Inspired by Dwight on the last episode of “The Office,” I am currently sitting on my wife’s green exercise ball. Dwight promises that it will improve my “core strength” and allow me to “enjoy sex more.”
I’ll keep you posted.
Category: TV (Page 588 of 595)
Trey Parker has never been afraid to skewer someone that offended his sensibilities. Janet Reno, Mel Gibson, Rob Reiner, OJ Simpson, Russell Crowe, Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi and Phil Collins have all felt the wrath of Trey. He even dedicated an entire episode to debunking the “psychic” abilities of John Edward, which effectively (and thankfully) killed Edward’s career.
But last night’s episode, “Trapped in the Closet,” is by far the biggest swing Parker and Matt Stone have ever taken at a celebrity; they took on Tom Cruise, the Biggest Movie Star in the World. The setup to this is that the Church of Scientology thinks that Stan is the reincarnation of church founder L. Ron Hubbard. When Stan/L.Ron tells Tom that he thinks Tom’s just an okay actor, Tom is devastated, locks himself in Stan’s closet and won’t come out. For the sake of space, I will list my five favorite bits in the episode.
– The conversation between Tom and ex-wife Nicole Kidman, who is summoned to lure Tom out of Stan’s closet.
Nicole: Don’t you think this has gone on long enough? It’s time for you to come out of the closet.
Tom: I’m not- I’m not in the closet.
Nicole: Yes, you are, Tom. And you just need to end this and come out. I’m not going to think any differently of you. Katie’s not going to think any differently of you. You don’t need to be in that closet anymore, Tom.
Tom: I’m not in here, though.
Nicole: Yes, you are.
Tom: I’m not – I’m not in the closet.
Nicole: Then how am I talking to you, Tom? Come out of the closet, you’re not fooling anyone.
Tom: But I’m not – I’m not in here.
– The summary of the tenets of Scientology, equipped with a helpful animated reenactment. At the bottom, there is a super that states, “This is what Scientologists actually believe.” Hard, core.
– R. Kelly. He sings throughout the entire episode, and after three or four lines, he sings, “So I pull out my gun!” Everyone runs for cover, including the police. Even better is where he ends up in the closet with Tom (and John Travolta). Anyone who makes videotapes of themselves peeing on 14 year-old girls has deeply conflicted sexuality issues.
– Stan’s speech when he’s dismissing his friends. They all walk away slowly, thinking that they’ve lost Stan forever. Cartman waits behind to say, “Stan, I just want you to know that I still hate Kyle more than you.”
– The final scene, where Stan dares to dismiss Scientology as a global scam. The church’s response: “We’re gonna sue you!” Stan stands up to them. “Go ahead! I’m not scared of you! Sue me!” The credits roll, with every name changed to “John Smith” and “Jane Smith.”
The last act was a stroke of genius. If Tom Cruise or the Church of Scientology dares to actually sue Trey and Matt, they’re only validating everything the episode implies. It’s a preemptive strike that neuters their opponents before they can even respond. Bravo, Trey and Matt. You are my heroes.
I don’t mean I love Pam. I mean I love Pam like I love warm crab legs and an ice cold beer on a Friday night. I love Pam like Ron Burgundy loves scotch. Who’s Pam? I’m talking about the receptionist on the US version of “The Office.” I am a big fan of the original UK series, and while the US version continues to improve, the UK version is superior in just about every way – except for Pam.
Don’t get me wrong, I liked Dawn in the original. But Pam is great. I suppose a lot of the credit has to go to the actress who plays Pam, Jenna Fischer. I see from her IMDB profile that she also appeared on “Six Feet Under,” “Cold Case” and one of my all-time favorite (and prematurely cancelled) shows, “Undeclared.”
What’s so great about Pam? Well, she’s cute but doesn’t know it, she’s got a sick sense of humor and she likes to mess with people. Just about the only thing wrong with her is that she’s engaged to a guy who, on their first date, accidently left her at a hockey game.
I think it’s quite possible that the greatest thing to come out of the whole DVD revolution is the re-release of the fondly-remembered TV series. When VHS was king, you’d often only get select episodes from a series, or else the whole series would be released, and if the show ran a long time, you found your shelves littered with a ton of boxes. Anyway, a number of my old faves have been reissued so far (“The Greatest American Hero,” “The Muppet Show,” “Starsky And Hutch,” “SCTV,” etc.), but there are still some that need to be puked up again for further enjoyment. Here’s a quick list of those shows that I want to see again in glorious remastering and 5.1 sound.
“Riptide” – By God, I used to watch this show every week. It came on right after “The A-Team” and was the better of the two shows, in my opinion. Joe Penny, Thom Bray, and Perry King solved mysteries while flying around in that pink helicopter called The Screamin’ Mimi with the big face painted on the front. Bray’s character, Murray often intoned his favorite adjective, “boss” (as in “That’s so boss!”), and he had that goofy robot companion, the Roboz. Totally boss, indeed!
“Exit 57” – Before there was “Strangers With Candy” there was “Exit 57.” It starred Stephen Colbert, Amy Sedaris, Jodi Lennon, Mitch Rouse, and Paul Dinello. Sketch comedy at its non sequitur best. Rouse played a redneck asshole to a T, while one of Dinello’s best characters was a freak who would get beat up and yell “Teach me who the stain is!” Sedaris played a whole host of wacked-out oddballs, while Lennon got to freak out as well. And then there was Colbert who did that thing that is truly Colbert. You know, he was Colbert! Sure, a lot of these folks came back for “Strangers With Candy,” which is a great show in itself, but I never got to see all the “Exit 57” episodes, and the ones I do have are on a crappy old VHS tape. Get with it, already!
“Max Headroom” – One of sci-fi’s best shows in the ’80s. It came after Max debuted on Cinemax or whatever the hell it was with his oddball talk show. This show was much better, and Matt Frewer was groovy as Max and as the TV news reporter who was always out to uncover the truth in post-modern where ever the hell they were. Plus it had Amanda Pays. Damn, whatever happened to her?! Frewer later “came back” on the crappy sitcom “Doctor, Doctor” and last I saw him was in the terrific remake of “Dawn of the Dead.”
“The Electric Company.” Oh hell yeah. Back in the ’70s, you couldn’t get any groovier with learning than with this show. It came on as part of the super triumvirate that included “Sesame Street” and “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.” It was rerun on the Noggin network not too long ago, but then pulled to make way for more “Degrassi.” Yawn. This is undoubtedly the best thing Bill Cosby ever created, and there’s a ton of memories I have associated with it. Spider-Man was on there, sure, but then there was Morgan Freeman as Easy Reader and Rita Moreno as the psycho film director, Skip Hinnant as Fargo North, Decoder, Gene Wilder doing the voice of “Letterman,” and so much more (not to mention the groovy silhouettes with the the first and second syllables of a word flying out of their mouths). In reality “The Electric Company” will probably never get released on any format, but it deserves to be more than just a memory of us who lived with it originally.
“Automan.” No, I jest. Although it’ll probably get full DVD treatment before anything else in my list. Who wants to see any show with Dest Arnaz Jr. in a starring role?
A couple of years ago, the pricks at NBC moved up the start time of “ER” to 9:59 (8:59 CT) causing TiVo subscribers who had “ER” and “CSI” on their season pass list to miss whatever show had a lower priority. Anyone who has tried to record both shows on the same TiVo knows what I’m talking about. The fix isn’t hard, but it’s not something I needed in my life.
Now, two years later, TiVo has finally provided Overlap Protection.
Get ’em both with Overlap Protection™: In the past, if two of your favorite shows overlapped by a minute or two, you could only record one or the other. Now, with Overlap Protection™, your TiVo® box can record both shows back-to-back by clipping just enough from the end of the first show or the beginning of the second show, based on which has the higher Season Pass priority in Season Pass Manager.
Maybe “pricks” is a harsh term for the fine folks over at NBC, but for the life of me, I can’t figure out why they would mess with the start times like this. Sure, they could be trying to increase carryover from the previous program, but I think ER has been the ratings leader on Thursday nights for NBC the last couple of years so that really doesn’t make sense. It’s just an inconvenience for the TiVo user.
Tonight, “Lost” was billed as an “extended episode.” I was expecting a 90-minute show and all I got was a measly four minutes. And I’m sure that this “extended episode” f’ed up more than a few recordings across the country.
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