Friday, 17 May 2002: Hey all. Did I see Star Wars Episode II? Hells yeah. However, I guess I'm not a true Star Wars fan because I did not see it on the pre-opening Wednesday at midnight showing, nor did I see it on opening day which was yesterday. I saw it today which is the day that I had always been led to believe was going to be opening day. Do I care that several thousand people saw it before me... hells no. I saw it and I liked it a lot. My faith in George Lucas has been restored. Overall, this one ranks up there just below A New Hope with The Empire Strikes Back way ahead of both of them. Overall, here are my rankings of the entire series...

• #1 - Ep. V: The Empire Strikes Back
• #2 - Ep. IV: A New Hope
• #3 - Ep. II: Attack of the Clones
• #4 - Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi
• #5 - Ep. I: The Phantom Menace

Was Yoda's scene worth all the hype... you damned well better believe it. He truly does kick complete and total ass. The other thing that I loved is the fact that this movie is so full of allusions to the original trilogy. Not just the typical foreshadowing, but blatant comments that are remniscient of episodes IV - VI that you can't help but kinda smirk when you hear them.

*SPOILER ALERT*- do not keep reading if you don't want part of the movie ruined for you...There is one thing that bugs me, though, about the last two episodes that have been released. Lucas has developed some truly kick ass villains in episodes I and II. I'm talking villains that would be on par with Darth Vader if they were allowed to be developed to their fullest potential. Therein lies my complaint. Lucas dispatches his villains far too quickly any more. In The Phantom Menace, Darth Maul dies horribly unceremoniously. I loved that guy. He was one of the only redeeming features of episode I. Now, in episode II, Jango Fett is killed off before we really get to know who he is. Yes, it helps set up the future struggle between Boba Fett (his son) and what would seemingly be the rest of the galaxy. But, couldn't Jango's death have waited until episode III? Did it have to happen so quickly? Vader got to stick around for three entire flicks. Boba Fett had two episodes in full regalia (he's only a kid now so it doesn't count, nor does his cameo in the special edition of episode IV). Couldn't the same courtesy have been afforded to Jango Fett and Darth Maul. They were truly great villains. C'est la vie, eh?

Thursday, 16 May 2002: Okay, here's the rest of what I've found out about primetime scheduling for next fall.

On CBS, "The Agency" was not cancelled after all, it was just moved to Saturday night. Damn, you may as well have just axed it, at least killing it would have been more dignified than moving it to Saturday of all days. Otherwise, it would seem that CBS is overloading on dramas. "CSI: Miami" (to be aired on Monday nights opposite NBC's "Crossing Jordan"), "Presidio Med," "Without a Trace" (moving into "The Agency's" old Thursday night slot opposite "ER"), "Hack," and "RHD/LA." The only new comedies are "Still Standing" with Jami Gertz (The Lost Boys) and Mark Addy (The Full Monty) and "Bram and Alice" with Alfred Molina and Traylor Howard ("Two Guys and a Girl"). For some reason, execs ordered another 13 episodes of "Baby Bob" to air midseason while "The Education of Max Bickford," "First Monday," "The Ellen Show," "Family Law," "Wolf Lake," "Citizen Baines," and "That's Life" were all killed (have you ever heard of the last three?).

Fox is planning to replace "Ally McBeal" with yet another lawyer show by David E. Kelley (do you think the guy has a fixation with the legal profession? "Ally McBeal," "L.A. Law," and whatever this new one is). Sunday is going to be all comedy with "Malcolm in the Middle" expanded to a one-hour block in light of the ending of "The X-Files." Also nixed are "Dark Angel," "Titus," "Undeclared," "Greg the Bunny," and "That 80's Show" (really sucked anyway) while "Andy Richter Controls the Universe" is on hiatus until midseason. "24" is returning despite low ratings. I'm sure Allison will be happy.

As for UPN... do we really care anyway? What shows are actually on this network? Nothing that matters to me and since I can't find any news about their fall lineups anyway (trust me, I didn't look too hard), let's just skip it.

Okay, I'm done. Trying to keep up on all this TV shit is driving me insane. If anything changes, make a mental note of it because you're not likely to see it posted here anytime soon.

Wednesday, 15 May 2002: It's alive! Alive I tell you! Well, my hope of ever getting a PlayStation 2 is alive, that is. My friend Nate told me last month about this little tidbit and Sony has now confirmed it... the price of the PS2 will drop $100. A news article this morning stated that the reason for the price drop was because Sony wanted to be more competitive with the Nintendo GameCube which is only $199 despite the GameCube's inability to play DVDs. The pricedrop is also in response to rumors that the Microsoft Xbox was planning a pricecut as well. Nate told me he heard the pricedrop was in anticipation of the rerelease of the PS2 with a built-in net connection so you could play against other people on the web. I think Nate's explanation makes more sense since this was the original plan by Sony anyway. They just never actually did it. Now that the Xbox is out and has web connectivity (and some killer games I might add), Sony was feeling the pinch to get their system up to snuff. I don't need the web connectivity because I wouldn't be playing against anyone else (notice how carefully worded that statement was for fear of unintentionally giving any of you fair readers the wrong impression about "one-man game playing"). I'll take the $199 PS2 any day of the week. So, if any of you all are looking for a killer birthday/Christmas gift for me... hint, hint, clue, clue, knock you over the head.

One last thing for all you Chicago Bears fans out there... studboy linebacker Brian Urlacher will be costarring on "According to Jim" tonight at 7:30 on ABC 7. Tune in to show your support for the big man. And, yes, I will have the mops at the ready in anticipation of Katie drooling buckets worth when he shows up on screen.

Tuesday, 14 May 2002: So far, I've only heard about a few shows this season that have been given the boot without the dignity of having a series finale.

The WB did yank "Angel," "Raising Dad," and "Maybe It's Me." Surprisingly, "The Jamie Kennedy Experiment" survived the axe slinging.

On NBC, "Leap of Faith" did get killed, much to my chagrin. "Watching Ellie" has seemingly survived to see another season, though executives have not announced how many episodes they are ordering and it won't be played until midseason (if at all). "Scrubs" survived and has moved to the Thursday 7:30 p.m. (EST) slot right after "Friends." Katie will be happy to know that "Crossing Jordan" is returning as well. Nothing big announced about "Ed" so you can probably safely assume it's returning. In terms of game shows, "The Weakest Link" has been deemed one of NBC's weakest links... good bye (c'mon, you had to see that play on titles coming a mile away... I would've been ashamed of myself if I didn't say it). "Just Shoot Me" which really needs to be cut, has been moved from Thursday to Tuesday to make room for a new show called "Good Morning Miami."

ABC has made some shifts. "Philly," despite my earlier predictions, has been yanked as has "Spin City." I really did not see that one coming at all. The ailing "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" is on hiatus until midseason. "The George Lopez Show" did make it for a sophomore run as I thought it would. What's weird is that it seems that the miniseries "Dinotopia" is being made into a regular series on Thursday nights to compete with "Friends" and "Survivor" (should this show return and to the same time/day slot).

All news regarding CBS, Fox, and UPN is speculation as of now and lineups won't be announced until sometime on Thursday. Although we can say for sure that CBS will be making "CSI: Miami" its own series along with another Jerry Bruckheimer produced show about missing persons called "Without A Trace." That gives Bruckheimer a relative stranglehold on the network where he's already got "The Amazing Race" and "CSI: Crime Scene Investigations." At least his TV shows are more realistic than many of his over-FXed movies (granted I did love Black Hawk Down, this is the same guy who gave us Pearl Harbor).

Monday, 13 May 2002: I have a couple of friends who, whether they would ever admit to it or not, would probably benefit from moving to Brazil. According to the "Honesty in Marriage" study published in the most recent edition of the Brazilian version of Reader's Digest, only one in four Brazilians expect their spouses to remain faithful. One person in every four will remain faithful. Can you believe that? Ironically enough, only three percent of Brazilian men ever admitted to having had an affair. I guess that means that there is another 72% of Brazilian men (I have no idea how many women fessed up) that can safely go out and screw around on their wives. Go for it guys, your women expect it. I'm guessing that there is probably a similar amount of women that can do as such as well. That's pretty damned pessimistic, isn't it?