Fancast: Inside TV

By Giselle Melanson
Fancast.com

So what are you watching? That's what I asked Kathryn Crooks, 25, a management associate for Mocean Dance company in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her answer? When not working or singing in her band, Heart-Shaped Heart, she’s watching some of the most popular–and a few of the most obscure–shows on television.

10) Weeds - One of the best-written comedy/drama shows around. Kevin Nealon is excellent as a pot-smoking city-councilman, and the show creates a love/hate relationship with middle-class suburban America that’s so complex, there’s never a clear good guy or bad guy. (Also, look out for Theo from The Cosby Show as a scary drug overlord!)

9) Heroes - Super powers, brain eating, time travel. It's a good time. [watch full episodes of Hereos here]

By Judith Brown
Fancast.com

Married and the mother of four children ranging in ages from 5 to 15, Yvonne Griffin has got a lot to take care of at home. Her one guilty pleasure, though, is The Maury Povich Show, which she watches daily, records daily, and re-watches on the weekends. [See her fascination by watching these full episodes on Fancast.) As the neighborhood hair dresser (her side profession), she also has a penchant for fashion and melodrama.

Of all shows to watch, why Maury? "Because," Yvonne says, “the talent, lack of talent, and just plain stupidity of some folks amaze me.” Regarding the talent, she can describe what the 7-year-old was wearing when she belted out the theme song from “Dreamgirls,” and why the 15-year-old’s gig shouldn’t have been aired in the first place. “That was a waste of time….Time I’ll never get back,” she likes to say when she’s disappointed after watching a silly Maury episode.

Which makes it even more bizarre that her favorite Maury shows are the ones featuring the paternity tests. [watch this unusual show about a 13 year old boy who allegedly fathered a baby]

By Judith Brown
Fancast.com

Beau Faulkner is a serious guy when it comes to comedy. As a marketing strategist at a prestigious ad agency, he works long, hard hours, relying on his DVR and free online sites for entertainment. His remedy for workplace tension and relief? NBC’s The Office. Beau says the writing is among the best on TV [see for yourself by watching these full episodes of the NBC hit], and it appeals to his culture and sense of humor (which, he says, can be a little strange).

As someone looking to escape the workplace, The Office is an unexpected choice. "[The show] reminds me so much of what I go through on my job,” he admits. But chimps enjoy watching themselves; maybe human beings are the same. His favorite character is Jim, the one he identifies with most. “Jim’s archetype is similar to mine. He’s an every day kind of guy. No frills. He just wants to report in for duty and put in a full day’s work…and then go home unscathed.”

Beau the people with whom he works with every day are as quirky as the gang on TV, just different. Which makes one wonder who at Beau’s workplace is: (1) knocking the boots? (2) a neurotic, drug fiend? (3) an alcoholic? (4) and the wholesome babe he's planning to propose to. Beau?

By Lela Davidson
Fancast.com

Last night Mary Ann and her husband sat down to relax in front of the TV, flipping on the History Channel for the new season of Ice Road Truckers. Mary Ann, who lives in Marshall, Arkansas, claims the most dangerous job she’s ever worked is Mother, but that doesn’t stop her from living vicariously through the daring feats of men performing one of the deadliest occupations in the world. The reality show/documentary that depicts the special brand of truckers who spend 90 days of the year hauling 10,000 loads of equipment over a temporarily frozen lake to the diamond mines of Canada. [watch video]

This is manly stuff -- and it is, in fact, Mary Ann’s husband’s favorite show. Better than football, she says. Who can blame him? The action includes marking off new roads, driving huge semi-trailers over 16” of ice through white outs, and trying all the while not to freeze to death. But it’s worth it. These guys can make as much in three months as they do the whole rest of the year. “The seatbelts come off when they hit the ice,” says Mary Ann. “In case they have to bail out in a hurry.”

Mary Ann once worked in a garment factory, where needles were known to pierce the occasional fingernail. But she’s never had a job where her life was actually in danger (excepting Motherhood) Her husband is a former oil rig worker and four-wheel racer. Naturally, he can’t get enough of the panic factor. I asked Mary Ann why she supposed "Ice Road Truckers" was her husband’s first choice, as opposed to, say, The Office or Project Runway, and she answered simply, “People tend to watch things they’d secretly like to do.”

By Tom Rose
Fancast.com

Margo Riboni doesn't have much free time to watch TV just for fun. There's hardly an hour in her day (or week) when she finds time to truly relax anyway. Her job as an Executive Administrative Assistant at a major securities trading firm in NYC is a long haul from her peaceful, countryside home in Marshalls Creek, Pennsylvania. Yet she makes the 200 mile round-trip commute every weekday, rain or shine (or blizzard).

"After years of the hustle and bustle of living in New York, and renting a tiny apartment in the city, I was finally able to buy a house of my own. But I wanted to come home to some peace and quiet" she tells me. That's why she boards a bus at 5:00 AM every morning that gets her to the office by 7:30. So Margo makes her TV watching count.

By Giselle Melanson
Fancast.com

Robert Ballantyne, 27, is the founder, publisher and editor of Canada’s Media and Pop Culture magazine, Popjournalism.com. When Robert’s not busy writing about the latest TV shows from his home in Toronto, Ontario, he’s watching them. Sometimes for their quality programming, and sometimes just to laugh at their opening lines. Here's how he responded when I asked, "So what are you watching?"

10) The cold opening of CSI: Miami – Even though I’m so over CSI, I still tune in for the first few minutes of Miami to catch the latest corny one-liner from star David Caruso. Hilariously bad. [watch full episodes here]

9) 30 Rock – I like this show, even though I want to love it, but it often gets too slapsticky and abstract for its own good… it’s such a fine line between stupid and clever, you know. [watch full episodes here]

8) Dr. Phil – When did this show turn so trashy? For years it was an up-with-people, Oprah-lite therapy show – then suddenly it seems like it’s all about teary people confronting their abusers for an hour. It's just one paternity test away from Maury.

By Lela Davidson
Fancast.com

What's the big news for this young woman from Downer's Grove, IL? She has a new job! Today's Cailin's first day as a barista at Starbucks. When I ask what she watches on TV, she smiles and says the news. She's a round-the-clock CNN watcher, a habit she learned from her parents who never missed the six o'clock news when she was growing up. So now Caitlin watches it all, from American Morning to Anderson Cooper 360. Larry King and Dr. Sanjay Gupta might as well be members of her family, that's how much time she spends with them. “I hate Fox,” she says. “People like Ann Coulter and the whole conservative vs. liberal thing -CNN seems more balanced.” Despite her bias, the 26-year-old has yet to vote. This year's presidential election will be her first time. The campaign coverage has excited and inspired her. She says the downside to watching news all day is the repetition. If the stories get too monotonous, Caitlin switches to cartoons or Discovery's "Deadliest Catch." As for the local news, she says, "I only watch for the weather."

By Tom Rose
Fancast.com

Samantha Schuykill ("Sam" to friends and family) likes to buck convention. "I may look like the girly type, but I'm not...except maybe when it comes to watching TV."

Sam is the foreman (forewoman?) of a giant warehouse section for a major distribution company in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania and she battles feminine stereotypes daily. "Since I started here 8 years ago, I've had to prove myself a lot more than my male counterparts, since I may not look like I can get the job done. But I Get'er Done...believe me - how else would I have gotten this far?"

I caught up with Sam as we shared a few beers at my local watering hole in East Stroudsburg, PA and probed her a bit further about the contradictions in her image and her TV watching habits. "I've always been a bit of a tomboy. I have 3 older brothers and they never treated me like a girl growing up, but when I relax and watch some tube I find myself drawn to things like "The Tyra Banks Show" and "America's Next Top Model." I can't explain it... I guess that's when the little girl in me comes out."

Besides hard-drivin' a forklift all day and making sure all the semis are loaded for bear, Sam loves to get out on her mud hog on weekends and take it wherever the blacktop leads. "There's nothing like the freedom of the road, and I'd rather ride than just about anything else for relaxation. So it's hard to stay current with TV. I don't need to keep up with the latest trends or gossip. That's why I like watching older shows too. It reminds me of a simpler time in my life"

Of course I had to ask… "Well, I like "Beverly Hills 90210" and "Melrose Place" a lot, 'cause the guys are hot. But "Buffy, The Vampire Slayer" is the best. She stays drop dead gorgeous while kicking some major ass…kinda like me!"

I couldn't agree more.