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Tuesday, June 01, 2010

You Can't Do That on Television

I am definitely a TV junkie. I tried to cut down on the number of tv shows I regularly watched this year, but I think I just shifted the shows I watch. No more "Biggest Loser" or "24", but I picked up "Community" and "Flash Forward". Summer television is always a wasteland of shows that weren't good enough to air during the winter months, though. I am always surprised to learn some of the shows that they air over the summer. To exemplify this, I have designed a quiz - I have 8 descriptions for television shows. One of these shows is a fake - it's not airing this summer. Your job is to come up with the name for the show based on these descriptions and to spot the fake. Bonus point if you can prove that you have watched any of these shows before. The answers are posted in the comments.

#1
Charlotte Payne is looking for love and has rejected multiple marriage proposals -- but she has yet to meet Mr. Right. When she joins a popular online dating site, she gets a little help from her dating counselor, Andrew, who requires her to take a 100-question compatibility test. The questions aren't easy for Charlotte to answer, and each one requires her to recount a poignant and humorous time in her life. The test becomes a journey of self-discovery for Charlotte who begins to realize what she truly wants in a relationship.

#2
Seven strangers must come together to solve the puzzle of their lives. All of them have been taken from their everyday lives and have arrived in a deserted town with no recollection of how they got there. While being held hostage, the strangers are constantly watched by omnipresent "security" cameras with no idea who or what is behind them. Every attempt to leave is thwarted by unforeseen circumstances, which seem to derive from mysterious forces. At every turn, these strangers-turned-comrades are threatened physically, psychologically and emotionally. Their chance at survival is to rely on each other. But who can they trust in this vulnerable state - either behind those cameras or amongst themselves? Their decisions will have moral and ethical consequences, as alliances are forged and relationships brokered.

#3
Somewhere between the demands of her career, her ex's wedding and her kids' busy schedules, Dana James is noticing her tight-knit family starting to unravel. An unexpected offer to purchase her family's mountain property sets up a weekend road trip, which she hopes will bring her family back together. But when they arrive, they quickly learn that the mountain is much more than it seems. An ancient secret and a treacherous quest will test the family like never before. It's an edge-of-the seat thriller that reminds us that when times are tough, families don't run away from problems - they run back to each other.

#4
Can a family of small-time criminals go legit? This is the story of the Wests, who are forced to change their lifestyle after the man of the house gets sent to the big house. Crime is their business. Cheryl, loving mother and devoted wife, will do everything she can to keep her family together and on the straight and narrow.

#5
Five gorgeous females and five hot men will live together while they compete (they think) to become the "Face of Vegas." Unbeknownst to them, they'll be deliberately challenged by moral situations to see if they really are kind, generous and compassionate and have what it takes to be truly beautiful inside and out. The attractive contestants assume they're being judged solely on their physical attributes when, in fact, the episodes will showcase two sides of each person, one that displays outer beauty as well as one that exhibits inner beauty. One person will be eliminated each week based on their behavior and how well they ranked in each challenge. At the end, the person who has successfully demonstrated both inner and outer beauty will win $100,000 and will be featured in People magazine.

#6
Todd Donovan works for Mid America Novelties, which sells products like whoopee cushions, foam fingers, and wallets made of bacon. This is the stuff upon which the American way of life is built, but try explaining that to someone who lives on the other side of the world. Todd must do exactly that when he's sent to run the company's call center in India. Todd's culture shock leads to hilarious situations with his new employees

#7
This new action comedy explores what happens when an old-school cop and a modern-day detective expose the big picture of small crime. Dan Stark is a washed-up detective who spends most of his time drunk or re-hashing his glory days. A stranger to modern police work, Dan has the reputation as being a bit of a wild card. Dan's new partner, Jack Bailey, is an ambitious, by-the-book detective, but is sometimes a bit too snarky for his own good. He has a dead-end position in the department and is stuck solving annoying petty theft cases that nobody else wants. Worse, he's been given the thankless task of babysitting Dan, the drunk pariah who can never keep partners for long.

#8
This family comedy is about three brothers who hire a charming, wayward schemer to stand in as their father when their real one goes to prison. What begins as a simple business relationship evolves into a family like no other. The three brothers find their dad-for-hire, Ron Snuffkin, working at the local sporting goods store. Ron, a lovable slacker who can't catch a break, is forced to draw from an array of skills and dig into a vast bag of tricks as he steps into the role of patriarch to the boys of the Gunderson family.

3 comments:

Adam said...

Ok, trick question - each of these are in fact real shows. One of them, the one about the call center in India (#6), won't air until the fall. Here are their actual names:

1. 100 Questions (NBC) - I actually watched the pilot episode (again, I am a tv junkie). It was fairly similar to HIMYM in terms of dynamic, but the cast and writing were no where near as good. Which is why it's airing in the summer.
2. Persons Unknown (NBC)
3. Secrets of the Mountain (NBC)
4. Scoundrels (ABC)
5. True Beauty (ABC) - I am sorry to say that this is the show's second season and I watched almost all of the first season.
6. Outsourced (NBC) - it's going to be a part of NBC's Thursday comedy lineup, which shows how much faith they have in it
7. The Good Guys (FOX)
8. Sons of Tucson (FOX)

Mikey D said...

I knew the name of number 4 (Scoundrels) just because of the commercials I've seen for it on ESPN, but I have not intention of watching it.

I heard about "100 Questions" and was kind of excited about it (hoping it would fill my "Community" void), but I watched the first three minutes of it andddddddd vetoed. Nope. No way. Too cheasy. Predictable writing. AWFUL laugh track.

I honestly don't know if I'm watching any TV this summer!

Kevin said...

I knew 4, 7, and 8 were real shows because I remember seeing commercials for them. No luck remembering the names though.

I had no clue on the others. I guessed #1 to be the fake.


I'll be watching the World Cup and new Futurama episodes this summer...probably not any of these...