Super brief because I need to be back at work, but I wanted to note the passing of Leonard Nimoy at age 83. He was great as Spock, perhaps the best actor in a very fine ensemble cast, and also extremely good in several other roles. A good actor and, by all accounts, a classy, stand-up guy.
Archive for the ‘TV’ Category
Leonard Nimoy, RIP
Friday, February 27th, 2015Sam Beckett, Private Dick
Wednesday, February 18th, 2015Someone’s been having fun imaging Samuel Beckett as the star of his own Quinn Martin private detective show:
The mention of Andre the Giant may seem random, but in fact Beckett used to drive the young Andre to school every morning because he was too big to fit on the bus.
(Hat tip: Don Webb.)
Two TV Artifacts From My Misspent Youth
Thursday, September 25th, 2014There are two forthcoming TV show DVD sets that hearken back to the days of my youth:
Recommended without qualification is the complete WKRP in Cincinnati with the original music restored. If it wasn’t the greatest sitcom of the late 1970s/early 1980s, it was certainly in the top 5.
A bit more qualified recommendation for the complete 1960s Batman. Every significant dark, gritty Batman of the last 30 years (from Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight to the Christopher Nolan trilogy, and even the Tim Burton movie) has been largely in reaction to this show’s campy tone. The show is very much a product of its time, but retains a certain charm for just that reason. Plus the cast of villains (Burgess Meredith, Vincent Price, Julie Numar, Frank Gorshin, etc.) draws from some of the very best character actors of the time.
I’m sure either might make swell Christmas presents for someone you know…
RIP: SNL Announcer Don Pardo, 96
Tuesday, August 19th, 2014Longtime Saturday Night Live announcer Don Pardo has died. I think he was the last person who worked on the inaugural season of SNL who stayed on with the show for it’s entire run. (Lorne Michaels went away for five years before coming back to the show.)
He was a great announcer, and he did a lot of work in radio and on TV game shows like Jeopardy.
Here he is on why script writers should use short words:
Don Pardo passed away yesterday. But he will receive some lovely parting gifts.
— John Walters (@jdubs88) August 19, 2014
“But Doctor, I Am Pagliacci!”
Monday, August 11th, 2014Robin Williams dead of an apparent suicide at age 63.
Williams, along with Richard Pryor, was one of the true authentic comic geniuses of my lifetime. As a stand-up comic, his mind was so quick and his work was so manically innovative that his basic appeal actually survived transition to the straitjacket confines of a prime-time sitcom. He was a solid dramatic supporting actor, but it’s a shame that (unlike Pryor) he never found a movie that served the true essence of his comic genius.
Reality TV Show Ideas: Daddy Was A Serial Killer Division
Thursday, May 15th, 2014Someone needs to do a reality TV show featuring all the people claiming their father was the Zodiac killer living together in the same house. It would be like The Three Christs of Ypsilanti, except, you know, sleazy.
For the season finale they could battle the people who claim their fathers were the Black Dahlia killer in some sort of trash sports obstacle course…
Crap: Almost Human Cancelled
Wednesday, April 30th, 2014Fox has evidently cancelled the science fiction police drama Almost Human. Which is a damned shame, since it was the first attempt to do a serious post-cyberpunk drama on American TV. (The true first was Japan’s animated Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.) While it wasn’t a great show (it had too much 1970s cop dram patina to it, including the requisite Climatic Gunfight at the end of every episode), it was a pretty good one and had a lot of potential.
Well, so much for that. Unless another network picks it up, or the DVD sales convince Fox to pick it up again. I’m not holding my breath.
Library Additions: Two Books, One Signed by Gilda Radner
Thursday, April 17th, 2014Every now and then you see an item outside your sphere of collecting interests at a good price and go “I want that!” This is one of those times.
Bought in a lot with:
Among the areas I occasionally contemplate starting book collections in are the early history of Apple Computer and the original cast of Saturday Night Live. (Warning: Get off my lawn ahead.) I know that Saturday Night Live is about as edgy as a bowling ball these days, but the original SNL was groundbreaking, daring and funny as hell. So when I saw this in that 70% off sale I bought so many SF books in, I snapped it up. Bought for $40.49.
Though Radner was the best female cast member in the original cast, the Roseanne Roseannadanna character was far from her best bit (see the Judy Miller Show, where she plays a hyperactive girl for that), but she died young enough that books signed by her are not particularly common.
Two tidbits on Alan Zweibel:
Mike Judge Has A New TV Show: Silicon Valley
Wednesday, April 9th, 2014The creator of Office Space, Beavis and Butthead and King of the Hill has a new (live action) TV show on HBO called Silicon Valley.
The first episode is up free:
I’ve seen about half of it. It’s reasonably funny, but some of the geek characters are a bit too cliched…
John Belushi on The Luck of the Irish
Monday, March 17th, 2014Because a lot of people have been searching for this on St. Patrick’s day, and the old video appears to have died, here’s a new version.