TCA Day 2: Georgia, Buzz Aldrin, Margaret Cho's parents steal the show

By April MacIntyre Jul 10, 2008, 14:46 GMT

Margaret Cho - funny lady ...Home Media Expo 2007 - Venetian Hotel and Casino - Las Vegas, NV © Terry Thompson / PR Photos

Yesterday at the TCA was more compelling for the sheer range of people we heard from and met with.

Highlights:

VH1 has a sure-fire hit with "The Cho Show", featuring the witty and "Best Korean" award winner Cho and her parents, along with her personable diminutive sidekick Selena Luna.  When asked why she included her very low key yet entertaining parents, "it was this or a home," Cho quipped.

"Seriously, this is a real Asian-American family, and I look at TV and I don't see any Asian-American families represented," Cho lamented.

Selena Luna and Makeup artist and Cho show costar John Stapleton - photo by April MacIntyre ©M&C

"Think of this as a combination of "Truth of Dare," "The Joy Luck Club" and "Little People Big World," she added.

Later during National Geographic's afternoon lineup, we all were introduced to Georgia, one of Michael Vick's tortured pit bulls who lucked out and found her way to the loving arms of Utah's Best Friends Animal sanctuary's assistant dog-care manager, John Garcia.

photo by April MacIntyre ©M&C

By far she was the belle of the TCA ball: The amber-colored pit female mostly snoozed through her news conference; she was completely entitled.

Georgia knows good people when she sees them- photo by April MacIntyre ©M&C

I tried to wrap my head around the facts of her earlier life: Georgia was force-mated (raped) over and over, producing so many litters her underside hung slack from the abusive breeding.  Someone in Vick's circle took a pair of pliers and forcibly pulled ALL of her teeth, rendering a caged Georgia helpless from the male pits who were constantly at her.

Georgia and Garcia - photo by April MacIntyre ©M&C

Georgia understandably has issues with other dogs, but Garcia's reinforced trust and love won her over, as he consistently retrained her to trust and accept people, giving this pit bull a chance for some happiness before she leaves Planet Earth.

Now she will be the star of the upcoming "Dogtown: Saving the Michael Vick Dogs," on Friday, September 5, a two-hour special that follows the rehabilitation of four dogs who once fought for the now-imprisoned Atlanta Falcons quarterback.

Pit Bulls have their fans and detractors; Garcia was adamant the breed is worthy and unfairly categorized as "monsters."

Garcia was made for TV; he didn't miss a beat: Talking about how Georgia has taken to her new jet-setter life, "In the green room, she was asking for blue M&Ms and Evian water."

Link to donate to Best Friends Sanctuary: CLICK-ME

Nat Geo's high brow panels detailed the exciting news of the upcoming Expedition Week, 21 shows in one week that take us to deep space, the open ocean, cool shipwrecks, extreme machinery repairs on dangerous jobs and hidden recesses of the Pyramids.  More on these shows later.

Buzz Aldrin!!! photo by April MacIntyre ©M&C

Apollo 11 veteran Buzz Aldrin shared that while he was in deep space, he was startled by strange light particles that flashed and even permeated his eyelids, and the other men with him experienced it too.  This mysterious spectrum of rays he cautioned was killing our brain cells, and other astronauts who were subsequently sent up into space were also briefed on the light ray phenomenon that hits us all from deep space on a daily basis.