television Archives - Page 25 of 43

Who’s your favorite?

Writer Ken Levine did this, picking his favorite performer for a variety of roles. I can do that. Who is your favorite:

Felix & Oscar? I saw the television show, with Tony Randall and Jack Klugman first. The movie, with Lemmon and Matthau was great. But the room for the characters to develop through over 100 episodes on TV makes Tony & Jack my favorites. I did enjoy the short-lived version with Ron Glass as Felix and Demond Wilson as Oscar. Always wondered what the Sally Struthers/Rita Moreno version was like. Just read that ” Matthew Perry will be starring, co-writing, and executive-producing a remake…[which] will start airing in midseason 2015 on CBS. Perry will play Oscar Madison, a known slob; the role of his clean freak roomie Felix Unger will be portrayed by Thomas Lennon.”

James Bond? I STILL have not seen in a theater a James Bond movie. I’ll pick Sean Connery, because I did see some of his films on TV.

Superman? I suppose it’s Christopher Reeve, the guy from the movies c. 1978. Though George Reeves on the TV, and even the Fleisher cartoons voiced by Bud Collyer were under consideration.

Batman? (Michael Keaton? Really?) Sure, why not Michael Keaton, if only because he was better than I expected. And he was in the only movies I saw, except for the one with Adam West.

Lois Lane? Terri Hatcher from Lois and Clark, though Noel Neill from the early TV show also gets consideration.

Sherlock Holmes? The current TV show with Jonny Lee Miller

Dr. Who? I only watched the Tom Baker period with anything approaching regularity.

Darrin Stephens? Dick York, the original husband on Bewitched.

Hawkeye? Again, years of playing a character, in this case for over a decade, gives Alan Alda a real advantage over Donald Sutherland.

Host of THE PRICE IS RIGHT? While I had admiration for both Bill Cullen and Dennis James, and I’ve only seen Drew Carey a few times, I’ll go with Bob Barker, the long-time host.
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Who else could we compare?

Alex Trebek has been doing it for the last 30 years, and I’ve gotten used to him. But I liked the jovial Art Fleming as host of JEOPARDY!, and he appears in the Weird Al video.

Clearly, I’ve spent WAY more time with the original Star Trek cast than the newcomers (seen only the first film of the reboot), so that’d be no contest, thus far. BTW, those are the Captains Kirk above.

Best presidential pair with a common surname: Roosevelt over Adams, I reckon. Don’t think Harrison, Johnson or Bush are really in the running.

One could take on music groups:
Which Van Halen lead singer? David Lee Roth
Genesis with or without Peter Gabriel? Each has its qualities
Which iteration of Fleetwood Mac? Ditto, though a lesser bands sans Christine McVie
Which group of Temptations? I actually preferred them after David Ruffin left and was replaced by Dennis Edwards before Eddie Kendrick left, the beginning of the psychedelic soul period.
Which Beatles drummer, Pete Best or Ringo Starr? OK, I was kidding with the last one.

Give me more!

October Rambling: Enough with Dystopia; the Conservative-to-English Lexicon

My favorite website these days is The Weekly Sift. Sam Harris and the Orientalization of Islam and 7 Liberal Lessons of Ebola.

Sexual Assault in the Bakken Shale “Man Camps”.

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Civil Forfeiture. “Oliver references a September report from The Washington Post, which states that, since 9/11, police have seized $2.5 billion in 61,998 cash seizures from people ‘who were not charged with a crime.’ ‘Under civil forfeiture laws, your property is guilty until you prove it innocent.'” Read more. And here’s another example

Modern art was CIA ‘weapon’.

The Forgotten Coup – How the US and Britain Crushed the Government of Their “Ally” Australia.

A Conservativeve-to-English Lexicon, 2nd edition.

Author Wants Southern States To Secede Over Gay Rights, Name New Country ‘Reagan’.

Whites riot over pumpkins in NH and Twitter turns it into epic lesson about Ferguson.

The Problem With That Catcalling Video.

A veteran teacher turned coach shadows 2 students for 2 days – a sobering lesson learned.

Condolences to my buddy Steve Bissette, whose dad passed peacefully on October 28.

The late Marcia Strassman was NOT happy on Welcome Back, Kotter.

Unfortunately, the cancer has returned for Eddie Mitchell, the Renaissance Geek. Send him a good thought.

How (Not) to Talk About Vaccines.

Atheist At A Funeral: A Contemplation In Four Hymns.

Want to see the Dole/Kemp 1996 campaign Web site? Dustbury notes that you still can see it and a lot more at the 4president.org site.

In an excerpt of The Republicans: A History of the Grand Old Party by American history professor Lewis L. Gould, he recounts the mid-’90s Republicans’ desperation to preserve their image — and how that desperation led them to impeach President Bill Clinton.

Chorus Nylander – Rebecca Jade Interview. Also, Brianna Cara, Angie Sagastume and Rebecca Jade sing the national anthem. Plus Help Rebecca Jade make a new album!

Cover versions you may not have known were covers.

Quincy Jones on Sinatra, Mentorship and His New Clark Terry Documentary.

2014 may be the first year ever with ZERO platinum-certified albums since they started the designation. But never underestimate Taylor Swift.

The Technical Constraints That Made Abbey Road So Good.

Chuck Miller: They’re tearing down 309 South Broad Street in Philadelphia.

Jeff Sharlet: The Writer Who’s Using Longform to Take Instagram to the Next Level. BTW, he recently sent me a pic of his late mom, his sister, himself and myself from c. 1979.

Ken Screven on being the only black kid in the class. I can relate; that was me for most of K-9.

Enough With Dystopias: It’s Time For Sci-Fi Writers To Start Imagining Better Futures. To that end, both SamuraiFrog and Jason Bennion recommend the new book by Jaquandor called ~~Princesses in Space!~~ Stardancer. Read all about it at his new site, ForgottenStars.net. Especially you, Uthaclena.

Speaking of Jaquandor, he reviews a book about minor league baseball that makes me want to read the tome. Or better still, go to a game. Cartoon: Why Baseball Is Better. Short audio: Take Me Out to the Ball Game – The Skeletons. Commercial: Throwing like a girl.

These Are the Grammar Rules You Don’t Need to Follow. Also, 10 Grammar Mistakes People Love To Correct (That Aren’t Actually Wrong). OK, but I just can’t say “data is…”

TV Legend Norman Lear: ‘Even This I Get To Experience’. He was the creative force behind All in the Family, Maude, The Jeffersons and many more programs.

The Nine Lives of ‘Saturday Night Live’.

Film Reviews by Cotton Mather.

Dull Men’s Club.

Playtex Living Spacesuits. Don’t think the movie has come out yet.

My computer screen went sideways this month, for some reason. I found how I turn it back: Try pressing Ctrl + Alt + UP Arrow Key, or try Ctrl + Alt + and a different Arrow Key.

SamuraiFrog’s alphabetical Muppet gallery includes Lenny the Lizard and Mr. Johnson (one of my FAVES) and Nutty Bird and Ohreally and the wonderful Prairie Dawn; the school plays on the latter are great. Plus Bill Cosby and the Muppets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLeUvZvuvAs&feature=share
Sesame Street: Janelle Monae- Power of Yet

John Cale & Brian Eno / Spinning Away

A mildly interesting story about Mark Evanier, Henry Kloss and home electronics. But this coda is even better.

The Strange History of Corn Flakes, which, being a cereal aficionado, I actually knew.

Every time you make a typo, the errorists win.

GOOGLE ALERTS (me)

Arthur writes about that Raven no racial/sexuality labels thing. (BTW, Cosmo responds to Raven.) He also muses about mayonnaise.

Dustbury notes the Tchotchke Index.

Jaquandor cites me watching MASH reruns.I also made his sentential links HERE.

Both Jaquandor and Dustbury are sad about the apparent cancellation of the Fantastic Four comic book.

The Lydster, Part 127: Watching the news

I was the kid who was watching Huntley-Brinkley on NBC News or Walter Cronkite on CBS News by the time *I* was ten.

For her first nine years, I sheltered the Daughter from watching the evening news, viewing it after she went to bed, or before she got up in the morning. Sometimes, I’d watch it while she was in the other room.

Turns out that she is preternaturally interested in these things. Moreover, she develops opinions about them that did not necessarily come from us. Ferguson, MO made her aware that it’s a little scarier being a black child in America than she previously thought. The death of Palestinian children during the conflict with Israel made her angry. And she has great antipathy for Russia’s Putin.

Sometimes, she shows off her knowledge. Last summer, she said to a friend, “Do you know what happened in Mali?” Her friend didn’t know who Molly was; it was a reference to a plane crash. During a manhunt for a cop killer in Pennsylvania, she was surprised that her friend from Pennsylvania was unaware of it.

It’s my fault. I was the kid who was watching Huntley-Brinkley on NBC News or Walter Cronkite on CBS News by the time I was ten. But the news seemed tamer when I was her age. Our involvement in Vietnam was still minimal. There was racial strife, but it seemed to be focused in the far-away South.

Now, there are ISIS/ISIL video executions; she didn’t see them – heck, I didn’t see them, but she was still aware of them, though not the first one until after the second one had taken place. Hundreds of girls are kidnapped in Nigeria. Several NFL players are involved with domestic violence.

She always DOES have the option of going away from the set, but she seems to have the peculiar notion that she should be an informed citizen. Where she got THAT idea, I have no idea.

One wants to protect one’s child, but I guess keeping her blissfully unaware is not an option anymore.

Jan Hooks, Elizabeth Peña, Alan Hauser

Mark Evanier tells a story about Jan Hooks, his friend, and a member of the cast of Saturday Night Live from 1986 to 1991, who died on October 9 at the age of 57 (!). The story also features some lying multimillionaire schmuck who she had tried to make nice with.

The day before I heard about her death, I had just happened to have watched a segment of Saturday Night Live featuring her and Paul Simon. I really haven’t watched the show much this century, but I watched it religiously before that. I’ve long thought the best SNL cast may not have been the original troupe (John Belushi, Dan Ackroyd, Gilda Radner, et al.) but the group of the late 1980s, with Jon Lovitz, Dennis Miller, Nora Dunn, Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, and Jan Hooks.

I also watched her on shows such as Designing Women and 30 Rock.

Here are some nice recollections in the Huffington Post and the New Yorker.

Her former SNL co-star Victoria Jackson also wrote an article. Considering that Ms. Jackson has become a bit of a lunatic, I believe it was surprisingly pleasant.

SamuraiFrog noted the passing of actress Elizabeth Peña on October 14. I thought she was older, mostly because she plays the mother of the character played by Sofia Vergara (42) on the TV show Modern Family. But he was only 55(!) herself. (The death of people younger than myself usually gets the (!) response.) Ms. Peña was in my favorite John Sayles movie, Lonestar, and she is a voice in probably my favorite animated film of the last half-century, The Incredibles. But she also appeared in a number of other projects I’ve watched, going back at least to LA Law.

I read before I saw any confirmation in news stories, that vocalist Tim Hauser of Manhattan Transfer has died on October 16. I have some of their music, going back to the days on vinyl. Chuck Miller wrote a very nice piece, complete with links to MT music.

10 Glamorous Oscar de la Renta Gowns.

Ben Bradlee, the legendary Washington Post editor, dies at 93.

Politics, Alex Trebek and JEOPARDY!

It could be that I’m STILL ticked off that Alex Trebek ruined my picture with him.

It’s no great secret that many game show hosts in the United States are politically conservative. Here are articles from the Daily Beast and Salon.

This list of MCs includes Alex Trebek, host of JEOPARDY, a show I’ve been watching in one iteration or other more than half of my life. I’m not suggesting a political litmus test, so the fact that he speaks approvingly of the Tea Party is disappointing to me but doesn’t alter my appreciation of the game.

However, his comments on air are cumulatively starting to irritate. As Salon suggests: “In Trebek’s universe, when a woman wins, a battle of the sexes begins, whereas when a man wins, the universe is in accord.”

The show itself got dinged for its recent sexist “what women want” category. Trebek doesn’t write the questions, but after 30 years, certainly has enough sway that if the category or the questions therein (which you can read HERE) bugged him, they’d likely be altered.

So I took some odd pleasure from this recent gaffe during the interview section, made available by the show’s producers.

Of course, it could be that I’m STILL ticked off that he ruined my picture with him. After I was on the show, taped in September 1998, I received a photo, but it was just of me with no Trebek. I’m sure it was because when I posed for the photo with him, I could see on a monitor that he did the rabbit ears thing behind me like an eight-year-old.

In any case, I imagine the now appropriately mustachioed host will probably retire in a couple of years. And the show still interests me, so that trumps whatever irritation I have with the host for enjoyment, so far.
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Here’s one of those recent Jeopardy! Hometown Howdies.