Top Three Summer Shows

Now that the fall season is upon us, it is time to recall this past summer's top three guilty pleasures, which I would happily welcome in this fall's lineup.

1. Hell's Kitchen

I never thought that a cursing British chef would gain my love and respect, but Chef Gordon Ramsay has. I was struck by how truly pained he was when a contestant did not revere food as much as he thought the food deserved or the contestant failed to prepare for dinner service. When one contestant replied that she only had two servings of a meat dish when every customer was ordering it, Chef replied, "Two?!?" with such disgust and disdain, I immediately knew that the cursing was not necessary. He could sum up his feelings in one simple word. Chef Ramsay pushed his contestants to do better, and even though his techniques were brash, they only matched his need for perfection.

2. Hit Me Baby One More Time

Not the Britney Spears song! The television show is a "one-hour competition program featuring veteran music hit-makers who will each perform their greatest hit -- as well as cover a popular contemporary song -- with the favorite to be determined by audience voting."

I love singing along to old hits, and it is fun to see artists, from one hit wonders to one time legends, try to recapture the adulation of an audience. My favorite episode featured Wang Chung covering Nelly's "Hot in Herre," complete with one of the lead singers waggling his eyebrows, slapping his butt and enthusiastically waving his arms. Even the back-up singer was getting into the performance. Cameo did a soulful twist to Bowling for Soup's "1985" and turned the song into a sorrowful yet funky dedication to lost dreams of youth.

Even less than spectacular performances provided the performer with what seemed like closure. Haddaway showed that he had a good sense of humor about Saturday Night Live's take on "What is Love" when he danced with the famous head tilt move then mimicked Britney Spears' writhing in "Toxic." When Vanilla Ice sang "Ice Ice Baby," I was hopeful that he had finally resolved his issues. In the Surreal Life, he constantly complained that he never wanted to be the person that he was when he originally sang that song, not that the new Vanilla Ice seemed like an improvement. Still I was glad that he could finally sing the song instead of rail against it.

3. So You Think You Can Dance

I love dance shows. The judging can be frustrating, but the performances rarely are. I miss the days when the Ballroom Dancing Championships would be aired on PBS, and different talent shows had dancing competitions. How many times can you see ballroom and hip-hop dancing in one show by the same performers? Not often enough.

This show stretches its audiences' dance knowledge and broadens its dancers' expertise. I love it when dancers, whom I once considered as limited to excelling in one style, then surprise me with an amazing performance in an unfamiliar style. For example, Destini really proved herself when she finally left her field of lyrical dance and shook her butt in a show-stopping performance in Hip-Hop. Some performers, such as Ashle, continue to prove that one dancer can be a chameleon and amazing in anything from the Samba to modern dance. Of course, dancing is supposed to be fun and easy to look at, and Nick, a lyrical dancer, proved that when he did a great routine in Disco. Even when some dancers are daunted by these challenges, dancers, such as Ryan, still leave us with memorable moments such as Ryan's performance in the mambo, which was executed better than a certain ballroom dancer who recently tried to dance similar moves, but with less panache.