Television

For rambling about idiot box entertainment outside of the Star Trek universe.

CBS needs to work on their definition of ‘issue’ ads

by

Item 1: CBS refuses to run ‘issue advocacy’ ads from MoveOn and PETA during the SuperBowl.

CBS canned a 30-second spot sponsored by the liberal online activist group MoveOn.org. The commercial, which won a celebrity-judged competition for the honor of being MoveOn’s Super Bowl ad, depicts children performing a variety of blue-collar jobs — washing dishes, collecting garbage, working on an assembly line. The tagline near the end of the commercial asks, “Guess who’s going to pay off President Bush’s \$1 trillion deficit?”

The network also spiked a commercial submitted by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. That ad featured scantily clad women and suggested that meat-eating might contribute to impotence.

Item 2: CBS debuts first-ever HIV/AIDS commercial during the SuperBowl.

CBS will air what is being called the first-ever HIV/AIDS commercial to be seen during Super Bowl Sunday programming.

Sources within CBS’s parent company, Viacom, tell the Gay.com/PlanetOut.com Network that the 20-second spot is expected to run in the latter half of the Super Bowl XXXVIII Pre-Game Show, when the most viewers are expected to tune in.

Somehow, these two stories just don’t add up. The CAP has more on CBS’s double standards.

(via Daily Kos)

Plot vs. Monster of the Week

by

The more I watch of Buffy, I’m starting to notice one definite similarity between my enjoyment of that show and my enjoyment of the X-Files. Nothing terribly earth-shattering, it’s just that both series have two basic types of episode: the “plot” episode and the “monster of the week” episode. In each case, while they’re both enjoyable, it’s really the “plot” episodes that I enjoy the most.

Like I said, nothing terribly earth shattering.

iTunes: “John the Fisherman” by Primus from the album Frizzle Fry (1990, 3:37).

Mars Dead or Alive

by

If you’ve got an hour to kill and a broadband connection, the NOVA program “Mars Dead or Alive” is freely available on the web! I’ve just spent the past hour watching it, and it’s fascinating, going from the construction of the two rovers and the problems encountered during their assembly and testing, through both launches, and right up to Spirit’s successful landing on Mars.

Mars Dead or Alive

To watch the program, just go to the ‘Watch the program‘ section of the site, choose your connection type, and kick back.

Tip for QuckTime Pro users: Rather than watching the program in the small pop-up window that their site provides, just open up QuickTime Player, choose File: Open URL in New Player…, and paste in this URL: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/mars/media2/mars.mov. Once you’ve done that, you can then choose Movie: Present movie… and watch the entire program full-screen.

(via IPFreely)

Also available in the site is ‘From Launch to Landing‘, a stunning nine-minute long computer animation of Spirit’s journey from liftoff to its first moments trekking across the Martian landscape.

Enterprise in trouble?

by

Via /. comes a Cinescape rumor report saying that the latest Star Trek incarnation, Enterprise, might be in jeopardy…

You may remember speculation from last year that STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE, the latest TV series in the long-running sci-fi franchise, was in possible danger of being cancelled. Most of these fears seemed to originate with the news that two less episodes of ENTERPRISE would be needed for this season, and when combined with the show’s lackluster ratings, produced gossip that the show could be hanging by a thread. There was also talk that the show was being moved to Friday evenings from its Wednesday perch on the network.

UPN suits and ENTERPRISE producer Rick Berman dispelled the rumor that the program would move to Fridays but did confirm that a shorter run was in store for the third season. Nevertheless, the news was downplayed as a minor issue and not one serious enough to deliver a deathblow to the struggling series. But last week’s abrupt and unexpected cancellation of JAKE 2.0, the series that followed on UPN directly after ENTERPRISE, may have sent a pulse of fear through the cast and crew. At the very least it prompted an individual to write in and tell us what they say the scuttlebutt is on the set right now…

Now, I’ve not seen Enterprise since I moved into my current apartment, and at the time, I wasn’t sorry to stop watching it. It’s still a little sad to see that one of the staples of my life may be coming to such an ignominious end.

What you leave behind

by

Well, it’s done. Last night I finished the last episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The Dominion War is done.

As I’d mentioned before, I’d never seen DS9 before — I’d caught a few episodes here and there over the years, but hadn’t seen enough to really gain any appreciation for the series or the characters. Now that I’m done…well, while I hate to rank the three versions of Star Trek that I’ve seen (TOS, TNG, and DS9) as they each have their strengths and special places, I do feel comfortable in saying that DS9 is by far the strongest Trek incarnation as a whole.

I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for TOS. It’s the series that got this whole thing started, where we were first introduced to the Federation, the Klingons, the Vulcans, and many others, and the series that captured the hearts and minds of fans all over the world. I grew up watching Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and the rest of the crew, and that in itself is very important to me.

TNG was the rebirth of Trek, and it took a big chance in daring to boldly go where Paramount had gone before. New characters, new ships, new aliens — and a new show that ended up being far better than many expected it would be when word first broke that it was going to be made. Much of my high school weekends were spent in the company of my friends, gathering at one person’s house or another each week to watch the adventures of Picard and crew (often followed up by watching re-runs of TOS that were broadcast immediately afterward). Here we had a modern Trek, and it turned our initial skepticism into belief and a reborn love for the Trek universe.

With DS9, I believe that all the best parts of Trek were brought to the forefront, and then given just enough of a “darker” twist that could have doomed the show from the outset, but instead served to create some of the best Trek I’ve seen. For all their strengths, the almost antiseptic perfection of much of TOS and TNG sometimes seemed almost too good to be true. The characters were almost too perfect, there was too often a definite “right” and a definite “wrong”, without the shades of grey that so often color the real world. DS9 saw this, and painted the entire show in those shades of grey (almost literally, in the design of the Cardassian station). Without breaking away from the ideals set forth by Roddenberry in creating Star Trek, DS9 showed that as good as Paradise is, it takes work to maintain, and the real decisions and ramifications of that work are rarely as clear-cut as we’d like them to be.

So while I hate ranking one series above the other, I will say that DS9 is most definitely my favorite of the three Trek incarnations I’ve seen. Wonderful stuff.

And now that I’ve finally finished it all…

…what now?

You will never lose betting on human stupidity

by

Every so often I mention to people that I haven’t watched television, for the most part, in somewhere around a decade or more. In today’s mass-media-fueled society, that often gets responses ranging from surprise to out and out shock. I’ve got a whole host of reasons why I don’t bother with television — and today, I just got one more.

A game of Russian Roulette with a real, loaded gun is slated to be broadcast live on British television this Sunday in what is being billed as the ultimate reality-TV stunt.

“It is a real gun with a real bullet and I am really putting it against my head,” said Derren Brown a self-styled “psychological illusionist.”

Brown plans to pull the trigger of a 348 Smith & Wesson several times, sensing which chamber the bullet is in, and plans to point the gun away from his body and fire the killer shot harmlessly into the air.

“If I am not 100 percent sure, I will not pull the trigger,” Brown said, admitting, “It would be humiliating but it would be preferable to the other consequences.”

Brown said the show won’t glamorize gun violence.

“We are dealing with it in the most serious and strenuous way possible. The drama will not come from the gun part, but from the fun and games and entertainment that comes from the selection process.”

The show will air on a several-second delay in case Brown shoots himself. If that happens, viewers will not see the gun fire into his head. Instead, the screen will go blank and display a message advising viewers what’s happened.

This just does not seem like a good idea.

Of course, the ratings are going to be incredible.

(via Lane)

[Update:]{.underline}

The stupid git actually survived (and there’s even a play by play account). He’s lucky. But how about the idiots out there who decide to copy him? Think that they’ll be as lucky?

Who's on stage?

by

Okay, this is it — the last one. Mostly because it’s the last version that I know of, but hey, that’s okay. This one comes from one of the best TV shows of all time, the Animaniacs (specifically, epsiode #59, midway through “Woodstock Slappy”). If there’s anyone out there who can get me an .mp3 of this scene, I’d love it!

Update: This clip has been posted on YouTube! Who knows how long it’ll be there before the copyright police yank it, but it’s there now…. (via MeFi)

Who’s on stage?

Skippy and Slappy are at Woodstock. Roger Daltrey is onstage singing….

SLAPPY: Skippy, what is the name of that group playing on stage?

SKIPPY: Who.

SLAPPY: The name of the group.

SKIPPY: Who.

SLAPPY: The group on stage.

SKIPPY: Who.

SLAPPY: The group playing on stage.

SKIPPY: Who.

SLAPPY: You’re starting to sound like an owl, Skippy.

SKIPPY: Who is on stage!

SLAPPY: That is what I’m askin’ ya’, who is on stage?

SKIPPY: That’s what I said.

SLAPPY: You said who?

SKIPPY: I sure did.

SLAPPY: So tell me the name.

SKIPPY: Who.

SLAPPY: The name of the group.

SKIPPY: Who.

SLAPPY: The group on stage.

SKIPPY: Who.

SLAPPY: The name of the band on stage!

SKIPPY: Who!

SLAPPY: You’re doing that owl thing again, Skippy!

SKIPPY: I’m not, Aunt Slappy, I’m telling you Who is on stage.

SLAPPY: So tell me.

SKIPPY: Who.

SLAPPY: So tell me.

SKIPPY: Who.

SLAPPY: The name of the group.

SKIPPY: Who.

SLAPPY: The group on stage!

SKIPPY: Who!

SLAPPY: That’s what I’m asking you!

SKIPPY: And I’m telling you the answer.

SLAPPY: Wait, Skippy, let’s start over. Is there a band on stage?

SKIPPY: Yes.

SLAPPY: Does the band have a name?

SKIPPY: Yes.

SLAPPY: Do you know the name of the band?

SKIPPY: Yes.

SLAPPY: Then tell me the name of the band on stage.

SKIPPY: Who.

SLAPPY: The name of the band!

SKIPPY: Who.

SLAPPY: The band, playing on stage!

SKIPPY: Who.

SLAPPY: That’s what I want to know!

SKIPPY: I’m telling you!

SLAPPY: Who is on stage.

SKIPPY: Yes.

SLAPPY: Who is?

SKIPPY: Yes.

SLAPPY: Oh. So the name of the band is Yes.

SKIPPY: No, Aunt Slappy, Yes is not even at this concert.

SLAPPY: Then who is on stage?

SKIPPY: Yes.

SLAPPY: Who is?

SKIPPY: Yes.

SLAPPY: That’s just what I said, Yes is on stage.

SKIPPY: No, Yes is not here. Who is on stage.

SLAPPY: Whaddya askin’ me for?

SKIPPY: I’m not!

SLAPPY: Wait, let’s try this again. Do you see the band on stage?

SKIPPY: No I don’t see The Band, that’s a different group entirely.

SLAPPY: On stage, Skippy. Look, see the band?

SKIPPY: No I don’t.

SLAPPY: Get rid of those John Lennon glasses and look! There, there’s the band!

SKIPPY: No, that’s not The Band. The Band is performing later on. Who’s on stage.

SLAPPY: You tell me.

SKIPPY: Who.

SLAPPY: The name of the group on stage.

SKIPPY: Who.

SLAPPY: The name of the group!

SKIPPY: Who.

SLAPPY: The group on stage!

SKIPPY: Who.

SLAPPY: The band!

SKIPPY: No, The Band is performing later. Right now, we’re listening to Who.

SLAPPY: That’s what I wanna know!!

[Cheering]

ROGER DALTRY: Hey, you squirrels are funny, man. Come on up here and take a bow.

SKIPPY: Yeah! Far out!

SLAPPY: Oh brother…

(Thanks to my friend Rick for tracking this down on videotape so I could finally see it after being told about it for years…still looking for that .mp3, though!)