Friday, November 9, 2012

NEWS ROUNDUP: 25 College Classes Based on TV Shows, "She Walks In Beauty" Premiere, Kristen Bell

25 College Classes Based on TV Shows
1. Oberlin Experimental College: Through the Darkness of Future-Past: An Exploration of David Lynch’s TWIN PEAKS
2. University of Minnesota: Television Studies: SIX FEET UNDER
7. University of Kansas: Beyond the BRADY BUNCH: Supporting Blended Families
11. University of Wisconsin: Daytime Serials: Family and Social Roles
Analysis of the themes and characters that populate television's daytime serials and investigation of what impact these portrayals have on women's and men's roles in the family and in the work place. The course will compare and contrast prime-time programs with daytime serials for these themes.
12. Montclair State University: How to Watch Television
14. Tufts University: The Future is LOST : TV Series as Cultural Phenomenon
15. MIT: American Soap Operas
20. Northwestern University: Consumerism and Social Change in Mad Men America, 1960-1963
22. Portland State University: Exploring BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
24. Middlebury College: Watching THE WIRE: Urban America in Serial Television

ONE LIFE TO LIVE alums Lenny Platt, David A. Gregory and Barret Helms celebrate opening night of "She Walks In Beauty"
"She Walks In Beauty" is the story of a fairly average newlywed couple with the some fairly new problems in their marriage. Quickly things do not appear as they seem. She is, in fact, a mechanical human prototype created by her husband and his boss, referred to simply as Dad. Balancing black comedy with social commentary, the play unravels the problems between the three, which, despite cutting-edge futuristic technology, remain savagely primal. Secrets are revealed and their relationships to each other begin to shift as they snowball toward a shattering, tragic, and darkly funny climax.

As Her Majesty's goddaughter, she was once tipped as a bride for Prince William. Now Princess Theodora is a star in the world's most popular soap
Picture the scene: Her Majesty the Queen settling in for the afternoon, shoes off, TV on, chocolate biscuits at the ready, watching her goddaughter Princess Theodora of Greece and Denmark on the popular American soap THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL.

"It’s a very nice image," admits Theodora, "although somehow I don’t think the Queen is a big BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL fan."

Matthew Perry returning to THE GOOD WIFE
Perry will return as Mike Kresteva, a slick Chicago attorney who clashed with Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies) during a blue-ribbon panel investigation into a police shooting. Kresteva later announced that he would run against Alicia’s husband, Peter (Chris Noth), for the governorship and has taken out a series of attack ads against him.

Y&R's Michael Damian participating in 15th annual Film Freak Thanksgiving Food Drive
The event takes place Friday, Nov. 16 through Sunday, Nov. 18, at the Smart & Final store located at 11221 West Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles. "I am co-chairing with my good friend, [radio talk show host] Leo Quinones, a.k.a. The Film Freak ," explains Damian. "Please join us for this amazing three-day event by dropping by some food or donate from anywhere in the word to our virtual food drive online at www.lafoodbank.org. I will update on www. michaeldamian.com with the times that I will be there to greet and take a photo or two!"

PRETTY LITTLE LIARS' Janel Parrish to guest on HAWAII FIVE-0
he will play an ambitious, strong-willed chemistry student who has planned a medical career for herself but gets angry and hurt when it looks as if something -- or someone? -- might interfere with her plans. Parrish's episode is slated to air next year.

Kristen Bell to Appear in GOSSIP GIRL Series Finale – But Is She You-Know-Who?
Reps for The CW and Warner Bros. had no comment, but rumor has it Bell — the voice behind the show’s titular gossipmonger — shot a cameo in the swan song, which is set to air Monday, Dec. 17.

CIA Director David Petraeus resigns and Twitter responds with HOMELAND Jokes
On Friday, news broke that CIA Director David Petraeus resigned after admitting to having an extramarital affair. Though we haven't been treated to a teary press conference yet, the Internet was nice enough to offer all the HOMELAND jokes you can digest before sneaking out of the office a few minutes early. For those of you not in the know, Homeland is the incredibly popular Showtime drama that follows CIA intelligence officer Carrie Mathison. SPOILER ALERT: In the first season, it is revealed that Mathison had an affair with her boss, Director of the CIA's Counterterrorism Center, David Estes. Thus, there were plenty of HOMELAND nerds making jokes on Twitter in the wake of the Paetraeus scandal.

Lark Voorhies on Mental Health Rumors
FLASHBACK: The Mother of 'All My Children,' Agnes Nixon, Gives Birth to a Prime-Time Irish 'Roots' After high school in Nashville, Agnes and Harry Eckhardt were reunited in Chicago, where he manufactured burial garments. He paid her way through Northwestern, where she studied drama but soon found she preferred writing to performing. When Agnes graduated in 1947, her father, who wanted her to join his company, tried to end her dreams of a writing career by arranging an interview with Irna Phillips, the imperious Chicago-based creator of radio soap operas, including THE GUIDING LIGHT and ROAD OF LIFE. "I was trembling in my boots," Agnes recalls. "I brought a script I had written and she read it aloud. I was waiting for her to say, 'This is a piece of you-know-what,' but she looked up and asked, 'How would you like to work for me?' When I told my father, he said 'You're lying.' I knew I had to make it as a writer to avoid the burial garment business."

If Phillips was the queen of soaps, Nixon, a $100-a-week dialogue writer for the daytime serial Woman in White, quickly became her heir apparent. "Irna taught me that real life is more hilarious, more tragic and more incredible than anything we could think up," says Agnes. "Look at the Jean Harris trial." With the birth of network television, many of the radio soaps—and Phillips—moved their base of operations to Hollywood. But Nixon headed for New York, where the brief Golden Age of live drama on prime time had begun. Soon she was canvassing the networks, searching for work in a mostly male industry. "I remember wearing this powder-blue wool suit and a powder-blue hat with a feather," she giggles. "I thought it was heaven until two friends called me 'Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.' I think a lot of men interviewed me just because they didn't believe it." Before long, she began writing scripts and adaptations for shows like Studio One and Robert Montgomery Presents.

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