Archive for the 'Cathode Rays' Category
Smiles, Everyone, Smiles
December 20th, 2006Behold the stupefying fabulousness of the opening production number for the 1986 Miss America pageant. The contestants may have been different, but year after year one could count on getting the same elements from this spot. A jazzy dance troupe gyrates away while the fifty finalists walk around and lift their arms in unison — […]
Jeffy’s Crappy Christmas
December 17th, 2006Is there a piece of holiday television that you haven’t seen in years? Something you’d want to catch again to find out if it’s as good/bad/sappy as you remember? My main choice would be the animated A Family Circus Christmas, first broadcast in 1979. I recall that the special was as inoffensively cute as the […]
Into the Groovy
December 7th, 2006I got reactions of both thrill and nausea watching the first 10 minutes from Make Your Own Kind of Music, a 1971 TV variety special starring Herb Alpert, The Carpenters, Al Hirt, Mark Lindsay, and The Doodletown Pipers (via Patrick). Enjoyed the Sesame Streetlike opening, the alphabet theme is nicely carried throughout the show, and […]
Charlie Brown Music; Asshat Santa
November 28th, 2006I was going to link to the swell NPR story on Vince Guaraldi’s musical contributions to A Charlie Brown Christmas, but Christopher has beat me to it. Rats! Instead, we have to make due with a YouTube user’s demonstration of Santa Claus’ jerkiness in the Rankin-Bass holiday classic Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer:
Everybody’s a Critic
November 15th, 2006Scott Tobias of The A.V. Club Blog writes on the succession of stand-in critics on Ebert & Roeper, which points out many of the same things as my previous post on the subject. Namely that people within the entertainment industry have serious credibility problems when they slip into critic mode. On the other hand, TV […]
P Is for Product
October 24th, 2006Muppet Central reviews Sesame Street Old School Volume 1, which makes me wanna rush out and buy it instead of waiting for the rental discs to arrive. The 3 DVD set contains the premiere episodes for each of the first five Sesame Street seasons (1969-74), along with various popular sketches and bits from that period. […]
Little Miss Sunshine
October 23rd, 2006Whenever I think about Doris Day, I just smile. So geniune and multitalented, but also projecting just enough artifice to make you question whether that genuineness is truly what it is (know what I mean?). That’s what came to mind for me while taking in The Doris Day Special, recently issued on DVD from MPI […]
Ready or Not
October 14th, 2006Looking forward to the December arrival of Saturday Night Live’s Complete First Season, complete and unedited on 8 DVDs. This first season will be interesting to check out, since it was still a work in progress with a few elements (grungy Muppet creatures, short films) ironed out of the more polished later seasons.
Admittedly, “ABBA appeared […]
Sitcoms on the Brain
October 8th, 2006Jaime Weinman explains what makes a successful sitcom on his weblog for Macleans, TV Guidance. As on Something Old, Nothing New, the guy consistently wows me with his knowledge of TV, stage and screen. Is there anthing he can’t do?
I’m of two minds on those old sitcoms. There’s the good quality TV, and then there’s […]
Lost: One Stranded Viewer
October 4th, 2006MSNBC’s Andy Denhart is tired of Lost yanking his chain, and I’d have to agree. After an underwhelming second season, we’re no longer watching. How did something so promising turn so … boring? I’ve heard that the powers-that-be at ABC, desperate to court female viewers, demanded that the show focus less on sci-fi and more […]
We Live Here, Too
September 30th, 2006We Live Here is a new series running on the Fine Living (a.k.a. HGTV for yuppies) channel dealing with out of the way restaurants, bars and activities in certain cities. Out of curiosity, last night we tuned into the installment which profiled my native city of Phoenix, a bizarre experience which Christopher has hilariously detailed […]
Tin Ears
September 21st, 2006There exist few DVDs that I would choose to buy instead of rent; the Walt Disney Treasures count among them. Earlier editions of these sets have gone out of print and now fetch a pretty penny (especially The Complete Goofy, which sells for $75-100 on eBay). Having missed out on the Behind the Scenes at […]
Salute Your Shorts
September 13th, 2006I’m sending my Tivo into overdrive on Turner Classic Movies this Friday — the channel will be broadcasting an entire day of short films with its Behind The Camera: The Shorts Circuit fest. They’ll be showing a few brand new films, but of course I’m going to be checking out the cool vintage stuff (which […]
Reviewing the Reviewers
September 5th, 2006It’s been an interesting last five weeks witnessing the variety of guest reviewers fill in on Ebert & Roeper while Roger Ebert is out recovering from surgery. I’ve been watching this in some form ever since Gene Siskel and Ebert’s Sneak Previews days, but I have to admit the show lost a lot of since […]
Idle Emmy Thoughts
August 28th, 2006Another year, another Emmy awards. I still can’t wrap my brain around the fact that other awards shows get nominated for awards. Especially when one winner was the director of that very Emmys telecast, doing his acceptance speech from the control booth. A very meta moment.
Something else to think about: Barry Manilow has two Emmys; […]
