Anothermi

Season One they couldn't decide if they wanted to go full "reality show" or be more of a dance competition. In S01 they had a lot more "candid" scenes with the dancetestants: - the table of dancers complaining about Blake being on the cover of Dance Spirit (and therefor he had an unfair advantage etc) - scenes of dancers in the hallways commenting on things that had happened in a class (or in the dorm i.e. Blake's dog messing on the floor) - comments by the choreographers/judges between sessions and about contestants I'm really glad they decided not to go that route. Season 2 allowed the contestants to be candid in rehearsals, and Benji, in particular, made that entertaining. But they still rigged some of that (remember Ryan "mooning" over Natalie?). That method worked reasonably well up to the end of Season 4 I think. After that it became apparent that dancers (or at least many of the good ones) didn't necessarily have the skills to provide entertaining filler. So the stupid question interview was instituted and that morphed into the under-ten-second self description. When I think about it that way I can understand how hard it must be to balance the reality/entertainment part of the show that is there to make people want to vote, with the dance competition show part.

In Season One they included a paid for apartment for a year in New York (presumably to go there and "break into the Big Time") which Nick did not take. I don't know why the US version has no luck with the non-cash prizes. Australia (at least for the last 2 Seasons) offered 3 different professional dance opportunities and I was surprised when the winner of Season 3 chose Burn the Floor because he was contemporary. I'm pretty sure that each time the winner chose one of the options. But in the Canadian version, Season 1, the winner was given a fancy car (product placement the entire season, yech!) and it turned out he didn't even drive and had no intention of learning. The one prize offer in the US show that seemed to be a winner was the one of a role in Adam Shankman's Step Up franchise. (I actually first wrote fanchise, which is probably an accurate description, but it really was a typo. >.< ) The only thing about that was that it didn't make the winner special because lots of the non-winners got to be in the show as well. (and some with bigger roles than the winner!) So, yeah, I don't quite know why they're trying this idea again. Maybe it's to save money? I don't really know how that works or who ends up paying for what so it's a mystery to me. It could just be like the car in the Canadian version - a product placement. Drumming up an audience? I don't think it's going to work out this time either. RE: the judging panel of 4. It seems that 3 judges is mainly a US thing. Lots of the other SYTYCD franchises used 4 judges. Canada did. Quite a few of the European ones did, and Australia moved to 4 judges in their recent Season 4. I can't fathom why the change for the US show. It didn't reduce the amount of time wasted. It often feels like the 3 judges take up more time than the four ever did!

dcalley, I too love all of those. I've viewed the Canadian and Australian ones more times than I care to admit. (and I still tell Leah to "shut!up" every time she interrupts Tré's comments by shouting CANADA!) I remember Kelly Abbey did a version of one of her group routines for SYTYCD US, and I thought it was based on Blackbird, but I can't remember right now. Regardless, it didn't have the same impact. (I think it was season 7 with the All starts because I remember Mark Kanemura in it, but no one else. I, sheepishly, admit to liking a LOT of Mandy Moores choreography. She creates fascinating and different mini lifts and transitions that I just love (they often make me squee). So I definitely enjoyed the Pasha/Sara jazz. I may be the only one who really liked the contemporary piece she did for Sabra/Dominic in season 3. (I thought Sabra was a very good dancer who was ruined by the Only! Four! Years! narrative, but Danny should have won.) Here is the Mandy Moore one. I apologize in advance for inflicting Dominic on you all, but I thought he danced the piece well (for him). To view only the dance go to the 3 minute mark. All the rest is pre-package stuff.

Thanks,ThirteenthJuror, for providing that update. I can now strike #23 off my list. ;-P Danny seems as awkward as ever with interviews and publicity. That make me oddly happy. And despite wanting to know how/what he is doing, I feel so much better for HIM that we don't get to know a great deal. I feel he is a person who withers and dies under that kind of attention, and flourishes when he gets to be an ordinary guy (albeit with an extraordinary talent).

YAY, SyracuseMug! Thanks for all that. I still haven't got the hang of translating sites. I'd love to have just links if embedding proves too much. I apologize for not remembering if you were one of the generous posters-of-links back on TWoP. Shows how easy it is to take someone's work for granted. >.< I do/did appreciate all who provided links.

Close your eyes and take a deep breath. (I'm trying to keep a straight face. Sorry for making you crazy.) I, for one, am not all that confused about the squire thing. I actually thought of Pod as Tyrion's squire practically from the start. When you brought it up above, it got me thinking about what a squire should be and that had me (amusedly) questioning the Pod/Tyrion relationship in that context. Tyrion got himself a squire after he became acting Hand. I'm pretty sure most Lords have squires come and go, but Pod seems to be Tyrion's first. Perhaps taking on Pod shows Tyrion was starting to take himself seriously at long last. I thought even Jaime said he was somebody's squire at some point, so it seems to be a training passage for young boys. I think Tyrion chose Pod because of his misfit status. One - he fit the "broken things" criteria and two - because he wasn't acceptable to others he was not likely to have loyalty to others which would make him more trustworthy from Tyrion's perspective. It's funny how discussions can veer of track like that. My observation on your harmless sentence was just me letting my mind wander. My main point was pondering the probability of Pod being a close relation of Ilyn Payne and the thought that that, in and of itself, could be the reason for Pod being a misfit. (and therefor likely to tick all the right boxes for Tryion.) And at the risk of having already dug myself in too deep to crawl out, that is the last I will say about squires (but not about Podrick Payne).

Pod was serving Tyrion before the Blackwater assassination attempt. There was a scene with Varys & Tyrion where Varys didn't want to speak in front of Pod, but Tyrion vouched for him. This may have been the scene where I got the impression that Pod was a misfit - because Varys wasn't too impressed by him. Then when Pod saved Tyrion it was doubly impressive because no one expected him to be brave enough nor smart enough to do that - not to mention being that committed to Tyrion in a relatively short period of time. The term Squire is giving me a bit of a problem because Pod was basically doing for Tyrion what Lancel had been doing for Robert - pouring his wine. Was Lancel Robert's squire? I think of squires as someone who assissts a lord in battle related things, or tournaments and the like. Pod is now acting as Brienne's squire and that includes both cooking AND taking care of horses and things. Not that he is any good at it. All he really needed to know to serve Tryion was how to pour wine. ;-)

Enjoyed seeing a bit of the wedding reception. I wouldn't have recognized Gev if he hadn't been named, but I was disappointed with the poster's errors and/or omissions of many of the other SYTYCD alumni. - Dancing with Travis was the gorgeous Will Wingfield - The person identified as Harry Shum Jr. didn't look like him at all - I thought one of the bride's maids looked like Talia Fowler (winner of S2 SYTYCDAU) but it probably isn't her I know there is more, but that's all I can come up with right now. RE: Jaymz. He was dancing with the DWTS Troupe pretty regularly for a few seasons. Don't know if he was this past season because I dropped out from lack of interest. (I'll youtube routines at some point probably.)

And FYI (incase some people don't know), the Recaps are still available on TWoP. Too bad the forums aren't. ;-(

I agree that hearing that Podrick's last name is Payne doesn't necessarily mean he is closely related to, Ilyn, the tongueless executioner, but Ilyn is the ONLY Payne we've heard of, so it's kind of natural to make the link. There may be other Paynes. Hundreds of them for all we know, but Ilyn is still the only one we've heard of to this point. What I wonder... is there a purpose to having Pod and Ilyn be related? None that I can see right now, but I'll tuck that scrap of (possible) info away incase it has relevance later. This show does give us more than the occasional opportunity to excercise our "little grey cells" retreiving arcane information. (This reminds me that I'm going to have to do a series re-watch at some point because...) I don't remember Tyrion "naming" Pod as his squire. I've been thinking that Tyrion "ended up" with Pod, but I guess the two concepts aren't antagonistic. Tyrion may have chosen Pod because Pod was the only squire-age boy who would agree to BE Tyrion's squire? I, too, got the impression that Poderick was considered a misfit, but can't remember how (I only have an image in my head of Cersei sneering - which could relate to almost anything else). Given what we've seen of him, his reputation seems related more to social standing rather than personality or intelligence. That makes the possibility of Pod being from Ilyn Payne's family a lot stronger IMHO because distaste for certain families based on their job (sewer cleaner, undertaker, gravedigger...Official Killer... ) is not an unknown phenomenon. Thanks WS for pointing out the possible (probable?) connection. I happen to enjoy arcane factoids.

I knew that Ricky didn't sit around after his season. I may even have learned that he had a company, but not much more. I liked Justine's audition so knowing she worked in Ricky's company just makes me sadder that she didn't make top 20. And I STILL remember "that hot photo spread (Teddy) did with Mia". Yowzah!

Thanks for filling in the blank spots in my memory. Both you and Realdancemom. Also, many thanks for the link. What made me happiest was that Ricky Palomino was in that documentary. I loved him sooooo much in Season 3 and was beyond bummed out when he was the first to be sent home. :-( (but at least I had Danny and Pasha as consolation.) Re: Teddy Forance... Yeah, I'm probably off base to say he hitched his star to Travis, but Travis is the biggest name of all these guys and I read about both the TV reality show and the dance group via Travis "news" and was happy to see Teddy among the group participants. I think of him as one of the best SYTYCD contestants who never auditioned. ;-P (there was a period at TWoP where speculation about him trying out was rife.)

That was Teddy Forenze (sp?), crowceilidh. This Teddy didn't mention contemporary in the interviews I've seen (nor does he look like Teddy Forenze). This show Teddy mentioned that he trains in both Hip Hop and Tap, but at the time auditions happened he'd been doing Hip Hop for 7 months and no Tap, so that's why he auditioned as Hip Hop. Teddy Forenze hitched to Travis' star with the TV shows he set up re: a creative choreography/dance team (forgot the name of the group) reality show. That Teddy has never shown up on SYTYCD to my knowledge.

Hmmmm. If 221B Baker Street will be "inhabited again" I'm going to speculate that Amanda Abbington (sp?) is not likely to return. I predict that we'll get a couple of lines explaining her and the unborn child away and that will be it. Some one remind me I predicted this because the whole thing is so far in the future that I certainly won't remember.

Sigh. I'm with you on missing access to TWoP discussions. I did, however, read them shortly after this aired (or so my unreliable memory informs me) and there was quite a lot of "cannon vs this show" stuff. Some of it interesting. But, just to have the free flow of opinions that was TWoP..... yes, I miss it. I hope more people embrace Previously and it becomes something like TWoP was as far as conversations go. Damn internet "Success". May it never happen to Previously (sorry to anyone who is banking on that). Have you seen the Pilot version of A Study In Pink? It would be a great conversation comparing the differences between the 1st version and the extended version. I might even be "up" for that discussion. ;-)

Oooh! I wish I could see that. Off to buy Lotto tickets. It's my only hope. ;-(

I have a memory of seeing her praying at the stump of a Weirwood tree. It was either cut down or just dead. It certainly didn't have the lovely white bark and red leaves like the ones in the North and I do recall some discussion back on TWoP about the state of that tree. Also, for some reason that I can't justify at this time, I thought we learned that there were no - or hardly any - Weirwood trees in the south which is where my statement came from. I carry around the notion that they were done away with (burned or chopped down), as the religion of The Seven took hold in the South, much like any religious icons of the losing religion in the battle for supremacy. That, however, I'm pretty sure is my own notion, not one we were told about. There is so much in this story that in only 4 seasons it has become hard to remember what we learned and when we learned it.

Someone up thread (or another thread) was also wondering if Old Root Guy might be one of the Old Gods. (sorry, forgot who) I guess it might be possible as this is Fantasy. But, if he starts making "rules" he's out of the running for that position because Ned pointed out in Season One that Catelyn's New Gods are the ones with all the rules. ;-P However, IIRC he's been there longer than most human lifetimes which makes it difficult to imagine he is one of the First Men either. I see them as just ancestors our characters may/may not have descended from, not members of the magical group that seems to be making a comeback. So, the Old God Theory may have Roots (hee). I presume the tree Bran "communed" with didn't have it's own Old Root Guy, but that Old Root Guy connects with believers via the Weir-wire system. The Weirwood Trees don't seem to exist in the South of Westeros, and although we don't know which came 1st - the loss of belief or the loss of the trees - if Old Root Guy connects via those trees he'd be out of luck sending a message to Southerners. Lots of scope for speculation with these Ideas, RAS.

I caught the Australian Season 4 a few weeks after it ended and about the time that TWoP was closing down, so I haven't had anyone to discuss it with. I may need a bit of memory jogging. I haven't been searching out other countries versions recently, but I think Poland was one I was impressed with a while back. There was a thread for international versions back at TWoP and I appreciated when enterprising posters provided links. Otherwise I'd probably have missed them all. Can anyone remember which country's version Tyce was a judge on and then stole from it (almost whole cloth except for the song) the Eli, Eli routine he did Season 9, Top 6 Episode with Chehon and Kathryn? New Edit: So I did an exhaustive search (by that I mean it took a long time & I'm exhausted) and confirmed that it was Season 5 of the Ukraine version that Tyce's Eli, Eli choreo was inspired by (to be nice about it) although he never gave any indication that the idea was anything but his own brainwave. I tried and tried to find a link to a youtube, but they all seem to be dead ends at this point. So, I answered my own question. There was quite a stink about it at the time. The original choreographer was a man named Radu Poklitaru who was both a judge and a choreographer that year. Tyce was a guest judge when the piece in question was performed and gave both the choreography and the dancers effusive praise.

From the interviews I've seen by Martin Freeman, well, they don't translate well into print. He has a very dry sense of humour and it is almost always "on". I believe it is just as likely that comment is strictly about the difficulty of trying to co-ordinate schedules. I've gotten the impression that all the leads love doing Sherlock, but as working actors their bread and butter is proving they are capable of acting a variety of characters. I'd put posturing to get a salary increase as very low on the possible interpretations of what he meant.

They interspersed footage of Silky with that of Rudy using voice over about the last to be chosen. Then they cut Silky, asking him to come back next year (he had just mentioned in voice over, about putting 5 years into this. I think this was his third-time-NOT-the-charm audition) and after that they showed Rudy being accepted. It's hard to tell if they were the last or not, but that is how the editing monkeys decided to portray it. In past seasons they would have put Rudy and his best friend Nick together and faked them out about only one going through. I guess that is one small mercy given us by the one-show-a-week format. No time for the usual stupidities. Re: the Australian version. I was a little put off by the choppy editing during the initial audition episodes - I felt like I was watching a commercial - but that was dropped quite quickly. I keep hoping that Nigel will pick up on many of the good ideas that show has and drop so many of his own that haven't worked for years. [/irrational optimism] edited for spelling.

I'm pretty sure this set of pairings is just for the meet the top 20 episode and they are never "random". After that they will revert to boy/girl pairings - I think. I'm also pretty sure that we get to vote after the Meet the Top 20 episode because of the one show a week format. Everyone will dance again the following week (in their new girl/boy pairings if I am correct) but the bottom 3 from the "Meet" episode will Dance for their Lives and the judges will choose who goes and who stays. That's how they did it on the newly revamped Australian version this past spring. ETA: OK, I just watched some Dance Plug interviews and now I don't know about my above idea. The pairings aren't all same genre. Guess I'll just wait and see. Don't pay attention to me - I know nothing.

Thanks for the response, guys. I don't know if this section will be all that active. The number of posters seems to have dwindled considerably since the move from TWoP. I suppose its the Unspoiled/Unsullied distinction. But it seemed to me that the flurry of posting that occurred after Seasons 1 & 2 has abated somewhat. At any rate, it's good to know you'll be around should you be needed.

Question for the Protectors of our Habitat. Where can I find the banana tree? (Dorne seem too far away.) ;-P **JK ** The real question is related to the fact that you are all volunteer Mods. Back when TWoP existed, the Unsullied frequently continued to post speculations for a few weeks/months after each season ended. At least once, we did a formal or perhaps I should say a scheduled re-watch of the season. These post-show activities invariably brought out bookwalkers and spoilsports. So, my question to you is: what are your feelings about being tied to this voluntary job for an indeterminate period of time? Was your commitment to Mod for us based on an expectation of a finite period of time? Or, because "this habitat is not like the other" (™ Varys, with paraphrase) should we discuss with you ideas about continuing conversations in this place and set out parameters (timeframes in particular) IF there is an interest by a sufficient number of Unsullied? I'm not actually proposing anything right now, but it dawned on me that I, personally, assumed your commitment to Modding us was tied to the show's official season, so I'd like to clear that up - for myself at least.

Thought provoking post, Pallas, from Dorne to dragons. I am with you and shimpy wondering how Dorne "resisted" the Targaryens & their dragons. We know (via one of Tywin's talks with Arya) that the, then, Lord of Harrenhal thought that they could resist and have seen the devastation the dragons wrought there. Given that, I kind of assumed it would have had to be a combination of tactics and diplomacy. I wrote elsewhere about the animal/human spirit connection as it related to wargs and Starks. We have definitely been shown that the Starks have that with their Direwolves. It's harder with Dany because she had three dragons and no template for training. It seemed to be as much as she could manage to just figure out how to feed them and teach them to cook their own food. So my personal jury is still out on whether Dany has a psychic connection with her dragons or not. What your post did make me think of is that we have Drogon who is AWOL and Nymeria whose whereabouts is unknown (It Is UnKnown!). If Drogon (who did seem to be Dany's favourite until he went rogue) is more Dany's spirit-animal or familiar if you will, then there are now two such creatures wandering the story without the connection they are supposed to have. That could be a plot line in itself (but probably won't be) that I'd be interested in.