The Daytime TV Shop Blog

For a blast from the past, read about some of films most prolific cars and remind yourself of which one you like the best.

1. DeLorean DMC-12

One of the best known cars from the movies is the DeLorean DMC-12, a time travelling vehicle which ran on plutonium and went on many adventures through various dates in time.

Appearing in the ‘Back to the Future’ series of films, the DeLorean is instantly recognisable, with its stainless steel body panels and gullwing doors. The car was modified into a time machine by ‘Doc’, one of the movies main characters. Upon reaching 88 miles per hour, the Delorean travelled to a programmed date in time, leaving its passengers to explore their new surroundings.

DeLorean cars were originally manufactured in Northern Ireland, with the first car produced in 1981.

2. Volkswagen Beetle

Herbie the Volkswagen Beetle was made famous in the Herbie series of films, the first of which was released in 1974.

Herbie was a car with a mind of its own and proved capable of many a feat, from warding off corrupt property developers to winning the odd car race.

Easily distinguished by the red and blue racing stripes and number 53 painted on the bodywork, Herbie was a 1963 model white Volkswagen Classic Beetle.

3. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a well known racing car which also features in a book, musical and stage production of the same name. The car which was built for use on stage is reported to be the most expensive stage prop ever used!

One of the movies protagonists, an inventor named Caractacus, buys an old car wreck and transforms it into a fully working vehicle that fares well on the race track and is also capable of flight.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a well known car from the silver screen which has remained popular over the years.

4. Dodge Charger

Television has brought a fair share of some of the best cars ever seen on screen. Television series ‘The Dukes of Hazzard’ made a 1969 Dodge Charger famous. The car was named ‘General Lee’ in the show and was used in the escapades of Bo and Luke Duke, two cousins who lived in the fictional county of Hazzard in Georgia,

The Dodge Charger also had a confederate flag painted on the roof and was easily recognisable throughout all the car chases, jumps and stunts that occurred.

In 2005 a movie version of ‘The Dukes of Hazzard’ was released, starring Johnny Knoxville and Seann William Scott as the audacious cousins. In 2007 General Lee sold for $9,900,500.00 at auction.

5. Kitt

Knight Rider, a popular 80′s television show starring David Hasselhoff, featured ‘Kitt’, one of the best known cars ever to appear on screen. Kitt was capable of quick ‘turbo’ bursts, could drive itself and could avoid most obstacles thrown its way.

A scanner bar mounted on the front bumper enables Kitt to ‘see’ and impressive armoury meant the car could withstand explosions, fires and other potentially damaging occurrences. Kitt could also talk and got its driver, played by David Hasslehoff, out of many a scrape.

Jennifer is a part of the digital blogging team at cashzilla.co.uk who work with a growing number of finance brands. For more information about me, or to keep up to date with the latest in finance news, check out my posts at cashzilla.co.uk or visit my Twitter account, @cashzilla.

Workplace comedies are some of the hottest shows on television right now.  They speak right to viewers’ experiences, and sometimes even make you feel better – at least your boss isn’t as bad as Michael Scott, right?  We rounded up five of the worst offices on TV – just to make you feel better about your own office.

Trump Industries (The Apprentice)
Donald Trump might have made millions of dollars by being a ruthless businessman, but he certainly didn’t get that way by being a good boss.  Whether or not you care for reality television, you have to admit that this long-running series draws in viewers – but it’s certainly not because its good business practices.  Any real business that pit its employees against each other and encouraged in-fighting to determine who would next be fired would collapse in on itself.  I don’t care what signing package Trump Industries offers the winner on The Apprentice, there’s not enough money in the world that could make me work there!

Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency (Mad Men)
This AMC show about a 1960′s advertising agency has been a huge hit – the ultimate “water cooler” show.  This show does an amazing job of showing how life was changing in the 60′s, and how different life is now.  No matter how well done this show is, the only take-away message I can get is that if I had been a woman in the 60′s, I probably would not have made it.  The rampant sexism and misogyny makes it clear that advertising agencies in the 60′s were no picnic – and makes Sterling-Cooper one of the worst TV workplaces.

Dunder Mifflin-Sabre (The Office)
This hit NBC show has been an audience favorite because of its loveable characters and infinitely hateable boss – Michael Scott.  He’s an ineffectual leader, doesn’t understand boundaries, and has no concept of political correctness.  Setting aside Michael, the leadership at this fictional paper company was so terrible it had to be bought out by Sabre, a printer company.  This show one of the best “pick me ups” if you, too, have obnoxious co-workers and feel ignored by corporate.

Veridian Dynamics (Better Off Ted)
Veridian is the ultimate corporate monolith.  Better Off Ted was cancelled far too soon, and we never really got to explore the workings of the evil company.  In the two abbreviated seasons alone, Veridian infected workers, played extensive mind control games, and would randomly shuffle the hierarchy – all to keep their workers afraid and efficient.  Fans were happy to stick around to watch the antics of Ted, a corporate drone with morals, as he tried to navigate the sticky situations the company put him in, but there was always a question in the back of viewers mind – what was keeping anyone at such an evil company…besides the health benefits and great salary.

GE (30 Rock)
General Electric is, obviously, a real company, although fictionalized for the TV show in sort of the same manner as SNL has been revised as TGS.  The GE of the show is both a corporate overlord and a patsy for parent companies, and often forces the character to jump through hoops and incorporate unwelcome product placement into their skits.  The effect is hilarious and hits strangely close-to-home.

Author Byline:

Jillian Gile is a guest blogger for Pounding the Pavement and a writer on the subject of technical schools for the Guide to Career Education.

Daytime Television Shows for Children’s Health

For parents concerned about their childrens’ fitness and health, I wanted to discuss a couple of daytime television programs which try to introduce kids to good health, fitness topics, and eating right.

Lazytown – Kids Fitness Programming of the Past

Lazytown was a Saturday morning tv program produced in Iceland, starring a superhero named Sportacus who wants to teach the local kids, specifically “Stephanie” (American-born Julianna Rose Mauriello) and her puppet friends about staying fit, all the while thwarting the evil designs of his arch-nemesis, Robbie Rotten. Lazytown featured Magnus Scheving, an Icelandic writer and athlete and the two-time European aerobic gymnastics champ back in the 1990′s. Magnus Scheving wanted to teach kids about fitness, so he created Lazytown as a fun and entertaining way to do that.

The Lazytown program was known for solid plotlines and good production values, which included live action characters, puppetry, and even CGI animation. Each episode had a budget around $1 million, but the program has been highly successful, with 52 episodes created over a three year period. In all, Lazytown has been aired in over 100 nations worldwide and been translated into a dozen different languages. (more…)

As recent graduates of an accredited four-year college, my roommate and I were trying our hand at real adult life. What had we found so far? 1) Hollywood gives us virtually no role models for this formative period of our lives. TV show heroes are either still in school (“Greek,” “Community”) or safely passed into the mid- to late-20s environment of steady paychecks and loyal friend posses (“Friends,” “How I Met Your Mother”). The solution of the one example we came across, Post Grad, which was naively screw around a bit, become disillusioned, and then move in with your hot friend-turned-lover, brings me to my next point. 2) Everything from booty calls to rekindling the spark with ex-boyfriends somehow loses its charm when everyone you know, including said ex-boyfriends, now lives 3+ hours away. 3) College had spoiled us into thinking that making friends was easy (and that we were good at it); TV had tricked us into believing that if you walked into a local bar looking foxy, the guys that noticed you would share your interests, admire your beliefs, and end up inviting you a dinner and a movie within the coming week.

So I took one for the team and signed up for online dating. I used Plentyoffish.com, because it was free. I knew going into it that this would probably limit my ratio of acceptable to total matches, but I also was not completely sold on this whole online dating sitch and was not willing to dedicate a large portion of my paycheck to it. If you want to try the pay-for-use dating websites, here are some to choose from.

The initial results were as I expected: Browsing through the geographically available men, I narrowed them down to approximately two. I eliminated anyone with a child; anyone who was older than me by 5 years or more; anyone who could not legally drink alcohol; anyone whose profile photo reminded me of my high-school Myspace friends; and anyone who I thought might find better luck through an escort service. Yes, I was being conservative and perhaps overly judgmental, but jumping from the small rural college social scene into the sea of plenty of fish was already reaching beyond my comfort level.

So. Back to the two I deemed acceptable—or if not acceptable, at least worthy of investigation. One of them responded in such a wishy-washy matter that I found myself grinding my teeth against the desire to tell him to nut up and tell his “feelings” to someone else. If his e-mails inspired that reaction from me, I decided not to risk it in-person.

The other one still passed my rigorous screening process after the initial messages, so I decided to give it a go. Our city is known for its outdoor landscapes and the weather was nice, so we met at a park. He brought some store-bought deli sandwiches and salad—and his guitar. We walked around, talked, looked at plants and sculptures—and he played me a song. We ended with friendly exchanges and a mutual agreement to try this again soon.

While it didn’t sweep me off my feet, I could imagine it working on another girl. In fact, I found myself wondering why this guy was resorting to online dating—in my experience, guys who put in any effort on a date beyond remembering their wallets come few and far between. But I’m not a girl that likes to be doted on, and for a first date after meeting online, it smacked a trifle much of “trying too hard.” But what the hey—he seemed like a nice guy, and I wouldn’t be averse to seeing him again.

All in all—the online dating world left me underwhelmed. I will admit that my response might be due to my own personality rather than the practice itself. I tend to be a serial monogamist, and it takes me a while to get comfortable around people. I can see online dating being much more palatable to someone truly ready to meet new people and have fun with it. If you can afford it, shop around the paid sites before picking one: (more…)