Tag Archives: tv show

The Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan

This is something different. The Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan. I originally saw this when it aired on a random TV channel in the UK, many, many years ago now. I was going through the guide when I saw Virginia Madsen’s name mentioned and hit the record button. I had no idea it was actually available to buy on DVD until a saved eBay search for “virginia madsen” found it for me.

The show is based around Cesar Millan (obviously) who helps Dogs that need, well, help. Normally some kind of behavioural / training thing that their Human doesn’t approve of, or if the dog is scared of something etc etc.

I should point out that I LOVE Dogs, I’m very much a dog person, I’m the one that will almost stop and say hello to a friendly Dog when I’m out walking my own Dog. I’ve all the time in the world for them. Having said that, I know some Dogs are just jerks, my current Dog can be a complete jerk when he wants to be and I’m fully aware of that. (He likes jumping at things so they run away, he doesn’t chase them or mean anything by it, but for whatever reason he likes it).

It’s probably also wise to mention that not everyone approves of Cesar Millan and his methods. Now, I’m not qualified to judge and I’ve not seen enough of the episodes to make an opinion on how he does his thing but Mr Millan isn’t without controversy when other experts in the field weigh in on his methods. One of the most common complaints is that his methods are outdated and lack any real kind of science. In some European countries there is a warning at the start of the show that some of the techniques shown in the episodes might be illegal.

Make of all that what you will.

The Dog Whisperer ran from 2004 to 2012 on the National Geographic Channel and lasted for 9 seasons. Each episode was styled like a Documentary and Cesar would be introduced to a dog with some kind of problem, he’d then work with the dog to try and work through their issues and get them to behave in a way in which the dog could enjoy life more.

Virginia Madsen appeared twice on The Dog Whisperer, once in Season 3 and then again in Season 4.

The Season 3 episode 2, “Buster, Holli and Spike & Belle”.

The episode premiered on 30th October 2006, Virginia Madsen features in the segment “Family Decisions”.

We see Virginia and her son Jack who are wanting to adopt a new puppy after the loss of one of their other dogs, Dixie. She was a Shepherd mix who lived to the grand old age of 14 before getting ill with Pancreatitis, Knowing that her much loved dog was nearing the end she called upon Cesar for advice. The two knew each other already after he’d helped with a problem of Dixie and their other dog, Spike who’d run away at every chance they got. Cesar advises them on what they need and brings a selection of rescue dogs for them to consider, which I very much approve of.

Cesar oversees Virginia and Jack as they pick one of the dogs to be a new member of the family, taking into consideration how the dog behaves with their existing animals and especially with Spike, their existing dog.
Eventually they find a companion for Spike, a little belter called Belle (spoilers don’t apply when they are in the title it seems).

Obviously Virginia isn’t “on” for the camera here, she’s not acting, and so we can’t comment on that – BUT – We can say that it’s nice to see her in a more candid environment, chilling out with her Son and adding to their family unit. It’s nice to see, even if it is only a brief peak inside.
Virginia Madsen is also listed as appearing in the 100th Episode of the show, a “special”. BUT, despite getting hold of a copy on DVD and watching the episode, several times, I couldn’t find her in there.

It’s possiible the DVD had been edited, for some reason, not sure.

Availability:

You can quite easily buy the third and fourth seasons on DVD, but if you live outside of the US then you’re going to pay more in shipping than for the DVD unless you get lucky and find a copy that’s already imported.

Weirdly, there is also a Dog Whisperer Collection DVD available called “Stories of Hope and Inspiration” – If you look at the back cover Virginia Madsen is in one of the screenshots, but that episode does not appear on any of the disc – So there you go don’t be fooled if you see it.

(In all fairness the disc menu does say they’re episodes from Season 3, probably just someone in the design department not checking what they’re doing properly.)

Trailer:

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Hatfields & McCoys

The History Channel had a little success with a TV mini series in 2012 based on the Hatfield & McCoy feud of the mid to late 1800’s. Because of this NBC decided they wanted to a slice of the Western pie and as a part of that, they commissioned a pilot for a new story based in the modern day. They would call that TV Show Hatfields and McCoys.

Never heard of it? No, probably not – And, that’s probably more down to the fact it never got past the pilot stage and was never shown on TV.

The idea of the show was that the feud continued on to the present day and the families are still very much at war with one another. Which, isn’t actually the case at all – The families fighting history is pretty much a tourist attraction now.

The premise being that in the modern day a sudden death in the McCoy family is blamed on the Hatfields and, well, you can probably take an educated guess on the rest.
Hatfields and McCoys had the right pedigree to be a success, Charlize Theron threw her stetson into the ring as one of the producers. The casting wasn’t too shabby, Virginia Madsen was to take the lead as Eloise McCoy, the matriarch of the family (I’ll refrain from commenting about Virginia in this kind of role). Other members of the McCoy family would be played by Sophia Bush as Emma, Jesse Lee Soffer as Patrick, Luciana Carro as Treena and Patrick Flueger as Jack.

There was no slouching on the Hatfields side either, Rebecca De Mornay was set to play Mary Hatfield, James Remar as Joe and Annie Ilonzeh as Shannon.

But, it wasn’t enough for NBC and they ultimately decided to take a pass on the show and didn’t order any more episodes.

All is not completely lost though as the unaired version of the pilot did eventually make it to the internet so at least we can see what we missed out on, unlike Babylon Fields which has yet to see the light of day.
It isn’t too bad – A bit generic, perhaps. Virginia Madsen pretty much took on the same kind of role that she had in Scoundrels, and I was really reminded of that more than once with Patrick Flueger on screen with Virginia once again. Nice to see, I’ve a lot of time for Patrick but perhaps this one was a little close to home.

Availability:

Pretty good, for now at least…

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American Dreams

American Dreams is a show on NBC that ran for three seasons from 2002 to 2005. The show is primarily about the Pryor family who live in Philadelphia in the early 1960’s, more often that not the Pryors daughter, Meg (Brittany Snow) would be central.

Although the Pryor family are fictional, the show has real life events that affect the characters as though they lived through them. The assassination of Kennedy for example is depicted.

The Pryor family are the owners of a TV and Radio store, well, John Pryor (Tom Verica) is at least. His wife, Helen (Gail O’Grady) is a homemaker. As well as Meg, John and Helen have three other children, John (Will Estes) is the eldest, Patty (Sarah Ramos) is younger than Meg and then finally Will (Ethan Dampf) the youngest.

The show itself celebrates American Music, and many classic songs from the time would feature via the inclusion of American Bandstand into the show’s plot. Famous artists from the time would perform on the show and would often be portrayed by famous musicians of the nowadays. Today’s Musicians would also frequently take other roles on the show, Art Garfunkel would appear as the Record Store owner for example. There are too many to list here but a full list can be found on the Wikipedia page for the show.

Virginia Madsen would only appear in the first Season, she played the character of Rebecca Sandstrom, Helen’s Book Club friend. Rebecca isn’t the typical 1960’s stereotypical woman and she encourages the Book Club to expand their minds by pushing progressive literature on the Club.
If you’ve read any of my other pages in historical films then you’ll know that these kinds of thing aren’t for me. I’ve zero interest in period stuff, even if the music is cool.

I actually did give this one a go but I got to the end of the second episode and I’d had enough.

I do believe it was actually worth the watch though if this is your kind of thing.

Availability:

Region 1 DVD isn’t a problem and is easily found at a reasonable price which is good as it doesn’t appear that Seasons 2 and 3 ever made it. Even more odd that so much effort was put into the Season 1 DVD with a special extended edition.

Trailer:

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Boomtown Season 2 – Episode 6 – The Big Picture

Boomtown was a TV show which aired on NBC between 2003 and 2003. Despite having a good cast and a good premise it only lasted two seasons. Personally I think it hit the air a bit too early and had it come along a bit earlier then we might have gotten more from it.

The first Season was quite odd in its storytelling for the time, it told the same story from multiple angles over one episode. It wasn’t really like anything else on air at the time. Those who got it, loved it, but perhaps the mainstream wasn’t quite ready for it.

The second season toned it down a bit, it took a slightly different way of telling the stories with flashbacks and the like but it wasn’t enough to save it.

Virginia Madsen took a guest role in the 6th episode of the second season, “The Big Picture” which aired on December 28th in 2003.

The story involved an ageing actress, Erika Ashland, trying to make her name in the industry before it was too late. Already feeling like she was past her prime as she was only being offered “Mom” roles instead of the more interesting roles she was being offered.

A chance meeting with a popular Film Director Mel Castle ends up with Erika heading home with him in the hopes of securing a role in his new film, by any means necessary.They’ve been home together for some time when the Police show up after a report of a disturbance at the house. The pair both reassure them that nothing is wrong and they go on their way. Erika looks a little out of sorts but assures them nothing is wrong.

The next day Erika is reported missing and the investigation begins into her disappearance.

It’s a good episode all in all – Obviously nothing is what it seems and there are plenty of twists and turns along the way. We don’t get to see a lot of Virginia Madsen in this episode but she’s pivotal to the plot, obviously.
It’s not much of a chance to do her thing with the screen time being limited, her character isn’t really something new that we’ve not seen her do before. That’s not to say she does it badly, mind you. What’s weird is the part where she really shines is a part where there is a montage of her going for different roles. She starts off all chipper and bubbly and slowly becomes disenchanted with it all. I also couldn’t but feel / wonder if the role might hit home for Virginia a bit in this one. Watching her audition for all the different roles and be continually rejected. I don’t know, there seemed to be some truth behind it for struggling actresses with genuine talent who get passed over once they reach a certain age in Hollywood.Although, she didn’t do too badly it was during her time on the Boomtown set she would meet Jon Avnet who she’d later work with on the WIGS project which gave us the web series Jan and the really quite good Ruth & Erica.

Boomtown isn’t a bad series in all. I enjoyed it, it wasn’t the best thing I’ve ever seen, but it was also years after the event and TV has changed a lot since it originally aired.

Availability:
Boomtown only received a Season 1 DVD release in most of the world. The Second season, as far as I can tell, has only ever been released as part of a full series box set in France. I managed to get hold of a copy from the French Amazon site. The box is in French as are the DVD’s but it’s not hard to work out how to get them playing, it has the English sound track so no issue once the episode starts to play, you’ll have to switch track manually at worst.

It’s sometimes available on Amazon Prime, you might need a VPN to watch it though depending on your location.

Or, once again. YouTube can be your friend…

Trailer:
Kinda, I guess…