 Rum-Based Observations
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Mar. 15th, 2007 @ 08:04 pm 
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The S.O. is out of town.
I've enjoyed enough rum (three kinds) to make nearly a pint.
Life is good.
Until morning.
Huh?
A while ago, I posted a vodka-enhanced entry here about music. Oddly, this rum-enhanced entry is about T.V.! And T.V. on cell phones. And cell phones. Heck, Rum is involved, who needs a topic?
I recently purchased the Time-Life boxed set of Get Smart. For about $150 or so, all episodes, remastered on DVD, some with commentary. I haven't listened to the commentary, or even made it through season 1 yet. But one thing amazes me... Barbara Feldon loses a bit in up-rez DVD. The colors, the texture, just weren't for the current technology. It's not just her, and she still is fantastic, but she's now human! Oh, the horror!
Of course, it also shares a problem with the HD versions of UFO and Buck Rogers: 25-35 years ago, you could make computers out of cardboard with lights under construction paper and get away with it. Today we can see the lineoleum tiles, the tape and, in the case of Hogan's Heros, the "safecracker" (Newkirk, played by Richard Dawson) reading the wrong numbers off on the dial, simply because they never thought we could see them at all!
The stripping of essential illusion brings up obliquely Battlestar Galactica. My "manager", who we mostly consider our umbrella from the sole higher rank (they're both great guys, but a bit prone to randomization, and not at all caught up in the heirarchal crap) was having a discussion with one of my "team" (a team of one currently; sometimes they get caught up with maintaining a structure where it's not really sensible. But at least they don't let it impede anything.) About Battlestar Galactical. Normally my posts would include lots of IMDB and other links, this one won't because hitting the correct keys is a challenge. Anyhow, my manager referred to "Starbuck" as "Kari". That is, technically, her name. "Kari Thrace" or something close to that. But, as I pointed out, in the original series (TOS for Star Trek fanatics), nobody would have ever referred to Dirk Benedict's character by a first name. I'm not even sure we knew it.
I don't enjoy the current BSG as much. It's too dark, too involving. I don't need to imagine war, persecution, horror; we have it already. I liked the escapism of the original. Okay, it's not Hamlet, but prety much everyone dies in Hamlet, no?
So my response was, "See, that's the difference. We would have never humanized Starbuck with a first name in the original series!". Somehow that failed to make the point I was after. At least they enjoyed a good laugh.
Another interesting observation about Get Smart on DVD. You can go back and verify the bloopers. E.g "Close your mouth and open your eyes and I'll give you a big surprise!" The intent was for her to close her eyes and open her mouth, and that's what she did. I guess they missed the blooper on what was otherwise their best take.
Cell phones: I mentioned them a bit ago. (Here. You might read faster than I tipsy-blog.) I bought a new one again recently, which will come as a significant shock to my wife since I haven't told her yet and she reads my blog. Such is life. A few entries ago I ranted about convergence. At the time you probably didn't realize there would be a test. So the cell phone is a Cingular/Motorola V3xx, basically another RAZR (replacing my V3 RAZR), but higher speed. I had wanted a more hard-core smart-phone, but I like the RAZR form-factor. Any how, I had to modify this pup, as I always do. Cingular cripples the Java, making it ask for permission with every internet access. To give you some context, that's 6 or so questions per page-load in Opera Mini and many many (more than 20) in Google Maps. Cingular is evil.
Cingular IS evil, but less incompetent than their U.S. competition. That's a rant for another time/drink. Anyhow, so I got this fancy cell phone with a dedicated television button. Seriously. And I figured my modifications would break it, which was fine with me. But my mods didn't break it and I've discovered that the Colbert (pronounced "cole-bear") Report clips on it are great! It's a nice way to break up the day.
I don't believe that we will completely grey the line between phone and entertainment device, but we could get closer; I said as much six weeks ago. And this won't replace my iPod, because I don't want my entire music (or podshow) library streamed from someone else's server. But it could add functionality to an otherwise now-mundane device.
In a month or two, WKRP In Cincinatti comes out on DVD. You'll read drunk-blogging about it here first! (I'm not really the "get drunk" type; maybe it's old comedy and music that does it? ) That's really the last of the great shows missing. I mean, other than Square Pegs and Holmes and Yo-Yo!
Since I'm on a role, here's a short-list of must-see throw-away comedies, in order of importance:
- WKRP - nothing like it since -
- Sledge Hammer - Get Smart done 80s style
- Hogan's Heros
- Cheers - but give it time to gel
- Night Court - watch season 1 for Ellen Foley, who was very spunky, and the rest for the show that was written with Harry Anderson and Markie Post, who was unavailable for Season 1. (Ellen Foley had a dreadful singing career too, one good song under her own name, but did stuff with Meatloaf too. Harry Anderson was on Cheers some also.)
- News Radio
- Police Squad (the precursor to the Naked Gun movies)
- Alf
- Sports Night (A Sorkin.)
- Square Pegs
- Married With Children - the most realistic TV family outside of the Simpsons.
- Welcome Back Kotter - didn't age well, but a cool show still.
- Greatest American Hero - a great cast in a real fish-out-of-water show
- Mork
- The Munsters. Okay, the Addams Family (same time) was a bit more original, but it wasn't as well written. Both rely on too many stock transition-cuts. But the Munsters movies weren't good, while the Addams Family ones were.
- Dobie Gillis. This is old, but a really neat gentle comedy. Has Bob Denver, who later became Gilligan in a comedy that isn't so great now.
- The Charmings - a very short-lived show about Prince Charming and Snow White, with associates, in the modern day world. Never given a chance, but it was enormously funny.
So what's not listed? Situation Comedies with painful situations or with too much relevance to the time. Like Brady Bunch, Partridge Family, Gilligan, Love Boat, Family Ties, Cosby Show, anything by Fox or Warner Brothers except listed above.
And no, I don't watch much T.V. But I do like escapism in the form of light-hearted fun. As opposed to horror or current Battlestar Galactica thriller-pain. The only network show we watch these days is... My Name Is Earl. |
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