Revisiting V

                                             *****spoilers ahead*****

Some of the creepiest TV moments from my childhood (aside from sitcoms having that requisite “special show” pedophile episode) revolve around the sci-fi cult classic “V”. From the craptacular special effects, the claymation Diana deep throating a guinea pig or Robin giving birth to a scaly puppet with a grunting problem, (when I was 7-8 years old some of the effects were pretty scary). Tonight ABC premiered a re-boot of the classic and the update seems to hold its own. The major roles have been adequately cast, the major drama this time around is focused in New York and in keeping with the times theres alot of talk of sleeper cells and national security. I do appreciate how this version makes the claim that the visitors have already been on earth for some time and have already placed themselves into society in all kinds of roles. Somethings I don’t miss, the dated red jumpsuit with the “Thriller” jacket top, the modulated voices from the visitors.

Thursdays used to be special!

Recently I’ve found some TV offerings dismal

aside from my usual NBC favorites, I recently started watching CBS’ much hyped “Harpers Island”, it’s some horror schlock that CBS had green lit and felt comfortable enough to pair it with CSI as it’s lead in. For the uninitiated, Harper’s island is a fictional island in the pacific northwest, on said island a nasty murder took place in 2001 or 2002. In the shadow of these dastardly murders, each episode is chock full of assorted cast members taking turns playing ‘hide the sausage’ or ‘Hey I have a vagina and I want to use it’, All in all the show comes off as half soft core porn half B-Movie.

What IS worth a watch is NBC’s new Thursday night offering “Southland”, from the producers of “ER” and “Third Watch”, Southland is set in Los Angeles, has a large and impressive cast (too large of a cast actually). Southland much like Third Watch takes you into the cops lives, shows you how they’re normal people or how they’re freaks. I’m surprised at how much it has surpassed Third Watch, (as much as I love Third Watch , it sucked because it was 2 shows in one, they should’ve taken a page from vet producer Dick Wolf and kept NYPD and FDNY seperate on the show) but I digress. And unlike Harpers, Southland actually has some direction with the story lines and better production over all.

*As I write this CBS has moved Harpers to Saturday Night where its SURE to find viewers!……. sad enough, I’ll probably still watch

Yeah so Im jealous

Apparently Horatio Sanz, the Chilean born SNL star of the early 2000’s, has mastered something I could never master, self control, (or GB which I can’t afford)

I was caught off guard the other night, I settled down for a night of amusement on NBC and was NOT amused to find an all night wake for E.R. instead so I switched channels. Before settling on some cable show which I can’t remember right now I passed by ABC and some show was on. The gist of which is some funny ladies that have mommy troubles* and blah blah blah was on when all of the sudden my better half yells out, “wait, was that Horatio Sanz?, he lost weight!,” upon switching back and doing a quick IMDB search and lo and behold it was him, or atleast it looks like him. It looks more like a skinny person is wearing a Horatio Sanz suit.

Congrats you skinny bastard!

 

* the formula seems trite and the ensemble of many funny people is hard to pull off lately in this reality show rich environment. Cheryl Hines and Horatio can pull it off but I really can’t get passed Megan Mullaly.

For the Love of Balki

it’s friday and Im stuck at work, which means ABCs Friday Night Line-Up! one of ABC’s friday night mainstays is Wife-Swap, the weekly plot is pretty basic, letting wives from town A spend 2 weeks in the household of a wife in town b, in essence allowing you to see how green the grass is on the other side or how many weeds you might have to pull.

In my opinion it actually plays out like this wife/mom A is a type A personality, typically over schedules her kids activities, is generally an over achiever and usually has a …. very quiet husband (to be polite about it)

wife/mom B is usually either a laid back bohemian or bible thumper or aspiring country singer whose husband has a living room full of either Elk Heads, Rastafarian Posters or Hummel Figurines. Both worlds cross and watch the chaos ensue.

Now it’s obvious that everyone means well and that the producers of this show are marketing genius’. But why am I still watching?!?

I’m Super thanks for asking!!

I don’t know what’s with me today, I guess I just wanted to pay tribute to two of the most “out”landish and flamboyant confirmed bachelors who ever graced a stage during the 60’s and 70’s (with apologies to Tiny Tim)

Take a quick look to the right, it doesn’t get any snazzier than a velvet painting of Charles Nelson Reilly.. I remember watching Charles on repeats of Lidsville and around different tv shows.

  The second of course is Paul Lynde who along with CNR mastered the ascot on many game show sound stages throughout the 60’s and 70’s. Many of you might remember him as Uncle Arthur from Bewitched.

update 3/20

… the recent addition to my crushes list Pauley Perrete from NCIS (the goth pippi longstock)

.. never, NEVER! never underestimate the necessity and the sheer awesomeness of sleep. W/O sleep we’re zombies! w/o sleep we would be cranky!

… not everyone has to like me, let alone put it with me, except that one person, she knows who she is

television is becoming either really uninspired or I’m just getting smarter… (is that possible?) nothing really noteworthy as far as tv is concerned. I missed the Amazing race this past sunday and I gave up on American Idol as any type of entertainment. Thursday nite on NBC was entertaining as always, I can’t believe Michael Scott quit!!

Comedius

I just really get confused when it comes to comedy…

I enjoy comedy troupes such as The Lonely Island, The State (when they were an ensemble, back like 15 years ago) and Broken Lizard.  Most comedy today is obviously either TV or Internet oriented. From those you get your different genres, late night TV, sitcoms, adult swim, etc. From that last group you get your different subsets, Family Guy, Seth Green and his production team and the Tim and Eric team.

This post I guess just focuses on the fact that I don’t “get” or flat out even LIKE Tim and Eric. It doesn’t differ to much from some of the other groups that I’ve mentioned. Same type of formula, get high and write, get drunk and write, walk into the opposite genders bathroom with a tape recorder and write the outcome.

I don’t feel like picking up my book right now so I’ll blog instead

pretty much the title says it all… there are some things I’ve been pondering

…if I start my “25 random facts” post on facebook NOW will I just be copying everyone else? or will my pent up rage from past attrocities shake certain folks to the core

   can octogenarians sense sarcasm? and if they can will they still obey?  (i.e “have a good day” and “you’re welcome”)

will pointless talent shows get renewed for another season? (no picture needed too many tv shows to list)

the a.d.d. in me has taken a tighter hold in my life, either that or it’s just plain exhaustion moving into my life… for example, I’ve woken up from my sunday naps (bids to stay alive) to watch tv (The Amazing Race) and for the life of me there are whole chunks, segments, people that I can’t remember. It could be that I’m half asleep, it could be that I’m growing out of my tv is life phase (I kinda hope not) but 60 plus hours punching the clock CAN do that to ya.

not to mention this weekend daylight savings timestarts [or ends, I really don't know] and that will only throw me off just THAT much more completely fucking me all up..

On a lighter note, I did catch Jimmy Fallon’s second night ( I work so I slept on wed. and thur. nite)… I think he’ll do just fine, I guess I just have to get used to his bits… I guess

my late nights

I have enjoyed late night TV for quite some time. I remember as a child, my brother and I would sneak the TV on and watch Late Night back when David Letterman used to be the host, now I didn’t get most of the humor but I did find a lot of the pranks funny (one in particular had Dave talking a laundro-mat customer into overloading her washer with detergent and getting soap all over).

In the early 90’s the Late Night “wars” occurred, sending Leno to the Tonight show, Letterman to CBS opposite of Leno and a then unheard of SNL writer to replace Letterman on Late Night.

Conan O’Brien brought a new style to Late Night, unlike Leno and Letterman, Conan represented the sensibilities of Gen X. (ie 60s and 70s pop culture, baby boomer parents. etc;).

I was upset but understood that as time goes by that NBC would eventually move Conan into Leno’s Tonight show spot. With that announcement (that was made back in 07 if I’m not mistaken) came the ‘other’ announcement, made back in Fall or summer 08, Jimmy Fallon would replace Conan in March 09…

…. fast forward to RIGHT NOW, I’ve been watching Jimmy’s version of Late Night… not extremely bad as I thought it would be, I must admit that I missed most of the monologue, I arrived in enough time to catch a segment called “News Slow Jam” [happened about 40 minutes ago and wasn't memorable enough to remember the EXACT title]..the segment was done with the assistance of the in-house band “The Roots”.

The first guest was, Robert De Niro, it was VERY awkward. They’ve been playing up the De Niro tough guy aspect with him giving short one word answers. Also  they re-enacted a Weekend Update sketch that they did from about 4 or 5 years ago where Jimmy does a sub-par De Niro impression and De Niro responds byimitating Fallon in a babyish/effeminate voice. That segment was topped off by a B-Movie parody called Space Train and for the life of me I can’t remember if it was an SNL bit or if they roped De Niro into actually doing that now.

The second guest wasn’t all that bad, Justin Timberlake. Justin and Jimmy do have good chemistry although it seems the show was too “bit” heavy and didn’t involve many questions.

The musical guest was Van Morrison, for the two minutes he was on he was actually good.

Altogether, I STILL have hopes for Jimmy, opening show not so good, then again many people said Conan wouldn’t last

They’re…. here?

this isn’t a usual rant, it’s more about a spooky commercial that kind of weirded me out the other day.

there’s a new direct tv ad that features a snippet from the 1982 horror classic Poltergeist . the ad features the scene where Carol Anne goes to the tv with the snowy picture and starts talking to the tv. I guess you can call the spot an homage, to me, it just comes off as creepy. In the spot Craig T. Nelson starts going off about direct tv and how he should have switched while a Carol Anne body double stays at the foot of the bed. It’s eery considering that Heather O’Rourke died twenty years ago, now this doesn’t compare to other spots that have featured Humphrey Bogart and I believe the other famous dead person used was Gene Kelly, it doesn’t compare because Heather O’Rourke died VERY early on in her life.

that’s just my opinion