 Ever since Fox announced they would be pushing back the seventh season premiere of “24” to 2009, the network has been hard at work keeping fans with their fingers on the Jack Bauer dial. That’s included a new season of their web series “The Rookie,” a news announcement revealing plans to produce a two-hour prequel movie, as well as the upcoming re-release of the drama’s explosive first season on DVD.
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Packaged in an über-cool metal tin case with what looks to be a countdown clock imbedded underneath, the seven-disc set includes three hours of never-before-seen features including a season seven preview, over 25 deleted and extended scenes, two behind-the-scenes featurettes and more. This is the perfect chance to relive the series’ hit-making first season, and with Bullz-Eye running a contest in conjunction with its May 20th release, you could even pick up a copy for a free. Head on over to Bullz-Eye now and
The first series of the British comedy “Suburban Shootout” is a clever combination of American favorites “Desperate Housewives,” “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” and even “The Sopranos.” In the pilot episode, we meet Joyce, a middle-aged housewife who has just moved with her husband to the London suburb of Stempington, a seemingly perfect community. There are no burglaries or vandalism or crime of any kind in Stempington. Why? Because the entire town is controlled by rival housewife gangs – yes, you read that correctly – who are now vying for Joyce’s allegiance. Above any content within the individual episodes, it is this overall premise that serves as the ultimate running joke. It makes you wonder if it would have worked better as a more contained feature length film rather than an episodic series. While there is nothing tangibly wrong with the show (solid writing, fine performances by a good cast), there’s not much else to bring you back week after week, therefore making this DVD collection of the complete first series the best viewing choice. Also making the set more beneficial is the fact that all eight episodes on the disc contain optional commentary from various producers, writers and cast members, something too many TV sets are lacking. There is also a Cast Filmography listing, and the “Behind the Scenes” feature serves as a good introduction of the characters and the story and proves more valuable to watch prior to screening any of the episodes. |
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Show: “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.”
Role: Opie Taylor. (As if the title of the episode didn’t completely give it away.) You might be surprised to discover that, despite being a spin-off from “The Andy Griffith Show,” there were precious few occasions when Gomer Pyle received visits from his friends and family from Mayberry, NC. In fact, of the 150 episodes of the series that were produced, only three - count ‘em - three episodes featured folks from back home stopping by. We saw Goober pop up once (”A Visit from Cousin Goober”), and Aunt Bee found time in her busy schedule to bless Gomer with her presence (”A Visit from Aunt Bee”), but this time we’re giving props to Opie’s unexpected appearance, which came about through one of the all-time classic sitcom plot lines: a kid running away from home. Why the props for such a predictable premise? Because Opie lives in North Carolina, and “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.” took place in California. We have to give Opie credit: when he decides to run away, the kid doesn’t take the half-assed way out. In fact, the idea that a 12-year-old boy could’ve managed to make it across country by himself is something that Gomer can’t even wrap his head around. Now, granted, the man’s not Einstein, but, still, we were kind of wondering about how he managed it ourselves. Opie: I hitched a ride on a plane. You didn’t realize Jim Nabors had that kind of range, did you? Well, he moves back into his dumbfounded expression when Opie explains that he’s traveled cross-country to join the Marines. Why? Because he wasn’t doing so well in school, and to keep from having to deal with a pissed-off Andy Taylor, he figured maybe he’d better go away for awhile…’til, say, adulthood. Filed under: TV and TV DVDs and Actors and Reviews and TV Comedies and External Entertainment and External TV and And Our Very Special Guest Star... Comments: None Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
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Show: “Happy Days” Roles: You will be unsurprised to learn that the most famous puppet of the 1950s and his cowboy-attired “handler” play themselves, if only because, really, who the hell else are they going to play? “Happy Days” enjoyed taking the opportunity to provide a rose-colored look at life in the 1950s, but rarely were they presented with the opportunity to incorporate actual television icons from the era into the fun. Fortunately, wooden puppets don’t age, and people were willing to let it slide that “Buffalo” Bob Smith was sporting a few more wrinkles in 1975 than could be found on his famous visage two decades prior.
The episode revolves around Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard) trying to impress his editor at the high school newspaper by scoring a scoop, and his first idea is to interview Mr. Doody, whose show was - rather conveniently, it must be said - to be filming in Milwaukee. The Fonz (Henry Winkler) shoots down this idea, suggesting a more controversial alternative: to wrangle a backstage invite and sneak a shot of Clarabell the Clown without his make-up. So how does he get backstage? By entering a Howdy Doody lookalike contest. It’s ludicrous, of course, but seeing Ron Howard dressed in the standard HD attire is almost as funny as experiencing his disgruntlement after losing to a 9-year-old. While backstage with his right-hand man, Potsie (Anson Williams), Richie does indeed score the picture he’s sought, but after that, things immediately snowball at a ridiculous rate. Within hours of snapping the picture, word has already made it from Milwaukee all the way to the offices of Life Magazine, with the publication immediately getting Richie on the phone and making an offer for the photo. Visions of a journalism school scholarship are floating before Richie’s eyes…until the doorbell rings, and Buffalo Bob and Clarabell stand on the stoop. Mr. C: Well, what brings you to our humble house, huh? Hey, nice, Richie. Way to be a complete dick. What’s next, blackmail? (”You know, Clarabell, for a little bit of dough-re-mi, I could make this photo just, y’know, go away.”) Fortunately, Buffalo Bob decides to take a tactic that only works in sitcoms set in the 1950s: heartfelt honesty. “Richie, there’s a reason why nobody has ever seen Clarabell without makeup. Y’see, behind that make-up, he’s Clarabell the Clown, and there’s sort of a mystique about him. It’s like the Lone Ranger without a mask: he’s a nobody. Y’see, millions of kids watch television every day to see their favorite clown, and to them, this is Clarabell. Now, if they were to see him as an ordinary man, Clarabell lives no more.” (Mrs. C attempts to liken the situation to “Tarzan without his loincloth,” but Mr. C assures her, “No, that’s a little different, Marion.”) Richie is notably unmoved by this plea, trying to play the journalism-school card again, but while Bob makes it clear that it could well be a case of Richie’s future versus Clarabell’s career, he concedes that “you worked hard to get that picture, and I guess you’re entitled to sell it.” And then, with a facer arguably even sadder than the one painted on Clarabell, Bob plays the Ace of Guilt: “Rich, it’s up to you.” You guessed it: Richie tears up the picture. Cue one very excited clown…and one pissed-off, whiny Cunningham. After Bob and Clarabell leave, Richie doesn’t take the schmaltzy way out by saying, “Wow, it sure feels good to do the right thing.” Instead, he reacts exactly how a normal teenager would: he pouts and moans, “What about my scoop?”, providing yet another reason why the first few seasons of “Happy Days” are remembered as some of the best television the 1970s had to offer. Filed under: TV and TV DVDs and Actors and TV Comedies and External Entertainment and External TV and And Our Very Special Guest Star... Comments: None Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
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Welcome to the first in an ongoing series, where we’ll be examining famous and infamous guest-star turns from throughout television history. Show: “Hawaii Five-O”
Role: Eddie Calhao, a mustachioed attorney who thinks he’s real tough stuff because he’s running a behind-the-scenes operation which involves framing McGarrett’s right-hand man, Detective Chin-Ho. Eddie’s the kind of guy who throws out one-liners like, “You’ve gotta learn to use the media,” or, “Unfortunately, some violence has always been connected with progress. Unfortunately, I say.” He rarely gets his own hands dirty, preferring to let his underlings do the hard work for him while he reaps the benefits. Meanwhile, poor Chin-Ho’s world is collapsing around his ears, and McGarrett is getting pissed off about it, so he starts trying to unravel the mystery, which leads to the interrogation of banker Austin Summers. Summers, as it happens, is one of the aforementioned underlings, and he starts to twitch under McGarrett’s steely gaze, so as soon as he leaves the police station, Summers immediately runs Eddie. Eddie basically just tells him to keep cool, offering financial incentive for his continued silence. (”Ten thousand dollars should help chase the butterflies away. What say you?”) But when further moves are made to ruin Chin-Ho’s name, McGarrett decides that it’s not business anymore. It’s personal. Sheen doesn’t interact with anyone in the regular “Five-O” cast until the 43-minute mark of the episode, so when Eddie’s approached by McGarrett while sitting alone in a restaurant, the inherent drama in their encounter is comparable to the Pacino / DeNiro sitdown in “Heat.” Or not. But it is pretty funny to watch McGarrett walk in, sit down at Eddie’s table, and, without saying a word, pull out a business card and begin scribbling something on the back of it. Finally, McGarrett breaks the silence. McGarrett: My office number is right on the card, but I’ll give you my home number, too. And with that, McGarrett smirks, stands up, and walks away. Eddie’s appropriately rattled, and he only becomes more so when he returns to his office and finds it completely disheveled. He grabs the phone and books himself a ticket off the island, but as soon as he runs out of the building and onto the street, he’s startled by the sound of gunfire…specifically, someone shooting at him! He spots two shadowy figures running toward him, and, suddenly, Eddie’s on the run for his life through a construction site, with guns blazing behind him. As a result, when he hears police sirens, he immediately opts for the lesser of two evils and starts yelling for their assistance. What luck: McGarrett himself is there! Eddie demands protection from Carl Brohme, but McGarrett - with a twinkle in his eyes - demands dates, places, “the whole set-up.” Frightened for his life, Eddie agrees…but immediately after he rides away in the back of a squad car, it’s revealed that the “shadowy figures” were actually Kono and Danno! Okay, so you might’ve seen that coming…but what you probably didn’t figure was that they were shooting real bullets! “You aimed a little close,” says McGarrett. “He was really shook.” “No more than he deserved,” replies Danno. Here’s an alternate ending I’d like to have seen: Chin Ho is exonerated on all charges, but Danno accidentally kills Eddie and is brought up on manslaughter charges. The last line? “Go book yourself, Danno.” Filed under: TV and TV DVDs and Actors and TV Dramas and TV Action and External Entertainment and External TV and And Our Very Special Guest Star... Comments: None Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
 As you’ve no doubt guessed, the subject line are the exact quotes offered up by Hank Hill, Dale Gribble, Bill Dauterive, and Boomhauer upon being asked if they were excited about the renewal of “King of the Hill” for a 13th season.
Per Fox’s press release, “‘King of the Hill’ has received numerous accolades over the past 12 years, including an Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program in 1999, a Nancy Susan Reynolds Award in 1997, a Women’s Image Network Award in 2004 and Environmental Media Awards in 2001, 2003 and 2005. The series has also garnered numerous nominations for Annie Awards, Prism Awards and Shine Awards.” Funny, then, that it’s so clearly the redheaded stepchild of the network’s Sunday night animation block. Have you seen the show’s DVD sets? After Season 2, someone apparently decided that the series didn’t warrant the cost of compiling special features, and as of the most recent season to receive release - Season 6 - the studio’s idea of a special feature was to put a puzzle on the back of one of the DVD cases. Are you kidding me?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m totally psyched that the series is coming back; not only is it hilarious, but it’s remarkably sweet and sentimental, and it’s no less than a minor miracle that they’ve been able to maintain their level of quality for so long. I just wish Fox would show it more love beyond the annual cursory renewal. Filed under: TV and TV DVDs and News and TV Comedies and External Entertainment and External TV Comments: None Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
 Although he’s been bouncing around Hollywood as far back as 1987, when he played Kolya ‘Nikolai’ Rostov on the “Dynasty” spin-off, “The Colbys,” it’s fair to say that Adrian Paul is more often remembered for his role as Duncan McLeod in the “Highlander” saga. After quite a few episodes of the TV series and a feature film, Paul took a break from the “Highlander” universe for several years, but he returned at long last for last year’s “Highlander: The Source,” which turned up on the Sci-Fi Channel and has recently seen DVD release. We spoken to Paul about his experiences in making the film (and whether there’ll be any more), his thoughts on longtime “Highlander” producer Bill Panzer, why his other sci-fi series, “Tracker,” never really took off, and what he’s been working on recently.
Adrian Paul: Hi Will. Bullz-Eye: Hey Adrian, how’s it going? AP: Good, good. BE: So how hard was it to step back into the shoes of Duncan MacLeod after a few years? AP: It was interesting. It was a different time, too, you know, and they wanted a slightly different type of character; you know, a little darker. But, you know, it’s fine, and you can do that because you know the values of the character; you kind of step back into it and try and find new stuff. So what with the old and the new stuff, you hopefully have a character with some new twists. BE: Was it painful to lose your katana after all these years? AP: (Laughs) No. The thing was, I think nothing’s lost, y’know? I mean, we know where it’s buried! But I love the katana. I love tai chi and working with the katana; I find it a very malleable type of weapon. But I do like using other weapons, too, and we wanted to sort of give it a whole different type of flavor. So we tried it, and even though a lot of the fights were sped up…which wasn’t my idea…we had some really interesting fights. The thing was that we actually tried a whole bunch of different types of weapons and stuff so that we’d have a roundabout look on it, but we didn’t know what we were facing when it comes to visual effects. That was an unknown quantity to us, so all we could do was choreograph it and hope for the best. Filed under: Movies and TV and Movie DVDs and TV DVDs and Actors and Interviews and TV Dramas and Movie Dramas and Action Movies and TV Action and External Entertainment and External Movies and External Movie DVDs and TV Sci-Fi Comments: 1 Comment Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
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Coming May 20th to a DVD shelf near you: “Square Pegs: The Complete Series.”
(Thanks to TVShowsOnDVD.com for the tip, as well as the preliminary artwork.) |
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Yes, I know, it’s cutting it pretty darned close to wait until the last couple of days of January 2008 to run a Best of 2007 list, but that’s the problem with these TV DVD sets: there’s a whole lot of viewing involved to get through them, and you don’t want to give anyone the short end of the stick just because your schedule didn’t allow you to give their set a look. With the confidence that I’ve had a chance to check out the majority of the cool stuff that came out in ’07, however, I hereby present my personal picks for the Top 20 TV DVDs of last year. And when you’ve read through my list, check out Bullz-Eye’s Best of the Best staff picks for 2007! (Oh, and don’t forget to pop back by to tell us if we missed anything!)
Filed under: TV and TV DVDs and Reviews and TV Comedies and TV Dramas and TV Action and Rome and South Park and The Office and External Entertainment and External TV and Heroes and Battlestar Galactica and TV Sci-Fi Comments: None Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
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According to TVShowsOnDVD.com, NBC-Universal is releasing a DVD set of episodes from the new and incredibly disappointing “Bionic Woman” series, optimistically titling it “Volume 1.”
All right, I’m laying it right on the line: this stinks of NBC scrambling to create a dedicated audience for a show that doesn’t have one. And don’t tell me it does have one, because if there’s one thing that these neverending “Moonlight” and “Farscape” responses have taught me, it’s that a show’s fans are always surfing the ‘net, looking for new information or opinions about that show. If what they find is positive, they say so; if it’s negative, they say even more so. I’ve made a lot of disparaging comments about “Bionic Woman” here on Premium Hollywood, and nary a one of them have been contested by diehard fans of the show…which leads me to believe that there is no such animal. Filed under: TV and TV DVDs and News and TV Dramas and TV Action and External Entertainment and External TV and TV Sci-Fi Comments: 2 Comments Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
Given how busy the holidays were, you may or may not have even noticed when I posted a review of “The Munsters’ Scary Little Christmas,” but if you did, you might recall that I allotted a fair amount of the text to assuring people that the short skirts worn by Marilyn Munster - played by Elaine Hendrix, seen to your left - were just about enough reason to check out the film, even though it didn’t feature any of the original cast. At the time, I dropped Ms. Hendrix an E-mail, asking if she could offer any reminiscences from her experience on the flick, but I didn’t hear anything and, well, I didn’t lose any sleep over it. Again, holidays are busy, people get caught up in their own goings-on, not a big deal. Last night, however, I got a very belated but also very apologetic response from Elaine: Oh, darn it, Will. I get these e-mails so late, and it doesn’t look like my assistant responded. I would have loved to give you some info on it. Please keep (my publicist) in the loop, and we’ll do the same with you for upcoming projects. I hope you were kind to “Marilyn” in the review. It was a great project for 3 reasons - 1. Befriending Ann Magnuson Thank you! Hope all is well. Happy new year, Elaine Filed under: Movies and TV and Movie DVDs and TV DVDs and Actresses and TV Comedies and Movie Comedies and External Entertainment and External Movies and External TV and External Movie DVDs Comments: None Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
 …but as long as there aren’t any new episodes of the show floating around out there, anyway, I have to say that I’m really psyched for the new season of “Medium,” which premieres tonight at 10 PM on NBC, in the slot that once housed our current favorite time-travel drama. I’ve long been on record as admitting that, for as much as I’ve loved each of the three seasons of “Medium” that have been released on DVD - and for the obligatory plug, you can find those here, here, and here - but I’ve never followed the show from week to week. I don’t even really have a good excuse for it; it’s just one of those cases where either it was up against a show I was already addicted to or, more likely, I just plain forgot when it was on. (So sue me: I’ve got a two-year-old, and my concentration ain’t what it used to be.) But after thrilling to Season 3, which ended by changing the dynamic of the series that felt realistic rather than an attempt at bringing in new viewers, I can honestly say that even if there wasn’t a writer’s strike and even if I wasn’t starved for new scripted programming, I’d still be tuning in to Season 4 of “Medium.”
Quick catch-up: Alison DuBois (Patricia Arquette) is a happily married mother of three little girls who went to school to study law before real life got in the way, so now she works part-time for the District Attorney of Phoenix, Arizona, and…oh, right, she has dreams and visions where she communicates with the dead - or vice versa, as the case may be - and uses the information she receives to solve crimes. Yeah, yeah, I know, it sounds like the makings of a show that’d be front and center on the Lifetime network…and the fact that the show’s reruns actually air on Lifetime makes it hard to disagree with that suggestion. But in addition to “Medium” containing one of the most realistic television marriages ever (thanks to the great chemistry between Arquette and her TV husband, Jake Weber) and some of the better child actors in recent memory (particularly Sofia Vassilieva as the teenaged Ariel), the show is also home to some of the creepiest shit this side of a Stephen King novel. When Season 3 ended, the DuBois family was dealing with some serious issues. Alison’s abilities, which had always been kept under wraps by D.A. Manuel Devalos (Miguel Sandoval), were revealed by a very skeptical journalist - a deliciously sleazy turn from Neve Campbell - and resulted in Devalos being “given” a leave of absence and Alison being let go from the department and becoming persona non grata to everyone with whom she’d previously worked, including Detective Lee Scanlon (David Cubitt). And as if that didn’t shrinking the family income enough, Joe (Weber) ended up losing his job following a work-related hostage incident, due to corporate insurance concerns about his psychological well-being and his wife’s newfound reputation as a crackpot. So now what?
Enter Anjelica Huston. Still having visions and dreams but unable to do anything with the information she’s receiving about a little boy who’s been kidnapped, Alison contacts Ameritips, an organization that’s been trying to solve the case, and meets with Cynthia Keener (Huston), an investigator with the group. Keener is decidedly skeptical when Alison explains how she came about her information, but she suggests that Keener Google her, and - no surprise - she soon gets a callback. Keener is still skeptical, but she’s willing to take Alison’s information with a grain of salt. The eventual result is a new, if uneasy, alliance between the two…and, more importantly, a paycheck coming into the Dubois’ bank account. A word of warning: there’s a shot in tonight’s episode that is so downright disconcerting that it actually took my breath away for a second. It’s not really a spoiler to suggest that it involves the kidnapped boy, since it’s a longstanding tradition with “Medium” that Alison’s visions don’t always come to pass, but I’ll just say that if you’re a parent and you’ve ever even briefly allowed yourself to fear what could happen in that moment when you realize you don’t know where your kid’s run off to, it’ll make your blood run cold. I’ve also seen next week’s episode, and while I’ll save most of my observations about that for next Monday, I will say that it’s also really good and, as with the upcoming new season of “Jericho,” I can’t help but think that the writer’s strike might actually pay off for “Medium.” People want new stuff to watch, they’re willing to consider shows that they might not ordinarily watch, and based on what I’m seeing so far, “Medium” - like fellow NBC show “Law & Order” - is starting so damned strong with its new episodes that it might just find a resurgence in popularity that it hasn’t seen in quite some time. Filed under: TV and TV DVDs and Actors and Actresses and TV Dramas and External Entertainment and External TV and TV Sci-Fi Comments: 1 Comment Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
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…The House Without A Christmas Tree.
If you can trust the box art for this particular DVD, then we’ve finally been gifted with the long-awaited release of a cherished holiday classic; as for me, I wasn’t familiar with the film…or if I once was, my memories of it didn’t stick with me for the long haul…but having now watched it, I can say that there’s probably a fair amount of truth in that advertising. Addie (Lisa Lucas) is 10 years old and really, really, really wants a Christmas tree; unfortunately, her dad, James (Jason Robards), refuses to have one in his house. No, he’s not being a jerk…well, not intentionally, anyway. He’s still mourning the death of his wife, who died within weeks of Addie’s birth, and he readily associates the holidays with how much his wife loved that time of the year; unfortunately, he also associates his daughter with his wife, and it continues to haunt him that, once upon a time, he wished that she’d died instead of her mother. As such, the Christmas season is generally a pretty low-key affair around their house…to say the least. But when Addie wins a Christmas tree in a contest at school - through a method her father taught her, no less - and James still throws a fit over having a tree in his house, resulting in Addie running off in tears, one is forced to wonder if father and daughter will ever be able to reconcile. Say, this sure sounds like a merry Christmas movie, doesn’t it? Well, don’t worry: it wouldn’t be a holiday classic if things didn’t eventually turn out all right…but, then, you probably already figured that. Robards’ performance is appropriately gruff when he’s dealing with Addie while being just sad enough for us to realize that, yeah, that’s a major emotional rollercoaster the guy’s on, and who’s to say we wouldn’t react similarly in that situation? Mildred Natwick plays Addie’s grandmother (and James’s mom) in a manner that will no doubt strike a chord in many of us, the way she walks that tightrope between wanting to make her granddaughter happy without damaging the relationship with her own child. Lisa Lucas is…well, she’s a kid. She’s an average 10-year-old little girl. She was never destined to win an Emmy for her work, but she does well enough. “The House Without A Christmas Tree” was made in 1972, and it shows, but that’s a good thing, actually; the reason it shows is that it was filmed on video tape, and the result is that it tends to feel less like a movie and more like a play. There really aren’t many different locales involved - the family’s house, the school, a store, and another nearby family’s house - and the brief outdoor shots could easily be left out if anyone wanted to make this into a stage play. You may also recall that 1972 was the year “The Waltons” premiered, so don’t be surprised when you tune in to find that A) the story takes place in the 1940s, B) the goings-on are, by and large, pretty mundane by today’s standards, and C) there’s as much heartbreak as there is happiness. But, like I said, things turn out all right in the end, and that’s what counts. Filed under: Movies and TV and Movie DVDs and TV DVDs and Actors and Actresses and Reviews and TV Dramas and Movie Dramas and External Entertainment and External Movies and External TV and External Movie DVDs Comments: None Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
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…A Flintstones Christmas Carol.
Man, I used to love me some “Flintstones” when I was a kid. Jenn and I were sitting on the couch this morning, watching this with our 2-year-old daughter, Ally, and once again, it came flooding back to me how many of the original episodes I must’ve sat through during my childhood. Every time I catch an episode on Boomerang, I’m invariably washed over by a wave of memories I didn’t realize; whether they’d schedule it early in the morning or immediately after I got out of school, I’d always camp in front of the TV and absorb every moment of “The Flintstones.” Yes, even the Great Gazoo years. (Dude, seriously, I fucking loved Gazoo. I don’t know why he gets hassled so much.) Unfortunately, “A Flintstones Christmas Carol” isn’t from the show’s glory years; it was a 1994 TV movie, and, well, if you’ve ever caught any of the more recent Flintstones material, you know that things have been going steadily downhill since the original series. But, really, this is just a weird film all around, mostly because a surprising chunk of it stays steadfast and true to the original Charles Dickens story. The premise involves Fred playing the part of Ebeneezer Scrooge in a Bedrock production of “A Christmas Carol,” but his ego gets the best of him, and it gets to the point where his head’s so swelled that it barely fits through his dressing room door. Inevitably, it becomes a case of life imitating art, Fred realizes the error of his ways, and it’s just as happy an ending as you’d expect. Unfortunately, Ally started getting antsy right around the point when Jacob Marbley (yes, you read that right) comes to visit Scrooge…and I couldn’t blame her, because it was deadly dull and barely anything like a “Flintstones” episode. So I started scrambling to figure out how to remedy the situation, when what to my wondering eyes should appear but the words “Bonus Episode” on the DVD box. And, bam, it was off to watch “Christmas Flintstone,” the episode from the original series where Fred takes a part-time job as a department store Santa, only to be drafted to replace the REAL Santa, who’s been waylayed by illness. Oh, it was great stuff…and Ally, bless her, was enthralled by it, snuggled up to her mama, watching every moment of it and, at the end, asking for “‘nother one.” So, clearly, I’m not going to recommend “A Flintstones Christmas Carol” in and of itself, but if you find it for an inexpensive price, it’s worth picking up for that bonus episode. I might never watch the film again, but I’ll be breaking out “Christmas Flintstone” every year for the long haul. Filed under: Movies and TV and TV DVDs and Reviews and TV Comedies and Movie Comedies and External Entertainment and External Movies and External TV Comments: None Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
 …The Munsters’ Scary Little Christmas.
What on earth possessed Universal to suddenly release this 1996 made-for-TV flick onto DVD for this holiday season? I mean, it’s not like they haven’t had a decade’s worth of Christmases to get it out there, and it’s not like the popularity of “The Munsters” has suddenly soared. Well, whatever the reason, it’s here now, so let’s take a look at it, shall we? As you can probably tell from the cover art, that ain’t Fred Gwynne playing Herman Munster. It’s always a dicey proposition when you take iconic TV characters and recast them - sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t - and this wasn’t Universal’s first attempt to bring back “The Munsters.” Only a year earlier, they’d done a TV movie called “Here Come The Munsters” which featured Edward Herrmann as Herman (yes, the patriarch of the Gilmore family once sported green make-up and neck bolts), Veronica Hamel (”Hill Street Blues”) as Lily, Robert Morse (”Mad Men”) as Grandpa, and Christine Taylor (a.k.a. Mrs. Ben Stiller) as the family black sheep, Marilyn. Presumably, it did pretty well, since it quickly spawned a sequel, but for whatever reason, every single role was re-cast. In “Scary Little Christmas,” Herman’s played by Sam McMurray, who tends to pop up on various sitcoms as the boss who thinks he’s way cooler than he actually is (he played Doug’s supervisor on “The King of Queens” and Chandler’s boss on “Friends”); Lily is now portrayed by Ann Magnuson (”Anything But Love”), Grandpa by Sandy Baron (he was Jack Klompus, the retiree on “Seinfeld” who foolishly told Jerry he could keep his pen), and Marilyn by the crazy-hot Elaine Hendrix, who wears spectacularly short skirts…and wears them well. Personally, I always preferred “The Addams Family” to “The Munsters.” The latter always drifted way too much into slapstick for my tastes…and, as expected, this flick is very much in keeping with that tradition. There are several storylines running throughout which echo classic material from the original series - Eddie’s depressed, Marilyn’s found a new guy, Grandpa’s having trouble getting an experiment to work right - and they’re interspersed with the holiday-themed plots, including a holiday house decorating contest and, most importantly, Grandpa accidentally bringing Santa and two of his elves into his laboratory. As Grandpa tries to get Santa and his elves back to the North Pole in time to make his rounds, the elves are more interested in going to a bar and partying, while a potion error turns Santa into - scout’s honor - a figgy pudding. The highlights include the inspired casting of Mary Woronov (Miss Togar in “Rock and Roll High School”) as the neighbor who desperately wants to beat the Munsters in the decorating contest, the underutilized plot thread of the Munsters’ Christmas party (every Universal monster you can think of makes a cameo at the party, but the funnier bits come earlier on, when they’re receiving their invitations), and, okay, those short skirts of Marilyn’s really were awesome.
It’s a fair bet that fans of the original series will just cry “blasphemy” and take a pass on this flick, and I can’t really blame them, but most kids will really enjoy it…and, yes, even the little kid in me was entertained enough to feel like it was worth my time to have watched it. Of course, the adult in me probably just kept watching because of Elaine Hendrix, but, c’mon, look deep into those gorgeous eyes and tell me you don’t suddenly feel a burst of Christmas spirit yourself. Yeah, I know, I could’ve made a far more tasteless joke about feeling one’s Yule log stirring. But I do have some standards, you know. Filed under: Movies and TV and Movie DVDs and TV DVDs and Actors and Actresses and Reviews and TV Comedies and Movie Comedies and External Entertainment and External Movies and External TV Comments: None Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
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Am I wrong? Does anyone else remember this? It was a single-season wonder that aired on CBS, and it can’t possibly live up to my memories of it, but I really dug it at the time. You can read more about it here, but, basically, the series focused on Drak, Frankie, and Howler, descendants of Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster, and a werewolf (don’t ask me how the monster managed it), who decided to atone for their ancestors’ wrongdoings and unite as a superhero team called the Drak Pack. I’m sure my unabashed love of the Superfriends at the time had everything to do with why I loved it so much, but, c’mon, if you set aside the whole Frankenstein-spawning-an-heir thing, it’s a really cool concept, y’know? Now, if someone would just release the live-action series “The Monster Squad” (no relation to the film of the same name), I’d really be happy. |
 …Christmastime in South Park.
No surprise here: when the holidays begin to approach, there’s a sudden influx of Christmas-themed DVD releases which arrive for our perusal, so I figured that Premium Hollywood was as good a place to tackle them as any. Now, everyone knows that there’s a real unfortunate tendency for these things to get really, really schmaltzy…but in the case of “Christmastime in South Park,” which features all seven of the series’ Christmas episodes from 1997 through 2004, that’s decidedly not the case. I haven’t been a dedicated “South Park” viewer since…hmmm, I’d have to say my regular viewings stopped right around the time I first started dating the woman who would become my wife. Coincidence? Nah, not really. My wife would be the first to tell you that she has limited tolerance for the show; she’s laughed at it on occasion, but as intelligent as the show can be, she just can’t handle the gross-out comedy…and given that the first episode on this disc introduces Mr. Hanky the Christmas Poo, it won’t surprise you that I watched this all by my lonesome. Each of these episodes have their fair share of laughs, but the legitimate classics definitely come toward the beginning, such as Mr. Hankey’s inaugural appearance, the hilarious visit by the guys to experience a Cartman family Christmas which results in a lovely number from Charlie Manson, and “Mr. Hankey’s Christmas Classics,” which takes a cue from the legendary “Star Wars Holiday Special” (complete with the ridiculously obscure “fighting the frizzies” reference) and presents a variety-show-styled visit with the various citizens of South Park. As the show continued, however, it’s clear that Matt Parker and Trey Stone wanted to keep doing holiday episodes but weren’t exactly sure what was left to parody, so in 2000, they went after…themselves! Yep, they make fun of the original “South Park” short that they’d made as as a digital Christmas card; unfortunately, however, Comedy Central completely misses the boat by not including that short as a special feature. “Red Sleigh Down” is a return to greatness, however. It’s a brilliant send-up of action flicks, with Santa trying to bring Christmas to Iraq, only to get shot down, captured, and tortured. His savior? Why, Jesus Christ, of course! The following year’s special, “It’s Christmas in Canada,” proved comparatively disappointing, unfortunately; as ever, the shots at Canada are spot-on and hilarious, but as a Christmas episode, it’s rather lacking. The last episode on the disc, “Woodland Critter Christmas,” is another one of those episodes that, as I was watching it, made me remember exactly why I haven’t watched “South Park” regularly in quite some time. Yes, it’s a genius parody of the cuter-than-cute Christmas specials that are chock full of anthropomorphic animals who celebrate the holidays just like people do, but when it turns out that the animals’ religious beliefs lean toward the dark side - there’s a delightful blood orgy sequence - and the plot involves baby cougars learning how to perform an abortion, all I could think was, “Oh, God, my wife wouldn’t have made it more than five minutes into this.” Not that I didn’t laugh, you understand. But, uh, yeah, I can kinda see why she has a problem with the show. In closing, here’s that aforementioned first “South Park” Christmas short, complete with Spanish subtitle for no apparent reason:
Filed under: TV and TV DVDs and Reviews and TV Comedies and South Park and External Entertainment and External TV Comments: None Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
 For those “Battlestar Galactica” fans that weren’t paying attention, the Sci-Fi channel premiered the two-hour event, “Razor,” last Saturday night. If you missed it, you can check it out on DVD when it hits the shelves on December 4th. With Christmas approaching and the writers’ strike just now starting to affect new programming, there’s never been a better time for newbies interested in getting into “Battlestar Galactica” to finally make the plunge. The first three seasons are out on DVD and the fourth season (starting in March) will be the show’s last, so you know the creators are going to have the freedom to end the series properly. **SPOILER ALERT** When I first heard about “Razor,” I thought it was going to focus completely on the Pegasus crew under Admiral Cain. This provided plenty of story potential, but the creators decided to weave in two other timelines as well. The story jumped back and forth frequently between the Cain’s Pegasus and the time when Lee was in command of the ship and its crew (before the fleet settled on New Caprica). There was also a brief scene where a young William Adama made a gruesome discovery forty years earlier during the First Cylon War. I figured that Kendra Shaw wasn’t long for the BG world considering we haven’t seen her in any subsequent episodes, so her little sacrifice at the end wasn’t all that surprising. Besides, it was a lot more effective the first time Bruce Willis did it in “Armageddon.” Regardless, her interaction with the old man (was that the hybrid?) on the ship revealed something big. He said: “Cara Thrace will lead the human race to its end. She is the herald of the Apocalypse and the harbinger of death. They must not follow her.” Considering Cara returned at the end of season three and promised to lead the fleet to Earth, his words are especially forboding. Of course, he’s the one that kept saying, “This has all happened before and will happen again,” so I don’t know what the point is of trying to dissuade the humans from following Cara. Kendra tried to warn Lee, but of course the Cylons scrambled the signal. It was interesting to see the old school Cylons again. Apparently, they are only used in minor duty, and they aren’t as effective as their newer counterparts. It was also fascinating to see Gina’s backstory on the Pegasus. She went from being Cain’s lover to a rape and torture victim. It makes a little more sense now why Cain was so harsh with Gina. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. “Razor” certainly isn’t for the newbies, but it serves as a nice fix for those of us who can’t wait for the final season to begin. Filed under: TV and TV DVDs and TV Dramas and TV Action and External Entertainment and External TV and Battlestar Galactica and TV Sci-Fi Comments: 8 Comments Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
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Y’know, I don’t think I’ve ever seen an entire episode of “The George Lopez Show,” but after having watched this documentary, I think I’m gonna have to check it out; I don’t have any idea whether it’ll actually be funny or not, but just listening to the guy’s comments in “Brown is the New Green: George Lopez and the American Dream” makes me predisposed to liking him. (Mind you, I was already pretty much in that camp after I heard that he’d gotten into a physical altercation with Carlos Mencia over Mencia purportedly stealing some of his material, but, still, this really sealed the deal for me.)
“Brown is the New Green” focuses on Latinos as they’re perceived on the small screen, and while it probably won’t come as any surprise that they haven’t always had the best representatives on the American airwaves – for awhile, their big three were Jose Jiminez, Speedy Gonzales, and The Frito Bandito - it’s heartening to realize that they’re finally getting their due. Now, if you’re one of those folks who gets pissed off every time they reach a voicemail menu that says, “For English, press 1,” I’m sure you’re already seething mad at the mere thought of what this documentary discusses; in fact, some of you may have stopped reading altogether while you work out a diatribe for the comments section about how giving Latinos airtime to trumpet their culture is akin to setting Old Glory afire and watching her burn. Well, hang onto your hat, muchacho, because you may be surprised to find that a lot of Latinos aren’t so remarkably different from John Smith, Average American. For instance, when George Lopez was casting his TV show, many actors came in to audition and, when doing so, they’d put on a heavy Spanish accent. “George would say, ‘Brother, cool down, you don’t need to do that,’” said producer Bruce Helford, “and they’d say, ‘Oh, cool, thank you,’ and then they’d do it in perfect English, with no accent at all!” Lopez himself reveals that, while building the sets for his series, the network complained that the kitchen didn’t look like a Mexican kitchen. “They said, ‘There’s nothing here that indicates that a Mexican family lives here. There’s not a tortilla maker.’ I said, ‘My tortilla maker was my grandmother!’” For the most part, the so-called “Latino audience” is something which, more often than not, the entertainment industry views as an advertising demographic rather than a group of individuals who are looking for their own brand of entertainment. There’s an ongoing battle between trying to portray real Latino life versus what producers think middle America can handle; one guy mentions how, from his experience, the average Latino family doesn’t always have a father present, but TV can’t hang with the idea of a fatherless family scenario, while Lopez speaks about how absolutely no-one in his family was supportive of his attempts to build an American TV career. The most interesting interview, at least for me, wasn’t with Lopez but, rather, with Bill Dana, the comedian who portrayed Jose Jimenez. He was hugely popular for many years, but he wasn’t actually Latino, and as the tide of public opinion turned, the popularity waned dramatically…like, to the point where, when he announced that he was retiring the character, he was stunned at the resulting cheers. “Brown is the New Green” is another fine PBS production, providing an interesting, educational, and - ultimately - depressing look at how little love the Latino community gets on television. Sure, it’s nice that “Ugly Betty” is a success, but you can’t really call that a step forward when, in virtually the same breath, ABC canceled “The George Lopez Show” in favor of “Cavemen.” Still, when the doc ends with the revelation that Lopez earned $5 million from the show’s final season, $15 million from the series’ syndication deal, and $9 million from his stand-up shows that year, at least you can’t say that his chapter of the story hasn’t had a happy ending.
Filed under: Movies and TV and Movie DVDs and TV DVDs and Actors and Actresses and Reviews and TV Comedies and TV Dramas and Documentaries and External Entertainment and External Movies and External TV and External Movie DVDs and Doc of the Day Comments: 1 Comment Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
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I’ve only ever been to New Orleans once in my life, and I wasn’t even there for 18 hours - I was on an Amtrak “See America” railpass, and the train stopped into Nawlins in late afternoon, then took off again at around 6:30 AM - but it still made an impression on me. Granted, I didn’t see much of the city, since the only places I went were from the train station to the French Quarter and back, but, still, I loved it, and I’ve wanted to go back ever since, so I was just as upset as anyone when the city was devastated as a result of Hurricane Katrina.
Watching “Big Easy to Big Empty,” the short but powerful documentary by reporter Greg Palast and producer Matt Pascerella, I’d like to tell you I was surprised at the anti-Bush slant to the coverage, but A) I wasn’t, and B) I’m not exactly pro-Bush myself, so I sure as hell wasn’t bothered by it, anyway. And, really, how can you help but paint an anti-Bush slant when it’s revealed that the White House knew full well that the levees of the city were destined to fail, yet they did nothing to have the problem fixed? Palast shows us a house which sat in the path of the flood waters, noting the number which has been painted on the front window in order to clarify how many bodies were pulled from the house. It’s horrifying. We find out that the city’s evacuation planning was left up to IEM (Innovative Emergency Management), who were paid a half million dollars to create a plan, then didn’t. We see a field of FEMA trailers, where the residents are all but trapped for the time being, with access to bus rides to Wal-Mart but not much else in the way of transportation. We also find out that there’s an ongoing plot in New Orleans to rebuild the city as a sort of “Six Flags Over Louisiana,” where it’s non-stop alcohol down Bourbon Street and the streets are, shall we say, a little less dark than they were before the Ninth Ward was destroyed in the flooding; disturbingly, a portion of this plot includes leaving some residents locked out of their apartments, even though they were never affected by the flooding in the first place, just because it’s high-dollar real estate that could be better serving the city in forms other than low-rent housing. Of course, let’s be realistic here: “Big Easy to Big Empty” feels about as biased as Michael Moore at his most pissed off. Palast comes off looking like a real bully at times, particularly when he invades the offices of IEM in search of answers, and there’s a certain feeling that he’s going for the most sensational interviews possible. Still, there’s no reason to believe that the facts he provides are anything less than accurate; this DVD was released through Disinfo.com, and they’re pretty good about offering the unpolished truths you won’t generally get elsewhere in the U.S. media. In the end, we’re still left wondering exactly what’s going on down in the Big Easy…and, personally, I’m wondering if I’m quite as interested in giving them my tourism dollars as I thought I was. |
