Tag / Nickelodeon

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The End Of Dawn

Former Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Michelle Trachtenberg, who joined the main cast in the fifth season as Dawn, Buffy’s younger sister/mystical key, died yesterday in her New York City home at the age of 39.  She was believed to have recently undergone a liver transplant and her death was attributed to natural causes, pending an autopsy.

Trachtenberg earned early fame in the mid-90s, appearing on The Adventures of Pete & Pete on Nickelodeon and All My Children on ABC.  In 1996, at the age of 10, she nabbed the title role in the film Harriet the Spy.  She joined the cast of Buffy in 2000 and remained on the show until its conclusion in 2003.  In 2004, she appeared as one of the leads in the teen comedy EuroTrip.

Despite being the youngest main cast member by far, Trachtenberg is the first actor from the cult classic series to prematurely shuttle off this mortal coil.  Earlier this month, a sequel series was announced at Hulu, with Sarah Michelle Gellar reprising her role as Buffy on a recurring basis.  There was no word if any other cast members, including Trachtenberg, would be involved.

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Book 44 (of 52) – I’m Glad My Mom Died

I’m Glad My Mom Died – Jennette McCurdy

In I’m Glad My Mom Died, the new memoir from former teen actress Jennette McCurdy, she details the struggles she has been through and how, after coming to terms the abuse she suffered, she has come through the other side healthy and ready to move on.  An emotionally and physically abusive relationship with her mother, who pushed her into acting as a young child, taught her to become anorexic as a way to delay puberty, and showered her into her mid-teens, ended when her mother died of cancer. But the repercussions from those actions, which, at the time, McCurdy did not recognize as abuse, impacted the next decade of her life, leading to bulimia, alcoholism, and unhealthy relationships with men.

McCurdy, who came to fame starring in children’s shows on Nickelodeon like iCarly and Sam & Cat, pulls no punches in this memoir.  She had previously turned down hush money from Nickelodeon, so she was able to talk about the uncomfortable feelings she had when dealing with “the creator” aka Dan Schneider, who had seen his teen show kingdom shut down over accusations of inappropriate behavior.  She was oblivious to her mother’s abuse, yet was able to recount it in a way that made it obvious to outsiders.  That she was managed to survive it all and, hopefully, continue to thrive moving forward, is a bit of a miracle.

 

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The CW Upfronts

The CW has finally decided to expand to a 7th night of programming for the first time in their existence this fall, with 3 new shows added to the schedule.  Monday gets a brand new look, with the returning All American followed by 4400, a reboot of the USA show from the mid-2000s.  Tuesday brings the new seasons of Flash and Riverdale, while Wednesday leans in to the DC multiverse with DC’s Legends of Tomorrow and Batwoman.

Walker lead off on Thursdays, followed by Legacies.  Friday has Penn & Teller: Fool Us and Nancy Drew.  The weekends are given over to reality programming, with Saturday’s initial offerings being 2 episodes each of Whose Line Is It Anyway? and World’s Funniest Animals.  The Sunday night offerings are Legends Of The Hidden Temple, a reboot of a Nickelodeon game show from the 90s, followed by Killer Camp, a US version of the British competition where a mix of 13 campers navigate through new deadly twists and surprises while competing to expose the “killer” among them.

Waiting in the wings for midseason are All American: Homecoming, from the producers of All American, Naomi, the latest DC adaptation from the book created by Brian Michael Bendis, David F. Walker, and Jamal Campbell, alongside returning seasons of Charmed, Stargirl, Dynasty, In The Dark, Kung Fu, Superman & Lois, and Roswell, New Mexico

Lost to the sands of time are Black Lightning and Supergirl.

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Book 4 (of 52) – Melissa Explains It All

Melissa Explains It All: Tales From My Abnormally Normal Life - Melissa Joan Hart with Kristina Grish

Melissa Explains It All: Tales From My Abnormally Normal Life – Melissa Joan Hart with Kristina Grish

Starting right with the subtitle of her memoir, Melissa Joan Hart, star of Clarissa Explains It All and Sabrina The Teenage Witch, wants you to know that she is normal.  To prove it, she offers up what might just be the worst of these celebrity “tell-alls” ever produced.  Certainly the worst that I have read.  Which is a shame.

Clarissa debuted on Nickelodeon during my junior year of high school.  Clearly, I was not the target audience, but, during the summer, we would occassionally come across it, along with other classics like Hey Dude and Salute Your Shorts.  5 years later, Sabrina debuted, which I watched for most of its run on ABC.  I guess you could say I was (am?) a Melissa Joan Hart fan, so you would think her book would be right up my alley.  Sadly, she hardly touches on her experiences on these shows, glossing over most of her time on the shows and instead on who she roomed with or how she was out with her hairstylist.

The one big “scandal” that Hart was involved with was her racy Maxim cover, which wasn’t out of the ordinary for the magazine, but landed her in hot water with Archie Comics, the owner of the Sabrina property.  This whole thing is covered in about 3-4 paragraphs, while an entire chapter is devoted to her husband’s love of Alabama football.

In her attempt to tell us little people how normal she actually is, Hart succeeds in showing how out of touch she truly is.  She lists the 4 things that she is unable to do to this day, things normal girls learned as teenagers, like putting on makeup or making fashion choices, but she always had professionals to do them for her.  She could have listed a 5th, tell a compelling story in a way that makes a reader relate to her.