Anyone watch Entourage?

I love Entourage.  I don’t know what made me start watching it.  I think it had something to do with Mark Wahlberg.  I love him and he is the executive producer of the show and upon whom the main character is supposedly based.  I was instantly hooked the first time I saw the show.  It was on HBO On Demand and I think it was an episode with Mandy Moore.  After that, I watched every episode available. I didn’t plan on keeping HBO past my $5 per month for three months offer, but this show and Sex and the City changed my mind. I can watch Sex and the City on TBS, but it’s far from the same show as on HBO… you know what I mean, I’m sure. And Entourage would never be the same either.  Ari Gold would not be the same.  No broadcast network could handle Ari Gold. 

I have to say that right now he has to be my number one most favorite character on TV.  A while ago, maybe a year or two, there was a list. You know, one of those probably on VH1 or Bravo.  It was a list of the top 100 TV characters of all time.  I don’t think Ari Gold was on it.  A couple of my favorites at the time were in very good standing: Lennie Brisco and Andy Sipowicz.  Of course Archie Bunker was at the top. The cast of Seinfeld for some reason was counted as one character… that’s cheating. Anyway, where I’m going with this is that if I was to make a list of my favorite characters on current, non-cancelled TV shows, Ari Gold would be Number 1, hands down.

Here’s my top 10 CURRENT TV CHARACTERS:

1. Ari Gold “Entourage”
2. Betty Suarez “Ugly Betty”
3. Justin Suarez “Ugly Betty”
4. Barney “How I Met Your Mother”
5. Amanda “Ugly Betty”
6. Gabby Solis “Desperate Housewives”
7. Lynette Scavo “Desperate Housewives”
8. George O’Malley “Grey’s Anatomy”
9. Cristina Yang “Grey’s Anatomy”
10. Hurley “Lost”

I could come up with more, but ten’s enough.  As much as I love all 10 of these characters, Ari Gold is MILES above the other nine. That’s how much I like that character.

So, back to Entourage.  I love the other characters, too.  Lloyd and Drama are the funniest and E and Vince are great looking.  I love that the show has famous people playing themselves all the time.  I also love the famous people who play characters who aren’t themselves, like Martin Landau, Malcolm MacDowell, and Beverly D’Angelo.

One great thing about this series is that it could go on forever.  With all the crap celebrities go through… rehab, relationships, bad movies, great movies, dry patches, scandals.  As long as they keep their agent, I don’t care what happens. 

My Faves

I’m making new posts of my favorite movies, actors, actresses, and TV shows, but pre-dated the posts because the lists are long. If you’re interested, they’re in “My Faves” category.

My Favorite Actors

In no particular order at all:

Tom Hanks
Ed Harris
Samuel L Jackson
Robert DeNiro
Al Pacino
Johnny Depp
Matt Damon
Morgan Freeman
Tim Robbins
Kevin Spacey
Kevin Bacon
Sean Penn
Mark Wahlberg
Jack Nicholson
Nicholas Cage
Ryan Gosling
David Straitharn
William Fichtner
Harrison Ford
John Cleese

Then there are a few that I think are really great actors, I love their movies, but something about them keeps them off my Faves list. I’ll mention them anyway:
Tom Cruise
Leonardo DiCaprio
Joaquin Phoenix
Russell Crowe

Then there are the actors who I think might not be the best at acting, but either make me roll on the floor laughing or are just so damn cute I’ll go to see any movie they make:
Jack Black
Martin Short
Mike Myers
Will Ferrell
Ben Stiller
Owen Wilson
Luke Wilson
Robin Williams
Adam Sandler
Michael Keaton
John Cusack

My favorite TV actors:
Bradley Whitford  \
Rob Lowe             }  See something in common here?
Tim Busfield        /
Jimmy Smits
Mark Paul Gosselaar
Fred Savage
Matthew Perry
Chris Noth
Kevin Dillon
Charlie Sheen

My Favorites  from TV and Movies who are no longer with us 😦
Jerry Orbach
Carroll O’Connor
John Ritter
River Phoenix
Chris Farley
Phil Hartman
JT Walsh
Henry Fonda
John Spencer
Peter Boyle

My Favorite Movies

I love movies, so this is a long, incomplete list of my favorites in pretty random order.  A shorter list would probably be movies I’ve seen that I don’t like.

A Few Good Men
Good Will Hunting
The Shawshank Redemption
Dreamgirls
American President
The Bourne Identity
The Bourne Supremacy
Sleepers
Spiderman
Spiderman 2
All the Harry Potter movies
The Lord of the Rings trilogy
Star Wars (episodes 1-5) Return of the Jedi was OK, but not on my list of favorites
The Princess Bride
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Moonstruck
Sleepless in Seattle
Ocean’s Eleven
Legally Blonde (I & II)
Raising Arizona
The Wedding Singer
Million Dollar Baby
Coal Miner’s Daughter
Escape from Alcatraz
My Cousin Vinny
A League of Their Own
The Natural
Stand By Me
Forest Gump
School of Rock
Meet the Parents
Elf
Delores Claiborne
The Firm
Pretty Woman
Steel Magnolias
When a Man Loves a Woman
Dead Poets Society
A Time to Kill
On Golden Pond
Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead
Fried Green Tomatoes
The Breakfast Club
St Elmo’s Fire
Sixteen Candles
Valley Girl
Meatballs
Shrek
Alladin
Finding Nemo
Toy Story
Monsters, Inc.
Juno

Classic Faves:
The Wizard of Oz
The Sound of Music
The Littlest Rebel
Curly Top
Gone With the Wind
Oklahoma!

All Time Fave TV Shows

Here they are, past and present, the best TV!

The West Wing
Ugly Betty
Law & Order
Law & Order SVU
Lost
American Idol
NYPD Blue
Judging Amy
Brothers & Sisters
Studio 60
Desperate Housewives
Two and a Half Men
Everybody Loves Raymond
King of Queens
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
Lou Grant
Bob Newhart
Thirtysomething
Picket Fences
LA Law
E.R.
All in the Family
Seinfeld
MASH
Friends
Grey’s Anatomy
The Practice
Sex and the City
Frasier
Cheers
The Cosby Show
Roseanne
Once and Again
Party of Five
House
Happy Days
Laverne and Shirley
Inside the Actors Studio

January 2010 Update:

The Office
30 Rock
Dexter
Nurse Jackie
The Good Wife
The Mentalist
How I Met Your Mother
The Big Bang Theory
The New Adventures of Old Christine
Samantha Who?
White Collar
Modern Family

These are shows I know are excellent cuz someone told me, but I’ve only seen a couple episodes (or never saw). I’m just including them so you’ll know I don’t think they suck.
24
Six Feet Under
The Sopranos
Curb Your Enthusiasm
The X-Files
Scrubs
The Simpsons

These shows might not be “good” but I enjoyed them enough to see almost every episode, in some cases every single episode multiple times. Most are from when I was a kid.
The Brady Bunch
The Partridge Family
Saved by the Bell
Welcome Back Kotter
Family Affair
Eight is Enough
Charlile’s Angels
The Wonder Years

Late Night and Daytime (FYI, I don’t watch the soaps anymore, but my old faves are listed here) Can ya tell I’m a night owl?:
Late Late Show w/Craig Ferguson
Late Show w/David Letterman (and Late Nite w/David Letterman)
The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson
The Late Late Show w/Tom Snyder
Later w/Bob Costas
Saturday Night Live
Ellen Degeneres
The Rosie O’Donnell Show
The Wayne Brady Show
The View, season 10
The Guiding Light
As the World Turns
The Young and the Restless
Jeopardy!

Lastly, These are great shows from before my time, but thanks to TV Land (or Nick at Nite) I got to watch many reruns and fell in love:
The Dick Van Dyke Show
Mr. Ed
The Donna Reed Show
I Love Lucy
The Honeymooners

Favorite Actresses

These are in no particular order except for #1:

Meryl Streep
Jodie Foster
Reese Witherspoon
Julia Roberts
Meg Ryan
Hilary Swank
Gwynneth Paltrow
Blythe Danner
Maggie Smith
Glenn Close
Joan Cusack
Amanda Peet
Drew Barrymore
Mary Louise Parker
Charlize Theron
Queen Latifah
Kathy Bates
Annette Benning
Cher
Olympia Dukakis
Winonna Ryder
Susan Sarandon
Michelle Pfeiffer
Diane Lane
Sandra Bullock
Natalie Portman
Laura Linney

It’s not their acting, but I just really like them:
Bonnie Hunt
Jennifer Garner
Kelly Preston
Janeanne Garofolo
Regina King

Favorite TV Actresses:
Amanda Peet
Allison Janney
Julia Louise Dreyfuss
Chandra Wilson
Sandra Oh
Kristin Chenoweth
Leah Remini
Megan Mullally
Christine Baranski
Kyra Sedgwick
Annie Potts
Brooke Shields

A few Fave’s who are no longer with us:
Madeline Kahn
Gilda Radner
Jessica Tandy