Burt Ward, who played Robin on the 1960s Batman TV series, claims that the ABC television network insisted he take pills to shrink his genitals so they wouldn't be so noticeable in his green underwear. However with Adam "Batman" West, he says, "they put Turkish towels in his undershorts." From a Page Six interview with Ward who last week scored a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame:
The Caped Crusaders costumes were bright and tight-fitting to say the least, so snug that Ward incurred the wrath of the Catholic League of Decency...
The problem grew so tumescent that the studio had Ward see a doctor who prescribed medication “to shrink me up.”
Thankfully Ward quit taking the pills almost immediately.
“I took them for three days and then I decided that they can probably keep me from having children,” he said. “I stopped doing that and I just used my cape to cover it.”
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I loved this image, posted today to promote a B3TA newsletter but originally from its photoshop thread challenging readers to create album covers for old (largely UK) TV shows. It's by christhebarker.
If you're American and Zippy Stardust is a baffling, inexplicable horror to you, be assured the same is also true of Britons. Read the rest
Not to be confused with that painfully mediocre Dave Eggers novel, Netflix's new reality show The Circle is basically the IRL version that Black Mirror episode where Bryce Dallas Howard obsessively ranks everything on social media to the point of extreme isolation. Read the rest
This commercial packs a lot of narrative into 29 seconds. Fred feeds Santa, Barney burglarizes Fred's home to steal food, and Santa convinces Fred to forgive Barney. Well, Fred seems to forgive Barney, but watch him only pretend to eat a mouthful of cereal at the end:
Spotted by Michael Blaiklock, who has correctly been haunted by the implications of the commercial for years:
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Jordan Peele fans (Get Out, Us) rejoice – he has just produced a new Amazon series, Hunters, which comes out sometime in 2020. As an added bonus, it stars Al Pacino. Read the rest
(Stop reading now to avoid spoilers) Read the rest
Congratulations to Disney on the exciting new merchandising opportunity of bounty pucks.
I swear these are three different scenes:
And if bounty pucks don't prove popular, there's the less sophisticated tracking fob:
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Polygon interviewed Watchmen costume designer Meghan Kasperlik, who described the movie magic used to bring Looking Glass to life:
“We had five different masks,” the designer says, explaining that exactly what Nelson was wearing would change depending on the demands of the scene. Some of the masks were for motion tracking, featuring a special print that would aid with motion capture and tracking, keeping track of the orientation of Nelson’s face at all times. Others were purely green screen or spandex, while yet another — the only mask that wouldn’t require the reflectiveness to be added via CG later — was made of lamé, a type of fabric that has metallic fiber woven throughout it, meaning only one of the actual masks used during shooting was that distinctive silver.
Den of Geek talked to Tim Blake Nelson about wearing the mask:
“The mask is fine to wear. I really like it,” he says. “Actually it furnishes a wonderful challenge that is specific to itself. In drama school we did mask class and the reason they taught that was to take away the visage, which is an essential form of expression that we have, and force the actor to use only body and voice. I looked at this as a really fun exercise over an entire season of television in which I would get to explore that. And moreover going in the opposite direction with this character. Rather than amplifying body and voice to use the mask to pull back even more.
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The Activist is a new 5-part series from Peter Sunde (previously), AKA brokep, who cofounded The Pirate Bay and also founded Flattr.
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On August 8, 1974, President Richard Nixon delivered his resignation speech to the American public. Moments before this historical event, he was calmly joking around with the TV crew as if this was just any other presser. And then....
"...I have felt it was my duty to persevere, to make every possible effort to complete the term of office to which you elected me. In the past few days, however, it has become evident to me that I no longer have a strong enough political base in the Congress to justify continuing that effort."
(via r/ObscureMedia)
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Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey, aka The Office's Pam and Angela, are launching a new podcast together about The Office. Listen to the trailer below. Titled “Office Ladies,” the podcast will feature the two actresses, who are real life best pals, rewatching every episode of the TV series and bantering about it. It premiers tomorrow! From an interview in the New York Times:
So where did the idea for the podcast come from?
KINSEY I was going through my garage, and I have all of these Rubbermaid bins full of photos and memorabilia. Jenna jokes that I’m a hoarder because I save everything. I would save a little note that Oscar passed me, a drawing that Jenna drew or a prop. I have Michael Scott’s business card.
FISCHER You have Dwight and Angela’s wedding invitation.
KINSEY So I was going through it all and Jenna came over and was looking through it with me, and it made us really nostalgic. We started reminiscing, and the 15-year anniversary is coming up so we thought this is a great opportunity for us to rewatch it and talk about our memories, our behind-the-scenes moments and share it with the fans.
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Sesame Street continues its run of excellent, empathetic new muppets to help kids deal with a changing world: after introducing muppets experiencing homelessness, living with autism, and explaining marriage without recourse to gender norms, the show has introduced a muppet whose mother lost custody of her after becoming addicted to drugs.
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"Hear that Elizabeth? I'm coming to join you, honey!"
Truly one of the most entertaining shows ever on television, Sanford and Son sports the TV theme song that taught me to appreciate theme songs!
The incredible Redd Foxx played the wild and excitable Fred Sanford, while Demond Wilson played his more neutral son Lamont. The theme was by Quincy Jones.
Redd Foxx was the stage name of John Elroy Sanford. Read the rest
The Goop purveyor was familiar with the line of vibrators but had apparently not seen 'The Tennis Coach' up close. As the interview continues it seems she may not be very familiar with these products.
At least one prior attempt by Goop to sell things that go in and or near a woman's vagina have had bad results. Read the rest
Buffy the Vampire Slayer was wonderful. Far and away my favorite episode, however, was Hush.
Overnight, skeletal ghouls with metal grins and MIB style steal the voices of Sunnydale's townspeople. How the Scooby gang handles some of the evilest characters the series has seen, during a communication breakdown, is wonderful.
Nowadays public schools in California teach Powerpoint.
This super creepy episode was just fantastic. I am going to re-watch more Buffy. Read the rest
DMZ, an outstanding post-apocalyptic comic written by Brian Wood which came to its satsifying conclusion in 2012, and has been subsequently collected in beautiful deluxe editions (which also reprint my introduction to the series' third volume) is being adapted as a pilot for HBO by Ava DeVernay, the afrofuturist filmmaker whose work includes A Wrinkle in Time and Selma.
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