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June 2009 Archives
What's On YOUR Wish List of TV Shows That Ought to Be Out on DVD?
June 30, 2009 7:37 AM
[Bianculli here: I'm leaving this up for another day, because the responses have been so wonderful. Even if you've posted your own wish list, check back to read everyone else's comments. He & She! Frank's Place! The Trials of O'Brien! Holy good taste, Batman! Oh, yeah -- and Batman, too!...]
Diane Werts' recent column -- a great-news post about the just-announced forthcoming full-series release of Fox's Ally McBeal on DVD -- ended with her prodding for the releases of other not-yet-available series, like ABC's brilliant 1988-93 The Wonder Years. I'm taking her ball and advancing it a little, by giving my own list of TV shows I'd love to see released on DVD -- then asking for yours...
Yes, I'd love to see a full-set Wonder Years, too, so start there. But here are six other series that absolutely, positively deserve full-set releases, and are significant enough in terms of TV history to warrant the honor.
ST. ELSEWHERE, 1982-88, NBC. 20th Century Fox released Season One of this brilliant, groundbreaking medical drama three years ago, then stopped there. Huge mistake, because the show got better, bolder and more audacious in every successive season. Terence Knox as a doctor turned rapist? David Morse as a doctor turned rape victim while taken hostage as a visiting physician in prison? (For series writer-producer Tom Fontana, it was a short step to his subsequent Oz. Denzel Washington? Howie Mandel? That infamous ending? C'mon... I adored this show. And every edgy cable series of the past 10 years owes a major debt to this program, period.
THE LARRY SANDERS SHOW, 1992-1998, HBO. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released a no-frills Season One collection in 2002, very early in the TV-shows-on-DVD game, and an outstanding Not Just the Best of the Larry Sanders Show set, with lots of frills, in 2007. But still no complete-series run -- and this show, almost as much as Seinfeld, holds up so well to repeated viewings, and is so distinct in its comic tone, it should be available as a complete-series set. Garry Shandling, Rip Torn, Jeffrey Tambor -- if HBO had video rights to this, instead of Sony, it would have given Larry Sanders the royal treatment long, long ago.
THE DAYS AND NIGHTS OF MOLLY DODD, 1987-88, NBC, 1989-91, Lifetime. If you're tracing the history of working single women in TV history, Blair Brown's Molly Dodd is one of the most significant, and charming, figures. (The lineage goes something like this: Our Miss Brooks in the 50s, That Girl in the 60s, Mary Tyler Moore Show in the 70s, Molly Dodd in the 80s, Ally McBeal in the 90s and 30 Rock today.) Jay Tarses wrote this fabulous comedy -- no laugh track, major New York sensibility -- with a great supporting cast that included a then-unknown David Strathairn. No episodes have ever been released on DVD -- a major TV crime.
THE GREAT AMERICAN DREAM MACHINE, 1971-72, PBS. This anything-goes, liberally biased anthology arts and documentary series was a variety show in the truest sense. Andy Rooney, before moving to 60 Minutes, did reports for this one-season PBS showcase. So did Marshall Efron, whose lecture on the topic "Is There Sex After Death?" was, in its entirety, one word ("No"). Chevy Chase was one of the mime "singers" who contorted their faces to the sound of music, and short films were provided by, among others, Albert Brooks. It's never, ever been on home video, not even a single episode. So where is it?
THE BOLD ONES: THE SENATOR, 1970-71, NBC. Two years after Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated, Hal Holbrook starred as Sen. Hays Stowe in this one-season rotating drama in the umbrella series The Bold Ones. Only eight movie-length episodes were made, so it would be a perfectly manageable DVD boxed set. I remember this series as having more heart and guts than any series on the air at the time -- but my memories are fading, because this series hasn't been seen since, or repeated anywhere, much less released on home video. Yet Holbrook was magnificent as an idealistic young senator, so now's the time. Yes we can.
THAT WAS THE WEEK THAT WAS, 1963, 1964-65, NBC. This was the short-lived, amazingly daring U.S. offshoot of the British satirical hit -- and David Frost, who hosted it in England, eventually held court on the American version as well. Henry Fonda presided over the 1963 special, which led to a brief but brilliant run: Nancy Ames singing about the week's current events, Tom Lehrer providing topical songs like "Pollution," Buck Henry and Alan Alda providing pointed comedy, puppeteer Burt Tillstrom using nothing but his two hands to enact a touching drama about the history of the Berlin Wall. And how about this: At a time when cigarette ads were still pervasive on TV, TW3 showed X-ray images of diseased lungs while singing, from "Smoke gets in Your Eyes," the lyric "Something here inside cannot be denied." This NEEDS to be on DVD.
Those are some of my missing favorites, my TV Holy Grails. What are some of yours?
GUEST BLOG #29: Diane Holloway celebrates a screwy show that fixed itself
June 29, 2009 9:15 AM
Bianculli here: TV critics, almost by definition, have to be optimists ("With all this horsesh**, there must be a pony in here somewhere!"). Finding the good shows is more difficult, but more rewarding, than trashing bad ones. Sometimes that means displaying saint-like patience, and giving shows a second or third chance -- as contributing columnist Diane Holloway does today by revisiting TNT's Raising the Bar, a Steven Bochco law show that stumbled badly coming out of the gate...
'Raising the Bar' raises its quality
By Diane Holloway
With the notable exception of Cop Rock, that way-too-wacky musical police drama of 1990 (grimace, shudder, gag!), I've always been an admirer of Steven Bochco's work.
From Hill Street Blues to L.A. Law to NYPD Blue, he created super-quality dramas that became long-running hits. Even his good-but-unpopular shows were commendable: Bay City Blues (1983), about a minor league baseball team; Hooperman (1987), an offbeat comedy-drama with John Ritter as a run-down San Francisco cop; and 2005's brilliant but shunned Over There, FX' chilling drama about Iraq war soldiers.
So I was deeply disappointed last year when TNT's Raising the Bar debuted as such a dud. Unfocused, ill-defined and just plain clumsy, the legal drama landed with a thud. I feared that Bochco had come to the end of his creative run.
The series about young lawyers defending and prosecuting criminal cases starred Mark-Paul Gosselaar as a long-haired, full-of-himself crusader and Jane Kaczmarek as the ridiculously over-the-top judge who hated him. It came off as old-fashioned and formulaic in today's climate of edgy dramas.
But here's the good news (and what makes this show an acceptable TV Worth Watching topic) -- the second season, which arrived June 8, has returned Bochco to his rightful place as a creator of really good television. Check it out for yourself Mondays at 10 p.m. ET on TNT. (Or streaming anytime here.)
Just about everything that was wrong with the first season has been fixed in the second. Bochco has always taken thoughtful criticism to heart, and it looks like that's exactly what he did here.
Gosselaar's disconcerting mane was the topic in the season opener earlier this month. OK, the silly hair is dirty and distracting. No serious lawyer would walk into a courtroom looking like that. So a juror actually told public defender Jerry Kellerman (Gosselaar) that he would be less likely to trust the attorney's presentation of the case because of his unkempt appearance. The next time we see rumpled Jerry, he has been to the barber and donned a decent-looking suit. Voila! Credibility returns! A small point, perhaps, but indicative of larger previous problems.
More importantly, the characters have all been tweaked with nuance. Kaczmarek's Judge Kessler is no longer shrieking and stomping around her chambers. She's still politically ambitious and cold, but now she shares bench duties with Judge Farnsworth (John Michael Higgins of Boston Legal and Best in Show fame, and Kath & Kim infamy). He's probably not intended to be comic relief, but he has some genuinely funny moments.
The overly serious and painfully sincere Jerry has lightened up. Finally. Too much idealism made Jerry a dull boy last season. And this season, co-stars have been given a chance to shine. Gloria Reuben (ER) and Currie Graham (NYPD Blue) are especially promising in supporting roles as a defender and a prosecutor, respectively. In other words, the ensemble is now a true ensemble.
As is typical with Bochco shows, there are plenty of sexy secrets bubbling beneath the surface. And the legal cases, dealing with everything from hate crimes to kiddie porn, make for compelling storytelling. The tantalizing blends of shock and awe, heartbreak and humor are back where they belong.
So if you've been avoiding Raising the Bar because of last season's sour taste, give the second season a second chance. Bochco has earned it.
------
Diane Holloway was the TV critic for the Austin American Statesman for 30 years, until the downturn in the newspaper business prompted her to take a buyout. She's now sniffing out other possibilities. Before newspapers, she worked in Washington for the Library of Congress, the American Film Institute and the National Endowment for the Arts. Maybe something entirely different is next. Or not.
GUEST BLOG #28: Tom Brinkmoeller pokes 'Jon & Kate' in the eye
June 26, 2009 6:00 AM
Bianculli here: Celebrity culture has never been more obvious or inescapable than right now, as TV covers -- blankets, smothers -- the death of Michael Jackson, with Farrah Fawcett's death in second place, Ed McMahon's death a distant third, the unfaithful South Carolina governor a rapidly sidelined fourth, and the poor protesters in Iran wiped off the attention grid almost entirely. So what does the celebrity of Jon and Kate have to do with all this? According to contributing columnist Tom Brinkmoeller, a lot...
'Jon & Kate' Just Ate America's Lunch
By Tom Brinkmoeller
How many times did Moe tell his Three Stooges partner Curly to pick two fingers, and then poked him in the eyes with the fingers he picked? How many times did Moe tell the bald Stooge to hit his hand, and then swing his arm in an arc to land his fist on Curly's head?
If you think the Stooges are history, think again. Television's play-callers are pulling the old Moe trick on us more often and more brazenly lately than its namesake ever did. They think of us as a collection of Curlys. And lots of us have offered our eyes as willing targets.
The largest offender, to date: TLC, for the way it has suckered so many into the spider web called Jon & Kate Plus 8. Maybe you remember how Moe would clamp a huge pliers on Curly
s nose and pull him around? See any similarity in the way TLC has been yanking us around?
With an amount of manufactured excitement its Learning Channel predecessor would have considered offensive, the unabashed new TLC used a giant stick to stir up the waters as it led up to Monday's D-I-V-O-R-C-E episode. Fresh photos of the telegenic parents with eight children got published. Unattributed rumors got printed. Clips showed up on the star-sycophant programs. Emeril Lagasse and the American Chopper comedy trio made guest appearances.
People who once sold pet rocks and mood rings must be the VPs of hype at TLC. They said, "Pick two!" and the viewing Curlys let themselves get poked in the eye.
Following Monday's melodramatic conclusion -- as the public response morphed into "How could anyone victimize those sweet children?" -- there's a lot of handwringing going on in some of the same fields where the first seeds of hype started growing a few weeks ago. Why isn't someone wringing TLC's neck, instead, for selling more sideshow tickets than Barnum ever dreamed of peddling?
More evidence of stink: The night after the momentous episode aired, it aired again. And now, as the series is on a so-called hiatus, the TLC schedule is amply populated with maudlin promos inviting viewers to revisit the better days, as the network works to make sure the upcoming reruns pull better ratings than the originals. Parent-company Discovery's e-mail list sent out an offer Wednesday right: Buy the Season 1 DVD of Jon & Kate and get the second season free!
This really awful series (is there ever a time when one or more of the children, or Jon, for that matter, isn't crying?) is not the first to play the manipulation game. Bachelors and bachelorettes, celebrity apprentices -- and of course those celebrities who should be left in the jungle -- do it, too. But these vapid competition shows don't make children into accomplices. So in the current tally, Jon & Kate is the worst.
Does the manipulation have to rise to the Bernie Madoff level before someone finally shuts it down? This isn't a regulatory thing, like banning cigarette commercials was. Nor is it like TV's 1950s quiz-show scandals, where government officials jumped in and created an entirely different mess.
This is one for the public to change simply by waking up and realizing they're being used shamelessly. We can reverse things, and not just by tuning out of these sickly shows (though low ratings hit networks in the most sensitive body parts). When large numbers tune out and sound off by calling this the scam trend it is, the garden slugs who come up with these shows will slink out of town before they're ridden out on a rail.
Curly, take the pliers out of that numbskull's hands and let him know you're the one holding the blunt object now. Don't be afraid to use it.
---------
Tom Brinkmoeller -- who wouldn't
be surprised if Kate and Jon were
Joan Rivers and Geraldo Rivera in
disguise -- remembers when the most
brazen thing on television was a
deodorant ad that showed an armpit.
GUEST BLOG #27: Ed Martin on a wholesome show that's full of sex
June 25, 2009 9:30 AM
Bianculli here: Contributing writer Ed Martin is back, raving about last Monday's second-season premiere of ABC Family's The Secret Life of the American Teenager, and trying to recruit viewers in time for next week's episode two. He does a fine job, by playing the sex card...
'Secret Life': It's not just about the boobs
By Ed Martin
There is no other series with so split a personality as ABC Family's The Secret Life of the American Teenager, a genuinely entertaining family drama that is more wholesome and heartwarming than just about anything else on television -- and yet so sexually supercharged that it borders on the surreal. Seriously, this show puts so many hormones in play it makes Gossip Girl feel like Gidget.
True to form, Secret Life's second season began on Monday night with its main characters obsessing over breasts. The episode had the makings of a great drinking game. Had viewers of legal age downed a shot every time one character commented on another's boobs, they would have been blotto by the first commercial break.
Much of this talk was centered on Amy (Shailene Woodley), the 15-year-old who found herself pregnant at the start of the series, gave birth (seemingly without breaking a sweat) in the Season 1 finale, and is now struggling to care for her son while continuing in high school; and her mother Anne, who is pregnant by a male acquaintance, or possibly by her estranged husband (and Amy's father), George, in the unlikely event that George's long-ago vasectomy failed last year around the time the two of them hit the sheets.
Naturally, Amy and Anne are both a little top-heavy right now, prompting a broad range of responses from their loved ones. Other breasts made themselves known, too, including those of happy hooker Betty (the jubilant Jennifer Coolidge in a recurring role) and a number of Amy's teenage friends and acquaintances.
As any loyal viewer will tell you, the very likable characters on Secret Life never miss an opportunity to share their thoughts about wanting sex, having sex or abstaining from sex -- and the overkill can be problematic, to say the least. In Monday's episode, the only breaks from talking about baby-making came when talking about babies themselves -- especially Amy's 2-month old bundle of love, John, who has turned his bad-boy baby-daddy Ricky (Daran Kagasoff) and Amy's too-understanding-to-be-real boyfriend Ben (Kenny Baumann) into buckets of gooey man-mush.
One subplot veered from talk about sex to talk about abstinence to an actual act of intercourse (occurring off-screen) as sensitive jock Jack (Greg Finley) bedded cheerful cheerleader Grace (Megan Park), a devout Christian who prayed for months before deciding to lose her virginity. In a scene that I am almost certain was not intended to be amusing (but was), Grace couldn't stop complimenting Jack after they did "it," sounding not for a second like a teenage first-timer as she told him how "skilled" he was at lovemaking.
The only other time that the cloud of all-consuming sex talk parted was for the delivery of devastating news -- the sudden death of Grace's dad, Marshall (John Schneider), which happened at approximately the same time she was having sex with Jack. Grace's character trajectory promises to be the most dramatic on the show this season.
The many responsibilities that come with and consequences that may result from youthful sexual activity have always been the driving forces of Secret Life. I watched this episode in the company of adults and young teenagers, and while the old folks were slack-jawed at all the sex talk, the kids (all of whom had seen every episode of this show at least twice) just brushed it off and made clear (to the adults' collective relief) that real life is nothing like Secret Life (a series they nevertheless love more than any other).
Apparently, tweens and young teenagers have other things on their minds, like music and video games and social networking and school and sports. A healthy curiosity about sex fits in there somewhere but it doesn't dominate -- no matter what ABC Family would have us believe.
As over-the-top as it can be in its strident determination to explore all facets of teen sexuality, there is something strangely comforting and gently appealing about Secret Life. It may be the storytelling, which, if one puts aside all the super-frank sex talk, resembles that of a soap opera during the glory days of daytime drama. (That would be the '70s and '80s, when record numbers of tweens, teens and twentysomethings fixated on the genre.)
It's all about a complicated community of ordinary people making their way through life. The characters screw up constantly, but when one gets in too deep, he or she is rescued and comforted by family and friends. Teens and their parents are often at odds, but they just as often find themselves connecting, even when they don't expect to do so. (On this week's episode, Ben's dad Leo, aka the Sausage King, brought happy hooker Betty home after dinner and had to rouse his son out of bed to borrow condoms. "I'm optimistic," geeky Ben offered as his dad opened his overstocked condom drawer. "So am I," Leo smiled, grabbing a fistful.)
Secret Life is greatly enhanced by its simple production values, which are as retro as the show's approach to storytelling, if not to the stories it tells. In other words, it looks like a beloved television drama from decades past: There's no hand-held camera work, no rapid-fire editing, and no elaborate on-location shooting. People refer to it as edgy and contemporary, because of all the sex stuff. But in every other way it feels as old-fashioned as a Hallmark Channel original movie, except for all the sex stuff.
Another reason that Secret Life resonates with viewers (consistently bringing ABC Family some of its highest ratings ever, and often outperforming competing broadcast and basic cable fare in teen and young adult demos) is that while the narrative focus is clearly on its multi-dimensional teen characters, the adults on the show are similarly well-drawn.
There isn't another couple on television quite like ever-quarreling Anne and George (played to comic perfection by one-time box-office teen queen Molly Ringwald and the always appealing Mark Derwin), nor a single dad as genuinely grounded as Leo (Steven Schirripa, in a perfect turnaround from his Sopranos role as hit-man Bobby Bacala). These are just a few of the many grown-ups who add so much to this show and avoid every cliche about TV moms and dads while doing so. They're as much fun to watch as the kids.
I'll end with a question for Brenda Hampton, the creator of Secret Life and the producer of the long-running WB hit 7th Heaven, another family-focused drama that appealed to young people. Why is this series titled The Secret Life of the American Teenager? No matter how intimate or potentially embarrassing, the kids on this show have no secrets from each other or the adults in their lives -- none that last, anyway. That may be the most laudable of its many fine qualities.
----
Ed Martin is the television critic and programming analyst for the media industry Web site JackMyers.com. The former senior editor of the award-winning, much-missed television and advertising trade magazine Inside Media, Ed has also written for USA Today, Advertising Age, Television Week, Broadcasting & Cable and TV Guide.
GUEST BLOG #26: Tom Brinkmoeller has music on the brain
June 23, 2009 9:55 AM
Bianculli here: I'm still working under manic deadlines for another week or so (don't ask), so contributing columnist Tom Brinkmoeller bails me out by reviewing a new PBS music and science special, Wednesday's The Music Instinct: Science and Song. It answers lots of your musical questions -- not necessarily "Who put the ram in the ram-a-lam-a-ding-dong?," but plenty of others. Here's Tom's review...
PBS Special Explores Brain-Music Harmony
By Tom Brinkmoeller
You may want to try the following elimination rounds in deciding whether to invest two hours in the new PBS special The Music Instinct: Science and Song (Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET -- check local listings).
Are you fascinated by how the human brain works and its potential as science discovers more of its secrets?
Does it catch your interest that music may have preceded speech in early humans?
Does evidence of a complex relationship between the brain and music make you hungry to learn more?
Are you curious to find out about people like:
* Accomplished percussionist Evelyn Glennie [above], deaf since birth, who performs by "hearing" the vibrations of the instruments she plays?
* An accomplished surgeon who, after being struck by lightning, decided to study music and developed an impressive ability to compose and perform?
* Stroke survivors who regain some speech by using the singing portion of their brain to form words?
* Or Parkinson's disease patients who learn to coordinate their movements better with the help of rhythmic assists?
Still here? Then know that if you opt in to The Music Instinct, you won't be gently fed. It's a thoroughly researched, intriguingly produced program that at times dispenses its facts at a supercharged pace. But maybe it's appropriate that a program taking on the intricacies of the brain expects its viewers to have well-tuned brains, as well.
The subject matter actually seems pretty comprehensible -- reminiscent of that philosophy course you never could afford to sleep through.
You'll learn that fetuses begin to hear between 17 and 19 weeks, that music is audible to and affects them, and that humans are born with what the producers call "a music module." In people who learn to play an instrument when they're young, that module pays off with improved long- and short-term memory through life.
Blind musicians commandeer the part of the brain usually used for sight and transform its forces into musical ability. And there appears to be universality in music effects, even among cultures unknown to each other. People living in a remote part of Cameroon, who never have heard Western music, respond to emotional parts of a piece of music much the same way as people who are familiar with it.
Musicians Yo-Yo Ma, Daniel Barenboim, Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR, at right) and Bobby McFerrin lend the program interesting insights in demonstrating brain-music links.
It's only when the neuroscientists take the spotlight that those of us who swim in shallow water, so to speak, start to look for a lifeguard. I hope I'm in the minority, but these super-cerebral elements seemed to add at least 15 unneeded minutes to the program. Even so, it's a two-hour investment with a good payoff.
Dr. Jamshed Bharucha -- a cognitive neuroscientist, musician, and the provost and senior vice president of Tufts University -- offers some important takeaways for the non-neuroscientists among us. Though many musicians say it's a "heart" function, the brain has a major role in the perception and appreciation of music, and music plays a key role in the development of the brain: "The brain changes as you learn, and it can change in any point in your life through exposure to music."
And then there's the evolution of music into speech: "Music derives from a very primordial form of communication . . . that today's languages have drawn upon."
Considering what the other networks are offering tonight (America's Got Talent, I Survived a Japanese Game Show, So You Think You Can Dance and a Criminal Minds repeat), The Music Instinct: Science and Song may be the only offering guaranteed to make your brain hurt in a good way.
---------
As a child, Tom Brinkmoeller was
successfully urged by his piano
teacher to take up sports instead --
and yet he remembers that incident.
GUEST BLOG #25: Diane Holloway salutes ads that outshine the show
June 22, 2009 8:45 AM
Bianculli here: Having a problem finding an entertaining show to watch, even with the help of TV WORTH WATCHING? Oh, well, there are always the ads -- and contributing columnist Diane Holloway hones in on on ad campaign that comes through loud and clear, like a Sonic boom...
Pete and T.J. create a Sonic boom
By Diane Holloway
If Sonic would post a schedule for the Pete and T.J. commercials, fans like me could enjoy their 30-second chuckles on a regular basis. Think of it as the perfect summer comedy for folks with no time to spare -- or sadly short attention spans. Whatever . . .
While the majority of today's 30-minute sitcoms fail to produce a single laugh, these little snippets of the tater-tot-loving buddies never fail to produce hilarity.
For eight years now, the Second City-trained duo from Chicago have been pushing steak-and-egg burritos and pancakes-on-a-stick while building the kind of popularity rarely seen in commercials. These guys overshadow the Coke bears and the Budweiser Clydesdales. They're simply silly, offbeat and fun.
Even the new generation of TV fans who only watch recorded shows and thus skip the ads will stop for these -- or, even more amazingly, the spots are sought out and enjoyed online. (You can watch a compilation here.) You know those ridiculous drunken-buddy movies people pay big bucks to go see? They pale in comparison to these improvised half-minutes.
The Sonic Guys, as they are widely known, have been around so long you may already know the basics about them, but in case you don't:
Both are rather non-descript thirtysomethings, and they came to the Sonic auditions already friends. Their chemistry is instantly obvious.
T.J. Jagodowski is the blonde doofus who gets the punchlines; Peter Grosz is the dark-haired straight man. Both are trained actors, writers and improv specialists. T.J. has popped up in guest starring roles on TV series; Pete writes for and occasionally appears on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report. And they appeared together in Will Ferrell's 2006 movie Stranger than Fiction.
Barkley, Sonic's ad agency, concocted the campaign to promote the drive-in chain's distinctive fast-food items, such as corn dogs and the aforementioned breakfast-on-a-stick.
Initially the spots were pure guerrilla theater. The Sonic Guys would drive through a competitor's window and pull some outrageous prank to promote the brand. An early attack found the guys asking an unsuspecting window worker to microwave their popcorn (Sonic doesn't use microwaves). Coconuts were cracked, and parking lots were invaded. It was mayhem.
The undercover spots had a Saturday Night Live feel to them, and thus appealed to hipsters everywhere. But as Pete and T.J. became famous, the pranks had to stop. They were increasingly recognized before they could pull off a stunt. No surprise, no fun.
That's when the ads moved into Pete's car, where the foolishness continues.
T.J. and Pete typically are seen stuffing their faces with whatever they're promoting. Clueless T.J. usually goes off on some tangent, knocking a tater tot out of Pete's hand as he's riffing about basketball, or wondering why Sonic chose to put raspberry and mango in iced tea instead of soda or coffee. Pete usually responds with frustration or amazement at his friend's flights of fancy. (They have sort of a Tommy and Dicky Smothers feel.) Then "smack!" The slapping noise means the ad is over.
The spots are clearly not scripted. You get the feeling the ad agency just tells Pete and T.J. what to hawk, and the improv guys go to it. They've made well over 100 separate spots.
Recent Sonic spots have also used a man-woman couple and a couple of lady friends, but Pete and T.J. rule. Besides YouTube, their online presence has included a game, maketjdrink, that let fans manipulate the front-seat action. Fans even posted their own versions of the ads on YouTube.
The Sonic Guys make us realize advertising still is an art form -- and that funny is funny no matter what the venue.
------
Diane Holloway was the TV critic for the Austin American Statesman for 30 years, until the downturn in the newspaper business prompted her to take a buyout. She's now sniffing out other possibilities. Before newspapers, she worked in Washington for the Library of Congress, the American Film Institute and the National Endowment for the Arts. Maybe something entirely different is next. Or not.
My Smothers Brothers Book Now Has a Cover -- And I Love It
June 19, 2009 7:35 AM
This is the fun part of book writing -- selecting photographs, editing the manuscript, finalizing the notes and bibliography and acknowledgments and stuff. But one part of the process doesn't involve me at all: designing the book cover.
Well, the cover design for my Smothers Brothers book is in, and I couldn't be happier. When the book hits stores the first week of January, this is what it will look like.
Let me know your reaction, even if it's not as bubbly as mine...
GUEST BLOG #24: Tom Brinkmoeller reveals 'Antiques Roadshow' secrets
June 17, 2009 6:10 AM
Bianculli here: TV critics are like treasure hunters, sifting through mounds of worthless junk in search of the occasional sparkling treasure. No wonder contributing writer Tom Brinkmoeller finds lots to like about the long-running PBS series Antiques Roadshow...
Waiting in Roadshow Line Sometimes Pays Off
By Tom Brinkmoeller
Maybe the most impressive fact about Antiques Roadshow isn't that it still finds amazing treasures after 13 seasons, or that it has been the highest-rated PBS weekly series since its second season on the air, regularly attracting 10 million viewers.
It just may be that, having set up in more than 90 halls over that time, and having done thousands of appraisals during each stop, not once has an appraiser broken an object, the producers report. Not one piece of glass that got slippery while being held more than an hour in the nervous hands of its hopeful owner. Not one brittle piece of antique paper kept in the family for hundreds of years. Not a fragile carving that's older than this country.
It's truly an unbroken record.
Rarely, viewers will hear something break off-camera, said Marsha Bemko, executive producer of the series since Season 5. But that's been at the hands of the owners, she said, and never anything valuable.
Bemko knows a lot more than that about Antiques Roadshow -- so much, in fact, that she has turned her knowledge into a 256-page book, Antiques Roadshow Behind the Scenes, to be published in November. Bemko happily shares some of her fun facts from the road: The most six-figure appraisals were in Palm Springs, Calif., followed by Baltimore. People used to camp out during the first four seasons of the show, hoping to get in ("We had people sleeping out overnight," Bemko said). In 2000, the WGBH production staff started handing out appointment times, with 3,200 tickets available for each city. The most ticket requests were for the Raleigh, N.C., show (34,000); the easiest ticket was in Phoenix (20,000).
Shows are shot on Saturdays, when the doors open at 8 a.m, and it's at least 11 or 12 hours before the sets are struck and the hall is empty again. Most of the Roadshow crew of about 45 people arrive in the host city on Thursday and return home Sunday. While there, they're joined by 15 local crew members and 110 volunteers (each of whom receives lunch, a T-shirt and an appraisal in appreciation).
The appraisers always pay their own expenses, and out of a pool of 150 appraisers, 75 attend each show. Most arrive the day before, but some come in early to socialize with each other. Antiques Roadshow has helped tear down a wall: Employees of Sotheby's and Christie's had historically avoided each other. "We've changed that, they tell us," Bemko said. "We've become something like a summer camp for grownups."
People bring their would-be valuables for three reasons, she said -- to learn about the object; hoping to hear it's valuable (usually, it's not); and/or to be on television. When an appraiser sees something that seems worth an on-air appearance, Bemko or another producer is called in to make a ruling. The guest is never told if the object is valuable or not. Each appraisal takes at least 10 minutes to shoot.
Over the course of a day, 55 formal appraisals will be shot; 30 more will be shorter versions done at the appraisal table. Of those, up to 60 will show up in the three shows made from each Roadshow visit. In all cases, the show's producers refrain from revealing the owner's last name (though guests sometimes do so themselves).
"Most of our guests do not sell their objects. We ask them to let us know if they do anything. In most cases, it's not about the money," Bemko said of people who bring in family heirlooms. The sale ratio is a bit higher if the appraised object has been found at a yard sale or trash bin.
There was also a spinoff show, Antiques Roadshow FYI, which followed the stories of appraised items later sold. (It lasted just one year because underwriting couldn't be found.) Expanded information about some of the objects is available on the Roadshow web site.
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For a number of years, Tom Brinkmoeller was paid to watch and write about television. That seemingly ideal situation can't match his current one: watching only what he enjoys -- especially in the lesser-hyped areas of television, where he finds some wonderful gems. Sharing those finds is even more fun than watching.
TNT's "HawthoRNe": Is Cable TV Trying Too Much AND Too Little?
June 16, 2009 10:01 AM
There is much to salute about TNT's HawthoRNe, the new drama series premiering tonight at 9 p.m. ET -- first and foremost, that this program about a dedicated nurse stars Jada Pinkett Smith, making it one of the still-rare weekly series centered around a black lead. But there's much to regret, too, in how ordinary, rather than extraordinary, its first installment comes off..
The triumph is that Smith's role is part of the sadly short continuum of solo starring roles by black women. Start in 1950, with Ethel Waters as the first of three actresses to play the role of the maternal maid in ABC's Beulah. Jump to 1968, with Diahann Carroll playing a widowed nurse and single parent in NBC's Julia. Then to 1974, with Teresa Graves as a sassy undercover cop in ABC's Get Christie Love -- the first drama, rather than a sitcom, to he headlined solely by an African-American woman.
And then, what? I adored Regina Taylor's role as Lilly Harper in NBC's 1991 civil rights drama I'll Fly Away, but, like Cicely Tyson opposite George C. Scott in 1963's East Side/West Side on CBS, she was a co-star (with Sam Waterston), not a solo lead. Most other meaty dramatic TV roles for black women, similarly, have been part of equally strong ensembles.
So HawthoRNe (how I hate that cutesy upper-case RN), with Smith as both star and executive producer, is significant, without question. Two things, however, bother me.
One is that Smith's Christina Hawthorne is such a noble, flawless character, she may as well be Julia 2.0, 40 years after Diahann Carroll's picture-perfect registered nurse. This was acceptable in the days of Marcus Welby, M.D., when TV medical practitioners were god, but not more recently, post-St. Elsewhere, when they've been flawed.
The other troublesome aspect is that this series comes from John Masius, who was Tom Fontana's writing partner ON St. Elsewhere. He broke the mold then, but is settling for filling the mold now. HawthoRNe is not a bad series, but it's average. And if cable TV is going to pick up the ball that broadcast TV is dropping, it shouldn't do average.
TNT, this year, may be overreaching, and trying to add too many new series without making each of them distinctive and outstanding. FX and AMC, so far, have maintained the proper balance by presenting few original series, but making each of them count. For TNT, less may be more -- and Hawthorne, at first glance, adds to TNT's total, but not to its luster.
GUEST BLOG #23: Diane Holloway suggests some satisfying summer libations
June 15, 2009 8:00 AM
Bianculli here: One of the most exciting things about having other TV critics share space on this website is opening up whole new arrays of small-screen passion. In fighting off the dog days of TV summer, contributing writer Diane Holloway goes way beyond my usual BEST BETS to recommend enjoyable TV
alternatives on the fringes of the TV dial.
Here she goes...
Try these cures for the summertime blues
By Diane Holloway
Appointment viewing is swell, isn't it? We look forward with anticipation to the new season of Mad Men or the next installment of Dexter.
But there are times when our prime-time hours have no appointments whatsoever. Even the DVR can empty out and leave you lonely. Anyone with extra hours and a splendid high-def TV is faced with a gaping viewing calendar this time of year -- especially on Friday and Saturday nights.
But if you're like me, you probably have a fallback channel or two. Almost any time of the day or night, you can punch in the number and find something worth an hour or two of couch potato (non-)activity.
For me, it's often the History Channel or Discovery or Animal Planet.
I can be perfectly happy with an afternoon marathon of History's Modern Marvels. Everything from bulldozers to the Hoover Dam gets an up-close-and-personal look that's fascinating. I had no idea I was interested in presidential limos until I stumbled upon a recent episode about "presidential movers."
Trust me, the knock on History that it's nothing but wall-to-wall World War II documentaries is totally wrong. Though the channel still boasts lots of historical docs, it's also got Expedition Africa and Extreme Trains.
Unfortunately, like so many formerly high-brow cable channels, History is slapping us in the face with the reality genre. More about that in a sec. But if you suddenly find yourself facing a night of Ice Road Truckers, you can click onto another network.
On Discovery (especially Discovery HD), you can wallow in the beauty of Inside Planet Earth and Out of the Wild. Or you can embrace your inner nerd and watch How It's Made. Think you don't care how aluminum foil or Crayons are made? Think again. How It's Made is fascinating. Even Discovery's sea-going reality show Deadliest Catch is surprisingly compelling.
Critter lovers can always find pleasure on Animal Planet. Installments of Whale Wars and Blue Planet: Seas of Life can perk up any bored summer viewer. On the lighter side, you can watch doggie makeovers on Underdog to Wonderdog and thrill to a touch of graphic animal violence on Untamed and Uncut. (Grrrrr.)
Back to the sorry state of former high-brow cable nets. Remember when A&E really stood for Arts & Entertainment? People in public television actually worried that A&E, with its British plays, classical music concerts and ballets, might cut into PBS's audience.
Well, that didn't happen, did it? Now A&E is famous for such elite cultural experiences as Dog the Bounty Hunter and Gene Simmons Family Jewels.
Similarly Bravo, which started out with grand schemes to elevate basic cable with live performances and classic fare, now toots its horn for The Real Housewives of New Jersey and Kathy Griffin: Life on the D List. Ick and eeew.
National Geographic Channel still has Explorer, The Dog Whisperer and glorious documentaries on Stonehenge and the mysterious Druids. But NGC is fast becoming famous for its fascination with the decidedly freakish. The Girl With Eight Limbs and China's Elephant Man spring to mind as recent examples.
And unless you've been orbiting Mars lately, you know that The Learning Channel is now TLC and home to the ubiquitous Jon & Kate Plus Ei8ht, along with its fair share of freakish fare such as The Woman With Giant Legs, The World's Tallest Children and The World's Strongest Toddler.
If you're asking yourself what the "learning" value is of Jon & Kate, you know just how far the network has drifted from its original promise.
But there are safe harbors. Visit History or Discovery when a hole opens in your viewing schedule. If all else fails, you can catch endless reruns of Law & Order (the classic original) on TNT and CSI (again, the classic original) on Spike. Just surf to the right wave.
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Diane Holloway was the TV critic for the Austin American Statesman for 30 years, until the downturn in the newspaper business prompted her to take a buyout. She's now sniffing out other possibilities. Before newspapers, she worked in Washington for the Library of Congress, the American Film Institute and the National Endowment for the Arts. Maybe something entirely different is next. Or not.
"True Blood": Once Again, a Bloody Good TV Treat
June 13, 2009 10:59 AM
Last year's introductory season of HBO's True Blood established the characters, and the swampy Louisiana setting, of the Sookie Stackhouse novels written by Charlaine Harris. Six Feet Under creator Alan Ball, adapting the vampire novels for television, amped up the sex and the wit, making it a fun summer TV ride.
This season, the now-familiar characters divide and conquer, getting their own tantalizing story lines in a sophomore season that's even better than last year...
Season two of True Blood begins Sunday night at 9 ET, and picks up right where last season left off. The serial killer who had terrorized Bon Temps is caught, but there are plenty of new subplots to go around. Sink your fangs into these, for starters:
Sookie (Anna Paquin), the telepathic waitress, and Bill (Stephen Moyer), her brooding vampire lover, are living together happily -- well, one's living, one's undead -- but with one catch. Bill has been saddled with a new charge, Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll, with Moyer in the picture above), a brand-new teen bloodsucker who's equal parts vampire and vamp.
Sookie's brother, Jason (Ryan Kwanten), has fallen under the influence of a cult -- a cult of vampire haters -- and finds himself distractedly attracted to the cult leader's wife, Sarah (Anna Camp).
Sookie's best friend, Tara (Rutina Wesley), has fallen under the influence of someone, too: Maryann (Michelle Forbes), a mysterious and powerful woman who has the ability to, among other things, project emotions outward like a virus, so that everyone in her vicinity becomes aroused, angry or animalistic.
A cook at Sookie's diner, Layafette (Nelsan Ellis), was dragged away and presumed dead in the season finale. But as we very quickly learn in this new batch of shows, Lafayette isn't dead, or undead, yet.
Eventually (HBO provided the first four season-two episodes for preview), many of these plot threads intertwine. Immediately, though, they grab you with the force of their individual momentum.
Michelle Forbes is doing her best work since Homicide: Life on the Street, and she's absolutely unleashed here, portraying a woman who may prove to be the most powerful and destructive force on the entire series.
And young Deborah Ann Woll, as the vampire's apprentice (a phrase that's an in-joke only a dozen people on the planet may get), could have had the series built around her. Learning to recognize and use her abilities as a vampire gives her something in common with the emerging mutants of Heroes -- but with more bite.
And Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer, as the lead couple, are just right for each other (in real life, too, apparently, having announced themselves as an off-screen item as well). He's exasperated and parental when either his human girlfriend or vampire "ward" act up, which would be the proper reaction of a 173-year-old man. And she, thanks to her telepathic powers, is a lot more independent and strong than she might otherwise be.
Each episode this season, of the ones screened, ends with such an addictive cliffhanger, you can't wait to see what happens next. It's the TV equivalent of a juicy summer read -- except that the juice, in this case, is AB-positive.
If you tune in, I'm DB-positive you'll enjoy it.
Re-Entry to Real Life: Today "Fresh Air," Tomorrow the World...
June 12, 2009 7:42 AM
Burrowing out from my basement this week after completing my Smothers Brothers manuscript has proven trickier than expected. Today, for example, I resume my Friday duties as guest host for NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. I'm even giving a report on today's analog-to-digital TV transition, so please tune in.
But I actually slept a few hours last night, which means I won't be able to post today's BIANCULLI'S BEST BETS, or my review of Sunday's season premiere of HBO's True Blood, until mid-afternoon. Forgive the tardiness, and please return.
Or, if you're that upset with the delay, you could cancel your monthly payment to TV WORTH WATCHING. Oh, wait. It's free...
TV Ratings Tell Many Compelling Stories: Conan is Slipping, "Harper's Island" is Sinking, "Daisies" Wipes Out, But "Wipeout" Doesn't
June 10, 2009 12:02 PM
Audience figures for current shows are telling some surprising stories, from a late-night turnaround to some obvious summer losers and winners. Dave has caught Conan, Wipeout is doing surprisingly well, and so is Obama.
The most significant ratings news of late is what's happening in late-night. It's very early, and there's a difference between overall audience figures and the demographic breakdowns -- but since Conan O'Brien took over NBC's The Tonight Show from Jay Leno, the euphoria over his premiere-night ratings has sagged nightly. As have his ratings.
Tuesday's Late Show with David Letterman on CBS, in which Julia Roberts proved a delightfully feisty talk-show guest (she even busted Paul for reading a song list instead of paying attention to her as she spoke to Dave: "Am I on NIGHTLY?"), ended up beating O'Brien in the overall overnight ratings for the first time. Since the Tonight Show switched hosts last week and started with a 7.1 rating, the nightly trajectory has been all downhill: 5.0, 4.3, 3.8, 3.5, 3.1 and, Tuesday night, 2.9, compared to Letterman's 3.4.
O'Brien still claims younger demographics, and it's very, very early in this game. But the if trend projected by those figures makes anyone at NBC anything other than panicked, that person, most likely, is Jay Leno. Meanwhile, at CBS, Hollywood Reporter and The New York Times have reported that Letterman has all but signed an extension deal with CBS. If true, that's good news for him, for CBS, for viewers, AND for Craig Ferguson, who stands to gain from this latest round of late-night plate tectonics as well.
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Another downward-trending bit of ratings news has to do with Harper's Island, which premiered in April and was supposed to be CBS's big, Survivor-meets-Saw summer TV event. After a few outings on Thursday, CBS banished the Island dwellers to Saturday, where audience levels have dwindled ever since. One month ago, an hour of the grisly murders on Harper's Island drew 4.6 million viewers. The most recent installment drew 3.6, a substantial drop. Good news, because Harper's is horrendous.
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Unfortunately, the ratings for ABC's Pushing Daisies have been horrendous, too. Also banished to a Saturday summer slot, the penultimate episode of Daisies drew only 2.3 million viewers, ranking it in 90th place for the week. For one of TV's best and most entertaining shows, that's a sin. But it's the fault of ABC, not the show's creators or stars, because the network scheduled it abominably during and after the writers' strike.
This Saturday is the very last first-run episode of Pushing Daisies. After that, sadly, the show will be... pushing daisies.
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Also, there's ABC's I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, which has drawn less than half the audience, so far, that ABC did when it ran its own version of the series in six years ago. Viewership went from 6.4 million to 5.5, 4.8, then bounced back to 5.2 Thursday and 5.3 yesterday.
But the bump probably was because Heidi and Spencer were so unbelievably rude and self-absorbed, they were almost perversely intriguing. They're gone now, and the show, which was wretched to begin with, is no better for their absence.
Put it this way: With all their pious and brainless blather about praying to Jesus for guidance, Heidi and Spencer -- and castaway co-star Stephen Baldwin, who baptized Spencer in a nearly stream (honest) -- have done to promote atheism than anyone on TV this side of Bill Maher.
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And, finally, there's this to ponder. ABC's Wipeout, the show with human crash-test dummies (emphasis on both crash and dummies), isn't wiping out in its sophomore season, but last week drew 8.4 million on Wednesday and another 3.7 in a Saturday rerun, for a total of 12.1 million viewers for the week. The Wednesday showing was good enough for a Top 15 finish in the week's ratings.
Meanwhile, NBC's two-part documentary on the Obama White House drew 9.2 million the first night and 9 the second, good enough to land both installments in the week's Top 10. So when America votes for both Obama and Wipeout, what's a network to do?
Answer: Whatever it wants. With that kind of data, a network can justify taking either the high road or the low road. Watch which way they head this fall, and you'll know which networks are more tasteful -- and which are more cynical.
(Any bets on which way NBC lands?)
Neil Patrick Harris Slam-Dunks CBS Tony Awards with Naughty Musical Finale
June 9, 2009 10:40 AM
Completing my book left me a day behind, so watching and reacting to the CBS Tony Awards is a day tardy. But I have to do it anyway, because the closing number by Neil Patrick Harris, as wickedly funny as anything served up by a real musical in years, deserves praise, annotation, and a revisit. You can read the lyrics, parse the references, and even watch and listen to a clip of the finale, by reading on.
In my Best Bet in advance of Sunday's Tony Awards, I wrote that Neil Patrick Harris had done so well as host of the TV Land Awards, musically as well as comically, that I expected good things out of him as Tony host. Plus, having seen him on Broadway in both Assassins and Cabaret, and loved him as the lead in Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, I knew he had the right stuff.
But now, after the Tonys, I'm thinking even bigger. If Justin Timberlake doesn't want to be the guy to single-handedly save the TV variety show, maybe Neil Patrick Harris does.
On the Tonys, Harris held back his biggest star wattage until the credits were about to roll, and kept singing even as they DID roll. It was a closing number tweaked until the last minute to reflect who did and didn't win, with a video montage to match, and was a brilliant piece of instant theater.
The music was provided by Leonard Bernstein's "Tonight" from West Wide Story, with a middle break set to the tune of "Luck Be a Lady Tonight" from another of the night's musical revival nominees, Guys & Dolls. The wonderfully witty lyrics were written by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, of Hairspray. And also, it should be noted, of Harris' TV Land parodies, and of Billy Crystal's still-memorable Oscar medleys.
Crystal opened the Oscars when he sang, whereas Harris closed the Tonys. But what a closing.
Harris, in the lyrics, recognized that Angela Lansbury picked up her fifth Tony, and that the three young actor-dancers from Billy Elliot, who rotated performances in the difficult lead role, won by sharing a single Tony. He name-checked several other winners -- Geoffrey Rush, Karen Olivo, Alice Ripley, Liza Minnelli, the cast of Hair -- and even mentioned several people who didn't win, but who played a part in the evening's festivities.
Elton John, for example, who wrote the score for Billy Elliot but didn't win, was mentioned. So was Bret Michaels, the Poison frontman who was one of several guest stars during the massive opening production number (Elton John took part there, too, as did Dolly Parton, who had written music and lyrics for 9 to 5).
Harris even poked fun at one actor, Chris Sieber, whose role as the mini-tyrant in Shrek: The Musical required him to play part of it on his knees, with a costume designed to make it look as if he had very tiny legs.
All of this, and more, made it into the lyrics, which Harris began singing at 11:03 ET, starting to the tune of "Tonight"...
Tonight, Tonight
The Tonys were tonight
and Elton's Billy was all the rage
What class! What drive! Now Angela's won five!
And she hooked up with Poison backstage
With heels as sore as poor Achilles
three tutu-wearing Billys
were such a winning sight
Tonight, all three
won Tony, plus they hit puberty
[At this point, the music shifts to "Luck Be a Lady"]
And Geoffrey won a Tony tonight
Karen won a Tony tonight
Liza at the Palace, Mr. Ripley's daughter Alice,
They all won a Tony tonight...
[The music shifts back to "Tonight," and the credits begin to roll. "Credits? That's not going to stop me!" Harris shouts. And he continues:]
Chris Sieber. Please!
Performing on your knees?
Dude, that only works to win Golden Globes!
[Spontaneous applause from the black-tie audience for that risque in-joke.]
I hope tonight
when they're high as a kite
to be there when the Hair cast disrobes.
This show could not be any gayer
If Liza was named mayor
and Elton John took flight --
[More applause]
The curtain falls,
I'm off to hit some big Tony balls
Goodnight!
[Big applause and ovation, with good reason]
Wow. Harris, who came out in the last few years and saw his career suffer no repercussions whatsoever, not only gets to host the Tonys, but to sing about going out to "hit some big Tony balls." And truly, the gayer/mayor couplet about Liza Minnelli... Whatever your sexual orientation, that IS entertainment.
Here's a link, I hope, to a clip of the complete Neil Patrick Harris closing number. Click HERE to watch it.
Enjoy it, then ask yourself: When How I Met Your Mother is over, couldn't THIS guy host a variety series?
Frozen Hell! Flying Pigs! Peaceful Middle East! My Smothers Brothers Book Is Done!!
June 8, 2009 6:15 AM
It's been 15 years since I conducted my first interview for my book on the Smothers Brothers, and over a year -- May 1, 2008 -- since my 100-page proposal sold the idea to Simon & Schuster/Touchstone, for a book to be published this November.
This morning I emailed the final chapter to my astoundingly patient, but understandably nervous, editor. I have been researching and writing this thing FOREVER, and now I can surface from solitude and begin to reclaim what's left of my life. For an exclusive first peek at the manuscript over which I've been toiling since 1994, read on...
A First Look at DANGEROUSLY FUNNY:
The Uncensored Story of
'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour'
By David Bianculli
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play
work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes
and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack
no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a
play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull
makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work
a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and
dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no
boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play
work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes
and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack
no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a
play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull
TV WORTH WATCHING Has a Father's Day Treat, If You're Shopping for Dad (Or Are One)
June 5, 2009 2:06 PM
Thanks to Diane Werts (thanks, Diane Werts!), TV WORTH WATCHING is presenting its latest holiday page gift guide. This time -- JUST in time -- it's for Father's Day.
Need a gift suggestion or two for what to get dad, at a good price, that will bring a smile? Diane has assembled a whole page of suggestions old and new, with direct links to discount sales on Amazon. Until and unless we get a nifty home-page Father's Day banner on which you can click, visit the Father's Day guide by clicking HERE.
I'd tell you to tell them Diane and I sent you... but Diane and I, in this case, ARE them. Or they...
GUEST BLOG #22: Diane Holloway is hot for 'Burn Notice'
June 4, 2009 6:01 AM
Bianculli here: USA Network's Burn Notice is one of my favorite shows on cable right now -- and is a hit with enough other viewers to make it one of cable's most popular scripted offerings. It turns out contributing columnist Diane Holloway loves it, too, and welcomes tonight's season premiere by explaining why...
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USA's 'Burn Notice' fires up the summer
By Diane Holloway
Ah, summer. Reruns, tawdry reality shows and, in my corner of the universe (Austin, Texas), relentless heat.
Viewership may be down during New England summers because people prefer to romp outside in the cool night air. But here in the scorching Southwest, where evenings plummet to 80 degrees, we prefer watching TV in air conditioned comfort. I say no-thanks to sweating on the patio with mosquitoes the size of hamsters.
This week brings good news for us summer couch spuds -- the return of the super-cool spy series Burn Notice.
This sly little cable offering, which launches its third season Thursday (9 p.m. ET, USA), has carved a sizable niche for itself thanks to its crisp writing, offbeat characters and sizzling look. Before taking its little hiatus in the spring, the show regularly pulled in more than 7 million viewers each week.
It's perfect for summer -- not too heavy, a little sexy and lots of old-fashioned fun.
Like blowing up cars and boats.
Jeffrey Donovan stars as Michael Westen, a former globe-trotting CIA agent whose career was snuffed out for unknown reasons. One minute, he was a big-time spy. The next minute, he got his walking papers (the "burn notice") and became a struggling Miami private eye.
The perfect crime-fighting hero, Westen is hot-looking but self-deprecating, and often just plain bumbling. Women drool over him, but men can admire his action escapades and laugh at his ineptitude.
But the real fire in Burn Notice comes from the supporting characters. Besides the sexy gun-toting Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar as Westen's spy partner and frequent romantic tease) and Westen's cigarette-puffing, trashed-out mom (Sharon Gless), there's beer-swilling pal Sam (Bruce Campbell), a washed-up operative who sometimes assists in Westen's capers but mostly provides comic relief.
I fell in love with Campbell when he starred in the short-lived but wildly hilarious western/sci-fi spoof The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. (now a $40 bargain at Amazon). That Fox show only lasted one season in 1992, 
but Campbell had me with an impromptu back-flip during a potentially dull Los Angeles press conference. He's also the star of countless B-movies, including The Evil Dead and Maniac Cop. You just gotta love him.
The stories on Burn Notice weave together plain old crime sagas with an ongoing mystery about Westen's past spy activities. Spicing things up are the Westen-Fiona flirtations and the sarcastic banter between Westen and Sam.
Those of a certain age will feel a tinge of the disheveled, cynical world of The Rockford Files -- and absolutely none of the over-stylized glitz of CSI: Miami.
If you somehow missed the previous seasons of Burn Notice, don't be a stranger this time around. Pour yourself a cold one, crank down the AC, and enjoy.
(If you'd rather catch up first, the show's first season is out on DVD now, while the second arrives June 16 on both DVD and Blu-ray.)
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Diane Holloway was the TV critic for the Austin American Statesman for 30 years, until the downturn in the newspaper business prompted her to take a buyout and early retirement. Retirement? More like between jobs. She's still sniffing out possibilities and sifting through freelance opportunities. Before newspapers, she worked in Washington for the Library of Congress, the American Film Institute and the National Endowment for the Arts. Maybe something entirely different is next. Or not.
GUEST BLOG #21: Tom Brinkmoeller falls hard for Apple TV
June 3, 2009 5:42 AM
Bianculli here: Guest contributor Tom Brinkmoeller proudly considers himself and his values old-fashioned, but today he takes on something decidedly NEW-fashioned: an Apple TV. Read on, to get to the core of his analysis...
Apple TV Puts Some Programming Power in Viewers' Hands
By Tom Brinkmoeller
Consider the following a short burst of enthusiastic applause for a piece of TV-related equipment I ignored for almost three years.
Apple introduced Apple TV in September 2006. At the time, I tried to learn more about it and what it did by searching the Apple website and trade stories. I saw no connection between it and my life, and really didn't think about it again. Now I'm an enthusiastic turnaround on Apple TV, a piece of hardware barely pushed by the Apple marketing muscle that has made Macs, iPods and iPhones as well-known as Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson.
Discovery by accident doesn't make the discovery any less satisfying.
Almost a decade before the recession economy put the squeeze on outside-the-home entertainment choices, health circumstances had already made home-based entertainment crucial in our household. Since we're boomers, television has been our default for most of our lives. Cable offers hundreds of channels. But when the number of weekly hours spent watching television approaches the pounds shed on The Biggest Loser, you discover how empty and rerun-ridden those cable channels can be.
Faced with that entertainment vacuum, we were driven to fill it. Netflix and Blockbuster DVDs deliver mostly movies, tie you into a plan and make you responsible for returning their DVDs -- a bit too much effort for the limited television payoff. These companies also offer to sell you hardware to stream a small portion of their offerings directly to your TV. More money, less product -- similar to what today's newspapers keep doing.
So more than two years after deciding Apple TV was irrelevant to my life, I looked at it again. This small box lets the owner download a ton of movies (rent or buy) from the iTunes Store. Also makes it possible to download and play TV shows, audio and video podcasts, music, photos, personal video and YouTube on a home TV.
There aren't many requirements: an enhanced- or high-definition widescreen set with one of several ways to connect Apple's box to the set; broadband internet connection; a router to wirelessly stream from that connection to the box; an iTunes account. You can download onto your computer (Mac or PC) or directly to your Apple TV box. The only hard wiring is between the box and the TV. The setup is as easily instinctive as any other Apple product, and it takes little time to go from unpacking the box to watching a new kind of television.
The viewing choices seem to outnumber those of the competition, the quality of the picture is high (and often high-def), the initial cost is competitive ($229 for 40GB and $329 for 160GB storage), and there's no plan to sign up for, no DVDs to receive and return.
If Apple TV has flaws, we haven't found them in the month since we bought one. We love the free video podcasts. We can watch full-length movie trailers before making a buy. And our iTunes music library sounds better than ever when played through a decent sound system.
I don't know why Apple TV hasn't done more of a marketing push on this product. I think it's the next best thing to happen to the medium since high definition. And I want to thank Netflix and Blockbuster for helping me rediscover it.
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I, like Peter Sellers' Chauncey Gardner character in the film Being There, unapologetically "like to watch." Despite my boomer status, I refuse to be intimidated by technology innovations that make the watching choices better.
On the Same Night, NBC Glides with Conan, But Not Before Crashing with "I'm a Celebrity"
June 2, 2009 11:04 AM
NBC honored its history and tradition Monday night by presenting a polished premiere of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.
A few hours earlier, it betrayed that history and tradition by presenting a wretched revival of a six-year-old ABC disaster, I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!
The curious viewers came out in strong support of Conan, notching unusually strong numbers in the top overnight markets. Leno, though, drew better for his farewell show Friday, and the real test is the smaller, rural markets. That's where Leno won the late-night war and where Conan will be most severely tested.
For my review of Conan's Tonight Show debut, and a look at NBC's late-night moves in general, click HERE after 5 p.m. ET today, or listen to today's Fresh Air with Terry Gross on your local public radio station, for my review. You'll hear, for one thing, my favorite part of Conan's first show: his trip aboard the Universal tour tram.
Earlier, in prime time, NBC presented the premiere of the worst show it's presented all year. Everything about I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! was hideous, from the juvenile misbehavior of Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag from The Hills (especially Pratt, which may rhyme with Brat for a reason) to the utter live-TV incompetence that had the only live element involving the contestants -- a final gross-out battle in which they basically were waterboarded with insects -- cut off partway through.
"It's okay to breathe now, America," one host said earlier, after what, I guess, was supposed to be a breathlessly dramatic moment. But it wasn't okay. Any time you breathed during I'm a Celebrity, you smelled the same stench of horrible, irredeemable, unwatchable television.
The worst thing of all, in a program that was a veritable parade of worst things, was when poor, petulant Spencer wanted to take his Heidi and go home -- and got on the phone with the chairman of NBC Universal, Ben Silverman, who interceded to try to get him to stay.
"I'm too rich and I'm too famous to be sitting with these people," said Spencer, distancing himself from such other alleged celebrities as Sanjaya Malakar and Stephen Baldwin. "The cast is devaluing our fame right now." Somehow, both of these young brats got to sit out the final bug-infested challenge, but I don't care about that, or about them.
What I care about is what you can see in the photo at the top of this column. Ben Silverman's phone call with Spencer didn't have to be part of the program, but it is. Prominently, so that Silverman's name and title are superimposed on the screen.
Here's my point: Most former NBC executives (let's just invoke Grant Tinker's name as the best example) never would have put I'm a Celebrity on the air, much less attach their name to it. Ben Silverman -- that's Ben Silverman, everybody, the same man who revived Knight Rider and Bionic Woman -- has proudly done both.
NBC: "I Used to Be a Network... Get Me Out of Here!"
June 1, 2009 8:05 AM
In late-night this evening, The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien premieres (11:34 p.m. ET), continuing a proud NBC tradition that goes back to 1954.
But before that, NBC fills two hours of prime time with I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, reviving a vile ABC tradition that should have stayed buried in 2003. NBC plans to show this live reality show not just once, but nightly, gobbling up hours of prime time all month.
NBC may have just stumbled upon its next branding slogan: "I Used to Be a Network... Get Me Out of Here!"
ABC's "old" Celebrity, based on a British show, wasted time in the jungle, and the time of anyone who tuned in, by alternately flattering and torturing such "celebrities" as Nikki Ziering, Alana Stewart and Downtown Julie Brown. The only thing I remember about it, six years later, has something to do with leeches and Melissa Rivers -- which may sound redundant.
The new series makes room for Sanjaya Malakar from American Idol, Stephen Baldwin from the first Celebrity Apprentice, Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag from The Hills, and former WWE diva Torrie Wilson, shown in the photo atop today's column. Isn't this edition of I'm a Celebrity missing a question mark?
Why revive such an obviously awful idea? Because that seems to be NBC's taste-dead playbook these days. Why else revive Knight Rider, The Bionic Woman, and now this?
What's next? NBC's new version of Are You Hot? The Search for America's Sexiest People? (Don't laugh: ABC presented that piece of guano, too, the same year as I'm a Celebrity.)
This is the same network that once brought us Must-See TV, and Hill Street Blues and St. Elsewhere, and Cheers and Seinfeld?
No, not really. Not even close.
And over the summer, that will become more evident than ever. NBC may be saving money with its new programming approach, but it's losing something more valuable: its reputation.
