Monthly Archives: August 2012
Cool TV Video of the Day: The Theme to the Poor Man’s Gilligan’s Island
No one thinks Gilligan’s Island was a brilliant television show, so it may come as a surprise that it has a sister show called It’s About Time. Sherwood Schwartz created and produced both shows. The two shows also share similar fish out of water scenarios and expository theme songs. However, It’s About Time lasted only 26 episodes and was soon forgotten because it was repetitive and hard to watch, whereas Gilligan went on to become iconic. Instead of explaining the premise of It’s About Time, since it is all right their in the show’s lyrics, I’ll just let you have a listen.
The lyrics are after the jump.
Sullivan & Son: Online Dating
Sullivan & Son has been guilty of cringe comedy and an inability to move the story forward. Jokes that make the audience cringe aren’t always funny as much as they are offensive. Cringe comedy is very hard to execute, which it has for Sullivan & Son. Viewers may be too distracted by the subject matter to laugh. With a lack of movement or action in most of the episodes of Sullivan & Son, there is very little room for distraction. Luckily, on Thursday’s episode, the subject manner and themes were rather pleasant and still funny. The story is still slow, but that is the nature of the show, but yesterday’s episode seemed to take advantage of its limited setting.
The episode opened with Steve’s mother, Ok Cha showing Steve a picture of a Korean woman named Grace Kim online. She then says that she set up an online dating profile for Steve and that the woman wants to meet him. Of course, Steve is upset that his mom took control of his personal life. The dynamic between Steve and his mother can get a little old. Ok Cha likes to think Steve can’t take control of his life when he clearly can. That being said, the measures that Ok Cha took could be construed as so annoying that they are funny. She asserts that she didn’t pretend to be Steve, but she pretended to better than Steve. Steve protests that he does not want to meet Grace, but Grace was coming to the bar anyway.
AGT Results Recap: August 22nd
Carly Rae Jepsen
Tuesday night’s wildcard edition of America’s Got Talent was one of the few times this season that the show wasn’t a complete disappointment. The talent wasn’t overwhelming, but at least the night had a more competitive atmosphere. The results were not completely obvious, but there were some clear standouts who seemed destined to take spots. It would have been a perfectly adequate week, if America voted correctly. Instead, Wednesday’s results show was a letdown.
The first result was between Ben Blaque, Sebastian “El Charro De Orro,” and the Bandbaz Brothers. None of these acts completely deserved to advance, but they all had the same basic skill levels as performers. That being said, it wasn’t surprising that Sebastian made it through to the semifinals. He won’t win the competition, but he is reasonably talented.
After Sebastian advanced, it was time for a performance by the cast of a Broadway musical version of Bring It On. The performance was average. It certainly wasn’t amazing, but it was a good time filler.
Cool TV Video of the Day: Alex Trebek Gives Some Naughty Clues
Alex Trebek is best known as the host of Jeopardy. However, he hosted quite a few other game shows before landing that gig. In these two clips from the final episodes of Double Dare (No, not Nickelodeon’s Double Dare. That’s something quite different. This one aired on CBS.), Trebek gives a few suggestive clues. While the show only lasted 5 months, the boomerang clues always pop up on outrageous game show moment compilations.
The video after the jump features risque clues for a tobacco pipe.
Jimmy Kimmel Will Air at 11:35pm
Starting in January, ABC will push Nightline back an hour, so that Jimmy Kimmel Live can be a direct competitor to the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and The Late Show with David Letterman. This does not make sense. ABC already wins the 11:35pm late night ratings race against Leno and Letterman with Nightline, which averages 3.8 million viewers. However, ABC loses the ratings race a half hour later because Kimmel averages 1.8 million viewers to Leno’s 3.71 million viewers and Letterman’s 3.22 million viewers. Kimmel also receives the fewest number of viewers among the 3 hosts in the coveted 19-49 demographic.
Cool TV Video Of The Day: Hugh Laurie On Friends
Most American television viewers know Hugh Laurie as Dr. Gregory House. However, in 1998, Laurie made a guest appearance on Friends as a very sardonic airplane passenger who tries to reason with Jennifer Aniston’s character, Rachel, about going to London to stop a wedding. Laurie may have had a small role on Friends, but it’s easy to see why he deserved a big break in America a few years later.
America’s Got Talent: The Wildcard Show
Todd Oliver and Irving
America’s Got Talent has been filled with disappointment this season, so on a show where the judges bring back 12 eliminated acts, it seems logical that this would be the worse show yet. Strangely, it wasn’t. There were still some sub-par acts, but Tuesday’s wildcard show was a good night overall. It was a shot at redemption and some of the acts made their case quite well. Fortunately, no act was a complete waste of time unlike previous nights.
Spencer Horsman
Spencer Horsman is an escape artist, who was extremely disappointing in his quaterfinal performance. He was behind a blank screen performing his escape, so the audience could not see what was happening. Clearly, he had more potential, so Howard brought him back. Horsman showed his potential this time and has proven himself to be a fantastic act. This time he trapped himself in a glass box and filled it with an excessive amount of wet cement. He was attempting to escape the box before he buried himself alive. He was able to keep the crowd on the edge of their seat because the danger level was higher than ever before. Horsman will be back. Howard made the right decision to reinstate him.
Amy Schumer Shines in Her First Comedy Central Special
An hour of stand up comedy can be hard to sustain, but Amy Schumer certainly did not show it. In her first solo television event, Amy Schumer: Mostly Sex Stuff, Schumer demonstrated that no matter how inappropriate she was being and no matter how uncomfortable the crowd got, she could still make them laugh. Schumer is a relatively young comic who still seemed to be establishing her identity in show business. On Saturday night, she finally got the chance to be the center of attention and did not disappoint. As the title of the special suggest, the humor is sexually explicit. It may dissatisfy some viewers, but the special clearly solidified Schumer’s audience type.
The special started off slow, but it picked up nicely. Schumer’s comedic style involves a lot of shock value and it is presented in such a way that it’s not always funny as much as it is simply offensive. It all depends on the premise of the joke. The good news is that there’s plenty of humor to make up for the weak points.
Comedian Phyllis Diller Dead at 95
Phyllis Diller died today at 95 years old. We can go on and on about Phyllis Diller being groundbreaking and fantastic. However, The Los Angeles Times sums up the woman perfectly in its article on her death.
Instead of repeating what everyone else is saying, here is an episode of The Phyllis Diller Show with John Astin.
Parts 2 and 3 are after the jump.
Wait! What's A Dial? 