It seems like only yesterday that I was writing an entry for this very blog, a Summer Friday back in 2008 about how much I loved an innocent show called Jon & Kate Plus 8. A nice simple show that followed two small town Pennsylvanian parents raising 8 adorable kids. I would sit in front of the TV and watch as the family traveled to the crayon factory (lucky kids!), went to visit Oprah, or even something as mundane as play in the backyard.
Then... um... something happened.
I can safely assume that almost everyone in America knows who Jon and Kate Gosselin are now. But in case there is somebody reading this, I will give you the quick rundown. Jon cheated on Kate or something like that and the couple became the tabloids number one target. He partied with college kids and went to dinner with some woman in his tacky silver sports car. He became a walking cliche for a mid-life crisis.
Jon and Kate then separated and Jon began to date some horrible person named Hailey Glassman who turned out to be the daughter of Kate’s plastic surgeon who gave her a tummy tuck in season 2. Effed up, right? Then Jon became the biggest douche in the world. Ed Hardy from head to toe along with two diamond "I hate my lot in life" earrings. Somewhere along the way he became good friends with Michael Lohan, too. You cannot make this stuff up. Look below. These two were made for each other.
Then they broke up and she trashed his apartment with a knife or something. I know, it’s hard to keep up.
During the run of the show, Kate got a flack about how she treated Jon. To be fair, she is very curt, very loud and very pushy. However, once people got to see what Jon was really like and his lack of care for his family, Kate became "America’s Favorite Mom". TLC eventually canceled Jon & Kate Plus 8 with a very tense last season that chronicled Jon and Kate’s life during their separation.
A lot changed in the months and year or so in between. Jon quickly faded into the background with one bad press mention after another. And Kate transformed into a completely different person. Look!
And yes she was on Dancing with the Stars and yes, it was the most horrible thing I have ever seen on TV.
What has gotten me the most excited is that Kate and the kids are finally returning to TLC with a new show called Kate Plus 8, which starts this Sunday at 9:00PM ET. This is what I have been waiting for.
As tragic and somewhat entertaining this journey has been, I could really care less about Jon and Kate. For me, the magic of the show is and has always been the kids. Luckily, they have been not a part of this whole madness in the press and have hopefully been able to stay somewhat normal during all this turmoil. Hell, I just want to see them say funny things again!
I will wrap up but here are my quick observations from this picture. All the little girls are Swedish or something. Hannah has lost weight (which is normal I guess... and I wasn’t saying she was fat so back off... I mean...s he was a little larger than the rest). Mady is clearly trying to became the next Hillary Duff-Miley-Lavato-Gomez thing with that get up. Cara has a weird looking face (I think too much airbrushing... I bet Mady paid the designer.) The little boys are adorable and I cannot wait to see what trouble they get into. Oh, and most importantly, Kate no longer looks like she has any genetic relation to them, instead looking like the nice white Hollywood star who adopted all of them.
Regardless, welcome back the Gosselin family! I will be reuniting with one of my favorite families and it will be interesting to see how it all turns out this time around.
Check out two brand new episodes of Kate Plus 8 this Sunday at 9pm on TLC. Click here to read all of the Summer Friday entries.