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PACIFIC TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

Falling into fall

You might not know Lea Michele but remember her name because she's one of the fresh faces of "Glee." Photo by Playbill.com

In case you missed it, the Fall 2009 season officially kicked off on the CW with "90210" and its sister in remakeland "Melrose Place."

And while the CW has spent millions trying to get people to watch, I'm betting "Melrose Place" won't be long for this world.

You can go to the nostalgia well once and get away with it but twice?

Seriously CW?

Besides the fans have already proven they xoxo "Gossip Girl" but time and the ratings will tell if they feel the same about "Melrose Place."

I hoped you liked what I have to say, because that's all the ink I'm giving it, because while I like trash like with the best of them, this is too low even for me.

Instead, let me point you to a really GREAT show. In fact it fills me with glee to recommend it.

If you're looking for a smart and funny new show, then "Glee" on Fox is it. The show is about a glee club in Lima, Ohio, and their struggle to be accepted among the student body. They've got big dreams and they that fame costs, and they're ready to start paying with sweat, song and comedy.

And while you may think you've been there and done that with the "High School Musical" franchise, let me tell you the kids on "Glee" will make those kids blush with some of the antics they pull. Still, it's a show I can recommend to the over 13-year-old set.

Younger kids might like the music, but trust me when I say this is a show for mature audiences only.

Last week, the first episode re aired complete with a Tweetpeet (where the cast sent Tweets during the episode) and a director's cut with extra scenes. If you thought that was funny, then I can proudly tell you (jazz hands and all) that this episode knocks it out of the park.

The season premiere picks up with the Spanish Teacher Will Schuester fighting to motivate the kids and keep the spirit of the glee club alive. And while I won't spoil much else than that, let me say that at the screening of this episode at Comic-Con folks were laughing hysterically, crying and even gasping as surprises kept coming fast and furious.

The show hits the right notes of drama, comedy, sadness and even some intrigue. In other words, life.

The show is from Ryan Murphy who created "nip/tuck" and if that show is any indication of what's to come on "Glee" then fasten your seat belts because it's going to be a bumpy and enjoyable ride.

"Glee" airs on Fox at 9 p.m. on Wednedays and gets five remotes out of five

The Fall of my Discontent....

Betty and Daniel from "Ugly Betty" are moving to Friday nights, which I'm actually kind of glad about because it now gives me something to watch. Photo by ABC.com

Hello TV watchers. I'm baacck!
You'll notice that the Remote has been on mute for most of the summer because there's really been NOTHING ON TV. We had our bright spots and some not so bright spots. But over all it's been pretty bland.

That's NOT the case this fall. I think we might have a case of system overload as shows fight to compete for your time and attention. I think the biggest story of the fall is NBC's decision to scuttle the 10 p.m. hour of dramas and add "The Jay Leno" Show."

I'll be honest, Jay Leno isn't to my taste. I love his "Headlines" feature but that's about it. I'm going to tune in the first week when he has some pretty big guest stars like Rihanna (making her first appearance on TV since the attack from Chris Brown in February) and Kanye West.

My poor DVR is going to explode because some of my favorites are now facing off. Monday nights looks pretty weak to me, so I'll probably stick with "Heroes" since it's now on at 8 p.m. and then I'm done for the night.

Wednesday is going to be busy because I have "America's Next Top Model" and "Mercy" facing off. I love Tyra so I'm going to stick with a sista because, she's just too damn funny. "Mercy" looks like it's going to be the "anti-ER" so I want to check that out.

I've fallen hard for "Glee" and I just learned yesterday that "Law & Order SVU" is going up against it. I'm going to watch "Glee" and probably DVR "L&O: SVU" and watch it at 10. Lord knows what's going to happen when "Lost" returns for the final season in January, but I'll figure that out then.

Thursday has "Flash Forward" facing off against "Survivor" so I'll be watching "Survivor" live and DVR'ing "Flash Forward." On cable there's "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" and "Project Runway" but since cable repeats things umteen times, I'll just DVR both of them can catch them later or wait for the repeats.

Fridays, I'm going to jump on the "Smallville" train since I heard it was actually pretty descent this last season. Then "Ugly Betty" at 9 p.m. and "Southland" might be my Friday night at 10 p.m. show.

Saturday air a repeat of "Trauma" so I'll probably wait and watch it then.
Sunday is all about "The Amazing Race" and "Desperate Housewives" but I am curious about "Three Rivers" and "The Cleveland Show" but I'm still on the fence.

Over the next few weeks, I'll be blogging about the shows, the good, the bad and the soon to be cancelled. Until then, stay tuned....

"Project Runway" : All Stars

Poor Korto, close again but no cigar. Photo by Lifetime.com

Tonight, the show I and many viewers thought they might never see again returned. "Project Runway" after almost a year long delay returned on a different night and a different station.

To whet our appetite, Lifetime showed us "All Stars" where the "best" of the past few seasons competed. We had Daniel, Mychael, Chris, Uli, Sweet P, Korto and Santino.

They had to create a mini collection and the looks ranged from the chic to the WTF?
Sadly , the WTF look is what Nina, Heidi and Michael wanted because Daniel won. =-( Korto, who was great came in second AGAIN and I wish someone would finally recognize her talent.

Is fat the new gay?

Luke is the featured bachelor on "More to Love" . Photo by Fox.com

Is it me, or are has Hollywood finally discovered that not everyone is meant to be a size 2?
We've had shows like "The Biggest Loser" on TV for a while, but this summer brings us two more entries in the big and beautiful category.

"Dance Your Ass Off" highlights big people dancing in a ballroom dance contest. Think "Dancing With the Stars" with unknowns and plus sized people.

"More to Love" is basically "The Bachelor" with overweight people.
The problem with this is this, Hollywood goes in cycles. A few years ago, gays were all the rage as shows like "Queer as Folk" and "Queer Eye" and then people got bored and we moved on.

Now, we seem to be embracing fat people as entertainment. And that, I think is wrong.

If the shows are trying to teach us that "Hey, fat people are people too" then they are going about it the wrong way.
You can totally hear the pitches for these shows "Hey! Let's do 'The Bachelor' with fat people!" or "Hey, let's do DWTS with fat people."

I'd be curious to see if America is embracing these shows or if they are bored. The next few weeks will tell.

"16 and Pregnant" the finale

Meet Whitney and Owen. Whitney is one of the subjects of "16 and Pregnant" on MTV. Photo by MTV.com

For the past five weeks, I've had a date with MTV. I haven't watched MTV in a long time (you know, back when they actually played VIDEOS) but I digress. Then I stumbled on this show "16 and pregnant" and I haven't been able to turn away since!

I feel guilty because this are real life situation, but it's like crack. I can't take just one hit. Over the past few weeks we've watched the destruction of Maci and Ryan's relationship. We've watched Farrah duke it out with her mom. We've watched Amber and her older boyfriend Gary mature into loving parents. We watched Ebony's dreams about joining the Air Force come crashing down, only to watch her boyfriend (now husband) get to live his dream of entering the Air Force while she has to stay home with the baby.

And last week, we met Whitney, who is 16 but seemed like 12. I think her episode was the most tragic of all with her, her boyfriend Weston, her mom (who was pregnant too) and her mom's boyfriend all living in her Grandma's (affectionally called Meemaw) all living into a double wide. (cue music from "Deliverance" now).

While clearly MTV ripped of "Juno" I think they ARE doing a service to their audience. Pregnancy isn't cute. It isn't Hollywood and babies aren't magically quiet all the time. They need care. They need love. They need ADULTS to take care of them.

Tonight's episode had Catelynn and Tyler trying to do the adult thing by giving the baby up for adoption. However, their parents want the teens to KEEP the baby. C and T's situation is more complex because both of their parents have had hard times. Tyler's dad has been in jail and Catelynn's mom flakes (I'm betting it's meth) and so they are grappling with what to do. That being said, catch this on the reruns because it's worth it.

I'm hoping that some teens will think twice before having unsafe sex.

Gone too soon!!!!!!

King of Pop Michael Jackson died unexpectedly on Thursday. This cover story in Ebony Magazine was one of his last indepth interviews. Photo by Ebony.com

There have been very few times that I've been speechless, the death of Michael Jackson leaves me with no words. I'm in shock and very saddened by his sudden passing. I'm betting most of you learned about the death of MJ from the Internet while a good portion learned via TV.

I was watching CNN and they were airing stories about this 70s icon death.. And then, it happened. Wolf Blitzer was told that MJ was rushed to the hospital and then suddenly Farrah's story became yesterday's news and MJ was front and center. MJ died around 12:30 PDT, it became a nonstop Michael Jackson fest on many of the major channels.

Videos for songs such as "Liberian Girl" and "Earth Song" were rediscovered by me. And even t hough the news stations have played "Thriller" into the ground I still stop and watch.

CNN has been covering the story nonstop while MTV wisely turned their programming over to MJ videos. While I'm sad, I think it's great that a new generation gets to rediscover the music. LA Reid said on the "Today" show on Friday that "It's time people turned up the music and turned down the chatter" and I think that quote summed up everything I was feeling.

I love Michael Jackson's music. I can listen to "Thriller" all day and not get tired of it. And while his life took some strange and dark turns, the music is still what matters.

I hope that when people look back, that's what they'll remember: music and maybe dancing.