Speaking of mixin’s, not only do I like to mix my cereals together, but sometimes I like to mix my TV shows together.   I figured if I outlined my little vision here (no pun intended), you could help me fill in the gaps, and then we can go hit up NB[C]BS for a big advance so we could make the new hit TV show!  Who’s with me!?!?!?

Two shows I really like to watch and are at the top of my list of shows to play back on DVR when I do actually have the time to watch are NUMB3RS and MEDIUM:

In “NUMB3RS”, Charlie Eppes is cute and is a mathematician (it’s rare to be both) whose brother heads an FBI squad in L.A. and his special skills help him to solve and prevent crime.  In “Medium”, Allison DuBois is a psychic and a medium (it’s rare to be both) who works for the District Attorney’s office in Phoenix, AZ and her special skills help her to solve and prevent crime.

See the connection?

So I figured if the two shows merged, they could call it Median but then of course use the funky ghostly letters from Medium and use numbers in the word like NUMB3RS, so you’d end up with M3D1AN (somebody out there make a logo and submit it in the comments.)  And since “median” is commonly used as a mathematical term meaning the midpoint, or average (in some cases), or middle value, it seems to work out nicely.   Also, you might say Allison is a midpoint between our plane of existance and the beyond.

The show would have both Charlie and Allison work on crimes — get this – *together*.  Isn’t that brilliant?  I bet you didn’t see it coming.  Allison could “sense” the dead and view potential futures, while Charlie could work out mathematically the odds of each vision being appropriate for that particular case.  How many times does Charlie go wrong with one of his hunches, and then alter it right at the end?  Well, Allison could help him know which algorithm might help him the most.  Heck, maybe they could solve TWO crimes per episode!

Then we could have all sorts of small plot lines (submit your ideas in the comments)

• Joe DuBois (Allison’s husband) and Megan Reeves (FBI Agent) have a romantic past, and it keeps taking the front burner in different episodes, causing all sorts of troublesome visions for Allison.
• DA Manuel Devalos (Allison’s boss) and Don Eppes (Charlie’s brother) keep getting into pissing fights and arguing over jurisdiction and who calls the shots.
• Alan Eppes (the dad, played by Judd Hirsch) could babysit the three DuBois kids and teach them all sorts of life lessons.
• Don’t tell me Colby Granger and Detective Lee Scanlon wouldn’t get along real good. 
• I bet Ridley Scott would have TONS of great ideas of how to use the paranormal in his storylines.  They already had a psychic on once to help Charlie, and they did a good job with it I think.

Keep the idea alive and comment on what you think would work on the show.

The only Family Guy stuff I’d ever seen was a Chuck Norris skit that fed into my own interests.  I knew a lot of people liked the show, but I’d never seen it myself.  Oh, and there was this one South Park episode that purported to have “solved” how the Family Guy comes up with it’s plot and flashbacks.  And the spoof they did.

But during a recent Garage Sale escapade (THANK YOU GOOGLE MAPS for the “add a destination” feature!!!!  It’s completely awesome and makes garage sale trips very cool while having a laptop in the car with a mobile internet card – that plus the “drag around your route” feature is awesome) I saw a semi-box set of the Family Guy – seasons 1 and 2 on 4 DVD’s.  For $4.  Total.

I snagged it and have gone through the first disk, episodes 1-7.  I must say, I’m hooked.  I laughed almost all the way through each episode.  It might even replace The Simpsons for me as far as regular must-watch TV.

Of course, I’ve only seen 1/2 of the 1st season, so I have a long way to go, and I have no idea what season they’re in now.  But at least I have plenty to watch and fill up the time!

Question: does the mom just hear gibberish when Stewie talks?  What’s up with that?  Seems the other characters hear what he says…

The whole family (well, three of us – the two adults and the one who has a couple months’ experience of being a teenager) liked this show.

It was definitely unexpected primetime TV, funny enough but not too… um, “I’m trying to be funny here, so laugh, ok?” like a lot of TV is, and still packed a powerful emotional punch, where morals and death and justice fix together and flit by that area of your brain that you can kinda think about it but still laugh at the same time.  We all liked how original it was.  Good puns, too.  LOL-quality.  Heh, Pie Hole.

The main actor (Lee Pace) seems very familiar to me – a little bit due to looks but mainly due to his voice.  I close my eyes and listen, and I hear someone very familiar, but I can’t place it.  A little IMDB searching and about the only thing I see is The Good Shepherd, so maybe that’s it.  Probably not though.  Maybe he just sounds like someone I listen to a lot.

I also liked the spunk, attitude and smile of ‘Chuck’, played by Anna Friel.   She’s great.

Although, I find it hard to believe that Ned hasn’t touched his dog in that many years – what was it, 19 years?  Seems the author should have mentioned that in the intro, after his mom was re-dead.  And how in the heck did the dog live that long?  Are we now to assume that the “living recently dead but not undead” are immortal?  And *now* I realize why the squirrel fell from the tree *smacks forehead*.  I just assumed he was going to use his power again but forgot.

I checked online and it seems they’re re-airing the pilot tonight for some reason.  When the web page said “next episode airs in 0 days 12:13:16″ with a countdown timer and everything, I thought – really?  Has this been out that long and the 2nd episode is tonight?  But what’s listed is the first episode, aptly named “Pie Lette,” which in itself is also funny.  (If you don’t get it, don’t bother watching the show.)

Since I don’t watch much TV, I don’t think I could take any more good shows.  I can’t fit them in!  Already, I’m watching Stargate Atlantis, The Office, Big Bang Theory, Don’t Forget the Lyrics, and ER and won’t miss an episode of any of them.  I’m also recording Cavemen but haven’t seen it yet.  Plus I record 1 vs 100, any billiards show I can, The Colbert Report, The Closer and Saving Grace for filling up empty time, if possible.   Oh, and The Simpsons now that it’s back on.

Ok, maybe I do watch much TV.

What’s in your TV lineup that you can’t pass up?

We watch NUMB3RS pretty religiously and was AMAZED to see Val Kilmer guest star on the season premiere of the show (note: this was LAST week – we hardly ever watch anything live and we sometimes let shows stack up).  He did a great job, and granted, it was a pretty small role but still. 

I’ve always liked Mr. Kilmer, both in his acting skills and usually the people he decides to play and the movies he chooses.  My all-time favorite role will still be as Chris Knight in Real Genius.

What was your favorite Val Kilmer role or movie?  Bonus points if you mention Doc Holliday.

I have experienced tremendous ups and downs with this little episode (no pun intended).

For the past 30 years, I’ve had wonderful recurring dreams that had something to do with two actors I like (Ike Eisenmann and Roddy McDowall) in some fantastic journey type of situation.  I seemed to recall something about an island, and some tuning-fork-shaped magic tool, and spacey special effects.  For the longest time I thought I was crazy, though I knew Ike Eisenmann very well from watching Escape To/ Return From Witch Mountain movies a million times on Disney, and knew Roddy McDowell from many things, like one of my favorite moves of all time Cat From Outer Space, and of course the Planet of the Apes series.  I just figured I melded them somehow into my dreams.

Then I actually do some IMDB looking and it turns out – there WAS a short-lived series related to this whole mess o’ memories!  I’m in heaven again!  There was this show called “The Fantastic Journey“.  This show was on for about 4 months in 1977 and was cancelled or some such.  All I know is that I’m positive I saw an episode or two back then, when I was 6 years old. 

I read the summary about the show and am increasingly elated…

A scientific expedition in the Atlantic Ocean headed by Dr. Paul Jordan becomes lost in the Bermuda Triangle and washes up on an uncharted island.   In the pilot episode they meet Varian, a man from the 23rd century who tells them about a place to the East called Evailand where they can find a doorway back to their own time.

Most of the group either dead of made it home leaving Varian, Fred Walters and Paul’s 13 yr old son Scott to make their way east.  Along the way they meet up with travelers from other times, planets and dimensions who have also become trapped.  Liana, a woman with an alient mother and an Atlantium fater with her cat Sil-l, is the first to join them.  Then Jonathan Willoway, a scientist from the 60′s is invited to join.  Together they travel through portals from one dimension to the next hoping to find the one that leads home.

And IMDB lists this narration from the opening sequence.

Lost in the Devil’s Triangle, trapped in a dimension with beings from the future and other worlds, a party of adventurers journey through zones of time back to their own time. Varian, a man from the 23rd century, possessing awesome powers; from 1977; Fred, a young doctor just out of medical school; Scott Jordan, the thirteen-year-old son of a famous scientist; Liana, daughter of an Atlantean father and an extraterrestrial mother; and Jonathan Willaway, a rebel scientist from the 1960s. Together they face the frightening unknown on… The Fantastic Journey.

I’m all aquiver with excitement as I actually find a place to order the DVD set.  A month or so goes by, and nothing.  I contact the distributor and he said he’s sorry, he sent it late.  Now I’m worried that maybe I’ve been “had,” but a day later, the DVD set shows up.  (note: I have since learned that this series has not been released on DVD, so I’ll assume I’m dealing with a fake/bootleg.  I did a little more research and there is a petition to get it released on DVD, so help a bruthah out and vote! I was vote #301.)

On the cover are some pictures that make it even more real – I recognize some of this!  Some of the faces, costumes, settings, and even the names (ie, Scott Jordan) are firing off long-forgotten neurons in the back of my brain.  I’m starting to get more excited, knowing that I can just pop this thing in and relive some of the emotions, awe, wonder, and fill in the blanks that my dreams haven’t been able to. 

Then I find some pictures – the cloud on the horizon and the glowing “tuning fork” magic thingy – this is bringing back some real vivid dreams!

I pop it in and it starts.  The audio is choppy, almost stuttering, like a badly encoded mp3 file.  The video is “ok” – I mean, it is 70′s TV and it’s old so I’m not expecting Pixar-type HD or anything.  But then the audio gets worse and worse. I get 11 minutes into it and it’s completely un-watchable.  It was just getting good, too – their ship was about to go into this inexplicably greenish and menacing storm cloud that suddenly appeared on the horizon while they were in the Burmuda Triangle.  They heard all these ship’s bells, clangs, getting louder and louder, and then the whole DVD just panics and tries to keep up, skipping the audio and video, pausing, jumping,

AAAHAGHGHGHAHGHAHGHAGHAHGHGH!

This is so cruel!

So I try skipping a few chapters, same thing.  The 2nd DVD, same thing.  The 3rd DVD, same thing.

AGHAHGAHHAGHAGHHAGHAHGHAHGHGHHH!

I’m so depressed now.  My dreams, my hopes for completing the installment placed so firmly in my mind – put on hold.

But I did find the opening sequence on youtube:

At least I’m getting some confirmation of these thoughts and memories.  Now I have to contact this “distributor” and demand that these DVD’s be fixed/replaced.  Now that I know this stuff is there, I HAVE TO WATCH IT!

And don’t forget: