Big Brother Fighters

For the 20 zillion who watch Wheel of Fortune with Pat Sajak and Vanna White, Wheel of Fortune will match your donation to the American Red Cross up to $100,000.00! This is for the victims of Katrina which blew through the city of New Orleans just after the New Orleans show was made.

You wouldn’t think that Wheel would bring bad luck, would you?

Any way, let’s all cough up a hundred grand (or even less) and make a contribution at: http://wvw.sonypictures.com/spacer.gif?event=286~MiniSite~287~RedCrossDonation~28~wheel Wheel will match it! Are you listening Bill Gates?

While I’m watching the show this week (we never miss it) I wonder what happened to the New Orleans contestants after the show. When a contestant wins a trip, I say, “I hope she was in Paris when Katrina hit.”

Have you ever been in a hurricane or a tornado? I thought so. They are scary!

The crisis is still on in New Orleans. When I called down there the other day to talk to the hospital, the lines were very busy. While waiting for someone to take my call, instructions came over the line on how to protect you from possible diseases in the area. The disaster is still on and it is real. So take the advantage of Wheel matching your donation to the Red Cross.

You can read about the contestants at the WOF site. That’s where I learned WOF. Did you know it takes 150 people to make the show a success?

I read about Amy.

Amy has a show diary at the WOF site. (http://www.wheeloffortune.com/contestant_diary.php)

She said, “For as long as I can remember, I have watched Wheel of Fortune and dreamed of being a contestant. My mom would always say to me, “Amy, you are so good at this show; we should fly you out to California so you can be on it.” Little did I know that one day my dream would come true!”

We all have that dream, don’t we? We all know we could make a zillion bucks if we could just get on WOF.

Amy lives in Lafayette, about two hours from New Orleans. She said, “My experience began when I went to the website and saw that WOF was coming to New Orleans. I became ecstatic and immediately filled out a form to become a future contestant. Since New Orleans is only 2 hours away from where I live, I figured there would be no problem for me to go and try out there, and it would be so much easier than flying to Los Angeles.”

Nobody can say that Amy is not a thinker.

Amy said that she never thought she would be able to try out for the show, let alone be a contestant. But she got notified that she could try out.

She said, “We filled out a questionnaire about ourselves and they took a Polaroid of us. After that, we played a few rounds of a simulated WOF game where we got to pick letters and show them how well we could play. They kept stressing for us to have a big, loud voice and to call the letters quickly. Then, we took a 5 minute written test where we had to fill in puzzles that had missing letters.”

I recommend that to prepare yourself for WOF you go out to the fields and yell to the cows: “C! B! L!”

When you get that down, yell: “R! N! S!”

If you don’t have a convenient field with cows, you can come out to Idaho. We have lots of them as does Wisconsin, etc. Make do with your town park if necessary. Don’t get discouraged in all this!

Amy decided that she didn’t make it. She waited and waited and waited.

Then one day, she got a call. That was the day she went BANANAS!

I’m sorry for that irrational exuberance. Did you know that it was 1997 when Alan Greenspan said that? Time flies!

Amy had a cell phone which allowed her to take the WOF call in her car.

I once made an oath to never buy a cell phone. Wait a minute while I go out and buy one!

Amy was in a thigmagin until the day finally came to be on the show.

She said, “I went home and downloaded the internet version of WOF and played it religiously. I also made sure to watch every episode I could possibly watch to prepare for my big day. It felt like a lifetime, but the weekend of the taping finally came. I could not eat or sleep the night before because I was so nervous about being on TV. I just prayed that I would not make a fool of myself in front of millions of people.”

Amy caught me! I said zillions of people. Who is right?

You must admire Amy for her preparation. Amy said that the wheel was very hard to turn. (That’s why they bring in those NBA stars to help turn it.) Her main problem was her anxiety. She said that the show staff and the other contestants were there to help!

Here are Amy’s last words, “We decided together that we would tape the best show of the day! It was a blast and I will never forget that day for the rest of my life. If you want to see how I did, watch me on November 10th!”

We’ll be watching, Amy!

Copyright©John T. Jones, Ph.D. 2005

John T. Jones, Ph.D. (tjbooks@hotmail.com)is a retired R&D engineer and VP of a Fortune 500 company. He is author of detective & western novels, nonfiction (business, scientific, engineering), poetry, etc. Former editor of international trade magazine. Jones is Executive Representative of International Wealth Success.

More info: http://www.tjbooks.com

Business web site: http://www.bookfindhelp.com (IWS wealth-success materials / TopFlight flagpoles)

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Nominated for 2 Emmys, including Best Casting for a Series, Oz is widely regarded as one of the best prison dramas ever created. The brainchild of creator Tom Fontana (former writer on such hit TV shows as Homicide: Life On The Streets and St. Elsewhere), Oz was one of a number of a highly successful HBO original series to premiere in the 1990s, keeping good company among such shows as Sex And The City and The Sopranos. Premiering in mid-summer 1997, Oz quickly built a large and loyal following of viewers hypnotized by the series’ vivid depiction of non-holds-barred prison life. After six critically acclaimed seasons, Oz was cancelled in early 2003, but lives on via DVD…

Oz is the street name for the Oswald State Penitentary, a rough and hardened prison where survival of the fittest is the prevailing law. But the focus of Oz is Level 5, an experimental cell block deemed “Emerald City” that’s managed by Unit Administrator Tim McManus (Terry Kinney) and the hard-nosed Warden Leo Glynn (Ernie Hudson). One of the prisoners, wheelchair-bound convicted murder Augustus Hill (Harold Perrineau Jr. of Lost) narrates for the viewer, tying together the various storylines that play out within the prison. In an atmosphere of well-governed anarchy, prisoners come and go (some paroled; some murdered), prison guards uphold their duty (while some are corrupt), and various groups (such as Muslims, Aryans, Latinos, Italians, gangstas, gays, etc.) compete for power over each other and over the prevalent drug trade rampant within the walls of Oz. Tobias “Toby” Beecher (Lee Tergesen) plays the “everyday man,” having been convicted for manslaughter while driving drunk, and his character’s experiences force the viewer to place himself in the shoes of the inmate. Other notable characters include Prisoner Miguel Alvarez (Kirk Acevedo), Prisoner Bob Rebadow (George Morfogen), Prisoner Vernon Schillinger (J.K. Simmons), Prisoner Kareem Said (Eamonn Walker), Prisoner Tony Masters (Steven Wishnoff), Officer Diane Whittlesey (Edie Falco of The Sopranos), and Father Ray Mukada (B.D. Wong of Law & Order: SVU). Together, they form a solid cast that makes Oz one of the best original cable dramas ever produced…

The Oz (Season 5) DVD features a number of dramatic episodes including the season premiere “Visitation” in which several months have passed since the Emerald City kitchen gas explosion. The facilities are in working order, but several prisoners are released from solitary confinement due to ventilation problems. Meanwhile, Tim realizes that he his unable to verbally communicate because his vocal chords were burned by the explosion and his body is badly burned all over… Other notable episodes from Season 5 include “Wheel of Fortune” in which Officer Brass steals Rebadow’s two million dollar winning lottery ticket, and “Variety” in which the inmates put on a variety show while Timmy Kirk trades a sexual favor in order to get Father Mukada’s church torched, resulting in the death of two priests…

Below is a list of episodes included on the Oz (Season 5) DVD:

Episode 41 (Visitation) Air Date: 01-06-2002
Episode 42 (Laws of Gravity) Air Date: 01-13-2002
Episode 43 (Dream a Little Dream of Me) Air Date: 01-20-2002
Episode 44 (Next Stop: Valhalla) Air Date: 01-27-2002
Episode 45 (Wheel of Fortune) Air Date: 02-03-2002
Episode 46 (Variety) Air Date: 02-10-2002
Episode 47 (Good Intentions) Air Date: 02-17-2002
Episode 48 (Impotence) Air Date: 02-24-2002

About the Author

Britt Gillette is author of The DVD Report, a blog where you can find more reviews like this one of the Oz (Season 5) DVD.

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One of numerous comedies created in the 1970s by the talented Norman Lear (other hits such as All In The Family, Maude, Good Times, and The Jeffersons come to mind), Sanford And Son received 7 Emmy nominations and 6 Golden Globe nominations for its widely acclaimed humor. Based on the life of Los Angeles junkyard owner Fred Sanford (Redd Foxx) and that of his son Lamont (Demond Wilson), the series was one of the first with an entirely African-American cast. Through every episode, Fred manages to insult and offend just about every person, group, race, ideology, etc. The show was such a hit, it stayed in the Nielsen Top Ten for its entire run, excluding its final season…

The Sanford & Son (Season 6) DVD features a number of hilarious episodes including the season premiere “The Hawaiian Connection: Part 1″ in which three jewel thieves conspire to smuggle some stolen jewels from Hawaii to Los Angeles. When Fred hops a flight to Hawaii to attend a Junkmen of America conference, the thieves plant the jewels on Fred in the hopes of using him as a dupe to carry out their nefarious plan… Other notable episodes from Season 6 include “The Winning Ticket” in which Fred becomes the victim of a con game by a pair of crooks who convince him to run a $500 raffle promotion for Sanford & Son, and “A Matter of Silence” in which Fred nearly goes deaf due to the wax buildup in his ears…

Below is a list of episodes included on the Sanford & Son (Season 6) DVD:

Episode 112 (The Hawaiian Connection: Part 1) Air Date: 09-24-1976
Episode 113 (The Hawaiian Connection: Part 2) Air Date: 09-24-1976
Episode 114 (The Hawaiian Connection: Part 3) Air Date: 10-01-1976
Episode 115 (California Crude) Air Date: 10-08-1976
Episode 116 (The Stakeout) Air Date: 10-15-1976
Episode 117 (I Dream of Choo Choo Rabinowitz) Air Date: 10-22-1976
Episode 118 (The Winning Ticket) Air Date: 11-05-1976
Episode 119 (Committee Man) Air Date: 11-12-1976
Episode 120 (Fred’s Extra Job) Air Date: 11-19-1976
Episode 121 (Carol) Air Date: 11-26-1976
Episode 122 (Aunt Esther Has a Baby) Air Date: 12-03-1976
Episode 123 (Here Today, Gone Today) Air Date: 12-07-1976
Episode 124 (Aunt Esther Meets Her Son) Air Date: 12-10-1976
Episode 125 (Sanford and Gong) Air Date: 12-17-1976
Episode 126 (Fred Meets Redd) Air Date: 01-14-1977
Episode 127 (Chinese Torture) Air Date: 01-21-1977
Episode 128 (A Matter of Silence) Air Date: 01-28-1977
Episode 129 (When John Comes Marching Home) Air Date: 02-04-1977
Episode 130 (The Reverend Sanford) Air Date: 02-11-1977
Episode 131 (The Will) Air Date: 02-18-1977
Episode 132 (Fred the Activist) Air Date: 02-25-1977
Episode 133 (The Lucky Streak) Air Date: 03-04-1977
Episode 134 (Funny, You Don’t Look It) Air Date: 03-11-1977
Episode 135 (Fred Sings the Blues) Air Date: 03-18-1977
Episode 136 (School Daze) Air Date: 03-25-1977

Britt Gillette is author of The DVD Report, a blog where you can find more reviews like this one of the Sanford And Son (Season 6) DVD.

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