If you’ve ever watched Dragonball Z you are well aware of how unique the animation and styling is. This animation and styling which is a staple in Japan made waves when introduced to the American public. Its unconventional drawings and fast paced movement highly influenced a new direction for American cartoons. The mystical story lines heavily based in Japanese culture were more fluidly accepted by the American audience than first expected. Not only was Dragonball Z a hit in the United States, but it gave rise to a whole line of products sold to the American public making it incredibly popular in the United States as it was in Japan during its run. Dragonball Z products can still be found in stores and online across the United States.

The cartoon also gave rise to a full series of Dragonball Z games. These games became highly popular in their own right and have been adapted for almost all of the major gaming devices including Playstation, Xbox and Nintendo.

Though Dragonball Z is no longer running new episodes, you can still watch the show in syndication on many stations as well as watch episodes online.

In addition to the cartoon show, Dragonball Z has also been made into a full length movie which was well received by fans. Many fan websites and forums can be found online even after the end of the series run. Though various iterations of the series have followed Dragonball Z, Dragonball Z seems to remain one of the more popular series of the franchise both in Japan and in America.

A Japanese styled cartoon making it big in the U.S. was not only surprising to many but held particular significance in a time when drawn animation seemed to be almost completely replaced by computer animation. As the American public became more and more interested in computer animation and hand drawn animators felt their time may have come to move on, highly stylized Japanese art seemingly rekindled the art in new and interesting ways that fascinated the American public.

As such, more and more cartoons and books and comics are being styled after Japanese art and continue to gain popularity and momentum among those who find value in their uniqueness and attention to detail.

Based off of a Manga series written by Akira Toriyama, Dragonball Z was not only a popular series on its own but it gave rise to several other series under the Dragonball franchise that followed it. The highly stylized cartoon not only made its mark on television, but spawned a whole product line featuring the increasingly popular characters.

Dragonball Z Episode Lists Captivated America

The fast-paced, highly stylized Japanese Manga series Dragonball Z captured and captivated a United States audience almost as soon as it landed on American TV screens. The uniqueness of the art and the intriguing story lines from overseas turned into a cultural boom. While Dragonball Z is no longer featuring new episodes you can watch the show in syndication on several channels as well as on DVD or through online sources.

Not only did Dragonball Z capture the American audience on television but the artwork captivated their attention and money through a variety of spin off products like lunchboxes, backpacks, trading cards and a wide variety of toys and games.

Dragonball Z video games became increasingly popular as well. Sony, Xbox and Nintendo supported several Dragonball Z games making them easily accessible through any major gaming device. Computer games also surfaced as well. Dragonball Z was a hit not only in ratings in the United States but also in product sales.

The significance of the acceptance of Japanese art and cartoon styling in the United States proved to be extremely big. Not only was the American public enjoying the mystical story telling of Dragonball Z but it was also getting a lot of attention in the art world. American artists began to copy the styling in hopes of captivating the U.S. audience in the same ways that Japanese artists had through the highly stylized and unique storytelling of Dragonball Z.

Because the theme of the show had a universal appeal it was not incredibly difficult to relate to the average American child. This made it easy to translate and prepare for an American audience though the American version of the series is slightly condensed compared to the Japanese version of the series. With minor changes made between the Japanese and American versions some opted to watch the Japanese versions instead with English subtitles.

Fan clubs and online forums popped up in great numbers due to the popularity of Dragonball Z. The shows off shoots are also seeing popularity though Dragonball Z is arguably the most popular series of the Dragonball franchise. Based on Manga cartoons that were incredibly popular in their own right, Dragonball Z already came with a fairly large fan base that was ultimately critical of the show’s representation of the Manga cartoons. Diehard fans, like with any cartoon series, wanted Dragonball Z the cartoon to directly reflect the Manga series that they so loved and admired.

The artwork however, was very well received. Though it initially required the American audience to get used to it, it eventually became a well-respected and copied style in the United States. In a country that was moving heavily toward computer animation and leaving hand drawn animation aside, the sudden interest in hand drawn Japanese art by American children opened up new doors to the animation community in developing American cartoons that used the qualities of Japanese art and fused them with an American style and distinctly American story lines.

Dragon Ball Z: Season One (Vegeta Saga) Average Rating: 198 total customer reviews...

Dragon Ball Z: Season Five (Perfect and Imperfect Cell Sagas) Average Rating: 66 total customer reviews...

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80s tv shows included some great sitcoms that stay with us to this very day. There were awesome and innovative shows like Taxi, which brought us the late great Andy Kaufman and introduced us to the great Danny DeVito who went on to movie fame in films such as “Ruthless People”.  “Newhart” starred Bob Newhart (duh) and was a witty, hilarious, adult comedy that featured the droll humor of its sardonic star. “Cheers” brought us Woody Harrelson and other great stars. “Roseanne” starred the big-mouthed and obnoxious Roseanne Barr (later Roseanne Arnold) who, along with tv hubby John Goodman, brought a working class mentality to the genre which was appreciated by television watchers from all walks of life.

So who remembers the god-awful “Alf” featuring a foul-mouthed, wise-cracking muppet-like puppet from outer space? “Nightcourt” was good and so was “One Day at a Time” with the very young Michael J. Fox.

One of the biggest 80s TV shows of them all, and the most popular sitcom was the perennially number one “The Cosby Show” starring Mr. Jello Puddin’ himself, the great comedian Bill Cosby. The Huxtable family became a part of Anericana and brought a resurgence of ratings success to the once floundering network NBC. “The Cosby Show” broke a lot of ground in the way it treated delicate subject matter and paved the way for shows like “Seinfeld” and many others that followed.

“Dallas” was a serial-like primetime soap opera that became America’s favorite addiction. The mystery surrounding who shot villain J.R. Ewing swung the show’s ratings to new highs. Dallas was the first show of its kind and spawned a whole generation of copycats and tributes that followed such as “Knots Landing”, “Dynasty” and “Falcon Crest”.

One of the worst 80s TV shows was the horrible “Love Boat” which was only equaled in sheer stupidity by the brain-dead “Fantasy Island”. Both of them, not surprisingly, became number one shows and blew up all of the ratings. Any show that featured Zsa Zsa Gabor had to be bad. Herve Villechaise played the tiny Tatoo, assistant to Ricardo Montalban’s dapper Mr. Roarke, host of Fantasy Island.

Action shows also suffered from moronic writing and ideas. 80s TV shows like “The A-Team”, “The Dukes of Hazzard”, and “Knight Rider” were big on explosions and low on brain cells. Since America loves mediocrity, these shows were destined to become gigantic hits and they did.

There were also a bunch of detective shows like “Hill Street Blues”, “Cagney and Lacey”, “Matlock” and the top dog of all, “Magnum P.I.” starring the charming and handsome Tom Selleck.

In the end, 80s TV shows proved that you could have the best and the worst at the same time.

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Unfortunately, she was not selected and was kind of upset about it. She did say that one of the former contestants was at the casting call and told her that she had tried out seven times before she was accepted, and it got me to thinking that reality TV casting seems so arbitrary.

I understand that the very nature of selecting the right group of people to be on a reality show is subjective and can always be second-guessed, but I do wonder if the people who make those decisions have any sort of criteria they have to follow and why they select some of the people they do.

I watch the show that my friend was trying to get on, and there are times when I wonder what they were thinking when they selected a particular cast member. I don’t know if reality TV casting is done by different groups of people who go to different parts of the country and have different ideas of what they are looking for, but sometimes I think they really got it wrong.

Maybe it is just the fact that I really wanted my friend to get on this particular show. She is a big fan, and has wanted to get on it for years. She finally got up the courage to go and try out last year and was turned down, and then was turned down a second time this year. I do wish that I could go to the people who are doing the reality TV casting and speak on behalf of my friend, telling them all of the reasons that she would be a good contestant.

That would just embarrass her, though, and they would probably think that I was a nutcase. I asked her why it was so important to her that she actually be a contestant on the show rather than just watch it from home, and she told me that she really believes in what it stands for and feels like she would be a good fit. The group that did the casting, however, did not agree.

The reality TV casting crew did get her down for a while, but the good news is that the is already back on the horse and making plans to try out next year. She said she has been working on some new angles to try to get on the show, and said she will never quit trying to get on the show. I admire her determination, but my concern would always be that, since they already turned me down twice, what makes me think they would ever want me to be on the show, period?

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ABC’s LOST initially follows the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 after it crashes on an island shrouded in mystery. The group is struggling to survive as they encounter nightly disappearances, polar bears, and a strange monster made of black smoke. As time  goes on, they find a hatch buried into the ground, and find inside a man who was never on their flight. The man’s name is Desmond, and he is pushing a button every eight minutes in order to “save the world.” Desmond abandons the hatch, leaving the survivors to continue the process.

The show takes a turn at this point in the series. The survivors find a man who claims his name is Henry Gale, but after a little bit of time, they discover that the man is instead Ben Linus, the leader of another group of island inhabitants known as “The Others,” and they are the ones who were taking people away from the group in the beginning. ABC’s LOST gets crazy when Linus escapes, and the survivors stop pushing the button, causing the hatch to implode in a burst of electromagnetic energy. In the meantime, key group members of the survivors are captured by the Others.

After weeks of beatings and near torture, the captured survivors find out that they are on an entirely separate island, and that these individuals are operating out of the old facilities of a group called The Dharma Initiative. No one is very clear on why the Others are there, but it is revealed that Ben was responsible for killing all of the former Dharma people, and that he feels he is tasked with “protecting the island,” and is under the direction of a man named Jacob. ABC’s LOST becomes really exciting when a freighter appears off the coast, and the survivors believe they are saved. However, it is quickly revealed that the freighter is not there to save, but destroy them, as their leader is a former leader of the Others who is looking for vengeance.

Fortunately, the helicopter pilot of the freighter  is uneasy with the situation, and despite the freighter itself being blown up, is able to help six of the survivors get off of the Island. Several years after the fact, they still have not told anyone in the world about what actually happened after the plane crash, or that there are other survivors still on the island.  However, ABC’s LOST gets even crazier when another survivor comes back to the world named John Locke, and explains that if they don’t come back to the island, everyone they love there will be killed. Though it takes some coercion, and the death of the messenger, everyone eventually goes back.

During the time that they were gone, the rest of the survivors were enduring some crazy events. After they left, Ben and John had turned an archaic wheel in order to “move” the island and keep the other survivors safe. However, in the process, they had dislodged the island from time, and the inhabitants found themselves time traveling at a frequent rate, leading to some strange deaths. Locke is eventually able to stop the time traveling, but the island is at that point stuck in the 1970′s, so when the survivors that had left return, they too find themselves out of sync.

The story in ABC’s LOST becomes more and more convoluted, but the best thing you an do is watch it yourself. The story is even more complicated than it seems now, and is more than worth checking out.

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The main character of ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy is Meredith Grey. Self-described as “dark and twisty,” she’s a down to earth, ambitious intern with two surgeons for parents who never got along. Working in the shadow of her mother, Ellis Grey, who was a world renown surgeon that practiced at Seattle Grace until her Alzheimers became unmanageable, Meredith shows a tremendous amount of promise. In the beginning of the first season, we find out that the night before  she began her internship, she got hammered at a bar and took a man home. This man, as it turns out, is also an attending at the hospital named Derek Shepard, affectionately referred to by Meredith’s fellow interns as “McDreamy.”

Though the romance between Meredith and Derek (referred to by fans as “MerDer”) is an implausible one, it progresses nicely with ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy. The two go back and forth, as Derek turns out to be married and seeking a divorce, and Meredith’s daddy issues often complicate the emotional honesty of the relationship. Meredith also experiences two major life threatening experiences while working, and through the process, is able to come to a place where she is willing to try to make things work with Derek. They finally become engaged, but at the last second, instead of going through with the wedding,  they sacrifice their wedding plans to allow a dying friend experience a dream wedding to her boyfriend. They are uninterested in planning an elaborate wedding again, and so they perform their own nuptials by writing down their vows on a post-it and signing them as a personal contract between the two of them.

MerDer’s romantic drama often takes center stage in ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy, but there’s plenty of behind the scenes drama as well. Most notably, Isaiah Washington, the actor playing attending heart surgeon Burke, was dismissed from the show after using homophobic slurs about a cast mate. Katherine Heigl also made waves after refusing an Emmy nomination because she felt the writing for her character did not merit the attention. However, despite this behind the scene’s drama, ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy continues to thrive.

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We make it a point to watch the Family Feud game show at least once a week, and it is the one my children are always the most excited to put on. We will let everyone take turns making guesses about what the most popular answers are in every category and round, and what amazes me is how much my kids have learned from watching the game.

Whenever a category comes up that they don’t understand, they will always ask me and my wife to explain it to them and then listen carefully to the answers the contestants give. Not only are they beginning to understand what the questions mean, but they are learning how people think about such questions and how they are most likely to respond.

Another thing about the Family Feud game show is that it is very engaging. I have noticed that my daughter will often times clasp her hands together and lean forward when the show’s host makes one of his dramatic pauses before the answer is revealed. Invariably, if the answer the family gives shows up on the board with the big ringing sound, my daughter will cheer. If it is not on the board, and buzzer sounds, she drops her hands and look sad.

My son, on the other hand, watches the show very intently, and often becomes impatient if one of our family members takes too long to make a guess. Whether we are playing along with the Family Feud game show, or the board game version we bought a few years ago, he will often raise his hand, thrusting it into the air over and over again if he thinks he has a good guess.

My wife and I both get into it as well, and will often spend half an hour or so debating what combination of answers would have allowed families who lost to reach the 200 points they needed to win the prize money.

The Family Feud game show has become a regular part of our weekly routine, and something both of my children look forward to more than any other show. I like how much they have benefited from watching it, both in terms of what they have learned and how they will encourage and congratulate each other when they have played well. It is a show we will continue to watch in our house for a long time.

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