Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Misc-takes

I haven’t done this in awhile. Just a bunch of random thoughts worth maybe a sentence at best.
For those of you still “undecided”, what the hell else do you need to know? Paula Abdul in a $150,000 wardrobe is running for Vice-President.

The height of insanity: Lionsgate is calling agencies around town seeking a showrunner for MAD MEN if they can't make a deal with creator Matt Weiner. Uh, guys... without Matt Weiner there IS no show.

Big night of television on Wednesday! Barack Obama then 3 1/2 innings of the World Series.

People not familiar with the Tampa Bay Rays until this last week didn’t know that Drew Carey is their manager.

Will Bono’s humanitarian efforts ever cease? Here he is selflessly giving of his time on St. Tropez counseling teenagers. No wonder he's respected the world over.

PAGE SIX had a huge exclusive recently! Citing someone who went through Mary-Louise Parker’s trash they report that she takes thyroid medicine. There’s no Christy Brinkley trial to cover?

Guy Richie reports his marriage with Madonna fell apart once she started going to the gym. She would schedule sex around workouts. But it wasn’t clear if it was her workouts or Alex Rodriguez’s.

This is why Tim McCarver is the best TV analyst in the business:

"Blanton is the type of pitcher that Pena and Longoria can break out of their streaks of because he's standardized. He's not left handed and he doesn't have the stuff that Brett Myers has.”


And who can sum up the World Series situation better than McCarver?

"If the Rays lose tonight, they will not, I mean they will, they will face elimination tomorrow night". Again, it’s why he’s the best.

Why do we even need movie critics when HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3 is a boxoffice smash?

The Tampa Bay Rays have the best radio broadcast team in MLB. Andy Freed and Dave Wills are so good I used to listen to them last year, when their club was the worst in baseball.

The Ex-List has been X'd from CBS. The premise: Elizabeth Reaser as a 30-something woman who's told by a psychic that she must wed within a year or never and her Mr. Right is among her former boyfriends. Audiences didn't take to the idea of someone stupid enough to base their entire life on what some psychic says.

Patrick Goldstein in the LA Times (I think he's still there. They fire people left and right) argues that there should be an Oscar for Best Comedy since comedies never earn any respect. Academy President, Sid Ganis (producer of the classic DUECE BIGELOW series) said that's not necessary. A good comedy can easily be considered. The last comedy to win Best Picture: ANNIE HALL. 30 years ago. He's right. It happens all the time.

Network viewing during the 10 PM hour is way down. They blame DVR’s. People catch up on shows they’ve recorded earlier in the evening so they’re watching those and not the 10 PM fare. But if the 10 PM shows were worth watching wouldn’t DVR users record them as well and just catch up later?

The 82 game NBA pre-season has begun. They play four months to eliminate the Clippers and one other team then start seven rounds of playoffs.

Headline of the week: from the BBC – Man's arm trapped in train toilet

29 comments :

  1. I think both Shakespeare in Love (Best Picture, 1998) and Chicago (2002) are comedies. Forrest Gump (1994) too, I guess, though it's not particularly funny in my opinion.

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  2. Is that Bono pic a) for real and if yes, b) recent?

    That's kinda...well, he could be their father...

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  3. Yeah, I think the MM/Weiner thing is hilarious. Suuure, get another showrunner. When every article/interview/media visit ever has explained how Weiner is so meticulous about EVERY SINGLE thing on the show, down to the set dressing. Just pop someone else in, I'm sure it'll work out fine.

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  4. "Paula Abdul in a $150,000 wardrobe is running for Vice-President."

    I never thought it possible that I would write this sentence, but that's a terrible thing to say about Sarah Palin.

    Understand, I loathe Sarah Palin. She's dumber than the contestants on PARIS HILTON'S BFF. She thinks people and dinosaurs lived at the same time, about three weeks ago. She thinks we're in the End Of Days, and if she wins, we are.

    BUT, while she can not improvise an unscripted answer, she CAN construct a complete sentence, with a subject and predicate, mostly grammatically coorect, on her feet. The sentence is generally horrifying, but it is a complete sentence. Paula can not.

    Not once in the VP debate did Palin say, "Well, you did your thing. You're beautiful. You took the words, and then, I felt like, and you know what I'm saying because, oh look. My dress is blue. I like bunnies."

    "Audiences didn't take to the idea of someone stupid enough to base their entire life on what some psychic says."

    There is no joke there. That is the precise reason I did not tune in to that lox of a show.

    BTW, WORST WEEK is now supposedly a month past it's starting point. What was its title supposed to mean? (The worst thing about this show is that I find I like Kyle Bornheimer, and would like to see him in something good.)

    Comedy and dramatic acting Oscars would be good too. Comic performances sometimes win: Kevin Kline in A FISH CALLED WANDA springs to mind. But if we had had Best Performance by an Actor in a Comedy Role, Gene Wilder might have that Oscar I felt he should have gotten for YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN.

    BUT, when considering additional Oscar categories, stop and ask yourself, "Would this make the Oscarcast LONGER?"

    I'm waiting for the headline: " Man's arm trapped in Paula Abdul."

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  5. //For those of you still “undecided”, what the hell else do you need to know? Paula Abdul in a $150,000 wardrobe is running for Vice-President.//

    Ah, yes, because what makes this country great isn't voting for the candidate with the best policies and ideas, it's voting *against* the candidate we dislike. :P

    Wouldn't it be nice if people in politics actually, you know, worked together to look for solutions, instead of just using it as a popularity contest won by bipartisan name-calling?

    *disclaimer: I am no fan of Sarah Palin, but that doesn't mean I'm convinced by Obama's economic ideas*

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  6. Frankly, if you haven't made up your mind about what candidate you want to support after more than a year of constant campaigning...what DO you need to convince you for any particular candidate? I mean seriously, what are you waiting to hear? I think both candidates (and all the little non-serious candidates) have vetted themselves as much as possible. Are you really expecting some sudden stunning piece of data to change things?

    As for the 10PM thing...I call Shenanigans. The WHOLE POINT of my having TiVos is recording shows that I can't stay up to watch or won't be around for. When I'm committed to a show like Lost, which might be on at 10PM...but I have to be up before 5AM every weekday...then I set the TiVo to record it and I watch it some other night. The time it's on is irrelevant. The DVR has no effect on the selection of shows I watch or tape. That choice is left to the actual SHOWS.

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  7. Big night of television on Wednesday! Barack Obama then 3 1/2 innings of the World Series.

    Fortunately for me, I have other viewing options instead of Barack Obama.

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  8. Couldn't agree more about Mad Men without Weiner.

    Somebody somewhere mentioned that they were thinking about Sorkin.

    Now, I have nothing against Sorkin's style. In fact I'm probably one of the few people on the planet that really liked Studio 60 but Mad Men is NOT Sorkin material! He should not be allowed anywhere near that show.

    And count me in on those that watch what I DVRd earlier in the 10pm (9 central) slot.

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  9. "Audiences didn't take to the idea of someone stupid enough to base their entire life on what some psychic says."

    No, but we managed to elect one President twice in the 80's...

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  10. My favorite all time McCarver line is from last year's World Series. "Once you drop the bat, base running is the primary way to score runs."

    TBS's Ron Darling has potential when Tim finally hangs 'em up. During this year's ALCS, he said, "Pitchers hate two out hits, as they can prolong the inning."

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  11. My problem with the ex-list...

    Assuming it's a hit, makes five seasons, and goes to magical syndication land...

    You've got 25 episodes, each with a new boyfriend, times 5 years. 150 ex-boyfriends. For the sake of the argument, we'll say she started dating at 15. For the sake of argument, we'll also assume a 'boyfriend' isn't someone she went on one date with. That's 10 boyfriends a year.

    SHE'S A SKANK!

    And yeah, if it was a guy, he'd be a skank too. No double standards from me.

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  12. i find it funny how paulas name is thrown in to articles about the election. you are hardly the first person to throw her name in in an article about the election. just proves how famous SHE (paula) is!

    and unlike sarah, paula has an amazing track record at her job. she tried cheerleading and became the most famous cheerleader ever, she tried choreography and singing and became one of the most popular ever. she tried television and wow... her show just became nr 1 show ever. pretty impressive! what did sarah really accomplish in politics?

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  13. I'd add Amadeus (1984) to the list of comedic movies to have won Best Picture since Annie Hall. Is it an out-and-out comedy? Of course not. But it's very funny.

    And it's the first Best Picture winner with a hand job joke in it. That's gotta count for something.

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  14. Man, I'd run the hell out of Mad Men. That ain't hard. Have everybody smoke and drink, and slap women on the butt, and call 'em like baby doll and sugar. Put the camera on the floor and shoot the ceiling. Piece of cake. Where's my money.

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  15. ugtv.org: You may have a shot at Mad Men if they really do dump Weiner. Because certainly no one who seriously cared about the show would take on the thankless task of following in Weiner's footsteps. Surely Sorkin and others of his prominence would/will laugh in LionsGate's collective face.

    anonymous: Good points about Paula. Now, don't you need to run along and pick up her dry cleaning?

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  16. amadeus and handjobbing--it's been years since I've seen Midnight Cowboy, but i seem to recall some handjobbish behavior in that movie.

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  17. Aside from Lionsgate, isn't AMC owned by Cablevision, the company that, though the hard work of the Dolans, have made the Knicks and Madison Square Garden what they are today (and making the fans wistfully pine for the return from the dead of Charles Bluhdorn and the Garden's former owner, Gulf + Western/Paramount Communications)? It's pretty much a given that anything the Dolan family has a say-so in, such as the Knicks or AMC, will automatically turn into talentless crap no matter how well it starts out.

    (And as far as the VP thing goes, you're really denying yourself some great comedy material if you only look at the Republican side, since Obama's VP pick is basically Reverend Jim with hair plugs and better clothing. Four years of comedy gold if Barack gets elected next Tuesday, and as a bonus, you can make all the jokes you want about Biden and not worry about having Al Sharpton outside your door the next morning.)

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  18. "Anonymous said...
    it's been years since I've seen Midnight Cowboy, but i seem to recall some handjobbish behavior in that movie."

    Handjobbish? Bob Balaban gives Jon Voight a blowjob on screen.

    Of course, this year, with Voight an outspoken McCain/Palin supporter, it make be finally making Balaban sick for real.

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  19. Another "Anonymous said...
    unlike sarah, paula has an amazing track record at her job. she tried cheerleading and became the most famous cheerleader ever"

    Yeah, that trumps becoming the mayor of our largest state, and the Vice Presidential candidate for a major political party.

    I missed the scenes of Palin bursting into hysterical tears because she couldn't put Creationism into the BRATZ movie.

    Let's just say that for blithering idiots, both women have succeeded far beyond reasonable expectations.

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  20. "Mayor of our largest state.."

    What?

    Who wrote that? Tom McCarver?

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  21. "Audiences didn't take to the idea of someone stupid enough to base their entire life on what some psychic says."

    Are these the same people out there in television land who kept Miss Cleo going for years before the bunco squad finally nailed her?

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  22. probably a bit inside, Kenny but...

    that's not Drew Carey managing the Rays, it's Bobby Gaylor...

    and HE'S funny.

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  23. did they at least get to do the lesbian episode on the ex-list? you know, the one where she remembers her times in college? they can't not do it, now that it's cancelled.

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  24. "Anonymous said...
    'Mayor of our largest state..'
    What?
    Who wrote that? Tom McCarver?"

    Shh. Don't tell her. She thinks she's Mayor of Alaska.

    Mea goof.

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  25. Well, you tip-toed into politics, and now you've gotta hose down the comment thread. Oh well. As for that picture of Paula... yikes! What a nightmare being a celebrity must be.

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  26. TBS's Ron Darling has potential when Tim finally hangs 'em up. During this year's ALCS, he said, "Pitchers hate two out hits, as they can prolong the inning."

    Darling was the analyst on the Washington Nationals' telecasts their first year in D.C. (2005), and he was a cipher. He hasn't improved much -- but since he went to Yale and played in New York, he'll always have a job. Ah, the power of Ivy League networking.

    BTW, my word verification is "dingst," which I suppose is some sort of emotion related to hearing bells.

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  27. I've never had the chance to listen to the Tampa Bay radio guys, but if you haven't listened to Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow broadcast SF Giants games -- usually TV, but occasionally radio with Jon Miller -- then you haven't heard the best.

    There are people out there who don't like Joe Morgan as a baseball analyst. I can't understand that at all -- Joe is great. I watched most of the post season with the TV sound off, while Jon Miller and Joe kept me informed/entertained. Joe Buck remains THE most overrated announcer in television sports history, and as for McCarver... well, let's just say they make a good pair.

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  28. I'd take the worst of the worst doing baseball broadcasts over having to listen to 5 minutes of John Madden and/or Joe Theisman do football broadcasts!

    I'll be forever biased on my baseball broadcasters though. Having grown up on Bob Uecker's Brewer games, I can't imagine anyone else doing it better. Fun and informative!

    My verification word is "all off" I'm not sure that's such a good idea since I'm at work and its Sex Offender Thursday! (I'm a probation officer and they have group at the office today)

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  29. I'm simply delighted Harry Kalas finally got to call a Phillies World Series victory live, after nearly four decades at the mike (he wasn't given the opportunity in 1980, when MLB inanely prohibited local radio broadcasts of the Series). As I've said before, Harry is as beloved in Philadelphia as Vin Scully is in Los Angeles or Ernie Harwell in Detroit, and he deserved this shining moment.

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