TV Party for Monday, July 18th

Well, at 8 it’s time for the second show of the second season of one of my guilty pleasures, “Celebrity Fit Club” on VH1! Nothing like watching a bunch of overweight celebs try to get thin to make me feel a little better about my body. This season we’ve got such big-name stars as Wendy the Snapple Lady – back for more – Sister Sister’s Jackee Harry, America's Next Top Model Season 3 finalist, Tocarra, Saturday Night Live's Victoria Jackson, Charles In Charge's Willie Aames, MTV's Viva La Bam's Phil Margera, Jani Lane, Ex-lead singer of hard rock band Warrant, and Gary Busey. We can only hope Gary turns in as good a freak show performance as Daniel Baldwin did in Season 1! In tonight’s episode, the teams will choose names and compete in a boxing workout. That should be fun to watch…

At 9, it’s time for a little Shark Week action on the Discovery Channel with “Sharkbite! Surviving Great Whites.” Being attacked by the most fearsome predator in the ocean is horrific, but shark attacks have uncovered many mysteries about great whites. Meet actual survivors and find out how their encounters have affected their lives.

Finally, at 10 it’s the second episode of “National Geographic’s Guns, Germs and Steel” on KCTS. 'Guns, Germs, and Steel,' is a three-part PBS series from National Geographic Television & Film that answers the question, 'Why do some cultures succeed, while others fail?' The series is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book of the same name by Jared Diamond and takes viewers on a compelling journey through five continents for a revealing look at the rise and fall of societies through the lenses of geography, technology, biology and economics - forces symbolized by the power of guns, germs and steel.

In tonight’s episode, 'The Clash of Civilizations' we travel to South America and the site of the Spanish conquistadors’ near extermination of the Inca culture in the early 1500s. Brought to life through vivid re-enactments, the episode dramatically depicts conquistador Francisco Pizarro’s epic battle with the Inca king Atahualpa. The Inca people quickly proved no match for the conquistadors’ formidable arsenal of technologically advanced weaponry and killer germs. The sheer domination of the conquistadors over the Inca served as yet another powerful example of the impact that geography, weapons and disease had in shaping the course of human history.

That’s your TV Party for Monday, July 18th. For Northwest Indy Radio, I’m Scott Chicken

TV Party for Wednesday, July 13th

Well, how about a little Wednesday Night reality party? We start off our celebration with the premier of a show called “Brat Camp”, on ABC tonight from 8 to 10. It's a show that answers the question “What would you do with a teen who curses at you, breaks the law in your house and doesn't listen to anything you say?” That's the dilemma facing nine families dealing with out-of-control teenagers ranging in age from 14-17 -- and with issues from ADHD to drugs, promiscuity and fights. The families make a tough choice and send their kids to SageWalk, The Wilderness School, in the wilds of central Oregon for a period of more than fifty days, in the desperate hope that, once it's over, they'll get back the children they once knew.

In the premiere, we meet the kids as they arrive at SageWalk, learn about their issues and see their defiance in action, as they're confronted for the first time with the harsh realities of camp life. Forced to hike 10 miles with 40-lb. backpacks, the kids celebrate Thanksgiving in the wilderness without family, and with the ultimate question being whether they'll make it home for Christmas. Not to mention whether Santa will bring them anything if they do!

Finally, at 10 we end our evening's dose of reality with another hour with Mogan Spurlock’s "30 Days". In tonight's episode, "Off The Grid", two average American 30-year old professionals go "back to the future" and learn to live without the natural resources that will be depleted from our earth in the not-too-distant future. To do this they'll uproot themselves and move to an "eco village" in Missouri to live 100% off the grid. As they set up house in a former 3,000 bushel grain bin, they will sustain themselves on clean power such as solar and wind, recycle all their waste (both food and human), live in a car-free culture, grow and eat organic foods and conserve their water use with solar showers and rain-catch systems. Can these fossil fuel addicts wean themselves from their consumptive habits without their lives falling apart? Will they thrive in a community that is the total opposite of their New Jersey neighborhood? And will the ecological solutions they learn stick once their 30 days are up? Tune in to FX at 10 to find out.

That’s your TV Party for Wednesday July 13th,. For Northwest Indy Radio, I’m Scott Chicken

TV Party for Friday, July 8th

Tonight we head for the "plus" side of "three plus hours". Yes, you get a bonus hour of TV tonight, and to make up for that extra hour on the couch I'm removing the need to change channels – other than that convulsive commercial-break surfing. Yes, both of tonight’s picks are on one channel, and that channel is VH-1.

Start off the night with a Movie that Rocks, taking a trip back to the glory days of Grunge with 1992’s “Singles”. Written and directed by Cameron Crowe, Singles tells the tale of a group of 20-somethings wending their way through the post-college singles scene in early-90s Seattle. Where Richeard Linkletter’s film “Slacker” and Douglas Copeland’s book “Generation X” defined the post-boom generation on a global level, “Singles” brought it all home and made it pretty. Possibly more importantly, it helped blow out the “Grunge” look, attitude and music across the nation, finally making those flannel shirts and Doc Martens as cool in Des Moines, Iowa as they were in Des Moines, Washington.

For you Seattle Rock historians, Singles features appearances Alice in Chains performing in a bar, Pearl Jam (as Matt Dillon’s backup band ‘Citizen Dick’), Chris Cornell of Sound Garden, and Tad, and includes music by Soundgarden and Mudhoney. In addition to Dillon the cast features Cambell Scott, Bridget Fonda, Kyra Sedgwick (sporting an amazing spiral perm that made Mrs. Chicken insanely jealous), Eric Stoltz and Jeremy Piven. While "Singles" may have sounded the death knell of the "Seattle Scene", it's still a funny and touching movie and worth a couple hours of your time.

At 9 stay on VH1 for “40 Awesomely Bad Breakup Songs” What is the most awesomely bad break-up song ever? The one that makes you cringe when you hear it, but you just can't turn it off. What break-up song makes you shake your head, roll your eyes, laugh, gag, shed a tear, or just punch something because it's so horrendously great. that you love to hate it? Well, VH1 is counting down 40 of them in this 2-hour special that will celebrate fantastically cheesy lyrics, the best and worst metaphors, awkward and confusing themes, and of course, those strange, misguided flukes from our favorite artists. The VH1 team of experts – which we can only assume is the same panel of comedians and musicians that are involved with EVERY VH1 count-down show – help explain why we've deemed these songs so (un)worthy.

That’s your TV Party for Friday July 8th. For Northwest Indy Radio I’m Scott Chicken.