You knew it was coming.
(and yes, my blog has been reduced to posting SNL clips featuring Kenan Thompson – fuck you for noticing)
Archive for category TV
According to Nielsen Wire, 116,231,920 people saw this commercial, making it the most watched TV commercial in history.
Good. The guy screaming at the end is hysterical. For that reason alone this was among my favorites of the night.
Come on! That title is every bit as witty as “Every Kiss Begins With Kay”
This commercial kills me on so many levels:
(link)
Puh-leeeze! If you’re smooth enough to just happen to have planned to give your lady jewelry in a cabin during a storm and were aware enough to have it in hand knowing your woman is a scared little bitch who jumps and whimpers at the sight of lightning and also have the presence of mind to deliver the line “I’m here and I always will be” while handing over said jewelry to aforementioned scared bitch then you’re a better man than I.
Fuck that commercial. Is there anyone…anyone…out there who watches that and feels warm and fuzzy instead of annoyed and maybe a little homicidal? And if so, what the fuck is wired wrong inside of you? The commercial is the height of absurdity.
Arrrrgh!
I see this commercial all the time. Its one of those things that simultaneously makes me cringe and want to watch at the same time – the truest definition of a train wreck. It has to be the worst commercial – the worst idea for a commercial – in a while. Unintentionally horrible. But I have to watch it when it’s on. It sticks in my head. I secretly long to dance with a tub of margarine. I hate this commercial.
Even worse is that there’s a website, contests, a full-length music video – even a ‘making of’ clip about the video…all based on this crap.
This is why the rest of the world hates us…and why we’re great.
- O’Brien’s last show will be this Friday, January 22
- Jay Leno will take over The Tonight Show on March 1
- O’Brien will be able to to begin working for another network beginning September 1
- NBC retains the rights to bits and characters Conan created
A couple of videos here. The first is from tonight’s Jay Leno Show (1/18). He’s going into damage control mode. I think this sounds like the talk of a man toeing the company line, but I’m of the belief that this is pretty much how it played out:
(link)
And just for fun here’s a clip from 2004 with Jay talking about the original deal for him to leave and Conan to take over in 2009:
(link)
As someone who has enjoyed late night television for almost as long as I can remember and as someone who took great interest in the Tonight Show drama of the early 90’s, I’ve been keeping an eye on the current NBC debacle with peaked interest.
For the most part I’ve been posting links to Facebook as to not muddy up my blog, but the outcome seems to have become quite a bit clearer today when first TMZ reported that Leno and NBC made a deal that put Leno back on the Tonight Show and later this article where Dick Ebersol slams Conan was published.
The NY Times article is brutal:
- He added that “what this is really all about is an astounding failure by Conan.”
- “He was just stubborn about not being willing to broaden the appeal of his show.”
- In this case, he added, “we bet on the wrong guy.”
The whole article is a good read that puts a little perspective on the whole thing.
And here’s an article from 1992 where shortly after taking the Tonight Show, Leno was in pretty much the same boat Conan is in. I do believe that NBC actually offered Dave the show at one point after Leno had taken over hosting duties.
Crazy stuff.
I’m on a pretty big It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia kick right now.
Awesome show.
This makes me chuckle everytime. It’s not that special of an idea on paper, but everything about the commercial is done right and the actors play it perfectly and that makes something average in to something funny.
If you read this little ol’ blog o’ mine, you probably have some sense of the downward spiral back into a mild interest in pro wrestling. It started early in 2009 when my son (now at just the right age for such shenanigans) began showing a passing interest when he’d catch WWE on TV. We decided on a whim to buy Wrestlemania in April and then used some connections to score freebie tickets to a Smackdown taping in May. That was all it took. My son was hooked. He now has a collection of WWE toys and evn my daughter has a passing interest. My wife and I used to be fans and…well…we have tickets to the next Monday Night Raw on January 4th. (courtesy of Santa Claus, of course)
Turns out that it’s going to be a pretty big show. TNA (a rival wrestling organization) is running counter-programming against Raw this Monday with the return of Hulk Hogan and WWE needs to pull out all of the stops on their end to compete. Raw should be a decent show with a couple of title matches and the return of Bret Hart to the WWE for the first time in 12 years. In fact, the Montreal Screwjob happened just a few days after my daughter was born. So while my wife and I get the significance of it, the kids are like, “Who the hell is Bret Hart?”
At any rate Santa hooked us up with decent seats. Section 219 (lower), Row 3, seats 1-4.
And knowing what Santa paid for those tickets (and the three hours of entertainment they provide), I still insist that amusement parks are a ridiculous value and most coaster enthusiasts have no sense of the cost of things…
…and I’ll continue to say it every chance I get.
If only the show on at 8pm was called “Slim Shady”
It mustn’t just be my Kenan crush. Last night “What Up With That” ran right after the monologue, so somebody is liking it. I thought last night’s was the weakest yet, but still worth watching.
Probably the best SNL all season. The cold opening was finally something other than the completely unfunny political stuff they do. In fact, they opened with a favorite of mine and my daughter’s – The Lawrence Welk Show. Not the funniest one, but still laughable. (seemed to be the theme on the repeat skits, huh?) Not sure what to add as the bonus funny, so I’ll just say you can’t go wrong checking out any of last night’s show – not a real stinker in the entire bunch.
You’ve probably seen this a ton of other places, but it was 20 years ago today (December 17, 1989) that first 20-minute episode of The Simpsons aired on FOX.
That’s really nuts if you think about it. I don’t think I’ve felt much older then realizing not only has this show been on 20 years (and I’ve been rather faithful in watching it all this time) but also that I was 16 when it debuted. Sheesh. If they were real people, Bart would be 30 and Santa’s Little Helper would be dead.
Funny how much times change though. I can remember people complaining about how ‘bad’ Bart was and how that sort of thing shouldn’t be on TV – especially as a cartoon that kids would be inclined to watch. In today’s climate, the character is downright cute and nonthreatening and most of the cartoons on TV (outside of Nick and Disney) are meant for adults.
At any rate, I dig the show.
Gonch Fun Fact – I still say, “I’d like some taquitos” every time we walk past them in the grocery store and that’s a quote from a minor character in an episode that’s more than 10 years old.
From the press release:
One of America’s favorite — if not entirely functional — families first appeared on its own half-hour television show on this day 20 years ago — “The Simpsons.” Cartoonist Matt Groening’s characters Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie soon had popularity unusual for an animated feature, and created a legion of loyal fans who wouldn’t miss one of the shows. Aside from the wide range of souvenir items generated by the program, some of the character’s sayings — especially Bart’s — have become part of the language, such as “Don’t have a cow.” When “The Simpsons” first went on the air, there were 193 million television sets in U.S. homes — today, the number is more than 300 million.
The Simpsons first appeared in 1987 as a series of 30-second shorts produced by Groening for the FOX series “The Tracey Ullman Show.” The first of these shorts aired on April 19, 1987, during the third week of primetime broadcasts on FOX. Soon they had their own series, premiering on FOX as a half-hour Christmas special on Dec. 17, 1989, and then as a regular series on Jan. 14, 1990.
And yes, sadly, I remember the pre-Simpsons clips as my mother was a fan of the Tracey Ullman show…and back then we didn’t have TV’s in every room and the internets and such, so you either watched TV as a family and watched what your arents watched or you didn’t watch TV…and you actually watched things when they aired – on their schedule, not yours, rarely timeshifting with the VCR – that was for when you wouldn’t be home and really wanted to see something…hence, my viewing of the Tracey Ullman show.
Caught this yesterday on SHO:
I never in my life thought I’d be able to sit through (let alone be entertained, forced to think and laugh…and even get a bit misty-eyed by) a two hour and ten minute monologue about faith by the chick who was Pat on SNL, but I did…and I’m recommending it to you.
Definitely a must-watch holiday special.
For those who don’t know (and I assume that means those without kids and those that don’t get high and watch cartoons) – Phineas and Ferb is the Disney cartoon that has knocked Spongebob off his throne as the highest rated cartoon on TV…and with good reason. The show is great. The Phineas and Ferb world works on so many levels that you’d be hard pressed to not find something you like. (I personally am impressed by the fact that the show features well done original music – so much so that there’s even a Phineas and Ferb music countdown special)
At any rate their new X-mas special, “Phineas and Ferb Christmas Vacation” is showing here and there on all of the various Disney channels and is a seriously good time. I imagine it’s still entertaining if you’re new to the show, but I think one would appreciate it more if they’re already familiar with the characters and premise of the show and their little world.
That’s all I got – just wanted to mention the show and the Christmas special.
(intro)
(I think that’s the most I’ve ever used the word ’special’ in one post)
EDITED TO ADD – turns out that the debut of Phineas and Ferb Christmas Vacation was the most watched show ever on the DisneyXD channel.
This is full of all kinds of funny:
Had a hard time choosing a bonus funny because the Tiger Woods thing was great, but it would only make my man crush on Kenan Thompson seem even creepier and the Shy Ronnie short is pretty great (even if it’s a little obvious).
I said it in my comments under this post over two years ago and finally I’m devoting an entry to it.
The best show currently on television by a decent margin is Californication.
The stuff they’re doing right now with Rick Springfield is some of the funniest stuff I’ve seen in a while – from playing himself as a totally skeezy aging rocker to the subtle humor of the rest of the characters calling him by his full name everytime they address him.
Sure, it’s silly a lot of the time with tons of sex and drugs, but I think it’s one of the most human shows on TV too. Some good complex relationships that in the end you know these people care for each other – the realationship between Hank and daughter Becca is wonderful. It’s about as perfect as TV gets for me.
Plus, I wanna be Hank Moody when I grow up.