Tansson Media Blog

 August 5, 2023, already? Didn't summer just begin a couple weeks ago? Nevertheless, while the summer has progressed, so have my television viewing habits. As such, this blog will be providing an update to my television viewing thus far this summer. As the only new show to air within this summer that I am currently viewing, The Wonder Years   has been a delight to see with new episodes this season. It is a shame that it has an inconsistent airing schedule, making it somewhat difficult to keep up with the new episodes releasing. Nevertheless, I hope it continues to be a strong season! Earlier this summer, what started as simply catching an episode of All Grown Up! became a binge of the entire series on Paramount Plus. This was such an interesting experience watching the preteen Rugrats , and I don't regret it at all! In reruns on my local The CW affiliate, I have been watching Black-ish  for the first time, and have truly enjoying it. In first-run, I didn't start watching ...

While the tenth episode of Head of the Class  (2021) may be titled "Three More Years," that is more than this series will get, that was canceled following this episode. In the series finale of this revival, Ms. Alicia Gomez is debating on whether she will sign a teaching contract from the superintendent to remain with her debate team, under the condition that it will be for three years at Meadows Creek High. Throughout scenes in this episode, we see Alicia debate the pros and cons of remaining with the job, with her not wanting to leave the profession, though not quite willing to make it a permanent arrangement. Meanwhile, Miles is practicing asking out his crush to the prom with a promposal, Griffin, though gets consistently interrupted by his loving yet cumbersome classmates. Within this episode, it appears that someone beat Miles to asking out Griffin, causing him to lash out as his friends. This overall disappoints Alicia, who gives up on her students, in term causing fel...

Personal Note from the Writer: Almost two years ago in August 2021, I made my initial post to this blog, announcing new blogs focusing on television shows and movies that interest me. Despite this, I have only published a handful of these articles, thus far touching on  Diary of a Future President , The Facts of Life , Jeopardy! , and Lopez vs. Lopez . Starting today, I hope to try again with this foray into blogging. Let's begin! Article: Produced by CBS Studios, Diary of a Future President  first released January 2020 on a weekly schedule on the relatively new platform Disney Plus. Though, on the release date of the premiere season's penultimate episode, the world changed forever when the incoming COVID-19 pandemic closed down society. Over a year after the first season completed, a second was released to the platform on August 18, 2021, which was ultimately its last. While fanfare was provided to promote the season's release, I personally could not help but wonder if the...

     As we begin to close out the primary part of the 2022-23 television season, I believe that I should use this time to highlight the broadcast television shows that I have watched and enjoyed in primetime prior to the completion of network decisions to cancel or renew. ABC: When it comes to a fun family comedy, I would have never thought The Conners   is exactly what we need. Though it had an admittedly painful few seasons to watch, this season has made it a must-watch show. Despite my hope for the series for the series to end after its fourth season, this season has made me hopefully for a potential sixth and final season to make this Roseanne  continuation come to a proper conclusion. Though I hate to say it, Abbott Elementary   has grown on me. This fan-favorite series personally is not my favorite, but the cast chemistry is undeniable. The storylines this season really made me feel for these characters, and I believe this series will have a long life...

 Throughout my life, from the early days to now, television has always had a major role, and has greatly helped shape who I am today. While these past several years have primarily been spent watching network sitcoms from both the past and present, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on my viewing habit evolution. Before I begin, it is important to note that while I have done my best to recall many of the past events a part of my life, these dates and information are relative to how I remember them, and should not be taken as exact points in time. From the earliest days of my childhood, I was viewing children television shows such as  Sesame Street . By the time that I was four, I was already in love with the Nickelodeon preschool show Blue's Clues , mostly favoring the host at that time, Joe (Donovan Patton). [No worries, I liked the previous host, Steve (Steve Burns), too!] While I was not necessarily watching the shows at the time, some of my earliest memories are of m...

 Remember when streaming services were an alternative to traditional broadcast television? A safe haven from commercials, gimmicks, limitations. Well, the idealistic world that sites such as Netflix has accustomed many of us to has now gone to the wayside before the new year hit, ending the fantasy that streaming companies were vastly different from their predecessor companies within the field. Up until almost a year ago, streaming giants such as Netflix, Disney+, and HBO Max were defined by the concept of having no commercials, an ever-growing library of content, and would be home to bundles of original content, both past in present. Furthermore, these sites, primarily Netflix, stood out as ones that would save content from its death on linear television, ensuring each story is told to its fullest extent and is given a proper conclusion. However, these concepts met its end within the past couple months, with HBO Max and Disney+ launching ad-friendly versions of their platforms, cu...

 Jumping a season from my previous review of the season, I go to the second season premiere of The Facts of Life . Unlike the first season, the series now focuses on only four young girls at the Eastland School as opposed to the large ensemble of yesteryear, three of which are returning cast members, alongside Mrs. Edna Garrett. Starting off the season, we once again find ourselves with exposition, with Tootie (Kim Fields) and Natalie (Mindy Cohn) explaining to each other and Blair that Mrs. Garrett got a new job as the school dietitian, as opposed to being a housemother. Surprisingly, we also see Arnold Jackson (the late Gary Coleman) return from Diff'rent Strokes  in one of the final scenes the two shows crossover. Minutes into the show, we see the motorcycle driving Jo Polniaczek (Nancy McKeon) enter, moving in from The Bronx, New York as Blair's latest foil, transferring from public education to start a new life. While they do not necessarily see eye to eye, they at least ...

"There's a place you've got to go for learning all you want to know about the facts of life." - Gloria Loring singing the original theme song of the series. Running from 1979 to 1988 on the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) network as a spin-off of Diff'rent Strokes , the series The Facts of Life  ran nine seasons as a staple of television, produced by Norman Lear's Embassy Television. While I wasn't born until over a decade after the series ended, I began watching the series in syndicated reruns on The Hub Network in elementary school, instantly falling in love with the character's fun antics and the life lessons of housemother Mrs. Garrett (Charlotte Rae). In my journey to become more familiar with the series from the era I adore so much, I chose The Facts of Life  as my first series to re-watch select episodes from. Despite focusing much of my rewatching on the later seasons, I did want to first re-watch the pilot episode, stemming from a season I...

 It's that time of year again! With the 2022-23 television season eager to begin its winter break halt, the networks each announced their schedule changes for the mid-season beginning this January. Having primarily watched ABC series for the past several years, that is where most of my attention will be spent throughout this article, though I will touch on my additional thoughts on the other major networks. Starting with Sunday nights, I was very disappointed to hear ABC opted to move the signature series The Rookie  off of their schedule and onto Tuesday nights, or rather early afternoons. While I will touch on this again soon, this is paired with the moving of Celebrity Jeopardy! and Celebrity Wheel of Fortune  to Thursdays, creating a full day of game shows as we enter the winter. This is all to make way for American Idol  alongside new series The Company You Keep . While I don't intend to judge The Company You Keep  before seeing the series, let alone a trai...

Three weeks ago, we saw the re-entry of comedian George Lopez to the sitcom genre, this time alongside his daughter Mayan. Lopez vs Lopez  is the latest sitcom on NBC to be added to their Friday night lineup, one I quite honestly keep forgetting exists, joining junior series  Young Rock . At first glance, the opening episode of the series sparked many connections with George Lopez's hit series George Lopez , especially in relation to his comedy style and the usage of the former series' theme music "Low Rider" within the first several minutes. However, while the comedy may have carried over from the other series, the delivery is more in-line with ABC series The Conners. For those familiar with The Conners , it is a series based on a working-class family trying to make ends meet, a spin-off of the popular 1990s series Roseanne . In this case, the Lopez family is also shown in a multigenerational and somewhat dysfunctional family, now coming together to create a 'new...

 While television has always been a part of my life since I was little, what I watch on television shifts rather frequently, usually keeping in-line my overall enjoyment of family-friendly shows that share a connection with the audience. In terms of linear television, each weekday evening starts off with Jeopardy! , a relatively new daily tradition within my household. As of writing, the 2022 Tournament of Champions is airing, featuring some of the most accomplished contestants in the show's history, leaving a legacy for future years to follow. Currently hosted by Ken Jennings, with Dr. Mayim Bialik also serving as a host, the daily viewings never get old. On Mondays, my lineup starts on CBS with their sitcom The Neighborhood  starring Cedrick the Entertainer. While I wasn't all too fond of the show when it initially aired, it's grown on me, and I enjoy the interactions between the Entertainer's character, Calvin, and his neighbor Dave (Max Greenfield). While more of a ...

In starting back up with my new media blog, I thought that it was only fitting that I review over the season seven premiere episodes of The Facts of Life : "Out of the Fire...," "Into the Frying Pan," and "Grand Opening" (1985). While I have seen these episodes several times throughout the years, I thought it may be fitting to review these over again as I start this new beginning. "Out of the Fire..." Starting off the episode, we see Tootie (Kim Fields) entering a plane to head back to her home of Peekskill, New York, waiting for her friends and co-stars Blair (Lisa Whelchel), Natalie (Mindy Cohn), and Jo (Nancy McKeon) to board. It is at this point that we introduce the episode's addition of thought narration, one of the more humorous parts of the episode. When we arrive back to Edna's Edibles to start off the season, we see a fire has occurred not long beforehand, charring much of the set and allowing for an easy retooling of the series...

Jeopardy! is produced by Sony Pictures Television and distributed by CBS Studios. For fans of the Sony Pictures Television fan favorite answers-and-questions game Jeopardy! , this has been an interesting two years as there have been several major changes going on both in the studio and outside as the show is now halfway through it’s thirty-eighth season of original syndicated quiz programming. There was actually so many changes within the show these past two seasons that it actually took me over a page to give the short version of it all ( See below if interested ). Nevertheless, these past two seasons have been a fun one, and has seen the likes of various different contestants, and hosts for that matter (guest and permanent alike), have fun playing the game while earning tons of money. The ongoing pandemic aside, the biggest change to the show was the loss of beloved host Alex Trebek part way through season, with consulting producer and former champion Ken Jennings initially filling...

Many people are familiar with the likes of Marvel superheroes and space-based antiheroes gracing their screen after they pull up the streaming service Disney+. For others, it may instead show former television hits such as Boy Meets World and Smart Guy or perhaps even the studio’s legendary animated tales. However, a show that truly captivated me starting on episode one when watching was CBS Studios’ Diary of a Future President . At the time the only original show on the service not made by the in-house studio, Diary comes from the creative mind of Ilana Peña and stars Tess Romero as the titular protagonist. While I was originally going to simply start by reviewing the series as a whole, I instantly realized that doing so would be a disservice to the amazing writing of this Miami Glades-based series. That being stated, I decided to individually review each episode of the series upon rewatch, beginning with the first episode “Hello World” in this review. For starters, every moment of t...

“Look, eventually somebody is going to ask you guys for your personal opinion on something.” – Isabella Gomez as Alicia Gomez on Head of the Class. Today, January 13, 2022, I am proud to announce the beginning of my next chapter in content creating, or should I say page? After over five and a half years of doing content creation, I am glad to launch my newest venture, which is the creation of my new blog. Blogging isn’t a new idea for me, having launched a technology blog within my first year of content creation in October 2016, later restarting in January 2020, but I often felt limited to what I could do without room to grow. However, after years of expanding my horizons and allowing my expectations to evolve for the better, as well as six months of preparation, I decided to finally give blogging a shot again for 2022. What can you expect in this blog? As a media studies student, I expect to use this blog to share reviews and personal insights of various television shows and m...

1,922 days after initially beginning content creation, I am pleased to finally be entering the space of media reviewing! On this blog, I will be posting new content such as television and movie reviews.