This one is for all you bored people out there that have nothing to watch during the writers strike.
A rare find, the original pilot for 24 from 1994. Enjoy
Category: TV
New Bionic Woman
NBC is bringing back the classic 70’s TV show, The Bionic Woman. For those of you too young to remember, the Bionic Woman was a spinoff of the AWESOME Six Million Dollar Man starring Lee Majors (one time husband of the AWESOME Farrah Fawcett) as Steve Austin. The Bionic Woman was a creepy, dark, angst driven 70’s series, more about the independent feminist Jamie Somers (played by Lindsay Wagner) than it was about the cool gadgets she had. My memories of that series consist of inside shots of Jamie in her Ojai, California home, the super scary Fembots and the ultra cool Oscar Goldman.
Anyway, the new series looks to be much more fun, except for the annoying deaf sister angle. Here is a trailer, but a spoiler warning, this appears to comprise most of the pilot episode.
Jericho – NUTS
Jericho fans are trying to send CBS a message – NUTS!
For those of you not familiar with the show, Jake’s grandfather told him a WWII war story where the Allied General in a hopeless situation was offered surrender by the Germans. Rather than surrender, the General sent back a one word reply – NUTS. Jake then used the same response to the leader of a neighboring town that invades Jericho in the final episode of the season (series).
Looks like Jericho fans want to use the same message on CBS and are sending nuts to the programming execs.
As a side note, I found out about this from a post on Quiet Earth – a blog, apparently based right here in Northern Colorado, largely dedicated to Post Apocalyptic fiction.
Why do TV execs hate me?
I have to admit, I am a sucker for serial dramas, especially those with a supernatural/sci-fi slant, post-apocalyptic environments, strange islands, nuclear bombs or hot young college coeds. I guess that’s OK, I know people that like reality shows too… I guess we all have our guilty pleasures.
Today I was dealt a double blow by learning about the demise of both Veronica Mars and Jericho. Sure, Veronica slipped a little this year with the changing of the theme song and the absorption of the WB into the CW. It seems the show had lost some steam and ‘Mars – the College Years’ wasn’t going so great, especially after the amazing bus crash story line last year. I’m still sorry to see it go.
Jericho, on the other hand, was just starting to get interesting. Hawkins was turning out to be a hero. Heather and Emily were about to be in a catfight, and Jake was going to avenge his father. The only downside was the untimely (and a bit cheesy) death of Gerald McRaney’s (Simon & Simon, Major Dad) character – Johnston Green.
The real problem with networks cancelling serialized drama is the lack of closure. The Mars writers typically do a good job of making the story lines wrap up at the end of the season. Jericho didn’t give us that at all. In fact, we will never learn who the evil homeland security guy is, why he set off the nukes, what will happen to the town, the story is just over – right in the middle.
I think there should be a law. Networks are not allowed to cancel shows without finishing the story. If this means that they have to buy a whole new season, so be it. The FCC needs to quit worrying so much about wardrobe malfunctions and start protecting all of us invest time in stories, just to be dissappointed. Come on, think of the children!
Rosie Leaving the View
The official story is that she couldn’t come to terms with ABC on a contract, but we all know better.
Not that I actually care. The only time I have EVER watched the view was when some brain-dead moron at ABC decided it would be a good pre-game show for the Super Bowl.
Sadly, I’m guessing Rosie isn’t actually going away and will still make annoying headlines…
Daybreak coming to the Internet
ABC president Steve McPherson revealed that fans of the serialized drama — which was pulled from the air after five weeks — may find some closure as the remaining episodes will be placed on the company's website by February's end.
Day Break
Serials are the new fad in US TV. Fox experimented with Fashion House and Desire a few months ago and ABC launched Day Break during Lost's mid-season break.
Now normally I have a rule. I don't get involved in a TV series until AT LEAST the first season is over. That way, if they cancel the show I'm not writhing in mental torment.
For Day Break I decided to make an exception to my rule. ABC ran promos for the show stating (or implying – I don't remember the spots too clearly) that the show would run the full story in 13 weeks – until the return of Lost. I thought this would be great. The story looked interesting. No spoilers, but Digg's character is stuck in a time loop. One day keeps repeating as he works to solve the mystery.
Honestly, I thought it was a great show. Kind of a sci-fi twist on a 24 type show. The cast was good and the story was engaging. Best of all it was a serial, each episode built on the previous (like 24).
Problem is, ABC wasn't getting the ratings it wanted, so they canceled the show after the sixth episode. I didn't even know about this until last week since my trusty dusty Tivo was setup to record Day Break automatically. I thought it had been a few weeks since I had seen an episode and when I checked on it there were no upcoming shows scheduled. After a bit of research I found that the show was canceled in favor of reruns of George Lopez and According to Jim. ABC promised to put the remaining episodes on their website, but there has been some snafu there with music licensing and they haven't appeared there yet either.
I have to say, I'm considering a class action lawsuit for mental anguish. I have invested 6 hours in this show and now I have to wait for them to sell the syndication rights before I can find out how the story ends. That's just mean.
How does this make sense to the network? How can leaving the remaining episodes unaired improve ABC's financial position? Are George Lopez reruns really getting a bigger market share than this show was? Even if it was, was it worth angering 3 million viewers to pull the show? It must have been, but I for one won't be watching any new ABC shows any time soon. I've learned my lesson.
The Janitor
I've Tivoing and watching Scrubs lately. It wasn't that I avoided it before, just wasn't part of my standard TV viewing.
Zach Braff has been catching a lot of flack from the Indie music crowd. Appearantly, since The Postal Service got such great exposure in Garden State, some people are lumping Zach's work in with The OC for promoting indie music. Of course the ultra-music-snobs don't like this, or something. Personally I couldn't care less, but the commentary did get me interested in more of Braff's work.
While Zach's combination of physical comedy and dry wit in Scrubs is enjoyable I think The Janitor, Neil Flynn, has the best role. The part is so well written and his delivery is perfect every time.
You Tube is full of Janitor clips, here is one of my favorites…
Veronica Mars changes her theme song
I started watching Veronica Mars last year for two reasons. The first is the lovely, yet talented Kristen Bell. The second was the theme song.
Just today I read that someone at the show decided to remix the theme song.
The original, like the show, is edgy and unpredictable.
The new version is an overproduced shadow of it's original self.
This better not be a reflection on the whole show…
UPDATE
Well, apparently the change in the theme song is a reflection on the whole show. Veronica seemed smarter as a high school student than she does as a college freshmen. The dialog seems poor and Kristen's delivery is weak.
And no, I'm not just angry that she didn't send me a autographed picture like she promised…
House
I watch a lot of TV. For about a year now I’ve had a TIVO on my Direct TV and let me tell you, it’s evil. It used to be, when you watched TV I watched the shows I wanted to watch and then did other things. If two shows were on at the same time I had to choose. No longer. Now, thanks to the modern age I can watch two shows that are on at the same time. I can also record shows when I’m not home. The result of this is that if I sit down to watch TV I can watch for 12 hours straight.
One of the shows I currently enjoy is House – the story of a super smart doctor that’s a real jerk to everybody. It’s better than it sounds. So I sat down to watch last week’s episode of House, and as we neared the end I noticed something. At the end of the episode there was a touching moment between Dr. House (Hugh Laurie) and Dr. Cameron (Jennifer Morrison). This moment was filmed as a collection of scenes with the only sound being “Into Dust” by Mazzy Star. I believe, there was only one line of dialogue during the song. This musical interlude isn’t exactly a new concept, but it’s overuse is getting annoying. I probably wouldn’t have noticed it in House at all, except that last season Lost ended half it’s episodes with a nice song. Now I’m noticing it in House, Bones and who knows how many more shows. I think it’s annoying. It’s a cop out. What, they couldn’t write for a whole 60 minutes, we have to take 5 of it up playing something by John Mayer or the Rolling Stones. Is this just outright product placement or what?
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