Category Archives: Television

Television

DVD: Dream On Seasons 1 & 2

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Dream On - Seasons 1 & 2Quite a few months ago I had noticed that Dream On – Seasons 1 & 2 were available for purchase. Back when this show was on, I used to watch it periodically and really enjoyed it. Last weekend I broke down and picked it up and Jonna and I have been working our way through the episodes.

I had forgotten just how funny and entertaining this show was. I believe this was the first (or at least one of the first) HBO original comedies that had come out back in the 90’s that grew out of John Landis’ interest in creating a show around all of the old then unused TV footage that Universal Studios had in its libraries. He recruited David Crane and Marta Kauffman (who later went on to create a little TV show called ‘Friends’) as writers.

This adult oriented sitcom centers around, Martin Tupper, a recently divorced man book editor at a small boutique publishing firm and his foray back into the dating world. Martin spent a lot of time watching TV when he was a child, and throughout the episodes situations cause flashbacks to scenes from these old shows, which just makes the show that much funnier. Adding to the hilarity is Martins best friend, Eddie Charles, a exploitation-TV talk show host a la Geraldo, his assistant Toby, and the near perfect but never seen husband if his ex-wife, “Dr. Richard Stone”.

I’ve really found this show quite entertaining and still fresh after 16 years. Each episode is 30 minutes, so it doesn’t take a lot of time to blow through a disc.

If you’d like to spend some time watching a very entertaining and funny show, pick up this show at Amazon. I would be quite surprised if you were disappointed.

Emily Rose and Millenium Followup

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[ This posting was written about a month ago (around 9/12) … I just ran out of things to write about, so I’m publishing this ]

I came across this article this morning. It seems that The Exorcism of Emily Rose has struck a chord with people (at least as far as getting them in the theater) as it grossed $30.2M over the weekend making it the third largest September opening ever, despite reviews that pretty much mirror mine.

Apparently I’m not the only one interested in the concept of exorcism — which makes me feel much more normal. 😉

Given the box office numbers though, I’m inclined to wonder what makes these types of movies so attractive to people that they have to go see it? I think that those who were raised hearing about how Satan and demons were the cause of everything bad are more inclined to go see them just out of the curiosity raised through years of hearing about it ad nauseum and finally being able to see something that was supposedly “true”. I think that I really like seeing other peoples interpretation of this phenomenon and the events that surround them.

Just to be clear, I do not believe in actual demonic possession. I do believe, however, that other people believe in it — and can believe in it so much that they can manifest behavior consistent with it if they do not learn to deal with the guilt instilled in them while being initiated, as a child or as an adult, into a religious group in which a fear of Satan forms much of the cornerstone of the doctrine that is taught.

Much of the above is why I also enjoyed the second season of Millennium so much this time around, while “not getting it” when it was actually on TV. Much of the content was around religious beliefs and the fulfilling of prophecy as believed by the “Millennium Group”. A lot of it had to do with what the Millennium Group was doing in order to ensure the outcomes that they believed would signal the end of the world. For some reason the second time around, that really intrigued me.

The second season of the show was quite different than the first. From what I have heard on interviews on the sets, Chris Carter became very busy with the X Files during the second season of Millennium and gave control over to Glenn Morgan and James Wong. The show became quite different than the first season, focusing on the Millennium Group and quite a bit of its religious philosophy and apocalyptic beliefs. Many of the shows took on an almost surreal atmosphere, very unrealistic and “out there”. One episode specifically (I can’t remember the episode but it was towards the end of the season) had very much of a “Natural Born Killers” feel to it — very random and disjointed.

Season Three, which we started watching (we got through almost 3 discs), feels like a melding of Season 1 and Season 2. There is quite a bit of the religious and / or spiritual aspects to what we’ve seen so far, however it is much less surreal than Season 2, getting “back to the basics” of what made the first season so great.

I’m still a little disconnected from Season 3 as compared to Season 1, but I am still enjoying the shows.

The Bobs of Advertising

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baby_bob_homeThere are some advertising campaigns that just grab you and you really enjoy watching. I was pretty impressed the the campaigns that Geico had going for a while, but Quiznos has taken the cake with their spokesperson, Baby Bob.

I don’t know what it is about this little guy, but I love watching these commercials. Its so refreshing to see advertising with a little creativity and fun baked in!

Aside from Baby Bob, the other set of commercials that I really enjoy watching for some reason are the Smilin’ Bob commercials from Enzyte.

Smilin’ Bob cracks me up.

I think the thing I like most about all three companies mentioned here is that they don’t seem to take themselves too seriously. This is the most irritating thing I find about business is the idea that there is some “proper” way to represent yourself and that you have to appear stodgy and serious or you aren’t professional.

In my opinion, there is a really fine line between professional and boring. More than that, the more concerned companies are with their “professional image” the more I am inclined to feel they’re fake and want to take my business elsewhere. I’d rather deal with humans than robots with no sense of humor.

Well, there you have it. Some random observations after watching a Quiznos commercial. Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Millenium the Third and Final Season Released on DVD

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Millennium - The Complete Third SeasonMillennium – The Complete Third Season has been released on DVD. We’ve picked it up, but haven’t started watching it yet. I’m pretty sure this is the season of the show I missed when it was on. The second season wound up being a little too weird for me at the time (I actually like it after watching it on DVD now) and I quit watching the show.

I’m looking forward to seeing the final season.

More on the iPhone

Aside

The Times in Britain has an article entitled Apple bites back against music rivals with iPhone. According to this article, the new iPhones (at least from the British supplier) will only have capacity for 25 songs. An article in the Register also reports that songs for these devices will be $2 per song. They’ll have to up the capacity to something that compares to my current iPod for me to even consider something like this.

Dirty Jobs on Discovery Channel

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I do not like what we today call Reality TV. You know, shows like Survivor, Big Brother, Wife Swap, and all of those shows like that. They are all fake and pretty much stupid.

I do, however, like TV about real stuff. Shows like Mythbusters, Cold Case Files, Biography, and shows like that. At times, I’m even enjoying Dog the Bounty Hunter. The best shows are shows in which you can learn something and still get a laugh out of them (Mythbusters is the role model for shows like that).

Andy has been telling Jonna and I about a show called Dirty Jobs that he thought was hilarious. At first we resisted watching it, thinking it was just another stupid reality show. We finally gave in over the last week and watched an episode.

This show is great. The host, Mike Rowe, is nothing short of hilarious. The premise of the show is that the host finds the dirtiest jobs that people do for a living, and attempts to do them on the show. In the episode we saw this week, he attempted to make a surfboard (dirtier than I thought it would be), harvest honey from bees (creeped Jonna out to no end), and clean a ‘sludge tank’. During each of these tasks he was brilliantly funny, in a very dry way. We laughed all the way through the show.

If you are a Mythbusters fan, chances are you’ll love Dirty Jobs. Check it out (it’s on Tuesdays at 8pm CT) and leave comments up here telling me what you think.

The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off

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Sunday night we watched The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off, on TLC. This is a documentary that originally aired in England, I believe.

It is the story of Jonny Kennedy, a man who was born with a genetic skin condition called Epidermolysis Bullosa, which causes the skin to essentially blister and fall off at the slightest touch. Jonny was 36 years old at the time of his death, and agreed to do this documentary to help raise awareness of the condition and help get funding for research for its cure.

The documentary gives you a look at Jonny’s life and the constant pain he was in as a result of the condition. The most amazing thing about the documentary however, is the look at Jonny and the great outlook on life and wonderful sense of humor this guy had in the face of a horrible affliction.

The show was touching, as you watch Jonny prepare for his death after being diagnosed with skin cancer, apparently a pretty common outcome for people with EB.

The only complaint I have is the extreme amount of advertising that stations air during this type of show. It was completely out of control, I’m assuming due to the visibility of the show. Its sad that everything turns into an advertising blitz these days, especially since finding something that is actually worth watching on TV is such a chore these days.

Just a clue to the networks: a commercial break every five minutes is unnacceptable, m’kay?

Related Links

That Star Trek:TNG Kid has a blog …

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So I’m sitting around last night watching VH1’s 100 Greatest Kid Stars, hosted by Christopher Knight.

One of the kids they brought up was Wil Wheaton, the kid from Star Trek : The Next Generation. As I’m watching the show, I hear him say something about his blog and make a mental note to check out his blog the next time I’m on-line.

Now, normally with mental notes, they last for about 3 minutes and are never found again and I never remember to look at what I thought I needed to look at. But when I woke up this morning the first thought I had as I went through the news was “… wait a minute, I have to check out that Star Trek guys blog”.

Wil, who used to play Wesley Crusher on Star Trek : The Next Generation, is now an actor, writer, blogger, and geek. His blog, wilweaton.net, is actually a pretty interesting read. He’s definitely got a sense of humor, as can be seen on his FAQ page. This blog just might become a regular read for me. It’s definitely gotten my curiosity up on his books, Dancing Barefoot and Just a Geek. I just might have to pick them up sometime.

Now one might ask, “What could I possibly get out of reading that guy from Star Treks blog”? Well, I found a reference to The Geek Code, apparently a sign of status in the geek community. Now I have one. Do you?

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.1
GIT d- s:-- a C++@ ULS+++@ P+++@ L+++>$ E@ W+++$>$ N+@ !o !K-- 
w+++@ O@ M !V-- PS+>$ !PE !Y+ PGP>$ t+>$ !5 X+++>$ !R- tv+++>$ 
b++>$ DI++ !D G>$ e? h--->$ r+++@ y+++
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

To decode the above code, copy it and paste it into the Geek Decoder.