Author Archives: Allison Lips
Sonny and Cher on ‘Late Night with Letterman’
On November 13, 1987, ten years after their divorce, Sonny and Cher appeared on Late Night with David Letterman. The duo stopped by for an interview and to sing their hit “I Got You Babe.”
During the interview, it is apparent that Sonny and Cher still care deeply for each other.
James Bond: On TV and American
Everyone knows James Bond as a suave, debonair, British fellow, who likes his martini’s shaken, not stirred. However, that wasn’t always the case when it came to screen adaptations of Ian Fleming’s novels. In 1954, CBS bought the rights to adapt Casino Royale for television. On October 1954 of the same year, this adaptation of Fleming’s first Bond novel aired live as part of CBS’s Climax!, later renamed Climax Mystery Theater, anthology series. For some reason, CBS decided to make James Bond, played by Barry Nelson, an American, who works for a fictional counterpart to the CIA.
‘The Jeselnik Offensive’ Tries Too Hard To Be Offensive
The Jeselnik Offensive, hosted by Anthony Jeselnik, makes a point of being offensive. Actually, that’s the show’s entire schtick. It gets old fast. You shouldn’t be uncomfortable to laugh at a joke when you are alone, yet Jeselnik loves uncomfortable laughter. Jeselnik’s onstage persona is extremely punchable. It’s a mixture of Daniel Tosh, Craig Kilborn, and British comedian Jimmy Carr, who is one of the few people to pull off shock comedy well.
Most of his jokes are offensive because they are not funny. Asking your audience to turn off Amber Alert on their phones is in bad taste. Following it up with a joke about Usher’s son almost drowning in a pool is horrible. When he finally does get to a joke in poor taste that would be funny coming out of a comedian who would show some remorse, he’s already gone way too far.
‘Cutthroat Kitchen’ Is ‘Chopped’ For Jerks
Cutthroat Kitchen is the food competition genre’s jump the shark moment. Food Network took the basic formula of Chopped and made some minor changes that cheapen the concept.
Chopped has four competitors take unusual ingredients and attempt to make the best dish possible. After each round, one person is eliminated. At the end of the third round, a winner is decided. Skill and creativity win Chopped. There is no sabotage. Cutthroat Kitchen‘s producers took one look at that format and said “forget skills, let’s give the contestants money and have them screw each other over repeatedly,” resulting in a show that targets the coveted aspiring sadist demographic and everyone else finds off-putting. Even if you find the concept intriguing, anyone with a conscience will watch five minutes and give up because they have standards.
Military Channel’s ‘America: Fact vs. Fiction’ Sets the Record Straight
Continuing, this week’s trend of articles about shows you should be watching on channels you probably don’t watch is America: Fact vs. Fiction on the Military Channel.
America: Fact vs. Fiction is perfect for history buffs and high school history classes with two weeks left until summer vacation. The shows target audience unusual because those who are true history buffs will already know a lot of the facts presented on the show, but those who could learn something from the America: Fact vs. Fiction will never know that this show exists. However, people who love history will enjoy trying to catch mistakes in the information the show claims is true.
CNBC Knows How To Make ‘The Profit’
CNBC is not the first place most people would turn to at all, especially for primetime programming. Other Mad Money with screaming lunatic Jim Cramer and maybe Squawk Box, few people can name a show on CNBC. While most people will ignore The Profit simply because its on a channel more concerned with the Dow Jones Industrial Average than providing mainstream entertainment, they will be missing out a show that is in the same mold as Tabatha’s Salon Takeover and the extremely popular Restaurant Impossible.
Most Ridiculous Sites Dedicated to TV
The Internet is a strange place. Hardcore fans of TV shows are a weird bunch. What happens when you combine the two? These websites.
Law & Order & Food
People love Law & Order, all 200 versions of it. Some are incredibly dedicated and document every background event. Those fans are responsible for this Tumblr page, which is dedicated to documenting every time Munch munches and Detective Briscoe wants a sandwich. Law & Order & Food features pictures from all of Law & Order’s spin-offs. While criminals caught on Law & Order have the right to remain silent, all food that appears has “the right to remain delicious.”
Good Food Trumps Good Marketing On ‘Food Court Wars’
Food Court Wars spiced up the Burnsville Mall’s food court with Slum Dogz and Pimento Jamaican Kitchen. Siblings Aaron Skoglund, who was adopted from India, and Kirsten Shabaz decided to create Slum Dogz as a tribute to Aaron’s Indian heritage. There concept centered around adding Indian flavors to hot dogs. Yoni Reinharz and Jamaican-born Tomme Beevas from Pimento Jamaican Kitchen were also bringing the heat with jerk chicken and other Jamaican specialties.
As usual, Day 1’s challenge involved trying to please an important group of mall goers. Tyler Florence announced that the two teams had to impress kids and their parents. Kids don’t like heat, so both teams attempted to tone down the spiciness in their signature dishes. Slum Dogz was a little more successful, but barely.
Shows That Should Be Forgotten: ‘Pink Lady and Jeff’
Pink Lady, better known as Pink Lady and Jeff, is a notoriously bad show. It regularly makes it onto Worst TV Shows Ever lists. There is no good excuse NBC can come up with for having produced this train wreck of a show, which put the final nail in the coffin of the already dying variety show genre.
In 1980, NBC President Fred Silverman decided to create the show Pink Lady featuring the Japanese singing group Pink Lady, which had two members: Mie and Kei. He called in Sid and Marty Kroft, who are were known for their surrealist children’s show like H.R. Pufnstuf, to produce the show. Everyone quickly realized Mie and Kie didn’t speak a word of English, so NBC brought in comedian Jeff Altman. This should have been about the time NBC cancelled production of the show, but production went ahead anyway, leaving Mie and Kei to learn their lines and the English-language pop hits performed on the show phonetically with predictably terrible results.
‘Spell-Mageddon’ Tries To Make Torture Fun
Did you ever wonder what would happen if Nickelodeon threw up all over a spelling bee? No. Well, too bad because ABC Family answered that question with Spell-Mageddon. The Alfonso Ribero hosted show would be at home on 90s Nick. The only problem is some of the situations are straight up torture, so the show is more terrorist’s nightmare than messy kid-friendly entertainment.
The show doesn’t start off too bad, but quickly gets boring. The first round has contestants maneuver over a blow-up obstacle course. The first person to reach the end and buzz in gets to spell a word. If the contestant gets it correct, they get to move on to the next round and the process is repeated over and over again. In total, viewers see the same thing six times in a row. While the obstacle course undoubtedly gets harder, the final round has the contestants wearing vision impairment goggles, no one cares because they are still watching basically the same thing and just wasted time that could have been better spent doing anything else like being unproductive on Facebook.
Wait! What's A Dial? 