Blog Archives
Cool TV Video of the Day: Conan’s Emmy Opening
In 2006, Conan O’Brien hosted the Emmy’s on NBC. His hilarious opening parodied several popular shows of the time. The shows featured in order are: Lost, The Office, 24, House, Lost, South Park, and even To Catch a Predator.
Animal Practice… Worth the View or Just a Zoo?
As anyone who has ever been to a theatre knows, nothing is ever on time. Because the Olympics wasn’t over by 10:30 last night, the Sneak Preview of NBC’s Animal Practice was pushed back 20 minutes. When it started, I was left wondering if it was worth NBC finally cutting time out of the Closing Ceremonies to see it.
Justin Kirk plays Veterinarian Dr. George Coleman who is good with animals, not so good with the owners. When the woman who owned the animal hospital George works in passes away, her granddaughter, Dorothy Crane, takes over. Crane, played by Joanna Garcia-Swisher, also just happens to be Dr. Coleman’s ex-girlfriend.
The main human-centered storyline of the Sneak Peek episode is that after the owner of the hospital dies, Dorothy takes over and tells George that they can keep the hospital running without it being too awkward. Other important story line centered around a dog that swallowed something and needs surgery to remove it. The owner isn’t happy that the surgery will cost two-thousand dollars and demands to put the dog down despite the fact that it would destroy his young daughter’s happiness. George, angry with the owner, takes the dog and proceeds to hide it. He plans to do the surgery anyway despite the consequences.
Go On Will Go On
NBC hit a home run with Go On. The show stars Matthew Perry as sportscaster Ryan King, whose boss forces him to join the Transitions therapy group. Of course, Ryan feels that he does not need therapy and any attempt to convince people to agree with him fails because he keeps lashing out at everyone. For those who insist on making Friends comparisons, Ryan is Chandler Bing, if Chandler Bing suffered from clinical depression and was constantly sardonic. It is a little jarring at first, since Friends is still being rerun continually, but it works.
Ryan’s first Transitions’ meeting makes up a big part of the pilot episode. When he first arrives, Ryan takes his place in the circle and listens briefly to some of his fellow group members’ problems. He quickly gets fed up with the wallowing because everything in his life is a competition. Deciding to do something about this, Ryan pulls out a whiteboard and starts making a bracket that one of the group members dubs “March Sadness.” For someone to progress in “March Sadness,” they have to tell their sob story in 5 seconds and it has to be more depressing than their competitors. It is twisted that Ryan turns suffering into a competition, but for some reason it does seem like a feasible way to move on in one’s life. The winner was a Fausta, a woman who spoke mostly Spanish and lost both her husband and her son. As the winner, Ryan crowned Fausta with a pastry box that she now cherishes.
Cool TV Video of the Day: You + Me= Us
Boybands were everywhere in the 90s, so MTV decided to mock the phenomenon with the fictional boyband 2gether and their rivals, Whoa! and Unity. 2gether’s “U+Me=Us” was the breakout single from the show.
The lyrics to “U+Me=Us” may be funny. However, they cannot beat (pun not intended) the hilariously inappropriate lyrics of Whoa!’s “Rub One Out.” (NSFW)
Cool TV Video of the Day: Assume the Position
Assume the Position with Mr. Wuhl was a two part comedy special on HBO about American History. While both parts of the special contain pop culture references that clearly date Assume the Position 101 to 2006 and Assume the Position 201 to 2007, that doesn’t make it less funny. Despite only being an actor and comedian, Robert Whul makes every college student want to have him as a professor.
Parts 1 and 2 are combined in the video below.
Cool TV Video of the Day: Conan Entertains in a Blackout
In 2003, a the second most widespread blackout in history practically closed down the Northeast and parts of Canada. Despite not being able to do a full show, Conan O’Brien decided to do an introduction to a rerun of Late Night. There may not be an audience, but Conan still manages to be on top of his game.
Part 2 is after the jump.
Sullivan & Son: The 50th Anniversary
Thursday’s episode of Sullivan & Son was enjoyable at times, but very little actually happened. Since the bar seems to be the only major setting, there is hardly any action. Instead, the characters are free to have very stressful conversations. While this leaves possibilities for the characters to have revelations, there is very little effort to move the story forward. Episodes that are full of dialogue can be funny at times, but they can also get boring. Despite the potential for Sullivan & Son to be humorous as well as deeply thematic, exclusively relying on slow moving episodes that are full of stress can be a bad idea.
It is the 50th anniversary of Sullivan & Son and things are getting complicated for Steve and his childhood friend Melanie, known as Mel. It is revealed that Mel’s grandfather originally owned the bar and lost it in a poker game against Steve’s grandfather, Jack. Despite this having nothing to do with Steve, Mel holds a grudge for some reason. Of course this is illogical and Steve had nothing to do with the loss of the bar. Mel acknowledges this and is still mad at Steve. Mel’s acknowledgement of her own hypocrisy is supposed to be funny but it is actually very annoying, There is absolutely no reason for this to be a story. In fact, neither of them were aware of it until Jack brought it to their attention. The fact that it was a plot line shows the drawbacks of relying on one location for an entire episode.
Cool TV Video of the Day: William Shatner Tells Trekkies to Get a Life
Today’s video is the “Get a Life” sketch from the December 20, 1986 of Saturday Night Live. In the sketch, William Shatner ends up berating a crowd at a Star Trek convention.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x930vt_william-shatner-snl-skit-get-a-life_fun
Episodes Takes A Dramatic Turn
So far this season, Episodes has been enjoyable, but relatively simple. When last week’s episode ended with Merc Lapidus taking a phone call at his own father’s funeral, it’s not surprising that the following episode would be a bit cynical. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t funny. It just got darker than usual. In a way, it’s good for the show. It demonstrates that it can expand its tone. However, those who were looking to laugh without having to think will be disappointed.
The fourth episode of the season opens with Merc and Carole discussing the ratings of Pucks!, which have been steadily declining. This isn’t so much a well directed or well acted scene as much as it is a way to comment that they are in a show about a show. When Carole says that she and Merc are always running into problems with the show’s that are failing, Merc quips rather angrily,”Why don’t we make a show out of it.” This is obviously meant to call attention to the premise of Episodes, but it doesn’t work well. The running joke continues to be the network’s disdain at the success of an unnamed show about a talking dog. It can get a little old, but Episodes’ sense of good and bad television premises should be commended.
Wait! What's A Dial? 