The Teams Have a Smashing Good Time! Plus the Scrubies, ABC Finales and Ratings

Eric & Jeremy (Team Slacker) compete in the Detour (photo courtesy cbs.com)

It was another thrilling edition of The Amazing Race last night! After each of the teams found Phil-on-the-mat, they learned that they would be making the 1000-mile trip to Frankfurt Germany. One member of Team Slacker (or Team Casanova according to Phil) asked the other member how they were going to get there. I so wanted Phil to tell them that they had to walk the 1000 miles. I mean, if they're looking to impress Team Double D, what better way to do it than "to be the man who'd walk a thousand miles to fall down at your door" (my apologies to the Proclaimers). All of the teams began making their way to the airport to book flights to Frankfurt. Team Slacker scored a serious coup when they nabbed the last ticket out on a flight that was about to leave. Lake/Michelle just missed the cut off and had to settle for a flight that left two hours later. As the rest of the teams arrived at the airport, minor drama ensued when the ticket window had long lines and computer malfunctions. Team Hippie managed to luck up when the closed window in front of them suddenly opened. They purchased tickets for the same flight as Lake/Michelle. The rest of the teams had to settle for the earliest flight out the next morning. Once the first three teams arrived in Germany, caught a train to Stuttgart and found the Mercedes-Benz Factory, they were surprised to learn that it didn't open until the next morning (Really guys? Have you ever seen this show before?). It didn't seem to matter much because the other teams next-day flight was too far behind to allow them to catch the three already there. The next morning, the teams had to take a ride on the auto manufacturer's test track with speeds up to 170 kph and high banking turns. After each team completed the challenge, they learned that they would need to drive 200 miles to the town of Bad Tolz to receive their next clue.

All of the teams seemed to easily find Bad Tolz, except for mother/daughter team Wanda and Desiree, who wound up going in circles on the interstate and lost a huge chunk of time. Unfortunately for Team Double D, they had decided to follow Team Mother/Daughter. Meanwhile back at Bad Tolz, the teams encountered a Roadblock. One team member had to search under Travelocity Traveling Gnome (TAR shameless plug number 2 for the night) hats and boots to find their very own Travelocity Traveling Gnome and then bring the gnome to Phil when they reached the Pit Stop later in the race. Do you think that Phil has a collection of traveling gnomes stashed away somewhere? This was one of those tasks that is much easier for the first few teams that complete it, so everyone seemed to breeze through it until the last teams arrived. More on that later. After finding the gnomes, teams learned that they had to travel to Bavaria Film in Grunwald. On the way to the gnome Roadblock, Lake and Michelle stopped and picked up a local who they thought would help them reach their destination faster. Too bad this local was still drunk from his night out, but he was able to navigate the team anyway. Once the teams arrived at Bavaria Film, they found this leg's Detour: Break it or Slap it. In Break it, each team member took a turn breaking a stunt bottle over the other member's head until they found a label with the word "Prost" on it. In Slap it, teams had to learn and perform steps from a German folk dance. All of the three leading teams chose the former. Team Slacker struggled with it and decided that the task was only fun in the beginning, but they found a label just as the other two teams arrived. Lake/Michelle found a label on their second try, followed by Team Hippie. Each team learned that they needed to travel 10 miles to Munich and find the Siegester, a monument to peace and the Pit Stop. Team Slacker was sure to secure a kiss from the poor girl handing out the clues before they took off for the Pit Stop. All three teams made their way there, with Team Slacker coming out victorious. Phil told them that they were the biggest Casanovas ever to grace The Amazing Race. Next came Lake/Michelle and finally Team Hippie who took the opportunity to run backwards to the mat, which caused Phil (or as I like to call him Captain Obvious) to remark to his gnome-like friend that the team was running backwards. Man, if Phil hadn't pointed that out, I never would have realized it! Good catch, Phil! You guys know I LOVE Phil!

Meanwhile back at the Detour, all of the other teams sans Team Double D and Team Mother/Daughter, were trying to complete Break it while Fran and Barry worked on Slap it. They struggled with the dance moves, but after a few tries finally got it and the clue and made their way to the Pit Stop. Meanwhile, Team Nerds found the label first and sped off to the Pit Stop as well. Team MoJo and Ray/Yolanda struggled with Break it. Monica decided that she and Joseph should switch to Slap it, and they soon learned that they should have chosen it all along as they quickly mastered the steps and received their next clue. Ray/Yolanda switched as well and quickly completed Slap it. Meanwhile back at the Roadblock, Team Double D and Team Mother/Daughter struggled to find their gnome, with Team Double D finding theirs first and speeding off to the Detour. Desiree searched and searched, but she kept coming up empty. It started to get darker and the entire scene reminded me of those poor sisters a few seasons back who couldn't find the clue in the haystack and then Phil had to come tell them that they had been eliminated from the race. I was worried that the same fate would befall Team Mother/Daughter, but just then, Desiree found her gnome! They made their way to the Detour, where they found Team Double D (who had just completed Slap it) making their way back to their car and the Pit Stop. Team Mother/Daughter hurried through the Detour and caught up with Team Double D, but it wasn't enough to keep them from finishing in last place and getting eliminated from the race. What did you think of last night's episode? Were you bummed to see Wanda/Desiree leave? Drop me a comment with your thoughts.


You know an episode of one of your favorite comedies is going to be great when it starts off with one of the characters giving her boyfriend a mouth guard and then progresses to Maria Menounos' obsession with JD's hair and the term "Kelly Rippa" catching on all over the hospital! And then there were the hilarious scenes with Dr. Cox reading lines with one of his patients so he too can "go the extra mile." You just gotta love Perry as Blanche DuBois from A Streetcar Named Desire! The best moment from the entire episode, though, was learning about Prick, the hospital's hypodermic needle mascot. I'm still laughing hysterically at this one even as I type it now. It was made even funnier when Turk decided to dress up as Prick to impress Dr. Kelso into giving him a permanent surgical position at Sacred Heart. I'll let you insert your own jokes here. Speaking of jokes, here's a look at last night's best, funniest and all around awesome lines in this week's edition of The Scrubies.



The Scrubies
"My job is to make sick people better, not to help Bernie in there score a slice of Episcopalian tail on opening night." Dr. Cox to JD after JD suggests that he should read lines with his patient in order to go the extra mile

"You know, in 4 1/2 years I've watched your pal Stephanie go through a multitude of irritating fads: the Ugg boots, the campaign for better grammar among the staff and of course, the double European air kiss. And seeing as you two are sorority sisters, I was kind of hoping you'd be able to tell me when this extra mile crap is likely to end." Dr. Cox to Turk regarding JD

"All day sucker, my ass! Try 20 minutes." Dr. Kelso after finishing an enormous lollypop

"Knowing him, he's probably out getting her a cake shaped like a cancerous white blood cell." Dr. Cox regarding JD and his campaign to go the extra mile with his leukemia patient

That's this week's Scrubie honorees. If you have a quote that you would like to nominate for a Scrubie, leave me a note and I'll post it in a future edition. Or, just drop me a comment on your thoughts about last night's episode.

About Last Night...Fox won the first hour of the night with American Idol, followed by CBS' NCIS (r) and ABC comedies According to Jim and Hope and Faith. At 9, Fox continued its dominance with the second hour of American Idol, followed by CBS' The Unit and NBC's back-to-back episodes of Scrubs. The final hour of the night went to NBC's Law & Order: SVU, followed by ABC's Boston Legal and CBS' The Amazing Race. For more on last night's ratings, visit Zap2it.

~Primetime Pass~
@8 p.m. - The girls learn to walk the walk while dealing with Madagascar hissing cockroaches on UPN's America's Next Top Model. I've seen some advanced clips from this episode, and the cockroaches do not go over well! Plus, Jay designs a fairytale-themed photoshoot that has the girls falling into their poses. Over on Fox, the remains of a young documentary filmmaker are found in a ventilation shaft in an underground Washington, DC, tunnel on Bones. NBC airs a special night of Deal or No Deal. CBS moves Out of Practice and Courting Alex to their new slots at 8/8:30, respectively.

@9 p.m. - Talk about a loaded hour of television! I'm going to start with UPN's Veronica Mars because it's the most awesome show to ever awesome, but also because Kristen Bell is an absolute sweetheart! I received a personalized, handwritten thank you from her in the mail the other day for attending the Veronica Mars Bloggers Press Day last month! Can you believe how sweet that was? On tonight's episode, Harry Hamlin and Charisma Carpenter return while Veronica helps Wallace's new girlfriend find her runaway bride sister. Over on ABC, Sun must decide whether she should tell Jin a secret that could upset the balance on the island on Lost. We find out which contestant gets the boot tonight on Fox's American Idol. After Idol, Fox premieres its new reality show Unan1mous which locks 9 strangers in a room until they decide which one of them should get the $1.5 million dollars. NBC moves Law & Order an hour earlier. CBS has Criminal Minds and tonight, the team investigate a series of killings that appear to be the work of a vigilante. And now I'm completely exhausted from just typing it all, let alone trying to take it all in tonight! DVRs and VCRs everywhere will be working overtime tonight.

@10 p.m. - ABC premieres its new crime drama The Evidence. The show stars Martin Landau and Rob Estes. Each week, the evidence in the crime will be presented to viewers at the beginning of the show, and we'll learn how it all fits together. Over on NBC, it's the premiere of Heist. This series, starring Dougray Scott, revolves around a group of professional thieves who are plotting to simultaneously rob three prominent Beverly Hills jewelry stores during Academy Awards week. Over on CBS, the 6-year old witness to a museum curator's murder refuses to talk on CSI: NY.



QUICK CUTS

*ABC is planning huge finales this May for its most popular shows. Look for 2-hour finales from Lost, Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Alias, Boston Legal, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and America's Funniest Home Videos according to the network. Anatomy will air its finale over two nights on May 14th and 15th, with Legal wrapping up its season the following night. Alias will end its 5-season run on May 22nd. Look for Home Edition and Housewives to wrap things up May 21st. Lost will end its sophomore season on May 24th where it will go head-to-head with the season finale of Fox's American Idol. And finally, Invasion will wrap things up with a typical 1-hour finale on May 17th.

*Former Veronica Mars actress Alona Tal (Meg Manning) might be back on the same network with her former employer this fall. The actress has just been cast in a new pilot for the CW according to The Hollywood Reporter. The show, called Split Decision, follows a girl who gets a chance to reinvent herself when she moves to a new high school. It will have dual plotlines that follow her decision to sit with either the popular kids or the arty outsiders on the first day of school in a Sliding Doors-esque premise. Another Mars actress is also signed on for the pilot, Jessy Schram, who plays Logan's latest girlfriend Hannah. We'll find out if the show makes the CW's line-up on May 18th when the network announces its fall schedule.

*And finally, it's Nielsen Wednesday! CBS won the week with the most viewers led by CSI: Miami (#4), The Unit (#5), NCIS (#6), Two and a Half Men (#7) and 60 Minutes (#10). American Idol (#1, #2), Grey's Anatomy (#3), Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (#8) and Deal or No Deal (#9) rounded out the top 10. To see the list of the top 20 shows from last week, click on over to USA Today.

That's all for today. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for thoughts on Veronica Mars (including another VM related special announcement!) and Lost! Plus, the Idol and Model moments and all the latest television news! And be sure to check back here later today for a chance to be a part of Veronica Mars (sort of)! I'll explain in a special edition later today.


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