Category Archives: TV

Movies, TV

The Evolution of Chuck Jones

For those who don’t know the name, Chuck Jones (1912-2002) was easily one of the greatest animators of all time.  His primary work appeared for Warner Brothers, where he made an astonishing number of classic, memorable cartoons.  He helped define Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck.  He created the Coyote and the Road Runner.  He…

I could go on and on.

io9.com offered a link to a fascinating video, which I’ve embedded below, which examines the art, and evolution, of Chuck Jones.  Watch it.  It will make you happy.

The article which featured this video can be found here:

http://io9.com/every-frame-a-painting-examines-the-evolution-of-chuck-1718395884

I offered a brief comment regarding Mr. Jones which I’ll reprint here:

To my mind, the term “genius” is waaaay overused.

Chuck Jones was a genius.

Movies, TV

Why do TV Characters all own the same Weird Old Blanket?

So asks -and investigates!- Laura Bradley for Slate magazine:

Why Do TV Characters All Own The Same Weird Old Blanket?  A Slate Investigation

I think this is one of those humorous little side things that people with a sharp eye notice about TV shows or movies: There are sometimes props reused or, conversely, set decorators follow certain patterns, which is what appears to be happening with this particular blanket.

A while back there was a humorous story regarding a newspaper that seemed to find its way into many a show/movie:

LOL: The Recurring Prop Newspaper

And while the rug in question doesn’t seem to be the same one used over and over again, it is a curious thing that this particular design/style has been reused.

But I got the biggest kick from one of the comments by Jay Lawson presented below the Slate article.  In it she states:

There’s a granny square afghan that shows up all over Dark Shadows, from 1966 onward.  I started calling it ‘the ubiquitous afghan’ because that darn thing showed up in everybody’s house: the Old House, the Evans house … all through time and space, that thing showed up everywhere.

Given the cheap budget of the Dark Shadows TV show, I suspect Ms. Lawson was seeing the exact same afghan being repurposed from scene to scene.

It reminded me, in a weird way, of one of the funniest realizations I had when watching something.  In this case it was the 1942 Spy Smasher cliffhanger serial.  Considered by many to be among the best cliffhanger serials ever made, Spy Smasher was based on a Fawcett Comic book (that publishing company was the home of the original Shazam! Captain Marvel, who himself was featured in what is considered by many to be the best movie serial ever produced) and ran for 12 episodes (roughly 212 minutes in total).

When I watched it, I did so via VHS tape (it was a number of years ago!) and I had the whole thing available to me versus the way it was originally aired all those years ago chapter by chapter.  As I watched the serial, I started to pay attention to the various locations used to film on.  It soon became clear to me that many of them were reused and, after a while, I formed a general idea of where certain buildings were in relation to others.

Which lead to this: In one of the later episodes of the serial, we see a group of the bad guys hurriedly emerge from a building (one I was quite familiar with by that point), get into their car, and drive off at high speed.  After a cut, the bad guys and their vehicle comes to a screeching stop at their destination, which was another building.  By this point, I knew that their destination building lay directly across the street from the building they had just emerged from the scene before!

They didn’t need to drive to their new location, all they had to do was cross the street! 😉

Man, I have to get my hands on that serial again.  Oh, wait…

Amusing stuff!

General, TV

It was just a matter of time…

Dukes of Hazzard Pulled From TV Land Schedule Amid Confederate Flag Controversy

For those who know nothing about the Dukes of Hazzard, it was a comedic/action TV show that aired from 1979 to 1985 and which had the main characters drive around in the car presented below, complete with this gaudy orange paint job:

Your eyes do not deceive you.  What you see on the car’s roof is indeed the Confederate Flag.  Every single episode of the show’s run featured this vehicle and its colorful paint job and, yes, Confederate Flag.  The car itself, by the way, was called the “General Lee”.

I was a big fan of the show for perhaps a season or so waaaaay back when it originally aired and before the formulaic plots bored me away (this all occurred well before the original “Duke” boys were replaced by other actors, a move which likely hastened the show’s eventual cancellation).

At that time I knew very little about U.S. Civil War and, more importantly, post-Civil War History, having lived in South America for several years.  Believe it or not, the schools there didn’t care all that much about the U.S. Civil War, preferring for some mysterious reason to spend more time teaching their own history. 😉

When I eventually moved out of South America and started attending high school in Northern Florida, I received my first lessons regarding the Civil War.  Having digested that information, I was rather surprised to find so many people in and around that city, including friends I had in the school itself, using/displaying the “stars and bars” on things as diverse as baseball hats, shirts, and vehicle paint.  Though I was living in what could be considered part of the deep south, given what I learned about the Civil War I was curious why many people back then (we are talking the early 1980’s) both romanticized and ignored elements of that war.

Before I go any further, I should note that my personal observations are from that specific time and involved the people I lived in and around and should NOT be considered a broad generalization of everyone who lives in the South.  Again, these experiences are limited to those I knew at that time.

Having said that, when the subject of the Civil War came up, I often had the impression that many of my schoolmates, at least those who were into the romanticism of the Civil War, perceived it as one of Northern aggression, even though the “South” was the first to actually attack.  Similarly, these same people didn’t view slavery as the central issue on which the war was fought, rather describing the conflict as the North trying to destroy the Southerners’ “way of life” and their care-free, “rebellious” nature.

Though I was quite young at that time, once I had a general understanding of the Civil War I grew uncomfortable seeing the Stars and Bars on people’s clothing or flagpoles or on vehicles.  In my mind and backed up by every legitimate historical book/account, the Civil War was fought by the South to continue their barbaric practice of slavery.  The North’s stance, the idea that slavery was an odious practice which needed to be gotten rid of, was the right one while the Southern side clearly wanted to keep their heinous practice going.  I’m not unsympathetic to the massive loss of life on either side of this war and the general horrors present therin, but one can at least understand, when one looks at the historical records, what this fight was actually about and which side was fighting for something -slavery- I think we can all agree upon was beyond simply a very bad thing.

So back then I couldn’t help but wonder what African Americans (of which there were plenty both in the city and in my school) must have thought when seeing this flag so prominently -and proudly!- displayed by many locals.

That was thirty five years or so ago and today, a full one hundred and fifty years since the Civil War ended in 1865, it appears society may finally be coming to the realization that displaying this flag, and therefore what it represented, may not be such a great idea after all.

I suppose its better late than never.

As for the Dukes of Hazzard TV show, I never got the impression it was trying to show off “Confederate” values or somehow fuzzying up the history of the flag, though it most certainly was offering a “good ol’ boys” view of the south.  In fact, the show was for the most part harmless fluff, but I can certainly understand why there might be those who find it painful to look at that flag, even (and especially) in such a light hearted entertainment medium.

Books/Literature, TV

American Gods to become Cable TV series…

Yesterday, this bit of news came out:

Neil Gaiman’s “American Gods” Novel Lands Series Greenlight At Starz

Now, at the risk of sounding incredibly petty (and jealous), I have only one question: Why?

In general, I like Neil Gaiman’s writing.  He first gained notice in the wake of fellow comic-book writer Alan Moore’s ascent in the late 1980’s and specifically for his work on the Sandman comic.  Mr. Gaiman would actually follow Alan Moore’s tenure on MarvelMan (retitled Miracleman later on), a book that featured a British version of Captain Marvel (the Shazam! variety) and which was one of the early works of Mr. Moore to explore the “real world” implications -both good and very bad- of a superpowered being living among us.

When he finished the Sandman series, Mr. Gaiman began writing novels and one of the first ones he did was American Gods.

At the time of its release, I was eager to read more of Mr. Gaiman’s work.  So I picked up American Gods and read it and…

Taste, as they say, is in the eye of the beholder.  There are those who absolutely love the novel and I’m not going to rip anyone for what they like/dislike.  After all, I’m one of the very few people out there who actively hated Guardians of the Galaxy while everyone else made it one of the biggest, most beloved hits of last summer.

If that last statement doesn’t clue you into my feelings regarding American Gods, nothing will.  But I’ll say this much: So turned off was I by the novel that I’ve had a very hard time looking in on anything Mr. Gaiman has done since, and this is coming from someone who until that time was really into his work.

As I said, there are those who love the novel and are looking forward to the series.  Perhaps I’ll give it a try and see if maybe I missed out on something when I originally read the book.

We’ll see.

TV

Thoughts on Letterman’s finale

So tonight marks the end of David Letterman’s fascinating tenure as a late night talk show host.  I used to watch Mr. Letterman religiously in the late 80’s and into the early 90’s but somewhere along the line I stopped.

While I’ve caught snippets of his stuff here and there, I was shocked when I revisited a full episode only a few months ago and found the man who was so sharp witted and on top of his game look so very, very…bored.  (You can read the entire posting, which references his then just announced retirement, here).

Salon.com has been running a series of retrospectives on David Letterman highlights, and today’s offering is one that really stuck in my mind since watching it air live many years before.  From 1987, the second appearance of the late American Splendor comic book creator/writer Harvey Pekar on Letterman’s show.  It is one of the very few times I can recall Mr. Letterman really having enough with a guest:

You can read the entire amusing article below:

Let’s Revisit That Time David Letterman Told A Guest to “Shut the F@*K Up”.

Given my interest in anything comic book related, I was delighted back then to see a comic book writer appear on such a prestigious show (back then, comic book creators didn’t have the cache they have now).

I vaguely recalled seeing Mr. Pekar’s first appearance on Letterman’s show and, when it was announced he was coming back for a second time, I couldn’t help but wonder why.  To put it kindly, Mr. Pekar was quite the character and wasn’t afraid to blurt out whatever was on his mind.  He would later say this was in part an “act” but I don’t know.  I suppose it was his shocking honesty that intrigued Mr. Letterman enough to have him over that second time.

As you can see from the clip, that second time proved pretty uncomfortable.  Still, you have to give it to Mr. Pekar, he made that appearance a most memorable one.

In the mood for more “disastrous” David Letterman guests?  Check out the link below:

http://entertainment.time.com/2009/02/13/top-10-disastrous-letterman-interviews/slide/joaquin-after-dentist/

Unfortunately, many of the clips in the list have been removed from youtube but with some looking around, I’m sure you can find ’em.

It’s astonishing how many of them I saw the day they aired.  I really did spend an awful long time watching Letterman back in the day!

Computers/Electronics, Movies, TV

Can you name the sci-fi from the computer screen?

Very fun little game presented on radiotimes.com which gives you a series of screenshots from various science fiction features, all involving computers/computer readouts and you’re asked to identify which movie/TV show they came from:

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-05-12/can-you-name-the-sci-fi-from-just-the-computer-screen

In the end I scored 73%.  Not too shabby, I suppose, though I screwed up a couple I knew because I clicked my answer a little too quickly.

Yeah yeah, I know…sounds like a lame excuse! 😉

TV

Person of Interest ending after next season…?

One of my favorite current TV shows is the faux-Batman series Person of Interest (if you don’t see the similarities between the Batman and his cast of characters and Person of Interest you just ain’t looking).

The show has more recently played up the Artificial Intelligence angle and I’ve been delighted with the story lines.  Yesterday, it was revealed that CBS was renewing the show for a fifth season but only for 13 episodes versus the usual 22-23 episodes.  This has sparked speculation that the show will conclude next season, and there has been much gnashing of teeth from fans.

Me?  Despite being a huge fan of the series, I’m not so sure its worth getting that worked up about.

First and foremost, we don’t know if this decision was made by the network or if it was the production company that requested a shorter season because they wanted to wrap things up.  We assume the network decided to give the show this shorter leash, but it isn’t entirely out of the realm of possibility the Person of Interest creators simply wanted to wrap things up.

If you’ve been around as long as I have and seen as many hours of TV, you realize that sometimes the very worst thing that can happen to a good show is that it goes on longer than it should.  Look at The Simpsons.  Take a look at The X-Files.  And then consider most British TV series, which are usually presented in short bursts but which often have very satisfying -and complete- stories to tell.

If it turns out Person of Interest’s short season five was the result of an arrangement between CBS and the show’s creators who wanted to wrap things up (a big if, I grant you), I can totally understand that feeling.

Joss Whedon left the cinematic Marvel Universe after making the second Avengers film, this despite the fact that propelled him from the cult creator of Buffy and Firefly to a superstar and most likely set him up financially for life.  And while there has been fan criticism regarding Avengers: The Age of Ultron, the film is still getting high marks from critics and (yes) audiences and will most certainly make another metric ton of money.

Despite all this success, Mr. Whedon has noted the exhausting demands of working on a project like this and the time consumed.  He has stated that as much as he’d like to do more work with the Marvel heroes, he can’t justify cutting out another five years of his life on any new project(s).

Which brings me to…me.

In April of 2009 I released the novel Mechanic.  Over the following years I have written and released four more novels in what I’ve dubbed the Corrosive Knights series, with the most recent release, book #5, being Ghost of the Argus (released August of 2014).  By my calculations, I’ve been working on these books for at the very least 10-15 years, with the last six or so years spent working on them exclusively.

As proud of the books as I am, and I’m damn proud of my work on them, I yearn to write books not related to this series.  Books like my earlier works, novels that are standalone works which explore other interests I have.

That’s not to say I’m “tired” of working on the Corrosive Knights series.  Hell no!  It’s just that at this point in time I recognize the danger (and yes, there is a danger here) of getting so involved in this particular work that as an author you either start repeating yourself or, even worse, producing novels of diminishing quality.  Sometimes, you may be guilty of doing both.

And that I will absolutely not do.

At this moment, I’m very deep into writing book #6 in this series.  I have the bare plot of book #7 and some early chapters as well as the conclusion written.  I also have a rough complete draft of the series’ finale.  Will that rough draft eventually be released as book #8?

At this moment I don’t know.

There are certain things I still want to explore in the Corrosive Knights universe/series and I don’t know if/when I’ll be able to get to them.  So for all I know, that concluding novel may well be book #8 but it also could be #9 or even #10.

But the series will eventually end, and it will end on my terms.

Every day as I sit before the computer and write new Corrosive Knights material, I can find the work delightful or tedious, easy to write or surprisingly hard.  Sometimes, I experience a little of each emotion but in the end, when I do release a new novel, I know it is the very best work I was capable of producing at that given time and am damn proud to call it my own.

If Person of Interest does indeed end with its next shortened season, I hope it goes out on a high.

Regardless, I’ll most certainly be watching.

TV, Video Games

Atari: Game Over (2014) a (mildly) belated review

I consider myself a part of the first generation of home video gamer fans.  I had a Pong type video game system in the mid-70’s and by 1978 or so had an Atari system (later it would be renamed the Atari 2600 system to distinguish it from later systems).

If you lived and experienced this home video game revolution, you know how incredible it was to have an Atari 2600 system.  Back then, video games were a revolution in the entertainment medium and having an Atari in your home allowed you to continue having arcade type fun outside the arcade itself.  Looking at the system and, in particular, the Atari 2600’s crude graphics today may have modern audiences scratching their heads.  Today’s games are almost hyperreal.  How in the world could anyone like that crude stuff?

Trust me, we did.

As dominant as the Atari system was, it is bewildering that in the early to mid-1980’s the system was suddenly and abruptly gone and Atari, the company that was so much a part of my childhood, faded away into oblivion.

Which brings us to Atari: Game Over, the documentary that on its surface explores one of the great legends regarding the company’s most infamous video game release, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, yet also looks back with nostalgia and sobriety at the rise and fall of the Atari Company.

The legend the documentary explores goes like this: The E. T.: The Extra-Terrestrial video game, released to coincide with the release of the famous Steven Spielberg film, proved to be such a disaster that its failure sunk Atari.  Because the company produced way too many copies of the game, it was ultimately forced to dump the massive unsold stock into a landfill.

Did this happen?  And if so, could the buried copies of the game be found and the legend confirmed?

Using this as a jumping off point, the documentary that follows explores the Atari company and the people behind it.  The man responsible for the E.T. game, Howard Warshaw, proves to be the most interesting person, at least to me, in this documentary.  He talks of coming to Atari in the early days and the success of his very first game, Yar’s Revenge.

One gets the feeling he was something of a “golden boy” at the company during its good times (Yar’s Revenge was the best-sellingest video game Atari would ever release) and became the scapegoat when the E.T. game proved a failure.

In between we follow the people behind the search for the spot where the video games may have been dumped in a landfill in Alamogordo and go through the process of digging said site up (after making it through several levels of bureaucracy).

If there is one complaint I have about this documentary is that it is rather short and could have delved a little more into the life of Mr. Warshaw and perhaps a few others at Atari.

In spite of this, Atari: Game Over is a delightful documentary that explores a video game legend and, in its own way, proves to be a treasure hunt…though the treasure hunted, let’s face it, is trash.

Recommended, particularly if you were there during Atari’s golden years.