights 1/24 & 1/31 at 10:00pm EST on Bravo.

Kevin O’Connell’s Channel 2 forecast is calling for snow every day for the next week and a half straight! In Virginia this would have been cause for bringing in the National Guard to keep order, and police to direct the screaming hordes in and around the grocery stores. Here, it’s no big deal. (Have I mentioned it’s great to be back in the Midwest?)

Above is a poor, iced tree that normally stands straight and tall in our backyard. It’s bent over completely at the moment. You can also see the ugly new building they have put directly behind our house, where a lovely forest used to be. (sigh)

We pulled the kids on tobaggans in the field behind the house over the weekend. You forget what great exercise trudging through an icy field is – especially dragging a child behind you!

I had been eyeing the hill behind the house since we moved in for some sledding adventures; but for a 6 and 3 year old, it’s a little too steep, especially with the jutting branches and brambles still sticking up. Ultimately it wasn’t as much fun for Connor and Darcy as they expected, but they did enjoy the hot chocolate we had when we got back inside.

On the air Friday I talked about being locked out of AMC last weekend at 10pm on “Date Night” with Heather. 10 degrees, late movies still in previews, but we and three other couples stood watching from the outside-in while concession workers and ticket takers ignored us. Not the best customer service technique!

So….on Saturday Heather and I went to Regal Cinemas instead, and saw Children of Men. I had read good reviews about it, and really: who doesn’t love a dark, depressing story about the Apocalypse, right?

Well acted, great story, just very very intense. I wouldn’t recommend it as a “date movie,” but we have been talking about it every day since we saw it. This is one of those movies that truly transports you to a different place; and one terrifying scene in particular gave me a pretty good idea what our poor soldiers must be dealing with in Iraq right now. I don’t know what kind of training could ever prepare anyone for that kind of combat.

So thumbs up on Children of Men, starring Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, and Michael Caine. Rated R, don’t bring the kiddies.

Take them sledding instead.

–Brian

I’m looking forward to seeing everyone at THE WORLD’S BIGGEST 8O’s Party on Friday night (1/26) at CLUB INFINITY, Main Street,
in Williamsville! ROB BASE and D.J. E-Z ROCK (the guys from NYC
that brought us IT TAKES TWO and JOY & PAIN) will be LIVE on stage
and DJ’s PAUL FOXE and DONNY RAZOR will join me in the DJ Booth!
It kicks off at 7pm and if you remember clubs like The Pierce Arrow, Uncle Sams, and Yellow Jaguar you’ll be right at home. You can get tickets through the Club Infinity Box Office (565-0110) or tickets.com Markets. Hope to see you on Friday night!

This will help you better understand me…

The Top Scan by Mondial Rides. Technological brilliance from the Netherlands. If you ever see this, stop whatever you’re doing immediately and head for one of the outside seats. (Please get one of these, Fantasy Island – it would be the perfect neighbor for Chaos!)

The Flying Saucer Drive-In Restaurant on Lundy’s Lane in Niagara Falls, Canada. The greatest restaurant ever. Yes, it’s a flying saucer. If you like burgers, this is the place to go.

The greatest song ever recorded. One of the greatest bands ever. Don’t even try to disagree – you know I’m right.

Television at its best. The fact that it only lasted 21 episodes could lead you to believe it was a failure. But consider this: there’s been over 3000 episodes of The Jerry Springer Show. I rest my case.

Ice makes everything beautiful…..except for the roads.

Click the picture for an icy slideshow. (I guess that would make it a SLICE-show…heh heh….)

Our freakishly warm and muddy Buffalo Winter changed to the more normal, frosty variety today. Rain changed to ice, ice is now snow, who knows what tomorrow may bring, although I would imagine the plague of frogs is still a ways off.

Happy MLK Day!

–Brian

From the blog “gofugyourself.com,” enjoy:

“The worst Project Runway contestant could probably put something together in 8 hours that didn’t wrinkle, crinkle, bubble, and gap as badly as this electric blue malfunction does. Who is responsible for this art-deco nightmare? Was this a tragic wallpapering accident? Did a one-eyed drunk monkey attack her with pleather and a staple gun? Or has she been to the future, and returned with this weirdly encoded sartorial warning of doom?

Over the past week we’ve talked about some amazing pictures of an incoming snowfall that Air Gordon took from the Traffic Plane. Here they are, posted over the next few blog entries. The size of these really doesn’t do them justice. Hopefully you can paste them into your own system and make them bigger sizes. Click on each picture to enlargen.

more pics on the next blog!

Here is the ESPN article on NHL uni’s we talked about on the air the other day.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/columns/story?columnist=frei_terry&id=2720009

It’s a story of extremes: Christmas vs. New Year’s Eve.

I read about some fun events going on at the Falls, fireworks included, and I figured why not drive up there and avoid the downtown Buffalo crowds, since we live so close, right? It is one of the Natural Wonders of the World, after all!

To the left is what I had hoped to find New Year’s Eve, but this crazy Buffalo winter threw the first monkey wrench into my plans. It’s been so unseasonably warm here that a lot of other people had the same idea I did, and they took about 20 friends with them to Niagara Falls/Ontario, too. When we finally got into town, the main drag was bumper to bumper traffic, worse than I have ever seen it up there, and that’s including the peak Summer months.

But, ignoring this first red flag, I drove on with the entire Demay clan, kids and MIL included, and found a parking spot on an upper ridge overlooking the Falls. In the drizzle and fog we parked, (see right photo) waiting for the fireworks to begin. (By the way, to set the scene, MIL was doing some heavy-duty preaching, complaining about the fireworks not starting yet, wondering if we should drive on, etc. )

The fireworks began, and the requisite oohs and ahhs began, only to end less than 5 minutes later. It was literally the worst fireworks display I have ever seen, and that includes the July 4th fireworks in tiny Oscoda, Michigan.

Incredulous, we all got back in the car; then I had the bright idea to stick around for a while longer to “make the trip worth it,” since the fireworks sucked so bad. I was thinking let’s have a snack, then drive back home, put the kids to bed, and watch the ball drop on TV.

So we found the last spot in the “My Cousin Vinny’s” parking lot, and had a drink with some stuffed mushrooms, salad, and cheese sticks. Then we headed back down to the bridge to the US, only to find all access to the bridge blocked off. There was a street party going on.

If it wasn’t raining, and if I didn’t have two sleepy kids in tow, we may have decided to stick around and see what the hubbub was about – instead, we inched along with hundreds of other cars, trying to find the ONE ROAD that would lead us back across the border.

We ended up driving to the outskirts of Niagara Falls in search of the mysterious Whirlpool Bridge, which I have only heard about – never seen – but were thwarted. Pressing on, we ended up (a lot later) back in the crush of cars using the only road leading back to the U.S.

By now everyone was asleep in the car – except MIL – so I was guaranteed a very vocal return trip. Fabulous.

We hit the border at about 11:43, and I held out one desperate hope of making it home in time. Nobody wanted to be in the car at midnight, but in a car we were, going about 80 in a futile attempt to see Dick Clark one last time in 2006. Happy New Year!