The comedy series “Scrubs” will return to ABC for its ninth season on Dec. 1 with back-to-back episodes at 9 and 9:30 p.m.
The following Tuesday, “Scrubs” will air at 9 p.m. and be followed by the season debut of “Better Off Ted” at 9:30 p.m. The critically acclaimed comedy is in its second season.
I’m always interested to talk to writers after I have read their work. They almost never quite match in some way. Peter Straub, for example, scared the wits out of me years ago with Ghost Story (maybe “unnerved me” would be closer to the truth), and his collaboration with Stephen King, The Talisman, was first-rate fantasy. And then I met the man at a USF event, and he was just the most polite, soft-spoken guy. We drank coffee and iced tea together, is what I am saying.
Tampa Bay resident Susan Kearney was a surprise, too, for different reasons. She writes what the romance industry calls “hot” romance (i.e., sexy). And then you talk to the lady and she’s just as “normal” as can be. Where I was expecting leather and lace, I got a fairly big sci-fi geek.
I like Susan Kearney. So much so that some praise I once wrote is included in her new book, Lucan, which is the first in a new series she is writing, The Pendragon Legacy. The first book centers on Lady Cael, the high priestess of her people who is supposed to live a life without physical pleasure—until a myterious man named Lucan enters her life and tempts her to break her vow. And we’re off and running with some science fiction adventure and massive sexual tension!
Kearney’s done well with her romance novels, of which she has quite a few. You can find out more about her by visiting her website right here. She’s got a nice photo of herself along with a video about the new book and information about the series.
Fans of exotic animals and good food—and no, I don’t mean cooking the one to make the other—will be glad to realize that we are rolling up on that time of the year when Lowry Park Zoo holds its annual Zoofari fundraiser. This means a couple of things: 1) your entry cost will help the zoo pay for taking care of its many animals and 2) you can eat tons of good food. Convenient, eh?
(By the way, of course I realize I am writing about “going out.” Maybe I should just change the name of this blog to, “Everything that interests me today.”)
I like Zoofari, which happens Saturday (Nov. 7), for the same reason I like every all-inclusive event that features great food and drink—once you pay your entry fee (in this case, it starts at $80)—you are done and can sample at will. And there will be food worth sampling. Restaurants include GrillSmith, Ceviche, First Watch, Longhorn Steakhouse, Sonny’s Real Pit BBQ and G. Elliot’s Brunchery and Catering. Some new eateries making their first appearance at Zoofari include Giordano’s, Perkins Restaurant & Bakery and Datz Deli (I’m a big Datz Deli fan—in fact, here’s their website.)
Sister Hazel will play the mainstage, while Tampa’s own The Vodkanauts wil also play.
This is one of those local events that everyone should go to at least once, in my humble opinion. Follow this link for more information.
The spineless weasel of a president, Charles Logan, is making a return visit to “24” during the upcoming eighth season, Fox announced today.
Gregory Itzin will reprise his acclaimed role as the disgraced former president. He was last seen after being shockingly stabbed by First Lady Martha (Jean Smart) in season six. Itzin’s return to “24” will bring together the series’ two Emmy-nominated presidents for the first time when sitting President Allison Taylor (Emmy Award winner Cherry Jones) reluctantly enlists Logan to assist with an escalating international diplomatic crisis.
The Emmy Award-winning drama starring Kiefer Sutherland returns for its next day with a two-night, four-hour premiere event Jan. 17 (9 to 11 p.m.) and Jan. 18 (8 to 10 p.m.) on FOX.
Season eight resets in New York City, where a retired Jack Bauer (Sutherland) is unwillingly drawn back into the action after learning of a plot to assassinate Middle Eastern peace-keeping leader Omar Hassan (Anil Kapoor). Meanwhile, Renee Walker (Annie Wersching) and Chloe O’Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub) return alongside CTU newcomers Dana Walsh (Katee Sackhoff), Brian Hastings (Mykelti Williamson) and Cole Oritz (Freddie Prinze Jr.).
The longest running comedy in TV history is celebrating its 20th year with on on-air scavanger hunt.
The Fox network is paying “homarge” to “The Simpsons” with the network’s first-ever on-air scavenger hunt beginning Monday and continuing through Nov. 13.
Fans can watch Fox each night to find “Simpsons” shout-outs, tributes and clues featured in primetime programming and on-air promos.
One lucky winner will receive a trip for two to Los Angeles to attend a “Simpsons” table read with the Emmy Award-winning voice cast and producers, a home entertainment system, “Simpsons” DVDs and merchandise, and tickets to Universal Studios Hollywood, home of The Simpsons Ride.
Viewers 13 years of age and older who spot shout-outs can log on to http://www.fox.com/scavengerhunt each night to test their knowledge for an opportunity to unlock daily downloadable extras and to enter to win the grand prize. The deadline for submissions is 2 p.m. Nov. 14. For complete official rules, guidelines and more information, visit http://www.fox.com/scavengerhunt.
“Best. 20 Years. Ever.,” a year-long global celebration launched in January, will culminate in January 2010, the 20th anniversary of the series’ debut.
The Children
Directed by: Tom Shankland
Run time: 85 minutes
Rating: R
Format: Blu-Ray
The Lowdown: “The Children” is the best film yet to be released by director Sam Raimi’s direct-to-DVD distribution company, Ghost House Underground.
It’s a slow boil nightmare that pops at just the right times with impressive gore, gallons of blood and enough squirmtastic moments where you can’t help but think, oh crap, kill the kid.
Essentially a fresh take on the “something’s wrong with…” genre, director Tom Shankland has fashioned a creepy as hell ode to human frailty. If your children turned against you for no reason, even those as young as 5 years old, could you…would you…fight back and kill them to save yourself? The answer that he concocts is wonderfully twisted with some characters behaving rationally, some behaving exactly like you might expect in the face of such a hellish turn and some getting killed so brutally and unexpectedly that you are taken by surprise.
The Thaw
Directed by: Mark A. Lewis
Run time: 94 minutes
Rating: R
Format: Blu-Ray
The Lowdown: Oh Val Kilmer, what were you thinking?
“The Thaw,” the latest eco-terror horror film to consider what terrors might be unleashed on our world by global warming, looks to tiny parasitic, prehistoric worms to generate suspense.
The end result is kind of ho-hum.
The worms aren’t that terrifying. The cast, buoyed by Kilmer’s fading star wattage and up-and-comers Aaron Ashmore and Martha McIsaac, is tolerable. But the will they, won’t they escape certain doom premise gets tired pretty quick and the ending leaves a lot to be desired.
If this type of eco-horror interests you, here’s a suggestion: Check out Larry Fessenden’s 2006 indie offering, “The Last Winter.” It’s a far superior film based on the same concept.
Seventh Moon
Directed by: Eduardo Sanchez
Run time: 87 minutes
Rating: R
Format: Blu-Ray
The Lowdown: Eduardo Sanchez, forever to be known as one half of “The Blair Witch Project,” returns with “Seventh Moon,” a plodding but effective chiller about evil spirits and zombies and hell that gets a lot of credit just for being set in China, not the normal locale for an American horror film.
Amy Smart, a go-to genre actress who has lent considerable charm to such crazy, over-the-top B-movies as “Crank” and “The Butterfly Effect,” carries the water throughout, racing by foot across a foreign countryside, trying to avoid white-faced, ashen-bodied, flesh-eating spooks.
Offspring
Directed by: Andrew Van Den Houten
Run time: 79 minutes
Rating: R
Format: Blu-Ray
The Lowdown: I don’t know why, but I just don’t like movies based on the novels of Jack Ketchum. Call it a personal bias, even though I’ve never read a Ketchum book.
But for whatever reason, “The Offspring,” much like “The Lost,” “The Girl Next Door” and “Red,” the other movies based on Ketchum’s work, just didn’t connect with me.
Sure, it has wonderful gore – including a wicked scene early on where a woman stumbles into her kitchen to discover a handful of savage, flesh-eating children carving up her loved one – but I just lost interest as characters got dispatched quickly in this short, bloody offering.
The Stuff You Care About:
Hot chicks – Yes.
Nudity – Yes.
Gore – Yes.
Drug use – No.
Bad Guys/Killers – Crazy kids, creepy Chinese ghosts, prehistoric worms and cannibal tribespeople.
Buy/Rent – Buy “The Children”; Rent the rest.
Release Date – Oct. 6, 2009
Wrong Turn 3: Left for Dead
Genre: Horror/Sequel
Directed by: Declan O’Brien
Run time: 92 minutes
Rating: Unrated
Format: Blu-Ray
The Lowdown: Usually, by the second direct-to-DVD sequel, most horror franchises are beginning to show the strain of taking an idea well past its breaking point.
But the “Wrong Turn” franchise is an anomaly.
The first film was a surprisingly good “people trapped and hunted by inbred hillbillies in the woods” creature feature. The second film, “Dead End,” was actually better than the first in terms of gore. And now, “Wrong Turn 3: Left for Dead,” surpasses all expectations by being both gory good and enjoyable, despite its lesser budget and weaker script.
This time around, there are two groups being hunted in the West Virginia mountain country: A group of young adults on a white-water rafting trip and a busload of dangerous inmates from the local maximum-security penitentiary.
The rafters get dispatched quickly and easily, including both a gratuitous bare boob getting drilled with an arrow shot and an eyeball being blown out by arrow tip. It’s an impressive start.
The prison scenes drag through too much dialogue with an unnecessary subplot of one guard’s final prisoner transfer before he retires.
But once the guards and inmates are on the road, things pick up quickly and people start getting cut in half, ripped apart, encased in razor wire nets and generally eviscerated with gory glee.
This is not an intelligent thriller, by any means. But it’s fun and fast-moving and even though the third batch of hillbilly mutants aren’t as memorable as the ones from the first two films, they’re still creepy and resourceful.
This is a definite winner on a slow night at the video store, and for fans of the series, it won’t disappoint.
The Stuff You Care About:
Hot chicks – Yes: Louise Cliffe, who can’t act for anything, but gets naked with ease.
Nudity – No.
Gore – Considerable.
Drug use – Yes.
Bad Guys/Killers – It’s round three for the West Virginia hillbilly mutants whose ranks show no sign of thinning.
Buy/Rent – Rent it.
Blu-Ray Bonus Features – Three featurettes, “Action, Gore and Chaos!” “Brothers in Blood” and “Three Fingers Fright Night”; deleted scenes.
Release Date – Oct. 20, 2009
The Wizard of Oz – 70th Anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Edition
Genre: Fantasy/Classic
Directed by: Victor Fleming
Run time: 102 minutes
Rating: G
Format: Blu-Ray
The Lowdown: Witches, munchkins, flying monkeys, talking lions.
Seventy years later, it’s hard to believe that one of the world’s most beloved movies, complete with songs and sappy sentimentality, was actually one of the first live-action fantasy movies ever produced.
Would “The Wizard of Oz” even work today with the glut of such fantasy series as Harry Potter and Twilight and the infernal reliance of Hollywood to use CGI to mimic all types of fantastic situations? I like to think it would.
But back in 1939, it’s amazing to think about the risk that MGM took in creating a movie that was essentially a subversive take on an alternate reality not unlike the high-brow concepts of TV shows and movies like “Fringe” and “The Matrix.”
Even the makeup effects and low-fi technical wizardry of turning Bert Lahr and Jack Haley into a lion and a tin man, respectively, and having Margaret Hamilton fly and be crushed by a house, hold up much better than any movie as old as this one should.
Watching “The Wizard…” in gorgeous Technicolor high-definition, you can’t help but see the inspiration for some of our greatest visionary directors working today from Tim Burton to Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro to Steven Spielberg.
Director Victor Fleming and his screenwriters took great care to treat even the most fantastic creations as real from the flying monkeys to the munchkins. The mildly frightening scenes of the witch and the scary forest still resonate with a child’s fear of the unknown.
And the ultimate message, that there is no place like home, still rings true without slapping you across the face with Big Important Ideas, as Hollywood is so wont to do these days.
That there are still people who have never experienced this movie is a crime, but hopefully this deluxe rollout will have a significant hand in changing that. This is a movie made for today’s technology – widescreen, flat-panel TVs and 1080p pixel resolution combined with superior Dolby TrueHD sound.
One thing’s for sure: No one cut corners when it came to the goodies that accompany this 70th-anniversary set, which is limited to 243,000 copies only.
The collectibles alone – Limited-Edition Crystal Watch, replica 1939 Campaign Book, 52-page commemorative “Behind the Curtain of Production 1060” coffee table book and Movie Budget replica sheet – are a movie geek’s dream come true.
Combined with the 16-plus hours of bonus material, it’s almost overwhelming.
For anyone who ever followed the Yellow Brick Road, this is a fan’s ultimate destination.
The Stuff You Care About:
Hot chicks – Glinda the good witch or the Wicked Witch of the West, take your pick.
Nudity – No.
Gore – No.
Drug use – No.
Bad Guys/Killers – Wicked witches, tornadoes and flying monkeys.
Buy/Rent – Buy it.
Blu-Ray Bonus Features – “The Life and Times of original author L. Frank Baum and early screen adaptations of the Oz books”; the early Baum-based silent film, “The Patchwork Girl of Oz” and the complete “The Magic Cloak of Oz”; documentary profile of director Victor Fleming; the television special, “The Dreamer of Oz,” starring John Ritter; footage from the 2007 Hollywood Walk of Fame salute to Munchkins; the six-hour studio chronicle “MGM: When the Lion Roars.”
Release Date – Sept. 29, 2009
Blood: The Last Vampire
Genre: Horror/Anime Adaptation
Directed by: Chris Nahon
Run time: 89 minutes
Rating: R
Format: Blu-Ray
The Lowdown: “Blood: The Last Vampire” somehow manages to rise above low expectations, dismal early reviews and an annoying reliance on fake CGI blood splatters to actually entertain with enough rousing fight scenes and interesting vampire foes to outweigh the obvious negatives.
This live-action adaptation of the long-popular Japanese manga and anime cartoon, “Blood: The Last Vampire” is one of those movies that you watch without paying much attention to the dialogue, particularly the long-winded explanations of who’s good, who’s bad and why this fight has raged on for centuries.
You watch it to see a Japanese schoolgirl kick butt with martial arts mayhem and a big sharp sword.
And in that respect, it’s pretty damn fun.
Some of the CGI is awful, but some of it, particularly the winged vampire nemesis, is enjoyable despite the cheese.
There are too many plot holes, inconsistencies and just plain HUH? moments to list here.
Just go with the action on screen and check logic at the door and you should be sufficiently engaged for its brief 89-minute run time.
The Stuff You Care About:
Hot chicks – Asian vampire schoolgirls with swords, covered in blood. Oh yeah.
Nudity – No.
Gore – Minimal.
Drug use – No.
Bad Guys/Killers – Vampires, duh.
Buy/Rent – Rent it.
Blu-Ray Bonus Features – Storyboard Gallery; Making-of featurette; “Battling Demons: Behind the Stunts” featurette.
On the Web – http://www.sonypictures.com/homevideo/bloodthelastvampire/
Release Date – Oct. 20, 2009
Night of the Creeps – Director’s Cut
Genre: Horror/Zombie
Directed by: Fred Dekker
Run time: 90 minutes
Rating: Unrated
Format: Blu-Ray
The Lowdown: Fred Dekker’s 1986 cult classic has a large following and for good reason.
Of all the cheesy 1980 monster movies that were released in multiplexes, “Night of the Creeps” has an enduring popularity because of its fun nature, its gross effects and its sweet, clichéd nerdy boy meets girl story that gets goosed by an invasion of parasitic alien worms from outer space.
Released in high-definition for the first-time, the director’s cut includes Dekker’s original ending, which teased a second story focusing on the alien efforts to retrieve and kill the worms, and makes for a fun game of what-could-have-been.
“Night of the Creeps” is best enjoyed as pure 80s cheese. It’s not memorable for producing good, grab your girlfriend’s hand scares like “Fright Night” or “Night of the Demons,” but it features venerable B-movie God Tom Atkins (I still love you in “Halloween III: Season of the Witch,” regardless of what everyone else says) and enough face-exploding parasite worm attacks to keep gorehounds happy.
This is definitely one for collector’s and for diehard horror fans to add to their shelf. It’s a great lazy day, pop it in the player and nap intermittently movie.
The Stuff You Care About:
Hot chicks – Hot enough.
Nudity – Brief.
Gore – Yes.
Drug use – No.
Bad Guys/Killers – Zombie-making space worms.
Buy/Rent – Buy it.
Blu-Ray Bonus Features – Director and cast commentary; original theatrical ending; deleted scenes; multilple featurettes, “Birth of the Creeps,” “Cast of the Creeps,” “Creating the Creeps,” “Escape of the Creeps,” “Legend of the Creeps”; a short feature on B-movie legend Tom Atkins, “Man of Action”; trivia track; original theatrical trailer.
Release Date – Oct. 27, 2009
Children of the Corn (2009)
Genre: Horror/Remake
Directed by: Donald P. Borchers
Run time: 92 minutes
Rating: Unrated
Format: DVD
The Lowdown: OK, enough’s enough.
Can we please call for an infinite moratorium on freakin’ “Children of the Corn” movies?
Please.
And would someone also tie Stephen King to a chair and not let him near a computer if he ever thinks it’s a good idea to revisit his once creepy short story to give it another go.
This 2009 remake of the original 1984 film, co-written by King and original producer Donald P. Borchers, who pulls double-duty as director, tries to reinvent the franchise as a Vietnam-era meditation on God and the dangers of organized religion.
And it fails. Not spectacularly, but pitifully.
The new additions – a mixed-race Burt and Vicki, a new Issac and a weaker Malachai and the not-scary-at-all He Who Walks Behind the Rows – come off as annoying and laughable.
Issac and Malachai, in particular, pale by comparison to their original incarnations.
The entire film feels wrong from Burt and Vicki’s constant fighting, shouting, crying, abusiveness to the overwrought scenes of Heartland revival where Issac tries to rally his youthful congregation into believing that there is no life after 18.
This is the eighth “Children of the Corn” film in the past 25 years.
Hopefully, it’s the last.
The Stuff You Care About:
Hot chicks – Eh.
Nudity – Yes.
Gore – Minor.
Drug use – No.
Bad Guys/Killers – Malachai and Issac, boring blood brothers.
Buy/Rent – Neither.
Release Date – Oct. 6, 2009
Check out 16 local artist at ArtCore’s “ArtGore” tonight at Karma Bar & Cafe.
There will be an art show and halloween costume contest.
Land of the Lost
Genre: TV/Comedy/Science-Fiction
Directed by: Brad Silberling
Run time: 102 minutes
Rating: PG-13
Format: DVD
The Lowdown: Dear Will Ferrell, how it pains me to write this letter to you.
I have loved your films for years, laughed at your comic creations, wept tears born of my juvenile fascination with pee and flatulence jokes and generally worshipped pretty much every movie you’ve made (minus “Semi-Pro,” sorry dude, but it was one sports movie too many) since 2003’s “Old School.”
I have quoted liberally from “Anchorman” and “Talladega Nights,” guffawed at the ridiculousness of “Step Brothers” and even marveled at minor cameos in “Wedding Crashers” and other films where you seemingly appeared like a comedy angel to elevate a lesser film to greater glory.
But “Land of the Lost”?
I couldn’t believe the reviews, refused to dignify the lack of stars, scoffed at the box office bomb that was opening weekend.
I knew everyone had it wrong. I knew there was that same Will Ferrell spark to be found. I waited eagerly to gloat to the detractors at how wrong they were.
Then I actually sat down and watched it. And man, oh man, does it suck.
I realize you had the unenviable task of taking a low-budget show about nothing, really, and making it into a subversive comedy about something.
But wow – did you miss the mark.
“Land of the Lost” careens like a drunken pirate at Gasparilla stumbling down Bayshore Boulevard, switching tone wildly and often from family-friendly comedy to adults-only bathroom humor.
It’s like no one knew what to do with the script and opted instead for an anything-goes bravado that falls flat way too often when you consider Ferrell and Danny McBride are two of the funniest men on the planet.
It’s time to regroup, Will Ferrell, and put this atrocity behind you.
Consider this your “Ishtar” or “Hudson Hawk” and just move on.
I forgive you. And I know your legions of fans forgive you as well.
Just take your time, fully develop a new character like Ron Burgundy or Ricky Bobby and come out swinging.
Then this “Land” will thankfully, hopefully be lost from memory for good.
The Stuff You Care About:
Hot chicks – Anna Friel, a grown-up hottie Holly.
Nudity – No.
Gore – No.
Drug use – No.
Bad Guys/Killers – Sleestaks.
Buy/Rent – Neither.
On the Web – http://www.landofthelost.net/
Release Date – Oct. 13, 2009
Drag Me to Hell
Genre: Horror
Directed by: Sam Raimi
Run time: 99 minutes
Rating: Unrated
Format: Blu-Ray
The Lowdown: Twenty-eight years after his landmark independent film “The Evil Dead,” director Sam Raimi has not grown up one single day.
He still delights in spewing bodily fluids, exploding eyeballs, terrifying jump scares and throwing his actors around a set like rag dolls as they endure unbelievable abuse to make the audience shriek in fear.
“Drag Me to Hell,” Raimi’s return to horror after helming three monster “Spider Man” films, plays like the perfect mash-up of “The Evil Dead,” its second sequel “Army of Darkness” and “The Quick and the Dead,” his campy western from 1995.
All the dazzling camera tricks – the swoops, the close-ups, the swirling panoramas – are here. The goop and blood and bile is too.
But none of it would matter if Raimi and his brother Ivan hadn’t cooked up a whale of a grisly tale to tell and created the perfect target in nebbish loan officer Christine Brown (Alison Lohman), who learns all too well the consequences for deciding to stand up for one’s self.
Over the course of nearly 100 breakneck minutes, Raimi barely pauses to breathe, subjecting Christine Brown to every horror imaginable after she embarrasses a poor gypsy woman seeking an extension on her mortgage.
Christine is attacked by demons, pummeled by invisible hell hounds, forced to spew blood and ingest vomit and bile. The effects are top-notch, but still manage to hold on to the same maverick streak that permeated Raimi’s early work. While he employs CGI at times, it’s clear how heartily he revels in showing a blistering up-close bloody battle inside a car and around a parking garage, for example. That scene, in particular, where Christine first encounters the gypsy face to face is wholly reminiscent of the cramped shots inside the lonely cabin in the woods when Ashley Williams is first attacked by the evils of the Necronomicon.
The beauty of “Drag Me to Hell,” much like Raimi’s early work, is that ultimately, it just doesn’t matter. The great irony is that there is no happy ending for someone trapped in a Sam Raimi nightmare. There is only abuse, suffering and torment.
After seven years in comic book land where the bad guys lose, the hero gets the girl and the townsfolk rejoice, it’s nice to see such an A-list director get his hands dirty with a nasty slice of deliriously dark fantasy.
The Stuff You Care About:
Hot chicks – No.
Nudity – No.
Gore – Considerable.
Drug use – No.
Bad Guys/Killers – Don’t mess with the old gypsy woman.
Buy/Rent – Buy it.
Blu-Ray Bonus Features – BD-Live Exclusive content and Production Video Diaries.
On the Web – http://www.dragmetohell.net/
Release Date – Oct. 13, 2009
The syndicated game show “Wheel of Fortune” and ABC Action News (WFTS, Channel 28) gave away $25,000 to local viewers this week.
Christine Alder of Clearwater gets a big check for $5,000.
On Monday , Mary Rodriguez of Tampa won the $5K Every Day giveaway. She got a knock on the door by the game show’s silver-sparkled “spokeswedge” to receive the $5,000. “I’ve never won anything before,” Mary said. “We are big ‘Wheel of Fortune’ fans, and this is very special.”
Mary, who recently retired from her position as coordinator for the continuing education department at Hillsborough Community College, plans on using her winnings to go on vacation with her husband, Jose.
“We really like to travel, and we would like to go to Cincinnati to visit our son, and whatever we have left over, use it to go to Yellowstone National Park,” she said.
On Tuesday night, Christine Alder, a Clearwater resident, became $5,000 richer. The retired General Motors employee had no idea she would win and all she could do was dream and hope, she said.
“I said, ‘It’s not going to happen,’ ” Christine said. “But the odds have to be better than the lottery because I’ve been playing the lottery for so long, so many years.” A lifelong fan of “Wheel of Fortune,” she already has plans for the money. “All I kept thinking about was a new washer and drier,” she said. “Then I got to thinking later that my granddaughter’s commencement from college is in December.”
Mary and Jose have plans for the $5,000.
Linda Tyler of Forrest Hills was the $5,000 winner on Wednesday night. She registered with WFTS, watched “Wheel of Fortune” and knew the WFTS designated puzzle when a sweepstakes representative called.
“I thought it was a joke at first,” Linda said. “I had told my daughter and some of her friends that it was a joke, but she assured me it wasn’t when they called.”
Linda, who is a cafeteria worker at Mulrennan Middle School, added that the big win couldn’t have come at a better time.
“I’m going to brag at work,” she laughed. Linda plans on using the money to buy Christmas presents for her grandchildren and to remodel a spare bedroom.
Betty Stern became $5,000 richer on Thursday night. The Palm Harbor resident was the fourth winner.
“I can’t even explain how it feels,” Betty said. “I’ve never won anything before. It was very exciting. I watch the show all the time. It was wonderful.”
Betty, who is a Sony Card holder and a Wheel Watchers Club member, plans on using the money to help her children with their expenses, she said.
Her husband, Richard also has plans for the money. “He said he is going to take me to the flea market and get me something nice,” she chuckled.
James Farrell became $5,000 richer when he became the fifth and final winner. “I was shocked, I couldn’t believe that I was the winner,” James, 41, said. “I couldn’t believe it happened to me.”
James, who works at a fast-food restaurant, is a lifelong fan of “Wheel of Fortune. ” He plans on using his winnings to pay bills and take a trip to Disney World with friends
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