Pottstown-Area Church Leader Responds To ‘Duck Dynasty’ Controversy

Location of Lower Pottsgrove Township in Montgomery County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

LOWER POTTSGROVE TOWNSHIP, PA — A national controversy hit close to home Friday afternoon after three-year-old videosof Phil Robertson speaking at a local church resurfaced.

Robertson, the patriarch of the family featured on the hit TV show “Duck Dynasty” on A&E, made what some perceived as anti-gay comments in an article in GQ Magazine. The article is published in the January 2014 edition of the magazine.

His controversial comments have started a firestorm of online discussion and led to Robertson’s indefinite suspension from the popular reality show.

But the faith-based comments Robertson made in the GQ article were echoes of statements he made while speaking at events long before the show on A&E started.

Read more:  http://www.pottsmerc.com/general-news/20131220/pottstown-area-church-leader-responds-to-duck-dynasty-controversy

“Amish Mafia” Star Severely Beaten In Strasburg

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lancaster County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A star of the hit television series “Amish Mafia” was severely beaten by her boyfriend last week in Strasburg, police allege.

Imir R. Williams, 24, is charged with felony aggravated assault for repeatedly punching Esther Schmucker in the head early on Halloween morning, charging documents indicate.

As of Tuesday, police were searching for Williams, listed in court documents as 6-foot-4 and 210 pounds.

A felony arrest warrant was filed Sunday.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/914685_-Amish-Mafia–star-severely-beaten-in-Strasburg.html#ixzz2joJGyYAM

Pottstown July 4th Parade Kicks Off At 10:15

POTTSTOWN — Fourth of July celebrations in Pottstown get an early start with the 28th Annual Pottstown Patriotic 5K Run, followed by one of the region’s best parades.

Registration for the 5K run starts at 7 a.m. and the 3.2-mile race, which snakes through Pottstown’s streets, starts at 8 a.m.

The race starts and ends at The Hill School, and will be held rain or shine.

The parade begins with an airplane fly-over (weather permitting) at 10:15 a.m. and starts off at the intersection of High and Keim streets and ends at High and Manatawny streets.

Read more:  http://www.pottsmerc.com/article/20130703/NEWS01/130709787/pottstown-july-4th-parade-kicks-off-at-10-15-#full_story

NBC Cancels Several Series

Last fall it appeared that NBC might finally be making inroads in its quest to return to its former frontrunner status in the Nielsen ratings.  But appearances turned out to be deceiving.  NBC’s success was built on the slender shoulders of just two series, reality competition “The Voice” and freshman drama “Revolution,” and when those shows took a break between December and March, NBC’s ratings again collapsed.

NBC is poised to end the 2012-13 TV season later this month in fourth place among total viewers behind No. 1 CBS, No. 2 Fox and No. 3 ABC.  (NBC will likely rank third place among adults 18-49 behind No. 1 CBS and No. 2 Fox; when it comes to the audience demographics advertisers crave, ABC is arguably in worse shape.)

With an abundance of low-rated series, the pink slips were bound to fly and they did.  NBC canceled “Deception,” “Go On,” “Guys with Kids,” “The New Normal,” “Rock Center,” “1600 Penn,” “Smash,” “Up All Night” and “Whitney,” adding these series to a refuse pile that already included the 2012-13 shows “Animal Practice” and “Do No Harm.”  (NBC has not yet made a decision on the futures of “Hannibal” and “Celebrity Apprentice.”)

NBC will replace these programs with three new dramas and three new comedies this fall, and the network ordered an additional five dramas, three comedies and three reality shows to also air during the 2013-14 TV season.  Previews of these programs will be unveiled to advertisers today in New York as part of the annual “upfront” week when advertisers buy commercial time in programs up front before the start of the fall TV season.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/ae/tv-radio/nbc-cancels-several-series-687406/#ixzz2TBauZcNR

Scranton To Host ‘The Office’ Wrap Party

English: Logo of the fictitious Dunder Mifflin paper company. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The paper-pushers of Dunder Mifflin will make one last stop in Scranton before closing their doors next month.

“The Office” Wrap Party will celebrate the upcoming conclusion of the Scranton-set television show with several activities throughout the city on Saturday, May 4.  The event was announced between the seventh and eight innings of Thursday’s Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders game.

A group of cast and crew members from the show – which ends its nine-year run on NBC on Thursday, May 16 – are expected to attend.  An official announcement about who will participate will come next Thursday, said Timothy L. Holmes, regional director of marketing & events for Times-Shamrock Communications.

“We do know there’s definitely a strong contingent of writers and cast members coming out,” he said.

Read more:  http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/scranton-to-host-the-office-wrap-party-1.1468059

Television’s Fall Season Endures

For years, Alan Wurtzel, the head of research for NBC, has questioned the enduring validity of a television season — the ritual competition of network series, which begins again Monday night.

“I’ve been saying the idea of a television season is an anachronistic artifact,” Mr. Wurtzel said. “It’s a 52-week-a-year business. We never take a night off.”

The tradition of the fall season, originally tied to the start of the model year for new cars, is now more than 60 years old. It is defined arbitrarily and rather arcanely by the Nielsen Company as 34.5 weeks between mid-September and mid-May. The season doesn’t account for the increasing number of viewers who watch shows on their own schedules and it hasn’t stopped cable networks from introducing hit shows all through the year.

And yet, the idea persists, in large part because it still works. In defiance of diminishing ratings, attention on the new network shows seems only to have increased, as more blogs and social media sites offer breakdowns of the lineups and predictions of successes and failures.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/24/business/media/television-changes-but-the-fall-season-endures.html?_r=0