|
|||||
NEW
THIS FALL Notice Veronica Mars is not on the schedule, the show is being retooled - supposedly. Waiting in the wings as a mid-season replacement is a beauty contest where mothers compete against their daughters. Thursday,
May 17, 2007 - 9:57am
CBS
THIS FALL The
only show that looks interesting to me: KID NATION Wednesday,
May 16, 2007 - 2:24pm
THE
GREAT ONE
And now a bit from an early-'50's episode of Gleason's show. Now that was a face and body made for those old tiny black and white screens.
Here's Jackie on the Johnny Carson Tonight show in 1985. It was Gleason's only sit down with Carson - fitting, seeing as how Johnny stole one of his most famous bits (Art Fern) from The Great One. In the first part of this interview they discuss You're In The Picture, a notorious bomb that lasted one episode. You can read about it here.
Here's part 2 of that interview:
Part 3 - boy, do I miss Carson's smooth style.
Wednesday,
May 16, 2007 - 12:47pm
CARTOONS! Here a Mighty Thor cartoon drawn by Jack Kirby & Vince Colletta with an intro by Stan Lee discussing the origins of the character. These are not to be confused with the far superior Spiderman and Fantastic Four cartoons that ran on Saturday mornings around the same time.
Wednesday,
May 16, 2007 - 10:15am
QUOTE
OF THE DAY Tuesday,
May 15, 2007 - 3:32pm
ABC'S
NEW FALL SHOWS Word on the street is that 'Geico Caveman' show is a major stiff. Of course, that's not the first TV show spunoff from a commercial - remember Max Headroom, based on a series of Coke ads? (Those commercials were based on a British TV show but still...) Tuesday,
May 15, 2007 - 3:16pm
BLAH
BLAH BLAH Like for instance, I just watched Bad Day at Black Rock with Spencer Tracy and I'm so totally blown away by it. From the opening shots to the end, a magnificent motion picture. But you probably already knew that, right? I would never have gone to the video store for that film - if I would ever have remembered it to begin with - and who's to say the store would have it? Really, DVDs by mail is better than cable. When it comes to iconic classic comedians, do you know who's movies are very scarce on DVD? Mae West. Her best early films aren't represented at all. W. C. Fields' funniest movies are also in short supply - The Bank Dick, It's a Gift, My Little Chickadee with Mae West and his shorts are about it. And it's a mixed bag when it comes to Laurel & Hardy unless you want one of the many useless retrospectives. Thank goodness The Little Rascals are well represented, including their silent films. Charlie Chaplin is also in abundant supply as are Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd shorts. And since I mentioned the guy, Spencer Tracy isn't well represented on DVD either. There are a scant couple of clips of Mae West on You Tube. From She Done Him Wrong:
Tuesday,
May 15, 2007 - 7:46am
WILD! Tuesday,
May 15, 2007 - 7:39am
Tuesday,
May 15, 2007 - 7:39am
TV
NEWS I hate Scrubs. I know, I'm the only one... HERE'S
NBC FALL PRIME TIME SCHEDULE - 2007-08 (other than ER the new
programs are in CAPS) All I can say is - blecchh! Wait a minute - they're bringing back the Bionic Woman? Let me guess - Lindsay Wagner plays her mom. They should have taken Veronica Mars and made her the Bionic Woman. And I don't see how NBC is going to squeeze another two hours of primetime a week out of Deal or No Deal for another year. NBC announced the cancellation of Dateline a couple of years back - until the numbers came back on those child predator shows they do. Monday,
May 14, 2007 - 11:59am
NOW
WHAT?!? What about our right to free speech as Americans - are you telling me I can't engage in a chat room or create rave flyers while I'm driving? If I can't write essays on my Blackberry or, say, photoshop images and layout books in Quark while I'm driving down the street where will it end? It's a slippery slope to the abolishment of the first amendment, that's what I think. Then it's on to the second amendment - soon we won't be able to fire off our guns while driving down the street. Donde esta mi America?!? Sunday,
May 13, 2007 - 11:51am
SUNDAY
YOU TUBING
Bloopers from Star Trek: The Next Generation and classic Star Trek. Star Trek didn't invent the end of the season blooper reel but made them famous because everyone wanted to see them. Outtakes from the hilarious movie Shaun of the Dead.
Another of my favorite movies, a Meet the Parents gag reel with Robert DeNiro.
Sunday,
May 13, 2007 - 11:46am
SATURDAY
MORNING TV
Saturday,
May 12, 2007 - 11:19am
TELEVISION
REVIEWS I like their brand of loutish, crass, scatologically incorrect humor; I can't believe Starz can broadcast this stuff, it has to be pushing some kind of appalling new envelope. The foul-mouthed celebrity interviews are riotously confrontational and the vulgar barnyard porn parodies sensational. Some of the episodes already broadcast featured Chris Jericho (WWE wrestler), Steven Schrippa of The Sopranos, Kelly Clarkson from Nip/Tuck, Michael Rappaport from True Romance and Mr. Sulu himself, George Takei all in side-splitting segments. I just about bust a gut when the puppets asked George Takei if he was born gay or "just got sucked into it." That'll give you some idea of the level of humor here. When I saw a preview episode of The Bronx Bunny a few months ago I thought the production had a lot of promise and it's clearly gotten a lot better - and by better I mean more abominable. The show airs 11:45pm every Wednesday on the Starz network. In upcoming weeks look for some hilarious guest star turns from Tommy Chong, Eric Roberts, Wee Man and Robin Leach. Yes, Robin Leach was actually funny. I'm looking forward to season 2, if there's going to be one, or a DVD release with more material. This is a winner. The Bronx Bunny originally had a run in Great Britain in 2003 (where they interviewed Hugh Hefner, Jessica Alba, William Shatner and Larry Flynt) but these Comedy Central shows are new productions. (Am I the only person who thinks it's weird that I can enjoy a show like this and Ozzie & Harriet?) Here's a bit from the George Takei episode from You Tube:
Speaking of crass comedians, I really like Artie Lange - he's a regular on the Howard Stern radio show but I only just now discovered him. I thought he killed at the roast for William Shatner on Comedy Central (now out on DVD) so I netflixed Beer League which blew me away it was so funny. (That film was co-written, produced and starred Artie Lange.) The commentary track on that DVD is really eye opening by the way. Now he's hosting the first of 8 new episodes of Live at Gotham, a standup show on Comedy Central beginning its second season. In addition to Artie's opening act (pretty good, the best of the bunch) you get an amusing routine from Last Comic Standing star Al Jackson, along with comedy from Jeremy Schachter, Geoff Keith and others. Future hosts include Lewis Black, Jim Breuer, Robert Schimmel and several other comics I haven't heard of. Live at Gotham debuts next Friday, May 18th at midnight. What else have you got to do? You know, if Time Warner sold cable TV by the channel instead of in packages, I would subscribe to HBO and Comedy Central (and maybe three others) and be done with most of the rest. HBO and Comedy Central in particular have really tapped into something. Bravo did as well for a time, although I haven't caught anything on Bravo in the last 6 months - Shear Genius looks like a loser from this distance, a perfect example of running out the clock on a winning format. VH1 suffers from the same affliction, how many times can you dilute Flavor of Love? Long time readers of this blog know I rarely watch TV except on DVD (but I watch a lot of DVDs). It never even occurs to me to sit down and watch broadcast or cable TV. Sometimes I might flip on some daytime shows while I'm working or catch a program or two when I'm away from home but that's about it. Saturday,
May 12, 2007 - 10:37am
UPCOMING "Picket Fences" Season One – June 19. Life in a small town is not so simple in Rome, Wisconsin where things never seem to be business as usual in creator David E. Kelly’s ("Boston Legal," "The Practice," "Ally McBeal") critically-acclaimed and irresistibly quirky drama "Picket Fences." One of the most in-demand television series requested by fans to be released on DVD, the "Picket Fences" Season One DVD debuts as a six-disc collection on June 19th from Fox Home Entertainment featuring all 22 original episodes including the series pilot. Picket Fences I never saw but I know a lot of people loved it. Prison Break I'm looking forward to immensely but Land of the Giants was, unfortunately, not one of Irwin Allen's better efforts. Still, it would be cool to have. TV NEWS: Sure enough, Veronica Mars is being retooled for a fourth season despite a precipitous drop in ratings for season three. The idea is to flash forward a few years where we find Veronica training as an FBI agent. Good luck with that, I hope it works. I'm partway through the second season of Veronica Mars on DVD and it's one of the most original, freshest shows around. NBC has given another ratings challenged show - Friday Night Lights - a full second season pick-up. I haven't seen it but I liked the movie (I'm a sucker for sports movies) and plan to sample the DVD. What is the only daytime talk show to post audience gains over 2006? The Ellen Generes Show. Saturday,
May 12, 2007 - 8:42am
MUSICAL
YOU TUBING And what wonderful music - Andy was the smoothest TV crooner of all time. Here's 9 1/2 minutes from a 1966 episode (before Blye & Bearde) featuring another luscious singer Ella Fitzgerald. They don't make TV like that anymore!
If you haven't seen this before it's kinda cool and funny - Andy with Bobby Darin and Eddie Fisher doing 'Do-Re-Mi' from the mid-sixties.
Finally here's Bobby Darin with Judy Garland doing a medley of train songs that looks like it's going to fall apart at the seams before soaring to great heights at the end. From Garland's stellar 1963 series.
Friday,
May 11, 2007 - 1:02pm
DEES
& DOES This is fun - over at My Word and Welcome To It (clever name!), Mitchell Hadley grabs an old issue of TV Guide and dissects it for you. Pretty cool! This entry looks at the November 29, 1975 edition.
From the press release: NBC announced that Emmy Award winning Tom
Selleck ("Magnum, P.I.") will return to television series drama
when he joins the starring cast of NBC's "Las Vegas" (Fridays,
9-10 p.m. ET) next season as a charismatic, self-made billionaire who
is surrounded by an air of mystery when he becomes the new owner of the
Montecito Resort & Casino. Friday,
May 11, 2007 - 10:48am
HBO
BLUES Ari's right - we've forgiven Mel Gibson, Kobe Bryant and a host of other high profile f'ups. (Damn, even Paris Hilton is STILL DRIVING!) Not that HBO had a choice but I suspect his firing will ultimately will hurt the cable channel more than it does Albrecht. After an appropriate period, he'll make some huge deal with another network. Thursday,
May 10, 2007 - 3:58pm
WICKED! "The entry states Paul Lynde is joined by Margaret Hamilton who dons the entire Wicked WItch Of The West costume from The Wizard Of Oz for the only time since the original 1939 release, including the green makeup - with all due respect that is not true. "Maggie wore her "Wicked Witch" outfit for the ABC TV kids TV newsmagazine Discovery during the 1960's."She wore the costume again on an episode of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood as the Princess Witch (minus her green makeup - which she told was a relief for her because she didn't want to go through the nightmare of having makeup laced with copper again and then have it either inflame or infect her skin). "This info comes from 'The Wizard of Oz' book by John Fricke, from my interview with the first host/ performer and interviewer on Discovery Mr. Frank Buxton and from my conversations with Maggie Hamilton herself." I didn't know that, but that wasn't the only inaccuracy in the press release - it stated that the Lynde special was rock group KISS' first TV appearance - but they appeared on The Midnite Special before the Lynde special and on The Mike Douglas Show before that. Attention DVD producers - I write liner notes and press releases for new TV on DVD releases and I make sure errors like this don't slip through. That's only if you care... Thursday,
May 10, 2007 - 3:23pm
RED
WEDDING A new CD has just been released of Red Wedding's recorded songs from 1981-1985 and it is really incredible. This CD is a must-have for so many reasons (the principle being it's an amazing listen) but it's a natural for music historians who are into that exciting period because Red Wedding was LA's only openly gay punk / post-punk alternative band, this at a time when that kind of thing was not so accepted. In fact, the band faced open hostility from a surprisingly large number of musicians although one member of the band was usually totally straight. I listen to college radio all day (or I have DVDs on) while I'm working and Red Wedding's sound would fit right in today, there's no sense of the work being dated at all. Order it here at the Ear Rational web site. Thursday,
May 10, 2007 - 8:03am
DIS
& DAT Network
primetime shows in danger of cancellation and their Nielsen overall ranking: According to Jim is still on the air?!? I thought George Lopez was cancelled last year. FX just renewed Dirt and The Riches for a second season. Upcoming - a Glenn Close/Ted Danson legal drama. I guess Glenn Close enjoyed doing The Shield. Thursday,
May 10, 2007 - 7:53am
|
YOUR
SUPERFLY HOST:
PR4 & PR5 Pages for ads - CHEAP!
TV
on DVD
TV on DVD
TV
on DVD
Alex
Toth Book It's a bit different - a collection of correspondence and sketches from the reclusive master artist Alex Toth's last 25 years. Click here for more info about the book. There are very few copies left and I haven't heard any serious talk of a second printing; it was released only through comic book stores in August of 2006.
Latest
TVparty TV
BLOG - 85 TV
BLOG - 82 TV
BLOG - 77 TV
BLOG - 71 TV
BLOG - 67 TV
BLOG - 62 TV BLOG - 57 TV BLOG - 50 TV BLOG - 42 TV BLOG - 34 TV BLOG - 29 TV BLOG - 24 TV BLOG - 19 TV
BLOG - 14 |
Latest
TVparty TV BLOG - 107 TV BLOG - 104 TV BLOG - 99 TV BLOG - 94 TV BLOG - 88 TV BLOG - 82 TV BLOG - 77 TV BLOG - 72 TV BLOG - 67 TV BLOG - 62 TV BLOG - 57 TV BLOG - 50 TV
BLOG - 42 TV
BLOG - 34 TV
BLOG - 29 TV
BLOG - 24 TV
BLOG - 19 TV
BLOG - 14 TV
BLOG - 9 TV
BLOG - 4 "TVParty.com,
a TV history website... its links to Amazon.com help sell TV DVDs." "A
twisted walk "Top
Five Sites - Interviews and articles... are must reads." "It's
too good to be true. Put together by Billy Ingram, TVparty.com has gossip,
scandal, sex, singing, dancing, action, drama and celebrities with their
'original parts'"
"An ingenious tribute that elevates the TV past to artlike proportions.
Site guru Billy Ingram has compiled features both over-the-top and museum
worthy, blissful nostalgia for those born in the '40s or the '80s. A+
"Every decade expresses its kooky collective unconscious on the tube,
celebrated affectionately at Billy Ingram's TVparty. Ingram provides a
hilarious glimpse into the American pop psyche." "TVparty is hands
down the best site on the Web for classic TV." "Get
the inside scoop on all your favorite classic TV shows at TVParty." |
|
|
Contact Us / Survey TVparty! Television Blog |