San Diego News on California fires shut down Prime Time TV Shows

Photo: Miro-Foto of Flickr

The filming of major prime time TV shows has been halted due to the recent California fires that have killed a number of locals and destroyed the homes of many residents. The fires have led to our country’s largest evacuation since Hurricane Katrina. Among the prime time TV shows affected is 24 starring actor Kiefer Sutherland. The producers shut down production after cast and crew members were affected by smoke produced from these fires in California. The filming was then moved from a military base to the show’s soundstages.

Photo: Fox

The CBS TV show Cold Case and ABC’s new show Big Shots were two other programs affected by the fires in California. The sets for Cold Case were blown over by winds from these fires in southern California. The Big Shots TV show was filming in Malibu and had to be canceled as well. NCIS, another CBS prime time series was also filming near the fires in southern California. However, the filming continued for this TV show despite evidence of smoke from their soundstages. Some crew members working on the NCIS TV show had to leave to save their homes during the fires in southern California. The 7th Season of 24 is scheduled to air January 13, 2008.

Source: BBC news

How has the fires in Southern California affected you?

Leave your comments below.

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Fun Gifts for Oprah Fans

Photo: Alan Light at Flickr

Oprah is adored by millions of women (and some men) around the world. With the holiday season approaching, you may want gifts ideas for friends and family members. Oprah has been called the Queen of media making this list suitable for fans who enjoy her show and other ventures. This is the first of a two part series for you die hard Oprah fans. If you are shopping, make sure to bookmakr this page (options are shown at the end of this post). If you aren't shopping, but are a huge Oprah fan, these tips will help you when making a holiday gift list to give to loved ones and co-workers. They are also great for pollyanna lists.

Subscription to O Magazine
I was surprised when realizing that many Oprah fans do not have a subscription to her magazine. Instead they purchase it from local book stores and news stands. This creates a great gift idea when trying to find something for a friend or family member. O, The Oprah magazine is filled with lots of advice and helpful tips for women. It is released monthly and is very inexpensive.

This is one of the great things that I noticed about O, The Oprah magazine. It is also thick and very popular. One would think that it would cost slightly more than other mainstream publications. However, it is affordable to people with almost any shopping budget. I own a few issues of the O, the Oprah magazine and must say that it is top notch. The information included covers everything from fashion, personal development, cooking, decorating to personal finances.

Oprah’s Book Club Gift Basket
There is always a recent list and archives that include books that Oprah and her club members are reading. While many fans have some of the books, there may be fantastic gifts for Oprah fans on this list. You can find out Oprah’s book club selections by visiting her website. They are all listed and easy to find. It is important to subtly find out whether or not the recipient already owns the titles that you want to purchase.

Once you have a good idea of what the person owns, the shopping can begin. Two or three books should be adequate enough. Place these Oprah book club selections in a nice basket and decorate it with chocolates or other snacks. Books are gifts for Oprah fans that will last for a long time. The TV host picked them for a good reason. Therefore, Oprah fans will get something good out of reading the book.

Tickets to the Oprah Show
Thousands of women like Oprah, but have never been a member of her live audience. If your friend or family member is one of those people, this will be a great gift idea. Since the show is taped in Chicago, this gift will require a trip to the windy city. You can either create a gift package that includes plane tickets, one night at a hotel and passes to the show. Many people do not like to participate in leisure activities alone, so it may be best to accompany the friend to Chicago.

The Oprah Boutique
This is a signature shop that features clothing, crafts, DVDs and other fun Oprah related merchandise. You can even get a special iPod cover that features the media mogul’s signature design. One of the great aspects of this shop is that all of Oprah’s merchandise is affordable. I expected to find expensive prices when reviewing some of the available items. However, I was surprised to find out that most of these gifts are under $40. These merchandise items are great gifts for Oprah fans.

Obtaining Gifts for Oprah fans
You can get all of the gift choices through one of Oprah’s online destinations. That makes it much easier to obtain gifts for Oprah fans. While there may be merchandise sold by other retailers, it is best to utilize the source. Oprah has built her own online shopping empire. All gifts for Oprah fans can be found on her website. That includes the gifts listed in this article.

What do you like about Oprah? Do you have a favorite Oprah television moment? What are some changes that can be made to improve her show? Leave your comments below?

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NBC’s Heroes robbed by 2007 Emmy Awards

Jeff Vespa/WireImage.com
Ali Larter from Heroes was placed on the top ten Best Dressed List

The time has come to let TV fans and everyone else know what really went wrong at the 2007 Emmy awards. It was not the fact that this show took longer that it should. It was also not the fact that Wayne Brady and a few celebrity presenters were more entertaining than Ryan Seacrest. The winning selections are what went wrong with the 2007 Emmy awards show, particularly in the categories of Outstanding directing for a drama series, Supporting actor in a drama and Outstanding drama series. Heroes had Emmy nominations in all three categories and won none.

It is understandable if this NBC series was not given all three or even two Emmys, but none? Zero Emmys? If you did not watch the Emmys, there is nothing wrong with that. For those that did and are fans of Heroes or TV in general, you know what I am talking about. The Sopranos stole the show. Grey’s Anatomy and Ugly Betty had a good night, but The Sopranos took home two Emmys, leaving Heroes in the dust. That was one of the most absurd events that I have witnessed this year in prime time television.

No one is denying the fact that The Sopranos was a good show. I did not even watch many episodes of this HBO series. However, it was not difficult to tell that The Sopranos is a good show……when it was on air. The Sopranos is not even running on TV anymore. The series is over, it has ended and been placed on DVD. Therefore, why is the show getting prizes at the 2007 Emmy awards? This question is very important since Heroes is an awesome show that airs on NBC.

Heroes is still running on TV and provides lots of excitement for viewers of broadcast television. Many non-cable programs can be very boring, but Heroes is a great production. The storylines have lots of twists and turns and the cast is very talented. This show is also full of great special effects and deserves an Emmy award. I decided to watch the 2007 Emmy awards show because Mariska Hargitay was nominated in the Actress in a drama category for her role in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Kiefer Sutherland was nominated in the Actor in a Drama category for his role in 24. While neither of these actors won, I still wanted to watch the 2007 Emmy awards when realizing that Heroes had three nominations.

It was disappointing to witness actor Masi Oka lose the Emmy to Terry O'Quinn from ABC’s Lost for supporting actor in a drama series. It was no more fun noticing that director Alan Taylor won an Emmy for The Sopranos, taking the Outstanding directing in a drama series title away from David Semel of NBC’s Heroes. However, even with those disappointments, I continued to watch the 2007 Emmy awards. Lost is a good TV show, so there is definitely some competition there. I have seen a few episodes and would be a frequent supporter of Lost, if there weren’t already other TV favorites in place.

Good programs deserve awards, especially when they have a large audience. Lost has many fans, so the awards are fitting. However, after watching a long awards program that pushes local newscasts and every other scheduled show back for about 30 minutes, I wanted to see that at least, after all of the giveaways, Heroes would go home with the Emmy for Best Drama Series. Time passed, Ryan Seacrest put on a funny costume, Kanye West participated in an amusing ‘Don’t forget the lyrics’ competition with Dwight Schrute and Heroes cast members looked dazzling. The delightful Helen Miren announces that the winner for Best Drama Series goes to…..“The Sopranos”! I just may pull a Kanye West and boycott these awards in the name of a deserving TV show called Heroes.

First, it was one for Directing and now two Emmys? The Emmy award for Best Drama Series should not have been given to The Sopranos, a TV show that is not in production and not on air. Heroes was robbed of not one, but two Emmy awards. The third one is understandable because Lost deserves their props. They could have at least given one of those Emmys to Heroes instead of making the whole ceremony about a now defunct TV program about the mob. Instead, Heroes was robbed by the Emmys and robbed by The Sopranos.

Do you agree or disagree? Are you a fan of The Sopranos or Heroes or Lost? What did you think about the Emmys overall? Comments are welcome below.

Heroes airs Monday night at 9 on NBC
The Season Premiere is Monday, September 24, 2007 (Season 2)
Note: Buddytv lists Heroes as having eight Emmy nominations. These included categories for editing, Art direction, Sound Mixing and Stunts and Special Effects. They are in addition to the categories mentioned in the above post.