Now Hudson County residents have a good reason to watch CBS’s Hit The Good Wife one of their own residents will be appearing this fall in the second season.

According to the Ausiello File it has been annoucned that Emmy -Award Wining Hudson County Actress Tammy Blanchard will will join the cast for the up -coming  season of  the “Good Wife.”

Blanchard will appear as a confidante to Cary (Matt Czuchryone of Glen Childs†underlings.

Described as a “fair-minded assistant stateâ€s attorney who looks more like an indie-band drummer than a lawyer,” Blanchardâ€s character — who will likely recur — befriends the departmentâ€s newest employee, Cary (who joined Childs†camp after getting pink-slipped by Will and Diane in the finale)

To read more about this visit Ausiello File

Source Ausiello File /Michael Ausiello

The post Hudson County Actress Tammy Blanchard Appearing in CBS Program “The Good Wife” first appeared on River View Observer.

 in  Cablevision Service Area

 MSG Varsity is kicking off a new contest open to all high schools in the Cablevision service area, MSG Varsity’s Mascot Dash to the Desk. Mascot Dash to the Desk offers schools the opportunity to submit a photo of their school mascot online at msgvarsity.com from April 14^–21 to be eligible for the grand prize – a brand new mascot costume for their high school (worth up to $6,000) and a guest appearance by the school’s mascot on MSG Varsity’s signature daily sports show, High School SportsDesk, on Cablevision’s iO TV (Channel 14).

 From the submissions, a maximum of 80 schools will be selected to compete in the contest. Over five weeks, the mascots will compete in “heats” for weekly prizes. Online voting will determine the 20 finalists that will go on to compete in the final sprint to win the grand prize. Online voting will also determine the Mascot Dash to the Desk Champion. The grand prize, 2^nd & 3^rd place winners will be announced on June 6^th.

 “Based on the success of our first contest School Spirit Mania, we wanted to find another interactive way for high school students to showcase their school spirit,” said Philip Summers, VP Marketing for MSG Varsity. “And a mascot race was the answer. We’re looking forward to getting the Dash to the Desk started to find out which school mascot will be voted champion and be receiving a make-over.”

 For more information on Dash to the Desk and to see the weekly prize packages please go to www.msgvarsity.com.

 

MSG Varsity includes a multi-platform suite of services, made up of a 24/7 television network that airs on Cablevision’s iO TV service, channel 14; a comprehensive online destination, msgvarsity.com; and a groundbreaking interactive service, channel 614 – all spotlighting extracurricular activities and events at local high schools. 

 

About MSG Varsity

MSG Varsity is a multi-platform suite of services comprised of: a 24/7 television network, a comprehensive online destination, and a groundbreaking interactive service, all dedicated to high school sports, academics and activities happening throughout the tri-state area.  Content for these services includes MSG Varsity’s professionally produced programming as well as content created by the high schools themselves.  Working in partnership with MSG Varsity, students and faculty are given extraordinary access to curriculum and training in multimedia creation and distribution, empowering them to become active participants in telling their school’s stories.  MSG Varsity is a Cablevision exclusive service not available to satellite or phone company TV subscribers and reaches three million households throughout the New York market.  For more information, please visit www.msgvarsity.com.

 

 

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The post DOES YOUR HIGH SCHOOL MASCOT HAVE WHAT IT TAKES?ENTER MSG VARSITY’S MASCOT DASH TO THE DESK NOW first appeared on River View Observer.

WOULD YOU?

Jamie Oliver shows kids what’s in a chicken nugget

The post Chicken Nugget Experiment Fails for Food Revolutions Jamie Oliver first appeared on River View Observer.

Before Jack Paar Johnny Carson, Jay Leno , Jimmy Kimmel  Conan  O’Brien and Jimmy Fallon there is Joe Franklin.

Joe Franklin —America‘s First Talk Show Host!

by Sally Deering

To his fans he’s the “King of Nostalgia,” but to thousands of show folk, Joe Franklin is a friend who gives stars a place to shine and unknowns the chance to stand out from the crowd.  In his 50-year career, Franklin has made it his mission to help the struggling artist get a foot in the door, and with a look-back, it seems this spunky octogenarian not only accomplished his goal, he picked up a little stardust of his own along the way.

In 1951 TV was a toddler still learning and discovering its capabilities. Many of the TV studios were in New York – on the fringes of the Theater District broadcasting game shows, kiddie shows, dramas and comedies live and in black-and-white. That year, station WJZ (which later became ABC,) approached Franklin about doing a TV talk show.Things clicked and “The Joe Franklin Show” premiered with Franklin as host engaging celebrity guests in the art of conversation.

Franklin has sat behind the mic for some 300,000 interviews with the Who’s Who of Hollywood — Cary Grant, Marilyn Monroe, Charlie Chaplin, Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson, Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino and practically every superstar in between. But it wasn’t just the big names that interested Franklin. New York City was his hometown and Franklin knew first-hand how young actors, singers and comics were struggling for their first break. So between the glamorous glitterati, Franklin interviewed unknown up-and-comers. Some never went any further than Franklin’s show, but others like comic Bill Cosby, singers Bette Midler and Barbra Streisand and actress Julia Roberts saw their careers take off and became superstars.

 At 83, the dapper “boy from ‘da Bronx” is still going strong. His radio show “Memory Lane,” broadcasts Saturday nights at midnight on WOR, 710-AM and he hosts weekly interviews with celebrities for Bloomberg Radio’s “Lifestyles.”

An authority on the world of show business from the days of silent films, Franklin has written 23 books on the stars and how some of them played a role in his life. He interviewed so many stand-up comics, he wrote a book about them, too. Carving out his niche as talk show host cum celebrity, Franklin even played himself in films like “Ghostbusters” and “Broadway Danny Rose.” And now, the accolades are rolling in. The Theater Museum honored him with a Lifetime Achievement Award at a dinner held at the Players Club, last October, and he was honored by the Museum of Broadcasting for his contribution to television. And to many New Yorkers, he’s still the man to see when you’re trying to break into the biz.

The Open Door Policy

Franklin’s office is in a busy theatrical building that shadows the Theatre District west of Broadway, a building where the business of show is conducted on a daily basis. Walk through the halls and you’re likely to see audition postings on office doors and the halls filling up with dancers, singers and actors waiting to be called in to perform a monologue or sing 8-bars for the director or casting agent. It’s a building like so many others in Manhattan and before you even get to Franklin’s office, you feel that show biz electricity in the air. When you reach his door, it’s slightly ajar as if to say “Come in, have a seat and we’ll talk!”

Stepping inside Franklin’s office is like entering a catacomb of memorabilia crowded with piles of books, celebrity photographs, magazines and papers. Shelves line most of the walls with record albums from Franklin’s days as a DJ spinning “33s” for New York’s insomniacs, lonely-hearts and night-shifters who tuned in to his radio program back in the day. Franklin still keeps warehouses filled with memorabilia he has collected throughout his years, with enough nostalgic ephemera to fill several museums.

At the far side of the room, Franklin holds court at a small desk – his two phones ringing constantly with press agents and publicists looking to book their clients on his radio show.  He doesn’t have a computer or a talent coordinator and does all the bookings himself.

“I never solicited a guest,” Franklin says between calls, “never called one guest to appear on my show. They all came to me.”

Among his favorites, he says, were five U.S. Presidents, Cary Grant and Charlie Chaplin. He had Frank Sinatra on four times.

“He was charming,” Franklin says. “He spoke what he spoke, ‘dese, dems and doughs,’ but when he sang, he was like a different person.”

And the stars keep coming. This week, for his Bloomberg Radio show, Franklin booked Lily Tomlin, Andy Williams, Dick Van Patten and his best friend from childhood, Tony Curtis, who’s plugging a new book.  When interviewing celebs, Franklin says, “get the plug out of the way fast. They’re always nervous about what they gotta plug, once that’s done, they can relax.”

It’s a late Thursday afternoon and Franklin’s friend, 56 year-old aspiring actor Frank DiGiovanni has been visiting and helps answer phones and greet visitors.  When they walk through the open door, some Franklin knows and some he doesn’t, but whether they’re stopping in to say hello or plug their act – Franklin greets each one with a smile and a handshake.

“DJ Patty” and “DJ Anthony” a mother and son mobile disc jockey act from Long Island are visiting Franklin with the hope he might help them break into the Manhattan scene. DJ Patty, a vivacious blonde, shows Franklin a picture of herself with Robert DeNiro from the time she DJ’d a party for the “Casino” cast. Franklin seems genuinely interested and invites her to sit and schmooze.

“He’s a legend,” DJ Patty gushes. “I watched his show all the time.”

And while DJ Patty puts on the charm, Franklin’s old buddy Remo Capra strolls through the door. Capra talked about the time he sang with the Tommy Dorsey band in 1956 and recorded an album with Frank DeVol at Columbia records.

“I used to go on Joe’s show all the time,” Capra says. “Those were good times.”

And then Tommy “G” from Bayonne bursts through the door with some buddies.

“I met Joe through my cousin, they were very good friends,” Tommy “G” says after shaking hands with Franklin and exchanging hellos. “I call him on the phone and stop by and say hi whenever I’m in the neighborhood.”

So do a lot of people.

“This is typical,” DiGiovanni says.. “They come to talk with Joe or to network.”

A New York Landmark

Joe Franklin is a New York original who shooed away offers to leave the urban landscape for the glitz and glam of Hollywood. He’s a “Regular Joe” who still gets a kick out of being recognized on the street and hearing cab drivers tell him they learned English from watching his show.

“I was told I should relocate to the West Coast, but I didn’t want to drop the New York Beat,” Franklin says.

He’s a New York landmark, a TV pioneer who has given thousands of people their shot – and he’s not done yet. As the phones keep ringing, Franklin sits in his chair booking guests and sharing anecdotes with the people chatting away in his office. This is his world – schmoozing with big names and meeting new faces and Franklin, looking delighted at all the activity, stops for a moment and asks, “Anyone want coffee?”

His guests say “Yes,” coffee orders are taken and everyone settles in for a schmooze-fest;  just another typical day in the life of “America’s First Talk Show Host.”

The post Joe Franklin- Amercia’s First Talk Show Host “Memory Lane” January 22nd, 1983 first appeared on River View Observer.

TLC Monday Nights …10pm

By Sally Deering   Photos by David Bayne

No disrespect to Frank Sinatra, but Hoboken’s bouncing a new favorite son on its knee, a charismatic cake baker who followed in the floured footsteps of his father to become the star of his own reality TV show.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since the premiere of “Cake Boss,” tourists have turned the busy little bake shop into a must-see on their vacation itinerary. Out-of-town customers mingle with locals as they crowd into the red-bricked storefront bistro, nestling into café tables and “oohing” and “ahhing” the cannoli, cream puffs, brownies, layer cakes and other sensational home-made pastries on display. Digital cameras in hand, they pose for pictures with Valastro’s vivacious mom and personality-plus sisters while trying to decide what will satisfy their sweet tooth. And once they choose, they snap pictures of each other giddily diving into their desserts — and, rightly so. I mean, have you ever tasted a Carlo’s “lobster claw?”

 

“Anybody else, come on down,” Valastro’s mom calls out to the crowd after posing for a snapshot with Valastro’s sibs and Cristin Wright, 15, of Rhode Island who came to taste the desserts she sees every week on the show.

 

“I’m a fan,” Wright says, beaming after her photo opp. “I watch it every Monday night. I like to watch them make the cakes. I hope to be a pastry chef when I grow up.”

Throughout the day, crowds pour through the door leaving little doubt that the Cake Boss’s star is on the rise.

As sweet as the cream in his tiramisu, Valastro, 32, is warm, funny and passionate about his family and the tradition of baking.  And beneath the celebrity stardust and the boisterous persona that hoots and hollers, cajoles and kibitzes is a humble baker who wears his heart on his chef’s coat sleeve for the man who taught him everything he knows — his dad, Buddy Sr., who passed away long before the cameras came.

“When I was 5, my dad would take me to the bakery on weekends and sit me up on the bench and roll out Pasta Frola,” Valastro says in his tiny upstairs office during a break from taping. “He would give me a cookie cutter and I would cut out cookies and decorate them. It was a fun time with my dad. Then when I was 11, I started making a difference helping out in the store. The more I was there, the more I was intrigued. I looked up to my dad. I wanted to mimic him.”

Valastro comes from a long-line of bakers. His grandfather baked bread in Sicily and Valastro’s father Buddy, Sr., learned the trade. At 13, he went to work for Carlo’s on 4^th and Adams Sts. in Hoboken, a popular bake shop that had been around since 1910.  When he married Mary several years later, the couple bought the bakery and kept the name. Inside the current shop, if you stand near the pie case, you’ll see a photograph of Mary and Buddy, Sr., in their Adams Street store holding a smiling baby Buddy “Cake Boss” Jr.

 

Having a dad as a baker, meant that birthday cakes were something special at home and Valastro recalls the time his father made him a Batman Cave cake.

“My dad was a great cake decorator,” Valastro remembers.

 Buddy Sr., passed away when Valastro was 17 and although he never attended culinary school, he dedicated himself to continuing the family business and “putting it on the map.” Back then, Valastro says, birthday and wedding cakes were very traditional, usually made with whipped cream icing and buttercream rosettes. So, Valastro began working with fondants and other new culinary techniques. When he opened Carlo’s Bake Shop in its present location, he was still in his 20s and the business and his career started taking off. He entered several Food Network bake-offs – winning a $10,000 wedding cake challenge — and pitched his own show. The TLC network liked the idea and even christened him “Cake Boss.” After the first season aired, the TLC aired a “Cake Boss” marathon and that’s when Valastro, his Hoboken bakery and family became reality show stars.

On a recent visit to the Bake Shop, TLC cameras were filming an episode with Valastro and his kitchen crew creating a cake for the Camden Aquarium. Valastro was experimenting with liquid sugar to make coral, pouring the hot mixture into pitchers of ice cubes. When the blue, orange and yellow sugars chilled, he gently shook them loose and they looked just like aquarium coral. The challenges of creating novelty cakes inspires Valastro and he just keeps topping himself like in the episode where he had to create a mechanical robot cake and then deliver his niece’s roller-skate-themed birthday cake – on roller-skates.

 And now that the show is a huge hit, customer requests are getting more elaborate, Valastro says, “They don’t want a cake they want a cake that will spin, talk and move.”

 And then there are all those lobster tails to make. The big demand for this scrumptious delight makes it the most popular pastry in the shop, Shaped like, well, lobster tails, they have a crunchy exterior, like a light, sweetened Shredded Wheat biscuit filled with a sweet cream that sends taste buds into orbit.  Valastro says they’re difficult and time-consuming to make, but even he admits it’s his favorite pastry when a craving calls for something sweet.

Valastro’s craving for the sweet smell of success hasn’t gone to his head although it can be a bit daunting, he says, like when he visits New York City and sees himself on a huge billboard in Times Square. He’s both surprised at the show’s popularity and grateful for all that “Cake Boss” has brought to his family business. There’s just one special ingredient missing in his piece of the pie – the dad who inspired him with just one little cookie cutter.

CAKE BOSS can be seen on The Learning Channel (TLC) Monday nights at 10pm   CAKE BOSS show schedule and times

Carlo’s Bake Shop

95 Washington Street,

 Hoboken, NJ 0730

201-659-3671 

visit them on the web @ www.carlosbakery.com

The post Cover Story -CAKE BOSS- Buddy Valastro -Our River View Interview first appeared on River View Observer.