Hoosier-Vision

The new CBS crime drama Close to Home is supposed to take place in Indianapolis, so I thought I would be a loyal Hoosier and check it out. Usually Hoosiers are portrayed on television as toothless hilljacks living in trailers (as we saw in ER last year, when Dr. Weaver found her weather-beaten Hoosier birth mother and then quickly scooted back to the big city), so I was a bit surprised to see this show had nary a mullet in sight. On the negative side, the DA wore a brown suit (the left coast interpretation of midwest fashion, to be sure) and the suspect's mom appeared somewhat toothless and careworn, with a flat twang that Jeff Foxworthy would struggle to understand.
The drama was pretty good, though, about a woman who burns down her house with her kids inside, but whose true motivation comes out a bit later in a surprise twist. Our plucky heroine, Jennifer Finnigan, plays a prosecutor who is trying to juggle family life and the day job, and is an interesting character. We also got a couple of nice shots of the Indianapolis skyline. I will definitely check it out again this week.

Former Indianapolis Colt QB Gary Hogeboom is still alive on Survivor. I am fairly sure that Gary being on the show is supposed to be one of this year's "twists," but Gary hasn't been playing along as he is pretending to be someone else, even though he is a massive physical specimen alongside everyone else on the show and thus might be held in some suspicion. There are many former Colts during the lean years that should hang their heads, but I'm not sure Gary is one of them, though I think his strategy is more centered around not revealing all of the money he made as a pro and then getting kicked off (and his arguments during interviews that he didn't make much money as a pro QB in the NFL falls on somewhat deaf ears, I'm sure). The producers are doing everything they can to out him, though, including a Guatemalan ball game challenge last week and a "throwing at a target" challenge this past week (which Gary stayed out of!). If I see a tackling dummy challenge this week, I'll know it's game on between the producers and Gary.
The funny thing is that Danni, an AM sports radio personality in Kansas City, supposedly knows all about Gary, and even asked him outright if he ever played at Central Michigan, which he denied. Come on, now, how does she know that? If she asked him if he ever played for the Dallas Cowboys or the Colts, maybe, maybe, I could believe she wasn't fed the information. But a Kansas City AM radio personality recognizing Michigander Gary Hogeboom from college football in the late 70s? Now, suddenly, Danni got swapped onto Gary's team. How much reality is in reality television, anyway?

Speaking of my once lowly, now mighty Colts, they are now 5-0 after a modest beating of the once mighty, now lowly 49ers yesterday. Do we dare to dream?

Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.