- I have to say, Todd VanDerWerff does make the death throes of ‘Til Death sound much more interesting than it probably was:
This was television made by consummate professionals who were pretty sure no one was ever going to see it, and it was somehow gloriously awful and compellingly watchable all at once.
He does, of course, stop short of saying the sitcom ever got good.
- Susan Orlean’s tale of editorial alphabet soup sounds perfectly believable to me. [via]
- Jon Stewart: “We’ve redefined success…and still failed.“
- It’s not particularly reassuring to realize that BP’s massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is more than rule than the exception: More oil spilled in Nigeria “every year than has been lost in the Gulf of Mexico” [via
- And finally, two Doctor Who links: Oscar the Grouch: Time Lord [via] and wanna buy a TARDIS?
tv
Tuesday various
- I don’t imagine this is going to end well — FlashForward fans plan to fall over and act unconscious:
According to Variety, fans of the show will assemble in front of ABC network and affilate offices in New York, L.A., Chicago, Detroit and Atlanta on June 10 and for 2 minutes and 17 seconds are going to pretend to be passed out—just like the 2-minute-17-second blackouts on FlashForward.
- Am I the only one who thinks “celebrate originality” is maybe a weird tagline to an ad that basically just repurposes the Star Wars cantina scene?
- I’m not sure I agree with everything Christopher Miller suggests on how to write a rejection slip, but I am amused by his contention that “rejection slips are the most widely and attentively read short literary genre.” [via]
- Warren Ellis suggests asking these important questions when writing:
1) What does that character WANT?
2) What does that character need to do to GET what they want?
3) What are they prepared to DO to get what they want?
- And finally, a fascinating profile of Haim Saban, still perhaps best known as the man who (curse him) brought us Mighty Morphin Power Rangers [via]:
At twenty, while he was serving in the Israeli Defense Forces, Saban made his entry into show business. He told the owner of a swimming pool where a band played that he was a member of a far better band. Saban didn’t really play an instrument, and he didn’t know a band. But he found one, and took the businessman to a club to hear it, claiming that he wasn’t playing because he had hurt his arm. He named a price that was double what he had learned the band was making, and then approached the band members with his offer and his condition: let him join. “They said, ‘For double the money, we’ll figure the whole thing out.’ †He eventually learned to play the bass guitar a little, but occasionally during the first few months he performed with both his speaker and his microphone turned off.
Happy birthday, Dad!
Today is my father’s sixty-third birthday. He’s diabetic, but I managed to get some sugar-free chocolate muffins which stood in for cake, and my mother gave him some presents. He’s difficult to buy for, but he enjoyed HBO’s recent The Pacific miniseries, so I bought him the companion book and With the Old Breed, one of the two books the series was based on. Now I just need to figure out what to buy him for Father’s Day.
The steady approach of Monday
The most exciting thing that happened today was my driving out to Huntington, for my weekly writing group, only to discover I’d left my wallet (and by extension my driver’s license) at home. Luckily I wasn’t pulled over for anything, there or back. Otherwise, it mostly just reading, finishing the Sunday New York Times crossword, and watching episodes of Party Down on Netflix.
Such was my Sunday.
Saturday
Not the most eventful day around. I watched this week’s episode of Doctor Who; you certainly can’t fault Steven Moffatt for not thinking big, not with those last few moments, even if the episode itself was mostly just a FX’ed-up version of past Silurian episodes. (Well, of the tiny handful I’ve seen.) I liked it, though I’m much more curious where that ending is taking us, and I just hope that Moffatt already knows.
I also watched Mystery Team on DVD, since my autographed copy came in the mail today. (I’m a fan of Derrick Comedy and think Donald Glover’s been terrific on Community, so I want to support them.) It was pretty silly, all things considered, but also laugh-out-loud funny.
I was happy to discover that the first episode of Star Trek (the original series) wasn’t laugh-out-loud funny. I’ve never actually seen much of the show, despite having seen plenty of the spinoffs and movies, and now that it’s out on Bluray, it seemed like it was time to remedy that. It’s very obviously dated, but there’s still something to it, and I pretty much enjoyed the episode.
Beyond that? Not much. Just hung out, fiddled around with the iPad, tried cleaning up a virus on my laptop — which is now either gone or has gotten better at hiding — and just enjoying the day off.