October 7, 2008
Memo to political candidates: Apparently, referencing the great Steve Martin movie The Jerk will get you in a lot of trouble, even if it seems fairly obvious from the context that you’re doing nothing other than referencing the movie.
In other sort-of Steve Martin-related news, the Anne Hathaway episode of Saturday Night Live was fantastic. The political humor, I expected — the rest, no.
September 27, 2008
(Originally posted as a “page” by mistake)
The world of mixed martial arts, a new sport on my beat, has a couple of slight overlaps with the world of pro wrestling. A handful of prominent guys, particularly Ken Shamrock and Brock Lesnar, have moved from one to the other.
So I decided to peek at TNA IMPACT! on Spike.
After a couple of five-minute check-ins, I’ve noticed something curious. They don’t really bother with actual “wrestling matches” any more. I’ve seen a bunch of people wandering around various spots in the arena getting ticked off and slapping each other. The ring is very much on the periphery.
It’s kind of like watching Sports Night. If you’re expecting to see 30 minutes of a fake SportsCenter, you won’t. It’s related to a fake SportsCenter, but there’s a lot more going on.
Put another way — this wrestling show has as much wrestling as MTV has music videos.
Which, in this case, is a mild improvement.
July 4, 2008
Maybe I should spend less time debating issues in the Popdose comments and more time on the blog? I don’t know. At the moment, I’m in two interesting discussions on Popdose, which might be a better use of my time since this here blog is going through a dry spell due to a lack of time and lack of traffic.
First up is Aimee Mann and her new album, Bleeping Smilers. “Bleeping” is actually some collection of Beetle Bailey-style punctuation profanity, but I can’t be bothered to get it right. Just like Aimee, bless her heart, couldn’t be bothered to get this one right.
Ted at Popdose is a little more complimentary, which fits most of the reviews I’ve seen. I just don’t get it. The lyrics — rhyming “Phoenix” with “kleenex,” for example — aren’t up to her usual work. She’s typically a laid-back singer, but on this album, she enunciates like Billy Crystal’s old impressions of aging boxers. And the instrumentation is all over the place, as if someone were in the studio with Pink Floyd for Dark Side of the Moon saying, “Hey, you know what this song needs? A banjo!”
None of this is to say it’s horrible. There’s nothing here that’s ear-gougingly bad. It’s just disappointing compared to so much of her previous work, like the underrated Lost in Space.
While that debate rages, I find myself disagreeing with Dw. Dunphy, which is unusual. The topic: The Simpsons.
As a member of the Main Stream Media (new motto: the few, the proud, the … um … fewer), I may be a little biased toward institutions that have faded from past glories but are nevertheless worth maintaining. That sentiment is missing from the discussion so far.
Dw. doesn’t go overboard. He’s not one of these guys confusing cynicism with intelligence like the idiots in college who would tell you Saturday Night Live hasn’t been good since (Belushi, Murphy, Carvey, Ferrell) and that MadTV is better. (Loosely translated, that means “I have not developed critical-thinking skills, and you may safely ignore anything I have to say for at least another two years.”)
But I disagree with his take that the Simpsons themselves have become too callous. He’s right in saying Family Guy sometimes is too mean to be funny (though that applies much more often to South Park, in which the wonderfully incisive satire is sometimes overwhelmed by the sense that the creators think family tragedy is funny in and of itself). I just don’t see that in The Simpsons. Homer always learns his lesson, and his love for the wife and kids always wins out in the end.
They’ve overdone the marital strife, to be sure. But Homer’s callousness has always been there. In one of the early classics, his birthday gift for Marge was a bowling ball with Homer’s name on it. He’ll do the right thing in the end, but he has to be whacked over the head a few times to do it.
In that discussion, I came up with a list of worthwhile episodes from the past three seasons. Yes, they put out some clunkers along the way, though even those have a few good moments.
In looking at both discussions, perhaps I’m being hypocritical here. Aimee Mann and The Simpsons have done terrific work in the past, and they’ve set a high bar.
My guess is that The Simpsons are trying too hard and overreaching, sometimes coming up with concepts they can’t really fit in a half hour. Aimee Mann’s new album has the opposite problem. Her album sounds like a mildly intriguing set of demos rather than a completed work.
Yet their high standards just mean they both deserve a chance to be seen and heard even in a crowded marketplace. I’m sure The Simpsons will have a few more good episodes next season, and I’m sure Aimee Mann will have more good songs down the road. They’re hitting valleys, not jumping sharks.
If R.E.M. can come up with its best album in 15 years out of nowhere, I’m sure both of these institutions can recover.
Now, about the mainstream media …
May 24, 2008
Just finding all sorts of stuff while waiting for the little ones to wake up.
This one is at Nerve magazine, and yes, it’s heavy on SNL. But the first entry from MadTV isn’t bad, either.
It has all the memorable ad from SNL original cast, plus the classic Hooks-Hartman-Carvey ad for Compulsion by Calvin Kleen.
One missing ad, though I also can’t find video for it: Kelly Ripa sending up her own smiling ubiquity with an ad for a shampoo that contains just a little bit of crack cocaine. I gained enormous respect for her after that one.
May 24, 2008
Great curiosity find from TVSquad: A few years after M*A*S*H, several of the actors reunited for a series of commercials for a product that did not age as well as their show. Remember IBM’s PS/2 computer? And is it ironic to watch a video on a computer of an ad that brags about 256 colors “at the same time”?
TVSquad makes a big deal out of the different eras represented in the ad, but really, it’s the Season 4-5 cast with Wayne Rogers instead of Mike Farrell.
Two of the four ads they dug up are in this video:
May 18, 2008
A cautionary note here for anyone who happens to be a writer or producer for The Office:
Many of the iconic TV couples thrive on relationship drama. Sam and Diane on Cheers. Dave and Lisa on NewsRadio. Ross “We were on a break!” and Rachel on Friends.
Jim and Pam are not one of those couples.
All those other couples were as funny and charming on their own as they were together. Sam and Diane had a wonderfully complex “can’t live with, can’t live without” relationship. Dave and Lisa were amusingly dysfunctional.
Few viewers could’ve been too disappointed to see these relationships fail. Sam and Diane were just too different to work out in the long run, and Shelley Long’s decision to leave the show freed the writing staff from an awkward situation. Dave and Lisa’s relationship really couldn’t be taken seriously — they were the kind of couple who would prompt wedding guests to start pools on how long the marriage would lost. Ross and Rachel both found decent relationships elsewhere and only stuck together when their history became so overwhelming that no one else could’ve fit into the picture.
You could argue that NewsRadio, more of a farce than a sitcom or “dramedy,” didn’t need to treat its relationships realistically. On Friends and Cheers, which aimed for the heartstrings as well as the funny bone, the relationships were believable. Everything made sense.
But “dramatic” is not the same as “realistic.” And if The Office wants to keep its status as a funny yet sympathetic view of ordinary life, it shouldn’t be tempted to twist a realistic relationship into something else.
Sometimes, staying together is more realistic than the alternatives.
Really, does anyone think Pam would be tempted to stray from Jim by Toby? If it were some sort of casual relationship with a new co-worker, maybe. Not in this case.
Yes, I see myself in Jim. I was thinking marriage early in the courtship of Mrs. MMM, and we’ve had an easy road together. As Harry said in When Harry Met Sally: When you’ve decided to spend the rest of your life with someone, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.
Hollywood often wants us to think “realistic” means “dramatic.” That’s not always the case. And the beauty of The Office is that it finds beauty in unglamorous locations. That’s why the upbeat theme song works so well.
Don’t be The Simpsons, which now threatens to break up Homer and Marge a couple of times a year even though that storyline hasn’t been really funny since the bowling episode 17, 18 years ago.
Jim and Pam can still have difficulties. But they don’t have to face difficulties within the relationship. Couples find plenty of drama outside the relationship, and they face it together. It can be funny. And it’s uncharted territory for most comedies.
Please, folks. Give it a try.
April 15, 2008
Anyone else wonder if the reason this movie is getting so much play on cable these days is that people might think, “Hey, someone made a movie about a Web browser!”?
That sentence leads me to a grammar point. I have trouble with quotation marks because I studied a considerable amount of logic in college, and the rules on quotation marks ain’t logical.
Problem 1:
“The comma goes before the quotation mark,” he said, realizing that the rule makes no sense from a logical standpoint. The quotation is a complete expression. The comma separates it from a descriptive clause.
Problem 2:
Eric said, “My team will be ready to play Saturday.” The comma is grammatically correct and logically unsound. The quotation is the object. Eric said X. Imagine other sentences with an object.
Mark threw the ball.
Not:
Mark threw, the ball.
So take note, English majors. This is why philosophy majors are laughing at you.
“But there are plenty of reasons to laugh at philosophy majors” is a perfectly valid response.
March 5, 2008
Rashida Jones deserves better.
Told you it was quick.
February 8, 2008
Are my tastes completely out of line with everyone else’s?
Consider the following:
Music: No, I don’t know much of the current Top 40. But in today’s fragmented media landscape, that’s not so unusual. The days of a band like the Beatles stretching into every demographic are long gone. The bands I like are all relatively popular within their various niches. I get a pass on this one.
Reality TV: Every TV blogger seems sick of American Idol’s audition phase and is excited to see the show heading to Hollywood. This is the point at which I tune out every year. The parade of American narcissism and comeuppance, mixed with a few heartwarming tales of the truly talented, is over. Now we get the tedious task of narrowing it down to 12 people who will be asked to grit their teeth through a variety of styles, many of them unsuitable, and then sit through the weekly “results show.” People watch this, apparently.
I do think it’d be amusing if figure skating adopted the “results show” model. Let the judges sound off for a while, then have the skaters stand and smile through 30 minutes of “Sasha and Kimmie are in the bottom two” nonsense.
Scripted TV: I’m used to it by now. Popular shows like Grey’s Anatomy grate on my nerves. My shows, from NewsRadio to Arrested Development to Friday Night Lights, live on the verge of cancellation. Only The Office has worked its way into pop culture.
Sports: You all know I’m a soccer guy. But did you know I watch biathlon? You won’t be seeing highlights on SportsCenter any time soon. (Granted, I like almost all sports — it’s not as if I skip the Super Bowl.)
Food: I finally found a food at McDonald’s that was relatively nutritious and genuinely tasty — the Southwest salad. Don’t look for it on the menu. It’s gone.
Children’s TV: I’ve just learned that The Upside Down Show has not been renewed.
Politics: Don’t ask.
Perhaps my tastes are actually better than most people’s. Maybe I appreciate true quality while others don’t make the effort to do so.
Elitism, though, is no comfort. Not when I keep get attached to things that disappear because no one else is interested.
So perhaps I need to start a movement. The Campaign to Bring Back The Southwest Salad, Renew The Upside Down Show, Save Friday Night Lights, Revamp The Two-Party System and Put Biathlon on ESPN. Who’s with me?
February 5, 2008
“Daddy, why did Moe drive past the hospital?”
“Well, sometimes Moe is mean. In fact, Moe is usually a bad guy.”
“But he gives people beer. What makes him bad?”
