2010/09/03

Muppet Friday: Something Old, Something New, Something Drew

Just going to do a little bit of Muppet housekeeping and get out a couple overdue Kermit & Co related items as we head into the long weekend.

First, as widely reported last week (thanks, Yahoo! News), the original Kermit the Frog and some of Jim Henson’s other early creations have been donated to the Smithsonian, where they will sit alongside another more modern Kermit that has been on display for several years.  Many of the Muppets, including Kermit, are from Henson’s local DC television show Sam and Friends, which you may remember from “The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years” (because I certainly wasn’t around to see it when it originally aired in 1955). Scroll to about three minutes to see the Sam and Friends clips:

When there’s a crossover between two or more of our favorite things, like here, we like to think of it in terms of the intersection on a Venn diagram, where something awesome meets something equally awesome.  However, College Humor went ahead and took that idea a bit further, creating a Venn diagram by parsing out just one thing we love, that thing, of course being the Muppets.  Below, the Muppet Names Etymology:

I feel silly for never seeing this before.  And I have a human name.  So I guess I’d fall into the top left intersection.  Very illuminating.

Coming up next week: More Muppet news and/or links and/or old videos!

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Filed under Intersection of the venn diagram of things that I love, Muppets, Nostalgia Corner, Other people's stuff

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2010/09/03

Nostalgia Corner: Any Time I Hear The Words “Several Options” I Think Of This Sketch

Similar, and just as good:

Thank you, VHS copy of “SNL Goes Commercial” that my brother taped on off TV in 1991.

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Filed under Good Humor, Nostalgia Corner, Saturday Night Live

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2010/09/03

‘Delocated’: Another Best Show You’re Not Watching. Unless You Are. In Which Case Nevermind.

We talk a lot about the best show you’re not watching on this blog (Friday Night Lights, Community, Party Down before its unfortunate demise).  To that list we now proudly add Delocated.

If you’re a fan of Adult Swim you might have caught Delocated on a random night/morning around 1:45am.  The show was created by and stars Jon Glaser,  longtime NY comedian and former writer (and performer) on Late Night with Conan O’Brien.  If you’ve been around comedy in NY you probably know him, and if you own a TV you’ve probably seen him and not even known it, with appearances on 30 Rock, Human Giant, and Cheap Seats.  In his early days he was also a writer on The Dana Carvey Show, which was basically to up and coming comedians as The Outsiders was to young, hunky, male actors (The line-up included Carvey, Glaser, Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, Louis CK, Robert Smigel, Dave Chappelle and, curiously, Charlie Kaufman.  It was pretty much the ’27 Yankees of comedy).

The first season of Delocated comprised six 10-min episodes (and an amazing Paul Rudd cameo), and features Glaser as “Jon,” a member of the Witness Protection Program who agrees to move his family to NY and turn their life into a reality show, despite the fact that this requires wearing masks and using voice modulators.

The show also stars Eugene Mirman as Yvegni Mirminksy, an aspiring stand-up comedian who happens to also be a member of the Russian crime family that Jon ratted out.

The second season has been expanded to twelve 22-min episodes, and with the added length the show has broadened its scope, increased the violence, heightened the drama, and upped the absurdity.  It’s a dumb-smart, surreal, brilliant show, capable of silly comedy, and, as we find out in the season two premiere, silly drama.   It’s one of TV’s best kept secrets, but unlike “Jon’s” identity this is one secret that should be revealed to all.

Catch up on season one on the Adult Swim website, and then move right onto the new season (below!).  Also, catch new episodes Sundays at 10pm, just before Childrens Hospital (which, now that we mention it, is another best show you’re not watching).

Bonus features:

Jon Glaser on Jimmy Fallon last night!

Also, Jon Glaser reads letters from his deceased father, Dave Glaser, to his father’s former band mates ZZ Top.  One of the funniest things I have ever heard.

And finally, for extra credit check out the Delocated Blog and the PFFR website.

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Filed under Best Show You're Not Watching, Dillon Panthers, Good Humor

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2010/09/02

Looking Forward To “227 Day”

But that‘s still six months away.  Instead, the internet nearly imploded today with the commemoration of 09/02/10 AKA “Beverly Hills 90210 Day,” which, to be fair, does only come around once a millennia.  So, for posterity’s sake, we thought we’d throw our hat in the ring with our all-time favorite 90210 moment:

If all goes to plan I will do this someday.

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Filed under Interweb, Nostalgia Corner

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2010/09/01

Not Very Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Random, Belated, Emmy Thoughts

The Emmy’s were handed out three nights ago, and in the internet world that’s about the equivalent of a fortnight, and everyone who can say it better than me has already said it better than me.  But, just to put it on the permanent record, and to get us ready for the impending fall TV season, we thought we’d follow-up with a few humble thoughts of our own, in concise bullet-point form:

  • Loved the opening bit, even if it was somewhat of a rehash of 6-Bee‘s glee club rendition of “We’re Not Going to Take It,” a performance that we still giddily cue up on our screen on a regular basis (as well as an audio version on our iPod).  But with Tina Fey, Jon Hamm, Joel McHale, Jorge Garcia AND Tim Gunn it was like the Ocean’s 11 all-star version of the original Late Night piece, and it truly demanded some freak out control.  Our worlds colliding, but in an amazing way.

  • Speaking of Jon Hamm, now that his comedic genius has finally been exposed to a wide audience (30 Rock is still critically adored but commercially ignored, his appearances in viral videos only legitimately reach a small segment of the online viewing public, and even two turns hosting SNL don’t necessarily make you a household name these days), can we start having him be funny full-time?  He’s so gifted, and so natural, it honestly feels like a waste forcing him to be so stoic and dour and cold on Mad Men (and we know we sound like a broken record on this, but we’re going to keep bring it up until it happens.  Or until Mad Men becomes a farcical satire.  Maybe in season 5).  Sure, he’s magnetic, sexy and mysterious on the AMC drama, but it’s when he’s allowed to do comedy that he truly lights up.  But after being seen dancing like an idiot on HDTVs all across the country maybe someone will give him a chance to headline a comedy.  Perhaps something in the Apatowian genre.  I think that’s a hit.

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Filed under Analysis, Century 21 Reality, Dillon Panthers, Freak Out Control, Intersection of the venn diagram of things that I love, LOST, Must See TV, Participation Award, Saturday Night Live, Top Scallop

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2010/08/31

What About That One Episode Of ‘Veronica Mars’, TMZ?

Today in their “Where are they now?” posting, TMZ featured Rider Strong, AKA Boy Meet’s World‘s resident bad boy/sensitive poet Shawn Hunter.  However, we take an exception to their ostensibly derogatory summary of his post-World career, as they write:

In 2004, Rider graduated magna cum laude from Columbia University.

In 2009, Strong appeared in one episode of “Castle.”

That feels like a dig to me, no?  How does it feel to you?

I think we all remember his role in the season 3 episode of Veronica Mars “My Big Fat Greek Rush Week” as Wallace & Logan’s classmate and fellow participant in the Stanford prison experiment.  Strong, you may recall, played a guard in the exercise who bullied concurrent guest star and captive Samm Levine into pissing his pants (it was quite the guest star-studded episode, as Dan Castellaneta, the voice of Homer Simpson, appears as the professor conducting the experiment.  What Veronica was doing this whole time I don’t recall).

So to say that in the intervening years since the end of Boy Meets World that Strong has only gone to college and appeared on one episode of a somewhat popular ABC show is unfair, and plain wrong.  And, in addition to his spot on Veronica Mars, he also keeps up a pretty strong twitter presence.

We’re kidding here, of course.  But Strong, according to his twitter, has been working on his own films and even doing some theater.  And, more importantly, one time about 6 years ago we ran into him on the N train.  And he was gracious and kind, even as we completely geeked out, and no doubt made him feel uncomfortable from across the train car.  He was the first (but not the last) cast member of Boy Meets World that we have had the good fortune to meet, and for that he’ll always have a place in our heart.

And that, TMZ, is the kind of fact you can’t find on IMDB.

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Filed under Discos and Dragons, Feeny, Freak Out Control, Interweb, Nostalgia Corner, VM

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2010/08/30

Now, Amazon, That’s Just Offensive

Of course I would be interested in A Short History of the Jews, right?

C’mon, Amazon, open your mind.  It’s the 2010s.

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Filed under Count Bleh, Interweb, Woody Allen, Bar Mitzvahs & Bagels

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2010/08/27

You Can Call Me Mr. The Boss

Ding!  Ding!  Let’s get it on! The qiuche is ready. Dance! And they’re off! Class is in session!

In one of our first blog posts, almost exactly a year ago, we touted with glee the announcement of a new A&E reality series featuring Tony “Tony” Danza, our favorite former boxer-actor-tap dancer-talk show host.  TV, and the world, had been without Danza for too long.  And after a long year of waiting, Teach Tony Danza is nearly here.  Behold!

I know it sounds crazy, but I actually think that Danza might prove himself to be a decent teacher, at least an eager, enthusiastic leader.  I know I should be completely cynical and jaded about this sort of thing by now, but I guess reality TV hasn’t totally broken my spirit just yet.  Help us Tony Danza, you’re our only hope.

And join in on the campaign to get Danza on Twitter! #TwitterDanza

No word yet if a Vincent Barbarino is enrolled at Philadelphia’s Northeast High School.

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Filed under Century 21 Reality, Who's the Boss?

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2010/08/26

In Memoriam: Will Forte (Sort Of)

Well, it’s the end of a weird, absurdist, hit-and-miss era, as Will Forte and SNL announced their amicable separation today, after 8 years of professional bliss and uneven comedy.

As for Will and this blog, it’s no secret that our relationship has not been so smooth.  We’ve often voiced our objection to some of the more outrageous, off the wall sketches that seemed to spring forth from the Forte womb, most often found in the 12:50am dead zone, or sometimes only in dress rehearsal (see: skeevy stalker Hamilton, the bizarre Falconer, and the lyrical stylings of Jackie Snad and Clancy Bachlerat, which literally consist of just random words thrown together in random orders).  In many cases we’d rather see Jason Sudeikis elevate a simple premise or a lame idea to something spectacular, rather than a Forte sketch that was just too far out there.

But, to his credit, Forte willingly flew too close to the sun.  Sure, he got burned a time or two (certainly in our eyes), but we have to respect his ambition.  And beyond the odd sketches and one-note “Weekend Update” characters, we have to begrudgingly admit that his MacGruber was often brilliant, and even more impressive, it never got old.  And while Forte’s George W Bush never managed to escape the shadow of the definitive Will Ferrell version, he really never had a shot, but he still soldiered on and made it work in its own way.  We can certainly salute him for that.

So, Will Forte, we’re going to miss you challenging us.  The show is going to be a little more dull without you (if that’s even possible.  Riiiiight???). We didn’t always like what you did, but we (usually) respected it.

In honor of Forte’s departure we’re going to leave you with what we consider his grand opus, a sketch from another planet; strange, baffling, completely dead in the water and with the impression that it was made on a dare, but, yet, oddly compelling.  Will Forte, for better or worse, this is your legacy:

(on another note, can you believe it’s already been a whole year since that whole uproar over the firing of Michaela Watkins and subsequent hiring of Jenny Slate and Nasim Pedrad?  Time sure flies when you’re occasionally offered sharp and/or funny sketch comedy).

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Filed under Bad Humor, Good Humor, In Memoriam, Saturday Night Live

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2010/08/26

And You Too, Netflix.

Gabriel Iglesias?  Really?

And my taste preferences created that row?  That’s disheartening.  I blame this guy.

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Filed under Count Bleh, Interweb, Wake Up, SF!

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