Monthly Archives: November 2010

2010/11/11 · 6:42 pm

Happy 41st (+ 1 Day) Birthday to Sesame Street!

We rarely miss a story here at Jumped The Snark.  But we dropped the ball yesterday, neglecting to acknowledge yesterday’s milestone 41st anniversary of Sesame Street.  Our bad.

So in (belated) honor of the day (which, if we’re not mistaken, is the felt anniversary) here’s one of our favorite Sesame Street clips:

And here’s a pumpkin we carved in homage to Ernie (unfortunately, we neglected to purchase black fabric to create appropriate tuft of black hair):

And we think this is a great excuse to, once again, post The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years, which, looking back, is probably what cemented our love for The Muppets.  It provided the necessary Muppet history in the same way that Saturday Night Live: 15th Anniversary Special was a spectacular primer for our nascent 7 year-old brain.  We were probably the only kid who listed his two favorite videos as the Muppets 30th anniversary special and 1986 Mets: A Year to Remember.

Congrats, Sesame Street!  See you in a year for your 42nd (+ 1 day) birthday! (the glitter anniversary, if we recall correctly)

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Filed under Lady Holiday, Matt Christopher Books, Nostalgia Corner, Saturday Night Live

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2010/11/11 · 5:39 pm

What Was ‘Perfect Strangers’ Trying to Tell Us About 9/11?

We were on Wikipedia this morning reading about old TGIF shows, as is our Thursday morning custom, and we were stunned to learn that the exterior Chicago shots in Perfect Strangers’ opening title sequence were shot on September 11, 1987.

Normally we might not think anything of this, but after reading this yesterday we’re not so sure.  If The Simpsons foretold the events 9/11 four years before they happened, could Perfect Strangers have been warning us fourteen years in advance?  What did they know??

Here’s the video in question:

And now think about the lyrics:

Standing tall, on the wings of my dream.
Rise and fall, on the wings of my dream.

Tall?  Fall?  Wings?  C’mon, guys, pretty prophetic stuff.

MIND. BLOWN.

In addition, the USA Network stopped rerunning the show in syndication as of September 11, 1998, eleven years after the opening sequence footage was shot.

BOOM.

Anyone know if Bronson Pinchot is in the Illuminati?

And that’s not all; Wikipedia also notes that Lost‘s Elizabeth Mitchell appeared in the pilot episode of the classic 1980s Nickelodeon show You Can’t Do That On Television.  However, the show originated out of Canada, while Mitchell was born in LA and grew up in Dallas.  EXPLAIN THAT ONE!  Another one of Lost‘s mysteries that will remain unresolved?  Or is it part of a greater conspiracy?

Think about it.

You’re welcome.

 

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2010/11/11 · 4:33 pm

Riding the Bus with Michael Scott: Brief Thoughts on Last Week’s ‘The Office’

Well the good vibes had to end at some point, and after a string of strong and then stronger episodes, that run ended rather abruptly with last week’s episode, “Christening.”  We actually don’t have too much to say about it, which is to expected since it aired a week ago, but also because it was a rather forgettable episode.

And it didn’t have to be, that’s what was so frustrating about it.
More: Michael and Andy drink the Kool-Aid, Jim and Pam drink NyQuil, and Toby gets hosed down with Holy Water

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Filed under Analysis, Bad Humor, Dunder Mifflin, this is Pam, Must See TV

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2010/11/10 · 7:58 pm

‘Survivor Nicaragua’: Very E-merge-ncy

(Nailed that title)

With the new episode just hours away, very quick thoughts on last week’s merge-centric episode of Survivor: Nicaragua:

  • We’re becoming very concerned that as the show continues we’re going to end up with the least likable players, as well as some of the weakest.  There turned out to be some dunderheads in All-Stars, but at least there were always some Survivors that we enjoyed watching.  If this season ends up being Brenda, Sash, NaOnka, Purple Kelly, we’re not sure how entertaining that’s going to be.
  • Speaking of NaOnka and terrible people, she threw a hissy fit and stole half of the supplies.  Like they wouldn’t notice.  And before that she did this:

Classy.

More: Fabio becomes the most desired male, Dan still exists and our A-B-C of the week…

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Filed under Analysis, Century 21 Reality, The Worst, Tribal Council, Yasmine Bleeth

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2010/11/10 · 6:41 pm

Meanwhile, Over On ‘Late Night’…

…Jimmy Fallon just keeps rolling along, delivering the best, most innovative comedy on the long side of midnight.  Adding to their already great pantheon of short videos, like “Late,” “6-bee” and “7th Floor West,” Late Night recently debuted the series “Suckers,” which simultaneously parodies/pays homage to Twilight, True Blood, Broadway and probably two or three other works that we missed (Vampire Diaries, maybe? Help us out).

Vodpod videos no longer available.

According to Bill Carter’s new book, The War for Late Night, when NBCU Chairman Jeff Gaspin phoned the Late Night brain trust – Lorne Michaels, Fallon, producer Michael Shoemaker – to inform them of the possibility of moving their show back 30 minutes to 1am, they acceded, with Shoemaker telling Gaspin “We love what we’re doing. Don’t worry about us.”  And that idea, that they love what they’re doing, is so obvious, and is also contagious.  Already somewhat left to their own devices at 12:30am, a move to 1am probably wouldn’t impact them that much, as long as they got to keep producing the same slick videos and playing the same silly audience games.  Whereas we argued in an earlier post that while Conan is changing the late night game by moving to basic cable, it’s Fallon who’s genuinely doing something different with his hour.  And for all the talk of the Team Coco and I’m with Coco web campaigns, it’s Fallon who has truly embraced new media (launching an online version of Late Night before debuting the broadcast show, hosting one of the best blogs on the net, as a couple of examples).  As he’s gone on record saying, Fallon doesn’t really care when his show airs, because his audience will find him on their DVRs or online.  Of course, if the product isn’t good, no one will watch, even if the show is readily available through several media outlets.  Luckily for Jimmy Fallon and Late Night, their product is real good.

And for more on the subject, you’d be a fool not to read this much more illuminating profile of Jimmy Fallon in this week’s New York Magazine.  He also graces the cover, adorably:

 

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Filed under Good Humor, Internet Killed the Print Media Star, Other people's stuff, Talkies

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2010/11/10 · 3:39 pm

‘Splash 2’: Tom Hanks on ‘Conan’

Is there a better guest, nay, a better person than Tom Hanks?  We think not.

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But what’s with Conan’s propensity for treating Hanks like he’s on a 1980s Nickelodeon show?  We guess Conan’s getting Hanks back for spurring the whole Coco phenomenon.  You should be thanking him, Coco!  Might have saved your career.

Guess they’ll have to come up with a new backdrop the next time Hanx comes around.

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2010/11/09 · 9:51 pm

‘Conan’ on TBS: Somewhat Funny, Very O’Brien

So it happened!  Conan O’Brien finally returned to TV, this time taking his talents to the basic cable shores of TBS.  The anticipation was palpable, and at 11pm EST Monday night we turned our TVs to see the redhead comedian’s triumphant, cathartic, possibly historic, debut.

And then at midnight, after Conan finished jamming with buddy Jack White, he signed off and George Lopez came on, an hour later than usual, but, with Daylight Saving time having just gone into effect, perhaps completely in line with our circadian rhythms.

And, well, the world had not changed.

Read on: The message or the medium, Andy shines and the Jewish elephant in the room…

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2010/11/09 · 8:10 pm

Danza Moments of the Week: Back in the Habit

A couple weeks back Tony Danza was nice enough to get into his time machine in order to perform a horribly outdated, rhythmless, patently offensive rap.  Apparently that went over so well that he decided to turn his standard birthday song into a hip hop ditty (for the principal!).

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No, no one is smiling.  And while she’s not wishing that you would disappear, she probably would have preferred it if you spared us all the minstrel show.

And it was a two-fer Friday night with two back-to-back episodes of Teach, so here’s a bonus moment of the week.  Somebody has a crush!

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BURNED, DANZA!!!!!  OUCH!  And Chloe adding insult to injury with that glasses crack, no less.  Nice work, kid (although, that doesn’t appear to be a regulation school uniform.  Guess it was casual Friday).

And in case you’re still skeptical out there:

But, as much as we’ve had our fun with Tony Danza, we have to admit that he really poured his heart into teaching these kids, and took the responsibility severely more personally than most teachers do (although, he’d probably get jaded too if he taught more than one class a day for more than one year).  He even volunteers to mentor a troubled teen delinquent who’s not even in Mr. Danza’s class.  Sometimes Danza takes the “he reminds me of me” thing a little too far (especially when he compares losing his father when he was thirty years-old to a kid being in jail while his mom died) , but he’s certainly willing to sacrifice his time and energy to help these kids.  He’s the boss.  So good for you Tony, just PLEASE stop rapping.

And apparently this was the season finale, which means the first season ended on a dark, pessimistic, almost The Wire-like note, as Tony struggles to get through to his students and questions his ability to do so, while his reclamation project may be heading to prison.  It certainly wasn’t the uplifting conclusion we expected.  Let’s hope that means it’s merely a cliffhanger to be revisited in season two (although the fact that they burned off two episodes in one night is not an encouraging).  But until we get that resolution, if we even do at all,  we’ll be worrying about the fate of Tony Danza, boxer, taxi driver, boss, tapper, teacher.  At least we know he’ll be breathing okay.

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

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2010/11/08 · 8:37 pm

‘Family Guy’ Curveball: Aren’t the Griffin’s Supposed to be Red Sox Fans?

Well, apparently Stewie is not a member of Red Sox nation, and is, like us, a long suffering Mets fan.  Or maybe that’s just the joke that came up on the idea balls.

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Tipped off by Joe & Evan

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2010/11/08 · 8:09 pm

The One in Which We Compare Conan O’Brien to Barack Obama

Sometime around the beginning of this year I pondered the similarities between Conan O’Brien and President Barack Obama (and teased an upcoming blog post on the subject via Twitter).  With Conan’s new show premiering on TBS tonight, following the Republican tidal wave that swept into congress last week, and in doing so affixing a bold question mark onto Obama’s presidency, it seems like there’s no better time to finally revisit the parallel.  This comparison is perhaps more relevant, and possibly more darkly prescient, than ever.

When Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008 a collective sigh of relief escaped young voters across the country.  Actually, it was less a sigh of relief and more of a giddy shout.  Hope had won out.  Yes we could.  We had a charismatic leader, the sexiest president since JFK, who was certain to reverse the damage done by eight years under George W. Bush’s tyrannical reign.  And just like how JFK utilized his good looks and immense charm to capture the nation’s heart in the first televised presidential debate, badly outshining a sweaty, swarthy Richard Nixon, Obama used new media, most notably the internet, in a way no President had before.  He was a star for sure, but in a way we had never seen.  He galvanized the young, tech savvy populace, the early adopters who proclaimed their support on their Facebook and MySpace pages.  MTV had been encouraging late teens and twenty-somethings to Rock the Vote for many years, but in that election we truly had a rock star to endorse.  We were fed up with the Bush regime, with Republican rule, and we were energized, we were motivated, and we had Barack Obama, the son of a Kenyan immigrant, as our shining ray of hope.  And in that time it was a symbiotic relationship.  Obama inspired the poor, the hungry, the unemployed and recent college graduate masses, and they banded together to have their voices heard, to provide Obama with the spirit and the mandate.  He gave us hope, and we gave him our vote.

And then on that Tuesday night in November our prayers were answered.  Celebrations erupted on the streets of Williamsburg, citizens went wild in Chicago, and Hawaii cheered their native son.  We had won.  We had our guy.  And he would lead us to the promised land.

Or would he? And what does all this have to do with Conan O’Brien. Grab a snack and read on.

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