Archive for the ‘TV’ Category

Scrape them off, Jim.

Thursday, March 29th, 2012

Apparently, the great science fiction author Norman Spinrad wrote a script for “Star Trek: Original Recipe” that never got used. The script resurfaced a few months ago, and Spinrad began selling copies of it online. He also made arrangements with the “Star Trek New Voyages: Phase II” folks to do an adaptation of it.

At least, all this was going to happen until CBS put the kibosh on it.

Question: the Onion A/V Club describes the script as being about “the Enterprise crew’s encounter with a self-proclaimed messiah”. So how, exactly, does this differ from…well, pretty much every “Star Trek” episode written by Gene Roddenberry? Not to mention “Star Trek V”.

(Feel free to post in the comments and tell me I’m wrong. Especially you, A.T. After all, my hatred for “Star Trek” is a well known fact. But I think it is also a pretty well known fact, pointed out by notables such as Harlan Ellison, that “the Enterprise meets God” was a recurring obsession of Roddenberry’s.)

Maybe I should change the name of this blog to “Random Crap Clearinghouse”.

Tuesday, March 6th, 2012

Mike the Musicologist and I were exchanging emails last night about Highlight, the latest “social” application

designed to help you connect with people you don’t know just yet: your Facebook friends of friends.

I observed at the time that what used to be considered creepy stalkerish behavior now had an app for it, and that there was probably a blog post in that. It turns out that, yes, there was a blog post in that – and Tam beat me to it. (Stupid Capstone class. Grumble. Grumble.)

It has been one year since Prakashanand Saraswati disappeared, ahead of his sentencing on charges of indecency with a minor. How close are we to catching him? It looks like law enforcement thinks he’s in Baja, and that he’s running out of funds. Plus, we’re talking about an 82-year-old guy in a wheelchair…

The NYT reports from Whiteclay, Nebraska. You may remember Whiteclay as the wide spot in the road near the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation where beer is sold, leading the Oglala Sioux tribe to file a lawsuit against various parties (including the Whiteclay stores and several brewing companies).

At some point, I need to write a longer and more thoughtful post about this issue. I can almost understand what the goals of the Sioux are, given how hard the reservation has been hit by drinking. At the same time, the Libertarian side of me says “Look, this paternalistic, Prohibition-driven approach to the problem clearly is not working. Maybe you need to find another approach.”

(And I wonder: if the Whiteclay stores stop selling beer, how long will it be before folks start brewing their own beer on the reservation? I’d be shocked to find out it isn’t happening already.)

Edited to add: Oops. Forgot something. “Terra Nova” is dead, and I’m delighted. But what will TMQ have to kick around next season?

Skippy the Therapy Kangaroo.

Wednesday, February 29th, 2012

This one goes out to Mike the Musicologist, who was a big fan of Skippy when he was younger.

So there’s a family in the Spring area (near Houston) that has a special needs child. (According to the press coverage, the child is 16 years old; the nature of her special needs is unspecified.)

In order to assist the child, the family got a service animal for her.

A service kangaroo.

And now the family’s HOA wants the kangaroo gone, asserting it is “not a household pet.”

I have a hard time deciding who to side with here. I don’t have a high opinion of most HOAs, but I figure they’re a choice you make when you buy a home. However, I question whether this is an enforceable requirement; what defines a “household pet”, and does Federal law trump the HOA restrictions when it comes to “service animals”?

On the other hand, getting your special needs child a vicious Australian animal (yes, I realize “vicious Australian animal” is redundant) as a “service animal” doesn’t exactly strike me as being the smartest thing in the world, either.

(Here’s the opening of “Skippy the Bush Kangaroo”. Apparently, you can get the first season on DVD, at least in some parts of the world.)

Edited to add: Actually, you can get the entire series on DVD, but it won’t do you much good unless you live in Australia or have a region-free DVD player.

Roland the Headless CNN Correspondant.

Wednesday, February 8th, 2012

CNN is suspending political analyst Roland Martin for tweets during the Super Bowl that the network said were “offensive” and that some critics said were anti-gay.

Actually, I don’t care that much about Roland Martin, CNN, or Twitter. But I couldn’t pass up a chance to make a reference to my own personal favorite Warren Zevon song. As a matter of fact, why don’t we listen to it now?

TMQ watch: February 7, 2012.

Tuesday, February 7th, 2012

Good news, everyone!

I’ve come up with a way for you to hear these columns in Professor Farnsworth’s voice!

Also, it turns out that this is the last TMQ of the season! Yes, no bad predictions review this year: just the Super Bowl column and then silence until draft time.

After the jump…

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Obit watch and more randomness for February 3, 2012.

Saturday, February 4th, 2012

Obit watch: prominent spy novelist Dorothy Gilman.

Ben Gazzara. I’m glad to see “Run For Your Life” get some mention in his obit; that’s another series RTN was re-running, and that I wish someone would bring out a full DVD set of. (And I’d also like to see “Anatomy of a Murder” sometime; I’ve read the book, but haven’t seen the movie.)

Hey, how about that lengthy Federal investigation into Lance Armstrong’s alleged doping? The Feds took their best shot…and turned up nothing. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the guy has been tested so often that either he’s telling the truth and is totally clean, or his doping technologists are not only ahead of the curve, you can’t even see the curve from where they are.

Finally, I wanted to make note of a developing local story. Early Friday morning, a guy wrecked his car near a railroad crossing in the Avery Ranch area of Northwest Austin. The guy walked away from the wreck. A little while later, the wife of a homeowner in the area heard voices outside and saw a man (the same guy) lying under her car. Her husband went out to investigate, and apparently attempted to hold the man at gunpoint. The homeowner ended up shooting the intruder three times, killing him.

And the homeowner has now been charged with murder.

The case is now in the hands of a Williamson County grand jury and the district attorney’s office, which will investigate the shooting and to what extent homeowners can defend their property with deadly force, said District Attorney John Bradley.
A grand jury is expected to hear the case in the next three months, he said. It will address the recent “castle doctrine” law justifying certain cases of deadly force to protect one’s property, Bradley said.

There are too many unknowns in the current press coverage to make me feel comfortable passing judgment in this case. I know the article quotes the homeowner as saying, “If you flee, I’m going to shoot you,” and then firing on the intruder as he tried to flee. But we don’t know what else the intruder did at this point; did he display a weapon? Was there a disparity of force involved (23 year old intruder, 47 year old homeowner)?

I think there is one thing we can say for sure:

Yazdi remained jailed late Friday in Williamson County on the murder charge and was held on $250,000 bail, jail records show.

Use your gun defensively, and even if it is a good shoot, your life is going to change; probably not for the better. Commvault Bryan and I were talking the other day about having an attorney on “retainer” and the various groups that offer that service for a small monthly fee; I need to get with Karl and get the name of the organization he recommends.

Apropos of events earlier today…

Saturday, January 28th, 2012

…I was not aware of the existence of “The Infosphere“, aka “The Futurama Wiki”.

Here’s the link to “A Head In The Polls“.

And I still think “All hail the happy couple. May death come quickly to their enemies” would be an awesome wedding toast.

Random notes: January 27, 2012.

Friday, January 27th, 2012

How stupid do you have to be to test positive for five banned substances?

“I’ve never seen a case like this, and we’re talking about 30 years I’ve been doing this kind of work,” said Don Catlin, an antidoping expert and former director of the U.C.L.A. Olympic Analytical Laboratory. “I’ve had doublets and triplets, but to have five, and have it cover three different subclasses of drugs, is unique, as far as I can tell.”

Obit watch: Robert Hegyes, best known as Juan Epstein on “Welcome Back, Kotter”. (FARK already did the “Epstein’s Mother” joke so I don’t have to.)

Obit watch: The final countdown…

Wednesday, January 25th, 2012

…for James Farentino.

I really wish someone would put “The Bold Ones” (or even the individual “wheels” within the series, such as Farentino and Ives’s “The Lawyers”) out on DVD. From what I saw back when I could get RTN, that was actually a pretty good series.

This obit watch does not compute. Warning! Warning!

Tuesday, January 24th, 2012

The Onion A/V Club is reporting the death of Dick Tufeld, noted television announcer and voice actor, perhaps most famous as the voice of “Lost in Space”‘s Robot.

TMQ watch: January 3, 2012.

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012

The New Year has begun. Our grand vacation from daily cares is over. And once again, we go back to the TMQ well

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TMQ watch: December 27, 2011.

Wednesday, December 28th, 2011

We might as well get down to it. This week: the 2011 TMQ All-Unwanted All-Pros. After the jump…

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Obit watch: December 7, 2011.

Wednesday, December 7th, 2011

Harry Morgan. (Edited to add: LAT obit.)

Most of the obits I’ve seen so far reference his work on “M*A*S*H” right away, but I prefer to remember him in his other famous role.

Edited to add: As Lawrence points out in the comments, Morgan also had one heck of a film career. In that vein, I’d like to spotlight Sean O’Neal’s obit at the Onion A/V Club site.

I’ve noted that the A/V Club obits, especially those written by O’Neal, do a very good job of summarizing the accomplishments of the people they are eulogizing (especially older Hollywood figures) and explaining why their lives mattered, without snark.

Always be sure of your target and what is behind it.

Wednesday, December 7th, 2011

A reality television stunt that went awry sent a cannonball careening into a residential Dublin neighborhood late Tuesday afternoon, punching holes through the front door and a wall of a home and smashing a minivan’s window, but luckily leaving area residents unharmed.

Hmmmmm hmmmmm hmmmmm. A “reality television” show. I wonder what show that could be. Actually, I don’t wonder: I took a guess as soon as I saw the headline. Anyone want to play along? I’ll put this behind a jump…

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Obit watch: November 22, 2011.

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011

John Neville, perhaps best known as Baron Munchausen in Terry Gilliam’s underrated “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen”. (Or perhaps as “The Well-Manicured Man” on “The X-Files”.)