Before Dan Humphrey, Penn Bagley Wrote 'The Bedford Diaries'

Image from Clevvr

     It's the start of a brand new school year, so it's time to reflect on a teen drama from yesteryear. About 10 years ago, the WB premiered The Bedford Diaries, a soapy drama about students in a sexuality seminar at a Columbia-like University. I haven't been able to find the 8-episode series anywhere online, but I'm pushing to get it on the CW Seed. The show was scandalous and provocative by 2006 standards, but fairly tame to what kind of dialogue passes on TV today.

     In typical WB fashion, this show launched the careers of Penn Badgley, who was cast the following year in/as the CW's Gossip Girl and Scott Porter, who went on to play Jason Streets in Friday Night Lights, and later, George Tucker on the CW's Hart of Dixie.  The show continued the career of Gilmore Girls bad boy, Milo Ventimiglia. The students were led by their wily professor, played by Matthew Modine, and the delightful Audra McDonald played another professor at Bedford College. If anyone knows where to watch this, please let me know!

Dallas, Re-imagined...Blood and Oil Do Not Mix

     I am very interested in ABC's new Sunday night soap, Blood and Oil.  Welcome to Rock Springs, Montana, a land of opportunity for some, and a land of drunken disappointment for others. I am excited to see Gossip Girl's Chace Crawford back on my TV every week.

    The first episode clearly showcased greed and its control on society. This is America baby, we're off  to the modern-day frontier- a town with the very rich, the warring Indian tribes, lots of land for sale, one hotel and bar (The Tackroom), and a clear need for a coin operated laundromat. As Crawford's Billy LeFever and his wife, Cody (Rebecca Rittenhouse) will soon learn, their dream of striking it rich as laundromat owners is not a guarantee for success. The couple are shown kindness after their car crashes and washing machines are damaged by the town's bar owner/real estate agent Jules (India de Beaufort, a notable guest star of One Tree Hill as a record executive), and a Nigerian couple (Kess and Ada) that hope to open a restaurant.

     The couple manages to buy a parcel of land from the town's old timer Clifton (Barry Corbin, a beloved basketball coach from One Tree Hill), and end up starting a friendly war with oil magnate Hap Briggs (Don Johnson). Hap comes with a lot of family baggage, including his screw-up son Wick (Scott Michael Foster of GREEK), and in episode two, we meet his business-minded daughter Lacey (Miranda Mae Rayo of Chicago Fire), both grown children from different mothers. Lacey continues to get involved with her father's driver, A.J., (Adan Canto) who has a secret to hide. Amber Valletta (Revenge and actually a real life model) rounds out the Briggs family as Carla, Hap's second wife and a former model turned shrewd businesswoman, who will do anything to protect herself and Hap's name. While Jules is happily seeing Wick, she reveals a past affair with an older man in town, who is Wick's father, Hap.  "EWWWW!"  as Jimmy Fallon says.

     What will happen once we see blood? Will Billy and wick learn to get along? Will Billy and Cody still like each other in a few weeks? Where is all of the untapped the oil located? Will Hap figure out about his son's attempts to rob him and start a fire at his oil rig? Stay tuned to see...