MONEYBALL * THE NEW TV SHOWS

Moneyball - I love a baseball story, and when you have a good baseball story with Brad Pitt, it gets even better. Moneyball is the story of Billy Beane, the General Manager of the Oakland Athletics in a year when they lost the playoffs in 5 games, and then lost their three best players. Something had to be done, so Billy turned to a guy played by Jonah Hill, who believed and wanted to prove that baseball players' performance could be evaluated by math and statistics, rather than by personality, averages, looks and gut feelings, which is how the scouts were recruiting players at the time. It's good.

The new TV shows have been really fun to watch this fall. Here's a quick line up, and don't even ask when I find the time to watch all these shows. I'm not sure, and the DVR is really busy, and sometimes it's stressful because there might be three shows on at a time, and I can only record two, so I have to find the third show playing at a different time and record THAT. I multi-task by reading my line up of magazines and non-fiction books from the library while watching.

Pan Am - You've heard about it, we've only seen one episode, and it's charming. The Stewardesses are lovely to watch and just as glamorous as they seemed when I was a little girl.

Playboy Club - After two episodes, this show has a little more meat, and isn't as sweet as Pam Am. There's a murder, a cover-up, a prosecutor who walks a fine line, a jerky manager, and some strong women. I like it!

New Girl - Zoey Deschanel. Need I say more? After one show, this might turn out to be a favorite. Quirky and sweet.

Two Broke Girls - The cupcake making broke girl needs to tone it down a bit, but the rich broke girl is perfect. I watch the show for her. It's a fun show.

Glee - I love Glee!

Millionaire Matchmaker - It's been good this season. I'm always stimied by Patty's helpers with their crazy hair and uninformed ways. I don't understand why this show works, and why I continue to watch it. But I do. It must be that old lotto mentality where you watch because you want to see a winner, and you never know when you might see one. In this case a winner being a love match.

American Pickers - I love these guys. They are so American and so nice, and so respectful of the people they find to buy stuff from. Picking would be my dream job if there was money in it and I had more energy.

Project Runway - Michael and Nina continue to annoy me and Heidi half annoys me, but I love the designers and the sewing and the clothes. It's still the best of the design genre. Can you believe that stony Olivia from The City was a guest judge last night? That's all we need. She was only to happy to sharply shoot down any looks she didn't like.

The Office - It's still good, but finding its way without Michael Scott to make crazy. It's not that you miss him, it's that the show doesn't seem to have the same center. Which is just how it is in a real life office when someone important leaves the fold.

Parks and Recreation - Leslie Knope. Gotta love her and all the people in the parks department.

Awkward - I just discovered this MTV show at the end of its season, so I'm waiting for on demand choices or even a DVD of it. It's about a high school girl, a love triangle, a maniac counselor, a really young mom, and it's fabulous.

Modern Family - It needs a mention because it's a favorite.

The Middle - I love the people in this family, especially the middle sister Sue. The episode about when their neighbor called them on vacation to say that someone had broken into their house, and when they came home, it was just that their house was so messy, was hilarious.

Suburgatory - This is the show they're putting on in between The Middle and Modern Family, and it's great! On the order of Awkward but more obvious about going for the laughs.

Survivor - Still watching still loving.

60 Minutes - How do you know that? A couple of my friends are always asking. I don't know how I know. Do you read the paper? Do you watch 60 Minutes? It's a way to know. And damned interesting too. Hey, I think that's the first time I've ever sworn in my blog. For Mike Wallace, Ed Bradley, Morley Safer. They were and are the real thing.

I hope these are the only shows I watch, but this is from memory only, and there are more. You will notice an absence of Idol, Dance and Sing shows, which don't appeal to me. They take too long! There is no story! Speaking of which, I have the final three All My Children episodes recorded and waiting for me as a special treat one of these days.
I never watched the very final Oprah show either. It's waiting too. One of these days....