Will is a member of the Television Critics Association and has written for Decider.com, the Onion A.V. Club, The Dissolve, Indiewire, Rhino.com, TV Week Magazine, The Virginian-Pilot, Popdose.com, and EW.com along with writing for Bullz-Eye.com and Premium Hollywood.
…and bye-bye, Barney Fife.
Don Knotts has passed away at the age of 81.
He hadn’t been looking spectacularly well for the last few years, but Knotts kept right on working ’til the end, appearing as the voice of Mayor Turkey Lurkey in 2005’s “Chicken Little.” I’m just particularly bummed about it because, literally, just last weekend, I bought this DVD for my daughter…well, okay, and a bit for myself:
So long, Don. Give our best to Aunt Bea and Floyd the Barber…
I just went to 7-11 to fill up my gas tank and grab some ice cream (a request from my wife), and, as I walked past the refrigerated beverages, a couple of cans amongst the energy drinks caught my eye:
Well, now, how could I resist? I plunked down my $2.49 and bought myself a can of the number one “Asian Experience Energy Drink” on the market. (Note: Position on list of Asian Experience Energy Drinks estimated.)
As soon as I got home, I ran to my wife and said, “Honey, look! It’s ‘a natural energy drink packed with vitamins and exotic botanicals,’ says Steven Seagal! You know you want to try it!” She looked at me as though I’d lost all sense of sanity, but she tried it.
Jenn Harris says: “Ugh. That’s disgusting.”
Steven, if you want that testimonial, I’m sorry, it’s gonna cost you. Have your people call my people; I’m sure we can come up with a deal that’s agreeable to both parties.
Me, I don’t think it’s nearly that bad…but, then, I didn’t buy it for the taste. I bought it as a conversation piece…and on that level, it most certainly succeeds.
UPDATE – 10:19 PM: Note to self. Steven Seagal’s Lightning Bolt is dangerous, dangerous stuff. I have cleaned the living room, watched four episodes of “Charles in Charge,” transferred burned countless MP3 files to disc, and may possibly have done a jig. Next up: trying to read a book…if my eyes will focus.
…but it’s safe to go back into the bookstore, at least. “Jaws” author Peter Benchley has died at the age of 65.
You have to give him credit: he didn’t just try to coast on the success of “Jaws.” Well, not really, anyway. He didn’t exactly go out of his way to leave the sea behind, given that his later work involved novels like “Beast,” about a giant squid, “Creature,” “The Deep,” and, oh, right, “Great White.”
Still, the guy wrote “Jaws.” He deserves every kudo in the world for being directly responsible for scaring the hell out of millions.
After only a few episodes, CBS is yanking “Love Monkey” and the odds of it getting out of the network-built cage are pretty slim. What a gyp. Tom Cavanaugh is hilarious, the episodes thus far have been great, the soundtrack’s awesome (this week found a schoolyard basketball game being played against the soundtrack of “Daft Punk Is Playing At My House”), and the story – an idealistic A&R guy tries to stick to his principles AND be a success in the music industry – is unique. I’d say that maybe VH-1 could pick it up, but that would utterly confuse the network’s viewers because it’s almost entirely about music…
…but I’m a little annoyed that the current word on the street is that “Justice League Unlimited” is apparently being cancelled after this season. The reported reason why…? Because there’s some sort of “turf war” of sorts over using characters when they’ve been licensed for other mediums…like, say, live-action feature films. (“Superman Returns,” “Wonder Woman,” another “Batman” movie…you see what I’m talking about.) And it goes for villains as well as heroes, because they were apparently barred from using the Joker in any further “JLU” episodes.
When exactly did this crap get so complicated? The “Superman” movies were coming out while “Superfriends” was on their air, and I didn’t hear anyone saying, “Well, you know, we’re gonna need to cut back on Supes appearing in every episode; how about you do another fill-in episode focusing on the Wonder Twins this week?” And what can it possibly hurt to have these characters appearing in feature films and on cartoons? Surely it’s just cross-promotion…!
Idiots.
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