BuzzSugar

Buzz In: What is Your Favorite Old-School TV Show?

BuzzSugar — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:30:23 -0700

TV Land, home to classics like The Brady Bunch, Three's Company, and Bonanza, is branching out into original comedies. The network just announced that they're developing two scripted shows, titled Hot in Cleveland and Retired at 35. But will people actually flip to the channel to check out this new programming?

Personally, the older shows are the only reason I'd tune into TV Land. I used to be obsessed with I Love Lucy as a kid - I even had a Lucy calendar hanging up in my room. Thanks to Nick at Nite, I could watch it on a regular basis, along with Bewitched, The Dick Van Dyke Show, and Mary Tyler Moore. (I live for Rhoda!) Now, Nick at Nite plays mainly 90s favorites like Home Improvement and Family Matters, so TV Land has become my vintage channel of choice. Hopefully they won't go the way of MTV with music videos and make the older shows completely obsolete - that would just be sad.

Admittedly, I'm a bit of a dork when it comes to classic TV, but tell me, what is your favorite old-school show?

Buzz Gift Guide: For the Hip Grandma

BuzzSugar — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 16:00:11 -0800

Dear old Grandma deserves the best this season, so check out today's holiday gift guide specially created with grandmothers in mind.

Here's a gift that could be a treat for both of you: I Love Lucy: The Complete Series. Make some tea and cuddle up with Grandma to watch Lucy and her hilarious adventures.

Or perhaps your grandmother is more of the mystery-solving type? Check out the seventh season of Murder, She Wrote, just released last month.

Listening to Nat King Cole's album The Christmas Song takes me right back to holidays spent at my grandparents' house. Cole's soothing voice provides the perfect soundtrack for a cozy holiday season.

The 1954 musical movie White Christmas features the fantastic foursome of Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, Danny Kaye, and Vera-Ellen, some great costumes and even greater songs, all by Irving Berlin. It's a sweet holiday film to watch with Grandma.

The Results Are In: Recast "I Love Lucy"

BuzzSugar — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 15:29:16 -0700

Every Wednesday on BuzzSugar, I post a Recast challenge, where I ask you to choose new actors for a classic TV show or movie. The reader who submits the best cast wins a BuzzSugar t-shirt!

I was delighted by way too many of the recast ideas for "I Love Lucy" to name them all here, but I do want to make some shout-outs before running out of room! I was highly impressed with some of the non-Debra Messing ideas for Lucy, such as K2's Kelly Ripa, Livience's Amy Adams and most of all the popular choice of Isla Fisher. I also liked many of the Ethel casting choices, like Marcia Gay Harden selected by prbeachbum, and ddene5713's pick of Kate Winslet. Finally, I think Pinkflats is onto something with casting John Leguizamo as Ricky.
My favorite list overall, however, comes from pepperatstate! In the end, I do think Debra Messing would make a perfect Lucy, and pepperatstate's other choices are great too. So to see who she picked along with a new cast photo, read more

pepperatstate's cast:
Lucy - Debra Messing
Ethel - Jane Krakowski
Ricky - Antonio Banderas
Fred - Chris Noth

P.S. - Praise is also in order for marebare's very own self-made recast photo! Nice job, marebare!

Rewind: This Week's Buzz

BuzzSugar — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 09:03:00 -0700

This week, I challenged you to come up with 50 songs for 50 states, and you did ... in about 20 hours. Whoa. But I'm still taking suggestions for the playlist.
Speaking of playlists, I gave you a great set of vacation songs. And if you need other weekend listening, check out the new Ryan Adams album or videos from Kanye West and Amy Winehouse.
With this weekend's opening of Michael Moore's controversial Sicko, I asked you if you typically see documentaries in the theater or wait to rent them.
This week we learned that Harry Potter is looking for a few good kids, while Cameron Diaz will try her hand at horror and Ryan Gosling will play the dad in The Lovely Bones. No Susie yet, though.
Were you as surprised as I was about who got kicked off "So You Think You Can Dance" and which guy Molly chose at the end of "The Starter Wife"?
If you could recast "I Love Lucy" with modern-day actors, who would you pick? And speaking of great comedy, check out my favorite five (living) comedy couples.
What do you make of Brett Ratner's Hugh Hefner biopic and Laurence Fishburne's adaptation of The Alchemist?
And finally, this week marked Pearl's final acting performance. Let us all take a moment of silence.

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Recast "I Love Lucy" and Win a Prize!

BuzzSugar — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 15:43:29 -0700

Every Wednesday on BuzzSugar, I post a Recast challenge, where I ask you to choose new actors for a classic TV show or movie. The reader who submits the best cast wins a BuzzSugar t-shirt!

This week's recast challenge is an oldie but goodie that was a recent recast request. Sure, certain aspects of the 1950s TV hit "I Love Lucy" make me cringe now (Ricky's jokey little threats of physical abuse come to mind), but overall this classic is still entertaining and endearing. If you could recast this show today, which actors would you cast as Lucy, Ricky, Fred and Ethel? I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that many of you will put Debra Messing in Lucy's role, which is certainly fitting (how many times has she gotten that comparison?), though I'm curious to see if anyone has other ideas as well.

Leave your entry in the comment section below, and I'll pick one winner to feature Tuesday, July 3, complete with a "new" cast photo. To see a list of characters to recast and a photo of the BuzzSugar t-shirt, read more

Characters to recast:
Lucy (Lucille Ball)
Ricky (Desi Arnaz)
Ethel (Vivian Vance)
Fred (William Frawley)

The BuzzSugar t-shirt

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Couples Retreat: Not Exactly a Relaxing Getaway

BuzzSugar — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:30:11 -0700

Everyone loves a vacation, right? Beautiful scenery, tropical drinks, fun in the sun. Add a few of your closest friends and you could have the trip of a lifetime - or a romantic getaway gone horribly awry.

To be fair, the four pairs in Couples Retreat don't realize what they're agreeing to when they head to Eden East, a swanky resort on a remote island. But once the relationship boot camp begins, the friendships quickly break down, and it's often more depressing than hilarious. To see what I mean, just read more.

The movie's couplings range in age, family size, and personality, with Vince Vaughn and Malin Akerman at the epicenter. As Dave and Ronnie, they are perhaps the most "normal" of the bunch. Between Dave's demanding job making video games (hello, Guitar Hero product placement) and raising two young sons, Dave and Ronnie don't even realize their problems until they are forced into couples skill-building. Vaughn is his typical wise-cracking character, but a touch of sweetness makes his on-screen relationship with Akerman the most enjoyable to watch. You can actually believe that they love each other and aren't using the trip as a band-aid for a bullet hole.

Jason and Cynthia (played by Jason Bateman and Kristen Bell), on the other hand, are a lot harder to relate to as two type-A personalities with an undying love for organization and PowerPoint presentations. Jason and Cynthia present the idea of the group vacation to their friends as a last-ditch effort to save their marriage (promising that the therapy sessions are optional, of course). Bell is her typical adorable self, but Bateman is insufferable. His character is painfully meticulous and overbearing, making the audience feel just as suffocated as Cynthia does.

Joey (Jon Favreau) and Lucy (Kristin Davis) represent the worst of the worst: the couple that's been together so long that they don't even notice each other anymore. The high school sweethearts take the trip not as an opportunity to re-kindle the flame, but to chase skirts (or in this case, bikini bottoms) and muscular yoga instructors. Favreau gets a few laughs with his quest to get to Eden West, the "singles" side of the island, but age-wise, Davis doesn't quite fit in with Bell and Ackerman. It's also hard to laugh at characters that embody one of the biggest fears for young couples, and their ice-cold relationship is almost too realistic to scoff at.

Then there's Shane (Faizon Love), who's newly separated from the wife he still loves, but brings along his 20-year-old girlfriend for the ride instead. As Trudy, Kali Hawk steals a lot of the laughs as she yearns to drink and party all night long while her boyfriend would rather take a nap. One joke that never gets old: Trudy's insistence on calling Shane "Daddy" throughout the entire film.

With such a strong headline cast, it's disappointing that the supporting actors steal the show. I laughed the hardest at Dave and Ronnie's adorable boys (who get very little screen time) and at the motley crew of therapists and other wacky workers at the resort dedicated to making this the trip from hell.

At the end of it all, you'll get a few laughs along with some very beautiful imagery, but you might just want to put your money toward your own vacation instead.

Photos courtesy of Universal Pictures