The Star Online: Entertainment: TV & Radio

Posted: 03 Jun 2011 03:21 AM PDT

CATCH the Red FM Red Ryders every Thursday to Sunday as they cruise around town in their sleek new ride and you might just walk away with some fantastic goodies. Tune in to find out the location as well as the timings of Red FM's Red Ryders stops on those days.

It's an entertaining time for all as the youthful and energetic street team takes to the ground with a host of games and giveaways. Join them and walk away with goodies such as movie tickets, CDs, samples of delicious beverages and snacks, beauty and skincare products, magazines and much more. Beyond the ground stops, where they conduct live crossovers back to the studio, the Red Ryders have taken to online activities to spread the fun. Snapped in a variety of poses with a Sony Cyber-shot digital camera, the shots of the crew are uploaded on Red FM's Facebook page and listeners are invited to provide captions for the picture of the day.

Different shots are featured from Thursday to Sunday and listeners can submit creative and funny captions to accompany the shots. The most creative caption and/or the one to attract the most "likes" will win a Sony Goodie Bag. The shots have so far attracted a range of captions, from quirky comments to downright hilarious anecdotes. The contest ends on June 19, 2011.

Besides going on a joyride with the Red Ryders, you are invited to hop on board next week for a ride of a different kind, but just as exciting with Arnold on his Red FM's Evening show (Monday to Friday, 7pm–10pm). Listen for the cue to call and be the first person to dial 03-4043 1049. Tell Arnold "I'm On Board" and you stand to win tickets to watch the car-race championship Japan Super GT Kuala Lumpur 2011.

For further details, visit red.fm and join the Red FM Facebook page (facebook.com/redfm.my). You can also follow us on Twitter (@iloveredfm). Red FM is owned and operated by The Star.

Red FM frequencies: Taiping, Kedah, Perlis and Pulau Langkawi: 98.1FM; Georgetown & Seberang Perai: 107.6FM; Ipoh, Perak: 106.4FM; Klang Valley, Negeri Sembilan and Tapah: 104.9FM; Kuantan, Pahang: 91.6FM; Batu Pahat and Melaka: 98.9FM; Johor Bahru and Singapore: 92.8FM.

Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price.

It's been great, but Tom Welling's got to fly

Posted: 02 Jun 2011 03:03 AM PDT

LOS ANGELES (Los Angeles Times/MCT): Tom Welling has a new office on the Warner Bros. lot and there's an empty parking spot right out front -- it's marked "C. SHEEN" -- which reminds him how quickly things can change in television and how lucky he's been to be one of television's steadiest of stars with a decade logged on the now-ending Smallville.

"It can all go away and can go fast," said the 34-year-old, whose new digs still had unpacked boxes and bare walls when he sat down to talk about the final flight of Smallville, which aired its two-part series finale in the U.S. three weeks ago. "I feel so grateful. But I also know it's time to move on."

Welling leaves the show with mixed feelings and that's entirely appropriate for a man who spent 10 seasons as a Clark Kent who was perpetually denied the chance to be Superman -- the show, for the uninitiated, follows the odyssey of Superman's alter ego in his formative years and the title is the name of the little rural town where the future superhero grew up with his human adoptive family.

The New York native didn't want the role -- his headshot was plucked out of a stack by producer Alfred Gough, who asked why the handsome, towering actor wasn't among the hundreds of hopefuls that sought an audition in "a massive manhunt" to find the star in 2000.

The simple reason was that red-and-blue costume, the same one that brought success to actors such as Christopher Reeve and George Reeves in previous decades but came with a smothering career cost -- after they flew across the sky in the public imagination they were locked into the image. When Welling found out the new show had the motto of "no tights, no flights," he was far more intrigued.

"He brought an openness and warmth to the role," Gough said. "He's also incredibly good-looking and somehow is more good-looking in person, if that's possible."

During the fourth season of the show, Welling had learned so much on the set that he got a new ambition -- directing. He did just that in the fifth season and another one of his efforts was the Booster episode that aired with great fanfare.

Even before Welling was directing, he was "a leader" on the set, Gough said, and certainly he was qualified -- no other cast member appears in every episode and only two crew members have stayed on for the entire run.

Welling isn't certain about his next move. There was a fan movement to get him the lead role in the Superman film franchise that will begin next year with Henry Cavill in the tights (and a similar campaign for the 2006 movie Superman Returns that took flight with Brandon Routh) but Smallville has created such a wide, deep thicket of its own mythology that it seemed unlikely that a reboot of the hero would take him on if it were seeking a true fresh start.

Welling seems OK with that. The conventional view that a film franchise is better than TV in every way misses the emotional factor of persistence, he said; he came into the homes of fans again and again for a decade and that's a potent relationship. "Besides," he said, "I'm busy."

Last year, Welling pushed out into a new direction as the executive producer of Hellcats, a comedy-drama adaptation of the book Cheer: Inside the Secret World of College Cheerleaders. The show is slick and frothy at the same time and Welling is pleased with the show and the ensemble cast -- he says after being the man holding up a show, it's engaging to be part of "a team with a great spirit."

Smallville had plenty of bumps in its flight since its first episode in October 2001. The show went from the WB to CW in 2006 and the tone of the show changed through the years, with some of the visiting superheroes bringing a campy aura at times.

The show enjoyed a surge in credibility and ratings in recent years but it was running out of room -- how long could Kent go into manhood without donning the suit?

"Each time we got picked up we had to push that finish line further away and I think we had some low moments when we got too far-fetched," he said. "If you look at the series, the first five years were one show and the next five were a different show. We could have called it 'Metropolis' in a way ... there were a few times when heroes come in where we allowed ourselves to get lighter. But that's breaking things up. I don't think anyone goes out and tries to make mistakes."

Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

Khamis, 2 Jun 2011