‘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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Filed under Analysis, Good Humor, Interweb, Is That Still On?, Talkies

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A couple weeks back Tony Danza was nice enough to get into his time machine in order to perform a horribly outdated, rhythmless, patently offensive rap.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?

‘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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Filed under Good Humor, Marconi & Cheese, Matt Christopher Books

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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Filed under Analysis, Interweb, Local Flavor, Makes You Think, Talkies

Muppet Monday: The Muppets Break Their Personal Record For Two-Page Photo Speads in Entertainment Weekly in One Calendar Year

We assume.  Because for the second time in three issues Entertainment Weekly features a Muppet a full color Muppet photo across two pages.  The first appeared in the recent “Reunions” issue, a Muppet Show cast photo, and the new issue of the magazine offers the first glimpse of the gang (along with Jason Segel) in their upcoming return to the big screen, The Greatest Muppet Movie Ever Made.

(click to enlarge)

The image also presents our first look at Walter, a new tech-savvy, young Muppet who reportedly plays Segel’s roommate in the film.  He could also possibly be Guy Smiley’s illegitimate son.

One concerning omission in the photo: Pepe the Prawn is nowhere to be found.  He doesn’t appear in the first photo, but that was appropriate because he joined the Muppets many years after the Muppet Show (for the Muppet Show redux Muppets Tonight), but he’s arguably been the most popular Muppet of the past 10 years or so, and the only new Muppet since the Muppet Show to truly become a core member of the Muppet troupe.  It’s probably just an innocent mistake, but until we see another two-page spread in the Christmas issue, we’ll be holding our breath.

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Filed under Internet Killed the Print Media Star, Muppet Mondays, Muppets, Other people's stuff, The Big Screen

Did You Make Sure to Take Your Megadose of Riboflavin?

TIME TRAVEL!

Best hour of the year.

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Filed under Intersection of the venn diagram of things that I love, Krebstar, Lady Holiday, Snick

Parting Shot: Creating Life

At the production offices of The Empire Strikes Back.  Magic happens.

Ain’t It Cool

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Filed under Intersection of the venn diagram of things that I love, Muppets, Parting Shot

There are Few Greater Pleasures in Life Than Anderson Cooper Eviscerating a Terrible, Vapid, Parasitic Politician

The guy’s been on a roll recently.

And then he can co-host Live! with Kelly Ripa and be somehow simultaneously delightful and curmudgeonly.

 

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Filed under Count Bleh, Mancrush, Reeeeeege

Scott Wolf is Benjamin Button

Because the dude looks like he’s aging in reverse. Exhibit A: Wolf’s recent brilliant cameo on Delocated:

 
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Exhibit B: The rest of his brilliant turn on Delocated:

 
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Okay, well, maybe he’s not aging in reverse, but just not aging.   Exhibit C: his brilliant performance in the behind the scenes footage of Charlie Chaplin’s The Circus:

(that’s him, right?)

And you should just go ahead and watch his entire episode of Delocated, “RV B&B,” THIS MINUTE on adultswim.com.

AND catch the season finale of Delocated tonight at midnight!  Because if you don’t, then you’ll be TOTALLY lost come season three.

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Filed under Best Show You're Not Watching, Conspiracy Theory, Good Humor, Makes You Think

The Real Women of SNL: They are Fambily; Plus: a Totally Unnecesary Look Back at the History of Female Not Yet Ready for Primetime Players

Well, despite our reminder to you last week, we eagerly arrived home on Monday night only to be severely disappointed when we realized that we had neglected to set our DVR to record the Women of SNL special.  We had been looking forward to it ever since Jon Hamm delivered his goodbyes the day before, but the thought never occurred to us that our SNL season pass would not apply to the female-centric primetime special.  OUR BAD.

To add to our dismay, neither NBC.com nor Hulu is hosting the full special.  However, it appears that the only original material included a few one-on-one interviews and this excellent take on the Real Housewives (we’re going to go ahead and say they’re primarily targeting RH of NJ over the other installments, with Amy Poehler, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Laraine Newman channeling the nascent RH of Beverly Hills via satellite).

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Read on: We speculate on what was in the special and then give an SNL history lesson. Get out your notebooks!

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Filed under Analysis, Good Humor, Lists, Saturday Night Live, Yasmine Bleeth, Yvonne Hudson