One Family's Hell

Read a harrowing story about a family who lives not far from where I grew up in Arizona. One son, below, died in an auto accident and the other died after becoming an opiate/heroin addict -- something his pharmacist father and ER nurse mother didn't even realize was happening. Read HERE.

A&E Goes Cold Turkey on 'Intervention'

'Intervention' canceled 

It was getting to the point that every person on there knew what was going on ... even in Canada -- "I know YOU, Candy Finnigan!" -- but I'll still miss it.

Via EW's TV Insider:

The Emmy-winning docu-series chronicling real-life addicts and their efforts to get sober will conclude this summer. “As Intervention comes to an end, we’re proud to have paved the way for such an original and groundbreaking series,” said David McKillop, executive vp of programming for A&E Network. “We’re honored to have been a part of the 243 interventions since its premiere in March of 2005, leading to the 156 individuals that are currently sober to this day.” The final five episodes air starting June 13. Addiction specialists Jeff Van Vonderen, Candy Finnigan and Donna Chavous will each return for the series’ final run, along with Ken Seeley who “comes back for one of the most difficult and dramatic episodes in the series’ history.”

Let's say goodbye revisiting perhaps the show's greatest addict, Allison:

A Twist in My Sobriety

(SPOILERS -- and even if you're not a fan, you should read this!)  Did anyone catch this week's "Intervention" -- aka the Craziest Fucking Thing Ever? I was a huge fan the first three or four seasons, then I kind of lost interest for a while. But this year it seems like they've really brought their A game as far as twists go, and this week's episode was no exception.

Amanda is a raging alcoholic and out-of-control heroin addict. You could immediately see something really horrible had happened to her as a child, so I was just waiting for the whole "why I'm a mess" reveal during the baby pictures segment. Usually they were molested and no one believed them or their dad never told them he loved them or something fairly predictable -- but even I could not have seen this coming! It turns out Amanda is an addict because ... when she and her younger sister were little, their divorced mother tried to commit a murder-suicide with Amanda's younger sister -- so Amanda's still deeply wounded because "Mom didn't love me enough to want to murder me, too!" (My jaw was on the floor.) Mom's take on the whole thing: "Well, no parent is perfect."(!!!)

Of course, it didn't work, so Amanda and her sister went to live with Dad, a crazy Vietnam vet with untreated PTSD who sleeps on the floor in a sleeping bag waiting for the next bomb to drop. (They were afraid to be alone with him.) Later in life, her little sister -- who Mom still clearly favors -- slept with the only person Amanda ever truly loved, a la the season opener! Everyone was acting like none of this shit that went down was a big deal -- only Amanda's addiction was a problem -- which made it all the more fucking crazy!

On an All-New 'Intervention' ...

My name is Larry. L-A-R-R-Y.