TV and Burgers

It was a return to normalcy for the Oscars last night.  After the debacle of 2011 the Academy decided to stop trying to pander to the 18-24 demographic and gave us an old fashioned Oscars telecast celebrating vintage Hollywood.  The show, while still over three hours long, was fast paced and done well.  It was comfort food, Oscars style.  Billy Crystal returned for his ninth stint as host and he was a welcome relief from the disinterested James Franco and the way too perky Anne Hathaway.  Crystal opened with his traditional methods: inserting himself into a montage of clips from the films of 2011 followed by a medley in which he mentioned all the Best Picture nominees.  The thing you get with Crystal is that he is safe.  The Academy knows he is not going to go off the deep end, start swearing or get overly political.  The other thing that Crystal does best is that he reacts.  He reacts and adjusts to the audience and to what h...

Last fall I received from very disturbing news.  The Original Hooters in Clearwater would be closing for a few months to undergo major renovations.  How would I get by without my all time favorite restaurant?  Would I be able to get through this?  Well the answer turned out to be yes and I am here to report that the New Original Hooters is bigger and better than ever.  Welcome Back! Today, 2/13/12, was opening day of the New Original Hooters .  The first thing you notice is the expanded parking lot.  Parking could often be difficult and they have clearly solved that problem.  The next thing you notice is that from the outside it looks completely different.  There is a huge outdoor patio and the big plus with that is that you no longer have to walk through some yucky cigarette smoke to enter the building.  As has always been the case you enter the store being greeted by a beautiful Hooters girl.  To your right is...

Found footage.  That’s what we are said to be watching at the beginning of The River, a new eight episode series on ABC.  Who found the footage and how they found it is a mystery, but then again just about everything on The River is a mystery at this point.  Here is the premise: Dr. Emmet Cole is the host of a popular and long running wildlife show called The Undiscovered Country.  The show also features his wife, Tess and their son Lincoln as they travel the globe on their ship, The Magus.  Emmet ends each episode with the same tagline of “there’s magic out there”.  But six months ago Emmet disappeared in the Amazon.  His ship and crew were never found and he was declared dead.  Then suddenly his emergency beacon goes off and the search for him begins.  We got little more than that in the first 15 minutes of the show when the crew was hastily put together and we learned that Emmet had been estranged from his son, who was al...

“On March 21st, 1963, Alcatraz officially closed. All the prisoners were transferred off the island. Only that's not what happened. Not at all.” – Emerson Hauser By now everyone should know that I am a huge fan of the works of writer/producer/director J.J. Abrams.  For the uninitiated Abrams was the director of Star Trek & Super 8 and is the producer of the latest (and best) film in the Mission: Impossible series.  Abrams is the co-creator of Lost & fringe, which loyal readers know as two of my favorite shows of all time.  The latest show from Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions is Alcatraz and after three episodes I am hooked.  Alcatraz stars the delightful Sarah Jones as San Francisco homicide detective Rebecca Madsen, Jorge Garcia as historian/author/comic book store owner Doc Soto and Sam Neill as FBI agent Emerson Hauser.  When you have a show with a cute blonde, Hurley and Dr. Alan Grant produced by the brilliant Abrams you have a winne...

The Finder is a new show that recently premiered on Fox.  It is a spin off of the once brilliant Bones which has, unfortunately, turned into a wicked mess.  Despite that fact I still watch it as I am somewhat addicted and as a result was very excited for this new show. A little background: Last season an episode of Bones featured the characters heading down to Florida Keys and meeting the characters of The Finder.  It was probably one of the best episodes of Bones in 2011 and thus made for an easy decision to pick up as a series.  In that episode, however, there was a character played by the lovely Saffron Burrows who is no longer a part of the show.  She played a tough bartender and helicopter pilot, but she has apparently been long forgotten.  The setup of the show is fairly simple.  Walter Sherman (Played by Geoff Stults) is a former military officer who suffered some brain damage while overseas.  Due to this he is now paranoi...

As we close out 2011, allow me to wish each and every one of my loyal readers a very Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa and Happy Holidays.  I thank you for your loyalty and for making TV & Burgers an overwhelming success. It is now time for Sir Griffin’s annual list of his ten best shows of 2011.  Before you read you do have to remember that this is my list, not yours, and thus if you disagree feel free to make your own list, but do not disparage mine.  I list my shows alphabetically and not in any order of favorites.  Also, there are a lot of shows out there that I just do not watch that are often critically acclaimed and since I’ve never seen them I cannot include them no matter how good they are.  I have never seen Mad Men or Breaking Bad so don’t look for those on this list.  So without further ado I bring you Sir Griffin’s Top 10 of 2011. 2 Broke Girls – From the first episode I fell in love with this show. ...

Survivor: South Pacific has come to an end and it was a great season.  I have to start, however, by pointing out that I was absolutely correct in my prediction of Sophie being the winner.   Brandon  arrived at RI and promptly told Ozzy,   in not so many words, that he was a complete idiot for giving his immunity to Albert.  This was followed by the final RI duel in which Brandon and Ozzy had to hold onto their poles as long as possible.  Wait, that sounds wrong.  Having already seen Ozzy climb palm trees it was obvious that he would be victorious and Brandon would be sent to the jury.  Although Brandon made a game of it, his toes eventually gave out and he was a goner.  Ozzy, was back in the game and not exactly welcomed.  Ozzy, knowing he was going to be voted out immediately had to win immunity, but at the same time try and convince Coach that he was more worthy of keeping around until the end if the dragon slayer wanted a ...