January 2010

To say that Blue Mountain State is intended for mature audiences would be misleading. Sure, the show contains more than its share of sexually charged content and coarse language, but it’s also aimed at the type of person who would find humor in a race requiring its participants to possess only a cookie, a jock strap and a complete lack of a gag reflex. That said, there’s nothing wrong with a little immaturity. The series takes place at Blue Mountain State University, where the only things that matter are football and scoring — and the two are not necessarily related. […]

Some people look at pictures in magazines to get inspiration for their backyard redesigns. Jamie Durie goes a bit farther. Literally. For each episode of HGTV’s The Outdoor Room With Jamie Durie, the renowned landscaper and horticulturist travels the world to bring back ideas best suited for his client’s desires — whether it be a New Mexico-inspired party patio or a Japanese-flavored relaxation oasis — then enlists his crack crew of professionals to finish in just a matter of days gardens that normally would take a month. Other locales his show has visited include Italy, Puerto Rico, Miami, Key West, […]

Donald Schultz has a job some would envy — traveling to remote locales like Tanzania, Jordan and Fiji to hunt down poisonous spiders and snakes and collect their venom for scientists conducting lifesaving research. While he’s on assignments, he also gets a chance to rescue an occasional critter. The result of his work is the series Wild Recon, airing Tuesdays beginning Jan. 5 on Animal Planet (HD). I caught up with Schultz when he was — briefly — visiting Los Angeles before taking off again for another exotic locale. I just saw a highlight reel for “Wild Recon,” and my […]

When most people think of record-breaking swimmers, they likely form an image of someone like the lean, long-limbed Michael Phelps. But in endurance swimming, Phelps could never come close to the records set by the eccentric, overweight, over-50, hard-drinking Slovenian Martin Strel. His feats have included swimming the lengths of the Mississippi, the Danube, the Yangtze and the Amazon — months-long undertakings each of them — to draw attention to endangered waterways. The feature-length documentary Big River Man, premiering Jan. 9 on Planet Green (HD), looks at Strel the man and chronicles his most demanding swim — a 3,200-mile, 66-day […]