Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Charlie Sheen, the World Series, the Kardashians, and Crusader Rabbit

Random this and thats…

So Charlie Sheen was found naked and drunk and trashed a hotel room in the Plaza in New York. The naked hooker he was with was screaming from inside a closet. And what was the spin this time? Why it was merely an allergic reaction to medication. I dunno. On all those drug commercials when they list the possible dangerous side effects I’ve never heard them say “may cause patient to get naked, drink heavily, throw furniture, and terrorize prostitutes.”

Debra Winger is such a good actress that after watching her for ten minutes on IN TREATMENT I stopped saying “Boy, she’s had work done” and got wrapped up in her character.

Bristol Palin is the Sanjaya of DANCING WITH THE STARS.

Most people think Jay Ward created Rocky & Bullwinkle and Dudley Do-Right but it was really Alex Anderson Jr. He also created Crusader Rabbit. Alexander passed away recently at age 90. Crusader Rabbit was the first cartoon produced expressly for television. Anderson approached Ward for financing and the two formed an early partnership. Crusader Rabbit was my favorite TV cartoon as a kid, primarily because the stories were so clever. Ironically, the writer of those stories, Lloyd Turner, is the same writer who twenty years later gave me and David our first break (an assignment on THE JEFFERSONS).

I still haven’t heard back from Matt Damon. I know Charlie Sheen is flying back to New York around Thanksgiving but what if I want to use the restroom and the hooker is in there screaming? And I’m ducking those floatation devices. Not worth it. I’ll just wait to hear from Matt.

Considering how many new shows are getting full season pick-ups despite dismal ratings, Jimmy Smits and Maura Tierney must be saying, “Hey, what the fuck did we do?!”

KEEPING UP WITH THE KARDASHIANS has double the adult ratings of BOARDWALK EMPIRE. But B.E. still beats SWAMP PEOPLE and ICE ROAD TRUCKERS: DEADLIEST ROADS … by .l. The power of Scorsese!

Speaking of ratings: Analysts are predicting this World Series (which starts tonight) could be the lowest watched in history. Maybe there would be more interest in the Texas Rangers if before tonight in their 39-year history they were on primetime network television just once.

And even though there’s a great Game One match-up between the Giants’ Tim Lincecum & the Rangers’ Cliff Lee, more people will be watching the kidnapped guy in Mexico naming names at gunpoint on YouTube.

What are you going as this Halloween?

The Jehovah's Witnesses do not believe in Halloween.  So the one night of the year when people would actually open their doors to them they stay home.

In Evanston, Illinois it is illegal to Trick-or-Treat.  It's also illegal to skip.

Is it just me or is the new Nook eReader not a great name? No one at Barnes & Noble Inc. bothered to say it out loud? “I’d like to buy one of those new Nooky Readers.”

George Bush is making the talk show rounds plugging his new book. I wonder who wrote it for him.

The trailer for the new TRON looks very cool. This is one I think I'll see on the big screen and not my phone.

And finally -- Allen Iverson has agreed to play pro basketball in Turkey. Please take Charlie Sheen with you.

36 comments :

  1. Don't get the Kardashians thing at all. But I am hovering to 50 and don't get twitter either.

    I hope the World Series is great. I will watch a bit of it. Maybe it will do better than Friday Night Lights on its return tonight!

    Any thoughts on the Grey's Anatomy episode this week that will be a POV? If you watch that show, maybe you can comment, since you did the MASH POV episode.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "George Bush is making the talk show rounds plugging his new book. I wonder who wrote it for him."

    Me, I wonder who's gonna read it for him.

    ReplyDelete
  3. As a fair weather Bay Area fan, I'm loving this. Go Giants.

    And the Nooky Reader? I didn't want one before, but now I do.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Uhhh, Ken. Evanston calling. Halloween is alive and well. And legal. See here: http://www.cityofevanston.org/news/2010/10/halloween/

    As for skipping, well, if it's wrong then I don't wanna be right.

    ReplyDelete
  5. i am going to a 80s-90s themed halloween party where you have to dress up as a character or someone from the 80s or 90s - just dressing in acid-wash jeans won't cut it! so, my hubby and i are going as baby jessica and the well - and yep! you guessed it - hubby will play role of baby jessica:)

    ReplyDelete
  6. I will be watching the Series, hopefully my dismal lone TV set will help just a little with ratings. I"m just glad it's not the Yankees and the Phillies.

    So, are you going to see Tron in 3D or 2D? Of all the movies they've been showing 3D lately, Tron seems to be perfect. I will actually shell out the big 3D bucks for this.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Imagine this request at the information booth of the local Barnes & Noble:

    Customer: "Do you have the Bush book for the Nooky Reader?"

    ReplyDelete
  8. Lloyd Turner's writing partner in the 1940's was a guy named Bill Scott, who eventually was Jay Ward's right hand man (post-Anderson) and voice of most of his major characters from Bullwinkle onwards (Crusader Rabbit was voiced by several women including Lou Bliss). They were laid off from Warner Bros. Cartoons in 1948 when the studio shut down the superfluous Art Davis unit, and both wound up in the employ of Ward and Anderson. As you noted Turner (along with partner Gordon "Chick" Mitchell) became a producer on "The Jeffersons". I have heard that Turner had only one arm from a childhood accident. Did he write in longhand or type with the one hand he had left?

    ReplyDelete
  9. There may be lots of people over the age of 18 who watch the various Kardashian shows, but to classify those people as adults is using a very narrow definition of the word.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Smokeless in Seattle10/27/2010 11:26 AM

    My girlfriend and I are doing Halloween this year as Sex Toy Story. I'm going as Woody (natch) as a porn star with a 12" accessory and she's going as Little Blow Peep. We get to go out sexy and trash beloved children's icons at the same time.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Crusader Rabbit was also my favorite as a child, and very little of it seems to have survived. Did see one cartoon found on the internet, and was stunned at how primitive the animation was. So there was something of value there which got through....

    ReplyDelete
  12. So, is Charlie Sheen finally toxic?
    I mean career-wise, as his blood chemistry is already pretty much a given.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I'm going as Charlie Sheen - naked and medicated off my face.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Quick update since Ken mentioned it last week: Legendary Milwaukee Brewers broadcaster Bob Uecker was released from Froedtert Hospital Wednesday eight days after
    undergoing a second successful heart surgery.

    The name of the hospital should've been withheld pending notification of the hospital's next of kin.

    ReplyDelete
  15. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Best to Ueck!

    C'mon. Bristol is being supported by teabagging viewers who vote against everyone else. There's no other explanation. Any commentator who says that isn't a sane reaction hasn't been paying attention to these dolts.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Don't Tread On Me10/27/2010 3:37 PM

    "George Bush is making the talk show rounds plugging his new book. I wonder who wrote it for him."

    BWAAAHAAAHAAAAHAAAAA!!!!

    How in the world you don't have a show on the air with wit like that is beyond me.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I hate that The Whole Truth got cancelled. Yeah it was another law show, but it was different and enjoyable. I also liked Lone Star so what do I know. I'm starting to question my tastes in television.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Hey Ken - longtime reader from the land of the labour dispute over Hobbits...

    This was forwarded to me earlier by a friend and I figured you might have a chuckle over it...

    Cheers for the blog.

    ReplyDelete
  20. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8i7u3fl-hP8

    ReplyDelete
  21. "The trailer for the new TRON looks very cool."

    Unfortunately, they are using the same story as the original, which was complete excrement.

    Don't bring your weak ass argument that Tron was so lame it is cool. Wrong. It is Moonraker Part 2.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Yo Ken - If you think the Nooky reader is a bad name - how about the name of the club on Glee - "New Directions". According to your post - that's a description of Charlie.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Not surprised about that Charlie Sheen, my mom is a fan of his and loves Two and Half Men. I don't get it, the show's not very funny, my kind of humor is Family Guy, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The League, and South Park.

    The World Series was not entertaining and surprising all at the same time. Cliff Lee surprisingly got rocked.

    Only reason Kardashians have good rating is because they are hot, excluding the one sister, you'll know who I'm talking about, just watch it.

    I grew up in a different era than the Crusader Rabbit, although I have heard of it. I'm more of the Power Rangers and Aurthur era.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Crusader Rabbit's theme song...wasn't it "One Little, Two Little Three Little Indians?"

    ...or "Wipeout?" I forget which...

    ...but I do know all the words to the second one.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Never to mention the comedy TV series Two and a half men. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  26. "may cause patient to get naked, drink heavily, throw furniture, and terrorize prostitutes."

    That's not from drugs, it's just Charlie Sheen's default setting.

    ReplyDelete
  27. He's a good actor for me. he's too good esp. when he is a villain. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  28. Just FYI - Crusader Rabbits theme WAS 'One little..two little...three little indians...'

    verification: remousc: what one feels after robbing Mickey Mouse

    ReplyDelete
  29. Charlie Sheen, Lindsay Lohan -- Someday someone's going to die. I only hope it isn't somebody they killed with a car when they were in the midst of their allergic reactions.

    I never thought my fingers would type these words: I like Bristol Palin on Dancing With the Stars. Each week she tries really hard and she's improving. She survives Bruno Tognoli as a judge and Sarah Palin as a mother. That alone earns her props.

    The Kardashians -- I've never watched the show and can't tell one sister from the other from the big haired/small brained girl on Jersey Shore.

    “I’d like to buy one of those new Nooky Readers.” That's such a great line it almost makes me wish I'd bought the Nook instead of a Kindle!

    ReplyDelete
  30. BTW, kudos to Tony Bennett for a stunningly wonderful performance of "God Bless America" at the World Series opener last night. Not bad for a guy of 84. I'm sure that if Fox had its way, the song probably would have been done by one of the cast members from "Glee"...but every now and then, to our delight and amazement, class actually wins out over kitsch.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Ms. Tierney had the misfortune of co-starring with Rob "How/why do I still have any resemblance of a career after Quiz Show?" Morrow, and Mr. Smits had the even bigger misfortune of being stuck with one of the dumber series premises in recent memory (Supreme Court Justice leaves the bench to, wait for it, start his own law firm? WTF???); hope that helps...

    ReplyDelete
  32. Selin Herman10/28/2010 9:41 AM

    Oh you take Charlie Sheen to your hometown, Ken Levine.
    Like it isn't enough that we end up with Iverson.

    ReplyDelete
  33. Unless you are a stockholder in FOX, who cares what ratings the World Series gets?

    ReplyDelete
  34. Let's be clear here. Charlie Sheen had a naked PORN STAR in his closet and not a HOOKER. Her nom de fuck is Capri Anderson (real name Christina Walsh) and she's very upset that the media is calling her a prostitute. She is, after all, a trained professional practicing her craft and not, I repeat, not a prostitute. Thank you for your time.

    Michael Zand

    ReplyDelete
  35. RE: Charlie Sheen, the Taiwanese have the best news coverage:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG_OB-W3FQM

    ReplyDelete
  36. Because everything in the world eventually shows up on YouTube, here's the first-ever episode of "Crusader Rabbit" (the pilot cartoon is pretty close to just illustrated pictures, and Crusader has enough lines in his face to look like a charter AARP member. I think the design most people remember is from about a decade later, when they cutened him up and put a little color in his backgrounds)

    ReplyDelete

NOTE: Even though leaving a comment anonymously is an option here, we really discourage that. Please use a name using the Name/URL option. Invent one if you must. Be creative. Anonymous comments are subject to deletion. Thanks.

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.