CBS Pilot Alert – Drama at the CDC

by Adrienne Wilson on

Mmm… Where do I begin with this one – the facts or my own personal opinion? I’ll start with the facts as I stumbled upon over at EURweb. The celeb powerhouse couple Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, have had a few things up their sleeve since last July when Jada hinted at a new project she had been pitching to networks with her hubby Will Smith at the Television Critics Association Press Conference in Pasadena. In order to keep the project from being jinxed she declined to elaborate, but now the word is out and spreading like Mad Cow, Avian Flu and a bad batch of spinach. According to EUR: “It’s been confirmed that CBS has given a put pilot commitment to the project, which hails from CBS Paramount Network TV and Will Smith’s Overbrook Entertainment.” The untitled drama (Jada’s creation) will follow doctors at the Center for Disease Control, who fight viruses that threaten people globally.

Time for my two cents! Personally, I think it sounds fascinating and I can’t wait to see who they’ll cast for our virus fighting Docs, but it frightens me at the same time. I can just imagine episode #18 where a young couple comes back from a backpacking vacation in China and one falls ill with the world’s deadliest case of Avian Flu. Or episode #43 where a group of missionaries at an orphanage in Namibia contract Malaria after being given the wrong prescription back in the states… The scenarios are endless and while the CDC isn’t just about travel and disease, I tend only to scope it out when I’m heading somewhere far, foreign, and possibly flooded by disease. I’d hope none of the episodes sway anyone from traveling abroad, but let’s face it – people suck that stuff in. Someone out there isn’t going to want to go travel and explore ‘X’ destination because of ‘X’ disease related drama seen on primetime television. It happens. Television warps the mind, but I am very interested in seeing this when it debuts.

So with all that being said has something you ever seen on the tube (news or movies) ever kept you or changed your mind about traveling someplace? If so, give me the full details and just so it’s fair I’ll share a secret of my own. When I saw Boys Don’t Cry with Hilary Swank it made me never wish to go to Nebraska. Not that I’m a woman posing as a man, but it sort of gave me this negative idea that people aren’t nice there.

That’s my story what’s yours?

Travel Shows to Watch on the Tube

by Adrienne Wilson on

I have a 1981 Magnavox in my room which tells you how much I watch or don’t watch TV. It took me forever to get the adapter box thing to hook my modern-day DVD player up to the ancient television set, but when I did, I started watching my foreign film DVD’s and still left a lot of regular cable programming to a view here and there. Every now and then I’ll submit myself to a good mind-wasting time of MTV (which is how I managed to catch Trippin’), So You Think You Can Dance and the Travel Channel, but that’s really it.

Anywhoodle, this isn’t about me. This piece is dedicated to the traveler that likes to sit kaput in their deluxe armchair in front of the TV exploring the streets of France and the jungles of Central America one show and one channel at a time. MSN News gives the skinny on a couple of travel shows you may or may not know of. Some of the more popular ones include the Amazing Race and Passport to Europe, but there are others I’ve never even heard about like Global Tribe on PBS. Find out what each show is about and whether you should be setting your TiVo to record them all.

TV From Everywhere

by Erik Olsen on

The Web is an amazing place. I know, that’s a rather absurd statement of the obvious, if not a completely useless platitude. But that is exactly what came to mine when I saw this site called Medinalia on a random click-stroll around media sites. I’ve seen similar sites to this before (I can’t remember where, though), but the thing I lie about this one is that it seems to be very well organized and nicely designed. Essentially what Medinalia does is allow you to watch television channels from countries and cities all over the world. They are listed alphabetically from (yes, Neil) Albania to Yugoslavia (what, no Zimbabwe channels available?!), and the various programs can be viewed by not just country, but also by type (i.e. Christian, Adult) and language (anyone out there eager to catch a little Papiamentu TV?)

I imagine one could spent a fair amount of time checking this stuff out. The only problem on my end seemed to be buffering. Maybe my connection today is slow, but it took a good long time to get some of these channels to play, and even then the experience was often frustratingly bad quality. But it is still a rather amazing grouping of lots of visual media from around the world and, well, the Web IS an amazing place.