I admit that for the past 3 or 4 years, a TV show has been an addiction for my wife and I. And it’s a reality show of all things. NBC’s Biggest Loser has changed our country in a positive way and the contestants have been inspirations to millions of people. We watch it for a variety of reasons, but seeing the transformations take place in these people’s lives and watching them discover who they really are in a monumental thing.
Biggest Loser trainers Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels
Biggest Loser Season 7 contestant Tara Costa
Last night, the end of the current season happened, with Michael winning the big prize. Personally, I was rooting for Darius, but I was happy to see Michael win too. Afterall, he was the biggest contestant in the show’s history, starting at over 500lbs. When he came out last night, he was a completely different looking man. His end weight was in the 250 range. Amazing. All the contestants (for the most part), looked great and lost upwards of 100 pounds each. My wife is a certified personal trainer. You always have people talking about how they want to lose weight or get in better shape, but this show provides viewers with the real deal on what is required for that transformation to take place. And it’s also a great insight into what the roots are in people’s lives that lead them to eat and eat and eat, to obesity. The trainers do a great job of getting to the root issues, leading the people to deal with them, so that not only will they lose the weight, but they’ll keep it off. Last season, Tara was such a huge inspiration to us, as she was to countless people. She won every challenge and overcame every obstacle in front of her. This season, there were a few standouts, but the most inspiration I got was from O’Neal and his daughter Sunshine. We’re looking forward to next season. View the contestants of this season and their transformation at http://www.nbc.com/the-biggest-loser/photos/
Following Biggest Loser on the TV schedule on NBC is Parenthood. It’s unusual that we’d be drawn to this show since we don’t have kids, but after watching the pilot episode, we wanted to see what happened next. That brought us back each week, and the TV station didn’t have to change. It’s a great show that provides us with a look at how even dysfunctional families can work things out. I was glad that the two teenage daughters came to a resolution at the end of the episode, all the while Ray LaMontagne’s Let It Be Me was playing. Great ending. Looking forward to next season.
Cast of NBC's Parenthood
I guess we’re NBC junkies in a way, since we were also hooked on Celebrity Apprentice. I admit I wasn’t a fan of Brett Michaels before the show. I knew he was on Rock Of Love, a reality show where floozy women try to compete to be his girlfriend, or temporary lover, whichever comes first. Not a fan of that kind of guy. But Celebrity Apprentice revealed a softer side to the rock star. And with his overcoming the medical issues of the last several weeks were pretty amazing. I was actually rooting for Bill Goldberg, who I felt didn’t really get a good opportunity to operate in leadership since the project he was in charge of had to do with music. If he’d stayed on one more week and done the 24 hour Fitness gig, he would have stood out. All the same, I’m looking forward to the fall where business people will be competing against each other again.
Since we don’t watch NCIS, Lost, Desperate Housewives, or any of the other popular shows on other networks, I can’t comment on them. We used to be avid fans of The Office until season 5 when nothing changed in the development of the storylines or characters. But we did get into 30 Rock. Everything about that show is hilarious, including the portrayal of TV personalities and execs. Everything Tracy Jordan says cracks me up. And of course we love The Marriage Ref. Many people had never heard of host Tom Papa before this gig. I discovered him a few years ago and featured him on The Appetizer’s annual Comedy hour. So good to see him furthering his career, and helping couples settle somewhat petty arguments. Last week’s show with Demi Moore, Kelly Ripa, and Jim Brewer was hysterical. I hadn’t laughed that hard in one hour in a long long time.
Comedian and Marriage Ref Host Tom Papa
Though the summer is coming up and we’ll have to wait until the fall for continuations of series, our Biggest Loser fix will come from “Losing It With Julian.” And our need for unending laughter will come from the continuation of “Last Comic Standing.” Or perhaps we won’t watch any TV in the summer. Who knows.
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