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Random TV shows/thoughts that don’t warrant their own thread.


GoPokes83

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I’m giving Night Court one more chance tonight. I see American Auto is following it. I saw it was on last year but at a glance it didn’t look like something I’d be interested in. If it’s been around at least two seasons it must be somewhat popular with some demographic. Anyone watch it? What’s it about and is it any good?

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I walk in on my wife watching this show The Good Fight and on the TV is an old Fischer Stevens. And I say "that guy was in Short Circuit"! 

Wife has no idea what Short Circuit is cause she's a bit younger so I pull up the trailer to show her. I'm shocked to find out that the lead actor was Steve Guttenberg. I could've sworn the lead was Fischer Stevens.

It's my contention that no one ever remembers Steve Guttenberg in his movies. He's like the most forgettable human ever.

Edited by ajax
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I tried to find the Cheaters episode with the superfan on the bus who stops the scene they are staging/shooting and yells "you got caught on cheetahs". But I could not find the video.

They showed the one a few days ago where the cheater stabbed Joey greco on a boat on a local Dallas lake.
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17 hours ago, ajax said:

I walk in on my wife watching this show The Good Fight and on the TV is an old Fischer Stevens. And I say "that guy was in Short Circuit"! 

Wife has no idea what Short Circuit is cause she's a bit younger so I pull up the trailer to show her. I'm shocked to find out that the lead actor was Steve Guttenberg. I could've sworn the lead was Fischer Stevens.

It's my contention that no one ever remembers Steve Guttenberg in his movies. He's like the most forgettable human ever.

mp,504x498,matte,f8f8f8,t-pad,600x600,f8f8f8.u3.jpg

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On 2/8/2023 at 7:53 PM, ajax said:

I walk in on my wife watching this show The Good Fight and on the TV is an old Fischer Stevens. And I say "that guy was in Short Circuit"! 

Wife has no idea what Short Circuit is cause she's a bit younger so I pull up the trailer to show her. I'm shocked to find out that the lead actor was Steve Guttenberg. I could've sworn the lead was Fischer Stevens.

It's my contention that no one ever remembers Steve Guttenberg in his movies. He's like the most forgettable human ever.

No clue how I remember this, but back the late 80's there was a radio station doing a question contest to win some Blockbuster rentals and free Subway and the question was who was the actor who had been in the biggest movie money makers in the past 5 years. No one got it right.  Fucking Steve Guttenberg was the answer. 

Apologies if they were wrong or I was stoned. 

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On 1/6/2023 at 7:41 PM, Underdog said:

This country could use a return of good variety shows the likes of Carol Burnet, Sonny and Cher, Donny and Marie, Shields and Yarnell. 

(Burnett with a second 't')

I love her sketches with guest stars and supporting cast. Tim Conway was gold. I watch them on YouTube whenever I need a laugh.

On 1/29/2023 at 8:45 PM, austingirl said:

Just finished Fleishman is in Trouble, a limited series streaming on Hulu. It was mostly funny, but as someone who had severe PPD, I had a very visceral reaction to episode 9 (Me Time) and, to a slightly lesser extent, the last episode. It has a great cast - Lizzy Caplan, Claire Danes, and Jesse Eisenberg, to name a few.

We haven't gotten Hulu, but we have thought about it and this show would be on our list, along with Under The Banner of Heaven (big Garfield fan, too. That actor is so talented) . I am an Eisenberg fan for his work (brilliant in The Social Network) but also his commitment to the Child Mind Institute--he has OCD and has been a spokesperson for mental health (along with his Zombieland costar Emma Stone) and give major points for that.

 

I would watch an hour of nothing but Timothee Chalamet Apple TV commercials. Not even my type, but I could change my type I think....yes I think I could...

 

Edited by Mrs Whiggins
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I remember back when I was a kid on Super Bowl weekend, ESPN would run a marathon of all the NFL Films Super Bowl episodes in order (30 min each).  I haven't seen that in years.   Anyone know if those available to stream anywhere?  Not having any luck finding. Would be good background TV this weekend.   If not available that seems like a total waste of valuable content.

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On 1/29/2023 at 8:45 PM, austingirl said:

Just finished Fleishman is in Trouble, a limited series streaming on Hulu. It was mostly funny, but as someone who had severe PPD, I had a very visceral reaction to episode 9 (Me Time) and, to a slightly lesser extent, the last episode. It has a great cast - Lizzy Caplan, Claire Danes, and Jesse Eisenberg, to name a few.

Awesome show. Loved it. 

Loved it so much that I checked out the book... but couldn't finish it. It's EXACTLY like the show, as in some dialogue is word for word. I was expecting it to be noticeably different. Instead, it was like reading the script for the show I just watched.

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I don't really watch late night television anymore. When NBC had its feud with Conan on the Tonight Show I turned it all off and never looked back. But I do find late night ratings somewhat interesting and what I've read is nuts. Not only is the Tonight Show getting crushed in the ratings but the top spot seems to go back and forth between the Late Show with Stephen Colbert and a talk show on Fox News hosted by Greg Gutfeld. ~10 years ago when Conan got the boot and signed a deal with TBS it was pretty much a done deal that he'd be the king of cable late night but would still lose to Fox, ABC, and CBS in the ratings. A cable talk show not only cracking the top 3 but being competitive for the top spot is totally wild.

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We don't watch much either but when we do (talk shows), it's usually Graham Norton (once a week during the season) or Jimmy Fallon/James Corden. The latter two vary on content quality, but they usually get their guests to relax and talk a bit more off the cuff (which is what we enjoy about Norton's show, which in his case the liquor available to guests is likely an assist.) Once Corden was a guest on Graham Norton's show, and Jessica Biel was there for a movie promotion (Total Recall maybe?). They start talking about Mickey Rourke being drunk and hitting on Biel the last time she had appeared on Norton's show. It led to a pretty funny exchange between Biel and Corden  and the comic who was also present on the red couch. I'll see if I can find the clip or a part of it....ok, found one with part of the episode--the full show that night was pretty good and we still laugh about it.

 

 

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Occasionally, if nothing else is going on, I’ll tune into an old episode of Wonder Woman on a Saturday morning. Sometimes I’ll even pay attention, but usually it’s just to catch a glimpse of Lynda Carter in her outfit. And as cheesy as it is, the theme song isn’t bad.

This morning I checked the guide and saw that today’s episode was S01,E05 Pt. 1, Feminum Mystique, and introduced Debra Winger as Wonder Woman’s little sister Drusilla. During the opening credits I saw that Carolyn Jones, aka Morticia Addams, was also a guest star. She was playing Diana and little sister Drusilla’s mom Hippolyta, the queen of Paradise Island.

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Oh, I’m so in. That series got super cheesy later on but at least in the first season they were still fighting Nazis during WWII.

Anyway, I checked IMDb and this was just the second thing Debra Winger had ever done. It came out in November of ‘76. Her first on screen performance was a role in Slumber Party, a teeny bopper sex romp that came out 2 months earlier. Winger has a topless scene in it if you’re inclined to Google that sort of thing.

So Drusilla was sent by Hippolyta to bring Wonder Woman back to Paradise Island because she’d been gone so long. Diana explained to her how the Nazis were a threat to Paradise Island too and why it was important that they be stopped.

At one point, Drusilla remembered when their mom showed Diana how to spin and turn into Wonder Woman. So magically she could spin and turn into Wonder Girl.

That’s where the first episode ends. Now we’ll just have to wait and see if I remember and have time and interest to see how Wonder Woman and Wonder Girl defeat the Nazis and save Paradise Island next week.

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I remember back when I was a kid on Super Bowl weekend, ESPN would run a marathon of all the NFL Films Super Bowl episodes in order (30 min each).  I haven't seen that in years.   Anyone know if those available to stream anywhere?  Not having any luck finding. Would be good background TV this weekend.   If not available that seems like a total waste of valuable content.

You missed it. NFL Network does it these days. It was last week. It will be there next year like every year.
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6 hours ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

We don't watch much either but when we do (talk shows), it's usually Graham Norton (once a week during the season) or Jimmy Fallon/James Corden. The latter two vary on content quality, but they usually get their guests to relax and talk a bit more off the cuff (which is what we enjoy about Norton's show, which in his case the liquor available to guests is likely an assist.) Once Corden was a guest on Graham Norton's show, and Jessica Biel was there for a movie promotion (Total Recall maybe?). They start talking about Mickey Rourke being drunk and hitting on Biel the last time she had appeared on Norton's show. It led to a pretty funny exchange between Biel and Corden  and the comic who was also present on the red couch. I'll see if I can find the clip or a part of it....ok, found one with part of the episode--the full show that night was pretty good and we still laugh about it.

 

I don't watch late night either, but old episodes of Dick Cavett come on one of the OTA channels, and man they are interesting. I don't care about a celeb giving the same rehashed story in PR speak. Dick Cavett I found very interesting as the interviews were more in-depth.
 

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56 minutes ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

I don't watch late night either, but old episodes of Dick Cavett come on one of the OTA channels, and man they are interesting. I don't care about a celeb giving the same rehashed story in PR speak. Dick Cavett I found very interesting as the interviews were more in-depth.
 

I agree (re: PR speak). Although, if I can catch a promo appearance then I can usually ditch all the others because they do repeat themselves due to their handlers or whatever that job  title is. Ryan Reynolds often goes off script but most of them stick to the material they've been given. I'll have to look for the Cavett show because those in depth discussions can be great. There are one or two outlets, Variety may be one or Hollywood Reporter, Vanity Fair, GQ, etc that do roundtable discussions on YouTube that I've seen and enjoyed. Michael Keaten was in one (I cannot recall the moderator's name but he was a bit of an ass sometimes) along with Channing Tatum, and maybe Ethan Hawke, and a couple of other actors and that was interesting. I'd like to see that with people other than actors/actresses i.e. the nonHollywood crowd but it doesn't seem to be a thing so much anymore? I watch those I mentioned when I'm waiting somewhere with my earbuds available and don't feel like reading.

 

With respect to the crime shows asked about earlier, there is a trilogy out of Britain called Red Riding that came out about a decade or so ago. It has Sean Bean (sp?) and I like watching him inhabit a character. The setting is I think in the seventies/eighties and I think it also had Paddy Considine (of House of the Dragon) and Andrew Garfield and Rebecca Hall.

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On 2/11/2023 at 11:26 AM, HRSchenker said:

I don't really watch late night television anymore. When NBC had its feud with Conan on the Tonight Show I turned it all off and never looked back. But I do find late night ratings somewhat interesting and what I've read is nuts. Not only is the Tonight Show getting crushed in the ratings but the top spot seems to go back and forth between the Late Show with Stephen Colbert and a talk show on Fox News hosted by Greg Gutfeld. ~10 years ago when Conan got the boot and signed a deal with TBS it was pretty much a done deal that he'd be the king of cable late night but would still lose to Fox, ABC, and CBS in the ratings. A cable talk show not only cracking the top 3 but being competitive for the top spot is totally wild.

I think late night tv talk shows are going the way of the typewriter and Blockbuster. People would rather spend their time before bed on Twitter/reddit/YouTube/name any other social media here than be watching late night talk shows. They're too expensive to produce to not pull ratings. Going to see a ton of show reruns in those slots in the future I'm guessing 

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Late night talk shows have been declining since the proliferation of dvr's well over ten years ago when people would rather spend the last hour of their day watching prime time shows and skipping through the commercials. The days of monoculture where a huge portion of the population watched Johnny Carson, or the Late Night wars between the hosts competing for viewers in the 90s, trying any crazy stunt to get and keep people tuned in, they were like a different world.

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On 2/10/2023 at 10:28 AM, GoPokes83 said:

Caught a 1969 episode of Rowan and Martin’s Laugh In on some network called Binge. Not nearly as entertaining as I remembered it, but then again I was 8 in ‘69

Dittos. Random thoughts on Laugh-In. The pace of humor has increased since then. Jokes that seemed rapid fire in 1969 now seem slow. Modern audiences have a shorter attention span and don't need as much time to acclimate themselves to a tv or movie scene. What were quick cuts back then are painfully slow now. 

It was also a borscht belt burlesque show dressed up with dayglo paint. Put the girls in bikinis instead of showgirl outfits, and they didn't even change a lot of the comedy routines or jokes. The Dick Van Dyke Show used to use a lot of the old borscht belt comedy skits, also. 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

 

On 2/9/2023 at 8:55 AM, Js1 said:

SyFy/Peacock next day

The Ark

This is batshit stupid. Like season 1 of The 100 on steroids. It’s perfect mindless 45-60 min if you don’t want to think and just look at attractive people in space 

I wouldn't call it stupid.  SyFy has their specific formula in which the main ingredient is 20s kids on adderrall.  The Ark is a nice call back to classic Trek and Battlestar. 

 

Also on SighFi I just saw an episode of the new Twilight Zone with Rhea Seehorn.  I could only see it as set in Kim Wexler's life after Saul. 

 

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I made my wife watch Battlestar Galactica from the beginning (recent one, not the one from the '80s) because she'd never seen it.

She loves Sci-Fi and she'd been watching Halo (so bad) and she watches all the Star Wars crap shows. Mando's okay, I haven't seen Andor, everything else blows.

It's been a long time since I'd seen BSG, but I really wasn't prepared for just how much better it is than current sci-fi shows - the writing, the acting, the pacing. They developed characters and they let scenes breathe. They used subtext, and character reactions rather than exposition (basic show don't tell). The only thing it didn't have is special effects. 

BSG really belongs up there as one of the best shows of all time, I would say top 10 IMO. Yeah I know, it ended terribly because of the writer's strike.

Oh, and also the fact that they took care to have the military comms sound like a real military would. That was a nice touch.

Edited by ajax
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1 hour ago, ajax said:

I made my wife watch Battlestar Galactica from the beginning (recent one, not the one from the '80s) because she'd never seen it.

She loves Sci-Fi and she'd been watching Halo (so bad) and she watches all the Star Wars crap shows. Mando's okay, I haven't seen Andor, everything else blows.

It's been a long time since I'd seen BSG, but I really wasn't prepared for just how much better it is than current sci-fi shows - the writing, the acting, the pacing. They developed characters and they let scenes breathe. They used subtext, and character reactions rather than exposition (basic show don't tell). The only thing it didn't have is special effects. 

BSG really belongs up there as one of the best shows of all time, I would say top 10 IMO. Yeah I know, it ended terribly because of the writer's strike.

Oh, and also the fact that they took care to have the military comms sound like a real military would. That was a nice touch.

Such a great show

You should watch Andor.  Seriously. Similar vein to BSG - it's dark, it's gritty, it's depressing and it feels like the main characters just can't ever win. 

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15 hours ago, ajax said:

I made my wife watch Battlestar Galactica from the beginning (recent one, not the one from the '80s) because she'd never seen it.

She loves Sci-Fi and she'd been watching Halo (so bad) and she watches all the Star Wars crap shows. Mando's okay, I haven't seen Andor, everything else blows.

It's been a long time since I'd seen BSG, but I really wasn't prepared for just how much better it is than current sci-fi shows - the writing, the acting, the pacing. They developed characters and they let scenes breathe. They used subtext, and character reactions rather than exposition (basic show don't tell). The only thing it didn't have is special effects. 

BSG really belongs up there as one of the best shows of all time, I would say top 10 IMO. Yeah I know, it ended terribly because of the writer's strike.

Oh, and also the fact that they took care to have the military comms sound like a real military would. That was a nice touch.

There's some kind of law that I can't love a show until I've hated it.  Usually because a preconception that wasn't what the show is actually about.  I just started BSG in 2021 so to me it's kind of new. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Okay, I'll try to catch Andor.

I just saw a promo for an Amazon show called Swarm with a predominantly African American cast, featuring a song from a band that is a favorite of the black community - The Pixies (?).

 

Is it just me or is this song "Where is My Mind" everywhere? I feel like there's at least a couple of commercials that have this song. I wonder how much money Black Francis is raking in.

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4 hours ago, ajax said:

Okay, I'll try to catch Andor.

 

Andor starts "slow" but by the third episode it starts rolling, and gets better every episode after. Definitely "Prestige TV" quality.

 

4 hours ago, ajax said:

Is it just me or is this song "Where is My Mind" everywhere? I feel like there's at least a couple of commercials that have this song. I wonder how much money Black Francis is raking in.

 

Everything old is new again. I've loved that song since Fight Club, though this version is underwhelming imo.

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  • 4 weeks later...

CNN’s Eva Longoria: Searching for Mexico is really good. Very much follows the structure of Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy, where the host examines the cuisine of the various regions. Except one host is a smokeshow and the other is a short, bald gnome. 

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Road House is coming on Sundance in a few minutes. I clicked on the info button and it’s rated 2 stars out of 5. It’s no Citizen Kane but it’s still one of the most popular movies of the 80’s, that should count for something!! I wonder who rates these movies for cable/satellite and what criteria do they use?

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  • 4 weeks later...

Columbo is one of the great TV shows ever.  
 

Why the hell have I never seen Simon and Simon show up on one of those free streaming networks?  It wasn’t amazing, but it was a damn solid, entertaining show.  

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