Monty Hall, who dies at 96, reunites with Jay Stewart in heaven

Monty Hall, the original Let's Make a Deal host, died yesterday at 96 years old. His real name is Monte Halparin, and he now joins his sidekick Jay Stewart (who committed suicide in 1989) up in heaven.  Hall is the second game show host to reunite with Stewart, and also reunited with original Deal announcer Wendell Niles (who died on March 28, 1994 according to Wikipedia). Jim Perry was the first host to reunite with Stewart in heaven after Perry's death in November 2015. Monty now rests in peace with Jay.

The Safety of HSN Hosts and Models During Hurricane Irma

Hurricane Irma has recently hit the usual HSN headquarters in St. Pete, but there was minimal damage to it. As Irma hit the Tampa Bay area of Florida with heavy rain and strong winds, HSN was running their "best of HSN" content, along with live shows from Nashville, with Bobbi Ray Carter, Adam Freeman, and Sarah Anderson as hosts. Suzanne Runyan also evacuated with Bobbi, Adam, and Sarah to Nashville, where very few shows were shot live at Skyway Studios in the music city. All HSN hosts and models were safe before and during Irma. Those who didn't go to Nashville would either shelter-in-place at their homes or move to a strong hotel in Orlando. All HSN employees that had power outages would have non-perishable foods for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks, with each one who never went to Nashville keeping their respective pets safe. Additionally, they would listen to a team of TV weather personalities in the event of a power outage, such as Mike Clay of Bay News 9 and Denis Phillips of WFTS channel 28 (ABC Action News). My breakfasts during the power outage caused by Irma were Pop-Tarts (in the chocolate chip cookie dough flavor) and Cinnamon Toast Crunch a day later. Lunch was two cold peanut butter sandwiches one day, and then a Wendy's meal the next. The only dinner of the power outage was cold cheese sandwiches. We sheltered at my sister's home at 9618 Call Court in Hudson at the time of the storm, and then my mother and I later sheltered at our old home. When we returned, we surveyed the damage to the home, and small flooding was found in some of the rooms due to storm surge. Rocky, my sister's dog, survived Irma as well. I believe that HSN's star model, Regina, had to either shelter-in-place or evacuate due to the storm. Millions lost power due to the storm, with our power being out for over 40 hours. It was out from before midnight on the 10th through after 4PM on the 12th. At the time of the storm, my mom's workplace and all schools statewide were closed. Also closed at the time were many restaurants and grocery stores. Everyone at the River Side Inn in New Port Richey located at 7631 US Highway 19 was safe before, during, and after Irma. At least some people who worked at HSN stayed home from work, in St. Pete, for the storm, but weren't stranded in the dark each night of their respective power outages caused by the storm. I believe they had candles (which can carry a serious risk of fire), along with safer alternatives (in this case, flashlights and lanterns). Also, they would need a portable AM/FM radio, a weather radio, extra batteries, cameras, and other disaster supplies. By 4:15PM on the 12th, Withlacoochee Electric was around the apartment complex to get our power back up and running. The power outages continued at some homes in the Tampa area, such as Bobbi's home and that of new HSN personality Michelle Yarn, who had to shelter-in-place before the storm hit. The most-common station for people in the area to listen to in the event of a hurricane is WFLA radio (AM 970) which has been a news radio station for a lot of years. Programs seen on my portable DVD player during our outage weren't movies. Instead they were The Simpsons episode "The Lastest Gun in the West" (first aired on Fox on February 24, 2002) and the Family Guy episode "The Simpsons Guy" (which first aired on Fox on September 28, 2014).

Geoff Cowan leaves HSN

Well, I just found out by watching Geoff Cowan's last HSN show on YouTube that it was his last show. Geoff is a former TV shopping host at Australia's TVSN and America's HSN.

After Geoff's departure from HSN, he's missed by most of HSN's fans.

Harlan, Miller, Bonner and Jacobson on TBS for a regional final should make the folks at home laugh!

During a commercial break in the midwest regional final airing on TBS right now, Kevin Harlan was supposed to address a fan of college basketball but he couldn't. His courtside reporter for the year, Dana Jacobson, should gain success in chatting with fans at TV timeouts of her own games, such as the one airing right now on TBS (between both Kansas and Oregon).

The TBS game that those fans are seeing should turn out to be funny due to the network's regular focus on comedies like Family Guy (one of my favorite animated comedies in addition to The Simpsons).

If Harlan told a Family Guy-style joke to the crowd seated for the TBS game, then he would think Peter Griffin (Seth McFarlane) would be proud of both teams. That would be the same for Jacobson, who could come up with an idea that Peter from Family Guy would be proud of Kevin.

But the TBS game turns out OK, and I'm sorry for writing the wrong blog post about the game, so I've already written the correct one on this blog.

Harlan, Miller, Bonner and Jacobson seem to be as OK as the game, so it's actually not delayed at all.

Robert Osborne, Chuck Berry, and Chuck Barris die

I've recently learned that Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne had died of kidney failure, Chuck Berry had died of cardiac arrest, and game show creator Chuck Barris had died of natural causes.

Bob died on the 6th at 84 years old, Chuck Berry died 12 days later (on the 18th) at 90 years old, and Chuck Barris died three days after that (on the 21st) at 87 years old.

I remember seeing Bob on a few TCM interstitials, and I haven't remembered Chuck Berry, but I know that Chuck Barris created game shows like The Dating Game and The Newlywed Game among others.

Bill Paxton and Joseph Wapner die

Two great men have died over the weekend: actor Bill Paxton of Apollo 13 and Judge Joseph Wapner of the original People's Court from 1981 to 1993.

I learned that Paxton had died of a stroke at 61 years old, and that Wapner had died of respiratory failure at 97 years old.

I hope those two men rest in peace.

NFL confirms Luke Bryan as Super Bowl LI's national anthem performer

Country fans have wanted Luke Bryan to sing the national anthem at Super Bowl LI and now the NFL confirms!

The country music star has recorded various country hits!