Category: TV, Film and Radio

My “ER” memory

The long-running medical drama “ER” is ending tonight. I never was a die-hard fan of the show, but I do have one memory that I hold somewhat dear.
It was my first year of college and I was working at the student newspaper. We published the paper twice a week (Mondays and Thursdays, IIRC), but we were there other days of the week too.
Thursdays were always kind of a fun day — the paper had just come out and we had some breathing room before next Monday. Often times, we would hang out and watch some TV in the sports office.
“ER” was one of the shows we would watch. It was 1996 and the show was in full stride. The characters were interesting and the frantic pace of the drama was exciting (even if they did seem to intubate every patient that set foot in the hospital). It also didn’t hurt that our opinion editor looked like Dr. Greene.
Just as I lost track with most of my college newspaper colleagues, I haven’t kept tabs with “ER” as the years have rolled past. Nonetheless, the show will have a place in my heart for entertaining us all those years ago.

Saturday DVD release of “Twilight” is brilliant

Although I’m not the target audience to watch “Twilight,” I have to say the
Saturday release for the DVD is a stroke of brilliance.
If you need a refresher about what the movie is about, it’s a tale of “forbidden love between a vampire and a mortal.”
Most DVDs come out on Tuesday, but there’s nothing as far as I know to prevent a Saturday release. It’s like movies at the theater — most come out on Friday, but they can come out on other days as needed.
In the case of “Twilight,” it’s a great idea. The target audience for the film seems to be teenage girls. I can imagine the DVD fitting in well with many weekend activities, including get-togethers. A quick search shows several DVD parties are being set up (including in York, Pa..)
I like these group experiences although they can be easily mocked by outsiders. They are some of the things that make the cult movie experience worthwhile for the participants.

Searching for Super 3D glasses

I nearly missed kickoff for today’s Super Bowl XLIII. I was running errands … and trying to find 3D glasses. The glasses are for an iced tea commercial airing during the game, but I wanted them for the 3D episode of “Chuck” Monday.
I checked three stores and none of them had those darn glasses.
This whole “go to the store” for promotional glasses stinks anyway. I wish they distributed the glasses through direct mail or inserted them into Sunday newspapers. It’s true they wouldn’t get to everyone, but at least they would cover a large amount of households. Still, I may be a little biased on that score.
As the game is starting to unfurl, I think the Steelers will prevail, but the Cardinals have been surprising teams and fans all season long. Perhaps Arizona has one last surprise.

On Oscar noms: ‘Button’ shouldn’t be on top

The nominees for this year’s Oscars were announced today. I was surprised to see “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” receive the most nominations, including for Best Picture. While the Brad Pitt-vehicle was amusing, I didn’t feel it was a satisfying movie or the best work from 2008.
Some critics didn’t care for “Button” — Roger Ebert said in his review that the premise of a man being born old and aging backwards was wrong. Even my family didn’t necessarily seem engaged by Button’s life experiences.
I could see the whimsy of a teenage mind trapped in a body that looks like a 60-year-old’s, but I felt the experience was entirely too superficial as Button grew younger while the world got older.
Ultimately, “Button” is a superstar vehicle and a special effects tour-de-force that is unable to find a decent story.
As usual, I haven’t seen many of the films nominated for Best Picture (which includes some intriguing pics like “Milk,” “Frost/Nixon” and “Slumdog Millionaire”). Instead of “Button,” I would’ve rather seen “The Dark Knight” or “WALL•E” have a shot for the top spot.

This just in: Fat guys don’t always have attractive wives

BBC News published an article about how watching romantic comedies can spoil your love life. Apparently, the survey conducted by Heriot Watt University in Scotland showed that the films gave people unrealistic expectations (including, in the sack) and fans of such films often fail to communicate with their partners.
The whole article had some pretty interesting details about fate and destiny and stuff like that. It’s worth a read.
It’s funny we needed a study to show us that romantic comedies provide unrealistic images of romance. I would venture to guess that these movies also provide unrealistic images of comedy as well. After all, how many rapping grannies have you encountered at weddings?
Aside from romantic comedies, I can think about a few things that give unrealistic expectations about love, partnerships and bedroom stuff.

  • Sitcoms – As alluded to in the headline, how realistic is it for an overweight common man to land a hot wife? Examples include “King of Queens,” “The Simpsons” and “According to Jim.” I guess the first example would be “The Honeymooners.”
  • Adult films – Hypothetically speaking, this genre really doesn’t delve into romantic love, but there are unrealistic expectations about practically everything else.
  • Musicals – I would like to spontaneously break into song while on a date, but I’m worried the commuters on the subway would give me dirty looks instead of joining in.

Can you think of other genres of films or media that offer unrealistic expectations about romance?

Do-it-yourself TV antenna

I recently purchased a DTV converter box for my secondary TV (using the $40 coupon from the guv’ment). Unlike my larger, living-room TV which uses cable, I have a smaller TV that still uses an antenna.
I plugged everything in — antenna to the converter box to the TV. To my dismay, I only reliably got two DTV stations (and two subchannels for total of four channels). The results were worse than my earlier test (which you can watch the video of here).
Odds are, I’ll probably need to get an outdoor antenna to pull in a decent number of digital TV channels. There is one thing that I would like to try — make my own antenna (PDF link). The instructions are from “Make,” a new public TV program. The directions look cool and pretty straightforward — well, I guess if some old metal clothes hangers, some wood and a freakin’ transformer are straightforward.
Still, it sounds like it’s worth a try. The antenna is designed to pull in the UHF channels that most local stations are going to.

Here’s more about “Make” from the public-broadcasting publication, Current.
On the jump is my earlier video story about the DTV switch and what local viewers might encounter:

Continue reading “Do-it-yourself TV antenna”

One good thing about the NFL Network …

… I won’t be able to easily see tonight’s game between the Oakland Raiders and the San Diego Chargers.
For years, the National Football League has been pushing to get its limited-appeal NFL Network on to cable systems’ basic tier. Their goal — to get into as many homes as possible and increase the amount of per-customer subscription fees that the cable companies have to pay. Many cable companies object — pointing out that subscribers who want to fork out the dough for the NFL Network can easily subscribe to a higher level of access to watch the channel.
Anyway, whenever there’s a big game on the NFL Network, the league uses the game and upset fans to put pressure on the cable systems. This happened last year when the New England Patriots put their perfect season on the line during a game scheduled to be aired on NFL Network (the network’s coverage was ultimately shared with two broadcast networks).
It’s really silly — the only time I would want to see the network is when there’s a game on. That’s about eight or 10 times a year. For the remaining 355 days, I have no desire to watch or pay for the NFL Network.
That’s when the games are worth watching. Tonight’s rivalry matchup between the two struggling franchises doesn’t really inspire me (even if it is being broadcast in 3D in certain locations).

Sierra Nevada featured in “Viewfinder” public TV program

It’s always nice to see coverage of one of Chico’s breweries, so I was pleased to turn on KVIE’s “Viewfinder” program and see Sierra Nevada featured in the episode, “On Tap.”
As someone with just a passing familiarity of the NorCal beer scene, I liked the half-hour episode. It featured stops at Anchor Brewing in San Francisco, Napa Smith Brewery and Sierra Nevada. Napa Smith is a new brewer, but it has some roots in the long-defunct New Albion Brewery (the first micro-brewery).
Host Gary Gelfand interviews Ken Grossman on the brewery’s second floor. Grossman talked briefly about the brewery’s early years and its current initiatives on energy and resource conservation.
There are no commercials, so the episode ran for about 26 minutes. I’m sure some people could talk for hours about the intricacies of brewing, but I thought it was a concise look at highlights of Northern California’s impact on modern brewing. It also matches with my brief reading on the subject — home brewers got a huge boost when it was legalized in the late-1970s, but quality control was vital for companies to survive and expand.
For a program from a Sacramento-based broadcaster, I thought it did a nice job of covering the north state. Sacramento gets its mentions — for the old Buffalo beer and a panel recommending their favorite Sac brews. UC Davis also gets a segment for its brewing program.
The episode is available through Wednesday via Comcast On Demand in the Local section. I’m also embedding the episode here (YouTube via KVIE). Bottoms up … in moderation, of course.

Way to show ‘The Incredibles’ twice in two days, NBC

Some critics have commented that NBC is almost becoming a broadcast version of a cable network. I used to disagree — I generally like many of the shows on NBC although some of its practices are annoying (including displaying promos of upcoming shows while I’m trying to enjoy the show that’s already airing). However, something happened Thursday and Friday that seems to confirm NBC’s cable-readiness.
After showing the Pixar film, “The Incredibles,” once on Thursday, NBC decided to follow up by airing the same movie again 24 hours later. It’s perfectly understandable to air the movie on the holiday — after all, most networks air blockbuster films during holidays. However, airing the movie again a day later seems like a cheap tactic.
I guess it makes sense if NBC is wringing out as much value from buying the rights to air the movie, but it’s troubling on some levels. Does NBC not have any programming at all to show on Friday nights? Does it have any programming that might garner better ratings that a day-old repeat of a movie?
Coming up in 24 hours — a repeat of this exact same blog post.

McGraw and musical guests shine on ‘Saturday Night Live’

The election’s over, so now it’s time to say that “Saturday Night Live” passe again. While the show can be astonishingly inconsistent at times, Saturday’s episode featuring country singer Tim McGraw was actually not that bad.
I felt McGraw gave a solid performance. The characters he played didn’t deviate too wildly, but he seemed comfortable on screen. When I saw the TBS logo, I was hoping for a Bill Engvall parody but it didn’t come to pass.
I think my favorite sketches were the “redneck” playing poker with James Bond, the disc jockey peddling shockingly friendly prank calls, and the always fun Kristen Wiig playing a woman who was imagining the commercial for her fake clear retainer product).
Recurring characters kinda sank some sketches including a Thanksgiving sketch with the guy who was the sex offender during Halloween and the Pizzeria Uno guy. They weren’t awful, but I felt they could do better.
The new additions to the cast showed up a little more, including one as Arianna Huffington during Weekend Update.

It was the weird night that featured three singers as guests. McGraw squeezed in a bit of his new country song during his monologue while Ludacris and T-Pain were the alternating musical guests and featured artists.
First, I want T-Pain’s exaggerated puffy top hat featuring a gray and silver take on the Stars and Stripes. It’s like Apollo Creed’s hat in “Rocky IV” but much more stylish.
Second, I know SNL has come into some deserved criticism for its increasingly lily white (and male) cast. Although I have never cast a TV show, how hard it is really to find funny, appealing people of all races and creeds?
I was reminded of this issue because I thought Ludacris and T-Pain delivered excellent performances in the one sketch they took part in. It’s true they were playing themselves against a wannabe Vanilla Ice, but their delivery was handled with a deft touch (they were reading lines, but it seemed natural enough).
That said, I don’t think they should add more black people to the cast just because Barack Obama is going to the White House. They should do it for the same reasons to add anyone to the cast — to be funny (and funny in a sketch) and to make a contribution to the show. I think shaking up the cast to lose some veterans while adding younger comedians from different backgrounds could revitalize the show while retaining a core.
I hope the two young women they recently added will be strong additions. I hope SNL puts another funny black comedian on screen (I do like Keenan Thompson). I also look forward to the day when they add a new Latino cast member and a new Asian cast member. Seriously, I can count the number of Asian SNL cast members on my thumb.
Along those same lines, SNL has generated commentary and criticism because Fred Armisen has been playing Obama. This Washington Post article sums things up. Some critics were outraged and compared it to the frowned-upon act of blackface. I wouldn’t go so far as to require that Obama be played by a black man, but I think it would be nice.
However, the cast of SNL and comedians in general have been adept at playing characters from different walks of life (albeit with varying degrees of success and acceptance). I don’t think the character of “Obama” is any different. Armisen is of a diverse heritage and plays characters of all types. His Obama is palatable if not especially funny, but it might be a struggle to make light of the new president.
If SNL does add new cast members, I hope there is a renewed competition for the Obama job. Just as Phil Hartman and Darrell Hammond put their special takes on Bill Clinton, perhaps a new cast member (or even Armisen) can create a fresh take on our new president.