I consider myself a fan of Samantha Brown and even have her autograph. I liked her in Passport to Europe so much because of her sweet and charming personality and her respect of other cultures. I have traveled a great deal in Europe myself and found everything she said in the program very accurate. She simply had a nice, cultured air about herself. This new program however, Passport to Great Weekends, I found quite appalling for Samantha. I guess you can sum it all up when she said about the bats coming out from under the bridge in Austin,"it will look like the bats are coming out of my butt"..I think that's where these two episodes belong, up someone's butt. How could Samantha think that her fans would enjoy such dribble? Was she a writer of these episodes or did the Travel Channel force her to do it? Did she sell out to crude commercialism? Behavior such as she exhibited on the shows is fine and I have no objection to it because it's a free country, but not on TV. Please Samantha, reconsider what you're doing.

Well while I really enjoyed a different side of Sam Brown, I was also wondering about the writing. I loved Sam onscreen, (I'm sure it's good to finally let loose and not always be so proper and reserved) but I questioned some of the v/o. Sam mentioned in her blog that in post production she wouldn't say what was written about driving a stick. So, I guess my question is for Sammy B if she gets a chance to write back. Do you not write/have a say in the v/o scripts? Did you for Passport to everwhere else?

I AGREE! I love the past Samantha shows but these are awful. It's like I'm watching MTV. I liked when she explored the fine hotels and did a few clever things. How many drinks do we really need to see her have? I am dumbfounded as to why they changed a great format.

I AGREE!!! I consider myself one of Sam's biggest fans. I've watched her series many, many times and I often pick my vacation destinations from her shows. I am VERY disappointed with this new series - Passport to Great Weekends. It is aweful. I've lived in Austin and I currently live in Miami. I think that her representation of these cities was not accurate or appealing. I didn't get the impression of a liberal, fun Austin. She made it seem like just another city in Texas. And don't get me started with Miami. It's so disappointing. I guess I'll have to turn to my friends for my travel inspiration...Sam doesn't do it for me anymore...she's DREADFUL and I'm very disappointed.

In the Austin show, the BBQ place was interesting, but that's not even in Austin! That is fairly far!
Since she did a show about visiting Austin, there are wonderful BBQ places right in Austin!!

Another: I AGREE!!! Sam, we want the old you back!! It would be really interesting to see how this decision was made. I almost wonder if Sam is a little burned out from all her travelling...I mean, great hotels and vacation spots would be fun for awhile, but after 5 or 6 or howevermany years, I think you would just want to be able to go home and lead a normal life! Especially now that she's married!

Here’s what I think happened, be advised this is pure speculation on my part. Sometime last year, Samantha signed a new four-year contract with the Travel Channel; soon afterward Discovery Networks sold the Travel Channel to Cox Communications. Being more profit driven than Discovery Networks, Cox Communications dumps PineRidge Productions and brings in their own production company to make the shows fast and cheap. Also, in a further effort to try to maximize profits they’ve attempted to broaden the appeal of the shows to be more in tune with the demographic of other Travel Channel programming. What you end up with is the shows we have, but as Intl Doc once said, those of us that are true fans of Samantha’s would watch her even if she were hosting Passport to Great Rest Areas, which thankfully she isn’t.