Mad Men

Do any of y'all watch the show Mad Men? I started watching online last night and I'm hooked! I'm only three episodes in, but I have a feeling that this is taking its place alongside Gossip Girl as a total favorite.

Not to mention I am obsessed with Betty Draper.

Oh, she's perfect.

What are you watching? Let me know!

XO

You Know You Love It

When Gossip Girl premiered on the CW way back in '07, I was all of eleven years old. Hardly old enough for my my mother to consider it appropriate for me to be watching a group of ridiculously wealthy young Manhattan-ites gallivanting around the city while a mysterious blogger publicized their scandals for all the world to see. As I got older and the series progressed, I kept hearing my friends talk about how great it was, but I didn't really want to get into it without having seen the first few seasons, and I was too busy to do serious catching up.

Cut to December 2012, and word of the GG series finale is blowing up my Twitter feed. It was right before winter break, I had time to kill, so I found the first season online and started watching from the beginning.

I couldn't stop.

I honestly think I finished the first season in a matter of three days. I'm only a few episodes away from the season two finale, and still obsessed.

Were you/are you a Gossip Girl addict too?

XO

In My Hulu Queue...

I really don't have time to sit down and watch TV. I'm always doing something, and a lot of the time when I decide to watch TV, it ends up just being on in the background and I don't even pay attention to what's going on. That's why I love Hulu. I can watch what I want, when I want it, and there are lots of older episodes available too. Here's what's in my queue right now:

This show is so addicting. I really wish it had run for more than two seasons, because it really is a guilty pleasure of mine. There's so much drama and I love it! I'm currently in the middle of season two, and I'm trying to put off finishing it!!

I've watched episodes here and there in the past, but I have so many friends who are obsessed, so I've decided to start watching it too! I added all of season eight and the season nine premiere to my queue to watch later!

In the past, I've had a very hot-cold relationship with this show but the new season is great so far! I'm loving seeing Rachel adapt to New York and it's going to be very interesting to see where the Glee Club at McKinley ends up.

I'm also all caught up on Modern Family and Go On! Is there anything I should add to my queue?

XO

GCB

I loved Pan Am. I was sad to see it go. But the Sunday night time slot after Desperate Housewives will still be viewed by yours truly. Why?

GCB.

I adored the pilot episode last night. It was bubbly, witty, and I'm a huge fan of Kristen Chenoweth, who shines as queen bee Carlene Cockburn.

I can't wait to see what else GCB has to bring!

Will you be tuning in?

XO

North Shore Prep

Titan Telethon

I've been meaning to post about this forever, but haven't had a chance to get around to it. My apologies.

November 4th and 5th, I was given an absolutely incredible opportunity from my school. Just a week after we were awarded NBC's Prep Destination, South hosted a 24 hour telethon for our local Youth Services organization.

My Broadcasting teacher asked me to work on TV Crew for the event, which was shown live on our school's public access TV channel and streamed live here. (You can still watch some of it online!!) I agreed, nervous at first that I would be with a ton of older people from the Advanced TV Production class, figuring it would be a great way to get experience being around a live show. At my teacher's urging, I signed myself up for a 12-hour shift: from midnight to noon the next day. I was assigned to do studio camera operation for two two-hour blocks in the early morning and be on call the rest of the time for whatever they needed.

However, I was far more involved in this telethon than I expected to be. With Poms, I was in the school's AWESOME Lip Dub (Seriously, so great. Watch it.) that kicked off the whole thing. I was also recruited to answer phones for an hour and a half and even got interviewed while working the phones.

Sorry for the poor quality of the picture, my friend who was watching at home took it off of her TV when she saw me on air!

I wasn't needed for TV until around four in the morning, so I went to the auditorium, where we had a glow-in-the-dark dance party, salsa dancing, and general merry-making going on. Heading back to the studio around 3:45, I hosted the show for about forty-five minutes, filling in for our Assistant Principal (the real host) who was off napping. That was such a cool and unexpected experience that really happened by accident, going down something like this:

(I'm sitting at the desk on set, waiting for the Assistant Principal to come back so I can mic him)

Some Random Adv. TV Guy: Where is he?

Show Director: I have no idea. Put a lav [lavalier microphone] on her [ME!] just in case.

*Guy comes over, mic's me, and hands me copy for the top of the hour announcements*

Guy: Who are you, anyway?

Me: I'm in Intro to Broadcasting.

Guy: Alright, cue Intro Girl.

Next thing I know, I'm hosting the whole show and interviewing people from Youth Services. It was pretty great to learn about the organization and get on camera experience at the same time. When the Assistant Principal came back, I jokingly asked my TV teacher if I could be "Vanna White over at the total board." He said yes, I got a mic, and started doing the top of the hour announcements and donation updates from the board in the studio. (You can see that on the first video that pops up in the queue here. I pop up every 30 minutes for the first hour and a half, and from then on I'm there more frequently.)

The telethon ended up raising over $80,000 for Youth Services, topping our original goal of $50,000. It was really such a great experience, knowing I was helping an organization so close to home, being involved with TV, and seeing our whole school really come together for the event. I met so many great people that night, and made some really good new friends from it.

I hope we do another telethon before I graduate!

XO

North Shore Prep

Fall TV

I usually don't make time for TV. I have so much of everything else (Poms, dance, school, blogging, etc.) going on that I find myself missing shows that my friends rave about everyday at lunch. I never got into Pretty Little Liars, or Jersey Shore, or even 90210.

But this fall's TV lineup, on all stations, is looking pretty great. It looks like my queue on Hulu will be filling up pretty quickly.

ABC's Pan Am is one of my new favorites, just from the pilot, which aired Monday at 10/9c. The pilot episode was, in my opinion, flawless. I loved the use of flashbacks and the roles were perfectly cast.

Suburgatory premiered tonight, and I'm such a fan. It's completely hilarious, and a great lead-in to Modern Family.

Also on ABC, Desperate Housewives is back for a final season. I've loved this show for a while, and have loved seeing all the characters mature. The season premiere (aired Sunday at 9/8c), has already hooked me.

Glee is back! I'm so happy. Enough said.

What are you watching?

XO

North Shore Prep

I Am Officially Obsessed with Friday Night Lights

For years, I listened to one of my friends go on and on every day at lunch about this show. Every Thursday, it was "Did you see Friday Night Lights?" None of us watched it except one other girl, and each Wednesday we engaged ourselves in separate conversations as they spent the better part of the period as they analyzed last night's episode, discussing plot points and their reactions to individual characters' storylines. I always wondered what the show was really about, but I had never paid too much attention to their discussions to figure out what had gone on.

Now, last Friday, as I perused the racks of my local video rental store, a familiar title caught my eye. The complete first season of Friday Night Lights. Five discs for five nights for a mere three dollars. So I thought, "What the heck?" and brought it home with a pint of Rocky Road. I sat down on my couch, popped it in, and not a minute into the very first episode, I was hooked.

I'm not going to give away much about the show, just to make sure it isn't ruined if y'all haven't seen it. But my favorite part of the show by far is Minka Kelly's portrayal of Lyla Garrity, cheerleading captain and girlfriend of the small town high school football team's quarterback. Stereotypical? At first glance.

However, Kelly made her character totally three dimensional and believable. Lyla is smart, witty, and totally wholesome (for the most part. Hey, everyone makes mistakes!), opposite of the stuck-up dumb blonde with less than stellar morals that cheerleaders and members of high school dance teams are so often portrayed as on TV. Add to that the fact that everything is done in adorable sundresses, tops, and wedges, when she's not in her Panthers cheerleading uniform, completed with an ever preppy polka dotted bow. And that, my friends, is definitely something to cheer about.