"Viva La Raza ...!"

Well I was all scheduled to go back to my regularly scheduled blog posts after this past Friday's brief foray into angsty livejournal-esque musings, but first I gotta reflect on a tragic event that occured this weekend.

RIP EDDIE GUERRERO

I am just completely in shock and in a state of disbelief that this great wrestler passed away. For years I have been an Eddie Guerrero fan, and to have him pass away at the young age of 38 is simply unbelievable. I became a big Eddie fan back in his WCW days, and have avidly followed his career since. Eddie was one of the few guys who could both work a mic and work a match with equal parts skill and charisma. He was one of the elites, among the greats like Flair and Michaels, who could put on a five-star match on any given night but also get the crowd either behind him or against him, able to inspire chants of "Eddie!" or "Eddie Sucks!" at a whim. Hailing from one of the great wrestling families, the legendary Guerrero's, Eddie wrestled in Mexico, Japan, ECW, WCW, and WWE, and went on to win numerous titles in all of those feds, reaching the absolute top of the industry almost two years ago, when he became the WWE World's Heavyweight Champion. Eddie had a number of memorable in-ring feuds, and spectacular matches with the likes of Dean Malenko, Rey Mysterio Jr., Chris Benoit, Chavo Guerrero Jr., Rob Van Dam, and many more. He was one of the original "Radicalz", who changed the face of the Monday Night Wars by suddenly jumping ship from WCW to the WWE back in 2000. I saw Eddie Guerrero in person many times over the years, and he never failed to entertain. I saw him in Hartford soon after his WWE debut, in an awesome 8 man tag match. I saw him live this past March in LA at Wrestlemania, where he nearly stole the show in his opening match with Rey Mysterio. Eddie was a guy who was an inspiration - he overcame many personal demons, and came back a few years ago after a prolonged absence from the ring, and shattered the glass ceiling that had been holding him back, ascending to amazing heights. The moment at the end of Wrestlemania 20, where he and fellow journeyman Chris Benoit stood in the ring together, each as a first-time champion after 20 years each in the business, was one of the most memorable visuals ever for fans of the two men. Eddie was a master of the interview, delivering spine-tingling, dramatic promos when called upon, and gut-busting humor when appropriate to the angle. He was a master ring technician, a spectacular high-flyer (his top-rope frog-splash was always a thing of beauty), and most of all someone who always gave 100%. And he will go down as one of the best of all time in his chosen field, someone who tragically died while in the prime of his career. RIP Eddie Guerrero.

Moving on to slightly less tragic things ...

AT WORK:

- Well I covered all the bad stuff in my previous Friday post, so for a change of pace here's a few cool things that happened lately at the ol' Peacock network:

- I met Claire Forlani! Yep, the girl from Mallrats and Meet Joe Black! The British up-and-coming actress was at NBC to give a pitch for a TV show. She seemed really cool and had a biting sense of humor, very Bri'ish. I didn't even realize who she was until later ...

- Also, in the completely random department, Sean Hayes from Will and Grace was in giving a pitch the other day. He stopped at my desk and noted the large jar of brads I have on there, and said "hey, you know what they call those?" "bradd pits!". I found that comment kinda amusing but laughed like it was the funniest thing ever. Oy ...


TV REVIEWS:

SMALLVILLE - Whoah - awesome episode this past week! One of the best in a long time, with Tom Welling showing some acting chops, a mind-bending story, and good ol' fashioned action that packed a punch. Hey, I'll even give the writers a free pass for resorting to the beyond tired plot device of having someone on the show's memory / personality altered. Why? Because the execution in this case wsa damn good and plenty entertaining. Man, it's an exciting time to be a Superman fan. Smallville is hitting its stride again, We've got two Supermen seemingly headed for the mother of all showdowns in the pages of the kickass Infinite Crisis, and the Superman movie teaser is set to debut this coming week - all I can say is that it had better not suck! As for Smallville - keep it up! My grade: A

REUNION - Another episode with more twists and turns than you can shake a stick at. Aersome bait and switch here, as they totally made us think that Haley from the OC was the one who was gonna be killed, only to reveal that it wasn't so at the last possible second. Nice! This show is doign some great melodrama right now - The OC could take a few lessons. My grade: A -

MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE - very good ep this week, too bad nobody's watching anymore. Funny stuff as usual with Hal and Dewie, the Reese / Lois stuff was gold, and they actually had an entertianing Malcolm A-plot to boot. Let's hope that this show can find a cecond life now that Arrested D is gone. My grade: A -

THE SIMPSONS - Decent episode this week, though nothing great. Still, probably a good 7 or 8 jokes this week that made me laugh out loud, which is pretty good, relatively speaking. Still, a broken plot and an inconsistent tone led this to be a merely non-terrible episode in the grand scheme of things. Though Moe whispering his money-making scheme to Homer, and Homer's confused reaction, was pretty freakin' funny. My grade: B-

FAMILY GUY - Pretty funny stuff again this week ... could this show be making a comeback? Gotta love Stewey's college-boy antics, and hey who ISN'T a sucker for A-Team based humor? Sure, I've complianed before about the gratuitous use of random 80's references, but a whole subplot based on Peter and his friends becoming The A-Team? Alright, I'll bite, that's kinda funny. My grade: B+

Arggh, still have yet to watch last week's Veronica Mars and OC. Did watch Prisonbreak, finally. Good stuff ... but:

DAMMIT ALL, THEY ARE CANCELLING ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT. This sucks. Come on, FOX, what the hell? I know, they brought it back after a disappointingly low-rated 2nd season, but then they throw it into an untested Monday night timeslot oppossite football? And they give the craptacular War at Home a cushy Sunday night slot between Simpsons and a resurgent Family Guy? Ridiculous, I tell you. Arrested should have stayed on Sundays, where FOX has always had an established comedy block. And why not at least give the show a little time, or a time slot change, before giving it the axe? It's only been preempted by baseball for the last few weeks. But no, FOX is intent on rerunning Prisonbreak seemingly every other Monday at 8. Add Arrested to the ever-growing list of FOX shows that never got their due despite being great or potentially classic TV: Andy Richter Controls the Universe, Undeclared, Futurama, Family Guy, and now Arrested Development. I swear, FOX has a knack for putting on some great comedies, but their scheduling and promotions departments completely and utterly SUCK. From keeping Futurama at 7pm on Sundays to sticking Family Guy on random Tuesdays to moving Arrested to Mondays where it had to anchor the bland Kitchen Confidential ... UGH. Oh well ,at least we can look forward to more STACKED. Whoop-de-friggin'-doo.

FINALLY:

- Kirsten, I gotta agree with you, Wednesday nights at the Pour House in Boston was some good (and cheap!) times. You just can't beat the two-dollar chicken sandwich. And many of you know how I feel about a good chicken sandwich.

- Crossing my fingers that the NBC execs will like the awesome pilot script I mentioned a few days ago. They are meeting about it on Monday or Tuesday, so hey, maybe there can be hope for netwrok TV after all ...?

- Those American Dad cameos by PAtrick Stewart are kinda cool, I guess, but that show isn't that funny and is slightly grating in my opinion. So ... Can't we get a new TV show starring Patrick Stewart, preferably as someone who kicks serious ass? I'd watch it.

Dayum, I can't believe it's already time for another week of work. Think positively ... think positively ... serenity now, serenity now!

You heard me.

SERENITY NOW.