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Wednesday, July 31, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
9:59 PM
In March 1972, we were having the premiere of the delayed Godfather. Paramount's Christmas gift to the world was now its Arbor Day gift to the world. We needed somebody big to attend the premiere. # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
9:48 PM
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Posted by Daniel Frank at
9:44 PM
I bring that up because of this: At the Weird Al concert (more deatils here), one of the bigger laughs was for Barney getting crushed on the giant screen. I also heard a Kill Barney song that Dr Demento spun get big laughs. This proves something about why I'm not successful comedy-wise; what I don't know. # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
9:32 PM
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Posted by Daniel Frank at
2:27 PM
The problem with crop-circle debunking is the standards of what constitutes proof conveniently changes when someone demonstrates a human-made crop circle. In the alien ones, the wheat was bent at a 97-degree angle and this is clearly a 96-degree angle, that kind of thing. The folks at Total Human Solution have a great idea: Before making your crop circle, register the design with them. The design is encrypted. After the crop circle is made and opinions are formed and aired, the encryption key is published. People examine the circle, unbiased with the prior knowledge that it's man-made. # | | Tuesday, July 30, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
1:24 PM
You know, coincidentally, Lincoln was first treated by a doctor named Carrico James. # | | Monday, July 29, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
10:45 PM
The narration is taken from the audio version of his autobiography (a great gift for the upcoming birthday of a certain blogger). This audiobook became a cult classic due to Evans baritone delivery and use of dopey metaphors ("Look, my ass isn't just on the line; it's out the door") and rhetorical questions (It was the basis of the Mr Show's God's Book on Tape sketch). His depiction of events should, of course, be taken with many grains of salt. I mean, he takes credit for women wearing pants. It's tough to stop imitating him: Will I keep asking rhetorical questions like Robert Evans? Very likely. Will it get annoying? Of course. Will somebody punch me to make me stop? You betcha. Will I stop? Not on your life. I'm handed the comic strip Cathy. I say "Gentlemen, this is our next picture. Except we're going to replace the whiny broad with a muscle-bound sailor. We'll get that Mork guy to star. If he's not available, we'll get that Jap from that science-fiction show." And so Popeye was born. # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
10:15 PM
I also refuse to ride any rides at the fair. I don't trust rides with wheels under them because it seems said wheels' purpose is to make a quick getaway when the ride kills a kid. # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
10:11 PM
And use them he did! His concert had more costume changes than a dozen drag queen shows. He did most of his oeuvre. My friend pointed out that not one song came from this millenium. We had half-hoped he'd do a polka medley of recent hits, figuring how hard is it to listen to the radio for an hour. None existed. The fans ate it up with three spoons. There's an interesting Rocky Horror aspect to the concert where fans knew to do certain things. For example, when Al jumped up and down in his fat suit (for the song "Fat"), the audience would bounce in their seats as if a result of various Newtonian laws. Also at the Fair that night were Heart and Dr Demento. Were it 1985 (with me at then age 13), it would have been a perfect evening. # | | Sunday, July 28, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
10:49 AM
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10:10 AM
# | | Thursday, July 25, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
11:06 PM
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Posted by Daniel Frank at
11:04 PM
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Posted by Daniel Frank at
10:01 PM
I would suggest to Max that L.I.E. isn't as prominent a movie as Tadpole is (or at least doesn't feature three celebrities and didn't get as much press as this flick is). Also all Lolita proves is that any film with the man as a predator (hetero- or homosexual) in pedophilia would raise a stink, meaning there's a sexist double-standard as well as a heterosexist one. I would also argue that this poster of two adult women nuzzling a 15-year-old would not be OK if it were about homosexuals. Also as for the review Sullivan complains about , I put it to you that some fuss would be raised if a review of a hypothetical homosexual movie said "Hey, what fifteen-year-old doesn't want to get boned by a hot guy?" # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
9:45 PM
Possibly the reason I chose that age was for the longest time, Superman was 29. Technically, he was 129 years old as his rocketship made a side trip to another dimension before landing on Earth as we learned in Action #370 (and only twenty-five issues after Superman was unmasked on Candid Camera). # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
9:17 PM
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9:13 PM
# | | Wednesday, July 24, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
2:54 PM
# | | Sunday, July 21, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
4:36 PM
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Posted by Daniel Frank at
4:27 PM
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Posted by Daniel Frank at
11:52 AM
Like, the article, I too endorse the service or product of Turner Classic Movies. During the colorization controversy, who'd have thought a network with Turners would be the best venue for old movies. # | | Saturday, July 20, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
4:01 PM
# | | Friday, July 19, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
10:51 PM
When you and I were kids, the average TV comedy was about a witch, or a Martian, or a goofy frontier fort, or a comical Nazi prisoner-of-war camp. That was the mainstream. Now the average comedy is about a bunch of people who hang around in some generic urban setting having conversations and sniping at each other. I remember watching, in the sixties, an episode of 'Get Smart' in which some angry Indians were aiming a sixty-foot arrow at Washington, and Max said something like 'That's the second-biggest arrow I've ever seen,' and I thought, Oh, great, shows are just going to keep getting nuttier and nuttier. I never dreamed that television comedy would turn in such a dreary direction, so that all you would see is people in living rooms putting each other down.However flawed Baby Bob(#14 on the list) is, at least you can't say "Oh, Jesus, not another damn talking baby show." # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
10:32 PM
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Posted by Daniel Frank at
10:19 PM
A show I was surprised to be unaware of was Alexander the Great, a failed 1964 pilot starring William Shatner and Adam West, aired in 1968 when both stars had become famous. It's probably a good thing that it didn't make it to series as I can't imagine any scenery was left what with it all being chewed up. I wonder who was the first one to say "I can't work with that ham!" # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
9:57 PM
# | | Wednesday, July 17, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
4:29 PM
Now if Blogger would just fix their damn archiving problems. # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
1:17 PM
So the Ted Danson factor explains why some actors and actresses are popular on the TV but not in film. Like, say, David Caruso. # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
1:09 PM
# | | Tuesday, July 16, 2002
Monday, July 15, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
9:25 PM
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Posted by Daniel Frank at
9:17 PM
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Posted by Daniel Frank at
9:16 PM
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Posted by Daniel Frank at
4:21 PM
Get Smart's treatment of Hymie was remarkably more sophisticated than Star Trek's treatment of Data, Turing-Test-wise. I don't know if Hymie would blow up if given Kirk's "I am lying now" paradox. And here's the listing of VICI from Small Wonders in the list o' TV robots. # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
8:48 AM
# | | Sunday, July 14, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
7:31 PM
In the essay before that one, Harlan reviews What's It All About, World?, a right-wing Laugh-In which sounds worse than Turn-On. UPDATE: Mark Evanier says the same thing about Turn-On here and tells the story about how Pink Lady and Jeff is not the official title of the show. # | | Saturday, July 13, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
6:08 PM
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Posted by Daniel Frank at
5:59 PM
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Posted by Daniel Frank at
1:31 PM
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Posted by Daniel Frank at
1:10 PM
How the hell did Small Wonder not make this list? Jerry Springer has no delusions about his show. I'm told a story that when he was guest-starring on a sitcom, a producer told him that he was a huge fan of the show. Springer replied "Are you insane?" I've seen both episodes of You're in the Picture, the game show so bad that in episode 2 host Jackie Gleason spent the entire half-hour apologized for the previous week's episode. The premiere is as horrible as advertised and the apology is as hilarious as advertised. Turn-On is the show that was cancelled mid-first-episode in some markets. JumpttheShark has memories of some people who've seen this show. Mark Evanier wrote for Pink Lady...and Jeff. The Brady Bunch Hour made the list but The Bradys, the 1990 Brady Bunch drama, didn't? # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
12:58 PM
# | | Thursday, July 11, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
6:28 PM
I am diligently searcing for a picture on the web of this painting. I'll try a mess o' search variations on google. This I swear! # | | Wednesday, July 10, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
10:23 PM
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10:22 PM
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Posted by Daniel Frank at
10:19 PM
# | | Tuesday, July 09, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
11:15 AM
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12:12 AM
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Posted by Daniel Frank at
12:10 AM
"I hear there's a happening shindig over at Murray Langdon's tonight." # | | Monday, July 08, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
11:55 PM
I also saw Men in Black II or MIIB as I like to call it. It's one of those movies that you kind of enjoy while in the theater but can't remember a single detail of after you leave. Not an unpleasant way to kill the two hours I needed to kill between one friend's yard sale and another's BBQ. # | | Sunday, July 07, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
9:35 PM
# | | Saturday, July 06, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
5:04 PM
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Posted by Daniel Frank at
12:12 PM
UPDATE: Another Sherlock Holmes vs Nazis movie. # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
12:06 PM
Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman illustrates a principle I have about some old horror movies. We're told that unlike today's horror flicks with their blood and guts that what's scary about the old horror movies is what they don't show you. What Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman didn't show me was movie-making skills. Or Frankenstein meeting the Wolf Man. What ever you think of the old Marvel Comics cliche of heros-have-misunderstanding-heros-fight-heros-team-up-to-fight-evil, you have to give Marvel credit about one thing: If a cover showed the Hulk fighting the Thing, by golly, you were going to get the Hulk fighting the Thing. # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
11:57 AM
1) Tuesday July 9th 8:00 AM EST Christmas in July directed by the great Preston Sturges. (Here I review two of his greatest movies.) 2) Wednesday July 10th 1:36 AM EST Bob Odenkirk and David Cross are on the Carson Daly Show. I hear when Sarah Silverman was on his show, he'd asked several times "Are you doing a joke?" so it should be fun to watch at that level as well. 3) Saturday July 13th 4:50 AM EST (or 11:59PM EST) House of Frankenstein. I have not seen this movie but it features Frankenstein's monster, Dracula and the Wolf Man plus Boris Karloff as a mad scientist. How bad can it be? # | |
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11:17 AM
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11:14 AM
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11:11 AM
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Posted by Daniel Frank at
2:23 AM
I am almost the polar opposite of a fan of Robin Williams but I think his portrayal of Popeye was under-rated. It was certainly a lot closer to the great old Popeye cartoons than anything else Popeye-related, like say The All-New Popeye Hour. # | | Friday, July 05, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
12:27 PM
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Posted by Daniel Frank at
12:19 PM
I was inspired to look as a friend of mine had a few issues at a yard sale of his. I immediately cell-phoned another friend of mine, asking if he wanted me to snag them for him. He said yes even though we agreed that the asked-for price of a dollar-per-issue was a Bummer. ("Don't you hate when your friend charges you a dollar-per-issue for old Dynamites?" with accompanying picture of friend #1 holding a burlap sack of money and friend #2 with out-turned empty pockets.) One of the issues I bought assured me that "Bob Heyges is a Real Person!" Meanwhile I now want the Logan's Run issue. UPDATE: I am unable to find any fan-site for Bananas, other than 500 sites that tell me that RL Stine used to write for them. Damn you, Internet! # | | Monday, July 01, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
9:55 PM
You can get away with that sort of stuff for Spider-man or Batman or even Scooby Doo since the public is familiar with them. But clearly this isn't the case with Daredevil. That's why they cast Ben Affleck. The movie wouldn't have been made if he or someone of his fame level wasn't interested. Linking this to the item below, I'm waiting for the attack that they made Kingpin a black man (While I was initially skeptical, I can't honestly think of another actor with the same imposing physical presence that's needed for the Kingpin.) # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
9:40 PM
Occassionally I wonder if maybe the reason for the small amount of racial diversity in TV and movies is that it's sometimes not worth the aggravation. The Cosby Show was attacked because its upper-middle-class African-American family was unrealistic. The PJs was attacked because portraying African-Americans in a ghetto was stereotypical. I remember Ally McBeal being attacked because an interracial relationship on the show didn't make race an issue. And then there was The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer, a BlackAdder knockoff, which was decried as racist even though the black guy was the only smart person on the show. # | |
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