cali1981

Does anyone think that Shay is, in significant part, modeled after Johnny Mathis? He was a superstar just around the time that season 2 takes place.

Upper middle class and above families did go for the summer. We weren't in that economic universe but , in the mid-1950s, we did "go to the country" as we called it., usually for a week or so. There were many bungalow colonies in the Catskills and that's where working class families usually stayed. We never made it to the big hotels like the Nevele , Browns and Grossingers with the big name comedians who played the "Borscht Belt". Nevertheless for most of the families it was nice to get away from the hot city for a while. As a Jewish kid who grew up in Brooklyn in the 50s and 60s I'm continually amazed at how accurate the cultural references are in this show. Family gatherings have me in tears from laughing so hard. The Palladinos have really gotten it right.

And as they say "ripped from the headlines. This is looking like a very good season.

Three wonderful freestyles and a hodge podge go into a bar. The three wonderful freestyles are thrown out of the bar while the hodge podge stays and gets an unlimited free bar tab. Just a discraceful result.

Ivana and Keo, check. Alexis and Alan, check. Milo and Whitney, check. Joe the Schmo and Jenna gone, check. Juan Pablo and Cheryl gone and Bobby and Shrarna saved, seriously? It this kind of thing that makes dents in the show's credibility. JP and Cheryl have been excellent and could have gone almost wire to wire. It was nice to see Cheryl get a real show pony for a change. DWTS's scoring method is better than the one used on SYTYCD but maybe the show runners need to reassess the comparative weight given to the audience vote and the judges' scores. I think that it will come down to Ivana or Alexis and either winning would be fine with me.

I'm sure that Claire would have gotten away with it. After all Doug was known psychiatric patient and an obvious shady character. She would have said that Doug lost it and threatened her with the letter opener (which he really did). She would have claimed that Doug was obsessed with Frank and his legacy and was furious at her trashing him. Her sleazebag psychiatrist would have backed her up and since there were no Secret Service agents in the Oval who could have contradicted her? I love Greg Kinnear and especially Diane Lane but thought that they they were miscast as the Shepherds. The characters were clearly a meld of the Koch brothers and Robert and Rebecca Mercer but x10 in the pure evil department. Diane, who is still as radiant as ever, was good and came close at times to a deep level of maliciousness but didn't quite get there.

Because Bill sees himself as the champion of "fairness". Unfortunately, in his quest to give all sides their say, he often will have on guests who are nothing more than lackeys for Trump who lie, blowhards who always have get in the last word or intellectuals who want to wow us with their self perceived brilliance. An example of the Trump shills would be former Congressman Jack Kingston who twists himself into knots defending the Criminal in Chief. The Mooch is an example of the second type and Professor Cornell West exemplifies the third type (even if his heart is in the right place). The problem is that, no matter what political/educational goals Real Time may have, it's still a TV show and entertaining is a critical part of its mission. Guests like these just make make for bad TV. I've actually skipped an episode when I know that a guest will dominate and disrupt the flow of the show.

I've seen Scaramucci a number of times and it's always the same well rehearsed act. He presents himself as the calm, sophisticated, reasonable Trump buddy who disagrees with the Orange King at times. It's all BS. If you listen closely, it's the same tired talking points presented in a smoother, well tailored suit package. To top it off, he gets very condescending at some point, something that Bill should have called him out on. The Mooch is nothing but another Trump stooge pretending to be something else who tries to monopolize the discussion. Bill, at times, fails to manage his guests very well. Max Boot has a lot of important things to say and Betsy Woodruff is a great freaking reporter but they had to fight for time. I love Bill but he continues to make the same mistakes in regard to booking guests.

The movie Anastasia is one of my favorites with great performances by Ingrid Bergman, Yul Brunner and Helen Hayes. I have the limited edition Blu-ray and it's wonderful. When I watched the first episode of The Romanovs, the formal ball on the cruise ship reminded me of the Russian Expats living In Paris in the movie who were mired in the past. It was fascinating and quite sad at the same time. And yeah, the act by the little people was just bizarre.

I believe that like a number of other superior female contestants, Teneshe fell victim to the "well she's too good and it's unfair to others" syndrome. Sabrina Bryan was a primary example this but there have been others.

Completely agree. Andrew does this every time he is on the show. He tries to dominate the conversation because he is, in his own mind, the fount of all wisdom. It's bad TV and a complete turnoff.

The very thought of another juniors show sent me running. The DWTS producers learned nothing from SYTYCD's kiddie season did they? BTW, as others have said, why the hell is Mackenzie Zeigler a contestant and not a "pro". More to the point, why is she on this show at all. I suspect that her scheming mother, Melissa is behind this.

The voters got the placement order of the final four right. For me the highlight of the night was Evan and Lex doing that incredible tribute to the Nicholas Brothers with their tap number. If you've ever seen Fayard and Harold Nicholas in those old 1940s movies Anthony's choreography and Evan and Lex's footwork, tricks and even hand movements were dead on. I suspect that that we may see Evan on a Broadway stage at some point a la Jess Loprado and Evan Kasperick. If a show has a big tap number with a solo Evan might get considered.

I think that, all things being equal, Hannalei should win. She is clearly the best all-around dancer this season. I was happy to see Melanie back and for Travis to call her SYTYCD Royalty. She just finished up in Hello Dolly which ended its Broadway run on 8/25. It's the third major Broadway show that she's been. The first one was Finding Neverland as the dancing Peter Pan and then it was Chana, one of Tevya's three daughters in Fiddler on the Roof. There were some rehearsal clips of Fiddler on YouTube and it turns out that Melanie has a very sweet singing voice. Three Broadway shows isn't a bad resume.

Brandon was (and still is) a terrific dancer. He and Janette were incredible in the disco number. Their Argentine Tango was smoldering and their Cha Cha was outstanding. She got eliminated too early in their season. She is now a huge dance star in the UK. That was a great season with fabulous dancers. Jeannine won but, IMHO, Kayla was the better dancer and should have taken the prize. Seasons 4 and 5 were absolute gold.

Totally agree. It will go down, along with Tyce's brilliant "Breast Cancer" number and Mia's tribute to her dad, "Time", as one of the most beautiful and meaningful dance numbers in the SYTYCD's history. Unfortunately Darius was a victim of the show's flawed voting system. Darius was ripped a bit last week and that was likely the determining factor in his being eliminated (although black/gay may have also played role in the voting). Last night his dancing was stunning but, alas, the results were already in. Slavik got beaten like a drum last night so one would assume that this would drive his vote totals going in to next week. In certain ways, DWTS has a better system. The combination of viewer votes from the previous week and judges' scores for the current week seems much fairer than what happens on SYTYCD. When there was a separate SYTYCD results show, the judges did have some say in who got eliminated. What they've got now just doesn't work but if DWTS can do it without a results show, so can SYTYCD.

I was pretty much ready to give up on WOD. I find the duels to be absurd. Having two entirely different styles or a solo dancer and a duo or group compete against one another makes no sense to me. I had recorded this week's show and was going to delete it but decided to watch it last night. The Cut rounds are so much better because its all on the dancers to show what they can do and the judges to score them on that. I thought that the dancing last night was excellent all around. The girls from Japan are scary talented and their showmanship is off the chain. I was sorry to see BDash & Konkrete get the boot. These guys are so talented and inventive in crafting their routines. I hope that the exposure that WOD has given them leads to a big future. After the cuts are done, from what I recall of last season it's back to the mish mash of different styles up against each other. I also recall being disappointed when Les Twins beat Eva Igo to win. Oh well...

You are not alone. I've really enjoyed this show. Of course the fact that I've been madly in love with Rachel Bilson since I saw her in the film The Last Kiss in 2006 has nothing to do with it.

That Mary, she's a real pisser.

True that on Last Dance. In the second David Foster concert in Las Vegas [Hitman II) Donna Summer closed the show with the best version of Last Dance I've ever heard. As she got older, her voice got deeper with much more body and substance. I believe that she was 61 at the time of that show and she just killed it. It's still hard to believe that less than a year later she was gone. Doriana's disco number on Monday was very good but tepid compared to the classic Brandon and Janette routine in Season 5. Of course that was so insane that less talented dancers might have ended up in hospital. It could probably never be repeated because Fox couldn't afford the insurance premiums.

It was the first thing that I thought when the routine began. It seemed very derivative and I figured that Wade Robson was the choreographer. I was shocked when it was Luther Brown. I was actually impressed that he could pull a number like that off.

Maybe she's a legacy like Flounder in Animal House..LOL!

I'm beginning to dislike this season's format. The highly compressed schedule was, no doubt, dictated by Fox but it's turned the show into a sprint to the finals. The contestants have no breathing space to recover from an off performance or sub-par choreography. It's now do or die every week. Evan and Chelsea's elimination was pre-ordained after last week and, yes, Nigel's lame "you said you could tap" was clearly a CYA move after the backlash over last Monday's show. I'm not sure that SYTYCD can hold on for Season 16 after this one wraps up.

Nigel is still a misogynistic putz at times. He just can't help himself. His "too sexy" to Jensen was inappropriate and yes, so was dragging Magda into it. Magda did look incredible in her red dress. Jensen is only 20 and Magda is 27 and her maturity let's her wear damn near anything and look good in it. Vanessa actually made a technical critique last night. At the same time it was reported that pigs were flying and hell had frozen over.

According to many out there Chelsea is the only non-tapper who has ever been asked to do a full tap routine on a live show. She may be getting a lot of votes due a sense of unfairness.