Las Vegas Was Awesome Because We Got To Meet Holly Madison

When my wife suggested we visit Las Vegas this year my only request was that we go see Peepshow staring Holly Madison at the Planet Hollywood Casino and Hotel. As you may know, Holly was one of the Girls Next Door - one of recent favorite shows that I'm sort of fanatical about. She now stars in another reality show Holly's World which is all about her adventures working on Peepshow in Las Vegas. As much as I loved Girls Next Door for it's behind the scenes look at the inner workings of the Playboy Mansion, I'm as equally intrigued with Holly's World and it's glimpse into life in Las Vegas. So I was excited to see the show and visit some of the places where Holly and her friends hang out on the show. Stepping into the Planet Hollywood casino was like walking onto the set of Holly's World. There are so many spots that I've seen on TV a hundred times, it was pretty exciting for a TV lovin' fella like myself!

So we had tickets to see Peepshow Thursday night. It turns out that my brother flew in to town on Thursday morning for an event he was attending. We hooked up Thursday morning and hung out for a little bit, including walking over to Planet Hollywood to pick up my actual tickets for the evening's show. Short story shorter: we get up to the ticket counter, my brother whips out his credit card and scores my wife and I two VIP Package upgrades which include a meet & greet with Holly after the show along with pictures and a champagne toast. Needless to say, that was SUPER AWESOME of him to do for us. My wife and I were both super excited to meet her! She was very nice and friendly and took her time talking to everyone.

Here's the three of us!

You may remember a while ago I posted about my brother meeting Holly's Girls Next Door co-star Kendra.

In case you were wondering, Peepshow was fantastic! It's a high energy singing and dancing show with a very loose story frame. Holly plays an over worked and lonely girl who falls asleep one night and wakes up in a fairy tale land. All the different nursery rhyme characters try to help her find a man - they somehow do this by dancing and stripping. It's all done very tastefully. It's basically a modern version of burlesque striptease - which is an art form not just girls gyrating to rap music for $1 dollar bills.

We saw some other shows in Vegas too...

....Here's Jen and I with our official name tags in the hopes of being called on stage for The Price is Right Live! at Bally's. I've always thought this show sounded like a neat idea. It's basically a live version of the TV show, with a fresh batch of audience members plucked out of the audience for each round in Contestant's Row. All-in-all 50 people get a chance to win something! We didn't get called down, but our friends both won 1,000 Casino Comp. Credits in an instant win game they did between TPIR games. The show was alot of fun and they did give away some nice cash prizes and some dude won a Washer & Dryer set. There was a car and a trip in the Showcase Showdown, but nobody won!

We also went to Brad Garrett's Comedy Club at the Tropicana where Brad himself was performing for a few days. You probably best know Brad Garrett as Robert, Ray's brother on Everybody Loves Raymond. Apparently, he's not in town all that often so the house was packed to see him. We just lucked into being there when he was there. He put on a great show, he actually MC'ed an entire evening of comedy which consisted of a complete set by him and then long sets in between comedian Geechy Guy and hypnotist Mark Sweet. There was another comedian who came up briefly as well. We were in there for about two hours before it was done. A great night of comedy.

I also gotta give a shoutout to Tix 4 Tonight, a service that lets you score same day tickets to most of Vegas' hottest shows at a fraction of their face value. We used the service for all three shows I've mentioned here, plus the four we saw last time in Vegas - and we always have great experiences with them. Great seats, fantastic prices and the staff is incredibly knowledgeable. They seem to know everything about every single show in town. They must be doing a good business because they seem to have twice the locations they did when I was in Vegas two years ago. Even though there are frequently long lines at their sidewalk booths, I suggest their "hidden" location behind the giant Coke bottle. We never waited in a line there while I could see the line out on the sidewalk from where I was standing buying tickets. I can't recommend them high enough. They take the extravagant price of a night on the town and make it affordable that you can go see a show every night you're in town.

What's Good on the Tube

This is a feature I've been meaning to do for years where I sporadically weigh in on the top 5 shows that I'm enjoying on television at the moment. If you have exquisite taste in entertainment, like myself, you should watch these shows too!

Hot In Cleveland (Wednesday 10:00pm, TV Land) Simply put, Hot in Cleveland is the single best traditional sitcom to air on television in at least five years. The comedy all-star cast features Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves and Wendie Malick as three gals who decide to uproot from their hectic L.A. lifestyles in and settle in Cleveland, Ohio where they are all considered hot and glamorous. Golden Girl Betty White plays the owner of the house they all live in. As you should know, I've been a huge Betty White fan since her days on The Golden Girls. I didn't just jump on this new Betty Bandwagon after her Super Bowl commercial and SNL appearance last year. I've been seeking out her appearances for years. Watching her work is watching one of the all-time comedy greats practice their craft. Mrs. White nails every single line with pin point comedy precision - it's amazing to watch. Hot In Cleveland doesn't get by on just Betty White alone, not only is the rest of the cast great but the show doesn't shy away from using tried and true sitcom plots and conventions to have a good time. This show celebrates it's sitcom heritage, not only by shooting in front of a live studio audience but also by casting several familiar faces from TV comedies past in supporting roles. It's just another great reason why I love this program and look forward to it every week. (Season One just came out on DVD!)

Holly's World (Sunday 10:30pm, E!) You know I loved me some Girls Next Door, which appears to have been canceled but this spin-off is the next best thing. All three of the gals from Next Door have had their own shows. Kendra has Kendra, which to me feels like it's grabbing at straws trying to come up with material to justify it's existence. Bridgete had Bridgete's Sexy Beaches which was a really fun travel show but it was cancelled after one season. Holly's World follows Holly Madison as she stakes her claim as the new Miss Las Vegas. Holly stars in Peepshow at Planet Hollywood in Vegas, as well as having her hand in a ton of other charities and events around town. What made Girls Next Door so interesting was it's behind the scenes look into Playboy Magazine and life at the Playboy Mansion. In this show, we get to see the inner workings of a town like Las Vegas, plus Holly and her friends are all good fun. Really fun half hour of tube that I look forward to each week!

Parks and Recreation (Thursday 9:30pm, NBC) Right now NBC is running a three hour block of comedies on Thursday night. That's not attempted much in network television. Of those 6 shows, 3 are on my list here today. At the moment, Parks and Rec is my favorite simply because it's the newest but also because the show has really found it's voice in it's third season. The characters, the actors, the writing and the situations have all gelled nicely. Season three saw the addition of two new cast members including the always terrific Rob Lowe. Amy Polher, Aziz Ansari and Nick Offerman are three more reasons why this show is so terrific.

30 Rock (Thursday 10:00pm, NBC) In my opinion, television writing has never been better than what is on display at 30 Rock. Each episode is packed the the gills with so many clever jokes, references and more jokes that it's sometimes exhausting trying to keep up. 30 Rock has also maintained a good pace of keeping story lines flowing from week to week without turning the show into a soap opera. Each show is a comedy masterpiece. Alec Baldwin continues to be The Man!

The Office (Thursday 9:00pm, NBC) While I've never abandoned The Office, I felt it strayed off course in recent years. The storylines kept getting in the way of the show just being funny. The shows seems to have settled down into just being laugh out loud funny week after week! Steve Carell is heading off the show at the end of this year, but this is one show that seems to be able to keep on chugging without it's star. There are of other characters to keep The Office open for many more season. According to some tweets I've read, Will Ferrell is expected to do a multi-episode arc later the season. That should be comedy gold! (As long as he doesn't play a 70's sports star.)

Favorite Reality Shows of All-Time*

*Using the time frame of "All-Time" to classify reality shows is stretching it a little bit. After all, for the most part reality television has only been with us for about a decade. There were a few trailblazers like "Cops" and "The Real World", but it all really started with Survivor. Remember the first time you heard about Survivor and you were like, "They're really going to drop people on a deserted island for a game show?" We all went crazy for it and television has really never been the same since.

Overall, I'm not really a reality show junkie. As we all know, most of them are horrible and even I...the master of crap...feel like I'm wasting my time watching the majority of them. The competition shows just get to be exhausting and the "following people around" sub-genre usually feels like they're just grabbing at straws. But every show has it's fans. Here's 10 Reality Shows that I've loved or at least fondly remember:

Animal Precinct (2001-2008; Animal Planet) I loves me some Animal Precinct! It was like Cops but with dogs and cats instead of guns and drugs...but there were still alot of dirtbags in white tank top t-shirts. Cameras followed the ASPCA of New York City and followed up on calls of animal neglect or abuse and other illegal animal activities. There was always just some really bizarre things going on. Actor Michael Madsen was the series narrator and managed to work the word "emaciated" into every single episode. It was really a highlight of the whole show. Animal Precinct was the first show I ever set a Season Pass for on TiVo. Ah, the memories!


Girls Next Door (2005-present; E!) Oddly enough, I discovered this favorite show of mine while wrapping Christmas presents in the middle of the night one year. I've mentioned my love for this show before. The original run of the show followed Holly, Bridget and Kendra and their lives as Hugh Hefner's girlfriends and residences of the Playboy Mansion. While this show does obviously have it's sexy and risque moments, it's all actually quite tame and the reason I love it is for the look inside the incredibly fascinating Playboy Mansion and how it's run, and the whole show is just so plain goofy. Cartoon sound effects, silly story-lines and very clever editing make this one of my favorite shows on TV right now. Unfortunately last year, the girls all split from Hef and the show was revamped with three new girls who only lasted one season. The new girls were ok, but just didn't have the personalities of the original three. It appears they are tinkering with the show again and adding new girls. I've seen the pilot and didn't care for it, but I'll wait to see more before I pass final judgement. The girls are all still alive and kicking in reality world. All three of them have had their own spin-off series. Kendra, Holly's World, and Bridget's Sexy Beaches.

Mall Cops: Mall of America (debuted this year; TLC) I love COPS, I love malls, and I'm totally fascinated with the idea of an amusement park inside a mall, so I was all on board for Mall Cops, which basically transplants the popular COPS format into a big ol' mall. Much like Girls Next Door, it's also interesting to see the behind the scenes inner-workings of a huge operation like Minnesota's Mall of America. I don't think I'll make it out to MoA anytime soon, but watching two security officers escort a drunk guy out of a mall makes for a pretty entertaining evening of television.

My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance (2004; Fox) This isn't necessarily a show I fondly remember and would love to see again, it just stands out as one of the most insane, yet entertaining ideas of a reality show yet. If I recall correctly, this high-class girl from a snobby family had to convince her family that she had fallen in love with some big goofy oaf and that they were getting married in a short period of time. All she had to do, was get all of her family members to show up at the wedding and she would collect some crazy prize like a half a million dollars. Here's the old FOX-style catch - the Fiance, was actually an actor on the shows payroll and it was his job to constantly mess things up without the chick knowing he wasn't also in this for the money. I think they even had actors playing his family. It was a pretty elaborate set-up that of course ended with lots of screaming and crying and a big oversized check for half a million dollars payable only at the Bank of Self-Degrading.

My Fair Brady (2005-2008; VH1) Here's the thing, I'm not a huge fan of the original Brady Bunch show but I absolutely adore all the spin-offs. This latest cash-grab on the good Brady family name, has Christopher Knight (Peter Brady) and Adrianne Curry (who won the first season of America's Next Top Model) who met on another reality show The Surreal Life. The two of them hit it off so well, that they decide to start a relationship, move in together and invite the VH1 camera crew to film their every move. Of course with Knight being a Brady, this led to plenty of opportunities for other Brady's to show up from time to time. Seriously folks, when you got Greg Brady dropping by, a good time is bound to be had by all!

Shipmates (2001-2003; syndicated) My wife and I used to love us some Shipmates! Chris Hardwick hosted this dating show where a couple was set up on a blind date on a cruise ship for three days. It's one thing to be set up on a blind date, but then to be stuck with the person for three days with no escape - good times! Locally, this came on at 2:00am, which shows you how good the show was. I wish I was kidding when I tell you that back in those pre-TiVo and pre-kid times, the Mrs. and I would set the alarm and get up and watch the show in the middle of the night. Those were the good ol' days. Nowadays I'm not likely to get out of bed at 2 in the morning unless there's a fire...and it would have to be a really, really big fire!

The Simple Life (2003-2007; Fox then E!) Paris Hilton (then a nobody) and her BFF Nicole Ritchie (still a nobody) were two spoiled daughters of rich people who were dropped in the middle of Arkansas and expected to go get jobs and live without all the luxuries they are accustomed to. The great thing about this show was how incredibly not "realistic" it was. It was obvious that the situations were planned and that producers told Paris and Nicole to do certain things and act a certain way. Still, it made for great television and was actually a hit the first season. After two more equally entertaining, but less popular seasons the show was cancelled by Fox and then picked up by E! who produced two more seasons which were pretty bad. For my money,the first three seasons of The Simple Life is some of my favorite television of that last decade.

Sunset Tan (2007-2008; E!) One 4th of July back in 2007, both my kids took a monster nap all day long and I laid on the sofa and watched a marathon of this reality show about a tanning salon chain in Los Angeles and found it to be one of the most engrossing things I had watched in a long time. There was alot of drama in this well produced reality show as well as alot of good characters. I followed the show weekly though it's second season and then it just kind of faded off into the sunset, forgotten by E! Oh, the memories of spray tan and tanning beds.

My Super Sweet 16 (2005-present; MTV) When you've got a theme song performed by Hillary Duff you're doing something right, eh!? This rockin' little MTV program shows spoiled teenagers throwing giant parties in honor of themselves. These parties are so way over the top idiotic but it's kind of interesting to see just how rich people (in this case, WAY-too rich people) live their lives and throw around their money. It's a totally stupid show that is completely engrossing and will suck 30 minutes out of your life before you even know it!

Wife Swap (2004-2009; ABC) Seriously folks, I could watch Wife Swap all day long and not get tired of it! And thanks to Lifetime Television, I'll have the chance to do that for the next 4 or 5 years! On Wife Swap, two moms trade places for a week to see what it's like to live in someone else's shoes. Shortly after the show got off the ground, the producers started matching families up with extreme views on one subject or another. So, it wasn't just enough that the animal activist mom went and lived with another family, it had to be with a family of hunters. Competitive sports-minded moms switched places with moms who didn't let their kids play sports. It got to the point where they would even find circus families and swap moms with a family who had a fear of clowns. (I'm not even making that up!) Even though the casting got a little silly, it's some good TV. For the first few days, the moms have to live by the new families rules and then later the moms make new rules that the family has to obey. This always makes for some tension between the new mom and either the husband or the kids. Sometimes they all hate the new mom and then she usually ends up crying and whispering to the camera in the final act of the show. Great show, it way-outlasted FOX's copycat version Trading Spouses. (Which was also good!)

OK...you've read this far...now, tell us your favorite Reality Shows of All Time....